http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Lance Guma
02 March
2012
The MDC-T MP for Pumula was on Thursday arrested by Anti-Corruption
Commission officials, on allegations of abusing the Community Development
Fund (CDF). Albert Mhlanga was detained at the Donning Police Station in
Bulawayo and becomes the third MP accused of plundering the parliamentary
fund.
Mhlanga is accused of failing to account for US$7,000 from the
US$50,000
initially given to him. He has also failed to explain three other
dubious
transactions. In one instance he transferred US$32,000 to Bulawayo
Plumbers,
a company which he owns and which he claims supplied goods, when
it had not.
In another transaction he transferred US$9,000 into a bank
account in the
name of Alex Company. A further US$2,000 was transferred to
his friend’s
company, Silver Sharp.
On Monday Franco Ndambakuwa, the
ZANU PF MP for Magunje, was arrested on
allegations of abusing the same fund
after failing to account for US$39,000
from the US$50,000 he received to
develop his constituency. The week before
the MDC-T MP for St Mary’s,
Marvelous Khumalo, was also arrested on the same
charges.
Khumalo is
accused of having bought himself a lorry and pocketing part of
the money. He
claimed to have used part of the funds to sink a borehole in
his
constituency, but in fact it had been done by an NGO. Both Ndambakuwa
and
Khumalo are out on bail.
Although Constitutional and Parliamentary
Affairs Minister Eric Matinenga
initially said 10 MPs (6 from ZANU PF and 4
from the MDC-T) had failed to
submit returns proving how they had used the
US$50,000, it appears several
have since provided evidence of how they used
the money for developmental
projects.
Zimbabweans have taken to
social networking forums to vent their anger at
the corruption shown by
their elected representatives. “This is what happens
when you put hungry
people in parliament,” one SW Radio Africa listener
wrote. Another said
“they should be locked up in jail and the keys thrown
away.”
“Hopefully, all this is not like the window-dressing of an
empty shop! Many
such cases were conveniently filed away never to be heard
of again. Such is
the state of our police force and the judiciary,” Chimbi
Manwa wrote on our
website.
http://www.radiovop.com/
Masvingo, March 02, 2012 – Known Zanu PF
supporters who sell second-hand
clothes and some kitchen wares at Mucheke
Bus Terminus ambushed Masvingo
City Town Clerk Adolf Gusha on Thursday
afternoon and locked him in his
office.
Gusha was detained for
nearly an hour the Zanu PF youths demanding that he
abolishes some bus
terminus dotted around the city and redirect buses to
Mucheke in order for
them to boost their business.
Led by self-styled "man of the cloth"
Reverend Gashia Mundondo, Zanu PF
supporters who were singing and dancing
claimed that the MDC-T dominated
council was giving them a raw deal by not
facilitating in directing buses to
the main terminus so that they get a lot
of clients.
The Town Clerk pleaded with them to calm down so that he
calls the mayor to
jointly address the angry crowd.
RadioVOP was
informed that Masvingo mayor Alderman Femias Chakabuda had to
dump some
council business that he was attending in Harare so that he would
rush to
rescue the Town Clerk.
“We are frustrated by the way in which this
council is being run. We are now
making loses at our flea markets at the
Mucheke terminus because they
(Council officials) created other terminuses
in town thereby reducing the
number of our potential clients.
“We had
to confront the Clerk because the mayor was not around. However,
after a
couple of hours Chakabuda came and tried to down play our issue but
we just
gave him up to Monday to solve our problems,” said Mundondo.
However,
soon after a meeting with the Zanu PF supporters, Chakabuda said it
was
surprising that they just ganged up to cause havoc at the council.
“I was
shocked by the level of ignorance from those guys – they just held
the town
clerk at ransom. We however, tried to explain to them so that they
would
understand why their demands were to difficult to meet.
“I hope in the
long run they will be able to understand council operations,”
said
Chakabuda.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Own Correspondent
Friday, 02 March
2012 12:55
HARARE - A multi-million dollar hospital project in
Chiweshe at Howard
Hospital hangs in the balance after it failed to meet the
ministry of Health
and Child Welfare requirements for use by the public, a
situation which will
worsen the already dire overcrowding problem at the
hospital.
Howard Mission Hospital which is one of the largest referral
hospitals in
Mashonaland Central has been facing problems of overcrowded
wards and the
project involving the construction of new wards would have
eased the
problem.
The new structures were completed in 2006 but
remained closed after the
ministries of Health and Child Welfare and Public
Works deemed the
structures unfit for use citing some structural defects in
construction
work.
The Salvation Army’s Lieutenant Colonel Langton
Kazimpingani who is the
secretary for business administration at Howard
Hospital told the Daily News
that the existing hospital complex is failing
to cope with the number of
patients from around the country who travel to
Chiweshe to seek medical
attention.
“The ministries said that the
hospital had defects and recommended that we
make new structures especially
in the sewerage system and also the
theatres,” said
Kazimpingani.
The church-run hospital is famous for admitting patients
for free as well as
its dedicated expatriate doctors.
It also played
a crucial role in assisting victims of political violence
from Mashonaland
Central areas during the 2008 madness.
The Salvation Army church which
runs the hospital is however, struggling to
raise the required money to make
the necessary adjustments and open the
facility to patients.
“We were
told not to open the facility until we have addressed all the
structural
defects but our major constraint is a lack of funding because as
a church we
do not have any other source of funding.
“In order to make the required
renovations, we would need something between
$3 and $5 million but as a
church we do not have the money,” said
Kazimpingani.
Patients
interviewed said the institution is overwhelmed by the influx of
patients
from around the country seeking medical attention. They also said
some of
the hospital structures are now too old to cope with the
demand.
Kazimpingani admitted that the hospital structures are
failing.
“We are not coping with the number of patients that we receive
daily, that
is why we are chasing funding but it is hard to come by,” said
Kazimpingani.
With the public health sector still under stress, the sick
in Zimbabwe have
turned to mission hospitals that are funded by churches.
However, the
increased volumes of patients has not been commensurate with
infrastructural
developments at this institutions most of which were set up
by missionaries
well before attainment of independence.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw
Friday, 02 March 2012 10:50
Chris
Muronzi
RANI Investment, the majority shareholder in Limpopo Mining
Resources, a
company that owns the River Ranch diamond mine in which the
late general
Solomon Mujuru held a minority stake, announced yesterday it is
negotiating
with government for the sale of its stake in the mine at a yet
to be
disclosed price. Should the deal be concluded, government will
consolidate
its position as the leading player in the country’s diamond
industry.
Government, through the Zimbabwe Minerals Development
Corporation, has
various joint ventures in the contested Marange diamond
concessions such as
Mbada Diamonds, Marange Resources, Pure Diam and Anjin
Investments. Only
Murowa Diamonds, owned by Rio Tinto, will remain the
diamond company in
which government does not have direct
involvement.
Rani Investment said the decision to sell its stake in
River Ranch diamond
mine was part of its efforts to realign the group’s
financial and management
resources to its core business — hospitality and
tourism — in Zimbabwe and
the region.
In a statement, Rani
Investment said it believed government was best placed
to develop and expand
the mine’s operations.
“The decision to sell its stake to the
appropriate government entities came
about as efforts to recapitalise the
mine, including from the minority
shareholders, have failed in the past few
months,” said the company in a
statement.
Rani Investment is a
Dubai-based Investment Holding firm for the Aujan Group
with more than
US$300 million of committed investments in the Middle East
and
Africa.
Its mission is to ensure superior returns to its shareholders
through
pioneering investments that are guided by its philosophy of long
term
horizon and tolerance for measured risks.
According to the
company’s website, Aujan Group is a Saudi group founded in
1905 as a trading
company in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Kuwait.
The company has
subsidiaries in manufacturing, real estate, hospitality,
mining, trading,
and distribution sectors.
Rani Investment is owned by Adele Aujun, a
Saudi billionaire.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 02 March 2012 10:55
Herbert Moyo
THE
National Social Security Authority (NSSA), which holds sway across the
Zimbabwean economy in terms of investments in equities, the money market,
and property portfolios, is a haven for corruption gnawing away at the
fabric of the organisation, a recent investigation by the National Economic
Conduct Inspectorate (NECI) has revealed.
A detailed report by NECI, seen
by the Zimbabwe Independent, which probes
white-collar crimes, shows NSSA is
rotten to the core due to an extended
period of sleaze and fraudulent
activities.
NSSA, constituted and established in terms of the NSSA
Act of 1989, is a
statutory body tasked by government to provide social
security to workers so
that they have an income to look forward to upon
retirement.
