http://www.apanews.net/
APA-Harare (Zimbabwe)
The Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWSNET) has
warned of severe food
shortages in most parts of Zimbabwe over the next four
months as the
southern African country runs out of reserves of the staple
maize
crop.
The US-funded FEWSNET said in its latest Zimbabwe Food Security
Outlook
published Sunday that the most likely food security scenario in
Zimbabwe was
“a deterioration of food security status across a greater part
of the
country with the exception of the central area which is traditionally
a
grain surplus region”.
“An increased number of people in other
parts of the country are likely to
become moderately food insecure
throughout the lean season and outlook
period from October 2010 to March
2011,” the early warning system warned.
It however said planned
humanitarian and government food assistance
programmes are likely to stop
further deterioration of the crisis and
prevent widespread starvation in the
country.
More than 900,000 Zimbabweans are estimated to require food aid
until the
end of the year and the number could rise by over 40 percent to
about 1.3
million people before the next harvest in March
2011.
JN/daj/APA
2010-11-07
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by YEUKAI MOYO
Sunday, 07 November 2010
12:46
HARARE -- Zimbabwe is set to conduct its fourth population census
in three
decades in August 2012, according to the Zimbabwe National
Statistics Agency
(ZIMSTAT).
The government data agency which will
oversee the census project said last
week that the exercise was meant to,
“measure the size and key
characteristics of the population within small
areas and for small
population groups to support the planning,
implementation and policy-making
decisions and programmes of government,
business and other development
partners.”
The statement further
states that, “The support of all government
ministries, private sector,
civil society organisations and research and
training institutions is vital
for conducting a successful census.”
Various committees will be put in
place to facilitate census operations at
national and sub-national levels,
where field mappers deployed will visit
all households in the country and
mapping them into groups of between 80 to
100 households.
Previous
censuses were held in August 1982, August 1992 and August 2002.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/
Nov 7, 2010 10:47 AM | By SUNDAY TIMES
CORRESPONDENT
The Harare City Council has been rocked by reports that it
was ripped off by
more than $1-million by an alleged bogus company, which
was awarded civil
engineering work for the construction of the controversial
multimillion-dollar airport road.
Shocking revelations have also
emerged that a top government minister and
senior council employees could be
involved in the scam.
Harare city councillors have already instituted
investigations into
allegations that an unregistered company, Civil Planning
Partnership
Limited, was awarded the tender, worth $1.2-million, as
consulting engineer
for the dualisation of the Harare City-Airport
Road.
The main constructor is Augur Investments, which will get prime
land in
Harare for the construction of the road. The airport road
construction deal
was done by the controversial Harare City Commission,
which was appointed by
the Minister of Local Government, Ignatius Chombo,
after the 2008 elections,
when the Movement for Democratic Change swept
almost all council seats in
Harare.
Earth-moving equipment has
cleared parts of the area where the new airport
road will be constructed,
but councillors who are probing the tender said
they had so far found no
evidence that the company had done any work.
Documents show that by
November last year the company had received an amount
of about $700000. The
special council committee believe another $550000 was
paid between November
and December last year.
It was during the reign of the same commission
that council also lost vast
tracts of prime land through illicit deals
orchestrated by senior government
officials and city council
employees.
Chombo's caretaker commission was chaired by Michael Mahachi
and the other
commissioners were an A Tome and an L. Marufu. The town clerk
was Tendai
Mahachi, and most of the deals signed during this period were
signed by the
two Mahachis, who are said to be related.
A check at
the registrar of companies revealed that Civil Planning
Partnership Limited
is not registered in Zimbabwe, despite being awarded the
tender by the
commission. A letter obtained by this paper at the registrar
of companies
dated 18 October 2010 reads: "Please note that there is no
record pertaining
to the registration of the above-mentioned company."
Three weeks ago, the
Sunday Times visited the address given by the company
in letters to the
council at 14 Selous Avenue in the city centre, but
discovered that the
premises were occupied by a non-governmental
organisation named
Penyai.
The paper called the managing director of the company, a Mr
Musarurwa, who
claimed they were still occupying the premises, although
Penyai officials
insisted they had moved.
"As I am speaking to you, I
am at 14 Selous Avenue. I can also confirm that
we won a tender from the
city council and some of the money has already been
paid," he
said.
Musarurwa refused to say if his company had done any work so far
but
confirmed that most of the money was an advance payment.
The
chairman of the special council committee investigating land thefts in
the
city last week wrote to the Tendai Mahachi, who is still the town clerk,
demanding an explanation on the money paid to CPP.
"In view of the
findings on CPP the committee would like to enquire from you
as to the
rationale you employed in choosing CPP. Is there any due diligence
carried
out on CPP?" chairman Warship Dumba wrote in the letter.
Harare's mayor
is said to have been informed about the issue and is taking
steps to make a
police report.
http://www.eyewitnessnews.co.za
Eyewitness News | 10
Hours Ago
Investigators in Zimbabwe have claimed that a South African
firm smuggled
nearly R1 billion worth of diamonds out of the controversial
Chiadzwa
diamond fields.
The authorities have now blacklisted 12
directors and shareholders of Core
Mining, which was working in Zimbabwe as
Canadile Miners.
Zimbabwe’s state-run Sunday Mail said the man connected
to the disappearance
of the diamonds was a South African of Italian
descent.
Investigators believe Core Mining illegally sold the diamonds to
get the
working capital to fund Canadile Miners operations in
Chiadzwa.
Twelve directors and shareholders of Core Mining are to have
their Zimbabwe
residence permits cancelled and will be declared prohibited
persons.
The Movement for Democratic Change warned that Core Mining’s
board members
allegedly included former mercenaries, smugglers and
fraudsters in February,
but authorities have only now decided to
react.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Staff Reporter
Sunday, 07 November
2010 17:54
HARARE - Opposition Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn leader, Simba
Makoni has accused
President Robert Mugabe and his allies of looting the
country's wealth,
calling for a full probe into the source of their
ill-gotten gains.
