http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Lance
Guma
28 March 2012
Mugabe’s regime has over the years deployed serving
and retired soldiers
into non-military structures, to ensure Mugabe remains
in power. Today SW
Radio Africa looks at some of these individuals in both
the army and Central
Intelligence Organisation (CIO) who have helped keep
Mugabe in power.
In November 2010 Air Vice-Marshal Henry Muchena from the
Air Force of
Zimbabwe was sent to the ZANU PF headquarters in Harare and
assigned to lead
a team of 300 army officers deployed around the country to
help Mugabe’s
party rebuild its collapsed structures. Assisting him was CIO
Internal
Director Sydney Nyanhongo.
Recently promoted Major-General
Douglas Nyikayaramba is the most vocal of
the senior soldiers used by
Mugabe’s regime. Not only has Nyikayaramba been
implicated in rhino poaching
and partisan food distribution, he has also
helped rig elections for Mugabe,
especially the 2002 presidential elections
when he was the Chief Executive
Officer of the then Electoral Supervisory
Commission.
Lovemore
Chipunza Sekeramayi, the current Chief Elections Officer in the
Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission is a former CIO. The two directors under him,
Utoile
Silaigwana (Operations) and Notayi Mutemasango (Administration and
Finance),
are former soldiers fiercely loyal to Mugabe. Silaingwana is
responsible for
polling, training, election logistics, voter education and
public
relations.
Retired Brigadier General George Chiweshe was in May 2011
unilaterally
appointed by Mugabe as the new High Court Judge President.
Chiweshe is the
former chairperson of the discredited Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission, that
kept Mugabe in power in 2008 by withholding election
results for a month
while they massaged the figures to force a presidential
run-off, which
Tsvangirai was forced to boycott due to the
violence.
Sobuza Gula-Ndebele, a former colonel in the army, was also at
one time
chairperson of the Electoral Supervisory Commission charged with
the running
the 2002 presidential election. Gula-Ndebele was later appointed
Attorney-General, a position he held until 2008. Ndebele was fired after
being accused of ‘corruptly assuring’ then fugitive banker James Mushore
that he would not be prosecuted. Others blamed ZANU PF infighting for his
demise.
Watch out for Part 2 tomorrow….
http://www.osisa.org/
By Alan Wallis | 28 March 2012
The landmark
Zimbabwe torture case brought by the Southern Africa Litigation
Centre
(SALC) and the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (ZEF) began in earnest in the
North
Gauteng High Court on Tuesday March 27th after a one-day postponement
caused
by the state's last-minute change of counsel, following the filing of
sensational new testimony from the head of South Africa's Priortiy Crimes
Unit.
Wim Trengove SC, appearing for SALC and ZEF, began the hearing
by noting
that it was common cause between the parties that crimes against
humanity
had been committed in Zimbabwe and that that there had been a
collapse of
the rule of law there. He added that the prohibition against
torture is one
of South Africa’s fundamental constitutional values, as
recognised by the
Supreme Court of Appeal, and that it is a crime that all
states are required
to prosecute.
He then proceeded to distill SALC’s
case into three issues of law, and five
grounds for review.
On the
law, the issues were: the applicant’s standing; the applicability of
the
principle of legality to the case; and the applicability of the
Promotion of
Administration of Justice Act (PAJA) to the case. The five
grounds for
review were: when the respondents say they had no power to
investigate
international crimes committed in Zimbabwe; when they say they
have no duty
to investigate; when they say that SALC’s dossier contains
insufficient
evidence to trigger an obligation to investigate; when they say
they
couldn’t gather evidence themselves in Zimbabwe this was not an excuse
to
not do such investigation as they could; and when the respondents say
that
an investigation would negatively impact on the relationship between
Zimbabwe and South Africa they demonstrate that they took into account
wholly irrelevant considerations in making their decision.
On the
issue of standing, the law is clear. A slew of cases — from Ferreira
to
Biowatch — support the proposition that NGOs, which are dedicated to
constitutional values and are litigating in the public interest for those
constitutional values to be upheld, should not be denied standing. In
addition, the respondents concede in their papers that SALC has an interest
in having a proper decision made and having conceded that interest cannot
now contest itsstanding.
One of the best quips of the day was made by
Judge Fabricius at this point,
who noted that torture victims have no voice
in Zimbabwe; on the respondents’
version, they would have no voice in South
Africa either and the applicants
too would be denied a voice.
Judge
Fabricius appeared to accept that the principle of legality applied to
the
case, indicating to Wim Trengove that there was no need to address him
on
this point.
On the applicability of PAJA to the respondents’ decision,
Trengove referred
to a number of cases indicating that the question at issue
is whether the
decision, even if only provisional or preliminary, has an
effect and that
with applications — as with SALC’s submission of the dossier
to the
PCLU/NPA — it is enough that the decision, which is subject to
review,
determines rights and not that it necessarily violates
rights.
It was submitted to the court that the respondents’ position that
they did
not have the power to investigate was erroneous. They had both the
power and
duty to do so in terms of the relevant applicable legislation.
South Africa’s
ICC Act is very clear that international crimes contained in
the Rome
Statute — genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes — are
crimes under
SA law whether committed in SA or beyond its borders. At the
time SALC
submitted its dossier to the PCLU/NPA, the Scorpions were in
existence
within the NPA and had investigative powers as would have allowed
them to
pursue the case. At the very least, the PCLU/NPA might have
requested that
the police investigate. In essence this was the
recommendation made by Anton
Ackermann, head of the PCLU, and evidenced in
his afidavit admitted to court
yesterday when he disclosed that he
recommended to his superiors within the
NPA that an investigation be
initiated.
As to the sufficiency of the dossier, Ackermann’s views that
dossier should
be investigated must hold sway. Furthermore, supporting
affidavits which the
respondents put up appear to conflict: with some
criticising the dossier for
containing insufficient detail; others for too
much. The respondents in
their heads also appeared to misunderstand the
ICC’s jurisprudence on the
different thresholds applicable to different
stages of
investigation/prosecution. For an investigation to be initiated it
is
sufficient that there is ‘reasonable suspicion’ and in their papers
respondents appear to have conceded that SALC’s dossier met this
standard.
The respondents could also not rely on the likelihood that they
themselves
would be unable to gather evidence in Zimbabwe as a reason not to
investigate. They could have undertaken other investigation, such as
re-interviewing victims of the torture.
Respondents also sought to
rely on the potential prejudice the investigation
might cause for
SA/Zimbabwean relations as a reason not to proceed with
investigation. One
particular potential prejudice identified by the
respondents included that
SA might one day lose its chance to chair the SADC
police chiefs forum on
the basis of this investigation. Applicants’ counsel
underlined that the
argument was not that foreign policy considerations
should never be a
consideration. But in this case, those who would be
‘miffed; are the
torturers or those complicit in the torture'.
Trengove referred to
authoritative Canadian jurisprudence to the effect that
comity, while
important, must end where international crime begins.
http://www.iol.co.za/
March 28 2012 at 01:53pm
By ZELDA
VENTER
The NPA has been accused of failing in its duty to probe
and prosecute
crimes against humanity committed in Zimbabwe.
The
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) failed in its duty to investigate
and
prosecute crimes against humanity committed in Zimbabwe, and former head
of
the NPA Mokotedi Mpshe “unlawfully passed the buck” in this regard.
This
was the argument of advocate Wim Trengove SC in the Pretoria High Court
application by the Southern African Human Rights Litigation Centre Trust
(Salc) and the Zimbabwe Exiles’ Forum (ZEF).
They are asking Judge
Hans Fabricius to review and set aside the decision by
the NPA and the SAPS
not to investigate Zimbabwean officials allegedly
linked to acts of
torture.
The application stems from an event in March 2007 when the
Zimbabwean
police, under orders of the ruling Zanu-PF, raided the
headquarters of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC).
More than 100 people were arrested and taken into custody at the
time and
detained for several days.
It is claimed they were severely
tortured during that time.
In response to the raid, Salc compiled a
dossier relating to the events
which was handed to the NPA.
Salc felt
that in light of the collapse of the rule of law in Zimbabwe and
because SA
was legally required to investigate war crimes and crimes against
humanity –
regardless of whether or not these atrocities were committed in
SA – those
people responsible should be held accountable.
The dossier was handed to
the head of the NPA’s Priority Crimes Litigation
Unit, advocate Anton
Ackermann SC. It contained the names of the Zimbabwean
officials responsible
for the raid and torture as well as details of the
incident.
Salc’s
argument before court is based on the contention that SA is obliged,
in
terms of the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court Act (ICC
Act),
to investigate these crimes.
It is based on the fact that SA is a party
to the Rome Statute.
Although the NPA did ask the police to investigate,
this request was refused
and the matter was left there.
Trengove told
the court on Tuesday that the NPA failed in its duty by
refusing to
investigate the matter.
“The case is not about the prosecutorial
discretion of the NPA. We accept
that a prosecuting authority can, for a
number of reasons, decide not to
prosecute. But we are not there yet. The
State failed to investigate the
matter,” he said.
Trengove said that
after the police refused to investigate the matter, Mpshe
should have
referred the dossier to the Scorpions.
“He unlawfully passed the buck. It
is now impossible to prosecute as there
is no investigation.”
The
advocate told the court that Mpshe was the NPA head at the time and thus
the
boss of the Scorpions.
He said the NPA had a formidable investigation
unit under its noses with a
lot of power to investigate. He questioned why
this was not done.
Police commissioner Tim Williams at the time gave a
number of reasons for
refusing to investigate, which included that the SAPS
did not have the power
to investigate international crimes committed in
Zimbabwe and that they did
not have a duty to investigate these crimes, as
they did not occur on SA
soil.
Another reason forwarded was that any
such investigation would negatively
affect SA’s relations with the
Zimbabwean government.
Trengove said these reasons did not hold water, as
SA had a duty to
investigate under the ICC Act, regardless of who the
victims of the torture
were.
Judge Fabricius remarked: “The victims
in Zimbabwe have no voice there and
the respondent’s (the NPA) argument is
they have no voice here.”
Trengove said the excuse of the respondents was
simply that they had no
power to act, which they in fact did
have.
The police and NPA are expected to deliver their arguments later
this week.
Pretoria News
By Alex Bell
28
March 2012
A number of Zimbabwean torture victims joined scores of exiled nationals in South Africa this week, calling for justice for the hardships they faced back home.
