Human Rights Watch sounds alarm over Zimbabwe security chiefs

http://www.timeslive.co.za/

Sapa-AFP | 05 June, 2013 08:11

Human Rights Watch urged Zimbabwe's power-sharing government to discipline
security chiefs who have declared their allegiance to veteran leader Robert
Mugabe ahead of this summer's elections.

"Zimbabwe's unity government is going to have to rein in the security forces
and keep them out of politics if the elections are going to have any
meaning," said Tiseke Kasambala, HRW's advocacy director for Africa.

With security forces "threatening and attacking Mugabe's perceived
opponents, Zimbabweans have little faith in the upcoming elections," he
added.

Zimbabwe is to hold elections in the coming months to end a shaky coalition
between Mugabe and his longtime rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

The exact date is yet to be fixed but the country's highest court last week
ruled that Mugabe must call elections by July 31.

The heads of Zimbabwe's security forces including the army, the police and
prison services have made no secret of their allegiance to Mugabe's party,
labelling Tsvangirai a stooge of the West.

In a 44-page report, the New York-based rights group accused the army of
having "deployed soldiers across the country, intimidating, beating and
abusing" Tsvangirai's supporters or those people critical of Mugabe's rule.

Early last month Zimbabwe defence forces commander Constantine Chiwenga
vowed not meet Tsvangirai to discuss security sector reforms.

"We have no time to meet sellouts. Clearly Tsvangirai is a psychiatric
patient who needs a competent psychiatrist," Chiwenga said.

Police commissioner general Augustine Chihuri also said he would not
entertain any attempts to reform the country's security sector.

Zimbabwe security agents were implicated in widespread abuses including
killings, beatings and torture during the violent and disputed 2008
presidential election run-off.

"The leadership of the military, police, and internal security agency, the
Central Intelligence Organization, has remained unchanged and openly
supportive of Mugabe," said the watchdog.

In its report,"The Elephant in the Room: Reforming the Security Sector Ahead
of Zimbabwe's Elections" the HRW said Zimbabwean soldiers had a legal
obligation to behave professionally and refrain from political activities.

"Zimbabwe's laws and constitution require neutrality and impartiality from
the security forces but the security forces have shown no sign of meeting
their obligations," Kasambala said.

"The government needs to send a clear message by disciplining and
prosecuting security force personnel and soldiers who violate the law for
political reasons."

Kasambala urged regional leaders from the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) meeting in Maputo on Sunday to assess Zimbabwe's election
readiness, to put reform of the security sector on their agenda.

"SADC should make improving the behaviour of the security forces a key
pillar of the Zimbabwe roadmap to credible, free, and fair elections,"
Kasambala said.

"The coming elections are an important step in ending the country's
longstanding human rights crisis."

It was the SADC that brokered the power-sharing government reached after the
bloody 2008 elections, and the bloc remains the guarantor of that political
uneasy deal.

Parties join hands to fight for reforms before polls

http://www.swradioafrica.com/

By Tichaona Sibanda
SW Radio Africa
5 June 2013

Five political parties have decided to come together on a common platform,
to ensure political and electoral reforms are implemented before the next
harmonized elections.

This united pact is seen by analysts as the first step towards a ‘grand
coalition’ that may be formed to fight Robert Mugabe and his ZANU PF party
in elections that the Constitutional Court ruled should be held before July
31st this year.

Leaders of the MDC-T, MDC-N, Mavambo Kusile Dawn, ZAPU and ZANU Ndonga came
up with what they called their ‘commitment and readiness to participate in a
credible free and fair election’ only after the necessary reforms.

An analyst pointed out that this pre-election agreement, if it translates
into an electoral grand coalition, would see the two MDC parties and its
affiliate partners provide a formidable challenge to ZANU PF ‘s 33 years in
power.

The deal will also see Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Welshman Ncube
speak with one voice in Maputo on Sunday, during the SADC summit on
Zimbabwe.

The ‘agreement,’ reached after more than five hours of talks at the Crowne
Plaza hotel in Harare cast doubt on the practicalities of holding elections
at the end of next month.

It was also agreed during the meeting that the real issue is not so much the
date of the election but rather the conditions under which the elections
will be held.

Speaking to journalists after the meeting, Tsvangirai said they resolved to
communicate their position on elections to the SADC meeting this weekend.

He said key reforms that have a bearing on the freeness and fairness of
elections have to be implemented first, before the actual elections, so as
to avoid another disputed poll in the country.

The Premier said in keeping with the new constitution there has to be a
mandatory 30 day voter registration exercise, that is now set to spill into
July because of its late start.

‘Prior to elections, amendments must be effected to laws that have a bearing
on elections, laws such as POSA and AIPPA. There should be reforms to the
state media to allow a divergent of views from other political parties.

‘Members of the security forces should not be office bearers of any
political party and there should be a code of conduct for all armed forces
on how they behave before, during and after elections,’ Tsvangirai said.

Zanu-PF Opponents to Participate in Polls After Zimbabwe Implements Key Political Reforms

http://www.voazimbabwe.com/

Thomas Chiripasi
05.06.2013

HARARE — Leaders of political parties opposing Zanu-PF today said they will
participate in national elections this year only after security and other
key sector reforms are implemented.  This means the parties will push to
delay the election that the Constitutional Court last week said must be held
by July 31st.

The political leadership of Zapu, Mavambo Kusile Dawn, Zanu-Ndonga and the
MDC-T and MDC-N formations met in Harare today to discuss the election
roadmap and possible joint recommendations to the Southern Africa
Development Community, which will hold a special summit on Zimbabwe on June
9th in Maputo, Mozambique.

No Reforms, No Election

Speaking at a news conference after the meeting, Prime Minister and MDC-T
leader Morgan Tsvangirai said the parties agreed to participate in the
election only after outstanding issues of the power-sharing agreement are
implemented.

“The leaders have said their commitment and readiness to participate in a
credible, free, and fair election after the implementation of the necessary
reforms,” Mr. Tsvangirai said, reading from a list of joint resolutions.

Tsvangirai said security and other key sector reforms, including adjustments
to the electoral laws, must be instituted before polls are conducted.

“Prior to the holding of elections,” the Prime Minister said, “amendments
must be affected to the electoral law and other laws that have a bearing on
elections.  Examples of such laws include POSA, IEPA, which impact on free
political activity in terms of freedom of association and movement,
expression, and the media.”

Constitutional Court Blasted for July 31 Date

Noting the upcoming summit in Maputo, Tsvangirai blasted the Constitutional
Court for its decision last week, arguing that the rights of millions of
Zimbabwean voters were violated to safeguard the right of the applicant.

“The leaders expressed reservations about the practicalities of the July
31st deadline set by the court and resolved that they will communicate their
position to SADC,” he said.  “The parties, therefore, look forward to the
extraordinary SADC summit to affirm previous SADC resolutions and agreed
roadmap to elections.  They noted that the court action, ironically,
supposedly informed by the desire to safeguard the right of an individual
applicant, has resulted in the infringement of the rights of millions of
Zimbabweans—in particular, the right of eligible voters to have adequate
time to register to vote and elect a government of their choice, in a free
and fair environment.”

Tsvangirai added that an election date should be fixed according to the law,
and not simply declared by President Robert Mugabe unilaterally. Mr. Mugabe
has indicated that he will comply with the court ruling and declare an
election date earlier than July 31st.  Mr. Tsvangirai, however, questioned
the president’s statements.

“I doubt whether that position is sincere.  If the question of the
respecting the rule of law and court decisions is anything to go by, I’m
sure it’s a dishonest position.  Tell you what:  in 2002, we went to an
election, and I challenged the result of 2002.  Up to now the court has not
even heard the case.  So where is the rule of law respect that he is talking
about?  And I am sure that if he was questioned that if he’s committed to
the rule of law, it must apply in all cases, and not to change the law to
suit yourself.  So we can’t change goalposts when it comes to the law.  The
law cannot be applied selectively.  It has to apply in all cases.”

Other parties also criticized last week’s Constitutional Court ruling that
an election must come before the end of July.  The deputy president of the
Welshman Ncube-led MDC formation, Edwin Mushoriwa, said the court should
rethink its decision and extend the July 31st date, arguing that it already
allowed an extension for by-elections.

“The Supreme Court made a decision to say the by-elections could not be
done,” Mr. Mushoriwa said.  “They should be done within a prescribed time.
But the same president went to the high court seeking an extension and if a
precedent has already been set, I believe it is possible to do the same.”

A Sign of Greater Opposition Unity?

When asked whether the parties would form a grand coalition ahead of
elections, MKD leader Simba Makoni hinted that the parties will cooperate
whenever there is clear, widespread benefit for Zimbabweans.

“We and the organizations that we lead are committed to working together
both among ourselves and with others like-minded in order to improve the
conditions of the life of Zimbabweans,” said Mr. Makoni.  “We have
cooperated on this one matter today because we have judged it important that
we should work together.  When such similar, other matters present
themselves, we will not hesitate to work together again in order to bring
benefits to the people of Zimbabwe.”

Voter Registration Details Remain Unclear

Meanwhile, political party representatives met with the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (ZEC) and expressed concerns that too many Zimbabweans remain
unaware of how the mobile voter registration exercise will be rolled out.

MDC-T’s Secretary for Elections, Seseil Zvidzai, told the meeting that his
party is concerned with ZEC’s voter educators. He also complained that it is
difficult to confirm the voters roll as its current digital format.

“Process is as important…process actually determines the outcome,” said Mr.
Zvidzai.  “Who are these voter educators?  How have they been recruited?
Are they partisan or are they not partisan?  Can we look at a list of those
people and actually inspect and scrutinize and see whether these are
professionals who are engaged in this process.  We want to know them so that
we see whether they are doing their work or not, so that we can evaluate, so
that we can inspect, so that we can supervise them as they do their work in
the 2,000 wards in the country.”