Makoni was speaking to journalists soon after
addressing a paltry 100 odd
people who attended one of his presidential
campaign rallies in Harare’s
Warren Park suburb, Saturday
afternoon.
The former Finance minister said the list of assets which
belong to Local
Government minister Ignatius Chombo, a top Mugabe ally, was
“terrible and
disgraceful”. The assets were revealed in Friday’s Herald
newspaper.
Chombo’s multi-million dollar fortune was made public
knowledge when his
former wife Marian went to court to seek for a share of
the estate.
These included cars, houses and residential stands in low and
high-density
suburbs countrywide, farmland, farming equipment and
companies.
“They should be investigated," Makoni said. "I dare say it
should not be
limited to just one person. All of them from Robert Mugabe to
the last
deputy minister should submit themselves to a public disclosure of
what they
own and how they acquired it.
“We are as shocked as the
rest of the population. The question how they
managed to acquire that has a
very simple answer - by abuse of office.
“That is why they clamour for
high office so that they can abuse, exploit
and extort from the high
positions. I dare say he (Chombo) is not the only
one and there are others
who are worse or better depending on how you regard
it than him.”
He
added: “Investigation and disclosure of how people acquired these assets
and
vehicles is very important for transparent, honest leadership that is
serving the people and not being served by the people.”
Makoni, once
part of the gravy train when he was a Zanu PF politburo member
and cabinet
minister in Mugabe’s government, said he would volunteer to
become the first
to be investigated if this would be extended to everyone.
He accused
Mugabe of throwing away his party’s leadership code drawn soon
after
independence, to allow his cronies to siphon wealth from the country
uninhibited.
“The leadership code was thrown out of the window as
soon they got into
office because they realised it was going to constrain
their avarice and
greed,” he said.
Makoni, who broke away from Zanu
PF on the eve of the 2008 harmonised
elections to form a coalition of
independent candidates, said Zimbabweans
should stand up and demand a free
and fair election next year, saying Mugabe
would manipulate the process to
his favour.
“The election will not be credible if the same reckless,
greedy and cruel
people are allowed to have their way,” he said. “Robert
Mugabe will not
create a free and fair election in Zimbabwe because that
will not work to
his favour or Morgan Tsvangirai’s. So it is in our hands
not to be forced to
participate in elections that will not reflect our
will.”
http://www.timeslive.co.za
ZMDC ends joint diamond mining venture with Core Mining of SA
after arrest
of six executives
Nov 7, 2010 10:47 AM | By ZOLI
MANGENA
A South African mining company, Core Mining and Mineral Resources
(Pty) Ltd,
has been kicked out of Zimbabwe's controversial Marange diamond
fields after
one of its directors was arrested, together with five other top
mining
executives, for fraudulently obtaining diamond concessions.
A
senior director of the state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation
(ZMDC) told the Sunday Times that President Robert Mugabe's government had
cancelled Core Mining's diamond claims in the Chiadzwa area in Marange,
Manicaland province.
"I can confirm that as ZMDC we have pulled out
of the joint-venture
agreement which we had with Core Mining because of the
discovery of
fraudulent misrepresentations by the company and its
directors," the senior
official said.
"We are now mining on our own
and we will never work with Core Mining again
because they acted
unprofessionally and fraudulently. They lied to us
through
misrepresentations and baseless claims about their corporate profile
and
capacity to engage in such a huge project. We realised they gave us a
false
profile - they have no capital and no capacity - and we have kicked
them
out."
After sustained complaints of corruption and pressure, ZMDC
launched an
internal investigation which led to the arrest of its five
senior officials
and Core Mining director Lovemore Kurotwi, who is also the
deputy chairman
of Canadile.
The ZMDC officials, who included
suspended chief executive officer and
general manager Dominic Mubayiwa,
former chairman Gloria Mawarire, company
secretary Tichaona Muhonde,
technical committee member Mark Tsomondo, and
chairman of the finance and
investment committee Ashton Ndlovu, have been
accused of conniving with
Kurotwi to secure mining concessions for Core
Mining.
The arrested
ZMDC executives were part of the company's board select
committee which
conducted due diligence on the "approved strategic
investors" before they
signed the joint-venture agreements.
Following investigations into how
Core Mining ended up being the recommended
investor, the five and Kurotwi
were this week arrested for fraudulently
using the name of the Channel
Islands-headquartered diversified natural
resources company, BSG Resources
Ltd, to obtain a contract on behalf of Core
Mining.
Besides dealing
with Core Mining, ZMDC also entered into another joint-
venture agreement
with SA's New Reclamation Group, via its subsidiary
Grandwell Holdings, to
form Condurango Investments, which traded as Mbada
Diamonds.
Mubayiwa, Mawarire, Muhonde, Tsomondo and Ndlovu conducted
a due diligence
on New Reclamation and Core Mining from August 4 to 6 last
year.
The joint ventures stirred a lot of controversy because it was
formed
without going to tender.
Mugabe and Mines Minister Obert Mpofu
approved Core Mining and the New
Reclamation Group as "strategic investors"
and resisted efforts by MPs,
civil society groups and African Consolidated
Resources (ACR) to investigate
how these companies had obtained their mining
licences. ACR is fighting ZMDC
in the courts over the Chiadzwa diamond
claims.
New Reclamation is a scrap-metal company which has no mining
experience.
Core and New Reclamation could not be reached for
comment.
The arrests came as Zimbabwe failed to secure permanent
permission to export
diamonds at the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme
(KPCS) meeting in
Jerusalem.
Israel Diamond Institute spokesperson
Sharon Gefen said talks ended without
an agreement. Zimbabwe has been
exporting diamonds under strict KPCS
conditions and monitoring as the
regulating body is trying to end the use of
gems to fund armed
conflicts.
Zimbabwe was initially banned from exporting diamonds by the
KPCS in May
after it was found to be selling the gems illegally in
Dubai.
Failure to secure permission to export diamonds has left Harare
reeling, as
one of its sources of revenue could dry up. However, Mugabe and
his
officials have threatened to look for alternative markets if KPCS
continues
to block the sale of its diamonds.
