http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 01 October 2011 19:35
BY
PATIENCE NYANGOVE
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe is in Singapore for
treatment, The Standard has
learnt.
The trip is Mugabe’s seventh
visit to Asia for medical reasons since
January.
Media,
Information and Publicity minister, Webster Shamu yesterday confirmed
that
Mugabe was seeking medical attention. Vice-President Joyce Mujuru is
the
acting president.
Shamu claimed that the 87-year-old leader had gone
for a review after an eye
operation early this
year.
“He went for a review following an eye
operation he had earlier on. He will
be back tomorrow (Sunday),” Shamu
said.
But on March 3, Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba was
quoted telling
state media that his boss was “going for his final
check-up”.
“As you know after a cataract operation there is a period of two
weeks to
check up,” Charamba said.
A cataract is a clouding that
develops in the crystaline lens of the eye or
in the
envelope.
Operations to remove cataracts are usually performed using
a local
anaesthetic and the patient is allowed to go home the same
day.
It was not clear if Mugabe had used an Air Zimbabwe
flight.
He had returned home from the United Nations General Assembly
in New York on
Sunday after a burst tyre delayed his flight by more than 24
hours.
Over the years Mugabe’s health has been a source of intense
speculation,
which has been heightened by leaked US diplomatic cables
quoting his closest
associates saying he had advanced prostate
cancer.
One of the cables released by the whistleblower website
WikiLeaks claimed
Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono told former US
ambassador to Zimbabwe
James McGee that in 2008 doctors had given Mugabe
five years to live.
The doctors allegedly told him that his prostate
cancer had spread to a
number of organs and was now
irreversible.
“According to Gono, Mugabe’s doctor had recommended he
cut back on his
activities,” reads part of the 2008 cable.
“Gono told us
last year that Mugabe was ill and that his doctor had urged
him to step down
immediately.
“Mugabe told his doctor, according to Gono, that he would leave
office after
the election.”
Gono has denied talking to the Americans
about Mugabe’s health.
Zanu PF politburo member Jonathan Moyo is also
quoted in one of the cables
claiming the veteran ruler had throat cancer but
the Tsholotsho North MP has
disassociated himself from the
claims.
Mugabe has also admitted that his wife Grace spent some time
in Asia
undergoing treatment for a dislocated hip.
The Standard
first reported about the First Lady’s injury after she
allegedly fell down
at their Borrowdale home.
There were also reports that the Mugabes
demanded at least US$3 million from
Treasury each time they went to
Asia.
The money is believed to be for medical bills and travel expenses for
his
usually large entourage.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 01 October 2011 19:31
BY NQOBANI
NDLOVU
BULAWAYO — Speaker of Parliament, Lovemore Moyo (pictured) yesterday
claimed
that a number of MPs are suffering from Aids with some having lost
their
spouses to the disease.
Moyo made the claims at a prayer
meeting for Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani
Khupe held in her Makokoba
constituency.
Khupe is suffering from breast cancer and is due to go for
chemotherapy
before the end of the year.
Moyo, who is also the
MDC-Tchairman challenged other leaders to emulate
Khupe and disclose their
health problems to help end stigma around certain
diseases.
“Let’s follow what Khupe has done by being open about
her illness,” Moyo
said.
“This is a challenge to all leaders, especially
parliamentarians in this
country.
“There are many of them in parliament
who are suffering from HIV and Aids.
“They have lost their wives to
HIV, we know them. They are taking tablets to
try and manage their skin to
look healthy.”
He said he was concerned that the MPs were knowingly passing
on the virus to
young women whom they marry without disclosing their
status.
Moyo disclosed that he is suffering from diabetes even though he
looks
“healthy.” Diabetes is a chronic illness.
President Robert
Mugabe last month told delegates at the second national
Aids conference that
he knew of senior government officials who were taking
ARVs and passing the
virus to innocent women.
A journalist employed by the state media
early this year caused the arrest
of Insiza South MP Siyabonga Malandu-Ncube
accusing him of infecting her
with the virus.
Ncube is denying
the charges and has won a High Court challenge against a
magistrate’s court
ruling that sought to force him to take an HIV test.
Zimbabwe has managed to
significantly reduce HIV prevalence from as high as
26,5% in 1997 to 14,3%
in 2009 among adults between 15 and 49 years of age.
HIV
sero-prevalence among pregnant women also decreased from 20,1% to 16,1%
by
the end of 2009.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 01 October 2011 19:30
BY NQOBANI
NDLOVU
BULAWAYO — Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday reiterated his
call
for an end to political violence that has now spilled into major
cities. “We
all want a new era in this country where knives, machetes,
knobkerries, guns
and booted feet as instruments of violence and repression
are no longer
fashionable,” Tsvangirai told a prayer meeting for his deputy
Thokozani
Khupe.
“As a country we have been forced to walk the
painful road of violence and
hatred and we are not prepared to walk it
forever more.
“We have seen state agents actively engaged in shameful
acts of violence and
the unbridled violation of the people’s rights and
freedoms.”
He said the unity government he joined in 2009 had given
Zimbabweans
breathing space and the reforms it had introduced would lead to
a better
democracy.
However, he vowed not to support the Human
Rights Bill in its present form
saying it proposed that “victims of violence
and human rights abuses cannot
seek recourse or justice and that
perpetrators are left to go scot free.”
“The bill seeks to undermine
the basic human rights that it seeks to
address,” he said.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 01 October 2011 19:22
BY NQABA
MATSHAZI
RESETTLED farmers in Beitbridge have accused Home Affairs
co-minister, Kembo
Mohadi of trying to muscle them out of land, which he
allegedly intends to
parcel out to his son and nephew, in an acrimonious row
that threatens to
turn nasty.
The resettled farmers, some of them war
veterans, have been involved in a
long running dogfight with the minister,
in a case that at one time saw one
plot holder seeking a peace order against
Mohadi’s wife, Tambudzani. In a
letter addressed to war veterans
Matabeleland South chairperson, a Mr
Siziba, the resettled farmers claim
Mohadi wants to resettle his child,
Campbell Junior and his nephew, Danisa
Muleya.
The plot holders claim a 2009 meeting, with the blessing of
the District
Administrator, changed the status of the Lot 9 A1
self-contained farms to A2
and this invited the interest of Mohadi, who
already occupies the adjacent
Lot 10. This, the farmers say, was later
reversed by the Provincial Land
Committee, which charged that the district
committee had erred in handling
the matter, considering that the meeting did
not have a quorum.
The farmers claimed that the DA, Simon Muleya had
approached them and
offered them alternative land to avoid confrontation
with the Mohadis. But
the farmers resisted, saying they would not move as
the land had been
allocated to them and this they say, led to Mohadi
employing strong-arm
tactics, a charge the minister
denied.
“Whoever is saying that, should go to the DA,” he charged. “I
am not an
authority on land issues.”
Mohadi, without commenting on the
individual case, said there was a chain
that people could follow from the
District Land Committee, the Provincial
Land Committee and the Minister of
Lands if they felt hard done.
The DA, Muleya, declined to comment,
saying the matter had been referred to
the Provincial Lands Committee and
he, therefore, could not comment on it.
But the resettled farmers claim
Mohadi has erected a 1,4 metre high fence
that stretches for four and a half
kilometres, which fenced off two farmers,
while taking almost two thirds and
half of the two other nearby plots
respectively.
“(This) has
created an island for the plot holders, as we are no longer able
to access
each other or the nearest (water source)Zhove Dam,” reads the
letter.
“This is because no gateways were created along the
fencing line thus
shutting down all the access routes, hence violating our
rights to access
land lawfully allocated to us.”
The farmers
further claim they resisted this and this led to Mohadi’s guard,
whom they
identified as Knowledge, threatening them with a gun after they
attempted to
stop him from driving their livestock off the land.
The farmers said the
matters were handled by Officer-In-Charge of Beitbridge
Rural, an Inspector
Mumanyi, with one case having been reported on August
12.
The
police boss also sat in the District Land Committee meetings that
deliberated the conflict but he declined to comment referring the matter to
Officer Commanding Beitbridge, a Chinhengo.
