The ZIMBABWE Situation Our thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe
- may peace, truth and justice prevail.

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The Herald
Cross finally sentenced

Herald Reporter
MDC economic advisor Eddie Cross was finally sentenced yesterday for
contravening the Insolvency Act after escaping sentence for a record 13
times.

Presiding magistrate Mr Stanley Ncube slapped Cross with five months, which
he however wholly suspended for three years on condition of good behaviour.

The sentencing was postponement 13 times since January last year for various
reasons including Cross' failure to attend court and the unavailability of
the presiding magistrate.

Cross was convicted of breaching the Insolvency Act after he failed to
attend meetings with his creditors.

Mr Ncube dismissed Cross' application for the charges to be dropped saying
he had been convicted on wrong charges.

Through his lawyer Mr David Drury, Cross argued that he had fully paid his
creditors and there was therefore no need to charge him for contravening the
Insolvency Act.

Mr Drury called a witness, Mr Michael Fraser, who was a complainant and he
confirmed that he had filed an application at the High Court to drop the
charges because no one had been prejudiced.

However the State, represented by Mr Lifa Dube had opposed the application
saying Mr Fraser was no longer qualified to stand as a complainant and could
therefore not drop the charges.

"You were just an informant because the real complainant in all matters is
the State," Mr Dube argued.

Between August 1997 and December 2000 Cross failed to honour a legal
obligation to submit to his estate's trustees financial statements.

He did not also turn up for meetings he was obliged to attend resulting in
him being charged of breaching the Insolvency Act.
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IOL

Sad return for victim of 'senseless' killing

      June 25 2003 at 01:45AM

     By Lee Rondganger


The remains of a student murdered while on holiday in Zimbabwe have been
repatriated to South Africa.

The body of Conan Thomas, 18, accompanied by his girlfriend Megan
Bezuidenhout, 18, arrived at Lanseria Airport last night, where it was
received by his mother, Kathy.

Accompanying Bezuidenhout were Kathy Thomas's partner, Warren Bainton, and
her friend Georgina Caetano.

As Bezuidenhout came through the terminal doors, she burst into tears and
had to be comforted.

      'Conan had everything going for him'
Conan had been holidaying in Zimbabwe with Bezuidenhout and her family when
he was gunned down during a robbery at the Hillside Dams resort near
Bulawayo on Sunday.

Suspects have already been arrested.

Bainton said: "Conan was a really good kid who was a sensible and loving
young man. It was a senseless killing.

"Conan had everything going for him. This year, in his first year at
varsity, he scored a 96 percent average."

Conan was described as a keen skateboarder and an excellent baseball player.

"Although they caught the guys, it will never bring Conan back, and it is
still hard to believe that he is gone. He was very close to his mother and
his brother Kyle, who is a year younger than him.

"Kyle is also taking it very badly - it has been hard on all our families,"
said Bainton.

Kathy Thomas was too distraught to speak.

Meanwhile Zimbabwean high commissioner Simon Khaya Moyo said on Tuesday that
the people of Bulawayo were hospitable and that the city was known for its
peace and tranquillity.

"The speed with which the police have moved to apprehend the suspects is
commendable," Moyo added.

The funeral service for Conan Thomas is due to be held at the Methodist
church in Boksburg at 10am on Saturday.

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IOL

      Zim cops nab three over SA tourist's death

            June 24 2003 at 02:33PM



      Bulawayo - Police in Zimbabwe have arrested three men in connection
with the murder of South African tourist Conan Thomas at Hillside Dams in
Bulawayo on Sunday.

      Thomas, who was strolling near the picnic spot in the company of his
girlfriend, her father and her two young sisters was shot dead by one of
three assailants.

      He was a sound and lighting student at Allenby College in Gauteng.

      Bulawayo police on Tuesday confirmed the arrest of the three suspects
but could not be drawn into giving more details about the circumstances
surrounding the incident.

      Leon Bezuidenhout, the father of the Thomas's girlfriend Megan said
the police brought the suspects to his home early on Tuesday morning. He
positively identified them as the men who had shot his would-be son-in-law
before robbing them of personal items and cash valued at Zim$12-million
(almost R12 000).

      "The suspects have been arrested and the police brought them to my
place for identification early today before taking them into custody," said
a grief-stricken Bezuidenhout.

      He said the shortage of commercial flights in Zimbabwe had hampered
the transportation of Thomas's body to South Africa for burial.

      "We are working out logistics on the transportation of the body to
South Africa. We were looking forward to ferrying it sometime today or
tomorrow but Air Zimbabwe has told us there are no commercial flights," he
said.

      As a result, said Bezuidenhout, they were now arranging for the body
to be transported by road through Zimbabwe's Beitbridge border post.

      "The body will be leaving on Thursday at the latest." he said.

      Bezuidenhout, an official at a South African tourism company, said
Thomas's murder was typical of the violence he said was common in Zimbabwe.
He said there was no hope of a revival of the tourism industry.

      "It is so pathetic that tourists who bring in the much-needed foreign
currency in Zimbabwe can be murdered like this. Zimbabwe's tourism industry
has ground to a halt because of the rampant lawlessness and if the
government cannot stop it then there is no hope for its revival at all," he
said.



