Suspected ZANU PF supporters from the militant Chipangano
group have attacked Harvest House, the MDC-T headquarters in central
Harare.
The pre-dawn attack left several windows in the building
shattered but no one was injured. A statement from the party said security
details protecting the building recovered eight catapults dropped by ZANU PF
thugs as they fled.
‘Several windows on the first, second and third
floors were broken during the attack,’ the MDC-T said.
Meanwhile, the
party’s national Youth Assembly organising secretary, Phineas Chikadaya, is
in hospital after he was attacked in Budiriro on Wednesday
night.
Promise Mkwananzi, the secretary-general of the Youth
Assembly, told SW Radio Africa on Thursday that Chikadaya was waylaid by a
group of ZANU PF thugs while walking home from a branch
meeting.
‘Chikadaya was walking home in the company of a colleague around
8pm when they were suddenly surrounded by a group of ZANU PF
youths.
They accused him of being a sell-out and destabilizing the
country by working for the MDC. This was an unprovoked attack where
Chikadanga was hit with logs. They used stones to target his left leg and
unfortunately he suffered a fracture to that leg,’ Mkwananzi
said.
The organizing secretary was admitted to the Avenues Clinic. A
report was lodged with the police in Budiriro but no arrests have been made.
Chikadaya has informed his party he can positively identify some of his
attackers.
‘We vociferously condemn the dastardly attack on our members
and strongly speak out against the police inaction to bring the culprits to
book. In the same breathe, let me say no amount of fear will dissuade the
Youth Assembly from carrying out its legitimate mandate to remove ZANU PF
from power,’ Mkwananzi added.
Many Harare residents have this week struggled to keep their cool,
with ongoing water shortages made worse by soaring
temperatures.
Tempers have already snapped in Mabvuku and Glen View where
residents have resorted to fighting while trying to access clean water.
Millions of people are struggling with severe shortages that have now lasted
for weeks in some areas, apparently because of a burst distribution pipe at
the Morton Jaffray Water Treatment Plant. The worst affected areas have been
Glen Norah, Budiriro and Glen View.
To make matters worse,
temperatures have reached record highs this week with 36 degrees Celsius
recorded in the capital on Wednesday. The Met Office has already said that
this has been the hottest October on record since 1962, and the public has
been urged to drink plenty of water to stave off heat stroke and
dehydration.
But the heat and lack of clean water in the capital means
fears are increasing daily about another outbreak of
cholera.
Simbarashe Moyo from the Combined Harare Residents Association
(CHRA) said the water shortages mean people are accessing water from wells
and other sources “that might not be safe.”
“This is so serious now.
If the disease is to break out again it will be very difficult to control.
We already have people drinking dirty water, and we also have burst sewage
pipes, so the risk is high,” Moyo said.
He added: “The excuses from the
Council are not good enough. For me, this is a problem of incompetence and
incapacity. Two years ago when we had the cholera crisis, these issues of
water supply were supposed to be sorted out. We should not have a situation
like this again,” Moyo said.
The Met Office meanwhile has warned that the
sweltering temperatures of the last few days will continue until at least
Sunday. Record breaking temperatures of 44 in Kariba, 43 in Binga and 40 in
Masvingo, Kezi and Victoria Falls have all been recorded this week. The
Ministry of Health and Child Welfare has also issued health warnings, urging
people to be wary of diarrhoea, headaches, vomiting and dehydration-related
conditions.
Bulawayo, October 27 2011 - Police in Matabeleland
North province have banned three rallies planned for the weekend by the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) which is led by Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai.
The three rallies were supposed to be held in Victoria Falls,
Binga and Lupane. Tsvangirai, was expected to be the guest of honour to drum
up support for his party in the forth coming elections.
Speaking to
Radio VOP, the (MDC-T) National Deputy Organising Secretary, Abednico
Bhebhe, said: “The police have since banned our rallies in Victoria Falls,
Binga and Lupane that were supposed to kick start on Friday until
Sunday.”
Bhebhe who described the banning of the rallies as
‘frustrating’, said: “We are going to defy the police ban and go ahead with
the meetings; Matebeleland North police are now fighting the
MDC-T.”
Bhebhe said the police cited high level of inter-state meetings
which will require high security coverage in the three districts.
In
a letter to MDC-T Matebeleland North provincial organising secretary
Thembinkosi Sibindi, Chief Superintendent Chiwona of Victoria Falls police
station noted among others:"Please take note that we are going to have a
high level inter- state meeting which will need high security coverage in
the district. So for the above mentioned reason we have seen it fit to
prohibit your rally until, after this event.”
The letter advised the
MDC-T to hold their rallies after the 4th of November.
Last week in
Nkayi North, MDC-T also ran battles with the police over their unsanctioned
rally in Nesigwe Business Centre as it was clashing with the one for Zanu
(PF).
The riot police forced Tsvangirai to abruptly end his rally when
the law enforcement agents came in full force to disperse the people who
were attending the rally.
Tsvangirai will be on tour of government
projects in Matebeleland North starting Thursday.
After the
disruption of his rally on Saturday Tsvangirai warned Matebeleland North
province police chief, Assistant Commissioner, Edmore Veterai saying he is
now politicising the force and was applying the law selective by harassing
and arresting political activists week in week out.
Police in
Matabeleland North have been preventing Tsvangirai from campaigning in the
province since the run up to the June 27 2008 presidential run-off poll. His
armoured BMW campaign car was seized by police in the provincial capital,
Lupane and has not been released.
According to the Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human Rights (ZLHR) Matabeleland North is now the most hostile province in
the country as police have so far arrested or harass more than 40
politicians and human rights activists since January
Zimbabwe
has secured a $300 million loan from Brazil to finance agriculture and boost
crop production after successive years of food deficits, state media
reported on Thursday.
The loan is part of Brazil's aid programme for
Africa, the state-controlled Herald newspaper said.
Agriculture
Minister Joseph Made said the funds would be used to support farmers who
have largely failed to get loans from local banks that are still recovering
from a prolonged economic crisis.
“The ... programme is important for the
country as it has managed to address some of the challenges we have been
facing in securing lines of credit to support the agriculture sector that is
the backbone of the economy,” Made told the newspaper.
Once a
regional bread-basket, Zimbabwe has struggled to feed itself since 2000 when
President Robert Mugabe's government started to seize farms owned by whites
to resettle landless blacks.
The agriculture sector has shown signs of
recovery under a unity government set up two years ago by Mugabe and his
rival, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, following disputed elections in
2008.
The sector is expected to grow 33 percent in 2011, according to
government projections. Production of the staple maize grain has risen from
400,000 metric tonnes in 2008 to 1.45 million tonnes this year, but is still
below a national requirement of 2 million tonnes. - Reuters
Hundreds of protesters marched through the
streets of Bulawayo on Thursday, venting their anger at the country’s
utility company ZESA, for its catalogue of failures that have impacted so
badly on residents
Demonstrators hoisted signs and chanted: ‘ZESA is
raping us,’ ‘No ZESA No money.’ Our Bulawayo correspondent Lionel Saungweme
told us the mood seemed one of exuberance, not rage, and police who shadowed
the march made no effort to interfere.
The march was organized by the
Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association whose members have inundated them
with complaints over power outages and huge bills. ZESA is also being
castigated for disconnecting power from almost 70 percent of the city’s
households.
