http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tichaona
Sibanda
20 September 2010
The troubled constitutional outreach program
degenerated into total chaos
over the weekend when 45 meetings were
violently disrupted by ZANU PF hired
goons in the capital.
As a
result the COPAC management committee which is leading the exercise to
gather views for a new constitution, suspended indefinitely the program,
following the coordinated attacks on MDC supporters and COPAC
officials.
Douglas Mwonzora, co-chairperson of COPAC, announced the
suspension on
Monday. The exercise has only been suspended in Harare,
pending
investigations to probe the violence.
Our correspondent Simon
Muchemwa told us the attacks were clearly
premeditated because most of the
assailants were bused in from rural areas
bordering Harare metropolitan.
Most of the trouble makers could be seen
loaded in trucks belongings to ZANU
PF officials.
'It is tragic that even during the disturbances when people
were being
assaulted with logs, iron bars and sticks the police could act
only as
onlookers,' Muchemwa said.
In Mbare, the violence left 32
year-old Lucia Kandanga battling for her life
at the Avenues clinic after
she was hit over the head several times by a
thug using an iron bar. MDC-T
MP for Mbare, Piniel Denga, told us Kandanga
was one of five people admitted
to the private clinic following the orgy of
violence.
'They were
attacked right in front of the police but no officer dared to
intervene or
arrest the perpetrators. Out of the five that were ferried to
the Avenues
only Kandanga still remains in hospital because of the
seriousness of her
head injuries. The other four were treated and
discharged,' Denga
said.
The MDC legislator said the ongoing impression created by the
police
inaction is that ZANU PF as a party is untouchable and enjoys
immunity from
the authorities.
For the first time since the exercise
began four months ago, there was also
a racial dimension when scores of
white people were chased away from
participating in the constitutional
outreach program in most of Harare's
affluent suburbs.
White families
in Mount Pleasant bore the brunt of a torrent of abuse by
suspected ZANU PF
supporters, who chased them away shouting racial slurs.
It has also been
revealed that some big shots have had a hand in the
violence. In Harare's
South Western high density suburbs, ZANU PF Senator
Charles Tawengwa
allegedly paid and encouraged his party's youth members to
sow
discord.
At Sunningdale 1 Primary, former MDC MP Gabriel Chaibva, who
last year
defected to ZANU PF, bused in members of the Vapositori sect to
the
meetings. A participant at the meetings told us the Vapostori members
would
clap hands after every opinion he gave and only participated where
'YES' or
'No' was required.
The weekend violence only serves to
worsen an already bad outreach campaign
that has seen countless meetings
being aborted because of the escalation of
violence in rural
areas.
Rarely does a day go by without the media reporting on
intimidation and
violence in various parts of the country. Equally
unsettling to civil
society organisations and NGO's is the police
indifference to this political
intimidation and violence.
'One would
be hard pressed to recall whether anybody from ZANU PF has been
arrested and
charged in connection with the violence or disruptions since
the program
began four months ago,' MDC-T MP for Makoni South Pishai
Muchauraya said.
At noon today, 600 members of Women and Men of Zimbabwe marched to Parliament in Harare to mark International Peace Day. 25 members were arrested at Parliament (most of them handing themselves in) and taken to Harare Central Police Station. 59 more handed themselves in in solidarity with their arrested comrades after marching from Parliament to Harare Central. The total arrested is believed to be 84.
The aim of the peaceful protest was to highlight community safety issues and police behavior in communities. When the peaceful group arrived at Parliament, they handed over a list of demands for members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police, the Police Commissioner and the co-Ministers of Home Affairs to police officers stationed outside Parliament. The full list of demands can also be found below.
Two members addressed the peaceful group outside Parliament explaining that tomorrow (21st September) is International Peace Day and using the example of the violence at COPAC consultations over the weekend to illustrate how Zimbabweans have little experience of peace. They called on the Zimbabwe Republic Police to allow Zimbabweans to be able to give their views of what they want in a new Constitution without violence and called on police to arrest those that threatened others or used violence.
TAKE ACTION: Please phone Harare Central Police Station on +263 4 777777 to demand that the WOZA activists be released immediately. You can email the Honourable Teresa Makone (co-Minister of Home Affairs) at this address: teresamakone@gmail.com
Bystanders were overheard supporting the protestors - commenting on the violence shown by police officers in recent weeks and how police officers should be ashamed of themselves for not being the ones to keep the peace.
WOZA members have been worried about the performance and professionalism of our police officers for some time. As a result, WOZA has observed their behavior in select communities in Bulawayo and Harare for four months.
WOZA members observed police officers beating suspects in public; harassing vendors and taking their goods for their own use, without any receipting; demanding and accepting bribes, both in public and at police stations; drinking in uniform in public, sometimes stopping to drink while escorting suspects who will be under arrest and making people under arrest 'run' in front of their motor bikes and/or horses to the police station. In Bulawayo, many police officers refuse to respond to citizens' complaints if they speak in the Ndebele language, insisting they speak in Shona.
75% of people whose rights were violated during arrest reported damages, injuries and or loss of property. These incidents are common when one is arrested by the plain-clothed and municipal police.
A more detailed account of our findings can be found in the Woza Moya newsletter below. The investigations done during the four months is just a small part of what is happening and are a reflection of a poor relationship between police and the community. It is clear that police officers routinely violate human rights and do not follow proper protocols of arrest and detention. In this regard, they are not following the Zimbabwe Police Act, the ZRP Service Charter and ZRP Service Standards as well as regional and international standards and instruments.