      .. Late last year, an Australian tourist was killed by unknown
assailants in the resort town of Victoria falls before being robbed of his
possessions. - Sapa
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Daily News

      Zimbabwe tops Bushıs agenda

      6/25/2003 8:41:18 AM (GMT +2)


      Sydney Masamvu

      A QUICK resolution of the political impasse in Zimbabwe and the
implementation of the New Partnership for Africaıs Development (NEPAD), the
continentıs economic blueprint, will top the agenda of United States
President George Bushıs first ever visit to Southern Africa on 9 July,
diplomats disclosed yesterday.


      The diplomats spoke as American Secretary of State Colin Powell
pledged Washingtonıs full support for a transitional government in
crisis-weary Zimbabwe, ratcheting up pressure on President Robert Mugabe to
go after US Senator Lamar Alexander, the chairman of the Sub-Committee on
Africa, called for a regime change in Zimbabwe two weeks ago.

      The international fight against global terrorism, efforts to combat
the HIV/AIDS pandemic and moves to end Africaıs civil wars will also feature
in the wide-ranging discussions when Bush visits Africa for the first time
since his election to the White House in 2000.

      Washington-based Western diplomats, speaking ahead of Bushıs five-day
trip starting on 7 July, said Bush would press South African President Thabo
Mbeki to resolve Zimbabweıs political stalemate when the two leaders hold
talks in Pretoria on 9 July.

      ³President George Bush will indeed call and impress on President Mbeki
to work towards finding a quick resolution or way to break the political
impasse in Zimbabwe,² a senior diplomat told The Daily News.

      ³That will indeed be one of the top issues to be discussed. In return,
Mbeki is expected to seek to have the sanctions slapped on the Zimbabwe
government by the United States under the Zimbabwe Economic Recovery Act
lifted.²

      The diplomat added: ³The implementation of NEPAD, which the United
States is very much willing to support, will also come up for discussion.²

      The US government does not recognise Mugabeıs widely criticised
re-election last year, accusing the President of stealing the ballot.

      It has banned him and his entire Cabinet from travelling to the US,
frozen their assets overseas and cut off all official aid to the government.

      A Press Secretary at the White House yesterday confirmed Bushıs Africa
visit.

      ³President Bush will travel to Africa from July 7 to 12, 2003 to
continue to build Americaıs relationship with the continent. This visit
highlights the Bush administrationıs commitment to working towards a free,
prosperous and peaceful Africa.

      ³The President looks forward to his visits to Senegal, South Africa,
Botswana, Uganda and Nigeria,² the spokesman said.

      Colin Powell and Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Walter
Kansteiner are expected to be among senior US government officials
accompanying Bush.

      South Africa, Nigeria and Senegal are spearheading NEPAD, an ambitious
economic recovery plan for Africa which seeks increased Western aid and
trade in return for tough political reforms by mostly one-man-run African
governments.

      Setting the tone for Bushıs African safari, Powell ­ writing in the
New York Times yesterday ­ said Washington would be ready to assist Zimbabwe
if the ruling ZANU PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) legislated constitutional changes to allow for a transitional
government.

      ³There is a way out of the crisis. ZANU PF and the opposition party
can together legislate the constitutional changes to allow for a
transition,² Powell said.

      ³With the President gone, with a transitional government in place and
with a date fixed for new elections, Zimbabweans of all descriptions would,
I believe, come together to begin the process of rebuilding their country.

      ³If this happened, the United States would be quick to pledge generous
assistance to the restoration of Zimbabweıs political and economic
institutions even before the election. Other donors, I am sure, would be
close behind. Reading this, Robert Mugabe and his cohorts may cry
ŒBlackmailı (but) we should ignore them. Their time has come and gone.²

      Powell dwelt at length on the causes of Zimbabweıs economic and
political collapse, which he said had been caused by ³reckless governmental
mismanagement and unchecked corruption².

      In an article highly critical of Mugabe and his government entitled
Freeing a nation from a tyrantıs grip, Powell referred to the recent
detention of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who he said was waging a
non-violent struggle for democracy in Zimbabwe.

      ³Like the Burmese junta (holding democracy campaigner Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi), President Mugabe and his Politburo colleagues have an absolute
monopoly on coercive power, but no legitimacy or moral authority,² he said.

      The Daily News, which will run Powellıs article in full tomorrow, last
month broke the story that there was a financial aid package being worked
out by the international community to support a transitional government in
Zimbabwe upon Mugabeıs departure.

      The government predictably attacked the story, claiming it was a
falsehood.

      Powell called for greater efforts to be made by governments in
Southern Africa to rescue Zimbabwe.

      ³With perseverance of brave Zimbabweans, a strengthened commitment
from their neighbours and the strong support of the international community,
we can rescue the people of Zimbabwe. This is a worthy and urgent goal for
us all,² he wrote.

      Powell said US efforts to help Zimbabweans would not succeed without
greater engagement by Zimbabweıs neighbouring states. ³South Africa and
other African countries are increasingly concerned and active on Zimbabwe,
but they can and should play a stronger and more sustained role that fully
reflects the urgency of the Zimbabwe crisis,² he said.