Chinhengo however,
said he was not aware any such reports were made, despite
the fact that his
subordinate had sat in all the District Land Committee
meetings.
“Our workers are continually harassed by both the
politicians’ farm guards
and also by the Beitbridge Rural police officers
based at Mohadi’s farm,”
the farmers conclude. “This leaves us asking where
our legitimate freedoms
and land empowerment are.”
The Provincial
Land Committee is reported to have recommended that the fence
be removed,
while those that owned land as per previous audits held early
this year
should remain on their properties. Despite the recommendations
being made in
August, the farmers say action is yet to be taken, although
the PLC is
scheduled to meet at the end of the month and this will be one of
the items
on the agenda.
Matabeleland South governor Angeline Masuku said she could not
comment
because the matter was “above” her.
In another letter dated
September 25, one farmer alleges that Mohadi
threatened to shoot his mother
and killed a sheep.
He further alleges that the minister returned at
10pm and shot a dog,
apparently in an effort to intimidate the farmers that
were refusing to be
evicted.
In response they allege they tried to make a
report to the police, but were
told that the officers did not have any power
to arrest their minister.
“When a report is made to the Beitbridge
Rural police about affairs
involving the said politicians, no visible or
tangible action is taken,” the
letter reads.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 01 October 2011 19:21
BY
PATIENCE NYANGOVE
MUTOKO District Hospital is operating without electricity
after the Zimbabwe
Electricity Supply Authority reportedly cut supplies over
a US$16 000 debt.
According to a hospital official who requested to
remain anonymous, Zesa
disconnected electricity despite that the hospital
has a mortuary and a
theatre that require uninterrupted supply of
power
The official said they have since resorted to using a
generator for the
X-Ray and theatre, but all other areas like the mortuary,
hospital wards and
nurses’ quarters remained without electricity. “The Prime
Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai was here yesterday (Thursday), but surprisingly
he was never told
by hospital management of the power cut,” the official
said.
“At least maybe, if they had notified the PM, he could have
assisted in the
reconnection of the electricity while the hospital looked
for the US$16 000
needed by Zesa.”
Efforts to get a comment from
the hospital superintendent, identified only
as Dr Kautare were fruitless as
he hung up when asked about the power cut.
Attempts to call him later were
futile as his mobile phone was unreachable.
Minister of Health and
Child Welfare, Henry Madzorera, said his office was
yet to get a report on
the predicament of the district hospital.
He however said, once he gets a
report, his office would carry out
investigations. Zesa spokesperson Fullard
Gwasira refused to comment saying
he was on leave, while group CEO Josh
Chifamba’s mobile was unreachable.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 01 October 2011
19:21
BY NQABA MATSHAZI
A herd of 70 elephants at the Chiredzi
Conservancy is under threat after
poachers, war veterans and politicians
invaded the area and are threatening
to drive out wildlife.
Already two
elephants, including one lactating, have been killed, while some
calves have
reportedly gone missing.
The invaders and poachers reportedly threaten the
lives of wardens at the
conservancy, while politicians turn a blind eye to
the decimation of the
elephant population.
In a statement, Glyn
Hunter, a spokesperson for the conservancy, said the
invaders were chasing
the elephants, snaring them and in some cases had
threatened to shoot the
animals.
Efforts to get intervention from the government have so far
drawn a blank,
as Environment minister, Francis Nhema is reported to have
said he would do
something about the invaders, but is still to
act.
“According to local residents, while he acknowledged that the
invaders were
there illegally, no attempt is being made to relocate them or
address the
issues on the ground,” Hunter said.
Conservancy
owners had asked the minister to help facilitate the relocation
of the
elephants, but Nhema was adamant that they stay. The land invaders
have
reportedly been offered alternative land, but they declined the offer,
insisting they wanted to stay on the conservancy, despite the fact that the
land is not suitable for agriculture.
The plight of the elephants
is reminiscent of a case in January this year,
where war veterans were
reportedly poisoning watering holes at Humani Ranch
so they could trap and
kill rhinos, then dehorn them.
Due to land invasions, promoted by
Zanu PF, only a handful of conservancies
remain compared to more than 640 a
decade ago.
“It is increasingly critical for the coalition government
to pass a law that
protects conservancies under the Tourism Act so that
conservancy principles
are adhered to, for the protection of wildlife and
the environment,” said
the president of the Commercial Farmers’ Union,
Charles Taffs.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 01 October 2011 19:05
BY
NQABA MATSHAZI
FORMER Media, Information and Publicity minister Jonathan Moyo
has dismissed
President Robert Mugabe’s potential successors in Zanu PF,
saying, they had
so far, not shown vision or policy to take the country
forward. “We know who
they are, but we do not know what they stand for,
their policy or ideology,”
he told a meeting last
Thursday.
Moyo’s statements may be seen as a thinly veiled attack on
Vice-President
Joice Mujuru and Emmerson Mnangagwa, who are reportedly
leading opposing
factions within Zanu PF and are positioning themselves to
succeed Mugabe.
“Mugabe remains the only person who talks to the
people and who talks the
indigenous talk, we are better off with him than
the others,” Moyo, a Zanu
PF politburo member, said.
The
Tsholotsho North legislator said the succession issue would be resolved
through a framework within Zanu PF where the person to succeed Mugabe would
be faithful to the founding values, policy and retaining the legacy of the
party.
He said the problem was that Zimbabweans tended to focus
on individuals and
lost sight of the bigger picture, a problem he blamed on
the media.
Moyo said contrary to popular perception, there was robust debate
within
Zanu PF on the succession issue, but the consensus was that Mugabe
was the
rightful leader.
The former university lecturer claimed
the media’s handling of the Zanu PF
succession issue had been immature,
creating controversy where there was
none.
Moyo is no stranger to
the Zanu PF succession debate and is widely regarded
as one of the key
architects of the Tsholotsho Declaration, which was meant
to torpedo
Mujuru’s ascendancy to the vice-president’s post.
He was expelled
from Zanu PF after deciding to stand as an independent
candidate, only to
make a return to the party in 2009, four years after his
expulsion.
Turning to the leaked US cables, Moyo said these had
strengthened Mugabe’s
hand and predicted that those named would fall over
themselves trying to
please the president in an effort to make amends for
perceived
transgressions.
Whistleblower website, WikiLeaks
released secret US embassy cables, where
Zanu PF members, including Moyo
were reported to have confided in American
envoys.
A constant
theme in the released Zimbabwe cables was the succession issue,
as Zanu PF
members expressed frustration at Mugabe’s grip on power.
“We will see those
named doing everything possible to support Mugabe,” he
said. “It will take a
courageous politician in Zanu PF to act as if nothing
happened.”
It was widely expected that Mugabe, who reportedly
does not take kindly to
disloyalty, was going to wield the axe and take
punitive measures on those
named in the cables, but the expected backlash is
yet to happen.
Moyo said it was inconceivable that people would lose
their political
careers over the leaked cables, although he said this opened
the door for
others to rise within the party’s structures.
He
conceded that Zimbabwe was a closed society, saying had it been open the
upheaval over the leaked cables would not be happening.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 01 October 2011 19:03
BY PERPETUA
CHIKOLOLERE
ENVIRONMENT and Natural Resources Management minister Francis
Nhema has
called on Zimbabweans to take an active interest in efforts to
preserve the
environment.
Officially launching the Zimbabwe
Environment Journalist Association (Zeja)
in Vumba last week, Nhema said:
"Our environment is burning and crying out
for help from
us.
“It's not so much what we say that makes a difference but
what we do as
individuals.”
The awareness and concern about the
environmental degradation have grown
around the world over the
years.
Zeja is an association for journalists formed in November last
year to unite
reporters writing about the environment and development issues
in order to
help curb the problem of environmental degradation in the
country.
ZEJA chairman Farai Matebvu said: "Strong environmental
awareness and
commitment to environmental management and control is a big
necessity for
our country."
Faced with frequent power cuts,
millions of people in Zimbabwe have turned
to wood as an alternative source
of energy resulting in deforestation in
many parts of the
country.
