Jacob Zuma’s lawyer, Muzi Sikhakhane, had originally planned to present his opening arguments in isiZulu yesterday during the former president’s application to permanently set aside prosecution.
However his feelings were hurt after he could do nothing to overturn the chief justice’s language directive.
Zuma was appearing more than a decade after corruption charges were placed against him in the Thales debacle.
Sikhakhane had hoped to present opening arguments in his home language, isiZulu, but had been denied the opportunity, commenting:
“I was refused the right to speak my language, I feel insulted,”
However insulted he may have felt, Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng had declared English as the language of record back in 2017 already, ensuring that presiding officers could have a common language.
Nevertheless, Sikhakhane felt wronged as he had been prohibited from speaking in his native tongue.
Further to this, Sikhakhane had insisted that the National Prosecuting Authority had wronged the former president in the manner with which they handled the case:
“But let me tell you what actually underpins the philosophy that we think the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) subscribes to in the manner in which they have dealt with Mr Zuma. I call it the mob justice.”
The legal representative had further pleaded with the court to play their role, minus ‘any regard to political whims’, reports The Citizen.
Sikhakhane expanded on the notion that Zuma had been mistreated in the proceedings that took place over the course of many years, saying that he is not ‘desperate to win’, but rather he was ‘desperate to hear how organs of state and myself and everyone must behave between now and the future of this constitution’.
The Pietermaritzburg High Court will hear arguments for the application for a permanent stay of prosecution until Friday, with the court case postponed until October.
Farai Dziva|Deputy Information Minister Energy Mutodi has legitimised Robert Mugabe’s removal from office , saying that the central committee chose Emmerson Mnangagwa to fill a power vacuum that had been left after former’s demise.
“For Zanu PF, I can assure you that this is not the same issue because there were intervening issues. First of all, the President of the Republic, then Robert Mugabe was facing impeachment for allegations for having given his wife certain executive powers and Parliament taking measures to impeach him.
The military had intervened in the process of government on a very clear issue that the status quo had broken down so that is why the central committee had to sit in a formally-constituted meeting to determine who would be elected as the leader or interim leader of Zanu PF and then substantive leader.
That is how Mnangagwa’s name emerged. So this cannot be the same or some kind of replication or similarity of what is happening in the MDC,” Mutodi told Newsday.
Farai Dziva|Prominent human rights activist Prosper Tiringindi has condemned the persecution of fellow human rights defenders by Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government.
See Tiringindi’s statement below :
I Am Human Rights Defender
Fix Zimbabwe’s economy don’t arrest Human Rights Defenders.
Arresting human Rights Defenders is not a solution Mr President, I was shocked to receive the news of about 4 human rights defenders who were arrested at Robert Mugabe Airport.
Zimbabwe’s civil society leaders George Makoni of CCDZ, Frank Mpahlo of TiZ, Tatenda Mombeyarara of Citizens Manifesto and Gamuchirai Mukura of Cotrad were arrested at the R. Mugabe Int’l Airport last night.
The 4 leaders were coming from Maldives where they attended a workshop in human rights and peace-building.
Zimbabwe’s Energy regulating authority, ZERA has eaised the fuel prices by 45%.
Following an earlier announcement, ZERA said it has released new fuel pump prices following the removal of subsidies by the RBZ on Monday. This resulted in there being two contradictory statements by the same body on the same day and ZERA’s PR department told ZimEye, members of the public should disregard the first one.
In a statement signed by the acting CEO, ZERA said the maximum pump price for Diesel will be set at $4.89 while that of petrol will be $4.97 to give an average growth rate of 45% from the last set prices as at January 2019.
“The ZERA advices that in terms of amendments to SI 9 and 10 of 2019 and the new measures taken by the RBZ on fuel procurement based the interbank applicable rate as at 21 May 2019, the pump prices will be adjusted as follows” reads part of the ZERA statement.
To arrive at the price, ZERA adjusted for what it assumed as the average interbank market exchange rate of 4.6 which is however at variance to the closing interbank rate of 3.5 on Monday.
Adoption of a weaker rate would therefore imply a lower pump price for the fuel. The challenge however remains that the interbank has been low on the supply side, due to what players allege to be government’s manipulation of the rate.
The market has only managed to cross an average of $2.1 million in value of trades per session since its promulgation in February 2019. This figure is however grossly low when compared to the average daily forex demand for Zimbabwe.
Using 2018 trade statistics, on average Zimbabwe demand about $20 million in daily forex demands for purposes of imports. It however has to be noted that aggregate demand levels for 2018 were an outlier given the high levels of money supply.
A tightening fiscus, high taxation and inflation levels, has eroded incomes and impacted spend consequently reducing consumption levels.
Fuel imports however stand out as the largest gobblers of forex, accounting for an estimate 20% of Zimbabwe’s imports by value. This implies an escalated demand for forex on the interbank, which could result in a run on the exchange rate, as the USD firms.
The challenge going forward will be how to constantly adjust fuel market prices given the volatile rate. Market players behavior has shown that there is serious tendency towards risk aversion in the economy. Players are referring to the higher rate between the interbank and the parallel market for purposes of pricing their products.
In the fuel market it will increasingly become difficult for ZERA to dictate prices going forward, due to exchange rate fluctuations on the interbank. Sooner players will begin to price their fuel at random prices and these market distortions may exert more pressure on prices. — Additional Reoorting Equity Axis/ZimEye
By A Correspondent| Pro-Democracy activist Makomborero Haruzivishe has told the story of how the four activists currently under police arrest, were taken into custody at the Robert Gabriel International Airport.
The four human rights campaigners namely George Makoni aged 38 years, Tatenda Mombeyarara aged 37 years, Gamuchirai Mukura aged 31 years and Nyasha Mpahlo aged 35 years were detained upon disembarking from a
plane at Robert Mugabe International Airport on Monday 20 May 2019 and held for several hours without communication with their lawyers after authorities confiscated their mobile phone handsets and laptops.
Haruzivishe tells of this story in the below interview. He says:
“The 4 in question arrested, were coming from South Africa from Oliver Tambo International Airport to Robert Mugabe Airport and when they arrived; when they were checking out of the airport when they were apprehended by detectives from the law and order they were then arrested and told that they were charged with subverting a constitutionally elected government.
VIDEO LOADING BELOW
“They were then separated taken to separate police stations one of them, a police station in Mbare, the other ine in Braeside, the other one at Harare Central… and you know it is unfortunate that we have a state that feels citizens, four young men, four who don’t even have means to overthrow this and constitutional government it is unconstitutional in existence and in operation. They don’t have the means, that for it to be so paranoid, torturing them, traumatising them, to that extent and invading their privacy, their laptops have been taken they entered them even without even the consent of the accused in question, and even the trauma of being charged with subverting a constitutionally elected government, that is treasonous, a treasonous charge; the kind of trauma that they face, the cold they are spending the night without adequate clothing, and also the torture that they’re going through it is just so unnecessary.”
By Own Correspondent- MDC president Nelson Chamisa said that the party will maintain the current structure of having three vice presidents, but will have one once in power.
Chamisa revealed that three vice presidents will be elected at this week’s elective Congress set to be held in Gweru as a way of continuing with the legacy left by the late founding party president Morgan Tsvangirai: He said:
The issue of three vice-presidents is a legacy for our late president Mr Tsvangirai, with a trade union background. The party is different from the government.
The party can have as many leaders as possible, but in government, we will have a lean cabinet, with one vice-president on the basis of State resources.
I want you to know that none of the vice-presidents is paid any salaries by the party. It’s voluntary work.
Even the president is not paid. Not that I want a salary because my salary is a victory, if we have a victory, then my salary would have come.-Newsday
By Own Correspondent- The ongoing planned power cuts in the country had negatively affected operations at Bindura Provincial Hospital with grave consequences for the sick until an intervention by a fuel dealer, Puma.
A message, whose author remains a mystery, went viral on social media platforms, particularly Facebook and Twitter, detailing the sorry state of affairs at the hospital due to the debilitating power cuts.
The SOS read in part:
As a result of load-shedding, the situation at Bindura Hospital is unbearable. All operations cannot be done because of non-availability of power. The life support system in neonatal ward for pre-term babies is dependent upon power which is not there.
… It pains us to watch helplessly someone losing life, yet as key stakeholders, they have the potential to avoid that. I hope this plea will get to those that can assist.
Mashonaland Central provincial administrator, Cosmas Chiringa, told Newsday that the text was indeed authentic and in response to the plea, Puma had intervened to avert the crisis.
Said Chiringa:
I received a similar text over the weekend. What happened is that we were allocated fuel which was not enough, but we have since resolved the matter with Puma.
I am very happy to say that the meeting with hospital management and Puma officials was fruitful.
I am also pleased to announce that following the SOS, well-wishers are also coming on board to assist and already we have been offered 500 litres of diesel to be used at the hospital by a local company.
After announcing that the price of fuel will not increase, ZERA has since made a statement gazetting new prices with petrol now $4.97 while diesel is now selling at $4.87.
A Twitter user, Miss Chindiya said such inconsistencies erode public confidence in both ZERA and the government.
Own Correspondent|Zimbabwe has not paid back it’s debt to Botswana that dates back as far as 2012 during former President Robert Mugabe’s era for the sale of livestock they sold them.
This was all revealed in the Auditor General’s report for the 2018/2019 financial year that was released last week that Zimbabwe still owes Botswana a total sum of P1 239 000 for that livestock sale that took place.
For the debt that has been outstanding for almost seven years, it appears that the neighbouring country Zimbabwe is struggling and has not made any effort in settling the debt it owes Botswana.
The livestock sale transaction happened back in 2012 following an agreement that was signed by the two countries, the previous year for the sale of the live cattle from the Foot and Mouth Diseases (FMD) areas such as Ngamiland.
Under the signed agreement over 30,000 live cattle were sold to Zimbabwe for slaughter, through a Cold Storage Company (CSC), a development which brought hope to Ngamiland farmers who had been struggling to sell their cattle to local slaughterhouses.
According to details of the report, the Botswana government extended its export deal of live cattle to Zimbabwe for an indefinite period, four years ago, as Botswana grappled with foot-and-mouth disease in the north and east regions.
The deal between the two governments involved sending live cattle from Botswana to Zimbabwe’s CSC slaughter facilities in Bulawayo.
The deal was largely seen as some respite to the Botswana Meat Corporation, since the European Union had stopped beef importsfrom Botswana due to the foot and mouth disease outbreak.
Zimbabwe and other African countries seized the opportunity to buy cattle from Botswana.
CSC has a huge debt of close to $22 million and has seen production going down to around 10% of capacity.
The company was at one time the largest meat processor in Africa, handling up to 150 000 tonnes of beef and associated by-products each year and exporting to the European Union.
CSC is reportedly left with just 700 cattle and more than $80 million is needed to bring the company back to its feet.
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe will today cancel fuel subsidies, with oil companies now required to compete for foreign currency on the interbank market, a move likely to see the price of fuel rising sharply.
Central bank governor John Mangudya yesterday said the bank was dropping the 1:1 peg from the fuel importation matrix, which many fear will trigger another round of price rises and a domino effect in an economy already experiencing high inflation.
This comes after the central bank said it had secured a US$500 million loan from unspecified international banks to support its interbank currency market to ease shortages of hard currency.
“The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (the Bank) is pleased to advise the public that with effect from May 21, 2019 (today), the procurement of fuel by the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) shall be done through the interbank foreign exchange market,” Mangudya said in a statement last night.
“There shall be only one foreign exchange rate to be used in the market for the importation of all goods and services. This means that the 1:1 exchange rate that was being used by OMCs for the procurement of fuel will be discontinued with immediate effect.”
Government scrapped its discredited 1:1 dollar peg for surrogate bond notes and electronic dollars, which it merged into the Real Time Gross Settlement (ZWL) dollar in February and launched the interbank market.
It, however, maintained the 1:1 parity for fuel companies to keep fuel prices low, a move critics said was promoting corruption in allocation of foreign currency and exacerbating shortages of cash, with allegations that the market was controlled by few politically-connected players.
As of yesterday, the interbank rate closed at US$1:ZWL$3,48, while on the black market, the rate was at ZWL$5,7.
The last fuel price hike in January, announced by President Emmerson Mnangagwa himself, triggered protests around the country, which resulted in security agents killing 17 people, according to human rights groups, with hundreds left nursing gunshot wounds.
Mangudya yesterday said the new position was necessary to promote the efficient use of foreign exchange and to minimise and guard against incidences of arbitrage within the economy.
The central bank, Mangudya said, would proceed to drawdown the US$500 million from the offshore line of credit to supplement the country’s foreign exchange receipts to underpin the interbank market.
“The facility will be disbursed into the country through the interbank foreign exchange framework at the prevailing interbank foreign exchange rate on a willing-seller willing-buyer basis,” he said.
“Over and above these initiatives, letters of credit (LCs) shall continue to be used for the importation of essential commodities such as fuel, grain and cooking oil. The LCs will also be priced at the prevailing interbank foreign exchange rate.
“The bank has directed banks to effectively apply the willing-seller willing-buyer principle to ensure that the interbank foreign exchange market is reflective of market conditions.
“Accordingly, banks must ensure that there are no moral hazards in the operation of the interbank foreign exchange market. In this regard, all the foreign exchange requirements for bank for their own use that includes dividend payments, subscriptions fees, etc, would need prior exchange control approval; for the proper conduct of the interbank foreign exchange market. Similarly, banks should discontinue twinning arrangements for their customs as this undermines the efficient operations of the interbank foreign exchange market.”
However, critics note that the high price of fuel was also because of exorbitant government taxes on fuel, which accounted for nearly 25% of the ZWL$2,1 billion revenue collected in the first quarter alone.
“No more getting forex at 1:1 to import fuel or cooking or wheat. They now get priority forex through banks at the going interbank rate. This means fuel pricing is likely to increase by a huge margin unless government immediately reverses its Jan 13 fuel tax increase,” economist Kipson Gundani said.
“Cutting excise duty back to 45 cents per litre would ensure pump price remains more or less stable at around ZWL$4/litre.”
Government collects ZWL$2,11 per litre of diesel sold and ZWL$2,48 for petrol, which the State has to cut significantly to keep fuel prices low.
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe United Passenger Company (Zupco) yesterday announced a 50% price cut on transport fares that will see the majority of commuters paying 50 cents for a trip to town.
A statement issued by Finance secretary George Guvamatanga, headlined “Operation Restore Sanity,” said the new fares were with effect from yesterday.
A distance of 20km and less will cost 50 cents; 20km to 30km will be charged 75 cents, while 30km to 40km will cost $1.
“Further distances will follow similar reductions,” the statement read.
