There is no more miracle cash, and miracle babies have suddenly become a thing of the dreaming human imagination – Harare preacher Emmanuel Makandiwa has been left with an egg of his face after his so called ‘miracles’ vanished and are no longer happening.
In 2012-13, Makandiwa shot to fame raking millions of dollars in donations after thousands of Zimbabweans flocked to his meetings when told they could receive instant miracle cash. The frenzy even caught Zimbabwe’s former Reserve Bank Gideon Gono who himself ended up joining the prophets, going to the extent of passing his seal of approval.
But soon after journalists began investigating the incidents and started interrogating the preachers, two years later there is not a single mention of any such miracle.
In the same vein, a miracle baby Makandiwa claimed to have been born 3 days after sex, died and the preacher conducted a secret burial for him where journalists were barred from filming. This reporter followed up with Makandiwa and was for several days kept waiting as his staff members blocked any contact with the man of the cloth.
In June ZimEye.com exposed another scam by Makandiwa which involved fake fat belly miracles. Soon after that the Kwekwe woman Makandiwa used to stage one of the acts, evaded questions when asked for her medical records to prove she had indeed been healed and that she had of a truth suffered from a fat belly condition. “Don’t you have any other stories to investigate?,” she said.
She continued,
“It seems you are now spending your life studying Mai Muza,” Betty Muza said much to Makandiwa’s humiliation.
The development has seen prominent theologian, elder with 25 years of ministry experience and upstanding church founder, Dr. Noah Pashapa blasting Zimbabwe’s fake prophets.
Episode 5 of Tonight With Zororo (Makamba) focused on the evolution of the church in Zimbabwe, and Zororo started off by recounting his personal experience after visiting one of the popular Pentecostal churches in the country.
“When Papa would say something that resonated with his audience, members of the congregation would spontaneously stand up, and splash money on the stage,” Makamba said.
He went onto close his animated monologue by saying Prophet can now easily be mistaken for the word profit.
In the last few years, Pentecostal churches in Zimbabwe have grown tremendously. The three religious leaders at the centre of the growth are Prophets Emmanuel Makandiwa of UFI Ministries, Walter Magaya of PHD Ministries and Spirit Embassy founder Ubert Angel.
When describing the character of his religious counterparts Pashapa said they lacked a depth of understanding in a number of things.
“They (prophets) lack philosophy of religion, training in theology and understanding of the polity of the church.
“’These chaps are briefcase church leaders who have spent a few weeks, months at most, in ‘theological’ school,” he said.
Many workers and companies are feeling the pinch of the current economic hardships and have flocked to the church in pursuit of a change in fortune.
The gospel of prosperity has been the underlying message for many of these charismatic churches.
“Theirs is a gold spell of prosperity, gold being the underline. It takes from the poor to enrich the teachers.
“They engage in superficial care and concern activities, whilst robbing from the poor and enriching themselves,” Pashapa said.
Critics have argued that churches have become money-making schemes. The churches have become synonymous with miracles, healings, signs, wonders and prophecies. In 2013, Makandiwa and Angel boasted of Miracle Money which would see subscribers of this claim having extra money in their bank accounts and wallets.
During the interview with Zororo, Bishop Pashapa also recalled a conversation he had with one of the church leaders.
“He and his wife take the offerings and I remember hearing one of the chaps boast that they count the money until they were tired,” he said.
“They have a very myopic understanding of the church. Just their little group is the only authority on the church and everyone else is wrong.
“Just their brand of Christianity subscribes to one strand which is the gospel of prosperity message which focuses on material items of wealth.”
When asked how to spot a fake prophet Pashapa said church goers must raise eyebrows if the leader becomes the focus of the message.
Pashapa, who has been ministering God’s Word for the past 25 years, said, at the end of the day, you are bound to have light and shadow and the church is no exception because it’s run by human beings.
This episode also saw comedians P.O Box making their debut in a hilarious skit. Afro-Pop singer Tinashe Makura closed out with a performance of his latest single Love & Laughter on the Coca-Cola sound stage. Previous episodes of Tonight with Zororo can be found at www.twzshow.com