The group has been protesting outside the Pretoria High Court where a landmark legal challenge is being heard. The case is urging South African authorities to investigate and prosecute high level Zimbabwean officials accused of crimes against humanity, as part of their international legal obligations.
The case was filed by the Southern African Litigation Centre (SALC) and the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum and is based on a decision by South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the police not to investigate the torture of MDC members in 2007.
These details were contained in a dossier submitted by SALC and the Exiles Forum to the NPA and the police in 2008. This week’s court challenge will urge this investigation to happen, because South Africa is a signatory to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Torture survivors and other exiled Zimbabweans meanwhile have for the past three days gathered to show their support for the case, wearing t-shirts with the slogan: ‘Yes to justice and No to torture’. Some members of the group wore shackles on their ankles and handcuffs on their wrists, while others wore tape over their mouths.
Gabriel Shumba, the head of the Exiles Forum and a man who is also a torture survivor, joined the protesters this week. He told SW Radio Africa that he was very moved by the reaction.
“People were singing and dancing and chanting against the impunity in Zimbabwe. It was a signal moment for me and I really hope that South Africa will heed the calls for justice,” Shumba said.
The case continued Wednesday with more arguments from the NPA and police over its decision not to investigate. The lawyer representing the police even went so far as to argue that if the case is successful, it would be an exercise in futility.
Lawyers representing SALC and the Exiles Forum then argued that the NPA and the police had relegated the matter to one of ‘unimportance’ and did not act as a responsible signatory to the ICC.
The judge presiding over the matter was also critical of the state’s arguments that its political considerations outweigh its legal obligations, stating that he would “lift up his hands in horror” if crimes against humanity go unpunished because states care more for their political relations.
The case will continue on Thursday.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By
Tererai Karimakwenda
28 March 2012
The violent gang of ZANU PF youths
known as Chipangano have reportedly taken
over many council properties in
Harare and are now collecting huge sums of
money illegally from vendors and
minibus drivers. According to NewsDay
newspaper, Chipangano is practically
running a “parallel Council”.
The gang started a few years ago as young
hired guns that did the dirty work
for politicians in Mbare during
elections. But with impunity and support
from police and top party
officials, they ventured into illegal businesses
like collecting fees from
kombi drivers and market vendors in Harare.
It has now been reported that
Chipangano has overtaken Harare’s City Council
and are illegally collecting
large sums of money from revenue sources that
the council has authority
over.
A council official reportedly admitted to paying Chipangano for
water in
buildings they had illegally taken over. Newsday reported that
Charles
Nyatsuro, who heads the Council’s Housing and Community Services
Committee,
described the situation in Harare as “chaos”.
George
Makoni from the Centre for Community Development Zimbabwe told SW
Radio
Africa that the gang’s influence has spread from Mbare to other parts
of the
capital, including Mabvuku, Epworth and Chitungwiza.
“They have now set
up structures in other cities, calling themselves
Chipangano Chinhoyi,
Chipangano Karoi and they are terrorising people willy
nilly. These people
are sustained by violence and have nothing else to offer
the electorate,”
Makoni said.
The gang’s grip on Harare’s Mbare high density suburb and
the violence they
unleashed on local residents last year, caused the
influential Bill Gates
Foundation to suspend a development project they were
funding, which would
have helped the entire community.
There is
consensus that top ZANU PF officials benefitted financially from
Chipangano’s illegal activities, but the gang has become more independent as
their influence grows and politicians are now said to fear
them.
According to NewsDay, Mbare MP Piniel Denga admitted that he had
been barred
from his constituency by the gang, which he said was running a
“parallel
council”.
http://www.voanews.com/
27 March
2012
Secretary general Raymond Majongwe of the Progressive Teachers
Union says
there is a loophole in the system allowing vendors to access the
textbooks,
which is a shame as school children are again missing out on a
proper
education.
Tatenda Gumbo |
Washington
"Transporters were only paid once confirmation of
receipt of the delivery of
all books was provided by each school principal.
There is therefore no
possibility of books being diverted prior to delivery
to the school," said
the statement signed by Minister David
Coltart
Zimbabwe's Ministry of Education has launched an investigation
after
teachers union organizations reportedly confiscated from street
vendors
textbooks that were donated by the United Nations Children Fund but
soon
found their way onto the streets.
The textbooks for both primary
and secondary schools were donated under the
Education Transition Fund, set
up in forging the revitalisation of the
education sector.
The books
that normally retail from $12 to $20 were selling on the streets
for $7 to
$10 dollars each.
The Ministry of Education said in a statement it had
transported the
textbooks to the schools with the help of UNICEF with each
school receiving
steel cabinets to guard against theft, maintaining any sale
of text books by
vendors is at a small scale and will be confined to the
purchase by a small
number of non-registered or informal
schools
"Transporters were only paid once confirmation of receipt of the
delivery of
all books was provided by each school principal. There is
therefore no
possibility of books being diverted prior to delivery to the
school," said
the statement signed by Minister David Coltart, "upon
receipt, all school
authorities were instructed to ensure appropriate
stamping and
identification of the books as a measure to keep the books
protected from
sales."
The ministry along with UNICEF in the first
phase of the ETF distributed
more than 22 million textbooks to all primary
and secondary schools in
Zimbabwe, including English, Mathematics, Shona,
Ndebele, and Geography
books, shifting the pupil textbook ratio from a
crippling 10:1 to 1:1.
Secretary general Raymond Majongwe of the
Progressive Teachers Union says
there is a loophole in the system allowing
vendors to access the textbooks.
He told reporter Tatenda Gumbo it’s a shame
school children are again
missing out on a proper education.
"We are
now getting reports that certain schools never received certain
books, there
are others that have been lost through the school structure,
there are some
that have been stolen, there are others coming from
uncertified sources, but
in all it is corruption," said Majongwe
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom,
through its Department of International
Development, today allocated nearly
$38 million to the second phase of the
Education Transition
Fund.
The funds will go towards accelerating the revitalization of the
education
sector and giving a second learning chance to school drop-outs,
especially
girls who have failed to proceed to secondary school.
Mar 28, 1:05 PM EDT
By GILLIAN
GOTORA
Associated Press
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- Zimbabwe is
considering cutting back on hangings
according to a proposed new
constitution, reserving the death penalty for
only extreme cases of
aggravated murder, a government official said
Wednesday.
Constitutional Affairs Minister Eric Matinenga said only
killers who commit
"gratuitous violence to the extent it becomes sickening"
will be hanged.
In a compromise between human rights groups and
traditional supporters of
capital punishment, it will be up to judges to
rule on the level of violence
used.
Matinenga told The Associated
Press that despite calls for its abolition,
the death penalty cannot be
"totally scrapped because there are murders that
make you shudder and ask:
What was the person thinking?"
Just this month a man was sentenced to
death for relentlessly hunting down
his teenage sister-in-law, assaulting
her, strangling her to death and
throwing her mangled body down a mine shaft
in what the court ruled was
brutality with "actual intent."
In
another case, an off-duty soldier gunned down five people he accused of
taunting him in a bar.
The fate of at least 61 prisoners on death row
will be considered on
individual merits if the measure is adopted in a
constitutional referendum
that may be held in September, he
said.
Rights groups argue every criminal killing is extreme violence and
say it
will be open to wide interpretations in courts asked to differentiate
between axing deaths in village disputes, anger-fueled shootings and
cold-blooded, premeditated murder.
No executions have been carried
out under the three-year old coalition
government. Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai's former opposition Movement
for Democratic Change party has
voiced its disapproval of hanging.
Execution orders must be signed by the
coalition's co-ministers of justice
and approved by President Robert Mugabe
and Tsvangirai.
Executions were suspended for a decade after Mugabe met
with Pope John Paul
II in 1988. During the moratorium, scores of inmates'
death sentences were
commuted to life imprisonment on grounds that they
suffered inhumane mental
torment awaiting execution.
Matinenga said
laws already exist for prisoners to appeal for a death
sentence to be
altered to a life sentence.
In 2010, the justice ministry said it was
looking for a new hangman.
The last executioner retired after carrying
out his last execution in 2004,
saying he was struggling with his conscience
in the face of superstitious
local custom and beliefs in avenging ancestral
spirits. After that,
authorities reportedly sought a foreign executioner
from Asia.
Human rights groups in 2010 cited a Supreme Court plea by a
death row inmate
who said he and other convicted killers were "losing their
minds" in
uncertainty over when jailers would call them for hangings at dawn
on
gallows of scaffolding and wood dating from the colonial
era.
Official records show 78 people have been executed in Zimbabwe since
the
African country won independence from Britain in 1980.
http://www.voanews.com
28 March
2012
A new report by the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition said
lawmakers Piniel Denga
for Mbare and Southerton’s Gift Chimanikire, are the
worst affected by
Chipangano's activities in Harare
Jonga Kandemiiri
| Washington
A youth group linked to Zimbabwe President Robert
Mugabe's ZANU-PF party has
banned lawmakers from the MDC formation of Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
from visiting their constituencies, creating
no-go areas civic groups say
are affecting developmental projects.
A
new report by the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition said lawmakers Piniel Denga
for Mbare and Southerton’s Gift Chimanikire, are the worst affected by
Chipangano's activities in Harare.
Denga confirmed the development
adding the militia group, allegedly led by
ZANU-PF Harare province’s youth
chairman Jim Kunaka, was also collecting
revenue from Harare City Council’s
markets and stalls, depriving the local
authority of thousands of
dollars.
On Tuesday the city's housing committee chairman, Charles
Nyatsuro, told the
Newsday that Chipangano was causing chaos in the capital,
adding it has
become “more powerful than the council and the
police”.
The group was said to have invaded parking spaces in the capital
Monday,
taking over from Easipark, a company currently running the business
on
behalf of the council.
Denga told VOA's Jonga Kandemiiri that he
has raised the Chipangano issue
with the parliamentary committee on defense
and home affairs in an effort to
find ways of containing the
gang.
But ZANU-PF's Jim Kunaka rubbishes the allegations by Denga and the
Crisis
in Zimbabwe Coalition. He says the MDC is not telling the truth.
http://www.voanews.com/
27 March
2012
The committee has in the past criticized the manner in which the
government
has handled the mining and marketing of Marange diamonds and
expressed
concern over the way some foreign investors, especially those from
Asia,
were not respecting Zimbabwe’s labor laws
Violet Gonda |
Washington
Zimbabwean lawmakers have finally been granted permission
to visit the
controversial Marange diamond fields for the first time since
mining
operations in the east of the country began in 2009.
