http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 20 March 2011 14:01
BY
CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s much publicised
rally failed to take off
in Harare yesterday after the police and courts
blocked what the MDC-T said
was meant to be a gathering to call for peace in
the country.
Zanu PF youths sealed the area early in the morning and
severely beat up
anyone who walked past the open space near Rainbow Towers,
the proposed
venue for the rally.
Several people were injured as
the Zanu PF youths attacked even passers-by
while riot police watched from a
distance.
Fruit and sweet vendors were caught in the crossfire and
had their goods
looted by the youths, some of them visibly
drunk.
By 7am both police, in armoured cars, and the Zanu PF youth
militia had
already camped in the area.
Late in the afternoon, High Court
judge Justice Chiweshe dismissed with
costs an appeal by the MDC-T to have
the rally held at the area now known as
the Freedom Square.
Human
rights lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, who was representing MDC-T, said the
judge
had indicated that reasons for his ruling would be given at a later
date.
A Harare magistrate, Mercy Chimbodza had on Friday upheld
the decision by
the police to bar the MDC-T rally, which was being held to
call for an end
to any form of violence.
Several MDC-T activists
have been assaulted by suspected state security
agents and Zanu PF militia
in the past month.
The Harare Central District police had barred the
rally claiming they faced
operational challenges as Zanu PF was holding a
similar rally 500m away from
that venue.
But there was no sign of
a Zanu PF meeting at the venue yesterday.
The party’s members
converged at the other end of the central business
district at the Zanu PF
provincial offices for the launch of its
anti-sanctions
campaign.
Another application by the MDC-T for a rally at the
Zimbabwe Grounds was
turned down by the Harare South District police saying
Zanu PF had booked
the ground up to the end of the
year.
Addressing a press conference just before the High Court
judgement, MDC –T
secretary-general Tendai Biti, who was hopeful that the
ruling would be in
his party’s favour, castigated the police for being
partisan.
“It’s very unfortunate that we have the police that act as
agents and
vuvuzelas of a political party,” he said.
Biti said
several MDC-T supporters who had come for the rally were
brutalised by the
Zanu PF militia while others were kidnapped.
A 62-year-old man was
seen gasping for breath after he had been pursued by
the marauding youths
near the Glamis Arena.
The man, who said he had just arrived in the
country from Canada where he is
staying with his family, said he had gone to
the venue to see, for the first
time, Tsvangirai addressing a
rally.
“Right now they are beating the young man who had accompanied
me. I don’t
know if he will survive,” he said. “I cried. God must accept my
prayer for
this nation.”
He said by preventing Tsvangirai from
holding rallies, Zanu PF was actually
campaigning for MDC-T.
A
man employed by the Ministry of Public Works and was on his way to set the
stage for the Zanu PF event said he was assaulted for walking past the
Glamis Arena.
He said police told him if he had chanted a Zanu PF
slogan his two
assailants would not have harmed him.
Meanwhile, the
smaller faction of the MDC also claimed that Zanu PF was
pulling down its
posters in Chitungwiza where it is holding a rally today.
“Zanu PF is
pulling down rally posters with the intention of disrupting the
gathering,”
said Kurauone Chihwayi, the party spokesperson.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 20 March 2011 15:11
BY
CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
FORMER Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC)
director general, Hosea
Mapondera, is embroiled in a property dispute with
some former Zimbabwe
People’s Revolutionary Army (Zipra) combatants who
claim that the house he
is occupying belongs to the former Zapu military
wing.
Zipra commanders who spoke to this newspaper said the double
storey house,
at 37 Straker Avenue in Gunhill, is among several properties
that the
government seized from Zipra in the 1980s following the Gukurahundi
massacres in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces.
The former
commanders said the house was bought for the late Vice-President
Joshua
Nkomo using funds contributed by Zipra combatants.
“That house is one
of the properties that Zipra bought using funds pulled
together by the
former fighters and it was supposed to be for our
president,” said one
former commander. “We hope to get it back when all the
other properties are
returned.”
But on Friday Mapondera dismissed the claims by the war
veterans saying he
bought the house from the Fernandos family, who have
since left the country.
“This is absolutely nonsense,” said
Mapondera, a relative to President
Robert Mugabe.
“I bought this
house some 15 to 20 years ago. Some people claiming to be
from Zipra once
came here and I told them I had bought this house from the
Fernandos.
“They had no papers to back their claim. It has
nothing to do with Zipra.”
Mapondera said he would show the agreement
of sale or title deeds to The
Standard to prove that he bought the
house.
But yesterday, he became unco-operative saying, “Check for
yourself at the
deeds office,” although the office is closed on
weekends.
Former Zipra commander and Nkomo’s personal bodyguard,
Frederick Mutanda
confirmed the dispute but refused to give
details.
“This is a sensitive issue on our part which we still
believe can be
resolved quietly but we don’t take it kindly when people
start denigrating
our leader,” said Mutanda.
“We kindly refer you
to talk to the Minister of Defence (Emmerson
Mnangagwa), he is the man who
knows the truth about the whole thing.”
Efforts to get a comment from
Mnangagwa were fruitless last week.
But documents that were shown to
The Standard indicated that the posh house
was one of the disputed Zapu
properties that Nkomo was claiming before his
death in 1999.
Six
other houses are in Waterfalls, Houghton Park and Breaside. The
properties
also include six commercial buildings in Harare and Bulawayo.
Zipra
also wants eight farms, also seized by government, returned.
