http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 09 May 2009 20:21
CIVIL servants have given government a seven-day ultimatum to address
their
demands for more realistic salaries or risk a crippling strike as
anger
grows among government workers over promises to award incentives only
to
teachers.
Last week the Ministry of Education convinced teachers to
return to
work for the start of the second term with promises their salaries
would be
reviewed pending negotiations with donors.
In
addition, the government promised free education for teachers'
children and
undertook to encourage banks to scrap charges on teachers'
salaries while
crafting a five-year benefit plan for them.
The package was agreed
outside the normal negotiating forum for civil
servants' salaries, sparking
protests that the government was using
divide-and-rule
tactics.
This provoked the rest of the civil servants whose
representatives met
in Harare on Friday and gave the cash-strapped
government an ultimatum to
review their salaries to match what was promised
teachers.
"We have given the government up to May 15 to resolve
the concerns
from our members or face a job boycott," Public Service
Association (PSA)
deputy executive secretary, Jeremiah Bvirindi said
yesterday.
The PSA had earlier accused the government of trying to
divide civil
servants by giving teachers "special treatment" and ignoring
the plight of
other workers.
"We take great exception in
the divide-and-rule practice by government
where some sectors have decided
to flout the rules of the National Joint
Negotiating Council (NJNC)," the
PSA said in a statement jointly signed by
its president, Cecilia Alexander
-Khowa and Bvirindi.
The PSA is the umbrella body of five
public sector unions and
represents all civil servants including
non-teaching professionals. The
unity government has been paying civil
servants an allowance of US$100
across the board since it was installed in
February.
On Workers' Day Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said
the government
did not have money to meet government workers' demands for a
minimum wage of
at least US$454.
But the civil servants say
the concessions given to teachers show that
the government is not taking
their plight seriously.
"We have been patient enough in order
to make the inclusive government
work and be able to produce results that
will be appreciated by Sadc and the
world at large but it looks like the
government is ignoring the machinery
that is supposed to produce results for
the inclusive government to
succeed," the PSA said.
The
unrest in the civil service has also been fuelled by reports that
Zanu PF
militias and war veterans were drawing the same allowances given to
government workers as reward for campaigning for President Robert Mugabe in
last year's bloody elections.
The government has launched
an audit to verify the allegations. Public
Service minister Eliphas
Mukonoweshuro said he could not comment on the
matter yesterday as he was in
a meeting.
Meanwhile, Senator David Coltart, the Minister of
Education, Sport,
Arts and Culture, says the government might have paid
millions of dollars in
foreign currency to ghost teachers since
February.
He said an investigation led by veteran educationist
and member of the
education ministry's advisory board, Isaiah Sibanda was
now underway to
ascertain whether 30 000 teachers on government's payroll
really exist.
"In March, my ministry launched a probe to
establish the veracity of
reports that there could be ghost teachers on the
government payroll,"
Coltart said.
"The probe was
necessitated by the fact that there were some shocking
figures that were
presented to government by the Salaries Services Bureau
(SSB)."
Coltart said in February alone, the SSB had paid
out US$100 allowances
to about 94 000 teachers.
"When this figure
was presented to us, we quickly checked with teacher
unions and we were
given a figure of slightly more than 60 000 teachers.
"Given
these details, our probe team is now tasked with finding out
where the extra
30 000 plus teachers could be and whether these figures are
cooked up," he
said.
But the investigations have been hampered by the fact
that the
ministry's records are not computerised, which means that records
will be
verified manually. Coltart said a full report on the audit could be
ready by
mid-month and his ministry would immediately act on the
findings.
"The biggest challenge is that we have a very big
education
infrastructure in the country. That infrastructure does not have
any
teachers in it," Coltart said. "For instance, out of the infrastructure
we
have as a country, only 32% of it is occupied by teaching staff. The
other
68% is vacant."
BY KHOLWANI NYATHI & NKULULEKO
SIBANDA
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 09 May 2009 20:07
THE
Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (Zimsec) last week fired all
its casual
workers after they abandoned the processing of last year's Grade
VII
examinations following an acrimonious dispute over pay.
The labour
dispute, the latest hurdle for the beleaguered examinations
body, has
reportedly put paid to hopes the 2008 Grade VII results will be
released
anytime soon.
They were reportedly responsible for transcribing the
results, a
tedious process that takes weeks to complete, sources
said.
Sources said it would be a "miracle" if the results are
released
because of the confusion caused by the dispute.
This has also disrupted the processing of Form IV and VI results,
which have
already been delayed.
Workers reportedly downed tools after the
Ministry of Finance told
them their salaries for April, which they had not
received by last week,
were released on time.
"There was a
serious confrontation when the Zimsec management
confirmed that indeed the
salaries had been released by Treasury but there
were no satisfactory
answers why they had been delayed and workers not
paid," said a senior
official at the examinations' body.
All the 91 workers were
immediately shown the door and replaced by
another batch that was said to be
still familiarising itself with the
marking process.
Insiders said as a result of the chaos candidate numbers, marks and
names of
students for the Grade VII examinations were "so mixed up" that it
was
"impossible" to match the candidate to the marks.
"Grade VII results
are in such shambles that there are no prospects of
them ever coming out,"
said one source.
"As we speak, the processing of the results
has come to a standstill."
The sources said unqualified staff
such as security guards, drivers,
receptionists, clerks and secretaries,
were employed to mark the papers
after teachers refused to do so due to poor
remuneration.
The problems have also affected the processing of
"O" and "A" level
results, which Zimsec spokesperson Ezekiel Pasipamire had
promised last
week, in time for the start of the second
term.
Zimsec director Happy Ndanga confirmed that the temporary
workers had
been fired following a salary dispute.
"These
were temporary workers whose contracts had expired," he said.
"We told them to go home and come and collect their money when we have
it
because we did not have it ready then."
But he had no idea when
the examinations results would be released.
"I can't tell
because we have not had electricity for some days now,"
he said. "We are so
computerised that the absence of power has seriously
affected
us."
He defended the use of unqualified staff in the marking of
examinations saying: "They were not marking but transferring
marks.
"We call it clerical marking, where you don't have to
know the context
but just tick or cancel."
However, the sources
warned the problems at Zimsec would have a
serious impact on the credibility
of the examinations system in the country.
In March, the
government instructed schools to enroll students using
mid-year examination
results as it became apparent Zimsec had no capacity to
release the results
on time.
The new Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and
Culture, Senator David
Coltart had promised to mobilise international donors
to fund the marking of
the examinations. However, educationists described
the move to allow
students to proceed to another level without the proper
qualifications as "a
recipe for disaster".
This was on the
back of reports by the United Nations Children's Fund
(Unicef) that only 20%
of the country's children attended school last year
following a prolonged
strike by teachers.
"Form 1 students were enrolled on the basis
of mock results," said
another Zimsec official.
"Given that
there was hardly any teaching, there is no guarantee that
the Grade VII
pupils ever sat for any credible tests."
He said even Lower
Sixth students were enrolled on the basis of the
"same mock" examinations
and it was difficult for students to pursue "A"
level studies in subjects
they were not even sure they passed.
"It won't be surprising to
discover that some or most Lower Sixth
students are reading subjects they
failed dismally at "O" Level," he said.
Meanwhile, Coltart
admitted that the examination process was in a
shambles, a situation which
he said was worsened by Zimsec's financial
crisis.
"The
marking of the November 2008 examinations has been done, however
the grading
has not been completed because we don't have funds," Coltart
said.
"November results are supposed to be out before the
June exams are
written because June exams are usually supplementary exams
for those who
would have failed in November."
He said there
was "no doubting that the integrity of the system has
been
damaged".
BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE AND GEORGE MADEGA
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 09 May 2009 20:01
AS
the Kariba media stakeholders' conference, convened to draw up a
roadmap for
reforms in the sector, closed this weekend, officers from the
Police Law and
Order Section swooped on the offices of the Zimbabwe
Independent seeking to
arrest its Editor and News Editor.
The officers, acting on the
orders of Detective Chief Inspector Ntini,
said they had been sent to arrest
Vincent Kahiya and Constantine Chimakure,
Editor and News Editor
respectively, over a story published on Friday naming
Central Intelligence
Organisation officers and police officers who were
allegedly involved in the
abduction of human rights and MDC activists in
November last
year.
Three officers - Inspectors Mukwaira (030805H), Justein
(045073R), and
Kambizi (045121T) told Zimind Group Chief Executive Officer
Raphael Khumalo
they had been sent to arrest Kahiya and Chimakure. Zimbabwe
Independent
staff do not work on Saturdays.
Ntini told
Khumalo the two were wanted for questioning for publishing
the names of the
officers behind abductions of MDC and human rights
activists last
year.
In his conversation with Ntini over the phone Khumalo
defended the
paper's position saying the story was based on court records
and that there
was no basis for seeking Kahiya and Chimakure's
arrest.
The information had been supplied by the Attorney-General's
office as
part of the notices of indictment for trial served on the MDC and
civic
activists and was therefore in the public domain.
Khumalo told Ntini the company would not hesitate to expose such
continued
harassment of the media to show the world that such violations are
continuing even under the new political dispensation.
"The
attempt to arrest Kahiya and Chimakure amounts to harassment,"
Khumalo said,
"at a time when the government is holding a media reform
conference to put
an end to this sort of thing. The episode shows there has
been no change in
the role of the police."
The Kariba conference, part of a
government charm offensive, began on
Thursday but was poorly attended after
many journalists and media
organisations boycotted the event in protest
against the detention of
journalist, Shadreck Andrisson
Manyere.
Journalists grouped under the Media Alliance of
Zimbabwe stayed away
from the meeting because Manyere, who is facing
banditry and terrorism
charges, had not been released from
prison.
The journalists said it was impossible for them to
attend a conference
when one of their own was under detention using the same
repressive laws
that are meant to be under discussion.
They
were also protesting against the inclusion of what they referred
to as
"media hangmen" on the programme.