For the full list of demands and more information on WOZA's observations of police behaviour in Harare and Bulawayo over the last four months, click here: Woza Moya Sep-10
For more information on the ZRP Service Charter, Service Standards or the SARPCCO Harare Protocol Code of Conduct, click on the following links: ZRP Service Charter, ZRP Service Standards, SARPCCO Hre Protocol-Code of Conduct
Via WOZA Website
http://news.yahoo.com
By ANGUS SHAW,
Associated Press Writer Angus Shaw, Associated Press Writer -
Mon Sep 20,
11:24 am ET
HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwean lawmakers in charge of a
constitutional reform
program halted public canvassing Monday after weekend
violence disrupted
their work, and the prime minister said he suspected the
violence was
sparked by political operatives.
Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai said his party in the coalition government
would not tolerate the
coercion and intimidation seen in the weekend unrest,
and said he suspected
that thugs were hired by some leaders to "beat up
people and unleash terror"
in Harare.
"Some among us have the misguided audacity to undermine our
efforts by
hiring thugs to disrupt people's right to express themselves in
an important
national exercise," he said.
The proposed constitution
could limit the tenure of President Robert Mugabe,
86, who has ruled since
independence in 1980. It would also strengthen
democratic freedoms, free
speech and impartial law enforcement, which
critics of Mugabe say could
threaten his strong grip on power in the
southern African
nation.
While Tsvangirai did not directly accuse Mugabe, his longtime
rival, of
interfering, he said: "We know there is one party that wants us to
continue
using the Lancaster House constitution" adopted at independence
that has
entrenched Mugabe's powers.
At least five people were
injured in clashes and stone-throwing between
rival party supporters in one
Harare township Sunday. Four other meetings
across Harare were abandoned,
the lawmakers' panel said. Riot police were
posted Monday at sites of the
disturbances.
Under a two-year-old coalition agreement between Mugabe and
Tsvangirai, the
former opposition leader, a new constitution must be drawn
up before fresh
elections can be held, possibly next year.
Tsvangirai
said he will review the constitutional outreach program that
began its first
meetings in Zimbabwe's two main cities, both Tsvangirai
strongholds, on
Saturday.
"We will not support a constitution that is flawed," he said.
"If it means
redoing it, we will do it again."
Rowdy youths broke up
a meeting in the western Harare township of Mbare on
Sunday, injuring five,
and attempted to barricade parliament officials in
the yard of a community
hall there.
Skirmishes broke out in another district when attendees
jeered arrivals they
did not recognize from their area, alleging they were
sent in by bus from
Mugabe's rural strongholds to sway the meeting. Fist
fights broke out at
another venue.
The constitution-writing program
has been plagued by chaotic administration,
delays, money shortages and
accusations of intimidation since it began in
July. Officials say about
5,500 meetings have been held countrywide,
attended by less than one million
of the nation's nearly 5 million voters.
Earlier Monday, witnesses and
activists said at least 85 demonstrators were
arrested after staging a march
to Parliament to demand better policing and
public safety.
Activist
group Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise said 600 members marched
Monday to
protest police conduct.
The group accused police of beating suspects in
public, harassing street
vendors and stealing their goods and routinely
demanding bribes.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena confirmed the arrests
Monday and said the
march was conducted without routine police clearance.
http://www.smh.com.au/
Aislinn Laing and Peta
Thornycroft
September 21, 2010
JOHANNESBURG: Zimbabwe's generals are
accumulating a secret slush fund from
diamond sales, a campaign group
claims.
Diplomats fear the vast mines put the army in a powerful position
to dictate
the terms of succession after the death of the President, Robert
Mugabe.
The warning comes days after Zimbabwe's pro-democracy Prime
Minister, Morgan
Tsvangirai, appealed to lower ranked army and police not to
participate in
any coup against the constitutional order when Mr Mugabe, 86,
dies.
Advertisement: Story continues below
The military's control over
the vast Marange fields - the source of a
quarter of the world's diamonds -
has become an important factor in the
future of Zimbabwe. The eight-member
Joint Operational Command (JOC) of
military and police leaders earns
revenues from the mines through the
control of companies.
The
campaign group Global Witness says smugglers also sell stones dug up by
labour gangs overseen by the military.
The diamonds are smuggled over
the Mozambican border, where they are traded
on the black market. The
revenues then return to the military.
''The general pattern is that units
are rotated to make sure they maintain
the loyalty of the army by allowing
everyone to benefit,'' said Annie
Dunnebacke, of Global
Witness.
''It's safe to assume that the cut of JOC generals, who some
believe are
those who really run the country, is fairly
consistent.''
A Western diplomat said last week that Zimbabwe's diamond
wealth was being
diverted by the military elite with catastrophic
consequences.
''There are lots of other [mining] sites and I have no
doubts the generals
have quite a lot of it,'' the diplomat said. ''The money
is running into a
handful of pockets.''
Zimbabwe's power sharing
government, which included Mr Tsvangirai's Movement
for Democratic Change,
has halted the country's economic decline.
However, the impoverished
country relies on Western aid to provide basic
services such as books in
schools. Its treasury received $32 million from
the first official sales of
diamonds last month.
Among those alleged to have earned many millions
from diamond sales are
factions headed by the Defence Minster, Emmerson
Mnangagwa, and Solomon
Mujuru, the former head of the armed forces and
husband of the
Vice-President, Joyce Mujuru.