Chairman
Edward Chindori Chininga of the parliamentary mines committee
declined to
give pre-tour details, but confirmed the legislators had finally
been
cleared to go to Marange to familiarize themselves with the joint
venture
mining operations in the fields.
The committee has in the past criticized
the manner in which the government
has handled the mining and marketing of
Marange diamonds and expressed
concern over the way some foreign investors,
especially those from Asia,
were not respecting Zimbabwe’s labor
laws.
Chininga told VOA reporter Violet Gonda the committee is going on a
fact-finding mission, including conducting a follow-up investigation into
diamond operations in the area.
“We are doing an oversight role that
is all. We are going to Chiadzwa to see
how the operations are going and
figure out what is going on in terms of
security; what is happening in terms
of operations and how they are selling
the diamonds,” said
Chininga.
Director Farai Maguwu of the Center for Research and
Development said the
tour to Marange by the mines committee is long overdue,
adding it’s a
welcome development.
“In fact they should have gone
even ahead of civil society. They are the
legislative body of government and
they represent the Zimbabwean people,”said
Maguwu. “They must be answerable
to the people but how can they have answers
to things they do not know. It
must not be a token but a routine exercise.”
Meanwhile, Maguwu said he
feared that diamond mining operations in Marange
may undermine the work of
the inclusive government, democratic transition
and sustainable economic
development in the country.
He said many are concerned that an Israeli
pilot was arrested recently at
the Harare International Airport trying to
smuggle out of Zimbabwe 1,300
pieces of diamonds worth an estimated $2,4
million.
Maguwu said it was shocking that despite committing such a
serious crime the
Israeli national was granted bail of only $5,000 and
remanded out of
custody.
He questioned how the Israel pilot was able
to access such a large
consignment of diamonds from an area that has a water
tight security system.
Maguwu said this raises a lot of questions on the
implementation of the
Kimberly Process Certification Scheme's minimum
standards in Zimbabwe.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tichaona Sibanda
28 March
2012
The food situation in the country’s prisons has once again become a
crisis
and inmates are surviving on just sadza and groundnuts, the deputy
Minister
of Justice has revealed.
Senator Obert Gutu told SW Radio
Africa on Wednesday that he was
disheartened to get first hand reports of
the desperate food situation
inside the prisons.
The deputy Minister
was at Chikurubi Maximum Security prison where he was
visiting the MDC-T
youth chairman, Solomon Madzore.
‘I met Solomon for 90 minutes, he’s in
good spirits but he did describe the
food situation as bad. I was able to
get confirmation of this from senior
prisons officers at the
complex.
‘Prisoners are now surviving on a diet of sadza eaten with
nzungu
(groundnuts) as relish. On a lucky day they get sadza and boiled
cabbages,’
Gutu said.
The deputy Minister described as disastrous
government’s decision to tell
the Red Cross the economy had improved and
they no longer needed to supply
food to the prisons, which they had been
doing since 2009. They had been
supplying prisoners with beans, groundnuts
and oil and this enhanced the
nutritional status of inmates, and vastly
improved management of the food
supply chain.
But last year the Red
Cross withdrew food aid to the prisons after
government indicated the prison
services would take over the nutritional
needs of inmates.
‘That
decision was not only premature but ill-advised. It’s clear Treasury
doesn’t
have the financial material and resources to run prisons in as far
as food
and uniforms are concerned.
‘I saw prisoners who were 75 percent naked
because they don’t have adequate
uniforms. So the prison officers implored
upon me to re-engage the Red Cross
and see if they could offer some help
again,’ the Senator added.
‘If the situation does not improve, we will
soon have prisoners suffering
from food deficiency diseases such as scurvy
and pellagra,’ he said.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona Sibanda
28 March
2012
A Harare magistrate failed to turn up in court on Wednesday to
preside over
the appeal hearing against conviction and sentence of
Munyaradzi Gwisai and
5 others.
The hearing was postponed twice, on
Monday and Tuesday. The reason for the
first two postponements was the
failure by the prosecutor to attend and
represent the state.
This led
to defence lawyer Alec Muchadehama complaining on Tuesday about the
disturbing trend of state prosecutors to not show up in court.
Now on
Wednesday the hearing was postponed to Thursday because the
provincial
magistrate Kudakwashe Jarabini failed to pitch up.
‘The magistrate did
not communicate with us why he failed to come to court.
We were only
informed by the prosecutor of his absence, which makes this
whole thing a
mockery of justice,’ Muchadehama said.
The defence lawyer has been in
court since Monday applying to have the
community service sentence imposed
on Gwisai set aside, pending appeal.
The former MDC-T legislator was last
week convicted on charges of conspiracy
to commit public violence. He was
jointly charged with Antonater Choto,
Tatenda Mombeyarara, Edson Chakuma,
Hopewell Gumbo, and Welcome Zimuto.
The magistrate also ordered the six
to pay a $500 fine each. A further 24
months-prison term was imposed on the
activists, 12 months of which were
suspended on condition of good behaviour
for the next five years. The
remaining 12 months were suspended on condition
the six perform 420 hours of
community service, starting on March 31.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
27/03/2012 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
EDUCATION Minister David Coltart has warned that
students from Matabeleland
North are being crowded out of university
opportunities because of a
breakdown in education infrastructure in the
province.
On average, 20 pupils share a single desk in the province, while 17
share a
bench.
Presenting shock statistics, Coltart said of the
175,000 pupils who sat O’
Level exams in the province last year, just 137
had sat Maths and Science
exams – which dramatically lengthened the odds of
pupils from the area
making it to university.
“These figures are
unacceptable and they should be improved,” Coltart said,
speaking at the
commissioning of a new classroom block at Somgolo Primary
School in Lupane
which was financed by the Czech Republic.
Matabeleland North, Coltart said,
only had 26 A’ Level schools – far too few
too absorb the O’ Level
students.
He added: “The level of poverty in this province is alarming.
About 40
percent of children learn under trees because of a shortage of
classrooms.
“This region has been through difficult times over a
protracted period of
time and this had adversely affected infrastructure
development.
“There is an urgent need to allocate more resources to the
education sector
which is the backbone of the economy. Countries with strong
economies have a
strong education system.”
Not only were
poorly-equipped schools unlikely to attract specialist
teachers for Science
and Maths, Coltart said, but they also produced a
generation of
drop-outs.
The Matabeleland North deputy provincial education director
Matthias
Luphahla said the province was being exploited for timber by large
companies
who invested little in local communities.
“Something should
be done to improve the furniture shortage in order to
create a friendly
learning environment for our children,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Transport
and Infrastructure Development Ministry donated 76
benches, 38 desks and 10
chairs to Mbuhulu Primary School and a consignment
of textbooks for major
subjects to Dlamini High School in the same province.
The ministry also
pledged to repair the solar energy system at the two
schools to provide
power especially for computers that were donated by
President Robert
Mugabe.
http://www.radiovop.com
Masvingo, March 28, 2012 - Zanu (PF)
Minister of Youth, Indigenisation and
Empowerment Minster, Saviour
Kasukuwere has set his eyes on foreign owned
business here following
revelations by a senior government official that his
ministry had
shortlisted four firms to cede 51% with immediate effect, under
the
controversial indigenisation laws.
The Ministry has allegedly resolved to
move into big foreign owned firms
including giant Sugar producers Tongaat
Hullet who owns Triangle and Hippo
Valley Sugar estates, the country’s sole
Lithium producers, Bikita Minerals
mine, Gold producing Renco mine and
Wildlife conservancy Malilangwe Trust.
Presenting his progress report
before a Zanu (PF) dominated Masvingo
Provincial Development Committee at
the Civic Centre, Chairperson of
Industry, Commerce, Mining and Tourism
subcommittee; Munyaradzi Rubaya said
time was up for foreign firms in the
province.
“We are targeting four firms for now to cede their shares under
the
Community Share Ownership Trust, namely Bikita Minerals, Renco Mine,
Tongaat
Hullet and Malilangwe Trust in the low-veld to the tune of $30
million.The
funding will come from those organisations,” said
Rubaya.
Although he could not give the actual dates government intended
to move into
the firms, Rubaya said their first target was Bikita minerals
which he said
was one of the biggest Lithium producing mines in Africa and
the whole
world.
“Very soon we will launch the Bikita Minerals
community share ownership
trust before moving to the other enlisted
organizations,” he said.
The controversial indigenisation laws that have
since been criticised by
fellow partners in the shaky inclusive government,
the two Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) formations, have been accused
of causing foreign
investors to lose confidence in the country.
The
move by government comes in the wake of unsuccessful efforts by a Zanu
(PF)
youth group, Masvingo Youth in Business to grab foreign and white owned
companies under the same controversial laws. About five of the youth group
leaders are still in the courts after they attempted to grab white owned
buildings in Chiredzi.
Rubaya however said the Ministry of Youth
would be announcing the dates and
deadlines for the firms in Masvingo
province to compel with their demands.
The Provincial Development feels
that Masvingo was lagging behind in
implementing the Indigenisation law as
other provinces have since forced
firms to surrender 51% shares.
The
announcement also comes barely a week after Kasukuwere threatened
foreign
companies with arrest if the fail to compel with the indigenisation
policy
in Matabeleland.
http://www.voanews.com
27 March
2012
Hardliners in
Zanu PF, led by Jonathan Moyo are now pushing for by-elections
as a way to
end the troubled coalition government, saying the failure to
hold elections
is illegal
Blessing Zulu | Washington
Tensions are rising
again in the Zimbabwe unity government with the two
formations of the
Movement for Democratic Change accusing hardliners in Zanu
PF of trying to
divert attention from crucial matters such as the writing of
a new
constitution by urging by-elections in 28 vacant senate and
parliamentary
seats.
Clerk of Parliament, Austin Zvoma says there are 16 parliamentary
constituencies and 12 senate seats without representation. In the 2008
parliamentary elections, the MDC party of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
scooped 100 seats, the formation led by Welshman Ncube got 10 while Zanu PF
won 99.
Since then, some legislators have died; others have been
expelled or
re-assigned by their parties. Three former members of parliament
for Nkayi
South, Lupane East and Bulilima East won a High Court order in
October
compelling President Robert Mugabe to proclaim election
dates.