The corruption unearthed by NECI spans a wide range of
areas, including
tender processes, real estate projects that include
building of houses and
hotels, structured finance in all sorts of areas,
even buying wheat,
investing in shares, banking, including the money market,
among various
sectors of the economy.
NSSA directors and
management also splashed money in buying mansions and
luxury cars for
themselves, while contributors struggle to lead decent lives
after
retirement.
At one time NSSA directors and management bought
themselves vehicles worth
between $100 000 and $230 000. The cars included a
Mercedes Benz S350 and
Jeep Cherokees. NSSA general manager James Matiza
brought a house in
Borrowdale for US$330 120 after securing himself a loan
from the
institution.
Some of the top NSSA officials negotiated
deals for personal gain, including
bribes and kickbacks. Former NSSA
chairman Albert Nhau, for instance, got
$100 000 after negotiating the sale
of Ballantyne Park with property owner
Dennis Green to
NSSA.
“Nhau was the one who initiated the offer of the property to
NSSA, arranged
the initial meeting between Matiza and Green, and was even
present when the
meeting occurred,” the report says.
“The signing
of the Memorandum of Agreement between NSSA and Green in the
absence of
guarantees by the latter on the issue of shares to be later
converted and
ceded to NSSA was at the instigation of Nhau. The events
leading to the
payment for the property was so frantic and hurried and at
the instigation
of Nhau”.
“Nhau directly benefited from the sale of Ballantyne Park
to the
organisation of which he was the chairman by receiving US$100 000
from the
proceeds of the sale, to cover monies that he was owed by the
sellers. There
was undue influence and conflict of interest by the former
chairman of NSSA
on the purchase of properties, especially the Ballantyne
Park property owned
by one of his friends, Green.”
Nhau was
replaced as NSSA chairman by top lawyer Innocent Chagonda in
2010.
The report says NSSA officials also had a big influence in the
purchase of
non-performing equities from Star Africa. When NSSA technocrats
would advise
not to purchase such shares, the chairman and the general
manager would use
their positions to coerce the investment committees and
senior management to
agree to investments they had interests
in.
“Evaluation by these committees on whether to buy or not will be
a
formality. The chairman was very influential in driving NSSA into
purchasing
overvalued shares off loaded by these companies,” the report
says.
“In some instances the general manager and the chairman are
accountable for
misdirecting the authority into the purchasing of shares at
a premium yet
the trend was that the share value was actually declining.
Among the shares
bought it is only OK shares that are better performing
counters to date and
the investment by NSSA stands out to have been a
prudent one here, though
shares bought from CFX are
questionable.”
There was a conflict of interest in allocation of
structured deal loans for
David Govere, a board member, who chairs the board
investment committee.
“He managed to access these soft loans for his two
companies Tacoola
Beverages and Harambe Holdings, while window had limited
funds for a few
companies, country-wide,” the report says.
It
also says monies advanced to ReNaissance Merchant Bank (RMB) under
structured loan deals could have been better placed with reputable
institutions involved in grains commodity broking like parastatals and
corporates in the agro-commodities sector. About $10 million was sunk in a
botched wheat deal involving ReNaissance.
“The direct involvement
of RMB in the importation of wheat was wrong, since
funds disbursed for
strategic national interest should be applied for such
purposes. To further
complicate issues, RMB did not deliver wheat, and the
money was used for
other purposes.”
There were also serious problems involving the
organisation’s project to
build a NSSA PARK, which would have resulted in
the acquisition of
properties around NSSA Building. Chibuku House, Dominion
Building and Survey
House, for instance, were purchased at suspiciously
exorbitant prices amid
charges of bribes and
kick-backs.
“Woodlands and St Tropez apartments are also not
generating any revenues as
NSSA is locked in legal wrangles which have been
going on for more than a
year now,” the report says. “Revenue generation
from rentals is very low as
most tenants are not paying especially at
Compensation House which house
government departments.”
NSSA was
failing to collect rentals, cars and fuel owed to it, in some
cases, the
report says. There were also problems with recruitment of top
managers which
were characterised by complaints of nepotism and regionalism.
“The
recruitment of the current executives is very questionable, and it is
not
clear whether there was favouritism or not. Though normal procedures
were
followed, most of the executives come from the same area where the
general
manager comes from. The general manager being the ex-officio member
of the
board could have had much influence on appointments,” it says.
The
NSSA probe was completed last year after it was established the year
before
to investigate the following allegations:
• Recruitment was based
on tribal or regional grounds; the General
Manager was involved in
recruitment of the Directors of NSSA who came from
the same province as him,
Manicaland Province
• Other serious irregularities and allegations of
corruption on the part
of managers at the authority involved implementation
of projects
• Buying directors’ houses – loans at zero percent
(%)
• Directors got USD$200 000 as loans
• General manager and
directors’ vehicles were purchased at US$175 000
each and salaries were at
an average of US$10 000 per month
• Directors companies supplying
materials on all NSSA projects, e.g. 2000
bags of cement to Bindura projects
was supplied by NSSA director of
investments ShadreckVera’s company
supplying wrong type of cement and was
rejected by the contractor only to be
disposed at loss.
• Marondera housing project is not being completed in
order to keep on
pumping money from NSSA for their selfish needs
•
Glaudina housing project, the directors are allocating themselves
several
stands and are using NSSA funds to build their own houses in the
name of
housing loans.
• They have removed the finance manager`s signature from
all banks to
conceal fraud. They now sign themselves. All junior staff do
not sign.
• US$10 million loaned to Shepherd Shara of RMB for him to
import wheat
which never arrived in Zimbabwe. Loan repaid by advancing him
more funds as
the loan was about to be redeemed.
• US$9 million used
to buy shares from Green’s company called the
Ballantyne Park PL. Shares
bought at an over price of $220 per share. One
can imagine at that time the
ZSE`s most expensive shares were going for $5.
Green`s neighbourVera
approved the transaction.
• US$2 million loaned to Africom without
collateral security and the loan
is for 20 years at 5%.
• US$3 million
given to CFX Bank for worthless shares without going to
Zimbabwe Stock
Exchange.
• The biggest fraud of US$15 million used to buy ZSR/Star Africa
shares
without going to ZSE stock market. Deal was negotiated at home.
Shares
bought from Nhau`s friends. The price was pegged at 12.5 cents (US)
instead
of the average 10 cents from ZSE. NSSA lost US$2,5 million from the
scam.
They fraudulently used a broker to conceal the evidence.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
02 March
2012
There are now 10 days left of an alleged ultimatum set by the
principals in
government for the Media and Information Minister to implement
key media
reforms.
The three week ultimatum was set last week Monday,
according to Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who said that he and his
government partners had
agreed on these reforms.
ZANU PF Minister
Webster Shamu now has until Monday March 12 to reconstitute
the boards of
the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, the Broadcasting
Authority of
Zimbabwe and the Mass Media Trust.
However these is no sign yet that
Shamu is carrying out these ‘orders’ and
there is doubt that this latest
ultimatum will be honoured.
http://allafrica.com/
3 March 2012
press
release
The Zimbabwe chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa
(MISA-Zimbabwe) has dismissed allegations made by state media that it is
clandestinely collecting signatures from people 'bused-in' from various
communities in its bid to 'create' community radio stations.
The
allegations were published in the state-controlled The Herald and
featured
in the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation's news bulletins of 1
March 2012.
Further allegations are that the signatories would become
trustees that
would run the radio stations.
In a statement, MISA-Zimbabwe Chairperson,
Njabulo Ncube reaffirmed that
MISA-Zimbabwe "has no intention of
establishing community radio stations
that operate outside the ambit of the
Broadcasting Services Act (BSA)" as
was being alleged by the
state-controlled media.
The statement added: "MISA-Zimbabwe is very aware
of the fact that the sole
licensing authority is the Broadcasting Authority
of Zimbabwe and is
conversant and fully aware of the legal position
pertaining to the licensing
and setting up of radio stations."
The
BSA itself recognises the provision of community broadcasting as part of
the
three-tier broadcasting system. It is in line with the spirit of this
provision that MISA-Zimbabwe sought to raise awareness through community
radio initiatives that will prepare various communities to apply for
community radio licenses in the event of BAZ eventually calling for
applications for community radio stations.
This is not inappropriate
as The Herald and the ZBC claim. Similar
initiatives already exist in
Zimbabwe's urban areas and are known and
recognised by the Ministry of
Media, Information and Publicity through the
umbrella Zimbabwe Association
of Community Radio Stations (ZACRAS), which
has in the past been granted
audience by the same ministry.
