http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 06 November 2011 08:52
By CAIPHAS
CHIMHETE
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has tightened security around
himself and his family
in recent months following massive demonstrations
against autocratic regimes
in several African countries in the past months,
authoritative sources said.
The uprisings saw the demise of autocrats
that never dreamt of the day when
the political tide would turn against
them. The sources said Mugabe has
beefed up security details — that include
police, CIO officers and
soldiers — making his already huge entourage
bloated, especially when
travelling out of town.
The sources said
the enhanced security was also necessitated by the fact
that Mugabe no
longer trusts his cronies following revelations by
whistle-blower website,
WikiLeaks, that most of them wanted him to go.
Some questioned his
ability to continue to lead due to advanced age and
failing health. Mugabe’s
reinforced security was evident last week in
Mazowe, about 40km outside
Harare, where he officiated at the ground-
breaking ceremony for the
multi-million dollar Grace Mugabe Foundation
Primary
School.
The school was built on the same land that the First Lady
grabbed from local
residents who had built their houses on it. Some of the
62 affected families
had built their houses while others were at foundation
level.
Security details on Thursday were almost everywhere in Mazowe
when The
Standard news crew visited the area.
Armed and unarmed police
officers and soldiers were deployed at a dirt road
that turns from the main
road along the Harare-Mazowe road from Blue Ridge
Shopping Complex, almost
10km from the venue of the ceremony.
Heavily armed soldiers were also
deployed in the mountains near Mazowe Dam
and by midday some were visibly
tired as they slept under trees.
The Standard news crew was prevented from
covering the event by security
manning the entrance who accused it of
writing negative things about the
orphanage and the First
Lady.
Residents of Mazowe were afraid of walking freely because of
the heavy
security presence.
Some of the residents said they were told to
minimise their movements a day
before the event because the First Lady was
visiting the area.
“I have not seen anything like this,” said one
resident.
“How can one family have such security details around it?
Is Mugabe really
under threat?” The resident stopped talking after a police
officer emerged
from a service station shop where he had replaced the guard,
who usually
keeps check at the door.
They were taking turns
to sit in the shop. Other details were deployed at
the hotel and two
shopping centres along a road that leads to Iron Mask
Farm, a prime
agricultural farm that the First Family grabbed from a white
commercial
farmer.
Sources said Mugabe’s security was enhanced soon after
demonstrations that
rocked Malawi in July. The fall of leaders such as
Muammar Gaddaffi of
Libya, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Tunisian leader Zine
El Abidine Ben Ali
has shaken the 87-year-old leader, who has been ruling
Zimbabwe to the core.
Efforts to get a comment from the Minister of State for
State Security in
the President’s Office Sydney Sekeramayi were fruitless as
he could not be
reached on his mobile phone.
. . . as he
loses control of Zanu PF
BY TATENDA CHITAGU
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe
is fast losing control of Zanu PF, as poor health
and old age catches up
with the veteran politician.
Party officials and MDC-T officials said there
was abundant evidence to show
that the 87-year-old had lost his once
octopus-like grip on the party.
They said his failure to deal with political
violence and rampant corruption
were clear signs that Mugabe was more of a
figurehead in the presidium than
anything else.
They noted
Mugabe’s failure to deal with officials named by whistleblower
website,
WikiLeaks as having collaborated with the US officials behind his
back as
another sign of weakness.
The observers said cliques of powerful and
rich individuals in the army,
police and central intelligence organisation
have virtually taken over
Mugabe’s roles both in the party and at national
level.
They added that it would not be in the political interest of
Zanu PF for
Mugabe to stand as the party’s presidential candidate in the
coming
election.
Former Zanu PF Masvingo provincial secretary for
information Kudzai Mbudzi
said the party’s waning political fortunes will
worsen if Mugabe stands for
another term.
Mbudzi said the party
should come up with another presidential candidate if
it still entertains
hopes of defeating the MDC-T’s Morgan Tsvangirai, now
Prime Minister in the
inclusive government.
“It is therefore, more informed, instructive
and with clear wisdom of
purpose for Zanu PF to put forth another candidate
in future presidential
elections,” he said.
Mugabe is expected to
be endorsed as the Zanu PF candidate in the coming
polls next year or in
2013. MDC-T spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora said despite
displaying apparent
political strength on the surface, Mugabe is
increasingly showing that he
has no spine to deal with rotten apples in Zanu
PF.
“Mugabe is a weak
leader, he cannot stop some elements within Zanu PF from
misbehaving,” said
Mwonzora.
“Take, for example, the violence that rocked parliament. He
was busy
denouncing violence while Chipangano was unleashing violence. He
cannot
control some bad elements within his party.”
Tsvangirai
recently admitted that Mugabe was no longer in control. He said
security
agents were behind a “coup’’ that is plunging Zimbabwe back into
political
violence.
Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo, who on several occasions
denied that
Mugabe was no longer in charge, could not be reached for
comment.
But Zanu PF senior politburo member and chief negotiator in talks
with the
MDC movements, Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa, recently said
his party
could not afford to substitute Mugabe in the next
elections.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 06 November 2011 10:22
BY PATIENCE
NYANGOVE
THE deportation of non-documented Zimbabweans has reportedly
left the MDC-T
in a quandary, The Standard has learnt. South Africa last
month resumed the
deportation of Zimbabweans that had not regularised their
stay in that
country.