Zimbabwe, which has huge
reserves of diamonds, has even hinted it could
flood the world market with
underpriced diamonds if not allowed to export,
something diamond traders
fear could collapse the market.
http://news.radiovop.com/
07/11/2010
20:33:00
MASVINGO, November 7, 2010- At least 15 resettled farmers
from Cooden Farm
about 20 kilometers west of Masvingo town were severely
tortured by Zanu
(PF) youths on Saturday evening for failure to attend a
rally held in
Mangwandi area under Chief Zimuto.
The farm was grabbed
from its white commercial owner 10 years ago.The
farmers who are being
accused of being sell outs said they were threatened
with eviction from the
resettlement area.
The marauding youths were being led by individuals
identified as Abel
Mudzengi, John Musvavi and an accomplice only known as
Samaz.
“We did not attend the rally because we were given a short notice and
we had
other plans for the day but thugs later invaded our homesteads and
started
assaulting us for being sell-outs,” said one of the
farmers.
He said they were being labeled Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC)
supporters and therefore the ward chairman Abel Mudzengi told them not
to
prepare for the coming farming season because their fate was to be
decided
by party elders.
However, Mudzengi who is also a war veteran
refused to comment but warned
that ‘those who rush to the media are shooting
themselves in the feet’.
“Why should I tell you what is happening in our
area? Whoever is telling you
this story is adding paraffin on the burning
fire,” said Mudzengi.
The tortured farmers said they were afraid to seek
medical treatment at
Masvingo General Hospital as it might provoke the
perpetrators.
“We are just trying to help each other while at home. We are
afraid that if
we report them to the police or go to hospital, they might
become more
dangerous and evict us over night or burn down our houses,” said
one of the
victims.
Masvingo provincial police spokesperson Tinaye Matake
said the police will
only act after getting a report from the
farmers.
However, Zanu (PF) provincial chairman Lovemore Matuke said he
needed to
talk to Mudzengi before giving a comment.
http://news.radiovop.com
07/11/2010
20:32:00
KARIBA, November 7, 2010- Tourism industry captains are
battling to spruce
up the country,s previous image as a safe tourist
destination following a
decade of political, social and economical
turmoil.
But a Kariba based business man is literally paying the price
for his
association with Zanu(PF), the party accussed by human rights groups
and MDC
of being responsible for the violent election campaign in 2000, 2002
and
2008.
The violence which accompanied the previous elections forced
foreigners to
stay out of Zimbabwe leading to the near collapse of the
tourism industry.
Violence swept through towns such as Chinhoyi, Kadoma,
Kariba and Karoi
ahead of 2002 presidential elections. Chinhoyi based terror
gang, the Top
Six employed ruthless tactics against its opponents leaving a
trail of
destruction and few bodies.
The gang was accused of commiting
serious crimes such as abductions, murder,
rape and assaults but the youths
were never brought to justice.Though Kariba
resort town looks majestically
on the shores of the largest man made lake
generating electricity for the
country, a senior Zanu(PF) member is battling
to convince local and
international tourists to visit his hotel.
Even traditional weekdays of Gova
vibes are no longer attracting foreign
tourists. Some locals say the hotel
is cursed by the Gods because of
violence which left many MDC supporters
dead.
This reporter observed that very few visitors including local tourists
stay
at the hotel which was once a popular venue for tourists.
“ Some
visitors stay for longer periods because they are not aware of the
hotel,s
past but those who have information about political violence that
took place
here don’t stay, ”said one hotel employee who spoke on conditions
that he is
not identified.During the turbulent election campaigning days,
Zanu (PF)
youths visited the hotel where they intimidated their
opponents.Some even
allege that the attacks were launched from the hotel in
question.One of
their victims was the late MDC supporter Luckson Kanyurira
who was abducted
and brutally beaten to death.The youths were allegedly led
by Muneri
Chakwana who is affectionately known as Black Jesus.
The team was hired by a
well-known Zanu(PF) legislator in the area who
allegedly assigned them to
weed the area of MDC.
Kanyurira's lifeless body was left at the local bus
terminus for nearly 5
hours. Few people pleaded with marauding youths to
take Kanyurira's body to
hospital but they acted as if they were possessed
by demons and refused,
according to one resident. His death still haunts
many residents of this
small community.
“ Kariba will never be the
same again because of what happened here during
the elections, ” another
resident told Radio Vop.
The Kanyurira murder case has died a natural death
just like other cases
where Zanu (PF) members were implicated.Many of the 20
suspects and
witnesses to the violence and murders have died in mysterious
circumstances.President Robert Mugabe says elections should be held next
year and has said the coalition government with his MDC partners will not be
extended.
But the smaller formation of the MDC led by Arthur Mutambara
says Zimbabwe
is not ready for elections.The party says the violence which
left more than
200 MDC supporters dead is still fresh in the minds of many
voters.
http://news.radiovop.com
07/11/2010 20:29:00
CAPE TOWN, November 7, 2010-
Zimbabweans working on farms in South Africa,s
Western Cape province are
living under difficult conditions and their
employers are refusing to help
them with confirmation letters which they can
take to the Department of Home
Affairs for special permits.
This was revealed to Radio Vop by Nqabutho
Dube, the MDC-Mutambara,s
information secretary in South Africa.
Dube was
in Cape Town last week visiting Zimbabwean farm workers and some
working in
the city.The visit was to explain the amnesty which allows
Zimbabweans to be
granted special four year permits as stipulated by an
agreement between
Harare and Pretoria in August this year.
“ During my visit to the Western
Cape I discovered that many Zimbabweans
working on the farms in the province
were not well informed about the
amnesty which allows them to get work
permits, ” said Dube whose party has
been involved in the negotiations with
Home Affairs officials since August.
According to Dube, some of the
challenges faced by Zimbabweans on the farms
in the Western Cape included
poor working conditions and refusal by their
white employers to write them
letters confirming their employment status.
After meeting the farm workers,
Dube also met officials at the Department of
Home Affairs and visited
Zimbabwe,s temporary passport office situated in
the suburb of Bellville in
Cape Town.