But the attorney general appealed the ruling at the Supreme Court
on behalf
of Mugabe. Hardliners in Zanu PF, led by Jonathan Moyo are now
pushing for
by-elections as a way to end the troubled coalition government,
saying the
failure to hold elections is illegal.
Moyo argues that the
outcome of these by-elections could, “see one of the
coalition parties in
parliament emerging with a majority of at least 106
seats out of 210 with
the consequence of sinking the Global Political
Agreement and its so-called
unity government, not to mention kissing Copac
goodbye."
Clerk Zvoma
told VOA reporter Blessing Zulu that his hands are tied as he
can only
notify the president and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission of the
vacancies,
while ZEC chairman Simpson Mutambanengwe said Mr. Mugabe alone
can proclaim
the by-elections.
Tsvangirai MDC deputy organizing secretary and former
Nkayi South MP,
Abednico Bhebhe, said that Mugabe was undermining
representative democracy
by refusing to call a vote to fill in the vacant
posts.
But organizing secretary Qhubani Moyo of the Ncube MDC said the
vacant posts
must be filled concurrently with anticipated general elections.
Lawyer
Jeremiah Bamu of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights accused Zanu
PF of
being insincere.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Xolisani Ncube, Staff Writer
Wednesday, 28
March 2012 14:24
HARARE - Attorney General (AG) Johannes Tomana has
vowed to defy a High
Court ruling ordering the reinstatement of public
prosecutors fired by the
AG after striking for better pay.
High Court
judge Justice Ben Hlatshwayo ruled that the five prosecutors
should be
reinstated after their prosecution powers were withdrawn by
Tomana.
Leopold Mudusi, Patros Dube, Dereck Charamba, Musekiwa Mbanje
and Mehluli
Tshuma were dismissed from their posts for leading a strike
action demanding
a salary increment last October.
The strike nearly
paralysed the justice delivery system in the country.
The team then
approached the courts challenging Tomana’s decision. Justice
Hlatshwayo
ruled in their favour.
Tomana has since written to the five saying no
court has authority to
challenge his powers when it comes to their
appointments as public
prosecutors.
He says he has since challenged
Justice Hlatshwayo’s ruling in the Supreme
Court.
“Be also advised,
however, that my authority to prosecute remains withdrawn
firstly by
operation of the law as the Attorney-General’s prosecutorial
mandate is not
subject to no other authority including the judiciary,” said
Tomana in his
March 23 letter.
Justice Hlatshwayo said in his ruling: “In light of the
above discussion it
can be concluded the AG committed a material error of
law or fact when he
purportedly withdrew the prosecutors’ authority to
prosecute."
“The AG may not withdraw his/her authority from a public
prosecutor because
it is never delegated in the complete manner in which it
is done for legal
practitioners so appointed, but public prosecutors
prosecute under
instruction from the AG,” ruled Justice Hlatshwayo.
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com
FELUNA NLEYA, 21 hours 27 minutes
ago
MDC-T officials yesterday accused President Robert Mugabe of
planning to
hijack an e-learning project initiated by Information
Communication
Technology (ICT) minister Nelson Chamisa for political mileage
ahead of the
forthcoming general elections.
MDC-T sources said Mugabe
had taken over the project and was set to
officially launch a schools’
computer laboratory project at Chogugudza
Primary School in Goromonzi
tomorrow, which function Chamisa had been billed
to officiate.
But
Presidential spokesperson George Charamba denied allegations of
hijacking
Chamisa’s programme, saying Mugabe was the pioneer of the
computerisation
programme.
“The President was invited and he does not have to hijack a
programme,” said
Charamba.
“The Ministry of ICT is just building on
the foundation which the President
started a long time ago.
“Do you
think he can hijack this project when he has given the whole country
computers as the pioneer and head of government?
“If the President is
invited to a launch, the host has to send a draft
speech and a draft
programme which have to be looked at and worked on by the
permanent
secretary and the chief of protocol respectively and be turned
into a
Presidential speech and a Presidential programme, that is the
standard
procedure.”
Chamisa confirmed the launch of the schools project, but
could not be drawn
to confirm allegations that the Zanu PF leader had
hijacked the project from
him.
“We will be launching the e-learning
aimed at equipping all the schools in
the country with ICT. Every school has
to have access to ICTs, projectors,
printers and also connectivity,” said
Chamisa.
“The launch is at Chogugudza Primary School. This will be the
first of the
e-learning computerisation of the schools. It will see each
school having at
least 80 computers by 2015,” he said.
“Although we
have challenges on having our teachers equipped, we are trying
to make it a
point that they are equipped so as to make it easier for them
to teach the
students and avoid a situation where we would have the teacher
becoming the
student.”
Chamisa said the programme, which initially targeted
government, would also
be rolled out at clinics, councils and in the police
force.
In the run-up to the March 2008 harmonised elections, Mugabe doled
out
thousands of computers, 10 per school, mostly sourced from Zanu PF’s
all-weather friend China to urban and rural schools
countrywide.
Political analysts, however, dismissed the President’s
gesture as a
vote-buying gimmick after it emerged some of the schools that
received the
donated computers did not have electricity or solar power to
run the
computers.
Chamisa, who is the MP for Kuwadzana East, said
schools with no electricity
would have solar panels installed to make it
possible for them to use the
computers.
“We do not want a situation
where the computers will just be dumped at
schools and not be used,” he
said. -- http://www.newsday.co.zw
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By David Muganda
27 March
2012
The man who gave Mugabe the black and gold glittering gown, which
once
belonged to slain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, is a high profile
criminal
who was the architect of multi –million dollar fraud that almost
put Kenya
on its knees.
Paul Kamlesh Pattni is the chief architect of
a fraudulent scheme in which
US$850 million, then estimated to be 10 percent
of Kenya’s gross domestic
product, was looted from the country’s Central
Bank.
Pattni was in Zimbabwe last month during the official opening of
the
rescheduled 2011 Chiefs Council conference in Bulawayo. He was
introduced as
the “national chairman of the House of Traditional Elders in
Kenya”, before
he handed over the gown.
Pattni, of Indian extraction,
“anointed” Mugabe as the next ‘Chief of Africa’
after Gaddafi. “I got the
gown from Gaddafi before he died,” he claimed. “So
after his death Mugabe is
the only African leader who deserves to have it.”
But questions are now
being raised as to how such a dubious character could
be allowed to meet
Mugabe. Pattni was accused of exploiting a scheme
designed to revitalize
Kenya’s faltering economy in the years surrounding
the first Gulf
War.
The Kenyan government subsidized exports of gold, far beyond
standard
arrangements, between 1991 and 1993, by paying Pattni’s company
Goldenberg
International 35 percent more, in Kenyan shillings, than their
foreign
currency earnings.
Claiming that his company was processing
gold and diamonds for export,
Pattni was able to manipulate loopholes in the
system with the help of
government officials. “Pattni appears to have hit
Kenya below the belt at a
time when the country was at its weakest,” the
East African Standard, a
newspaper in Kenya, wrote at that
time.
Pattni along with 20 others suspects, including government
ministers and
senior government officials involved in the scandal, were
prohibited from
leaving Kenya.
During an inquiry Pattni implicated
former President Daniel Arap Moi, his
two sons, Philip and Gideon and his
daughter June, as well as a host of
high-ranking Kenyans. He alleged during
the inquiry that he “never visited
Moi empty handed”. He claimed he gave
money-filled suitcases to the former
president.
The scandal haunted
Moi up until his retirement in 2003 and it left Kenyans
(the majority of
whom live on less than a dollar per day) seething with
anger at how much
money the country lost to fraudster Pattni.
In Bulawayo Patti was allowed
to give a brief solidarity speech at the
chiefs’ indaba before he handed the
Gadaffi gown to Mugabe. They briefly
exchanged pleasantries before hugging
each other.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Own Correspondent
Wednesday, 28 March 2012
10:20
HARARE - Zanu PF is resisting a skills audit for workers at
Marondera
municipality — a town which has a bloated staff that is chewing
more than 85
percent of the monthly cumulative revenue.
Marondera
currently has 537 workers but the town that is home to 120 000
people only
needs 150 workers according to mayor Farai Nyandoro.
Speaking at a full
council meeting, Nyandoro, the mayor from Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai’s
MDC, said the previous Zanu PF-led council employed at
least 120 Zanu PF
youths who were staffed in the middle and upper grades
just before the 2008
elections.
There are allegations that most of the employees who are now
resisting the
skills audit were actively involved in acts of violence and
intimidation as
Zanu PF lost its stronghold in the Mashonaland East
province.
“We would like to have a skills audit but the workers are
resisting, saying
that they are being witch-hunted — which is however, not
the case, as we are
doing something that is common in any professionally-run
organisation,” said
Nyandoro.
The youths were employed by the
previous executive led by Faber Chidarikire,
who was an executive mayor and
had the powers to hire staff.
“When we talked about a job evaluation, it
was immediately viewed as a
witch-hunt,” said Nyandoro.
The mayor
told stakeholders at the meeting that the cash-strapped council,
which is
also failing to meet its water and electricity bills, approached
the
minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development, Ignatius
Chombo.
“We went to minister Chombo but as a minister he does not
have the powers to
deal with workers. So we are now in a fix,” he
said.
“We know that the workers who are among the middle and top grades
and doing
nothing, do not have any qualifications and that is the reason why
they are
resisting the audit,” said Nyandoro.
http://www.voanews.com
28 March
2012
In a message posted on his Facebook page, Kasukuwere said youths
aged
between 21 to 35 years are expected to start accessing up to US$20,000
each
starting next Monday.
Gibbs Dube |
Washington
Indigenization Minister Saviour Kasukuwere says
Stanbic Bank Zimbabwe
Limited has agreed to set up a US$20 million youth
wealth fund to be
administered by the National Youth Council and the bank as
the country’s
controversial black economic empowerment program gains
momentum.
In a message posted on his Facebook page, Kasukuwere said
youths aged
between 21 to 35 years are expected to start accessing up to
US$20,000 each
starting next Monday.
Stanbic executives were not
available for comment while the chief executive
of the youth council
Livingstone Dzikira said the funds, like the Central
African Building
Society wealth creation program created a few months ago,
will be accessed
by all young people despite their political affiliation.
Political
analyst Bhekilizwe Ndlovu said it is unfortunate that such funds
are set to
benefit youth aligned to President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/
Two UK- based Zimbabwean women are set to be
recognised for their
inspirational work campaigning for girls’ rights after
being shortlisted for
a Women 4 Africa award.
