http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 29 May 2011 12:12
BY OWN
STAFF
Zanu PF is in a rut following statements by top army commander,
Brigadier
General Douglas Nyikayaramba that President Mugabe should stay in
power for
life, with senior party officials distancing themselves from the
utterances.
The army is in the eye of a storm over perceived
unprofessionalism, sparking
calls for security sector reform and such
utterances by Nyikayaramba may see
Zanu PF and the military emerging with
eggs on their collective faces.
President Robert Mugabe has been at
the forefront of defending the army,
claiming it was professional and would
not brook any calls for reform, but
Nyikayaramba might have given proponents
for the reorganisation of the army
the right ammunition.
Critics
have claimed that the army had too much of a say in governance and
the most
revealing statements by Nyikayaramba were that an election should
be held
this year, which Mugabe would win.
Giving odd justifications for the
holding of an election this year,
Nyikayaramba said the army was not
receiving enough medicines, rations and
there were now threats of a
mutiny.
He also did not reveal why he claimed Zanu PF would win the
elections, but
maintained that Mugabe, whom he described as a father figure,
would win the
polls.
On Friday senior Zanu PF officials declined
to comment on the matter, while
the army spokesperson asked for questions in
writing.
“Ask the person who spoke, not me,” Defence minister Emmerson
Mnangagwa said
before hanging up.
“I am not interested in that
issue,” Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba
said. “It’s that issue and the
prime minister’s issue I am not interested
in.”
Charamba was probably
referring to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s
utterances last week,
challenging Mugabe to come clean on allegations of
violence.
Zanu
PF chairman, Simon Khaya-Moyo also declined comment claiming that he
had not
seen or heard of Nyikayaramba’s comments.
The army has been accused of
dabbling in politics and being the bedrock of
Mugabe’s stay in
power.
Questions of the army’s involvement in governance reached a
zenith in 2002,
when the defence forces claimed they would not salute anyone
without the
armed struggle background.
Observers described this
as calculated to thwart Tsvangirai, who many
claimed was a favourite to win
the elections.
In 2008 the defence forces were at it again,
reiterating that they would not
back anyone who did not share their
ideals.
Tsvangirai’s MDC-T party yesterday issued a statement,
claiming Nyikayaramba’s
statements were a “clear admission by the junta that
it has unlawfully and
unconstitutionally taken over the running of affairs
of Zimbabwe”.
The party said without any security sector reforms, any
election would be a
farce and a declaration of war on the citizens of
Zimbabwe.
Nyikayaramba’s utterances likely to further SADC
interest in Zim
The party insiders said Zanu PF was stung by the
utterances and was working
on a way to airbrush Nyikayaramba’s
statements.
“There is nothing new about what he said,” an insider
said. “But the timing
could not be any worse.”
The Southern
African Development Community (Sadc) mediation team has
suggested that
military reform should be priority, a suggestion shot down by
Zanu
PF.
With a meeting to discuss the challenges facing Zimbabwe due in
South Africa
in a fortnight, security sector reform is likely to feature
prominently.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 29 May 2011 12:15
BY
CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
SOME senior MDC-T officials are unknowingly “spying”
for Zanu PF as they try
to penetrate the top brass of the country’s
closely-knit security sector,
sources said last week.
The sources
said over the past few years, some senior MDC-T officials have
been
privately meeting key army and intelligence officers in their bid to
court
them for support in the event the party wins the next
elections.
But the officers, the sources said, have been
relaying all the discussions
and tactics to their bosses, making it easy for
President Robert Mugabe to
thwart any strategic political manoeuvres by
Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai’s party.
Some of the country’s
service chiefs have vowed that they would not salute
Tsvangirai even if he
won an election because he did not have liberation war
credentials.
Sources said some of the officers even met with
Tsvangirai at his Harare’s
Strathaven home sometime last year, but The
Standard could not establish the
subject of their
deliberations.
The meeting was facilitated by officers in
Tsvangirai’s office, one with
known links to the dreaded Central
Intelligence Organisation (CIO).
Sources said some of the officers
were at one time accused of being
sympathetic to Tsvangirai by their bosses
and are now determined to show
their unwavering allegiance to the
87-year-old leader by unearthing as much
secret information concerning the
former opposition party as possible.
Tsvangirai’s spokesperson Luke
Tamborinyoka could not be reached for
comment.
However, party
spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora on Friday denied that
Tsvangirai or any of
their senior party members had met with army officers.
Efforts to get a
comment from Army spokesperson Major Alphios Makotore on
Friday were
fruitless.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 29 May 2011 12:25
BY
JENNIFER DUBE
ELEVEN Zanu PF activists have been arrested in
Maramba-Pfungwe constituency
in Mashonaland East for brutally assaulting
fellow party members and
damaging property as factionalism in the party
intensified ahead of primary
elections to choose candidates for general
elections which could be held
this year.
The 11 activists
identified in court papers as supporters of MP Washington
Musvaire on
Thursday briefly appeared before a Mutawatawa magistrate who
postponed the
case to June 7 for trial.
Court papers at hand say that the
Zanu PF activists went on a rampage on
April 12 and 13, breaking doors and
smashing windows of houses of fellow
supporters before assaulting occupants
whom they accused of supporting
former MP Kenneth
Mutiwekuziva.
These acts of violence were allegedly committed in
three villages under
Chief Chinyerere where a total of five people were
severely assaulted.
The alleged perpetrators have been identified as Zeckias
Ziunye, Bonnie
Chibundu, Major Mutero, Samuel Kwindima, Lloyd Kamuriwo,
Takura Mhungu,
Tandeza Nyarumbe, Togarepi Chikotera, Mistake Chinofura and
Stanford
Masangudza.
According to the court papers, towards
midnight on April 12, the 11
activists allegedly went to Dick Tore and Lucia
Nyamayedenga’s homestead in
Mazarura village where they threw stones at the
house where the two were
sleeping in.
They broke down the door
and dragged Tore (28) outside.
They then assaulted him with logs all
over his body, fracturing his arm.
They then also dragged out
Nyamayedenga (28) and assaulted her with logs.
They stole US$220 in
cash and a cellphone handset.
Around midnight the following day, the
group proceeded to Nyadzisai Kachidza’s
homestead in Chiunye village where
they opened the cattle pen and drove
cattle into her yard before taking
turns to assault the 42-year-old all over
the body using
sticks.
She sustained a swollen chest.
Her brother Faston
Kachidza, who left his home to rescue his sister, was
assaulted with
logs.
The assailants then proceeded to his homestead where they
damaged his door
and dining room window pane using stones, the court papers
say.
Just after midnight on the same day, the 11 went to Tafadzwa Chibundu’s
homestead in Chibundu village where one of them struck him with a brick on
the waist as he went outside to inspect after hearing their
footsteps.
He sought refuge indoors but they broke the door into
pieces before dragging
him outside and striking him on the head with an
unknown object.
Chibundu sustained a deep cut on the head, a fracture on the
left arm and
lost one upper tooth.
Sources in the province said
Zanu PF Mashonaland East Provincial chairman,
Ray Kaukonde allegedly hired
top Harare lawyer Charles Warara to represent
the 11 in
court.
Warara — who is also Kaukonde’s lawyer — appeared for the
accused in
Mutawatawa on Thursday.
However, Kaukonde denied
hiring the lawyer and professed ignorance over the
issue of violence in his
province.
Contacted for comment, Musvaire said “a skirmish broke out
after some
misunderstanding” and accused those linking him to the violence
of trying to
tarnish his image.
Zanu pf hypocrisy on violence
exposed
The arraignment of the activists has exposed Zanu PF which has of
late been
on a campaign to prove that the violence taking place around the
country is
being perpetrated by the MDC-T.
Police have also
accused the MDC-T of violence and periodically produced
reports showing that
the party led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is
responsible for most of
the violence.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 29 May 2011 12:28
BY NQOBANI
NDLOVU
BULAWAYO — Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai last week said
his MDC party is
against calls for a separate Matabeleland state but
supports the devolution
of power to provinces.
Tsvangirai said a new
constitution should provide for devolution of power to
ensure that calls for
a secession of Matabeleland by some pressure groups,
notably Mthwakazi
Liberation Front (MLF) did not gain ground.
MLF is leading calls for
a separate Matabeleland state amid growing
sentiments that Matabeleland and
Midlands provinces are sidelined from
national development
programmes.
MLF — formed last year — says a separate Matabeleland
state is necessary to
bring to an end the marginalisation of the region
which lags behind in
development.
Its campaign has however put it
on collision course with the police and
three of their leaders are now
facing treason charges.
But Tsvangirai, speaking at a victory
celebration party for Speaker of
Parliament Lovemore Moyo in Brunapeg,
Matabeleland South said devolution of
power would empower all
regions.