This has seen thousands of
Zimbabweans being deported back home on a weekly
basis, but many still found
their way back to SA. According to high-ranking
sources within the MDC-T,
the party’s leadership stood to gain if the
Zimbabweans returned home to
vote, yet they could not be seen to be
encouraging the
deportations.
“Yes for the party, it will be good if these
Zimbabweans come home and vote
for us. “However, we know that life is hard
for them and they need to work
and take care of their families, so we can’t
be seen openly supporting their
deportation,” a party official
said.
However, the party’s deputy national spokesperson Tabitha
Khumalo denied
that her party was caught between a rock and a hard place.
“Most of those
people who are being deported are from Matabeleland, a region
that has been
de-industrialised, companies have been closed and if these
people are
deported, there is no source of income for them,” said
Khumalo.
“Another challenge for these people is that they are without
citizenship
because of Gukurahundi that has left many with no proper
documentation.
She added: “Now is the time for the MDC-T to push for the
documentation or
registration of these people. So we are not caught in
between anything.
“This is time for the MDC-T to correct this registration
anomaly, where
these people have been denied registration for so many
years.”
South Africa is deporting an average of 500 Zimbabweans
weekly. Hundreds of
thousands of Zimbabweans have made their way into South
Africa in recent
years to escape the country’s political turmoil and an
economy crisis.
It is estimated that there are more than one million
Zimbabweans in South
Africa with most of them living there illegally.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 06 November
2011 10:18
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe’s health was under spotlight again
yesterday
afternoon during the Chinhoyi University of Technology graduation
ceremony.
The ceremony, which was supposed to have taken place two weeks ago
was
delayed amid speculation that the President had hastily travelled to the
Asia for treatment.
Yesterday, a visibly shaking Mugabe was
helped to manoeuvre the steps up and
down the podium where he conferred
degrees while seated. Mugabe, who is
known to make long speeches, did not
say much at the function.
In one instance he referred to Chinhoyi
University of Technology as Chinhoyi
College much to the embarrassment of
his learned colleagues at the high
table.
Realising that his
sharp memory was now fading away, he was seen constantly
referring to the
prepared paper. In his heyday the President, who boasts of
many degrees and
a sharp intellect, would not turn to papers for such simple
detail.
Most people who attended the graduation ceremony were
surprised by the snail’s
pace in which the President was walking, leaving
many in the audience
wondering why he should not retire.
A
graduate who refused to be identified for fear of victimisation said it is
evident that the President is past his prime and advised parliament to force
him to retire.
The Constitution of Zimbabwe allows Parliament to
relieve the President of
his duties if they see that he is incapacitated in
any way.
Away from President Mugabe’s healthy woes, there was singing and
jubilation
as more than 300 students’ graduated.
— By Nunurai
Jena
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 06 November 2011 13:36
BY JENNIFER
DUDE
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
have agreed on
a meeting that will bring together their parties’ highest
decision-making
bodies in a bid to find ways of eradicating political
violence.
Sources last week said the meeting which was supposed to be
held a fortnight
ago, was proposed by Mugabe and agreed to by Tsvangirai,
but had to be
postponed indefinitely as the parties are continuously locked
up in other
business.
Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo
confirmed the pending meeting.
“That meeting is being coordinated
by the secretary for administration Cde
(Didymus) Mutasa,” said
Gumbo.
“All I can do is confirm that there is indeed a proposal
to have a meeting
between the politburos of the parties.”
MDC
spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora also confirmed the meeting, and like his
Zanu
PF counterpart, added that they were yet to be advised on the new
date.
Violence continues to rock Harare’s high- density suburbs,
especially Mbare,
where Zanu PF militia, known as Chipangano, wantonly
terrorise residents and
vendors dispossessing them of market
stands.
Gumbo said Zanu PF insists that some of the violence
happening in the
country is being perpetrated by MDC-T despite the media’s
coverage which
gives the impression that his party was the
culprit.
“We hope to address various issues of violence,
including causes and how
best we can improve the political situation in the
country,” Gumbo said.
“Our position as a party is that we want stability,
peace and a conducive
environment for campaigning, which will lead to free
and fair elections.”
Mwonzora however, said the proposed meeting
is just a clumsy public
relations stunt which may not do much in ending
violence.
“If Mugabe hopes to find ways of eradicating violence
through his proposed
meeting with the two parties’ highest decision-making
bodies then he is
addressing the wrong people,” Mwonzora
said.
“Our view is that the solution lies in President Mugabe
telling the police
and some members of the army to stop harassing
people.”
Mwonzora said politicians may spend a lot of time in
discussions but this
would not yield anything as long as the police and the
army were not roped
into the discussions.
He said the
violence that took place just after Mugabe’s speech at the
opening of
Parliament showed that the perpetrators of violence have gone out
of hand,
as they can even disobey Mugabe.
What is disheartening, Mwonzora
said, is that no arrests have been made to
date. But Gumbo said the police
and the army were independent government
institutions which discharge their
duties according to their professional
dictates.
“MDC is part
of government so if they want these institutions to be
addressed, they
should raise that at cabinet level,” he said.
“Zanu PF cannot
tell the police what to do, they are not our institution.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 06 November 2011
13:41
BY NQABA MATSHAZI
THE past few weeks have seen an
escalation of violence, with Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai warning that
the country had effectively slid back to the
2008 scenario.
Ugly
scenes of violence engulfed the MDC-T party’s headquarters last
Tuesday,
with police firing teargas and deploying scores of police outside
Harvest
House.
Many feared that this was confirmation that the country
had returned to the
dark old days, of settling political scores
violently.
