Philani Noble | PROFILE | Philani Noble who was elected the new People First party UK leader is based in the North East of England. He is the 2nd born of five siblings: 3 girls two boys.
DOB 17-02-1977 born in insiza Fulabusi, he grew up in Montrose Surbabs & Emakhandeni Township. He did his primary at Helem primary and came out a Top Class student at Milton High School Bulawayo. He then continued college at Barnfield College in Bedfordshire UK specialising in Performing Arts & Film Studies.

Soon after that he went to Luton & Sunderland University where he studied Information Technology & Business Management.
He currently runs a Charity 4cs www.the4csne.com which stands for Climate Change Community Champions.
He is also a businessman interested in Telecoms, Health & Information Technology.
Past politics:
Youth Activist for the Liberty Party
IT chief for UK & Ireland United MDC-T under Washington Ali
Secretary for Information & Publicity in Split MDC M
Also a Community Activist on Asylum & Immigration issues and was chief architect instrumental in pressurising and winning a ground breaking moratorium on forced returns of failed asylum seekers from Britain to Zimbabwe in 2005 up to now.
Hobbies:
Traveling
Reading
Technology

A police officer stationed at Chitungwiza Police Station was last week sentenced to an effective six months in prison for assaulting a woman who had come to see her son at the station.
Constable Jacob Tsatse (29) of ZRP New Camp had once arrested the complainant Erina Chikumbanerwande (40) of Unit L in the same town. The court heard that on October 12 last year at around 10pm, Chikumbanerwande was at the station visiting her son who was under arrest.
While in the charge office, Chikumbanerwande had a heated argument with Tsatse who followed her on her way out. Tsatse called for another police officer to apprehend Chikumbanerwande at the main gate on the grounds that she was fleeing from lawful custody.
The court heard that Tsatse slapped Chikumbanerwande several times, twisting her hand and kicking her on the ankle on her left leg.
After the assault, Tsatse handcuffed Chikumbanerwande and detained her in the cells at the police station. Later on, Tsatse released Chikumbanerwande, who went to seek medical attention.
Appearing before Chitungwiza magistrate Mr Takunda Mutetwa, Tsatse denied assault charges, but was convicted after prosecutor Ms Ntombikayise Nleya proved a strong case against him.
Mr Mutetwa slapped him with a nine-month jail term with three months suspended for five years.
In passing sentence, Mr Mutetwa slammed Tsatse for bringing the name of the police into disrepute.
“You are a custodian of the law and what you did on the day was uncalled for,” he said.

President Robert Mugabe is not guilty of allowing the continued bloodshed in the Burundi conflict during his term as Africa Union chair, his spokesman says while laying the blame on Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.
Mr George Charamba says Mugabe did not neglect Burundi. He defended his boss saying contrary to the said “misconception” that Mugabe did very little to solve the conflict, he actually did all he could within his means but was limited by jurisdiction.
Charamba said “the procedure of the AU is not to run everything from the centre, but rather it is to build from the blocs.”
“The instrument of first intervention is always the regional entity, it is the organ of first instance in conflict resolution. In the case of Burundi, that organ would be the East African Community (EAC) through President (Yoweri) Museveni, which explains why the President of Uganda is the point man for Africa on Burundi,” said Charamba.
“The EAC initiative on Burundi is in full swing, and they have not indicated to the AU that they have run into a cul-de-sac. It would have been premature for the then AU Chairman to invite himself into Burundi as he worked on the recommendation of the regional bloc concerned,” he added.
Charamba also said the decision to intervene militarily in a sovereign country with a standing government is a very heavy one as it involves lives, peace and security.
“We are all seeing the horror of Libya which came about because of precipitous interventions,” said Charamba, adding that the then chairman was strictly procedural, circumspect and mindful on the issue of military intervention.