In response, ZEC deputy chairperson Joice Kazembe said the voter educators
her commission deployed countrywide today were drawn from a list of civil
servants submitted to the electoral body by the Public Service Commission.

Mr. Tsvangirai also met personally with ZEC officials to discuss the
commission’s preparedness to conduct the mobile voter registration exercise
and elections thereafter.

ZEC chief Makarau admits voters' roll 'shambles'

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/

04/06/2013 00:00:00
     by Staff Reporter

THE head of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission gave a stark warning to the
nation on Tuesday: The voters’ roll is in a shambles and time is running out
to fix it before elections.

Justice Rita Makarau admitted some registered voters had their names deleted
from the roll as she expressed her “grave concern” about potential election
day chaos.

The Constitutional Court directed last week that general elections must be
held by July 31, and President Robert Mugabe is expected to issue a
proclamation shortly announcing the poll date.

Makarau said Zimbabweans must use the 30-day voter registration exercise
provided by law to inspect the roll and correct any anomalies “rather than
complain later”.

“You have knowledge that the voters’ roll is in shambles, so tell us rather
than complain later so that we give back to that person their right to
vote," she told a news conference in Harare.

"We want everyone to vote, so if you are not on the voters’ roll, come and
let us know. Don’t wait until after the polls to say ‘I was not allowed to
vote’."

She said the 30-day registration exercise set to begin over the weekend was
a “golden opportunity” for Zimbabweans to help produce a credible register
of voters.

“The Commission is concerned that the voters roll may not be in the shape
that it ought to be before the harmonised elections. In particular, the
commission is concerned that people who lawfully registered as voters in a
particular ward may have found their names removed from the roll of that
ward without their knowledge,” she said.

“It’s the basis of this grave concern that ZEC is calling upon each and
every one of the registered voters to inspect the voters roll during the
30-day voter registration exercise and bring to our attention any anomalies
that they may pick up regarding their registration.”

Justice Makarau said treasury had released US$20 million for the
registration exercise, with more staff now recruited by the Registrar
General to reduce delays.

Roadmap will decide polls – Zuma

http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/

Dumisani Sibanda/Everson Mushava 8 hours 33 minutes ago

SOUTH AFRICA President Jacob Zuma is pressing for a clear election roadmap
and agreed timelines for polls in Zimbabwe despite a court ruling compelling
President Robert Mugabe to hold elections by end of next month.

In a telephone interview yesterday, Lindiwe Zulu, international affairs
adviser to Zuma, said Sadc would not allow Zimbabwe to slide back to the
2008 electoral violence.

“With or without the court ruling,  we are going ahead to meet the parties
as the facilitation team ahead of the Sadc summit (to be held in Mozambique
on Sunday), which (decision) was agreed on during the summit held in Addis
Ababa,  (Ethiopia, two weeks ago).  All parties have been invited.

“As the facilitator put it at the summit, we want the comfort of having a
clear roadmap to the elections, with timelines agreed upon by the parties
themselves.  The
ultimate is to have credible elections. We want to avoid the 2008 scenario,”
Zulu said.

Zuma is the facilitator to the Sadc-midwifed coalition government between
Mugabe and the two MDCs led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Welshman
Ncube.

The Constitutional Court last Friday ordered that elections be held by July
31, a verdict that Mugabe and his Zanu PF party immediately embraced, but
which timeframe other partners in the coalition government and observers say
does not give enough leeway to implement outstanding agreed reforms.

Zulu said the regional bloc remained seized with helping Zimbabwe have
legitimate elections. The facilitation team has come to Zimbabwe to meet
negotiators of the political parties in the Global Political Agreement (GPA)
ahead of the special Sadc summit on Zimbabwe at the weekend. Zulu is not
part of the visiting team.

The Sadc meeting, held on the sidelines of the African Union Summit last
month, decided that a special summit should be held by the regional bloc to
tackle issues relating to Zimbabwean polls.

Zanu PF has been pushing for an early poll to end the unity government with
or without reforms, while the two MDCs insist on full implementation of all
the reforms, including security sector realignment.

The facilitation team represented by Zuma’s political adviser Charles
Nkakhula, South African ambassador to Zimbabwe Vusi Mavimbela and his deputy
had a meeting with the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (Jomic)
co-chairs in Harare yesterday.

The MDC-T was represented by Energy and Power Development minister Elton
Mangoma, Zanu PF by Transport minister Nicholas Goche while Regional
Integration minister Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga represented the MDC.

Misihairabwi-Mushonga said after the meeting: “We told them how Jomic is
operating and the challenges it is facing.”

The facilitation team is due to meet the negotiators of the three political
parties separately today. - NewsDay

Mugabe ‘missed chance to redeem himself over Gukurahundi’

http://www.swradioafrica.com/

By Nomalanga Moyo
SW Radio Africa
5 June 2013

President Mugabe has again passed a golden chance to redeem himself over the
massacre of tens of thousands of unarmed civilians by state-sponsored troops
in the southern parts of the country during the 1980s, analysts say.

Asked by South African talk show host Dali Tambo during their much
criticised interview whether he had any regrets about “that saga in
Matebeleland”, Mugabe acknowledged the atrocities, but blamed the soldiers
for not following instructions.

Mugabe responded: “Yes, it was very bad. Well, we don’t want to talk about
that, but it has a story which has not been told in full, how it started and
so on, you know, what was happening. It’s involving, it’s not a story we
should continue.

“But of course when wars do occur, it doesn’t matter the forms of the war,
it hurts.

“What happens on the ground, well, the soldiers, we know what the soldiers
do on the ground, even soldiers where they are under instructions, but there
is always the personal element.

“Yes, and sometimes they go out of their way, you see, to hurt and commit
acts which are outrageous. It happens and you get it happening, so those
things happened,” Mugabe told Tambo during the People of the South
interview.

However, some commentators think Mugabe could have gone further and taken
responsibility for the actions of his troops, as the commander-in-chief of
the country’s defence forces.

Political activist Nhlanhla Dube told SW Radio Africa: “It is good that
Mugabe as president, now and during the Gukurahundi, has acknowledged the
pain caused by the forces under his command.

“It is also important that he has acknowledged that the truth about that
very dark period has not been told. It is however unhelpful that he wishes
that an untold story remains untold.

“If it is true that the Fifth Brigade did not follow instructions, then it
is fair to request that the usual implications of abuse of office on the
part of the soldiers involved be dealt with in a manner befitting such.

“We expect Mugabe to seek the truth not only for the purposes of clearing
his own name and legacy but also to allow healing and nation-building.

“We expect therefore that he will seek to bring closure for those whose
parents and relatives lie in unmarked graves whose deaths have never been
acknowledged. So that those who were wronged can finally say it was not our
fault that our relatives died,” Dube said.

Bulawayo resident Dumisani Nkomo said it will be a travesty of justice if
the country remained silent about the Gukurahundi.

“There has to be a process that allows both the victims and the perpetrators
to tell Zimbabweans what actually happened. There should be a truth and
justice commission with necessary legal powers to investigate what happened
and how we can proceed from there.

“So Mugabe’s remarks show that rather than forget, we must remember and do
something about the Gukurahundi. He should have used this interview
opportunity to redeem himself by apologising to start with,” Nkomo added

The North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade was unleashed in the Midlands and
Matebeleland regions between 1983 and 1987, on the pretext of clamping down
on an armed insurgency by former ZIPRA combatants, the military wing of
ZAPU.

The massacres ended in 1987 after ZAPU leader Joshua Nkomo agreed to
dissolve his political structures and join ZANU PF.

More than 20,000 civilians were murdered, according to the Catholic
Commission for Justice and Peace, in what Mugabe called a moment of madness.

Breaking News: City Council slashes rates by 30%

http://www.herald.co.zw/

Wednesday, 05 June 2013 11:52

The city council has been using water disconnections to enforce payment of
bills but because water delivery is at its lowest it can no longer use that
as a method to force bill settlement.

Michael Chideme, Municipal Reporter
Harare City Council has slashed utility bills by 30 percent from next month
up to December 31 as an incentive to encourage payment of bills.

The city is owed over US$400 million by Government, residents and the
commercial sector for rates, water, refuse collection and other services.

The decision was reached by the full council at its monthly meeting on
Tuesday following failure by council to rein in defaulters who have ignored
final letters of demand and company visits.

The city has also been using water disconnections to enforce payment of
bills but because water delivery is at its lowest the council can no longer
use that as a method to force bill settlement.

Residents have also cited poor service delivery as a reason for not paying
while studies have shown that the high unemployment rate caused by illegal
sanctions have incapacitated many people who can no longer sustain urban
life.

Water woes continue in Harare

http://www.herald.co.zw/

Wednesday, 05 June 2013 00:00

Dry taps in many Harare suburbs have forced residents to go rustic. These
Mabelreign residents take turns to push a wheelbarrow laden with water
containers to their home yesterday

Prosper Dembedza Herald Reporter
THE water situation in Harare has worsened prompting some companies in the
central business district to order their employees to go back home.

Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda said yesterday the Harare City Council requires
US$20 million to upgrade its aging and crumbling water and sewer pipe
infrastructure.

The CBD has gone for almost three days while some residential areas have
gone for weeks without tap water.

Most areas such as Glen View, Glen Norah, Budiriro, Highfield, Kambuzuma,
Avenues, Mabelreign, Bluffhill, Monavale, Avondale and Milton Park have been
forced to resort to unprotected sources for water exposing themselves to
waterborne diseases.