The residents association handed over petitions to ZESA, its
board and the Ministry of Energy, demanding that action be taken urgently to
rectify failing standards at the utility company.
‘The residents are
angry that the failure by ZESA to provide adequate power has impacted
negatively on industry, health, environment, education. Crime has gone up,
especially at night time when victims are pounced upon in dark areas. Most
of the time there is no electricity at various industries in the city
forcing many companies to lay off workers. What surprises the residents is
that at the end of the month they still get huge bills, when half the time
they go for hours without power,’ Saungweme said.
Some of the demands
from the residents are the return of the city’s thermal power station to the
ownership of the people of Bulawayo and compensation for all those whose
property was damaged by power surges.
‘The residents want ZESA to reduce
its load shedding and adhere to load shedding schedules and they’ve also
asked the company to work on its flawed billing system and stop estimating
bills,’ Saungweme added.
It has been reported that hundreds of
workers at the state owned Ziscosteel will not be receiving their salaries
this month, as more drama unfolds behind the scenes over a deal that was
negotiated with the giant Indian steel company, Essar.
According to
the Newsday newspaper, Finance Minister Tendai Biti confirmed “the deal was
in limbo”. Biti is quoted as saying he was shocked “there are people in
government and cabinet” determined to block the deal, for their own
“personal reasons”.
Zisco agreed to a deal that sold 54% of Ziscosteel to
Essar, with the government keeping 36% and 10% going to minority
shareholders and workers themselves. A new company named NewZim Steel was
formed. Essar is also to invest $3.5 billion in mining under the banner of
NewZim Minerals.
The deal has been described as the biggest of its kind
in Zimbabwe but it is rumoured that politicians from all parties have been
battling for a piece of the profits and kickbacks.
Political analyst
Bekithemba Mhlanga said it is possible that both parties have realized they
made hasty decisions and could have secured a better deal. “On the part of
the investor, it is quite possible they have woken up to the fact that doing
business in Zimbabwe is not going to be as rosy as it first appeared,”
Mhlanga explained.
He added that someone in government may also have
realized the deal was not negotiated in the best interests of Zimbabwe and
it needs renegotiating.
According to NewsDay, Ziscosteel workers said
their human resources manager Dean Chikukwa, told them at a meeting on
Tuesday that salaries would not be paid this month. The paper said rumours
had filtered through the workers’ union that “government was reneging” on
the NewZim minerals deal. Ziscosteel was rife with corruption and
mismanagement before the Essar deal was negotiated, a condition that has
plagued all parastatals in Zimbabwe. As always it is the workers that suffer
the most.
Bulawayo, October 27, 2011- Zimbabwe has set
17-28 August 2012 as the dates for the country’s fourth census since
independence, population census manager, Washington Mapeta, has
said.
Mapeta said the Zimbabwe National Statistical Agency (Zimstat) will
finish the mapping exercise, which it is currently conducting, in March next
year ahead of the census.
Mapping is a pre-enumeration activity that
involves updating geographical boundaries of all administration units and
socio-economic infrastructure in the country.
“We are currently
undertaking a mapping exercise and we expect to complete the exercise by
March next year. This involves creating maps for every ward in each
district.
“The census will be conducted in August next year. We will
start on August 17 and finish on August 28,” Mapeta told journalists on the
sidelines of a ministerial committee workshop on census held in Bulawayo at
a local hotel.
Mapeta said Zimstat requires US$37 million for the August
2012 census, saying that they have since extended a begging bowl to other
nongovernmental organisations (NGO’s) to assist government with
funding.
He added that Zimstat will start recruiting personnel to conduct
the census in June next year, adding that the organisation has since also
completed drafting questionnaires to be used during the
exercise.
Zimbabwe has since independence held three census exercises.
The previous ones were held in 1982, 1992 and 2002.
The last 2002
census put the population of the country at 11.6 million.
Analysts expect
the next census to show either a drop in population growth or stagnation
after an economic meltdown drove more millions Zimbabweans out of the
country in search of better living conditions.
By Tonderai Kwenda in Australia Thursday, 27
October 2011 09:08
PERTH - The European Union (EU) says financial and
travel sanctions imposed on President Robert Mugabe and his colleagues in
Zanu PF will stay until necessary democratic reforms are in
place.
Baroness Catherine Ashton, Vice President of the European
Commission and High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs
and Security Policy told the Daily News yesterday evening that the ball was
in President Robert Mugabe’s court to introduce democratic reforms in
Zimbabwe because the EU stood ready to re-engage Zimbabwe.
“We have
made it clear to the Zimbabwean government on what needs to be done for us
to re-engage. It’s simple. Implement the reforms and everything will be
alright,” said Ashton.
“I have met Zimbabwean ministers and we have had
talks but right now they are dealing with my director until we have
something tangible on the table,” she said on the sidelines of the
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings (Chogam) in Perth, Australia
currently underway.
The EU rights commissioner said she was unaware of
the much touted lawsuit against the grouping that Zimbabwe says will be
filed at the European Court of Justice.
“I am not aware of that
lawsuit, maybe my director will know,” she said.
The Zimbabwean
government through the Attorney-General’s office says it plans to file a
lawsuit against the EU at the European Court of Justice arguing that it
unprocedurally took a decision to impose sanctions against a select group of
Zimbabwean politicians including Mugabe and his Zanu PF
counterparts.
The EU foreign policy chief however said although there
has been significant progress made so far, it was not enough for EU to
review its position as the economic and social development have not been
matched by the necessary reforms on the political front.
Mugabe has
often blamed the country’s woes on sanctions but his coalition partners
argue that the situation in the country is a result of bad economic
management of the country.
Chogam starts tomorrow with heads of state
and government poised to deal with an explosive report by the Commonwealth
Eminent Persons Group which has recommended the appointment of a Human
Rights Commissioner to deal with issues of human rights violations in the
groups.
So far the suggestion has been received with hostility by
political leaders gathered here.
By Tendai Kamhungira, Court Writer Thursday, 27
October 2011 09:13
HARARE - Labour activist Munyaradzi Gwisai and
five other social equality campaigners’ trial has been further pushed back
after state witness Jonathan Shoko fell ill.
Gwisai and his
colleagues were initially accused of meeting in Harare on 19 February to
plot the ouster of President Robert Mugabe through popular revolts such as
those that toppled several dictators in North Africa earlier this
year.
The alleged treason has been reduced to lesser charges of
conspiring to commit violence or alternatively inciting public violence or
participating in a gathering with intent to promote public
violence.
Shoko was still testifying when the court adjourned proceedings
on Monday.
The case resumes next Tuesday. On Monday, magistrate
Kudakwashe Jarabini was shown video footage of the Egyptian revolution by
the state as Shoko, an undercover police officer who claims to have been
part of the meeting, gave evidence.
The video footage showed Egyptians
demonstrating in the streets while locked in running battles and heavy
clashes with the police.
Shoko told the court how Gwisai and the other
activists watched video footage of the Egyptian revolution while allegedly
plotting to launch a revolt against Mugabe.
“He (Gwisai) said on
March 1 (2011) scores of people should gather at Africa Unity Square without
police detection and ignite a revolution,” said Shoko.