Alan Martin, who
compiled a report on the military's role in Marange for the
pressure group
Partnership Africa Canada, said Mr Mujuru and Mr Mnangagwa,
were preparing
for the death of Mr Mugabe.
''Undoubtedly, they are building up their war
chests,'' he said. ''None of
them will make a move until he dies but there
will be a succession fight
after his death.'' The JOC ''would not accept an
MDC president''.
Telegraph, London
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/
Sep 20, 2010, 19:11
GMT
Harare - Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Monday said
he would
not participate in an election threatened by violence, following a
surge of
attacks on his supporters by youths loyal to President Robert
Mugabe at the
weekend.
'I will not commit to any election if it is a
declaration of war,' he said
at a conference dedicated to victims of
political violence. 'I will not
support a process that is flawed,' he
continued.
In the capital at the weekend gangs of youths from Mugabe's
Zanu- PF party
disrupted meetings at which ordinary Zimbabweans had been
asked to air their
views on what they wanted in a new
constitution.
At one meeting point, about 200 youths reportedly
surrounded a smaller crowd
of supporters of Tsvangirai's Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) and
attacked them with iron bars, bricks, and barbed
wire. Seven people had to
be taken to hospital.
Witnesses said riot
police parked in a truck nearby did nothing.
Tsvangirai, who is now in a
power-sharing government with Zanu-PF, said the
violence was a reminder of
the dark past, a reference to a second-round
presidential ballot in 2008 in
which 200 MDC supporters were murdered and
thousands
tortured.
Tsvangirai, who had won the first round, withdrew from the
election to avoid
further bloodshed.
The three-month campaign to
canvass opinions for a new constitution is part
of the coalition agreement
between Mugabe and Tsvangirai. The draft of a new
democratic constitution is
intended to lead to a referendum and then to new
elections.
http://www.timeslive.co.za
Sep 20, 2010 6:58 PM | By
Jan Raath, Sapa-dpa
Christine Nkulu learnt first-hand on Sunday how some
of Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe’s followers settle constitutional
discussions. With a
half-brick in the face.
She and a couple of
hundred supporters of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), which is in a power-sharing government
with
Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party, had attended a meeting in Harare’s Mbare
township,
where citizens were being asked what they would like to see in a
new draft
constitution.
“Zanu-PF youths arrived and they outnumbered us by five to
one,” she said.
“They were carrying iron bars, sticks, axes. They surrounded
us and began to
beat people, one by one. They beat women and old people.”
She managed to
flee but a half brick hurled at her from close range caught
her just above
her left eye, causing it to swell up and turn a painful shade
of blue.
It was the last of hundreds of sessions organized by the
Constitutional
Parliamentary Committee (COPAC) since June.
The huge
range of opinions expressed are meant to form the basis for
drafting a new
democratic constitution to replace the flawed constitution
used by Mugabe to
cement his power over the last 30 years.
But meetings all over Harare at
the weekend were broken up or had to be
abandoned as mobs of youths took
over the process.
Witnesses at the Mbare meeting claimed the mobs had
been bussed in from
remote rural areas.
“A lot of them were soldiers
in civilian clothes,” one observer said. “They
stand out from the ordinary
people. Their heads are shaved, they have a
military bearing.” At one
meeting, a Zanu-PF supporter reportedly pulled out
a pistol when other
speakers spoke in support of a free media and property
rights. People fled
in terror.
At another, a Zanu-PF youth is said to have opened the meeting
with a prayer
“ God, kill those who are sellouts,” apparently referring to
supporters of
the MDC, which Mugabe accuses of selling out to the
West.
In rural areas, the meetings were mostly run by chiefs and headmen,
who are
usually loyal to Zanu-PF, with groups of intimidating youths or
secret
police reportedly often present.
Ten years ago, when Zimbabwe
was drafting a new constitution, the mood was
very different.
In the
absence of repression, public consultations became
emotionally-charged
platforms for citizens demanding change.
“Mugabe learnt his lesson then,”
said a Western diplomat. “They weren’t
going to let a repeat of that
happen.” The final draft of the constitution
is to be submitted to a
referendum, and if approved, will be the foundation
for what the MDC hopes
will be free and fair elections.
Tsvangirai told reporters in
Johannesburg last week he believed citizens
could be voting on the next text
by May or June and that elections could be
held soon afterwards, once the
two parties had agreed on the ground rules,
including no
violence.
But many people still fear a repeat of the violence that
characterized the
2008 polls.
“We are all afraid, we cannot have
elections,” said Nkulu. “They will kill
us. They have told us.” In 2008,
Zanu-PF militia and soldiers avenged Mugabe’s
defeat by Tsvangirai in the
first round of presidential elections by
unleashing fierce violence against
MDC supporters, killing scores of people
and injuring hundreds
more.
To help end the violence and kickstart the wrecked economy,
Tsvangirai
agreed in September 2008 to share power with Mugabe on condition
of sweeping
human rights reforms, most of which have yet to be
implemented.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Tobias Manyuchi Monday 20 September
2010
HARARE -- Air Zimbabwe had to make "special arrangements" to get
pilots to
fly President Robert Mugabe to the United Nations General Assembly
meeting
in New York because the airline's own pilots are on
strike.
Mugabe arrived in New York on Saturday and is accompanied by
several
ministers drawn from both ZANU-PF and MDC.
Jonathan Kadzura,
board chairman of Air Zimbabwe confirmed that they had
managed to entice
some of the pilots to fly the President.
