http://news.yahoo.com
AFP
1 hr 20 mins
ago
JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - White farmers whose land was seized under
Zimbabwe
President Robert Mugabe's land reforms have claimed a house owned
by his
government in South Africa, their lawyer said Tuesday.
The
2.5-million-rand (338,000-dollar, 250,000-euro) house in the Cape Town
suburb of Kenilworth was attached by the sheriff's office, meaning it could
now be auctioned off by the farmers.
Their lawyer Willie Spies said
the seizure was not meant to compensate the
farmers for their land, but to
cover their legal costs.
"We see it as a way to send out a message to
show the Zimbabwean government
that there are certain consequences to their
abuse of human rights," he
said, according to the Sapa news
agency.
"This is a process aimed at helping all the people of Zimbabwe in
a way that
creates hope and shows that it is possible for civil society to
institute
civil sanctions against a regime that does not help its people,"
he said.
The seize of the house stems from a November 2008 verdict by the
tribunal of
the regional Southern African Development Community (SADC),
which found that
Zimbabwe had wrongly taken land from nearly 80 farmers,
saying they had been
targeted because of their race.
Zimbabwe has
rejected the verdict, but a South African court last month
ruled that the
verdict should be applied locally.
Three other properties in Cape Town
have been identified for possible
seizure, Spies said.
The Kenilworth
home was not protected by diplomatic immunity because the
property was being
rented out, making it a commercial property, Spies said.
Mugabe launched
the land reforms a decade ago, aiming to correct a colonial
legacy that left
whites owning most of the best farmland.
But the chaotic campaign was
marred by deadly political violence and
undermined the farm-based economy,
leaving the country dependent on
international food aid.
http://www.sabcnews.com
March 30 2010 ,
3:11:00
Afriforum says it is in the process of attaching three other
properties on
the Cape Peninsula belonging to the Zimbabwean government. The
organisation
has already attached a property worth R2.5 million in
Kenilworth.
The money will be used as compensation to farmers whose land
was seized
under President Robert Mugabe's land reform programme. Afriforum
lawyer,
Willie Spies, says the three other properties are vacant: "What is
happening
today is the attachment of one property belonging to the
Zimbabwean
government which we identified as a property that is being used
for
commercial purposes. Its been leased by the Zimbabwean government to the
third party individual and we have found that the value of the property will
be sufficient to satisfy the order for costs that was granted by the Sadec
tribunal in November 2009 as well as June 2009."
The North Gauteng
High Court last month upheld a ruling by the SADC Tribunal
directing the
Zimbabwe government to compensate farmers who have lost
properties through
land reform. Zimbabwe has ignored that ruling and its
High Court has
rejected the SADC tribunal judgment.
http://www.sabcnews.com
March 30 2010 ,
3:55:00
Thulasizwe Simelane, SABC Harare
In a significant
breakthrough in Zimbabwe's long-dragging negotiation
process, President
Robert Mugabe is to swear in commissioners to serve on
various democracy
support structures.
President Jacob Zuma's mediation team-leader Charles
Nqakula says the
swearing in of the commissioners is part the time-line
agreed in recent
negotiations. The three member mediation team is in Harare,
overseeing the
conclusion of the talks, before a final report is submitted
to Zuma
tomorrow. They say they are unfazed by public statements made by
parties
that seem to water down progress made at the negotiation
table.
Zanu-PF statements that appear to contradict president Zuma's
announcement
of a breakthrough seem to suggest there is something not being
told to the
public by the negotiators. Zuma's mediation team is adamant an
agreement in
principle was reached.
Observers say Zuma has upped the
pressure, as he is not keen to have his
presidency overshadowed by the
Zimbabwe question like his predecessor Thabo
Mbeki. Analysts say South
Africa also does not want the Zimbabwe impasse to
steal the limelight, when
the country hosts the soccer World Cup in June.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by ZLHR Legal Monitor
Monday, 29 March 2010
06:45
HARARE-The month of March 2010, must be the longest month for Roy
Bennett,
the deputy agriculture minister- esignate, as he awaits a High
Court
decision on whether he will be put on his defence over charges of
banditry,
terrorism, insurgency or sabotage.
Earlier this month his
lawyers, led by Beatrice Mtetwa, applied for
discharge at the close of the
State's case, saying the state had failed to
establish a prima facie case
that Bennett plotted to assassinate President
Robert Mugabe in 2006.
But
the prosecution, led by Attorney General (AG) Johannes Tomana, opposed
the
application for discharge insisting it had placed enough evidence before
the
court to prove that Bennett had a case to answer.
Tomana said there was need
for Bennett to explain why he ran away to South
Africa if he had no case to
answer.
The State alleges that Hitschmann was given US$5 000 by Bennett to
buy
weapons for use to assassinate President Mugabe. It says Hitschmann
implicated Bennett in 2006 when he was arrested after being found in
possession of firearms - claims the gun dealer denies, saying he was
tortured into making the confessions during interrogation
at a military
barracks in March that year.
"We have done a good job towards establishing a
prima facie case. We have
established a link between Michael
Peter
Hitschmann and Bennett," said Tomana as he wrapped up his argument
about
three weeks ago. Hitschmann was set to be the State's key witness when
the
trial started, but was declared hostile after he rejected his statement
in
court.
Justice Chinembiri Bhunu is expected to deliver his decision on
Wednesday
this week.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tichaona
Sibanda
30 March 2010
The construction of a US$600 million ethanol
plant in Chisumbanje,
Manicaland province has ignited a storm of protests
and claims that it could
result in thousands of families being evicted from
the area.
The plant, which government says will provide the country with
80 percent of
it's ethanol needs, is being built on land currently owned by
the
Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (ARDA). The ethanol will be
created from sugarcane grown in Arda Chisumbanje and Arda Middle Sabi.
Clouds of uncertainty now hang over the welfare of over 250 000 villagers
living along the vast Sabi river.
Government entered into the deal
with controversial businessman Billy
Rautenbach and his companies Macdom Pvt
(Ltd) and Ratings Investment.
The 51 year-old Rautenbach is a
multimillionaire Zimbabwe businessman well
known for his aggressive business
tactics. He is also closely linked to
Robert Mugabe's ZANU PF. He was added
to the EU targetted sanctions list in
January 2008, and the US targetted
sanctions towards the end of 2008 for his
alleged involvement with the
former ruling regime. It is alleged he has
aided ZANU PF financially and the
deals have been mutually beneficial.
Mugabe, grateful for financial support,
often returns favours to Rautenbach
by granting him dubious and lucrative
deals in mining and this latest
ethanol project in Chisumbanje. As white
farmers continue to be kicked off
their farms, Rautenbach's empire grows
even bigger. Two weeks ago we
reported that Rautenbach was being accused by
the MDC of hounding and
intimidating its activists in Manicaland as
political tension builds ahead
of the constitution making
programme.
MDC spokesman for Manicaland province, Pishai Muchauraya, told
us the
businessman was directly responsible for the tensions that have led
to
several skirmishes in the province.
Officially it has been stated
the project in Chisumbanje will grow 40 000
hectares of sugarcane, but
Rautenbach is allegedly pushing to acquire an
additional 20 000 hectares,
from settlers in constituencies held by the
MDC-T in Chipinge South,
Chipinge West and Musikavanhu.
Arda Chisumbanje falls under Chipinge
South constituency and will provide
the 40 000 hectares. Arda Middle Sabi is
under Chipinge West and sandwiched
between the two constituencies is
Musikavhanhu. This is where Rautenbach has
plans to acquire an extra 12 000
hectares, all belonging to settlers. There
are reports suggesting the
remaining 8 000 hectares of land have already
been identified in the Middle
Sabi.
When fully operational the plant will become the second largest in
the world
and will generate enough electricity to power most parts of
Manicaland.
There are fears however the success of the plant will come at a
serious cost
for the MDC, who are set to see the obliteration of three of
their
constituencies.
All the prime land earmarked for the expansion
is under constituencies that
voted for the MDC in the 2008 parliamentary
elections. Chipinge West and
South and Musikavavhu have an average of 30 000
registered voters in each of
the three constituencies. MDC-T MP for Chipinge
West, Sibonile Nyamudeza,
said almost everyone in the area was concerned
that they would be forced off
their farming land. They have received few
details about the project and
what will happen to those affected.
He
said politically they were bracing themselves for the possibility that
MDC
supporters will all be evicted, leaving ZANU PF supporters to
stay.
'People are very concerned what will happen to their homes and
livelihoods
and the possibility that they will have to move,' Nyamudeza
said.
