http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Violet Gonda
SW Radio
Africa
26 May 2013
The Constitutional Court on Wednesday postponed a
hearing on the election
date extension appeal by Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa, but lawyers say
the court will now hear a ‘super’ application on
Friday after the political
parties in the coalition government agreed that a
counter application by the
MDC formations be heard together with Chinamasa’s
application.
The ConCourt did not go into the merits of Chinamsa’s
application because
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC president
Welshman Ncube filed a
counter application on Monday stating that the
application brought by
Chinamasa was not complete and did not cover material
issues in dispute.
They are seeking the court to review its order to have
elections by July 31.
The court also said President Robert Mugabe, who
went for a health check to
Singapore this week, had not been formally served
and formally joined in the
proceedings. Lawyer Tawanda Zhuwarara said this
is despite the fact the
counter application by Tsvangirai and Ncube had
issues that could only be
responded to by the President.
Zhuwarara
said the political parties agreed to have the matter resuscitated
on Friday.
He said there will be a super application on Friday with four
cases before
the court that will encompass a number of issues.
“It will be an
application rolled into one. Four different applications all
relating to the
question of the election date, the validity of the
proclamation by the
President and the amendments to the electoral law that
were done by the
President without resorting to parliament,” Zhuwarara said.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Alex Bell
SW Radio
Africa
26 June 2013
Court applications seeking to have the date of the
elections changed to
later in the year, are set to be consolidated into one
major case.
The Constitutional Court on Wednesday postponed three
election date related
cases, with lawyers planning to meet Chief Justice
Godfrey Chidyausiku on
Thursday to discuss a ‘consolidation’.
In its
busiest day since the Court was formed, a total of six cases linked
to the
elections were placed before the bench of nine judges on Wednesday.
This
included the controversial application filed by Justice Minister
Patrick
Chinamasa in a bid to have the July 31st election date changed. The
Court
postponed that case, allowing it more time to hear a
counter-application
filed by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC leader
Welshman Ncube. The
two political leaders want the Court to review its
order, passed down in
May, to have elections by July 31st.
Read full details here
The
court also postponed hearing a case filed by human rights defender Nixon
Nyikadzino, who also wants an extension on the July election date. He has
argued that having the elections in such a short time would infringe his
human rights, because of the critical reforms that are yet to be
implemented.
Nyikadzino told SW Radio Africa that his lawyers will be
in chambers on
Thursday to discuss combining his case with others
challenging the election
date.
“If the arguments are consolidated it
could make the case much stronger. My
issue is one of time and the passage
of time… if the case is delayed I’m
afraid it may become an academic result
that may not actually carry out a
remedy to make sure that when we go to
elections they will be credible and
fair,” Nyikadzino said.
The Court
also postponed hearing a case filed by Bulawayo woman Maria Phiri,
who also
wants an extension of the election date. She is arguing that there
is not
enough time to allow former ‘aliens’ to register to vote before the
July
poll.
Kumbirai Mafunda, the spokesperson for the Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human
Rights, explained that Phiri’s case looks set to be combined with the
other
election date cases.
“This was also postponed to consider
consolidating it with the case of
Patrick Chinamasa seeking an extension of
the election date.
Mafunda meanwhile also explained that an application
filed by the Zimbabwe
Development Party, which was also heard by the
Constitutional Court on
Wednesday, was dismissed. The Party was seeking a
Court order that would
force the Government to pay for its election
campaign.
The other case heard on Wednesday was that of businessman
Mutumwa Mawere
about dual citizenship. The full details of that case can be
read here.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
Mugabe date
gaffe stops nothing — Zec
June 26, 2013in National, News,
Politics
THE electoral nomination court will go ahead and sit this Friday
despite the
error made by President Robert Mugabe in Statutory Instrument 86
of 2013.
REPORT BY SENIOR REPORTER
Addressing political parties in
Harare yesterday Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (Zec) chairperson Justice
Rita Makarau said the court would go
ahead with the nomination process on 28
June.
“The Nomination Court will sit on Friday starting at 10am and
ending at 4pm.
It means your papers must have been filed by 4pm Friday. If
your papers are
not in order by 4pm we will have no option, but to throw
your candidature
out,” Justice Makarau said.
“Make sure your papers
are in order. We do not want you to lose because of a
technicality, but we
want you to lose because the people rejected you.”
Justice Makarau added
that in order for councillors to qualify they needed
to have a clean
criminal record as well as be up to dateon their utility
bills.
“Councillors need additional requirements. For you to be
nominated as a
councillor you must satisfy certain requirements. Your rates
must be paid
up. More importantly you must be clear of any past criminal
conduct. You
must be cleared by the police,” Justice Makarau
said.
Zec commissioner Geoff Feltoe explained to the political parties
the
nomination requirements and where the courts would sit.
“The
nomination courts will be sitting at different places, the presidential
(Nomination Court) will sit in Harare. The Nomination Courts for the senate
and House of Assembly will sit in the various provinces,” Feltoe said
http://www.voazimbabwe.com/
Blessing
Zulu
26.06.2013
WASHINGTON DC — President Robert Mugabe’s trip to
Singapore for a “routine
medical checkup” has caused serious concern among
his rivals who had been
advocating for reforms ahead of elections expected
next month.
Mr. Mugabe’s spokesman, George Charamba, told the national
broadcaster ZBC
that Mr. Mugabe is expected back in the country over the
weekend.
The president has dismissed reports that he has received
treatment for
prostate cancer saying his visits to the far-east are to treat
eye
cataracts. But by the time Mr. Mugabe returns parliament would have
dissolved.
Parliament is to be legally dissolved June 29 but business
ends Friday, June
28.
Industry Minister, Welshman Ncube, who is the
leader of the Movement for
Democratic Change formation, said Zanu PF through
delaying tactics has
managed to stall reforms.
The same sentiments
were echoed by Constitutional Affairs Minister Eric
Matinenga of the MDC
formation led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai who
said their only hope
was in the Constitutional Court but because of the
delays in hearing the
cases “there is no room for optimism.
Zanu PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo said
those calling for reforms are afraid of
elections. Sources in all three
parties told Studio 7 that with Mr. Mugabe
out of the country, there will be
no progress in talks to institute reforms
ahead of the general
election.
The Southern African Development Community in its resolutions
in Maputo,
Mozambique, urged Harare to align laws such as Access to
Information and
Protection of Privacy Act, Public Order and Security Act,
Broadcasting
Services Act, Defence Act and Police Act.
Attempts to
discuss these outstanding issues at State House collapsed last
week Friday.
International Crisis Group researcher Trevor Maisiri said
Zimbabwe is headed
for another disputed election.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tichaona
Sibanda
SW Radio Africa
26 June 2013
The losing candidates in ZANU
PF’s primary elections will not have an
opportunity to contest the results
of their internal selection process,
after the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
ruled that the nomination day will
not be changed from Friday.