“The MDC-T wants unity of all Zimbabweans despite our
diversity. We do not
want a split of Zimbabwe,” he said.
“We do
not support secession. The MDC-T wants power to be devolved to
provinces and
regions as opposed to splitting this country.”
He said all Zimbabweans must
be treated equally.
Zapu is also pushing for devolution of power as
its central policy with its
president, Dumiso Dabengwa, saying devolution
would “remove all bottlenecks
and red tape created by the current
Harare-based centralist governance
system.”
Zapu argues that
elected governors and regional assemblies with power to
manage, public
services and resources would politically and economically
empower
Zimbabweans and encourage cultural and social diversity.
Dabengwa
said his party would cut the current 10 provinces by half into
Mashonaland,
Masvingo, Midlands, Manicaland and Matabeleland “to be led by
an elected
provincial mini-government”.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 29 May 2011 12:30
BY JENNIFER
DUBE
FIVE men incarcerated since 2007 on allegations of planning to
violently
topple President Robert Mugabe and replace him with defence
minister
Emmerson Mnangagwa may finally taste freedom tomorrow, six days
after the
High Court ordered their release.
The High Court on Tuesday
ordered the immediate release of Albert Matapo,
Nyasha Zivuku, Oncemore
Mudzurahona, Emmanuel Marara, Patson Mupfure and
Shingirayi Mutemachani who
have been in prison since May 2007.
A seventh man, Ra-ngarirai
Mazivofa has already been released.
Presiding over the matter,
Justice Yunus Omerjee said the six should not
have been commuted to custody
and a declaratory order would be issued to
that effect.
While
Matapo is likely to remain in the cells for allegedly attempting to
escape
from Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in April last year, delays in
signing
their warrants of liberation saw his colleagues extending their stay
in
prison, much to the frustration of their lawyers.
“The order was
granted in the morning on Tuesday and under normal
circumstances, the
warrants of liberation should have been signed just after
that, making it
possible for our clients to be released on the same day
but the registrar
delayed to sign until around 4pm yesterday (Friday),” the
accused’s lawyer
Charles Warara said.
“They could not be signed on Wednesday because
of the holiday and on
Thursday, we were told the registrar was not yet ready
to sign.
“We were preparing to make an urgent chamber application to
force the
signing when we were informed that they had been signed but the
prison
officials had already gone and could not release our
clients.”
Warara said he was happy that his clients would finally
taste freedom after
several attempts to have them released.
The
High Court last year dismissed the case citing failure to bring the
accused
to court for trial within six months as required by law but
prosecutors
re-indicted them.
It is not yet clear how the state wishes to proceed
with the matter although
the defence has since said the accused would not be
detained.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 29 May 2011 12:31
BY SILAS
NKALA
BINGA — Two men from Muchesu and Sinakomba areas in the
district were on
Thursday separately remanded in custody after they were
arrested for
allegedly growing mbanje.
Emison Muchimba (54) was arrested
on May 21 at his home in Muchesu.
The police got a tip-off from the
members of the public that he was
cultivating mbanje at his
fields.
Police raided his fields where they discovered he had 210
plants of mbanje
measuring two metres each.
Muchimba pleaded not
guilty to charges of growing the plants when he
appeared before Binga
resident magistrate Stephen Ndlovu on Thursday.
He told the court that the
crops were planted by his sister who is currently
out of the
country.
Another suspect, Bobby Peter Munsaka (36) of Sinakomba was
also arrested on
May 22 after a tip-off from the members of the
public.
Police discovered 16 plants of the illegal crop in his
fields.
Munsaka pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The two
were remanded in custody to June 6 for the continuation of
trial.
Bruce Maphosa prosecuted.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 29 May 2011
12:32
BY JENNIFER DUBE
STAKEHOLDERS in the agriculture sector
are pushing for a national policy to
promote organic agriculture which they
say can uplift harvests to 13 tonnes
per hectare.
The Zimbabwe Organic
Producers and Promoters Association (Zoppa) Trust has
started lobbying
various stakeholders, including government, to promote
organic farming at a
national level.
Zoppa’s membership includes organic farmers and
fertiliser producers among
others.
Fortunate Nyakanda, the Zoppa
Trust executive director said there was a
policy vacuum, which was creating
many problems for organic farmers.
“Some farmers are doing well producing
organically but they are not
recognised on the market,” Nyakanda
said.
“We need to work on Zimbabwean standards for organic products
so consumers
would know under what standards the products were
produced.”
He said at the moment any farm could claim their products
were organically
produced even if they were not while others put labels that
their products
were pesticide free when they were not.
Science
and Technology minister Heneri Dzinotyiwei announced recently that
Zimbabwe
was in the process of reviewing its policy on genetically-modified
organisms
(GMOs) as research has shown that they are harmless.
GMOs are plants
or animals whose genes are artificially altered to enhance
yields and
resistance to pests and diseases.
Government, some scientists and
consumer groups tend to treat GMOs with
suspicion, saying they would have
long-term negative effects on yields and
people’s health among
others.
Some people have however called for the lifting of the GMO
ban on
humanitarian grounds during drought years.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 29 May 2011 12:33
BY PATIENCE
NYANGOVE
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
agreed recently
that the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) must be
reconstituted,
raising fears that last week’s offer for two commercial radio
licences was
not genuine.
Sources said Mugabe and Tsvangirai agreed that
a new board should be set up
since the unilateral appointment of the current
members by Information and
Publicity minister Webster Shamu two years ago
violated the Global Political
Agreement (GPA).
Zanu PF apologist
and known opponent of a free media, Tafataona Mahoso
chairs the BAZ
board.
Last week the authority invited applications for two
commercial radio
licences, a move that was described as piecemeal by free
media lobby groups.
The groups questioned why applications were not being
called for community
radio and television licences.
Tsvangirai’s
spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka Friday confirmed that the PM and
Mugabe had
agreed that a new board must be appointed so that it can open up
the
broadcasting industry where the partisan Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Cooperation
enjoys a monopoly.
Tamborinyoka also accused Zanu PF of trying to
fool Sadc by pretending to be
implementing media reforms.
Sadc
will convene a special summit on Zimbabwe early next month to discuss a
proposed election roadmap that also calls for urgent media reforms.
“This
is unbridled pretence and cheap political drama on the eve of the Sadc
summit,” he said.
“It is a ruse to hoodwink Sadc and the people
of Zimbabwe that there are
genuine media reforms in line with the
GPA.
“We all know that this illegal board has failed to free the
airwaves and it
can’t suddenly do so on the eve of the Sadc
summit.”
BAZ has in the past called for applications for radio
licences but none have
been licenced. In 2007 BAZ said none of the
applicants had met the
“stringent” criteria.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 29 May 2011 12:34
BY PATIENCE
NYANGOVE
INCARCERATED secessionist group Mthwakazi Liberation Front
(MLF) official
Paul Siwela is critically ill and has been hospitalised at
the Khami Maximum
Prison hospital.
He is reportedly suffering from high
blood pressure.
Siwela’s lawyer, Matshobana Ncube of Abammeli Lawyers
for Human Rights on
Friday said his client’s condition was deteriorating
daily.
He said the 2002 independent presidential candidate was
admitted at the
hospital on May 20.
“He is not feeling well,”
Ncube said. “There is no clear-cut improvement, he
is still critically
ill.
“High blood pressure is a condition that kills and we are afraid
of the
worst.”
Siwela together with two other MLF leaders, John
Gazi and Charles Thomas,
were arrested in March and charged with treason for
allegedly distributing
the group’s pamphlets calling for a separate
Matabeleland state.
Gazi and Thomas were freed on bail last month but
Siwela’s freedom was
blocked by state prosecutors who claimed he had a
pending case.
He appealed at the Supreme Court and Chief Justice
Godfrey Chidyausiku early
this month postponed a hearing into Siwela’s bail
application.
He instructed him to deposit an affidavit assuring the
court that he would
not commit any offence of a treasonous nature as a
precondition before his
bail application could be heard.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 29 May 2011 12:38
BY PATIENCE
NYANGOVE
EMBATTLED Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara has
reportedly written to
President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai claiming that
he has recalled Welshman Ncube from
cabinet.
Mutambara is trying to wrestle back the control of the smaller MDC
formation
after he was toppled by Ncube at the party’s congress in
January.
After initially accepting defeat, the robotics professor made a
U-turn and
is now backing aggrieved party members challenging the Industry
and Commerce
minister’s victory in the courts.
Sources said
Mutambara also wrote to the president of the Senate Edna
Madzongwe saying
Ncube must cease being a senator.
Mugabe and Madzongwe have
reportedly not acknowledged getting the letter but
Tsvangirai has already
done so.