'We want to ask the company to meet the community to discuss the
issue.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangira was in the area a month ago and was
informed
of the impending crisis in the area. He promised however that no
one will be
moved from their homes,' Nyamudeza added.
The MP said he
wanted to stress that people were not against the project but
were merely
expressing their concerns about the secrecy surrounding it. He
said as a
party they were also concerned about the rights of people in those
areas,
given Zimbabwe's recent history of forced, often violent land
evictions.
So serious is the outcry about the issue that a
Parliamentary portfolio
committee on Agriculture is currently visiting the
area to undertake
investigations.
'I am told the committee is
carrying out investigations to see if the
expansion of the project will
force the displacement of villagers. We are
waiting for the report that they
will produce before we convene a meeting in
the area to decide what action
can be taken if necessary,' Nyamudeza said.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Violet
Gonda
29 March 2010
Owen Maseko, the artist who was arrested last week
for staging an exhibition
in Bulawayo about the 1980s Gukurahundi massacres,
was finally released on
bail of $100 on Tuesday. He has also been ordered to
report to the police
station every Friday. Maseko was picked up by police
last Friday, together
with Voti Thebe, the curator of the National Gallery
in Bulawayo.
The art exhibition explored the violent period in the
Matebeland and
Midlands province, when tens of thousands of people were
murdered by Robert
Mugabe's notorious Fifth Brigade.
Maseko's lawyer,
Kucaca Phulu, confirmed the exhibition has been covered up
with newspapers
so that people cannot see it through the glass windows, and
that gallery
staff have been threatened by police and ordered not to allow
members of the
public to access the exhibition.
Phulu told SW Radio Africa that they
will go to the High Court to get an
order to allow the exhibition to
continue. The lawyer said: "We did not see
anything that is an offence to
the President or anything offensive to any
race or tribe. All these charges
are mere figments of the imagination of the
powers that be."
Maseko's
paintings were hung on the gallery walls which had been painted
red, to
depict blood, and were accompanied by captions such as; "They came
and
killed our brothers and they made us sing their songs while they killed
our
brothers."
One image showed Mugabe and the late ZAPU leader Joshua Nkomo
signing the
unity accord which led to the formation of the unity government
in 1987.
Nkomo is shown slumped across the table with blood dripping down
his
shoulders.
Phulu, who is also the chairperson of the Zimbabwe
Human Rights Association
(ZimRights) said his organization will also
continue with attempts to hold
the photo exhibition that has been blocked by
police in Harare.
Police seized 65 photos, which were part of an
exhibition at Delta Gallery
last week, and showed the violence of the 2008
election period. The High
Court ordered the return of the photographs and
Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai officiated at the official launch. But the
police returned to the
art gallery that evening to try and confiscate the
pictures again, resulting
in the organizers abandoning the
exhibition.
But the ZimRights chairperson said the photo exhibition will
now be shown in
Bulawayo on Tuesday, but not at the National Art Gallery
because of the
atmosphere of fear that is now prevailing there. He said they
will hold this
exhibition at Amakhosi Theatre - a performance arts academy
and culture
centre, also in Bulawayo.
"We've got a court order that
allows us to continue with that exhibition,
although it is not possible to
continue with it in Harare. We are continuing
with this exhibition in
Bulawayo at 5pm this evening. The exhibition is
lawful - however there is
nothing we can do to stop members of the State,
members of the police from
abusing us and stopping that exhibition from
continuing," Phulu
said.
At the time of broadcast we were not able to confirm if the photo
exhibition
went ahead uninterrupted.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by The Namibian
Monday, 29 March
2010 08:02
WINDHOEK -- A group of commercial farmers from Zimbabwe and
two lawyers who
had travelled from South Africa for a hearing before the
SADC Tribunal last
Wednesday were surprised to find the case had not been
put on the roll by
the tribunal's registrar, who is said to have forgotten
to do so.
Despite the lawyers' efforts to have a meeting with the SADC
Tribunal
president, Justice Luis Mondlane, in order to find a date, their
request was
denied. No comment could be obtained from the SADC Tribunal. The
Registrar,
Justice Charles Mkandawire, was out of the office and the five
judges were
in a court session.
"The staff at the SADC Tribunal
appear to be overwhelmed by the
approximately 20 law cases registered since
the regional court was started
four years ago," Namibian human rights lawyer
Norman Tjombe said.
"We forwarded the heads of arguments a month ago,
application was sent to
the Tribunal on February 12, the cover letter
included the date of
Wednesday, March 24 and just 30 minutes in the
courtroom would have been
sufficient," Tjombe said.
Zimbabwean farmer
Ben Freeth, who was beaten up by people who wanted to
seize his family's
farm last year, was very disappointed. "This technical
glitch hopefully was
just incompetence and not done intentionally," Freeth
said.
"We set
high hopes on this hearing as the situation on farms in Zimbabwe
worsens
every day, people get beaten up and farmworkers suffer from
hunger."
Zimbabwean farmers who lost their farms, the Commercial Farmers'
Union (CFU)
and the Southern African Commercial Farmers' Union instituted an
urgent
legal action at the SADC Tribunal on February 12 this
year.
They applied for a court order that the Zimbabwe government should
be
referred to the SADC Summit planned for August this year in Windhoek for
possible suspension or expulsion from SADC.
The farmers claim that
the Zimbabwean government is "in continued breach,
defiance and contempt of
the SADC Treaty and of the orders of the SADC
Tribunal" by failing to comply
with the judgments and orders of the SADC
Tribunal.
According to
Tjombe this step was taken after the Harare High Court rejected
an
application to register the SADC Tribunal's earlier ruling, and the
Zimbabwe
government continued to arrest, prosecute and detain farmers who
were
successful in challenging the constitutionality of the land reform in
the
SADC Tribunal.
They won the case in November 2008, but the Zimbabwe
government declared it
would not adhere to the ruling. - (First published
by The Namibian)
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/
Tuesday, 30 March 2010 17:38
Amnesty International
today called on Zimbabwe's Government to end
repression of public debate on
past and ongoing human rights violations,
following the detention of a well
known artist for work depicting atrocities
committed in the 1980's.
Owen
Maseko was arrested on 26 March after participating in a show at the
Bulawayo National Art Gallery, which depicted atrocities that took place in
the Matabeleland region, known as Gukuruhundi, in western Zimbabwe during
the 1980s where thousands of people were killed, mainly by state security
agents.
The artist who faces charges of "undermining the authority of the
President",
"inciting public violence" and "causing offence to people of a
particular
tribe, race, religion", under the Public Order And Security Act
(POSA), was
released on bail today and ordered to report to a police station
every
Friday.
"President Mugabe and Prime Minister Tsvangirai should
demonstrate their
commitment to end human rights violations in Zimbabwe by
publicly condemning
attempts by police to silence activists and all charges
against Owen Maseko
should be immediately and unconditionally withdrawn,"
said Erwin van der
Borght, Amnesty International's Africa programme
director.
"Arbitrary arrests, unlawful detentions and ongoing harassment and
intimidation restrict the work of activists who are exercising their right
to freedom of expression and contributing to the process of national healing
as provided under the Global Political Agreement," said Erwin van der
Borght.
The Global Political Agreement signed by Zimbabwe's three main
political
parties in September 2008, acknowledges the need for "national
healing,
cohesion and unity in respect of victims of pre and post
independence
political conflicts" as well as the need for creation of "an
environment of
tolerance and respect among Zimbabweans".
Incessant
harassment of human rights workers by Zimbabwean police has also
forced two
prominent human rights defenders, including a trade unionist, to
leave
Zimbabwe. Okay Machisa, National Director of the Zimbabwe Human Rights
Association (ZimRights), fled the country after being detained by police on
23 March for his role in coordinating an exhibition at The Delta Gallery in
Harare that was cancelled due to repeated harassment by police.
Police
confiscated at least 65 photographs from the show, some of which
featured
victims of political violence in Zimbabwe in 2008, but were forced
to return
them following a High Court ruling. Amnesty International
delegates
witnessed police reappear at the gallery after the launch, leaving
only when
they failed to locate Okay Machisa who had by then gone in hiding.
Three
truck loads of police reportedly later returned and some remained
throughout
the night, while another group of police attempted to break into
the
ZimRights office. Another high-profile human rights worker, Gertrude
Hambira, Secretary General of the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers
Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ), was forced to go into hiding for the second time
in six months, after police raided her office on 24 February.
Continuing
harassment by police of GAPWUZ staff has forced the union
activist to remain
outside of the country.
"We are extremely concerned that in the space of
months two prominent human
rights defenders have been forced to leave the
country after attempting to
discuss past and on-going human rights
violations," said Erwin van der
Borght.