The
documents also show that President Robert Mugabe at some point directed
Mnangagwa, who was Minister of Justice then, to return some of the
properties to Nkomo.
Nkomo criticised Mnangagwa over
properties
In a letter dated December 29 1995, Nkomo accused Mnangagwa of
playing
hide-and-seek regarding the return of Nkomo’s and Zipra’s
properties.
“His Excellence the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe
Cde RG Mugabe
directed you to discuss the modalities of the return of my
properties to
me,” wrote Nkomo.
“It would however seem that you
have been prevaricating on the subject,
absenting yourself whenever I call
you to discuss that issue with me.”
Nkomo attached the list of
properties which included the Gunhill house.
The late VP also wanted
government to settle his debts accrued as a result
of the seizure of the
properties.
“You are also in possession of my financial statements
indicating my
indebtedness to several financial institutions including
commercial banks,”
Nkomo said.
“This came about as a result of
the seizure of my properties and I will
therefore expect you to settle these
debts.”
He demanded that this be met by January 1
1996.
But in a letter of response on January 26 1996, Mnangagwa
confirmed the
return of Nkomo’s ranches including Walner Ranch in Kezi,
Matabeleland.
“As regards any other property, there has never been
instruction to change
ownership,” Mnangagwa said.
Authoritative
sources said the issue of Zipra properties had also taken
centre stage in
the government of national unity with some Zipra commanders
having written
to both Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai demanding
that the
properties be returned.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 20 March 2011
15:15
BULAWAYO — President Robert Mugabe is king of kings, Defence
minister,
Emmerson Mnangagwa said yesterday, likening the 87-year-old ruler
to the
biblical King Solomon.
“President Mugabe is a King of
Kings and he will continue to be the
president of Zimbabwe and is our King,”
Mngangagwa said when he launched
Zanu PF’s provincial anti-sanctions
campaign.
Close to a 1 000 people, among them the governor
Cain Mathema, high-ranking
Zanu-PF officials, attended the launch at Stanley
Square in Makokoba.
“The GPA even says the President of Zimbabwe will
continue to be his
Excellency, President Robert Mugabe,” Mnangagwa said,
adding that it is
every Zimbabwean’s responsibility to sign the
anti-sanctions petition.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 20 March 2011
15:36
BY SHINGAI JENA
HEADLANDS — Almost 60% of children
living in communal and commercial farms
in Zimbabwe are being exploited as
cheap labour, a non-governmental
organisation has claimed.
Portipher
Guta, the executive director of the Family Aids Caring Trust
(Fact) said the
alarming rise in the abuse of minors stems from the collapse
of traditional,
economic and social service structures.
“Schools were in the past
a safety net for children in farming areas and the
disturbance of their
schooling activities led to scores of them turning into
child-labourers,”
Guta said.
“Surveys and studies conducted by Fact in Manicaland
indicate that the
majority of children who failed to further their primary
and secondary
education subsequently became young-adult
workers.”
He said children had been socialised to become productive
people in Zimbabwe
since time immemorial. But Guta says child labour now
appears formalised
because of the economic conditions in the
country.
“Traditional structures have collapsed. The concept of
helping one another
in times of need and the idea that any child in the
village is everyone’s
responsibility has died,” he said.
“Older
people are exploiting the plight of these children, especially the
orphaned
and vulnerable, by dangling a day’s ration of food in exchange for
labour.”
Guta added that Fact was collaborating with government
and other NGOs to
launch Child-Led Protection Committees (CLPC) to tackle
the problem.
“The surge in the number of abused children, especially
on farms and
plantations is disturbing.
“Our interaction with
Victim Friendly Units and the Child Friendly courts
indicate that children
in the villages are being abused by elders they know
and trust,” Guta
said.
On the other hand, the expansion of their activities through
CLPCs has been
hamstrung by financial constraints in the farming town of
Headlands.
A child-headed family of four boys who no longer go to
school, said they now
toiled away their days at “maricho” to get seed or
food.
“Maricho” is a Shona term for casual or temporary jobs, usually
carried out
by poor people on farms and in homes to earn, usually very
little, money,
foodstuffs or old clothes.
Innocent Hambira is
quite oblivious of the value of his labour and trades it
for food to get
by.
“This season we were fortunate as we managed to get two plates of
seed maize
from the 30 wheelbarrow loads of river sand we pushed for one of
our
villagers,” said the 10-year-old boy.
The coming of
Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980 saw great strides being made
to improve
access to basic education, which greatly alleviated child labour
exploitation.
But all the gains have been reversed in the last
decade owing to poor
economic policies.
Beam scheme ignores
farm children
An official in the Ministry of Social Services said
children in farming
areas were not adequately catered for in the state-run
Basic Education
Assistance Module (Beam), which he said favoured children in
urban areas.
“Despite Beam offices being re-opened in all the
districts and the
heightened economic recovery, the ordinary farm-dwellers
still suffer,” he
said
“Economic growth in Zimbabwe’s case
thrives on agriculture, yet social
service delivery to the economy’s
backbone is in dire straits,” he said.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 20 March 2011 15:33
BY
PATIENCE NYANGOVE
WHEN the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was
formed in 1999, the party
raised a lot of hope for Zimbabwe’s downtrodden
workers.
The optimism was understandable as Zanu PF had from
1987 run the country as
a one-party state, largely ignoring the plight of
the impoverished
workforce.
MDC had also been formed by people
who had been championing the rights of
workers for years as an offshoot of
the Congress of Zimbabwe Trade Unions
(ZCTU).