Angry residents have slammed the MDC-T run Harare City Council for failing
to supply water.
A Glen View resident only identified as Ms Tawana said she had resorted to
buying purified water at local shops which is very expensive considering
that she has a big family.

“Imagine we are eight in my family and we all need water to drink everyday
which we are buying in local shops and this situation is an unnecessary
expense being thrown to me by the water woes,” she said.

A Mbare resident Ms Zodwa Magaisa said they have now resorted to Mukuvisi
River for drinking water and laundry.

The situation has become desperate and an outbreak of water borne diseases
is looming.
Harare city spokesperson Mr Leslie Gwindi said the water shortages were a
result of maintenance work in progress. “We are carrying out maintenance
work on the old pumps that are bursting one after another at Morton Jaffray
because of their old age, but we should expect to receive normal water
supply soon after we finish our maintenance work any time soon,” he said.

Mr Gwindi said the water shortages have also been worsened by demand that
has exceeded supply.
“People should know that water demand has exceeded its supply as the
population in the city is always increasing and this increase in demand
overloads our old pumps at Morton Jaffray and as a result the pumps are
overwhelmed that’s why they are bursting from time to time,” he said.

City of Harare director of health Dr Prosper Chonzi said he was worried
about the prevailing water crisis saying they were putting people’s lives at
risk as they ended up fetching water from unprotected sources.

“The prevailing water woes are not even good at all as people end up
drinking water from unprotected sources therefore exposing themselves to
water borne diseases,” he said.

He said under normal circumstances, each person is supposed to have at least
20 litres of water per day for personal use but because of the prevailing
water woes people are being forced to squeeze 20 litres for the whole family
which is not normal.

“To create a health environment a person should use 20 litres per day unlike
the prevailing situation whereby the whole family is using 20 litres for per
day,” he said.

Meanwhile, speaking at a ceremony to commission two fire tenders which were
donated by Mr Peter Lobels to the Harare Fire Brigade, Mayor Masunda said:
“The Harare City Council requires a total of US$20 million. US$14 million is
for pipe replacement covering 115 km through Harare, US$4 million dollars is
for the engineers and US$2 million for pressure reducing valves.

“So far, we have issued out US$2 million for pipe replacement and US$20
million will replace pipes in the whole city of Harare.”

Pipes which were installed in the 1970s had reached the end of their
effective life. The aging water and wastewater infrastructure has resulted
in unreliable water supplies and inadequate wastewater treatment in the
city.

The council spent US$12,5 million in 2009 to upgrade its water pipe
infrastructure and has secured a grant from multilateral institution to
improve water supply in the city.

Aging infrastructure illustrated what some see as the failure by local
authorities to invest in replacing infrastructure or to undertake regular
replacement programmes.

Deferred maintenance has brought untold hardships to city residents who in
some parts were going for several months without water.

Eruptions of water mains or sewer lines have angered residents and brought
into focus the failure by local authorities to maintain infrastructure. The
council is now relying on private setor support to maintain its assets and
to enhance service delivery.

Mr Lobels donated fire tenders worth US$300 000 to enhance the city’s fire
unit, cement manufacturer Lafarge refurbished a city ambulance while Delta
Beverages pledged to refurbish the city’s emergency fleet.

Retail chain store, OK Supermarket, donated US$50 000 to the fire department
for the maintenance of broken trucks.

Extend Parly term: Speaker

http://www.thezimbabwean.co/

05.06.13

by Brenna Matendere

Lovemore Moyo, The Speaker of Parliament, has called on the principals in
the Inclusive Government - President Robert Mugabe, PM Morgan Tsvangirai and
Arthur Mutambara - to facilitate the extension of Parliament when it expires
on June 29.

In an interview with The Zimbabwean on the side-lines of the recent MDC-T
primary elections, Moyo said he was wary of the effects of a political
vacuum as it had become clear elections would be held way after the expiry
of the current Parliament.

“It is dangerous to allow government to run without Parliament as it
provides the necessary checks and balances. The present Parliament ends on
June 29, but government will continue to operate. So no one will provide
checks and balances on how the government will be operating,” he said.

“As the Speaker of Parliament, I am calling upon the principals to consider
amending the laws so that the term of parliament is extended to the date of
elections.” It is legally possible to extend life of parliament for a period
of up to four months after its expiry.

Zanu (PF) is pushing for an early date for polls but the new constitution
provides for a mandatory 30 days of voter registration and another 45 days
of preparing for the elections after that. Last week, the Constitutional
Court ruled that elections must be held by 31 July.

The MDC-T is understood to have taken a decision to lobby for a later date
of the polls to allow for full implementation of requisite reforms in order
to guarantee free and fair elections. According to sources, the party is set
to make its position clear when SADC Heads of State gather for an
extra-ordinary summit on Zimbabwe scheduled for June 9.

Political violence survivors struggle to make ends meet

http://www.thezimbabwean.co/

05.06.13

by Tawanda Majoni

Juliet Mashoko is battling to recover from the political violence that
impacted her family during the disputed 2008 presidential run-off election.

Zanu (PF) militias targeted her family because of her son’s affiliation to
the then opposition MDC as an aspiring candidate for the council election in
March that year. They petrol-bombed her home on a farm owned by the Harare
municipality near Chitungwiza, , breaking her leg in an attack that left her
nine-year-old grandson, a five-year-old granddaughter and their mother dead.

Mashoko’s attackers were never arrested and her son remains in Johannesburg,
South Africa where he fled before the June 2008 presidential run-off that
was marked by widespread violence. He has been unemployed ever since.

“Since that attack, life has been miserable for me and my dependants. I
still need regular medical attention, my salary is too small and my husband
died a year later. I suspect he was traumatised by the violence,” Mashoko
told The Zimbabwean.

Little to show
This August, Mashoko, a municipal cleaner in Harare, the capital, for the
last 25 years, will turn 65 and is supposed to retire from her poorly paying
job. Save for the residential stand she acquired from the city council,
Mashoko will have little to show for her many years of service.

Her retirement package and pension are not even sufficient for her to be
able to build her own house and she will only be allowed to stay in her
current house owned by her employer for six months. After that, she has no
idea where she and her family will go. “I will surely not manage to raise
money to pay a landlord in the suburbs,” she said.

Her financial situation was made worse by a demand from her daughter-in-law’s
family that she compensate them for their daughter’s death with 10 cattle
and money for burial expenses. “I still owe relatives and friends eight
cattle and some money that they helped us with for the burial to take
 place,” she said.

Mashoko looks after two school-going grandchildren from another daughter who
died in 2010 in addition to her youngest son, Clifford, now 25. He says he
cannot further his education or get a job because his identity documents and
school certificates were destroyed by the petrol bomb fire.

Too afraid
“Considering my mother’s age, it is me who should be looking after her, but
that is difficult. I am pained by the fact that our attackers are still free
and some of them are now driving nice cars while we suffer like this. My
brother is too afraid to return home and, being unemployed, he has not been
able to help either,” Clifford said.

Zimbabwe held presidential and parliamentary elections in March 2008, which
saw MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, beat the ruling Zanu (PF) leader,
President Robert Mugabe, by a narrow margin. Tsvangirai failed to gain
enough votes to constitute an outright majority, leading to a second round
of voting in June of the same year.

The months leading up to the run-off were characterised by widespread
political violence that resulted in 154 deaths, according to the
Harare-based Counselling Services Unit that provides post-trauma assistance
to victims. Thousands more people being displaced and maimed and Tsvangirai
eventually withdrew from the poll, citing the violence directed at his
supporters, leaving Mugabe as the sole candidate. Although Mashoko and her
son know their attackers and regularly see them, they are afraid to claim
compensation from them.

Help for victims
Dzimbahwe Chimbga of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights says his
organisation is ready to help victims of political violence claim
compensation from their attackers, but that the majority of victims remained
too afraid to launch legal processes while some lacked knowledge of how to
do so. “There is need for them to be given assurance and educated on how to
approach the courts,” he said.

Thabani Nyoni, spokesperson for the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, an
umbrella body for 37 local civil society organisations, said thousands of
people affected by the political violence are still facing “a multiplicity
of challenges to adjust socio-economically”.

“The violence targeted mostly socially and economically active people who
were breadwinners. They were disabled or killed and some had their income
generating projects, property and livestock destroyed,” he said.

Nyoni added that there are no humanitarian interventions targeted
specifically at helping victims of political violence to recover.

Following the 2008 run-off, the three main political parties—Zanu (PF) and
the two MDC formations—signed an agreement coordinated by the Southern
African Development Community that led to the formation of a coalition
government the following year.

The new government set up the Organ on National Healing, Reconciliation and
Integration (ONHRI) which was co-chaired by representatives of the three
political parties and mandated with establishing mechanisms for national
healing and unity.

Healing in limbo
However, according to Nyoni, the ONHRI “is virtually in limbo and has not
done anything to help political violence victims recover”.

He accused politicians of using the police to arrest ONHRI leaders who have
tried to ensure redress for violence victims.

Moses Mzila-Ndlovu, the joint National Healing and Reconciliation minister
was in April 2011 arrested and taken to court for addressing people in rural
Lupane on the 1980s Gukurahundi massacres carried out by the army, police
and national intelligence.

The crackdown resulted in about 20,000 deaths in south-western Zimbabwe,
according to the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace.

The government then claimed it was seeking to suppress a small group of
dissidents. Mzila-Ndlovu was, however, subsequently acquitted by a
magistrates’ court in Bulawayo. Nyoni added that it was difficult for poor
victims to claim compensation from their attackers.

“Powerful politicians used poor youths as militias and those that were
ultimately responsible have since become more influential through promotions
in the army, police and other places, or have gained materially from the
violence.”