Against this background, there clearly is
nothing unlawful about communities
preparing themselves for the envisaged
eventual call for rural community
radio licences. In fact, the process of
registering these initiatives
followed open consultative meetings that were
held in the various
communities themselves. And, the it is well-known that
the final decision as
to which community or communities will be duly granted
the envisaged
licences is the sole prerogative of the Broadcasting Authority
of Zimbabwe
(BAZ).
Therefore, MISA calls on The Herald and the ZBC to
desist from misinforming
Zimbabweans, especially on issues encouraging and
preparing them to embrace
media diversity. Our vision is of a Southern
African region where members of
society, individually or collectively are
able to freely access information
without hindrance and community media such
as community radio stations
satisfy that role.
Issued by the Media
Institute of Southern Africa.
http://www.radiovop.com
Trust Matsilele-Johannesburg, March 02,
2012- Zimbabwe's minister of
Information, Communication and Technologies
Nelson Chamisa invited possible
investors attending a Zimbabwe Trade and
Investment Conference in Fourways
Johannesburg to consider investing in
Zimbabwe.
With his flowery language Chamisa kept the audience informed
about the
developments in Zimbabwe and pointing investors to fields that
need
investments.
"Zimbabweans are peace loving people, they are
hardworking, very literate
and also fluent in english" and joked saying
"the level of fluency impress
even the queen" to a rapturous applause from
over five-hundred strong
audience.
"This is the time to come and
invest in Zimbabwe, our country is a ready
market for investment especially
in the ICTs" added Chamisa.
Chamisa who is Zimbabwe's youngest Minister
said his age was of paramount
importance as ICTs are most utilised by the
young generation.
"The Minister is young which is an assurance that as
you come to invest you
will be assisted with speed" said Chamisa in a
statement that sounded
sacarstic if viewed in contrast with President Mugabe
who just turned 88.
"Our citizens remain marginalised and at the
periphery of development. As
the ICT minister i have helped set up
e-government platforms and soon will
be introducing at ICT bill that will
address among others issues like
cybersecurity and national roaming" added
Chamisa.
Chamisa also jokingly suggested that he was also considering
setting up an
e-lobola platform.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Staff Writer
Friday, 02 March 2012
12:44
HARARE - Police commissioner-general Augustine Chihuri is
involved in a
nasty fight with women activists who claim police are forcing
them to remove
their underwear in dirty police holding cells, while
withholding sanitary
wear for menstruating women.
Lawyers for the
women are now targeting Chihuri for legal action after he
admitted to
holding female suspects in male prison cells and vowed not to
provide
sanitary wear for the inmates.
So appalling are the conditions at Harare
Central Police Station holding
cells that one of the women taking Chihuri to
court says she was advised by
a male police officer to use bare hands to
clean herself after using the
toilet because there was no toilet paper,
according to court papers.
From being forced to walk barefoot on dirty
floors, being surrounded by
human waste, flowing urine of “various colours”,
chocking smell of human
excreta to being denied sanitary wear for
menstruation, the women activists
describe their ordeal as
“dehumanising.”
Jenni Williams, leader of activist group Women FROM
P1
of Zimbabwe Arise is leading the court action to force Chihuri to ensure
conditions at Harare Central Police Station meet basic
standards.
Williams was arrested together with 21 other women activists
and detained at
Harare Central Police Station for demonstrating against
electricity cuts
affecting the country in 2010. Chihuri and co-Home Affairs
ministers Theresa
Makone and Kembo Mohadi are cited as
respondents.
In his response, Chihuri denies that women are forced to
remove their under
garments when they are in detention but defended police
refusal to provide
sanitary wear on the basis that inmates are held for only
48 hours.
Lawyers have now queried whether Chihuri knows what it means to
be
menstruating for 48 hours and the serious health implications that come
with
it.
“He does not know what it means to be menstruating for 48
hours. As a matter
of fact, depending on the circumstances, the environment
and the density of
the flow, the 48 hours may be all it takes to complete
the menstrual
process.
“In short, sanitary wear for menstruating
women in police custody is an
absolute necessity,” said Advocate Lewis
Uriri, in his head of arguments to
the Supreme Court. Uriri is representing
the Woza activists.
“The contention (by Chihuri) appears to be that
sanitation for detained
menstruating women is not necessary in any period
less than 48 hours,” Uriri
added.
Williams claims that the toilets in the
holding cells were flashed from
outside, and were thus flushed at the
pleasure of the officers, leaving
human waste to flow into the
cells.
“During the night, I intended to relieve myself and discovered
that the
toilets were inside the holding cells. In order to use it, I had to
wade
through a pool of urine. Further, the toilets had no running water and
were
already full with human waste,” Williams said.
She added that it
was dehumanising to use the toilet in full view of all
detained persons
because the toilet bowls were not partitioned from the rest
of the
cells.
“It is common knowledge that women have specific health hygiene
needs
related to their reproductive health, and these include sanitary and
washing
facilities, safe disposal arrangements for the blood strained
articles, as
well as provision of hygiene items, such as sanitary towels,”
she said.
Williams said the holding cells did not provide soap for
detainees to wash
their hands after using the toilet.
“During the
night, I requested some blankets for warmth in the night and was
given
blankets which were reeking of urine. The police availed three
blankets,
despite the fact there was now a total of 16 detainees. The
blankets were
clearly inadequate given the number of people in the cell and
their
usefulness was further negated by the strong urine stench,” said
Williams.
She claims she was never given food and drinking water in
the cells and had
to rely on hand-outs from friends and relatives. Moreso,
the food was
provided in the same cells with flowing human
waste.
Williams also lamented the lack of gender-sensitive amenities
which she said
was in favour of men without taking into account to women’s
specific needs.
Advocate Uriri, said by admitting that the police do not
provide sanitary
wear to arrested women, a specific provision for women,
Chihuri was
admitting to gender discrimination.
“This amounts to
discrimination on the basis of sex. In short, the second
respondent contends
that the cells were made for men and that, women, their
biological
differences notwithstanding, must make do with that which is
specific for
men,” Uriri argued.
“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides,
inter alia, that the
law shall guarantee to all persons protection against
discrimination on any
ground including race, colour and sex,” he
added.
Chihuri, however says providing sanitary wear and providing
bedding
facilities to detained women was an administrative issue that the
police
force could do nothing about. He maintained that the police was doing
all it
could within its mandate.
He urged the Supreme Court to visit
the holding cells and make an assessment
of the facilities before ruling on
this matter.
Chihuri dismissed most of Williams’ claims as false, saying
inmates could
have died of various diseases if the conditions were that
bad.
“The officer-in-charge arranges for cells to be inspected daily
after
scrubbing out daily. Exercise yards and surroundings are swept out
daily by
the general hands and are inspected simultaneously with the cells,”
wrote
Chihuri.
But Advocate Uriri said even if the holding cells were
cleaned before the
Supreme Court visit, no amount of cleaning would remove
all the dirt in the
holding cells.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
By Tendai Kamhungira, Court
Writer
Friday, 02 March 2012 12:51
HARARE - Twenty-nine Glen View
residents accused of murdering a police
officer were yesterday taken back
into custody after the state indicted them
for their trial which is to
kick-off at the High Court on March 12.
Relatives and friends of the
residents yesterday came in full support of the
murder suspects who
initially appeared before the courts in June last year.
Anti-riot police
could be seen milling around the court in anticipation of
an explosive
situation, as some of the supporters of the residents were
singing and
dancing outside court.
Lawyers representing the residents had to wait for
the whole day before the
state finally managed to convene the
court.
Charles Kwaramba, one of the lawyers representing the Glen View
residents
told the court about his displeasure over the state’s
conduct.
“I am astounded by the behaviour of the state. We have been here
all day,
why should we wait for the papers to be processed while we are at
court.
“The state’s conduct is shocking, unethical and unprofessional,”
said
Kwaramba.
Only a fortnight ago, seven of the residents were
granted bail by deputy
chief Justice Luke Malaba.
On their initial
remand, the suspects appeared in court with visible marks
of having been
brutally assaulted by police, which prompted magistrate Shane
Kubonera to
give an order that the residents be given immediate medical
attention.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
02
March 2012
A leading economic analyst in Zimbabwe has warned that the
government’s
contradictory statements on politics, the economy and other
issues are
seriously damaging the country’s investment future.
These
contradictions were clear this week when, at the same time that
Empowerment
Minister Saviour Kasukuwere was threatening the takeover of a
top South
African investment in Zimbabwe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
and Finance
Minister Tendai Biti were attempting to woo more investment from
the South
Africans.