But two years after
they were given a chance to be in government, the two
MDC factions are still
to deliver on their promises to restive workers,
especially civil
servants.
The parties came under serious scrutiny last week following
revelations that
ministers, MPs and senators had given themselves huge
salary increases in
January while putting a June deadline to review those of
civil servants.
A minister now earns an average of US$2 300 a month
while civil servants get
less than US$200.
Political analyst Charles
Mangongera described the salary increment as the
“height of arrogance” by
the inclusive government.
He said the salary review had also rendered
government’s often repeated
excuse that Treasury had no capacity to pay
meaningful salaries to civil
servants invalid.
“I don’t have any
kind words for the two MDC formations,” Mangongera said.
“It just shows that
they are now part of the gravy train.
“It used to be a labour-driven
party but by ignoring the plight of
government workers, it shows that they
are no longer standing for the rights
of the worker.”
He said it
did not come as a surprise that the ministers and MPs silently
gave
themselves huge perks as soon after they were elected they started
demanding
luxury cars.
In 2009, MPs from the three parties rejected
locally-assembled vehicles and
demanded US$30 000 each to import luxury
cars.
Zanu PF blames Biti for paying ministers before civil
servants
National Constitutional Assembly Chairman Lovemore Madhuku said
the two MDC
formations were merely showing their true
colours.
“The MDC parties have not sold out the struggle of the poor
but they are
simply showing their true colours,” he said.
“The
time they have spent in government is too long for them to have done
nothing
for the poor.”
Madhuku also believes that Zanu PF had succeeded in
turning the MDC
politicians into capitalists.
John Makumbe, a
University of Zimbabwe political science lecturer said the
two MDC
formations should have contested the awarding of salary increases to
ministers, MPs and Senators before the majority of civil servants got
something.
Makumbe said the MDC factions had now taken a leaf
from Zanu PF on how to
keep the politicians happy while ignoring the plight
of the poor.
“We are not saying civil servants should be paid the
US$2 000 the ministers
are getting but at least award the ministers a fair
wage which the poor will
say is fair, not 10 or 20 times more than what they
are getting,” Makumbe
said.
“It’s like Zanu PF is still running
the country on its own. The ministers of
Finance (Tendai Biti), Public
Service (Eliphas Mukunoweshuro) are all MDC,
how could they be all
rail-roaded by Zanu PF?”
However, MDC deputy spokesperson Ku-rauone
Chihwayi defended his party
saying their ministers, MPs and senators
accepted the increment on the
understanding that Treasury had money to
increase civil servants’ salaries.
“There is no reason why Biti is
not increasing their salaries. We know the
money is there,” he said.
Zanu
PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo said they were surprised that ministers
had
been given such a hefty increment ahead of civil servants and laid all
the
blame on MDC-T.
“Obviously we thought the money would be given to
civil servants first since
the issue has been topical and that Treasury
would chip in with a symbolical
amount, even if the money was not enough,”
Gumbo said.
Nelson Chamisa, the MDC-T spokesman claimed that the
reports about the
salary increases were not true.
This is despite the
fact that The Standard has in its possession some
payslips of
ministers.
Chamisa said as a party they believed that government must
first deal with
the plight of civil servants before looking into the
conditions of service
for members of the executive.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 20 March 2011
15:31
BY TATENDA CHITAGU
MASVINGO — Lake Mutirikwi, formerly
Kyle, the largest inland dam in the
country, is under threat from pollution
due to raw sewage that is spilling
into its tributary, Mushagashe
River.
Environmental watchdogs have warned that if the problem
continues, the
source of drinking water for the city of Masvingo, which also
contributes
65% of irrigation water in the lucrative sugarcane industry in
the Lowveld,
may become unusable.
The water in Mushagashe
River, which feeds into the lake, has turned green
due to raw sewage
spilling into it everyday.
Water hyacinth, a free-floating perennial
plant with thick, glossy round
leaves, inflated leaf stems and very showy
lavender flowers, is fast
multiplying in the river.
Along the
river’s banks, dead fish and other aquatic inhabitants are strewn
around.
Nobody dares to touch the rotting fish. Only eagles feast
on them.
A foul smell buffets over Mucheke Bridge, along the
Masvingo-Beitbridge
road. At a nearby hotel, one cannot run away from the
reek.
Environmental Management Agency (EMA) provincial head Milton
Muusha said
more than eight million litres of raw sewage a year get into the
river,
which eventually feeds into the lake.
“Raw sewage is a
nutrient enhancement in the growth of aquatic weeds like
water
hyacinth.
“This plant leads to depletion of oxygen in water, which
leads to the death
of aquatic life,” Muusha said.
He also warned of a
possible disease outbreak.
“The raw sewage disposal can result in the
outbreak of water-borne diseases.
“The pollutants that are found in
raw sewage also result in rising costs of
potable water treatment,” Muusha
said.
EMA has, for the second time, penalised the local authority for
the
discharge.
Masvingo city council's response
Masvingo
City Council mayor, Alderman Femius Chakabuda, blamed the problem
on a
leaking pipe that passes through Mushagashe River and power outages
that
halt pumping at their main sewer pump at Rujeko high-density
suburb.
“There is a leaking pipe in Rujeko which runs across the
river.
“The pipe can no longer be patched, so we have placed an order
for a new
one," he said.
Chakabuda said he was “unfazed” by the
penalties from EMA because the body
can only survive by penalising local
authorities.