“ We have found that the majority of Zimbabweans applying for
passports at
the Bellville temporary documentation office are those from
Mashonaland.Zimbabweans from Matabeleland are in possession of South African
documents,” Dube told Radio Vop.
Zimbabweans who obtained South African
passports and Identity Documents
fraudulently will not be prosecuted if they
returned them before the
deadline of December 31.South African businesses
who also employed
undocumented Zimbabweans will not be prosecuted until the
amnesty is
over.Since the Zimbabwe dispensation programme started in
September, Home
Affairs’s 46 offices in the country have processed more than
25 000
applications and rejected more than 300.Applicants receive text
messages
informing them of the status of their application.
-Thabo Kunene
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Lionel Saungweme
Sunday,
07 November 2010 14:45
Finance Minister, Tendai Biti, is determined to
save the textiles and
clothing industry in Zimbabwe which is facing serious
threats from cheap
imports from China. Biti, consistently expressed his
concern about the sad
state of the industry during his recent country wide
2011 budget
consultative meetings.
Manufacturers and retailers want
Government to immediately stop the
importation of cheap Chinese goods while
cross border traders say duties
should be reduced so that they can survive
the cut throat competition in the
industry.
Competing
interests
“Clashing interests have seen established retailers complain that
the
importation of zhing zhongs, as Chinese goods are called, is destroying
the
industry,” said Biti.
“However, Cross Border Traders in Mutare are
complaining of harassment by
police and immigration officials. They want to
import their bales of second
hand clothing cheaper. At the present moment
border authorities are
confiscating all the wares that are brought in
illegally,” he added.
The Ministry of Finance’s consultative exercises are
instrumental in
gathering input for the 2011 budget. One such meeting was
held recently at
the Bulawayo Amphitheatre. Titled, Financial Context,
Budget & Budgeting
Process, the consultation acknowledged, among other
things, that government
must intervene to save the textiles and clothing
sector.
Jerome Gardner, an executive with a clothing company, Power Sales,
lamented
the industry’s lack of protection.
“We need more protection from
cheap Chinese goods if we are to survive.
Government will need to safe guard
the sector, so that we keep the jobs for
our employees, who in turn have
dependants to sustain,” said Jerome.
In response Biti said: “That is why we
are consulting, so that we come up
with a 2011 budget, that minimises, as
much as possible, the conflict by
different players in the
industry.”
Cross border traders
However, most Cross Border Traders
told ***The Zimbabwean*** that government
must strengthen the informal
sector. They want government to re-introduce
incentives in the sector as was
the case in the past.
Angeline Ruomba who imports second hand clothes from
Mozambique and Zambia
said government must support small traders like her so
that they can grow
their businesses.
Labour remains vehemently opposed to
cheap imports.
“We note with serious concern the deafening silence from
authorities who
watch helplessly as cheap goods are dumped in the country.
The importation
of low-priced and sub standard Chinese goods has had a
negative impact on
viability and growth of the clothing industry in
Zimbabwe,” said Joseph
Tanyanyiwa, the General Secretary of the National
Union of the Clothing
Industry.
“If protected adequately, the industry
has the potential and capacity to be
used as a vehicle for economic
growth...and significantly contribute towards
the reduction of unemployment.
As social partners in the clothing industry,
we have a plan which is still
at its infancy. We hope it will go a long way
in curbing both the smuggling
and importation of cheap and substandard
goods,” he said
Lack of
government support
Economic commentator, Eric Bloch was dismayed by the lack
of recognition of
the clothing and textile industry after Biti’s 2010 budget
presentation.
“Biti has reduced the customs duty, on clothing and textiles.
He’s made the
imported ones even cheaper, thereby destroying that major,
major sector of
our economy,” he had lamented at the time.
He had pointed
out that the industry China gave its textile and clothing
manufacturers, an
export incentive of 180% of the wages contained in the
export. This meant
that the manufacturer had no labour costs as the Chinese
Government was
paying all of it. The Chinese government also paid another
80% towards all
the other manufacturing costs.
“So before that t-shirt, baby jersey or that
dress, has even left the
factory in China, it has already made a profit. As
a result the price is
exceptionally low to the customer here, and the local
textile manufacturer
can’t compete against that,” he explained.
Bloch
said this did not mean the industry should not compete against
imports, but
pointed out that the playing field must be level with a customs
duty regime
which forces the imported product to be in the same price range
as the local
product. The competition should be based on quality,
reliability and
delivery.
Another economist, Eddie Cross said a lot of goods were coming in
duty free
because of corruption at the border post.
He also blamed wrong
policies that failed to support the economy as the
reason why many companies
were failing to complete. He said in 1999,
Zimbabwe produced and sold 20
million pairs of shoes but last year
production had gone to only 1.6
million. He said the trend was the same in
many sectors.
The textile and
clothing industry was in the past considered to be the
greatest employer in
Zimbabwe after agriculture.
Critics feared the sector will be destroyed like
the agricultural industry
which was killed after the chaotic and violent
land invasions of 2000.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by MARGRET MASANGA - JOHN AND DESTELIA
NGWENYA
Sunday, 07 November 2010 14:01
GUTU - The Ruti irrigation
scheme in Gutu, Zimbabwe, aims to empower women
by addressing issues of
access to and control of land. Ipaishe Masvingise is
visibly excited by the
thought of growing her own crops. “I have always
longed to own a piece of
land where I can satisfy my desire for farming,”
she enthuses as she surveys
her allotment in the Ruti irrigation scheme.
Oxfam established the scheme
in 2009 in wards 13 and 14 of Gutu district,
Masvingo Province, and recently
opened a pipeline that will carry water from
Ruti Dam to a 20ha piece of
land three kilometres away. The area is
predominantly dry and the pipeline
will literally inject life into the
parched landscape and the people living
there, benefiting up to 25,000
households.
The scheme aims to put 60ha of
land under irrigation and teach 240 farmers
about farming as a business,
market linkages and agronomy practices. The
overall goal is to increase food
security for 50,000 people in the district
by the end of the project in
2012.
