http://www.thestandard.co.zw
October 14, 2012 in Local
PROBLEMS continue
to mount for under-fire Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation
(ZBC) managers who
are being investigated for corruption, it has emerged.
Report by Our
Staff
Sources said Media, Information and Publicity minister, Webster Shamu
visited the State broadcaster last week, a day after the Zimbabwe
Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) swooped on the institution to investigate
allegations by workers that senior managers were looting.
“Shamu wanted
to understand what was going on at ZBC,” said a ZBC manager.
“In the past he
used to heap praises on management, not knowing that all is
not well at the
company. Shamu is now under pressure from his colleagues in
Zanu PF to act
against the managers. They fear that the rot at ZBC will
affect the party’s
election campaign next year. ”
ZBC workers recently wrote to the ZACC
alleging that their bosses were
enriching themselves while the ailing
company was going aground. They
alleged that managers were paying
themselves salaries of over US$20 000,
while ordinary staffers were getting
between US$300 and US$600.
The workers yesterday said they had still not been
paid their September
salaries as the company was struggling to raise revenue
as most advertisers,
as well as viewers and listeners, had abandoned it.
Shamu was yesterday
reluctant to comment. ZBC spokesperson Sivukile Simango
professed ignorance
over the matter.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
October 14, 2012 in Local
GOVERNMENT has axed
6 000 ghost workers from its payroll, removing the
remaining outstanding
issue towards initiating a staff-monitored programme
(SMP) by the
International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Report by Ndamu Sandu
In a report
released after a recent executive board meeting on Zimbabwe, the
IMF said
most of the “red flags” that had been raised in the payroll and
skills audit
had been addressed.
“A report from the Public Service Commission (PSC)
indicated that some 6 000
irregularly employed youth officers have been
removed from the payroll,”
said the report.
“Also, the PSC report
affirmed that the bulk of the red flags raised in the
Payroll and Skills
Audit have been explained or addressed.”
An SMP is an informal and flexible
instrument for dialogue between the IMF
staff and a member country on its
economic policies. Under SMP, the country’s
targets and policies are
monitored by the IMF staff.
Discussions towards an SMP had been held back
by two issues — timely
reporting of data and ghost workers.
However,
the timely reporting of data was achieved last year.
The Public Service
minister, Lucia Matibenga could not confirm or deny that
the ghost workers
had been axed last week.
Finance minister Tendai Biti could not be
reached for comment as he was said
to be out of the country.
The
World Bank financed the Payroll and Skills audit that was undertaken by
Ernst and Young (India) to flush out ghost workers.
Two reports were
submitted in November 2010 and in July last year.
Most of the ghost workers
were recruited just before the June 2008
presidential election run-off to
campaign for President Robert Mugabe.
These included unqualified youth
militias and war veterans deployed by
government and were to draw salaries
from Treasury.
Some of them were those whose names were listed on the
payroll as receiving
salaries, but did not exist or no longer worked for the
concerned
organisation.
Their payments and other benefits may have
been captured by corrupt third
parties.
Biti has in the past said the
money paid to ghost workers was capable of
changing the lives of the civil
servants.
Early this year, MDC-T legislator for Mutare West, Shuah
Mudiwa, told
Parliament that at least US$25 million would be saved monthly
if the ghost
workers were removed from the government payroll.
The
IMF said moving towards an SMP would require improving macro-economic
policy
management and making regular payments to the Poverty Reduction
Growth
Trust.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
October 14, 2012 in Politics
PARLIAMENTARY and
Constitutional Affairs minister, Eric Matinenga, has
defied GPA principals,
saying he will not be part to any arrangement that
jeopardises the
constitutional draft.
Report by Report by Nqaba Matshazi
This
follows a directive by President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister
Morgan
Tsvangirai that he takes over the administration of Copac ahead of
the
second all-stakeholders’ conference.
The move could have resulted in the
executive taking over from Parliament
the process of drafting a new charter
for the country.
“The process remains a parliamentary process and I am
not going to interfere
with the process,” said Matinenga. “I am not going to
be part of that
[taking over Copac].”
The minister was last week
called by Mugabe and Tsvangirai and asked to take
over administration of the
Copac processes, together with Justice minister,
Patrick Chinamasa, a
request he shot down.
Matinenga insisted that when it came to Copac, he
was guided by Article 6 of
the GPA, which states that parliament should
drive constitutional reform.
Matinenga said Copac should be allowed to
“run its course” and not be
usurped by the executive.
Zanu PF has
been calling for amendments to the Copac draft, claiming it did
not reflect
the views of the people.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai reportedly want to have a
final say on what the final
draft would read, and had Matinenga acceded to
their demands, they would
have had their wish.
“I will not be part of
a process that will jeopardise acceptance of the
draft at referendum stage,”
he declared. “We do not want a repeat of the
2000 scenario.”
In 2000,
a referendum rejected a constitutional draft after Zanu PF and the
government campaigned for it vociferously.
Matinenga explained that
the All-Stakeholders’ Conference was not meant to
edit the draft and that
seemed to generate misunderstandings that the draft
could be
amended.
Mugabe’s spokesman, George Charamba refused to comment on
Matinenga’s
stance. Instead, he referred questions back to
Matinenga.
Chinamasa and Tsvangirai’s spokes-person, Luke Tamborinyoka, could
not be
reached for comment last week.
Meanwhile, an emergency meeting
of the Copac management committee, which was
due to be held last Thursday,
will now be held tomorrow.
An official at Copac confirmed that an emergency
meeting had been called to
deal with the chaos bedeviling the
constitution-writing exercise.
However, Copac co-chairperson, Douglas
Mwonzora, said it was not an
emergency meeting, but rather a scheduled
gathering.
“We were supposed to have the meeting [Thursday], but [Zanu PF
co-chairperson] Paul Mangwana, is not around,” he said.
“Tomorrow
(Friday) I will be attending a funeral, so the meeting will now be
held on
Monday.”