      South Africaıs government has been widely criticised at home and
abroad for using its policy of ³quiet diplomacy² on Zimbabwe in the face of
increasing repression by the Harare government against its opponents and any
one holding divergent political views.

      South Africaıs Mbeki, together with Nigerian President Olusegun
Obasanjo and Malawian leader Bakili Muluzi, has repeatedly urged ZANU PF and
the MDC to dialogue to solve the countryıs crisis but has failed to bring
the two parties to the negotiating table.

      ³If leaders on the continent do not do more to convince President
Mugabe to respect the rule of law and enter into a dialogue with the
political opposition, he and his cronies will drag Zimbabwe down until there
is nothing left to ruin and Zimbabweıs implosion will continue to threaten
the stability and prosperity of the region,² Powell said.
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Daily News

      ZANU PF lures Tekere

      6/25/2003 8:21:39 AM (GMT +2)


      Own Correspondent

      MUTARE Zimbabweıs ruling ZANU PF is trying to lure former party
strongman Edgar Tekere back into the fold, it emerged yesterday.


      Ruling party officials told The Daily News that the decision to invite
Tekere back into ZANU PF was made at a meeting of the partyıs provincial
co-ordinating committee held in Mutare two weeks ago.

      Tekere, a war veteran and former ZANU PF secretary-general, was sacked
from the ruling party in 1989 after he resisted attempts by President Robert
Mugabe to bulldoze Zimbabwe into a one-party state dictatorship.

      Senior ruling party members yesterday said following the provincial
meeting, a three-member delegation led by a senior ZANU PF official in the
province had met Tekere at his residence in Mutare and invited him to rejoin
the partyıs ranks.

      Didymus Mutasa, ZANU PFıs external affairs chief, is reportedly
spearheading the moves to bring Tekere back into the fold.

      Mutasa confirmed these moves yesterday but said he would not give out
details until official communication on the matter had been relayed to
Emmerson Mnangagwa, the ruling partyıs powerful head of administration who
is widely seen as a leading contender to replace Mugabe if and when the
latter retires.

      ³I do not know whether the letter (on this issue) has been written to
Mnangagwa. But wait until that letter is written,² Mutasa said.

      Efforts to contact Mnangagwa were fruitless yesterday.

      Other senior ZANU PF luminaries in the province are reportedly backing
what most of them see as Tekereıs long-delayed political rehabilitation.

      Tekere himself appeared to lend credence to the swirling speculation
when he said yesterday: ³All I can say is that I did not resign from ZANU
PF. I was sacked when I still wanted to be in the party.

      ³I toiled a lot for this party. When I was in Gweru, the first
successful party rally was held there because I was there with people like
(Kenneth) Manyonda. That is why even the first congress of the party was
held there.²

      He said he was in frequent contact with prominent ZANU PF members and
enjoyed their respect and friendship .

      ³Many of them visit me frequently and we discuss a lot of things,²
Tekere said.

      Charles Pemhenayi, ZANU PFıs spokesman in Manicaland, said: ³It will
be a homecoming if it happens.²

      Tekere said several top ZANU PF members, including Justice Minister
Patrick Chinamasa, former Cabinet minister Victoria Chitepo and Mutasa often
called or visited him to inquire about his health.

      Tekere, who was admitted to hospital last year after he fell ill,
yesterday said he was now well. He did not disclose the nature of his
illness.
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Daily News

      Doctorsı strike gathers momentum

      6/25/2003 8:22:11 AM (GMT +2)


      Staff Reporters

      SEVERAL people were unable to get treatment at hospitals around the
country yesterday as a doctorsı strike that began in Bulawayo on Monday
spread to other parts of Zimbabwe.

      Doctors in Harare, Mutare and Gweru joined the industrial action,
which the medical personnel say is to protest against a new salary structure
introduced by the government.

      Under the new structure, the lowest paid doctor will get $167 000 a
month, far below the $2 million demanded by the doctors.

      Business was slow at Harareıs Parirenyatwa and Harare Central
Hospitals, where some patients said they had failed to receive treatment
after waiting for the whole day.

      But nurses at Parirenyatwa Hospital said the effects of the strike
would begin to be felt from today as more patients failed to get treatment.

      ³The situation is still a bit manageable, but it will obviously become
worse from tomorrow (today) onwards. We hope a speedy solution is found,² a
nurse at Parirenyatwa hospital said yesterday.

      In Bulawayo, several patients who had spent the whole day queueing to
be examined eventually went home without receiving treatment.

      Nurses at Mpilo Central Hospital said only a few senior doctors were
attending to patients as all junior doctors had not turned up for duty.

      Only the maternity ward at the hospital was fully functional.

      Marble Ndlovu, a patient at Mpilo Central Hospital, said: ³I have been
waiting for a doctor for the past five hours and I still havenıt been
attended to. I am just going home and I will probably visit a private doctor
tomorrow.²

      The situation was the same at Bulawayo Central Hospital and at Mutare
General Hospital.

      In Gweru, patients were being attended to by expatriate Cuban doctors.