Kasukuwere has threatened mining giant Implats with
“enforcement mechanisms”
unless it transfers a significant portion of its
shareholding of its
Zimbabwe based Zimplats and Mimosa firms. Kasukuwere
this week also lashed
out at Implats CEO David Brown, accusing him of
‘delaying tactics’ for not
adhering to Zimbabwe’s indigenisation laws that
require a share handover of
up to 51%.
At the same time, in an effort
to attract foreign investment to Zimbabwe,
Prime Minister Tsvangirai led a
ministerial delegation to South Africa this
week for an investment
conference. Tsvangirai told that conference that
Zimbabwe was “open for
business”.
“We’ve had three years of inclusive government, this country
is going
through a transition and through this transition we have
established the
necessary environment. There is no better moment than now to
lay the
groundwork for inviting people to come. We attach great importance
to
foreign direct investment that’s why we are saying come,” Tsvangirai
said.
Analysts have warned that the fight with Implats, which is the
largest South
African investment in Zimbabwe, was damaging investor
confidence, which has
already been shaken by the general political crisis in
the country. But on
the dispute with Implats, Tsvangirai tried to allay
fears.
“The issue is work in progress. No one in the indigenisation law
says that
you shall grab people’s property or you shall nationalise. In fact
you buy
equity at value so it is a discussion that we are very clear
about…however I
want to underline the principle of local participation by
Zimbabweans, it is
what we will encourage and through dialogue I’m sure that
major
participation by locals will be arrived at but certainly there is no
grabbing, there is no nationalisation,” he said.
Finance Minister
Tendai Biti, who also spoke at the conference, was less
subtle, asking: “How
do we make sure that in Zimbabwe the resources do in
fact sweat for the
Zimbabwean people which is not the case at the present
moment. Shareholders
in London, Joburg and Cape Town are primarily
benefiting.” said
Biti.
Professor Tony Hawkins told SW Radio Africa on Friday that the
‘contradictions’ from government, especially about the indigenisation plan
were due to “economic illiteracy.”
“The problem is that investors
want certainty and all they get from this
government are contradictions.
People want to know the rules and if they don’t
like them they won’t invest.
But these contradictions just make the investor
environment unstable,”
Hawkins said.
Hawkins meanwhile said that ideally, the indigenisation
scheme as it stands
should be scrapped, calling it a “divisive” strategy
that only empowers a
minority. He said that with only one in 12 Zimbabweans
currently in work the
empowerment scheme, said to help working indigenous
Zimbabweans, would only
help a small portion of the public.
“What
about the other 11? This is a not a program designed to help them,”
Hawkins
said.
Finance Minister Biti meanwhile has again acknowledged the missing
millions
from the Chiadzwa diamond fields, stating: “There is a gap between
what is
happening in (Chiadzwa) and what we are receiving and what we expect
to
receive. We have received US$174m in 2010 and we received US$80m in 2011.
I
have been very clear that we are expecting to receive US$600m in the year
2012 and this is in our budget.”
http://www.iol.co.za/
March 2 2012 at 05:00am
Donwald Pressly and
Shanti Aboobaker
The South African government was adamant that
investments in Zimbabwe “are
secure”, Trade and Industry director-general
Lionel October said yesterday.
He said this after being pressed on
whether Impala Platinum (Implats)
subsidiary Zimplats – required by the
Zimbabwean government to transfer 29.5
percent of its shares to a state fund
by the middle of this month – would
also be protected by an investment
protection agreement between South Africa
and Zimbabwe.
When asked
why Zimbabwean Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment
Minister
Savior Kasukuwere had demanded the handover and why he had accused
them of
delaying tactics, October suggested that matters were not dire. The
minister
had also threatened to cancel mining licences held by firms that
did not
carry out the indigenisation policy.
“They can come up with various forms
(of indigenisation) such as
restructuring the companies. It does not mean
that you lose any assets or
investments,” he insisted.
“For instance,
(it could involve) setting up joint ventures or different
shareholder
arrangements.”
It could even mean setting up new mines to expand the
existing asset base.
“There are many ways to skin a cat but it won’t be a
reduction in assets and
investments,” he said.
October acknowledged
that the Implats investment in Zimbabwe was South
Africa’s biggest
investment in that country. That is why the bilateral
agreement between the
two countries was hurried along last year.
“There is a bilateral
agreement (between South Africa and Zimbabwe). Last
year our
director-general of international relations did visit his
counterpart there.
But we are aware of the issues there,” he said, noting
that whatever
investments and assets were in the country would “be
protected”.
The
bilateral agreement was law, he said, noting that there was a process of
negotiation over the matter. “It is sacrosanct.”
http://www.whitehouse.gov
The
White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate
Release
March 02, 2012
TO THE CONGRESS OF THE
UNITED STATES:
Section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C.
1622(d)) provides
for the automatic termination of a national emergency
unless, within 90 days
prior to the anniversary date of its declaration, the
President publishes in
the Federal Register and transmits to the Congress a
notice stating that the
emergency is to continue in effect beyond the
anniversary date. In
accordance with this provision, I have sent to the
Federal Register for
publication the enclosed notice stating that the
national emergency with
respect to the actions and policies of certain
members of the Government of
Zimbabwe and other persons to undermine
Zimbabwe's democratic processes or
institutions is to continue in effect
beyond March 6, 2012.
The crisis constituted by the actions and policies
of certain members of the
Government of Zimbabwe and other persons to
undermine Zimbabwe's democratic
processes or institutions has not been
resolved. These actions and policies
continue to pose an unusual and
extraordinary threat to the foreign policy
of the United States. For these
reasons, I have determined that it is
necessary to continue this national
emergency and to maintain in force the
sanctions to respond to this
threat.
The United States welcomes the opportunity to modify the targeted
sanctions
regime when blocked persons demonstrate a clear commitment to
respect the
rule of law, democracy, and human rights. The United States has
committed to
continue its review of the targeted sanctions list for Zimbabwe
to ensure it
remains current and addresses the concerns for which it was
created. We hope
that events on the ground will allow us to take additional
action to
recognize progress in Zimbabwe in the future. The goal of a
peaceful,
democratic Zimbabwe remains foremost in our consideration of any
action.
BARACK OBAMA
http://www.theindependent.co.zw
Friday, 02 March 2012 10:53
Owen
Gagare
LOCAL banks have committed themselves to repatriating US$200
million of
depositors’ funds held abroad in nostro accounts, availing the
money
locally for on-lending to the productive sector and simultaneously
easing
domestic liquidity challenges, it emerged last night.
The
maintenance of a large portion of banks’ deposits in nostro accounts has
been partly blamed for the liquidity problems the country is facing and the
subsequent stifling of the productive sectors of the
economy.
As a counter measure, Finance minister Tendai Biti
and Reserve Bank governor
Gideon Gono a fortnight ago directed that banks
only be allowed to maintain
25% of their total deposits in the nostro
accounts, while the balance 75%
had to be held locally.
A nostro
account is an account operated by a bank outside its borders for
the
purposes of making settlements for its clients abroad.
The directive
on nostro accounts is among a raft of measures announced by
Biti and Gono in
a bid to improve liquidity and stability in the banking
sector. Attempts to
improve liquidity include restoration of the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe’s
lender of last resort function, which will see banks able
to make overnight
borrowings from the central bank in order to square their
books.
The central bank has also introduced short to medium term
paper in order to
stimulate interbank trading. This allows banks that have
excess cash to hold
onto the paper, which bears interest, while their excess
cash is availed to
those in cash deficits.
The directive for
banks to hold only 25% of their balances in offshore
accounts took effect
from yesterday.
Official sources in the financial sector revealed
some institutions had not
fully complied with the directive although they
had made a commitment to
repatriate about $200 million.
“There is
a commitment to repatriate about US$200 million,” said an
authoritative
source in the banking sector. Banks with the bulk of deposits
in nostro
accounts include Standard Chartered, Stanbic, Barclays and FBC.
The
sources also indicated that as at the beginning of this month, 22 of the
country’s 25 financial institutions had now complied with the regulatory
minimum capital requirements which stand at US$12,5 million for commercial
banks and US$10 million for merchant banks and building
societies.
These requirements, along with the directive that
shareholders should be
hands off in the day to day running of banks, are
part of measures
instituted by the Ministry of Finance and the Reserve Bank
to stabilise the
banking sector.
ZABG Bank, Royal Bank and
Genesis Investment Bank are however still not
compliant, ahead of the March
31 deadline. All the banks had however
submitted their recapitalisation
plans by February 14, in line with a
directive given by Reserve Bank
governor Gideon Gono when he gave his
Monetary Policy Statement on January
31.