“The cost of seeking compensation becomes high for the vulnerable victims as
they are dealing with powerful people who can still determine interventions
to help the victims, for instance in food aid schemes and other livelihood
sustaining activities,” said Nyoni.

Short sleeve torture
During the 2008 violence, Solomon Bhowa, 50, from rural Mutoko, about 140km
northeast of Harare, had his house burnt down by Zanu (PF) militias who also
took his five cattle and three goats and slaughtered them at one of many
bases set up to punish political opponents. “It was painful to see my
attackers feed on my livestock while they tortured me,” said Bhowa who
endured two weeks of torture during which his ribs were fractured and his
arm was severed at the elbow.

The militias, he said, used what they termed the “short sleeve” method of
torturing their political opponents that resulted in the arm being cut off
at the elbow and has drastically reduced his capacity to work his plot of
land.

“I no longer have any cattle to use as draught power and am now depending on
neighbours during the farming season. That has reduced my family to beggars
for food,” he said. His younger brother, who was also an MDC activist, lost
his sight when the torturers sprayed a chemical in his eyes and now survives
as a beggar at Mutoko Centre.

Zim owes diplomats US$6,9m

http://www.herald.co.zw/

Wednesday, 05 June 2013 00:00

Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter

GOVERNMENT owes diplomats abroad about US$6,9 million in salaries, rent
payments and other costs and has also failed to pay school fees for children
of these officers a situation that has resulted in them

paying from their own resources, an official said yesterday.

Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Joe Bimha said his ministry owed
diplomats US$3,7 million while other ministries owed their officers abroad
US$3,2 million resulting in cumulative arrears of US$6,9 million.

Mr Bimha said this while giving oral evidence before a parliamentary
portfolio committee on Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and
International Trade on the first quarter budget performance.

He said diplomats were owed about US$1,7 million in salaries while US$379
000 was outstanding on school fees.

Mr Bimha said during difficult times from 2007, they had encouraged their
diplomats to enrol their children at local schools back home as that was not
only cheaper but would not create a situation where they become strangers
upon their return.

“After dollarisation we continued that practice because we could not get
funds and we could not pay the fees on time,” said Mr Bimha.

“What is now happening is that the officers are now paying school fees for
their children from their salaries something which is not right, we owe a
lot of money in fees.”

The total budget allocation for the ministry for 2013 was US$63,2 million
which constituted nine percent more than last year’s budget, he said.

Of that amount, US$7,6 million was for Head office while US$55,5 million was
for diplomatic missions.
At the end of the first quarter of March 31 2013, Treasury released to Head
office US$687 000 against projected releases of US$1,8 million while
diplomatic missions totalled US$8,5 million against an expected support of
US$12,8 million.

“The huge shortfall affected the procurement of critical goods and services
for the smooth running of the Ministry. Worse still, the Ministry is saddled
with an accumulated domestic debt amounting to US$959 000 which include
outstanding school fees of US$379 000 for foreign service officers’ children
attending school in Zimbabwe carried over from last year,” he said.

Treasury, he said, provided the Ministry with two tranches amounting to
US$8,5 million for mission reimbursement in January and February by March 31
2013.

“Due to liquidity constraints the releases from Treasury were late, causing
disbursements to missions to run a month behind schedule. The situation has
so far not changed,” he said.

“The reimbursements during the period under review went towards payment of
rentals, utilities and other routine mission running expenses.”

In January, Zimbabwe opened a new embassy in Singapore, thereby increasing
the country’s diplomatic representation in the Far East.

CAPS assets to be auctioned as company faces collapse

http://www.swradioafrica.com/

By Alex Bell
SW Radio Africa
5 June 2013

Zimbabwe’s main drugs manufacturer, CAPS Holdings, is facing imminent
collapse, in the face of next week’s auction of its assets to service a
multi-million dollar debt.

The auction is set to take place next Friday, after the CAPS assets were
‘attached’ last year.

This attachment was listed by the High Court Deputy Sheriff in order to try
and recover over US$4 million owed to the CBZ bank.

CBZ took CAPS to court after the pharmaceutical company failed to service
the multi-million dollar debt.

The assets to go under the hammer on June 14th include its factory in Harare’s
Southerton industrial area, comprised of a drug manufacturing plant, a
three-storey administration block with 47 offices, kitchen, bar with
dispensary sections, packaging section, coldrooms, receiving bays and a
clinic.

The group delisted from the Stock Exchange in 2011, stating it was planning
on restructuring the business in order to seek new investors with fresh
capital.

But almost two years later, it seems a CAPS recovery is unlikely.

Strong dollar chokes exports

http://www.thezimbabwean.co/

05.06.13

by Clemence Machadu

The continued strengthening of the US dollar against the South African Rand
has brought catastrophic exchange rate risk to local exporters. It is also
becoming a huge threat to the sustainability of local industries.

The Rand has been falling for several months now. In January, it was at 8.46
to the greenback and went down to 9.79 in May.

South Africa is our biggest trading partner, in terms of both imports and
exports. Although Zimbabwe is using a basket of currencies, the US dollar is
the widely used one.

The revaluation of the dollar, against the Rand, is therefore an issue of
particular concern as it suppresses exports.

For example, a local exporter who was exporting goods worth R1 million in
January, would get $118,203 after converting at the exchange rate of
$1:R8.46. He now gets a reduced amount of $102,145 because the dollar has
strengthened to $1:R9.79. This represents a significant revenue loss of some
$16,000.

It’s a pity that we lost the devaluation tool when we abandoned the Zimbabwe
dollar. Devaluation would have allowed us to relatively weaken our currency,
thereby giving exporters more return for their exports. However, as we have
no control over the monetary policy of the US, we cannot devaluate the
Dollar.

If the dollar continues to strengthen it will be more worthwhile for
exporters to sell their products locally rather than exporting them. This
will increase the trade deficit, as has been the case since January.

Exports declined by 10 percent in three months to March this year to $689
million compared to $768.2 million for the same period in 2012. Imports for
January to March this year stood at S$1.7 billion, representing a 14 percent
increase from last year’s figure of $1.5 billion. This represents a deficit
of $1 billion.

The weakening Rand means that local importers can now get more Rands when
they convert their Dollar and that they can now buy more products from South
Africa than before. A trader who was importing goods worth R20,000 from
South Africa, in January, needed to have $2,364. However, he now needs only
$2,042 to import the same goods.

This might appear as good news to local consumers and traders, in the short
run. However, it will result in negative consequences to the economy in the
medium to long term. As cheaper imports proliferate, local industry will be
unable to compete - as is the case already. Some manufacturers, will be
forced to shut down, with others downsizing – resulting in many jobs being
lost. It will also reduce capacity utilization in the manufacturing
sector –which will push prices up.

The revenue collected by Zimra will therefore be forced downwards, leaving
us with even more budget deficit headaches.

We need to move towards “internal devaluation” to enhance and encourage
export competitiveness, in the face of the strengthening Dollar. Internal
devaluation has nothing to do with weakening the currency in use, but it
will achieve the intended results of currency devaluation.

Zimbabwe launches overdue plan to assist drought-hit farmers

http://www.trust.org/

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation - Wed, 5 Jun 2013 10:15 AM

Author: Madalitso Mwando

LUPANE, Zimbabwe (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Ticky Mletshwa, a
46-year-old small-scale farmer, has always done the same thing in his plot
deep in the dry rural areas of Lupane, about 175 kilometres north of
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city.

Here each year, with the regularity of clockwork, he plants maize, waits for
the rains, then “cries” as he watches his crops fail after yet another
period of unreliable rainfall.

“It has become a cruel cycle,” he says, of repeating the same thing and
expecting to get different results.

Mletshwa, like many smallholder farmers in the area, used to barter his
excess produce to city dwellers in Bulawayo. Now he does not remember when
he last had a full silo.

“Now we find ourselves having to ask our children working in South Africa to
send us mealie meal (maize meal),” he said.

Lupane is one of numerous areas in Matebeleland, in the southwest of
Zimbabwe, from which hundreds of young people have fled increasing hardship
to seek employment outside the country, including as farm labourers in
neighbouring South Africa and Botswana.

But help finally may be on the way, as Zimbabwe’s government, hit by
worsening food insecurity, moves to adopt more hands-on assistance to
farmers, particularly those on small rain-fed plots of land.

Last month, President Robert Mugabe launched the country’s first Food and
Nutrition Security Policy, which aims to address climate change and other
environmental problems that have vexed farmers like Mletshwa.

EXPORTER TURNED IMPORTER

The launch comes as the Zimbabwean government has asked Zambia for 150,000
tonnes of maize, a radical reversal of the situation before Zimbabwe’s
chaotic land reform programme of 2000. Until that time, Zimbabwe had been a
net food exporter, including to southern African countries such as Zambia.

According to Mugabe, the new food security policy is a response to
“recurrent and intermittent droughts” that have resulted in spiralling food
prices and have left many Zimbabweans increasingly food insecure.

In March this year, the World Food Programme announced that up to 1.7
million Zimbabweans would require food assistance this year, up from 1.3
million last year, as smallholders who previously produced the bulk of the
country’s maize continued to suffer from uncertain rainfall and lack of
infrastructure.

“The food and nutrition security policy provides a framework for a cohesive
multi-sectoral action programme with a shared vision and strategy for
improved food and nutrition security,” President Mugabe told journalists at
the launch.

The policy is aimed at “especially small-holder farmers and women so that
they (can) access cheap finance, knowledge on climate and the environment,
smart farming systems, infrastructure and farm machinery,” he said.

Critics and farmer representatives, however, say the policy is late in
coming. The country has largely failed to address the impacts of climate
change and other environmental issues, they say, and this has worsened food
production with each cropping season.

ACTION LONG OVERDUE

“It’s been left until too late,” said John Hwalima, a Bulawayo-based
agriculture consultant.