Maxwell Zimuto, the spokesman for the group challenging
Ncube’s presidency
said only Mutambara and Joubert Mudzumwe had the mandate
to make such
communication.
Both their phones were not reachable
yesterday. But Ncube dismissed the move
by Mutambara, if true, as a
non-event.
“No we have not received such a letter, it’s not possible,
and someone has
to be a lunatic to do that,” he said.
“It can’t
possibly exist. You will need people that are certifiably insane
to write
that.”
However, Tsvangirai’s spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka yesterday
could neither
deny nor confirm whether the PM had received the
letter.
Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba also said he does not know
anything about
the letter.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 29 May 2011 12:39
BY
NQABA MATSHAZI
SADDLED with various court cases and a potentially
strength sapping wrangle
over the deputy premiership, Welshman Ncube, leader
of an MDC faction, has
refused to back down, rolling out an elaborate
campaign plan.
Since being elected to lead his party, Ncube was frustrated by
President
Robert Mugabe, who declined to swear him in on the basis of a
court action
taken by former party leader, Arthur Mutambara and his
supporters.
Now there are reports that Mutambara has allegedly
tried to get party
members to ditch the law professor by offering positions
in cabinet.
Reports filtering in are that Mutambara offered Siyabonga
Ncube, an Insiza
legislator, the ministerial position to take over either
Priscilla
Misihairabwi-Mushonga’s position as Regional Intergration
minister, or the
Industry and Trade Ministry held by Ncube. The offer was
turned down.
Thandeko Mnkandla from Gwanda was reportedly offered
David Coltart’s
position as Education minister, while it was not clear which
position
Maxwell Dube of Tsholotsho South had been
offered.
“Mutambara cannot do that,” an insider said. “If he does he
will be in
contravention of a court order.”
The MDC sought a
court order barring Mutambara from acting as the party’s
president.
But secretary general, Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga
said Mutambara and
his supporters were looking for
relevance.
“They have lost relevance; they think the only way they
can be relevant is
when they comment about us or when we say something about
them,” she said.
She said that Mutambara had no locus standi to hire
or fire anyone and any
decision he took would be in contempt of
court.
So far MDC has held about 19 rallies, as the party seeks to
woo supporters
ahead of an election, whose date remains a mystery to the
country.
“We are showing our supporters that our attention has not
been diverted by
these issues,” she said. “We want to show that we are
different from other
parties and we are the best
alternative.”
The Regional and Integration minister said there were
attempts to destroy
the party, which started as the party was about to hold
its congress in
January, saying these attacks were still
ongoing.
Misihairabwi-Mushonga said the attacks on her party were red
herrings meant
to distract them and destroy MDC.
Without naming
anyone, she said there were some individuals within the party
who, six
months ago, did not have a penny to their names, but all of a
sudden could
now afford to institute lawsuits.
“We are still alive and that’s the
message we are taking to our supporters,”
Misihairabwi-Mushonga
said.
But critics of the party accuse it of being a regional project
since most of
its rallies have been held in Matabeleland, an accusation
which
Misihairabwi-Mushonga curtly dismisses.
Rallies have been
held mainly in Bulawayo and Matabeleland South, while
others have been held
in Midlands and another in Chitungwiza.
“This is where most of our
MPs (Members of Parliament) are, so we start
there going to other places,”
she said.
The MDC secretary general said Mugabe held most of his
rallies and meetings
in Mashonaland but no one had ever accused him of being
a regional leader,
the same with Tsvangirai.
A party member
revealed that some of their rallies in Mutoko and Chikomba
had been
cancelled amid claims that all community halls in those areas had
been
booked in advance by Zanu PF.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 29 May 2011 12:41
BY
NQOBANI NDLOVU
BULAWAYO — Zanu PF is allegedly resettling its
supporters from other
provinces in Matabeleland so that they can register as
voters ahead of fresh
elections.
The two Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) formations said the alleged
scheme was an attempt to neutralise votes
where Zanu PF has performed
dismally since the turn of the
millennium.
A number of Zanu-PF supporters from the Apostolic Faith
Church in Masvingo
were recently resettled in Plumtree, Matabeleland South,
sparking protests
from the local community.
“Zanu-PF is
registering its supporters from outside the region as voters
here,” said
Watchy Sibanda, the MDC T chairman for Matabeleland South in an
interview in
Plumtree.
He said it was a “Zanu-PF calculated move to grab the
province from the
opposition.”
The Zanu PF supporters from
Masvingo said they were given orders by
President Robert Mugabe to evict the
Plumtree white commercial farmer, Garry
Ronfensls from his Lydead ranch, in
Marula farming area.
Zapu and war veterans in Matabeleland North
province last year also ganged
up to evict Zanu PF land invaders from
outside the region saying they should
go back and invade farms in their
provinces.
Edwin Ndlovu, the MDC T provincial spokesperson said:
“Zanu-PF supporters
from outside the region continue to be given land in
Matabeleland in a bid
to neutralise the Matabeleland vote.
“Zanu
PF thinks that by importing people from other regions, they will be
able to
win back the region. That strategy will never work.”
The two MDCs won
most of the parliamentary and senatorial seats during the
2008 elections
with Zanu PF winning in Insiza, Umguza, Bubi, Nkayi North and
Lupane West
where violence was pronounced.
The party is now gearing up for
elections that President Robert Mugabe
insists must be held this
year.
Rugare Gumbo, the Zanu-PF spokesperson however denied as false
the
allegations that it had resorted to resettling people in other regions
“as
usual lies by the MDC’s who are cooking up stories.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 29 May 2011 12:43
BY JENNIFER
DUBE
VISUALLY impaired pupils will soon have improved supply of
textbooks just
like their sighted counterparts, thanks to the work of a
Harare-based
Catholic nun.
When many local publishers were
jostling over a government printing contract
to supply school textbooks
under the US$70 million government-Unicef
Education Transition Fund (ETF),
not many remembered blind pupils.
“I went to Education
minister (David) Coltart and asked him if they had
plans to also address the
appalling levels of learning materials for
visually impaired pupils,” Sister
Catherine of the Dorothy Duncan Braille
Library and Transcription Service
said.
“He told me of the various problems the government was facing
in trying to
cater for the children and we offered our assistance which they
accepted.”
The centre, which offers a library service to blind children from
all over
Zimbabwe, is in the process of printing 3 200 Braille textbooks for
four
core subjects for use in over 60 schools with visually impaired
pupils.
Coltart said government’s National Braille Press in Mt
Pleasant had no
capacity to print the books as its equipment broke down and
there was no
money to buy spare parts.
He said while the supply
of textbooks to schools deteriorated over the past
10 to 15 years, there was
nothing done for blind students.
Many schools resorted to the Dorothy
Duncan library where they are allowed
to borrow books on a term basis free
of charge.
For a Braille book to be produced, a conventional copy for
the sighted has
to be produced first.
The hard copies are scanned
or typed from cover to cover. The text is then
put on a compact
disc.
Some software programmes are then used to transcribe the text
to Braille.
Sister Catherine said the process to print the ETF
textbooks was progressing
well despite various technical faults and lack of
funds.
A former teacher in Zambia and Zimbabwe, Sister Catherine
founded the
library 20 years ago after partially losing her
sight.
Among others to benefit from the library’s service is Nozipho
Khanda who can
now speak six languages, is a graduate of Melbourne
University, a senior
Christian counsellor and represents the World Blind
Union for training
courses around Africa.
“She is one of our
unsung heroes who go unmentioned when politicians get all
the praise,” said
Coltart about Sister Catherine.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 29 May 2011 12:47
BY JENNIFER
DUBE
PLUMTREE — Siziwe Ndebele (52) will never forget the trouble she
went
through when she relocated from Bulawayo to Mangwe District’s Ward 4 as
a
terminally ill widow.
Back then in 2002, her five children were still
very young and they could
not help her much.
“I could hardly walk
because of the illness but I would be forced to do so
as I had to frequently
go to the bush to relieve myself,” Ndebele said.
“During the two
years of my illness, I wished I had a toilet in my homestead
but did not
have money to pay for the construction of one.”
That time a lot of
people in Mangwe, Matabeleland South, used the “bush
system” and some would
relieve themselves too close to homesteads, exposing
themselves and other
villagers to diseases such as cholera. Add to that, the
embarrassment of
being spotted “helping oneself” behind the shrubs.
Not anymore, said
Sindisiwe Sibanda, a councillor for the area.
“Everyone, including
those without money, now have toilets in their
homesteads,” proudly declared
Sibanda.
“Households with orphaned and vulnerable children, the
terminally ill and
those on anti-retroviral therapy benefited for free,”
Sibanda said.
“In no time, our bushes became cleaner and we became less
scared of waking
up with cholera one day.”
The project has
created opportunities for some builders who are now being
hired to build
similar facilities in other wards and across the border in
Botswana.