Shoko is the
second state witness after Rinos Chari testified on September 14 when trial
kicked off, after having been postponed on numerous occasions for various
reasons.
Chari told the court that he was severely assaulted by police as
an accomplice before he was turned into a witness.
Gwisai, 43 is
jointly charged with Antonater Choto, 36, Tatenda Mombeyarara, 29, Edson
Chakuma, 38, Hopewell Gumbo, 32 and Welcome Zimuto, 25.
HARARE - Robert Mugabe's feisty
Attorney-General Johannes Tomana says the United Nations is no longer a safe
haven for all its member states, following the world body’s inaction after
Switzerland refused to grant visas to President Robert Mugabe’s delegation
to the Geneva ICT conference.
Speaking in a interview with State media,
Mr. Tomana said by allowing Switzerland to apply its domestic laws of
delaying to issue visas to some top Zimbabwean government officials who were
supposed to have accompanied the President to the ITU conference in Geneva,
the UN has violated international laws which protect member countries to
attend any UN conference without undue interference.
“When the UN is
affected by such illegal decisions by member-states, its credibility is put
under scrutiny,” said the AG.
Mr. Tomana however challenged the United
Nations to live up to its expectations and bring countries such as Britain,
the US, Switzerland and their western allies to book, for breaching
international laws by continuing to impose what he called illegal sanctions
on Zimbabwe.
The AG said: “Failure by the UN to deal with the so-called
super powers’ unbecoming behaviour is tantamount to confirming that the
world watchdog is just but a puppet of the west.”
The call by the
Attorney General for the reform of the UN comes in the wake of the denial by
Switzerland to issue visas to six members of Robert Mugabe’s delegation to
Geneva namely, his wife Grace Mugabe, Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe
Mumbengegwi, Transport, Communications and Infrastructural Development
Minister Nicholas Goche, Director-General in the President’s Department,
Retired Major General Happyton Bonyongwe, Secretary for Media, Information
and Publicity, George Charamba and his aide de camp, Senior Assistant
Commissioner Martin Painona.
However, the granting of a visa to
Information Communication Technology Minister, Nelson Chamisa who was part
of the same delegation, has reeled Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF with party
loyalists saying Switzerland appears to be siding with Zimbabwe’s
detractors.
Robert Mugabe’s wife Grace, who has gained notoriety for her
exorbitant shopping sprees during official visits outside Zimbabwe, was
reportedly denied a visa by the Swiss government last week, along with five
other top officials that were part of Mugabe’s delegation to a United
Nations summit.
The Mugabes and their close allies are banned from
travelling to E.U. countries as part of restrictive measures that were
imposed on them by member states.
The group had planned to accompany
Mugabe to Geneva for the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) summit
on information and communication technologies. That portfolio belongs to
MDC-T Minister Nelson Chamisa, who was rightfully given a visa but
reportedly did not attend.
According to the state run Herald newspaper,
Mugabe cancelled the trip after the Swiss authorities denied his wife, along
with some of the cabinet ministers and personal aides from his office. The
paper said Zimbabwe had “lodged a protest” with the United Nations and the
Swiss government.
An unnamed “senior official” in the foreign ministry is
quoted as saying the Swiss decision was “highly regrettable” and “a clear
violation” of the United Nations host agreement, as well as “Zimbabwe’s
sovereign right to determine the composition of its delegation.”
But
according to political commentator Professor John Makumbe, the Swiss
government later reversed their decision and granted Grace Mugabe and the
others their visas last Friday. The group planned to depart for Geneva over
the weekend, but Mugabe was angry at that point and decided not to attend
this important conference.
“This is ridiculous. You can’t run a
country on anger,” Makumbe explained, adding: “This underlines the rot in
the inclusive government and shows how it is not working.” Makumbe described
the government as a marriage of convenience where the couples do some things
together and others apart.
Makumbe said Mugabe flew to Singapore instead,
and there is speculation the trip was for ongoing medical treatment for the
ageing dictator. “It is the ZANU PF way that if Mugabe cannot go then nobody
goes,” the professor complained.
Makumbe described them as “hangers
on” who wanted to travel for personal reasons, not as delegates who wanted
to assist Zimbabwe in Geneva, saying: “Countries with more much more wealth
than Zimbabwe bring delegations half that size.”
PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was on the ropes last night
after a showdown with MPs over his call for constitutional reforms to relax
anti-gay laws.
Tsvangirai lit the fuse on the controversial subject
after giving an interview to the BBC in London, which was broadcast on
Monday.
Despite previously endorsing President Robert Mugabe’s vow that
gay rights were not up for discussion in the new constitution which is at
the drafting stage, Tsvangirai stunned even his supporters by performing a
volte-face in London.
“Of course there is a very strong cultural
feeling towards gays but to me it’s a human right,” Tsvangirai, evidently a
transformed man from just a year before, told the BBC.
His new stance
set the stage for testy exchanges in Parliament on Wednesday in his
inaugural British-style Prime Minister’s Questions.
It was Dorcas
Sibanda, an MP from his MDC-T party, who raised the issue even as
Tsvangirai’s aides were trying to draw a line over the controversy. Sibanda
wanted to know if Tsvangirai had been quoted correctly, calling for a
constitution that favours gay rights.
“My personal view does not matter,”
Tsvangirai began, showing no appetite to repeat what he had told the BBC
just three days earlier.
“This is an elitist debate when people have no
food, when people have no jobs, when people have so many problems. It is a
diversionary attitude, to try and put this issue at the focus of the nation
is a real diversionary. There are more important issues to deal with.” A
few MPs muttered incomprehensibles, others heckled while most from his MDC-T
party opted for polite silence.
He had a joke prepared to diffuse the
tensions, telling MPs: “Perhaps I am speaking here kuda mumwe musi
mungangodai muringochani panapa (Perhaps I am speaking here and some of you
may be gays). What you do in your private sphere is your own problem, not
mine.” Laughter in the House, and Tsvangirai had bought himself some
breathing space.
Borrowing from a line which has been trotted out by
his party since his BBC interview aired, Tsvangirai added: “The people of
Zimbabwe are writing a constitution in which they would like to define their
society, articulating issues they want. So who am I to question their wisdom
if they decide to include the question of gay rights into the
constitution?”
Some in Tsvangirai’s camp say that is the position he
should have adopted in the BBC interview and refused to nail his colours to
the mast. Now his party is in damage limitation mode, intent to be on the
right side of the debate on a controversy fast turning into an election
issue.
Tsvangirai’s discomfort has been a boon for Zanu PF which has not
only pointed to his policy muddle but sought to align itself with the public
mood, which is strongly opposed to legitimising homosexual acts in the new
constitution.
Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai might be in
the eye of a storm for calling for constitutional reforms guaranteeing gay
rights, but many will agree he bravely confronted the elephant in the living
room.
Mr Tsvangirai this week told BBC’s Newsnight programme that gay
rights were a “human right” that Zimbabwe must strive to respect in the
constitution that is being re-written.
His remarks were a major climb
down after he last year surprisingly lent support to President Robert
Mugabe’s well known hostile stance against gays.
However, Mr Tsvangiriai
in an uneasy coalition with the veteran ruler, could have been influenced by
a growing lobby within Zimbabwe for recognition of gay rights.