“EMA will continue to raise funds through fines and some
of the fines have
nothing to do with emission. If EMA does not penalise
local authorities, it
will not survive,” said the MDC-T mayor.
If
water hyacinth at the Lake is not controlled, the development would have
a
domino effect on the sugar supplies in the country.
Masvingo’s
tourism potential would also be dented as Lake Mutirikwi is a
tourist
attraction.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 20 March 2011 15:30
BY
KHOLWANI NYATHI
EMBATTLED Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi does not only
harbour ambitions to
rule his country for life but also wants to preside
over the United States
of Africa.
Zimbabwean chiefs, it appears,
were some of the early converts into what has
become one of Africa’s most
brutal dictator’s pet projects.
Even as Gaddafi pounded his
fellow countrymen in a disproportionate show of
force, the African Union on
Tuesday was pushing ahead with the plan.
AU officials met at its
headquarters in Ethiopia on Monday and Tuesday to
discuss the formation of
the Africa Authority, which would replace the AU
Commission and eventually
bring African countries under a single government.
A study of
Gaddafi’s lobby shows that Fortune Charumbira, the president of
Zimbabwe’s
Council of Chiefs is one of the African traditional leaders who
have often
run out of superlatives in describing the Libyan leader’s ideas
whenever he
gets a chance.
Last year in September, Charu-mbira travelled all the
way to the Libyan
capital Tripoli to pledge support to
Gaddafi.
Charumbira was quoted saying Gaddafi was the only African
leader capable of
defending African values and culture, which he said were
being eroded by
Eurocentric leaders.
“Politicians are not owners
of Africa,” Charumbira said in what was called a
highly-charged address to
the Libyan leader.
“Africa is in a development predicament and the
answer to that is in what
you have been fighting for.
“Brother Leader, we
support your idea for a United States of Africa.”
He went on to
describe the AU as a Western parliament.
Gaddafi reacted to
Charumbira’s exaltations by claiming that politics had
destroyed Africa and
that the United States of Africa was the only
alternative.
Africa’s longest serving dictator had gathered 450
African traditional
leaders in Tripoli so that they could sell his ideas of
a united Africa to
their subjects.
Some of the ideas included
advocating for more traditional ways of life and
rallying behind his vision
of a United States of Africa within the shortest
time
possible.
“There is no recorded case in history where a society
developed by
abandoning its culture,” Charumbira, who is also a member of
the Pan-African
Parliament said.
It has emerged that Gaddafi is
far from being a traditionalist, occasionally
hiring half-naked western
women to dance for his clan for huge fees.
Gaddafi has his own model
of democracy, which abhors elections.
He argues in his Green Book,
which he first published in 1976 as a guide for
his leadership, that
elections are not true manifestations of democracy.
He is also
against parliaments and claims Libyans run their own affairs
through the
“People’s Congress.”
Charumbira is a known Zanu PF activist but it is not
clear if President
Robert Mugabe supports Gaddafi’s ambitions to rule
Africa.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 20 March 2011 15:29
GWERU — Council
has resolved to fire its chamber secretary Richard Masinire
seven months
after he was suspended on full benefits for alleged
corruption.
Although town clerk, Daniel Matawu on Friday refused to
comment on the
matter saying he was yet to inform councillors, sources said
the committee
set up to investigate Masinire had found him guilty of three
charges.
He was allegedly found guilty of employing his
friends and misrepresenting
qualifications of employees.
“Of the charges
raised against him, he was only acquitted of threatening to
beat up an
officer after a misunderstanding but found guilty of three other
charges
that had led to his suspension,” the source said.
The committee was
made up of three councillors, an official from the
ministry of Labour and
Social Welfare, a Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
representative, a lawyer
and a provincial magistrate.
Council still needs the blessings of the
Local Government Board to fire the
chamber secretary. Efforts to get a
comment from Masinire were fruitless
last week.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 20 March 2011 15:27
BY KHOLWANI
NYATHI
South African President Jacob Zuma will this week send his
facilitation team
to Zimbabwe to diffuse simmering tensions in the coalition
after heavy
lobbying by Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai returned home on Friday after a whirlwind
regional tour that took
him to Zambia, Mozambique, Swaziland, South Africa
and Botswana to raise the
alarm on the worsening relations in Harare’s unity
government.
The PM said he had told regional leaders that the
coalition government had
been hijacked by “dark and sinister forces” with
the country now sliding
into a police state.
Zuma reacted by
promising to send his three-member facilitation team led by
a senior advisor
Charles Nqakula.
Former minister Mac Maharaj and Zuma’s international
relations advisor
Lindiwe Zulu are the other members of the
team.
“South Africa has been tasked by Sadc to work with the
Zimbabwean parties to
find solutions to their political challenges,” the
South African presidency
said in a statement on
Friday.
“President Zuma will next week send his Zimbabwe facilitation
team to Harare
to meet parties to the Global Political
Agreement.”
The visit by the team also comes ahead of the meeting of
the Sadc troika on
peace and security in Zambia on March 31 to deal with the
Zimbabwe crisis.
Zuma might have been forced to dispatch the trio
after indications that
relations between Zanu PF and MDC-T had broken down,
paralysing the
inclusive government in the process.
“While I was
away in the last four days, it appears the civilian authority
is no longer
in charge and dark and sinister forces have engaged in a
hostile takeover of
running the affairs of the country,” Tsvangirai told
journalists.
An already volatile situation in the inclusive
government was inflamed by
the arrest of Energy and Power Development
minister Elton Mangoma last
Thursday on corruption charges.