ZABG Bank, saddled with a negative capital of US$15,35 million,
is
finalising negotiations with three potential investors, Unicapital
Finance
of Mauritius, Swiss-based company AFG Global and a local company
Trebo &
Khays (Pvt) Ltd. The deal is expected to be concluded by the end
of March.
Genesis Investment Bank (GIB) is undercapitalised, having
only about US$3,2
million.
“The bank is negotiating with
SwissCharge of Zambia and some local investors
who could pour in US$20
million,” said the source.
Royal Bank has capital amounting to
US$3,42 million. Royal is trying to
merge with two local banks with a
combined capital of US$34 million while
also finalising an agreement with a
local pension fund for equity
participation of US$5 million. The deals are
expected to be sealed by the
end of the month.
Kingdom Bank and
Renaissance Merchant Bank (RMB), which were
undercapitalised, are now in
compliance with the minimum capital
requirements.
Kingdom has now
fully complied after US$9,5 million was injected in mid last
month by
AfrAsia Holdings Ltd.
RMB has capital amounting to US$24 million
after NSSA injected US$9,83
million. NSSA also converted its deposit of $8,5
million with RMB into
equity, and assumed a debt of US$5,7 million owed to
Econet Wireless (Pvt)
Ltd and Renaissance Financial Holdings Ltd by RMB.
http://www.voanews.com
March 01,
2012
Sebastian
Mhofu | Harare
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has urged
politicians to reveal their HIV
status - in order to fight the stigma
associated with the virus that causes
AIDS. Mugabe made the appeal in Harare
Thursday at the launch of Zimbabwe
Parliamentarians Against HIV and AIDS -
or ZIPAH.
Even though the HIV/AIDS rate has been declining, Zimbabwe
still has one of
the highest percentages of people infected with the
virus.
So President Robert Mugabe is urging Zimbabwean politicians to
fight the
spread of HIV and the stigma associated with it by going public
with their
status.
“It is disappointing to notice that there are some
leaders whose behavior is
at odds with an HIV/AIDS-infested social
environment," said Mugabe. "Let
therefore ZIPAH be the domain and medium
through which we address such
issues as we demand of each other positive and
exemplary behavior."
In a public event in Harare Thursday, many lawmakers
did submit to public
blood tests. The president recalled sadly how he has
lost political
colleagues to the deadly infection.
“Not just in my
family… in extended family, also in my political family,
which is a large
family as you are able to imagine," said Mugabe. "Comrades
I have worked
perished, sat with in cabinet perished. I have not announced
it but I can
tell you that quite a number of them have died of HIV/AIDS. Not
everybody
but quite a number.”
Mugabe says African leaders needed to unite to fight
AIDS which is a
particular scourge in southern Africa.
Analysts say
fighting the spread of HIV in Zimbabwe has been hampered by
lack of funds
despite the nation being the first in Africa to introduce, in
1999, a
special three percent tax to boost funds to combat the disease.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Bridget Mananavire, Staff
Writer
Friday, 02 March 2012 13:00
HARARE - Attorney General (AG)
Johannes Tomana has dismissed calls by the
coalition government to work on
amending Section 121 of the Criminal
Procedure and Evidence Act (CPEA) as
misdirected.
The three government principals President Robert Mugabe,
Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara
met last month
and directed that Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa, Tomana
and police
commissioner general Augustine Chihuri meet to find ways of
amending Section
121.
But Tomana said the directive was outside his
leverage and should be
channelled to the legislature, which has powers to
making authority.
“I do not have such power in lawmaking. I am only there
to enforce it. It is
amended by Parliament,” Tomana said.
Section 121
of the CPEA gives prosecutors power to keep accused persons who
would have
been granted bail in remand prison for a further seven days to
allow the
state time to lodge an appeal against bail.
Politicians, civil society
groups and human rights lawyers have in the past
accused prosecutors of
abusing the law to punish people who would have been
granted
bail.
Briefing journalists after the principals’ meeting, Mutambara said
those
falling foul to the use of the law had been victims of
injustice.
“Many people have fallen victim to this section. Some serve
jail terms
before they are released because of this section,” he
said.
Recently, officers of an independent media monitoring body, Media
Monitoring
Project Zimbabwe, Fadzai December and Molly Chimhanda and another
official
Gilbert Mabusa fell victim to Section 121 after being charged with
“knowingly failing to give notice of a gathering” in terms of Section 25 of
the Public Order and Security Act (Posa).
After being granted bail
with no conditions, the state prosecutor invoked
Section 121 of the CPEA to
suspend the bail order.
A human rights lobby group, Amnesty
International, early this year raised
concern over the failure by
prosecution authorities in Zimbabwe to respect
the right of accused persons
to a fair trial in politically motivated
prosecutions.
“In
particular, the organisation is concerned about the unjustified
invocation
of Section 121 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act to
prolong the
detention of activists who have been granted bail by the
courts,” the
organisation said.
Tomana defended the use of the law by his officers,
saying it was meant to
protect the public from perpetrators of violence who
had the capacity to
commit more crimes if released on bail.
“It will
be misguided to remove an appeal that is there for civil
protection. There
are certain things which should not be politicised,” he
said.
Despite the formation of the coalition government in 2009, Harare and several other cities still face serious water problems. The Mayor of Harare, Muchadeyi Masunda, joins Lance Guma on Question Time and answers questions from SW Radio Africa listeners on this emotive issue. Does he agree the current typhoid outbreak is a symptom of failure? Why are residents receiving charges for services they are not getting?
Interview broadcast 22 February 2012
Lance Guma: Good evening Zimbabwe and thank you for joining me on another exciting edition of Question Time. My guest tonight is the Mayor of Harare, Mr Muchadeyi Masunda and the basis for this interview as has been pointed out in our promos is that despite the formation of a coalition government in 2009, Harare and several other cities still face serious water problems.
So we’ve got the Mayor onto the programme to try and tackle questions around this and many other issues. Let’s start off with the water problems, why do we still have them?
Muchadeyi Masunda: Good evening listeners.
The water situation boils down to simply the inadequate capacity in terms of the water treatment facilities, to treat the raw water and make it available to the consumers.
Now just to give you an example to bring things into sharp focus, the demand for water within Greater Harare and including Chitungwiza, Norton, Ruwa and Epworth, during the winter months it’s 1200 mega litres a day.
During summer months like now, it goes up to 1400 mega litres a day and the installed capacity at the main water treatment plant which is Morton Jaffrey, that is the plant that abstracts water from Lake Chivero and Lake Manyame, the installed capacity and I think you will need to understand this, the raw water is there in those two large reservoirs namely Lake Chivero and Lake Manyame.
What is not there is the capacity to treat that water because the capacities out there now at Morton Jaffrey is 614 mega litres a day.
Guma: So what’s needed to increase this capacity? What’s needed?
Masunda: Well what ought to have happened in the past, say around the mid-seventies was for the capacity that I’m talking about to have been enhanced for that water treatment facility to be able to treat more than it does at the moment.
And the second water treatment facility is a replica of Morton Jaffrey and that is the Prince Edward Water Treatment Plant which is more popularly known but its acronym, PE and that plant abstracts water from Harava and Seke dam and the installed capacity there is 90 mega litres.
So we have the combined installed capacity of 614 plus 90 which makes it a total of 704 mega litres. So on a good day, ZESA permitting, we produce between 620 and 640 mega litres which is a far cry from the 1200 that is required during the winter months and the 1400 which is required in summer.
Guma: When you came in as Mayor, you came in on the back of a promise to use your vast experience in business and your contacts in business to be able to source these things and take care of the problems. What has happened?
Masunda: Well I can proudly say that since I came into office the production of potable water has increased from around 300 to the 620, 640 that I’m talking about. So that’s a considerable improvement and what must be borne in mind, is that when we came into office in July 2008, the systems were kaput in more ways than one.
Not only were the systems kaput because of some serious neglect that borders perilously close to criminal negligence but there were huge sums of money which were owed and that situation got worse with the advent of dollarization because at the end of January 2009, we wrote off as a City, all the Zim dollar denominated balances and started from scratch like everyone else and as we speak, we are owed in excess of 200 million dollars by various consumers ranging from individual consumers, corporate consumers and government ministries and government agencies.
Guma: So are you saying if that money was to be paid, you would be able to develop the capacity and supply enough uninterrupted water?
Masunda: Yes it would make a huge difference, a huge difference and I’m pleased to say that there’s been an appreciable reduction of the amount that had been owed by government.
For instance, as at the end of January the amount owed by government has come down to around 48 million and yet a couple of months ago it was creeping closer and closer to 100 million; But the amounts owed by the corporate sector and individual consumers are nearer 100 million in this instance and close to 200 million.