“The signs have been there since the turn of the century that some serious
thinking must be done in the agriculture sector but this has not happened.
What we are seeing now is government reacting to the hard times, when there
was ample time to be proactive,” Hwalima said.

“Climate change is real and will require more than a talk shop. For example,
what should be happening, or should have happened, is investment in
infrastructure for small-holder farmers, something like small dams and
irrigation schemes, which as we know some white commercial farms had before
the land seizures,” he said.

The announcement of a national food and nutrition policy comes after the
government last year announced it was working on climate change policy
research. The findings or recommendations, however, have not been made
public.

Admire Mare, a development consultant in Harare, says the government will
need to invest in and include smallholder farmers in its plans if it hopes
to restore crop production in Zimbabwe.

“Solutions lie in the capacity building of small-scale farmers through the
resuscitation of agricultural extension services and subsidised input
schemes,” Mare said.

To ease the impacts of climate change, investment in fast-growing maize
varieties and in dam construction and irrigation projects are an
“indispensable necessity,” he said. “Any food security policy that ignores
investment in irrigation and water harvesting techniques is bound to fail,”
he warned.

In March, the government announced it was crafting legislation aimed at
boosting irrigation that would compel financial institutions to make more
money available to agricultural producers, who were once the country’s
largest foreign currency earners.

Meanwhile, farmers in hard-hit areas are still waiting for help, with little
understanding that climate change may be contributing to the worsening
extreme weather.

Nomathemba Mthimkhulu, 54, another smallholder in Lupane, blames the region’s
increasingly poor rains on social aberrations.

“We cannot have enough food from our fields with all these loose morals and
Satanism around,” she said from her homestead, where she looks after seven
grandchildren.

“You see these children? They will never know all the traditional food I
grew up eating because the gods are punishing us by withholding the rains
because of all these bad things happening,” she said.

Madalitso Mwando is a journalist based in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Trevor Ncube launches another newspaper

http://www.swradioafrica.com/

By Nomalanga Moyo
SW Radio Africa
5 June 2013

The people of Bulawayo on Monday gathered at the city centre to witness the
launch of another privately-owned daily newspaper called the Southern Eye.

The latest publication joins Trevor Ncube’s Alpha Media Holdings (AMH),
publishers of two weeklies and a daily — The Zimbabwe Independent, Standard,
and NewsDay. Ncube is a former journalist who also owns the South African
Mail & Guardian newspaper.

The Southern Eye will have a regional focus, covering Matebeleland,
Bulawayo, Midlands and Masvingo.

Industry and Trade Minister Welshman Ncube attended the launch and was
quoted in newspaper reports as saying the Southern Eye had an important role
to play in promoting freedom of speech in the country.

“What we are doing today and what we are celebrating is not just their (AMH)
achievements as businesspeople, but an important contribution that they are
making to the exercise of our freedom of speech in this country,” Ncube
reportedly told the gathering.

Minister Ncube also expressed regret that the unity government had failed to
achieve any significant media reforms as agreed under the Global Political
Agreement, with Zim the only SADC country with just one state-run TV
station.

Speaking at the launch, AMH chairman Trevor Ncube said the Southern Eye will
strive for political independence in its quest to enrich conversations in
the southern parts of the country.

“This newspaper is going to be partial to one thing. It is going to be
partial to the truth. We are going to be very biased towards the truth and
that is the only bias we are going to have,” the new paper quoted Ncube as
saying.

UK-based journalist Mthulisi Mathuthu told SW Radio Africa Wednesday that
the Southern Eye was well-placed to ask probing questions about corruption
and human rights issues.

Mathuthu said: “Already, there are questions to be asked: What is happening
to the revenue collected at the Beitbridge, Plumtree and Victoria Falls
border posts — which are among some of the busiest in sub-Saharan Africa?
What happened to the Limpopo Spatial Development Initiative?

“Human rights issues do count too. How far have the police gone with the
investigation into the murder of both Martin and Gloria Olds? Where was
Patrick Nabanyama’s body thrown?” Mathuthu added.

We failed to get a comment from Alpha Media Holdings’ chief executive
Raphael Khumalo, as he said he was driving.

The Southern Eye will operate in one of the world’s most restricted media
environments where journalists working for the private press are regularly
subjected to harassment and arrest by security forces.

Last year the US-based Freedom House ranked the country 172 out of 197
countries, the worst overall ranking in the southern Africa region.

MLF threatens terror attacks

http://www.thezimbabwean.co/

05.06.13

by Mxolisi Ncube

Secessionist grouping, Mthwakazi Liberation Front, has issued threats of
terror attacks against the government for dismissing its calls for the
Matabeleland region to be weaned from the rest of the country.

The party, afflicted by infighting that has split it into more than four
splinter formations since its launch less than three years ago, recently
threatened to render Matabeleland ungovernable should government continue to
ignore its calls.

It also implied that the mainstream MDC, its sworn “enemy number one”, had
no right to discuss compensation for victims of the 1980s Gukurahundi
killings initiated by President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) government against
supporters of the then main opposition Zapu party.

“MLF is not joking and this (demand for secession) is not child play,” read
a statement from an MLF leader who signed as just Sibanda. He also blamed
the African Union for dismissing the tribal grouping’s calls for the
creation of a “Mthwakazi” state.

“The problem with African leaders is that they take too long to realise
serious matters. Look at what happened in Sudan! It took the African Union
50 years to realise that the southerners were serious. Their slumber cost
more than two million people’s lives. We do not wish to go that route but
should Zimbabweans wish then, so be it,” he said.

MLF national spokesman, David Magagula, recently lashed out against MDC
Secretary-general and Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti, for suggesting
compensation for Gukurahundi victims.

“Biti and his leader must surely be man enough and stand up to Mthwakazi and
give reasons why we cannot be granted our independence for proper progress
and prosperity to be realized by the two countries or show cause as to why
they object or would object to our demand,” said Magagula.

“It should be vividly clear to all and sundry that whoever wins the
elections has to tackle the Mthwakazi issue as a priority, as no one will
ever form a stable government without taking seriously into consideration
the issue of Mthwakazi Independence. Alternatively, MDC-T should say when it
is going to elect a Ndebele as its President.”

Scores of Zimbabwean exiles who spoke to The Zimbabwean advised the MLF,
which does not want the people of Matabeleland to participate in the
forthcoming elections, to stop confusing people.

“The MLF are just a confused bunch of chancers. They are same people who
boot-lick Jonathan Moyo (Zanu (PF) politburo member) and at one time also
went to town to celebrate that Emmerson Mnangagwa would one day become
President of Zimbabwe, yet Mnangagwa was influential in the same Gukurahundi
the people of Matabeleland hate Zanu (PF) for,” said Mengezi Moyo.

Blood diamond trail leads to loopholes in Kimberley Process

http://www.guardian.co.uk/

Pressure to extend oversight to government - as well as rebel - abuses as
monitoring group meets in South Africa

Greg Nicolson for Daily Maverick, part of the Guardian Africa Network
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 6 June 2013 00.09 AEST

The Kimberly Process was never perfect but the June 2011 decision to allow
exports from Zimbabwe's Marange diamond fields rendered it ridiculous.
Diamond exports from the area were suspended from June 2009 because state
security agencies were found to have committed killings, beatings and have
used forced labour. When the Kimberley Process agreed on a joint plan to fix
the mess, the Zim government agreed. But then it ignored the set conditions
and continued the abuses, diverting funds to Zanu-PF's security agencies
(responsible for torture and killings during the 2008 elections), and the
esteemed leaders at the Kimberley Process decided to allow exports from
Marange anyway.

The Zimbabwean government found the loophole. The Kimberley Process was
established in 2003 to stop people being murdered so that doting boyfriends
can get on one knee and offer their blushing brides-to-be the ring they
always wanted. Rebels in countries such as Liberia, Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC), and Sierra Leone sold "blood diamonds" to fund their wars. In
those three countries alone, an estimated 3.7 million people died in
conflicts fuelled by the clear and colourless crystalline form of pure
carbon, Amnesty International reported in 2007.

The Kimberley Process was established to halt human rights abuses resulting
from rebel groups using the profits of diamonds to fund their wars or coup
d'états. Its 54 members come from 90 countries and account for almost 100%
of the global trade in rough diamonds. The scheme was set up to ensure the
international supply of diamonds didn't come from warlords. It has helped
stem millions of dollars to would-be rebels, but the Kimberley Process faces
new challenges.

Last November, Partnership for Africa accused Robert Mugabe's elite of
stealing at least $2bn worth of diamonds from the Marange fields. "The
dispute highlighted the failure of the consensus-based decision-making
process to address government noncompliance," said Human Rights Watch on the
decision to allow the export of diamonds form Marange. "The members have not
been able to reach consensus to revise the Kimberley Process rules to
explicitly prohibit the sale of diamonds by governments that committed
abuses to obtain them. Under the rules, a conflict diamond is narrowly
defined as one sold by a rebel group to wage war against a government. That
definition has left a major loophole since it does not prevent a government
like Zimbabwe's from committing abuses when it mines or sells diamonds."

Central African Republic is another case. The country has been temporarily
suspended from exporting since the Seleka rebels seized control in a coup
d'état. And yet, according to an International Crisis Group briefing in
2010, when former president Francois Bozize came to power in 2003, he
strangled control over the diamond industry to enrich and empower his own
ethnic group while failing to use the minerals to alleviate poverty,
sparking a war of rebel groups fighting so their people could have their
turn to eat. The corruption from a state government ultimately perpetuated
the very things the Kimberley Process was purportedly against, yet under
Bozize it was okay to export. The diamond-related human rights violations in
Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and Venezuela are well known.