The country lost more than 20% of its forest cover between
1990 and 2005, an
average loss of 312,900 hectares according to statistics
compiled by
environment website Mogabay.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 01 October 2011 19:02
BY
PATIENCE NYANGOVE
THE indigenisation programme will benefit mostly Zanu PF
supporters because
other political parties are against it, Youth
Development, Indigenisation
and Empowerment minister Saviour Kasukuwere has
said. In an interview during
his recent visit to Mhondoro-Ngezi where he had
gone to inform the community
of a trust formed to take over US$120 million
in Zimplats shares, Kasukuwere
said MDC supporters would not benefit because
they were against taking
companies from their white owners.
“The MDC has
refused to embrace indigenisation,” he said.
“They have said they are
not interested in taking companies from their white
owners, so they won’t
benefit from the indigenisation drive.
“So our people, our Zanu PF supporters
will benefit and become empowered
through this programme.”
Quizzed on why
a national programme should be turned into a Zanu PF project,
Kasukuwere
said the MDCs were not interested in being part of the
indigenisation
drive.
While answering questions from journalists last Wednesday,
Prime Minister
Tsvangirai said if Kasukuwere decided to be partisan over
indigenisation
then there was no need for the MDC-T to support the
programme.
“I am surprised. I thought this was a government policy
and this government
also has other parties,” he said.
“There is sometimes
ignorance that it’s no longer a Zanu PF government but a
new
dispensation.
“I thought it was a genuine programme to uplift the majority of
Zimbabweans
from poverty.”
MDC-T youth assembly secretary
general, Promise Mkwananzi concurred with
Tsvangirai saying that the
empowerment drive was meant to empower every
youth regardless of political
affiliation.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 01 October 2011 19:01
BY
NQOBANI NDLOVU AND KHANYILE MLOTSHWA
BULAWAYO — Zanu PF structures in
Nyamandlovu last week allegedly shared
cattle stolen from white commercial
farmers in Nyamandlovu, Matabeleland
North province amid reports that some
of them got as much as 10 head of
cattle each. Sources in the province said
war veterans and Zanu PF
supporters have all along been stealing cattle from
white commercial farmers
being chased away from their farms in
Matabeleland’s most productive region.
Zapu national spokesperson
Methuseli Moyo said members of their party in
Nyamandlovu told them that
police and veterinary officers were forced to
prepare the paperwork that
created the impression that the cattle were stray
animals before the loot
from the evicted white farmers was shared among Zanu
PF loyalists in the
district.
Moyo described the incident as stock theft.
“As
Zapu, we can confirm that we have received reports from our structures
in
Nyamandlovu that Zanu PF supporters are now sharing cattle they have all
along been stealing.
“They are hiding behind statements that these were
stray cattle yet it is
known that they are the ones who have been stealing
the cattle.
“It is very disturbing. Stray cattle are auctioned publicly and
not in this
way and the local authority must benefit from the money.
“As
far as we are concerned it is stock theft. Those involved should be
arrested,” Moyo told The Standard last week.
War veterans and
Zanu PF activists stand accused of invading farms primarily
to loot property
as they had no skills in commercial farming as witnessed by
a drop in
production outputs, resulting in the country surviving on food
imports.
Most farmers have lost hope of fighting the government
in a bid to repossess
their farms or get compensation as the Sadc Tribunal,
which had always ruled
in their favour, was suspended early this
year.
The Tribunal in November 2008 ruled in favour of 78 white
farmers who were
challenging President Robert Mugabe’s land reform programme
on the grounds
that it discriminated against them on the basis of
race.
Mines and Mining Development minister Obert Mpofu, who is the
legislator for
the area, though confirming the development, shifted the
blame to police
saying they were the ones sharing cattle seized from white
commercial
farmers.
“The only thing nearer to what I heard is
that it is police officers who
shared the cattle among
themselves.
“Why don’t you call the police and find out because it is
Zanu PF people who
were complaining over that,” Mpofu said in an
interview.
Officer commanding Tsholotho District, under which Nyamandlovu
falls; Chief
Superintendent Johannes Gowo however dismissed the allegations
as false.
“There is nothing like that. Those are false allegations. We don’t
have
anything like that in our area,” he said.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 01 October 2011 18:59
BY
NQOBANI NDLOVU
BULAWAYO — Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe’s bodyguard,
who has been
living with a bullet near his heart for a decade, is suing
Deputy Minister
for Public Service, Andrew Langa for US$100 000 as
compensation for his
injuries. Darlington Kadengu (32) accuses the Insiza
North MP of shooting
him in 2002.
Doctors advised him not to remove the
bullet saying he could die as it was
lodged near his heart.
The
Standard was shown the doctors’ report and the scan confirming that a
bullet
is lodged near Kadengu’s heart.
Kadengu was allegedly shot at point blank
range inside Filabusi Police
Station in Matabeleland South by Langa, during
the run-up to a parliamentary
by-election in Insiza that was marred by
violence.
Kadengu was shot while campaigning for Siyabonga
Malandu-Ncube who was the
united MDC candidate in the Insiza
by-election.
Langa won the by-election after a violent campaign which saw
many villagers’
homesteads being burnt by Zanu PF supporters in the
constituency.
A petition by the MDC challenging Langa’s victory in that
by-election is
still pending at the courts.
Kadengu blasted
police for failing to arrest Langa since 2002.
“Police are sitting on
the case. I have waited for too long and it is time
he compensated me,”
Kadengu said.
Kadengu said he has met Langa several times during government
bu-siness but
the minister has never apologised for the incident.
Langa
on Friday professed ignorance about the matter. He said he never shot
Kadengu.
“I do not know that guy. He is just hallucinating,”
Langa said in a
telephone interview.
The shooting incident was
reported and entered as crime record number 717273
at Filabusi Police
Station in the area.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 01 October 2011
18:58
BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
ZANU PF supporters who burnt down houses of
MDC-T activists in Chimanimani
District early this year will assist the
victims resettle at their former
homesteads by helping them rebuild their
houses. This was agreed at a Joint
Monitoring and Implementation Committee
(Jomic) meeting held a fortnight ago
at Nhedziwa Business Centre where local
traditional leaders, police, senior
officials from Zanu PF and the two MDC
formations all pledged to stop
political violence in the
area.
Jomic board member Frank Chamunorwa said party leaders, police
and Chief
John Mutambara made it clear to the villagers that they would not
tolerate
political violence.
“We agreed that all the houses that
were destroyed would be rebuilt by the
victims with the assistance of the
perpetrators,” Chamunorwa said.
“Jomic and all the political parties would
help in one way or the other
during the rebuilding exercise.
“We want to
put in place a conducive environment that would enable their
safe return to
their homes.”
Chamunorwa said the reconstruction of the houses would
begin before the
start of the farming season to enable the returnees to
plant their crops in
time.
Jomic political liaison officer
Lovemore Kadenge (MDC-T) also confirmed that
the perpetrators would help in
the reconstruction of houses for the victims
as a way of showing remorse for
what they did.
This will be done in the presence of Jomic officials,
police and traditional
leaders to avoid resurgence of violence.
Chief
Mutambara on Thursday denounced political violence adding that the
victims
were free to come back to their homes.
He said he would either deal
with perpetrators of violence himself or report
them to the police if they
dared attack them again.
“Last week’s meeting was very fruitful and I am
hoping people in my area
will live peacefully from now on,” the chief
said.
“I am a chief for everyone regardless of political affiliation. I want
both
Zanu PF and MDC supporters here to live peacefully.”
The
meeting was attended by Jomic co-chairpersons Minister of Transport,
Communications and Infrastructure Development Nicholas Goche, Minister of
Regional Integration and International Cooperation Priscilla
Misihairabwi-Mushonga and Energy minister Elton Mangoma.
At least
12 MDC-T activists from Nhedziwa area in Chimanimani District have
since May
been sheltered at the party’s provincial offices in Mutare after
they fled
their homes following attacks by alleged Zanu PF supporters.
Another
20 are living with friends and relatives after fleeing their
homes.