"The recent police action against
human rights defenders undermines the
credibility of the unity government
internationally and perpetuates the fear
that past human rights violations
may be repeated."
http://www.zicora.com
Posted By Own Staff Tuesday, 30
March 2010 08:09
The Bulawayo City Council (BCC) is on a massive water
disconnection exercise
in western areas for defaulters who have not paid
their bills since January
last year, council official has said.
The
local authority is owed US$60 million of which residents owe US$57
million
while US$3,7 million is locked in Government departments.
The city's
acting Director of Engineering Services, Job Jika Ndebele said
they were
disconnecting water from individuals who have not paid anything
since
January last year.
"There are some people who have not paid even US$5
towards their bills since
January last year and those are the people that we
are targeting," he said.
Ndebele said they held meetings with residents on
several occasions
encouraging them to at least pay something every
month.
"We are aware that times are hard, but we have said that one can
at least
pay whatever it is they can afford every month. However, we feel
that some
people are not contributing anything at all at the expense of
others. Hence
we are disconnecting those people," he said.
The
ongoing exercise is in the Western areas with places such as Entumbane,
Emakhandeni and some areas in Lobengula already
disconnected.
Hundreds of Bulawayo residents have gone for more than six
months without
water after a disconnection exercise last year in a bid to
force residents
to pay.
A health hazard is now looming in those high
density suburbs, where about 1
100 households have had no water since August
last year.A resurgent cholera
outbreak in Zimbabwe has so far infected about
100 people and claimed three
lives since it was detected last
November.
About 99 cholera cases have been reported in seven of Zimbabwe
's 62
districts over the past four months.The latest report also revealed
that
more than 218 others have been infected by a typhoid outbreak that has
hit
Mabvuku in Harare .
A total of 32 cases and five deaths were
reported by 7 March, six samples
were confirmed to be Salmonella typhoid.
SW Radio Africa Transcript Journalist Violet Gonda presents Hot Seat where she speaks to Andrew Cranswick, CEO of African Consolidated Resources, the company in the middle of a legal wrangle with the government over the Chiadzwa diamond mine. In this first part of the interview Cranswick talks about the history of, and the controversy behind, the Chiadzwa diamonds. BROADCAST: March 26, 2010 | |
VIOLET GONDA: My guest on the programme Hot Seat is Andrew Cranswick, the CEO of African Consolidated Resources, the company which says has the legal title to mine the controversial Chiadzwa diamond claim. ACR was forced off the claim in Marange in Manicaland Province at gunpoint in 2006 and has been in the middle of a protracted ownership wrangle with the government ever since. Currently there’s a Parliamentary Committee hearing which has been set up to investigate operations at Chiadzwa in an effort to try and establish control of the alluvial fields where unknown quantities of gems are still being extracted. Welcome on the programme Andrew. ANDREW CRANSWICK: Thank you Violet. GONDA: Now can you start by telling us your history of how you got involved with the Chiadzwa Diamonds? CRANSWICK: Well African Consolidated Resources was a company founded in late 2003 by a bunch of Zimbabweans, black and white - who put their own money in to establish a company to explore for minerals in Zimbabwe . We, as exhorted by our President, we went off to find foreign investments to assist that programme after we had inquired a number of gold, nickel and metal projects. We raised funding in London and listed on the London Stock Exchange because that is a requirement for the foreign investment, so essentially we are a Zimbabwean company, founded by Zimbabweans but now listed in London so hence the common statement that it’s a British company. We acquired a diamond exploration company that had been closed down by Delta Gold in the 1990s when they exited Zimbabwe and we acquired their database which was quite exhaustive. We also employed a number of people from the diamond industry who had a good knowledge, working knowledge of Zimbabwe and so diamonds became the fourth mineral that we incorporated into our portfolio. The find, like all exploration and mineral finds worldwide was a lucky one. It was found partially on good science, partially on prior information and at first we didn’t understand it because it’s a very unique geological deposit and when we did discover the actual existence of gem diamonds in that particular area - we had many, many hectares all around Zimbabwe exploring for many minerals - we immediately declared it as required by law through the Stock Exchange and we declared it to the Zimbabwean government, a public declaration. And we appealed for assistance to control some of the villagers who had started digging these diamonds up. We got no assistance from the Mining Commissioner’s Office, the police were, the local police were at first very helpful but then they told us they had orders with which they were forced to kick us out. The government proceeded, well when I say the government I must clarify this because we are not in a fight with the government, there’s a couple of people in government that have vested interests that are trying to prevent a transparent mining of this deposit. But the Minister of the time had our claims cancelled or purportedly cancelled on very frivolous grounds saying that the ground had been under de Beers control – which de Beers denied. GONDA: Who was the Minister at the time? CRANSWICK: Ambassador Midzi. Yes and so we refuted the claim that they had cancelled our mining rights and we took it to the Magistrate’s Court which immediately ruled in our favour but that ruling was ignored by the police and the Minister, so we then, and all this time we were lobbying government and offering a joint venture because it is an extraordinary deposit, a bit like the Botswana deposit and we felt it fair to share it with the local community and the country at large. And we offered that in writing consistently for the past four years but it seems that certain people wouldn’t want to joint venture with a company like ours which is transparent and auditable because perhaps the diamonds would be too visible and too track-able and therefore the money would not be able to go into certain pockets. But then the new Minister Obert Mpofu came to power in the GNU in February 2009, we were very hopeful that we could strike a rational solution that would benefit all and he gave every indication in two meetings that he would treat this matter legally. He had advice from the Attorney General which clearly stated that ACR ’s rights were intact and should be respected, this is prior to the High Court decision and assured us that he would be working to resolve this amicably and we reiterated our willingness to join ventures with government and the local community and wrote to him to that effect. We wrote eight letters none of which were replied to over 2009 and then suddenly in July 2009 we discovered that agreements had been signed for mining ventures exactly on top of our mining claims, so the Minister had clearly no intention of rationalizing this for the good of the country and obeying the law at that time. So we immediately took the matter to the High Court. Fortunately we managed to get the matter set down fairly quickly after July and on the 24 th of September the High Court heard the matter and there was a long hearing and clearly the Judge had read up thee facts incredibly well because the Judgement that he gave was extremely detailed, very comprehensive and very aware of all the legal factors - and the South African advocates told me it was one of the best judgements they’ve seen in Africa ever. So that was all good and then of course, no-one has obeyed that Court ruling. GONDA: The Court ruling was to do what exactly? CRANSWICK: The Court ruling had seven paragraphs, the most important paragraph was that the rights are and always were in possession and ownership of ACR , of African Consolidated and that we should be immediately returned to site to mine the deposit and that all diamonds ever mined from the deposit should be returned to us and most importantly was Paragraph Seven which said any notice (inaudible) in the Supreme Court will not serve to suspend the execution of this Order. In other words, the Order must be executed regardless of any appeal that might be lodged with the Supreme Court and the reason being that there was severe damage being inflicted on the country and on the deposit and on ACR ’s rights. Now the government, I must correct myself, not the government but ZMDC - the State-owned mining corporation with full approval of the Minister - continued to mine and we have evidence of that after that Court ruling. The South African companies by then were already on site, continue to mine in contempt of the Court ruling. So we appealed to the police to stop the mining – they did nothing. We wrote a letter to the Chief Commissioner of the police appealing for him to intervene and to give orders – nothing happened. We were prevented from entering site, the South African mining companies continued mining in contempt of Court. GONDA: Is this Mbada Diamonds and Canadile? CRANSWICK: That’s correct, yes. GONDA: And what proof do you have to show that they continue to mine in contempt of the Court ruling? CRANSWICK: They have declared they’re still mining, they said that it doesn’t apply to them because they weren’t a respondent in the case - yet their rights derive from ZMDC, so it’s nonsense. They are mining under ZMDC’s supposed title which has been invalidated so the Order ordering ZMDC to stop mining must surely also apply to ZMDC’s partners and no Court would argue with that. So it’s just a little public relations thing and yes there is proof, they’re declaring it openly and they’re flying diamonds, Mbada is flying diamonds to the airport every few days. GONDA: And of course the latest news says that the Kimberley Process has actually approved Mbada Diamonds to start selling its more than two million carat stash of diamonds mined from Chiadzwa and this is a report that appeared on the web site NewZimbabwe and basically they say that the certification ceremony will be set for the 29 th of March. Have you heard about this and what’s your reaction to this?