The builders’ team leader, Thaddeus Dube, said they
were training some
youths to replace those who were leaving for greener
pastures. This, he
said, had helped many unemployed youths in the
area.
Mvuramanzi executive director Cleophas Musara said Mangwe is
one of six
districts where they are implementing Euro 5 million (US$7,1
million)
project funded by the European Union and Unicef to improve water
supply and
sanitation in the country. The other five districts are Bulilima,
Hwange,
Chegutu, Zaka and Chipinge.
The project stumbled due to
cultural beliefs in some parts of Binga, where
in-laws could not use the
same toilet seat.
Funding for the project, launched in 2006, winds up
in July but Musara said
they would find ways to continue “to encourage
people to change their minds
over sanitation”.
He said the
country’s sanitation coverage stagnated between 1990 and 2010.
The situation
is worse in rural areas where only 42% of the people have safe
sanitation
facilities compared to the 47% in 1990. Open defecation stands at
42%.
Sanitation guards to maintain order
Sanitation
watch committees — comprising village heads, health workers and
other
villagers — have already been set-up in five villages of Ward 4 to
ensure
villagers maintain hygienic conditions.
“We visit homes to check on
how the toilets are kept,” a committee member
Molly Titiri
said.
“Our teaching has always been that the toilet has to be cleaned
every
morning and then through the day as and when it gets dirty. The toilet
water
bottle should never run dry because people have to wash hands after
using
the toilet at all times even if one had gone in there to deposit a
used
tissue.”
Villagers are encouraged to keep the toilets and
surrounding clean to avoid
flies and mosquitos, and to wash hands with
soap.
After noticing the shortage of ablution facilities in the
area, Mvuramanzi
Trust, a non-governmental organisation, intervened with a
toilet-building
project in 2008. They trained some 13 men and five women to
construct
toilets for villagers at a cost of 500 rand or one goat per
unit.
Mvuramanzi provided 600 bags of cement and barbed wire for use
in building
the toilets, with each villager getting five
bags.
Apart from paying the builders, the villagers fed the workers
and provided
pit sand and other building materials.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 29 May 2011 12:49
BY
OWN STAFF
ZIMBABWEAN-born Zambian president, Rupiah Banda might soon have
to revisit
his history, parentage and heritage to prove that he is Zambian
after
opponents claimed he was Malawian.
Under Zambian law, a president’s
parents should be Zambian or at least of
Zambian descent for him to qualify
for the country’s top position.
Banda is accused of lying under oath,
claiming that both his parents were
Zambian, but his critics say at least
one of them was Malawian.
Banda surely has an interesting background,
while his opponents claim he is
of Malawian parentage, the fact that he was
born in neighbouring Zimbabwe
has not helped issues.
The Zambian
leader’s parents moved to the then Southern Rhodesia in search
of employment
just before he was born.
Banda grew up in Gwanda and learnt in Mtshabezi, in
Matabeleland South.
Zambia’s former ambassador to Malawi, Milton
Phiri turned on the heat last
week, writing a letter accusing Banda of lying
under oath.
These allegations, considered serious in the southern
African nation, could
hurt Banda’s re-election prospects.
Former
Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda also had the same allegations
levelled
against him when he tried to challenge then leader, Frederick
Chiluba.
“If President Banda does not contradict Ambassador Milton
Phiri’s public
accusations, this is gross misconduct in terms of Article 37
of the
Constitution,” Professor Michelo Hansungule, a critic said last
week.
Initially they were suspicions that Banda could have been of
Zimbabwean
heritage and was often accused of being soft towards his southern
neighbours.
However, Phiri claims that at least one of Banda’s
parents was from Malawi
and that disqualified him from being
president.
Phiri claims that Banda lied under oath, by saying he was
Zambian, with
Hansungule saying the president should be impeached under
oath.
Banda has not responded to the allegations. But government
spokesperson Lt
Gen Ronnie Shikapwasha responded with a counter claim that
Patriotic Front
leader Michael Sata was also a
Tanzanian.
Shikapwasha said Sata was not born in Zambia but only came
in the country
when he was nine years old.
“Mr Sata did not hail
from Chitulika Village in Mpika District because he
only went there when he
was young,” Shikapwasha said.
Banda’s opponents now want him to do an
Obama and respond to the claims.
“Let Mr Rupiah Banda behave like US
President Barack Obama,” said former
Works and Supply minister, Mike
Mulongoti.
“When they questioned his nationality he went and produced
documents to
clear that matter.
“As a person who came across this
information after the press conference and
as a concerned citizen, I want to
know the truth.”
Mulongoti, who recently lost his position as MMD
secretary for elections,
said if he had known back then about Banda’s
parentage, he “wouldn’t have
taken him around the country to sell him as our
candidate”
Zimbabwe, like Zambia, has strange citizenship laws, where
people are
supposed to denounce foreign citizenship in cases where their
parents or
grandparents descend from other countries.
But Banda
can take comfort that he is not alone, Obama had to produce his
long birth
certificate to prove that he was born in the country rather than
Indonesia
as critics claimed.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 29 May 2011 13:57
BY PATIENCE
NYANGOVE
There is need to revisit the law that stipulates that
children under 16
cannot get tested for HIV without the consent of either
their parents or
guardians, a local HIV and Aids activist said last
week.
Speaking at a two-day training workshop for journalists on TB reporting
in
Kadoma, 23-year-old Brighton Marweyi, who was born with HIV, said he
endured
several years of sickness after his parents died before he could be
tested.
He said the law infringes on the rights of children,
especially those
orphans that have no one else to take care of
them.
“Testing for children is determined by the child’s age but I
believe those
children can be counselled and be told their HIV status,” he
said.
“I would always be sick but I never knew why. When I was first
told about my
status I was confused as to how I had gotten
infected.
“Long back I believed that children born HIV-positive could
not survive this
long at all, but God does mysterious
things.”
Marweyi, who was put on anti-retroviral treatment after
being tested in
2004, said although his parents and relatives knew he was
HIV-positive, they
never told him.
He was only tested after
having turned 16.
“I was always sick, suffering from so many
diseases. I had asthma and other
diseases.
“It was difficult
going to school because I was always sick.
“When I was in Form Two in
Bulawayo I got severely ill and by that time both
my parents had
died.
“The only drug I was being given was Cotrimoxazole but I did
not know why.
My elder brother knew that I was HIV-positive but he did not
want to tell
me”.
But Eunice Kapandura, HIV and Aids Zimbabwe
director said the law was
designed to protect the children’s
interests.
She said some of the children would be too young to deal
with the fact that
they were HIV-positive.
Marweyi said he did
not blame his parents for not telling him about his HIV
status.
He said he had no plans to date or marry as he did not
want to “hurt another
human being.”
The workshop was organised by
the Southern Africa HIV and Aids Information
Dissemination Service.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 29 May 2011
14:02
by Neto Nengomasha
The adverse effects of climate change
on environmental sustainability and
human wellbeing is forcing most
countries to move away from the “brown’’ or
traditional economy to the
“green’’ economy — a viable option for
sustainable development.
The
concept has been described by environmentalists as a powerful new
paradigm
in the 21st century offering creative solutions to multiple global
challenges by linking people, the planet and prosperity.
Green
economy is considered as one that results in “improved wellbeing and
social
equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and
ecological
scarcities.”
According to the United Nations Economic Commission for
Africa (ECA), green
economy comes against the backdrop of serious crises in
climate,
biodiversity, food, fuel and water, and more recently, the
financial crises
which has all been characterised by gross misallocation of
capital while
being exacerbated by existing policies and market
incentives.
A recent report by Unep titled “Towards a Green Economy”
states that
sustainable development can only be achieved if there is an
economic
transformation that promotes resource and energy efficiency and
reduces
environmental degradation.
“It is time to catalyse and
embed the green economy transition across the
globe from the international
level down to the local community.
“The green economy can — if
brought into the cabinet rooms, boardrooms and
town hall chambers — offer a
viable alternative to the unsustainable status
quo,” Under-Secretary General
of the United Nations and Executive Director
of the UN Environment
Programme, Achim Steiner, said.
The African Union has fully endorsed
adoption of the green economy as a
vehicle for sustainable
development.
“It is not only relevant to more developed countries but
also a catalyst for
growth and poverty eradication in developing countries
too,” said Patrick
Mwesigye, the Regional Industry Officer with the United
Nation’s Environment
Programme (Unep).
Speaking at the inaugural
Green Economy Summit in Johannesburg in 2010,
South African President Jacob
Zuma said the green economy requires
integrated strategies and plans that
balance economic, environmental and
social development objectives with
carefully crafted policy and
institutional frameworks to ensure sustainable
development.