It's under this backdrop that members of the Kimberley Process meet this
week, with South Africa's mineral resources minister, Susan Shabangu, giving
the keynote address on Tuesday. Her speech was largely a tribute to the
"heroes and heroines who stood fast and firm" to set up the "gallant
organisation". "We are particularly elated that we are all here to celebrate
the achievement that more than 99% of diamonds traded globally are
conflict-free and this has restored consumers' confidence in this
commodity," said Shabangu in Kimberley.

Like Shabangu, Eli Izhakoff, the president of the World Diamond Council,
called for diamonds to be used for development and not for evil. "Our
industry has travelled a long distance between 2000 and 2013, and the
journey has caused us to experience massive change, both in the way we
operate and in the ways we regard ourselves and our mission… Our mission is
to ensure that diamond resources are able to fulfill their potential as
generators of positive economic and social and development, by ensuring that
they are not associated with systematic acts of violence and oppression."

The Kimberley Process is under considerable pressure, however, to change
with the times. Civil society organisations met in Johannesburg on Saturday
and acknowledged the role the group has played in ending blood diamonds from
the most brutal conflict zones but urged it to expand its reach. "Now that
most diamond-linked conflicts have ended, the Kimberley Process will only
remain relevant if it is given the mandate to monitor the entire diamond
industry chain – from mining the rough stones to polishing the final
jewels – and to look at diamonds that are fostering human rights abuses as
well as armed conflict," said Dr Claude Kabemba, director of Southern Africa
Resource Watch.

Global Witness, an NGO that pulled out of the Kimberley Process after the
decision on Zimbabwe, said "there are still significant weaknesses in the
scheme that undermine its effectiveness and allow the trade in blood
diamonds to continue." It wants the scheme to clarify and strengthen its
commitment to human rights, more administrative beef to provide effective
oversight, and for the consensus decision-making model to be scrapped.

The World Diamond Council has announced corporate members will help boost
the process's administrative capabilities while Shabangu acknowledged some
of the challenges ahead but commended the "common understanding on the
merging of certain structures within the Kimberley Process geared to enhance
the effectiveness of our organisation."

These efforts will help, but they'll count for squat if tyrants are allowed
to reinforce oppressive regimes through selling the precious stones simply
because they run the state. Sadly, there looks to be little of the political
will needed. Shabangu was far keener to emphasise the importance of each
member government keeping its sovereignty rather than each government
refraining from using diamonds to abusive ends.

World Environment Day and the Rights Connection

http://www.hrw.org/

JUNE 5, 2013

Author(s):  Jane Cohen
Published in:  Huffington Post

For Abigail Chombo in Zimbabwe, World Environment Day will pass like any
other; a day with no safe water to drink, a day where the bush substitutes
for a toilet. It's as unlikely that Su Xia, a father of two in China, will
notice that it's World Environment Day. He's too busy caring for his
children who have lead poisoning, sickened by industrial pollution that
plagues the country. Children working in artisanal gold mines around the
world won't celebrate either, as they burn and inhale toxic mercury while
processing gold.

The United Nations Environment Program, which sponsors World Environment
Day, calls on all citizens of the world to promote positive environmental
change. While this message of optimism and action is important, it misses a
critical factor. Around the world, real impact on environmental degradation
cannot be achieved without protecting human rights. The issues are
inseparable.

No one is more aware of this connection than Phyllis Omido, a single mother
in Mombasa, Kenya. For four years, Phyllis has been fighting to protect the
health and rights of a slum community from the illegal actions of a nearby
lead smelter. The smelter was built illegally, without a proper
environmental impact assessment, and in violation of health and safety
regulations. It spews toxic pollution into the air, water and soil, and has
caused lead poisoning among children in the community.

Yet when Phyllis spoke out about the impact this smelter was having on her
community, she was repeatedly threatened, harassed and beaten by thugs
allegedly linked to the smelter. Phyllis has not obtained any legal redress
and she lives in fear of retaliation for her actions. Phyllis's rights under
the Kenyan constitution and international human rights law go unrealized and
unprotected. And Phyllis is not alone. In 2011 a reported 109 environmental
human rights defenders were killed.

The deaths of environmental defenders, and the causes they are fighting for,
are often overlooked amidst other global health threats and human rights
crises. While many people around the world have followed with alarm the
spread of H7N9, the avian flu that originated in China earlier this year,
the 1.2 million premature deaths linked to pollution in China in 2010 are
just as troubling. And the 16,000 diseased dead pigs floating in the Huamgpu
River, the main source of drinking water for Shanghai, is another cause for
alarm.

Human Rights Watch research on industrial pollution in China found a close
intersection of environmental issues and the violation of human rights. We
found that people were regularly denied critical information about health
risks from pollution, that people were arrested and detained when protesting
about dangerous factories or raising awareness about toxic pollution, and
that medical professionals lied to them and prevented them from seeking
medical care for their children, all in violation of their rights under
Chinese and international law.

The recent collapse of a large garment factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, brought
fresh light on the harrowing working conditions of Bangladesh's poor. But
for the 12,000 people who work in Dhaka's tanneries, there is still no
relief in sight. Leather manufacturing and exporting is a hugely
lucrative -- and polluting -- enterprise for Bangladesh. The
tanneriespollute the air, soil and water. Tannery workers, some of them
children, face extremely hazardous conditions, and multiple human rights
abuses.

The pollution in areas around the tanneries is so severe that the
Bangladeshi Supreme Court ruled over a decade ago that the tanneries must
install pollution-mitigating technology. But the tanneries continue to
operate without change though the government is violating the human rights
to health, water and remedy for harm by letting them get away with it.

When basic human rights, like the rights to life, health, food, information,
justice, participation and assembly are not respected, the global
environmental movement loses a critical ally -- citizens around the world
for whom the protection of rights and the environment are one and the same.
In violating their rights, the marginalization of many of these people
limits their ability to affect positive environmental change.

The news is not all bad. This year, countries from around the world are set
to sign a new global treaty on mercury; language in the treaty offers
special protections for women and children-- a nod to human rights. And the
United Nations has created a new mandate for an independent expert to
examine the interrelatedness of protecting the environment and protecting
human rights.

Abigail Chombo, Su Xia, Phyllis Omido and many millions more will really
have something to celebrate on World Environment Day 2014, if governments,
international agencies, non-governmental organizations and citizens promote
human rights along with the protection of the environment. There can't be
one without the other, and now is the time to act.

July 31 deadline: the law is an ass

http://www.thezimbabwean.co/

05.06.13

by Tawanda Majoni

The order by the Constitutional Court last week that the next general
election should be held by July 31 puts Zimbabwe in a dilemma. On one hand,
as citizens of this country, we are bound by the need to respect the rule of
law. On the other, we still have to appreciate that practicality ought to
shape our decisions.

Legally Zimbabwe must hold the next poll within the time frame given by
seven out of the nine learned judges who deliberated on the matter. But,
politically, that timeline does not make sense. I hate to say it, but there
is something that stinks about being legalistic. (After all, the law is such
a reeking ass, isn’t it?)

I am not a lawyer, but I don’t think this business about the courts deciding
poll timelines should be cast in granite. Interpretation of the law should
always be guided by sustainable pragmatism and a thorough view of prevailing
situations.

I remember very well that when some former MPs were challenging President
Robert Mugabe to proclaim dates for by elections in Nkayi South, Bulilima
East and Lupane East, the High Court ruled that the mini polls could not be
conducted as demanded by the applicants because there was no money.

Citing lack of money by the august court was a situational consideration.
Then, the High Court did not dispute the fact that it had taken too long
before dates for the by elections were proclaimed. Due consideration was
given to prevailing conditions.

There is a telling precedent that should also have inspired flexibility on
the part of the Constitutional Court judges as they went about interpreting
the constitution in the case in which a an applicant sought to have the poll
held by June 30.

Mugabe is already moving around with dirty hands. The judgement acknowledged
that he had violated Zimbabweans’ right by not proclaiming the dates for the
poll in time. Of course, it was not the business of the court in that
particular context to deliberate on what action to take against Mugabe and
the government following their failure to announce the dates in time - but
it seems nothing is going to happen thereto. If there is already a failure
to proclaim dates for the next poll, and, as is clear, nothing is bound to
happen around that, what was good for the goose should now also be good for
the gander when the election time frame is pushed to a generally acceptable
date. After all, the goose has also failed to proclaim dates for by
elections in the constituencies named above and more than 20 others that
fell vacant after the 2008 polls.

The difference is that while Mugabe’s failure to decree dates for the
by-election and this year’s polls were apparently motivated by self-interest
and political expediency, in that they would not suit his and Zanu (PF)’s
agenda, pushing the next elections to beyond July would be a clear response
to the call for justice.

It is clear that July 31 is not a good date by which the elections must be
held. I don’t want to sound like a broken record, as this has been said over
and over again, but we need at least four months to adequately prepare.

A lot of work still needs to be done to clean up the voters’ roll. There has
to be global consensus on what measures ought to be taken to ensure that the
media is professionalised enough to ensure that all political parties get
equitable coverage and still more to revamp the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission and the RG’s offices.

The last time I checked, government did not have the money to conduct a
credible election, and I am not sure that such money will be available in
the next couple of weeks. But then, even if the money were to be availed,
there is a host of other structures and processes that have to be put in
place. There is need to realign the laws with the new constitution, getting
rid of one or two bad ones in the process, and embark on comprehensive voter
education, in addition to mobilising necessary human and material resources.

As an aside, I don’t see how Zanu (PF) would comfortably enter the election
given the sorry limp in its gait. It is struggling to paper over, let alone
repair, the evident fissures in its structures, is yet to hold its primaries
and is miles away from launching its campaign.