26.03.1208:38am 0 0
by
KJW
Human rights campaigner Betty Makoni has been nominated in the
Inspirational
and Humanitarian Woman of the Year categories and
BekezeleNsingo has been
nominated for a recognition award for her work with
the African Mothers
Foundation which she began.
Women4Africa is a
UK-based organisation which works to help street children
and girls in
Africa. It launched the scheme to honour and celebrate the work
of dedicated
African women making a real difference in their communities.
Makoni has
won more than 20 awards for her work helping girls in the rural
areas take
control of their lives and break the cycle of the poverty trap
they are born
into, through her organisation the Girl Child Network. But she
says each
award is special because it raises more awareness about the plight
of
children in the rural villages.
It is a plight she knows all too well.
She grew up in a rural village in
Zimbabwe and survived domestic abuse and
rape as a child. Through sheer
determination she worked her way through
school and became a teacher after
gaining two bachelor degrees.
She
has expanded her network to helping girls in Sierra Leone, South Africa,
Uganda as well as the USA and the UK. And she uses her inspirational story
to teach children that they can work their way out of their
villages.
She said: “What we are doing is giving girls the skills they
needs to make
something of their lives. We set up girls’ clubs in villages
and teach them
leadership skills. They are free to talk through the issues
and problems
they are encountering but also to know that they have
solutions.” She said
the girls are encouraged to start small businesses to
make money for
themselves by planting food or learning how to make reuseable
sanitary
towels they can sell. “Maybe these girls want to get through
secondary
school, maybe they have even dreamed of going to university. You
need
someone to stand up and tell them: ‘you can achieve
that.’”
BekezeleNsingo: nominated for work with African Mothers.
BekezeleNsingo:
nominated for work with African Mothers.
Nsingo also
works to help girls in the rural areas become self-sufficient.
She was
inspired to start her foundation after an emotional trip to Zimbabwe
in 2008
when she was shocked by the dire situation she found in her village.
“We
work with young girls in Zimbabwe, keeping them in school and ensuring
they
get an education, we pay their school fees. I also do workshops
teaching
girls how to make re-useable sanitary towels with materials
available to
them, because it is very difficult for them to access these
things. I am
also working with doctors and midwives in the country to make
sure they have
the right drugs to prevent maternal deaths,” she said.
Nsingo, who has
also been nominated for a Zimbabwe Achievers Award, said she
knows Betty
well and is proud that their work is being recognised.
“That is the mark
of a Zimbabwean woman, to keep on fighting and fighting
until you see the
light at the end of the tunnel. You don’t stop,” she said.
A third
Zimbabwean, singer/songwriter Roucheon, has been nominated for
Outstanding
Mother of the Year and Business Woman of the Year. The
Women4Africa winners
will be presented with their awards on May 19 at a
ceremony in London. - KJW
A day before she launched her new book, Girl Child Network founder Betty Makoni spoke to SW Radio Africa journalist Lance Guma on Question Time. The book “A Woman Once A Girl: Breaking Silence” chronicles Makoni’s lifetime of activism towards protecting the rights of young girls and women in Zimbabwe.
Interview broadcast 07 March 2012
Lance Guma: Good evening Zimbabwe and thank you for joining us on this special edition of Question Time. She’s been a guest on the programme before; she’s girl child rights activist Betty Makoni and she has a book that she’s launching in a couple of days entitled “A woman, once a girl: Breaking Silence”. Betty Makoni, thank you for joining us on the programme.
Betty Makoni: Thank you so much Lance Guma.
Guma: Okay, the book – let’s start off with that – why the book?
Makoni: Ah the book is a clear documentation of all the work that I did in Zimbabwe to assist young girls. The book is actually opening up a story of the many things that happen to young girls who are raped, who don’t exist because they are not assisted. It’s basically a mouthpiece for those girls you don’t see every day or who don’t come to be known anywhere in the world. So it’s an advocacy tool, trying to speak on their behalf.
Guma: And are you doing this via your own experiences? Is the book focusing on you, Betty Makoni as the individual and what sort of work you’ve been doing?
Makoni: The book is basically focusing on me and my story as a girl and then I’ve come to say I’m now a woman. But as a woman I also walked a journey where I took one girl at a time. So the book is trying to tell the world that after I am done, we still have many more to assist.
So the book begins with the Betty stories of girls that have never, you know, come out in the open and it speaks also stories of women who are trying to do something to help on the ground. Then it speaks about the challenges that we encounter as people who are trying to help the victims, situations where we end up as victims as well.
But at the end of it, the book is trying to say to everybody, nobody in this world should be a victim. When we were born, we were all victors in our own right so the book is also trying to uplift everybody who is doing something to defend human rights in the world.
Guma: In as far as the challenges that women and even girls face in Zimbabwe, how much of those problems are down to politics? If you were to be asked to weigh where the source of the problems emanate from?
Makoni: As you know at the moment the political situation in Zimbabwe is not fully full addressed nothing is going to move about the social wellbeing of women and girls because everything is about policy, everything is about leadership, everything is also about women getting a 50 percentage stake in the decision making.
As it is now, we still have a lot of things polarized and people’s energy is actually spent on the political conflict so it’s going to be very difficult for women and girls who are already vulnerable to suit anywhere within the structures of leadership, so it’s a big challenge. Politics is actually the root causes of most of the issues I’m raising in the book.
Guma: You entitled your book – “A woman, once a child: Breaking Silence” – why that phrase there – “Breaking Silence”? What are you trying to say?
Makoni: Issues around rape are where people have declared wars on girls’ bodies, sugar daddies, Apostolic sects that are marrying off girls, rape used as a political, as weapon of war, in the homes where we are, issues around rape are not easy issues for anyone to talk about anyway.
You become ashamed, you also take the blame, so we’ve come to say – Betty was once a girl, I’m breaking the silence so that everyone else does the same. Women I’m going to meet on International Women’s Day, were also girls which should help other girls transform through our stories, so “Breaking Silence” means you are not going to stay a victim at all. So it all ties up with the theme that we are not victims, we are victors.
Guma: In all the years that you have been doing this activism work, what would you say is the attitude of fellow women to the type of work you do? Do you feel women have supported you enough in your cause?
Makoni: You will see I’ve got a poem entitled “I’ve seen it all”; in this poem I actually said it’s very difficult in a country with scarcity of resources especially money, funding and dwindling donor support for one woman to be prosperous and others struggling so always there’s this back-biting, rumour mongering, blackmailing each other in order to outdo each other.
So there’s a big fight not against Betty Makoni only but also against other women who are trying to do something. So it’s actually a battle of surviving in a space where everything is limited to individuals who already made it. When you try to make a breakthrough there are always spanners on your way.
So every day I did my work for a decade, there was always a spanner that I had to pull out of the road in order for me to move on, so in the book I’ve made it clear but at the end of it, I know the women who do that especially in Zimbabwe, I’ve only said shame on you all.
Guma: Well Zimbabwe I’m speaking to girl child rights activist Betty Makoni and remember this is Question Time, if there’s anything that you are hearing her say that you disagree with by all means send in your questions, we will get her back on the show and pose those questions.
So remember this is your programme, you get to ask the question. My next question for you Betty – the nature of our society – some say it is a patriarchal society – do you think that also contributes to the problems that you face as an activist trying to change attitudes?
Makoni: Oh yes definitely because in a patriarchal system the development of women and girls is underestimated. Just one being in domestic circles cooking for a family is not understood as a contribution to the development as a country so anything that women do is not money tied; patriarchy still sees the place of a woman being a bedroom and a kitchen.
And then when you try also to get out of that bedroom and kitchen and stand up to say – no, don’t use women as sex objects, what you see is backlash. The backlash comes in the form of you being isolated, insulted in public, labeled nicknames and everything that I stated in my book. So patriarchy is still very strong, it’s one of the oldest wars that we are still fighting against. You know, we had colonialism, we had slavery but patriarchy is really one of those things that really stand anchored in our community.
Guma: Do you think it’s an African problem or it’s worldwide? Would you, where would you restrict it – onto the African continent?
Makoni: Ah no, no, no, no – actually in my book you will see it’s taken also a global perspective because if you see recent developments in the United States of America with this radio producer who called a woman a prostitute and a slut on public airwaves, calling a student, a law student that, and even last night he went on to say over-educated white women are a problem.
You can see the labeling, you can see the gender stereotyping so it’s not something confined to African societies. Even United States of America, a developed and civilized country, women are still in tears in that country.
Guma: Let’s move on to your book launch – when is it going to be on, where and who’s coming?
Makoni: My book launch is going to be in London; South Bank University, London Road and I’ve got quite a number of important women who are coming, high profile women. I’ve got the London Mayoral candidate for 2012, I’ve got also the Secret Millionaire, Pauline Long one of the distinguished Kenyans in UK is actually coming to be the Director of Ceremony so I do have quite a number of women who are coming who are quite high profile.
Guma: You are based in London of course, the United Kingdom, for those of our listeners who have forgotten why, why are you based in the UK now?
Makoni: As you know I was doing my activism in Zimbabwe and it became a challenge, the interference in my work and as you know, 2007 I was arrested and interrogated whether I wanted to run for presidency. That disturbed me and I left the country to just make peace and be somewhere where I can continue with my charity work. So I was just trying to find a spot to do my charity work without harassment.
Guma: Has this impacted on the work of the Girl Child Network in Zimbabwe?
Makoni: Not at all, it has not impacted on our work. What we have gone on to do is to actually establish worldwide network which actually ensures we incorporate Zimbabwe but you know if, as an activist you become targeted, there’s no need for you to become a dead hero so I tried to work from a different location but still contributing to my permanent work. So nothing has changed, it was just me trying to make a transition from being at the forefront to being like the supporter.
Guma: And just finally Betty, seeing you are essentially now based in the Diaspora, how much of that Diaspora are you harnessing in your work? Are you finding it easier working with people in the Diaspora than let’s say when you were back home?
Makoni: Ah most definitely; I’ve formed networks of young women, I’ve got quite a big fan base of young women who ring me and tell me daily that you empower us, we want to be with you, we want to do this kind of work. So you will see from the launch tomorrow, that quite a group of young women have come out and this is another massive, massive movement of younger women staying in the United Kingdom and all over and all over the world.