WITH modern medicine beyond the reach of many, organic, sustainable, eco-friendly, natural alternative herbal medicines are gaining popularity in Zimbabwe with herbal medicines manufacturer, Musimboti Traditional Science and Technology Institute recording an increase in sales since the start of the year.
Musimboti Traditional Science and Technology Institute managing director Mr Morgan Zimunya said there is a national trend towards using natural health products before their pharmaceutical alternatives. They are seen as cheaper, safer, more natural and healthier.
“Our herbal medicine has always had a good market share but now we have increased our market share and sales. Our new customers say they are now choosing us because our medicine is affordable. Some who used to suffer from the side effects of modern medicine are happy to report that since they turned to us they have not had any side effect problems.
“Our medicine is derived from plant sources such as leaves, barks, roots, seeds, and flowers. Everything we have in store is natural and has therapeutic compounds,” said Mr Zimunya.
Interviews with different herbal medicine vendors in Makokoba and in the central business district confirmed Mr Zimunya’s claim that herbal medicines were now more popular.
Herbs have been a source of safe, effective and low-cost medicines for centuries. They have a rich and extensive historical basis in use and study which can be referenced to ancient medical writings. More importantly, modern research has validated many of the traditional uses ascribed to herbs.
Countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America use traditional medicine to help meet some of their primary health care needs. In Africa, up to 80 percent of the population uses traditional medicine for primary health care. In industrialized countries, adaptations of traditional medicine are termed “complementary” or “alternative”.
Enough Americans had similar interests that, in the early 1990s, Congress established an Office of Alternative Medicine within the National Institutes of Health. Seven years later, that office expanded into the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, with a $50 million budget dedicated to studying just about every treatment that did not involve pharmaceuticals or surgery – traditional systems like Ayurveda and acupuncture along with more esoteric things like homeopathy and energy healing.
Own Correspondent|After sensationally claiming that there is no fuel piece increase in place in the country, the Zimbabwe Energy Regulating Authority, ZERA, has increased the price of fuel with an immediate effect and valid for a week.
The new pump price for petrol is now $4.97.
Below is the statement from ZERA issued moments ago.
By Own Correspondent- The government, through the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA), has officially announced new fuel prices after having been in denial since Monday.
In a statement on Tuesday, ZERA announced that with effect from May 21, 2019, the price of diesel has been pegged at $4.89 while petrol will be sold at $4.97.
In the latest announcement ZERA said:
The Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) advises that in terms of amendments to Statutory Instruments 9 and 10 of 2019 and the new measures taken by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe on fuel procurement based on the interbank rate, applicable prices for the period May 2019 to 26 May 2019 are summarised in the table below:
The
Zimbabwe Regulatory Authority (ZERA) advises that in terms of amendments to
Statutory Instruments 9 and 10 of 2019 and the new measures taken by the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe on fuel procurement based on the interbank rate,
applicable prices for the period 21 May 2019 to 26 May 2019 are summarized in
the table below.
Diesel
$4.89
Blend
E10: $4.97
Operators
may sell petroleum products at prices below the cap depending on their trading
advantages.
E. T. Mazambani
ACTING
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER ZIMBABWE ENERGY REGULATORY AUTHORITY
By Own Correspondent- A South African judge of the labour court has died after he was bitten by a black mamba whilst in Zambia on a holiday.
Judge Anton Steenkamp, 57, was in Zambia in the company of his wife when the venomous reptile attacked him.
The incident was confirmed by a relative, Ruby Steenkamp, in an interview with News24.
She said:
We’re devastated. No words. What an incredible man. His wife, Catherine, is still on her own in Zambia. They were touring Africa. We as a family were very, very proud of him.
By Patrick Guramatunhu| Last week President Emmerson Mnangagwa launched the Political Actors Dialogue. It was a big, no-expense-spared affair complete with the usual funfair and glitzy. It was so, for a good reason; it is an act of bold and arrogant defiance.
Ever since last July’s rigged national elections Zimbabwe has latched from one economic crisis to the next proving right those of us who have said as long as the country remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs there will be no meaningful economic recovery. The only way out is for the Zanu PF regime to step down, we have argued. The political dialogue is a forum including most of the political actors in last year’s elections which, Mnangagwa hopes, will come up with solutions to the country’s economic and political problems without the need for Zanu PF to step down. So, yes the dialogue is Mnangagwa’s middle finger salute to those calling for a new GNU or, worse still, for Zanu PF to step down.
Unfortunately for Mnangagwa some of the political actors who have so far played along with his proposed dialogue are already developing cold feet.
“The parties to the national dialogue should clearly and honestly admit to a crisis or conflict in the system of governance of the State thus unanimously agreeing to go for the national dialogue as a crisis or conflict resolution move,” said Blessing Kasiyamhuru. He was Zimbabwe Partnership for Prosperity party’s presidential candidate in last July’s elections and had so far subscribed to participate in the proposed dialogue.
“The dialogue should bring on board all conflict-fuelling issues and respective remedies, reforms or solutions that are unanimously agreed upon to address the crisis/conflict.”
Zimbabweans should stop burying our heads in the sand and talk about the elephant in the room – Zanu PF and how the party is the root source of the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections with the disastrous economic and political consequences we can all see.
Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF regime blatantly rigged last year’s elections. He denied 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote. Zimbabwe’s own government appointed Human Rights Commission has admitted that Zanu PF party’s operatives and the traditional leaders have reduced the rural voters to mere serfs beholden to vote for Zanu PF or be damned. ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll.
The whole election process lacked “transparency, traceability and verifiability and the results contained numerous errors”, as the EU Zimbabwe Election Mission state in their final report.
We can debate other matters but not whether or not Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies rigged last year’s elections: there is a mountain irrefutable to prove that they rigged the elections. Even in a country renowned for calling a military coup “a military assisted transition”; rigging elections is high treason, period.
The issue here is: What are we going to do with this illegitimate and treasonous Zanu PF regime?
It should be noted that this is the second time Zimbabwe has had to deal with the same thorny problem of what to do with an illegitimate regime. In 2008 the whole world, including SADC and the AU known for endorsing Zanu PF’s dodgy elections in the past, refused to recognise Mugabe and his party as the winners of that year’s elections.
“What was won by the bullet cannot be undone by the ballot!” thundered Mugabe as he unleashed his party thugs, Police, Army and CIO to destroy property, harass, beat, rape and over 500 murdered in three months. The cheating and the wanton violence were so blatant, barbaric and widespread not even the see-nothing, hear-nothing SADC and AU election observers could not pretend they saw and heard nothing wrong.
Zanu PF should have been forced to step down from office immediately as punishment for rigging the elections, at the very least. Instead, SADC leaders invited Mugabe to team up with the two MDC factions to form the 2008 to 2013 Government of National Unity (GNU). The GNU was then tasked to implement a raft of democratic reforms to end the curse of rigged elections and ensure future elections are free, fair and credible.
Sadly, not even one reform was implemented in five years of the GNU. Not one!
As we know, Zanu PF rigged 2013 and last year’s elections or be with less wanton violence compared to 2008, at least during the campaign period. The regime floored the wanton violence paddle with vengeance on 1st August 2018 and again in January 2019 with its shoot to kill order to the Army.
The shoot-to-kill order was to nip the spirit of protest, against rigged elections in August and soaring fuel prices in January, in the bud. But, more significantly, to demonstrate Zanu PF’s unwavering resolve use brute force to crash all who dare challenge the party’s undemocratic rule and regardless of the heart-break economic hardship the nation is facing.
Instead of proposing another GNU as happened in 2008 Mnangagwa is proposing the Political Actors Dialogue. The dialogue will have no raft of democratic reforms to implement, Mnangagwa has ruled out all discussion on political reforms as he insists the July 2018 elections were free, fair and credible and his regime is legitimate. Whilst the 2008 GNU at least acknowledge that year’s elections were rigged and offered a glimmer of hope of something being down about it; the dialogue forum offers nothing! The dialogue will just be a talk-shop.
Even if the national dialogue was scrap and replace with another GNU complete with the raft of reform to implement, which is what Kasiyamhuru is now calling for, a GNU in which Zanu PF plays an part is totally unacceptable. It is barmy to trust Zanu PF to implement the reforms.
We need to implement the reforms because Zanu PF corrupted our state institutions. During the last GNU, the party, together with MDC, had countless golden opportunities to implement the reforms; it failed to get even one reform implemented. If Mnangagwa is the reformer he claims to be what stopped him implementing even one token reform, it is now one year and a half since seizing power in the November 2017 military coup.
Zanu PF rigged last July’s elections; the regime is illegitimate and must now step down. The only dialogue to be had with Zanu PF is the handover of power, as for what will happen afterwards it is for others to deal with Zanu PF, the elephant, out of the room!-SOURCE: zimbabwelight.blogspot.com
ZIMBABWEAN authorities on Monday 20 May 2019 arrested four human rights campaigners upon their return to the country and confiscated their laptops and mobile phones.
The four human rights campaigners namely George Makoni aged 38 years, Tatenda Mombeyarara aged 37 years, Gamuchirai Mukura aged 31 years and Nyasha Mpahlo aged 35 years were detained upon disembarking from a plane at Robert Mugabe International Airport on Monday 20 May 2019 and held for several hours without communication with their lawyers after authorities confiscated their mobile phone handsets and laptops.
Zimbabwean authorities refused to allow lawyers representing the four human rights activists access to their clients.
The lawyers Roselyn Hanzi, Tinomuda Shoko and Godfrey Mupanga from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights only had access to their clients at Harare Central Police Station after nearly five hours from the time the human rights campaigners were in incommunicado detention at the airport.
At Harare Central Police Station, Zimbabwe Republic Police officers only waved a search warrant in the lawyers’ faces without giving them access to the document.
No charges have been preferred yet against the four human rights campaigners. ZLHR’s Position
Government must stop criminalising the work of human rights defenders in Zimbabwe. Human rights work is not a crime. – ZLHR
Latest public appearance of former President Robert Mugabe.
Opinion By Kwapi Vengesayi|One day, Zimbabwe moved on from Robert, and into the arms of his former best friend. And why wouldn’t she? He is the one that came to her rescue and pried her from Robert’s arms.
Many people were elated, excited that she had finally been yanked away from her abuser. They said, “Finally, she can be the happy and hopeful Zimbabwe we always knew she could be. With his help and support, she can live to her full potential.”
But many others were sceptical of the new lover. They say birds of a feather flock together, and many could not forget the fact that before the new lover was Robert’s enemy, he was his best friend and biggest defender. He helped enable and cover up Robert’s misdeeds and was complicit in his actions and mistreatment of Zimbabwe. At best, he turned a blind eye and pretended not to notice the abuse, and at worst, he helped instigate and facilitate it.
And so many asked themselves, was this new lover really that different? Had he turned over a new leaf and committed himself to being a better man than his former best friend was? Or was he just a different side of the same coin: not abusive in the same way Robert was, but still undesirable in other ways?
Nelson
Zimbabwe did have other people who profess their love for her. One man in particular, Nelson, seemed to set himself apart from the rest. He was young and charismatic, but also handicapped by his naivete and hubris. With a little bit of maturity, humility, and tact, perhaps he could have been her man—perhaps with a little growth and experience, he could still be one day.
A Zebra Never Changes Its Stripes
I’ll be the first to admit. I was as excited as most Zimbabweans were when Mugabe was removed from power. It sparked hope and cautious optimism in me. I thought to myself, “Is this the moment we’ve all been clamouring for? Is this the moment Zimbabwe turns that dark corner and returns to her rightful place as the jewel of Africa?”
But my excitement was short-lived because, in spite of a few things changing, the things that matter most did not. The corrupt and inept continue to stay in power, freedom of expression is still treated like a constitutional suggestion and not an obligation, the military and law enforcement apparatus still resort to violence and intimidation to control or squash dissent, and the democratic process is still compromised.
But what did we expect? When Mugabe was gone and the dust had settled, the more observant spectator reached the same conclusion many sceptical media outlets had reached: this “new” government was simply “old wine in a new bottle.” The same people that removed him were the same people that ran and ruined the country alongside him.
The illusion of change can be addictive. Against our better judgement we follow—not blindly— but passively. And you cannot be mad at anyone that has embraced this passivity. When hope, opportunity, and the promise of a prosperous existence have been taken from you, passivity can become the path of least resistance when faced with the prospect of intimidation and violence should you choose to go against the grain.
I still have hope; hope that Zimbabwe will be a country in which people can thrive economically, can voice their opinions freely without fear of persecution, and have the opportunity to live happy, full, and fair lives in Zimbabwe. I’m just not sure if those in power will be the ones to deliver it.
I hope I’m wrong, but the evidence so far states otherwise.
The Zimbabwe Regulatory Authority ZERA has put to rest speculations that fuel prices will be increased.
This follows the shock announcement by RBZ governor John Mangudya that Fuel Companies will now buy foreign currency at the Interbank rate instead of the subsidized 1:1 they were receiving previously.
Zimbabwe has been plagued by foreign currency shortages with the RBZ coming under fire for prioritizing fuel cartels at the expense of other critical sectors of the economy.
By Own Correspondent- Statistics from the Tobacco Industry Marketing Board (TIMB) suggest that Zimbabwe’s tobacco deliveries remain low at the auction and contract floors.
The statistics reveal that as of day 37 of the 2019 marketing season, only 87,8 million kilograms of tobacco had been delivered at both auction and contract floors. This, therefore, means that sales have fallen by about 23% from the 115,1 million kg delivered last year.
TIMB president George Seremwe said that sales need to go up for farmers to be able to prepare for the next season. Seremwe said:
We want full value of our tobacco. The 50% US dollar component is not sufficient to cover the cost of production and not easy to access. We can’t retool for the coming season because of the RTGS component. Our farmers were hoping for an improvement on both the rate and prices. We, therefore, would like to call an urgent stakeholders meeting coordinated by TIMB and the Ministry of Finance. We are very much concerned by the manner this selling season has gone so far.
The season was delayed by a standoff between the government and the farmers who were demanding to be paid part of their proceeds in foreign currency and an increase in prices.
The country’s target of 220 million kg this year now seems utopian as the output is likely to remain depressed.-Newsday
UPDATE: Police at Harare Central doing interviews (of the 4 activists) this morning have indicated they intend to lay charges of subverting a constitutionally elected government @ZLHRLawyers@MakomboreroH
RT – After almost 4,5 hours @ZLHRLawyers have located 4 human rights activists who are now detained at Harare Central. These include Tatenda Mombeyarara, Gamu Mukura, George Makoni & Nyasha Mpahlo… https://t.co/2bk3PNgQ6J
Zimbabwean authorities on Monday 20 May 2019 arrested four human rights campaigners upon their return to the country and confiscated their laptops and mobile phones.