Guma: What are the figures here in terms of what you need to supply water uninterruptedly? What’s the figure because a lot of questions from listeners, we have one question from Mina Yetu on Face Book for example, who wants to know who is to blame for this water crisis – the central government or the local government?
Masunda: No I don’t think it’s in anyone’s interest to, for us to play the ‘blame game’ because that’s not going to put water on the table. What I think we need to do is to all of us to put our shoulders onto the wheel and honour our obligations and pay the bills as and when they fall due in spite of the fact that in certain instances, many of us would not be receiving the service.
And for instance, there’s work that we are doing to reclaim water for instance from the (inaudible) plant that had been installed a couple of years ago but had been abandoned because there weren’t enough funds and what that we’re doing there is going yield a considerable amount of water, this is reclamation system whilst we work on the longer term projects.
And the other thing that needs to be done and done very quickly like yesterday is for us to replace the piping system which had rotted over the years. You will recall no doubt that around I think 2009 we managed to get 17.1 million dollars, courtesy of the multi-donor trust fund and we used all that money to replace the piping system within the CBD and certain industrial areas. So we need to do more of that so that there’s less water lost, treated water lost and make that water available.
Guma: The issue of people receiving bills when they haven’t received a service – that’s a sore point for a lot of residents and we’ve received several emails on that; people are not happy with that. Why should they pay for something they are not receiving?
Masunda: And what is the alternative? Only two weeks ago I paid a total of one thousand nine hundred dollars to ZESA; I’d not received a ZESA bill for quite a while and I’d been dutifully paying round about a hundred dollars, two hundred dollars every month waiting for the statement to come and when that statement eventually came it was one thousand, eight hundred and sixty five dollars and I paid it in good faith because it’s a chicken and egg situation.
You know we are in a deep, deep hole as a country and a city and I think what we need to do is to stop looking backwards as to what got us into that deep hole and all look for solutions on the way forward.
Guma: But people will say it’s just impunity on your side as people in authority, you’ll just demand whatever you want, even including making people pay for services they are not receiving. Why not provide the service and then expect money in return for it?
Masunda: There’s no, I’ve no qualms at all with that argument but people need to realize that all the services that are, need to be offered have a cost in terms of real money and that money’s got to come from somewhere and a lot of people are labouring under the mistaken belief that the City of Harare and other urban local authorities get something from cabinet. We don‘t.
We have to generate our own revenue and that has been the case even long before independence and that money has got to come from somewhere. Money doesn’t grow on trees, we all know that.
Guma: I’ve been sifting through the 2012 national budget and in terms of resource allocation it seems pretty clear that and it’s feeding a lot of resentment from a lot of people that some things like foreign trips are being prioritized by government, luxury cars being prioritized by government and when people hear you say there’s no money to do A, B, C, D it makes them angry.
Masunda: Yes, understandably angry but it’s not for me to speak on behalf of these expensive chariots that are procured for government but what I can do is to speak on behalf of what happens in the City. To give you an idea – if we were to commission this large disposal and water reclamation plant at Morton Jaffrey Waterworks and that’s at a cost of seven million dollars that will immediately avail an additional 40 mega litres of potable water a day.
And if we were to rehabilitate the, some of the clarifiers at Morton Jaffrey and the total cost we estimated will be around eight million, that will increase the water production by another 57 mega litres a day. And then of course, we’ve got to start working on the distribution network and we’re looking at another 60 million dollars and that will make another 100 mega litres of water available because a lot of water, as much as 50, around, over 40%, closer to 50% is being lost through leakages and theft, vandalism and pilferage.
Guma: My next question comes from Mike Davis, I’m sure you know him – a former chairperson of the Combined Harare Residents Association – he says “when he (Masunda) was mayor, we lost 4000 plus citizens to cholera, yet two years later we are facing typhoid. What has he done to address these symptoms of failure?”
Masunda: Well the 4000 poor souls who lost their lives, it wasn’t all in Harare, it was throughout the country and as far as typhoid is concerned, I’ll be the first to admit that the principal drivers of the typhoid outbreak were inadequate supply of potable water, sewerage overflows due to overload, high water table caused by the ongoing wet season and of course the erratic refuse collection which has resulted in a number of illegal dumps.
But touch wood, out of all the suspected cases of typhoid that have gone through our clinics and the two hospitals, we talk as at the 16th of February, we had about 2816 and out of those suspected cases of 2816, there were only 16, one six of confirmed cases and the suspected typhoid deaths are only two; one 15 year old girl who had been treated at the Beatrice Road Infectious Diseases Hospital and was discharged and if the parents had religiously followed the treatment regime that had been given and not decided to, that they belong to some religious sect that did not permit medication that poor 15 year old kid should still be alive.
And the only other death was an eight month old baby and then there was another lady, an elderly lady who came in on the verge of death and subsequently died but we established that her death was attributable to other causes that were not remotely connected to typhoid.
Guma: It seems to me pretty much some of these problems are also stemming from the water problems the city is facing. Hearing you giving answers to what the problem is – what’s the long term solution because it seems to be a chicken and egg dilemma?
What starts first – money from the residents paying for a service they’re not getting? Do you need a bail out from government? Does government need to change its priorities and get something going because year after year the same problem remains and nothing is changing?
Masunda: Well we’ve never seen a typhoid outbreak on the scale that we’ve seen now but I’m pleased to say that we’ve contained the situation. The average number of suspected typhoid cases has come down from about 72 to 30 a day and we need to keep a beady eye on all these things.
But we also need to get the cooperation of the stakeholders themselves. People must refrain from patronizing all these joints like Kwa Mereki, Kwa Zindoga, Pennywise Liquor Centre, Ku Huku in Hillside, Braeside because those are the epi-centres of water-borne diseases.
And due to chronic unemployment we’ve seen a proliferation of food vending in the city and surrounding areas and I’m very concerned about what may happen now that the Tobacco Auction Floors have opened because some of our new tobacco growers will come in from outside Harare and they’re going to camp either at Boka Tobacco Auction Floors or the other two new ones that have been established, until they get paid.
Guma: But is the solution closing places like Kwa Mereki and others or providing proper facilities for such informal kind of businesses to thrive?
Masunda: That’s a good point. It’s a combination of both. For instance, one of my very, very strong beliefs when I came into office was to work very closely with those enterprising ladies at Kwa Mereki and convert that into some serious cottage industry.
But when I went there and spoke to Mai George and others and I said ladies how do you dispose of the litter that is generated here, they took me to the back of where they were operating – a pit where they were mixing up all sorts of garbage, biodegradable stuff and bottles and cans and plastics.
And courtesy of Delta Beverages we provided them with compartmentalized wire mesh cages, so that they put the bio degradable stuff in the pit and the cans on their own, the plastic bottles and their own and the glass on their own so that the reclamation companies can cart that away.
And I’m pleased with the efforts that have been made following the closure of Mereki in the last week and first week of, last week of January and first week of February, they’ve taken it upon themselves to address some of the issues that ought to have been addressed a long time ago.
Guma: And just quickly on that, several questions on that, maybe final question just for this week – when is Kwa Mereki opening?
Masunda: As soon as I get the nod from the City Health Department that all their concerns from the health perspective have been addressed.
Guma: Well Zimbabwe that’s the Mayor of Harare, Mr Muchadeyi Masunda, because of time constraints we’ll probably have to split it again in two and have him again next week so that I can finish all the questions that you the listeners sent in. Many thanks to Mayor Masunda for joining us on Part One.
Masunda: Thank you and I look forward to taking part in the next segment.
To listen to the programme:
http://www.swradioafrica.2bctnd.net/02_12/qt220212.mp3
Feedback can be sent to lance@swradioafrica.com http://twitter.com/lanceguma or http://www.facebook.com/lance.guma
By
Andrew
Malone
Last updated at 9:43 AM on 2nd March 2012
Deranged he may
be, but in his dotage Robert Gabriel Mugabe still manages a good line in
firebrand rhetoric.
After he arrives
by helicopter at a football stadium in a remote corner of Zimbabwe for a
‘spectacular’ party to mark his 88th birthday, Mugabe walks slowly round the
pitch punching the air while a public announcer exhorts people to cry out his
name in joy. Few do.
His Excellency
has come to Mutare — a city on the border with Mozambique and home of the
biggest diamond find in decades — for a stage-managed celebration of what
billboards tell us are ‘88 years of selfless service to the
nation’.
After keeping the crowd waiting under a broiling sun for five hours, Mugabe is treated to a beauty pageant and presented with a cake weighing 88kg — 1kg for every year of his life — making him the oldest leader in the world.