So I can say Zimbabwe really, really I got a lack of support from young girls but the development that is happening here in the Diaspora is that the age group, 19 to 30, is actually massively supporting what I’m doing which is something that has actually taken me by surprise because I thought by uprooting myself from Zimbabwe I was going to start from nowhere but only to meet thousands of young women of all colours in the world following.
Guma: Just one more extra question – those who are listening in who want to contribute to the work you do – how do they do that? Is there a way that they can reach out and support you?
Makoni: Yes definitely, they can actually go through our web site: www.girlchildnetworkworldwide.org. Everything that is done there is done with a team of volunteers so on the web site, they can pick any areas they feel they want to contribute and all contributions that we make in cash and in kind, my job is to ensure that we all support efforts in Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and Uganda.
Guma: Well Zimbabwe, that’s girl child rights activist Betty Makoni joining us on this special programme on Question Time. She’s going to be launching in a few days her book “A woman, once a girl: Breaking Silence” and as I said, if you have questions for Betty Makoni about her book, about her work or anything to do with her activism in Zimbabwe or here in the United Kingdom, just drop us a line – lance@swradioafrica.com or you can just visit our web site and see how you can participate in Question Time. Betty Makoni, thank you for joining us on the programme.
Makoni: Thanks so much Lance, thank you.
To listen to the programme:
http://www.swradioafrica.2bctnd.net/03_12/qt070312.mp3
Feedback can be sent to lance@swradioafrica.com http://twitter.com/lanceguma or http://www.facebook.com/lance.guma
http://www.theafricareport.com
Posted
on Wednesday, 28 March 2012 17:16
By
Janet Shoko
Playwrights and actors in Zimbabwe are slowly stirring up
a revolution of
some sort, as theatre rosters are packed with protest plays
aimed at the
political establishment.′′
The plays are being premiered
before sold out audiences mostly in the
capital, Harare, with Theatre in the
Park being one of the few remaining
outposts of free speech.′′
The
plays, including February 32 Movement, Protests Revolutionaries - which
premiered on March 13 and ends on March 31, Changing of the Guard and The
Coup, come after six activists were charged for allegedly showing recordings
of the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia in the hope that these could inspire
similar demonstrations in Zimbabwe.
′′Playwrights and directors speak
of being inspired by political uprisings
in North Africa last year to voice
out through arts. The Coup depicts
corpses rising in a stinky mortuary to
stage a bloody coup. They march to an
imaginary presidential palace to gun
down the head of state. However, the
soul of the slain head of state
attempts to bribe its way into heaven but
fails and is sent straight to
hell.′′
Stanley Makuwe, who wrote The Coup, conceived the idea during his
training
as a nurse. "In one of my visits to the mortuary to dump another
body,
something gripped my imagination. I said if those bodies could speak
what
would they say? Who would they hold responsible for their death and
what
action would they collectively take?"
Dead bodies enraged by the
state of affairs in the country come alive and
plan to stage a coup against
the government
Dead bodies enraged by the state of affairs in the country
come alive and
plan to stage a coup against the government/Photo/All Rights
Reserved
Realising a much safe gateway to voice out frustration, media
activists are
joining in. One such is Takura Zhangazha, who penned Changing
of the Guard.
He calls his work "frustration theatre".′′
"Protest is
no longer aimed at Zanu PF but to a broader section. Even though
it is still
embedded in political persuasions, it has reached a stage of
frustration,"
Zhangazha said.′′
Protest Revolutionaries director, Silvanos Mudzowa says
the play shows that
citizen participation in national issues is vital in
bringing about change.
"It is possible as a people to use such avenues
(protests) to voice out our
opinions on the state of affairs in the country.
We can do so peacefully as
long as we will be able to address issues," he
said.
He adds that the play was written to "provoke people into
action."
In the play, the toy toying (a protest dance), placard carrying
and slogan
chanting protestors gather at Africa Unity Square in central
Harare, to
protest against the government and its leader, whom they accuse
of running
down the country.
Millions from all walks of life gather
at the square, which have they
renamed as the "Revolutionary Square". It is
a stark reminder of when The
Green Square in Libya under Gaddafi, changed to
The Martyr's Square as the
self named "Libyan Guide's" regime neared its
end.
But the police soon arrive at the "Revolutionary Square" and quash
the
protest leaving three of the protestors dead. However, the masses who
have
gathered at the square remain unfazed as they continue with their
protest.
Overwhelmed by the resolute protestors some of the senior police
officers
join the protests, much to the chagrin of their
superiors.
The army is then called in to manage the situation which they
do, with
brutal force. The status quo unleashes its propaganda machinery in
a bid to
control the situation which is getting out of hand. The government,
through
the minister of information even tries to bribe the protest leaders
who
refuse to take the offer.
Eventually, the president flees like
former Tunisian President Zine
el-Abidine Ben Ali and surrenders to a new
breed of leaders.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
One can just imagine the views
circulating within a certain small,
retrogressive camp bent on reversing
democratic transition:
28.03.1211:54am 1 0
by Dewa
Mavhinga
Well, never mind what has happened to Wade in Senegal, he is
spineless, why
concede defeat when the entire state machinery is behind you?
In any case,
elections are not stolen, or won on the day of the vote, but
way in advance.
For anyone in need of the basics in ‘managing’ elections
then the following
easy steps should be committed to memory and applied with
the necessary
changes in a given situation.
The first step is to
ensure total control of the kind of information that
people receive –
through state television, radio and papers. Make sure
privately owned papers
have a difficult time operating, threaten them,
arrest one or two of their
leaders – then self-censorship will follow. If
the daily circulation of
private papers is small, never mind them, but never
let them operate
community radio stations or independent national radio
stations.
If
pressed to free the airwaves, you are better off creating private
companies
– clones of your own image. Grant them licenses and satisfy the
requirement
of plurity or radio stations.
You may allow other political parties to
operate, but do not grant them
access to the people. Here you will find it
useful to use a raft of laws
that regulate public order and security – and
the access to information and
protection of privacy. Use the law to show who
is in charge – even if it is
ridiculous that six people could topple your
government through watching an
Arab Spring video – cause them to be charged,
tortured, convicted and
sentenced harshly.
This serves as a reminder
to like-minded activists that you are in charge,
and that your political
hand is inside the judiciary glove.
Be careful who is recruited and
promoted in the police, the central
intelligence and the army. You would not
want to rely on independent people
to ensure you stay in power –only those
whose history is clear, and whose
loyalty is proven.
On paper, do not
tamper with the independence of national institutions, but
in practice, make
sure it is only card-carrying cadres who run the show.
Specific to
elections, if the regional bloc insists on the need to have a
set of new
commissioners for the electoral management body – comply. But
make sure you
retain staff from old commissions, who are thoroughly schooled
in the art of
rigging – and many of whom belong to the military and state
intelligence.
Limit the mandate of the Electoral Commission – do not
permit it to clean up
the voters roll, or to carry out the delimitation
exercise. Instead, keep
that roll with the ever loyal Registrar General – he
knows the ropes.
Do not let any United Nations Paris Principles on the
independence of
national commissions stand in your way – make sure you own
political
appointee – the minister of justice has total control of the
Electoral
Commission and of resources allocated to it and the electoral
commission
must know who butters their bread.
Remember the mistakes
of 2008 – open , uncontrolled violence. This time
violence must come only as
the last resort. Intimidation should be enough.
But to succeed, make sure
whatever reforms you concede to are largely
cosmetic.
Whatever they
say, no reforms must touch the nerve centre of your power –
the security
sector.
Do whatever it takes to break up SADC consensus on the need for
democratic
elections. Cut deals, bribe some, threaten some, offer them a
vote for their
candidate at the AU – if they will shut up about electoral
reforms. If they
want to construct a railway line through your country then
they must make
less noise about western concepts of democracy and human
rights respect.
Do not allow too many domestic and foreign observers to
see what is
happening in the country – allow them to come a week before
elections and
stay a few days after. Keep them in hotels in the capital.
Even before
elections come, prepare for the next round of power-sharing
government
talks.
As you may have noticed, some in the pro-democracy
movement can be co-opted.
Do not allow them to dangle carrots to induce you
to leave office, instead,
go for the pre-emptive strike, dangle the carrots
for them to join you in
office and shut up about this human rights
nonsense.
If you accomplish that, you would have mastered the art of
stealing
elections Zimbabwean style. - Dewa Mavhinga, Acting Director
& Regional
Coordinator, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Sanctions against Zimbabwe do
not actually exist. Restrictions have been
imposed on certain individuals
who have been identified with human rights
abuses.
28.03.1211:51am 3
0
by John Robertson
While it can be argued that some of these
restrictions have missed their
targets and have affected individuals and
companies that did not deserve to
be caught in the net, these cases cannot
be claimed to prove that the
sanctions were applied to the whole
country.
Zanu (PF) certainly does argue that sanctions are undermining
the whole
country’s economic recovery, but this does not mean they believe
the claims
to be true. Their purpose is to have everyone else believe that.
By planting
and nurturing this belief in the minds of Zimbabweans in
particular and the
world in general, Zanu (PF) believes it has found the
best way to deflect
the blame for the economic collapse onto others.
However, the Zanu (PF)
hierarchy knows very well that its own policy choices
caused the damage.
It also knows that those were deliberately made so
that damage would be
caused. Anyone taking offence at this suggestion need
only ask why the steps
that arrested production across wide swathes of the
productive sectors are
still being fiercely defended.
Zanu (PF) is
mistaken in its belief that it has fooled everyone. Even
schoolchildren
understand the need for investment in the job-creation
process and they
fully appreciate the need for investor confidence before
those who have the
talents needed to assemble resources and build a business
will apply their
skills.
The same schoolchildren are keenly aware that very few career
development
opportunities await them when they leave school. None of them
has been
deluded into thinking that sanctions are to blame.
Every
existing and potential investor has been repeatedly slapped in the
face, but
only by Zanu (PF) officials, who are constantly trying to find
ways of
inflicting handicaps on the business sectors. The most discouraging
“sanctions” were generated in the corridors of Zanu (PF) ministries or in
the President’s Office.
Ian Scoones’ makes an entirely incorrect
claim that the diplomatic aim of US
and European foreign policy was to cause
Zimbabwe’s isolation and turn the
country into a pariah state. Zanu (PF)
wanted to reduce the influence of
countries that worked to higher standards
of conduct, so the party sought
isolation.