This
leaves the former ruling party with less than 48 hours to listen to
disputes
or conduct reruns, as suggested by party activists, following what
has been
described as one of the most controversial internal selection
processes in
years.
It took the MDC-T almost six weeks to complete its own in-house
selection,
but ZANU PF thought they would do them in just a day, a move that
has left
the party sharply divided and in a rush to meet Friday’s nomination
deadline.
Addressing political parties in Harare on Tuesday, ZEC
chairperson Rita
Makarau said the court would go ahead with the nomination
process on 28th
June after doubts were raised following an error made by
President Robert
Mugabe in declaring Thursday as the nomination day instead
of Friday.
Makarau emphasized that the nomination court will sit on
Friday starting at
10am and ending at 4pm, advising all aspiring candidates
that their papers
should be filed no later than 4pm Friday.
‘If your
papers are not in order by 4pm we will have no option but to throw
your
candidature out. Make sure your papers are in order. We do not want you
to
lose because of a technicality, but we want you to lose because the
people
rejected you,’ Makarau said.
This ruling will have a huge impact on ZANU
PF as in the aftermath of its
primary elections a wave of postmortems is
brewing, as both senior officials
and rank and file members of the party
trade accusations as to who caused
the woeful staging of the polls that saw
some of the top guns fall.
What is clear from the preliminary results
released so far is that those in
Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa’s camp
have made significant inroads.
Many from the Joice Mujuru faction have
dismally lost.
One of the biggest casualties is party spokesman Rugare
Gumbo, who lost the
Senatorial race to former Governor of the Midlands
province July Moyo, a
Mnangagwa ally.
A number of sitting MPs have
already said goodbye to their legislative
careers, at least for the next
five years, after succumbing to their
contenders in the primaries, which
have been held in 210 constituencies
across the country.
MPs like the
ZANU PF COPAC co-chairman Paul Mangwana, Agriculture Minister
Joseph Made,
Isheunesu Muza from Redcliff, Ordour Nyakudanga in Mutoko East,
were all
handed humiliating defeats which will deny them the privilege to
represent
their constituencies in the upcoming elections.
The major talking point
of the exercise, despite ZANU PF’s oft repeated
statements that they are
ready for elections, is the clear indication the
vote was affected hugely by
irregularities and violations all over the
country.
Observers told us
every single constituency and district in the 210
constituencies was
affected by multiple forms of irregularities.
One of the irregularities
was that in some constituencies the party’s voters
roll was ditched and
anyone with an ID was allowed to vote. There were
allegations that even the
MDC were voting, for candidates they knew would
not stand a chance against
their own party candidates in the forthcoming
poll.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/
25/06/2013 00:00:00
by Staff
Reporter
ZANU PF failed to meet its Tuesday deadline for
the completion primaries to
select election candidates with officials
attributing the development to
“high voter turnout”.
The party is
scrambling to finalise the selection of its candidates ahead of
the sitting
of the nomination court on June 28.
And adding to the pressure, Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (ZEC) boss,
Justice Rita Makarau said Tuesday that
political parties must submit their
lists of candidates for pre-nomination
by 4pm on Wednesday.
At the start of the week party chairman Simon Khaya
Moyo said the primaries
would have to be completed by Tuesday so that
candidates could register with
ZEC on Wednesday.
“Given the position
by ZEC that prospective parliamentary and council
candidates are required to
register their nomination at ZEC offices
throughout the country on Wednesday
26 June 2013, Zanu PF primary elections
will now take place on Tuesday 25
June 2013,” Khaya Moyo said.
But the primaries were dogged by huge
logistical and other organisational
problems with polling stations not
opening on time and voting materials
arriving late at some
centres.
Voting was postponed in Bindura North and South as well as in
Mbire and
Makoni Central because of the non-arrival of voting
materials.
According to a live update run by the Herald newspaper polling
had not
started by 3pm in Zvimba North where local government minister
Ignatius
Chombo was to be challenged by ex-wife Miriam before she discovered
that her
name was not on the ballot papers.
Elsewhere centres in
Hurungwe East, Zhombe, Zvishavane Runde and Bindura
North had also not
received voting materials by mid-day while polling
officers were not been
deployed in Beitbridge West well into the afternoon.
By the end of the
day Khaya Moyo was conceding that the initial Tuesday
deadline had been
optimistic and said voting would continue into Wednesday.
“It has come to
the notice of the national elections directorate that voting
in the Zanu PF
primaries has gone on very well,” he told reporters.
“In some areas,
voting started late due to logistical challenges; I direct
that voting
continue tomorrow (Wednesday) up to 12pm.”
He insisted that the party
would have finalised its list of candidates late
Wednesday.
Zanu PF's
problems drew wry comments from rival who suggested Zanu PF
actually needed
a postponement of the election date more than they.
Said MDC legal
secretary David Coltart on his Twitter account: “If the
reports of chaos in
ZPF primaries are correct, one wonders how they possibly
will get their
nomination papers in order before Friday.
“The greatest irony is that
seems that both MDC T and MDC ready for
nomination day on Friday whereas
Zanu PF is in chaos! It increasingly
appears as if Zanu PF may need a
postponement of the election date more than
any other party.”
The
MDC’s a pressing for delay of the elections but Zanu PF says the ballot
must
go ahead on July 31 as directed by the Constitutional Court.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Nomalanga Moyo
SW
Radio Africa
26 June 2013
Voting in the MDC primary elections are said
to be going smoothly and
without any logistical problems, according to party
spokesman Nhlanhla Dube.
The primaries started on June 15th, as part of
the two-phase selection
process which was preceded by what the party called
‘the consensus approach’,
whereby candidates discuss and agree to give way
to a stronger one.
Speaking to SW Radio Africa from Vungu in the
Midlands, Dube said the party
was at the tail-end of its internal selection
process and would be in a
position to release a full list from all the
provinces Thursday.
“We haven’t faced any major problems as far as the
process is concerned and
so far, our outcomes testify to the dedication of
our members to having a
free, fair and democratic process and we thank them
for that.
“You will also recall that the majority of our candidates were
selected
using the roundtable method, and we have been conducting primaries
only in
those constituencies where applicants failed to agree.
“We
are now in the final states and we should be able to release the full
national list of candidates who will contest on the party’s ticket probably
tomorrow or the day after, but definitely in time for the nomination court
Friday,” Dube said.
In response to the discord that has characterised
primaries in the MDC-T and
ZANU PF, Dube said his party’s consensus strategy
had paid off and prevented
any infighting.
Meanwhile, the MDC
candidate for Bulilima West, Moses Mzila-Ndlovu, who is
also co-Minister of
Integration, has been accused of threatening to shoot
two firewood poachers
before robbing them of their cash, car keys, mobile
phone and personal
identity documents.
The alleged robbery is said to have occurred at the
minister’s farm located
on the Bulawayo-Plumtree Road in
April.