In Harare, Jomic is also setting up provincial liaison
committees in an
effort to end political violence rocking the city.
The
committees, which include officials from the three parties in the
government
of national unity (GNU) will also be established in other
provinces.
Chamunorwa said in the capital, Jomic would soon meet victims
and alleged
perpetrators of violence separately in an effort to find
solutions to
violence.
“We want to instil in people that there is no gain
in violence,” he said.
“People should know that Pre-sident (Robert)
Mugabe, (Prime Minister Morgan)
Tsvangirai and (MDC leader Welshman) Ncube
are always drinking tea together,
merry-making while ordinary people in
Mbare and Highfield are busy attacking
each other.”
Jomic was
constituted under Article XXII of the Global Political Agreement
(GPA)
signed in 2008 by leaders of Zanu PF and the two MDC formations.
It was
formed to ensure the full implementation of the GPA, create mutual
trust
between the parties, promote continuous dialogue and to receive
“reports and
complaints” relating to the implementation of the agreement.
Kadenge also
said the main challenge was that the perpetrators had not
returned the
goats, chickens and other property they looted from their
victims.
They
were never arrested although victims reported their cases to the
police.
“One (Zanu PF member) of them is using a cellphone
handset of a victim,”
Kadenge said.
“The matter was reported but this man
was never arrested so this is the
challenge. We are asking someone to
co-exist with a person who is using his
stolen property.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 01 October 2011 18:57
BY JENNIFER
DUBE
EXCOMMUNICATED Anglican bishop Nolbert Kunonga says those who are
against
his leadership have “donated” the church’s properties to God.
Thousands of
Anglican followers across the country have over the last few
years
complained that Kunonga was ruthlessly evicting them from church
properties.
This has in some cases resulted in violent
clashes.
Kunonga told journalists on Friday that as long as he was
alive, all the 3
800 Anglican properties in the country would remain in his
custody.
He said whoever wants to use the property should rejoin his group,
because
it was impossible to have him and Chad Gandiya as bishops.
“There
is always one diocese, one bishop and one throne, not two,” Kunonga
said.
“People simply walked out in thousands, they simply walked
out on their own
after being misled by nonentities. If they want to come
back, they are free
to do so and we are not going to ask them
anything.
“Those who ran away from the church and do not want to come
back just have
to rest their case, because they donated the properties to
the church, they
donated to God,”
He said a lot of people had
begun retracing their steps back to his faction.
“There was a time when there
were only five of us in the hundreds of
churches, but now the situation is
improving and some churches now have 300
parishioners, and these are the
same people coming back after realising they
had been lied to,” he
said.
While extending a conciliatory hand to ordinary members of the
church,
Kunonga dismissed possibilities of reconciliation with the Gandiya
faction.
“We call for reconciliation, everybody is free to come and worship
with us.
We invite people and we don’t chase them away,” he said.
“The
dispute of bishops has nothing to do with worshippers, as has been said
in
the media, some people choose to politicise the dispute, others choose to
be
judgemental.
“The dispute is between ourselves and the Archbishop of
Canterbury Rowan
Williams, and bishops of the Province of Central Africa and
it is purely
doctrinal and has nothing to do with politics.”
He
refuted the widely held perception that he was Zanu PF.
Kunonga said
the Anglican dispute was about homosexuality, which he said was
“unscriptural”.
He said homosexuality led to the destruction of
Sodom and Gomorrah and added
the Apostle Paul condemned it as unhealthy. He
also cited a number of other
Old and New Testament scriptures against
homosexuality.
Elson Jakazi, Kunonga’s bishop for Manicaland said at
an international
level, the Anglican church is just a fellowship, saying no
diocese or bishop
was more powerful than others.
“I am fighting
the British, and not any of you, black Zimbabweans when you
are also poor
and continue being trampled upon,” Kunonga said.
“I will not be silenced,
nobody silences a true bishop,” he said. “Those
elderly women you see
running saying they are being chased from the church
are lying, this is
about Kunonga, Rowan Williams and the other bishops, it’s
nothing to do with
80-year-olds, they don’t understand this.”
Kunonga dismissed
allegations that he had support from the police and the
judiciary, saying he
has never taken anyone to court, but the CPCA has
dragged him to court on
several occasions since 2007.
He said his interest was to restore order in
the church.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 01 October 2011
18:56
BY JENNIFER DUBE
CHILDREN from across the country have called on
the government to be more
responsive and proactive in addressing the needs
of orphans and vulnerable
children (OVC), who are among the most affected by
the collapse in the
provision of social services.
Although the exact
figures could not be immediately established, children’s
representatives
last week told the government that most OVC do not have
identification
documents, a situation that makes it impossible for them to
access most
social services.
Speaking at the launch of the National Action Plan
for Orphans and Other
Vulnerable Children – Phase 2 (2011 – 2015), Karel
Nyandoro, a 15-year-old
Form III student at Kwekwe High School said failure
to address the social
services requirements for OVC was making them more
vulnerable.
“Many of us are orphans and vulnerable children,” Nyandoro
said.
“Our situation is made worse because we sometimes find it
difficult to
access birth certificates resulting in our failure to access
education,
national identity documents, passports and other basic services
that have
the production of a birth certificate as a
prerequisite.”
Nyandoro told senior government officials — including
Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai and his deputy Thokozani Khupe – that OVC
“still face some
stumbling blocks as we lack adequate information on the
requirements for
birth registration”.
The children petitioned the
government to recruit more social workers to
assist especially OVC and to
allow them to also take part in the
implementation of some of the
programmes.
Nyandoro said there has been an increase in child sexual
abuse, and appealed
to the government “to come up with punitive and
deterrent sentences for
perpetrators of child sexual abuse and all other
forms of abuse”.
“We want cases of child sexual abuse to be given
first preferences in Victim
Friendly courts and be closed quickly,” she
said.
The NAP for OVC is funded by the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef), European
Commission, Netherlands, Sweden and Britain, as part of efforts to
strengthen families through cash transfers to the poorest
households.
The programme was launched to meet the basic needs of
orphans and other
categories of vulnerable children, reaching out to some 80
000 households.
The funding target is US$75 million, of which US$45
million has already been
made available.
Unicef country representative
Peter Salama said: “Protecting children from
poverty, harm and abuse begins
with reducing their vulnerabilities, cash
transfers are one of the critical
components that will contribute to the
realisation of children’s
rights”.
Salama said the NAP for OVC will ensure children have equal
access to
services, regardless of where they live or their particular
vulnerabilities.
He said the programme would help over one million children
with each family
getting up to US$25 a month to meet its immediate needs for
food and health
care.
Labour and Social Services minister Paurina
Gwanyanya-Mpariwa said the
grants will go a long way in alleviating the
suffering in Zimbabwe’s
communities.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 01 October 2011 18:55
BY
JENNIFER DUBE
JAMAYA Muduvuri, a former Zanu PF senator, won the hearts of
Chegutu’s
Twyford Farm workers when for some time he continued to pay them
handsomely
after taking over the property from a white commercial farmer in
2009.
Some 28 lucky workers who survived a retrenchment exercise
developed a soft
spot for Muduvuri as he paid them well and supplied them
with foodstuffs.
“You would naturally feel lucky to survive
the chop which cost some 170
employees their jobs, but that lasted for just
a few months,” one employee
said last week.
“As it is right now,
we are yet to get our wages for March, April and May.
He paid half wages to
each employee in June, July and August. We are now
suffering like all those
who lost their jobs because we have never handled
the US$55 minimum wage. He
is paying US$45 when he says he has paid the full
wage and US$28 when paying
half.”
Muduvuri took over the farm from Catherine Jouineau-Meredith,
a French
citizen.
The farm, which was one of the most productive in the
area, was supposed to
be protected by a Bilateral Investment Promotion and
Protection Agreement.
Trade unionists have indicated that there are
many high-ranking Zanu PF
officials who have failed their inherited farm
workers like Muduvuri, with
information that some have never paid any wages
since the economy was
dollarised. “Some have never paid and others have only
paid for an average
of two months since dollarisation,” Edward Dzeka of the
General Agriculture
and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (Gapwuz)
said.