The
southern African country could once again be in the spotlight over gay
rights after a government agency established to fight Aids, recommended the
decriminalisation of homosexuality.
In 2008, Zimbabwe tightened its
sodomy laws to include any acts involving physical contact between males
that would be regarded by a reasonable person as an indecent
act.
President Mugabe uses every available opportunity to attack gays and
lesbians, who he describes as worse than dogs and pigs.
Government
ministers mainly from his Zanu-PF party enthusiastically support the veteran
ruler's stance with some going as far as saying homosexuals were not welcome
in Zimbabwe.
Zanu-PF described the PM’s remarks as “misguided” and out of
“sync with reality on the ground.”
However, they might soon be forced
to face the reality after a study by the National Aids Council (NAC) found
out that some of Zimbabwe's laws "seriously hampered safe sex
initiatives".NAC said studies had shown that men having sex with men (MSM)
and commercial sex workers had become the most vulnerable groups in HIV
transmission in Zimbabwe.
The findings of the study carried out by a
consultant hired to review a number of laws that affect the fight against
HIV/Aids, encourage Zimbabweans to be open-minded about
Homosexuality.
Recommendations
It also calls for contraceptives
"to be made available in schools...stipulate placing of condoms in hotels,
night clubs and beer halls."
The proposals to allow school children
access to contraceptives has been roundly rejected by Zimbabwe's
conservative society.
NAC, which is a government body, says it had not
adopted the findings, including those on homosexuality, but was encouraging
debate on the recommendations.
Dr Tapuwa Magure, the NAC chief
executive officer, said it was premature to say if the proposals would be
pursued.
"We hired a consultant who made those recommendations, but we
have not yet sat down to go through them as an organisation, so we currently
do not have a position regarding them," he said.
"We, however,
believe that all populations, be it the disabled or prisoners, should have
access to interventions and as a country, we are doing well in this
regard."
The Gays and Lesbians Association of Zimbabwe (GALZ), whose
attempt to take part at the Harare book fair in 1995, sparked President
Mugabe's now often repeated attacks on homosexuals, has welcomed the
proposals.
"Service providers such as doctors and nurses also tend to
develop negative attitudes when dealing with LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual
and Trans-gendered) people as a result of lack of information," GALZ
said.
"In terms of HIV prevention, this is serious, particularly as GALZ
is the only organisation in Zimbabwe providing services specifically to the
lesbian and gay community; and very few other HIV/Aids organisations even
consider MSM/ women having sex with women (WSW) in their intervention
work."
Zimbabwe has no data for sexual minorities, but studies done in
Botswana and Malawi, among other regional countries, showed that the HIV
prevalence among gay man was between 20 to 33 per cent.
A fortnight
ago, the Zimbabwe Prison Service (ZPS) rejected calls by human rights groups
to distribute condoms to the country's 13,000 inmates, saying there was need
to change a number of laws first.
Distributing condoms
ZPS Deputy
Commissioner Agrey Machingauta told MPs that although the authorities were
aware that homosexuality was rife in prisons, distributing condoms would
violate a number of laws.
He said prisoners found committing homosexual
acts were punished.
GALZ says the criminalisation of homosexuality had
even endangered people considered to be heterosexual because some gay men
had women partners.
"The right to health should be accorded to everyone
regardless of sexual orientation, gender, sex or creed," GALZ
said.
"Decriminalising consensual same sex practice will reduce fear,
stigma and discrimination as it has to be accompanied by education,
trainings and sensitisation of all stakeholders including the
police."
It said the availability of information would also go a long way
in preventing new HIV infections among gay men who contribute to the
generalised epidemic in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe has one of the highest HIV
prevalence rates in the world among adults, at 13.1 per cent.
The
country used to have one of the biggest Aids epidemics in the world until
the number of people infected with HIV almost halved from 29 per cent to 16
per cent between 1997 and 2007.
The figure has since gone further down to
around 13 per cent. South Africa was the only African country that had
decriminalised homosexuality.
Critics, however, argue that implementing
some of the recommendations in Zimbabwe could be difficult given the fact
that most people were Christians. President Mugabe's homophobia will also
pose a serious challenge to the policy makers.
Sexual
orientation
Last year, the veteran ruler told a gathering to celebrate
Women’s Day that gay rights were not up for discussion.
“The issue is
not debatable….it’s just madness, insanity. The ancestors will turn in their
graves should we allow this to happen.”
Speaking after President Mugabe
on the same occasion, Mr Tsvangirai said: “I totally agree with the
President. Women make up 25 per cent of the population.”
“There are
more women than men, so why men should be proposing to men?”
The PM’s
comments sparked outrage from local and international human rights
groups.
He is now singing a different tune, telling the BBC: “My
attitude is that I hope the constitution will come out with freedom of
sexual orientation.”
“For as long as it does not interfere with anybody,
who am I to define what individual opinion would be as far as their sexual
preferences are concerned.”
GALZ welcomed the Premier’s new position
and urged him to “take positive action to support his most recent statement
on the indivisibility of human rights”.
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s economic empowerment programme should
seek to attract investment and grow more wealth to benefit ordinary citizens
rather than powerful elites, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said on
Wednesday.
Tsvangirai, who has opposed an ongoing indigenisation drive by
President Robert Mugabe as a ploy by the veteran leader to reward his
political allies, said wealth creation and not politics should drive
economic empowerment.
Fielding questions from parliamentarians during
the inaugural Prime Minister (PM)’s question time, Tsvangirai said: “we need
to promote (and) not damage investment in the country.”
Under the
empowerment plan championed by Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party, foreign-owned
firms, including mines and banks, are required to surrender at least 51
percent shares to locals by 2015.
The plan has spooked investors and has
sharply divided the Harare coalition government, with Tsvangirai and his MDC
party warning that the plan will plunge the economy back into crisis after
it had started recovering from a decade of collapse.
“The idea is not
to share a small cake but to grow the cake that people are able to share. We
need to create wealth through the creation of funds so that the people are
able to benefit,” Tsvangirai said.
The PM’s Question Time abolished when
Mugabe became executive President in 1987 affords the premier an opportunity
to answer questions from Members of Parliament (MPs) and to explain
government programmes and policies.
Asked by Mutare Central MP Innocent
Gonese to clarify the government’s position on media freedom, Tsvangirai
said the administration was working to create a plural print and
broadcasting media as a way to enhance democracy.
“Without (free) media
space, you cannot speak about democracy,” he said.
But the PM, who has
been regularly derided and ridiculed by the pro-Mugabe state-owned
newspapers and television, lamented the use of hate speech in the
media.
“One would be forgiven for thinking that there are two governments
in Zimbabwe,” he said, alluding to the way in which the state media openly
support Mugabe while regularly lampooning him.
Tsvangirai criticised
state-owned firms for what he said was a lack of a “sense of responsibility”
that has seen most parastatals performing badly and costing the fiscus
dearly as they have to be regularly bailed out by Treasury to save them from
collapse.
He said, “the greatest weakness in the parastatals is that
there is no sense of responsibility among the board members because they
feel it belongs to the government and they don’t care if they make a loss.
These parastatals are a very serious drain on our resources.”
Turning
to political violence that is resurgent in many parts of the country,
Tsvangirai urged the police and the home affairs ministry to do more to curb
politically motivated lawlessness and violence.