Among those lined up to speak
were former chairman of the Media and
Information Commission Tafataona
Mahoso and former information minister
Jonathan Moyo, fingered as the brains
behind the notorious Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act and
the Public Order and Security
Act. But Moyo did not attend.
National chairman of the Media Institute of Southern Africa - Zimbabwe
Chapter - Loughty Dube said media boycotted the event because government had
reneged on its promise to release Manyere as previously
agreed.
Dube said the Deputy Minister of Media, Information and
Publicity,
Jameson Timba had assured them when they met last Tuesday that
Manyere would
be released the following day.
"We felt that
we could not go and negotiate when our members are being
persecuted," said
Dube. "We are not against the media reform process but
what we want is a
reformed media environment."
He said journalists who attended
the conference went to Kariba in
their individual capacities. Zimbabwe Union
of Journalists (ZUJ) president
Matthew Takaona was among those who attended
the conference.
Takaona said while ZUJ does not condone the
arrest of journalists by
government, it was necessary for media
practitioners to attend the
conference.
"If journalists had
not come here completely, it was going to be a
disaster in terms of the
recommendations that are going to come out," he
said.
Other
journalists who attended the meeting were Financial Gazette
Editor Hama
Saburi, Cris Chinaka of Reuters, media consultant Bornwell
Chakaodza and
journalist-cum-politician Kindness Paradza.
The conference
recommended that Aippa be replaced with a Freedom of
Information Act and a
Media Practitioners' Registration Act which will make
registration of
journalists a formality.
It also recommended that the Zimbabwe
Media Commission be constituted
as soon as possible. The commission should
be a transitional body, it was
said, which when the constitutional reform
process is started will give way
to self-regulation in the
profession.
The conference said government must support
self-regulation, foreign
investors should only be able to take up 49% in
local media, criminal
defamation should be repealed, cross-ownership of
media disallowed and
government should assist in the formation of a National
Employment Council
(NEC) for journalists.
It was also
suggested that the ZBC board be appointed by Parliament to
make it a fully
public broadcaster.
No foreign investors in community radio
stations should be permitted
but donations would be acceptable and the
President and the Prime Minister
would not be "insulted".
Last week's re-detention of Zimbabwe Peace Project director Jestina
Mukoko
and Manyere's continued incarceration triggered the initial move to
boycott
the conference.
Although Mukoko was released last Wednesday
along with other political
detainees, Manyere remained detained along with
Tsvangirai's former personal
assistant Gandhi Mudzingwa and MDC director of
security Chris Dhlamini.
BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE AND BERTHA
SHOKO
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 09 May 2009 19:58
RESERVE Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono was last week not
called
to testify in a fraud case at the Harare Magistrates' Court involving
former
central bank employee Joseph Banda despite earlier indications by the
state.
Banda, an ex-convict, is accused of fraudulently
acquiring RBZ farm
implements worth US$35 000, masquerading as a retired
Senior Assistant
Commissioner in the Zimbabwe Republic Police, RBZ security
and a war
veteran.
A fortnight ago prosecutors made indications
that Gono would on Monday
last week start testifying how Banda was employed
by the RBZ and clarify his
specific duties.
Gono would also
have explained how the central bank engaged an
ex-convict to head its
financial intelligence and evaluation unit.
Instead the central
bank governor's advisor, Munyaradzi Kereke,
appeared in
court.
Kereke, who told the court that Banda was retrenched in
2007, will be
cross-examined tomorrow.
Kereke also told the
court that memos bearing RBZ logos that were
produced in court by the
defence to prove that Banda was doing work on
behalf of the central bank
were fake.
But he said the bank was investigating how Banda
came to be in
possession of US$100 vouchers given to RBZ employees in
February.
He could however not say how Banda was able to obtain
access cards to
RBZ offices.
Kereke said Banda was "highly
recommended" to RBZ by the then
Ministry of Policy Implementation headed by
Webster Shamu who is now the
Minister of Media, Information and
Publicity.
"The accused came from that ministry (Information)
and upon his
retrenchment he went back to the ministry and I believe he is
still there,"
Kereke said.
The defence team led by Gerald
Mlotshwa and Tapson Dzvetero were
granted an order to obtain information
they need from NetOne, Stanbic Bank
and Elite Car rentals in order to
challenge Kereke's testimony.
Banda was granted bail on
Thursday after the state suddenly made a
u-turn.
The state,
led by Obi Mabahwana, had earlier argued that Banda was
likely to abscond if
granted bail since he had two national identity
documents and was yet to
renounce his Malawian citizenship.
A consent letter written and
signed by Mike Mugabe from the
Attorney-General's office on Thursday said
Banda be given US$1 000 bail with
conditions that he surrenders his
passport, stays at his house and reports
to the police twice a
week.
No reasons were given why the state decided to grant
Banda bail but it
is understood the order came from the Attorney-General's
office, prompted by
fears that Banda's case could expose how Gono was
running the central bank.
The Anti-Corruption team
investigating the matter on Thursday went to
the AG's office in order to
establish why Banda was granted bail.
"We were a bit concerned
that the state gave Banda bail from nowhere,"
said a senior Anti-Corruption
commissioner, who requested anonymity.
BY SANDRA
MANDIZVIDZA
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 09 May 2009 19:44
THE
Harare City Library has been forced to reduce its charges by half
following
an outcry from library users.
The library, which gets most of its
resources from charity, was
charging registration fees of US$10 and as much
as US$105 for those taking
one book with extras annually.
Extra
books cost US$1 whenever they are used and fines on overdue
books were
US$0.50 a day.
But librarian Trymore Simango of the Harare City
Library Management
Committee last week told The Standard the rates had since
been reviewed
downwards after complaints from subscribers.
"We decided to review down the charges for our services by 50% after
an
outcry from members of the public and because of our understanding of the
difficulties in acquiring the money," he said.
Subscribers
can now also pay for library services in instalments, a
facility that was
not available last year, he said.
But many subscribers
interviewed last week said they were still not
happy with the charges saying
the standards at the libraries had
deteriorated to unacceptable
levels.
They said the libraries should charge nominal fees
because they got
most of their resources from donors.
However,
Simango insisted the fees were "reasonable" and would enable
them to
renovate the library, pay bills and for other services.
He said
they used to rely on grants from the government, Harare City
Council and
donors, but these had since dried up.
BY OUR STAFF
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 09 May 2009
18:51
BULAWAYO - The revived Zapu will hold its long-awaited conference
this
weekend where it will formalise its pullout from Zanu PF after an
uneasy
22-year marriage.
The conference, which has been
postponed on several occasions since
the breakaway party held its inaugural
meeting in December, is set to draw
thousands of delegates from across the
country.
Officially, the delays were caused by undisclosed
logistical problems
but there were rumours that members were bickering on
the agenda.
Some reportedly wanted it to be an elective
conference, while the
influential members want an event that would only
signal the breakaway from
Zanu PF while giving them time to search for
suitable candidates to lead the
former liberation movement.
Former Home Affairs minister and Zanu PF politburo member, Dumiso
Dabengwa,
is the interim chairman of the party founded by Joshua Nkomo.
Smile Dube, the Zapu interim spokesperson, said the conference was
postponed
to allow for the "finalisation of legal issues" surrounding the
pullout.
"As it is now common knowledge, Zanu PF and Zapu
went into bed in 1987
and legalised the marriage through the Unity Accord
signed on December 22 of
the same year," he said.
"What we
intend to do on May 15 and 16 is to legally pull out of that
1987 marriage
so that we can stand on our own as Zapu.
"So the postponement
was occasioned by the need to tie up the loose
ends on the legal aspect of
the pullout."
He said about 1 000 delegates from the country's
10 provinces would
attend the conference.
Dabengwa and some
former high-ranking Zapu officials pushed for the
party's revival last year
after persistent complaints that Zanu PF was still
reluctant to meet its
side of the bargain in terms of the Unity Accord.
This included
Zanu PF's refusal to change its slogans and symbols,
distribution of party
posts and the promotion of war veterans from Zapu's
military wing in the
army and the police.
President Robert Mugabe reacted angrily to
the pullout and accused
Dabengwa of being "a tribalist".
BY
NKULULEKO SIBANDA
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 09 May 2009 18:47
AT
least 200 communal farmers from Mutoko in Mashonaland East have not
been
paid for maize they delivered to the Grain Marketing Board last
year.
The farmers last week claimed the GMB was now refusing to pay
them,
referring them to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), which together
with
the parastatal, was involved in a joint operation of buying maize to
beef up
national reserves.
Most of the farmers, who struggle to
make ends meet to the extent that
they failed to buy inputs for last season,
sold the bulk of their maize
harvest ranging from five to 20 tonnes hoping
for immediate payment from the
GMB.
Godfrey Chibanda, whose
father, Raymond, sold five tonnes of maize to
the GMB last year, said the
family was forced to grow a limited hectarage of
maize this just-ended
farming season because they could not raise money to
buy seed and
fertiliser.
"I have been to GMB and RBZ several times but
nothing has come out,"
said Chibanda, showing receipts with GMB stamps as
proof of delivery.
"They continue to refer me from one office
to the other. Our receipts
clearly show that we sold our maize to GMB but
they are passing on the
responsibility to the RBZ."
Another
farmer, Abel Maboko from Mutoko, vowed not to sell his produce
to the GMB
again.
"It's almost a year since we sold our maize but we have
not been paid.
'It does not make sense. I won't deliver my
maize to GMB again," said
Maboko, who added that he had 30 tonnes for sale
this year.
A GMB official at Mutoko depot last week confirmed
the problem.
The official, who also confirmed that at least 200
farmers were
affected, said most of the cases were being referred to Harare
because the
depot had no money.
A senior official with the
GMB in Harare said the problem of
non-payment was not restricted to
Mashonaland East but affected farmers
across the country.
"It's a serious problem that is countrywide and not in Mutoko alone,"
said
the official. "It's a problem created by the central bank because it
was
responsible for the payment of farmers while the GMB was only handling
grain
on behalf of the government."