''The pilots are still on an
industrial action and we are still discussing
with them," Kadzura said. "We
made plans for the president to leave as we
have managed to secure a cabin
crew to fly him to the UN meeting in the
USA.''
Pilots at the
national carrier embarked on an industrial action some two
weeks ago
demanding payment of allowances that were scrapped in February.
The
Kadzura board gave the pilots an ultimatum to return to work weeks ago,
but
none of the pilots has headed the call.
After the UN meeting, Mugabe is
expected to travel to Quito, where he is
expected to be awarded with an
Honorary Doctorate in Civil law from an
Anglican Church-run University of
the province of Ecuador. -- ZimOnline.
http://news.radiovop.com
20/09/2010 12:55:00
Hurungwe, September
20, 2010 - Some schools remain closed here after
education officials stopped
the recruitment of temporary teachers last week.
This is despite calls by
Education Minister David Coltart to employ the
teachers to allow schools to
re-open.
However, pupils have been forced to stay at home due to the
confusion.
A survey conducted by Radio VOP around the district revealed
that some
schools that had 100 percent untrained teachers remained closed on
Monday.
Most of the affected schools are in the remotest parts of
Hurungwe, which
are shunned by trained teachers.
A Magunje district
education official who refused to be named said, ''We
received a directive
on Tuesday last week stopping us from recruiting
untrained teachers from our
provincial offices. We are still yet to resume
though we had accepted papers
of nearly 300 teachers against the required 1
000 in the
district."
Scores of untrained teachers milled around the provincial
offices at Magunje
on Monday, hoping to be re-employed.
"I have been
coming here since Wednesday last week hoping that I will be
accepted but
there is nothing positive," said an untrained teacher who was
based at
Mjinga school, 80 kilometres from Magunje.
Mashonaland West provincial
education officer Sylvester Mashayamombe said:
"We are still waiting for
clearance from Public Service Commission to
recruit more teachers. It is a
national issue.''
There are an estimated 25 000 untrained teachers in the
country.
The Finance Minister Tendai Biti said a civil servant audit
conducted by
government had exposed 45 000 ghost workers among the 250 000
government
employees.
However PSC chairman Mariyawanda Nzuwa disputed
Biti's announcement saying
it was premature to talk about the result of the
audit.
This is coming at a time when civil servants have promised to down
tools as
they want a salary increment. Government employees earn US$150-250
a month,
but are demanding US$500-600 a month.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Lance Guma
20
September 2010
The head of the country's notorious Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO)
Happyton Bonyongwe, and ZBC chief news correspondent
Reuben Barwe, are
reported to have been denied visas by the United States
Embassy in Harare,
according to the state owned media. The two were due to
travel with Mugabe
for the 65th Ordinary Session of the United Nations which
opened on the 14th
September and runs up to September 30th in New
York.
A report in the state owned Herald newspaper says Mugabe's regime
has made a
formal complaint to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, alleging
the denial of
the visas was a 'violation of international law by the US.'
The paper also
said this was the 'second successive year that members of the
President's
delegation to the UN have been denied visas by the US embassy,
following the
denial of a visa to Herald Deputy Editor Caesar Zvayi and
Retired
Major-General Bonyongwe last year.'
Bonyongwe, as head of the
CIO, is blacklisted on US travel and financial
restrictions for his key role
in directing human rights abuses in the
country, while Barwe and Zvayi, as
state media journalists, are accused of
defending and promoting those
abuses. Although Mugabe is also black listed
under the measures he appears
to get away with it, and the legal excuse is
'the UN Headquarters is
international territory to which no country or
visitor, who is not on UN
sanctions, should be excluded.'
A letter written by the US Embassy to
Zvayi in May this year makes it clear
why they denied him the visa. In the
letter Zvayi is told he is listed as
one of the people who among other
things 'derive significant financial
benefit from policies that undermine or
injure Zimbabwe's democratic
institutions.'
SW Radio Africa is
reliably informed Bonyongwe's visas application listed
him as
Director-General in the President's Department, an obvious attempt to
disguise his role as head of the notorious CIO, a group behind hundreds of
abductions and murder of activists in the country. 'While Mugabe and the
other lesser known aides could argue they are on state business at the UN,
the roles of Bonyongwe, Barwe and Zvayi at the UN were rather dubious if not
unnecessary,' a source told us.
Meanwhile Sharon Hudson-Dean, a
spokesperson for the US Embassy in Harare,
has rejected reports that
Bonyongwe was denied a visa telling us 'all
members of the official
delegation (80 people) were granted visas, including
the Air Zimbabwe crew.'
She also explained that Barwe was not part of the
official delegation but
all the same his visa application had not been
denied but was still being
processed. She promised a full interview on
Tuesday, explaining the whole
story.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona
Sibanda
20 September 2010
Co-Home Affairs Minister Theresa Makone on
Monday launched a tirade against
ZANU PF for 'virtually holding the Zimbabwe
Republic Police captive.'
In an outburst directly aimed at her coalition
partners in government, the
minister said she was 'disgusted and sickened'
by ZANU PF's thuggery during
the constitutional outreach
program.
Responding to weekend reports that police did nothing to stop
ZANU PF
supporters from the violence that disrupted outreach meetings in
Harare, the
co-Home Affairs minister said the police were just as paralysed
as most
victims of political violence.