However, Mzila’s supporters view the allegations as part of a
smear campaign
directed at the outspoken war veteran, with indications that
the firewood
poachers were caught stealing livestock from the
farm.
While it was not possible to get a reaction from Mzila as the case
is before
the courts, MDC spokesman Dube said the party was confident that
he was
innocent.
“As a law-respecting party we do not want to
pre-empt the court’s decision
on the matter but we would like to state that
Mzila is innocent until proven
guilty and we are confident that a competent
court of law will exonerate
him.
“We believe that if there are any
political machinations as we suspect,
these will be exposed through the
court process,” Dube said.
Dube said the allegations do not in any way
affect Mzila’s candidature “as
he has not been found guilty of any criminal
offence”.
http://www.voazimbabwe.com/
Irwin Chifera
26.06.2013
HARARE — Zapu president
Dumiso Dabengwa says his party will field candidates
in most constituencies
as coalition discussions with other political parties
have not been
conclusive.
This is the first time since the 1987 unity agreement was
signed between
Zanu PF and PF Zapu that the party will be fielding
candidates in an
election.
Addressing journalists on election-related
issues, Mr. Dabengwa, said the
on-going unsatisfactory voter registration
exercise and the unity government’s
failure to implement the elections road
map that would have seen some
democratic reforms being implemented ahead of
the polls, will not deter his
party from participating in the
elections.
Dabengwa, who has been nominated as Zapu’s presidential
candidate by the
party’s 14 provinces, said candidates have already been
selected and will
field them in constituencies where the party has strong
support.
He said Zapu will field candidates in more than 80 percent of
the 120
parliamentary constituencies.
The former ZIPRA military
supremo says the elections must deliver a Zapu
government or Zapu as a
strong opposition to the new government.
Dabengwa said Zimbabweans should
not worry about army generals’ political
statements that they will not
salute a president without war credentials
saying the majority of officers
in the country’s security agencies are
professional and will respect the
will of the people.
At the same time, the Movement for Democratic Change
formation of Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Wednesday filed nomination
papers for its
candidates.
MDC-T secretary general and Finance
Minister, Tendai Biti, told VOA Studio 7
from the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission offices that he filed papers for his
party’s presidential
candidate, Mr. Tsvangirai and all parliamentary
candidates.
Officials
from the Welshman Ncube-led MDC said they were going to field
their papers
Wednesday while Zanu PF was still busy selecting candidates.
Advance
nominations allow electoral officials to scrutinise nomination
papers before
actual nominations and make corrections as well as give
political parties
the chance to replace candidates in the event of death.
Nominations for
the 2013 harmonised elections take place on Friday unless
the Constitutional
Court changes the elections dates as requested by Justice
Minister Patrick
Chinamasa.
http://www.news24.com/
2013-06-26 09:35
Cape Town - Zimbabwe's
former finance minister who defected from President
Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF
party has said that the veteran leader is now living
in fear as his
supporters are tired of his rule, according The Zimbabwe
Mirror.
Speaking at a press club meeting organised by the Media
Institute of
Southern Africa (Misa), Dr Simba Makoni who is the leader of
Mavambo Kusile
Dawn said he was fully aware that more than half of the
people in Zanu-PF
were tired of Mugabe.
"I am aware that Mugabe is
now living fear because he knows that no one
still respects him. There are
more people who need change in Zanu-PF than
those outside the party," said
Makoni.
Makoni said he dumped Zanu-PF after he discovered that people
were no longer
promoted on merit. He said only those who showered Mugabe
with praises were
the only ones who were given ministerial or other
influential positions.
"Only those who sing and shower Mugabe with
praises are given influential
positions in government," added
Makoni.
Makoni said his party was closely working with other ‘opposition’
parties in
forming a grand coalition for change. He said the coalition will
not
participate in the forthcoming elections unless the reforms were put in
place.
"We are working towards coming up with a movement for change,"
he added.
Zimbabwe is gearing up for elections which are expected to end
a shaky unity
government formed in 2009 following disputed elections in the
previous year.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co/
26.06.13
by Farai
Mabeza
ZAPU President, Dumiso Dabengwa, has dismissed the threat posed by
security
services chiefs in the Harare-run up to the
elections.
The ZAPU president and former Zanu (PF) politburo member
and cabinet
minister told a media briefing in Harare today that he did not
see the
threat from the commanders materialising.
“I think the issue
of a threat that hangs over the power that the security
sector might have is
no threat at all,” Dabengwa said.
He admitted that they may have been
occasions when the security chiefs had
“played that role and got away with
it”.
The security chiefs have openly declared that they would neither
salute nor
allow an individual without liberation war credentials to assume
the
presidency of the country. This was in apparent reference to MDC leader
Morgan Tsvangirai.
“If they tried it I don’t think they will get away
with it this time. The
people of Zimbabwe are clear about the role that the
security sector must
play.
“It is the people and those that the
people have elected that must lead.
That position has been strengthened by
the provisions in our new
constitution. I don’t see the security sector
violating what is even in the
constitution,” Dabengwa said.
Dabengwa,
who during the liberation struggle was ZAPU’s intelligence
supremo, compared
the behaviour of the country’s military commanders to that
of the Rhodesian
forces’ chiefs.
“During the war we thought that even if we got Ian Smith
to surrender the
commander Peter Walls would never surrender.
“Even
when I together with Josiah Tongogara tried to talk to him at the
Lancaster
House talks, Walls said he did not talk to terrorists. But after
the war we
worked together and he listened to the things we said with
respect,” he
said.
Dabengwa said he did not think that the commanders would risk a
coup because
they were aware that Africa was now united on that issue and
they would not
survive the sanctions from the continent.
Security
sector reform has become one of the sticking points in the current
impasse
over elections. The MDC formations have insisted that the security
chiefs
must publicly declare that they would respect the will of the people
before
elections are held. SADC adopted this position at its recent
extra-ordinary
summit on Zimbabwe.
Dabengwa said his party remained open to the idea of
forming a coalition
with other parties before or after the
elections.
“We are still talking to other parties to this day. That means
we are still
open to do it. We have been mandated by the party to have that
discussion,”
he said.
ZAPU Vice President, Emilia Mukaratirwa,
speaking at the same media briefing
said that her party was aware of the
call by Zimbabweans for an alliance of
parties to remove Zanu (PF) from the
scene.
“We know that people are concerned that if we get into the
election
fragmented that will work to the advantage of a certain party and
to the
detriment of the nation. We are taking these concerns
seriously.
“Negotiations do not happen in a minute. We must have a common
understanding
for us to have a starting point. We are aware of what the
people are calling
us to do,” she said.
http://www.herald.co.zw/
Wednesday, 26 June 2013
00:44
Tendai Mugabe Senior Reporter
The Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission has announced nomination court procedures,
where all aspiring
candidates for National Assembly constituencies are now
required to sign two
copies of the electoral code of conduct before being
accepted. This is in
accordance with the provisions of the new Constitution.