The four human rights campaigners namely George Makoni aged 38 years, Tatenda Mombeyarara aged 37 years, Gamuchirai Mukura aged 31 years and Nyasha Mpahlo aged 35 years were detained upon disembarking from a plane at Robert Mugabe International Airport on Monday 20 May 2019 and held for several hours without communication with their lawyers after authorities confiscated their mobile phone handsets and laptops.
Zimbabwean authorities refused to allow lawyers representing the four human rights activists access to their clients.
The lawyers Roselyn Hanzi, Tinomuda Shoko and Godfrey Mupanga from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights only had access to their clients at Harare Central Police Station after nearly five hours from the time the human rights campaigners were in incommunicado detention at the airport.
At Harare Central Police Station, Zimbabwe Republic Police officers only waved a search warrant in the lawyers’ faces without giving them access to the document.
No charges have been preferred yet against the four human rights campaigners.
In a statement the ZLHR said its position is that “Government must stop criminalising the work of human rights defenders in Zimbabwe. Human rights work is not a crime.”
By Own Correspondent- Zanu Pf Spokesperson, Simon Khaya Moyo has said the recent judgement by the High Court regarding the presidency of opposition leader Nelson Chamisa is a matter between the MDC and the courts.
In a state media report, Moyo distanced his party from allegations that his party was meddling in the internal processes of the MDC.
Moyo dismissed allegations that Zanu Pf was interfering with MDC preparations for the forthcoming congress.
He remarked that the claims by MDC Alliance are untrue adding that the allegations were meant to create instability in the country.
Moyo said:
I must restate that the court ruling by Justice Edith Mushore ordering the MDC party to hold an extraordinary congress within a month to elect a substantive leader using the 2014 MDC structures is purely a matter between the MDC and the courts.-StateMedia
By Own Correspondent- Zanu PF national spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo has dismissed allegations that his party was interfering with MDC preparations for the forthcoming congress.
A state media report revealed that Moyo remarked that the claims by MDC Alliance are untrue.
It further says that he views the allegations as meant to create instability in the country.
According to the article, Moyo said:
I must restate that the court ruling by Justice Edith Mushore ordering the MDC party to hold an extraordinary congress within a month to elect a substantive leader using the 2014 MDC structures is purely a matter between the MDC and the courts.-StateMedia
By Own Correspondent- Armed robbers who are reportedly using a Honda Fit vehicles are wreaking havoc in Gweru and are mainly targeting cross border traders and Midlands State University (MSU) Students.
Spates of robberies, some of which are violent, have been reported in Gweru City.
The robbers are using Honda Fit vehicles that do not have registration numbers and pouncing on students near MSU campus and cross border traders travelling to South Africa at night using cross border buses.
In a shocking incident on Thursday last week in Gweru Central Business District (CBD) near Chicken Inn along Lobengula Avenue at around 9pm, a woman travelling to South Africa lost her hand bag to the daring robbers who attacked her in front of onlookers.
The robbers who were driving a silver Honda Fit pounced on the woman who had just bought food from Chicken Inn and snatched the bag from her before dragging her for close to 100 meters as they wrestle the bag and pushed her out off the moving vehicle.
The woman sustained serious head and body injuries. The robbers sped off in movie style and left the woman for dead.
Several students have lost laptops and cellphones to the robbers who usually pounce at them at night.-StateMedia
The man who drop-kicked Arnold Schwarzenegger in the back has been described as a ‘crazed fan’ who strategically planned his attack and has a history of pulling similar disruptive stunts.
But the tough 71-year-old actor insists he’s fine following the attack and barely flinched in video footage of the shocking assault.
The Terminator star says he won’t press charges and is urging the public to not give the perpetrator the fame he craves.
The bizarre attack unfolded on Saturday as the actor was posing for selfies with at the Arnold Sports Festival at the Santon Convention Centre in Sandton, South Africa.
Despite being 71-years-old , Schwarzenegger was unfazed, writing on Twitter afterwards: ‘Thanks for your concerns, but there is nothing to worry about’
The Hollywood legend said he is fine following the attack, will not press charges, and is urging fans not to give his assailant the fame he craves.
The Hollywood legend said he is fine following the attack, will not press charges, and is urging fans not to give his assailant the fame he craves.
In the clip Schwarzenegger was filming an athlete jump rope when the crazed fan appears out of nowhere and drop kicks the actor in the back between his shoulder blades.
Startled Schwarzegger coolly looks behind him and his security guard is seen pinning the fan to the ground and taking him away.
As he’s being dragged away he’s heard hollering, ‘Help me! I need a Lamborghini!’ three times.
‘Thanks for your concerns, but there is nothing to worry about,’ Schwarzenegger tweeted Saturday afternoon.
‘I thought I was just jostled by the crowd, which happens a lot. I only realized I was kicked when I saw the video like all of you. I’m just glad the idiot didn’t interrupt my Snapchat,’ he added.
Arnold Sports Festival Africa tweeted a statement shortly thereafter saying the star was ‘sadly and unexpectedly attacked by a crazed fan’ while at the festival supporting athletes.
‘Sandton Convention Centre security responded swiftly by apprehending the offender and handing him over to the police,’ the statement said.
‘Wayne Price, organizer of the Arnold Classic Africa, believes this incident was carefully planned by the offender, as he is known to the police for orchestrating similar incidents in the past,’ it added.
Despite the blow, Schwarzenegger says he he has no intentions of pressing chages.
‘He views this as an unfortunate incident by a mischievous fan,’ the Arnold Sports Festival Africa said in a statement.
Then the Hollywood legend took to Twitter to urge his fans to not give his assailant any fame or attention for the stunt.
‘Do me a favor: instead of sharing the video of the guy who wants to be famous, watch some of our @ArnoldSports athletes like this young hero proving that fitness is for everyone who deserve to be famous. They’re on my Snapchat,’ he wrote.
‘We have 90 sports here in South Africa at the @ArnoldSports, and 24,000 athletes of all ages and abilities inspiring all of us to get off the couch. Let’s put this spotlight on them.
‘And if you have to share the video (I get it), pick a blurry one without whatever he was yelling so he doesn’t get the spotlight. By the way… block or charge?’ he added.
Following the incident Arnie continued to greet fans before he was whisked away by his security detail.
A representative from Black Circle Communications, who released the statement, told DailyMail.com that the man was a ‘known mischievous person’ who has been handed over to the police.
‘Police are currently processing everything and we are waiting on them to get back to us but Arnold has been so generous with everything,’ spokeswoman Cassandra Gudlhuza said.
State Media|A FORMER employee at a Bulawayo service station allegedly teamed up with a friend to rob the station.
Macdonald Brewer (24) and Desire Moyo (25) appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Mr Franklin Mkhwananzi who remanded them out of custody on $50 bail each to June 10 for commencement of trial.
The court heard that Brewer is a former worker at the service station.
Mr Sydney Singende (27), a supervisor at the garage represented Flo Service Station.
Allegations are that on May 13 at around 10.20AM Brewer and Moyo, covering their faces with woollen hats, pounced at the station when Singende was counting the company cash.
Mr Mufaro Mageza, for the State said Brewer pepper-sprayed Mr Singende and used a heavy duty stun gun on the complainant with intention of stealing cash.
“Mr Singende wrestled with the duo and eventually managed to get hold of the pepper spray which he forced Brewer to spray into the air until it got finished.
“During the scuffle Brewer’s hat fell on the ground and Mr Singende managed to identify him as he was his former workmate.
“Moyo entered the office with an electric taser, joined the scuffle and tried to shock Mr Singende. The duo used the stun gun to hit Mr Singende several times on his head.
“The complainant screamed for help, wrestled both accused persons resulting in their masks falling off.
“Mr Singende managed to grab the stun gun from Moyo and hit him on the head once and continued screaming for help,” said Mr Mageza.
The court heard that another employee at the garage heard noise coming from the office and rushed there.
He locked the office from outside following suspicions that something wrong was going on.
He went on to report to the police who came to the crime scene and arrested the accused persons.
RECENTLY, President Emmerson Mnangagwa swore in 18 commissioners for the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, the Police and Prisons and Correctional Services. NewsDay (ND) senior reporter Blessed Mhlanga caught up with Public Service Commission chairperson Vincent Hungwe (VH), who also chairs the Judicial Service Commission, the ZDF, police and prisons commissions to discuss security sector reforms and conditions of service for civil servants.
ND: We witnessed the President swear in commissioners for the defence forces, police and prisons. What awaits them?
VH: Well, next is work, work, work. The commissioners were, in terms of appointment, approved by His Excellency maybe a month ago, but we could not start any operations in the absence of fulfilling this constitutional requirement to be sworn in by the President. That has now been done, so, we are doubling down to the real work that is before the commissions.
ND: What are the issues that you are looking at, especially in the security sector?
VH: It is basically to ensure that the security services create an environment in this country that is conducive to the observance of law and order, the creation of safety, stability and security for citizens, including those that would, from time to time, want to engage with us on the economic front so that we can improve the livelihoods of our citizens.
ND: Chiefly, there has been talk of security sector reforms to achieve the things you mention. Anything on that front that you are doing in terms of reforming the military and police?
VH: The reform of the security sector is a responsibility that lies with the ministers that have been given mandates in that domain, the Ministers of Home Affairs, Defence and Justice.
So, those are the policy drivers with respect to security sector reform, and we are expecting those ministries to principally champion those reforms.
Ours is really to implement the security reforms that would have been initiated by those line ministers and cleared by Cabinet.
ND: So is there anything that you are implementing as of now in the area of security sector reforms?
VH: Well, there is a lot of work that is being done on conditions of service, the institutional infrastructure for the police, the army and the prisons and correctional services to do their work.
Those are the things we are currently doing, but I thought that the import of your initial questions was to what extent are there imperatives for us to revisit policies with respect to the dispensing of those mandates.
Those issues are not for the commissions, those are issues for the line ministers that are responsible.
ND: The President recently spoke about the erosion of disposable incomes, particularly those of civil servants because of the rising prices. Is there anything that you are doing for the civil servants on that front?
VH: Consistently so because we do engage with our employees from time to time and you will recall that at the beginning of the year, the President granted civil servants some resources and those resources were not negotiated.
It was the President merely indicating and recognising that there have been some challenges with respect to the economy and the increase in prices.
Subsequent to that, we engaged with our employees for purposes of coming up with the cost of living adjustment of $400 million (which) became operational with effect from the 1st of April.
However, since April 1, of course, there has been some changes, there have been some challenges within our economy and we are continuing to engage employees in order to come up with mid-term adjustments to their salaries sometime in June and July.
But over and above salaries and allowances for civil servants, there is always consistent focus on our part as the employer to ensure that non-monetary benefits continue to be delivered to our employees.
Just watch the space in the coming two to three months and see the extent to which we would have gone by way of ensuring that the non-monetary benefits become a reality.
All this is intended to ensure that our workers continue to be barricaded against some of the vicissitudes in the economy.
ND: There has been this programme to streamline civil service to ensure that you put skills where they are required, how far has that programme gone?
VH: That is an ongoing exercise. The PSC has completed its strategic plan (which) has a number of pillars and one of the pillars is skills development, which includes making sure that we deploy our skills to the areas where they are required.
In the process, there will certainly be individuals that are going to be affected, but that will be done in the context of our rules and our procedures and the provisions of the Constitution.
ND: There is the issue of youth officers who were retired from the civil service, what is the situation right now?
VH: Well, the position was, as was indicated in our plan, that some of the youth officers were going to be retired and they have been retired.
Some of them have found space in other areas of economic endeavour and others continue to receive their pensions consistent with the provisions of State Pensions Act.
ND: On the issue of the civil service wage bill, which every Finance minster has insinuated that it is too big. Have there been any significant cuts?
VH: I think we should have a very serious and more nuanced discussion about the veracity of the fact that the civil service wage bill is too big before we conclude that it is necessary for it to be cut.
I am not convinced, as chairman of the commission, and I am not convinced that the civil service and the national wage bill are too big.
It could well be the case that our economy is not growing consistent with the imperative to ensure that the proportion of the amount of the money that we pay to our civil servants remains at a constant level.
What has been happening is that, if the economy is declining, but you have the same numbers of civil servants and bill, the impression is created that it is growing yet it has not been growing.
As a matter of fact, we need about 138 000 to 140 000 working in the Primary and Secondary Education ministry. There is a deficit there and we will continue to narrow that deficit.
The ministry constitutes maybe something like 58% to 60 % of our civil service. What do you want us to do, to close down schools, fire teachers? I don’t think we will ever move in that direction. It will be extremely disingenuous and irresponsible for us to move in that direction.
ND: Can you educate us on the extent of the deficit that you talked about?
VH: The deficit of teachers?
ND: Yes.
VH: We need an additional 18 000 to 22 000 teachers in this country and we are working on it. At the beginning of the year, we were granted permission to recruit 3 000 teachers and we will continue to increase those recruitments consistent with what the budget will allow us to do.
The Malawian opposition United Transformation Movement (UTM) led by the country’s vice president has demanded the immediate deportation of former Zimbabwean police boss Augustine Chihuri following allegations that he is involved in rigging local elections.
According to the independent NewsDay newspaper, Saulos Chilima’s UTM made the allegations Sunday and urged the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to postpone the elections to a date to be determined by the electoral body.
Chihuri, who left Zimbabwe in 2017 following the fall of former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, was not available for comment.
In a letter to the MEC, the party said there were “strong indications of rigging plots from the ruling DPP and their working mission with Zimbabwe’s former (police) Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri. We would further like to demand that MEC facilitates the deportation of this man from Malawi with immediate effect.”
President Peter Mutharika, who is being challenged by his deputy, Chilima, and a former pastor accusing him of corruption, is banking on the rural electorate for his governing Democratic Progressive Party.
Meanwhile, media sources in Malawi claim that the former Zimbabwean Police Commissioner was whisked out of Malawi on Monday morning longside some other Kenyans who were hired to rig the elections.
Chihuri who has been hiding since the Malawi vice President Saulos Chilima exposed him, was disguising himself as if he was either in South Africa or England.
Correspondent|Zimbabwe’s energy distribution issues are expected to continue until the state power company, Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa), clears its debts.
According to the reports, the utility owes approximately $80 million to South Africa’s Eskom and Mozambique’s HCB power company, which should be paid as soon as possible as ZESA can only import 150 megawatts of power from both foreign counterparts.
In order to fulfill the responsibility, the country should come up with a payment plan, company spokesperson Fullard Gwasira explains. However, it is yet unknown whether such a schedule would be implemented or not.
Zimbabwe is now in a shadow of temporary power cuts as the country’s main hydro-power station at Lake Kariba had to reduce its power output to 358 megawatts because of low water levels.