Observers have said the police response to a vendor
who alleged assaulted an
officer, was disproportionate and they did not have
to deploy in the manner
they did.
The skirmishes outside
Harvest House in Harare, however, may not be isolated
but rather could be
seen as part of a political strategy by Zanu PF and the
law enforcement
agents, the observers said.
Last weekend a battalion of armed
police officers stormed St Paul’s Mission
in Lupane in Matabeleland North
province where they disrupted an MDC-T
rally, arguing that they listened
to their bosses and would not follow court
orders.
These
scenes were replicated in the resort town of Victoria Falls, where
police
barricaded themselves into a stadium, ensuring that no one was
allowed to
enter and attend an MDC-T rally.
A Zanu PF outfit, known as
Chipangano, has also allegedly unleashed a reign
of terror in Harare, where
they are threatening to take over businesses and
land among a host of
illegal activities.
Recently they attacked legislators and
journalists inside parliament.
Chipangano also unleashed an orgy of violence
outside the august House,
while, ironically, President Robert Mugabe
preached peace inside it.
Brilliant Mhlanga, a media scholar
believes there is nothing new, but that
it was part of the way Zanu PF
handled its negotiation process.
“We must understand it as a sign
of the elections we should expect soon,” he
said. “But above all violence in
Zimbabwe has often been used as a form of
negotiating our weird constitution
of society.”
Mhlanga said violence was used by Zanu PF as a tool
to intimidate people and
also as a reminder of the past, when violence had
been used as a tool.
“Further, as a strategy it boldly confirms
the presence of Zanu PF to the
ordinary masses and, as a process of
re-incarnation, it serves to remind
them of violence they would have seen
before and that if they do not play
ball more of it will follow,” Mhlanga
added.
The media scholar said he described Zimbabwe’s social
order as weird,
because it was strange that citizens were violently coerced
into deciding
issues that would affect them in the
future.
Mhlanga said, Zanu PF hoped that the threat of violence
would continue
looming over the heads of people so that in the event of
elections the party
may be in ascendancy, failure to which, mayhem may be
unleashed.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 06 November 2011 13:44
BY CAIPHAS
CHIMHETE
A Harare MP is working with a United Kingdom-based
company to install water
purification facilities at public places in an
effort to contain cholera
which ravaged his constituency three years
ago.
Minister of Science and Tech- nology Development Professor Heneri
Dzinotyiweyi, who is MP for Budiriro in Harare, said the facilities were
designed to provide clean water to his constituency which has had perennial
outbreaks of cholera since 2008.
A representative of the
UK-based Meckow Limited visited the country a
fortnight ago to study the
challenges and explore project sites in Budiriro.
Meckow, which
is involved in the production of water filters, also sources
and supplies
road construction equipment.
Statistics indicate that over 4 000
people succumbed to cholera in the
country in 2008 with a significant number
of them from Budiriro, a suburb
dubbed “Baghdad” because of its militancy
against President Robert Mugabe’s
administration.
It is
estimated to have 18 000 households, with each having an average of
seven
people. The suburb is among the most populous in Harare with run-down
public
facilities such as schools and clinics.
Campaign targets public
places
Concerning the anti-cholera project, Dzinotyiweyi, said: “For a
start we are
hoping to have at least six points where we put the water
purifying machines
and these will be stationed at clinics, schools and other
public places. The
facilities use a membrane to purify the
water.”
But the project is unlikely to materialise before the
start of this rain
season as studies are still being
conducted.
The idea of installing water purification facilities
came up after it was
discovered that underground water in the area was
contaminated.
In 2009, a team of experts from Bangladesh, who
were working under the
auspices of the World Health Organisation (WHO), said
water samples from
taps, wells and even boreholes in the suburb were found
to be heavily
contaminated with coliform, a cholera causing
bacteria.
Although Unicef came to the rescue of the residents by
drilling 19 boreholes
in the area, Dzinotyiweyi said there was still need to
boil the water as
underground water was contaminated.
When
The Standard news crew visited the area last week long queues of people
fetching water from boreholes wound their way through, potholes and moulds
of flourishing garbage that almost blocked roads.
Rows of
vendors selling wares from pieces of fresh meat, clothes, hardware
items to
vegetables lined up almost every street near shopping centres. Big
green
flies hovered around the dishes of meat — a recipe for a cholera
outbreak,
especially during this rainy season.
Raw sewage from burst sewer
pipes have formed rivulets in most parts of the
suburb meandering to a
larger stream that feeds into Lake Chivero, Harare’s
major source of
drinking water.
Most of the shopping centres have no public
toilets forcing residents,
mostly beer drinkers, to use areas behind
buildings to relieve themselves.
Residents denounce the timing of
the project
Dzinotyiweyi however, has his own detractors. Political
opponents in
Budiriro do not appreciate what the MP is doing in the
area.
They last week accused Dzinotyiweyi of frequenting the
constituency because
elections were around the corner. Elections are
expected to be held next
year or in 2013.
“We now see him here and
there because of the impending elections,” said
Aaron Mukwazhi of Budiriro 5
suburb.
“He can’t claim to have assisted us in any way because
most of the boreholes
were drilled by Unicef when people were dying from
cholera.”
The situation in Budiriro is reflective of suburbs such
as Mbare, Mabvuku,
Tafara, Kuwadzana and Glen View. Dzinotyiweyi is however
undeterred.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 06 November 2011 13:39
BY NQOBANI
NDLOVU
BULAWAYO — Mthwakazi Liberation Front (MLF) economic
adviser, Paul Siwela,
has sought police protection as suspected state
security agents stormed his
house in the early hours of Monday and started
wandering about the premises.