The nomination court
is sitting on Friday to receive names of aspiring
candidates. Nomination
papers for presidential candidates are supposed to
be signed by not less
than 10 nominators who are registered voters in their
respective provinces,
while all aspiring councillors should have police and
council rates
clearances.
Speaking during a consultative meeting with political parties
in Harare
yesterday, Zec commissioner Professor Geoff Feltoe said nomination
forms set
out all the requirements and guidelines for prospective
candidates.
“There is one additional thing you need to look out for the
National
Assembly constituency and that is the law now specifies that you
must
provide two signed copies of the electoral code of conduct that must
accompany your nomination form,” he said.
“The nomination court will
have available the copies of the code of conduct
to satisfy the legal
requirements that exist.”
Prof Feltoe said civil servants who wanted to
stand in local authorities
should get second clearance from permanent
secretaries in their parent
ministries and the concurrence of the Public
Service Commission.
He said application fees for presidential candidates
were US$500, US$10 for
the National Assembly while local authorities’
entrance was for free.
Zec chairperson Justice Rita Makarau said there
were additional requirements
for all aspiring
councillors.
“Councillors need additional requirements,” she
said.
“For you to be nominated as a councillor you must satisfy certain
requirements. Your rates must be paid up in that local
authority.
“You need the police to have cleared you that you have not
committed any
electoral offence.
“If you do not have that police
clearance and that clearance from the local
authority your papers will not
be in order no matter how upright a person
you are and the nomination court
will chuck you out.”
Justice Makarau said there were two phases to
nomination which include the
pre-nomination phase where political parties
file their papers for scrutiny
by Zec before the nomination
day.
Justice Makarau said the pre-nomination procedure came with a number
of
advantages.
“The first advantage is that you can appoint an
additional roving political
agent,” she said.
“This is a person who
can go anywhere and can look at any processes and they
supersede and go
above your ordinary agents.
“You can only get that person if you have
complied with the law. If you have
given us those details, the law calls you
a qualifying party and in the
event that anyone of your nominated candidates
for National Assembly
withdraws or dies before nomination you are allowed to
substitute that
candidate.”
In this regard, if ballot papers had
already been printed, they would be
reprinted with the name of the new
candidate.
Justice Makarau said to qualify for the pre-nomination phase,
political
parties should file three names of national party office bearers
and three
provincial office bearers before submitting papers to Zec. She
said the
names should also be accompanied by specimen
signatures.
Justice Makarau said the deadline for submitting
pre-nomination phase was
4pm today. If candidates do not want to follow the
pre-nomination procedure,
they can submit their papers on the nomination
date, but they should ensure
that they are correct.
Justice Makarau
said more than 200 000 new voters registered during the
first 14 days of the
mandatory 30-day voter registration period that started
on June
10.
“Since the last 14 days, 273 319 new voters have been captured,” she
said.
“This is in addition to 204 000 new voters who have been registered
during
the last exercise. We are approaching half a million since the two
exercises
began.
“We at Zec believe that we have captured the bulk of
those requiring
registration, taking into account the dwindling numbers that
are appearing
at the registration centres and the shortening queues
especially in rural
areas.”
Justice Makarau said 1 534 registration
centres had been established, while
1 418 more centres would be opened
during the remaining period to mop-up the
remaining unregistered
voters.
She said Zec had also started accreditation of observers and a
few
organisations had already been registered.
By Violet Gonda
SW Radio
Africa
26 June 2013
Zimbabwean-born businessman Mutumwa Mawere has won a landmark ruling on dual citizenship, that will have implications for tens of thousands of Zimbabweans in the Diaspora. The ruling also has far reaching implications for the electoral processes that are currently underway in the country.
Mawere, who is a South African by naturalisation, took legal action in the Constitutional Court earlier this month after he was told by Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede he’d have to renounce his South African citizenship before he could apply for identification documents and a passport.
But the court ruled Wednesday that it was unlawful for Mudede to deny Mawere the documents on the grounds that he also had foreign citizenship.
Speaking to SW Radio Africa shortly after the judgement Mawere said the Court ruled that dual citizenship is permissible under the new constitution. “The court declared me a Zimbabwean citizen not withstanding that I am also a South African citizen.”
He said this is a triumph for the thousands of Zimbabweans living abroad, who have been affected by ‘state actors’ who abuse the law for political gain. “The court decision cannot be appealed, unless Mudede goes to SADC,” Mawere joked.
The ruling means dual citizenship is not prohibited to those who are citizens by birth. The constitution sets out different classes of citizenship rights and an Act of parliament may limit citizenship by descent or by registration.
Mudede has in the past defied court orders but Mawere will be visiting the registrar general’s office on Thursday to apply for identity documents so he can participate in the voter registration process.
He said unfortunately this also means that this has left him, and others in the same situation, with little time if he wanted to participate in electoral processes such as the nomination court that sits on Friday. Furthermore Mawere was unable to get identification to allow him to participate fully in the voter registration that is currently underway. “This means that we may have to go to court to be given the same 30 days that is contemplated in the constitution,” Mawere said.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Nomalanga
Moyo
SW Radio Africa
26 June 2013
As the fight for the late
Malawian President Bingu Wa Mutharika’s
million-dollar fortune spills into
that country’s courts, it has emerged
that some of the funds are stashed
away in two Zimbabwean banks.
Mutharika, a close friend of Robert Mugabe,
is blamed by many Malawians for
presiding over a corrupt system that drove
the impoverished country to its
knees. He died of a heart attack in 2012,
having ruled the country from
2004.
The bond with Zimbabwe was also
strengthened by his first marriage to the
late Ethel, who was
Zimbabwean.
Several press reports in Malawi have conservatively estimated
the late
president’s estate at $151 million, stashed away in local and
foreign banks.
Malawi’s The Nation newspaper reports that two banks in
Zimbabwe – Standard
Chartered and Barclays – are keeping tens of thousands
of dollars on behalf
of the president, with Stanchart said to be holding
$741,000.
Other varying but substantial sums of money are reportedly held
in banks in
Taiwan, South Africa, and the United States.
Zimbabwe’s
NewsDay newspaper which picked up the story, reported that the
late
Mutharika’s fortune seemed to grow quite rapidly during his time as
Malawian
leader, after going into government with just $35,000.
Reports also
indicate that other properties listed in Mutharika’s Will
include three
farms, agricultural machinery and equipment, numerous
vehicles, five houses
and four vacant plots.
The claims about Mutharika’s wealth were revealed
as part of a court battle
which starts June 26th, in which the Malawian
government is trying to recoup
billions of Kwacha in unpaid estate
duty.
The Malawian government has since frozen all but one bank account
in that
country, a move that is being challenged by the late Mutharika’s
family.
http://www.presstv.ir/
Wed Jun 26, 2013
7:39AM GMT
The IRCS has opened clinics in at least 22 NAM member
states, including
Zimbabwe, Sudan, Ghana, the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Afghanistan,
Syria, Lebanon and Kenya.