On
the same day it was announced that the Supreme Court had nullified the
election of MDC-T chairman Lovemore Moyo as Speaker of
Parliament.
Tsvangirai and Moyo reacted angrily and accused the
police and the judiciary
of being in Zanu PF’s pocket.
Zanu PF apologists
including Tsholotsho North MP Jonathan Moyo called for
the PM’s arrest on
contempt of court charges and there were indications that
the country’s
prosecutions authority was taking the calls seriously.
Zuma team
just facilitators, says analyst
A ban on an MDC-T rally that was
scheduled for Harare yesterday left the
future of the inclusive government
increasingly doubtful.
Brilliant Mhlanga, a Zimbabwean academic based
at the University of
Westminster in the UK said not much should be expected
from Zuma’s team as
they were only there to facilitate
dialogue.
“He merely is sending his teams to facilitate dialogue and
end there,”
Mhlanga said.
“The rest should be left to the
Zimbabweans to decide whether they want
their coalition to collapse or
not.
“Zuma can facilitate dialogue between Zimbabweans and then leave
everything
to them to also decide the fate of their coalition government as
rational
beings.”
Zanu PF has embarked on an aggressive election
campaign that also includes
attempts to force Zimbabweans to sign a
two-million-signature petition
calling for an end to Western
sanctions.
The party is holding its meetings undisturbed while its
opponents face
police bans.
View from the president's
office
Commenting on Tsvangirai’s regional tour, President Robert Mugabe’s
spokesman George Charamba last week said there was nothing outsiders could
do to stop Zanu PF’s electioneering.
“Let him go anywhere he
thinks he can get help, but I can assure you that
the momentum in Zimbabwe
is unstoppable,” Charamba said.
“There is no stopping. We are going
for elections.
“I have no respect for a political leader who
conscripts a regional leader
to douse a fire in his own home. The essence of
politics is to be able to
handle pressure,” he said.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 20 March 2011 15:23
BY NQOBANI
NDLOVU
BULAWAYO — A fight is looming between ex-Zipra and Zanla
fighters over the
exhumation of remains of people buried at Monkey William
Mine in Mt Darwin
as both claim it was their operating area during the
war.
A group of Zipra veterans based in Harare on Saturday said they
were sending
a delegation to assess the situation where mainly ex-Zanla
people have
already exhumed 640 bodies.
War veterans from the two
liberation movements split into two factions after
former Zipra intelligence
supremo Dumiso Dabengwa left Zanu PF to revive
Zapu in 2009.
The
Zipra war veterans said they were not consulted before the controversial
exhumations were conducted.
They said some of the remains could
be of their fallen comrades and Zanu PF
was trying to use them for political
gain.
Zapu said Zanu PF could be trying to hide evidence of the
Gukurahundi
atrocities.
An estimated 20 000 supporters of the
party led by the late Joshua Nkomo
were killed soon after
independence
Meanwhile, Matabeleland South police have denied
claims by Mines and Mining
Development minister Obert Mpofu that another
mass grave had been discovered
at Blanket Mine near Gwanda.
Mpofu was
quoted by the state media saying the grave could contain remains
of people
killed during the liberation war.
“We have been to the mine and checked
but we have not come across any mass
grave,” police spokesman Sergeant
Thabani Mkhwananzi said.
The mine’s general manager, Caxton Mangenzi, the
general manager (GM) of
Blanket Mine added: “There is nothing like
that.
“None of our workers have come across the mass
grave”
Bulawayo based activists said that government had now started
reburying
victims of the liberation war it must also start identifying mass
graves of
Gukurahundi victims.
“Whilst we appreciate the importance
of the armed struggle we are perturbed
by the fact that the government has
deliberately and systematically ignored
thousands of people who were buried
in mass graves in Matabeleland and parts
of the Midlands during the
Gukurahundi massacres,” Dumisani Nkomo, the
spokesperson of the Matabeleland
Civil Society Consortium said in a
statement prepared by the organisation on
Friday.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 20 March 2011 15:21
BY
PATIENCE NYANGOVE
MT DARWIN – The exhumation of remains of an
estimated 2 000 people from a
disused mine in Mt Darwin by war veterans has
aroused suspicions after some
bodies were retrieved while still
intact.
Zanu PF says the bodies were of women, children and
liberation war fighters
killed by Rhodesian forces 32 years ago and thrown
into the Monkey William
mine in Bembera village.
The
exhumations have become yet another grand Zanu PF campaign strategy with
the
state media being used to whip up emotions ahead of elections expected
later
this year.
But journalists who witnessed the exericise on Friday were
shocked to see
bodies that were still intact.
One of the bodies
still had visible hair while others had their clothes
intact. A member of
the team said one of the bodies had fluids dripping from
it.
A
strong stench still permeates the 15-metre deep mine shaft where
journalists
were taken down the tunnel to see the bodies that were still
underground.
A pathologist who spoke on condition of anonymity
said there was no way
there could still be such a stench at the mine, three
decades after the
bodies were allegedly dumped.
“Ordinarily by
this time there should only be bone-remains,” the pathologist
said.
“Although chemicals poured on the bodies could have slowed
down
decomposition, 33 years is a long a time.
“Certainly there
should not be any smell at all from the remains over 30
years after those
people died.”
This has led to some people speculating that although the mine
shafts might
have some remains of freedom fighters, there could also be
corpses of MDC
activists killed during the past violent elections. They also
suspected
victims of Gukurahundi atrocities were among the
corpses.