Siwela, who faces treason charges, said he
fears for his life, adding that
he suspects that the security agents “wanted
to plant something or to take
something they had already planted in his
yard” to incriminate him.
Bulawayo Police spokesperson Inspector
Mandlenkosi Moyo last week confirmed
that Siwela had sought police
protection.
“We are investigating the matter. No arrests have
been made as yet,” said
Moyo.
Siwela told journalists on
Tuesday that the suspected state security agents
that have been trailing him
were driving a 4x4 Toyota Fortuner.
“These people have been
following me for over a week now and their motive
scares me. In the early
hours of Monday, they parked their brown vehicle at
my gate and got into my
yard, where they started wandering about for around
15 minutes engaging in
activities which I do not know,” said Siwela.
“We could not come
out to confront them because of fear as they might even
have shot us.
Judging by their movements, they were up to something evil
because nothing
was stolen.
“I am exposing this because maybe there is something
which they want to
achieve. Knowing these people, there is obviously an
intention to be
accomplished by this visit.”
Siwela was
released in July from Khami Maximum prison after spending almost
three
months in remand on treason charges for calling for a separate
Matabeleland
state.
He is out on US$2 000 bail with stringent reporting
conditions.
Siwela’s MLF is leading calls for a separate
Matabeleland state saying the
province is being sidelined from national
development programmes.
MLF, which was formed last year, says a
separate Matabeleland state is
necessary to put an end to the
marginalisation of the region, which lags
behind in development.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 06 November 2011 10:25
BY NQABA
MATSHAZI
A new health insurance firm, Green Card Medical Society, is
reportedly on
the brink of collapse with claims that the company’s
expenditure outstripped
its income.
But Munyaradzi Kereke, the
company’s founder said these claims were untrue
and “malcontents” had stolen
documents from his offices so they could cast
the company in bad light.
Kereke has since filed a report for stolen
documents at the Harare Central
Police Station, CR Number 1611/11.
The leaked documents revealed that
Green Card members had made claims of
about US$121 000, yet the company had
only collected US$87 600, meaning the
company was spending up to a quarter
more than it was receiving. These
figures are from April 2011 to September
2011.
The insiders said that what had compounded Green Card’s
position was that
its membership drive had not been successful, with the
company only managing
2 000 subscribers since its launch in March. Some
medical institutions were
reportedly turning away patients who held Green
Card membership, citing the
delay in recouping their money.
An
income and expenditure account for six months ending on August 31, shows
that the company was straddled with very high staff costs and other
overheads.
Green Card’s financial position, the sources said, was
so precarious that
the company had sought a merger with GrainMed, a medical
aid society for the
Grain Marketing Board.
In a written response,
Kereke dismissed reports that his company was in the
red and instead said he
was owed close to a million dollars by various
medical aid societies. “The
brand, together with Rockfoundation Medical
Centre, is collectively owed
US$732 714 by various medical aid societies, a
result of the current laws
which give debtors up to 60 to 90 days for
accounts to be settled,” he
said.
Kereke said he had written to the Ministry of Health to have
this anomaly
addressed. He further said reports indicating that claims were
higher than
premiums were false and the reverse was true. He also dismissed
as false
insinuations that Green Card was looking for a merger with
GrainMed, saying
neither the board nor management had considered this
position.
Kereke said he was astounded by reports that people were
being turned away
from medical institutions, saying it was illegal to turn
away patients and
such medical centres should be reported to
authorities.
On workers demanding their exit packages, Kereke said
they had part paid
those and the full package would be paid once the
company’s debtors had
paid-up.
“Your source is exuding a great
deal of sour grapes,” he charged.“The
package was given on a voluntary basis
to allow those that found the
high-performance standards expectations at
Green Card too high for them.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 06 November 2011
14:25
BY MOSES CHIBAYA
Most clinics at colleges are
operating without essential drugs and lack
comprehensive systems for the
treatment and management of sexually
transmitted infections (STIs), a health
official said last week.
Beatrice Savadye, Advocacy Officer for Student
and Youth Working on Sexual
Reproductive Health Action Team (Saywhat), said
there is no college that
offers Anti-retroviral Therapy (ART) or
comprehensive treatment and
management of STIs.
Speaking at a
Southern Africa HIV and Aids Dissemination Information Service
(SafAids)
media briefing session recently, Savadye called for a health
budget that
addresses the plight of students.
Savadye also noted that there
was limited access to HIV counselling and
testing facilities at universities
with only Africa University, Bindura
University and University of Zimbabwe
offering such facilities.
She said most colleges only offered
basic drugs such as paracetamol and MMT
at their
clinics.
“There is limited access to HIV- testing and counselling
(HTC) services and
psycho-social support for students living with HIV,” said
Savadye.
“Most teenagers are under pressure to keep their status
a secret, especially
those in colleges and universities because they worry
about what their peers
will think of them.”
She said
government policies and their implementation were not friendly to
all youths
citing an example of those with disability.
“Sadly, young people
with disabilities are often left out of such
programmes,” she
said.
The Opportunity in Crisis, a report on preventing HIV
during early
adolescence to young adulthood released in June this year by UN
agencies
says young people worldwide face a significant risk of HIV
infection every
day.
It says reducing levels of incidence
requires not a single intervention but
a continuum of HIV prevention
programmes that provides information and
support services to adolescents and
young people throughout the life cycle,
from very young adolescents (aged 10
-14) through older adolescents (aged
15-19) to young adults (aged
20-24).