“Ecosystem failure will seriously compromise our ability
to address our
social and economic priorities. Natural resources are
national economic
assets, and our economy depends heavily on energy and
mineral resources,
biodiversity, agriculture, forestry, fishing and
tourism,” he said.
The green economy is in line with what was agreed
at the 16th Conference of
Parties (COP 16) held last year in Cancun,
Mexico.
Climate experts agreed to set-up a Climate Green Fund
intended to assist
developing countries to adapt to the effects of climate
change and adapt
their economies and infrastructure to the changing
climate.
The green economy will be one of two themes of the Rio+ 20
conference to be
held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2012, in the context of
sustainable
development and poverty eradication. This marks 20 years after
the Earth
Summit held in Rio in 1992.
—SADC Today
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 29 May 2011 14:01
BY CHIPO
MASARA
THE main reason why we are faced with a myriad of
environmental problems,
most of which we are having serious difficulties
correcting, is because we
have taken a laid-back reactive approach to
environmentalism for too long.
Due to countless years of abusing the
environment and venturing in one
activity or the other, which have had dire
effects on the ecological state,
Zimbabwe now arguably has one of the most
tattered environments.
For instance, because farmers have for
generations insisted on making use of
those farming practices that they
believed to be the best as they produced
more yields in the short-term, the
soils have now been fatally overwhelmed
by the excess fertilisers and
pesticides.
This has seen farmers reaping less in terms of quantity
and quality.
As for the state of wildlife in the country, now that
one would leave any
nature-loving person infuriated.
The
responsible authorities, through major help from Campfire, for a very
long
time preached about “sustainable utilisation” of the wildlife
resources.
Although the intentions could well have been noble, it gave
many the
misconceptions that they owned the country’s wildlife and could do
with it
as they pleased.
This saw cases of poaching shooting
up.
The situation is now so desperate that the black rhinoceros is in
danger of
extinction, among other wildlife.
It would appear as
though it is only just recently that the responsible
authorities discovered
that we had a huge poaching problem and have since
assigned law enforcement
officers on a vigorous anti-poaching campaign.
It still remains to be
seen whether or not that will actually help.
At its worst, reactive
environmentalism tries to give the impression that
all is being done to
balance environmental considerations with economic
needs.
In the
meantime, the average citizen is bound to be fooled into believing
that all
is as it should be when this is actually very far from the truth.
The
Zimbabwean government has since as way back as the 80s been an active
participant in global environmental conventions and has indeed ratified
quite a number.
The ratifications however appear to have been
the government’s way of
giving the international community the impression
that Zimbabwe is a
country that has a deep respect for the preservation of
the environment when
in actual fact the picture on the ground says exactly
the opposite.
By now, every responsible person should know that it is
us the human beings
that depend more on the environment, instead of the
other way round and that
it would be in our best interest to care for the
environment.
In that spirit, it then becomes necessary for any
country to implement
environmental policies that do not seek to cater only
for the short-term
needs, but also seek to ensure that the future
generations inherit a part of
what nature intended for
everyone.
It is also of paramount importance that the environmental
experts in our
midst be allowed the platform to also project the likely
future
environmental scenario and come up with ways to start tackling issues
that
might in future prove too overwhelming.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 29 May 2011 12:37
BY KHOLWANI
NYATHI
The electoral reforms approved by cabinet last week still fall
short of the
minimum conditions for a free and fair poll, analysts have
said.
Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa said the reforms would speed up the
release of election results and bar police from polling
booths.
He said Attorney General Johannes Tomana was now expected to
work on a bill
to amend the Electoral Act so that the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (ZEC),
among other things, would be obliged to release the
results not more than
five days after voting.
In 2008 ZEC delayed
releasing the results of the first round of the
presidential elections by
close to a month sparking rumours that it was
trying to rig the poll in
favour of President Robert Mugabe.
The now supposedly independent
commission will also be empowered to set up
special courts to try election
candidates, agents or parties implicated in
acts of political
violence.
Voters will also be required to register and vote at one
polling station and
candidates must fill in generic forms endorsed by their
political parties.
The changes are meant to avoid the 2008 scenario
where parties ended up
fielding more than one candidate in one
constituency.
The proposed reforms come at a time when Zanu PF is
trying to wriggle out of
an election roadmap being crafted with the
assistance of South African
President Jacob Zuma’s facilitation
team.
The roadmap that was initialled by negotiators from Zanu PF and
the two MDC
formations seeks to deal with the issue of security sector
reforms and
freedom of expression, which are outside the proposed reforms
approved by
cabinet.
MDC-T has put security sector reforms high
on the agenda citing the
involvement of soldiers in the 2008 electoral
violence and army generals’
open support for Zanu PF.
However,
Mugabe and Zanu PF say Zuma is overstepping his mandate and will
not be
allowed to engage the generals, now viewed as the biggest threat to a
peaceful transition.
Zimbabwe has not held peaceful elections
since independence and in the 1980s
Mugabe’s attempts to neutralise his
major rival the late Vice-President
Joshua Nkomo’s support led to the
massacre of 20 000 innocent people.
The violence was repeated in
2000, 2002 and 2008, which effectively
condemned Zimbabwe to its pariah
state status.
Besides the violence, there have been calls for an
overhaul of the voters’
roll, which is known to contain names of dead people
and even babies.
“It is important at this juncture to intensify
lobbying efforts on the need
to overhaul the present voters roll which is
known through various voter’s
roll audits to be in shambles,” the Election
Resource Centre (ERC) said.
“With ZEC having indicated that the
process of re-registration of voters
would require at least six months, it
is prudent to conduct the fresh
registration of voters before the next
general election.”
The ERC also welcomed the proposed removal of
police officers from polling
booths but called for an end to the selective
application of the law.
REFORMS UNLIKELY TO IMPROVE ELECTORAL
ENVIRONMENT
The Election Resource Centre (ERC), in a recent analysis of
the proposed
reforms, said while the fact that the three governing parties
agreed on the
need to reform both the constitutional and electoral
frameworks was an
important step in normalising Zimbabwe’s “fouled political
environment,” it
was not a guarantee that the next polls will be free and
fair.
“While in the past, good laws have been developed and
promulgated, the
problem with Zimbabwe might not have been entirely about
obnoxious and
restrictive laws in existence, but has more to do with a bad
political
culture shown by political players,” ERC said.
“This
culture negates and chooses to ignore even laid down rules and
regulations,
at times, in pursuit of selfish individual or group desires.”
ERC
says even though there were legal guarantees for a free and fair poll in
Zimbabwe the process was threatened by selfish politicians.
“It
is such a political behaviour by politicians which has left Zimbabwe
with a
shameful label of disrespecting the rule of law, abuse of human
rights,
anarchy culminating in conflict-ridden political engagements at both
national and international level,” the centre said.
“The nation’s
hope is that through the proposed reforms to the Electoral
Act, necessary
reforms will be undertaken to redefine civilised political
engagements.
“The transitional authority offers an opportunity to
set new parameters that
would guide the nation’s political conduct and
interaction.”
It added that for the reforms to be successful, the
political players “must
cultivate a culture that gives respect to the rule
of law.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 29 May 2011 12:40
BY KHOLWANI
NYATHI
WHEN Zanu PF’s politburo set up a committee to look into the
emotive issue
of President Robert Mugabe’s successor in 2009, hopes were
raised that one
of Africa’s longest serving rulers was about to voluntarily
give up power.
Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980
and has used every
trick in the book to remain in power, including deadly
violence.
At the time the committee was set up most
Zimbabweans appeared to be
resigned to the fact that the 87-year-old
strongman would rule until he
dropped dead.
But the committee was
quietly dissolved a year later with the wily Mugabe
reverting to his old
song, that there was no vacancy in the presidium.
Despite mounting
calls for him to step down because of his advanced age and
failing health,
the Zanu PF leader has since the 1990s made it clear that he
is not ready to
give way to fresh blood in the presidency and in his own
party.
In an interview with the state media Mugabe said he cannot
retire because
Zanu PF and Zimbabwe needed him the most now.
He
cited the alleged threat by Western imperialists as his motivation to
defy
nature and continue denying Zimbabweans an opportunity to start
rebuilding
the country, now condemned to dehumanising poverty by his
reckless
policies.
Analysts said Mugabe’s recent pronouncements on the
succession debate in
Zanu PF were nothing new as he has always wanted to be
a life president.
“Mugabe has never been genuine about getting a Zanu PF
successor, he created
factions within the party so that he can use them
against each other to
remain in power,” said Bekithemba Mpofu, a former
united MDC youth leader
and renowned academic.
“It has been his
intention to remain in power and this he has done
masterfully by using
factions within his party as pawns.
“No wonder when a faction becomes
popular he shifts his allegiance to the
other fearing that the endorsement
of a successor within the party would
ignite questions about his stepping
down.”