The second all stakeholders conference is set for Monday next
week at the
Harare International Conference Centre.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
October 14, 2012 in Politics
THE Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC-T is divided over the draft
constitution
on the issues of presidential powers, devolution and the
running mate
clauses ahead of the Second All-Stakeholders’ Conference
scheduled for next
week, authoritative sources have said.
Report by Nqaba
Matshazi
While Tsvangirai has been campaigning for the draft publicly,
informed
sources say privately he was unhappy with some clauses.
The
Premier has found an unlikely ally in President Robert Mugabe, who is
also
sceptical of the same clauses.
The sources said party secretary-general
Tendai Biti, spokesperson Douglas
Mwonzora and Parliamentary and
Constitutional Affairs minister, Eric
Matinenga wanted the draft
constitution to be adopted as it is.
They said Tsvangirai, party
negotiator Elton Mangoma and members of the
so-called kitchen cabinet were
opposed to this as they felt the draft would
have stripped the president of
all major powers. The Group, sources said,
was confident that Tsvangirai
would win the next elections.
“The feeling is that the President, if the
draft is accepted, would have
been reduced to a clerk, literally,” a
well-placed source said.
“So they are fighting to have some of those
powers restored.”
Ironically, Biti, Mwonzora and Mangoma were part of the
MDC-T’s delegation
in the Copac management committee.
“The situation
is made worse by that the lawyers — Biti, Matinenga and
Mwonzora — are on
one side and some members think this puts the
intelligentsia on one side and
the rest of the party on the other,” the
source continued.
Another
MDC-T insider said the party agreed that Tsvangirai should not open
up the
discussion with Mugabe over Copac, but the Prime Minister had
continued to
do so.
This has given rise to further divisions within the
party.
“When we launched the campaign to vote for the constitution, the
president
(Tsvangirai) made it clear that he would not discuss the
constitution with
Mugabe, but now he is doing it at their Monday meetings
and this is raising
consternation within the party,” the insider
said.
Biti and Mangoma could not be reached for comment this week.
But
Mwonzora said reported divisions were untrue, adding that the party had
reached a consensus on all the issues in the Copac draft.
He said
while Tsvangirai continued to meet Mugabe over the Copac draft, it
was not
about content but rather of processes like the Second
All-Stakeholders’
Conference and security arrangements leading to the
referendum.
“Tsvangirai’s position is clear, he supports devolution,
this (Copac) is a
parliamentary-driven process,” he said. “This draft was
endorsed by the
standing committee, the national executive council and the
national
council.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
October 14, 2012 in Politics
ZAPU’S problems
reached a new low last week.
Report by Silas Nkala
Disgruntled
party members called for party leader Dumiso Dabengwa’s head if
he failed to
reinstate expelled Bulawayo provincial chairman, Ray Ncube.
Ncube was
expelled after he wrote a letter to Dabengwa chronicling problems
the party
faced but was in turn accused of setting up parallel structures.
Dabengwa
— the disgruntled party members charged — behaved like he owned the
party,
yet he was invited by Ncube when Zapu was revived in 2008.
The members
met at the end of last month and passed a vote of no confidence
in the
party’s leadership.
Disgruntled members are calling for the nullification
of Ncube’s expulsion,
arguing that the party had not followed procedures in
suspending him as
there had been no disciplinary hearing.
“Ncube’s
expulsion was done without the people’s mandate,” said one district
member
who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“The majority of people in the 12
districts of Bulawayo are against Ncube’s
expulsion and we will fight along
with him. If president Dumiso Dabengwa and
the National People’s Council
(NPC) chairman Isaac Mabuka, do not want to
work with Ncube, they must go
themselves.”
Dabengwa could not be reached for comment last
week.
But Mabuka however, stuck to his guns, insisting that the NPC had a
right
and mandate to expel errant members.
“The NPC has agreed that
Malambani Dube acts as the chairman at the moment,
as the party prepares to
elect a new substantive chairman,” Mabuka said.
“All the party’s district
executive members are behind the new chairman and
I do not know who you are
referring to as against the NPC’s decision to
expel Ncube.”
Dube
confirmed he was at the helm of the province following Ncube’s
expulsion.
“You know that our former chairman has been expelled and
the NPC agreed to
endorse me as an acting chairman for
now.
“According to what I know following the meeting held this week by
the NPC to
appoint me, no one is opposed to my appointment,” he
said.
Zapu has been lurching from one crisis to the next, amid reports that
it was
struggling to pay its rentals.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
October 14, 2012 in News
THE two MDC
formations have vowed to resist fresh attempts by President
Robert Mugabe to
call for early elections before the full implementation of
agreed political
and electoral reforms.
Report by Patrice Makova
Mugabe told the
Zanu PF Central Committee on Friday that elections would be
held in March
next year, whether the two MDCs liked it or not. He claimed
that the
environment was conducive for the holding of free and fair polls.
But the
two MDC formations yesterday said Mugabe would not succeed in
calling
unilateral elections.
MDC-T spokesperson, Douglas Mwonzora said as long
as the agreed electoral
and other reforms have not been implemented, his
party, with the support of
Sadc, would stop Mugabe and Zanu PF from calling
for early elections.
“Mugabe has always been wishing for an election
where his Zanu PF is not
contested, but unfortunately he can no longer make
unilateral decisions,” he
said.
Mwonzora said if Zanu PF was serious
about holding early elections, the
party should expeditiously agree to the
implementation of reforms, including
the election roadmap and new
constitution for the country.
“The position of the MDC is not so much
about the date for elections,” he
said. “We insist on conditions that
guarantee secrecy of vote and security
of both the vote and voters. If key
electoral reforms are implemented today,
we are not afraid to hold free and
fair polls next week.”
Nhlanhla Dube, spokesperson for the MDC formation
led by Professor Welshman
Ncube, said his party would only agree to the
holding of elections between
June and October next year, in line with the
life of the current Parliament
of Zimbabwe.
“Mugabe does not
understand what it means to level the playing field,” he
said.
“The
Global Political Agreement is very clear on reforms that have to be
made to
level the playing field. Sadc at its last summit in Maputo also made
it
clear that these reforms have to be implemented before elections are
held.”