By Dr Masimba Mavaza| It was clear to all but few that any unlikely agreement with Chamisa would only lead to further the agenda of regime change. The unconstitutional removal of the constitutionally elected government is the push behind the call for engaging the MDC A.
Chamisa refused to attend talks with other political parties because he believes he is a cut from above. His reason exposed his ego and he wants the dialogue to fail in order to appear as if he is still relevant in the political field. With the dialogue so assiduously chaperoned by the state, it has to be said that the dialogue is not a lesson to other political groups but a state initiative.
ED has put his heart into this dialogue firmly believing that he was serving the best interests of Zimbabwe, the Electorate, and The nation at large. The interlocutors themselves, the MDC Alliance and their western bakers have not taken the negotiations as seriously as they are supposed to be. The declared aim of the negotiations, to bring an end to economical chaos and political abyss stood in stark contradiction to the fact that President Emerson Mnangagwa interlocutor, represented at best all Zimbabweans and that the Chamisa insisted that he did not represent the Zimbabweans at all and had no legitimate right to negotiate on their behalf.
It was therefore clear to everyone that even if the improbable were to happen and an agreement were to be reached, it would only lead to further unreasonable demands by Chamisa and acts of terror in support of these demands, and not to the end of the conflict. MDC knew only too well that it is in no position to commit to concessions or the end of the conflict, which explains Chamisa’s reluctance to engage in serious negotiations.
Finally, he demanded the resignation of ED and and a formation of a Unity government. Chamisa demands the release of citizens who had been tried and sentenced for acts of violence, rape, destruction of property inciting acts of violence and treason In this he has not succeeded.
To the government, the endless and fruitless negotiations were a way to play along with Western’s feverish quest to attempt to reach an agreement, which was patently impossible. Chamisa is making people to assume that reaching an agreement between ZANU PF and the the opposition was in the economy’s best interests, and that in consideration of the strong ties between Opposition and the West opposition should be seen as making a serious effort to oblige its Western allies by pushing for dialogue yet coming up with insane unreal and idiotic demands. It has become clear in that there is no basis to this hypothesis.
On the contrary, a national economic forum presumably the necessary condition for an agreement with Opposition might very well lead an economical boom.
For ZANU PF it was a serious business, but for Chamisa and his allies it not. The process became truly comical when Chamisa suddenly introduced the legitimacy issues as part of the give-and-take in the negotiations. This was despite the fact that ED was declared the winner by the highest court on the land. It is said that presidents had to respect the judgment handed down by the court. How does Chamisa get advice from the foreign powers against a learned judgement of the courts of Zimbabwe. Now all of this was suddenly swept away in order to further the agenda of regime change.
Our voting system worked well for decades, but now it is broken. There is a better way to give voice to the people not to renegotiate the vote with a losing partner who is powered by the powers that be.
Chamisa is a turning point in the history of democracy. Never before has such a drastic decision been taken through so primitive a procedure where the losing candidate sabotages the economy and demand to be engaged. Never before has the fate of a country – of an entire nation in fact – been changed by the single swing of such a blunt axe, wielded by disenchanted and foreign funded opposition.
But this is just the latest in a series of worrying blows to the health of democracy. On the
surface, everything still seems fine. there has been a considerable increase in calls for a strong leader “who does not have to bother with opposition and dialogue and that trust in them has reached a historical low. It would appear that people like the idea of democracy but loathe the reality. If you lose the elections just accept it and help the country to move on. The promises of pouring sand in the wheels of economy must be punished at law.
Trust in the institutions of democracy is also visibly declining. Although a certain scepticism is an essential component of citizenship in a free society, we are justified in asking how widespread this distrust might be and at what point healthy scepticism tips over into outright aversion.
There is something explosive about an era in which interest in politics grows while faith in politics declines. What does it mean for the stability of a country if more and more people warily keep track of the activities of an authority that they increasingly distrust? How much
derision can a system endure, especially now that everyone can share their deeply felt
opinions online?
Now there is both passion and distrust. These are turbulent times, as the events of the past
weeks demonstrate all too clearly. And yet, for all this turbulence, there has been little reflection on the tools that our democracies use. It is still a heresy to ask whether elections, in their current form, are a badly outmoded technology for converting the collective will of the people into governments and policies.
The people of Zimbabwe deceive themselves when they fancy that they are free and that the opposition will represent democracy they are so, in fact, only free during the election of members of parliament: after that the opposition is no longer powered by the people but by their handlers. While dialogue is arcane instrument of public deliberation. If we refuse to update our democratic technology, we may find the system is beyond repair; 2019 already risks becoming the worst year for democracy.
In short the effort by ED to engage all stake holders in the governance and sustainability of our country is a way forward with no serious takers.
ZANU PF is putting a good effort while MDC A is busy pouring sand in any effort to better the nation. The demands by Chamisa are childish a serious joke and a real travesty of democracy.
Chamisa is definitely dishing his food in a soiled plate. Economy can not be sorted by a government of national unity. The nation is united we need to work on our economy.
The issue of legitimacy was sorted and resolved in the Constitutional court. Dialogue is not about legitimacy. It is about economy. We are already legitimate as a government.
Its high time to see that Chamisa is not serious about dialogue so the country must stop swimming in expectations. We must not behave like mad man chasing nothing. We have a country to run.
Malawian President Peter Mutharika arrives at the Democratic Progressive Party’s final election rally in Blantyre, Malawi, on Saturday.
Africa News|Malawians will head to the polls on Tuesday 21 May 2019, casting their votes to elect a president, members of parliament and local government councillors.
‘‘Those that will be elected on that day will serve the country in various capacities in the next five years,” Dr. Jane Ansah, chairperson of Malawi’s Electoral Commission (MEC) said in February.
Incumbent president Peter Mutharika will be seeking a second and final term, while his vice president, Saulos Chilima, quit the ruling party in 2018 and is running to defeat his boss.
Under Malawi’s electoral system, the president and vice president are elected on one ballot, making it impossible for the head of state to fire his deputy, even when they fall out during the course of a single term of office.
This election will be the first to be conducted under the new 2018 Political Parties Act that regulates funding of parties, and outlaws the practice of giving handouts during election campaigns.
In the lead up to the election, several parties made efforts to join forces including Chilima’s UTM and Banda’s People’s Party. This partnership lasted just a few days.
The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) entered into a coalition with the Democratic People’s Congress, while the opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) has been endorsed by the Freedom Party and the People’s Party for presidential elections.
An opinion poll conducted by the Institute of Public Opinion and Research in August/September 2018, projected a win for president Mutharika with 27%, while putting Chakwera and Chilima at 25% and 16% respectively. However, almost 22% of the survey respondents were either undecided or refused to answer.
While a total of ten candidates registered to contest the presidential elections, Malawians will choose from a list of eight on Tuesday, after the withdrawal and disqualification of former president Joyce Banda and Ras Chikomeni Chirwa, respectively.
Peter Mutharika
Born 18 July 1940, Mutharika became president of Malawi in 2014, having previously served as justice minister, education minister and foreign affairs minister.
The 78-year-old politician is also a celebrated legal scholar, with experience in international economic law, international law and comparative constitutional law.
Peter is the younger brother to Bingu wa Mutharika, who served as president of Malawi from 2004 to 2012, when he died of cardiac arrest while in office.
Currently married to Gertrude Maseko, a former member of parliament, Peter has two daughters and a son from his deceased first wife, Christophine. Mutharika’s running mate in this election is Everton Herbert Chulireng.
Saulos Chilima
Chilima is a Malawian economist who made his grand entry into politics during the 2014 elections, when he was the running mate of president Peter Mutharika.
Before joining politics, Chilima held several high level positions in companies including Unilever, Coca-Cola and Airtel Malawi, where he was chief executive officer.
Chilima fell out with Mutharika, and quit the ruling party, accusing it of allowing rampant corruption to take root in the country. He went on to form his own party called United Transformation Movement (UTM), on whose ticket he will be presidential flagbearer in the forthcoming elections.
Saulos is married to Mary Chilima, and together they have two children. Chilima’s running mate is Dr. Michael Bizwick Usi.
Lazarus Chakwera
Born on 5 April 1955, Lazarus is the leader of opposition in the country’s national assembly, and president of of Malawi Congress Party (MCP), the biggest opposition party in Malawi, since 2013.
Chakwera contested and lost the 2014 presidential elections, garnering 27.8% of the votes cast against president Mutharika’s 36.4%.
Chakwera was endorsed by Khumbo Kachali of the Freedom Party, and Joyce Banda’s People’s Party.
Lazarus, who previously served as President of the Malawi Assemblies of God from 1989 to 14 May 2013, is married to Monica Chakwera, and together, they have four children. Chakwera’s running mate is Sidik Mia.
Other candidates in the race are;
Atupele Muluzi, United Democratic Front (UDF), running mate is Frank Tumpale Mwenifumbo.
John Chisi (Umodzi Party), running mate is Timothy Watch Kamulete.
Cassim Chilumpha (Tikonze People’s Movement), running mate is Miss Zione.
Reverend Hardwick Kaliya (Independent), running mate is Mabvuto Alfred Ng’ona.
Peter Kuwani (Mbakuwaku Movement for Development (MMD), running mate is Archbald McLenard Kalawang’oma.
Electoral guidelines
Malawi’s presidential election is won by a simple first past the post majority, eliminating the need for a runoff election.
The president and vice president are elected on one ballot to serve a five-year term, the same period that members of parliament serve.
Malawian citizens aged 18 and above are eligible to vote, while foreign nationals who have lived in the country for 7 years can also vote.
Official campaigns start three months before voting day (in this case, March 19, 2019) and ends 24 hours before the opening of polls.
By A Correspondent| Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights have the managed to locate for activists who were allegedly abducted at the RGM International airport on Monday night. The ZLHR reveals this development in the below tweet:
RT – After almost 4,5 hours @ZLHRLawyers have located 4 human rights activists who are now detained at Harare Central. These include Tatenda Mombeyarara, Gamu Mukura, George Makoni & Nyasha Mpahlo… https://t.co/2bk3PNgQ6J
State Media|A FORM One pupil died in Bulawayo yesterday after he was electrocuted by overhead power cables while fetching lemons from a tree to season mealie-meal porridge.
Prince Mafu of Emakhandeni suburb died instantly and was stuck on a mango tree until personnel from ZESA switched off power for him to be brought down. The mango tree that he had climbed is next to a lemon tree and both are directly under a power line.
His mother, Ms Elizabeth Mbele, who is expecting her fourth child, got into premature labour as she failed to contain her sorrow on the death of her child.
Prince’s family narrated how they witnessed him being consumed by the high voltage electricity and described the horror of watching smoke coming out of his burning body.
“We literally saw him getting burnt to death. The electricity consumed him while we watched. We were helpless. We could not do anything. He was too high up in the trees and neighbours called for ambulances and police but it was too late.
“I have been procrastinating trimming the trees. We are tenants at this house so the landlord comes once in a while and he had advised us to find someone who could cut the trees for us. It is sad,” said Mrs Sithokozile Mbele, his grandmother.
“The long wire he was using was not stable. It was going back and forth and the ripe lemons are now higher up the tree. So he climbed a mango tree which grows next to the lemon tree and got to the top. Somehow he failed to control the wire and it came into contact with the power cables. There is a transformer outside our yard,” said Mrs Mbele.
Neighbours described Prince as an obedient child who respected the elderly in his community.
“It pains us to see such a wonderful and well brought up boy die like this. These days so many youths are disrespecting elders and engaging in the unthinkable, but for such a good boy to go in such a painful way, I wonder why. This is a tragedy for the whole community as Prince was everyone’s child. Children nowadays are problematic but as a boy we watched him help his grandmother with cleaning duties such as mopping and polishing floors, laundry and most of all gardening. He loved to tend his garden,” said a neighbour who identified himself as Mr Moyo.
Mrs Mbele described her grandchild as a hardworking, intelligent and obedient child.
“He had not gone to school yesterday as he has outstanding school fees balance and was avoiding the embarrassment of being sent back home for non payment. My grandson was my blessing. He did everything around the house without complaining. As you can see on this wire, this black waxy stuff are chunks of his flesh which got burnt and got stuck on it,” said Mrs Mbele
When the Chronicle arrived at the scene, his body had been taken to the United Bulawayo Hospitals.
“While he was up the tree, his uncle was telling him to get off as he had picked enough lemons to flavour the porridge. However, we did not know it was his last day.
“After he got electrocuted, we only saw smoke coming from his hands and feet as they were on fire. He froze in that position and got stuck in the tree. Ambulances, fire brigade and police rushed to the scene. The ambulance crew left as they said he had died instantly,” said Mrs Mbele.
The fire brigade could not remove the boy as power lines were still live and his body could electrocute anyone who came into contact with it as the metal hook he was using was still stuck to the power cables.
By Own Correspondent- The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) has denied reports that police officers fired live ammunition at vendors in Harare’s CBD on Monday afternoon.
A statement by the police reads as follows:
The ZRP dismisses a social media claim that police have fired live ammunition at vendors near QV pharmacy at Kwameh Nkurumah/Angwa Street, Harare. The post is false.
The correct position is that an informant advised police that a cellphone dealer had been kidnapped and taken to a building near a sanitary lane close to an area frequented by vendors and his life was in danger.
Officer Commanding Harare District and other officers who were in the area quickly reacted and verbally ordered vendors to move away to allow police to attend to the kidnapping report.
One of the vendors became violent, he smashed a QV pharmacy glass and ran away.
Vendors then teamed up and started to throw stones and other objects at the police officers.
One of the officers pulled out a service pistol and scared them away while the Police Reaction Group was coming.
The Police Reaction Group then used tear smoke to drive the vendors way.
No live shots were fired at any given time. As we speak, the complainant who had been kidnapped is in the process of making a police report at Harare Central after the kidnappers took away some money from him over a previous cellphone transaction.
By Own Correspondent-ZUPCO has reduced bus fares by 50% effective from Tuesday 21 May 2019.
In an announcement made by the Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, the move has been necessitated by the need to cushion the travelling public.
Distance 1-20km: Old fare – $1.00. New fare: $0.50
By Own Correspondent- The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) has dismissed reports that police officers fired live ammunition at vendors in Harare’s CBD on Monday afternoon.
A statement by the police reads as follows:
The ZRP dismisses a social media claim that police have fired live ammunition at vendors near QV pharmacy at Kwameh Nkurumah/Angwa Street, Harare. The post is false.
The correct position is that an informant advised police that a cellphone dealer had been kidnapped and taken to a building near a sanitary lane close to an area frequented by vendors and his life was in danger.
Officer Commanding Harare District and other officers who were in the area quickly reacted and verbally ordered vendors to move away to allow police to attend to the kidnapping report.
One of the vendors became violent, he smashed a QV pharmacy glass and ran away.