For Ipaishe, the scheme is a turning point in her life. It aims to
empower
women by addressing issues of access to and control of resources.
“It is a
dream come true,” she says. “I cannot wait for the actual farming
to start
so I can prove my worth.”
Ipaishe enjoyed a simple life until
1997 when her husband died. Widowed and
without a source of income, her
in-laws sent her and her daughter back to
her parents’ home with nothing but
their clothes, blankets and the bed she
had shared with her late
husband.
Going back home would present new challenges for Ipaishe. “ Being a
widow is
hard enough to deal with, without the stigma that comes with the
fact that
you have returned home after having been married,” she says. What
hurt the
most is that everyone would refer to her as “mvana yekwaMasvingise”
(Masvingise’s daughter who returned to her parents’ home).
While trying
to adjust to her new situation, the need for a regular income
became an
ever-growing reality. Ipaishe knew she wanted to grow crops for a
living,
something she had always enjoyed doing. “I have always had a passion
for
farming,” she says, “but the biggest challenge I faced at the time was
that
I always had to wait for my father to decide which part of the field I
would
till each season.” As a widow she could only till the land allocated
to her
by her father and had no major decision-making powers over the
land.
Tradition dictates that a woman cannot own land and because she is
considered to be under the care of either her husband or her father at any
given time, she is only able to access land under their direction. In the
event that the husband is deceased, the male child will inherit the land
when he comes of age, and the woman will have to consult the child or her
husband’s male relatives if the child is too young.
Consequently,
Ipaishe’s livelihood has always been in the hands of others.
But with the
Ruti irrigation scheme this will be a thing of the past. The
opportunity
presented by the project could not have come at a better time.
“I want to
show all women in this ward that losing a husband is not the end
of the
world,” Ipaishe says with certainty. With a little help, her strength
of
conviction and passion for farming her land is likely to give in
abundance.
- Oxfam
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Fungi Kwaramba
Sunday, 07 November 2010
16:24
CHISUMBANJE - A project called Green has given hope to the Ndau
people and
the surrounding communities in Chipinge who have been staying in
an arid
area where everyone never thought anything good could come out of
the place.
The project, which will see the production of ethanol with the
aim of making
fuel and electricity, has given smiles to the once forgotten
society as more
than 3500 jobs have so far been created.
Sugar cane will
be used to produce ethanol and some analysts have described
the project as a
beacon of hope for the country's agriculture. Investors
pumped US$270
million in the project and are confident they will recoup all
their money in
10 years time.
"We would like to produce ethanol by March next year and we
would like the
project to help in providing fuel to the country. Apart from
fuel production
we would also want to produce electricity that we will use
for our ethanol
plant," said Graeme Smith, the Managing Director of
Green.
In 2008 government owned Agriculture and Rural Development Authority,
which
owns Chisumbanje and Middle Sabi Estates, where sugar cane production
has
taken off already, embarked on a turnaround drive to find investment
partners to rehabilitate its properties.
Passionate farmers whose land
had been seized by the government of Zimbabwe
during the Land Reform
programme came into the project. They agreed with
ARDA on a 20 year Build
Operate Transfer (BOT) Agreement.
About 40 000 hectares of cane will be
developed in Chisumbanje with the
balance cultivated in Middle Sabi.
In
an area that is shunned by investors because of the climatic conditions,
there was little hope for the people there. Many, like thousands of
Zimbabweans, have migrated to South Africa.
The investments in Chipinge
have created over 3500 jobs and there are
prospects for
more.
"Chisumbanje ethanol project has to date created more than 3500 jobs in
rural Chipinge in the agricultural and construction region. The bulk of the
employees are local villagers who have previously in the most arid corner of
the country, we have some foreign employees who are training the locals at
the end of the day we would like the local people to manage the project,"
said Smith.
The company is presently selling mature cane to Triangle
Sugar Industries as
it has failed to meet the envisaged September deadline
for the completion of
the plant.
"We have had to sell the produce to
Triangle otherwise the cane could go
bad. At the moment we are 30% through
with the project that we started in
May this year. We are going to start in
March.”
The people in the area said the project was something worth
celebrating
because it had improved their standard of living. Dilapidated
houses had
been renovated and people in the vicinity of the estates were set
to benefit
from the irrigation scheme projects.
"Villagers are not going
to be relocated rather they would be integrated
into the project as sugar
cane growers while those who do not want to grow
sugar would be free to
produce their own chosen crop," said Smith.
Despite the ray of hope there is
still uncertainty on the part of investors.
"We have had a few people coming
to invest in the project and we have
received positive feedback however
there is still insecurity. But we would
like to show people what the project
can do. Our project confirms to the
laws of the country.”
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Marcus Tawona
Sunday, 07 November
2010 15:53
CHIMANIMANI - Villagers here who support Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai’s
MDC party say they will not accept anyone else other than party
treasurer
general Roy Bennett as their candidate in elections widely
expected next
year. (Pictured::Roy Bennett – Our man, say
villagers)
The villagers who spoke to The Zimbabwean on Sunday claimed
that the war
veterans and Central Intelligence Organisation agents were
moving around the
area threatening to mete out unspecified but serious
punishment against the
villagers should they elect Bennett back to
Parliament.
"We don't have any substitute for Bennett at the moment
because we believe
this man was not given enough time by Zanu (PF) thugs to
perform his duties
to the fullest. Despite threats from Zanu (PF) and war
veterans to discard
Bennett and vote for their imposed candidate, we will
not be moved," said a
local villager Tashinga Mutambudzi.
Another
villager who only identified himself as Mukaro said: "Bennett is a
principled man and a champion of democracy … this man has been doing a lot
to transform our lives through income generating projects but Zanu (PF)
supporters are retrogressive they hate such people."
"We are a very
democratic community. Those who want to try their luck can
come provided
they do it in a peaceful manner because Bennett taught us to
use peaceful
means to win the minds of people," said another villager who
campaigned for
the legislator in 2008 harmonised elections.