Savadye said despite the sharp drop in prevalence rate at
national level new
infections among the youth were still high.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 06 November 2011 10:33
By Our
Staff
Five people died on the spot yesterday after the car they were
travelling in
was involved in a head on collision near Connemara outside
Gweru.
One of deceased was an employee of the New Ziana in the marketing
department.
Details of the accident were sketchy yesterday
evening, although employees
from New Ziana and other travellers confirmed
the accident.
Contacted for comment, police spokesman, Inspector Patrick
Chademana said he
was driving and would only comment later.
Efforts to
contact him later proved fruitless as his number was unavailable.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 06 November 2011 13:37
BY JENNIFER
DUBE
SOME companies involved in the sale of water in Harare are
negatively
affecting the water table and disturbing the water supply to
their
neighbours, especially those living downstream, council has
said.
Harare mayor Muchadeyi Masunda last week said the city had received
a lot of
complaints especially from low-density areas like Borrowdale and
Avondale
concerning bulk water suppliers’ activities.
“Some
of these people who are in the business of selling water are
abstracting
large amounts of underground water, affecting their neighbours,
especially
those who are downstream,” Masunda said.
“You see tankers all
over the place and we have a problem with this
abstraction of unusually
large amounts of water.”
There have been reports that some
residents had resorted to sinking
boreholes in their properties without
council approval.
“We have not had any problems with the sinking
of boreholes for domestic
use,” Masunda said.
“One cannot
sink a borehole without approval from the designated local
authority and a
designated drilling company does the drilling on behalf of
the City of
Harare.”
A University of Zimbabwe researcher, Professor Chris
Magadza, warned
recently that Harare water table has sunk from 15 to 30
metres within the
last decade, something some people have partly linked to
the sinking of
boreholes to avert water shortages.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 06 November 2011 13:38
BY PATIENCE
NYANGOVE
A Zimbabwe Assemblies of God Africa (Zaoga) pastor based
in the United
Kingdom, has been excommunicated for his alleged links with
MDC-T.
Demos Jeko was also accused of being gay after some of his
pictures
allegedly manipulated to show him engaging in homosexual activities
were
circulated on the social network site Facebook.
Sources
said Jeko’s troubles started when he was accused of addressing an
MDC-T
meeting in Gweru in January this year. “Jeko, who is married with four
children, has been surviving from handouts, courtesy of friends and
relatives here in the UK,” the source said.
“He is afraid of
coming back home for fear of being arrested over that
unsanctioned meeting,
but at the same time he can’t also stay here as his
work permit has been
revoked.”
He has also been receiving threatening emails from
unknown people, the
sources said. Jeko confirmed that he had been
excommunicated from the church
after he was accused of supporting the MDC-T
and being gay.
“Yes it’s true I have been ex-communicated from
the church over my links
with the MDC-T before. They also accused me of
being gay,” he said.
“That’s all I can tell you.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 06 November 2011 13:47
BY
JEFFREY MOYO
MUTARE — She gropes her way around with the help of
her only child, Tapiwa,
who finished writing Grade Seven examinations this
year.
Without the child’s assistance, it would be virtually impossible to
navigate
her way or carry out ordinary chores.
This is the
sad story of Tendai Ndongwe, a former primary school teacher,
who lost her
job after she was dismissed on medical grounds a few years
ago.
But the 35-year-old teacher is now fighting with her former
employer, the
Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, for
reinstatement.
She claims to have been forced out and paid a
paltry compensation.
“I want to go back to work,” says Ndongwe.
“But the PSC (Public Service
Commission) says it is still waiting for a
directive from above to start
re-employing.”
But the PSC says
it will reconsider her case when the government unfreezes
posts that
remained vacant after it ceased employing new staff due to the
decade-long
economic crisis that bedevilled the country.
Presently over 1 000
teachers, who were granted amnesty after spending years
out of service
following indications that they were recruited
unprocedurally, face
dismissal.
The teachers emigrated at the height of the economic
crisis in 2008. But the
government later offered to reinstate them following
a critical shortage of
teachers.
Public Service deputy
minister Andrew Langa recently said his ministry only
considered those
recommended by the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and
Culture.
Ndongwe said she trained at Mary Mount Teachers’
College in Mutare before
getting a teaching post in Chipinge, where she
started developing sight
problems.
She longs to read
newspapers which she last did in 2006 when she read a
story about gospel
singer Ivy Kombo.
But she did so with some
difficulties.
Disaster struck when she visited a doctor that
fateful day, who injected her
three doses of a drug and about 40 minutes
later she was totally blind.
“The doctor injected a drug that sad
day and my right eye was the first to
be affected after that and 40 minutes
later I could not see,” she said.
The first days were the most
difficult in her life as she could not live
with her new condition. But with
time, reality dawned on her and she
accepted her
situation.
“Acquired disability and the disability that one is
born with are two
different things,” she said.
Liberty
Lupahla, who is also visually impaired, said he also lost a lot of
opportunities due to his visual impairment.
Lupahla, a
trained journalist, said for 12 years he walked from pillar to
post in
search of a job but to no avail.
“Employers at a certain
prominent media organisation in Harare did not take
me for unclear reasons
but they claimed they were not discriminating against
my disability,” he
said.
Ndongwe and Lupahla’s cases are not unique.
There
are many people with disabilities in the country who face similar
discrimination because of their condition.
Progressio, an
international charity organisation, estimates that there are
1,4 million
people living with disabilities in Zimbabwe.