He said the parastatal, which has
been making losses for years now,
had no money to pay for the
deliveries.
GMB marketing director Zvidzai Makwenda professed
ignorance about the
non-payments.
"I didn't know there is
such a problem. If there are any, they must
come to my office on Monday or
any other depot for assistance," he said.
The government
earlier this year scrapped the GMB's monopoly in buying
and selling grain
owing to continued failure to mobilise enough maize to
feed the
country.
The liberalisation of grain marketing means that GMB,
millers and any
other grain merchants can now compete in the purchase of
maize and wheat
grain directly from farmers at prices not lower than the
import
parity-related floor price, which was set at $265 a
tonne.
Tobacco and wheat farmers are also struggling to get
payments for
deliveries made last year, prompting the RBZ to introduce "a
debt-for-fertiliser swap programme".
Efforts to get a
comment from RBZ spokesperson Kumbirai Nhongo were
fruitless. But Zimbabwe
Commercial Farmers' Union president Wilson Nyabonda
said farmers
experiencing payment problems must approach the union for
assistance.
"They have not come to us with that problem,"
Nyabonda said. "We are
however aware that there are tobacco and wheat
farmers being paid by the RBZ
through the debt-for-fertiliser
programme."
BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 09 May 2009
18:45
BULAWAYO - Gwanda town council says it has no plans to provide
water
and sewer reticulation infrastructure for residents allocated houses
and
residential stands under the controversial Operation Garikai/Hlalani
Kuhle
four years ago.
President Robert Mugabe's previous
administration embarked on a
massive housing programme in urban centres and
growth points across the
country after it was universally condemned for
destroying informal
settlements under Operation Murambatsvina.
The residents and some Zanu PF supporters were allocated unfinished
houses
and unserviced residential stands in areas where local authorities
did not
have immediate development plans.
Gwanda mayor, Lionel de
Necker, said there was no hope council would
connect water and sewerage
reticulation infrastructure to the more than 100
houses and residential
stands in the town because they were not planned for.
He said
his council, which was still struggling to find its feet in a
recently
dollarised economy had more pressing issues to attend to with the
limited
revenue.
"The area in which these houses were constructed was
not surveyed and
passed as suitable by the council," De Necker said. "It is
now difficult for
us to start providing sewerage and water facilities
because all these things
were not planned and budgeted
for."
De Necker said the fact that families had already
occupied the houses
made the situation worse.
The Matabeleland
South provincial capital is reportedly struggling to
raise cash to finance
its operations and to service roads and cut grass.
"We are in a
financial crisis at the moment," the mayor said. "To set
up water and
sewerage systems at the Garikai houses will cost us a lot of
money and with
our financial position, I do not see us putting that
infrastructure anytime
soon."
On Thursday, Matabeleland South acting provincial
administrator Midard
Khumalo said he could not comment on the development as
it was his first day
in office.
The government says it
expects the beneficiaries to fund the servicing
of their stands and complete
the construction of the houses because it has
no money to finish the
programme.
BY NKULULEKO SIBANDA
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 09 May 2009
18:32
VICTORIA FALLS - ZIMBABWEANS in the Diaspora and other
stakeholders
want legislation that will allow locals residents in other
countries to
participate in all national elections.
The calls
were made during a retreat on electoral reforms organised by
the Zimbabwe
Election Support Network and the Electoral Institute of
Southern
Africa.
Daniel Molokele, the international co-ordinator for Global
Zimbabwe,
the umbrella body which seeks to co-ordinate activities of
Zimbabweans in
the Diaspora, told The Standard that while the government was
keen on
Zimbabweans in the Diaspora investing in the country, it was
important for
them to participate fully in all the country's national
programmes like
elections.
"The Diaspora in turn must
demand its recognition by way of legal
integration into the national
discourse through some positive constitutional
and statutory reforms," he
said. "The practice is that despite the fact that
over a third of its
electorate is now based outside the country, there is no
practical effort to
enable the Diaspora to also cast their vote."
Only Zimbabweans
working at foreign missions and armed forces deployed
in foreign lands are
able to vote. Sceptics say this set up creates room for
manipulation.
Rindai Chipfunde-Vava, the national director
of ZESN, which promotes
democratic elections in Zimbabwe, said her
organisation would lobby for
electoral reforms which would allow Zimbabwean
voters in the Diaspora to
vote in future elections.
"We are
going to push for an all inclusive voting process in which all
Zimbabweans
above 18 years, in or outside the country are allowed to vote.
We have seen
this happening in Mozambique and most recently in South Africa
and there is
no reason why we should not be able as a country to implement
these
reforms."
Chipfunde-Vava told The Standard that part of the
reforms would
require a fresh census of just how many Zimbabweans were in
the country and
in the Diaspora.
"We have heard figures of
between 2,5 and 3 million people living
outside the country but we are going
to advocate for a census in the
Diaspora so that there is a clear
understanding of how many Zimbabweans have
left the
country.
"Next would be a census in the country before people
can register on
the voters' roll because there have been complaints that the
voters' roll is
in a shambles, with many dead people still appearing as
voters."
On suggestions that Zanu PF could prevent exiles from
voting for fear
of a backlash, Chipfunde-Vava said fears of electoral defeat
could not be
used to hold Zimbabweans to ransom over their right to
vote.
"If say urban Zimbabweans are said not to like a certain
political
party, those cannot be adequate grounds to deny them the vote,"
Chipfunde-Vava said. "The issue of the Diaspora vote is quite unique to
Zimbabwe in the sense that quite a large number of people have left the
country in the last 10 years as economic or political refugees or just
seeking greener pastures.
The people in the Diaspora being
denied the vote are the same people
whose remittances have over the years
saved the country from total collapse
in the face of economic
hardships."
The Deputy Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs,
Jessie Majome,
agrees with the need to embrace Zimbabweans living in foreign
lands and
allow them to vote as is the norm in other countries in Southern
Africa.
"The electoral framework in Zimbabwe is very exclusive
in nature when
it comes to Zimbabweans living outside the country. One would
be excused for
thinking that the entire electoral system regards voting more
as a privilege
as opposed to it being a right."
Majome, a
lawyer and legislator from the Movement for Democratic
Change-T, led by
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said with more than three
million
Zimbabweans in the Diaspora, it was "alarming" that they did not
participate
in national elections.
"Considering the number of eligible
voters currently residing outside
Zimbabwe, lack of consideration of such a
significant vote is not only
alarming but also disturbing. It further
undermines the fundamental
principles of inclusivity and participation,
which are already undermined by
political, gender, class and social
factors."
Irene Petras, the executive director of Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human
Rights (ZLHR), said it was important for stakeholders to
insist that the
voting rights of Zimbabweans in the Diaspora should be taken
into
consideration.
"The process of coming up with a new
constitution will have to address
the issue of electoral reforms in view of
voters in the Diaspora just as we
saw South Africans based outside their
country voting in the just ended
national elections.
"We
believe as Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights that Zimbabweans in
the
Diaspora should have the right to vote as it is a fundamental right to
express or participate in how they are governed," Petras said.
BY FOSTER DONGOZI
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 09 May 2009
18:13
DAKAR - The number of midwives worldwide would have to more than
double to meet Millennium Development Goals of reducing maternal and infant
deaths by 2015, according to the International Confederation of Midwives
(ICM) and World Health Organisation on International Day of the
Midwife.
Maternal mortality is the "highest health inequity in the
world with
more than 99% of deaths (in pregnancy and childbirth) occurring
in the
developing world," World Health Organisation (WHO), World Bank, UN
Children's
Fund (Unicef) and UN Population Fund (Unfpa) said in a joint
statement. In
2008 the agencies pledged to work with governments to fill the
"urgent need
for skilled health workers, particularly midwives", the
statement says.
WHO estimates that for the annual 160 million
births worldwide it
would take an additional 350 000 midwives to ensure that
at least 95% of
births were attended by trained health workers, thereby
helping meet MDGs.
ICM estimates that there are 250 000
licensed midwives worldwide, with
13 000 in sub-Saharan Africa. The region
had more than half of the world's
maternal deaths during pregnancy and
childbirth in 2005, according to WHO's
latest compiled
statistics.
Monir Islam, director of WHO's Making Pregnancies
Safer Programme,
said governments' failure to focus on midwifery has been
deadly. "Starting
in 1987 in an effort to make motherhood safer, countries
invested in
traditional birthing attendants, which has not reduced maternal
and infant
mortality."
He said: "Traditional birthing
attendants have their role in ensuring
safe motherhood. They have community
standing and can promote nutrition, can
prepare a woman for childbirth, but
at the moment of birthing (they) should
bring the woman to a trained health
worker."
He said countries that invested in midwifery and
emergency obstetric
care, including Thailand and Malaysia, have been able to
cut their maternal
and infant deaths.
But he noted that
midwifery training is still not enough to ensure
safe childbirths. "It is
also about employment, deployment, retention and
giving midwives supplies.
What good is a midwife who comes to the clinic
every day with no supplies?
No gloves? Or those used to do tasks that
auxiliary nurses could
do?"
A health worker is considered a midwife only after
completing a
certified midwifery education programme to provide care during
pregnancy,
labour and the postpartum period, according to
ICM.
WHO's Islam said that while Malawi has adequate training
facilities,
the majority of midwives are concentrated in cities while rural
areas lack
trained health workers.
He added that Botswana,
Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland have good
midwife coverage, whereas
Francophone Africa countries are lagging. WHO is
working with governments to
develop midwifery curriculums.
"This will not happen
overnight," said Islam. "But we need to take
action." - IRIN.
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 09 May
2009 18:10
THE World Health Organisation has once again urged the
government to
urgently address problems of water supply and sanitation to
curb the cholera
epidemic still ravaging Harare, Chitungwiza and
Kadoma.
The government and aid agencies have been battling to
contain the
disease that has claimed more than 4 000 lives since last August
with
limited success.
According to the latest WHO figures at
least 97 795 cases have been
reported across the country since the outbreak
began with 4 265 confirmed
deaths.