Pariah status came with
Zanu (PF)’s failing ability to service its debts and
its decreasing
inclination to meet contractual obligations, while
dishonestly claiming that
others should be blamed.
In demanding that its “entitlement” to
international assistance should be
respected, Zanu (PF) has claimed that
“sanctions” include the withholding of
aid. The facts are very different.
Assistance comes to those who are
deserving of it, or to those who are the
victims of events over which they
had no control. Because Zanu (PF) is seen
to be deserving of nothing but
criticism, the considerable quantities of aid
have been delivered straight
to the areas and communities in
need.
Zanu (PF) takes grave exception to this because the party is denied
access
to the funds and the assistance undermines the party’s efforts to
keep as
many people as possible poor enough to keep them obedient,
subservient and
dependent on party patronage. Poverty, therefore, is a Zanu
(PF) objective
for the population at large.
Where it exists already,
it is to be maintained. Where prosperity has been
edging upwards, that
process is to be arrested by starving it of investment
capital. Because
investors are so sensitive to market conditions that can be
so easily
altered by changing the demands the investors have to meet, their
influence
on the affluence of individuals, or even huge communities, can be
directly
and quickly affected.
Zanu (PF) seems to have become enthralled at its
ability to make huge
differences to levels of business activity by changing
a few words or
numbers in a Statutory Instrument or in statute
law.
Excessive wage demands can be passed off as attempts to raise wage
levels,
but are actually being used as powerful weapons to halt the growth
of
selected business sectors. Existing investors are being forced to
relinquish
assets in the name of indigenisation, so new industrial investors
are no
longer interested in Zimbabwe.
Farmers have already been
forced out of business by changing the property
rights laws, which had
previously offered them the security of tenure needed
to support business
confidence and had placed bank finance within their
reach.
Mining was
beginning to look a bit too promising, so investment allowances
have been
withdrawn, registration fees and licence costs have been stepped
up to
ridiculously high levels and royalties have now been increased so much
that
only the richer mineral deposits can be profitably mined.
Zanu (PF) has
deliberately made Zimbabwe’s mineral deposits less attractive.
Many
thousands of young people who might have had good prospects of
receiving
training and good incomes from the mining sector will now have to
do what
thousands before them had to do: leave the country to find a job.
If the
downturns in business had been unintended consequences, all the
changes that
can be so easily identified as the origins of disastrous
effects could have
been reversed, but they are still being preserved and
even reinforced. Zanu
(PF) very clearly does not want ordinary people to
enjoy increasing
success.
This is simply because the party knows that they will become
increasingly
inclined to demand better governance and far less inclined to
tolerate the
appalling blend of greed, ineptitude and arrogance that has so
thoroughly
colonised Zanu (PF) thinking.
Naturally, Zanu (PF) has not
wanted to have such accusations levelled
against it, so the imposition of
targeted sanctions against identified
individuals has amounted to a
wonderful, gift-wrapped bonus that Zanu (PF)
has magnified into the one and
only reason why the economy collapsed.
The puffed up egos have allowed
these Zanu (PF) heavyweights to claim “we
are so important to Zimbabwe that
we are Zimbabwe” supports the analysis
that the same individuals believe
they have restored a feudal society in
Zimbabwe and that everybody, foreign
governments included, should defer to
their unquestionable majesty and
respect their absolute authority.
The economy collapsed because the
market mechanisms and business
relationships that were held together by
civil rights, property rights, the
rule of law and respect for laws of
contract were trashed by the same
individuals.
These features of
modern society displaced the old feudal structures and
transformed the
world. To the extent that they could be adopted in
pre-independence
Zimbabwe, they transformed this country too. Zanu (PF) has
made strenuous
efforts to reverse the entire process and to aggressively
entrench a few
dozen people as the feudal overlords.
The only real mystery is why these
individuals believe that the rest of the
population should feel happy with
the idea.
Clifford Chitupa Mashiri, 28/03/12.
President Abdoulaye Wade’s early
admission of defeat – less than three hours
after election results began
being announced in Senegal contrasts sharply
with Mugabe’s 5-week delay in
announcing ‘doctored’ results in 2008
resulting in the present
crisis.
There are some interesting notable similarities and contrasts
between
Senegal’s and Zimbabwe’s scenarios. One major similarity is being
led by
octogenarians, while the two countries have different colonial
histories.
Senegal’s 85 –year old leader Abdoulaye Wade reportedly made a
phone call on
Sunday night conceding victory to his former prime minister
Macky Sall, 50,
a geologist, after a presidential runoff that was declared
peaceful by
international observers.
On the other hand, Zimbabwe’s
88-year old Robert Mugabe did not accept
defeat in March 2008 but pressed
for a presidential run-off which ended
being a one-man show after Morgan
Tsvangirai withdrew citing political
violence against his
supporters.
However, former security minister and Zanu-pf politburo
member Nicholas
Goche conceded that Mugabe lost the 2008 presidential
elections and
disclosed that senior Zanu-pf officials were reaching out to
Tsvangirai to
be accommodated in a new government, according to the MDC
leader’s book ‘At
the Deep End’.
Whereas, six people died in
Senegal’s tragic violence sparked by Mr Wade’s
controversial bid for a third
term in office, four Zimbabwean opposition
activists were found dead in June
2008 eight days before the presidential
run-off.
Zimbabwe’s political
violence was so pronounced that some of the 211
election observers
reportedly saw two people shot dead in front of them in
Zimbabwe in June
2008 as the violence escalated.
Critics of Senegal’s Wade say he was
grooming his son Karim whom he had
appointed to key positions in government
and failed to curb power cuts and
soaring food and fuel
prices.
Similarly, Mugabe drew public outrage when he disclosed in
February that his
15 year-old son Bellarmine harboured presidential
ambitions. The
long-serving Zanu-pf leader has appointed his close relatives
including his
sister’s children to ministerial and senior government
positions.
Hard-pressed Zimbabweans who are struggling with electricity
bills for power
that is seldom there thanks to load-shedding since 2000 were
appalled to
learn that Mugabe and his wife were some of the top defaulters
to the
country’s power utility Zesa, while the poor faced disconnections.
Corruption has affected nearly all political parties.
Media reports
have cited the ‘Diaspora vote in Paris’ as having boosted
Macky Sall’s
electoral fortunes in the Senegalese presidential elections, a
development
that Mugabe is unlikely to entertain having disenfranchised
millions of
Zimbabweans abroad since the rejection of his draft constitution
in the 2000
referendum.
While the Senegalese leader, Abdoulaye Wade congratulated his
rival Macky
Sall as the new president, Mugabe instead threatens war if he
loses to
Morgan Tsvangirai.
Wade’s admission of defeat has earned him
respect at home and abroad as a
sign of maturity, thereby bolstering
Senegal’s democratic credentials
especially as its election was monitored
and endorsed internationally, with
the European Union calling it a “great
example”.
In contrast, Mugabe has insisted that election observers from
the UK and the
European Union (EU) will not be allowed during the next poll,
a move which
is set to prolong the standoff between the regime and the
West.
“We want observers who will not have any choice on who to assist
and who not
to assist. We abhor meddling in our own electoral affairs,” he
said.
It is worth noting that Mugabe expelled the head of the EU election
observer
team in February 2002 after which targeted restrictive measures
were imposed
on the Zanu-pf leader, his wife and some of his inner circle
for human
rights abuses and vote rigging.
Wade’s early admission of
defeat should certainly present lessons for Robert
Mugabe and other
Zimbabwean leaders, especially that to be a true statesman,
you may have to
eat a humble pie and not hold the country to ransom for
whatever
reasons.
Clifford Chitupa Mashiri, Political Analyst, London,
zimanalysis2009@gmail.com
BILL WATCH 13/2012
[27th March 2012]
Last
Two Acts of 2011 Gazetted
Of
the eleven Acts of Parliament passed last year only nine were gazetted last
year. Two – the Small Enterprises
Development Corporation Act [6/2011] and the Deposit Protection Corporation Act
[7/2011] – were only gazetted this month, although the former was signed by the
President on 30th September and the latter on the 8th of December last
year. These last two Acts of 2011 were
finally gazetted in the Government Gazette of 16th March. [For
summaries of these Acts see below]
Complete
List of Acts of 2011
All
Acts of 2011 have now been gazetted. The
following complete list has been updated as at 26th March 2012.
1. Criminal Laws Amendment (Protection of Power, Communication and Water
Infrastructure) Act, 2011
Gazetted: 24th June 2011
Commencement: 24th June
2011
2. Zimbabwe National Security Council
Amendment Act, 2011
Gazetted: 20th May 2011
Commencement: 20th May 2011
3. Energy Regulatory Authority Act [Chapter 13:23]
Gazetted: 10th June 2011
Commencement: 22nd September 2011 [SI
111A/2011]
4. Attorney-General’s Office Act [Chapter 7:19]
Gazetted: 10th June 2011
Commencement:
date still to be fixed by statutory
instrument
5. General Laws Amendment Act,
2011
Gazetted: 16th May 2011
Commencement: 16th May 2011
6. Small Enterprises Development Corporation
Amendment Act, 2011
Gazetted: 16th March 2012
Commencement: date still to be fixed by statutory
instrument
7. Deposit
Protection Corporation Act [Chapter 24:29]
Gazetted: 16th March 2012
Commencement: 16th March 2012
8. Finance Act, 2011
Gazetted: 16th September 2011
Commencement: 16th September 2011
9. Finance (No. 2) Act,
2011
Gazetted: 31st December 2011
Commencement: 31st December 2011
10. Appropriation (2012) Act, 2011
Gazetted: 31st December 2011
Commencement: 31st December 2011
11. Appropriation (2011) Amendment Act,
2011
Gazetted: 31st December 2011
Commencement: 31st December 2011.
Deposit
Protection Corporation Act
[Date
of commencement: 16th March 2012]
This
Act establishes a new parastatal, the Deposit Protection Corporation
[DPC], and a Deposit Protection Fund to provide for the compensation of
depositors in failed financial institutions.
The Act replaces Part XII of the Banking Act, under which the previous
Deposit Protection Scheme operated from 2003 onwards. That scheme was run by a Deposit Protection
Board, which consisted solely of persons appointed by the Governor of the
Reserve Bank, and it controlled a Deposit Protection Fund to which all
registered financial institutions had to contribute. Detailed provisions for the scheme were
spelled out in regulations made under the Banking Act by the Minister of
Finance.