But Zanu PF spokesperson, Rugare Gumbo, insisted that the two
MDCs were
powerless and could not stop Mugabe. “The only person who has the
power to
call elections according to the constitution and the GPA is the
President
(Mugabe),” he said.
“The two MDCs know it, but they are
only making this noise because they are
playing to the gallery.”
Zanu
PF Central Committee meeting agreed that the party’s primary elections
would
be held soon after the delimitation exercise.
The party had previously
agreed that the primaries would be held after the
Copac’s second
All-Stakeholders Conference next week.
“It was agreed that there was no
point in holding primary elections before
the delimitation of constituencies
as this is expected to change boundaries
in several areas,” said a senior
Zanu PF official.
Another source said the Central Committee also agreed
to hold training
workshops for party delegates who would attend next week’s
All-Stakeholders
Conference.
This was meant to ensure that they
project the party’s position.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
October 14, 2012 in Politics
THE
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has said people living in the
Diaspora
would not be allowed to vote in the next elections because of
logistical and
financial reasons.
Report by Nqaba Matshazi
This is despite
clamours by those living abroad who want to exercise their
voting
rights.
ZEC chief elections officer, Lovemore Sekeramai told an all-party
workshop
in Harare on Friday that it was difficult to administer a Diaspora
vote.
“Zimbabweans are all over the world, how do we administer elections
across
the world? Looking at the economy and what is needed financially,
it’s just
not possible,” he said.
“We will have to airlift people and
equipment from here and that is
expensive.”
Sekeramai said in the
event that ZEC were to administer an election abroad,
the commission could
not go to all the countries but would have to select
some, which could then
lead to new controversies.
“If we go to Britain, Zimbabweans in Australia
would ask why we did not go
there, so as it is, their voting is a logistical
problem,” he said.
The ZEC official gave an example of South Africa,
which did not allow people
in the Diaspora to vote and only allowed votes
from Britain after a court
order.
Sekeramai explained that if South
Africa, a far much larger economy than its
northern neighbour, baulked at
the expenses and logistics involved in
allowing the Diasporians to vote,
then it was also almost impossible for
Zimbabwe to run such an
election.
ZEC commissioner, Geoff Feltoe said legally, those living in
the Diaspora
could not vote, as they were not covered by the electoral
law.
He said for now, all they could do was lobby for their
inclusion.
Feltoe, a University of Zimbabwe law lecturer, explained that
Zimbabwe’s
voting system was ward-based and a person should reside in a
particular ward
within 12 months of an election.
Most of the people
in the Diaspora have been away for much longer than that.
MDC-T deputy
organising secretary, Abednico Bhebhe told a Zimbabwe Election
Support
Network meeting recently that his party and Zanu PF had agreed to
block
people in the Diaspora from voting in the next election.
There have been
calls by people living outside Zimbabwe that they be allowed
to cast postal
ballots but so far the clamours have fallen on deaf ears.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
October 14, 2012 in
Local
BULAWAYO — A coalition of church organisations have warned
government of
massive protests in Bulawayo as people revolt against the
water crisis being
experienced in the country’s second largest
city.
Report by Nqobani Ndlovu
The water shortages have also
caused the closure of several companies,
resulting in hundreds of employees
being redundant.
Christian Alliance, a coalition of churches that
promotes peace and
tolerance, said it was a matter of time before Zimbabwe
witnessed a violent
protest against government for failure to solve problems
affecting Bulawayo.
Useni Sibanda, Christian Alliance director said
Bulawayo’s water problems
“magnify a deliberate government policy of
marginalisation of the region”.
“Government is sitting on a time bomb; it
faces a rude awakening because
people are angry about company closures and
water shortages,” said Sibanda.
“This will lead to chaos, violent
protests because people will not accept a
situation where they are denied
jobs and now water.”
Sibanda was addressing a peace building meeting
organised by Bulawayo
Agenda, Christian Alliance and the Church and Civil
Society Forum (CCSF),
held in Lupane last week.
Bulawayo mayor,
Tha-ba Moyo has said the council may be forced to use
National Railways of
Zimbabwe (NRZ) locomotives to ferry water from the
Zambezi River to the
city.
“We will not sit and watch,” he said. “We have made some plans to
bring
water from other towns or from the Zambezi River using the National
Railways
of Zimbabwe goods trains.”
Close to 100 companies have shut
down in Bulawayo since 2010, sending close
to 20 000 employees into
joblessness.
The few that are operating have downsized operations while
mulling
relocation to other cities, citing crippling water
shortages.
Some suburbs have gone for weeks without water after the local
authority
introduced a tight water rationing regime following the
decommissioning of
dams.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai recently
said water shortages and a host of
problems facing Bulawayo was a deliberate
marginalisation policy by the Zanu
PF administration since 1980.
The
meeting was attended by chiefs, village heads, political parties,
churches,
youth organisations and Joint Monitoring and Implementation
Committee
officials.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
October 14, 2012 in
Local
PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s recent promise to grant a
blanket amnesty
to service chiefs could dent the party’s credibility and
cost him valuable
votes in the forthcoming elections, political analysts
have warned.
Report byCaiphas Chimhete
The MDC-T leader last week
said he was prepared to grant a blanket amnesty
to services chiefs if he
wins next year’s elections, to ensure a peaceful
transition of power in the
country.
But this contradicts his previous statements, that all those
that committed
crimes, including violence and politically-motivated murders,
would face
justice.
In October last year, Tsvangirai told his
supporters in Gutu at the memorial
service of the late Public Service
minister, Professor Eliphas Mukonoweshuro
that he would compensate victims
of political violence and make the
perpetrators accountable for their
deeds.
Analysts said Tsvangirai’s indecisiveness could anger victims of
political
violence and his supporters, especially those whose relatives were
murdered
during Gukurahundi and in the run-up to the June 2008
elections.
Some of the service chiefs are linked to rape and murder of an
estimated 20
000 civilians in Matabeleland and Midlands during the
Gukurahundi era in the
1980s.