So not only were they mining in contempt for four months, in contempt of the High Court for four months, the Supreme Court ordered that all mining must cease and that was very, very clear, it didn’t require any respondents and they’ve continued mining since the 16 th of February so they are in contempt of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. These are foreign country companies operating in Zimbabwe in contempt of our Courts and the police and members of the government stand by and endorse it. It’s quite frightening. Now if the Kimberley Process approve what has essentially been declared as stolen goods and essentially been ordered to the Reserve Bank vaults by the Supreme Court and that has not been obeyed, Kimberley Process approval of the sale of it, they are complicit in a crime in Zimbabwe. I warned the Kimberley Process of this by writing to their Chairman and pointing out the legal facts, not threatening them but just pointing out the legal facts that it would not be in the Kimberley Process’s interests or good reputation to endorse a crime in a sovereign State. And the only answer they could give me was that the Kimberley Process doesn’t get involved in ownership issues. So what does the Kimberley Process get involved in, one must ask? Does there have to have been a war and have been how many thousands of deaths and how much bloodshed before the Kimberley Process can ban diamonds? If there’s no war, the stones can be stolen and the Kimberley Process will endorse it no problem, that’s what they’re saying. It’s quite a worry. GONDA: I was actually going to ask you about the Kimberley Process - this is a monitoring group that is supposed to monitoring activities in Chiadzwa, so do you think in general they are doing an effective job since they are monitoring activities in Marange?
And you asked me about the Kimberley Process, is the monitoring effective? Well it’s one chap based in Johannesburg, I’m sure he’s a very nice and competent guy but he has travelled to Zimbabwe I think as far as I know for a total of four or five days - at least as Kimberley Process monitor. He did not even meet ACR even though they’d undertaken to meet all stakeholders, he did not attempt to meet ACR ; he was flown to site by people who are basically obviously have a vested interest in approving a sale; he was escorted by the very people who are in contempt of the Supreme Court and he is one man – this is an area covering thousands and thousands of hectares. And he has not, as far as I’m aware gained any satellite information or any other information which we’ve offered and so how does he know if anything been complied to? I just don’t see it to be honest. GONDA: I know you mentioned this briefly earlier on but can you explain how you got your license as the government accuses you of getting it through bribes? CRANSWICK: Let’s just, before I answer that question because it’s a good question, let’s clarify when we say ‘the government’. The government consists of a lot of individuals, many of whom we have high respect for, many of whom are very, very distressed by this absolute lack of respect for law and order and absolute lack of respect for the Courts. There are one or two individuals who clearly have a vested interest, either because if they are wrong they are found to be incompetent or perhaps they have some kind of beneficial interest. They are in government that want to ensure that we are kept off this, they will say absolutely everything and anything they can to discredit us. Now allegations of bribery – well that’s interesting because, if that is the case why hasn’t the charge been laid for bribery against us? In our High Court defense, in defense of our High Court action, the various government bodies that were respondents tried to indicate improper pegging of our mining rights and we proved satisfactorily to the judge and a 100% satisfactorily to any independent opinion including the Attorney General’s own opinion himself that we did nothing whatsoever wrong, that we followed all due process in the pegging of our claim and the only thing that was not due process was the purported invalidation or cancellation by the mining officials, the ministry officials. So did we bribe someone? No, that’s a lie and anyone saying that is a liar. GONDA: So when did you get your license? CRANSWICK: We pegged the mining claims using a prospecting license which is a standard procedure under law in Zimbabwe, there are several different types of exploration and prospecting licenses, one of which is you buy over the counter, it’s a green slip and it allows you to peg up to ten hectares as a mining claim once you discover an area that you think is interesting which is exactly what we did. And this is standard practice for all mining companies, all mineral companies in Zimbabwe , Australia , Canada , all the countries that use a very similar mining code. We have done it all over Zimbabwe from platinum, nickel, copper, gold etc rock phosphate and we have never had anything questioned. Everything that we did is exactly by the book. GONDA: You said you have mostly Zimbabweans in this company but the government has accused you of being a British company. Where is your company based? CRANSWICK: OK that’s a fairly complicated question and obviously it’s a moving target - but the company is based in Harare , its Headquarters are in Harare and its registered office is in the UK , in Kent in England . But the original registered office for the Zimbabwean entity which pre-dates all other companies was in Harare , Zimbabwe . Founded 100% by black and white Zimbabweans and obviously if we are going to raise foreign investment, we have to sell shares - so it is no longer controlled by Zimbabweans, it’s no longer a majority of Zimbabwean company. I’d say Zimbabweans control about 30% but it’s the old story like the Deputy Prime Minister said – would you rather have 10% of an elephant or 100% of a rat? And the point is that to get foreign investment you must give foreign investors something back for their money and those foreign investors – we found the biggest appetite to be in Britain and the Stock Exchange most respected is the London Stock Exchange for this type of venture and so it was impossible for us to avoid listing in London. So we did not apologise for the fact that we’ve now registered a company in England, that we’re now London listed, and that we now have international investors that combined control the majority of the company. But no single investor has more that 6.1% so no individual controls the company, and that includes me. The Minister recently said I control the company; ‘Cranswick that white man’. So it’s nonsense. GONDA: And you also mentioned earlier on that you have offered a joint venture with the government and the local community, now how do you respond to people who say that why didn’t you involve the locals before? Why now and is this not an attempt to win public opinion? CRANSWICK: Firstly Violet, we did involve the locals from day one and if you speak to the Headman Chiadzwa, who is now the son of the late Headman and if you speak to the Chief Marange, and if you speak to the masvikiro there - Mr Masunzi, he is a wonderful man, he will tell you exactly what we did from day one with community relations and exactly what we promised them from day one. And that’s our standard approach – we have done the same in Ngezi, you can speak to Chief Ngezi, there the MP is Minister Webster Shamu. We have done absolutely all the right things by the community in every place that we operate. This is not a new thing; we offered that to the local community as standard practice. What is not standard is offering a big chunk to government. Offering a big chunk to government – yes was partially to try and appease them in terms for their desire for income, there’s nothing wrong with that but this is an extraordinary deposit and like de Beers did in Botswana, we think that if you have an extraordinary deposit, this extraordinary because we didn’t know initially that it was this extraordinary – that’s the nature of mineral exploration and discovery – you never know what you’ve got until you’ve really sampled it and checked it out properly – but as soon as we did, we suggested that concept immediately to government and we’ve been totally ignored from day one. Now that’s conveniently covered up by the people in government who want to discredit us but we offered a much more transparent, far more favourable joint venture than they are currently getting. Not one dollar has reached the fiscus in four years from operation there. Not one dollar has reached the fiscus in four years of supposed government operation there – you tell me if that’s transparent? GONDA: Now the directors of the two firms, Mbada Investments and Canadile Mining, it’s reported that they recently told this Parliamentary Committee that’s probing corruption in Chiadzwa that they have not turned profit, blaming an order by the Supreme Court to halt all mining operations. What can you say about this? Do you buy this? CRANSWICK: Well first of all we have affidavits to prove they have not halted mining and they’ve also told everyone they’ve not halted mining because they’ve continued to fly diamonds into the airport. The halt on diamond sales – let’s look at it in two ways: first of all Mbada are stockpiling diamonds at the airport where they claim to have lodged approximately two million carats. That’s all well and good, I personally suspect that a number of the diamonds that they’ve mined are not lodged at the airport and where they are, I don’t know. Are they declared within their company board minutes or are some individuals benefiting from those diamonds? I don’t know. Canadile are processing 30 tonnes per hour of gravel and claim to have only produced 200 000 carats in nearly a year, in ten months of mining. Well in just a very hand organized sampling exercise over a few weeks, ACR collected 130 000 carats and there was a lot being taken out by the illegal panners who we were trying to stop and who the police would not assist us to stop and that is over a number of weeks. So how does Canadile operate for nearly a year and only produce 200 000 carats? It’s rubbish. Their directors have been arrested holding diamonds. We have knowledge of a vast quantity of diamonds being sold daily across in Villa Manica in Chimoio, Mozambique. It’s too many diamonds to be coming from the illegal panners that are still operating in Marange and Chimanimani - so it must be coming from someone and I strongly suspect, in fact I directly accuse Canadile of smuggling most of their diamonds out. GONDA: What is the estimated value of the Marange diamonds claim? CRANSWICK: We must be careful here because I’m under Stock Exchange rules so I’ve got to be very careful of what I say in terms of declaring a value of an asset if it has not been scientifically certified by an independent party - so just bearing that caveat in mind I’ll give you what I personally believe based on evidence that we’ve gathered both when we were on the ground and both on evidence that we’ve gathered of what ZMDC declared - and they didn’t declare much compared to what they were mining - and what Mbada’s declared and what we see trading across the border in Mozambique and sometimes trading in Harare and what’s on the market in Dubai and Israel that we know are Marange goods. So based on that, this could gross the country over a billion dollars a year in exports and that’s at the raw material value and in my opinion that is quite conservative. Now if we develop a decent diamond polishing industry like we should, the likes of what India has got and it can’t be done overnight, it will take decades to develop to a size of India but one day we will be able to get there – then you can essentially double that because of the labour and effort and cost that go into cutting and then the mark-up value that comes. Now if we were to produce more than a billion dollars worth of diamonds or more than a billion and a half it would probably start damaging the world diamond price, there are just too many diamonds at Marange so it’s a very sensitive issue for Zimbabwe and the diamond industry. There’s no point in killing the golden goose that lays the golden eggs, rather let him lay his golden eggs at his leisure and the Marange deposit belongs to the people of Zimbabwe, all minerals in Zimbabwe belong to the people of Zimbabwe – that’s what the Zimbabwean law says and the second sentence of the Mines and Minerals Act appoints the President as the custodian of the rights of the minerals on behalf of the Zimbabwe people. And then proceeds, we have a very, very good Mines and Minerals Act, and then proceeds to lay out in several hundred pages exactly how those mineral rights should be protected, respected, mined and enjoyed by the people of Zimbabwe and we have adhered to that 100% as we would do as a publicly listed company. GONDA: But you know it is argued that most foreign investors, especially in the mining industry repatriate most of their profits and put very little back. How much did ACR pump back into Zimbabwe, into the Zimbabwean society as a result of the lucrative sale of diamonds?