Constitution of DPC Board The Minister of Finance will
appoint the members of the DPC Board of Directors. The Reserve Bank will have one representative
on the Board but the majority of members will be representatives of the
financial institutions that must contribute to the Deposit Protection Fund
[see below].
Deposit Protection Fund The principal source of
income for the Fund will be contributions from registered banking institutions
and building societies, all of which are obliged by the Act to contribute. Other institutions may be added to the list
of “contributory institutions” by statutory instrument made by the DPC with the
approval of the Minister of Finance.
DPC’s functions Apart from its core
responsibility for the Deposit Protection Fund and compensating depositors when
a contributory institution fails, the DPC will have important related functions
as a key player in the financial sector:
· monitoring contributory institutions
· being consulted by and advising the Reserve Bank and the Registrar of
Banking Institutions on the exercise of their powers to register and discipline
institutions or place them under curatorship
· generally co-operating with the Reserve Bank and the Registrar of
Banking in supervising the financial sector
· acting as liquidator or judicial manager of any banking institution
being wound up or under judicial management.
The Banking Act is amended in order to give effect to the DPC’s
functions.
Transitional provisions Detailed transitional
provisions in section 66 of the Act provide for the takeover of the Deposit by
the DPC. Provisions include that the
board members of the Deposit Protection Scheme will temporarily act as the Board
of the DPC. All assets, rights and
liabilities of the former Fund vest automatically in the new Fund. Banking institutions and building societies
that were contributors under the former
scheme will automatically become “contributory institutions”. The regulations for the former scheme [SI
29/2003, as amended by SI 96/2003] will continue in force as if they
were rules made by the DPC under the new Act.
Responsible Minister The Minister of Finance is
responsible for the administration of the Act.
[Note: The DPC Act as gazetted reflects the text actually passed by
Parliament. But there was an amendment
made to it in section 16 of the Finance (No. 2) Act, passed in December 2011.
This unusual step was taken because it was discovered that mistakes had been made during
its Committee Stage in the House of Assembly in mid-2011. Because the DPC Act and the Finance (No. 2)
Act’s amendments to the DPA Act became effective simultaneously on 16th March,
all users of the DPC Act need to acquaint themselves with both the Act and the
amendments.]
Small
Enterprises Development Corporation Amendment Act
[Date
of commencement still to be fixed]
This
Act will only come into force on a date to be fixed by the President by
statutory instrument. It amends the
Small Enterprises Development Corporation [SEDCO] Act. The amendments include changing the name of
the corporation to the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Corporation and
giving statutory force to its acronym SMEDCO in the definition section [the
acronym will be used throughout the amended principal Act instead of the term
“the Corporation”]. The title of the
principal Act is changed to Small and Medium Enterprises Development Corporation
Act.
There
will
now
be an Advisory Council called the Micro
Small
and Medium Enterprises [MSMEs] Advisory Council, and a MSMEs Fund.
SMEDCO
will
be empowered to establish
different schemes to assist different classes of MSMEs from the Fund. Detailed provision is made in a
new schedule for the
classification of enterprises as either micro-, small or medium.
Security for
advances Under new provisions
introduced by the amending Act, SMEDCO will be able to
advance money for tools, implements, machinery or equipment and be authorised to
register notarial bonds using these items as security. They will then become
“designated articles” which the borrower cannot dispose of without SMEDCO’s
consent – and which SMEDCO can repossess by court action if the borrower does
not repay the advance.
Responsible
Minister The Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises
and Cooperative Development is responsible for the administration of this Act.
Veritas makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot
take legal responsibility for information
supplied
BILL WATCH 14/2012
[28th March 2012]
Both Houses of Parliament are sitting all this week
Human
Rights Commission Bill in House of Assembly:
Committee Stage today, 28th
March
Summary
of Background The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission was
sworn in on 31st March 2010. Minister
Chinamasa, as Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, is responsible for the
Commission. Although some of the duties
of the commission are spelled out in the Constitution, an enabling act was
needed to provide for the structure, functions, funding, etc of the
Commission. The Bill was drafted by the
Minister, after prolonged consultations with the three parties to the Inclusive
Government. It was gazetted on 10th June
2011 and immediately referred to the House of Assembly Portfolio Committee on
Justice, Legal, Affairs, Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs. The committee conducted public hearings on
the Bill around the country; most were disrupted by violence, including the
final hearing in Parliament itself. The
Minister brought the Bill before the House for its First Reading on 12th July
2011 [a formality not involving any debate or vote] and it was referred the
Parliamentary Legal Committee [PLC]. The
PLC returned a non-adverse report, conditional on amendments being made to the
Bill as agreed between the PLC and the Minister. The Second Reading stage started on 31st
August 2011, when the Minister explained the principles of the Bill and the
Portfolio Committee’s report was presented.
The end of the Third Session of Parliament then intervened, and the Bill
lapsed along with all other pending business.
The Bill was resuscitated by resolution of the House of Assembly on 20th
March, proceedings to continue from the stage reached in August last year.
Yesterday
in the House
Second
Reading debate concluded The House devoted most of yesterday
afternoon’s sitting to completing the Second Reading debate on the Bill. Backbenchers made further contributions and
the Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs then wound up the debate with his concluding speech. The Bill was
then read for the second time, which means that it will now move on to the next
stage, which is the Committee Stage.
Today
in the House
Committee
Stage due this afternoon The Committee Stage is expected to start this
afternoon, but only after Question Time, which should run until just after 4
pm. This is the stage during which the Bill is examined and discussed clause by clause and
amendments to the Bill can be made.
Minister’s proposed amendments The
Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs has given notice of his intention to move amendments, most of which are
amendments he agreed with the Parliamentary Legal Committee [PLC] during the
last session to avoid the PLC returning an adverse report on the Bill. [See
Bill Watch 41/2011 of 7th October 2011 for a detailed discussion.]
The proposed amendments are as follows:
NOTICE OF AMENDMENTS
Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission Bill, 2011 (H.B.
2,2011)
AMENDMENTS OF CLAUSE 1 (“SHORT TITLE”)
On page 5 of the Bill, delete clause 1 on lines 9 and 10 and
substitute the following:
“1
Short title
This Act may be cited as the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission Act
[Chapter 10:30].”
AMENDMENT OF CLAUSE 2 (“INTERPRETATION”)
On page 5 of the Bill, in the definition of “human rights violation”,
delete the proviso thereto between lines 36 and 38.
On page 6 of the Bill, delete the definition of “visitor” between
lines 10 and 12.
SUBSTITUTION OF CLAUSE 4 (“FUNCTIONS OF COMMISSION”)
On page 6 of the Bill, delete clause 4 and substitute the
following:
“4
Additional functions of Commission
In addition to the
functions and powers set out in section 100R(6) and (7) of the Constitution, the
Commission shall have the following functions and powers-
(a) to conduct investigations on its own
initiative or on receipt of complaints;
(b) to visit and inspect prisons, places of
detention, refugee camps and related facilities in order to ascertain the
condition under which inmates are kept there, and to make recommendations
regarding those conditions to the Minister responsible for administering the law
relating to those places or facilities;
(c) to visit and inspect places where mentally
disordered or intellectually handicapped persons are detained under any law in
order to ascertain the conditions under which those persons are kept there, and
to make recommendations regarding those conditions to the Minister responsible
for administering the law relating to those places; and
(d) to ensure and provide appropriate redress
for violations of human rights and for
injustice;
(e) to co-operate with Human Rights
Institutions belonging to international, Continental or Regional organisations
of which Zimbabwe is a member.”
AMENDMENT OF CLAUSE 6 (“EXECUTIVE SECRETARY AND OTHER STAFF OF
COMMISSION AND CONSULTANTS)
On page 7 of the Bill, in subsection (1) of this clause, delete
paragraph (b) between lines 4 and 7 and substitute:
“(b) employ such other staff as maybe necessary
for the proper exercise of its functions, and engage consultants where
necessary:
Provided
that the Commission shall consult the
Minister and the Minister responsible for Finance on the extent to which
additional public moneys may be required for this
purpose.”
On page 7 of the Bill, insert after the end of subclause (1) on line
7 the following subclause, and renumber the subsequent subclauses (2), (3) and
(4) as subclauses (3), (4) and (5) accordingly:
“(2) In order for a person to be appointed as Executive Secretary of
the Commission, he or she must -
(a) be qualified to be appointed as a judge of
the High Court or the Supreme Court; or
(b) have a graduate or postgraduate
qualification in human rights law or humanitarian law or a related
discipline.”
AMENDMENT OF CLAUSE 9 (“JURISDICTION OF COMMISSION TO CONDUCT
INVESTIGATIONS”)
On page 8 of the Bill, in subclause (4)(a), delete in lines 24 and
25 the words “the aggrieved person was a
citizen, resident or visitor of Zimbabwe at the time when the action or omission
complained of occurred and”.
AMENDMENT OF CLAUSE 10 (“MANNER OF MAKING COMPLAINTS”)
On page 8 of the Bill, in subclause (1), delete in line 42 the words
“in that notice” and substitute “in those regulations”.
AMENDMENT OF CLAUSE 12(“MANNER OF CONDUCTING INVESTIGATIONS”)
On pages 9 and 10 of the Bill delete subclause (6) and
substitute the following subclause:-
“(6) The Minister may, at
any stage during the investigation of a complaint by the commission, to produce
to the Commission a certificate in writing signed by him or her to the effect
that the disclosure of any evidence or
documentation or class of evidence or documentation or class of evidence or
documentation specified in the certificates is, in his or her opinion, contrary
to the public interest on the grounds that it may prejudice the defence,
external relations, internal security or economic interests of the state ,
whereupon the Commission shall make arrangements for evidence relating to that
matter to be heard in camera at a closed hearing and shall take such
other action as may be necessary or expedient to prevent the disclosure of that
matter.”
On page 10 of the Bill, in subclause (7), delete in line 7 the word “notice” and substitute
“certificate”.
On page 10 of the Bill, in the subclause (7) (b), delete in lines 13
and 15 the word “notice” and substitute “certificates”.
On page 10 of the Bill, insert after subclause (8), the following
subclause:
“(9) For the avoidance of doubt it is declared
that the law relating to the competence or compellability of any person on the
grounds of privilege to give evidence, answer any questions or produce any book
or document before the Commission, shall apply.”
Renumber the subsequent subclause (9) as subclause (10)
accordingly.
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