Only four years ago, security chiefs
were the force behind President Robert
Mugabe’s holding on to power after
the violent 2008 elections, during which
at least 200 MDC-T activists were
reportedly killed.
Bulawayo agenda director, Thabani Nyoni expressed
shock that Tsvangirai
wanted to give a blanket amnesty to service
chiefs.
“We are very much surprised by the vacillation by the Prime
Minister,” said
Nyoni.
“Our position is that everyone should be
accountable for their actions.
Tsvangirai should know that he is not the
only one who should decide the
future of this country.”
Nyoni
believes Tsvangirai’s statement could cost him votes and the
credibility of
his party in the eyes of relatives and victims of political
violence.
Relatives of people who died during the Gukurahundi era and
of those killed
during any other time would have to reconsider if it was
worthwhile to
support him, he said.
“This sounds like an abandonment
and people will start to consider whether
it is worth it,” he said. “People
will see him as one of those leaders who
will shake hands (when he wins
elections) with his rivals, as if nothing had
happened
before.”
Analysts said what was most shocking was that Tsvangirai
promised to pardon
perpetrators of political violence a few days after
touring Masvingo, where
he met with victims who gave chilling accounts of
how they were tortured by
people they knew very well.
Some of the
victims have deformed faces while others lost limbs.
But their tormentors,
who are walking scot-free, continue to chide them.
‘Tsvangirai trying to
curry favour with generals’
University of Zimbabwe political scientist
Shakespeare Hamauswa said
Tsvangirai was trying to win the hearts of the
generals because they are a
real threat to him ascending to power if he wins
the next elections.
He said the security chiefs were determined to
protect the wealth they
accumulated over the years and avoid possible
prosecution in future.
“You can’t threaten the generals who have guns,
they will not allow you to
rule,” said Hamauswa. “But like Lenin [Soviet
Union Founder] once said
‘Promises are like pie crusts, made to be
broken’.”
He said Tsvangirai’s statement could be an attempt to
manipulate the
generals into thinking they would be safe in the event that
the MDC-T wins
elections and then prosecute them later.
The Human
Rights Commission Bill, which was signed by President Robert
Mugabe
recently, provides for investigations for past atrocities while the
draft
constitution seeks to establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission
to
address previous cases.
However, the bill only allows for the
investigation of cases of
politically-motivated violence starting from 2009,
effectively burying
atrocities committed during Gukurahundi and in 2008,
when most of Tsvangirai’s
supporters were butchered in
cold-blood.
“The PM was simply saying the MDC will not waste time on
retribution once
the party gets into power,” said MDC-T spokesperson Douglas
Mwonzora. “The
MDC will spend a lot of time on repairing the lives damaged
by Zanu PF
militias, including some members of the security services.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
October 14, 2012 in Community News
CHILDREN
from various Apostolic sects last week challenged some practices
that
exposed them to abuse in their churches, making them vulnerable in
society.
Report by Moses Chibaya
Among the practices they
vowed to resist are child abuse, early marriages
and prohibition from
seeking medication from hospitals.
They also said they wanted access to
information on reproductive health and
the right to sound
education.
The children, who were attending a workshop organised by the
Union for
Development of the Apostolic Churches in Zimbabwe Africa (Udaciza)
and
United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), said such repressive practices
were
retrogressive and should be done away with.
The workshop was
attended by children drawn from five provinces — Harare,
Mashonaland West,
Mashonaland East, Mashonaland Central and Manicaland.
“Some of our girls are
married at a tender age,” said one of the
participants.
“They are
married not at their will, but they are forced into some of these
marriages.”
Another girl claimed that at their church, teenage girls
were routinely
tested for virginity and anyone found to have lost her
virginity was paraded
in front of the whole church.
“We are regularly
tested,” she claimed.
“Anyone found not to be a virgin is paraded. The
experience is so painful.
No young man in the church will want to marry you
and at the end of the day
we are left with no option but to marry someone
older than our fathers.”
A girl from Mashonaland Central added: “Those
married at a tender age have
children year after year because they are not
able to access family planning
pills. They end up having many children, who
they fail to fend for.”
Unicef gender and human rights advisor, Anna
Mutavati, said the attitude
shown by the children was “something that is
ground-breaking”. “We have had
many programmes targeting different children,
but we have never really had
an opportunity to discuss issues affecting
children who are growing up in
apostolic churches,” she said.
Udaciza
secretary-general, Reverend Edison Tsvakai, said they would urge
different
churches to revisit doctrines and philosophies.
“The major purpose of this
gathering is to try to gather the problems that
are being faced by apostolic
children; issues such as early marriages and
not sending children to
school,” he said.
“We decided to engage children so that they grow up
knowing what is expected
of them when they have children as far as
education, health and child rights
are concerned and how they can change
future generations.”
Tsvakai said they were working with the ministries
of Education, Sport, Arts
and Culture, and that of Health and Child Welfare,
as well as Labour and
Social Welfare, in trying to address issues affecting
children whose
parents attended Apostolic sects.
But it looks like
the children are definitely going to face an uphill task.
During the
workshop, one elderly member of the church vowed that they would
not go for
HIV-testing, claiming that such a disease was non-existent in
their
church.
“Our church started in 1932 and there are rules that are there.
For example,
we do not allow sex before marriage,” said the member, whose
name could not
be established. “We know that we don’t get the disease
because we are
faithful. So we don’t allow anyone to go for
HIV-testing.”
Ministry engaging sect leaders: Mombeshora
Deputy
Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Douglas Mombeshora, said his
ministry
was also engaging leaders of the Apostolic sects.
“We have these programmes,
where we are actually trying to engage their
leaders,” said
Mombeshora.
“At one point, I actually visited them and talked to their
leaders for three
hours during the night and they then allowed us to
immunise their children.”
He added: “It’s a process. It is a complicated
issue that needs a tactful
approach.”
Politicians, including
President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai, have in the
past attended Apostolic sects’ gatherings, but have
never openly condemned
such practises.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
October 14, 2012 in Community News
TWO
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) last week repeated calls for
government to scrap the death penalty which has been included in the current
draft constitution.