Bennett, a white former
commercial farmer who is known here as Pachedu, is
hugely popularly in the
area and in 2000 beat the Zanu (PF) candidate for
the Chimanimani House of
Assembly seat.
But he has ever since faced persecution from state law
enforcement and
security agents who have accused him of several crimes
including treason. He
last week announced he was returning exile in South
Africa fearing alleged
relentless judicial persecution.
Bennett first
sought political asylum in South Africa in 2006 after the
state implicated
him in an alleged plot to assassinate President Robert
Mugabe during a visit
to Mutare, in eastern Manicaland province, where
Bennett once worked a
commercial farm before losing it to land reform,
subsequently representing
the constituency of Chimanimani.
He spent eight months in the infamous
Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in
2004-2005 under a parliamentary bill of
attainder for shoving Justice
Minister Patrick Chinamasa on the House floor
in a 22003 debate on land
reform.
Bennett was arrested again in
February 2009 upon returning to Zimbabwe after
2008 elections gave the
combined MDC formations a House majority. He was
named deputy minister of
agriculture, but Mugabe has refused to swear him
in, even after the High
Court threw out treason charges, a decision the
state quickly appealed.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by YEUKAI MOYO
Sunday, 07 November 2010
12:34
HARARE- A national survey has indicated that Zimbabwe will face
another food
crisis as more than 1,3 million nationals will need food aid to
reach the
harvests of the next season. According to the National Nutrition
Survey,
close to 1,3 million individuals will be in need of food supplies as
the
country reserves cannot reach the end of the next season.
The
survey further indicated that about 36 percent of children below the age
of
five suffered from malnourishment hence there was great need of expedited
national and household food security response from the government and its
strategic partners.
The government, which is not in a position to solely
address the looming
crisis, has called for a State-Non-governmental
organisation partnership to
improve agriculture productivity and food
security.
Speaking on behalf of other humanitarian organisations, Catholic
Relief
Services country representative, Paul Townsend, assured to assist the
struggling government to address food shortages in the country.
“Our
relationship with the government lies in the common interest of serving
the
people. This means that we will always extend our hand in all matters to
do
with people’s well being,” he said.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Gift Phiri
Sunday, 07 November 2010
07:39
HARARE – Zimbabwean newspapers editor Wilf Mbanga has denied
publishing a
story implicating state agents in the suspected murder of a
senior elections
official and said a warrant for his arrest issued at the
instigation of
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa was based on personal
hatred rather than
the law.
The Zimbabwe Republic Police and the spy
Central Intelligence Organisation
(CIO) last week launched a joint “manhunt”
for the UK-based editor who
publishes two titles, The Zimbabwean which comes
out on Thursday and The
Zimbabwean On Sunday.
Police spokesman Andrew
Phiri told state television that Mbanga was wanted
for “undermining”
President Robert Mugabe after he allegedly published a
story about the death
in highly suspicious circumstances of former Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission
(ZEC) director for polling Ignatius Mushangwe.
Phiri said Mbanga was
wanted for questioning after implicating President
Robert Mugabe and senior
security officials in Mushangwe’s suspected murder
two years
ago.
According to the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, the article
purportedly
published by The Zimbabwean insinuated that Mushangwe was
murdered at Mugabe’s
instigation for allegedly leaking the results of
disputed presidential
elections held in March 2008.
The police
spokesman claimed that the paper published falsehoods by claiming
that there
was a meeting attended by Mugabe, Emmerson Mnangagwa and CIO Boss
Happyton
Bonyongwe and former ZEC chairperson George Chiweshe where it was
agreed to
eliminate Mushangwe.
Mbanga denied there was ever such a story published
by his newspaper.
“We have checked our archives and we have no record of
this story. We did
not publish the story. In fact, we are aware that the
story was carried by
another publication which is something the police could
easily ascertain for
themselves,” said Mbanga.
He blamed the latest
onslaught on himself on a personal vendetta harboured
by Chinamasa since
2007.
“Patrick Chinamasa is pursuing a personal vendetta against The
Zimbabwean
and me personally. He has hated The Zimbabwean since its
inception. In 2007
he sued us for a story published in2005 about his marital
arrangements. The
matter is still pending,” said Mbanga.
He added:
“This is an abuse of his office and of public funds. The police
are allowing
themselves to be used to settle personal matters.”
Chinamasa published a
different statement in all newspapers accusing The
Zimbabwean newspaper of
planning to "discredit our institutions including
CIO and
ZEC."
Chinamasa also denied details of an article published last month
titled 'CIO
trains ZEC officials'. The story – that The Zimbabwean stands by
-- exposed
details of how ZEC officials were receiving training from CIO
operatives on
new techniques of electoral fraud
Chinamasa, the Zanu
(PF) point-man on legal affairs, claimed the paper was
"serving certain
political interests," without elaborating.
The fact that the warrant came
hardly two weeks after Mugabe called for a
fresh poll is alarming,
especially since the Zimbabwean titles have been the
targets of a barrage of
government attacks during election campaign periods.
In 2008, a whole
truck carrying copies of the newspaper was seized and burnt
by unknown
people suspected to be military intelligence agents.
Critics fear the
attempts to frame Mbanga over the Mushangwe story were part
of a wider plan
to crackdown on the veteran journalist’s papers and force
them to tone down
their criticism of political violence and human rights
abuses ahead of
polls.
But Mbanga insists his papers will continue to report on the
Zimbabwean
story as it unfolds, without fear or favour.
He said The
Zimbabwean would soon approach the Voluntary Media Council and
the Zimbabwe
Media Commission to ask the bodies to intervene to ensure
journalists
lawfully carrying out their work are able to do so without being
threatened
or their lives endangered by state officials and others seeking
to hide from
the media spotlight.
The release of a UN report naming
Zimbabwe as the worst country in the world to live in prompted debate at the
Vigil on how we can get the UN to do something about it – namely to send a
peacekeeping mission to ensure that the promised elections next year are not a
repeat of the violent 2008 charade.