In other parts of the
country the cases have gone down significantly.
"The cholera
outbreak has continued the declining trend in all the
provinces," the WHO
said in a recent update.
"The nationwide epidemic seems to be
getting under control although
certain districts remain of
concern.
"Mashonaland West and Harare city still require close
monitoring.
"The bulk of the cases (83%) were reported from
three provinces:
Harare, Mashonaland West and Manicaland."
About 19 232 of the cases and 653 deaths have been recorded in Harare
since
the outbreak began with Budiriro and Glen View recording the highest
cases.
WHO attributes the fresh cholera infections in
Harare, Chitungwiza and
Kadoma to erratic water supplies and other
sanitation problems.
"Inadequate safe water, break downs in the
sewage system, and poor
sanitation conditions are still playing a key role
in sustaining the
transmission in Mashonaland West and Harare province," the
report added.
Meanwhile, Community Working Group on Health
director, Itai Rusike
warned of a bigger cholera epidemic in the near future
if the root causes of
the epidemic are not addressed.
Rusike said he was worried about the number of community deaths that
have
been occurring outside health institutions or cholera treatment
centres,
which could be attributed to cholera.
The WHO says of the 4 270
deaths, about 2 620 were community deaths.
"We are still very
worried about those deaths that are occurring in
communities and that go
unreported because these are potentially
disastrous," Rusike
said.
"Although many people now know about the disease,
communication
problems in rural areas may be a challenge."
Largely blamed on broken down sewer and water infrastructure and other
sanitation problems, Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic has compounded the
country's
already precarious humanitarian situation.
Recently the Medicines San Frontiers or Doctors without Borders
classified
Zimbabwe as one of the top 10 humanitarian crises in the world
requiring
urgent help.
BY BERTHA SHOKO
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 09 May 2009 18:08
The World Health Organisation began to ship 2.4 million treatments of
anti-flu drugs to 72 needy countries Tuesday, and its flu chief said the
swine flu epidemic was still spreading.
WHO flu chief Keiji
Fukuda said new infections were among the 405
confirmed swine-flu cases
reported to WHO in the last 24 hours. "We are
seeing testing of specimens
that were collected from previous infections and
then the laboratory work is
catching up to it," Fukuda said. "But we're also
seeing new infections
occurring. So, there's both of these things going on
simultaneously," he
said.
The countries getting Tamiflu included Mexico, Afghanistan,
Angola,
Bhutan, Bolivia, Eritrea, Haiti, Moldova, Pakistan, Sri Lanka,
Uganda and
Zimbabwe, among others. The drugs are from a stock of 5 million
treatments
of Tamiflu that manufacturer Roche Holding AG donated in 2005 and
2006, WHO
spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said.
The global body
says there are now 1 490 cases and 30 confirmed deaths
from the swine flu
epidemic. Of those, 822 cases and 29 deaths were in
Mexico; the United
States had 403 cases and 1 death; Canada had 140 cases,
Spain 57, Britain
27, Germany nine, New Zealand six and Italy five. Israel
and France had four
cases each, Korea and El Salvador had two each, and
Austria, Hong Kong,
Costa Rica, Colombia, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands,
Portugal and
Switzerland had one case each.
Most of the people infected with
the so-called A/H1N1 virus were young
people in their mid-20s, Fukuda said,
and most had been travelling to
Mexico, the hardest-hit country. "With
influenza, oftentimes we see the
infections go to younger people first and
then go to older people later,"
Fukuda said.
Another reason
could be that older people already have some kind of
protection against the
virus from previous infections, he added. Fukuda said
patients who recover
from the new swine flu virus would likely gain some
immunity to future
outbreaks, if only for a few years. "With influenza
viruses, when you are
infected it provides some protection against future
influenza viruses
similar to the one which infected you," he said.
The protection
lasts "a couple of years and then the viruses
themselves change enough so
that it's kind of a new virus for your body, so
you are susceptible
again."
The disease is affecting females and males equally, Fukuda
said, and
the incubation period has ranged from around one day to a week,
the same as
seasonal flu. - Elaine Engeler/Sapa
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 09 May 2009 16:10
THE government is developing a model that will help the country to
exploit
the controversial Marange diamonds profitably and ward off attempts
to have
Zimbabwe's precious stones banned from the world market, Mines and
Mining
Development deputy minister, Murisi Zwizwai said last week.
As part
of the plan, the inclusive government would dispatch teams to
some countries
in the region that have profitably exploited their mineral
resources such as
Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.
"The ministry has arranged
visits to Botswana, Namibia, South Africa,
Tanzania and possibly Angola
among other countries with good models of
diamond exploitation," Zwizwai
said in an interview on the sidelines of a
mining conference last
week.
"We will look at the various models in these countries
and compare
with what we have been doing in Marange with the aim of coming
up with a
hybrid model which will see us exploiting the Chiadzwa diamonds to
the
maximum."
Last month, an international diamond group
called for a ban on trade
in Zimbabwe's diamonds, suggesting proceeds had
been used to fund human
rights violations by President Robert Mugabe's
previous government.
The call by the World Federation of
Diamond Bourses followed a similar
one by the European Union, which in
January urged the Kimberly Process - an
international certification scheme
to ensure that diamonds do not fund
conflict - to probe Zimbabwe diamond
trade.
Zwizwai said the government would also identify
appropriate investors
to partner with the poorly equipped Zimbabwe Mining
Development Corporation
(ZMDC) in Marange.
But that could
present problems for the country because African
Consolidated Resources PLC,
an English public company says it has valid
legal title to Mining Claims on
nearly all of the land incorporating what is
commonly known as the Marange
diamond fields.
ACR's Mining Claims and Certificates were
issued to it in 2006 and it
was ACR who made the discovery
public.
The company has notified the government and ZMDC of its
title and
rights and it is preparing to have the matter heard in the High
Court in
Harare if no amicable conclusion to the dispute is
reached.
But seemingly unaware of the pending litigation,
Zwizwai said:
"Valuing our membership to the Kimberly Process Certification
Scheme, we
also hope that the model will help us deal with the issue of
illicit
diamonds among others.
"Basically, we hope to be
able to adequately address the three areas
of security, exploitation and
marketing."
The diamond rush at Marange began in 2006 when the
ZMDC's moved in
despite protests from ACR who hold claims in the
area.
Although the official plan was for President Robert
Mugabe's previous
administration to mine at Marange, in practice mining was
carried out to the
benefit of senior government and Zanu PF officials, with
little income
accruing to the national coffers.
Scores of
illegal miners also descended on the diamond fields,
prompting a government
crackdown which resulted in several deaths.
Before it joined
the new government former opposition MDC-T said the
absence of a tight legal
and policy framework for the local mining sector
had seen the country losing
potential revenue due to influential people's
continued illicit
dealings.
Pearson Mungofa, then deputy secretary for Mines for
the party said
the only way the country could benefit from its mineral
resources was to
have a framework where the government and private companies
collaborated in
exploiting minerals.
He suggested a model
similar to that adopted by Botswana, where the
government partnered with the
De Beers Group to establish Debswana. The two
have 50-50% shares in the
company, which mines diamonds, the backbone of
Botswana's
economy.
BY JENNIFER DUBE
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 09 May 2009
16:04
GOVERNMENT has exempted from duty capital goods used by
registered
tourism players and equipment for expansion in a development
analysts say
will breathe new life into the tourism industry.
According to two Statutory Instruments gazetted recently, registered
operators were exempted from paying duty on imported motor vehicles as well
as capital equipment for expansion, modernisation and renovation of hotels
and restaurants.
Statutory Instrument 46 of 2009 provides the
terms and conditions
under which the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) may
grant suspension of
duty on specified types of motor vehicles for the
tourism industry.
The suspension is effective March 1 up to
February 28, 2011.
Players eligible to enjoy the facility are
those registered by the
Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) and the imported
vehicles should be used
exclusively for the tourism
business.
The imported motor vehicle must be specified in the
statutory
instrument and should be new or taken out of
bond.
Operators cannot dispose of their cars within five years
of purchase
without the authority from Zimra Commissioner
General.
An official with a car rental firm told a breakfast
meeting on
Wednesday the five-year period was too long for the car hire
companies which
are supposed to dispose of their vehicles after they clock a
certain
distance in mileage.
"Five years is a long time
especially if we are trying to spruce up
our image," she
said.
But Max Mugari, head of advisory services in the legal
division with
Zimra allayed the fears of car rental firms saying the
Commissioner General
can authorise the disposal of a car within five years
if "in his opinion the
motor vehicle cannot be economically used for the
purposes for which it was
cleared under suspension".
Mugari
said the type of disposal was subject to the payment of duty
"deemed
appropriate by the Commissioner but such duty should not exceed the
amount
of duty suspended".
He said the new concessions were introduced
after a realisation that
the previous incentives did not address the hurdles
faced by the tourism
sector in relation to the procurement of motor vehicles
used by the sector.
Under Statutory 60 of 2009, Zimra may grant
rebate of duty on new
capital equipment; boat equipment and other goods
taken out of bond for the
tourism sector.
To qualify for
rebate, the capital equipment must be used for
expansion; modernisation; and
renovation of hotels and restaurants.
Beneficiaries of the facility should
be registered with ZTA.
The operator cannot dispose of the
rebated goods without getting a
written authority from the Commissioner
General. The operator has to pay
duty rebated in terms of the Statutory
Instrument.
The Commissioner General may remit duty rebated if
the equipment or
material was accidentally destroyed before being used in
the tourism
operator's business.
In such a case, the
Commissioner General must be satisfied that every
reasonable effort was made
and precaution taken to prevent destruction of
the equipment or materials,
Mugari said.
Mugari warned that operators who breached the new
fiscal incentives
will have their motor vehicles or equipment liable for
seizure and
forfeiture by the state.
Zimbabwe Council for
Tourism (ZCT) president, Emmanuel Fundira said
players in the sector should
take up the new incentives and start
re-equipping and refurbishing
facilities.