Report by Jairos Saunyama
The call came as
the country celebrated the World Day Against the Death
Penalty last
week.
Amnesty International (AI) and the Zimbabwe Association for Crime
Prevention
and Rehabilitation of the Offender (Zacro), said they dedicated
the world
anti-death penalty day to lobbying the government to lift the law
that
allows for a death sentence.
AI’s Zimbabwe executive director,
Cousin Zilala, said the draft constitution
had done enough justice to the
issue of death penalty.
“Amnesty International welcomes Zimbabwe’s
efforts to reduce the application
of the death penalty in the draft
constitution, but calls on the government
to ensure equality for all by
abolishing the death penalty in all cases”, he
said.
“It is the
predetermined and cold-blooded killing of a human being by the
state and it
is unacceptable, regardless of the nature of the crime, the
characteristic
of the offender or the method used.”
He said the death penalty was cruel,
inhumane and a degrading punishment.
“It is the ultimate breach of the
right to life as enshrined in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” he
added.
Zimbabwe last carried out executions in 2005, but there are about
60 inmates
still facing capital punishment. Zacro director, Edison Chihota,
appealed to
all countries including Zimbabwe that still uphold capital
punishment to
follow the example of progressive African countries such as
Angola,
Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa, that have abolished the death
penalty.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
October 14, 2012 in Community News
MOST
people in Harare have since stopped drinking water from the local
authority
because they believe it is unsafe, a survey by a local residents’
association has revealed.
Report by Charles Mazorodze
The
survey, which was conducted by the Harare Residents’ Trust (HRT) in 15
suburbs recently, indicated that most residents now shunned water from City
of Harare.
Some residents are buying bottled drinking water from the
shops while others
get it from boreholes.
“Those residents who
attempted to drink the water have been complaining
about diarrhoea and
stomach aches, yet the Harare City Council (HCC) makes
unfounded claims that
the water is clean,” said HRT.
“In the process, to conceal the dire
situation which the Harare residents
are subjected to, HCC has gone a step
further by gagging local clinics from
releasing health-related information
related to water consumption.”
HRT said such a move clearly showed the
lack of sincerity on the part of the
city fathers to address the plight of
residents.
“The authorities are failing to address the residents’
grievances and public
health while the council management is munching over
52% of the collected
revenue and they still admit that they have failed to
perform by not
providing essential public services to the heterogeneous
citizenry,” said
the association.
HRT said the failure by the council
to provide clean water to residents of
greater Harare was an exhibition of
high levels of incompetence and
mismanagement.
The association said
the magnitude of the water crisis in Harare required
direct intervention by
the central government through the Health, Water
Resources and the Local
Government, Rural and Urban Development ministries,
to engage the local
authority.
Residents living in uncertainity
Most western
suburbs and northern suburbs have not had city water for a long
time.
Residents in most western, northern and southern suburbs and
the generality
of the residents have lost confidence in HCC’s
water.
The association said residents were receiving a barrage of letters
of final
demand and summons in most high- density suburbs, which council is
using to
intimidate and frighten residents into settling unreasonable and
unjustifiable bills.
The trust condemned HCC for trying to recover
money from residents for
services which they were not
providing.
“Residents are living in uncertainty as council has gone
behind the back of
residents to seek court orders in order to continue to
fleece them,” said
the association.
This is mostly common in suburbs
such as Mabvuku, Glen View, Kuwadzana,
Kuwadzana Phase 3, Tafara, Highfield,
Mufakose, Rugare and Kambuzuma.
In 1999, the late Harare Mayor Alderman
Solomon Tawenga’s administration was
fired after failing to provide water to
Harare residents for six days, owing
to corruption and rampant mismanagement
of public resources.
“The honourable co-urse of action for Mayor
Muchadeyi Masunda and the Town
Clerk Tendai Mahachi administration, which
has failed to provide clean and
potable water to the residents for over
three years, is to tender their
resignation en masse,” said the
association.
“How do they continue to justify being in charge of Harare
if they continue
to admit that they have run short of ideas to deal with
residents’ problems?
Yet they continue to take residents’ money.”
The
water crisis has resulted in the outbreak of waterborne diseases such as
typhoid and cholera in the past few years.
Over 4 000 people died from
cholera from the end of 2008 to 2009.
Efforts to get a comment from
council spo-kesperson Leslie Gwindi were
fruitless.
But the council is
said to have appealed to government for help as its
infrastructure is
failing to cope with demand, leaving residents without
supplies for
days.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
October 14, 2012 in Business
ZIMBABWEANS are
against the taking over of companies under the government’s
indigenisation
and empowerment programme, which has frightened away
potential investors, a
recent survey has established.
Report by Moses Chibaya
The
programme is being spearheaded by Youth Development, Indigenisation and
Empowerment minister Saviour Kasukuwere.
According to a recent survey
by Afrobarometer, a research project that
measures public attitudes on
economic, political, and social matters in
sub-Saharan Africa, the majority
of Zimbabweans preferred an empowerment
programme that created employment as
opposed to grabbing shares in
foreign-owned companies.
The survey,
which was co-ordinated by the Mass Public Opinion Institute
(MPOI) in the
country, also measures public attitudes on democracy,
evaluates quality of
governance and economic performance.
According to the survey, more than
78% of the respondents preferred the
creation of jobs, as a way of
empowering them, as opposed to taking over
shares in foreign-owned
companies.
“More than three quarters (78%) of respondents agree with this
approach,
either ‘strongly’ (24%) or ‘very strongly’ (54%),” read a
statement released
by MPOI. “Zimbabweans therefore robustly endorse the
empowerment-via job
creation model. Taking over companies has very mild
support with only two in
10 (19%) of citizens in support for this
approach.”
At least 2 400 adult Zimbabweans were interviewed in the
survey.
MPOI added that this policy preference got strong endorsement
across
provinces, gender, age and all education groups.
However,
support for job creation consistently declined with age from 82%
among the
youth (18-30) to 78% among the middle aged (31-45).