“The three principals in
the inclusive government have made commitments that there should be no
violence in the country. Those who commit violence should be arrested,” he
said, adding that the leaders of the three main parties were planning a
meeting to seek ways to stop political violence.
On the situation in
Libya where longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi was toppled by rebels,
Tsvangirai said Harare stood by the position of the Africa Union that the
people of Libya should be granted an opportunity to choose their leaders
without undue interference from an quarter. -- ZimOnline
Investment Minister Tapiwa Mashakada said although the funds are
limited, the input scheme will go a long way to help struggling
farmers
Gibbs Dube & Violet Gonda | Washington
The
Zimbabwean government has earmarked $45 million for financially strapped
small farmers and poor households lacking the means to buy seed and
fertilizer to plant maize crops now that the Grain Marketing Board,
traditionally a main source of inputs for struggling growers, has downsized
its operations in this respect.
Investment Minister Tapiwa Mashakada
said $20 million will be channeled to communal maize growers and $17 million
to small-scale commercial farmers, with another $8 million going to
vulnerable households. The funds will be administered through the Grain
Marketing Board, the minister said.
Many farmers are under pressure
because they cannot get bank loans to finance crops. Some are still owed
money by the GMB for grain delivered last year and will be encouraged to
accept payment in kind in seed and fertilizer.
Mashakada told VOA
Studio 7 reporter Gibbs Dube that although the funds are limited, the input
scheme will go a long way to help struggling farmers.
Deputy Agriculture
Minister Seiso Moyo said the government expects the Grain Marketing Board to
distribute the agricultural inputs without reference to political
affiliations.
Independent agronomist Thomas Nherera, a founder of the
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union of Zimbabwe, said there are high hopes
farmers will soon start planting their crops as they will now be able to
more readily access subsidized agricultural inputs.
With elections possible next year, the Zanu-PF
affiliated Chipangano gang seems to be stepping up its campaign of
violence. 27 October 2011 - 1:05pm | By Andrew Mambondiyani
For
many years, a group in Mbare, a suburb of Zimbabwean capital Harare, has
terrorized people perceived to not support Zanu-PF. Of late, the group has
almost taken over suburb making it a no-go zone for those thought to be
anti-Zanu-PF. And its members, who have strong links to Zanu-PF, are
seemingly more emboldened than ever, arguably growing beyond the control of
their political patrons and defying even President Robert Mugabe’s call -
however insincere it may be - for an end to political
violence.
Chipangano started life in 2000 as a small group, intended to
spearhead Zanu PF’s election time campaigning and weed out all known
anti-Zanu-PF elements from Mbare after the then newly formed opposition
party, MDC, won both Mbare parliamentary seats in the 2000
elections.
Gang members were supposed to be paid, but the funds to do so
filter down through Zanu-PF ranks. Many group members have claimed that,
consequently they never received any payment after joining. As a result,
many members of Chipangano resorted to criminal activities, which they
carried out with impunity. As powerful as the war veterans?
Like
the 1970s war of liberation veterans, Chipangano became an appendage of Zanu
PF, but later grew into a monster which the party either can not or does not
care about controlling. The war veterans then led by the late Chenjerai
Hunzvi spearheaded the invasions of white-owned farms in 2000. They also
intimidated voters suspected of opposing Zanu-PF. Thousands of people were
maimed or killed as the war veterans unleashed an orgy of violence.
Thousands were also displaced. The war veterans become so powerful that
Mugabe and his Zanu PF could no longer entirely control them. They created
bases reminiscent of those formed during the liberation struggle. And today,
Chipangano has activated similar bases which, it is claimed, have become
outposts for torture, rape and other forms of abuse.
After securing a
bloody win for Zanu-PF in 2000, the war veterans became indispensable,
demanding one thing after another from the government, even going so far as
to demand a quota of the parliamentary seats in 2005. The war veterans
become a powerful entity, but were slowly consuming Zanu-PF. Mugabe himself
did not have free reign to confront them; much like his failure to stop or
challenge the criminal activities of the Chipangano gang today. Beaten
for not gaining approval
A businessman from Mutare, Paul Mutisi, recently
encountered Chipangano when he went to Harare to sell timber. He told Think
Africa Press that he was assaulted for attempting to operate without the
gang’s approval. His efforts to seek police intervention proved fruitless,
resulting in him losing timber worth thousands of dollars.
“I was
really shocked that such a thing could happen in a country with law
enforcement agents. I lost my timber to the gang, and the police were not
willing help,” Mutisi said.
“The gang has taken over Harare. I have
heard of the group but I never thought it so powerful.”
This is a
classic case of the group’s organized crime activities. It extorts money
from market vendors, business people and transport operators, and has
threatened to take over market stalls belonging to suspected MDC
members. Exposing divisions
The Zanu PF leadership appears to be at a
loss as to how to deal with the group. Some senior party leaders like Zanu
PF secretary for administration, Didymus Mutasa, have claimed ownership of
the group, publicly pledging the party would stand by them to the extent of
providing legal counsel if its members were arrested. Others, like party
spokesperson Rugare Gumbo, have disowned the group, clearly exposing the
divisions that lie at the heart of Zanu PF.
It seems that Zanu-PF is
secretly banking on the gang to force the electorate to vote for the party
in the coming general elections, tentatively scheduled for next year. With
Zanu PF’s support base dwindling in urban areas in general and Harare in
particular, the only hope for the party is to unleash a wave of violence as
it did in the 2008 presidential run-off.
Of late, cases of
politically motivated violence have been rising in Harare. Recently, the
group attacked perceived MDC supporters outside the Zimbabwe parliament
building as Robert Mugabe officially opened the fourth session of the
seventh parliament of Zimbabwe. No arrests were made. The following day
Chipangano besieged Machipisa Township in Harare, seeking to seize market
stalls from suspected MDC sympathisers. Resistance led to clashes which
transformed the township into a battlefield. In Mbare, MDC Youth Assembly
member and Mbare resident Edwin Machokoto was waylaid by Chipangano youths
who attacked him for putting up party posters.
As testimony from a
member has revealed, the inspiration for such attacks comes directly from
Zanu-PF patrons. Contrary to the party's claims, a member has revealed that
drug-fuelled training takes place at a Zanu-PF base where attacks on MDC,
coordinated by the Harare Zanu-PF chairman Amos Midzi, are labelled
"community service". Wreaking havoc in Harare
Chipangano has wreaked
havoc in Harare, where it has literally crippled the operations of elected
public officials including the mayor, Muchadeyi Masunda, and his council,
who have all but given up on controlling the group’s disruptive and violent
activities. Harare deputy mayor Emmanuel Chiroto threatened to resign out of
frustration, while co-Minister of Home Affairs, Theresa Makone (MDC-T), told
local press that she had failed to rein in the Mbare hooligans.
MDC-T
organising secretary, Nelson Chamisa, challenged Mugabe to the stop the
shadowy group from terrorising Harare residents to prove he was sincere in
his calls for peace. Chamisa said Mugabe must put his sincerity to the test
by reigning in the Chipangano gang.
“This violence must stop,” Chamisa
said. “Mugabe said there should be peace. The call for peace should migrate
from your lips and stop contradictions. Violence must stop and this demon of
beating up people should not continue. But for it to stop, we need to pray.