Vendors then teamed up and started to throw stones and other objects at the police officers.
One of the officers pulled out a service pistol and scared them away while the Police Reaction Group was coming.
The Police Reaction Group then used tear smoke to drive the vendors way.
No live shots were fired at any given time. As we speak, the complainant who had been kidnapped is in the process of making a police report at Harare Central after the kidnappers took away some money from him over a previous cellphone transaction.
By Own Correspondent- The opposition MDC has invited the ruling party ZANU PF-affiliated war veterans association and the Thokozani Khupe-led MDC-T to its May elective Congress set to be held in Gweru.
The invitation was revealed by the party’s national organising secretary, Mkoba MP Amos Chibaya and the secretary for information, Jacob Mafume last week.
However, MDC-T vice president Obert Gutu dismissed the invitation, calling the MDC Congress kindergarten gibberish.
Speaking to a local publication, Gutu said:
“At any rate, the MDC-T has got completely no appetite to attending kindergarten gibberish.
If we want real entertainment, we go to a circus and not to a facade of a gathering disguised as a congress.
There is the High Court order by Honourable Justice Edith Mushore to contend with.
We are a law-abiding political party that resolutely believes in the rule of law and constitutionalism. We adhere to democracy and not mobocracy.
Why should we be seen hanging around with that lot? No, that won’t happen until the second coming of the Son of Man. We are perfectly happy where we are.
Let them wine and dine using the money they are getting from Robert Mugabe and Grace Mugabe. The chickens are coming home to roost. It’s not a congress, it’s actually a complete dog’s breakfast.”-DaliyNews
Farai Dziva|MDC A president Nelson Chamisa has taunted Emmerson Mnangagwa saying it is practically impossible to keep “goats stolen from someone”- implying that the Zanu PF leader rigged the 2018 polls.
Chamisa made the remarks at a rally in Chiredzi yesterday.
“Mbudzi dzokuba hadzichengeteki. You stole the election.
You are stealing 2% tax and you are stealing people’s foreign currency.
Pension and salaries have been eroded.
We are saying sanctions and Zanu PF must go,” said Chamisa.
“The GNU brought economy stability and recovery remember : $ for 2 yakauya naTsvangirai.
Sadly Zanu PF is “over borrowing” results in ballooning debts- Zimbabwe ine chikwereti che 20 billion.
The MDC has the capacity to change Zimbabwe’s economy within two weeks,” added Chamisa.
Farai Dziva | An elderly man from Gwanda, Bishop Sibanda, was arrested for attempting to kill his wife with an axe.
The man allegedly struck his 79-year-old wife with an axe leaving her with severe wounds for refusing to reconcile with him following their separation.
Matabeleland South acting provincial police spokesperson Sergeant Stanford Mguni told a state run daily paper the incident occurred last Monday around 2PM in Zhokwe Village.
He said Sibanda (78) followed his wife Agnes Sibanda to her family’s homestead and tried to persuade her to return with him to their matrimonial home.
After she refused Sibanda struck her with an axe once on the head and hit her with the axe handle several times on her back.
“I can confirm that we are investigating an attempted murder case which occurred in Zhokwe Village under Guyu area.
Bishop Sibanda went to look for his wife Agnes Sibanda at her parents’ homestead where she was now staying following their separation,” Mguni told the daily paper.
“Sibanda requested his wife to return with him to their matrimonial home as they were still married but she refused.
Sibanda became agitated and armed himself with an axe which was nearby and struck his wife once on the head and hit her with the axe handle several times on her back. Mrs Sibanda screamed for help and neighbours came to her aid and they restrained Sibanda.”
Mguni said the matter was reported to the police who attended the scene leading to Sibanda’s arrest. He said Mrs Sibanda was taken to Gwanda Provincial Hospital where she is currently admitted.
Farai Dziva|Opposition leader Nelson Chamisa has said there is only one legally constituted MDC party in the country.
Addressing thousands of party supporters at a rally in Chiredzi on Sunday, Chamisa said :” There is only one MDC which is legally consituted -that is backed by the Constitution. The one Morgan Tsvangirai left. The one l am currently leading.
MDC is here to stay and it’s unstoppable.We are 20 -year -old party. We are a household party nationally and internationally.
We won presidential vote, councillors and MPs.”
“We are going to our 5th Congress in Gweru.We are modernizing the Party -making it a 20 th century party.
We are the first party to have peacefully debates among candidates. We are the first party in Africa to have candidates debating ideas.
We are teaching democracy in Zimbabwe and Africa.Debate of issues and not personalities.”
Farai Dziva| War veterans leader Victor Matamadanda has claimed MDC A comprises unruly youths who barred him from attending the burial of Morgan Tsvangirai.
Matamadanda accused the MDC Vanguard of threatening to beat him up at the funeral of the late MDC leader.
He also described the MDC A as an illegal composition.
See below comments on Matemada’ s remarks.
Yimbiri wrote : Murwere uyu kusiyana naye kwakangonaka wani he z so concerned with politics of the opposition than his own party.
Jordanabide: It’s a shame indeed to hear such comments from members of Zanu you end up being very worried about the judgement itself ummm.
Valentine Madziwa:Economy in shambles fix it forget about the Congress corruption yakuvhiringai.
Matron Nyoni:Coup leaders are illegal. Matemadanda & Mutodi same WhatsApp group.
Tafadzwa Natso Chidodo: Cz u talk rubbish dai vaiziva pain inevanhu nekuda kweeconomy apa everyday unotaura zvaChamisa instead of givin us hope yekut nyika muchaigadzira sei.
Safika Sayi:It’s illegal to you . Jethro Makaye Bota:A declaration of illegality cannot come from authorities that are by themselves illegal.ED’s ascendance via a coup was illegal ab initio. Those in glass houses should not throw stones.
By Own Correspondent| Four civil society organisations representatives who were returning from an international trip were picked up by state security agents as they jetted back into the country from a CSOs conference.
The four, were allegedly picked up by the state security agents led by one Detective Ben Justin following the publication of a story run in the state owned Herald titled “Plot to unleash violent protest unearthed”.
The Herald story printed out allegations that the CSOs representatives were attending a meeting in Prague where they were being trained together with opposition MDC stalwarts on strategies to topple President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government.
The four have been identified as Frank Mpahlo, from Transparency International, Gamuchirai Mukura representing COTRAD, George Makoni who is representing CCDZ and Tatenda Mombeyarara from the Citizens’ Manifesto.
Of the 4, pro democracy activist Makomborero Haruzivishe managed to reach 1 of them by late Monday night.
Haruzivishe told ZimEye, “the only one I managed to reach is Tatenda Mombeyarara although the conversation was brief.
“I am appealing to members of the public with details of the four because anything could happen to them,” he said.
This is a developing story. Refresh this page for latest updates.
By Own Correspondent| MDC-T vice president, advocate Obert Gutu has dismissed as fake news the reports suggesting that the Supreme Court has overruled a High Court judgement that nullified Nelson Chamisa’s presidency in the MDC.
See Gutu’s tweet below:
BEWARE of fake news circulating on social media purporting to be a Supreme Court order granted today. It's FAKE! An old video clip is also being circulated to bolster the FAKE news. Zizi harina nyanga!! Mutuvi hausi mukaka!! Musanyeberwe…!!
Following the government move to liberalise the procurement of fuel by abandoning the 1:1 rate for fuel companies, the price of fuel has consequently been raised.
As a result, the pump price for diesel is now $4.88 per litre while the price of petrol will be selling at $4.96 per litre.
Opinion By Wes Beal|MY issue with judgments on who is President of the MDC, who is Deputy President, and the rest, is that those making arguments are selective in their reading of the Constitution, looking to find fault or merit in individuals, when the culprit in this whole mess is the Constitution itself.
We are concerned with the actions of a deliberative body. There is a higher bar for proving that such a body misinterpreted something. It is not one individual that reached a wrong conclusion: it is a whole group of people. Where a group is able to reach a conclusion that is false, the error is in the document, not the group.
Now we have individuals, whether they’re judges, legal experts, or laymen, holding their individual interpretation above that of a group.
I am a layman. I’m not a lawyer or legal expert. I can though read, and can comprehend what I read as well as most. This is my interpretation.
The Constitution was supposed to be clear and unambiguous. It wasn’t, and reasonable people were capable of reaching different conclusions. In such an important topic as succession, that should never have been possible.
The argument for one VP comes down to a less than ideal argument: how many times it’s referred to in the plural versus the singular in the Constitution. Six out of eight times it’s mentioned in the singular.
However, the two instances it is mentioned in the plural are rather key, as they are describing who forms what Party Organ. Under the composition of the National Standing Committee, the Constitution says: “Deputy Presidents.”
Under the composition of the National Executive Committee, the Constitution says: “President and Deputy Presidents.”
The idea that it is a typo is difficult to accept, when it occurs twice in such critical places. It’s at least plausible that since it was a change from 2011, the new plural form failed to be populated throughout the whole of the document.
Even if you feel it is more plausible that the reverse is true, that it was a typo in the two instances where the members of key organs of the Party were listed, it is at least open for interpretation, and therefore not possible to conclude one way without someone else being able to conclude the other.
Further, there is the matter that the Party was operating as if three VPs were permissible for several years. If the issue is what happened that led to the appointment of an Acting President, it shows a certain kind of desperation, or reaching, to travel back in time to attempt to pre-empt the issue entirely. The real crux of the issue is not how many VPs there were, but which of the VPs should have become Acting President.
Once you accept that it is at least a possible interpretation that more than one VP is permitted in the Constitution, you move on to figure out which should be declared Acting President. Unfortunately, when you go to look to find out who assumes the role of Acting President, you see that is one of the places where the Deputy President is in the singular. It hasn’t been updated to reflect more than one VP.
Section 9.21.1 says:
“In the event of the death or resignation of the President, the Deputy President assumes the role of Acting President…”
With it not defined in the Constitution, the practice had been that the President designated who was Acting President when he was not available. One natural conclusion is that the last person to hold the role of Acting President at the time of the President’s passing, was Acting President going forward. It is true that the President was aware he would pass on soon.
Unsurprisingly, those deputies not holding the role at the time of the President’s death would not be happy with this arrangement. Also, while it was the practice to determine who was Acting President in this manner, it leaves a bad taste for a democratic organization, as it suggests the President appointed his successor.
Some will say that even if the Constitution permits multiple deputies, only one deputy, Khupe, was duly elected. Under 6.4.4.1 (b) of the Constitution it says:
The National Standing Committee shall compose of the following office bearers elected by Congress: (b): The Deputy Presidents
In this instance, where only one VP was elected at the 2014 Congress, and the other two were appointed later, the argument is that Khupe, being the only member elected in 2014, was the Acting President and a Congress would be necessary to appoint someone else President.
Except, at section 6.4.4.6, these powers are granted to the National Council: The National Council shall have the power of appointing any member of the National Executive Committee to any secretariat or policy position not specifically created in terms of this Constitution. Further the National Council shall have the power of appointing any deputy to any position or office where such does not exist and shall at any time create and fill any new Party Secretary position.
Further, there’s an argument to be made that the President is also able to appoint deputies. Under section 9.1.4, it says: The President shall, appoint deputies to officers of Congress from a pool of National Executive members elected from provinces and other office bearers where such is provided for in this Constitution and shall, from time to time, assign functions and responsibilities to various portfolios in the National Executive.
The President is an officer of Congress, and it says right there that the President shall appoint deputies to officers of Congress. If I could change this Constitution, I would want to make it so only Congress can elect officers. If I had my way, there would only be one VP allowed. If multiple VPs were maintained, I’d at least define how many, and rank them all by votes received at Congress, so it was clear who was number one, number two, etc.
But that’s all about what I want, what I think. It doesn’t deal with the problem, which is: reasonable people were capable of reaching different conclusions.
You may hold a different opinion, but there are clearly other rational conclusions to be made whether you agree with them or not. The fault was in the Constitution. It should not have been possible for reasonable people to reach different conclusions. Going forward, the Constitution must be deliberated on, and amended until it is no longer possible for reasonable people to reach different conclusions.
Before that happens, every conclusion reached will be subject to challenge. In the meantime, when I judge for myself what is right and what is wrong, it may be my opinion that one decision should have been made over another, but where fault is concerned, I’m restricted to whether the body made its decisions in good faith.
Without knowledge of their hearts, or evidence otherwise, I must presume they did. The solution is not to rule one side right, the other wrong. The solution is to now move on, and for the party, through its members, to vote and settle the matter.
17 people have been killed after heavy winds overturned a boat carrying local football players and their fans on a lake in Uganda.
Some bodies have been recovered while others are still missing, Police said on Monday.
“Two bodies have been recovered, while no fewer than 15 passengers were still missing since the boat capsized on Lake Albert in north-western Uganda on Sunday,” police spokesman Julius Hakiza told dpa.
According to Hakiza, 32 people, who were all returning from a football match, had been rescued by Sunday.
“We suspect the boat was overloaded and it was also overpowered by strong winds,” Hakiza said.
Boat accidents are common on the East African nation’s numerous lakes, where simple wooden boats are used as a means of public transport and often travel overloaded, in spite of bad weather conditions.
By Own Correspondent- The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) has dismissed reports that police officers fired live ammunition at vendors in Harare’s CBD on Monday afternoon.
A statement by the police reads as follows:
The ZRP dismisses a social media claim that police have fired live ammunition at vendors near QV pharmacy at Kwameh Nkurumah/Angwa Street, Harare. The post is false.
The correct position is that an informant advised police that a cellphone dealer had been kidnapped and taken to a building near a sanitary lane close to an area frequented by vendors and his life was in danger.
Officer Commanding Harare District and other officers who were in the area quickly reacted and verbally ordered vendors to move away to allow police to attend to the kidnapping report.
One of the vendors became violent, he smashed a QV pharmacy glass and ran away.
Vendors then teamed up and started to throw stones and other objects at the police officers.
One of the officers pulled out a service pistol and scared them away while the Police Reaction Group was coming.
The Police Reaction Group then used tear smoke to drive the vendors way.
No live shots were fired at any given time. As we speak, the complainant who had been kidnapped is in the process of making a police report at Harare Central after the kidnappers took away some money from him over a previous cellphone transaction.
Correspondent|The State-owned transport operator Zimbabwe United Passenger Company (ZUPCO) has slashed bus fares by 50 percent with effect from tomorrow, the 21st of May 2019.
In a statement, Finance and Economic Development Permanent Secretary Mr George Guvamatanga said for a distance of one to 20 kilometers, the fare has been reduced from $1 to 50 cents.
He said the move is part of government operation to restore sanity in urban centres as commuters have been getting stranded on their way to and from work.
A distance of 20 to 30 kilometers, the fare has been reduced from $1.50 to 75 cents, Guvamatanga said.