      ³The situation is not very bad here. We have not yet felt the strain
because of these Cuban doctors,² said a hospital official in Gweru.

      The Hospital Doctorsı Association (HDA), an umbrella body for doctors
countrywide, said the medical personnel would not return to work until the
government met their demands.

      Leo Katsidzira, the HDA secretary-general, accused the government of
failing to respect doctors, saying they would not wait for another
re-grading exercise to be done. He said: ³We donıt want to talk about
re-grading because that is not the issue at hand. The next time we meet the
government we will be expecting them to tell us what they will be offering
us.²

      Health Minister David Parirenyatwa could not be reached for comment.
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Daily News

      Shiriıs testimony contradicts Ben-Menashe

      6/25/2003 8:22:48 AM (GMT +2)


      Court Reporter

      ZIMBABWE Air Force Commander Perence Shiri, who was testifying in the
treason trial of three opposition party leaders yesterday, refused to answer
questions about a statement issued by the countryıs defence forces in the
run-up to last yearıs presidential election.

      Shiri refused to answer questions relating to a statement made by
Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander Vitalis Zvinavashe at a Press conference
in the run-up to the presidential poll.

      The Press conference was attended by Zimbabwe National Army Commander
Constantine Chiwenga, Zimbabwe Prison Services Commissioner Paradzai
Zimondi, Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri, then Central Intelligence
Organisation director-general Elisha Muzonzini and Shiri himself.

      At the Press conference, the defence and security chiefs indicated
that they would not accept a political leader ³whose agenda reverses the
gains of the liberation struggle².

      ³These were utterances of General Zvinavashe and I am not acting on
behalf of General Zvinavashe,² Shiri, who spoke through an interpreter
because he was speaking in Shona, said under cross-examination by defence
lawyer Eric Matinenga.

      He however said he did not dissociate himself from Zvinavasheıs
utterances, saying Zvinavashe was ³the highest-ranking officer and all
junior officers are accountable to him not vice-versa².

      He denied that Zvinavashe had insinuated that the service chiefs would
not accept a leader who did not participate in the countryıs 1970s
liberation war and said the army were ³not zombies² and that they had always
followed the provisions of the countryıs Constitution.

      Asked whether Zvinavasheıs statement meant that the defence forces
intended to change or subvert the Constitution, Shiri said: ³The statement
was made by General Zvinavashe who is senior to me. If you have any queries
on the statement, you can call him to testify. I cannot answer for him.²

      Shiri admitted that he had a meeting with MDC Members of Parliament
Tafadzwa Musekiwa and Job Sikhala in January last year.

      He said the meeting was instigated by Musekiwa who said he had been
instructed by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who wanted Shiri as an adviser
once the opposition party assumed power.

      ³Honourable Sikhala told me that Mr Tsvangirai wanted me to be the
commander of the armed forces when the MDC came to power in order to ensure
peace and to pacify armed forces and war veterans to accept the MDC if it
assumed power,² Shiri said.

      He said since the MDC emissaries were making the proposals in the
run-up to last Marchıs presidential election, they were talking on the
assumption that Tsvangirai would win the election.

      Shiriıs testimony contradicted star witness Ari Ben-Menasheıs claims
that the MDC wanted to enlist Shiri to aid them in organising a coup after
the assassination of President Robert Mugabe before the election.

      Tsvangirai and two senior MDC officials have been charged with
plotting to assassinate Mugabe and overthrow his government, charges that
they deny.
      ³I told them that it would be difficult for me because I did not agree
with their policies,² Shiri said. ³My problem was with their policy to
tarnish the name of the head of state, forgetting that it was the president
who led the struggle for the liberation of this country.

      ³Also on land redistribution, the MDCıs policy was not clear and they
appeared to be puppets being used to safeguard the interests of white
farmers and their relationship with our former colonisers, the British,
which tended to suggest that they were being used as fronts. But even though
I was against their policy, if they won the election it would be the will of
the people.²

      Shiri said four days after their initial meeting, Sikhala and Musekiwa
returned with Gift Chimanikire, the MDC deputy secretary-general, who came
to explain the MDC policies.

      ³Chimanikire repeated that he had been sent by Tsvangirai to tell me
that I should not leave the army when he assumed power,² he said. ³Sikhala
said if I agreed to go along with them and persuade other generals, the MDC
would pay me $10 million.

      ³But I told them I was not a mercenary and did not work for rewards. I
was not interested in their money.² The trial continues today with
Constantine Musango, a recording supervisor in the Ministry of Justice,
giving evidence.
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Daily News

      Editor charged under POSA

      6/25/2003 8:23:29 AM (GMT +2)


      Staff Reporter

      Daily News on Sunday Editor Bill Saidi was yesterday charged under the
Public Order and Security Act (POSA) for allegedly publishing a false story
last year.

      Saidi was summoned to the Law and Order Section at Harare Central
Police Station yesterday afternoon and was questioned for close to two hours
before he was released.

      Saidi told The Daily News that the police had charged him over an
article published in The Daily News last year, which claimed that President
Robert Mugabe had attended the African National Congress conference in South
Africa.

      The police say Mugabe was in Harare at the time of the December
conference and did not attend the event.