The Fallen Heroes Trust, which is overseeing the exercise,
on Friday said it
had so far retrieved 640 bodies.
There are four
other open shafts where exhumations would also be done.
George
Rutanhire, a member of Zanu PF politburo and coordinator of the
Fallen
Heroes Trust said the mass graves were first identified in the
80s.
Asked why it had taken so long to exhume the bodies and give the
victims a
decent burial, Rutanhire said they did not have the resources to
carry out
the mammoth task.
“There were no resources, people had
also not organised themselves to carry
out the exhumations,” he
said.
“The reason why we are exhuming them now is because panners
were now
vandalising the mine shafts in search of gold so we had to take
action.”
However, two other war veterans said the mass graves were
discovered in 2001
and 2008.
Zanu PF Senator for Mutate-Mutasa,
Mandy Chimene said the graves were first
discovered in 2001.
The
war veterans also wanted journalists to interview people they had
selected
themselves so that they wouldn’t “give out wrong information.”
School
children, teachers and villagers were forced to go underground and
view the
bodies so that they would appreciate the extent of the brutalities
of the
Rhodesian army.
Zanu PF slogans and songs were the order of the day
during the exhumation
while the cash-strapped ZBC donated protective
clothing and food to the
Fallen Heroes Trust.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 20 March 2011 15:19
BY JENNIFER
DUBE
GOVERMENT will soon roll out a programme to restock
secondary schools with
textbooks after a similar initiative saw 13 million
books being given to
primary schools last year.
Education, Sport,
Arts and Culture minister David Coltart said funding had
already been
obtained for the programme to make sure that students did not
share
textbooks.
The Education Transition Fund (ETF) delivered 13
million text books to 5 575
schools around the country and Coltart said the
pupil/textbook ration was
now 1:1.
Unicef and other donors
bankrolled ETF.
“We want to have 1:1 ratios for all textbooks at
secondary schools as well
so that we can restore excellence in our education
sector,” he said.
Coltart was speaking at an event to commission the
electrification of
classroom blocks at Westlea Primary
School.
The government and the international donor community, led by
Unicef last
year supplied textbooks to over 5 575 schools under the first
phase of the
ETF, a multi-donor funding mechanism designed to mobilise
resources for the
education sector.
Most schools were operating
on a 10:1 pupils to textbook ratio.
The electrification of Westlea
Primary was part of various projects being
initiated by Harare West
constituency MP Jessie Majome under the
Constituency Development Fund.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 20 March 2011 15:18
BY
PATIENCE NYANGOVE
LOVEMORE Moyo (pictured), the dethroned Speaker of
Parliament has
threatened to go to court to fight for the right to revert to
being MP for
Matobo North.
Moyo’s election as Zimbabwe’s first Speaker of
Parliament on a non-Zanu PF
ticket was nullified by the Supreme Court a
fortnight ago following a
challenge by Tsholotsho North MP Jonathan Moyo of
Zanu PF.
Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma was quoted in the state
media last week
saying the MDC-T chairman was now an “ordinary member of the
public”.
But his lawyers on Wednesday wrote to Zvoma warning that
they would be
forced to resort to the courts for a declaratory order
clarifying the
position that Moyo remains an MP.
“It must be
stated that our client never formally resigned from his position
of Member
of Parliament for the Matobo North constituency,” wrote Moyo’s
lawyer, Chris
Mhike.
“The vacancy in his constituency arose only as the result of
the provisions
of the law, not resignation.
“From the foregoing, it is
clear that the status quo should be immediately
and automatically restored
to reflect the position that existed just before
the election of our client
to the position of Speaker of Parliament of
Zimbabwe.”
Zvoma had
been given up to Thursday to respond to the demands before the
matter could
be taken to court.
Mhike yesterday said they were yet to get a
response and were now likely to
approach the courts this
week.
According to state media reports yesterday, Attorney General
Johannes Tomana
wrote to Zvoma advising that in terms of the law, Moyo must
get his seat
back immediately.
Zvoma, who could not be reached
for comment, was quoted as saying he was
still studying the
judgement.
MDC-T has said Moyo remains their candidate for the
position while MDC wants
Paul Themba Nyathi to have another shot at the
post.
Moyo beat Nyathi by a narrow margin in 2008 after some MDC MPs
defied their
parties to vote with MDC-T.
The fight for the post
has reportedly divided Zanu PF where over seven
candidates are jostling for
the post with the party’s chairman Simon Khaya
Moyo said to be the leading
contender.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 20 March 2011 15:18
GUTU — Information
Communication Technology minister Nelson Chamisa said
President Robert
Mugabe is not different from Rhodesian rebel Prime Minister
Ian
Smith.
Chamisa made the remarks on Friday at Tsvangirai’s village in
Gutu South
constituency during the burial of an MDC-T activist who allegedly
died of
internal injuries after he was attacked by Zanu PF
youths.
Chamunorwa Choke, who was allegedly beaten for two
days at a Zanu PF base at
Makwirivindi Township on June 20 2008, died
recently at the age of 33.
MDC-T said he never recovered from the
injuries. The party said he became
the ninth MDC member in Masvingo to die
of internal injuries associated with
the 2008 violence.
“Smith
and Zanu PF violence is just the same,” said Chamisa, who is also the
MDC-T
spokesman.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 20 March 2011 15:42
In what circumstances is
intervention in a political crisis unfolding in a
sovereign country
justified? At face value such intervention is never
justifiable. But
situations differ: when huge civilian casualties, as is the
case in Libya
today, seem inevitable the world has no choice but to
intervene.