Yes, the Constitutional Court has ruled that we should have the election by
July 31, but I could kick the judges for not being practical in their
judgement. After all, the new constitution allows us to hold the election
within four months from the date of the expiry of the current Parliament,
meaning it would still be legal to have it by the end of October. - For
feedback, please write to majonitt@gmail.com

Not so fast

http://www.economist.com/

Jun 5th 2013, 12:25 by J. O'S. | JOHANNESBURG

ROY BENNETT breaks off from his lunch to share a joke with Zimbabwean staff
at a restaurant deep in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg, South Africa’s
commercial capital. Mr Bennett has been exiled from his native Zimbabwe
since 2010 when he was acquitted of trumped-up charges of treason. Now based
in Johannesburg he remains a close aide to Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which will soon contest an election
with Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party; the two parties have been in a loveless
coalition since 2009. Mr Bennett’s good spirits reflect optimism about the
outcome. If the poll is free and fair, he says, it will mark the end of Mr
Mugabe’s 33-year rule. “Zanu-PF doesn’t have a chance and they know it.”

His conviction is in contrast with a kind of weary cynicism about the
elections from some quarters. It says the MDC has been compromised by its
coalition government with Zanu-PF. Mr Tsvangirai has often been outwitted by
Mr Mugabe. At the very least the media that are partial to Zanu-PF have done
a good job of saying that all politicians are equally bad, which is why the
parties are neck-and-neck in some opinion polls. Even if support for the MDC
is stronger, Zimbabwe’s neighbours, notably South Africa, have lost whatever
interest they once had in a free and fair election. A “credible” poll (ie,
one that is not riddled with violence) will be enough to satisfy them.

This pessimistic view was strengthened when a court in Zimbabwe ruled last
week that the poll must be held by July 31st. A hurried election would tilt
the balance towards Zanu-PF. But Mr Bennett thinks that ruling will not
stand. Zimbabwe’s new constitution, endorsed in a referendum in March, sets
a 30-day period for voter registration and for inspection of the electoral
rolls. Only then can candidates be nominated. After the nominations court
has sat, there must be a further gap of at least 28 days before polling day.
As registrations have only started, the earliest possible date for elections
is therefore in August.

To avoid a clash with a meeting of the UN’s World Tourism Organisation,
which will be held that month in Zimbabwe, it is likely to be delayed until
September. In any case, says Mr Bennett, a polling date cannot be set
without the agreement of all parties in the coalition government, including
Mr Tsvangirai’s. “We won’t go into an election until voters are properly
registered,” says Mr Bennett. If the rolls are no longer bloated with the
names of dead voters, it will be harder for Zanu-PF to rig the election.

The prospects for a free and fair election still depend heavily on proper
monitoring by Zimbabwe’s neighbours. A meeting is planned this weekend of
the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the 15-country regional
club that is led by South Africa, to raise money for Zimbabwe’s elections.
If SADC says that the election process must conform to the new constitution,
“it will send a clear message to Zanu-PF that the July 31st bid has failed,”
says Mr Bennett.

It is in South Africa’s interests that Zimbabwe is cleaned up, he argues.
The foreign investment that would return to Zimbabwe would help perk up its
bigger and richer neighbour, which has been losing investor confidence. By
contrast renewed turmoil would bring a fresh wave of refugees to South
Africa to add to the waiters standing nearby, ready to clear the plates.

Interview with Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe stirs media storm

http://www.latimes.com/

By Robyn Dixon
June 4, 2013, 12:06 p.m.

JOHANNESBURG -- “Warm, charismatic and very humorous.”

Could South African television personality Dali Tambo really have been
talking about Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe?

Tambo, the son of South African liberation heroes Oliver and Adelaide Tambo,
has been on the defensive since throwing a series of soft questions at the
Zimbabwean leader during interviews for his TV show, “People of the South,”
that aired Sunday on the state-owned station SABC3.

South Africa's Twittersphere lit up with outrage, and media critics slammed
the program, with Mail and Guardian columnist Verashni Pillay calling it
“sycophantic and fawning”.

Mugabe alienated many South Africans with his criticism of the country's
beloved former president, Nelson Mandela, whom he said had treated
non-blacks too kindly.

“He’s been too saintly, he’s been too good, too much of a saint,” Mugabe
said of the increasingly frail Mandela, who has had several bouts of illness
lately.

Mugabe, who faces elections this year, said his people still needed him as
president.

“We will fight to the finish. That’s it,” he said.

Tambo presented a softer side of Mugabe during the program, showing the
leader in a pale gray suit and tie at the presidential luncheon table, with
its crisp white table cloth and sprays of flowers.

Surrounded by wife Grace, daughter Bona, son Bellarmine and a flamboyantly
dressed, mustachioed Tambo, Mugabe looks at his wife and tells her, rather
formally, how he values her for the children she has given him and the
happiness she has brought him.

Cape Town-based morning radio anchor, Kieno Kammies, of Cape Talk 567,
invited Tambo onto his breakfast show Tuesday and told him he was
“disappointed" there was no discussion of Zimbabwe's record of human rights
abuses and violence against the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

“You raised issues such as the Western media attacking Robert Mugabe and
then you just allowed him to go on and basically do a PR exercise,” Kammies
said.

Tambo lost his temper.

“You know, it’s really boring when I get people like you with your
superficial attitudes. What do you mean, a PR exercise? What you wanted me
to do was to say to him, ‘You’re lying! Robert Mugabe, you’re a liar!' ...
Is that what you think an interview is?” he asked Kammies sardonically.

Kammies said he presented Mugabe as he was “and you must take what you want
from it.”

When Kammies asked why Tambo hadn’t questioned Mugabe about human rights
reports critical of his regime, Tambo responded: “Why would I, when I’ve got
48 minutes to do the life of an 89-year-old man ... How many human rights
reports do you think there are on Great Britain, United States, on all kinds
of countries?"

“If you want to go and interview Robert Mugabe about the human rights
report, that’s your prerogative," he continued. "I don’t obsess on what you
want me to obsess on, because it’s my interview, you understand?"

The Mail and Guardian columnist, Pillay, wrote Tuesday that Tambo’s defense
was disingenuous.

“Mugabe is no neutral figure, and trying to show his ‘softer side’ is a
doomed mission if one does not at least acknowledge his mistakes – mistakes
that have adversely affected a country, a region and millions of people,"
Pillay said.

"This is a man who has stayed in power since 1980, using violent and
undemocratic means. On his watch, his formerly prosperous country has
experienced a total economic meltdown, while dissent has been brutally
suppressed. Asking him to stare into his wife's eyes and describe his love
for her in this context is then no isolated and endearing action. It is an
act of almost comical horror and disregard for the suffering of millions.”

If you expected any different from Tambo, the joke is on you

http://www.bdlive.co.za/

BY SIPHO HLONGWANE, 05 JUNE 2013, 05:31

POOR Dali Tambo. Cracking an interview with Zimbabwe’s ageing President
Robert Mugabe could not have been easy. He had to wait about three years,
apparently. As a reward for his efforts, his softly-softly interview has
been widely panned. You’ve got to feel for him on some level. He really didn’t
ask for any of this.

On Monday, Tambo melted down in an interview with radio station 567 Cape
Talk’s Kieno Kammies. The presenter called the interview a "PR exercise",
prompting a shouted rant. "What do you mean a PR exercise? What you wanted
me to do was to say to him, ‘You’re lying, Robert Mugabe, you’re a liar.’
That’s not true, how dare you say that? ‘You’re a bloody liar.’ Is that what
you think an interview is?" he said.

"Listen, the first thing to understand about People of the South: we are not
(the BBC’s) Hard Talk. I get weary of saying this. If you’ve watched any of
the shows, you will know that we are ‘people’ of the south, not ‘politics’
of the south. We deal in people. And whether that person is an artist or a
politician, I deal partly with what they do in their work, and partly with
who they are, okay."

Anyone who has watched Tambo’s SABC show People of the South knows what he
means. It’s not journalistic in the sense that its purpose is to inform the
electorate about its leaders. Previous episodes showed Democratic Alliance
leader Helen Zille and Congress of South African Trade Unions general
secretary Zwelinzima Vavi at home with their families.

When Zille was interviewed, the show moved from a slightly more probing
style and fell into complete absurdity when Tambo talked to her husband,
Johann Maree, as he chopped vegetables. Questions about the reversal of
gender roles ("who is the stronger one?") poured forth.

The show is the Kardashian-ification of politics, if you like. We are
offered a window into the private lives of prominent politicians, not to
gain any special insights about their abilities and skills but so that we
can gawk at their dinner crockery and their children. This is reality
television, not news.

Kammies is right. As is Mail & Guardian deputy online editor Verashni
Pillay, who wrote that "the very act of showing Mugabe in such a favourable
light a short few months before Zimbabwe’s crucial upcoming elections is a
political act in itself". The timing of the interview cannot have been a
mistake. Mugabe had three years to acquiesce to it, and this moment was
chosen for whatever reason. Tambo’s unctuous manner slipped into outright
sycophancy when he faced a man like Zimbabwe’s president.

It has been years since Mugabe has permitted himself to be interviewed by a
foreign journalist. In Dinner with Mugabe, the book by Heidi Holland, she
makes it quite clear that it is no mean feat to get to the man. If the local
press misunderstood what Tambo’s exercise really was, Mugabe understood
perfectly.

To ask Tambo to raise questions about Mugabe’s human rights record, and the
preparations for the upcoming elections, would have been as bizarre as
asking Christiane Amanpour or Stephen Sackur to care about the minutiae of
Grace Mugabe’s dilemmas in choosing bed lining or dessert for that evening’s
meal.