      Saidi said he denied the charge, arguing that he was not in charge of
the newspaper when the article appeared. Saidi was an assistant editor of
The Daily News when the story was published.

      ³I was asked to make a statement and they charged me under POSA for
publishing a falsehood. Of course I denied the charge,² he said.

      ³The police officers were reasonably friendly and they didnıt harass
me at all,² he added.
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Daily News

      Faulty billing deprives ZESA of millions

      6/25/2003 8:24:11 AM (GMT +2)


      Precious Shumba

      THE financially-troubled Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA)
could be losing millions of dollars in unpaid bills because of problems with
its billing system and in collecting data on clientsı monthly power
consumption, it was learnt yesterday.

      ZESA officials said there were problems with a billing system imported
from Kenya and commissioned last October, which they alleged had affected
the parastatalıs ability to access some clientsı accounts and to send
monthly statements.

      The officials said some clients had gone for between two to four
months without receiving or paying electricity bills.

      They said cities such as Bulawayo, Mutare, Chinhoyi and Gweru had
unpaid debts running into nearly $2 billion as a result.

      ³The new billing system has caused customers headaches because it
takes long to print the bills and even access clientsı accounts,² an
official at ZESA headquarters in Harare told The Daily News yesterday.

      ³The new system was imported from Kenya and we wonder how it came to
us. It is an outdated system which is causing us serious problems in our
functioning.²

      While admitting that Zimbabweıs power utility could be losing money
because of unpaid bills, ZESA Harare area manager Stephen Pieron however
denied that the billing system was the primary cause of the problem.

      He said the initial hitches experienced when the new system was first
installed had been overcome.

      He told The Daily News: ³We had problems with the new system but l
think it is now understood. Any new system is bound to cause some problems,
but they have been overcome.²

      He attributed billing problems to acute fuel, foreign currency and
computer shortages, adding that the computer printer used by the parastatal
for customersı bills had broken down and a smaller machine was being used as
a substitute.

      He said the replacement equipment was failing to cope with the amount
of work involved in compiling bills.

      The ZESA official said Harare residents alone owed the power utility
at least $451 million, a figure he said was much higher than the monthly
average of $320 million for the capital city.

      He said the amount of money owed to ZESA in Harare had shot up because
of back-logs in the billing system partly resulting from strikes and job
stayaways.
      ZESA workers have been on strike twice this year while there have been
several work stayaways called by the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.

      Strikes and stayaways have also affected the Zimbabwe Postal Servicesı
ability to deliver electricity bills on time, Pieron added.

      This has forced ZESA to enter into an agreement with the postal
company to ensure that its statements are sent out as soon as possible.

      ³Most of the complaints we receive are due to estimate readings and
this constitutes 90 percent of the complaints,² Pieron said. ³Our problem is
that we canıt read all meters every month.

      ³The fuel crisis has impacted negatively on our operations and coupled
with the shortage of vehicles, we really have a crisis. The delays are also
being caused by the shortage of computers.²

      Pieron said one of the ZESA computers broke down several weeks ago and
it would cost the parastatal about $50 million to purchase a new one, money
      that the heavily-indebted state-controlled company does not have.

      He said ZESAıs Harare office had only 180 functioning vehicles and 200
others had been forced off the road due to shortages of foreign currency to
buy spare parts.

      The remaining functioning vehicles are supposed to service and are
failing to cope with about 231 000 ZESA customers in Harare, whose
households have to be visited every month.

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Daily News

      Human rights activist quizzed over prayers

      6/25/2003 8:24:55 AM (GMT +2)


      Staff Reporter

      Masvingo Police in Masvingo have summoned and quizzed former Zimbabwe
Council of Churches human rights regional chairman Sonykis Chimbuya over
prayers that are allegedly anti-government.

      Chimbuya, a reverend with the Church of Christ in Masvingo, was
summoned to the Criminal Investigations Departmentıs Law and Order Section
last week and ordered to desist from saying prayers that are political.

      He was released without being charged.

      Chimbuya said yesterday: ³I was ordered not to say prayers which are
political. They even told me that I should write down my prayers for them to
scrutinise. They took my curriculum vitae and warned me to be careful with
my prayers.²

      Police in Masvingo yesterday confirmed that they questioned Chimbuya
but declined to give details.

      Chimbuya said he was not a political activist but a preacher.

      ³I just believe in peace and unity in the country,² he said.³Our
church is full of both MDC and ZANU PF supporters and we do not talk about
that in the church.²

      Sources said the police seem to have been concerned that Chimbuya was
invited to pray before a rally which was addressed by opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) officials.

      The clergyman has also been invited to pray at functions organised by
the militant Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.

      Chimbuya said his mere presence at such functions did not mean that he
was an MDC activist.

      ³I am just shocked. I have been invited to minister even at ZANU PF
functions but that does not mean that I support that party², he said.
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Daily News

      Nkala case: judge to rule on new witnesses

      6/25/2003 8:25:31 AM (GMT +2)


      Court Reporter

      HIGH Court judge Justice Sandra Mungwira will make a ruling next
Monday on an application by the state to call three new witnesses in the
trial of six opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) activists
charged with kidnapping and killing Bulawayo war veteransı leader Cain
Nkala.