Dzeka, who is Gapwuz organising secretary for Kadoma, Chegutu, Selous
and
Mhondoro said most people who took over farms in the areas are Zanu PF
bigwigs and only a few were paying their employees as
expected.
“Many are paying below the minimum wage of US$55 and lay
off workers without
following due procedures,” he said.
“When we engage
them on these issues, they say we are MDC activists.”
At one citrus
farm owned by a senator, workers said they were earning US$40
per month and
although they receive the wages every month, they usually come
on the 9th of
the following month.
“She said she does not consider us as her
workers but casual employees,
including some of us who used to be permanent
employees at this farm,” one
worker said. “So she said, each of us earns
US$2 per day. The problem here
is that the oranges are not doing well
because of lack of chemicals and
water.”
At another farm owned by
a Zanu PF politburo member, workers said the
minimum wage was pegged at
US$32. “But the biggest problem here is the
acrimony between those who were
sacked and those who are working as those
who are still employed sometimes
harass those who lost their jobs, ordering
them out of the compound,” one
employee said.
“A lot of people are surviving on piece jobs whereby
they earn as little as
US$1 per day while others are paid for spying for the
managers.”
While some farm owners were unreachable, Muduvuri disputed the
claims saying
he was paying up as expected.
“I have 30 workers
and the lowest paid earns US$85 while my drivers earn
US$100 and the farm
managers as much as US$600,” he said.
“Come on the ground and ask any
employee if they are not being paid and they
will tell you that I do not owe
any of them any money. I give each employee
a bucket of mealie-meal and
other basic foodstuffs every month and I also
assist them with funeral costs
if need be.”
Labour and Social Services minister Paurina Mpariwa yesterday
said she could
not comment on the matter as she was at the airport preparing
to leave the
country.
Farm workers, whose livelihoods were
destroyed by the land reform programme,
have often been victims for their
alleged links to the Movement for
Democratic Change.
A report
prepared by the Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe in 2003, said
prior to the
land reform programme, an estimated 320 000 to
350 000 people were employed
by about 4 500 commercial farmers.
Their dependants numbered between
1,8 million and two million, nearly 2% of
the country’s population.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 01 October 2011 18:51
BY NQOBANI
NDLOVU
BULAWAYO — Yet another colourful festival was held in the city last
week to
celebrate the life of first leader of the Ndebele kingdom, King
Mzilikazi.
The festival was organised by the Institute of Ubuntu which was
set up in
2001 with the objectives of “promoting African Renaissance and to
develop a
cross-cultural exchange among different African
tribes”.
The cultural tourism, the first of its kind to be organised
in the country,
was a two-day event.
Director of the Institute of
Ubuntu, Dumiso Matshazi told journalists that
the festival was aimed at
preserving and developing African culture.
“We were inspired by the moral
degeneration in our country and thought that
with this festival, we can
preserve, restore and develop our cultural
values.
“The festival will be
an annual event held every September to celebrate King
Mzilikazi.
“Activities at the festival involve a variety of
ethnic displays since King
Mzilikazi’s rule was built around different
ethnic groups,” Matshazi said.
The two-day festival began with a
march across the central business district
from Inxwala Festival Arena at
the corner of Main Street to the ZITF.
Matshazi added: “The focus is on
bringing together traditional leaders, King
Mzilikazi’s traditional
provinces and other communal leaders on a two-day
event.
“Our wish is to
work with everyone but we want to also put the record
straight that we are
not sponsored by any political party.”
Among the traditional leaders
that attended the official opening of the
cultural festival were Chief
Dakemela (Nkayi), Chief Bakwayi (Kezi), Chief
Jahana (Insiza), Chief Ndondo
(Mbembesi) and Chief Gwebu (Umzingwane).
Last month, uMthwakazi
kaMzilikazi Cultural Association, which has the
backing of Mzilikazi’s
descendants, held commemorations marking the death of
the
king.
Mzilikazi Day is commemorated on September 9, with celebrations
in Zimbabwe,
South Africa, The United Kingdom and the United States of
America.
At the ZITF, there were multi-ethnic presentations on poetry, music
and
dance in celebration of the cultural life of King Mzilikazi.
In the
evening, there was a musical show featuring contemporary musicians
like Cool
Crooners, Lwazi Tshabangu and Jeys Marabini.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 01 October 2011 18:50
BY TATENDA
CHITAGU
MASVINGO — Lecturers at tertiary institutions who have been on
strike,
demanding better working conditions got the shock of their lives
when they
were suspended from work for three months. Their salaries and
allowances
have also been slashed by half.
Lecturers countrywide have
been on a three-week sit-in, demanding a salary
increase equivalent to that
being paid to state university lecturers and
better working
conditions.
College lecturers Association of Zimbabwe (Colaz)
president, David
Dzatsunga, yesterday confirmed receipt of suspension
letters of about 36
lecturers from Morgenster Teachers College. Others from
different colleges
have been charged with misconduct.
“We
received suspension letters and letters of other lecturers being charged
with misconduct from Morgenster Teachers College yesterday.
“The affected
members are 36 from Morgenster Teachers College. Other 60
lecturers from
Bondolfi Teachers’ College, Masvingo Teachers (90), and 80
from Joshua
Mqabuko are yet to be served with their letters, although they
have been
notified of such action,” Dzatsunga said.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 01 October 2011 16:55
BY
KHOLWANI NYATHI
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe’s (pictured right) calls for
elections before March
next year are increasingly becoming another pipe
dream, analysts have said.
Four months after the three governing parties —
MDC-T, MDC and Zanu PF,
agreed on a roadmap for free and fair elections
nothing tangible has
happened, they noted. The roadmap initialed by
negotiators from the three
parties in April had called for voter
registration and mobilisation in 60
days.
It also called for the
preparation of the new voters roll that would take 60
days.
The
roadmap was a result of protracted negotiations between Zanu PF and the
two
MDC formations under the watchful eye of South African President Jacob
Zuma’s facilitation team.
But the parties are still deadlocked
with the drafting of a new
constitution, a key sign-post for the new polls,
still far from completion.
It is increasingly unlikely that the parties will
complete the constitution-
making process and other conditions imposed by
the Global Political
Agreement (GPA) in time for a March
poll.
Analysts say for elections to be held even by the end of 2012,
the new
constitution must be completed by the end of this year, which is now
a
remote possibility.
Despite the indications that an early
election is now impossible, Zanu PF
has not abandoned its rhetoric with
senior Zanu PF officials continually
calling for the end of the government
of national unity (GNU).
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (Zesn)
in its latest “Ballot Update’’
says the fact that the environment is not
conducive for free and fair
elections is a serious indictment on the
coalition government.
“There seems to be impatience on the part of
Zanu PF to end the GNU which
would be premature given that Zimbabwe is not
ready for elections and the
constitution-making process needs to be
concluded before any general
election is conducted,” Zesn said.
“The
inclusive government has failed to civilise the conflicts that led to
its
formation.”
Last week Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai also called
for “clear roadmap to
free and fair elections that will lead to a legitimate
government”.
Zanu PF politburo member Jonathan Mo-yo, who has been vocal in
calling for
fresh elections, believes that the delays would only benefit
Mugabe.
“You say you do not want Mugabe but then when he calls for elections
you say
you want the constitution first.
“But there are people
who are deliberately delaying the constitution and for
every day that they
delay Mugabe remains in power,” Moyo said at a Sapes
Trust lecture on
Thursday.
“So you choose what you want Copac (or elections as a way
to keep Mugabe in
power.”
“Copac delay means that Mugabe must stay, it’s
a de facto way of saying
Mugabe must stay.”
Early this year Moyo
criticised the Southern African Development Community
election roadmap
saying it was untenable.
“It is now clear in the national interest that the
next harmonised general
election must be held this year in 2011, failure of
which it should be held
in 2016 and not any time in between,” the political
scientist wrote in one
of his newspaper articles.
Mugabe has
justified his calls for early elections saying the unity
government formed
in 2009 has failed to work.