A distance of 30 to 40 kilometers is now pegged at $1 from $2.
Mr Guvamatanga said the move has been necessitated by the need to cushion the travelling public adding that further distances will follow similar reductions.
Zimbabwe Achievers Awards UK has released the full list of the Chairman’s Honorary Awards recipients who will be honoured at the upcoming 9thAnniversary ZAA UK awards ceremony which will be held on the 25thof May in London.
The Chairman’s Honorary Awards are given annually at the awards ceremony in recognition of various individuals and organisations who have contributed positively to fields of business, arts, leadership, media, sport and many more. This year’s roll call of honour features the likes of Douglas Chikohora, business magnate Sir Richard Heygate, Dr Melanie Abas, Juliana Jonathan and Vusa Mkhaya for various special services in their fields of profession.
The honorary awards are handed out after considering the lifetime impact, influence and contributions to a cause by the recipient. Business mogul and innovative entrepreneur Sir Richard Heygate will get an honorary Award as a Friend of Zimbabwe due to his part in endorsing Zimbabwe as an investment destination and his investments in solar power, agriculture and new business innovation. He is also international agent and advisor for the world’s largest construction company; China Railway Group and is popularly known for his business innovations, having been part of the team that created the world’s first online Automated Teller Machine (ATM).
The Honorary Award for Services to Community Development is going to be given to Zimbabwe International Women’s Awards founder Juliana Jonathan who has been instrumental in the recognition and empowerment of inspirational women who are making moves within and beyond their communities. The award will be conferred on her in acknowledgement of her efforts in bringing the unsung heroines of communities to the public consciousness and writing a new narrative for Zimbabwean women.
Vusa Mkhaya will be honoured with the Honorary Award for Services to Music and Cultural Promotion in recognition of his exporting of Zimbabwean art and through his music and initiatives abroad in a way that has cast the spotlight on the country’s rich heritage and diverse art culture. Music and performance guru Wedzerai Zvirevo will also be honoured for his achievements. The Batanai Marimba group frontman is also a music instructor and has worked with various groups and organisations.
Dr Melanie Abas will be honoured with the Friend of Zimbabwe Award mainly in recognition of her extensive work in raising awareness and solutions for mental health matters and improving the quality of life in Zimbabwe through the Friendship Bench and various other partners. Friendship Bench assists many people battling anxiety, depression and other mental health challenges. She has also researched, published and mentored widely on depression issues especially in low and middle income countries and the Friendship Bench initiative in Zimbabwe is the largest depression program in any low income African country and has developed models for integrating depression care in primary care.
Dr Sam Kamuriwo will receive the Honorary Award for Services to Academics and Leadership for his contributions to the world of academic and business leadership. The CASS Business School Associate Professor has also inspired many through his extensive research works and award winning contributions to academia.
Douglas Chikohora will also be honoured with an Award for Services to Business and has over 30 years’ worth of experience in business and creating opportunities and development of businesses in the country and is the co-founder of CLUFF Associates Africa (CAA Ltd) together with Algy Cluff. The company mainly focuses on mining, in particular non-gold explorations in Africa focusing on energy minerals like coal, uranium and industrial minerals. His work is recognized all around Africa and beyond. Entrepreneur Ennie Mupoto will be honoured for Services to Business at the event. The More Care Energy Services(MECS) founder and owner will join an illustrious list of past recipients that include jeweller Patrick Mavros, Dr Ian Chikanza, Lettie Chimbi and Filekephi Jackson among others.
The ZAA UK Awards Dinner Gala will be held on Saturday 25thMay 2019 at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel in London and tickets are purchased online on http://www.zimachievers.com/uk/buy-tickets/
A bus driver has hanged himself on a tree after his bus overturned and killed at least nine people on Alma Road in Welkom, Free State.
According to the Free State department of health spokesperson Mondli Mvambi, the male driver, aged 31, hanged himself on a tree with a safety belt that he cut from the bus seats.
“The bus driver committed suicide after realising how badly the people were injured. We felt that he felt accountable for the deaths and decided to kill himself,” Mvambi said.
Mvambi said the driver became aware of the deaths of the passengers as medical services were talking with him. He then later walked off unnoticed to hang himself.
Mvambi also said passengers told the emergency services that the driver had the accident during an argument with a few passengers who felt that the route was wrong.
“They said the driver took the wrong route and during the argument the driver hit the pavement and the bus overturned,” he said.
Mvambi told Sowetan that the Intercape bus overturned at about 5am on Monday, claiming the lives of nine people and leaving 46 injured, with 11 of those in a critical condition.
“The bus was coming from Durban, stopping at Welkom, and proceeding to Bloemfontein,” he said.
Mvambi said seven of the nine were declared dead on the scene while the other two died later in hospital. Three children were among the dead. — Sowetan
By Own Correspondent| A Zanu Pf MP and deputy Information Minister Energy Mutodi has legitimised the removal of former president Robert Mugabe saying that the ascendancy of the current leader Emmerson Mnangagwa was above board.
Mutodi argued that Mnangagwa’s ascendancy to power cannot be likened to the ascendancy of opposition leader Nelson Chamisa since Mnangagwa was chosen by the central committee to fill a power vacuum that had been left after former president’s demise.
Mutodi said this in an interview with a local publication where he encouraged Chamisa to relinquish power since the High Court had ruled that he was an illegitimate leader.
He said:
For Zanu PF, I can assure you that this is not the same issue because there were intervening issues.
First of all, the President of the Republic, then Robert Mugabe was facing impeachment for allegations for having given his wife certain executive powers and Parliament taking measures to impeach him.
The military had intervened in the process of government on a very clear issue that the status quo had broken down so that is why the central committee had to sit in a formally-constituted meeting to determine who would be elected as the leader or interim leader of Zanu PF and then substantive leader.
That is how Mnangagwa’s name emerged. So this cannot be the same or some kind of replication or similarity of what is happening in the MDC.
Following government to liberalize the supply of fuel in the process dumping the 1:1 rate that it was still using to subsidize consumers, fuel price is expected to go up further choking the already burdening citizens.
In a statement, RBZ Governor Dr John Panonetsa Mangudya said fuel companies will with effect from tomorrow get their foreign currency from banks at the interbank rate.
Mangudya added that this moves means the previously used 1:1 rate has ended.
This means government has ended its fuel price subsidies to consumers and is likely to see prices going up to over six dollars to match the current interbank rate as companies will obviously seek to sell the precious liquid at a viable price.
STATEMENT ON THE PAYMENT ARRANGEMENTS FOR FUEL THROUGH THE INTERBANK FOREIGN EXCHANGE MARKET AND THE DRAWING DOWN OF USD500 MILLION OFFSHORE LINE OF CREDIT
The Reserve Bank Of (the ‘Bank’) is pleased to advise the public that with effect from 21 May 2019, the procurement of fuel by the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) shall be done through the interbank foreign exchange market. There shall be only one foreign exchange rate to be used in the market for the importation of all goods services.
This means that the exchange rate that Was being used by OMCs for the procurement of fuel will be discontinued with immediate effect.
The new position is necessary to the efficient use of foreign exchange and to minimize and guard against Of arbitrage within the economy.
As previously advised, the Bank is Jyoceeding to make a drawdown of US$500 million from an offshore line of credit to supplement the Countrys foreign exchange receipts in ordÜ to underpin the interbank foreign exchange market for the purpses of meeting foregn payment Of businesses and individuals.
The facility Will be into the eonomy through the interbank foreign exchange framework at the prevailing interbank foreign exchange rate on a willing-buyer basis. Over and above these initiatives, Letters of Credit (LCs) shall continue to be used for the importation of essential commodities such as fuel, grain and cooking Oil.
The LCs will also be priced at the prevailing interbank foreign exchange rates. The Bank has directed banks to effectively apply the willing-seller willing-buyer principle to ensure that the interbank foreign exchange market is reflective of market conditions.
Accordingly, banks must ensure that there are no moral hazards in the operation of the interbank foreign exchange market. In this regard, all the foreign exchange requirements for for their own use that includes divdend payments, subscription fees, etc. would prior Exchange Control approval for the conduct of the interbank foreign exchange market.
Similarly, banks should discontinue tvvinning arrangements for their customers as this undermines the efficient operation of the interbank foreign exchange market.
Farai Dziva| Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane has threatened to quit if club board does not adhere to his transfer policy for next season.
The Frenchman is in his second spell in charge of Los Blancos and on Saturday revealed that he will leave the club if he is hindered from making the decisions he feels are best for the team.
“When next season starts I will say who will be the first goalkeeper, the second and third. The decision will be mine. Who do you think makes the team? I am the coach. That’s clearer than water. If I do not do what I want on my team, I’m leaving. That’s clear, ” Zidane said in his press conference ahead of Madrid’ s last LaLiga game against Real Betis on Sunday.
The former France international is likely to make a lot of changes to the Real side, who will finish the season trophyless and 3rd behind city rivals Atletico and champions Barcelona, and reports indicate that Welshman Gareth Bale is one of the players likely to leave the club to make way for new additions.
Farai Dziva|MDC A leader Nelson Chamisa has said the Emmerson Mnangagwa led dialogue lacks credibility because it ignores the views of 2,6 million voters.
Said Chamisa:”Zimbabwe’s crisis is political.We have’nt had genuine and true political settlement since the days of Lancaster,Unity accord and GPA GNU.Deceptive, manipulative politics upon fake dialogue is the source of all our national discohesion.This breeds false, disputed and rigged processes.”
He added:”Ambassador Mbete added that “…the success of a national dialogue will have far reaching implications for the SADC region and beyond.” This is what we have always said that stolen elections have a negative impact on the welfare of all SADC citizens, they repulse investment.
His Excellency Mbete also said, “…if necessary for credibility, the leadership of Zimbabwe wishes to consider a facilitator from outside Zimbabwe, we as a region will be ready to propose names from the African Continent.”We’ve said this from day 1 and called for such a mediator.”
“We welcome the wise words by the South African Ambassador Mphakama Mbete. He said, “..the national dialogue must be inclusive and participatory and take into account the views of all Zimbabweans.”
We restate that dialogue can’t be credible when it ignores the views of 2,6m voters.”
By Own Correspondent- Nine people have been confirmed dead and dozens more are missing after a boat capsized in western Uganda on Sunday.
The boat was carrying more than 50 football players and fans from the western Uganda district of Hoima.
Witnesses say overloading and bad weather are probably to blame for the accident, as rescue attempts continue.
In 2016, about 30 footballers and fans drowned when their boat capsized on Lake Albert.
The passengers were travelling to Runga landing site where a friendly match between two local clubs was scheduled.
The wooden canoe capsized shortly after it departed the docks.
A police spokesperson said that fishermen at nearby landing sites rushed to the rescue and 32 people were rescued within an hour of the accident.
Friends and relatives of the missing passengers have gathered at the shore as police conduct search operations.
The police and Military Marine Unit responded shortly afterwards with divers who have since been able to recover nine bodies, the BBC’s Dear Jeanne reports from Kampala.
Dozens Of Deaths
Police and eyewitnesses say the boat was overloaded and then hit by strong winds.
Survivors say most people on the boat were not wearing lifejackets.
In 2016, another boat carrying footballers and fans capsized on Lake Albert, killing more than 20 people.
In 2014, two boats carrying refugees being repatriated to DR Congo capsized and 109 bodies were recovered in Lake Albert.
Boat owners usually have some lifejackets onboard to avoid getting arrested by the marine police but the lifejackets are often old and there are not enough for all the passengers, our reporter says.
She adds that not many Ugandans, except those who live near water, know how to swim, which could be one reason for the high number of fatalities in boat accidents in the country.-BBC
Farai Dziva|State security agents are reportedly tormenting vendors around a supermarket in the ancient city of Masvingo for embarrassing Auxillia Mnangagwa.
Vendors who spoke to ZimEye say men in dark glasses have been frequenting the supermarket accusing the vendors of humiliating Mrs Mnangagwa.
Mrs Mnangagwa was on Friday afternoon booed as she entered a leading supermarket in the ancient city of Masvingo.
“There was commotion as scores of people jeered at Mrs Mnangagwa as she was getting into our shop.
Angry bystanders also booed her as she exited the supermarket,” a shop assistant who identified herself as Tanaka said.
“They also denounced her husband Emmerson Mnangagwa for causing the suffering of the people of Zimbabwe,” she added.
Mrs Mnangagwa’s security aides reportedly battled to contain the turmoil before whisking her away.
SOUTH Africa based music promoter and socialite Tanyaradwa “Lady T” Masango has denied allegations that they are an item with Soul Jah Love.
The 31-year-old said there was a misconception when people saw her picture with Jah Love and the picture also got her into trouble with her family.
“My dad called accusing me of doing drugs with Jah Love and others are saying we are dating.
“Truth is Jah Love is just a good friend though people say I’m dating him, we are not an item we are just friends,” said Lady T.
Lady T said she helped Jah Love come out clean on drugs and that’s when her picture appeared in the paper and sent negative thoughts in people’s minds.
“I am the one who told him to come out clean with this drug issue so maybe he felt the need to put our pic together.
“But there is nothing, he is a very busy guy but when he is not busy, we hang out together and its strictly for the good of the two of us musically. “I’m running an anti-drug campaign in the music industry just to encourage artistes to stay off drugs and focus on their careers and stand as leaders,” she said.
The founder of Lady Tee entertainment said she has been loyal to Conquering Family even when Jah Love was still with Bounty Lisa.
“I have been loyal to both of them for years and I have been a Conquering family hype lady for years now. “And all his SA tours I’m the one who hypes the posters and make sure the shows fill up because I have a huge musical fan base digitally,” she said.
Lady T, who is also a model and brand owner, said she thinks Bounty Lisa has an issue with her over her ex-hubby.
“I think Bounty is a bit offended that I’m close to her ex but what can we do its all about the family.
“She stopped talking to me but when I asked one of my artists who had got close to her if she had any reason for hating me, I heard disturbing stories,” said Masango.
Lady T said she will be having a show in June. “I got a show this coming June in Zimbabwe with Norman from Extra Large, the purpose of this show is to uplift ghetto youths who are singing on the Helmet type of dancehall music,” she said.H-Metro
Farai Dziva| War veterans leader Victor Matamadanda has claimed MDC A comprises unruly youths who barred him from attending the burial of Morgan Tsvangirai.
Matamadanda accused the MDC Vanguard of threatening to beat him up at the funeral of the late MDC leader.
He also described the MDC A as an illegal composition.
See below comments on Matemada’ s remarks.
Yimbiri wrote :Murwere uyu kusiyana naye kwakangonaka wani he z so concerned with politics of the opposition than his own party.