The report by the UN Development
Programme said
Another startling report (see: http://www1.zimbabwesituation.com/old/nov5_2010.html#Z13
– Life Expectancy for
If things are not getting better why
continue along a sterile path? Investment is not flowing into
The Vigil has
been hearing the despairing voices of the people of Muzarabani in the
borderlands of Mashonaland Central and
The
Vigil is also prepared to sell our
chickens and goats to get free and fair elections. The Vigil is working through
our partner Restoration of Human Rights in Zimbabwe (ROHR) to resist violence
and work for a peaceful
The
Vigil is hoping to present the following petition to the UN soon: ‘We call on the
Security Council to ensure that the next elections in
President Zuma
recently addressed the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee and was
urged by Mr Van Orden to do more to resolve the ongoing
political turmoil in
Mr Van Orden commented: "I
put it to President Zuma that
We are
hoping that Mr Van Orden will be able to visit us soon so we can pass on our
petition, which has been signed by thousands of people from all over the world
passing along the
Other
points
·
This week
was one of joy and sorrow for the Vigil.
We rejoiced at the news that a baby daughter, Mandisa, was born to our
co-ordinator Dumi Tutani and his wife Gugu, also a Vigil management team member.
We grieved with Godfrey Madzunga whose mother died suddenly in
·
We were
all transfixed by the Zimbabwe Tourist Authority’s new video shown in the
Embassy window. It depicts white
tourists having a luxurious spa treatment and patting elephants and lions on the
head. No wonder one tourist was eaten by lions recently! ‘The mystique of the
·
The Vigil
was surprised not to receive an invitation from the Foreign Office to a meeting
on Monday with the British Ambassador to
·
We
recommend you read Solidarity Peace Trust’s ‘Initial Thoughts on the
Matabeleland Constitutional Outreach Experience’ – https://www.zimbabwesituation.com/old/nov2_2010.html#Z1 for why the programme has been such a
colossal waste of time and money. Why the West funded this fiasco instead of
reforms to make a free and fair election possible we will never
know.
·
Front
desk lady Josephine Zhuga has been invited to talk about the
situation in
·
Thanks to
Loreta Govere for stepping in to help with the register
today.
For latest Vigil pictures check: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/.
For the latest ZimVigil TV programme check the link at the top of the home page
of our website.
FOR THE RECORD: 140 signed the register.
EVENTS AND NOTICES:
·
The Restoration of Human Rights in
Zimbabwe (ROHR) is
the Vigil’s partner organisation based in
·
Meeting on the situation and
politics in
·
Furthering
·
ROHR
·
Talk about the situation in
·
ROHR
·
ROHR
·
ROHR
·
Vigil Facebook
page: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8157345519&ref=ts.
·
Vigil Myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/zimbabwevigil.
·
‘Through the Darkness’, Judith
Todd’s acclaimed account of the rise of Mugabe.
To
receive a copy by post in the UK please email confirmation of your order and
postal address to ngwenyasr@yahoo.co.uk
and
send a cheque for £10 payable to “Budiriro Trust” to Emily Chadburn, 15 Burners
Close, Burgess Hill,
·
Workshops aiming to engage African
men on HIV testing and other sexual health issues. Organised by the Terrence Higgins
Trust (www.tht.org.uk). Please contact
the co-ordinator
Vigil
Co-ordinators
The Vigil,
outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429
[
CONSTITUTION WATCH 23/2010
[6th
November 2010]
The
Law Society Model Constitution
Introduction
On the 29th October the Law Society of
Zimbabwe unveiled a model constitution for Zimbabwe. The Society’s reason for
producing the draft was to guide the debate that is currently being conducted by
COPAC and to provide a further model on which COPAC can base its own
draft.
The Society
spent more than a year in preparing its draft, a process which involved getting
ideas from its members and from the public, and consulting experts both inside
and outside the country. Among its clauses are some new ideas that could with
advantage be incorporated into a new Zimbabwean constitution. [Full text available on
request]
Outline of the Model
Constitution
The Law Society’s model constitution owes
much to the South African constitution [as does every other draft that has been
produced in this country since 1999] though there are many differences. Of
particular note are the following:
· an extensive and enforceable Declaration of
Rights,
· the vesting of executive functions in an
elected Prime Minister rather than in a President, and
· an extensive decentralisation of power to
the provinces.
Main features
Fundamental
Principles
Certain
fundamental constitutional principles are laid down in the first clause, among
them the supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law; a multi-party
democratic system; the equal and inherent dignity and worth of every human
being without distinction; respect for human rights and due consideration for
vested rights; and devolution of governmental functions and
powers.
The Declaration of
Rights
The Declaration of Rights will protect most
internationally-recognised human rights, socio-economic as well as civil and
political, in particular the following:
· Right to life: the death penalty will be
abolished.
· Freedom of conscience, expression and the
media: academic freedom
and press freedom will be protected, as will the right of journalists to protect
the confidentiality of their sources of information.
· Administrative justice: decisions of public officers will have
to be lawful, rational, proportionate and procedurally fair and will be subject
to review.
· Property rights: No one will be subjected to deprivation
of property except in the public interest and subject to the payment of adequate
compensation. [This, incidentally, will protect people resettled on farms
that have been expropriated from their former owners in the past 10
years.]
· Environmental rights and rights to housing,
education, health care, food and clean water: these social and economic rights will be
protected, subject to the State’s ability to provide them.
· Children, older people, women and disabled
persons: these people
will enjoy particular protection.
· Rights of arrested and detained
persons: as is to be
expected in a draft produced by the Law Society, arrested and detained persons
are given extensive protection. They will have a right to remain silent and to
be informed of their rights.
· Rights of accused persons: again, the rights of these persons are
given extensive protection. In particular, illegally-obtained evidence will be
inadmissible against them [this is not the case in Zimbabwe
today].
·
Enforcement
of the Declaration of Rights: Any court will have power to remedy breaches of the rights
protected by the Declaration of Rights, and anyone will have a right to seek
such a remedy.
The
Legislature
Under the draft there will be a bicameral
legislature consisting of a National Assembly and a Senate. Both will be
elective bodies [there will be no appointed members] and in each House half the
members will be elected on a constituency basis and half by a system of
proportional representation. This will ensure close contact with local
electorates and adequate representation of smaller
parties.