It further went down
to 76% for the 46-60 age group and dipped to 72% among
senior citizens aged
61 plus.
“Support for indigenisation runs in the opposite direction ie,
in other
words, it increases with age from 15% among the youth to 23% for
those aged
above 60 years old,” said the survey.
The coalition
government has been plagued by apparent policy inconsistency,
particularly
over how to apply the indigenisation law, a move which has only
served to
deter much-needed investment inflows.
The indigenisation law, which was
enacted in 2007, requires all
foreign-owned companies to hand over a
majority stake of 51% to local
blacks.
However, unlike Zanu PF, the two
MDC formations are in favour of an
empowerment model based on employment
creation.
Both Finance minister Tendai Biti and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
governor
Gideon Gono, have registered their opposition to the laws affecting
banks,
saying the move would hurt the already fragile economy.
The
regulations also target the tourism sector, safari and cruise yatch
operators.
KASUKUWERE CAUSES CONSTERNATION
Kasukuwere
has caused a great deal of consternation in the international
investment
community seeking to invest in the country as the policy has
already taken
its toll in the mining sector. The indigenisation policy is
now set to be
applied to all foreign-owned banks.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
October 14, 2012 in Business
BY KUDZAI
CHIMHANGWA
EQUITABLE intra-regional trade, as espoused by the tripartite free
trade
area (TFTA), is being stifled by varying levels of economic
development in
different countries, a cabinet minister said last
week.
The envisaged TFTA is composed of member states from the Common Market
for
East and Southern Africa (Comesa), Southern African Development
Community
(Sadc) and East African Community (EAC).
Regional Integration
and International Co-operation minister, Priscilla
Misihairabwi-Mushonga
said individual countries in the region were unlikely
to disrupt their
national industrialisation interests in favour of regional
industrial
development objectives.
“The TFTA would encourage the opening up of markets
to member states so as
to facilitate trade, but each individual state needs
to protect its own
local industries.
“Without some form of protection,
you end up messing up your own
industrialisation process,” she said.
The
minister said some countries were reluctant to reduce
tariffs.
Misihairambwi-Mushonga however, said there was a commitment made by
member
states to assist each other in terms of working on the
industrialisation
aspect, following tripartite discussions at the grand free
trade area forum
in May last year in Namibia.
The existence of trade
restrictions and bureaucratic regulations have also
been fingered as key
impediments towards regional integration as most of the
concerned economies
are reliant on revenue emanating from exports and import
duties.
The TFTA
integration process is to be centred on three pillars, namely:
market
integration, infrastructure development and industrial development,
with the
objective of addressing member states’ productive capacity
constraints.
Critics said regional integration was characterised by
ambitious targets yet
member states had a drab implementation record.
For
example, although governments affiliated to the TFTA last year adopted a
roadmap for the establishment of the grand free trade area, with specific
timelines for activities and an institutional framework relating to
negotiations and their conclusion, the time-frames have not been closely
observed.
In respect of tariff negotiations, member states are required
to undertake
national and regional consultations on amalgamating tariff
liberalisation in
each regional economic community and submit remarks to a
tripartite task
force before end of this month.
A researcher with the
South Africa-based Trade Law Centre, Sean Woolfrey
said instead of being a
binding regional industrial policy, the language of
the draft TFTA suggested
an approach simply based on co-operation between
states.
“The downside of
this weaker approach is that it opens up the possibility of
some member
states forging ahead with domestic industrial policies based on
national
objectives, while other less proactive members fail to make
substantial
progress in this area,” said Woolfrey in a research paper.
“Such a situation
could easily serve to exacerbate existing levels of
inequality in industrial
development in the region.”
Tariff negotiations
Under the tariff
negotiations, member states that are presently
participating in free trade
areas are encouraged to extend the maximum level
of tariff liberalisation
achieved in their regional economic communities to
all other TFTA states.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
October 14, 2012 in International,
Opinion
Africa’s liberation movements have dismally failed to deliver on
their
promises because they were simply unrealistic and
unachievable.
Report by Vince Musewe
The liberation movements
promised political freedom to the masses; in
addition to that, they assured
that the masses would own the means of
production and the natural resources
of their countries. They actively
condemned capitalism as the source of all
evil and promised to create more
equitable and just societies, with the
black African at the centre stage.
Almost all have dismally failed to
deliver on their promises because they
were simply unrealistic and
unattainable. Instead, our so-called liberators
have become the true
capitalists, who do not only control political power,
which they continue to
hold onto, but have also accumulated considerable
personal wealth through
corruption and pillage. The cry for economic freedom
by the ordinary African
citizen has become an inconvenient irritation, to be
soothed and hopefully
contained by empty sounding political rhetoric.
Post-independent Africa
has clearly failed to deliver. As I watch events
unfolding in South Africa,
I am not surprised at all that the masses have
run out of patience, and are
taking matters into their own hands. It appears
to me that traditional trade
unions are fast-becoming irrelevant platforms
to address what are
fundamentally structural economic problems.
The situation is certainly
going to get worse, as the realisation dawns on
most that, sustainable
economic transformation is not about higher wages,
better work conditions or
higher social grants, these are temporary. We
need significant shifts in
the structure of African economies: from raw
capitalism, which is
characterised by incessant accumulation of economic
power by a few, to a
more equitable economic welfare system that seeks to
deliberately expunge
mass poverty.
Most post-independent African states have failed to shift
their economies in
that direction because of weak political leadership that
simply adopted the
colonial capitalist state, because it was convenient and
less painful. They
pursued the safest route of preserving the capitalist
regimes of
pre-independent Africa, by getting a few blacks to graduate into
owners of
capital without fundamentally changing the economic
system.
What this has done, is to create a black elite, keen on
preserving an
exclusive resource ownership regime. The masses are
wondering what could
have happened to the promised economic
freedom.
This has been the experience in Zimbabwe for example, hence 32
years later;
we are still talking about indigenising the economy. This,
besides having
already taken over vast agricultural resources of the
country.
Unfortunately, this will not work because it lacks credibility and
vision.