He claims the parties have serious ideological
differences and would never
be able to work together.
But
analysts believe he is trying to ensure that he has enough energy to
campaign considering his advancing age.
There have also been
unsubstantiated claims that Mugabe is suffering from
prostate
cancer.
However, he has bru-shed aside the claims saying at 87 he is still
fit to
lead the country.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 01 October 2011 16:49
Tarisai
Shumba
It is time the world read and heard some good, encouraging and
proactive
news coming from Zimbabwe. The recovery of its wildlife sector is
a great
potential for rebranding Zimbabwe.
Greed, selfishness and
blindness towards national development, abuse of
political positions should
not be allowed to destroy innocent animals that
do not even vote and are a
treasure and heritage for the next generation of
Zimbabwe, the region and
the world.
With the political instability, which Zimbabwe has
experienced over the last
decade, most of the benefits of its state and
private wildlife heritage have
been under-utilised. Inappropriate
resettlement and lack of the rule of law
has seen the demise of an asset,
which is at the core of the nation-building
initiatives for the immediate
and future generations of Zimbabwe and the
global context.
Some
80% of Zimbabwe’s wildlife was destroyed in the last 10 to 12 years
according to the director-general of National Parks due to political
factors, poor management and uncontrolled poaching.
The UN body
Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of
Wild Fauna
and Flow (Cites), has been critical towards Zimbabwe’s past and
current
management of its wildlife assets.
Private conservancies which are
the last vestiges of wildlife conservation
and protection, are currently
facing serious threats — vulnerability to
their operations and to the
wildlife. The threats are mostly due to some
politicians wanting to grab
properties within these conservancies so as to
enrich
themselves.
The threat: While genuine arms length investments are
encouraged by
government and embraced by current operators, certain
individuals,
particularly in the Masvingo province, continue to threaten
violent and
illegal occupation rather than relevant
investment.
The victims are highly fragile and unique wildlife areas
within these
conservancies which cannot be replaced once they are
destroyed.
The Zanu PF political leadership in Masvingo led by Governor Titus
Maluleke
seems oblivious of this.
The solution: Investors with
the capital and a passion for wildlife are
needed — investors who understand
that wildlife management absorbs large
amounts of capital but has low and
slow returns over an extended period.
Further, the industry viability
is compromised by the perceived poor
reputation of Zimbabwe as a destination
among international tourists.
Despite the negative recent history, wildlife
offers a solution to some of
Zimbabwe’s problems. Wildlife has always
demonstrated a remarkable survival
instinct, given
protection.
Sound government policies which encourage wildlife
protection will benefit
the country which has vast areas of land classified
a Region five
(unsuitable for cultivation and domestic livestock
production).
Wildlife tourism, coupled with cultural tourism will
dispel the negative
publicity generated in the last decade, support
employment, assist poverty
eradication and bring sorely needed foreign
currency income to the country.
Background: It is not until the late
1960s when the true value of wildlife
was realised and appreciated by the
authorities in this country. This
realisation led to the development and
introduction of the 1975 Parks and
Wildlife Act, which to this day is viewed
by many as the most progressive
legislation towards conserving wildlife in
southern Africa.
Prior to this law conservation was a term associated
with national parks,
recreational parks, botanical gardens and safari areas.
On commercial
agricultural and farming lands, wildlife was viewed as a
menace, competing
with livestock for food and water, carriers of disease and
predators killing
livestock. Private owners were not allowed to hunt, cull
or sell venison and
relied heavily on the state for assistance with wildlife
controls.
Meanwhile it proved that in arid regions, also referred to
as region (five)
“V”, wildlife is the preferred land use, where sustainable
dry-land cropping
or ranching is not possible as a way of preserving the
environment, job
creation and foreign currency income.
The most
influential part of the new 1975 Wildlife Act was that wildlife was
granted
res nullius status. The term res nullius implied that wildlife did
not have
an owner, neither private nor the state. The act made provision for
the
controlled use of wildlife, but at the same time, legislation was also
in
place to prevent abuse.
Under the Wildlife Act, private land owners were
granted the status of the
“appropriate authority” on their land and were now
able to utilise wildlife
commercially either in the form of hunting,
tourism, animal products or
meat.
The wildlife industry
immediately responded positively and by 1995 18% of
commercial farmers were
registered as wildlife production areas and by 1994
private wildlife land
made large contributions to the wildlife numbers
within
Zimbabwe.
A researcher, Hill reported in 1994 that 94% of all eland,
64% of kudu, 63%
of giraffe, 56% of cheetah, 53% of the sable, 53% of the
impala and 46% of
zebra populations were already held on private land. In
many areas,
commercial farms were joined by removing fences, to form
“conservancies”.
These large tracks of land allowed for the re-introduction
of endangered
species such as the black rhinoceros and for viable
populations of the
endangered wild-dog to exist.
* Tarisai Shumba
is Public Awareness Reporter: Wildlife Heritage Project
(WHP).
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 01 October 2011
16:32
BY NDAMU SANDU
THE indigenisation drive has now shifted to the
financial services sector
amid allegations that some players are reneging on
their commitments.
Youth Development, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment
minister Saviour
Kasukuwere on Thursday said major mining companies had
complied with the
legislation but he was worried by the attitude of some
players in the
financial services sector.
Government is pushing a
policy that seeks to ensure that locals have a
minimum of 51% shareholding
in foreign-owned companies operating in the
country.
“We have a challenge
in the financial services sector and we will be
cracking (the whip) on that
sector,” Kasukuwere said.
“We have our Standard Chartered Bank who
still show a lot of disrespect to
our laws, Barclays Bank who try to find
all the excuses they can and Stanbic
Bank which ignored its own commitments
to the people of this country when
they said that they will make 30%
available for Zimbabweans to participate.”
When Standard Bank acquired ANZ
Grindlays (Zimbabwe) in 1993, it pledged to
sell 30% to
locals.
“If you look at their own history, South Africans are
participating in their
bank and what we are simply asking them to do is that
they must honour their
commitments.”
Foreign-owned banks
operating in Zimbabwe are considered safe by depositors
and have been
attracting more deposits.
However, they have low loan-to- deposit ratios,
which has upset authorities.
The move to crack the whip on foreign
banks is likely to draw a sharp
response from the central bank governor
Gideon Gono who has been at the
forefront in calling for caution when
dealing with the delicate financial
sector, the nerve centre of the
economy.
In an apparent reference to the empowerment legislation,
Gono told delegates
at the launch of the mobile money transfer business on
Thursday that the
central bank was ready to offer banking
licences.
“Those who would like to start financial institutions, I
will never tire
from putting my signature to banking licences should you
want licences.
“I am happy to give you a licence where you own 100% of the
bank, don’t be
satisfied with anything less,” he said.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 01 October 2011 16:29
BY NQOBANI
NDLOVU
BULAWAYO — National Railways of Zimbabwe says it lost close to US$5
million
in one week due to a debilitating strike action that is costing the
troubled
transport company about US$1 million per day, general manager
retired Air
Commodore, Mike Karakadzai said on Thursday.
NRZ
workers on Tuesday began a strike action to press for better pay,
allowances
and outstanding salaries dating back to 2009 after the adoption
of the
multi-currency regime.
The strike action, which entered its
fifth day on Friday, drew the whole NRZ
workforce affiliated to the Zimbabwe
Amalgamated Railway Workers’ Union,
Railway Association of Yard Operating
Staff, Zimbabwe Railways Artisans’
Union and Railways Association of
Engineering.
Karakadzai said the strike was costing the troubled parastatal
over 15 000
tonnes of unmoved cargo business per day, translating to US$1
million in
lost revenue daily.
“In terms of tonnage, we are
losing about 33 000 tonnes of traffic that
should have been moved and that
translates to about US$2 million in two days
since workers went on strike on
Tuesday,” Karakadzai said after a crisis
meeting held at the NRZ
headquarters.
He said, inasmuch as the company wanted to pay workers
their outstanding pay
and to meet their salary demands, the parastatal could
not afford as it was
incurring a US$3million loss every month. He appealed
to workers to return
to wo
rk while negotiations were being
held.