Zanu PF believes in Chipangano, but we are on total promise and believe in
chirangano (promise).” Powerful connections
Bulawayo East MP Tabitha
Khumalo (MDC-T) described how ZANU PF politicians were using violence as a
tool to acquire or retain political support. Speaking at an event in the UK,
the MP was in no doubt about where the ultimate blame for Chipangano’s
operations must lie, suggesting that although not all in Zanu-PF condone
Chipangano, Zanu-PF consent enables its impunity to sustain.
“There
are four branches within Chipangano,” Khumalo explained. “There is
Chipangano one, two, three and four. Chipangano one identifies MDC
activists. Chipangano two carries out surveillance and monitors individuals
and structures of the MDC-T. Chipangano three approaches our members and
verbally warns them of dire consequences of supporting the MDC. Chipangano
four is the deadliest of all the groups. This group beats the hell out of
you.”
“They beat me up in parliament and I cracked my denture,” he
went on. “This is a group that attacks parliamentarians, journalists and
ordinary people whilst their party leader preaches peace and
unity.
“It is so shocking that a group of people can enter parliament
where we felt secure and safe and beat up members.
HARARE - Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s book, At the Deep
End, has caused a storm in the country after he sensationally revealed that
President Robert Mugabe was ready to hand over power to him after the 2008
elections.
Tsvangirai claims in his book that the then State Security
minister, Nicholas Goche approached his party with proposals from Mugabe on
transfer of power where the 87-year-old was reportedly pleading for
concessions.
Tsvangirai had trounced Mugabe but according the Zimbabwe
Elections Commission (Zec), the MDC leader did not have the 50 percent plus
one vote needed to clinch power.
Yesterday, the Daily News sought
views from ministers Jameson Timba, Goche and Patrick Chinamasa who
reportedly played roles in the discussions around the Mugabe
issue.
They offered contrasting views. The Question is who approached
who? Readers can send their comments on this issue to: letters@dailynews.co.zwThis e-mail
address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to
view it .
Some of the comments will be published.
Who
approached who?
Goche approached me: Timba
(please note this is an
email response)
In fact what happened is that a very prominent industry
captain (whose name I am not at liberty to divulge — unless he does so
himself) — called me and requested for a meeting. I met him at Meikles
hotel.
During the meeting, he indicated that ZPF (Zanu PF) and President
Mugabe had conceded defeat and they wanted to talk.
I advised him
that I did not have a mandate to speak to them and would take up the matter
with our party President.
I then proceeded to meet with President
Tsvangirai who then instructed me and Elton Mangoma to engage them.
A
meeting between myself Mangoma and Goche in the office of the industry
captain was then convened.
In the meeting, in addition to what has
been published in the book, Goche indicated that Chinamasa was supposed to
join us but he refused saying he is angry because he believed President
Mugabe had cost them the election.
On the second day of our meeting,
Goche said that some Service Chiefs had requested that the President be
allowed to step down but only after six months.
Goche, since there
was no functional government at the time, indicated to us that he was the
acting minister for all security ministries.
I then queried the
constitutional basis of the six months proposal and also the basis upon
which we would even involve the security establishment in matters which were
purely political.
The meeting ended with Goche saying he was now going to
brief President Mugabe and we would meet the following day at 2.30pm. At the
agreed time myself and Mangoma appeared at the office of the industry
captain.
We waited for about 30 minutes then we called
Goche.
Goche then said he was in Shamva and would not make it for the
meeting. At that stage, myself and Elton (Mangoma) concluded that the talks
had now collapsed and another agenda was now on the offing.
Elton
then proceeded to go and brief President Tsvangirai.
The collapse of the
talks was confirmed by The Herald of the following day where Chinamasa came
out saying he had been appointed the chairperson of a Zanu PF information
subcommittee and that they wanted a presidential run-off and a recount of
votes in some parliamentary constituencies.
He also rubbished our meeting
with Goche by attacking the industry captain without naming him. The rest is
history.
The MDC came to me — Goche
State security minister
Nicholas Goche has brushed off claims by MDC secretary for International
Relations Jameson Timba that the two held meetings where he reportedly
confided that President Robert Mugabe had conceded electoral defeat and was
ready to step down from power.
According to Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai’s memoirs, At the Deep End, the former trade unionist wrote that
Goche was sent to the MDC by Mugabe to discuss possibilities of a power
handover programme following Mugabe’s defeat during the first round of the
2008 presidential election.
In the book, Tsvangirai said Goche called one
of his party’s senior members and the two held meetings where the hand
over-take -over plan was discussed. Timba yesterday insisted to the Daily
News that Goche made overtures after realising Mugabe had lost an election
for the first time since independence in 1980.
In an interview with
the Daily News yesterday, Goche dismissed Timba’s assertions that he met him
at a Harare hotel where the issue was discussed.
Goche, instead, said he
was called by Delta Beverages executive Joe Mutizwa.
“Tsvangirai’s book
has a lot of lies in it,” Goche said.
“What I have said in the past is
that I never contacted anybody at the MDC for any discussions of that sort.
In fact, have you asked Joe Mutizwa?” he said.
“I did not know who
Jameson Timba was until that time. So what nonsense is he talking,” Goche
fumed.
He said that he never held “several” meetings with Timba and
Energy minister Elton Mangoma, but only held one meeting where “a
discussion” was held.
“I attended one meeting, and that claim that I
attended several meetings is a figment of their own imagination. Why does
Mangoma and Timba claim that I attended several meetings with
them.
“I have witnesses that were at the meeting who can testify,” said
Goche before hanging up.
Contacted for comment, Mutizwa said he had
nothing to say regarding the matter.
During the watershed elections,
Tsvangirai polled 47,8 percent while Mugabe polled 43,3 percent of the
votes.
Simba Makoni of the Mavambo/ Kusile/ Dawn (MKD) polled a paltry
eight percent of the total vote — a margin desperately needed by the two
leading candidates to win outright majority to rule.
A bloody
presidential run-off was held in June 2008, forcing Tsvangirai to pull out
of the polls due to violence, leaving Mugabe to declare himself the ultimate
winner of the election after a one man election.
Tsvangirai and the
international community described the poll as a sham.
This is nonsense:
Chinamasa
Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa, a
leading negotiator for Zanu PF, called the Daily News fuming that his party
never conceded defeat when Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai polled more
votes than President Robert Mugabe during the 2008 elections.
“It is
not true. We never conceded defeat. How can we concede defeat when the
constitutional law says that a person has to have 50 percent plus one for a
presidential candidate to emerge successful,” Chinamasa said.
The
minister was responding to an earlier Daily News report that quoted
Tsvangirai’s recently released memoirs suggesting Zanu PF bigwigs courted
the MDC for a deal well before presidential election results were
announced.
“If anyone is saying we conceded defeat, he is a bloody liar.
I was never called to any meeting to do with the MDC. After the March 2008
elections, we went into gear for the run-off after we realised there was no
clear winner,” Chinamasa said.
Chinamasa went on to say he had no
idea whether Goche had held any meetings with the MDC and that he had not
been invited to the meetings.
“To be honest I do not know whether he held
those meetings because the law was very clear. A candidate can only be
termed successful if they got 50 percent plus one of the votes.