Jordanabide: It’s a shame indeed to hear such comments from members of Zanu you end up being very worried about the judgement itself ummm.
Valentine Madziwa:Economy in shambles fix it forget about the Congress corruption yakuvhiringai.
Matron Nyoni:Coup leaders are illegal. Matemadanda & Mutodi same WhatsApp group.
Tafadzwa Natso Chidodo: Cz u talk rubbish dai vaiziva pain inevanhu nekuda kweeconomy apa everyday unotaura zvaChamisa instead of givin us hope yekut nyika muchaigadzira sei.
Safika Sayi:It’s illegal to you . Jethro Makaye Bota:A declaration of illegality cannot come from authorities that are by themselves illegal.ED’s ascendance via a coup was illegal ab initio. Those in glass houses should not throw stones.
By Own Correspondent- The opposition MDC led by Dr Thokozani Khupe has turned down an invitation from the Nelson Chamisa led MDC to attend the party’s National Congress slated for May.
The response follows an invitation to both the Khupe led faction and ruling party ZANU PF-affiliated war veterans association to its 24-26 elective Congress set to be held in Gweru.
The invitation was revealed by the party’s national organising secretary, Mkoba MP Amos Chibaya and the secretary for information, Jacob Mafume last week.
However, MDC-T vice president Obert Gutu dismissed the invitation, calling the MDC Congress kindergarten gibberish.
Said Gutu:
At any rate, the MDC-T has got completely no appetite to attending kindergarten gibberish.
If we want real entertainment, we go to a circus and not to a facade of a gathering disguised as a congress.
There is the High Court order by Honourable Justice Edith Mushore to contend with.
We are a law-abiding political party that resolutely believes in the rule of law and constitutionalism. We adhere to democracy and not mobocracy.
Why should we be seen hanging around with that lot? No, that won’t happen until the second coming of the Son of Man. We are perfectly happy where we are.
Let them wine and dine using the money they are getting from Robert Mugabe and Grace Mugabe. The chickens are coming home to roost. It’s not a congress, it’s actually a complete dog’s breakfast.”-DailyNews
By Own Correspondent- Deputy Minister for Information, Media and Broadcasting Services, Energy Mutodi, said that MDC president Nelson Chamisa has to step down in line with a recent High Court ruling.
In an interview, with a local publication, Mutodi said that the opposition party should exercise democracy.
Said Mutodi:
Chamisa has been ruled illegitimate and we are saying he must step down.
What we are saying is, the opposition may be there, but it has to stick to its democratic principles, it has to stick to the expectations of Zimbabweans so that it can contribute meaningfully to the success of Zimbabwe.
As it stands, the MDC has actually deviated from its democratic principles and we urge it to actually go back to the principles that were left behind by Morgan Tsvangirai.
… As a government, we know the importance of the opposition. The opposition is very important in shaping legislation, in ensuring that the country can be recognised as a democratic State.
It actually points to cases that we may have an oversight, issues that we may not be considered as very important, the opposition can talk about those issues and we take them seriously and build our democracy.- Newsday
By Own Correspondent- A former Marondera councillor and his two accomplices who assaulted a police officer while resisting arrest, were last week each sentenced to an effective six months in prison.
Paul Masikati (48) of No. 1589 Sanganayi Street, Cherutombo, Marondera, together with Courage Ben (26) and Kudakwashe Zhou (25), assaulted Paineas Mashiri (30), who had arrested Masikati.
The three were initially sentenced to 12 months in prison before six months were suspended on condition that they did not commit a similar crime within the next five years.
For the State, Mr Musariyarwa said that on September 22 last year, the complainant was at Cherutombo Police Base doing charge office duties when he was sent to arrest Masikati for assault.
Masikati got wind of his impending arrest by Mashiri and went to the police base with Ben and Zhou.
When they arrived Masikati went behind the charge office reception desk, grabbed the complainant by the collar and shouted, “Mapurisa ngarohwe”, meaning police officers should be assaulted.
He slapped the complainant once on the forehead.
Ben also jumped on top of the charge office reception desk and slapped the complainant twice in the face and also tore the complainant’s uniform.
Zhou joined in and assaulted the complainant once on the back.
The complainant was rescued by Sherperd Magwaza who chased the trio out of the base.
Farai Dziva| The Zimbabwe Warriors will start trooping into camp today to prepare for the COSAFA and AFCON Tournaments.
The majority of players in the provisional 34-member squadannounced last week are expected to report for duty today.
Nyasha Mushekwi will only join the rest of the team in June because the Chinese league is currently underway.
Dennis Dauda and Jimmy Dzingai are set to arrive in the country soon.
“Preparations for both the COSAFA & AFCON tournaments begin today in Harare,” Zifa confirmed on Monday.
The Warriors have a busy line-up in the coming month as they are set to play at Cosafa tournament in South Africa from the first of June. The will travel in the following week to Nigeria for a friendly match before playing another practice game yet to be confirmed.
They will start their Afcon campaign on the 21st of June against hosts Egypt.
Farai Dziva| Highlanders coach Madinda Ndlovu says he can’t understand why his team is failing to score goals despite dominating possession in most of their games.
Tshilamoya settled for another goalless draw on Sunday against Herentals in a match they could have netted a couple of goals but wasted all the chances that fell on their path.
“All the ingredients of football are put together, and at the end of the day there’s no one to eat the food. So, that’s as simple as I can put it.
“Anything else I think you can interpret it how you saw it out there, otherwise my comment will not matter anymore because you can never play football like this and come out without any results.
“That’s beyond us. We’re doing everything we can. The last time I said if you look at all aspects of the game, you find them in our game, the way we construct our passes, the way we get into the box, the way we move around, you get everything,” Said Madinda.
Highlanders have now gone for five consecutive games without scoring, and their last goal was in the 3-1 defeat to Harare City on Match-day Three.
In all the eight games they played this season, they have only found the back of the net twice.
By Own Correspondent- War veterans secretary-general, Victor Matemadanda said that even when invited to attend the opposition MDC congress by its leader Nelson Chamisa, he would never attend the “illegal” event.
Matemadanda said this following statements by Chamisa at a Chiredzzi “Thank You” rally on Sunday inviting Zanu Pf’s Matemadanda and leader of the splinter faction of the party Dr Thokozani Khupe to the forthcoming National Congress slated for May 4.
Responded Matemadanda:
“Assuming that the invitation was formal I would still not attend because in view of the court ruling it is an illegal congress and I would not attempt to give it any legality.
… In any case for your own information when I sought to attend Tsvangirai’s send off before his body left for Buhera last year, the MDC youths barred me and how will the so-called vanguards allow me to attend their congress when they blocked me from a funeral?”-Daily News
Farai Dziva|MDC A leader Nelson Chamisa has said the fact that the centre of power is shifting to young people is undeniable and irreversible.
“THE PEOPLE SHALL BE GOVERN…The demographics of Zimbabwe locate the centre of power in the young people, the next generation.
If we don’t accept this reality there will be no change,therefore no transformation. Zim shall be the land of the free and prosperous!” Chamisa wrote on Twitter.
Chamisa also addressed thousands of party supporters in Chiredzi yesterday.
Farai Dziva|MDC A president Nelson Chamisa has taunted Emmerson Mnangagwa saying it is practically impossible to keep “goats stolen from someone”- implying that the Zanu PF leader rigged the 2018 polls.
Chamisa made the remarks at a rally in Chiredzi yesterday.
“Mbudzi dzokuba hadzichengeteki. You stole the election.
You are stealing 2% tax and you are stealing people’s foreign currency.
Pension and salaries have been eroded.
We are saying sanctions and Zanu PF must go,” said Chamisa.
“The GNU brought economy stability and recovery remember : $ for 2 yakauya naTsvangirai.
Sadly Zanu PF is “over borrowing” results in ballooning debts- Zimbabwe ine chikwereti che 20 billion.
The MDC has the capacity to change Zimbabwe’s economy within two weeks,” added Chamisa.
Farai Dziva|Opposition leader Nelson Chamisa has said there is only one legally constituted MDC party in the country.
Addressing thousands of party supporters at a rally in Chiredzi on Sunday, Chamisa said :” There is only one MDC which is legally consituted -that is backed by the Constitution. The one Morgan Tsvangirai left. The one l am currently leading.
MDC is here to stay and it’s unstoppable.We are 20 -year -old party. We are a household party nationally and internationally.
We won presidential vote, councillors and MPs.”
“We are going to our 5th Congress in Gweru.We are modernizing the Party -making it a 20 th century party.
We are the first party to have peacefully debates among candidates. We are the first party in Africa to have candidates debating ideas.
We are teaching democracy in Zimbabwe and Africa.Debate of issues and not personalities.”
Farai Dziva|MDC leader Nelson Chamisa has said the current problems bedevilling the nation will be solved spiritually and the solution will manifest in the physical realm.
Chamisa told thousands of party supporters in Chiredzi the “walls of Jericho were crumbling.”
He said sanctions and Zanu PF were the two evils tormenting the country.
“We are prayer warriors and very soon we will be in total control of everything.
We are saying backwards never, forward is ever.Do not ask us how we are going to do it, God is in control of everything,” said Chamisa.
“We are saying the people have suffered for too long and very soon we will begin to witness positive developments,” added Chamisa.
By Mukasiri Sibanda| “… when it comes to diamond, there are syndicates that are very sophisticated in the country and outside the country and many people get involved. Many beneficiaries get involved to ensure that the truth never comes out” remarks given by Prof Gudyanga, former permanent secretary of the Ministry of Mines during a Parliament hearing on Missing $15 billion from Marange.
Introduction
Seven executive managers of the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC), including the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) were fired by the board on Friday 17 May 2019. ZCDC is a State-Owned Enterprise (SOE). The entity was created in 2015 and started operations in 2016 after seven diamond mining companies were booted out in the name of bringing transparency and accountability to murky Marange diamond mining activities.
The dismissal according the board, was necessitated by the desire to restore market and public confidence following several allegations of corruption and abuse of office. Since no granular details were shared, it is important not to take things at face value. But to try to dig deeper for possible clues and to help with suggestions on what it takes to bring public confidence in the management of Marange diamonds. I shudder to say rebuilding public confidence as opined by the ZCDC’s board because from the onset, Marange diamond mining operations dismally failed to inspire public confidence.
Jobs robbed by diamond robberies
ZCDC experienced a spate of armed robberies of diamonds. We have not heard of any public report on diamonds robberies at Murowa diamonds. Consequently, one can argue that a spate of diamond robberies might have robbed the senior management of their jobs. Speaking of armed diamond robberies, could it be that ZCDC management closed loopholes for powerful and well-connected individuals who are used to looting diamonds from Marange. Perhaps out of frustration and desperation, the clique became so daring to make a statement to ZCDC by organising several armed robberies. This sounds like stretching facts a bit far, but, the former Permanent Secretary, Prof Gudyanga warned “… when it comes to diamond, there are syndicates that are very sophisticated in the country and outside the country and many people get involved. Many beneficiaries get involved to ensure that the truth never comes out”
Allegations of corruption and abuse of power
Before the board announcement on dismissal of the ZCDC senior management, the CEO was arrested for recommending diamond sales to a black listed person under Kimberly Process (KP). Allegations surfaced on abuse of power by the chief financial officer who allegedly bought 1,200 bags on cement from Lafarge on ZCDC’s account for his own personal use. Looking at the rear-view mirror, Office of the Auditor General (OAG)’s report on ZCDC’s 2016 raised several damning issues on poor corporate governance. The board must openly address steps it took to implement the OAG’s recommendations.
People feel good when hunting with their own dogs
There were strong allegations that ZCDC was created to close revenue stream for one ZANU PF faction, Lacoste, which allegedly had the military backing. ZCDC was created when Chidhakwa, allegedly aligned to Generation 40 (G40) faction in ZANU PF, oversaw the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development. The Military had a stake in one of the biggest diamond mines in Marange, Anjin Investments, which was booted out along with other entities – Mbada, Jinan, Diamond Mining Corporation (DMC), Kusena, Gye Nyame and Marange Resources. Companies like Anjin investments failed to have their books audited year in year out. The Auditor General had trouble to verify taxes paid by Anjin because of failure to produce audited financial statements. Whilst speculation was strong that factional fights created ZCDC, transparency was one of the main reasons given for creating ZCDC. Considering that Anjin’s books were never subjected to an audit, the transparency card was genuine although other motives could not be ruled out. So, when the Lacoste function emerged supreme after the November 2017 events which reshaped Zimbabwe’s political landscape, arguably, it was only a matter of time before changes were made. People feel good when hunting with their own dogs. Always, the ZCDC management which was dismissed was skating on thin political ice.
Failure to manage expectations
ZCDC mostly painted a robust outlook in terms of diamond production and earnings. Now that the country is facing severe foreign currency shortages, could it be that authorities in government were disappointed that diamonds were not bringing in the anticipated cash. In its 5-year strategic plan, ZCDC has a target of producing 10 million carats generating annually, generating $1 billion in foreign currency, contributing $250 million in taxes to government and $20 million to Marange-Zimunya Community Share Ownership Trust. In 2018, ZCDC surpassed its targeted diamond production, producing 2.8 million carats against 2.4 million carats. Between 2016 and 2018, ZCDC generated $22.9 million according to MMCZ. Diamonds, including gold, and platinum used to be a top performer on foreign currency earnings at one-point generation US$740 million in 2012.
Conclusion
It is too early to celebrate whether ZCDC’s board made a good move to restore market and public confidence by firing the entire ZCDC executing management aside from the chief operating officer. Parliament Portfolio Committee on Mines and Mining Development must dig to deeper to unmask real challenges at ZCDC. The board must understand that given past chronicles of corruption concerning Marange diamonds, openness is the pillar of building public confidence. Anything short will always attract speculations whether the move by the board is well intentioned or not.
By Own Correspondent| A High Court judge Justice Aphas Chitakunye has expressed concern over the conduct of Pastor Ritiya of Ambassadors For Christ Ministries who solemnised the marriage between a Harare Central Hospital nurse Mavis Sibanda and Lesley Amos when the latter was still married to his UK based wife Dorothy Mtetwa.
The judge was surprised that Pastor Ritiya has gone on to solemnize the marriage despite the fact that Lesley’s wife Dorothy had objected to the wedding through her relatives who are based in Zimbabwe.
The story, which was run first on ZimEye, exposed how Amos, left his wife of 25 years in the UK only to wed his mistress after paying lobola, at an event witnessed by Mtetwa’s child.
Narrating the story to ZimEye, Mtetwa exposed how she had sought nullification of the marriage which was done behind her back to no avail at a ceremony where her relatives and friends were barred..
However, Amos responded giving his side of the story and said he had been misled by his sisters who said they had given his first wife a token of divorce since the duo had been customarily married.