Our politicians and the top military brass have carved out for
themselves
lucrative sectors of the economy and are effectively running a
parallel
economy, to the benefit of a few.
The masses are expected to
irk out a living while remaining at the fringes
of the economy. South Africa
has done no better; the poor have become more
marginalised as we see a
rapacious black capitalist class emerging. These
black elite are far removed
from realities of shack dwellers and underpaid
miners who are now fighting
for economic freedom. The chickens are coming
home to roost.
I do not
think that, as long as we pursue the capitalist model of
production, we are
going to see meaningful economic freedom in Africa as
articulated by South
Africa’s “economic freedom fighters”. Capitalism
favours those that have and
penalises those who supply labour and those who
aspire to enter the
market.
It also favours the proliferation of international conglomerates in
the form
of monopolies and oligopolies, whose brands and products have
become the new
colonisers. The black capitalists have partnered with
international
conglomerates to entrench in development projects, thus
further entrenching
the skewed ownership structures.
You must appreciate
that, the international capitalist model has Africa at
its fringes,
providing raw material, as was the case during colonial times.
It has Africa
receiving aid to address its social problems while providing a
huge consumer
base for its technology and consumer goods. The Chinese have
mastered this
and are, as we speak, extracting significant wealth from
Africa. We have
been duped.
As far as I see it, we need to have this conversation in
Zimbabwe. It is
imperative that we have new conversations on how we can
create a new
economic system rather than merely reviving and strengthening
the
post-independence capitalist base. As we try to revive the economy, it
is
critical that we address the fundamental inappropriateness of capitalism
as
a tool for the democratisation of economic power.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
October 14, 2012 in
Opinion
The scandal-ridden private life of the Prime Minister goes way
beyond mere
reckless sexual contacts; it goes to the core of good
governance, the MDC-T’s
prospects for electoral victory and good common
sense, as it will be shown
here.
Report by Laiton
Mkandawire
Morgan Tsvangirai has displayed a lack of basic common sense,
a prerequisite
in all good leaders. The guy goes to hunt in protected enemy
territory. When
he is discovered and exposed for poaching, he alleges the
government’s
Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO)’s, involvement in his
love life. He
wants the nation and the entire world to believe that Zanu PF
and the CIO,
and not his promiscuity, led to his troubles.
Even those
who initially believed the Zanu PF and CIO-plot excuse proffered
by
Tsvangirai, must have been shocked when the man they believe will deliver
political change in Zimbabwe failed to change himself and went back to Zanu
PF territory to get another lady with her roots steeped deep in the party,
Elizabeth Macheka.
The natural question to ask our Prime Minister is:
if Zanu PF and the CIO
are seeking to destroy your political career and
penetrated your
relationship with a Zanu PF lady, Locardia Karimatsenga,
what has changed to
stop them from penetrating your relationship with
Elizabeth, another Zanu PF
daughter? It is an apparent and glaring lack of
clear-mindedness and good
judgement on the part of the man entrusted by
millions of Zimbabweans, who
believe in him, with the momentous task of
unshackling Zimbabwe from the
tight grip of Zanu PF rule.
It must be
disappointing to his legion of loyal followers and others seating
on the
fence who believed in his potential to unseat President Mugabe from
the
throne. The man admits to multiple, concurrent, and unprotected sexual
relationships and yet has the temerity to point fingers at enemies for the
liaisons. Did the CIO find him the women? Did Zanu PF and the CIO undress
him in readiness for unprotected sexual acts, resulting in
pregnancies?
Sexual addiction is a common enough health condition. Admit
to it and seek
professional help before even attempting to assume the mantle
of national
leadership and embarrassing the whole nation. To believe that
Tsvangirai was
looking for a wife when he was sleeping with all those women
would be the
height of naivety. He was being an Aids ambassador,
rather.
More worrying to the entire MDC-T family is Tsvangirai’s public
apology for
his sexual indiscretions at an MDC-T function in Bulawayo to
celebrate its
13th year of existence. It goes to show how easily the man
mixes business
with pleasure at the party’s expense. Imagine a future
Zimbabwean president
making such an apology at a public forum asking for
forgiveness for sampling
the delights of the nation’s women with reckless
abandon. And the apology
was insincere because, directed at the women he
caused pain and suffering,
he has not privately made peace with them, at
least not with Locardia, who
is now being blamed for miscarrying as if it
was by choice.
Does Zanu PF need to campaign vigorously in the next
national elections? No.
Tsvangirai will campaign for them harder than they
can ever imagine with his
own mistakes. That’s how bad Tsvangirai is to his
own cause. He is scoring
own goals. All Zanu PF has to do is “harmonise” the
disgruntled womenfolk’s
vote and romp to a resounding victory, courtesy of a
clumsy presidential
candidate.
It’s high time the opposition in
Zimbabwe in general took a good look at
themselves in the mirror. Is the
picture that you see not ugly? Tsvangirai
has betrayed people’s aspirations
and dashed their hopes.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
October 14, 2012 in Editorial
Patrick Chinamasa was
the Zanu PF candidate for the Makoni Central House of
Assembly seat in the
March 2008 elections.
Standard Comment
He was defeated by the
Movement for Democratic Change candidate, John
Nyamande. He polled 4 050
votes against Nyamande’s 7 060.
President Mugabe appointed him to the
Senate in August 2008 and subsequently
swore him in as Minister of Justice
and Legal Affairs in January the
following year.
It is highly
unlikely that he will win the seat come elections next year.
The reasons he
lost it are as valid today as they were then. It is clear
that his political
life depends on Mugabe’s magnanimity. He is not the only
one who finds his
political fortunes hinged on those of one individual. That
is what makes him
and like-minded individuals in Zanu PF a danger to peace.
The danger he
poses was manifested in the interview he gave to the BBC last
week. In the
interview he said that the military and veterans of the 1970s
liberation war
would rise against Morgan Tsvangirai if he wins the
presidential
elections.
Not only has Chinamasa taken it upon himself to be the
spokesman of the two
groups, but also, the tone of his words implies that he
is ready to incite
the groups to subvert the popular will.