“I am
now told the Prime Minister did not know the law. Being a leading candidate
in a race that had not been finished did not make him a winner. He must have
stayed the course,” Chinamasa said.
The next few weeks could prove to be the most trying in
the career of Zimbabwe's 87-year-old President Robert Mugabe.
Until now it would
have been unthinkable for him to doubt the support of his Zanu-PF party at the
gathering of the party's annual jamboree.
But party insiders
say the country's independence leader, who has been in power for 31 years, was
stunned by recent disclosures on the whistle-blowing site Wikileaks that his
close allies spoke to US diplomats about his political exit and death.
With elections
beckoning, the reality is that a string of his top officials in his Zanu-PF
party believe he is now a liability and want him to go before presidential polls
slated for next year.
Insiders say he
would like to stand for re-election, but in the light of Wikileaks, the
president is now weighing his options.
Robert Mugabe came to power at independence in
1980
The diplomatic
cables - covering the period 2004 to 2010 - were relayed to Washington from
Harare, containing details of secret meetings US diplomats held with top army
officers and Zanu-PF officials.
The meetings took
place without the knowledge of Mr Mugabe and his supposedly omnipresent spies.
The general
consensus is that although the top Zanu-PF leadership wants Mr Mugabe -
who has cancer, according to the
cables - to go, no-one is brave enough to tell him that to his
face.
Party insiders say
Mr Mugabe is not too sure how to deal with his enemies from within - those
officials he thought would keep party secrets under lock and
key.
'Feathers ruffled'
On the 7th floor
of the imposing Zanu-PF headquarters overlooking the capital, Harare, party
spokesperson Rugare Gumbo has been making a study of the
documents.
In the right hand
corner of his office is a bookshelf and a file written in bold letters
"Wikileaks".
“The people who were talking to the Americans clearly
take themselves and the Americans more seriously than they take
us”
Petina
GappahAuthor and lawyer
"My feeling is that [the Wikileaks] issue, might have
ruffled feathers," he admits.
So are heads going
to roll at the annual conference in December when Mr Mugabe is expected to seek
Zanu-PF's endorsement to serve another five-year term.
"We will cross the
bridge when we get there," he says.
It is not even
clear, he says, if Mr Mugabe's future will be on the agenda as "according to
party constitution, the president of the party is a candidate for any
[presidential] elections that are held".
"He is likely to
be endorsed," he adds.
The top party
officials implicated in the diplomatic cables of plotting against Mr Mugabe have
powerful party constituencies which he cannot afford to alienate by punishing
them.
Vice President
Joice Mujuru is wife to late army general Solomon Mujuru, a kingmaker, believed
to have pressured Mr Mugabe to step down during party
meetings.
Joice Mujuru (L) and Emmerson Mnangagwa (R) represent
different Zanu-PF factions
Mrs Mujuru has a
huge support base within Zanu-PF, as does party legal affairs secretary and
Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is understood to have muted the idea of
forming a new party to challenge Mr Mugabe.
Dozens of others
were named in the cables and Mr Mugabe has indicated he would like them
investigated.
But there seems to
be limited options for Mr Mugabe. He may be damned if he acts and damned if he
does not.
If he does not, he
will come out as a weak leader and his party will go into elections divided.
If he does act, he
will also divide the party.
'Skulduggery'
For Zimbabwean
lawyer and author Petina Gappah it is good to hear senior figures question Mr
Mugabe's continued leadership, but she questions their
motives.
"The people who
were talking to the Americans clearly take themselves and the Americans more
seriously than they take us," says Ms Gappah.
“If anything, this is a God-sent event which will go a
long, long way to unite people, scare
cowards”
Jonathan
MoyoZanu-PF politiburo member
"That makes me angry," she says.
Political
commentator Brian Raftopolous sees the closed-door chatter as a historical
problem for the party, now in its 48th year.
"Succession issues
have never been dealt with openly in Zanu-PF. There has also been violence and
death and all kinds of skulduggery. It's really the inability of a liberation
party to transform itself into a democratic party," he says.
Nonetheless, the
Wikileaks cables have now brought the "Mugabe-must-go" agenda into the public
domain, says retired Major Kudzai Mbudzi, a veteran of the war of independence
and a Zanu-PF member.
"Everybody is now
aware that there is unanimity within the party that Mr Mugabe must go. But there
is also unanimity in the public denial that they would require him to retire,"
he said.
Some believe it
will make Zanu-PF stronger in the end - like Jonathan Moyo, who sits on the
party's politburo.
People now need to
be clear which side they are on, he says.
"If anything, this
is a God-sent event which will go a long, long way to unite people, scare
cowards."
And given the
smouldering discontent within Zanu-PF, come December party officials may just
pluck up the courage to tell Mr Mugabe to bow out - gracefully or
not.
Presentation to Parliament on the state of the diamond extractions at
Marange and in support of a motion on the subject submitted for debate to
the Zimbabwe House of Assembly.
Honourable E G Cross, Member for
Bulawayo South Constituency for MDC (T)
Mr. Speaker, Sir, I rise to
submit a motion on the state of the diamond mining operations underway at
Marange in the Manicaland Province of Zimbabwe.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, on
the 27th of July I asked the Minister of Mines to make a statement to this
House on the production of diamonds at Marange for the past five years and
the value of that production in 2009.
In his reply he stated that a total
of just over 11 million carats of raw diamonds had been extracted from the
Marange fields in the past five years. He further declared that total sales
had been just $18 dollars per carat in 2009 and this suggested that implied
total value of raw diamond sales of just over $200 million
dollars.
He further stated that total payments to the Exchequer had been
just over $174 million in the same period. In fact this statement imputed
that the miners had paid out most of the money earned from the sale of
diamonds. As this clearly suggests that the figures bore little or no
relationship to reality, I decided to investigate the diamond mining
activity at Marange and now wish to report my findings to the
House.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Marange alluvial diamond deposits were
discovered in 2000 by a geologist working for De Beers Limited in South
Africa. The company duly registered an Exclusive Prospecting Order over the
area (an EPO) with the Ministry of Mines. After extensive exploration work
the company abandoned its find and allowed their EPO to lapse at the end of
a six year period.
Following this, a small group of Zimbabweans
living in the Diaspora and operating through a company that they had formed
in London called “African Consolidated Resources” or ACR took the required
steps to register a number of claims over a selected portion of the diamond
fields and this process was duly completed in June 2006. As part of the
registration process, ACR was obliged to declare their findings in
accordance with the rules of the London Stock Exchange as a public company
and in addition, because the find included gem quality diamonds, they
notified the Ministry of Mines.
In September 2006 just three months after
registering their claims, understanding the significance of the discovery,
ACR proposed a similar arrangement to the Ministry of Mines for the
exploitation of the fields as that used in Botswana through the Joint
Venture between the State and De Beers mining company. In their proposal ACR
suggested that a new company be formed with the equity held by both the
Government of Zimbabwe and ACR in the ratio of 50/50 – with ACR being
responsible for management and all mining activities. Such an arrangement
would have meant that over 70 per cent of the revenues from the diamond
fields would have accrued to Government.