      Justice Mungwira did not give reasons for postponing a ruling on the
application, which was made last week.

      Prosecutors Charles Kandemiri and Neville Wamambo last week told the
court that they wanted to call Isabel Mhlope, a formerofficerincharge at
Mbembesi Police Station, where one of the accused, Remember Moyo, was
allegedly tortured and denied food and water.

      The other two state witnesses in the trial are a Detective Constable
Sibanda and a Detective Sergeant Shumba, who witnessed the taking down of
warned and cautioned statements from Sazini Mpofu and Army Zulu
respectively.

      Moyo, Mpofu and Sibanda are facing trial together with Fletcher
DuliniNcube, the Member of Parliament for Lobengula-Magwegwe, Sonny Masera,
the MDCıs director of security, and Kethani Sibanda for murdering Nkala.

      Nkala was kidnapped and murdered in November 2001.

      Kandemiri said the state wanted to call Mhlope to rebut allegations
that she had given Moyo food and water despite alleged orders to the
contrary by Superintendent Martin Matira, who was in charge of the
investigation into Nkalaıs kidnapping and murder.

      He said detectives Sibanda and Shumba were omitted from the state
outline but the defence was aware of the stateıs intention to call them.

      ³Calling these three witnesses will be of no prejudice to the
defence,² said Kandemiri.

      The four defence lawyers, advocates Eric Morris, Edith Mushore, Deepak
Mehta and Happias Zhou, opposed the application, saying it would prejudice
their clients.

      Morris described the claim by the state that the defence knew of the
new witnesses as ³nonsense². Said Morris: ³What the state wishes to do is to
delay the administration of justice.²

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Daily News

      School head shot dead

      6/25/2003 8:26:04 AM (GMT +2)


      Obert Matahwa

      LUKE Mushangure, the deputy headmaster of Rusvingo Primary School in
Harareıs Highfield suburb, was shot dead yesterday as he attempted to break
up a fight between two women.


      The school closed early after the death of the deputy headmaster, who
was shot as he tried to separate one of the primary schoolıs teachers,
Gertrude Ngundu, and a woman identified by the police as Chiedza Tembure.

      The two women are believed to have been fighting over a man. The
police confirmed the deputy headmasterıs death and said investigations into
the shooting would start soon.

      A policeman at Southerton Police Station said Mushangure was shot once
through the mouth while Ngundu was shot three times in the shoulder, hip and
stomach. Ngundu was detained at the
      Avenues Clinic yesterday.

      Police told the Daily News yesterday afternoon that the alleged
assailant was still at large and a manhunt had been launched to track her
down.

      However, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation quoted police officials
yesterday evening as saying the woman involved in the shooting had been
apprehended and was in their custody.

      It was not possible to confirm the arrest with the police before going
to press last night.

      Rusvingo Primary School headmaster Bernard Gowere, who was away when
the shooting occurred, told the Daily News: ³The deputy head wanted to
counsel the two women, who have a longstanding dispute over a man.

      ³This woman came to our school yesterday (Monday) and fought with
Ngundu.²

      He said he was attending a workshop elsewhere when his members of
staff were shot.

      ³Since I was away, my deputy had to attend to the feuding women in his
office. The woman claims her husband was taken from her by our teacher,² the
headmaster said.

      Mushangure was allegedly shot through the mouth and subsequently died
in a classroom, Gowere said.

      When The Daily News visited the school yesterday, hundreds of
Highfield residents were gathered at the school gates as they tried to come
to terms with the tragedy, while Mushangureıs relatives cleaned blood from
the school pavements and from the classroom where he died.

      Mushangureıs relatives would not discuss the tragedy, saying they were
trying to come to terms with his death.

      A pastor conducted a small service in the classroom as the deputy
headmasterıs relatives were cleaning his blood from the room.

      Eyewitnesses said the alleged assailant came to the school yesterday
intending to apologise to Ngundu for a fight the two women had the previous
day.

      ³They went to discuss the matter in the deputy headmasterıs office and
at around 12 noon, Tembure produced a pistol,² one witness said.

      Mushangureıs body was taken to a mortuary at Harare Central Hospital,
while Ngundu was finally admitted at Harareıs Avenues Clinic after she had
earlier been taken to a council clinic in Highfield.
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Daily News

      State security agents tailing me : Tsvangirai

      6/25/2003 8:26:37 AM (GMT +2)


      Staff Reporter

      MORGAN Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC), says he has been placed under 24-hour surveillance by
Zimbabwean state security agents since his release from Harare Remand Prison
last Friday, after facing allegations of attempting to topple the
government.

      Tsvangirai, speaking to The Daily News yesterday, said he was aware
that government security agents were monitoring his movements. He had taken
steps to beef up his security.

      ³I am actually under surveillance. I have witnessed some of these
movements. What we are doing is that we are increasing our vigilance. We
cannot rely on the police because they may be part of the scheme,ıı he said
after this newspaper obtained information that unknown persons driving in
Mazda 323 vehicles were trailing him each time he leaves his home in
Harareıs Strathaven suburb.