The United Nations
estimates that the total number of people with
disabilities in Africa is
approximately 80 million.
A good number of them are not employed
and depend on begging for survival.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 05 November 2011 16:07
BY NDAMU
SANDU
MINES and Mining Development minister Obert Mpofu has threatened to
nationalise all mines if legislators insist on government taking over the
Marange diamonds. MDC-T legislator, Eddie Cross recently moved a motion in
Parliament for government to nationalise the Marange diamonds.
“The
Marange diamonds are the only diamonds that are government-owned across
the
entire mining sector in this country and you have an honourable member
targeting what belongs to government for nationalisation leaving what is
totally private out of his thought,” Mpofu hit back.
“If he wants
nationalisation, we can go that route to everything in the
sector, but we
are a responsible government, we cannot be advised by people
like
Cross.”
Mpofu’s threats on Wednesday came a day after the Kimberley
Process Plenary
in the Democratic Republic of Congo gave Zimbabwe the nod to
sell diamonds
produced by Mbada and Marange Resources after more than two
years of
fighting to unconditionally sell the gems.
Other than
allowing Mbada and Marange Resources to sell its gems with
immediate effect,
the KP Plenary said that monitors should visit other
players operating in
Marange to verify levels of compliance with
international
standards.
The KP monitoring team of Abbey Chikane and Mark van
Bockstael will visit
Anjin “to discharge their mandate within 14 days after
the plenary and with
respect of other new mines, within 14 days from the
date of invitation. Upon
verification exports would immediately
commence”.
Mpofu said Cross was seeking political mileage through the
motion and wanted
to pre-empt the decision of the KP during its plenary in
the Democratic
Republic of Congo.
“I am not minister for Marange.
I am Minister of Mines and Mining
Development. So if you want me to segment
my functions to a particular place
because you think it will make political
mileage for you, what about Murowa,
Zimplats? What are we getting from those
companies?”
The KP banned Zimbabwe from selling diamonds from Marange in 2009
over
allegations of human rights abuses in the extraction of the gems and
failure
to meet minimum requirements for trading in the precious
stones.
But the organisation allowed Zimbabwe to conduct two
supervised sales which
took place in August and September last year
following a report by Chikane
that said Harare had met all KP
conditions.
The last KP plenary in Jerusalem in November last year
failed to reach a
decision on Zimbabwe, but the country was however, given a
conditional
agreement to sell its diamonds in January. Proceeds from
diamonds are touted
to fuel the recovery of the economy in the absence of
lines of credit. Mpofu
said the country can generate US$2 billion annually
from the Marange
diamonds.
He said the KP decision to allow the
country to sell its gems was a
realisation that Zimbabwe is a giant with the
largest diamond reserves in
the world.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 05 November 2011
16:06
BY OUR STAFF
A 15-member delegation from the Kenya Association
of Manufacturers (KAM)
will be in the country this week for a three-day
trade and investment
mission. The mission runs from November 9-11 and was
organised by the
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI), Kenyan Embassy
and KAM to
strengthen trade ties between Zimbabwe and Kenya.The two
countries belong to
the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa
trading bloc. The
three-day mission is also designed to identify investment
opportunities in
Zimbabwe and partners for the Kenyan business in
Zimbabwe.
The members are drawn from sectors such as paper and
paperboard printing and
packaging, motor vehicle and assembly, footwear
manufacturers, textile
industry and pharmaceutical
industry.
According to a schedule of the KAM members visiting the
country, some want
to explore business opportunities while others want to
scan the environment,
especially after the demise of the Zimbabwean
dollar.
Government has indentified investment as one of the pillars
for economic
growth.
According to the Medium-Term Plan unveiled two weeks
ago, government wants
investment to contribute 20% to the Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) in 2015
from the current 4%. It is against this drive that
government is drafting an
investment promotion and protection legislation to
lure foreign investors
into the country.
An Investment Promotion
and Protection Bill is currently at the drafting
stage in the Attorney
General’s Office after it was approved by cabinet.
The Bill says all
investments should be handled by Zimbabwe Investment
Authority (ZIA). Under
the current dispensation, investment proposals are
processed by sector
regulators.
Foreign Direct Investment into the country was stagnant
last year on the
2009 figure of US$105 million as investors took a back seat
to scan the
environment.
Although the environment has improved
with the use of multi-currencies, the
Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment Act poses a new threat to luring of
new investors. According to
the legislation, locals should have a minimum of
51% in all foreign-owned
companies operating in Zimbabwe.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 06 November 2011 13:49
BY JEFFERY
MOYO
When Nato forces alongside the so-called rebels were
fighting the Gaddafi
regime in Libya, the African Union (AU) was silent,
save perhaps for the
organisation’s alleged initiative that saw South
African President Jacob
Zuma jetting to the troubled country to broker peace
and persuade Muammar
Gaddafi to step down or as is traditional in Africa, to
share power with the
“rebels”.
There were however some hushed tones
of protests from some isolated sections
of the African continent, with some
countries castigating the attacks on
Libya, other African leaders opting to
call the attacks neo-imperialism, a
commonly known rhetoric among African
revolutionaries, particularly from
Zimbabwe’s Zanu PF political circles, who
claimed the Nato move was a
deliberate ploy to root out Africa’s
revolutionary fathers opposed to the
western world’s neo-imperialism
agenda.
But surprisingly, no pragmatic action was taken by AU,
Sadc or the Arab
League when disaster struck in Libya.