'If anyone of them (police)
dares do what they're supposed to do, they are
the ones who will end up in
worse trouble. We've got a captive police that
is not allowed to do its job
which it knows best,' Makone said.
The minister added; 'Until such a time
when we have a comprehensive security
sector reform as espoused in the
Global Political Agreement we will never
get an effective police
force.'
'It's not that they are ignorant of it or that they don't know
how to do it
but if they dare arrest ZANU PF supporters they will be in as
much trouble.
They get their instructions from the ZANU PF hierarchy,' she
said.
Makone, the MDC chairperson of the women's assembly, said following
events
of this week, the whole world can see what they have been saying all
along,
that trying to work with ZANU PF does not work.
'It's a party
whose principals are based on violence. They've not changed
their way of
doing things, so people should not expect those outside the
party to change
it for them,' she added.
Asked to respond to reports that a few weeks ago
she vouched for the police,
saying they have turned over a new leaf as
opposed to being partisan.
'I never said that. I was misquoted in that
article. What I really said was
that the wheels of justice were moving so
slowly and that things are
beginning to happen slowly. Anything else about
the police being
professional was a misrepresentation of facts,' said
Makone.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Energy Bara
Monday, 20
September 2010 16:16
MASVINGO - A Zvishavane magistrate and court
interpreter were on Friday
convicted and jailed for 24 months each for
criminal abuse of office after
they solicited for a US$50 bribe from a
Mberengwa businessman on the pretext
that they would overturn a civil court
judgment and help him recover his
attached goods.
The magistrate
Ishmael Mutsunguma and court interpreter Michael Mujapelo
will however serve
an effective one and a half years in jail after Chiredzi
magistrate Judith
Zuyu suspended six months of their sentence.
The two were tried at the
Masvingo magistrate court after the Ministry of
Justice ordered that they
could not be tried at the same station in which
they were based.
The
state alleged that on 10 August last year, the complainant's mother
Rhoda
Ndlovu had three cattle taken away from her by a messenger of court
following a civil court judgement .
On 11 August the messenger of
court again confiscated Maclean Zhou (the
complainant )'s property which
included Television sets DVD players and
radio speakers among other things
following a civil court judgement on the
same case.
The state further
alleged that on August 12, Zhou and his mother Ndlovu
decided to make a
follow up on their seized cattle and goods .
They proceeded to the
Zvishavane magistrate courts and met magistrate
Mutsunguma and registered a
complaint.
It was the state case that Mutsunguma told the two that the
civil court
judgement was improper and therefore asked to meet them at a
bottle store in
Zvishavane where they later met.
It was alleged that
the two demanded money for drinks and were given US$5
and bought the drinks
but did not return the change.
The state further alleged that the
magistrate and the interpreter then
demanded US$50 from the two so that
they could help them reclaim their
confiscated goods and cattle.
It
was alleged that the two accused persons were given US$ 50 and Mutsunguma
allegedly advised them to come to his office the following
day.
However luck ran out for the two court officials when the
complainant went
to Zvishavane police station and made a report to the
police.
Police then waylaid the two in a street and arrested
them.
The magistrate and interpreter and pleaded not guilty to the charge but
were
convicted due to the overwhelming evidence presented in
court.
Magistrate Zuyu said the two had abused the trust bestowed in them
by the
public hence a custodial sentence was mandatory.
She said
corruption in any form especially by judicial officers should be
condemned.
http://news.radiovop.com
20/09/2010 18:22:00
Cape Town,
September 20, 2010 - While AfriForum is waiting for the courts to
decide if
it can go ahead with auctioning an abandoned building belonging to
the
Zimbabwe government, homeless people, predominantly Zimbabwean refugees,
have occupied it.
Over 20 people, most of them Zimbabwean refugees,
are squatting in the
former Zimbabwean Consulate office at 55 and 53 Kuyper
Street in the Cape
Town CBD.
They have no electricity or running
water and the building is in a filthy
state.
Zimbabwean refugee Lundi
Dhlamini said he had been squatting in the building
for the last eight
months while looking for employment.
He said since he started squatting
there many more Zimbabweans had arrived
after being referred by
friends.
The building, which has been vandalised since the consulate
closed in 2006,
is still listed on the Internet as a functioning
consulate.
According to reports, the Zimbabwean government still owns the
property and
has outstanding rates of R25 000 owed to the City of Cape
Town.
Roof sheeting, windows and taps have been stolen and parts of the
floor are
covered in faeces.
Dhlamini said although police often came
to chase them away, he and his
fellow squatters simply returned because they
had nowhere else to go. He
said the building was cold "but we make fires to
keep warm and cook food
inside the building".
Meanwhile, the
long-standing closure of the consulate means thousands of
Zimbabweans
wanting to benefit from the South African Home Affairs special
dispensation
would have to go to Pretoria to sort out their documents, the
only City with
a functioning Zimbabwean Embassy.
The special dispensation, which was
implemented by the Home Affairs
department in April 2009, allows Zimbabweans
the right to live, work and
study in South Africa for a period of six
months.
But the special dispensation deadline ends on December 31 this
year.
To qualify, Zimbabweans would have to have affidavits signed by
their
consulate or embassy indicating that they lived, worked, or studied in
their
country.
It also allows Zimbabweans who are in the country
illegally to avoid
deportation by giving their details to the Zimbabwe
Embassy or Consulate.
However, the closure of the Consulate office in
Cape Town Consulate means
Zimbabweans have to travel to the Embassy in
Pretoria - something many of
them have not the money to do.