The secretary general of
Iran’s Red Crescent Society (IRCS) says the
organization plans to expand its
activities and health services in Zimbabwe,
Press TV reports.
“I
am happy that our clinic in Zimbabwe [has been] able to find a position
in
the heart of the country. We hope to expand our clinics and to provide
specialist services, and we will be able to achieve that through
cooperation,” Mohammad Abbasi said during a ceremony marking the
commissioning of new health equipment and projects in Zimbabwe’s capital,
Harare.
The IRCS clinic, located in Harare, provides numerous medical
services for
the people in the African country.
Felix Muchemwa, an
advisor to Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, hailed
cooperation between Iran
and Zimbabwe in order to improve healthcare.
“This is the first type of
cooperation between Non-Aligned [Movement] (NAM)
states on health services.
We never had any country trying to set up clinics
like now we’ve had with
Iran,” Muchemwa told Press TV.
The IRCS has opened clinics in at least 22
NAM member states, including
Zimbabwe, Sudan, Ghana, the Democratic Republic
of Congo, Afghanistan,
Syria, Lebanon and Kenya.
Iran’s Ambassador to
Zimbabwe Mohammad Aminnejad also expressed optimism at
the level of
cooperation between the two countries will rise, including in
the health
sector.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/
26/06/2013 00:00:00
by
NewZiana
THE Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC), a wholly owned
subsidiary of Zesa
Holdings, has said it is in talks with investors to fund
the construction of
the Gairezi Mini Hydro-electric power
station.
The project, to be located on the Gairezi River in Nyanga in
Manicaland
Province, will involve the construction of a power station with a
projected
capacity of 30 megawatts (MW).
It envisages harnessing the
hydro-power potential of the river by
constructing a diversified dam across
Gairezi River. A feasibility study has
been concluded and it is projected
that about US$90 million will be required
to complete the
project.
ZPC chairman Victor Gapare told New Ziana Tuesday: "Funding for
the project
has not yet been secured, but we are engaging potential
investors. We will
advise when we reach financial closure."
Sources
at the power company say Chinese and Indian firms are being targeted
to fund
the project.
Once funding is secured, the project is expected to take
approximately 36
months to complete the engineering phase, which involves
generation
specifications, tendering for engineering, procurement and
construction
contractor and conducting an Environmental Impact Assessment
(EIA).
Gapare said the EIA for the project was nearing
conclusion.
"The EIA is being finalised and the next stage is to carry
out a
geo-technical survey of the area," he said.
ZPC has appointed
Ascon Africa Environmental Consultants to conduct the EIA.
Gapare said
work at the project site was expected to start in 2014.
The country is
experiencing huge power deficits which have impacted
negatively on
industrial performance with the country generating an average
of about 1,200
MW out of a national requirement of around 2,200 MW.
Violet Gonda’s guest is Zanu PF politburo member Jonathan Moyo, with his party position on the ongoing elections dispute. Moyo explains why Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa filed an application that the MDCs claim is designed to fail in court; Why does Moyo say President Robert Mugabe will not send electoral amendments to parliament as expected by the MDC formations? Why does Zanu PF insist there is enough time to implement electoral process between now and the July 31stelection date?
Broadcast: 25 June
2013
Listen here
Violet Gonda: Due to the time critical nature of the Hot Seat interview, we are broadcasting it on Tuesday, instead of its usual Thursday slot. On Wednesday the Constitutional Court will hear the dispute over the election date and my guest is Zanu PF politburo member Jonathan Moyo, with his party position on the ongoing elections dispute. I first asked Professor Moyo for an update.
Jonathan Moyo: The reports that there’s supposed to be a consensus application by the three parties mainly Zanu PF and the MDC formations in the inclusive government is the figment of the imagination of someone who is not creative at all because there is no such thing. The fact of the matter is that an application was filed by the Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs Cde Patrick Chinamasa on last Tuesday and the next day he followed on that application by lodging an application for the matter to be heard on an urgent basis. There was a hearing on the urgency and a determination was made that all the parties cited in the case including the applicant should file their papers on Monday and that the case has been set down for a hearing or arguments on Wednesday.
Of course during the hearing on the urgency, the Prime Minister through his lawyers sought to introduce a letter claiming that the parties in the inclusive government were still seized with the matter and that the matter should be stood down or even withdrawn until the parties agree on a so called consensus application – but they have already drafted an application, the MDC formation, which they hope would replace Minister Chinamasa’s application and it’s not a consensus application. It is a draft application by the two MDC formations and not with the participation of anyone in Zanu PF and certainly not with the participation of Minister Chinamasa but they would like Minister Chinamasa to sign that application.
Violet: Professor Moyo, the MDC formations said that the Principals, including president Mugabe, met last Wednesday and decided that the Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, the Finance Minister Tendai Biti and the MDC President Welshman Ncube should sit down and work out a document that Chinamasa will take to the Constitutional Court and that the one that he sent was not the document that represented the views of all the political parties and that President Mugabe actually agreed to this. So are you saying that they lied?
Moyo: Yes I’m saying that they lied, and they are not lying for the first time they have lied many times before, the bottom line is that they are not the presidents’ spokesperson, they do not speak for the president either in his capacity as the head of state and government and commander in chief of the Zimbabwe Defence forces or in his capacity as President and First secretary of Zanu PF.
The fact of the matter is yes there was a meeting on Wednesday, the MDC formations brought a lot of people who are not even members of the government – who are lawyers – and just like they did in SADC, they tried to turn that meeting into a court, making all sorts of arguments, pretending these were legal arguments and so forth. And in the end Welshman Ncube came up with a proposal that he wanted to engage Minister Chinamasa on the narrow issue of the extension of the date and was joined by Tendai Biti in that regard and indeed they were asked to discuss so that Minister Chinamasa would get an idea of what it is that they were proposing.
It was at that meeting where Minister Chinamasa said to them feel free to make your proposal. They made the proposal in the form of an application or an alternative application alone. It was delivered to Minister Chinamasa, they did not sit with him, they sat heaven knows with who, and presented him with a draft application which was treating Chinamasa as the applicant and them as the respondents and therefore create a situation where they were going to respond to their own application which is an unacceptable arrangement. And it was not drafted in such a way as to say everyone was now an applicant and they were going to apply to the constitutional court for an extension as parties in the inclusive government. In fact, it was drafted in such a way as to leave Minister Chinamasa at risk of committing perjury because the application is based on falsehoods.
Fundamentally, it is quite strange and this point needs to be emphasised that the very same MDC formations made by Tsvangirai and Ncube went to Zuma, lobbied SADC and went to the summit on the 15th in Maputo alone with the support of Zanu Ndonga, Dumiso’s Zapu and Simba Makonis’ MKD not with Zanu PF, not as the inclusive government and they attacked Zanu PF.