Zimbabwe’s Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa has slapped in the face Zimbabwe’s pentecostal prophets led by Emmanuel Makandiwa and Walter Magaya saying the “anointed” preachers must prophesy-out what happened to abducted democracy activist Itai Dzamara.
Dzamara, a journalist and political activist, disappeared on the 9th of March 2015 and government’s notorious CIO has been blamed for it all.
But Mnangagwa denied this saying government is also looking for what he said is a mere “answer”.
Mnangagwa told the Zanu PF Midlands Provincial Co-ordinating Committee meeting that everyone regrets what happened to Dzamara and the government is looking for answers.
The Vice President said every single citizen must be protected by the state and security agents including the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) are all out trying to find out what could have happened to Dzamara.
“We all regret what happened to Itai Dzamara and as government we have no answers. Both the police and the CIO are all out to try and find out what happened. Every single citizen must be protected by the state,” said Mnangagwa.
He then added that prophets must join and prophesy out what on earth is going on.
“We appeal to churches, including prophets (Magaya, Makandiwa), who can assist in finding Dzamara to do so as everyone is worried and concerned about him,” he added.
The High Court has since ordered state to regularly report to Dzamara’s lawyers and family about the progress made in the search and the investigation into his disappearance.

Patients at the Gwanda Provincial Hospital are having no time to concentrate on their recovery process as they have to fight off marauding stray cats in the wards.
A source recently admitted at the hospital revealed to ZimEye.com that patients can hardly get their rest as the marauding cats run around the wards in search for food at the patients’ lockers. According to the source the cats now said to be witchcraft agents, are so cunning that they do not have to wait until night time to scavenge for food inside the wards.
“You can’t take time to relax because the moment you relax you hear things falling apart on or inside the lockers the cats stealing food stuff,” he said. “It’s just the same whether it’s at night or during the day.”
“The hospital staff appear to have given up the fight against the cats as they are not doing much to fight them off,” added the source in a WhatsApp tip off to the media.
Following up on the matter, several patients and members of staff within the hospital confirmed the menace of the cats to ZimEye.com. According to the sources within the hospital, the problem is more profound in the Female Ward and the hospital kitchen than anywhere else in the hospital.
“It’s a little better here in the male ward which is close to the busy Out Patients area,” said an employee at the hospital. “The situation is very bad at the female ward which is slightly to the back of the hospital where the cats easily sneak into the ward from the rear windows,” he added.
“These cats are so troublesome that they even get into cars parked within the hospital area searching for food,” said an official. “The only good thing about them us that they have eliminated the problem of rats and mice we experienced some years back.”
A quick tour around the hospital complex by the ZimEye.com correspondent revealed that the hospital is indeed a home to scores of stray cats. The animals were seen walking randomly around the hospital grounds without any restriction nor fear.
A visitor to the hospital identified as Lynette Dube lamented bitterly at the influx of the cats in the hospital calling on the authorities to get rid of the animals as they are a menace at the hospital and likely to carry infections into the hospital.
“My husband has been at the male ward for a while now and we can’t leave him extra food for him to eat later when he is hungry because the moment he falls asleep the food is stolen by the cats,” she said.
“It’s even getting very expensive for us because we now have to visit the hospital three times a day to bring him food,” said the relative.
Comment could not immediately be obtained from the hospital administrator but workers at the hospital confirmed and expressed their disgust at the animals claiming that the hospital has conceded loss in the fight against the cats.
An official within the hospital wards urged relatives of the sick not to bring too much food stuff for the patients as the excess food attracts the cats into the wards.
“Where possible I would urge relatives to bring in just enough food stuff for the patient to eat and finish and maybe just a little extra which can be put away easier as lots of food packed on the lockers attracts the cats.”