Let him eat cake: Robert Mugabe at his 88th birthday, attended by20,000 supporters
Crocodile cake: The dictator admires the cake at his £650,000 party - while thousands starve in his country and many fear another brutal round of killings in the upcoming election
Watched by
starving, bemused locals, some of them drunks and vagrants forcibly rounded up
and brought in trucks to the ‘party’, Mugabe — his hair still curiously
jet-black — aims a bitter broadside at Britain, despite the fact we will give a
staggering £80 million in aid this year to this tragic, broken
country.
With typhoid
sweeping the land and warnings of famine in a country once known as the
breadbasket of Africa, Mugabe instead focuses his anger on Prime Minister David
Cameron and his demands that African leaders respect gay rights in return for
aid.
Nature is
nature, he thunders. ‘It has created male and female. That’s how we were born,
so we reject that outright and say: “To hell with you,
Cameron.”
‘I have no words to describe gays — you can’t call them dogs because even dogs themselves will not be happy to be associated with such acts of paganism.
‘What I have not
heard is what vows they exchange with each other when they marry. Who do they
say they have married and to bear what kind of fruits?’
Slumped in the
stifling heat, with no food or water, many in the 20,000 crowd become angry and
agitated as their leader prepares to tuck into his cake.
I have smuggled myself into the celebration, the only Western journalist to attend it. The man sitting next to me, in a suit bearing Mugabe’s face, mutters through gritted teeth: ‘I’ll celebrate — when the old fool dies.’
Mugabe inspects troops with Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri (L), the country's feared police chief. He has ordered officers across the country to vote for Zanu-PF
Indeed, rather
than underline Mugabe’s hold over his country, the birthday party serves only to
hasten the belief that finally the despot’s days may be numbered, so clearly on
the wane are his powers. In a show of dissent unthinkable at the peak of his
reign, hundreds of those forced to attend the ‘party’ scramble over barbed wire
fences to escape before Mugabe makes his speech.
He is still
parading round the stadium, with an ambulance trailing slowly behind him, when
the exodus begins.
And there is
also deep discord behind the scenes. So bad have relations become between the
president and his wife Grace, 42, whom he married after spotting her in the
presidential typing pool, that she refused to attend the
celebration.
There have been
‘tensions’ between the couple since it was revealed she had been conducting a
five-year affair with Gideon Gono, head of the country’s federal reserve bank
and a supposed close friend of her octogenarian husband.
Gono was the
source of claims last year on the WikiLeaks website, supposedly gleaned from
pillow talk with Mugabe’s wife, revealing that the President has prostate
cancer, which had spread through his body, and the couple sleep in separate
rooms. Perhaps wisely, Gono has also stayed away from Mugabe’s birthday bash.
The state-run Herald newspaper has been suggesting he should be arrested on
fraud charges.
So what of the
self-described ‘party of the century’ that Grace and Gono have missed?
The
celebrations, like the birthday boy, proves a pitiful affair, a picture of
terrifying defiance in the face of inevitable decay.
Originally
planned for five days earlier, on his official birthday, the party has been
hastily rescheduled after Mugabe was confined to bed after apparently collapsing
at his palace in Harare, the country’s capital — just hours after announcing he
has more powers than Jesus when it comes to overcoming
death.
In an interview on state TV, Mugabe, who claims to have been anointed as president by God, declares: ‘That’s where I have beaten Christ. I have died and resurrected and I don’t know how many times I will die and resurrect.’
A dictator running scared: Mugabe is terrified of meeting the same fate as his friend Muammar Gaddafi, who was murdered in Libya by a mob last year
On top of his
ill-health and marital woes, he faces other problems: no one was prepared to
stump up the cash for the party, underlining just how out of touch the ‘Old Man’
— as Mugabe is called here, without any affection — has become during his bloody
32-year rule.
While he is said
to have salted away billions for himself in various offshore accounts, he has
bankrupted the country during his term of office.
The nation no longer has its own currency after the Zimbabwe dollar became worthless and inflation hit three trillion per cent under his disastrous stewardship.
Carrying clubs
and machetes, they toured Zimbabwe’s slums and demanded that everyone hand over
a dollar towards the one -million-dollar cost of the
party.
Mugabe’s illness and advancing years are palpable, so inevitably there is a battle for succession.
One of his former cronies, Emmerson Mnangagwa — known as The Crocodile because of his ruthlessness in dealing with his opponents — has already signalled his intention to succeed Mugabe and is believed to be behind the murder of a key figure inside the regime who could have stood in his way.
Birthday rest: Robert Mugabe sits in an arm chair wipes his eye on his birthday. In a rambling speech he told David Cameron to 'go to hell' as he attacked Western values, including homosexual rights
Party: Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe views his birthday cake during the rally at the weekend. The crowd become hot and angry as they waited for the dictator to cut his cake
Solomon Mujuru
died after a suspicious fire at his home, where neighbours heard gunshots before
the flames broke out.
He was seen as a
‘kingmaker’ because of his influence over the military and wanted his wife
Joice, the vice-president, to take over from Mugabe.
For his own
part, Mugabe has no intention of stepping aside. At his birthday party, he
announces there will be elections this year and he will run yet
again.
The news causes
tremors of fear to ripple through the crowd at the football stadium, for
everyone remembers how thousands were killed in previous elections for failing
to declare their fervent support for his party, Zanu-PF.
Mugabe's successor: Emmerson Mnangagwa is known as The Crocodile because of his ruthlessness in dealing with his opponents
This times he
appears to strike a conciliatory tone. ‘We used to fight each other,’ he says.
‘Time has come for us to do our politics in a much more cultured way. Though
our differences are ideological and sometimes quite negative, we should not
regard them as a source of hatred.
‘Those who are
opposed to us are also part of our society. We should recognise their rights.
So, no to violence! No, no, no to violence!’
Yet Mugabe is
lying. He and his ruling military junta have already drawn up chilling plans
to kill and destroy their political enemies.
The sad truth is
that, for all Mugabe’s words about an end to violence in Zimbabwe, every
indication is that he is planning another brutal round of murder and
repression.
Leaked documents
from the internal intelligence service appear to reveal horrific plans to allow
Zanu-PF thugs to unleash violence at the elections.
They are typical
of Mugabe’s typical modus operandi — one that led to hundreds of opposition
supporters being murdered in elections in 2008, when he lost the vote and was
forced to form a power-sharing deal with the opposition
MDC.
This time,
police have been instructed to impose an Orwellian new law called the Public
Order and Security Act, which bans more than three people from gathering in the
same place at the same time on pain of arrest and
imprisonment.
They are
instructed to apply the law only to Mugabe’s opponents — his supporters are
exempt.
‘Zanu-PF youth and war veterans are the main perpetrators [of the violence], but the police must not arrest them because they will be protecting the interests of the country,’ according to the documents.
Deranged: Mugabe, who has claimed to have more powers than Jesus and is behind many brutal attacks on his own people, used his 88th birthday party to announce there will be elections this year and he will run yet again
Mugabe is
terrified of meeting the same fate as his friend Muammar Gaddafi, who was
murdered in Libya by a mob last year.
His survival
strategy has been drawn up by Augustine Chihuri, the country’s feared police
chief. He has ordered officers across the country to vote for Zanu-PF — and to
make sure they do, they must cast their vote in front of a chief superintendent,
chief inspector and inspector.
Junior officers
fear ‘persecution, victimisation and even death if they do not
comply’.
Meanwhile, at
the party, just moments after railing at the West’s obsession with money, His
Excellency is presented with diamonds as a birthday
present.
He is also given
an antique grandfather clock before being escorted to his helicopter and flown
away, while the crowd goes hungry.
Charles, a
22-year-old graduate who was forced to attend the celebrations, tells me how he
was beaten, plunged into freezing water and made to sing Zanu-PF songs at
indoctrination sessions during the last elections, the bloodiest in the
country’s history. He fears that worse is to come.
‘We’d all like
to rise up and kill this man — I won’t even call him by his name,’ he says. ‘But
we have no guns and his spies are everywhere. Instead, we must keep praying that
he dies soon and the madness finally ends.’
http://www.theindependent.co.zw
Friday, 02 March 2012
13:03
AFTER years of hard negotiations which sapped so much energy and
chewed
resources to secure critical political reforms to prepare for
credible
elections to avoid a repeat of the horrors of June 2008, we are now
being
told Zimbabwe will “definitely” go to the polls this year with or
without a
new constitution.