So ACR has never taken a single cent out so to say that we have not repatriated profits – we patriated 20, 30 million dollars in exploration to develop Zimbabwe’s future mining industry of which we expect to participate for a profit for our shareholders of course – that’s what business is all about. So let’s talk about the mining sector in general – they say they take all their profits and don’t reinvest it – well the biggest mining company in Zimbabwe right now is Zimplats. To my knowledge they have reinvested every single cent of profit they have made in their ten years of their existence. Every single cent and that’s substantial money. In one month alone last year they made 50 million dollars, it is all going back into Zimbabwe. Now to make that 50 million dollars they have to pay tax of about 30 or 40 million dollars, they have to employ people for about 150 million dollars – employees, they have to buy services and diesel locally in the local economy for another 150 million dollars. So the profit that actually ends up one day paying a dividend after its all been reinvested, usually profits are reinvested for many years, the dividends paid out much later is a fair reflection on the risk taken by foreign investors to plough in foreign money. This is not aid. Aid cripples a country, makes us beggars. Foreign investment makes us strong, provides employment. I do believe in the indigenisation so let’s get that clear, I do believe in the indigenisation, not in its current format but I do believe in it. I do believe that ultimately all these companies should be required or at least be encouraged to list on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange to allow Zimbabweans to participate in a greater manner. I’m a great believer in that. I’m a Zimbabwean. I’m a fourth generation Zimbabwean, I’ve lived there all my life, I intend to live there for rest of my life, hopefully not in jail. So it’s nonsense that the mining companies come in to exploit at the detriment of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe has no local capital to develop its mining. Foreign capital must be employed to do it. To do that we have to give them something back. It’s as simple as that. That’s what foreign investment is. GONDA: And we will continue with this discussion next week. In this final part, Andrew Cranswick will talk about the issue of corruption, the South African crooks who have been given permits by government to mine in Chiadzwa and his fears that the unrest created by these diamonds could lead to war as has happened so many times in Africa. Feedback can be sent to violet@swradioafrica.com |
http://www.ipsnews.net
By Vusumuzi Sifile
HARARE, Mar 30,
2010 (IPS) - Mary Pamire will never forget the day a group
of men took turns
to rape her.
In June 2003, Pamire was among scores of people who
participated in a mass
demonstration organised by the then-opposition
Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) and civil society organisations, among
them the National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA).
"I am a woman who
has suffered a lot for the MDC and NCA," said Pamire. "I
remember in 2003
when we participated in the mass action, I was abducted by
a group of
soldiers. They took me to a secluded place and took turns to rape
me. I
counted up to ten the number of times they raped
me."
Betrayed
′The tears that streamed down her face as she gave
her testimony at the
recent launch of a new NCA report revealed the trauma
Pamire has
experienced. The report, "Fighting for a New Constitution: Human
Rights
Violations Experienced by Female Members of the NCA", released on
March 23,
concludes that "being female and a civic or political activist
comes with
severe risks".
At 36, Pamire says she has been through too
much suffering. She has been
hospitalized many times and detained at police
cells on numerous occasions.
She has been gang raped. Mingled with the pain
of these experiences, Pamire
said the saddest part was realizing that the
very people she was in the
struggle with offered her little
help.
"The NCA and MDC never helped me despite the fact that I was
suffering for
them," said a sobbing Pamire. "Only [the late] Mrs [Susan]
Tsvangirai helped
me. She was so supportive and helped me get medication in
South Africa. If
she was alive, I know things would be better for
me."
Susan Tsvangirai, the wife of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, died
in a
car crash on March 6, 2009. She was famous for her support to mostly
female
activists in the MDC and the NCA.
Pamire told IPS that she
felt betrayed by those who usually lead such
demonstrations.
"From
the day I was discharged from hospital, I have not received any
support from
the MDC or NCA. Even if I get to their offices, they just
ignore me. It
pains me that now I cannot even afford to look after my two
children. I lost
my job after the rape, and life has never been good for
me," she
said.
Pamire has two children, a 15-year-old daughter and a 13-year-old
son, who
she says have since dropped out of school since she cannot afford
to pay
their school fees.
"At the moment, there is nothing I can do
for my children. I have since
moved them to the village in Buhera," she
added. Buhera is a rural district
in Manicaland Province in eastern
Zimbabwe.
Life long trauma
Speakers at the launch of NCA report
agreed on the need to support women who
are affected by political violence,
saying if not properly assisted, they
will remain traumatised for the rest
of their lives.
What complicates the situation for most women, said
Pamire, is that they
rarely get enough medical and emotional
support.
NCA director Ernest Mudzengi defended his organisation and other
civil
society groups’ failure to adequately support victims and survivors of
violence, blaming scarce financial resources.
"We have not had the
kind of resources that allow for continuous support to
victims and
survivors, mostly because of the enormity of the challenge,"
said
Mudzengi.
"Once someone becomes a victim it means their entire life has
been affected.
These people need help."
The executive director of the
Women and AIDS Support Network (WASN), Mary
Sandasi, said failure to address
issues of violence against women has dire
effects on the national response
to the HIV/AIDS. She said there was a need
for support mechanisms to develop
the women from being victims to be
survivors.
"HIV/AIDS and violence
drive each other," said Sandasi. "We should be able
to separate the support
we give to victims and to survivors. As long as we
lump them together, it
may be difficult to identify them and their different
needs. We need to help
the survivors.
Towards national healing
The newly launched report
indicates that during election campaigning, sexual
violence is often used to
intimidate and silence opponents. In most cases,
notes the report, the
perpetrators are people with strong links to the state
without necessarily
being part of the state.
"Politically motivated violence against women is
one of the more regrettable
features of contemporary Zimbabwean political
life. It is a feature seen in
every election since 2000, and is the likely
and common experience of any
woman who dares to become politically or
socially active," notes the report.
Despite the hazards it exposes, the
report encourages women activists to
"participate in any civil society
activities without fear of reprisal and/or
brutal treatment from law
enforcement agents".
The report comes at a time when Zimbabwe is gearing
up for the launch of the
national healing and reconciliation programme,
which is driven mostly by the
need for victims and perpetrators to forgive
each other and work together in
nation building.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Martin
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
16:58
This is Part 1 of a heated debate on Behind the Headlines featuring the
two
spokespersons of the rival Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU)
factions. SW Radio Africa journalist Lance Guma moderates as Kudakwashe
Chakabva and Wisdom Mgagara battle it out to explain why the students union
split and who is the legitimate executive out of the two?
Lance Guma:
Hello Zimbabwe and welcome to another edition of Behind the
Headlines. As
some of you will be aware, the Zimbabwe National Students
Union, otherwise
known as ZINASU, split into two factions sometime last year
over
disagreements over various issues, one of which was - which direction
to
take with the constitution making process.
So what we have decided to do,
since there has since been two congresses by
two different factions and two
executives elected, we've got the
spokespersons from the two factions onto
the programme, I've got Wisdom
Mgagara who is from the executive led by
Joshua Chinyere and I've got
Kudakwashe Chakabva who is from the Executive
led by Tafadzwa Mugwadi,
gentlemen, thank you very much for taking your time
and joining us.
Kudakwashe Chakabva: You are welcome
Wisdom
Mgagara: Yes, thank you.