Karakadzai said NRZ would sink if it tried to meet workers’ salary
demands.
“On average per day, NRZ makes about US$225 000, translating to
about
US$7million in a month against monthly expenditure of about US$10,5
million
for fuel, salaries and spare parts,” he said.
The NRZ
boss said the company was overstaffed and there was need to retrench
some
workers to cut costs.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 01 October 2011
16:26
BY KUDZAI CHIMHANGWA
ECONET has launched its mobile money
transfer service titled Eco-cash as
mobile service providers seek more
innovative ways of tapping into the
country’s un-banked market.
The
mobile cash transfer transaction facility does not oblige a subscriber
to
open any bank account and the service is mobile network neutral as
customers
can move money across various mobile networks.
Econet has already
deployed 500 Eco-cash agents throughout the country and
has forged
partnerships with 200 Zimpost offices, 300 independent agents and
25 TN
Holdings branches.
Speaking at the launch, CEO Douglas Mboweni
pointed out that Econet
considers the unlocking of access to financial
services a serious need
adding that technology was useless unless it met the
specific needs of
subscribers.
Mboweni explained that research
indicated that there are four billion mobile
users throughout the world and
the figure was increasing.
“The banking population in Zimbabwe is very low
with 14 people in every 1
000 being banked,” he said.
“Zimbabwe’s
mobile penetration rate is at 70 % yet with that we only have
1,4% of the
population being banked,” said Mboweni.
Mboweni said between 60% to 65% of
people reside in rural areas in Zimbabwe
and the future indicates that the
figure will continue to be in the 65%
category.
It is estimated
that mobile money is a US$5 billion market opportunity in
Africa which
Econet intends to take advantage of.
The service provides security, cost
effectiveness, speed and timely
delivery.
Interestingly, NetOne
already runs a similar service titled One Wallet or
Skwama in a development
that should transform the country’s money transfer
needs as competition hots
up.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 01 October 2011 16:26
BY OUR
STAFF
OVER 500 exhibitors have confirmed participation at this year’s travel
and
tourism show, Sanganai/Hlanganani that organisers said is a massive
response
to the event which is listed on the United Nations World Tourism
Organisation calendar.
The event, which runs from October 8-12 at the
Harare International
Conference Centre is organised by the Zimbabwe Tourism
Authority (ZTA) and
other stakeholders in the tourism
industry.
Tesa Chikaponya, ZTA executive director destinations
marketing told
Standardbusiness that they were overbooked and some
exhibitors would be
sharing stands. Last year the fair pulled in 470
exhibitors.
The exhibitors include Emirates which recently announced
that it will be
flying to Zimbabwe starting February next
year.
Chikaponya said at least 190 buyers have confirmed participation and
that
there will be inquiries towards the start of the fair.
The tourism
industry would host 88 buyers. This means that the industry will
pay for the
buyers’ accommodation and flight expenses. The remainder is made
up of
non-hosted buyers.
“We are having more of non-hosted buyers which
shows the growth of Sanganai.
“In the last few years we were bringing the
buyers to the fair,” she said.
The buyers are drawn from UK, Baltic
Islands, Germany, Japan and Poland.
There are also buyers coming from
Iran, Dubai Ghana and Nigeria among
others.
She said 30 business
executives from Mauritius would participate at the
fair.
The
delegation will be in the country for a business convention. Even with
the
high turnout, ZTA feels it is not doing justice to the fair.
Karikoga Kaseke,
the authority’s boss said they were looking for an
alternative venue to
accommodate more players. “We left HICC four years ago
citing the size of
the place but we were left with no options after we tried
the (Zimbabwe
International) Trade Fair Grounds (in Bulawayo), which has its
own problems
related to costs because most of the exhibitors are from
Harare,” Kaseke
said.
He said the organisers have tried for two years
to get
an alternative venue, the Exhibition Park, but the industry said the
place
was not suitable for tourism.
The fair starts with a street procession from
Africa Unity Square on
Saturday which will lead to a family fun day at the
Harare Gardens.
There will be two trade days, October 10 and 11. The last day
of the fair is
reserved for the public.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 01 October 2011
16:46
BY TAKURA ZHANGAZHA
In travelling across the greater parts
of Zimbabwe, one is struck by the
life-goes-on way of existence of many of
the country’s citizens; there is a
somewhat evident lack of urgency about
anything, except perhaps for
processes related to the search for the next
dollar. But even these
processes such as the selling of “airtime
juice-cards” or the running
battles between municipal police and vegetable
vendors are now increasingly
run-of-the-mill routines with no questions
asked and no alternative or
better solutions proffered.
In all
cities and other smaller settlements, when one talks to comrades and
colleagues, there is testimony to the fact that “life is tough here” with
some comrades talking with resignation about heading back to the rural areas
since city or town life is not offering them better
prospects.
Other colleagues who, having dabbled in politics in the
last 10 years and
having waited with great anticipation for new jobs,
better lifestyles and
social services, express their dismay and
powerlessness with our current
political leaders, particularly those who had
offered hope. Colleagues from
rural areas that are close to the highways ask
if their members of
parliament and councillors are aware that a borehole
used by hundreds of
families and their livestock for water has not been
functioning for over
half a year now while at the same time they talk about
plans to dig new
wells for themselves because there is no hope from
government anytime soon.
All of these conversations and observations
can be considered abstract
except that these issues are about people’s lives
and how they are shaping
their opinion on the nature of their society, state
and the inclusive
government’s performance. Indeed there are political
loyalties that inform
the perspectives I encountered.
Most of the
compartriots I interacted with are arguing that perhaps the
inclusive
government is burdened by its ambiguity attributed to Zanu PF’s
refusal to
let go of power. Others argue that it is now difficult to tell
the
difference between the political parties in the inclusive government.
They
argue that those that claimed to be about bringing “change” are no
longer
practicing what they have been preaching. The examples given to prove
the
change of focus of the “change leaders” include the issue of the
purchase of
expensive vehicles for ministers and members of parliament while
they are
announcing that the country is broke.
And there are others who are
arguing that there has been too much focus on
partisan politics to the
detriment of the livelihoods of ordinary people.
Everything, they argue, is
viewed within the prism of which party one
belongs to and therefore all
sense of objective attendance to people’s
grievances are lost in the
conundrum of political partisanship.
In all of these perspectives
from a limited audience, what is evident is an
increasing disconnection of
the inclusive government with the lives of the
country’s citizens. While
many accept the reality of the rivalry between
President Mugabe and Prime
Minister Tsvangirai, they do not see the same in
relation to political
principles or values. Instead, they see the rivalry as
just that, two bulls
in a kraal and depending on what each bull can offer in
return, their most
solid supporters are those that are in proximity to one
gravy train or the
other.
Further to this, the government’s short-term strategic plans
have been more
on paper than they have been evident in the public domain.
The most
effective government policy document has been the annual budget
presented to
parliament by the Finance minister and of late this has caused
a lot of
anxiety among the informal traders due to the introduction of
tariffs on the
importation of basic commodities. In education, health and
transport, there
has been little to show by the government except for their
outsourcing of
these services to international NGOs.
Symbolic of
all this is the purchase of luxury vehicles, the lack of an
adequate public
explanation of the usage of tollgate revenue and the medical
treatment of
government officials in foreign hospitals.
This is not to say we are
expecting the inclusive government to perform
miracles. It must however at
least show a commitment to bettering the lives
of the people of Zimbabwe
before seeking to better the lives of its
officials. It must also
demonstrate the necessary understanding of the
hardships people are facing
in their day-to-day lives beyond the rhetoric of
its medium-term “strategic
plans”.
That would entail re-thinking its policies on education,
health, transport
and employment creation as well as a demonstration of full
commitment to
ensuring the enjoyment of the political freedoms in our bill
of rights by
all citizens. Where it fails to do so, our politics will remain
without
evident public value except to wrongly teach younger generations
that one
gets into politics for self-aggrandisement.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 01
October 2011 16:44
BY NEVANJI MADANHIRE
A few weeks ago I put my
head on the block by defending the city of Harare
against a damning report
by the Economist Intelligence Unit which said the
Sunshine City was the
worst metropolis in the world to live in. I got plenty
of kudos from
Hararians for my patriotism but more discerning citizens
called and said,
“Thanks Nevanji, but no thanks.” Their slogan was, “We love
Harare, but not
the litter!”