      But the government yesterday quickly dismissed Tsvangiraiıs statement,
saying it was not aware that the opposition leader was being monitored.

      Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi told The Daily News: ³I do not
think it (the surveillance) is true. There is nothing that I know to that
effect. I think he is seeing his own shadow.ıı Tsvangiraiıs aides say since
his release from prison last Friday, people in plain clothes and calling
themselves policemen have been moving in Mazda 323 vehicles near
Tsvangiraiıs home and sometimes parking about 100 metres from the house.

      ³On Sunday evening, I approached one of the drivers and asked him why
he was driving aimlessly around the house. He told me that he and others
were policemen doing their duties and that we should go and sleep and leave
them to perform their duties,ıı one of the aides said yesterday. The aide
said Tsvangiraiıs security team had conducted its own investigations and had
established that during the day some of the suspected state security agents
parked their vehicles at Strathaven shopping centre and then moved closer to
the house of the MDC leader at night.

      ³Other unidentified people will just walk around in the area during
the day. When we leave the house for the High Court proceedings, they
connect with each other using cellphones and suddenly several vehicles will
be trailing Tsvangiraiıs team,ıı the aide said.

      The aide alleged that some suspected agents had resorted to vending at
strategic points along the roads leading to Tsvangiraiıs house in order to
monitor the opposition leaderıs movements.
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Daily News

Leader Page

      The height of madness

      6/25/2003 8:43:46 AM (GMT +2)



      SIX months after President Robert Mugabe promised Zimbabweans that he
would personally intervene to sort out once and for all the countryıs fuel
crisis, all the government has come up with is the kind of half-baked
solution that it is good at.

      It has announced that it is banning Zimbabweans from carrying the
scarce commodity in containers.

      This is just confirming what Zimbabweans have sadly come to realise:
that the government has neither the will nor the courage to confront the
root causes of Zimbabweıs crisis.

      Indeed, the ruling ZANU PF seems to have made a vocation out of
pursuing the trivial while Zimbabwe burns.

      Deputy Energy Minister Reuben Marumahoko this week announced that the
government had outlawed the carrying by motorists of fuel in jerry cans or
any other containers. This is supposedly in order to curb a flourishing
black market for diesel and petrol.

      Marumahoko told The Herald: ³If, for example, someone has a funeral or
is a farmer who needs diesel, he has to apply to the ministry to be given
permission to carry the fuel to his farm, otherwise he will get arrested.²

      This applies even to operators of diesel-powered grinding mills in
far-flung rural areas where there are no fuel service stations and who, even
if there was no fuel shortage in Zimbabwe, would need to stock fuel at their
mills.

      What utter nonsense!

      Just for argumentıs sake, how will the government ensure that the fuel
will be used for the reasons stated when one applies for the so-called
permit and that it is not resold on the black market where, ironically, some
of Marumahokoıs colleagues in the government and ZANU PF are said to be
making immense profit?

      According to the deputy minister, the permits are only issued on
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Why this must be so when fuel is virtually
in permanent short supply in this country and people must carry petrol or
diesel in containers every other day, only the government knows.

      If the governmentıs new policy is carried to its logical conclusion, a
motorist would have to leave his or her car on the road on Friday evening if
it runs out of fuel, wait until Monday to secure a permit to carry petrol or
diesel in a container and take it back to the vehicle to fill up.

      Surely this is the height of madness!

      Hasnıt Marumahoko or anyone in government heard about the marauding
car jackers and thieves ready to pounce on any vehicle they can lay their
hands on for spares to resell on yet another thriving black market for car
spare parts?

      The government is clearly unwilling to take the painful steps that are
necessary to resolve not only the fuel crisis but the wider economic and
political crises that are engulfing Zimbabwe.

      It is instead resorting to these ill-thought-out and childish ideas.

      There is no foreign currency in the country that is the major reason
Zimbabwe is grappling with a severe fuel crisis and this is the problem the
government needs to be tackling to resolve the shortages of petrol and
diesel.

      Zimbabwe has no foreign currency because the government has virtually
destroyed the hard cash-earning agricultural sector and other exporting
industries through ill-considered policies that have led to a flight of
foreign capital and the suspension of donor support.

      The starting point to addressing the fuel and the other myriad
shortages throttling Zimbabwe is for the government to clean up on its land
policies and its human rights and democracy record, which have estranged
Zimbabwe from vital international donors, trading and development partners.
      This is what Mugabe, Marumahoko and ZANU PF must do.

      If this is proving too difficult for them, they should have the
courage to resign, something they should have done years ago.
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Daily News

Feature

      Pursuit of the truth will bring happiness

      6/25/2003 8:00:43 AM (GMT +2)



      HAPPINESS, I suppose, is relative. Charlie Brown had his security
blanket, Kojak had his lollipop and Mukadota had Amai vaRwizi.

      A politician would probably be over the moon if the response to his
maiden speech in Parliament was thunderous applause, with only one inaudible
interjection: ³What a lot of baloney!²

      A man facing a murder charge would hug everybody in court if the judge
pronounced: ³Youıre discharged. This man was dead before you touched him. He
hadnıt eaten for six weeks. This is Zimbabwe.²

      A mother giving birth for the first time after 20 tries would be
ecstatic, but her husband, now in his 60s and grouchy as hell, might wonder
if his spine would survive playing with the kid.