Guma: Right, let me start with you Kudakwashe
Chakabva from the Tafadzwa
Mugwadi executive, from your side of the fence,
why do we have this problem
where we have two executives claiming to be the
legitimate ZINASU?
Chakabva: I think the whole problem emanates from some
few individuals, I am
sure they are just power-hungry individuals who are
trying to make Zimbabwe
National Students Union a platform for
self-enrichment. If you go back, if
you trace the events leading to this
so-called split, that it emanates from
the General Council meeting that was
held in Harare on the 27th of July
2009, whereby (Lovemore) Chinoputsa was
deposed from power through a vote of
no confidence by the students of
Zimbabwe General Council then that
disgruntlement emanated from his failure
to execute his duties fully and
from there Brilliant Dube led a group of
students into forming something
that they call a National Executive Council
but what you have to remember
also is that Brilliant Dube was suspended even
before she had created this
thing called another ZINASU.
Guma: OK
that's your side of the story. Let's go to Wisdom Mgagara, the
Joshua
Chinyere executive, what's your take on what Kudakwashe has just
said?
Mgagara: Our position is that these divisions, they emanated
from a problem
which was caused by competitive individuals as well who
believed that they
are the gurus of the student union. What is the so-called
General Council
which toppled Lovemore Chinoputsa was not constitutional
because we have an
issue whereby the students who were there to represent
the students...and we
also have an issue of the constitution whereby the
then president Clever
Bere had to move a motion on the position of the
students that the students
of Zimbabwe had (inaudible) denied a constitution
and had to align himself
to the Madhuku agenda of the Take Charge
campaign.
This was again unconstitutional and an extraordinary General
Council which
is in the provision of the constitution of ZINASU that even
then that there
is an office bearer who has abused his powers, there's need
for that and
that general extraordinary General Council, we had on the 22nd
of August
2009 whereby Clever Bere was ousted out of office and Brilliant
Dube was
elevated to the President of the Union.
Guma: OK, you've
raised one interesting issue which has been the dominant
theme here that
this whole disagreement was over the constitution making
process where one
faction was supported by the NCA and Dr Lovemore Madhuku
and the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions and the other faction supported by
the MDC and
others who thought that taking part in the constitution making
process was
the best thing. Let me start with you Kudakwashe. Is it true
then to say the
students are not really in disagreement here, it's the
organisations outside
ZINASU who have their own agendas that are
manipulating the students? Would
you agree to that?
Chakabva: I actually totally dismiss that. We as the
National Executive
Council were given the mandate to endorse the Take Charge
campaign, the
so-called Madhuku campaign. It is now a popular phenomenon in
all colleges
of Zimbabwe that when you go there, we are actually called the
Orange
Revolutionaries. It is not, it is not something, it has nothing to do
with
the NCA chairman, it is actually within the students themselves that we
have
nothing to do with the constitution making process that is stipulated
under
Article Six. Of course there are certain influences especially those
at the
Crisis Coalition who are trying to field some differences within the
students of Zimbabwe. I actually do not consider what the spokesperson, the
guy on the other line, what he says because we actually think that he is
part of my constituents I speak on his behalf as a student. It is actually a
nullity that he is actually saying some things that concern the Union
because I am the only one who can speak on behalf of the Union.
Guma:
OK, clearly, obviously there is disagreement. There are two factions,
both
claiming to be the legitimate ZINASU which is why we are having this
programme to discuss these issues. Let me come to you Wisdom, in the first
discussion, last year I hosted a debate between Brilliant Dube and Clever
Bere and the obvious thing that came out was that Clever Bere's Executive
was against the constitution and Brilliant Dube's one supported the
constitution making process. Is this something that both factions can deny -
that this rift really has been driven by the constitution making
process?
Mgagara: Yah, truly that's where the problem emanates from. In
fact on the
22nd of August when Brilliant Dube was elevated to be the
president of the
Union, there was a resolution there which was adopted by
the legitimate
students and they say that the students of Zimbabwe were
agreeing to write
the constitution and from that resolution, the resolution
was later taken to
a Congress which we had on the 19th of December 2009
where it was also added
that the students of Zimbabwe have agreed to writing
the constitution.
So I'm surprised that there are still a group of people who
still claim to
be student leaders, yet as I speak right now we've got our
Secretary General
Grant Tabvurei who is in Mutare where he is meeting the
students, telling
them about the progress on the issue of the constitution
and as I speak
right now, I'm in Midlands, where I'm talking to the
students, talking to
them about the issue of the constitution and the
students have responded in
a positive way because they are cooperating and
they have said to us that it
is a privilege that we need to write a
constitution that will benefit us and
our siblings and even the generations
to come.
So I think the position being taken by our fellow guys is a selfish
decision
because how can you just say I do not want to get
into..(inaudible).haven't
seen a problem with that, so the students of
Zimbabwe, they have made it
clear from the resolution we had that they are
going to have a constitution.
Guma: OK, how difficult is it to get the
two sides to agree and have one
united voice because I remember there was a
meeting, again last year to try
and bridge the differences and have one
Congress. This collapsed of course
over several disagreements which we want
to get to. Let me start with you
Kudakwashe Chakabva from the Tafadzwa
Mugwadi executive, why did the meeting
fail to get the two sides to have one
Congress? What were the major
obstacles?
Chakabva: I am sure you are
referring to the period when Clever Bere was
still in power?
Guma:
Yes.
Chakabva: What I know is we had some certain set of conditions that
we
thought could be discussed and probably endorsed and amongst the
conditions
were that the current secretariat, or the then secretariat should
be
dissolved, one. Secondly with the mandate that there should be a forensic
audit of the Zimbabwe National Students Union financial affairs for the past
three years and we actually do not know the reason why the comrades failed
to endorse such conditions. It is our belief that an external force was used
to impede the effort and for reasons which we are sure are just selfish
ends
Guma: Let me, Wisdom can you respond to that? What caused the
collapse of
the attempts to get the unions together?
Mgagara: I'm
sure that the reason why we couldn't have one Congress is that
the one
ousted president, Clever Bere, had to give some demands which even
if you go
to Mars you'll not get them. He demanded that he wanted six months
in the
office to lead the students union and when his term was over, point
number
one. (Tafadzwa interrupts laughing).
Then point number two we also have some
individuals who are using ZINASU to
be their political battle field to
settle their scores the likes of Lovemore
Madhuku, the likes of (Takura)
Zhangazha. Those guys they are godfathers for
those guys and I remember well
that there was once a close agreement,
whereby these guys had agreed that
they were going to have one Congress but
to my surprise, the next meeting
which was held, Clever Bere was now talking
something else which means that
there were some people whom he had to go and
consult who were telling him
what to do and which is the same problem even
happening.
As the students
we don't have problems, I don't have problems with Two boy
(Tafadzwa
Mugwadi) from UZ, I don't have problems with Kurayi Hoyi but the
problem is
that we have got some individuals who are using ZINASU to their
playground,
where they want to achieve their issues. The Madhuku agenda is
the unpopular
thing, to the people of Zimbabwe the (inaudible) thing and
therefore they
know that the students are a big force for change and
therefore they can use
the students to manipulate the agenda so hence the
problem which you have in
ZINASU.
Guma: OK Kudakwashe I heard you laughing as Wisdom was talking
there, is
there anything that you object to what he said, particularly the
fact that
he's alleging Clever Bere had requested an extra six months in
office. Is
that true?
Chakabva: Ah, well like I said before, his
position is a nullity it comes
from someone who I can't consider now, so the
point that Clever Bere wanted
power for so long it is just an assumption
that he himself cannot even prove
it. Not even he that he speaks on behalf
of, they cannot even prove it. What
I can prove to you as a fact is that
Clever Bere did leave power on the 28th
to the 30th of January in the year
of our Lord 2010, that is enough ground
to say that the man wasn't what is
being said about him.
In fact to refer back to the issue of money that he
talks of, if it is so
self-evident that these guys are so authentic why is
it that they fear so
much the issue of a forensic audit? Why is that? They
must question that.
They must prove to the world that they stand on behalf
of real principals.
Remember what Comrade Lenin said about these worshippers
of money that when
you go through such periods of invasion by these
worshippers of money you
come out stronger and more resolute and that is
exactly what we are. We are
not even moved by what he said. These are just
opinions by those people that
we represent. Wisdom is just a student at the
University of Zimbabwe. I
speak on his behalf as a student
leader.
Guma: Wisdom this is interesting, did you or your faction reject
the audit?