Other analysts blamed Zanu PF for creating a cult figure whose
exit from the
scene could only spell doom for the party, which has been
rocked by
factionalism even at a time when it was at its
strongest.
Zanu PF has two factions reportedly led by Defence
minister Emmerson
Mnangagwa and retired army general Solomon Mujuru that are
known to be
positioning themselves for life after
Mugabe.
However, none of the faction leaders seem prepared to
challenge Mugabe while
he is still alive and this has given the former
school teacher the
conviction that he is invincible.
Mugabe
hero-worshipped in Zanu PF
Mugabe has always been presented as a cult
figure to an extent that the late
former Harare mayor Tony Gara once called
him the Son of God in parliament.
Mines and Mining Development
minister Obert Mpofu is known to sign his
letters to Mugabe as “Your ever
obedient son” while senior Zanu PF ministers
reportedly always kneel before
the man who claims to be a devout Catholic.
Different views to
Mugabe’s staying power
Trevor Maisiri, the director of the African Reform
Institute said if Mugabe
were to step down today Zanu PF would be engulfed
by internal strife and
re-uniting the two factions might be
impossible.
“The party has not handled the issue well for a long time
and as time
progresses it is getting more complex to handle,” he
said.
“What Zanu PF does not seem to realise is that the passage of
time is
working against the party’s romance with
posterity?”
Maisiri said the hero-worshiping by Zanu PF officials
cultivated Mugabe’s
ambition for a life-presidency.
“There was a
time in the past when the party could have intentionally raised
up a new
leadership without much hassles,” he said.
“However, the party
ascended President Mugabe onto a pedestal where he
became an institution
rather than being a part of the institution of the
party.
“He became the
centre of the party and everything revolved around his
personhood.”
However, UK-based Zimbabwean academic Brilliant
Mhlanga believes that Mugabe
wants to retire but is being held hostage by
selfish individuals seeking to
escape prosecution for human rights
abuses.
Army generals, most of whom were heavily involved in the
Gukurahundi
massacres where at least 20 000 innocent civilians were murdered
in
Matabeleland and Midlands provinces, want Mugabe to be a life
president.
In the past there have been reports that Mugabe feared
that if he left
office he would be dragged before the International Criminal
Court (ICC) for
crimes against humanity.
Zimbabwe is not a
signatory to the ICC treaty and taking Mugabe to the Hague
may prove
impossible unless if he is arrested while outside the country.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 29 May 2011 13:06
BY OUR
STAFF
THE National Social Security Authority (NSSA) general manager James
Matiza
on Thursday updated the board on the government’s proposal for the
pension
fund to invest in ReNaissance Financial Holdings Limited
(RFHL).
Thursday’s board meeting followed the May 17 indaba where
Finance minister
Tendai Biti made a formal approach to the pension fund to
invest US$20
million in RFHL, a move that would bail out ReNaissance
Merchant Bank (RMB).
Biti told NSSA that the proposal had
been approved by cabinet.
A wholly owned subsidiary of RFHL, RMB is
technically insolvent with a
negative capital base of US$16,6 million
attributed to poor corporate
governance by the founding
directors.
The founding directors — Patterson Timba and Dunmore
Kundishora — have
already been banished from holding any senior position in
any banking
institution for five years.
NSSA said last week an
auditing firm would evaluate whether it makes sense
or not to invest in
RFHL.
“In the light of the difficulties in which Renaissance has
found itself in,
we consider it prudent to seek the assistance of an
auditing firm in
examining the financial institution’s current position and
future prospects.
“The firm will be asked, after evaluating the
business, to make a
recommendation on the proposed investment,” Matiza
said.
The auditing firm would then present a report to the board’s
investment
committee, according to people familiar with the
developments.
It its report, the auditing firm, would use the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe
audit of RMB which unearthed serious financial
transgressions at the bank
attributed to its holding company and founding
directors.
While NSSA is working towards investing in RFHL, Jayesh
Shah, the
businessman who blew the whistle on Timba, is taking his fight to
another
level after reporting the RFHL founder to the police on Tuesday “for
obtaining money by false pretences”.
Shah insisted that Timba had
reneged on an agreement in which the Indian
businessman was entitled to half
of the not less than US$25 million
capital-uplift over a US$5 million
loan.
If it was not for the capital uplift of no less than US$25
million, Shah
would not have given Timba the money on a low-interest rate of
9% per annum
at a time banks were quoting rates of over 50% per annum,
sources said on
Friday.
Timba was not answering his mobile phone
on Friday but later told
Standardbusiness to send questions via short
message service (SMS). He did
to respond to the inquiries.
The
NSSA-RFHL deal is now threatening to split cabinet along political lines
with Zanu PF ministers against the intervention.
This has seen a
number of articles appearing in the state-controlled media
attacking Biti
for intervening to save RMB from collapse, a move they allege
would kill
confidence in the banking sector.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 29 May 2011 13:06
BY KUDZAI
CHIMHANGWA
THE Ministry of Economic Planning and Investment Promotion
will soon force
banks to reduce interest rates in pursuit of macro-economic
stability under
the aegis of the medium term plan (MTP), a cabinet minister
has said.
Economic Planning minister Tapiwa Mashakada said the ministry was
targeting
single digit annual inflation as the plan is premised on the need
to enhance
economic transformation in Zimbabwe.
The plan aims to
“lock inflation in the band of 4% to 6% while targeting an
average economic
growth rate of 7%”.
“We are going to be very aggressive to make sure
that banks reduce interest
rates so as to promote savings and foster
investment in the economy,” said
Mashakada adding that the ministry intended
to avoid a banking crisis
scenario similar to that which occurred in
2004.
Ever since the inception of the multi-currency system in 2009,
Zimbabwe’s
banking sector has been criticised for failing to stimulate
investment and
domestic savings owing to punitive lending rates over a short
window period.
Lending rates vary between 10% and 30%, while
Investment group Imara says
these rates remain high against regional and
international benchmarks.
On the other hand, interest on savings has been low
and government believes
it does not promote a savings
culture.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the domestic savings
rate remains very
low at 2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), although this
is expected to
improve to between 20% and 30% by 2015.
Mashakada
said the MTP, which runs from 2011 to 2015, is considered a vital
tool for
government to clearly spell out Zimbabwe’s national priorities for
both
domestic and foreign investors and co-operating partners.
Economic
Planning permanent secretary Desire Sibanda said a number of
measures would
be pursued to ensure that the banking sector reduces interest
rates.
“The key issue is that of demand and
supply.
“The MTP prioritises increasing productivity and accessing
lines of credit
to stimulate liquidity in the economy resulting in a stable
monetary
system,” Sibanda said.
He said that investment
promotion efforts were being made in pursuit of
bilateral investment
agreements with Botswana and South Africa while similar
arrangements with
India and South Korea were being made.
Sibanda said that internal
savings in Zimbabwe in 2008 stood at less than 5%
of investment over GDP but
the blueprint plans to raise the figure from less
than 10% to at least 25%
of GDP over the next five years.
“A savings culture will be fostered
through the widening of the tax base,
incorporation of the informal sector
into the formal sector, encouraging
micro-finance initiatives, tapping into
the rural economy, and more
attention to Diaspora remittances,” he said.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Sunday, 29 May 2011 13:04
BY PAUL
NYAKAZEYA
VICTORIA Falls — Former Chamber of Mines president Victor
Gapare has slammed
the government for ignoring views of stakeholders it
claims to have
consulted in its policy formulation.
Addressing
the chamber’s AGM on Friday, Gapare said miners had over the past
two years
engaged government on the indigenisation and economic empowerment
policy.
But none of its views and those of other stakeholders
were taken on board in
the current controversial indigenisation programme
where foreign miners were
being forced to cede their majority shareholding
to locals.
“We then ask government why then consult if you are not prepared
to listen
or even adopt some of the recommendations proffered by those you
claim to be
consulting,” he said.
Gapare said the chamber had
proposed an equity quota of 26% with the balance
coming from credits
emanating from social responsibility activities, local
procurement, skills
development and release of minerals rights.
“Despite these proposals,
government appointed a mining sector committee —
from which I was fired by
the minister and his colleagues — to recommend an
appropriate score for
mining,” he said.
He said the committee had recommended 26% equity,
15% credits and a tax of
10% for those not willing to increase their equity
by a similar margin.
Gapare said the Chamber of Mines was surprised by the
gazetting of General
Notice 114 of March 25 2011 which required mining
companies to file a plan
within 45 days and implement the plan for the
disposal of 51% to mostly
state entities within six months.
“This
notice set several capital raising initiatives back and saw listed
Zimbabwe-focused operations like New Dawn and Zimplats losing between 30%
and 40% of their market value immediately,” he said.