We might perhaps rue the wasted opportunity, though knowing that it would
never have materialised had the interview been asked for by a credible
journalist. That is the difficulty of reporting news in countries that have
leaders who don’t want that done too thoroughly. While South Africa’s media
work in a relatively unrestricted environment, it is still possible to
encounter incredible hostility. If a country doesn’t have a culture of
holding its leaders accountable in the press, then turning down requests for
interviews is a handy way to dodge scrutiny.

We thus end up with a situation where it is only the Dali Tambos of this
world who can interview Mugabe, and People of the South is mistakenly given
a journalistic aura by being held to a high standard.

• Hlongwane is the author of Get Me Started.

The Supreme Court Ruling on Elections: What are the Implications

Speech delivered at Sapes Trust, Harare, Tuesday 4 June 2013 by Hon.
Douglas Mwonzora

1. Introduction

The new Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe has made its first
constitutional case ruling since the promulgation of the new
constitution of Zimbabwe. However, before assenting to the
constitution and apparently with this case in mind, President Mugabe
swore in two judges to the Supreme Court and ipso facto into the
Constitutional Court. The swearing in of the judges immediately before
the commencement of the new constitution was clearly designed to avoid
the more rigorous and transparent provisions of appointment of judges
under the new constitution. It was also designed to pack the new court
with what the schemers and think tanks in Zanu PF thought were judges
sympathetic to Zanu PF.

2. Why the case was filed

The case was clearly sponsored by the chaos faction of Zanu PF to
achieve three results. First, it was to force an election in June
2013. Second, it was to enable President Mugabe to singularly set the
election date without consulting the Prime Minister as is required by
the Global Political Agreement. Third, it was to force elections in
Zimbabwe without the necessary reforms. Fourth, it was to avoid the
election being in proximity of the UNWTO.
3. Evaluation of whether the objectives were achieved

It is apparently clear that the Zanu PF schemers basically failed in
their ill-conceived endeavours. The sadistic strategists in Zanu PF
wanted an election in June for two reasons. One was to trigger in the
minds of the Zimbabwean voter the intimidating memories of the June
2008 violence and therefore achieve the harvest of fear.

The second was of course to avoid key reforms, especially the 30 day
intensive voter registration exercise from being implemented and the
voters roll scrutinized. However, the dates set by the Court,
appropriately removes June as an election month.

Further, with political will and the necessary national and
international pressure the reforms are possible in the period given.
In disqualifying June as an election month, the constitutional court
referred to the legal impossibility on account of the necessary
pre-election formalities that had to be done.

In other words, probably without intending it, the constitutional
Court acknowledged the necessity of reforms before elections.

The Constitutional Court created dangerous precedent where the Court
could set election dates on behalf of the executive. Instead of simply
ordering the President to announce the election date by a particular
date, the Court went on to set the period within which the election
had to be held. Therefore the Zanu PF strategists inadvertently
secured the usurpation of the powers of the President to set election
dates. This could not have been their intention.

It is clear that the Zanu PF strategists did not want elections within
the proximity of the UNWTO. However, the attempt by the Constitutional
Court to balance the political and the legal effectively puts the
election date in relative proximity to the UNWTO. The MDC has always
been on record to say that it prefers elections before the UNWTO
provided all reforms were completed.

It appears to have been the hope of the Zanu PF strategists that the
Constitutional Court would pronounce that the President could act
alone in setting the election dates without having to consult the
Prime Minister as is required by the GPA. Tellingly, the Court avoided
this question.

This means that even within the period set by the Court, the President
has an obligation to consult the Prime Minister on the election date.
Further the international community particularly SADC can still
influence events in Zimbabwe. Information at hand suggests that there
is an extraordinary summit on Zimbabwe on the 9th of June 2013.

The MDC position is that the issue is not so much on the date of the
election. Rather the issue is the conditions under which the elections
will be held. Therefore, key reforms that have a bearing on the
freeness and fairness of elections have to be implemented first before
the actual elections so as to avoid another disputed election in
Zimbabwe.

First, the new constitution provides for a mandatory extensive
registration exercise for a period of at least 30 days. That voter
registration exercise should be followed by a period of inspection of
the voters roll. The money for this exercise has already been secured
and therefore the exercise must commence immediately. Because this is
a constitutional requirement, it is not bendable.

Second, media reforms which should result in all contesting and
interested parties having reasonably equal and fair access to the
state media during the election campaigns as provided in chapter 7 of
the new constitution must be implemented first. Because this is
constitutional mandate it is not bendable. This reform does not take
ages to implement.

Third, the spectre of violence has bedevilled all Zimbabwean elections
since 1980. With this in mind, the new constitution makes it clear
that Zimbabweans have a right to elections free from violence.
Therefore mechanisms to ensure the total eradication of all forms of
violence especially state sponsored violence must be put in place
before the election. This is not bendable on account of its
constitutional justification.

Fourth, Chapter 11 of our constitution provides for security sector
reform. In terms of this chapter, members of the security services
must not be partisan in that they should not campaign for or against a
political party or cause. They are also obliged to respect and obey
the fundamental rights of Zimbabwean people. Further, they should not
take part in civilian institutions except in periods of public
emergencies. Therefore, a code of conduct, governing the behavior of
security services during elections has to be put in place before the
elections. As the genes of this provision are the constitution this is
not bendable.

Fifth, key legislation which have a bearing on the elections have to
be amended in order to bring them in conformity with constitution.
These include the Electoral Act, POSA , and AIPPA.

4. The Legal implications of the Judgement

Precedent can at law be a double edged sword. In this ruling clearly
driven by political considerations the constitutional Court has made
pronouncement and precedent that;

a. It is permissible for any citizen to approach the Constitutional
Court and assert a right no matter how remotely they are affected by
the violation or potential violation. This is now different from the
legal position that existed during the determination of the United
Parties v Minister of Justice case.

b. In interpreting constitutional provisions, the court must be
liberal and lean more in favour of the violated or potentially. In
other words, the interpretation favouring the violated will take
precedent over that which favours the violator.

c. All executive decisions or omissions are subject to judicial
review. This means no executive action or inaction is beyond judicial
reproach or enquiry.

d. Zimbabwe must be brought back to constitutionalism. The state must
never be allowed to fail to abide by constitutional or legal
provisions.

5. Conclusion

The MDC’s position that key reforms have to precede the elections is
justified by the constitution and the judgement. All these reforms
derive from clear constitutional provisions. As the Constitutional
Court has ruled, Zimbabwe must never be allowed to ignore any of the
provisions of its constitution. Therefore, the constitutional
provisions upon which the MDC is basing its calls for reforms to be
implemented before elections can be held. For the MDC, the issue is
not so much about the date of elections. It is more about the
conditions under which the elections are held.

Press statement by leaders of Zimbabwe Political Parties held in Harare

Wednesday 5 June 2013

Monomotapa Crown Plaza Hotel

The leaders of the political parties in Zimbabwe namely MDC led by
President Tsvagirai, Welshman Ncube’s MDC, MKD, ZAPU and ZANU Ndonga,
met this morning to deliberate on the recent political developments in
the country.

The leaders noted the ruling of the constitutional court.

The leaders affirmed their commitment and readiness to participate in
a credible, free and fair election after the implementation of the
necessary reforms.

The leaders agreed that in keeping with the new Constitution the
following must be implemented;-

1) There should be mandatory minimum 30 day period for voter
registration that is yet to start and which will spill into July.

2) Prior to the holding of elections amendments must be effected to
the electoral law and to other laws that have a bearing on elections.
Examples of such laws include POSA and AIPPA which impact on free
political activity in terms of freedom of association , movement,
expression and the media.

3) Section 61 subsections 4 of the constitution for instance, demands
that the state owned media must be impartial and afford fair
opportunity for the presentation of divergent views and dissenting
opinions in addition to determining independently the editorial
content of their broadcast or other communication. This currently is
not the case and there are no steps that have been taken to ensure the
same. It is also ironic that the state media for instance, did not
cover and adequately publish, the dissenting and competent judgement
of deputy Chief Justice Malaba and justice Patel. This goes to show
that our public media are yet to confirm to the requirements of the
new constitution.

4) Section 208 subsection 2 of the constitution states that “neither
the security service nor any of their members may, in the exercise of
their functions, a) act in a partisan manner, b) further the interest
of any political party or cause, c) prejudice the interest of any
political party or cause or, d) violate the fundamental rights or
freedoms of any person”.

5) And subsection 3 of section 208 of the constitution further says
that, “members of the security services must not be active members or
office bears of any political party or organisation”. There is
therefore need to give effect to the above provisions by committing
our security establishment to a written and signed code of conduct in
line with the new constitution.

6) To that end, the government of Zimbabwe must ensure and assure
citizens that elections will be held in a free and fair environment in
keeping with the SADC guidelines and principles for conducting
democratic elections and the agreed roadmap to elections.

7) The leaders expressed reservations about the practicality of the
July 31st deadline set by the court and resolved that they will
communicate their position to SADC. The parties therefore, look
forward to the extra ordinary SADC summit to affirm previous SADC
resolutions and the agreed roadmap to elections.

8) They noted that the court action, ironically supposedly informed by
the desire to safeguard the rights of the individual applicant, has
resulted in the infringement of the rights of million of Zimbabweans,
in particular the rights of eligible voters to have adequate time to
register to vote and elect the government  of their choice in a free
and fair environment.

9) Lastly the political leaders argue all Zimbabweans to remain
resolute to make the necessary change required in the country by
registering and voting in large numbers.

God Bless You and God Bless Zimbabwe.

Signed by

MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai
ZAPU President, Dumiso Dabengwa
MDC Ncube Vice President, Edwin Mushoriwa
MKD President, Simba Makoni
ZANU Ndonga chairperson, Reketai Semwayo.