For unknown reasons, this
proposal was rejected by the Ministry of Mines and ACR was forcibly removed
from the claims which were then taken over by the Zimbabwe Mining
Development Corporation, even though they had no expertise or the required
capital to exploit the discovery. The Ministry immediately opened up the
area to small scale miners without restriction.
The people of the Marange
District and many others took up this opportunity, discovered that alluvial
diamonds had real value and a huge expansion of informal diamond mining
activity began. At one stage it was estimated that many thousands of illegal
miners were operating in the Marange fields. A very substantial industry
sprang up in nearby Mozambique to manage the sale and distribution of the
growing supply of raw diamonds from Marange.
In late 2008, a military
operation was mounted during which several hundred people were killed and
thousands of local diamond miners driven off the claims. This exercise was
carefully and ruthlessly carried out and was designed to restore State
control over the fields.
The legal rights of ACR were brushed aside and
in the ensuing period, six groups have been permitted by the authorities to
start formal mining and extraction activities on the deposits. The six
groups permitted on site are the following: -
Mbada
Diamonds Anjin/Zimbabwe National Army Marange Resources (ZMDC and formally
Canadile) The Zimbabwe Republic Police The Central Intelligence
Organisation The National Prison Service
Of this list only Canadile
has had its rights revoked for reasons that are still unclear. Their claims
are being mined by the ZMDC under the auspices of the company Marange
Resources. All the other listed organisations are active on the diamond
fields although the relative richness of the individual field allocations
vary a great deal from place to place. Marange Resources and Mbada Diamond
occupy the original claims registered by ACR in 2006.
The activities
of these groups on site remain clouded in secrecy and it is clear that no
accurate consolidated figures of production exist for the area. However, the
statement by the Minister that output in 2010 rose to 8, 5 million carats
gives some idea of the magnitude of this operation. That is equal to 23 000
carats a day and this confirms the view that Marange is now one of the
largest finds in the global diamond industry for the past century.
My
own investigations, using published and unpublished data suggests that
diamond extraction from the alluvial deposits at Marange within the area of
the ACR claims are averaging approximately 20 carats per tonne of ore
processed. It is estimated by seasoned observers that a million tonnes of
ore had been processed by the miners in the period up to the end of 2009 and
if the figure of 20 carats per tonne are extrapolated across the field, then
20 million carats have been extracted since the discovery in 2006. This is
double the figure given to this House by the Minister.
Data actually
available suggests that output from the Mbada claims has been running at 150
tonnes of ore per hour since new equipment was installed in 2009. This
amounts to over 1 million tonnes of ore per annum. At 20 carats per tonne
this is equal to 20 million carats – two and half times the volume declared
by the Minister for 2010 and this estimate ignores the production of the
other 5 claims and the hundreds of informal sector miners that are still
operating in the area.
Published sales figures for other diamond mining
activities in the region suggest that the average value of raw diamonds
extracted from Marange should be about $67 per carat, based on the actual
ratio of industrial gems to gem quality stones being extracted from the
claims. From the data that I have in hand, the Mbada claims are running at
15 per cent good quality gem stones, 85 per cent industrial diamonds. The
average price achieved on gem stones was $350 in 2010 while industrial
diamonds realised between $31 and $3 a carat.
If we value the
Ministers figures for diamonds mined in 2010 at Marange at the average price
of $67 per carat rather than the figures he gave to this House, then the
actual value of sales of raw diamonds from Marange in 2010 were $563 million
dollars and not the stated $200 million for the past five years. Payments to
the fiscus therefore represented only 30 per cent of the diamonds officially
produced and sold in 2010.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, if we apply these average
prices to the unofficial estimates that I have obtained for the Mbada claims
only, then we come up with the astonishing figure of $1,4 billion for actual
raw diamond sales in 2010 for Mbada. It is likely that this level of output
is being maintained in 2011 and industry sources confirm this, in fact since
2010 raw diamond prices have risen 20 per cent and therefore output in the
current year from the Mbada operations should be $1,7 billion
dollars.
Although no accurate information is available from the other
operators, it is clear that the Anjin operations are either equal to or even
greater than the Mbada operations. In particular the Anjin mining activities
are expanding rapidly and they have commenced hard rock mining on their
claims. Up to date output figures for Marange Resources are not available
but are thought to be significant and to have increased since
2009.
If this is true then we could be looking at annual sales from these
three operators of over $4 billion dollars a year at present. Under the ACR
proposals made to the Minister of Mines in 2006, 70 per cent of this revenue
stream would be accruing to the Government of Zimbabwe. This is $2,8 billion
dollars – equal to the current revenue of the State from all other
taxes.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, it is clear from these figures that the Minister
of Mines has misled this House on the issue of the magnitude and value of
diamond sales from the Marange fields. If it is understood that these
estimates represent only the formal mining activity on site, then if we were
to add to this the estimates of informal sector activity before the March
2008 military operation and afterwards, we are looking at a source of funds
in Zimbabwe, under Zimbabwean control and management, that is sufficient to
transform our State coffers and pay Civil Servants the kind of salaries they
have been demanding.
Instead of which, we have a host of illegal
miners and traders operating here in Mozambique and in South Africa,
extracting and trading our diamonds to their own benefit and to the benefit
of unknown political and military figures in Zimbabwe. This is more than
enough money to finance the “Parallel Government” that has been talked about
in recent months.
Then there are the astonishing revelations exposed by
the BBC Panorama Programme of the human rights abuses taking place at
Marange. In a detailed and well researched programme they expose killings,
rape and torture over the past 4 years. There can be little doubt that this
has blown our admission to the Kimberly Process right out of the water, and
we deserve to be excluded so long as we do not get our house in
order.
The solution to all of this is a proposal made to Cabinet last
year that the whole of the Marange deposits should be nationalised formally
and brought under Government control. Everyone who is currently on site
extracting diamonds formally and informally must be removed, the area fenced
and guarded by the armed forces.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, once this is
achieved then we should go out to international tender for an operator. Such
a tender would state the condition of the resource, the type of geological
formations that are found on site and other particulars. It should ask for
offers to take over the whole operation in partnership with the Government
of Zimbabwe and the Marange community and put forward their proposals for
operating and financial conditions.
The successful company should
then be allowed on site, take over all operations and begin to extract
diamonds in a transparent and properly controlled way. Such raw diamonds
would be sold at public auctions and the proceeds dealt with in terms of the
contracts.
It should be noted by this House that in Botswana, where
similar conditions prevail in the diamond industry over two thirds of all
revenue from the sale of raw diamonds accrues to the State. In Zimbabwe,
such an arrangement would enable us to collect very substantial resources
each year from the Marange field and this would transform our national
fiscal situation. This would be the case even if we deliberately and in
consultation with other diamond producing countries, limited production to
ensure that we do not undermine global markets and maintain a sustainable
flow of revenues from the field for at least the next 30 years.
This
motion offers the House an opportunity to intervene in this situation to the
benefit of all Zimbabweans and in pursuit of our national goal of economic
recovery and development. It would be criminal of those of us who sit in
this House to allow the present situation to prevail for another day longer
than it has to. I urge all Members to support this motion and then to ensure
that the Executive carries out our wishes.
Robert Mugabe came to power at independence in
1980 
Joice Mujuru (L) and Emmerson Mnangagwa (R) represent
different Zanu-PF factions 