The
noise only emerged after Gaddafi was captured and killed by rebel
forces.
When the uprising started in Tunisia, AU never sent a
peace-keeping force to
quell the revolt.
When the wind of
revolution swept through Egypt, again AU never helped in
any practical
ways.
Even more still, when the same hurricane of cries for
change spread to Ivory
Coast, the AU remained passive.
There
were continued calls for governments of national unity in the troubled
countries by African leaders, a well-orchestrated move to protect dictators
refusing to relinquish power.
Back home, when Gaddafi was silenced,
analysts loyal to President Robert
Mugabe lined up to describe the murder of
the former Libyan leader as a
return to what they called the dark days of
imperialism, a rhetoric expected
from Mugabe’s bootlickers, who knew the
comradeship that bound their boss to
the former Libyan strongman, a hand
that bankrolled Zanu PF.
Those leaders that benefitted from
Gaddafi’s “generosity” called his murder
an onslaught on revolutionary
leaders in Africa. Yet AU was a signatory to
the permission that saw Nato
forces being deployed in Libya to help the
rebels now in control. Why did AU
not send its peace-keeping forces to Libya
if some African leaders say they
were perturbed by the happenings?
And why did the organisation
become a signatory to a document that allowed
Nato forces to pounce upon
Gaddafi, alongside the now victorious rebels?
African leaders, signatory to
AU are still making noise about Nato having
infringed upon the sovereignty
of Libya, way after the harm has been done. I
wonder why they never made
noise when Gaddafi launched his artillery against
defenceless Libyan
civilians. Much noise against revolutions sweeping across
Africa is emerging
from within the circles of leaders clinging to power,
losing allies by each
passing day as nature takes its course, with ordinary
people awakening to
its call, kicking out tyrants.
Perhaps, someone out there needs
to wait and see how the wind blows . . .
but it may be too late. In
Zimbabwe, Professor Jonathan Moyo has been making
the loudest noise,
castigating the way Gaddafi was dragged around the
streets, kicked, punched
and undressed, as barbaric and brutal, but I
understand our fellow
revolutionary fathers in Zanu PF boast of having
degrees in violence and
instead of crying from behind the scenes, they
should have put their degrees
to test and pragmatically come to the rescue
of their comrade instead of
making noise after his death.
Professor Moyo blamed African
states representing the continent in the
United Nations Security Council,
South Africa, Gabon and Nigeria, for
supporting the UN resolution 1973,
which paved the way for the invasion of
Libya, saying their hands were
dripping with blood.
Why was the “learned” professor silent when
Libya was being bombarded and
when the anti-Gaddafi forces went all out in
search of the unrepentant
dictator? And finally, AU and Sadc are just but
toothless barking dogs,
which should never be relied upon for they have
never called dictators to
order in Africa.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 06 November
2011 13:53
BY SIMBARASHE MAJAMANDA
While service providers
such as the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority
(Zesa) and the City of
Harare are responsible for providing and maintaining
quality and affordable
services to residents, citizens should appreciate
their responsibility in
service provision. Citizens have a right to service
delivery by all
standards but should be responsible with services provided.
Service delivery
in Harare is on the verge of collapse and may easily become
extinct if
residents fail to take up their own responsibilities in
maintaining the
existing services.
One of the critical programme priorities of the Harare
Residence Trust is
building a responsible citizenry. We note with concern a
culture that is
within the public towards its own
environment.
There have been reports of vandalism of water and
sewerage reticulation
systems in communities such as Kambuzuma where
residents were caught
chopping a water carriage pipe in search of
water.
Electricity cables are daily vandalised by known and
unknown residents
residing within our communities, driven by their greedy
and narrow view of
community belonging.
At a recent meeting
on the water demand situation in Harare, Engineer
Christopher Zvobgo, the
Director of Harare Water indicated that the sewerage
and water plants
(Morton Jaffray and Prince Edward) have been affected by
the use of grit
(jecha) by residents. This has caused many sewerage chokes
which have pushed
City of Harare to buy three pressure pumps to clear
drainage
systems.
This is an additional cost on the part of the local
authority and will be
shouldered by struggling
residents.
Persistent water shortages are mainly attributed to
poor pumping capacity by
Harare Water which is supplying 50% of the daily
requirement of 1 200
megalitres required by residents in Harare, Chitungwiza
and Norton.
The city claims that it requires US$3 million for
water treatment and
purification every month; US$2 million for water
chemicals and US$1 million
for Zesa charges. Due to pollution being caused
to water sources by
industries, 10 water treatment chemicals are used by
Harare council as
compared to other local authorities like Mutare that use
at most three
treatment chemicals.
The water crisis has also
been caused by countless and frequent water bursts
in the city centre and
suburbs. We cannot afford to waste the little water
we
have.
Refuse collection is inconsistent. Instead of dumping waste
in open areas in
our communities, most citizens are forced to resort to
burning waste at
night or during the day, further polluting the
environment.
While the responsibility to maintain a clean
environment resides in the
local authority, the public continues to cause
excessive land pollution by
throwing litter all over along the streets.
Mobile recharge cards from
service providers are used and just thrown away
along the streets, littering
the environment.
What are
Econet, TelOne and Telecel doing in return to ensure the waste they
generate
is properly disposed? What will become of our environment if
everyone
neglects their key responsibilities of playing their part?
There
is now serious debate and talk on climate change issues. These are
largely
man-made disasters, which could be greatly minimised if all citizens
think
about their environment before they litter!