"Most of our products are looking tired and we
should seize the
opportunity and make a difference," he
said.
The exemption from duty on capital goods and equipment
came after
intense lobbying from the tourism industry which argued that some
goods
deemed luxury were basic for the industry.
Motor vehicles
are deemed luxury goods for any other industry but are
basic for a car hire
firm.
A television set is a requirement for all hotels but a
luxury to an
individual.
BY NDAMU SANDU
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 09 May 2009
16:01
LAST week the world appeared to be loosening its purse strings on
Zimbabwe's three-month old inclusive government raising optimism the glory
of the past could be attained but analysts cautioned that without any
inflows from multilateral institutions, economic recovery will still be a
long away off.
On Thursday the African Export and Import Bank
(Afreximbank) and PTA
bank announced lines of credit amounting to over
US$500 million for mining
and agro-industries as well as providing liquidity
to the financial sector.
The availing of lines of credit came as
the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) softened its stance on Zimbabwe by
lifting the suspension of its
technical assistance in targeted
areas.
IMF will provide technical assistance to the public
finance management
system, tax policy and administration, payments systems,
lender-of-last-resort operations and banking supervision and central banking
governance and accounting.
Analysts say the IMF will only
loosen its purse after getting a clear
understanding of how the public
finance system of government works such as
tender procedures and how the
central bank interfaces with monies coming
from outside.
"There is a bad record on the part of the central bank," said Daniel
Ndlela,
a prominent economist. Ndlela said for the IMF to start releasing
funds
there must be a supervised programme in place "and until that is in
place
IMF does not put money in a member state that is doubtful".
"They can put the money and insist on a supervised programme
afterwards," he
said.
Independent economist, John Robertson said while the
lines of credit
have been opened up by the regional banks, Zimbabwe's bad
track record with
the IMF still affected the flow of aid
money.
Zimbabwe has been in continuous arrears to the IMF since
February 2001
and is the only case of protracted arrears to the Poverty
Reduction and
Growth Facility-Exogenous Shock Facility Trust which currently
amounts to
US$133 million.
"If you borrow, you have to pay
back, Zimbabwe has a bad track
record," Robertson said.
Asked whether the availing of lines of credit by Afreximbank and PTA
Bank
was a signal that the good times were rolling back Robertson said: "It's
a
step forward. It's not a big step yet and hopefully it will get bigger and
bigger."
Zimbabwe requires urgently US$2 billion to fund
the revival plan,
Short Term Emergency Recovery Programme launched in March.
So far, the
country has got just under US$1 billion from PTA, Afreximbank
and SADC in
the three month period the inclusive government has been in
existence.
At a media briefing on Thursday, Finance Minister
Tendai Biti lauded
the PTA and Afreximbank saying their confidence in
Zimbabwe is not
misplaced.
"Zimbabwe has been in comatose
for the last 5-10 years and I hope you
(PTA) will walk with us as we try to
revive the economy," Biti told Dr
Michael Gondwe, president of the
PTA.
He said that some of Zimbabwe's friends were sulking and
"finding
bones to chew with us, that is understandable".
BY
NDAMU SANDU
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 09 May 2009 15:58
SO far it's
been a rewarding half a year for the national carrier, Air
Zimbabwe.
It's Group Chief Executive Officer, Dr Peter
Chikumba, has been
accorded an award as Tourism Manager of the Year in the
Public Sector for
outstanding contribution to tourism development in
2008.
The announcement was made at the Zimbabwe National Tourism
Awards, a
Zimbabwe Tourism Authority annual event, held in Bulawayo
recently.
The national airline, Air Zimbabwe was recognised as
well - winning
the First Runner-Up slot in the Best Airline Category at the
same awards.
Chikumba was recognised for his stewardship of the
airline during one
of the most turbulent times in aviation history - an era
characterised by
global the economic meltdown which has seen several
airlines grounding
operations and falling passenger
numbers.
The award took note of the role the national airline
plays in
promoting Zimbabwe as a tourist destination and the part it plays
in
national efforts to market Zimbabwe as a tourist
destination.
"Chikumba provides leadership for efficiency
demonstrated by the
manner in which he has kept Air Zimbabwe adhering to the
highest safety and
operational standards required in the
industry.
This is demonstrated by Air Zimbabwe Holdings achievement
of IOSA
Registration," read the citation.
The award follows
recognition by the Institute of Directors -
Zimbabwe, which. awarded
Chikumba a Certificate Of Merit for "Director of
the year 2008" under the
Parastatals, Non-Governmental Organisations and
Public Sector Enterprises
category.
The Institute of Directors is the country's most
recognized Leadership
Institute.
BY OUR STAFF
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 09
May 2009 18:25
For the last six months, I have been closely following
the matter of
Jestina Mukoko and other activists who spent months in prison
before being
released in early March 2009.
Others like Gandhi
Mudzingwa, Chris Dlamini and Anderson Manyere have
remained in custody since
December 2008 despite being granted bail by the
High Court.
All
detainees are alleged to have been tortured and subjected to
inhumane and
degrading treatment by their captors. All this is happening in
a country
that claims to be rehabilitated and in need of assistance to
kick-start a
comatose economy.
On Tuesday May 5, 2009, Zimbabweans and the
world at large were
shocked to read that Mukoko and 17 others had been
re-detained following
proceedings at the Magistrates' Court in
Harare.
The next day, however, 15 of the 18 detainees were
released, the
Attorney-General having finally consented to their bail
applications.
Many people have asked, in the aftermath of this
episode, what really
is going on? Some have criticised the magistrate for
her ruling to send the
detainees to prison. Many others are plainly confused
and disappointed at
the turn of events.
Now, I am not a
criminal lawyer but I like to think I can still read
criminal legislation in
the context of our political situation. I am
interested to discover if this
really has anything to do with the law.
This, here, is my attempt
to shed light on what happened; why it may
well have been within the law but
is nevertheless ridiculous, given the
national interest at stake in the
overall scheme of things.
I will attempt as much as possible to
put the language in layperson's
terms, although this is at the risk of
oversimplifying it, something that
might disappoint my colleagues in the
law.
I understand that the basis upon which Magistrate
Catherine Chimhanda
made her decision to re-detain Mukoko and others is
Section 66 of the
Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act [Cap
8:07].
This section provides for the procedure for bringing an
accused person
to trial before the High Court.
This simplified
procedure, commonly known as the "direct indict"
procedure is a departure
from an older procedure which required a
"preparatory examination" in the
magistrates' Court before indicting the
accused person in the High Court for
trial. The types of offences that are
tried by the High Court are called
"indictable offences".
The reason for the preparatory
examination was to scrutinise the
evidence to determine whether the accused
should be in the High Court. The
trouble with this procedure was that it was
time-consuming and costly both
for the state and the accused.
I
understand the law was changed in 1962 to allow for the "direct
indict"
procedure as an alternative in straight-forward case, so that a
preparatory
examination was not necessary.
Over time, this simpler procedure
became the norm and in 2006, a new
amendment produced the present Section
66, which is now under consideration
as the basis upon which Mukoko and
others were sent to prison for the night
of May 5 2009.
Subsection 1 of this provision states that: "If the Attorney-General
is of
the opinion that any person is under reasonable suspicion of having
committed an offence for which the person may be tried in the High Court,
the Attorney-General shall cause written notice to be served
on-
(a) a magistrate for the province within which the person
concerned
resides or for the time being is present; or
(b)
any magistrate before whom the trial of the offence could be held
in respect
of the offence concerned;
informing the magistrate of his or
her decision to indict the person
concerned for trial before the High Court
and of the offence for which the
person is to be tried".
I
have underlined the key words for emphasis. Essentially, therefore,
all the
Attorney-General needs to do is to issue a written notice to the
magistrate
merely informing her that he has made the decision to indict,
i.e. to
formally accuse a person for trial at the High Court. The AG must of
course
state the offence.
It is worth noting here that the AG is not
asking the magistrate for
permission to do so. He is not placing evidence
before the magistrate - he
is merely "informing" her of his decision and of
the offence. What then does
the magistrate do? This requires us to look at
the next provision.
Subsection 2 then states:
"On receipt of a notice in terms of subsection (1), the magistrate
shall
cause the person concerned to be brought before him or her and,
notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, shall forthwith commit the
person for trial before the High Court and grant a warrant to commit him or
her to prison, there to be detained till brought to trial before the High
Court for the offence specified in the warrant or till admitted to bail or
liberated in the course of law."
This means that once the
magistrate has received the notice from the
AG, she is required to call the
accused person to be brought before her
court, as happened to Mukoko and
others when they came to court on May 5.
It is important to note
that the provision uses peremptory language,
i.e. the magistrate "shall
forthwith" commit the accused person for trial
before the High Court and
also grant a warrant to commit the accused person
to prison, where the
accused person shall be "detained" until brought to
trial or until "admitted
to bail or liberated in the course of law".
This strong
language shows that, once the notice has been issued by
the AG, the matter
is by and large beyond the magistrate's control until
such time that the
accused applies for bail. All that it took was for the AG
to issue the
notice to the magistrate, as he did on May 4, 2009.
Effectively it
is the word of the AG, through that notice to cause the
accused persons to
be sent to prison as the magistrate does not seem to have
any discretion on
this - under the provision, she has to grant a warrant for
the accused
committal to prison.
Under the provisions quoted above, the
magistrate has little, if any,
power to question the nature and quality of
evidence that the AG uses to
indict the accused person.
That
explains why Mukoko's lawyers did not challenge the legality of
what she has
done but instead sought to ask for evidence of the political
decisions
behind the March bail to be heard.
The irony here is that it is the
political decisions that probably
caused the AG to issue the notice that has
led to the re-detention of the
activists. The magistrate's position would
not have changed for the simple
reason that she does not have the power,
unless she was considering a bail
application.
For the
avoidance of doubt, it is important to note that the AG could
have done what
he did even on the day that Mukoko and others were released
in early March.