      Wallowing in a bubble-bath would bring happiness to the housewife, if
she didnıt have to get out and queue for food, fuel and foreign currency.

      For a journalist not the fly-by-night phonies of Sunshine journalism a
lead story on the front page would be the crowning glory.

      For a Kambuzuma FC soccer supporter, beating a full-strength
Highlanders Xl in a league match would call for week-long celebrations.

      Winning at anything makes people happy. But to achieve a permanent
state of happiness is something else. Wealth doesnıt necessarily guarantee
happiness. Neither Nelson Rockefeller nor Paul Getty were happy all the time
they had trouble with women and that cannot be happiness.

      Bill Gates and Philip Chiyangwa cannot be said to have achieved the
pinnacle of happiness. Gates has been embroiled in a fight with the United
States government over his alleged unfair business practices.

      As for Chiyangwa, his partyıs performance could not be giving him days
and nights of unbridled happiness. The party is virtually under siege.
Chiyangwa may be a tough cookie politically, but he canıt be unaware that if
there was a sudden change of government, his fortune might just go up in
smoke.

      Gates probably doesnıt have to worry about that. It wasnıt politics
which helped him.

      When the Central Statistical Office gives out information such as the
percentage of people living below the poverty datum line, you should relate
that to the happiness quotient: 80 percent with incomes theoretically poorer
than poor.

      Inflation at more than 300 percent. Then add deaths from Aids, the
shortage of fuel, food and foreign currency.

      On a scale of one to 10, only one person could qualify unconditionally
to be happy. In Zimbabwe, according to unofficial statistics gleaned again
unofficially from taxi drivers and commuter omnibus drivers by foreign
visitors, there are people who have lost track of the meaning of happiness.

      They respond with a blank ³What is that?² when asked what would make
them really happy.

      I know a foreigner who said when he asked someone what would make them
really happy, the answer was a swift ³To die now!² He could have been
exaggerating or could have misunderstood the respondent, who probably
replied in Shona or SiNdebele or Kalanga or Tonga or Venda or Nyanja or
Chikunda, to the effect that he didnıt care one way or the other, as long as
he could die a happy person, knowing he had done his best to look after his
family, but that if he failed, then The Almighty would understand.

      What prompted me to delve into the happiness syndrome was the constant
grouse by many people that when most independent newspapers carried stories
of political crime and destruction they were not aware what damage they were
inflicting upon the peopleıs pursuit of happiness.

      Many may be unaware of this, but this complaint goes to the very heart
of good journalism. Do you spare your readers the brutal truth about their
society, to protect them from an unidentified ³evil², or do you tell them
everything they ought to know, whether they like it or not?

      Some Zimbabweans believe their country should not be portrayed in a
negative light by its own newspapers. They believe that the outside world
should have a positive image of Zimbabwe, whether this is true or false.

      But others insist that it would be immoral and criminal to portray the
country as progressive, law-abiding and peaceful when there are people being
sjamboked (whipped) by soldiers, MPs being brutalised in their homes and
ordinary citizens being harassed and tortured because they are suspected of
supporting the opposition.

      Do you love your country? If you do, how can you say such nasty things
about it? Where is your patriotism? These questions are always posed to
journalists from the independent media.

      Others, perhaps trying to be subtle, put the question differently: ³Is
there any hope for this country? If there is, why donıt you tell us about
it?²

      This would be easy enough to do. The government media do it
consummately every day, ignoring the bad and the ugly and concentrating only
on the good the Sunshine journalism we talked about.

      Then, when there is a sudden explosion of violent dissent, they have
no answer for it, except to ascribe it to the British, the Americans and the
Movement for Democratic Change, or all three together.

      The critics seem convinced that the independent media would ignore a
positive story about Zimbabwe if it walked naked into their offices with
bells on and demanded to be recognised as a good story.

      Stories which walk into newspaper offices raise the suspicion that
they could be phony or planted. Usually, the journalistıs instinct that
something is not right is vindicated.

      Such stories ought to set the reporterıs alarm bells ringing, but
occasionally they donıt and the reporter is suckered into writing a story
which may turn out to be of the classic cock-and-bull variety.

      But what people ought to learn of their country at this critical
moment is that the government is clueless the economic crisis has
overwhelmed it and in frustration, it will attack, blindly most of the time,
anybody who is critical of its bungling, in the hope that they cannot really
hit back.

      The government too knows that people are happiest when they are
reassured everything is fine, that there is a plenty of food, fuel and
foreign currency so donıt worry, be happy.

      But by now only a half-wit would believe the governmentıs
reassurances.

      Time and time again, the independent media have exposed the
governmentıs lies. On fuel, foreign currency and food, the government has
often insisted the independent media were being alarmist yet the queues have
lengthened.

      The citizen who aspires to be happy most of the time, it would seem,
is one who seeks and finds the truth. You are often more comfortable with
the truth than with half-truths and official fibs.

      If the truth can set you free, then it follows it can make you happy
as well.
      bsaidi@dailynews.co.zw
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