Workers at Duration Gold owned Vumbachikwe mine in Gwanda have been ripped off thousands of dollars in dodgy salary deductions by the company whose directors claim to be well protected by former Indigenization Minister Saviour Kasukuwere.
The huge gold producing mine has been “stealing” money utilising fake deductions from the workers’ salaries, which are never processed as stipulated on paper, ZimEye can reveal.
Top on the list of deductions not remitted to the authorities are pension funds meant for the Mining Industry Pensions Fund and the Mine Workers Union of Zimbabwe. Documentary evidence ZimEye this week begins offloading shows sums being taken by the company and never paid out as required. The MIPF has revealed to ZimEye.com that the company has dodged contributions for several years.
This development is the latest after numerous others involving the actual salaries thereof. Late last year the Messenger of Court in Bulawayo attached the mine’s biggest front end loader for auction to pay the workers’ union the outstanding amounts. The earth moving machine valued at nearly (1)one hundred thousand dollars, was rescued from auction after the company at the last hurried to enter into an arrangement which involved an immediate down payment of $18 000.
Sources within the mine reveal to ZimEye.com that the white owners of the mine who took it over ownership from Forbes and Thompson Gwanda, have been on a spree of removing the black top management replacing them with white foreigners.
Some of the foreign new managers are said to be working in the country without proper documentation and yet the entity knowingly facilitates their stay and employment in the country.
The workers complain that the original management team left in charge by Forbes and Thompson is being sent on early retirement before the age of 65 stated as their retirement age in the contracts of employment. The mine management is sending them on retirement without any retirement packages and the Pensions Fund is neither paying them anything as a result of the non remittance of pensions contributions.
The sources further claim that the owners of the mine always threaten the workers with dismissal or some unspecified action saying that nothing will ever be done to them as they have the protection of ZANU PF national commissar Saviour Kasukuwere.
The mine which is one of the top gold producers in the country has been subject of indigenization law concerns for a number of years as it continues failing to meet the country’s indigenization requirements.
In his time as Minister of Indigenization and Youth Empowerment, Kasukuwere was accused of accepting secret arrangements with white mine owners contrary to the laws of the country. According to media reports his dealings with the mine owners eventually led to his removal from the Ministry as massive corruption was suspected in the dealings.
Kasukuwere is in the process of constructing one of the most expensive mansions in the country, his private residence. Efforts to obtain his comment failed as he did not respond even after a 60 day waiting period.

President Robert Mugabe took time to sleep during the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa yesterday. Below are some picture morsels ALSO READ: VIDEO-Mugabe Nearly Collapses Onto Podium.

President Robert Mugabe yesterday threatened to pull out of the United Nations saying the organisation is not democratic.