He could have done it a day later, two days later, indeed
any day after
their release.
What then has changed? Has the State suddenly got
enough evidence to
give them reasonable suspicion that the accused committed
the alleged
offences? Perhaps. But there could be another motive, which has
little to do
with the law.
That the AG chose to do so on
May 4, 2009 has to be considered within
the context of the on-going
political negotiations, which have probably hit
a sticky
patch.
We must also consider another relevant aspect. This is
not the first
time that the AG has issued a notice of this nature - indeed,
as I have said
it is the norm in most cases.
However, my
understanding is that as a matter of practice the norm is
for arrangements
for bail to be made where necessary so that in this case,
when the AG issued
the notice, he could have stated that he would not oppose
bail.
The lawyers for Mukoko and others could therefore have applied for
bail,
which if she had the power, the magistrate could have dealt with. That
means
Mukoko and others would have been spared the ordeal of jail. So why
was
consent delayed until a day later?
Did it suddenly dawn on the AG
that it made no sense to lock away
accused persons who were on bail, which
bail they had not breached? Or was
there a bigger, invisible hand that
caused him to see reason?
There might be an argument that there
is something wrong with the law
which allows the AG to do as he did in this
case because it is prone to
abuse.
That may well be true. The
justice system is predicated on the basis
that the officers of the law, the
AG included, will uphold the Constitution
and behave in a civilised
manner.
It is expected that the AG will be fair, reasonable and use
the powers
given to him in lawful manner, i.e. that there will be no abuse
of powers.
That is why there have been no similar problems as this
in the past.
But this system is too dependent on the character of the office
holder.
Someone could be vindictive and unreasonable and refuse to consent
to bail,
thereby consigning the accused to prison for a lengthy period of
time. The
presumptions are misplaced in today's Zimbabwe.
There was no reason for Mukoko and others to be sent to prison even
for a
day.
The AG could have issued the indictment notice and indicated
that he
would not oppose bail. That would have been a reasonable and
sensible use of
the powers.
The accused have not breached their
bail conditions (at least there is
no allegation that they have). Given the
seriousness of the charges they are
facing, one might have thought they
would do a runner, especially having
been unlawfully captured and subjected
to inhumane and degrading treatment
during that initial detention. They did
no such thing.
Cynics will be forgiven for holding on to the
view that the cases were
always politically-motivated. They have been
resurrected in part due to the
challenges of the current negotiations on
"outstanding matters" from the
Global Political Agreement (GPA). As always
the law is no more than a veil
to earn legitimacy.
Soon, the
justifications of the rule of law will be heard from those
pulling the
strings. The only problem with the law as presently stated is
that it is
prone to abuse but a reasonable AG can still conduct him/herself
without
causing undue hardship to accused persons.
The Magistrate did
nothing wrong - she had little power to order their
release in the absence
of a bail application and the consent of the AG. If
the AG had opposed bail
and she agreed with his reasoning then there would
be cause to be more
critical of her. In the end the matter was resolved
because the root of the
problem, at the AG's office solved it by consenting
to bail. Why did it not
happen on the first day? The problem is simple.
It is that
those charged with power saw it fit to tighten the
vice-grip on the cojones
of Messers Morgan Tsvangirai, Arthur Mutambara, et
al. These poor souls
detained were the pawns. It's crazy. It's ridiculous. I
had wanted to
believe very strongly that there is something beautiful that
can be salvaged
from this political hybrid of a government.
But with each passing
day, even my own optimism, which, I must admit
can seem overly naively
eternal, has taken a huge knock. Why do we always
shoot ourselves in the
foot? Are we surely incapable of doing the right
thing? And above all, how
do they, those who do these things, how do they
sleep at night, if at
all?
Alex Magaisa is based at, Kent Law School, the
University of Kent and
can be contacted at wamagaisa@yahoo.co.uk or a.t.magaisa@kent.ac.uk
BY
DR ALEX MAGAISA
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 09 May 2009 18:21
SO much has been said this year about "celebrating" World Press
Freedom Day
that it's difficult to talk to you about something usefully
original without
appearing to borrow from other commentators' wise
statements promising or
demanding media reform, or recalling the horrors of
Zimbabwe's present media
wasteland.
And wasteland it certainly is. . .
One look
at the voices on exhibition that once informed Zimbabwean
society will give
you some idea of the losses we have suffered over these
last 10 years as
government sought to suffocate Zimbabweans' rights to
freedom of expression
- and particularly our rights to be informed.
May I first say
how honoured and grateful I am for MMPZ to have been
able to contribute to
this valuable exhibition that reminds us so
graphically about the voices we
have lost. Our sincere thanks goes to the
American Embassy and their staff
for giving MMPZ the opportunity to provide
some physical evidence of our
monitoring - besides the Weekly Media Update!
They have given
us a splendid exhibition that should serve to renew
our energies in our
efforts to roll back the years of darkness and
ignorance - and restore even
some of the freedom we once had - at least in
the Press - to express
ourselves without fear of persecution and punishment
at the hands of
patently anti-democratic and repressive legislation.
What we
see here flourished before the introduction of the notorious
Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act. I don't need to spell
out here
the effect that this law - and others - have had in silencing our
voices in
the intervening years; it is all too obvious. . . Indeed it is
painful to
watch the welcome and extraordinary development of all sectors of
the media
in our neighbouring countries while we languish in our Stalinist
state of
ignorance.
We know exactly what needs to be done to restore our
capacity to
communicate with each other as a nation - and it has been said
so many times
over the past few days, I don't really need to repeat them
here.
But what I want to say is that we should not make the
mistake of
lamenting the death of The Daily News as if it had a personality
of its
own - which of course, it had. . .
It is the loss of
what that paper represented that we should really be
shedding tears for. The
Daily News was an icon of its time, representing
alternative opinion and
attempting to hold the authorities to account. This
is what we so badly
miss.
Of course, there are a few independent weeklies that do a
sterling job
in attempting to provide this service. (And I should not forget
the
contributions of the private radio stations and the online agencies that
do
such a good job for the privileged few who can access their news.) But
the
big difference is that the weekly papers can only provide their services
on
a weekly basis and generally reach a very limited audience.
The Daily News provided a vital mass-circulating alternative source of
credible information on a daily basis that gave it unquestionable clout when
it came to reporting the truth about events in Zimbabwe and countering the
propaganda of the dominant state-managed media. Of course, the daily got the
story wrong on occasion and we might not have agreed with some of its
opinions on important national issues.
But that is to be
expected from any news organisation.
In fact, that is the whole
point about freedom of speech; that we are
all entitled to express ourselves
freely in a market place of ideas - and
have the freedom to choose what we
read, watch and listen to.
The public themselves will decide which
ideas will prevail and which
news services are the most
credible.
Indeed, this is what should define a civilized society -
and certainly
one that aspires to democratic ideals.
That
is what The Daily News represented - and it is what the
authorities most
feared. It quickly gained a reputation for credibility and
for providing the
public with a valuable source of reliable news and
fair-minded
opinion.
That it was famous for exposing the excesses of government
and for
giving a legitimate alternative political opinion space on its pages
can
never be a reason for silencing it. But The Herald was happy when it
was.
Banning The Daily News not only restored its monopoly of the
daily
print market, it also imposed the government paper's monopoly of its
version
of reality upon the public. And together with ZBC's monopoly of the
airwaves
the nation was trapped in a terrible information
tyranny.
So we shouldn't just be demanding a return of The
Daily News alone; we
should be demanding an environment that will allow the
emergence of 10 Daily
Newses, 20 weeklies, indeed, as many publications as
there are people
wishing to commit their ideas to print.
The
same goes for the airwaves, though because they are a limited a
resource, a
system of fair and equitable allocation needs to be established
to achieve
this. Certainly, a government with its own transient political
interests
should not be allowed to control such a process.
This, no doubt
will be just one of the sticking points Zimbabwe's
media community will
encounter at the government's all-media stakeholders'
conference due to be
held in Kariba this week. And for sure, the idea of a
free market place of
ideas sprouting unfettered in the print media too, will
fill some members of
the government - and maybe more than we imagine - with
the utmost
horror!
The arguments will be that the country needs
"responsible" journalism
that "promotes national values" in these days of
so-called political
reconciliation and national healing.
But this surely, will be the "thin end of the wedge" because it will
again
seek to control who exactly practices journalism and operates a media
business. Will only those deemed to be "responsible" and promoting "national
values" be allowed to operate newspapers and radio stations? Such a
compromise will almost certainly be the outcome of the media conference if
we, the people, allow such thinking to contaminate the basic internationally
accepted ideal of freedom of expression.
We will be dragged
into discussing the "red herring" of ensuring that
there are laws to control
"irresponsible" journalistic practice and media
activity that offends
"national values".
But exactly what is "responsible" journalism
and even "national
values"?
Yesterday, I came across a
letter in The Sunday Mail from the Public
relations manager of ZBC
responding to an earlier letter about "the absence
of television
transmission" in Masvingo. His argument was basically that
Transmedia was
the responsible authority.
But in the process he took the trouble
to remind the paper's readers
about ZBC's mission statement, which he said,
was: "To provide world class
programmes and services that reflect, develop
and foster national
aspirations and Pan-African values."
I
have no trouble with the first bit of the mission statement about
world-class services. But what exactly are "national aspirations" and
"Pan-African values"?
These are so open to interpretation
that it makes nonsense of the
mandate that should underpin the services of a
national public broadcaster.
Are Pan-African values any different
from its mandate to provide fair
and accurate news and current affairs
coverage that give equitable airtime
to all shades of opinion in the
country? And do our national aspirations
differ from this idea of the role
of a national public broadcaster? In fact,
what happened to this mandate
that did once apply to ZBC's services?
And why has the
internationally accepted professional standards of our
national public
broadcaster been subsumed by the more narrow definitions
appearing in ZBC's
mission statement?
The same is likely to happen more generally
to the idea of adhering to
internationally accepted standards of
professional journalistic practice in
the name of "responsible" journalism
in the promotion of "national
interests".