The
language Chinamasa has chosen to use is quite inflammatory and can
easily
turn into hate speech. We have seen how the war vets have acted in
the past
when they have taken the law into their own hands with the backing
of the
military. Hundreds of people have died in the past 12 years at the
hands of
paramilitary gangs who have been incited by Zanu PF’s political
leadership.
The scenario is likely to repeat itself if people like Chinamasa
continue to
use stirring language during a time when the country is going
through such a
delicate phase.
Chinamasa should know that ultimately, it is the people
who decide whom they
want to be ruled by and politicians who have failed,
and are unlikely to win
future elections, must explore other career paths.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
October 14, 2012 in Editorial
Saly is a
seaside resort perched on the Atlantic coast south of Dakar,
Senegal. It is
the foremost tourist destination in West Africa, despite the
stifling heat
which is immense because of the humidity; it’s like you are in
a microwave
oven whose timing mechanism has been removed. You have the sense
of being
cooked slowly, so much so when you eventually escape into the
air-conditioned interior, you are like a sizzling under-done steak, juices
ooze out of you, you can almost hear the heat hiss as it escapes from deep
inside your body.
Report by Nevanji Madanhire
The sea stinks
at Saly; as the waves lash out at the shore, the odours of
the sea come all
pervasive and overpowering. The smell of the sea is in the
food as well; it
makes your stomach churn and the cramps make you double
over as if you have
been hit in the abdomen by a hammer blow.
But all is not gloom in Saly.
Tourism is thriving and is the backbone of the
economy. European visitors
can be seen everywhere, their skins burned into a
dark hue by the searing
heat. They don’t mind for they will quickly enough
cool off in the hotel
complexes and later in nightclubs, bars and
restaurants. There is plenty of
water sport too, so tourists are in and out
of the green
water.
Senegal is a French-speaking country, very few natives speak
English. Your
nightmare stay in the country begins right at the point of
entry because of
the language barrier. There are no English language
newspapers either and TV
programmes are all in French.
It was
difficult, therefore, to learn much about the “new” Senegal; new in
the
sense that it had a new, younger president in the shape of 50-year-old
Macky
Sall.
Dakar seems to have improved a lot since my last visit in 1994 with
new
buildings going up. I am afraid though that the new high-rise buildings
may
not be up to our exacting engineering standards, the concrete columns
are
way too thin to carry the weight. I think very soon the buildings will
begin
to collapse as has been happening in Nigeria.
I wanted to know
the effect the coming in of a new president has had on the
general populace
and what the general attitude towards him was? I was also
keen to know the
lessons that could be learnt from the transition and the
things that can’t
be taken for granted when change happens?
So many questions, the answers
all embargoed in a concrete language barrier!
Then I had a brainwave;
there was Trudy Stevenson, our ambassador to
Senegal, playful, talkative and
otherwise quite disinterested in her
discourse! But as journos would know,
it’s very difficult to get anything
that would shake the world from a
diplomat unless one can really read
between the lines of
diplomatic-speak.
But I was able to glean interesting anecdotes from her
and also from the
people on the market, who in their attempt to con me out
of the little money
I had, gave me snippets of what was going on in
Senegal.
President Macky Sall’s honeymoon is over! Not fast, it’s only
been six
months! Yes. Six months is what history gives to those who would
wish to
change the world. The euphoria of change has dissipated and
criticism is
coming in thick. Sall’s detractors accuse him of nepotism and
sloth, the two
vices most responsible for Africa’s woes.
Senegal
remains a country of contrasts and contradictions, as do the
majority of our
countries here in Africa. So Dakar has magnificent high-rise
buildings and
architectural prize-winners with splendid views over the coast
and ocean,
but just next door in the same Dakar are the slums of Pikine and
Guediawaye,
where sheep, goats, rats, flies and fleas graze on the garbage
thrown out by
entire families living in one room.
Sall embodied change, in this
election, and everyone wanted change. But as
he has proceeded to appoint
relatives and close associates to key positions
in both government and
parastatals people are beginning to ask the obvious
question — is this
really change?
Analysts believe he is doing his best to keep his
promises, but the
circumstances are not favourable — so he has had to face
reality and be
pragmatic. What has impressed commentators, apart from the
election itself
and the peaceful transition, is the extent to which the new
“opposition”
president has retained the previous institutions and eminent
citizens in all
their various positions in exactly the same positions. This,
they argue,
ensures institutional memory and hand-down. Is this a lesson
Zimbabwe can
learn?
What is clear in the people’s body language is
that they were extremely
reinvigorated by the change in their sense of
patriotism and their immense
pride in their country for managing that change
so well — they frequently
cite Senegal as the best democracy in Africa, and
the Senegalese as the most
democratic and tolerant.
While other
predominantly Moslem countries erupted into rebellion recently
over the
Innocence of Islam video, Senegal didn’t. Senegalese insist that
Islam
preaches tolerance and peace. This was proof enough of this.
Perhaps the
most important lesson from the Senegal transition is that a
highly educated,
professional and apolitical security sector is vital.
Senegal’s generals are
highly professional — they don’t dabble in politics
and are proud of it.
But, it was amazing how many of former President Wade’s
closest allies
appointed to high posts by Wade himself abandoned him either
immediately
before or immediately after the second round. Forget about our
own generals
causing trouble when Robert Mugabe loses; they will be the
first to abandon
ship and salute Morgan Tsvangirai, such is fickleness of
human
nature!
Another lesson — it is important that the defeated president has
somewhere
to go outside the country, at least for the first few months after
the
change, without appearing to be fleeing.
Civil society played a
huge part in managing the change — and they need to
be allowed to do that.
It was largely thanks to civil society that there was
no violence. Another
aspect of the Senegal election — many of the
politicians are highly
qualified professionals with their own resources.
They also openly
fund-raise in the west — in US, France and Canada in
particular — and this
is accepted as perfectly normal. Linked to that, the
military and the civil
servants seem sufficiently well-paid that they are
not dependent on
hand-outs or kick-backs from government.