Elections without necessary reforms? In whose
interest would such elections
be? Zimbabweans or President Robert Mugabe and
his loyalists? After the
experience of June 2008? Would that sort of a thing
be acceptable to the
people, our neighbours and the international
community?
Intensified battles over the timing of elections and
renewed hostile
exchanges on the political landscape have exposed the
limitations of the
reform process and threatens to derail the Global
Political Agreement (GPA).
Mugabe’s call for early elections has increased
fears of a return to 2008’s
violence.
Of course, eventually elections are
inevitable, but without serious,
enforceable reforms, Zimbabwe faces another
illegitimate vote and prospects
of entrenched polarisation and
crisis.
Given Mugabe’s attitude and hostile remarks about Sadc
facilitator, SA
President Jacob Zuma last week, GPA guarantors have an
uphill battle to
secure reforms before polls.
The GPA was a
direct result of the brutality and killings of the June 2008
presidential
election run-off in which Mugabe stormed back to office via a
campaign of
terror after he was defeated by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
in the
first round of polls. Results of the presidential poll in March were
delayed
by more than a month under the pretext of “meticulous verification”
as
Mugabe and adherents tried to manage the situation.
Although the full
story of what happened is yet to be told (and it must
hopefully before the
next elections), many believe Mugabe was defeated
outright but his diehards
cooked up the figures to justify a run-off.
However, African
leaders, both at Sadc and AU level, rejected Mugabe’s
“victory” and forced
him to enter negotiations for an inclusive government,
a transitional
arrangement before free and fair elections are held.
AU leaders met
in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt soon after the run-off and stated in
no uncertain
terms that they rejected Mugabe’s alleged victory. That led to
serious
negotiations and the signing of the GPA in September 2008. The
purpose of
the GPA was to restore political and economic stability in the
country to
create conditions for credible elections.
After getting a reprieve,
Zanu PF is now increasingly confident again it can
intimidate opponents and
frustrate reform, and there is waning faith,
internally and externally, in
the GPA processes, largely because of Mugabe’s
refusal to uphold his
commitments.
Mugabe’s health and Zanu PF succession turmoil are
further fuelling problems
around the GPA as the cabal around him now wants
to wriggle out of the
agreement to force elections with or without a new
constitution.
It now clear without stronger internal and external
pressure, mostly from
Sadc, on Mugabe, Zanu PF might end up withdrawing from
the current tenuous
coalition, triggering renewed violence and grave
consequences for the
region.
There are many suggestions how this
could be avoided. Dr Ibbo Mandaza
recently came up with a proposal, which we
tend to agree with. He said we
must as a nation focus less on election talk
and more on creating conditions
for free and fair polls either through the
current GNU or GNUII.
Mandaza proposed a reformed and restructured
GNU with the following
objectives:
Delivery of service to the
people, on the strength of a smaller and
technocratic cabinet and public
service, and a realistic but well-designed
National Development
Programme;
Restoration of the national institutions, at least to the
level and status
they enjoyed in the early 1980’s; non-partisan,
professional and truly
national;
Restore fiscal, monetary and
macro-economic management systems, designed to
ensure capitalisation on the
country’s mineral and agricultural resources,
towards industrialisation, job
and wealth creation.
Mandaza said the process should begin with the
principals and the need to
establish a consensus that it is possible to
restructure, reform and improve
the content and direction of the GNU, as an
efficient state machinery, while
proceeding with the constitution-making
process and preparations for free
and fair elections. We can’t agree more.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw
Friday, 02 March 2012
12:57
Dumisani Muleya
AFTER a period of relative stability
following the advent of the inclusive
government in 2009 in the aftermath of
the June 2008 presidential election
run-off bloodbath, Zimbabwe is gradually
sliding back to a state of flux as
the hype about early polls this year
intensifies.
Zanu PF’s politburo on Wednesday discussed the
constitution-making process
in a bid to pile pressure on those involved to
fast-track the exercise to
rush through the stakeholders’ conference,
referendum and parliament towards
elections — all this in the next 10
months!
With the way things are going, we are facing tumultuous
months ahead. If
President Robert Mugabe and the Fifth Column (a clique
comprising
securocrats and Zanu PF political brutes clandestinely trying to
subvert the
people’s will) surrounding him succeed in forcing early
elections with or
without a new constitution, the country would be driven
further into a
political standoff, with unpredictable consequences and
outcomes.
The endgame of Mugabe’s disastrous rule is increasingly
becoming
inscrutable, more so given his age and frailty. The situation is
now more
convoluted and volatile than ever before. The more Mugabe continues
to hang
onto power, becoming further erratic while making contentious and
divisive
decisions, the more the situation becomes
explosive.
Mugabe’s call for early elections has increased worries of
a return to 2008’s
climate of fear and violence. Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai has said he
wants polls but only after reforms, a position also
held by other players
including Welshman Ncube.
Whereas it
appeared last year, after Mugabe and his coterie failed to
railroad the
country towards elections, the agreed roadmap would be
implemented to guide
the country towards free and fair elections – credible
in process and
outcome — now the situation is dramatically changing.
Given all this,
there are important questions that need to be asked. If ever
there are going
to be free and fair elections in this country there is an
urgent need for
reforms covering electoral laws and institutions,
registration of voters,
delimitation of constituencies, postal votes, the
role of security forces in
elections, observation and monitoring and
coverage of parties and candidates
by the public media.
It doesn’t really matter who wins in the end so
long as the elections were
credible.
Although most relevant
issues agreed under the Global Political Agreement
(GPA) and the subsequent
supplementary roadmap have not been implemented,
the agreement provides a
coherent framework for creating conditions for
convincing elections. That is
perhaps why Mugabe and his cabal are panicking
and trying to wriggle out of
the GPA.
The roadmap agreed on by all parties in the GPA last year
and endorsed by
Sadc calls upon the political leadership to collectively
establish clear
priorities, with a particular focus on how to secure
conditions for free and
fair elections.
However, progress remains
stymied largely because Zanu PF has not
demonstrated a serious commitment to
democratic reforms, while the MDC
parties are weaker in power relations to
force them through. The GPA
guarantors and South Africa, the facilitator,
have indicated they are
prepared to take a much more hands-on approach,
although it is unclear how
this is going to work and manifest itself in view
of hardening positions.
Sadc and other stakeholders must continually
engage Zimbabwe’s political
leaders to take their own commitments seriously
and set clear benchmarks and
timelines towards elections. The timing and
dates of elections must be
informed by the political and reform
process.
Elections are important to democratic development and
progress. They shape
the fate of any nation and determine what changes may
be wrought in the
social order at a given time. Polls are an affirmation of
the will of the
people, which is the foundation of
democracy.
When elections are flawed and the outcome disputed as
often happens here,
that not only threatens the survival of democracy but
also puts the future
of the nation at risk.
In that connection,
the most critical question to ask now: Is Zimbabwe on
the road to reform and
change or another dead end? Put differently, is the
country about to see a
resolution of the decade-long political stalemate
triggered by disputed
election results or going around in circles?
dumisani@zimind.co.zw
http://www.kubatanablogs.net/kubatana/?p=8000
On the big issues, just say for example, stimulating
the manufacturing
industry, reducing the levels of unemployment in Zimbabwe,
not to mention a
generally repressive human rights environment, the Unity
Government, (those
fellows the MDC and Zanu PF cuddling together in the same
bed), are also
right, royally, screwing things up on a local level
too.
Where I live, in Greendale, there hasn’t been rubbish collection for
three
weeks. In the hope of catching a City of Harare refuse collection
vehicle (a
rare and uplifting sight) home owners have taken to leaving their
rubbish,
and adding to it, out on the street. Rubbish is piling up. It
smells. Its
ugly. Its a health hazard.
Then there’s the trickle of
municipal water sporadically dripping out of our
taps. A common sight on our
neighbourhood streets is men and women heaving
under the weight of water,
being carried either on their heads, or pushed in
wheelbarrows. The water
having come from friendly and helpful homes that
have boreholes.
Then
there’s the issue of the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA)
and
their inability to deliver power. During the past week we’ve had power
between 9pm and 5am. While we’re sleeping, ya dig.
Oh. And then there
are the pot holes, or craters, as people like to call
them. They are
getting deeper, and deeper, and wider and wider.
Meanwhile along
Borrowdale Road, the President’s drive-way, we have minions
cutting the
grass on the island, with … wait for it: hand held grass
cutters. Whoa. Of
course, why be surprised by both the inequity and the
stupidity of
initiatives like this?
However, nothing would be more stupid than all of
us voting in (again) or
letting our vote be stolen (again) these people who
treat us like dirt.
This entry was posted on March 2nd, 2012 at 11:25
am by Bev Clark