Zimbabwe has intervened in two major conflicts in the
southern African
region in the past 30 years. When the Frelimo government of
Samora Machel
was tottering on the brink of collapse under the onslaught of
the rebel
Renamo guerrilla war, Zimbabwe intervened and saved the
day.
There were two main reasons why intervention was
inevitable. First, Zimbabwe
as a landlocked country needed a safe passage to
the Indian Ocean. At first
the pretext was to go into Mozambique to
safeguard the Beira Corridor. This
was Zimbabwe’s lifeline to the sea
through which it could import vital
commodities, especially fuel. Zimbabwe,
whose economy was the most robust in
the region outside South Africa was
also a big exporter of various products,
both industrial and agriculture
based.
The second reason was that Renamo was seen as an apartheid
backed outfit
that sought to reverse the tide of decolonisation that had
swept the whole
region except for South Africa and Namibia. Zimbabwe feared
that if Renamo
won in Mozambique the next target for the apartheid regime
might as well be
Zimbabwe itself.
So, in Mozambique Zimbabwe’s
intervention was both economic and
nationalistic.
In August 1998
Zimbabwe plu-nged into what was variously dubbed “The Second
Congo War”,
“Africa’s World War” or “The Great War of Africa”. Zimbabwe
committed its
troops after an Organisation of African Unity (OAU) resolution
“preventing
the deposing of governments by military means”.
Ironically the
government of Laurent Desire Kabila had come into power
through military
means. Its ragtag guerrilla outfit, the banyamulenge
prevailed over
strongman Mobutu Sese Seko’s corrupt and disorganised army.
Historians say
the DRC war was the largest war in modern African history. It
directly
involved eight African nations, as well as about 25 armed groups.
By 2008
the war and its aftermath had killed 5,4 million people, mostly from
disease
and starvation, making the war the deadliest conflict worldwide
since World
War II. Millions more were displaced from their homes or sought
asylum in
neighbouring countries.
Instead of saving civilians, the number of
casualties shows the opposite
happened.
After the war that lasted
until July 2003 Zimbabwe was left the worse for
wear. The country did not
have any substantial economic interests in the DRC
although it hoped to do
lots of business once the natural-resources-rich
country was rid of the
insurgents.
But that did not come to pass as Zimbabwe’s efforts
to penetrate that
country’s business were hampered by bureaucratic red tape.
However, a few
individuals are reported to have benefitted immensely through
the underhand
mining of diamonds and cobalt.
But was Zimbabwe’s
intervention justified? Commentators argued that it was
indefensible on the
grounds that Zimbabwean troops were committed in the DRC
conflict by
President Robert Mugabe without the authority of Parliament nor
the
authority of or endorsement by Cabinet. In terms of Section 96 of the
Zimbabwean Constitution, “the President may declare war on a foreign state
carrying out acts prejudicial to the security of Zimbabwe”. The situation in
the DRC did not fall into this category.
The DRC war and the
Black Friday of 1997 are the two most important blunders
that destroyed
Zimbabwe’s once thriving economy and the effects are still
being felt today.
On that Friday Mugabe had awarded 50 000 veterans of the
1970s liberation
war huge amounts of unbudgeted for money as pensions.
In another form
of intervention, Zimbabwe keeps contingents of its police in
different parts
of the world as UN peacekeeping forces. This is intervention
aimed at
protecting civilians.
The official position in Zimbabwe regarding UN
intervention in Libya is that
it is not justified and is a fulfillment of a
“regime change agenda”.
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is arguably Mugabe’s
greatest ally on the continent.
He has come in handy on several occasions
when Zimbabwe has run out of fuel.
He has also helped Zanu PF
financially when it was cash-strapped. But what
has necessitated the
intervention is that Gaddafi has disproportionately
cracked down on peaceful
civilians using dogs of war. Like in Egypt and
Tunisia, members of his
police force and the military had joined civilians
in calling for democracy.
These are the people who have only put up a fight
when the mercenaries began
to corner them.
So the UN resolution that authorised military force
did so only to protect
civilians from attacks by Gaddafi’s
troops.
According to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the decision
is historic in
the sense that for the first time, the UN Security Council
has authorised
measures specifically to protect civilians under Chapter 7 of
the UN
Charter, making the measures militarily enforceable.
Ban
Ki-moon said the council’s resolution, “affirms, clearly and
unequivocally,
the international community’s determination to fulfill its
responsibility to
protect civilians from violence perpetrated upon them by
their own
government.”
Regrettably the UN Security Council did not come up with
a similar
resolution on Zimbabwe in the early-to-middle 1980s when the
government was
butchering thousands of people in Matabeleland and the
Midlands provinces
during an operation notoriously known as the
gukurahundi.
It is said 20 000 lives perished during the period.
President Mugabe was
still the darling of the West and was being pampered
with a superfluity of
honorary doctorates. By looking the other side these
countries were
complicity in this crime against humanity which has now been
classified as
genocide.
In 2008, both Sadc and the AU had to
intervene in Zimbabwe when it became
clear that the political violence
visited upon innocent civilians by the
Zanu PF regime using state apparatus
was about to spin out of control. That
intervention gave us the GNU which
had brought a semblance of peace in the
country. The GNU is again under
threat because of Zanu PF’s vindictiveness,
calling for a more interested
intervention by the pan-African bodies, if not
the UN itself.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 20 March 2011 15:41
BY MILES
TENDI
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has recently been engaged
in a regional
tour to draw attention to political developments in Zimbabwe
and lobby for
Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc) leaders’ support
before a
scheduled troika meeting. Some of the usual suspects in the
so-called
independent media, civil society and political opposition have
lauded his
“diplomatic offensive”, which has taken him to Zambia, Swaziland
and
Botswana, among other places. But close scrutiny of the democratic
credentials of the leaders Tsvangirai has been lobbying casts doubt about
the effectiveness of this regional tour.