Mgagara: Ah actually what I can simply say is that all what he
is saying are
dubious charges. I think this young man is actually talking
from an
un-informed prospective point of view because what I know is he was
not even
part of the talks, one, and two I think what he is saying does not
even
tally with what happened on the issue of the talks. On the issue of the
talks the agenda was not even about the secretariat. I'm sure that he should
go back and know the history for ZINASU to have the secretariat.
It was
in 2005, 2006 that the then Executive could not produce an audit
report and
therefore there was need for the secretariat so that it could
account for
those resources. The issue of an audit is out of the question.
That was not
an issue which is making the students to be divided. It's very
unfortunate
that these guys are actually pursuing an agenda of a certain
individual and
they don't even know where the problems emanated from and I
mean if you are
a blind person and you are being led by someone who can see,
he can even
drop you in a pit of mess.
So they are heading to mess, we are the legitimate
student leaders,
recognized by everyone in civil society, recognized by
everyone, even the
students. Go to the University of Zimbabwe, ask them who
is the President
they'll tell you Joshua Chinyere, go to MSU (Midlands State
University), go
to Belvedere in Harare, so I don't even know what he's
saying, I mean he's a
student and I'm sure that he's a student at Harare
Poly but not a student
leader. We can have even a survey that could go even
to Madziva and ask them
who is the President of ZINASU and they'll tell you
Joshua Chinyere, so I
don't even know what these guys are talking
about?
Guma: One argument that was put Wisdom, against the Secretariat
was that
certain individuals were becoming permanent fixtures in the Union
and there
was this feeling that people should come and go and I do remember
an email
which was sent soon after the talks collapsed that stated that the
Secretariat was a problem, certain individuals did not want to be removed.
Would you agree it still remains a problem or should it have been a
problem?
Mgagara: I don't think the issue of the Secretariat is a
problem. As the
leadership of ZINASU we are working well with the
Secretariat and I'm sure
that these guys were trying to hide behind their
fingers by citing the issue
of the Secretariat but it is something which is
completely out of the story.
Guma: Well on that note we have to conclude
the first part of this
discussion between the two rival spokespersons of the
Zimbabwe National
Students Union (ZINASU). That's Kudakwashe Chakabva and
Wisdom Mgagara
representing both their factions. Join me next week as we
conclude this
debate on just what is the problem in ZINASU.
U.S. Embassy Harare
Public Affairs Section
Harare, March 30, 2010: The United States government officially handed over a new, upgraded bio-safety level 2+ laboratory to the Minister of Health, Dr. Henry Madzorera. The facility will enhance the capacity of the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare to offer clinical and diagnostic testing as well as research on indigenous/exotic agents which may cause serious disease after inhalation, such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB),typhoid (Salmonella Typhi),anthrax (Bacillus anthracis) and the H1N1 virus.
Speaking after a tour of the facilities with the Minister of Health and Child Welfare, U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Charles Ray described the cooperation between the government of Zimbabwe, the private sector, and the international community as ‘historic.”
“This is an historic occasion. The Ministry of Health and Child Welfare is entering into a mutually beneficial relationship with a non-traditional partner, a private research laboratory administered by the National Microbiology Reference Laboratory (NMRL) and Biomedical Research and Training Institute (BRTI). This cooperation will significantly enhance Zimbabwe's testing efficiency and enable research capacity as never before,” said the U.S. Ambassador.
The laboratory received US$120,000 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief for the renovation of the laboratory and the procurement of supplies. In addition, CDC trained laboratory personnel on conducting assays and quality assurance.
Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr. Madzorera described the donation from the U.S. as a great enhancement to the service delivery system in the health sector. "This is a good sample of collaboration and working together. I was pleased to hear that we are now one of the top four level 2+ laboratories in the region. It means we are no longer going to export testing samples to South Africa or Zambia for H1N1 and many other diseases,” said the Minister.
“I was particularly pleased by the fact that that we can now diagnose HIV early in infants at the rate of 70 samples an hour, which is a great enhancement of our service delivery,” said Madzorera. Previous testing methods only allowed Zimbabwe to determine HIV status in 100 samples a day.
# # #
Contact: Tim Gerhardson, Public Affairs Officer, on hararepas@state.gov, Tel. +2634758800-1, Fax: 758802, Website: http://harare.usembassy.gov
30 March 2010
Civil rights group AfriForum today seized a luxury property in Cape Town belonging to the Zimbabwe government, in what is a significant step towards compensation for embattled dispossessed Zimbabwean farmers who lost their land in President Robert Mugabe’s unlawful land reform programme.
“It’s a symbolic measure,” Willie Spies, AfriForum’s lawyer, said outside of the offices of the Sheriff for the district of Cape Town. “It shows the Zimbabwean government that there are certain consequences to their abuse of human rights.”
A South African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal ruling in November 2008 deemed the land seizures racist and unlawful. Mugabe disregarded the ruling, calling it “nonsense and of no consequence” to Zimbabwe.
The tribunal followed up its ruling with a contempt ruling and costs order, a financial penalty levied against the Zimbabwe government, in June 2009.
On 26 February, the High Court in Pretoria registered these rulings in South Africa, making the cost order an executable judgment.
Four Cape Town properties were identified in the suburbs of Zonnebloem, Kenilworth and Wynberg. AfriForum decided to only attach the Kenilworth property, located at 28 Salisbury Road, for now.
If the Zimbabwe government does not respond within the next two months, the property, bought sixteen years ago for ZAR500 000, will be auctioned off to cover the ZAR150 000 cost order.
Spies said he knew of other commercial creditors of the Zimbabwean government who were interested in joining the civil proceedings, which in the end would make it a more comprehensive process.
He said the attachment was not to compensate the farmers for land lost in the violent land grabs. Instead, he said, “it shows it’s possible to enforce the [SADC] law, and it also demonstrates that the ruling is a real ruling and it is enforceable.”
But the attachment is still a sign of hope to farmers who have suffered at the hands of Mugabe’s henchmen.
“It’s a historic day on the road to accountability,” said Ben Freeth, the son-in-law of Mike Campbell, whose farm was burnt down last year despite being protected by the SADC Tribunal ruling.
“After ten years of the annihilation of property rights in Zimbabwe where no one has been compensated, the long arm of the law is finally reaching out to make itself felt,” he said.
Collen Makumbirofa of Zimbabwe’s Foundation for Reason in Justice said in a statement that his organization remained committed to the principle of fairness and the preservation of property rights.
“We believe that the attachment of government property by AfriForum is a prelude to thousands of similar attachments which will happen in future,” he added.
According to Spies, more particulars of future legal and civil action will be announced in due course.
ENDS
Submitted by:
Zimbabwe Democracy Now
30 March 2010
MEDIA STATEMENT
The attachment of these properties is something
that is of major symbolic
value. After ten years of the annihilation of
property rights in Zimbabwe
where no one has been compensated, the long arm
of the law is finally
reaching out to make itself felt.
Of course the
attachment of four Zimbabwe Government properties is a drop in
the ocean
compared to the theft of the thousands of once productive
agricultural
properties in Zimbabwe that were the homes and livelihoods of
over 2 million
farmers, farm workers and their families; but this is a huge
symbolic step
in the quest for global justice through the international
courts.
When has anyone ever heard of a Government having its
properties outside its
borders attached because of its contempt for an
international court?
It is a historic day on the road to
accountability.
This judgment is saying that when dictators rule their
own countries against
the universal declaration of human rights, justice
will be served. It is
saying that dictators can no longer get away with
destroying life, liberty
and property with impunity: there are consequences
to acts of tyranny.
This is a major precedent and it will be built upon
so long as the Zimbabwe
Government continues to trample on the rights of
millions of its citizens so
that they are left hungry and in desperate
poverty.
Ben Freeth [SADC Tribunal Rights Watch].
Cell: +263 913
929 138 (Zimbabwe)
E-mail: freeth@bsatt.com
Ben Freeth is the
son-in-law of Mike Campbell, who took his case to the SADC
Tribunal in
Windhoek.
For further information on the case:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Campbell_%28Pvt%29_Ltd_and_Others_v_Republic_of_Zimbabwe
Note:
Deon
Theron, President of the Commercial Farmers' Union (Zimbabwe) is
currently
in South Africa and can be contacted for comment on:
Cell: 072 109
0125
E-mail: dtheron@cfuzim.org
Photos are
available on the following website:
www.zimbabwedemocracynow.com
By
Dr. Sabelo J. Ndlovu- Gatsheni.