Braam
Hanekom, coordinator for People Against Suffering Oppression and
Poverty
(Passop) said as a result, hundreds of Zimbabweans in the Cape were
phoning
his the organisation asking for assistance..
"We have been trying to get
a meeting with the Zimbabwe Embassy officials to
try to convince them of the
need of the consulate in Cape Town but with no
success," said
Hanekom.
An official at the Pretoria Embassy, who refused to give his
name, said: "We
know about the closed consulate in Cape Town and we are
dealing with the
matter. We are busy with arrangements to help Zim (sic)
refugees living in
Cape Town. New facilities to assist Zimbabwe refugees
would be unveiled in
two weeks time."
In February civil society
initiative AfriForum, on behalf of the Commercial
Farmer's Union (CFU)
successfully approached the North Gauteng High Court to
have four properties
belonging to the Zimbabwe government seized in order to
have them auctioned
to reimburse farmers whose land had been expropriated.
The move came
after the Southern African Development Community Tribunal
ruled that the
land reform process of Robert Mugabe was illegal and racist
and ordered that
compensation had to be paid to farmers.
According to AfriForum
spokesperson Willie Spies, the Cape Town based
Zimbabwe Consulate property
was scheduled for auction to recover debts owed
by the Zimbabwean
government.
But the process has been put on hold after the Zimbabwe
government launched
an application with both the North and the South-Gauteng
High court to set
the decision aside.
The Zimbabwe government was
expected to file papers before the end of this
month. - West Cape
News
http://news.radiovop.com/
20/09/2010 18:08:00
Harare, September 20, 2010 -
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor, Gideon
Gono and the deputy chairman
of the bank's board, Charles Kuwaza, who are
engaged in a bitter feud for
the control of the country's biggest financial
institution, have again
differed over remuneration paid to workers.
Gono has already written to
the Minister of Finance Tendai Biti appealing
for his intervention as the
fight is said to be seriously affecting the
smooth operation of the
bank.
Kuwaza, a former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance is
reportedly shooting down efforts by Gono to increase workers' salaries
claiming that the central bank has no money to pay the workers.
The
letter to Biti in which he is appealing for his intervention in his
fight
with Kuwaza reveals that the former permanent secretary wants workers
at the
RBZ to be paid the same salaries as civil servants.
Documents show that
Kuwaza is blocking the proposed RBZ employee salary
structures drafted by
Gono, which he said are too high compared to those
being paid civil
servants.
But Gono is arguing that workers at the central bank are not
civil servants
and therefore should get competent salaries. The latest
dispute has
escalated the sharp differences which were exposed by local
newspapers last
week.
The two have also clashed over alleged Kuwaza's
"intrusive behavior" in
which he is reported to have occupied an office next
to Gono despite the
fact that he is a non-executive deputy chairman of the
board.
"I have evidence and witnesses to evidence showing that Mr Kuwaza
is failing
to draw the line between being a board member and being part of
the
executive team.
"Instances where a board member storms in the
governor's personal
secretarial assistances' offices, demanding to know what
they do and their
day to day roles do not serve for objective, balanced and
professional
conduct," complained Gono to Biti.
The bitter fight has
also sucked in President Robert Mugabe and his regime
before the inclusive
government. Kuwaza wants to investigate Gono over his
propping up of the
Mugabe regime and his assistance to the military,
intelligence and other
government departments between 2003 and 2008.
Kuwaza also wants Gono's
special advisor, Munyaradzi Kereke, fired arguing
that he is a "ghost
worker" who was illegally employed at the institution in
a move seen by RBZ
workers as a tactic to weaken the governor.
The letter to Biti was also
copied to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who
is expected to intervene to
diffuse the dispute.
http://www.zimdiaspora.com/
Monday, 20 September
2010 11:55 Editor
HARARE -Racism against white people in Zimbabwe has
reached shocking levels
particularly in the capital Harare, The Zim Diaspora
can reveal.
According to reports reaching London, droves of white people
were chased
away from participating in the constitutional outreach programme
in Harare
at the weekend, in which violence and confusion marred the
process.
In Mount Pleasant, white families were subjected to a torrent of
abuse by
suspected Zanu PF supporters who later drove them away shouting
racial
slurs.
"If this process is to genuinely gather the views of
people, then what has
happened here is a farce. This is not acceptable. Are
you saying whites are
not part of Zimbabwe," asked one white man who had
been turned away after
verbal abuse.
Constitutional Parliamentary
Committee (Copac) co-chairperson Paul Mangwana
deplored the incident, which
he said was regrettable.
"This is the people's constitution, not a
party's constitution. People
should not fight and resort to violence because
of partisanship. These
parties are like clothes that you change because of
weather, you can change
them anytime, " he said.
There were reports
of similar incidents in Graniteside.
In Dzivarasekwa Ward 39, irate
residents were angered by the no show of
COPAC teams.
The committee
had initially scheduled the outreach programme for Saturday
but later
changed it to Sunday before moving it to Monday.
"How can you say Monday
when you know that the majority of us will be at
work? You want to bring
people from other wards to come and act on our
behalf and air views which
are different from ours," said Taurai Chuma from
Dzivarasekwa
3.
Violence and ill tempers rocked the commencement of the outreach
programme
in Harare and Bulawayo.
In Mbare, five officials from the
main faction of the MDC were seriously
injured and scores arrested when
rampaging Zanu PF supporters invaded Mai
Musodzi Hall.