He said
several legal problems created by the gazette were made known to
government
and the chamber looked forward to the resolution of the issues
for true
empowerment to be achieved.
“Our view has always been that focus
should be on value rather than just 51%
equity.
“Rather focus on
the value of the equity instead of just the 51%
shareholding in a
company.
“We should also concentrate on creating new business thus
growing the
industry rather than just sharing the existing mines,” Gapare
said.
He said the chamber was of the firm view that credits should be allowed
and
that most communities want to see mining companies carry out social
responsibility activities, which benefit them directly.
“In
President Mugabe’s speech at the 71st AGM held last year at this venue,
he
indicated that credits would be accepted for the mining sector given the
capital intensive nature of the industry as well as the need to make the
programme broad based,” he said.
The chamber suggested that
Zimbabwe should follow principles of the
Extractive Industries Transparency
Initiatives (EITI) where there is
transparency and cooperation between the
mining company, the community and
government on the community initiatives,
the funding of the initiatives and
the revenues of the mining
company.
“Local procurement does offer significant opportunities for
indigenisation.
“Partnerships with small scale miners will create new
enterprises
contributing to the development of the industry and Zimbabwe in
general,”
Gapare said.
Meanwhile, Mimosa mines MD Winston Chitando was
elected the new Chamber of
Mines president taking over from
Gapare.
Zimplats CEO Alex Mhembere and Metallon Gold COO Allen Mashingaidze
we
elected first and second vice presidents respectively.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Sunday, 29 May 2011 13:02
BY NDAMU
SANDU
THE Air Zimbabwe board has decided to keep a low profile until
the expiry of
its term of office as it is allegedly being bypassed by the
parent ministry
of Transport and Communication in making crucial
decisions.
The board is chaired by farmer-cum- businessman Jonathan Kadzura
and its
term of office ends in August.
Standardbusiness
understands that at one time board members contemplated
resigning en masse
but chickened out fearing a backlash from government.
What has irked
the board is that a senior transport ministry official had
allegedly become
a de-facto executive chairman of the airline making
decisions without
consulting the board.
“He has made sure he does not consult the
board. Honestly, how can you have
a ministry official entering into an
agreement with striking pilots without
the involvement of either the board
or management?” asked one board member.
“What he is saying is that we
are irrelevant so we have decided to wait
until our term of office expires
then leave the airline for good.”
Transport ministry permanent
secretary Partson Mbiriri’s mobile phone was
unavailable while Kadzura’s
phone went unanswered on Friday.
In January, Mbiriri allegedly struck
an agreement with the striking pilots
to resume work after they had downed
tools.
The board recommended that the pilots be fired since the
strike was illegal
but the resolution was overruled by the
ministry.
The January agreement could not be honoured by the ministry
triggering
another industrial action in March by the pilots which grounded
the airline.
The ministry intervened again after it availed US$3,8 million to
pay
salaries and buy fuel among other expenses.
In 2009,
Transport and Communication minister Nicholas Goche promised to
rectify the
problem.
While the board and the ministry are poles apart, the
airline is
deteriorating by the day. Air Zimbabwe has over the years
degenerated into a
museum of mismanagement attributed to government
interference.
Analysts say government has to move out of the airline
to stop the financial
haemorrhage.
Board blames
government
Board members said on Friday the decline at the airline could
be attributed
to government which made sure that AirZim had no
competition.
Despite opening up the skies, government continued to stop
airlines that
wanted to compete with AirZim.
Fly Kumba was denied
permission to fly the Harare-Johannesburg route because
it would compete
with AirZim.
AirZim’s decline comes at a time when airlines flying
into Zimbabwe have
increased frequencies citing growing passenger
volumes.
South African Airways, Kenya Airways, Ethiopian Airlines and
Zambezi have
all enjoyed flying into Zimbabwe due to increased passenger
volumes.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Sunday, 29 May 2011
12:56
By Alexander Rusero
The little known group of
mysterious origins known as Upfumi Kuvadiki has
made some news in the recent
past with the Easipark deal being the most
dominant. Behind all the
stage-managed drama one thing that will go down
memory lane is that the crew
is a typical indicator of a desperate
generation looking forward to
attaining wealth in their dream land in the
name of indigenisation and black
economic empowerment.
Recently The Standard newspaper
reported that the group stormed Econet
Wireless to discuss where they could
fit in. But is this the empowerment
that we want? Is this the empowerment
that our leaders sermonise about
daily?
While it is clear that
the group is another Zanu PF project, it is also
important for the
responsible authorities to engage this group and
enlighten it on proper
approaches to empowerment. Although this sounds
rational it is very
unlikely Minister Saviour Kasukuwere has done that or
would do that in
future. Whether by coincidence or by intention, during the
very same time
and day that the group besieged Easipark, Kasukuwere called
the Mayor of
Harare Muchadei Masunda and ordered him to give audience to the
group
because they were ‘’hungry and angry Zimbabweans.’’
Are such actions by
individuals procedural?
Kasukuwere should have known from the onset
that he was the man of the
moment, and was in a better position to engage
this group because its
grievances fell under his ministerial portfolio, but
his behaviour simply
proved that the actions of the youths were a
politically-staged gimmick
sugar-coated to appear as a genuine
cause.
Regrettably Kasukuwere is at the helm of an ill-informed
generation; a
generation that does not believe in work but believes that
wealth can simply
be stolen from others. Even to the disbelief of many,
Local Government
minister Ignatius Chombo flexed his muscles on this
delusional group
challenging its members to be a little bit more rational
and innovative with
their demands ordering the group to end its
confrontational attitude. If
Chombo, a well-known Zanu PP hardcore and top
apologist of Mugabe, failed to
gather sense on the motives of the group then
one may not be condemned for
labelling such a group a gang of opportunists
masquerading as champions of
youth empowerment.
There are a lot a
feasible solutions and approaches at hand that may make
the doomed black
economic empowerment scheme workable but as long as there
are people who
believe they are more equal than others and hence deserve a
larger stake in
the economy, then catastrophic economic consequences lie
ahead.
Kasukuwere needs to articulate clearly that empowerment
does not entitle
veryone to be an employer and investor. We still need a
workforce that will
operate these businesses. The minister should also learn
from the land
redistribution scheme fiasco. Eleven years after engaging in
the land reform
programme, the land question has still remained a case of
unfinished
business.
The land reform programme remains a crucial
case study of how ill-informed
and untimed policies can bring long-term
effects and suffering on the
masses.
Politicians have a role of
implementing economic policies in the interest of
people who chose them to
be in charge of daily administration of public
affairs. The economic agenda
is a crucial one and needs people’s input and
consideration first to avoid
unnecessary consequences that we have witnessed
before.
There is
still plenty of time to revisit our empowerment scheme and unearth
all the
aspects that citizens feel may do harm to Zimbabwe’s current and
future
investment.
That can only be possible if there is zero tolerance is
employed on dreamers
and hallucinators like Upfumi Kuvadiki.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Sunday, 29 May 2011
12:54
Many would have been surprised by the grit displayed by
Brigadier-General
Dou-glas Nyikayaramba in stating that Zanu PF would win
the harmonised
elections his party wants held this year. Asked by the
Zimbabwe Independent
what the military would do in case someone without
liberation war
credentials (obviously referring to Morgan Tsvangirai) won
the elections,
Nyikayaramba said the question was irrelevant because Zanu PF
was assured of
electoral victory in the next elections.
“I don’t see such
a thing happening. It is (a) very irrelevant (question)
based on factors on
the ground. There is no such possibility. It’s a dream,”
Nyikayaramba
said.
Recently there have been claims in the state-run media that
Zanu PF would
win the elections by 60% as opposed to MDC-T’s 40%. Sceptics
have questioned
how the former ruling party came up with these
statistics.
But a look at the proposed amendments to the Electoral
Act shows that a Zanu
PF victory is inevitable. A report in the daily Herald
on Friday said that
cabinet had approved the proposed amendments after
parties to the Global
Political Agreement agreed on the raft of adjustments.
The adjustments would
now be gazetted before being brought to parliament for
debate.
Tucked among the adjustments is one amendment which ensures
that Zanu PF has
already manipulated the elections and is heading for a
landslide victory.
This is the seemingly innocuous clause that stipulates
that the next
elections would use polling-station-based voters’ rolls as
opposed to the
ward-based rolls used in 2008.
It is surprising
that, according to the Herald report, Tsvangirai with the
other principals
approved this amendment. We all know how Zanu PF is going
to abuse this
adjustment to win especially the rural vote.
Zanu PF has perpetuated
the myth that it has got unwavering support in the
rural areas when it fact
it does not. However, political players in both the
“opposition” and civil
society seem to have swallowed this ruse and even
promoted it. It is this
trick that has enabled Zanu PF to continually claim
victory in the rural
areas when in fact they have used underhand means, such
as denying voters
secrecy when casting their ballots.