In a dramatic development, the High Court nullified the duo’s wedding vows.
The court also ordered the pastor who officiated over the offending marriage to deregister it.
Justice Chitakunye warned marriage officers to take objections seriously and to seek proper legal guidance where they are not sure.
Part of Justice Chitakunye’s ruling read:
Dorothy had not been given a divorce token and thus her marriage to Lesley was still valid when he wedded Mavis. As such the marriage of Lesley and Mavis is not valid as it was solemnized when he was still married to Dorothy in terms of the law.
…marriage must be taken seriously and when there are impediments or potential impediments it is astute to firstly attend to the impediments.
As this involves a change of status, it is imperative that marriage officers take objections seriously and obtain proper legal guidance before proceeding with solemnisation of the marriage…this should have guided the marriage officer not to ignore protestations from the applicant.
Farai Dziva | An elderly man from Gwanda, Bishop Sibanda, was arrested for attempting to kill his wife with an axe.
The man allegedly struck his 79-year-old wife with an axe leaving her with severe wounds for refusing to reconcile with him following their separation.
Matabeleland South acting provincial police spokesperson Sergeant Stanford Mguni told a state run daily paper the incident occurred last Monday around 2PM in Zhokwe Village.
He said Sibanda (78) followed his wife Agnes Sibanda to her family’s homestead and tried to persuade her to return with him to their matrimonial home.
After she refused Sibanda struck her with an axe once on the head and hit her with the axe handle several times on her back.
“I can confirm that we are investigating an attempted murder case which occurred in Zhokwe Village under Guyu area.
Bishop Sibanda went to look for his wife Agnes Sibanda at her parents’ homestead where she was now staying following their separation,” Mguni told the daily paper.
“Sibanda requested his wife to return with him to their matrimonial home as they were still married but she refused.
Sibanda became agitated and armed himself with an axe which was nearby and struck his wife once on the head and hit her with the axe handle several times on her back. Mrs Sibanda screamed for help and neighbours came to her aid and they restrained Sibanda.”
Mguni said the matter was reported to the police who attended the scene leading to Sibanda’s arrest. He said Mrs Sibanda was taken to Gwanda Provincial Hospital where she is currently admitted.
By Own Correspondent| Bulawayo City Council has resolved to repossess residential stands whose rates had not been paid for the past 5 years.
The properties will be repossessed and auctioned in line with the Registration and Derelict Lands Act (Chapter 20:20).
More than 2 000 properties are at risk of being repossessed, the majority of which are in low-density residential areas. Recent council minutes read in part:
Those property owners who re-surfaced after the properties had been advertised would have to justify why the council should not conclude that the properties had been abandoned.
The town clerk (Christopher Dube) confirmed that as management, they had agreed that all properties whose rates had not been paid for five years and above should be advertised.
The city council has also made an “unpopular” decision to increase the prices of stands. This was revealed by the chairperson of the finance and development committee Silas Chigora in a supplementary budget presented last week.
He said:
In coming up with the new pricing mechanism, the affordability of the stands to the intended beneficiaries was of paramount importance.
It was in this regard that I proposed to use the last approved stand prices, which had been in operation till December 2018, as the basis for determining the new stand prices in RTGS.
The pricing policy for council stands was based on full cost recovery, on servicing costs for newly-serviced residential stands. The full cost recovery basically meant that all costs involved in running a project were fully recouped.-StateMedia
THE crippling fuel and power shortages facing Zimbabwe are likely to get worse if government fails to deal with price distortions on the market, former Finance minister Tendai Biti has said.
Speaking in a radio interview, Biti, who also chairs the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Finance, said government does not have money to continue subsidising fuel and should allow private players to fill the gap.
“The energy situation is dire; the fuel situation is particularly dire as evidenced by the long queues. We require about 1,6 billion litres of fuel every year, 1,12 billion diesel and about 570 million litres of petrol at a cost of $1,3 billion to US$1,5 billion per year,” Biti said.
“I want to underline US$ part; the government doesn’t have that money. My advice to the new (Energy minister Fortune Chasi) is that government should not try what it can’t do, it can’t buy fuel, it can’t give fuel companies money to buy because it doesn’t have the money.”
Zimbabwe’s cash shortages have crippled industry, forcing regular price hikes and triggering labour unrest.
Biti, credited by many for bringing stability to the fiscal space during his tenure as Finance minister in the inclusive government that ran from 2009 to 2013, said the solution to the glut of problems facing the country was to redollarise and end the RTGS dollar era.
“We need to liberalise fuel procurement. Anyone who has foreign currency, who can bring fuel should be able to bring it, but here is a catch; you can’t bring into Zimbabwe fuel in US$ and sell it in bond notes because soon you will run out of the foreign currency. So, the minute you liberalise fuel you must essentially redollarise the economy,” Biti said.
Biti also called on Chasi to break fuel cartels accused of holding Mnangagwa’s government at ransom and fiddling with foreign currency pricing in the country.
“The minister has to break the fuel cartels; the oligopolies and monopolies that are controlling and stifling our fuel industry, the fuel in this country is controlled by two companies, Trafigura of Singapore. Singapore does not produce anything, why should Zimbabwe buy the bulk of its fuel from a middleman called Trafigura? He (Chasi) has to break that cartel. The pipeline is controlled by Glencore, I shall not mention its local partners. The minister must break that monopoly and allow competition,” he said.
But Chasi, instead, said he was more inclined at controlling demand by conjuring plans and legislation that could control usage of fuel and energy as opposed to meeting the demand.
Mnangagwa last week moved Jorum Gumbo from the Energy portfolio, presumably because he had failed to deal with the fuel crisis, which Chasi says he has solutions to.
“We are going to resolve the challenges. I cannot give you a date, but we are going to be moving at a fast pace, that’s what the situation demands.” Zimbabwe is, meanwhile, suffering a crippling power shortage as Zesa is failing to service a US$80 million debt to South Africa and Mozambique, who have been exporting electricity to the country.
Acting Zesa chief executive Patrick Chivaura said they have been hit by foreign currency shortages and do not have any solution until and unless the debts are serviced in full.
“We have not been able to pay any of our bills from August last year to date. South Africa can still give us power, but we still need to clear what we owe them, about $35 million and about the same amount we owe Mozambique. The major challenge is foreign currency,” he said.
The power utility is also struggling to recover a total of ZWL$1,2 billion in debts owed by government ministers, ministries and individuals.
By Own Correspondent| Blessing Kasiyamhuru, Zimbabwe Partnership for Prosperity (ZIPP) president has distanced his party from the current political dialogue being spearheaded by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Kasiyamhuru feels that the dialogue is not honestly addressing the major issues.
He said:
The parties to the national dialogue should clearly and honestly admit to a crisis or conflict in the system of governance of the State thus unanimously agreeing to go for the national dialogue as a crisis or conflict resolution move.
The dialogue should bring on board all conflict-fuelling issues and respective remedies, reforms or solutions that are unanimously agreed upon to address the crisis/conflict.
He also highlighted the importance of having a credible convenor who is agreed upon by all stakeholders to the dialogue.
He said:
The convener should be a single person, group of people, an organisation or coalition of organisations.
No matter how the national dialogue is modelled, the convener should be respected by the majority of the citizens and should not have any political aspirations or goals that would present an obvious conflict of interest for fear that the dialogue will bring more conflict than sanity to the status quo.
An effective national dialogue should involve representation of all stakeholders in the deliberations so that real drivers of the conflict are well addressed.
Kasiyamhuru also said that it was fundamental to have public consultations so as to have input and endorsement from the general populace.
The main opposition has also snubbed the dialogue.
Most of the South Africans caught up in an explosion that damaged a tourist bus near Egypt’s famed Giza pyramids arrived safely at OR Tambo International Airport on Monday.
Department of international relations and co-operation (Dirco) spokesperson Ndivhuwo Mabaya said four of the 28 affected South Africans had remained in Egypt.
Three of them are still being treated in hospital, while one woman had chosen to stay and assist her injured husband, said Mabaya.
According to AFP, the roadside bomb went off as the bus was being driven into Giza, also causing injuries to Egyptians in a nearby car.
At least 17 people were injured during the blast.
“Minister Sisulu wishes those admitted in hospital a speedy recovery and has also directed South Africa’s ambassador to Egypt to give them all necessary support,” added Mabaya.
By Own Correspondent| MDC president Nelson Chamisa has warned President Emmerson Mnangagwa that his presidency will not last 5 years, as “the walls of Jericho are falling”.
Chamisa reiterated his position that he won last year’s presidential election, where the winner was declared to be the ZANU PF candidate with 50.6%.
Speaking to a large crowd that had gathered for the Party’s Thank You rally in Chiredzi over the weekend, Chamisa said:
We are not moving away from the July victory, that is why we are coming to thank you because we know you voted for the right person, but the wrong person grabbed power. He will not last in that position.
We are going to sort this problem soon. Some of you will ask me how, but we are prayer warriors.
We pray and do, do and pray, pray and do… the answer will come. Look, the walls of Jericho are falling, hunger is pulverising the country.
… You voted overwhelmingly and the fault is not yours. We beat ED (Mnangagwa). He knows that in the July elections we beat him, he knows the vote was given to his younger brother.
Chamisa said he will let the party’s lawyers deal with the High Court ruling that declared his presidency null and void.
He advised his erstwhile colleague Thokozani Khupe, MDC-T president to move own with her own party.-Newsday
A TOP official in the Justice ministry who operated a bogus theological college offering fake degrees to unsuspecting people in and around Marondera, was on Friday arraigned before magistrate Rumbidzai Munemo facing three counts of fraud.
Denison Mazana (59), a Mashonaland East Provincial accountant with the ministry is being charged alongside Charles Jusa (58) for operating the unregistered Addulam School of Ministry Institute.
Mazana has since been suspended by his employer until the matter is finalised.
The two are expected to return to court next week as prosecutors are seeking to transfer the case given that Mazana was stationed at Marondera Magistrates’ Court.
According to courts papers, on the first count, sometime in February last year, the accused persons approached a Macheke businessman Edmond Muyengwa (39) and misrepresented to him that their institution was genuine and offering a theology degree programme.
Muyengwa then enrolled with the institution and was made to pay tuition fees amounting to $730. In November last year, after completing the programme, the accused persons failed to issue a certificate to Muyengwa, who then reported the matter to the police.
Using the same modus operandi, the duo approached a Macheke teacher Tracy Kurebwa (43), who enrolled with the institution in February last year after paying tuition of $740. After completing the programme in November last year, she, however, failed to get her certificate. She reported the matter to police.
Police investigated and discovered that the institution was not registered with the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education, leading to the arrest of the accused.
WORLD soccer governing body, Fifa has pledged to construct a modern football stadium in Chimanimani as part of efforts to help rehabilitate sporting facilities that were destroyed by Cyclone Idai.
The cyclone-induced floods left a trail of destruction in Chimanimani and other eastern parts of the country in March this year killing 344 people.
Fifa, through its foundation, this month dispatched two officials Segbe Pritchett and Catarina Ferreira, who toured the three countries including Mozambique and Malawi, which were affected by the disaster.
They arrived in Harare on Saturday after touring Malawi and Mozambique. Yesterday, they held a meeting with government and Zifa officials, after which they pledged to help build a stadium, some pitches, as well as providing equipment.
“We have seen the extent of damage that has been done in the area and our vision is to try and support as much as possible the affected communities through Zifa,” Pritchett said.
“We had a meeting with Zifa and they gave us an idea of what kind of support that is needed to support the affected areas in Zimbabwe. We are looking at two kinds of support. The first one, which is quite immediate, is equipment, so we will try to provide balls and kits for the children to be able to play. I don’t know how long it will take to get the equipment here because sometimes the shipment as well as the customs, it might take weeks or months. But that is something that is definitely in the pipeline and will be happening as soon as possible.”
Established last year, the Fifa Foundation was created as an independent entity with objectives to help promote positive social change around the world and raise support for the recovery and reconstruction of damaged or destroyed sports infrastructure worldwide.
“Then in the later stages obviously the idea will be to construct some pitches and stadiums in the area that has been devastated by the cyclone. We will construct one stadium, and maybe 15 pitches, open areas that will be supporting the different communities. That would take a little bit longer, hopefully in a year we will be able to inaugurate an area that the community will be able to use as a very nice ground to play football. We want to construct something better than what you had before, better quality, to be able to support the community and who knows, maybe discover an amazing footballer in the coming years who will represent Zimbabwe in a future big football event,” Pritchett said.
Pritchett said they are yet to establish the budget for the project, but assured Zifa that they would keep their promise.
Zifa president Felton Kamambo, whose association in March also donated to the Cyclone Idai victims, said: “We approached Fifa for assistance so that they can help us rehabilitate the stadiums and pitches and also provide some equipment for schools in the affected communities. We made a special request to Fifa that they can assist us by building a state-of-the-art stadium.
“Provisionally, they have agreed to that, and they have also agreed to help rehabilitate some pitches at different schools in Manicaland so it was a very effective meeting. In terms of equipment, we will give them a breakdown of the quantities that we need. We want to give the equipment to every ward, to make sure that there if football being played at that level.”
The government has pledged to provide space for the construction of the stadium.
This week will be my last as MDC Assembly of Women Chair and I am going to miss you all. I know that in future my heart and soul will always be grateful for the support you gave me as Assembly of Women Chair.
I want to thank the entire MDC Women Assembly Team not exluding the MDC members and stakeholders for having walked a 5 year journey with me as MDC Assembly of Women Chair. Thank you all
It’s not been an easy journey, and of course I’ve not got every decision right, but I do believe that I have given my all as evidenced by my works and the support I have given President Chamisa and the late Dr. Morgan Tsvangirayi whilst performing my duties and funtions as Assembly of Women Chair.
This coming week we have our MDC national congress and you are all aware I am contesting for the female VP post. I am humbly asking all the women i have worked with, MPS I have worked with, the Youth I have worked with, Members of the Executive and all MDC congress delagetes country wide to give me their special vote so I may continue to serve you and in particular supporting our President Advocate Chamisa in bringing freedom to all Zimbabweans. We still have a long journey to walk and allow me to walk with you as one of the MDC VPS. I have learned a lot from my grassroots days up to now as a member of the SC, Women leader, parliament and different Executive portfolios. My experience should help you in making your voting decision.
Finally, I’m confident that my successor and her successors in the position that I’ve been so privileged to hold will continue to lead smartly, tirelessly, courageously to make the MDC more united, more prosperous, whilst fighting for the rights of women in the MDC and country wide.
By Dr Masimba Mavaza| It was clear to all but few that any unlikely agreement with Chamisa would only lead to further the agenda of regime change. The unconstitutional removal of the constitutionally elected government is the push behind the call for engaging the MDC A.