Primary legislative power will vest in the
National Assembly; the Senate will not have power to initiate legislation but
will be confined to checking, scrutinising and amending Bills passed by the
National Assembly.
Parliament will be elected for a fixed
five-year term, and each House will determine when and for how long it sits. In
this important respect, therefore, Parliament will be independent of the
Executive.
Both Houses of Parliament will be obliged
to conduct their business openly and to facilitate public involvement in their
legislative processes. The enactment of subsidiary legislation – regulations,
by-laws, etc. – will require appropriate consultation with interested
parties.
There will be a Parliamentary Appointments
Committee to select candidates for appointment to Commissions and other
constitutional posts through a public selection process.
Elections
Parliamentary elections, and elections to
the office of Prime Minister, will take place concurrently on dates fixed by an
Independent Electoral Commission.
Constituencies will be delimited every 10 years by an ad hoc
Delimitation Commission, not by the Independent Electoral Commission. Members
of the Delimitation Commission will be appointed in the same way as members of
the Electoral Commission.
The
Executive
There will be a non-executive
President who will be Head
of State. He or she will be elected by Parliament for a maximum of two six-year
terms. The President will have to act on the advice of the Prime Minister or
the Cabinet when carrying out his or her functions.
The Prime Minister will be Head of
Government, and he or she
will be elected through a nation-wide ballot for a five-year term, though the
National Assembly will have power to vote him or her out of office. There will
be a maximum of 15 Ministers, who will be appointed by the Prime Minister, not
the President, and will hold office at the absolute discretion of the Prime
Minister.
The
Courts
The draft constitution will establish three
main courts: a Constitutional Court to decide constitutional cases, a Supreme
Court to deal with general appeals, and a High Court to deal with cases at first
instance; there will also be magistrates courts. Special courts such as the
Labour Court and the Administrative Court will be incorporated into the High
Court as specialised divisions. This represents a welcome and overdue
rationalisation of Zimbabwe’s court system.
Judges will be appointed by the President
on the advice of an independent Judicial Services Commission. In the case of
the Chief Justice and other senior judges, however, the President will act on
the advice of the Prime Minister in choosing from a list of candidates put
forward by the Judicial Services Commission. The appointment of all judges will
be subject to approval by the Senate.
Prosecution of
Criminal Cases
The Attorney-General
will be the Government’s chief legal adviser and, as at present, will attend
Cabinet meetings but he or she will not be responsible for prosecuting criminal
cases: that will be the function of an independent
prosecutor-general.
The Legal
Profession
As is to be expected in a draft put forward
by the Law Society, the legal profession gets special mention and special
protection. This is not just a case of the Law Society protecting its own,
however: the legal profession plays a vital role in upholding human rights and
preserving the constitutional order, and the protection given to the profession
will enable it to carry out this role.
Security
Services
The security
services — the Defence Forces, the Police Service, the Prison Service and any
intelligence services — will be subject to civilian, and particularly
parliamentary, scrutiny and control. There will be a complaints mechanism for
dealing with complaints of misconduct on the part of members of the security
services.
The
commanders of each service will be appointed by the President on the advice of
an independent Security Services Commission, and their appointments will be
subject to approval by the Senate.
Independent
Commissions
In addition to a Judicial Services
Commission, a Public Service Commission and a Security Services Commission,
there will be several other independent commissions:
· an Independent Electoral Commission to
conduct elections;
· a Human Rights Commission to foster human
rights generally;
· a Gender and Anti-Discrimination Commission
to ensure gender equality and prevent unlawful
discrimination;
· a Truth, Justice, Reconciliation and
Conflict Prevention Commission to provide remedies for victims of past
human-rights abuses and to promote reconciliation;
· a Media Commission to protect media freedom
and to encourage media practitioners to develop codes to regulate their
conduct;
· a Land Commission to administer State land
and to deal with resettlement and issues of land tenure;
· an Anti-Corruption Commission to deal with
corruption in all spheres.
There will also be two other commissions
which have not been suggested in any other draft constitution put forward in
this country since 2000:
· a Financial and Fiscal Commission, to
advise on the level of provincial taxation and on the division of revenues
between central, provincial and local government bodies,
and
· a Salaries and Remuneration Commission,
which will have to be consulted on the levels of remuneration of all public
officers and employees of provincial and local
authorities.
Provincial and Local
Government
As indicated earlier, there will be
extensive devolution of power to the provinces, with each province having its
own elected governor and legislature and its own public service and police
service.
Provincial legislatures will have power to
make laws for matters such as planning, tourism, education and health, in so far
as they affect their provinces, and the draft deals with the resolution of
conflicts between provincial and national legislation. Provinces will also be
empowered to raise their own taxes.
Local government institutions — urban and
rural councils — will also be recognised and given as much autonomy as is
compatible with good governance.
Conclusion
The Law Society’s draft will not satisfy
everyone, and there are points that are open to criticism:
·
It is doubtful
whether conferring all executive power on a Prime Minister, rather than on a
President, will lead to a more balanced distribution of power within the
Executive branch of government.
·
On much the same
point, the draft should perhaps have provided for the Prime Minister to be
elected by Parliament, as is the case with the South African President, rather
than at a nation-wide election. This would have given Parliament greater power
over the Executive.
·
If the Senate is
to have no power to initiate legislation, one wonders whether it is worth having
a Senate at all.
· The elaborate system of provincial
governments set up in the draft may prove unduly expensive to maintain, and
there is no guarantee that they will be more effective and less corrupt than the
central government.
Despite these criticisms, the draft
contains a great many provisions which, if properly implemented, will ensure the
maintenance of human rights and the rule of law, and will help to heal the
divisions of the past.
Overall the draft, while not perfect is
certainly the best to have been produced so far compared to the present
mutilated Lancaster House Constitution, the NCA draft, the Chidyausiku
Commission draft and the “Kariba Draft”.
Veritas makes every
effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal responsibility for
information supplied