One of the discerning citizens invited me for lunch at one of
the
restaurants in Alexandra Park just opposite the main entrance to the
University of Zimbabwe. As I drove from my city centre office I couldn’t
help but notice the litter strewn all over the city. After the sumptuous
lunch as we left the restaurant we were confronted by a huge billboard being
erected just across the road. Solid metal that upstaged the greenery in the
university grounds.
I thought to myself, what if whoever was
erecting that metallic eyesore,
instead of advertising a new telephonic toy,
just wrote on the billboard,
“We love Harare, but not the litter.” Wouldn’t
that make a difference? I was
thinking of the American city of Texas’ own
iconic statement to litterbugs:
“Don’t mess with
Texas!”
According to the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, the phrase
Don’t Mess with
Texas is now a trademark of the Texas Department of
Transportation, which
began as part of a statewide advertising campaign
started in 1986 whose
intention was to reduce littering on Texas roadways
and has garnered
national attention.
The phrase was prominently
shown on road signs on major highways,
television, radio and in print
advertisements. The campaign is credited with
reducing litter on Texas
highways by roughly 72% between 1986 and 1990.
While the slogan was
originally not intended to become a cultural icon, it
did. Beyond its
immediate role in reducing litter, the slogan became a Texas
cultural
phenomenon and it has been popularly appropriated by Texans.
I cannot
imagine how the companies erecting billboards all over our city
roadways
think! You find a colourful billboard standing like a colossus
astride huge
heaps of litter and falling ugly-looking streetlight pylons.
What do
motorists read on the billboards? I for one see the companies as
part of the
litter. In Ghanaian folklore there is a bird called the
chichidodo which
loathes dung but feeds on the worms that eat the dung. That’s
exactly what
these companies are doing.
Without merely being unsightly, litter
comes with so many other problems;
the main one of which is disease. Some
say Harare is now a rat city; there
are so many rats running around that at
night all the alleys are the venue
of the proverbial “rat race” so to speak.
Rats carry diseases; remember The
Black Death?
Black rats which
were constant stowaways on merchant ships carried with them
fleas that
transmitted bubonic plague.
The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30–60
percent of Europe’s
population, reducing the world’s population from an
estimated 450 million to
between 350 and 375 million in 1400. It took 150
years for Europe’s
population to recover. The plague returned at various
times, killing more
people, until it left Europe in the 19th
century.
Without sounding like a doomsday cultist, who knows what
else the rats may
carry? I remember decades ago watching a movie called
Night of the Lepus, a
1972 American science fiction horror film focusing on
members of a small
Arizona town who battle thousands of mutated, carnivorous
killer rabbits.
Lepus is Latin for hare.
The film’s morale is
that we can create something that will one day go
completely out of hand.
Imagine the havoc that rats in our cities wreak on
furniture, electric
cables and non-metallic piping! Can domestic
electrocutions be a result of
power cables that have been gnawed away by
rats?
Next time you throw away
a packet of leftover junk food, know that you are
feeding a rat that will
eventually eat away electric cable insulators and
cause your death or your
children’s.
In the Northern Ireland city of Belfast it has been noted
that 75% of all
the litter is attributable to smokers. This might as well be
a worldwide
trend. In Harare up to one in every five people smokes. Smokers
throw their
cigarette stubs on the street and dump the empty packets
wherever they are.
One can’t walk as much as five metres without coming
across an empty
cigarette packet.
Most public places have been
made smoke-free zones; this must be extended to
our streets! If this is seen
as too draconian a measure then smokers must be
forced to carry pocket
ashtrays in which they can dispose of their cigarette
stubs if there is no
bin. Smokers should also realise that smoking is not
“cool”. What happened
to the good old slogan in which girls said, kissing a
smoker is like licking
an ashtray?
Another source of litter is chewing gum. Removing chewing
gum from the
streets must be a long and expensive exercise. Have you ever
stepped on
discarded gum? Remember how disgusting the process of removing it
from the
sole of your shoe is?
Besides making our streets dirty,
chewing gum is singly the most churlish
habit of them all. We know
Manchester United manager the knighted Alex
Ferguson is always chewing,
apparently to avoid a nervous breakdown, but
that doesn’t mean it’s cool to
imitate him.
Gum chewers (read Man U supporters) must move around
with gum pouches and
wrap-its. These are reusable pocket-sized wallets which
can hold used gum
until one finds a bin.
The most obnoxious
source of litter are people who eat their food in their
cars then throw away
the wraps and the leftovers through the window of their
moving vehicles. Our
streets and highways are now a blot on the landscape. I
find motorists and
commuters in this habit insufferable. The correct thing
to do is to keep
everything in the vehicle until you get to a place where
you can dispose of
the litter. Please stop the drop!
Travelling from Bulawayo recently I found
all cities on the way spick and
span; I must say Chegutu was the cleanest.
Getting into Harare was like
getting into a cinema to watch Taste the Blood
of Dracula!
* The Standard is going to launch an anti-littering
campaign soon. Watch
this space.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 01 October 2011
16:42
BY ZESN
One of the major features of the proposed electoral
reforms is the possible
introduction of a localised voting system which will
be conducted using
polling station-based voters’ rolls. This means a voter
will only vote at
the polling-station at which his or her name appears on
the voters’ roll.
This is significantly different from the present system
whereby voters can
vote at any polling station within the
ward.
Supporters of the polling station-based voters’ roll argue that
it will
prevent instances that have occurred in past elections when voters
from some
areas have been moved to other areas in a bid to bolster the
fortunes of a
particular party’s candidate in that area. If a voter can only
vote at a
polling station where their name is registered on the voters’
roll, it will
mean those who are brought into the area to artificially
inflate support for
a particular party or candidate will be prevented from
voting at that
polling station.
Supporters of this system
also argue that it will prevent double-voting
whereby a voter can move from
one polling-station to another within the same
ward in order to vote more
than once in the same election.
It is important to consider the risks
inherent in this system.
The first risk is that such a system might make it
easier to use the tactic
of pre-election displacement of voters from the
areas where their specific
polling station is located.
If a
person can only vote at a specified polling station, the easy way to
ensure
they do not vote is to displace them or otherwise prevent them from
reaching
that polling station.
If displaced in advance of an election, it may
be proposed that such voters
should be able to use the facility of postal
voting.
The problem however is that the facility of postal voting is
restricted to
persons who are outside the country on government
business.
The second risk is that a polling station-based voters’
roll system
increases opportunities for post-election retribution. In the
past, voters
have been targeted for punishment for voting for the wrong
party or
candidate by losing contestants. One approach was to target
constituencies
where a contestant would have lost — that gave rise to
suspicions that the
population in the constituency had voted “wrongly” in
that they would have
voted for the opponent. Acts of violence have been
recorded in post-election
periods. Now, the risk is that with a more
localised and specific
polling-station based voters’ roll, it will be even
easier to identify
voting patterns at small local levels. It will be easy to
see which villages
or suburbs voted for what candidate and therefore make
the voters easy
targets for post-election retribution.
These
negatives must be weighed against the positives of the polling station
based
voters’ roll. What makes sense in theory might not be the right thing
in
practice. The first question to be asked is: do the identified risks
exist
in the present system?
They do, which is why there has been
pre-election and post-election violence
in the past. The second question may
be: do the risks increase under the
polling station-based voters’
roll?
It seems that they do escalate given the localised character of
the polling
station-based voters’ roll. But there is a third question, which
is, would
the opportunities “bussing in” voters and double-voting be reduced
under the
polling-station based voters’ roll? The answer seems to be that
those
opportunities would be reduced.
If therefore the system of
preventing election violence and intimidation is
effective, it would seem
that the benefits of polling station-based voters’
roll outweigh the
negatives.