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 06 November 2011
13:52
BY NEVANJI MADANHIRE
“What drives people in an
organisation that is in a state of chaos,
disintegrating and about to
implode, to pursue with such heightened fervour
and passionate zeal, an
elective conference that will, for all intents and
purposes, lead to its
ultimate demise and its destruction? Can anyone
explain the rationale of an
organisation that is conscious of its imminent
disintegration and implosion
and yet decides to ignore these dangers and opt
instead for a route to
self-destruction; only because its constitution
requires that an elective
conference be held at certain prescribed regular
intervals?”
It’s not
about Zanu PF, stupid; it’s about the ANC!
The ANC is the African
National Congress, South Africa’s liberation party.
It celebrates its
centennial next year but as a governing party it is just
under half the age
of Zanu PF having ruled South Africa since 1994. Zanu PF
has been in power
for 31 years.
The excerpt is from a document authored by a group
of uMkhonto weSizwe (MK)
veterans calling itself “The Commissariat”. The MK
veterans say the ANC is
infested with factionalism, corruption, incompetence
in government,
tenderpreneurship and pending implosion. They therefore want
to stop the ANC
from holding an elective conference due next year in
Mangaung, Bloemfontein.
“That the elective conference of the ANC
must take place is a constitutional
imperative. But that it must take place
at all cost (considering the current
state of the organisation), is suicidal
for the ANC and its members and, is
a threat to the stability of the
country,” says the document.
South African President Jacob Zuma
seems to be in big trouble; a strong
lobby to unseat him is under way in the
country led by charismatic ANCYL
president Julius Malema. Malema is widely
seen merely as a proxy of bigger
players in the power game. Zuma is likely
to go the way of his predecessor
Thabo Mbeki who was deposed in a palace
coup at Polokwane at another
elective congress in December
2007.
What is interesting are the similarities between the
problems bedevilling
the ANC and those haunting Zanu PF, which is set to
hold its own conference
next month. Its leader Robert Mugabe has hinted that
the conference, which
in normal circumstances would not be elective, would
be turned into a
congress at which a new leadership could be picked. This
would be in
preparation for national elections that may be held next year or
in 2013. It
is more than likely that Mugabe will be endorsed as the party
candidate for
that election besides it being “unreasonable and impractical”
to do so
because of his failing health and age. He will be 88 next year amid
reports
that he is suffering from some cancer. Many believe that due to
these two
factors Mugabe would not be able to withstand the rigours of an
election
campaign in which he is fighting a popular young and sprightly
Morgan
Tsvangirai who is 20 years younger.
But due to the
factionalism in the party, the issue of replacing him with a
younger leader
is a matter of life and death. So debilitating is the
factionalism that
without Mugabe the party would crumble like a cookie. The
death in August in
a mysterious fire of factional strongman Solomon Mujuru
demonstrated just
how deep rooted the schism is in the party. The factions
were generally
believed to be two with the other led by feared party
secretary for legal
affairs Emmerson Mnangagwa. It now emerges there is a
third faction of Young
Turks calling themselves Generation 40 which is
baying for leadership
renewal in the party.
Corruption is another disease that has
taken its own toll on the former
ruling party. As its cadre detects the
endgame, looting of state resources
has become the order of the day. This is
done mainly through awarding
tenders to dubious foreign companies that are
given huge infrastructural
projects while giving a “cut” to the minister
responsible. In South Africa
they have coined a term for it; they call it
“tenderpreneurship”. Corruption
is also manifested in the way many ministers
who had nothing to their names
recently have become some of the riches
people in the country deserving
mention in Forbes Magazine’s list of the
rich. This newly-rich class has not
only riled those in opposing political
parties but many in Zanu PF itself as
they see their colleagues inexplicably
become richer and richer.
The politics of patronage, which has
become the culture in Zanu PF, has also
seen underperforming minister stick
to their jobs even when it is patently
clear that they are doing more harm
than good. Some are allegedly openly
involved in corrupt activities such as
the poaching of rhino and elephant
and the illicit trade in
diamonds.
So, could the conference-cum-elective-congress next month be
Zanu PF’s
Waterloo?
Many considerations come to the fore in
dealing with this puzzle, not least
the fact that by endorsing its geriatric
leadership headed by Mugabe
himself, Zanu PF risks losing the support of its
young supporters and the
generality of Zimbabweans who are now suffering
from a condition called
ennui, a kind of boredom borne of dealing with the
same thing for far too
long a period of time. Too many young Zanu PF
members have been lurking in
the shadows waiting their own turn to grab the
reins of power. If the
conference next month does not give them the chance
to do so frustration may
burst at the seams.
But what is also
important will be the role the WikiLeaks cables will have
on the whole
thing. The cables leaked by the whistleblower website have
shown how
concerned the party is about Mugabe’s continued leadership. The
cables
reveal there is a consensus across the board in Zanu PF that Mugabe
must go.
The consensus is not a new development, according to the cables,
having
existed since the turn of the millennium. Senior politician upon
senior
politician is quoted as telling successive US diplomats that Mugabe
was now
a liability to the party. These include his deputy
presidents.
Those not compromised by the cables have formed a
strong lobby to have those
who undermined Mugabe punished by the party at
the conference. If this
happens, that means all the big names who have led
the party during the
liberation struggle and in the past 30 years may see
the end of their
political careers. But can they take it lying
down?
Whatever happens in Bulawayo next month, Zanu PF is in
danger and as the MK
veterans said about the ANC, the conference is suicidal
for Zanu PF and its
members, and is a threat to the stability of the
country.