State Media report– African countries will not hesitate to walk away from the United Nations if Westerners continue to block efforts to reform and democratise the organisation, President Mugabe has said.
In an address interrupted several times by thunderous applause, appreciative whistling and standing ovations from Heads of State and other delegates yesterday, the outgoing African Union Chair warned that the day was coming when the continent would say enough was enough.
The no-holds-barred speech, made as President Mugabe opened the 26th Ordinary Summit of the AU in Addis Ababa, was a tour de force in oratory and gave the world nearly an hour of the Zimbabwean leader at his imperious and peerless best on the international stage.
From the start, when giving an impassioned call to action on the Palestine issue, to the end when President Mugabe announced Chad’s President Idriss Déby Itno as his successor at the AU, the gloves were off.
Indeed, on assuming the Chairmanship, President Déby conceded that it was not everyone who could give such a frank talk on the state of Africa and the world.
President Mugabe spoke soon after Palestine’s President Mahmoud Abbas thanked Africa for its support for a two-state solution to end Israeli aggression in the Middle East.
The Zimbabwean Head of State and Government, credited before the Summit for bringing the Palestinian question back to the centre, rallied African support for fellow oppressed peoples.
He spoke with real fire about the world sitting back as Israel brutalised Palestine — he was to use similarly powerful language later on when denouncing global inaction over Morocco’s continued colonisation of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic — before neatly tying this in with the warning that continued injustice would see the continent abandon the UN.
UN Secretary-General Mr Ban Ki-Moon sat at the high table with President Mugabe, and nodded his head as the outgoing AU Chair passionately spelt out the travesty of denying African countries equality in the comity of nations.
“We are supposed to be free and independent Mr Ban Ki Moon; supposed to be free— the 54 countries (of Africa). We come to the United Nations for the ceremonial (General Assembly); every year, September, we are there.
“We pay lots of money, go there and attend the General Assembly and make speeches, go back home: year in year out.
“But the bosses in the Security Council say you shall never have the powers that we have as permanent members … Reform the Security Council!” President Mugabe thundered as African leaders stood as a body in sustained applause, the second such interlude of note after the earlier approbation following his remarks on justice for Palestine.
And with the charm that he is renowned for, President Mugabe pressed home the point with a light touch that drew a mixture of laughs and applause when he continued: “I want to tell you, Mr Ban Ki-Moon, you are a good man. But, of course, that does not make you a fighter; it’s not what your mission was.”
Then it was back to straight shooting and the warning that Africa would pull out of the UN.
“We will fight for our own identity, for our own integrity and personality as Africans. We are Africans. If we decide – and we shall certainly do so one of these days – that down with the United Nations, (then) we are not members of it.
“Others are real members of it, we are artificial members of it. We can’t continue to be artificial members of it
How can only a handful of people (dominate the Security Council)?
“In fact, there is only America and the Europeans – those who say they are white-skinned. . .because they are white-skinned. ‘Anyone who is not like us shall not have the powers, strength and integrity that we have.’ If the United Nations is to survive, we must be equal members of it; equal members who can say when we go to the body, that we are now speaking fully as members with a voice that’s understood, respected and honoured.
“But no, that’s not it. We met in Swaziland years ago and we came up with (the) Ezulwini Consensus. We have said we want two permanent members with a veto if the veto is to continue. We don’t like it, but if the veto is to be retained those (African) members must also have IT, but if the veto is to be abolished they shall be like others.”
The AU’s common position on UN reform as captured by the Ezulwini Consensus demands at least two permanent seats with veto power and five rotating seats on the Security Council.
Britain, China, France, Russia and the US are the current veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council.
China and Russia have been open to discussing reforms, as have emerging powers like India and Brazil who also want to sit on the Security Council.
President Mugabe also questioned why the UN was headquartered in the United States and yet the majority of the organisation’s membership could be found in Africa and Asia.
The outgoing AU Chair had one last – good humoured but profound – message for Mr Ban, when he said “tell them (Security Council), for the last time that we are also humans and not ghosts”.
“We also belong to the world. Africa shall no longer tolerate slavery by any means; by denial of rights. . .I hope you will hear from us on the issue of the United Nations reform.
“You’re a good man, you’ve visited our countries where diseases have visited and where calamities and terrorism have taken place. We say thank you. That distinguishes you from others. We know where you come from” President Mugabe said, drawing yet more laughter.
The President aimed a blow at US leader Mr Barrack Obama, asking: “But what is he? A voice made to speak their language, to act their act and not our act. They are still superior.”
He painted a picture of the horror of being black in the United States, saying people of colour were shot by white authorities on the streets and “nobody seems to talk about it, but today instead they still want to talk about us”.
President Mugabe rounded off that matter by saying Western interference in African affairs was directed at trying to plant pliant governments on the continent, adding that the colonial agenda had taken on the robes of NGOs – again drawing enthusiastic applause.
Using their various covers, the agents of neo-colonialism, President Mugabe said, were dispersed all over the continent as “spies, pretenders, some say they are here in Africa to assist us, even in armed groups in our territories”.
In a laugh-inducing farewell to the AU Assembly, he told President Déby he was available to render advice thus: “I will still be there, until God says ‘come join the other angels’.”
President Mugabe also said it “was an honour to guide our organisation to implement its vision of the Africa We Want”.
The applause was long and warm as President Mugabe made his way off the podium, twice raising his fist in a salute that brought the entire AU Assembly to its feet.
And there were to be more laughs when he pretended to hit President Déby over the head with the AU Chairman’s gavel as he handed over the mantle.

A Gwanda nurse who claims that her low salary caused her to live out of shoplifting was yesterday nabbed by security guards at an OK Supermarket in the town.
25 year old Sikhanyisiwe Moyo who is employed as a nurse at Phakama Clinic in Gwanda was arrested by the alert security guards as she tried to walk out of the shop with ten 750ml bottles of Viceroy Brandy.
The arrest led to the recovery of several other items stolen from the chain store by Moyo using the same tactic.
Moyo is reported to have been repeatedly going to the supermarket in her nursing uniform and would pick up groceries listed on an old till slip from the store and walk straight to the exit with the groceries and make her way through the unsuspecting guards who would release the goods on the strength of the old receipt.
Her luck came to an abrupt end yesterday after an alert CCTV monitoring guard realised that the nurse pushed a shopping trolley with ten bottles of brandy straight to the exit point without going through the pay points.
The guard immediately alerted his colleagues at the door who double-checked the till slip only to discover it was an old till slip leading to her immediate arrest.
One of the security guards immediately remembered that the nurse had gone out of the shop with groceries on two occasions on that day which led the police to go for a search at her home where more groceries and till slips from OK Supermarket were recovered.
It was “street drama” in the town when police officers ordered the handcuffed nurse to push a trolley full of groceries through the streets of the townships to the police station.
Questioned upon arrest why she was on a shoplifting frenzy, the kleptomaniac nurse claimed that she was resorting to the criminal life because her salary was not enough to cater for her family’s needs. The nurse blamed the delays in getting their salaries as another contributing factor to the life she was leading.
Several incidents of professionally employed people nabbed for shoplifting have been reported in the country. In one case a doctor was arrested for stealing a packet of cigarettes as he did not have money due to delayed salary payments by government.
Moyo will appear at the Gwanda magistrate’s court on Monday on the charge of several counts of shoplifting.