The incident
came barely a day after the commencement of the outreach
programme in Harare
was overshadowed by intimidation and sporadic scenes of
violence in and
around the capital.
In Bulawayo, tempers flared after some tribal jibes
which almost degenerated
into chaos. Additional reporting by Daily News
http://www.zimeye.org/?p=22349
By Na Ncube
Published:
September 20, 2010
Harare - A humble Christian farmer who lost
his own farm is now selflessly
transferring his expertise to thousands of
aspiring farmers, teaching them a
revolutionary method of using the land to
manifest wonders hailed as the
best farming technique in Africa to
date.
Brian Oldrieve has a revolutionary way of farming which does not
require
much artificial chemical implements such as fertilisers but yet
yields of up
to 16 tonnes per hectare when the average subsistence farmer
receives less
than 1 tonne per hectare. The average commercial farmer
receives an average
4 tonnes per hectare.
Previously dubbed 'Farming
God's Way', Oldrieve's method was recently
re-named 'Foundations For
Farming'. Free courses are now being conducted
across the country in which
many are being taught to farm in this way
enabling the most ordinary
uneducated farmer to obtain a potential turnover
of at least 11000 dollars
per season even with the smallest piece of land.
In a video interview,
Oldrive says these ideas started coming to him after
he quit a lucrative
tobacco farm in fear that he was producing a product
which damages other
people's health, and then started to major in growing
foods such as maize so
to feed others.
Case study - VILLAGE TRANSFORMATION
Like
any of the 300,000 young people leaving school each year in rural
Zimbabwe,
Themba had very few prospects. He heard about Ebenezer College in
Kezi where
young people like him learn conservation farming principles from
a friend.
He applied, and was happy to be part of the very first intake
with other
young people from nearby villages.
Interviewing Themba at the beginning
of his training, his tutor wrote that
Themba's main ambition was to be able
to help his father to feed the family,
and maybe one day a family of his
own. Over the next two years at the
college Themba's time was split between
conservation farming training, bible
classes and work on his own 30X100m
plot of land where he produced cabbages,
tomatoes and maize. The college
assisted him to transport his produce to the
market, and from his earnings
he paid a 20% admin fee to the college.
In addition to the training, as
required Themba did 6hrs of voluntary
community service in his village each
week. For probably the first time he
started to see other people's needs,
and with his 6 friends at Ebenezer they
started to discuss what they can do.
One of the guys paid fees for local
aids orphans - at US1 each, this was not
a lot. Someone else wanted to help
former classmates who now spent their
time drinking local beer and hanging
about. Themba felt he needed to assist
in the local church and he approached
the pastor who was very happy to
receive help. Soon he had extra
responsibility at church and his mentor
noted quietly that Themba had
lengthened his working day to enable him to
earn more and serve the
community better. He duly agreed to extend Themba's
plot to allow him to
increase production.
At Themba's exit interview
from Ebenezer his tutor wrote of the huge vision
of the young man who now
wanted a whole lot more than just to assist his
father to feed the family.
Not long after Themba went back home, the local
chief approached Ebenezer
College and asked if he could bring all the local
young men in his ward to
Ebenezer. His words were particularly encouraging,
he said 'for many years I
have been approached by outsiders wanting to
implement one project or
another. Our people have become used to this, and
some have even come to
expect such assistance. But when our own children
start to look after aids
orphans and give freely to the widows, then the
village takes note. Even
those who are used to asking for help are
challenged and start to do some
work for themselves'
What has been achieved using conservation
farming?
First time farmers have achieved yields of 3tonnes per ha - a
tenfold
increase on our present production of less than 0.3t/ha. Experienced
farmers
have achieved anything up to 9t/ha. The research centre at Westgate
has
reached 16t/ha.
Consider that what the word calls a green
revolution is an achievement of
3t/ha, consider that Zimbabwe's annual grain
yields are 2million t/ha - all
it would take for the nation to feed itself
is less than a million rural
farmers adopting conservation farming. Consider
that Zimbabwe is a Christian
nation, and if on the 26th of September a
million Christians buy in to this
method of farming, our future looks
bright. (ZimEye, Zimbabwe)
Na Ncube is the Director of The Global Native,
a charity that works with
Foundation For Farming. She can be reached at
na.ncube@theglobalnative.org.uk
She is also part of a coalition of
Zimbabweans who are coordinating
Love-Zim-Prayer Day, a 26th October program
that advocates the economic
emancipation of Zimbabwe's poor masses through
every possible
means]
Foundation For Farming's new website is www.foundationsforfarming.org
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
by Irene Madongo
20 September
2010
The government's decision to spend US$400m on purchasing aircraft
for Air
Zimbabwe, as workers strike over pay, show the government has failed
to
balance priorities, an economic commentator has said.
More than 40
pilots have been on strike because of the non-payment of
allowances and
salaries owed to them, estimated at US$1.2 million. The
airline says their
demands for more than US$1,200 per month are impossible
to meet. The job
action continues with no resolution in sight, amid reports
that management
had fired the striking staff. However on Sunday it was
reported that the
government paid US$400 million for two new Airbus A340-200
aircraft, to
service Air Zimbabwe's long-haul routes such as China and the
United
Kingdom.
On Monday, economic commentator Masimba Kuchera of the Zimbabwe
Coalition on
Debt and Development, said of the purchase: "It comes at the
backdrop of
salaries not being afforded to pilots and other airline workers,
and it is a
shame. There should be a balance between replacing the fleet and
making sure
people who work for Air Zimbabwe are also healthily remunerated.