Violet: But didn’t SADC say to all the political parties in the inclusive government that they should go back and sit down and…(interrupted)
Moyo: No, no, no no. Let me first finish this. This is a very important point, you cannot go to SADC alone and you choose the political parties and in this case they chose Mavambo, Dumiso’s Zapu and Zanu Ndonga and they go there and the presentations they made are then attached to a report to the facilitator. And they attack Zanu PF inside the summit, they attack the court judgement and they come out celebrating claiming that they have humiliated the President in the summit. Claiming that Chinamasa has given the President the wrong advice and when we are here they want to go to the Constitutional Court as the inclusive government and speak with one voice, that is totally unacceptable.
And you are asking did SADC not say that the parties should go together? No they said the government of Zimbabwe, the relevant point in the Communiqué says the government should do so, and in the deliberation it was agreed that it’s the Minister of Justice who was going to approach the court. Tendai Biti boasted on Facebook and other social media that Minister Chinamasa has been directed to do so, the same with Welshman Ncube. During the deliberation, it was agreed that because he is the minister who administers the electoral law, he should go on behalf of the government to seek an extension and that is exactly what he has done!
Violet: Well the MDC formations say in last week’s cabinet meeting, it was agreed the parties would speak with one voice and it was also agreed that the Principals would meet and map out an election road map.
Moyo: That is what they are saying. You can believe them at your own peril. The record in terms of the law and the fact is that there is a Constitutional Court judgement made on the 31st of May that elections should be held by the 31st of July and the President has complied with that judgement. These are facts. They want to turn everything into a political matter. You cannot have the rule of law if everything is supposed to be political, if everything is supposed to be negotiated. The reason the Constitutional Court came up with that judgement is that it found that elections should have been held in Zimbabwe on the 29th of June, and that the time for calling for those elections had run out and that therefore there was no rule of law in Zimbabwe as regards the electoral process, and that in order to restore the rule of law in connection with the electoral process, the President had to issue a proclamation fixing a date for the election to be held not later than July 31st and the President has done so. We cannot have a situation where people now resort to turning government institutions into their instruments for political parties.
Violet: Professor Moyo, how do you respond to accusations by the MDCs’ who say that Zanu PF is trying to make the Constitutional Court throw out the application and that Chinamasa has told the court that; Mugabe is happy with the July 31st court order but that it’s Tsvangirai and Ncube who want this and it was also a directive by SADC? It’s also said Zanu PF is turning the Constitutional Court into their own instrument and it is clear that the court is acting in concert with Zanu PF hardliners?
Moyo: The last point, for them to say the Constitutional Court is acting in concert with so-called Zanu PF hardliners is in contempt of court but to say that the application by Chinamasa is wrong because it confirms or affirms the fact that the President is happy with the court judgement and that it is being filed at the instigation of the MDC formations and that this is the consequence of directions or instructions from SADC, that is true. Chinamasa is signing an application, an affidavit under oath. He can’t lie. If he lies he is committing perjury. It is common cause in the public domain that the President has said he is happy with the judgement. Why should we lie about that? In order to assist the MDC formations? It is also true that he has complied with it. Why would the President comply with something he is not happy with, something he doesn’t respect? It is also a fact that the MDC lobbied Zuma and lobbied SADC and that Welshman Ncube went there and behaved as if the SADC summit was a court, making legal arguments before people who are neither judges nor lawyers and thinking that he has dazzled them with legalities and so forth. All these things are a fact.
No one has indicated that the affidavit filed by Cde Chinamasa contains falsehoods. They are unhappy about those truths because they feel exposed that these truths have now been placed before a competent authority which has the capacity to tell lies from truth and to do so by applying the law.
Violet: They also say in Chinamasas affidavit in court he deliberately does not point out the constitutional problems with having elections on July 31st.
Moyo: Why should he? This is a ridiculous view. He cannot point to things which he is not aware of because the President has complied with the court and his compliance is in accordance with the constitution, in accordance with the judgement of the court and in accordance with the electoral law. Now, Violet, if they make all these allegations even the one you have just referred to right now, they will be managed by the facts or through the facts that they are the respondents in this case, they are stating as they are not bystanders who are hopeless and helpless and yet they are direct participants. They have ample opportunity to make their own case, it is wrong for them to expect Chinamasa to make the case for them as if they are not party to that case.
Violet: But can you tell us the Zanu PF response to this issue of not having enough time between now and 31st July to ensure that all the electoral processes are completed. How are you going to manage that?
Moyo: That is not legally correct. The only people who have the authority to interpret the law, whether as regards the time or anything else which is a matter of law is the court, it is not you or any other journalist, it is not Welshman, it’s not Chinamasa, it’s not Tsvangirai, it’s the courts. There is no legal ruling which says there is no time.
Violet: The MDC formations are saying that the law says there has to be a 30 day voter registration and inspection and that you can only have a voters roll once you have done that. They also say you need 30 days between nomination court and elections and that it is not possible right now to lawfully do these things before 31st July.
Moyo: No they are talking nonsense! I think we have a problem, you are not listening to me because I’m answering exactly to that. The court judgement, the ruling of the 31st May by the Constitutional Court took those things into account.But the more important issue for you please to consider, the law is not what Coltart says it is or what Welshman Ncube says it is or what Tendai Biti says it is or Magaisa or Chris Mhike or the MDC formations. The law cannot be what they claim. The law is what the court says. Only the court can interpret the law. There has been no ruling to the effect that there is a problem with regards to any of the things that you are alleging.
When judgement of the Constitutional Court came out on the 31st of May, Tsvangirai said that the court had overstepped itself and had no mandate to do so. When the President complied with that judgement by issuing a proclamation fixing the 31st of July as the date for the election, Tsvangirai again issued a statement challenging that date and putting his own date and basically saying these are political matters and not to be decided on legal grounds. He made the same claim before the SADC summit. This is where the problem is!
These people are failing to realise and appreciate a simple issue Violet, namely that at midnight on the 29th of June, which is next week Saturday, there will be no one who was elected in 2008 will still have the right to exercise anything, every term of office elected in 2008 expires at that time. This is what the court said and the court said elections, taking into account that time frame which you are saying leads to 44 days should have been called at least some time in March or April and because they were not, Zimbabwe does not have the rule of law.
Violet: Why was it not called then?
Moyo: It was not called then because the new constitution had not been completed. It was assented to on the 22nd of May and we know why people were playing games with it because it was a ploy if not a plot to ensure that we create a jungle situation after the 29th. And it is very very fortunate that the spirits of Mbuya Nehanda and Lobengula intervened, thanks to the court application by that individual citizen Jealous Mawarire that we at least have the restoration of the rule of law and legality underway.
Violet: People are saying you sponsored Jealousy Mawarire to actually take this matter to the courts.