Will these
so-called standards mean that a "responsible" journalist
will refrain from
investigating or exposing government excess and corruption
because it will
cast the government in a bad light and will therefore be
working against
"national interests"?
If there is one thing Zimbabweans must
guard against at this time when
we have half a chance to make a difference,
it is that we must NOT
compromise our principles relating to our fundamental
human rights.
Freedom of expression is one of them and if we allow
narrow interests
to prevail and impose conditions on those rights, then we
can guarantee that
we will not see the emergence of any free and diverse
media community in
Zimbabwe because politicians will deem such an unfettered
development to
have the potential of undermining Zimbabwe's national
interest - and
therefore its sovereignty.
This is the
argument that has always protected the emergence of
tyranny and it is in
every Zimbabwean citizen's interest - and not just the
media community - to
ensure that such specious arguments are NOT allowed to
curtail our freedom
of expression and our right to be informed.
Only by insisting
on exercising our rights to free expression can we
restore Zimbabwe's lost
voices - and know that we are acting faithfully in
the national
interest.
BY ANDREW MOYSE
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 09 May 2009
18:19
THIS year's agricultural marketing season has started but there
is
evidence of problems encountered last year resurfacing this
season.
Along the roads there is evidence of broken-down trucks
carrying
tobacco destined for the auction floors.
Delivering
tobacco needn't be an ordeal for the farmers. Farmers
should be spending
most of their time preparing for the winter wheat crop or
ordering their
inputs ahead of the 2009/2010 agricultural season.
The government
is interested in tobacco because of the foreign
currency it generates, but
it does little to ensure the hard-working farmers
are not swindled by
middlemen and unscrupulous transporters.
Last season tobacco
growers fought off transporters who literally
stole and diverted bales to
different auction floors to the extent the
farmers did not understand why
they had ventured into tobacco. At the floors
they encountered another
hurdle: under-recording of the number and weights
of their
bales.
Their payment cheques came in dribs and drabs. And
sharks were on hand
ready to exploit them - from the women selling food to
commercial sex
workers and fraudsters.
The government does not
seem genuinely interested in sorting out these
recurring problems. Because
it is common knowledge that farmers at the
auction floors receive payments,
conmen and robbers are now attracted to
these places.
White
commercial farmers never used to spend days at the auction
floors waiting
for their crop to be sold.
Why should this be a problem when
lessons from the past should be
guiding current efforts and building on
successes of past experiences?
The leadership of the farmers'
organisations needs to engage the
government to arrange transport for the
crop to be lifted from the farms and
delivered to the market without the
need for the farmers travelling to the
auction floors.
An
arrangement of this nature, probably jointly supervised by the
Central
Mechanical and Equipment Department and the District Development
Fund, would
remove the transport headaches, ensure the crop is delivered on
time and
deal a blow to the middlemen who reap where they do not sow.
More
importantly, the farmers would not be putting their lives at
risk,
especially given increasing reports of robberies because thieves and
other
unsavoury characters know farmers at the auction floors will be
carrying a
lot of cash.
It is all well and good to suggest that farmers
have the bulk of their
payments paid into their Foreign Currency Accounts
(FCAs), but after the
Reserve Bank raided depositors' accounts and in some
cases delayed or never
paid back the amounts taken, it is hard to convince,
let alone recommend,
that people show faith in the banking sector where
today depositors are
faced with extortionate bank
"charges".
Cotton growers do not endure the level of abuse
suffered by tobacco
growers because of the contract system. Why is it so
difficult to borrow a
leaf from the cotton sector's success and model the
marketing of the tobacco
crop along similar lines?
The country
is trying to ensure that more maize is delivered to the
market so that
Zimbabwe reduces the level of grain imports this year. But
already, as we
report elsewhere in this issue, farmers who delivered maize
to the Grain
Marketing Board last year are still to be paid.
Clearly there is no
incentive to send one's grain to the parastatal.
This abuse of farmers
should stop. If the so-called leaders of the farmers
tolerate such
contemptuous treatment of their members then they do not
deserve positions
of leadership.
The farmers deserve help, not the obstacles
being thrown in their way.
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Politicians have lost Legitimacy
Saturday, 09 May 2009
17:33
I have been watching and following with keen interest as the
Government of National Unity (GNU) or as I prefer to call it, the
transitional authority tackles the various issues that have beset our
country from various fronts.
But the priorities of the GNU are
so many: to revive the health sector
to acceptable levels, breath life into
a comatose economy, revive the
general infrastructure countrywide to at
least workable levels and revive
the public trust in government
institutions.
The GNU also has to put affordable food on the table
of the ordinary
person, revive the culture of an honest day's work for a
just reward,
discourage quick money-spinning deals and take the frowns off
the faces of
an anxious, cowed nation whose people are always wary of what's
lurking
behind them.
I have watched the local television
station and read various local
newspapers as they try to grapple with how
best to characterise this
crossbreed government.
However,
it seems all is not well in another crucial sphere of the
equation: building
national trust among civilians and starting the process
of healing our past
and some of the not too distant festering wounds.
While there
have been attempts to articulate what needs to be done by
politicians, the
impression I get is that more should be done in respect of
cultivating a
culture of tolerance and most importantly facilitating a
healing process
that goes to the grassroots.
It has to be more than just paying
lip-service or playing to the
gallery as others are very much tempted to
do.
Of equal importance is for this process to be underpinned
by the
truth. No attempts should be made to gloss over the madness that
swept over
the country prior to the farce one-man presidential election
run-off race of
June 27, 2008 for political expediency.
The
consequences would be catastrophic especially to that half of the
inclusive
government called the MDC because the nation still has hope that
these guys
still have a conscience.
Barely four months ago, some of these
politicians in the then ruling
party were responsible for sponsoring and -
or carrying out heinous
atrocities on their political opponents and were at
the forefront of the
so-called quiet war, with the current results now
showing that most of the
civilian population now tends to mistrust all
political overtures
irrespective of the intended benefits.
The fact that most members within Zanu PF had unlimited access to
public
media and thus had their voices carried far and wide has now turned
the tide
against whatever message of peace they may now try to offer given
the
current charged political scenario.
Put simply, there are
politicians and their surrogates who have lost
the moral legitimacy to
preach peace, unity, forgiveness and at the same
time be taken
seriously.
As we tread this delicate path towards national healing
some voices
must remain very silent.
Even those churches
that were once champions of neutrality and had
previously long preached
political abstinence have now aligned themselves to
one political party or
other because they sided with the underdog, whether
it was a Zanu PF victim
or MDC victim, hence they are now viewed with
suspicion if they try to
preach the gospel of unity by the very same people
who they tried to
save.
Given this scenario, and the fact that a lot of distance
still has to
be covered, I have noted that we are barely making any progress
to make our
nation more tolerant towards differing or divergent views, that
some of
those in authority or high office still have misguided opinions
insofar as
their priorities are concerned.
First and
foremost along this long and arduous road towards positive
change, is the
need to remove most of those people who were fairly infamous
(prominent) or
outspoken on issues that involved public trust; those who
went contrary to
public opinions and tried so much to sway the views of the
majority towards
a certain disposition and are still holding their
influential positions,
much to the chagrin of those who felt insulted by the
blatant disregard for
the truth and honest reporting.
While the next elections have
been tentatively scheduled for eighteen
months or so from now, it is my firm
belief that our nation will not be
fully prepared to carry out free and fair
elections within that period
because our population is not yet psyched up to
look forward to free and
fair elections, nor are they ready to accept the
outcome should the results
be announced. There are no visible signs on the
ground as yet that point to
any meaningful change in either the
way.
Zimbabweans have seen many elected officials getting more
powerful
than the people who elected them into office; powerful enough to be
snobbish
and at times arrogant, yet come election time those same political
figures
will be trotting from one venue to the next canvassing for those
suddenly
important votes.
Kudakwashe Matibiri
Harare.
------------
Nation Should not be Held to
Ransom
Saturday, 09 May 2009 17:30
AS the impasse in
implementing the remaining commitments to the Global
Political Agreement
signed by Zanu PF president, Robert Mugabe, MDC-T
president Morgan
Tsvangirai and MDC's Professor Arthur Mutambara rages on,
the Zimbabwean
populace is growing impatient and now want issues finalised
so that they may
realise the fruits of the agreement.
The impasse is being caused by
Mugabe who is unwilling to have the
deal implemented as it is. It is high
time the angry public called a spade a
spade and tell Mugabe not to hold the
nation to ransom.
Mugabe is reportedly unwilling to nullify the
unilateral appointments
of Gideon Gono, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe and Johannes
Tomana, the Attorney-General, who he appointed against
the GPA.
Some time ago, Mugabe was quoted as saying that government
did not
have the money to pay Gono's exit package.
That's
nonsense! Gono is not entitled to any exit package from the
inclusive
government because he knows very well that when Mugabe
re-appointed him it
was a unilateral decision against the Global Political
Agreement. The same
goes for Tomana.
If the two men are to be given any exit
package, it must be from the
Zanu PF coffers or Mugabe's pocket. The
principals should stick to the
Global Political Agreement and reverse the
appointments.
They should advertise for the posts. If Gono and
Tomana think they are
competent enough, they should be allowed to
apply.
Benjamin Chitate
New
Zealand.
-----------
Workers Leaving Because they are
Underpaid
Saturday, 09 May 2009 17:27
IT'S all very well
for Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to say that
even the President is
receiving a US$100 salary. The issue is whether the
President deserves that
much, considering the fact that he has brought the
country to its
knees.
How many times did he declare that the country had not
collapsed and
yet the evidence was right there for every one to see? We now
learn that the
country is dead broke but Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono
raised over
US$5bn for the government last year.
That's a lot of
money. Where did it go? To forestall the questions,
Media, Information and
Publicity Minister, Webster Shamu says the media
should not cover Cabinet
debates, precisely because people would know that
government had so much
money fleeced from them by Gono while they starved
and died from lack of
medication.