In this
case the Treasury and the government has failed alongside the board
of Air
Zimbabwe."
Kuchera added that the amount spent was relatively
huge considering the size
of the country's national budgetary expenditure.
"US$400m is a lot of money.
It is a quarter of what Biti protested to be his
annual budget of US$1.7bn.
It is a lot of money in terms of buying aircraft
and looking at how long it
will take for the money to be recouped. It is a
misplacement of priority,"
he said.
Over the past decade Zimbabwe's
once excellent national airline acquired a
reputation for poor service,
including constant delays and cancellation of
flights.
Kuchera said
regular reports that the airline cancels passengers' flights to
ferry Robert
Mugabe on his global expeditions has only discredited the
airline. In August
it was reported that instead of servicing its London
flights and generating
income, Air Zimbabwe's Boeing 767 long haul was
parked for three days at
Windhoek's International Airport waiting for Robert
Mugabe who was attending
a SADC summit.
Kuchera said: "What we know of parastatals is they have
not been run well.
The people who have been put in to run these parastatals
have plundered,
looted and exerted resources from those parastatals into
their own pockets
and non-core issues."
The failure of parastatals to
balance their priorities is nothing new and is
becoming more alarming by the
day. On Sunday the Daily News reported that
bosses at the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation have paid themselves nearly
US$100 000 in
subsistence allowances for a trip to Mozambique to make a
documentary on the
liberation struggle.
A source at the corporation said the approved
Cabinet rates in travel and
subsistence allowances for a trip to Mozambique
are US$200 per day, meaning
that each of the managers was supposed to get
around US$2 000 for the two
week trip, instead of the over US$25 000 each
pocketed.
He added that the Mozambique documentary was just meant to
impress ZANU PF
in order to safeguard the managers' jobs following the
recent unearthing of
allegations of massive corruption and looting by top
officials.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Own Corespondent Monday 20 September
2010
HARARE - Zimbabweans have called for the proposed new
constitution to
empower Parliament to have a say in the appointment of
service chiefs and
other senior government officials such as the central
bank governor and the
attorney general (AG).
This emerged from a
survey conducted by pressure group Kubatana last week in
which it asked
members of the public to text their expectations ahead of the
final outreach
meetings of the Constitutional Parliamentary Committee
(COPAC) which were
took place in Harare and Bulawayo at the weekend.
Besides the usual
responses about the need for a limited presidential term
as well as the
president's powers and the incorporation of gay and lesbian
rights into the
Constitution, there was an interesting proposal that the new
charter should
give Parliament oversight powers during the appointment of
army generals,
the AG and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor.
Under the present
arrangement, President Robert Mugabe can appoint anyone he
wants to head the
army, RBZ or AG's Office after consulting Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai
and Deputy Premier Arthur Mutambara.
The veteran leader has however
unilaterally appointed his loyalists to some
of the key positions in
violation of a 2008 power-sharing pact among the
three politicians,
triggering off a feud with Tsvangirai's MDC-T party.
The appointments of
RBZ governor Gideon Gono and Attorney General Johannes
Tomana are among
several issues threatening to derail the fragile coalition
regime formed by
Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara in February 2009.
The MDC-T wants Mugabe
to reverse the appointment of the two officials and
appoint consensus
candidates to be selected by the three leaders.
According to Kubatana,
some members of the public believe that the AG, RBZ
chief and service chiefs
should be vetted by parliamentarians before they
are sworn in by the
president.
Such an arrangement is similar to one used in the United
States where the
Senate vets all senior regime officials nominated by the
president.
http://www.amnesty.org/
20 September 2010
Amnesty International has
called on the Zimbabwean authorities to release 83
activists arrested during
a peaceful demonstration in the capital Harare on
Monday.
The members
of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) and Men of Zimbabwe Arise
(MOZA) were
arrested after they marched on the country's Parliament to
highlight
concerns around community safety and police behaviour in
Zimbabwean
communities.
They are all being held at Harare Central Police
Station.
"These arbitrary arrests and unlawful detentions are clearly
aimed at
restricting the rights to freedom of expression and assembly," said
Michelle
Kagari, Deputy Director of Amnesty International's Africa
Programme.
"Those detained must be released immediately and
unconditionally or
otherwise charged with a recognisable crime."
At
noon on Monday, 600 members of WOZA and MOZA took part in the march,
which
was organized to commemorate International Peace Day on Tuesday.
Two WOZA
members addressed the group outside the Parliament and described
violence
that had taken place over the weekend during consultation meetings
for
Zimbabwe's current constitutional review process.
They called on the
Zimbabwean police to allow freedom of expression without
violence and to
arrest those who perpetrate or threaten violence.
Demonstrators handed
police a list of demands addressed to the Zimbabwean
police, the Police
Commissioner and the co-Ministers of Home Affairs.
When police began
arresting some of the demonstrators, other demonstrators
climbed into the
waiting police truck in a display of solidarity with their
colleagues.
Twenty-five of the demonstrators, including those who had
handed themselves
in voluntarily, were then transported to Harare Central
Police Station.
A further 58 members of WOZA and MOZA then marched from
Parliament to Harare
Central Police Station and handed themselves in, also
in an expression of
solidarity.
No charges have yet been
brought.
"This incident is a worrying example of what can happen when
Zimbabweans try
to make their voices heard during the current constitution
making process,"
said Michelle Kagari.