The signing of
the Global Political Agreement in September 2008 and the
installation of the
Inclusive Government in February 2009 provided hope to
the poor and
underprivileged in Zimbabwe, who had experienced not only
violence but
numerous problems ranging from shortage of basic commodities,
endless
electricity cuts, water shortages, devastating cholera outbreak and
endured
a bizarre situation of having to buy the few available goods in
foreign
currency while being paid in worthless Zimbabwe dollars. Indeed
there is no
doubt that the Inclusive Government has made commendable strides
towards
restoration of normalcy in Zimbabwe.
While money is still in short
supply, basic commodities are now available,
violence has subsided, schools
have opened and the national economy is
showing signs of revival albeit a
painstaking one. In spite of all these
positives, Zimbabweans must be
cautious not to engage in pre-mature
celebrations. We still need to know why
our country reached such low ebb. We
cannot expect a brighter future beyond
this crisis, without clearly
understanding why we experienced an
unprecedented crisis in the first place.
Our leaders must know and accept
that critics are not necessarily enemies of
the nation but concerned
citizens who want to see right things being done
for the sake of the nation.
It is in this spirit that I still feel as a
nation we have not given
ourselves time to do a thorough, deeper, sober and
honest explanation of why
Zimbabwe plunged into crisis at the beginning of
2000. This is not a mere
intellectual exercise, but is necessary if the
nation has to avoid a similar
crisis in future.
This exercise is pertinent because within the Inclusive
Government there is
no consensus on the causes of the crisis leading
inevitably to a lack of
consensus on what is to be done to transcend the
crisis. The former ruling
party (ZANU-PF) still insists that the crisis was
caused by imperialist
sanctions. The MDC factions insist on the culpability
if not responsibility
of ZANU-PF for the political and economic melt-down
that left Zimbabwe a
shell of its former stature. In short, as a nation we
are not yet beyond the
simplistic politics of denials and blaming each
other. The full
implementation of GPA is hostage to this retrogressive
politics.
The key question is what went wrong in Zimbabwe? Unless our
leaders look
beyond the useless politics of denials and blaming one another,
they will
miss the big picture. The Zimbabwe crisis is largely an African
crisis. A
crisis emanating from what Frantz Fanon termed 'the pitfalls of
national
consciousness' that leads to national tragedy. Its roots are
traceable to
the limits of decolonisation and the poverty of the social
basis of African
nationalism as an emancipatory project. In order to
simplify things, I will
call it the crisis of the Zimbabwe national project.
It is a crisis that
emerges from unresolved modes of accumulation;
unresolved definition of the
authentic subject of liberation; unresolved
problems of belonging;
unresolved racial nationalism and contested teleology
of decolonisation.
Academics like Brian Raftopoulos and others are clear on
these issues but I
am not sure that our leaders and citizens realise the
salience of these
issues. ZANU-PF reduced these complex issues to the land
question and their
solution was a confused one of 'conquest of conquest' in
which those defined
as natives had to be allowed to re-conquer those
considered settlers. It is
from this understanding of the Zimbabwean
situation that some people see the
country progressing through a series of
Zvimurenga from 1896 to 2010. This
wrong methodology plunged Zimbabwe into
what Fanon described as the
nightmare of repetition without difference. In
this case, Zimbabwe found
itself repeating and practising the cannons of
racial nationalism (reverse
racism) as a solution to the problems rooted in
white settler racial
colonialism. This went hand in hand with the politics
of destruction of
people in the name of things particularly in the former
white owned
commercial farms. The Black Nationalist bourgeoisie found
themselves
organising themselves in the same manner in which white settler
bourgeoisie
did into what I would call 'loot committees.' All this was
covered under the
noble gloss of either Africanisation of civil service,
nationalisation of
means of production or indigenisation of the economy. The
colonialists
called it pacification of barbarous tribes and civilising
mission. The
nationalists call it Chimurenga and liberation. While the
colonialist did
not conquer Africa to be poor, the nationalist did not fight
for liberation
of Africa to be poor! What a paradox? Is this not manifest in
the way the
land reform programme was hijacked by 'native bourgeoisie'? Are
we not
witnessing this in the manner in which Chiadzwa diamonds are being
extracted
and sold? Is clinging to state power at whatever cost not linked
to the
politics of accumulation? Who then can deny Frantz Fanon's critique
of
decolonisation as resulting in 'repetition without difference'? Are we
not
repeating the crude ways of primitive accumulation that has its roots in
the
unfolding of Western modernity which eventually resulted in imperialism
and
colonialism? Indeed we have not escaped the laws of repetition and have
failed the test of ethical based notions of being free and
empowered.
Like Fanon, I think the key failure of decolonisation lay in
the hands of
the class that led the nationalist revolutions in Africa. The
bourgeoisie
class that led nationalist movements suffered terribly from what
Fanon
termed 'intellectual laziness.' It is a disease of failure to
transcend the
immanent logic of colonialism together with its re-production
of racism and
ethnicity. It is a failure in the bourgeois class to commit
class suicide
and be truly representative of workers and peasants. Just
think of the
Lancaster House Conference. Just visualise Joshua Nkomo, Robert
Mugabe and
Abel Muzorewa, squabbling over decolonisation of Zimbabwe with
the British
and Americans as moderators. Then one would see the limits of
the elites
that led us to where we are today. One would easily see where the
revolution
lost its way. At least Nkomo and Mugabe pretended to be together
only to
plunge the country into crisis barely two years into
independence.
The colonially produced bourgeoisie were and are a
liability to the African
emancipatory project. Either they degenerate into
open tribalism and plunge
young African nation into ethnic cleansing or they
fall headlong into
embarrassing compromises with the colonialists and again
plunge the workers
and peasants into non-freedom. At another level, they
degenerate into
narcissism and victimhood and die railing against
imperialism and
colonialism while butchering their citizens and looting
national resources
ahead of peasants and workers. Indeed the crisis of
Africa is that 'the
beautiful ones are not yet born.' The 'other of
bourgeoisie' that is
currently contesting power from the nationalist
bourgeoisie produced by
colonialism also suffers terribly from ideological
confusion. They tend to
imbibe lock, stock and barrel, notions of good
governance, democracy, human
rights and even life-style audits
unquestioningly. They find themselves
being blamed for being lackey of
imperialism and colonialism. The recent
example of life-style audits being
debated in South Africa for instance does
not take into account the hidden
hand of those focused on criminalisation of
black accumulation of wealth and
deflection of popular focus from real
causes of inequality bedevilling
post-apartheid period. The worst level is
when black people engage in what
is termed 'black-on-black' violence as part
of the struggle to achieve
freedom. Xenophobia that rocked South Africa is a
case in point. 'Election
cleansing' that engulfed Zimbabwe between April and
May is the second
example. That level of degeneration of consciousness is
not
forgivable.
The challenge is how to renew the African national project
without
necessarily falling into the tragedy of trying to turn our backs on
the
world and trying to go it alone. Hatred of the world is not the answer.
Militarisation of state institutions is not the answer. Violence is not the
answer. Tribalism is not the answer. Racism is not the answer. We need to
guard against the pitfall of imagining the nation in racial terms and
fragmenting postcolonial states into tribal fiefdom(s). We still need to
think hard about terms of peaceful co-existence founded on ethical politics
of fair and just distribution of available resources. If we think broader,
they questions of the day revolve around three pre-occupations: the search
for freedom development and material welfare; acceptance, belonging and
citizenship; and finding ethical conditions of human peaceful coexistence
where diversity and difference does not result into inequality and
exclusion.
Not only Zimbabwe had to rethink what it means to be free
in the first
place. South Africa is experiencing a similar challenge. The
current debates
in South Africa about 'life-style' audits and the Zimbabwean
debates of
indigenisation and empowerment are all reflective of the African
search for
a language to articulate pathologies of inequalities and quest
for ethical
founded politics of fair distribution of wealth. A recent
presentation by
Achille Mbembe on Fanon and decolonisation held at the
University of
Witwatersrand set me thinking harder about the trajectory of
the African
national project in general. Mbembe's presentation touched on
key current
debates on wealth and property; and rights and entitlements in
Africa that
translates into idioms of relations between people and things;
opulence and
hunger, and manipulation of state control as an avenue to
accumulation
versus pathologies of distribution. This is the challenge of
our time and we
need to think carefully on these issues and thread
cautiously over the
pitfalls of national consciousness that breed such
tragedies as xenophobia,
racism, tribalism and genocides that have disunited
the masses of our people
and limited our quest for universal emancipation.
We long for a new humanity
where African hatred of the self dies. It is
African hatred of the self
induced by colonialism that enable the thirsty to
'annihilate' and
'de-capacitate' one another easily whenever we are hungry
and whenever there
are elections.
*Dr. Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni
is a Zimbabwean academic writing from
Johannesburg in South Africa. He can
be contacted by email:
sgatsha@yahoo.co.uk