Zambian President Rupiah
Banda and chairperson of the Sadc Organ on
Politics, Defence and Security
Co-operation is presently locked in the fight
of his political career, as he
battles opposition forces ahead of what is
likely to be a close presidential
election, which is due by September.
The democratic tactics Banda has
employed against his main opposition
challenger Michael Sata are to
intimidate and discredit his political rival.
Zambia’s security officials
have detained Sata, seized a number of his
properties and charged him with
making a fraudulent transaction through the
Finance Bank, despite lacking
credible evidence.
Moreover there is lingering suspicion in Zambia
that the 2008 presidential
election was rigged by the Electoral Commission
of Zambia (ECZ) to ensure
Banda’s victory.
Even in southern
Africa’s so-called jewel of democratic governance —
Botswana — the trends
are not promising.
2011 marks 45 years of power for President Ian
Khama’s BDP party. So
dominant has the BDP been it ranks as Southern
Africa’s foremost
single-party political system. Perniciously, since Khama,
a former military
general, took over the presidency in 2008 he has
increasingly militarised
the Botswana state. A number of key state
appointments have gone to retired
military personnel. The vice presidency,
along with the defence, justice and
wildlife ministries have all gone to
retired military officers.
The heads of the Central Transport
Organisation (CTO) and Prison Services,
and the general manager of Botswana
Television (BTV) are former military
officers. Khama’s cabal of closest
advisors also contains figures with a
military background. Indeed one of the
reasons some BDP members defected to
form a new opposition BMD party in 2010
is disgruntlement with Khama’s
commandist style of governance, which extols
discipline above anything else.
King Mswati III is Africa’s last
remaining absolute monarchy. The royal
family controls a significant portion
of the economy through holdings in
various private companies. Press freedom
faces curtailments, opposition
parties are banned and the judiciary is
subject to royal interference.
Significantly, liberation parties
continue to foster closer ties through
regional organisations such as Sadc
and former liberation movement summits.
Namibia’s Swapo party, which only
last week denounced agents of regime
change in southern Africa, will host
South Africa’s ANC, Mozambique’s
Frelimo, Tanzania’s CCM and Zanu PF at a
conference for former regional
liberation movements in July
2011.
There are differences between Frelimo, CCM, Swapo, ANC, Zanu PF
and Angola’s
Mpla but the relationships between them, forged over decades,
have tended to
outweigh whatever reservations they may have about each
other’s respective
domestic political conduct.
The MDC’s record
in the power-sharing government is one of a party that has
lost touch with
the popular grievances it once championed. Since 2009 they
have been busy
lapping up the material and financial perks of being in
government and
engaging in all manner of corruption: farms, cars,
businesses, houses and
financial kickbacks comprise some MDC members’
ill-gotten
wealth.
Moreover the MDC has also been implicated in some of the
violence that has
gripped Zimbabwe of late. Evidence of this can be obtained
from the Joint
Monitoring and Implementation Committee’s (Jomic) inter-party
committees,
which are tackling political violence in Zimbabwe from district
to cell
level.
For those who have treated the MDC critically
since 1999, the party’s resort
to violence would come as no surprise because
it has been plagued by
internal violence between rivals since that time.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 20 March 2011
15:40
The Zimbabwe Republic Police’s partisanship was badly exposed last
week when
they were faced with two parties to the inclusive government
intending to
hold rallies on the same day.
The ZRP denied the
MDC-T permission to hold a single rally in Harare, but
allowed Zanu PF to
hold innumerable anti-sanction rallies across the
country.
The police gave flimsy reasons for denying the
MDC-T permission to hold a
rally at Glamis Arena.
They said Zanu
PF had already booked the venue and therefore it would be
inappropriate for
the MDC-T to have their meeting there. The police also
cited their lack of
manpower to cover political parties’ meetings.
Earlier, the MDC-T had
tried to secure permission to hold their rally at
Zimbabwe Grounds in
Highfield but were confronted with claims that this
venue had been booked
for the whole year by Zanu PF. Really? — All of a
sudden?
The
police’s determination to stop MDC-T from holding meetings is not only
illegal but is also a blatant reflection of the way the force has been
politicised.
Why would a professional body stop the Prime
Minister from holding a rally,
and at the same time, allow the President’s
party carte blanche to hold
dozens of rallies on the same
day?
This behaviour removes any pretence of the force being an
impartial body
that upholds its constitutional mandate of maintaining law
and order in
Zimbabwe.
And more worrying is the fact that by each
day, the police are increasingly
openly aligning themselves with Zanu
PF.
Yesterday police details simply watched as Zanu PF youths beat up
people who
turned up for the MDC-T’s rally at Glamis Arena, unaware that it
had been
banned.
Passers-by were also not spared with the
youths. Again during the past two
weeks, the police, turning a blind eye to
Zanu PF officials’ transgressions,
have arrested MDC-T officials at will on
mainly trumped-up charges.
It is this abdication of their
constitutional mandate that makes the police
untrustworthy in the eyes of
many right-thinking Zimbabweans.