Moyo: And now they will say I sponsored you to interview me. I think that this whole idea that everything is okay when they do it, the very same people you know who are sponsored by these foreign governments but when Zimbabweans ask for themselves and challenge these people, it is somebody else who is sponsoring them. I think for a party which claims to respect people, which claims to respect the rule of law to make such squalorous allegations is shameful. It’s as if Jealousy Mawarire did something illegal by going to the courts. He has an organisation that is involved in elections and democracy law. I think this is quite preposterous but it really really shows us that we have people who don’t respect other peoples’ views and who don’t respect their rights in terms of the law.
Violet: But a lot of Zimbabweans say that Zanu PF does not respect other peoples’ views and also….(interrupted)
Moyo: What? Listen you cannot us that as a blanket argument…
Violet: Professor let me finish…
Moyo: No, no, no you cannot get away with that. You must raise it in relation to what we are talking about. We are talking about an allegation that a citizen was sponsored, now you can’t suddenly say those who are making this allegation don’t respect that citizen, there are others who say Zanu Pf does not respect, I think this kind of reasoning is unhelpful… (interrupted)
Violet: So let me say ….
Moyo: You are comparing oranges and apples. You are trying to equalise where equalisation is unwarranted.
Violet: Professor Moyo.
Moyo: Yes?
Violet: Don’t you think your partners in the unity government also have that right to go to the courts and say ‘the time that you have given us is….’(interrupted).
Moyo: Who has stopped them? Instead of going to the courts they are going to Zuma.
Violet: But, you are not allowing me to finish. We cannot do it like this.
Moyo: I thought you had finished.
Violet: They are saying they have a right also to go to the courts and say the time that is left is not enough for all the electoral processes that need to be done.
Moyo: Zanu PF has not said that MDC should not go to court to make their presentations. Nobody. They have a right to go and make those cases, what we are saying is, they do not have a right to go to SADC and make ridiculous arguments pretending to be the best lawyers that God has ever created, making arguments before a forum which is not a legal forum.
Violet: But professor, just going back to the practical issues and I just want to get your views on this as a legislator, is it not correct that in numerous wards, the voter registration process only begins after the nomination court on the 28th of June?
Moyo: That is not true, it is absolutely not true. First of all in Zimbabwe, voter registration is a continuous exercise, you can always at any time of your choice, go to any of the offices around the country and register. In terms of paragraph 6:3 of the sixth schedule of the new constitution, there was supposed to be a particular programme of voter registration intensified to last at least 30 days. Constitutionally and legally, that started on the 23rd of May. In terms of logistics, practically, politically, it might be another thing but there was registration continuing.
Then, we have a tradition here in Zimbabwe that happens every time we have elections before the closure of the voters roll for inspection that we have mobile registration teams around the country in the rural areas to reach people who may have difficulties going to the offices of the registrar general and this has been happening. And normally that happens for no more than between seven to fourteen days. But in terms of the presidential powers that amended the electoral act to align it with the new constitution, section 11 of those amendment regulations allows the registration exercise to continue beyond the nomination until the 9th of July. In fact we would have had really the longest intensive exercise ever done before an election in our country.
Violet: You mentioned the presidential powers act and I think your colleagues are saying the presidential powers act is not to be used if the constitution says what is supposed to be done right now is by an act of parliament and this is not what happened. They say that what the President did was actually illegal. What can you say about that?
Moyo: They are saying that but they are just the same like you and me, they have no particular authority to interpret the law. If they want that to be the actual legal position, they must go to court. They have had ample time to go to court. These regulations were gazetted on the 12th of June and Tsvangirai issued a statement – when they were gazetted – to say he had instructed his lawyers to challenge the publication of the amendment regulations as well as the publication of the proclamation, and he did this before going to Maputo and when he was in Maputo, it was brought to the summit that he had signalled that he would go to the court and then he quickly told the leaders no no no, that was just an intention. If he knew that it is a valid intention driven by well-grounded law, why didn’t he go to court? That constitution gives only the constitutional court as the final authority to do so. So just because some Tom here, Jerry here, Jane there says this is the situation about the presidential powers doesn’t make it the legal position, it’s simply an opinion and like the Americans say, an opinion is like our behind, everyone has one.
Violet: Is it correct that the President illegally used the presidential powers act to fast track the amendment bill?
Moyo: The answer is a resounding no, absolutely not because no court has found anything to that effect, nothing of that sort. What is correct is that there are some people like Tsvangirai, Ncube, Coltart, Magaisa who keep ‘gaisaring’ that point. They keep making that allegation. The allegation can’t be true simply because they are making it. If they believed in that allegation, they should have gone to the court, that is why we have a court, but they have just gone to newspapers and summits which are run by people who are neither judges nor lawyers.
Violet: Is that amendment bill ever going to go through parliament?
Moyo: Why? The President has the legal authority to do what he did and the current constitution allows it. The new constitution with the interpretation is open, we cannot agree with what these colleagues of ours have said. That section which they have referred to is not yet operational. It will be operational only on the effective date of the new constitution. The bulk of the new constitution is not yet operational. It will be operational when the next President is sworn in. So you get guys jumping all over the place. They even alleged that the President should have consulted or sought the approval of the cabinet before gazetting both the Presidential Powers Temporal Measures amending the electoral act and the proclamation for the election date when in fact the constitution 31H, that they have been citing, actually allows the President to exercise powers directly, and there are three clauses in that section which unambiguously allow him to do that. But listen, I’m prepared to say if the President was wrong in his interpretation and application of the law, the only forum to prove or establish that is the court of law.
Violet: But what they also say is Zanu PF would have tied them up in all these legal cases when they should be campaigning.
Moyo: These are falsehoods, and everyone knows them to be such, they are coming from the same people who have been boasting that they were ready and Zanu PF is not ready for elections. The court right now if you look at the role of the constitutional court in terms of the cases that will be heard on Wednesday, they are all filed by the MDC not Zanu PF.
Violet: Well, many believe what is happening right now is a ploy by Zanu PF to spread out the processes until it is too late to even take the amendment bill to parliament.
Moyo: The President is not taking any amendment bill to parliament, he is not. He has already gazetted it. It’s law. Those regulations are law as we speak right now, so please understand this, he is not going to parliament. The MDC formation and the likes of Jameson Timba were boasting in the media saying that we are going to deal with Zanu PF in parliament by holding the passage of the Bill so that we buy time and frustrate the Presidents’ capacity or ability to comply with the court order. Now they went public and in typical fashion, they were celebrating. They like talking too much in bars and then being quoted and reported in the media and this has been useful there in Maputo where they celebrated that in their view they had humiliated the President, they had won, they had performed wonders and so forth, only to realise that no, you need to go to court and the authority to do that is Chinamasa – but you had already thrown mud all over the place. I just think that it would be far much better if I could give free advice to our friends and colleagues in the MDC formations. Stop behaving like children in the media! Stop using the media as a playground for childish games!
Violet: I guess a lot of Zimbabweans are actually feeling that all the political parties in this inclusive government are using the general public, and it’s like monkey games that we are seeing – everyday there’s something weird that is happening making people worry that this is just going to lead to another GNU.