The reason why professionals are leaving the country in
droves is
because they have been undervalued, and grossly so. A domestic
worker in
South Africa earns more than a doctor, a teacher or an engineer
back in
Zimbabwe. President Robert Mugabe must be smiling: he has taught
Tsvangirai
some socialist principles - the sweeper and the boss earn the
same amount.
This, however, gives us no comfort because he has
failed to deliver on
his key result areas - raising the standard of living
of the people of
Zimbabwe and ensuring that everyone is secure.
We don't know whether we have more Zimbabweans outside than we have in
the
country. That can hardly be an achievement.
Mari yaObama
Haichakwani
Harare.
---------------
Zimra Punishing
us for Importing Japanese cars
Saturday, 09 May 2009 16:32
I am hoping to get an official stance from the Zimbabwe Revenue
Authoty
(ZIMRA), Ministry or Finance or whoever is responsible for this kind
of
thing. I have a car at Beitbridge border post, which came in all the way
from Japan a month ago.
The unit price was US$3 000, to ship it
from Japan to Durban I had to
part with US$1 500. To transport it from
Durban and clear it from the Durban
port, I had to pay an additional USD$1
000.
Now comes to clearing it so that I can use it in my country,
there is
a problem.
How much duty am I supposed to pay?
What is the percentage? Some are
telling me amounts as high as US$4 000,
more than the cost price, others,
even more. One minute it is 65% and the
other minute it is 100%.
Can I please know the percentage of
duty that cars should be levied
and can I get clarification on what gets
taxed. Is it the unit price or the
whole amount I have paid including port
charges for SA and Japan.
As far as I am concerned my tax
should be for the amount I spent on
the car not the amounts I paid for
transport because these were my own costs
paid to move my car from A to
B.
For me, that doesn't make sense, because if I buy a TV, I
pay duty on
the money spent buying the TV and not the transport I have used
to get the
TV from SA, Dubai or wherever to Zimbabwe. I just want an
official position
so I pay what I should pay.
It really is
not fair to punish people for wanting to develop
themselves, which is what
these taxes now look like. I am losing enough of
my income as it is to PAYE
and everything else (Zesa, TelOne, NetOne, etc.
And car prices
are going down everywhere, is that not so? Even Zimra
figures need to take
this into account.
I have written in before asking the Minister
of Finance to state the
position on this matter to no avail. Should we get
ripped off in silence? I
believe, as people, we have rights to be protected
by our leaders.
I await the Zimra official response or even the
Ministry of Finance's.
Tell me what the percentage for duty on
imported cars is and how you
charge it before my car gets vandalised at
Beitbridge.
And I will have you know that the reason there are
so many cars at the
border post is not because people don't care about
assets they have spent
money on. They never bargained on being squeezed so
much just to get
something as necessary as a vehicle into their own
country.
Ngondo, Eastlea,
Harare.
Zimra
Responds:
We would like to thank The Standard for affording us
an opportunity to
respond to the writer's queries before publishing the
letter and the writer
(who is our valued client) for highlighting the issues
to do with the
clearance of imported goods. Our response is as
follows:
The rates of duty vary depending on the vehicle type,
seating capacity
and other features as contained in the Customs tariff
descriptions.
The rates of Customs Duty, Surtax and Value Added
Tax (VAT) are a
percentage of the determined Customs Value, also known as
the Value for Duty
Purposes (VDP). The computation of the Customs Value sums
up the price of
the car and all shipping, insurance and handling charges
from the country of
export to the port of entry in Zimbabwe.
Expenses paid from a port of entry such as Beitbridge to the inland
destination are excluded from the Customs Value.
The
details furnished by our valued client in her letter are not
sufficient
enough for us to advise her of the rates of duty applicable. We
kindly
advise her to liaise with the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra)
station
through which the vehicle is being imported for confirmation of the
amount
due on the particular vehicle imported.
All the rates of duty
are contained in gazetted statutory instruments
that are available to the
public and can be purchased from Print-Flow (Pvt)
Limited. We also urge all
our valued clients to approach our offices to get
clarification on any
relevant revenue issues.
S P Musithu
Acting Commissioner:
Legal and Corporate Services
Zimbabwe Revenue
Authority.
--------------
SMS The Standard
Saturday, 09 May 2009 17:41
Preparing for referendum
WHEN
the MDC and its leader, now Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai were
campaigning they made considerable noise about a people-driven
constitutional process. Can they tell us why they are switching to a
Parliament-led constitution-making process, which is the source of our
current problems? If the MDC believes that it will waste time by involving
the people then it will waste even more time as we will simply vote "No" on
referendum day. I can't believe they are already doing this to us. -
Homeboy.
***********
A new constitution which is
drawn up under current conditions will be
a Zanu PF construct. Events
demonstrate that Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai has no executive
authority, although he sometimes dreams about
it. The reality is that the
proof is different. It boggles the mind why the
MDC wishes to hang in there.
Is it for the luxuries, the cars and hotel
life? - Oracle,
Harare.
Talk is cheap
WHAT'S the government doing
about finding solutions to Zimbabwe's
quest for clean water supplies? We
have been subjected to grand plans such
as the Zambezi-Matabeleland water
pipeline project and the Kunzvi Dam.
However, up to now they remain plans.
The fact is talk is cheap. We are sick
of empty promises and mediocrity
being rewarded for non-delivery and
failure. Zimbabwe urgently needs clean
water not promises or excuses. If a
company like Lonrho, which was once
small could build an oil pipeline why
should a whole government fail,
especially when Zimbabwe possesses most of
the raw materials. -
Outrage.
Makings of an epidemic
PARTS of Rimuka in
Kadoma have not had water for three years. I phoned
the mayor and the
minister then in charge of Water Resources and
Infrastructural Development
last year. Nothing, absolutely nothing was done.
Streets from Chapendeka to
Masaza have been neglected for far too long. -
Enough!
Porous argument
THE idea that Zimbabwe's agricultural output is
affected by drought is
a porous one. Israel, which is a desert, is a major
horticultural producer.
Most of the farms that were invaded had irrigation
equipment. The solution
is to offer the "new farmers" training in commercial
farm management and
methods. Unfortunately, we do not have the resources or
time to train the
new farmers. The government should offer conducive
conditions for sectors
that possess skills and expertise in order for the
country to flourish and
the economy to recover. - Observer.
Right plan
THE government's plan to privatise NetOne is a step in
the right
direction. It is also best that government prioritises the
disposal of other
state firms because for years these firms have been a
drain on the fiscus
due to mismanagement. With these firms in private hands,
they will be forced
to operate efficiently as they have no recourse to
public resources.
Privatising these firms will show the world that Zimbabwe
is committed to
reviving its own economy without depending on handouts from
other countries.
The amounts generated by the sale of these public
enterprises should go
towards public works projects. That will stimulate
industry, which will in
turn stimulate the economy. - For
privatisation.
Revisit tariffs
COULD Econet and
other providers such as ZBC Licence Inspectorate,
Zesa and TelOne, NetOne
revisit their tariffs, especially as the school fees
have been reduced. The
Minister of Energy and Power Development ordered Zesa
to charge consumer
US$10 a month but the power utility is still sending out
shocking bills.
Shocking because for up to 60% of the time the consumers are
without power.
The minister can send his officers to talk to consumers in
queues at any
Zesa offices to find out how much they are being asked to pay.
In the case
of ZBC it is just madness. Regional licence fees do not compare.
It's
daylight robbery. Most subscribers and consumers will agree that the
current
tariffs are suffocating us and have become the biggest expenditure
items for
both individuals and companies. - See light.
***********
THE rates and taxes set by the Government of National Unity are so
unrealistic. How can people earning less than US$120 be expected to pay
bills amounting to US$700? -Guess work.
***********
HOW can the government come to our rescue? Those of us at the ZRP
Support
Unit have suffered from the $1 payments we are made to fork out
every month
but not knowing what it is intended for. - Officer, Harare.
About
time
COTTCO, the sponsors of the annual schools' rugby festival
need to
think of potential rugby players in the rural areas instead of
splashing
money on elite urban children only. - Kezo,
Harare.
Senseless
TO suggest that President Robert
Mugabe is being held to ransom by the
service chiefs is the same as saying
that a ventriloquist is a slave of his
puppet collection. - I Rony,
Harare.
***********
ZIMBABWEANS agree totally with the
need for a transparent land reform.
What we are against is jambanja land
grab at harvest time. We need a real
and final audit to establish how many
farms have been taken over in this
manner since 1980, looted and only to be
left derelict. - Gurundoro,
Sanyati.
**********
THERE
was nothing newsworthy about Grace Mugabe giving out food
hampers in Gokwe
to the extent we had to endure three days of the same story
being rerun.
Remember someone calling supporters of a certain party cats and
dogs? But
what is this in aid of? So she could take over the leadership of
Zanu PF's
women's league in the mould of the late Amai Sally Mugabe? She is
a walking
public relations disaster. - Gwelutshena, Gokwe.
EVERY News Hour
ZBC-TV invited viewers to write and send in their
views. Since I have never
seen these comments being read out does it mean no
one writes, which must be
damning for the public broadcaster, or are the
comments meant to help the
intelligence measure the level of public
discontent with the state of
affairs? - Ndiudzei.
IDEAS THAT WORK
FOR holding
the fort while they were away either in forced or
voluntary exile, I thinks
Zimbabweans in the Diaspora should contribute
something towards the
rebuilding the country. The starting point would be to
set up a fund to be
called "Revive Zimbabwe under which the funds would be
deposited through the
Ministry of Finance, with the modalities being worked
out by the relevant
authorities to ensure transparency and accountability.
The fund could be
kick-started with as little as US$10 in the form of loans
or unit trusts.
The fund would demonstrate to the international community
how serious we are
about our country and could motivate them into helping
us. Zimbabwe would be
a miracle story. After the failure of Homelink, Zanu
PF would be ashamed. -
Real ideas, Harare.