The fundamental issue about the
electoral process in Zimbabwe, is not that
there is electoral violence
accompanying all elections but that the people,
especially in the rural
areas, have never been given the opportunity to
express their free
will.
There are minimum conditions that a ballot election should meet
for it to be
defined as such, which have never been met in Zimbabwe. One of
these is
secrecy; the other is security before, during and after voting. But
due to
lack of these two fundamental benchmarks in ballot elections,
violence has
become an effective electoral tool or technique used repeatedly
to win
elections.
According to analysts, if there is voter
secrecy, enabling a voter to choose
his or her electoral candidate without
the fear that his choice will be
known by another person and if there is an
assurance that there will be no
punishment or retribution for voting in a
particular manner, violence would
cease to be an effective electoral tool. A
voter who has been subjected to
violence will still be able to use the
secrecy of the ballot to assert his
freedom of choice. When the secrecy of
the ballot is lost and the security
of the citizen who does not vote for
those who hold power cannot be assured,
then there will be no ballot
elections. The voter becomes a human tool, a
pawn in the vote accumulation
scheme of the ones with power and not a free
individual, freely exercising
his or her right to determine the destiny of
the country.
This is
exactly the scenario that has been created for the next elections by
making
them polling-station-based rather than ward-based. In the last
election
people could choose which polling station in their ward to vote at
but now
every voter will be allocated a polling station at which to cast his
vote.
This immediately takes away the security that should go with ballot
elections. We know the tactics that will be used — they have all been used
before — traditional leaders will ensure their subjects vote in a particular
way and also ensure that everyone in the village votes. No one can abstain
from voting because this would immediately be known. Village heads have in
the past been known to confiscate their subjects’ identity documents only to
return them at the polling station.
Polling-station-based voters’
rolls also expose voters to collective
punishment. If individuals in a
village decide to vote for a candidate
different from the one those in power
want, the whole community might be
subjected to retribution through a
witch-hunt.
On polling day villagers will be herded into polling
stations and made to
quietly follow orders. Observers may be lost to the
fact that the villagers
they are seeing in queues are not simply law-abiding
citizens under their
traditional leaders standing in a orderly manner to
efficiently cast their
ballots. They would in fact be citizens deprived of
their pride and
confidence; merely frightened and insecure persons going
through the motion
of putting an X exactly where they were told to put
it.
We know that Zanu PF is already on the ground executing this
strategy.
Reports have come from throughout the country that military
personnel
referred to as “the boys on leave” have already been deployed into
the rural
areas to conscientise the people on how they are expected to vote
and the
consequences that go with voting otherwise.
By omission
and commission civil society has failed to articulate the
fundamental issues
affecting elections in Zimbabwe. In the end, to many
observers Zimbabwe has
held elections by secret ballot which were marred by
violence, but this is
absolutely not so; Zimbabwe has never really held a
secret ballot election,
particularly in the rural areas where the majority
of our people
live.
Whereas in the urban areas the electoral process has been
corrupted by
placing hurdles in the way of voters casting their votes, in
the rural areas
voters have been deprived of the opportunity to cast their
votes in secrecy.
Yes, Nyikayaramba is right, an MDC victory is just
but a “dream” and
Tsvangirai and his crew are like sheep being herded for
slaughter, come next
elections.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Sunday, 29 May 2011 12:52
By
Alexactus T Kaure
The Windhoek Sadc summit has come and gone. And
so has Africa Day which was
celebrated across the continent on May
25.
People are now probably preparing for next year to perform the
same rituals.
I say rituals here because nothing seems to change — which is
the
characteristic of a ritual. But someone might grab me by the throat and
say
“that’s not true”, and under that pressure I would probably concede that
things have indeed changed. But what has changed?
Yes, we
changed the name of the Southern African Development Coordination
Conference
(SADCC) to Southern African Development Community (Sadc) in 1992,
in the
high-altitude city of Windhoek.
And we did the same with the
Organisation of African Unity when we changed
it to the African Union (AU)
in 2002, in the coastal city of Durban.
But stubbornly, I might still insist
that things have not changed because
despite the name changes southern
Africa, and indeed Africa itself, is still
far from being integrated and
united.
There is neither an integrated Sadc region nor is there a
united Africa with
a union government. In the case of Sadc, we were told
that by 2008 the
region would have a Free Trade Area (FTA) — reducing or
eliminating tariffs
or relaxing non-tariff barriers to the movement of goods
and services.
This has not happened as yet after a good 31 years. In the case
of the
African Union, African leaders have been talking about African unity
and a
union government for the “United States of Africa” since the formation
of
the original OAU in 1963 in Addis Ababa. Thus Kwame Nkrumah’s urgings for
a
union have been in vain.
Any serious discussion of the problems
facing the integration or unity
agenda in the region and in Africa must
involve a process of restructuring
the African reality itself.
I
therefore argue here that the integration and unity talk is essentially
following the same political trajectory that pertains at the national level
of the various African countries themselves. Thus unless one addresses the
national question first, one cannot hope to move on to the higher ground —
which is the regional level. The example of the European Union is
instructive here.
There was no blanket admission to the union in
Europe. Some countries were
required to put their houses in order first
before they could seek
membership.
However, in Africa, any system
goes. Commenting on the recent suspension of
the Sadc Tribunal, the radical
lawyer, Norman Tjombe, asked why Sadc leaders
should support a strong
regional court if they don’t support strong courts
in their own
countries?
Proceeding from that perspective, one can legitimately
argue that as time
elapses, as the post-colonial period lengthens and
African societies
rediscover their past, then the significance of
nationalist politics becomes
less so.
We are witnessing it in
Namibia where identity politics (read tribal
politics) is taking
root.
Thus, if individual countries themselves aren’t united
internally, how can
they unite at the regional and eventually at continental
level?
Let me, however, as a corollary to the preceding discussion
look at the
significance of Africa in contemporary global politics assuming
there was a
semblance of integration and unity. In recent years and weeks,
especially in
the wake of recent “revolutions” in North Africa, we have
heard and read
about “African solutions to African problems” being tossed
around and about.
Specifically in the case of Libya where Nato forces
have been maintaining a
no-fly zone and also the bombing of military targets
(of course with the
usual civilian casualties caught in the cross-fire)
African leaders have
been urging that to be stopped because they see it as
another Western
imperialist agenda and would instead argue that Africa can
solve its own
problems.
But when did Africa ever solve its
problems? That’s the question. Why didn’t
Africa intervene before the UN and
Nato came into the picture? They are
calling for dialogue between the Libyan
leader and the rebels — which is now
too late, I’m afraid. Muammar Gaddafi
has had ample chance to do so.
But he decided to unleash the might of the
Libyan military on his own
people. Closer to home, what is Sadc doing in
the case of Zimbabwe where
President Robert Mugabe remains defiant.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Sunday, 29 May 2011 12:51
Zimbabwe
will this week assume the chairmanship of the African Union Peace
and
Security Council (PSC).
Under normal circumstances, this would be
something to celebrate, given the
importance of the organ which was set up
in 2002 to enforce decisions made
by heads of state and
government.
AU leaders established the body after noting
incessant conflicts in Africa.
The PSC is mandated to promote peace,
security and stability in order to
guarantee the protection of life and
property on the continent.
It is also supposed to anticipate and
prevent conflicts and, in situations
where conflicts already exist, the
organ undertakes peace-making efforts to
resolve them.
It also
promotes and encourages democratic practices, good governance, the
rule of
law, the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms,
respect for
the sanctity of human life and humanitarian law.
These tasks make the
PSC a very important instrument in the African Union’s
quest to bring peace
to a continent ravaged by war and dictatorship.
Given the importance of the
body, it is therefore difficult to understand
how Zimbabwe, a country that
is notorious for violence, blatant disregard
for the rule of law and
election rigging can be asked to lead it. Is this
any different from making
a village criminal the local sheriff?
While the chairmanship of the
organ is rotational, there is every reason for
the AU to change the rules so
that countries such as Zimbabwe cannot assume
the chairmanship of this
important body. Only this month Zimbabwean
authorities celebrated the demise
of the Sadc Tribunal thus advertising
their contempt for the rule of
law.
If Zimbabwe is allowed to chair the AU peace flag-bearer,
nothing will stop
Libya, still under the grip of Muammar Gaddafi who is
shelling his own
people in Misurata, from heading it one day.
The
AU is aware of the problems in Zimbabwe and should be seen to be
pressing
for a solution rather than rewarding the country, which is already
engulfed
by conflict.
Only those countries that have pursued policies that
promote peace should be
at the forefront of peace-making initiatives. Who
will take the AU seriously
now?