Moyo: First of all I don’t agree with you that everybody is doing that when a constitutional court makes a judgement, that’s not monkey games in the media, when the head of state complies with that judgement that is not monkey games. The bottom line is that an election is held not in terms of political whims of the parties in the government of the day, an election is of the interest to all Zimbabweans.
I think there have been some quite awkward developments and moments in the last four years which have shown us that what you call a GNU for me it never has been a GNU, this has been an inter-party government or a GPA government, it’s not good for the country. This has not been good for the country in terms of the policies. And worse, because some elements in it have used the GPA as a statement of some surrender of our sovereignty to either South Africa or Zuma as the facilitator or SADC. And even in violation of that very same document because it recognises that Zimbabweans have the sole prerogative of running their own affairs. So well to the extent that all political parties somehow have to express themselves through the media, perhaps you have a point, but the way the media has been used by the various parties is not the same. We are not in the same basket.
Violet: Well, the MDC formations are actually saying media reforms are one of the areas that need to be sorted out before the elections.
Moyo: Any political party which tells you that they must be reforms before they go for an election especially two weeks or so before an election or less now when the nomination court sits on the 28thof this month which is exactly a week from today, if someone tells you a week before the election process is to start in earnest, you must have reforms, then there’s something fundamentally wrong about that person. Parties contest elections in order to win and bring reforms. Parties don’t say let’s have reforms before we contest, that is ridiculous. I think this is a sickness. You are the one who should bring reforms, anything that has not been agreed to cannot be a reform. We agreed to the new constitution – it is the most far reaching fundamental reform that you can ever get and it catches everything including the media and anything else in our laws and our practice which is inconsistent with the provisions of the new constitution as regards the media is invalid and the courts are there to confirm the invalidity. So when you hear people who have just adopted a new constitution which introduces reforms failing to recognise that fact and still speaking as if that fact has not occurred, then you know there is something fundamental that they don’t have.
Violet: Well the media is another issue that needs a whole debate and I’m running out of time but what happens when you have service chiefs who publicly show their allegiance to a particular party, do you think that is fair?
Moyo: Well, they don’t show allegiance to a particular party, that is an unfair allegation. They have shown allegiance to the liberation struggle and the gains of that struggle because they participated in it and they know that we have fallen daughters and sons of the revolution who paid the ultimate sacrifice through their lives to bring us this freedom and democracy that we enjoy today, all of us including the MDC formations. It so happens that there is a historical connection between that fact and Zanu PF because it is Zanu PF which fought the liberation war. Or putting it differently, the liberation war was fought under Zanu PF as represented by Zanla and Zipra respectively.
Now if certain statements have been made and so forth, I’ve seen some reports suggesting – it’s even in the facilitators’ report to the last summit of SADC in Maputo on the 15th of June – that these people should make statements disassociating themselves from what they said in the past in light of the new constitution, that is barbaric. There’s no law which is retroactive. You don’t come up with a law today to say ‘you said that statement in 2002’; it’s nonsensical and you know, we are not going to be forced to do nonsensical things just because some people have a problem.
Tsvangirai said ‘Mugabe go out peacefully or else we will remove you violently’, has he ever retracted that statement? If he is willing to retract that statement, let him show by example. We heard him, he said it at Rufaro Stadium, he has never retracted. Now he wants to tell us Nyikayaramba retract this, Chedondo this one, and this one because we now have section 208 in the new constitution. There are some lawyers who were trying to come up with this argument that there’s a new constitution, some of the provisions have become operational, in the light of those provisions, Jonathan Moyo, if you called me a dog yesterday, that was hate speech, retract that in terms of the new constitution, that’s foolish. That’s really barbaric. There’s no constitution which operates like that.
What is happening right now is the confirmation of a very simple fact that on the 29th of June, this government of the GPA and so forth will come to an end, that is a fact so it is natural for parties which are running primary elections, which are now putting their manifestos to the public to be trembling, which is why we need a referee who is not one of the parties and who is not an external body, who is not Zuma, who is not SADC, who is not the AU. The referee is our own court, if you think the referee has no legal mandate to officiate then you have a problem, don’t play the game.
Violet: It’s said that even after the dissolution of power in parliament, there are ninety days where the President can actually call an election. The President is allowed ninety days?
Moyo: You know Violet, can you hold on there. This is where my compatriots have a problem, you continue to trust your colleagues over your court. The court has rejected that argument. The court has spoken that’s false. As we speak right now elections are on the 31st because that’s what the court said and the President has complied and issued a proclamation in accordance with the judgement of the court. But of course you and I know there is a pending application seeking an extension of that date but that has not been granted or rejected.
Violet: On the issue of political parties playing games can you tell us, why Zanu PF ministers walked out of a crucial cabinet meeting that was going to discuss the election road map?
Moyo: First of all I think it’s reckless of them to talk about cabinet issues because cabinet deliberations are protected and they know this and they have taken an oath to that effect but it is not correct to say that the particular issue was on the agenda as the main issue. Secondly, the allegation that Zanu PF ministers walked out is false because the fact is the cabinet is coming to an end and elections are upon us. We in Zanu PF had a very important national election directorate meeting and critical members of the election directorate include the same cabinet ministers we are talking about such as Chinamasa and others. In fact I don’t think Chinamasa even managed to go to that cabinet meeting because he had serious business elsewhere and had to excuse himself.
Violet: Finance Minister Tendai Biti actually says that there’s a chaos faction in Zanu PF and he mentioned Patrick Chinamasa and of course other people say you are a part of this chaos faction that is bend on causing confusion. Some people imply that the President is not really in control.
Moyo: It’s flattering to note that Tendai Biti has nothing to say about the MDC whose leadership he is seeking from Tsvangirai and has everything to say about us and is following our party. That shows we are the only relevant party to talk about and his view that the so called chaos faction and so forth is typical of his delinquency. He is known for coming up with such hyperbolic descriptions of everything under the sun and there’s no need to take him serious on that. But he is a member of the inclusive government and if within the inclusive government, he’s being kept busy and sees that as chaos in the sense that he is unable to implement the instructions he got from his sponsors to grab power from within.
Violet: And a final word Professor Moyo?
Moyo: I think that we should as Zimbabweans be proud of our country, be proud of our constitution, of our institutions and of our laws and of our culture. We must be our own liberators, shape our own destiny. This business of people who want to run our country, becoming cry-babies, crossing the Limpopo thinking that there’s some kind of a big brother who should poke his nose into our affairs must come to an end. We will never ever reach a time when we will agree on everything, that is the nature of the human spirit. We were created with differences but there are many many fundamental things that tie us together. Let us focus on those things when it comes to such issues as determining our own national affairs and running them.
Violet: Thank you very much Professor Jonathan Moyo for talking to us on the programme Hot Seat.
Moyo: You are welcome.
Violet: Hot Seat is back in its usual Thursday slot next week.