Government has once again reiterated that the public sector employees’ 13th cheque will be paid without fail and dates for the payments will be announced soon.
This comes as civil servants’ representatives have refuted reports that they will go on strike over the bonuses, saying that they have engaged Government on the best structure of disbursing payments.
Civil servants have been anxious over the delay in bonus payments, but Government has repeatedly said it will burn the candle at both ends to mobilise resources and honour its commitment to pay the 13th cheque.
Speaking to The Sunday Mail last week, Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Prisca Mupfumira said Government would not let down its workers on the bonus payments.
“Regarding the issue of payment of 2015 annual bonuses, my Ministry is currently finalising consultations with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development,” she said.
“It should be noted that Government has not reneged on its commitment to pay annual bonuses. As soon as the consultations are through, dates for payment will be announced.”
Minister Mupfumira said it is Government policy to pay bonuses on an indiscriminate scale.
“Civil servants have always been belittled and ridiculed from all corners of society. Government has since restructured to ensure that all civil servants are qualified for whatever position held,” she said.
“Therefore, Government does not share the sentiments that its employees are drunkards, but professionals that are responsible for the administration of the country in terms of Section 199 of the Constitution.
“There has never been an official position regarding the alleged wayward behaviour and they deserve to be paid their bonuses. Government is yet to implement performance related bonuses.”
Recently, some statements were attributed to Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Minister, Professor Jonathan Moyo who is said to have argued that civil servants’ bonuses must be performance related.
Commenting on the payment structure, Minister Mupfumira said it is common for Government to stagger payments.
“Historically, pay dates have always been structured as such without problems. Government adheres to the principle of quality and impartiality hence does not favour any group of its employees, it treats them equally.
“Staggering pay dates for employees has been the norm and Government has considered numbers of personnel in each sector considering the rate at which it can mobilise resources.
“It is imperative to note that all sectors get their salaries after every four weeks.” Speaking to this The Sunday Mail yesterday, Apex Council representative, Mr Sifiso Ndlovu dismissed reports of a looming civil servants strike over bonus.
“It is not true that we are planning a strike, what we have simply done, as Zimta, is that we have taken the Government to court over the issue.
“The commitment to pay bonuses from His Excellency is very clear. What is not clear however, is the date of payment. So we are waiting for the Minister of Labour (Mupfumira) to confirm a date of payment.
“The rumour that we are planning to strike is not true at all,” he stressed.
President of the Zimbabwe Teachers Association, Mr Ruchard Gundani concurred with Mr Ndlovu.
“We are not at the point of striking. We understand Government’s position on the bonuses and consultations are ongoing.
“We are waiting for a meeting to be held on February 10, which is a follow up meeting to discussions we held on the 6th of January.” State Media

MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai is heading to Masvingo where he seeks to win back support.
Tsvangirai will be addressing five rallies in Masvingo to rejuvenate his supporters as he prepares for what calls his last battle.
The rallies comes after thousands of supporters deserted him to now support former Vice President Joice Mujuru.
Yesterday he was in the province where he attended the provincial executive meeting.
MDC-T Masvingo Provincial Spokesperson Dust Zivhave confirmed the rallies in an interview with the local Mirror.
“President Morgan Tsvangirai will on Saturday attend a provincial council meeting that will be at our provincial offices. He will use the meeting to familiarise with party structures and as a province we will be preparing for his tour of the province.
“The president will address rallies in five districts starting on 10 February in Gutu, Bikita, Chivi, Masvingo and Chiredzi. He will use the rallies to meet the big MDC-T family and tell them the vision of the party which will definitely be in power come 2018” said Zivhave.
From the 10th of February,Tsvangirai will hold a rally at Mukore in Bikita, then he will be at Bhasera in Gutu on 11 February.  He will continue with his rallies on the 12th  of February, and address his supporters at Ngundu in Chivi before making another address at Muchakata in Masvingo on 13 February. He is going to hold his  last rally  at Tshovani Stadium in Chiredzi on 14 February.
Tsvangirai`s visit to the Province came at a time when some of his supporters as well as those from Zanu PF are  defecting to joini the newly formed People First party.