“Spotting A False Prophet,”  By Dr Noah Pashapa
There are simple ways of detecting a false prophet, prominent church founder, academic and theologian, Dr. Noah Pashapa says in a development that has seen Prophets Emmanuel Makandiwa, and Walter Magaya publicly fingered for the manner in which they dabble in crafted miracles and cash takings. “All Bishop’s words point at Makandiwa and Magaya, how can Zimbabweans forget for instance the fake fat belly miracle?” scholar Andrew Dube said on Tuesday.
Speaking to TV presenter Zororo Makamba, Dr Pashapa said there are signs that are easy to see which instantly display a false preacher. The preacher who has been behind the pulpit for over 25 years, said, “there are indicators in the Bible but one of the most critical ones is anyone who begins to focus on themselves: their whole message, the whole organisation revolves around them. They have become a personality cult.  They have become “the” important component. That is your indicator number one, because John The Baptist said Jsus must increase, I must decrease. I am not even fit to tie the thread of his sandals.
“Number 2 – You judge them by the fruit, their character. If some is out to milk, is out to manipulate. He is using the power of suggestion. People are told I have prayed for you you are healed, stop taking your medication…In Jesus’ time he heals the people who have leprosy,  he says to them go consult the doctors because the priests of the day were the doctors.
“So he says to the ten lepers you go consult with the priests who will confirm you have been healed for sure. But these chaps don’t do that. In fact they say to people you don’t go to the doctors. I am telling you you are healed instantaneously, and completely. There is no room for partial gradual healing. And there is no room for no healing…”
“A lot of these people are now looking for medical attention when it is too late.”
Pashapa said spiritual deception has become rampant due to the Zimbabwean political environment for over 35 years continuing to impose a “very terrorised mentality” in the people.

VIDEO:

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai once fled Zimbabwe to hide in the house of the new SADC head Botswana’s President Ian Khama while running away from President Robert Mugabe. This time Tsvangirai has hinted his colleague, Khama  is going to slam into Mugabe and deal with his regime,  now that he has the powers as the new SADC chairman.
All this is because the entire SADC region is being suffocated by Mugabe, Tsvangirai graphically pointed.
Addressing journalists on a wide range of issues, Tsvangirai said that Mugabe’s “destructive” Presidency seen to continue into his 94th birthday, is going to make the Tsvangirai ally, Khama, to do something on on the aged leader.
He said this when asked if he thinks Khama will act on Mugabe. He replied in part, “the Zimbabwean crisis is pivotal in the economic progress of the whole region, so the crisis at the central affects the whole region.
“What it means is that SADC must say look we have a situation where the regime is unstable, it’s imploding… so you have three issues that are of concern to SADC that they need to address,” Tsvangirai said [SEE from time code 16:35]. FULL PRESS CONFERENCE:

• He would pleasure himself on the woman from midnight all the way up to 9am
• “Holiness”
• “It’s me Papa.”

The MDC Renewal Team is this weekend holding its elective congress which will see the party electing its substantive leaders as insider reports suggest that Tendai Biti, the secretary general has been nominated unopposed and will take over the party as interim leader Sipepa Nkomo deputises him.
The splinter group from the Morgan Tsvangirai led MDC will at the three day long congress which starts on the 21st of august up to the 23rd is also going to adopt and unveil the Party’s name, symbol and logo.
“We are also going to unveil the Party’s Key Policies and our much awaited economic blue print we have called Holistic Program for Economic Transformation (HOPE) which proposes real solutions to challenges that Zimbabwe is facing today,” Jacob Mafume the party’s spokesperson told ZimEye.com on Monday.
While avoiding the Biti issue, Mafume continued saying, “this is the platform which the party is going to unveil all its democratic process such as the Party’s Constitution we will unveil the our electoral demands document an Agenda for the Restoration and Rehabilitation of Electoral Sustainability (ARREST ) and the roadmap we are going to follow as a way forward”.
Mafume said the congress will run under the theme Reclaiming Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile a report that Biti is taking over the party gripped the movement and as at Monday afternoon, insiders were jostling for posts.
“We know Advocate Biti is taking over and no one can question that,” one male member said. Their claims were not officially corroborated at the time of writing. Efforts to reach Mr Biti for a comment were fruitless at the time of writing.

Fugitive preacher and abuser of women, Uebert Angel is dying of HIV AIDS, the preacher’s church staff members claim.
This follows an exclusive investigation by ZimEye.com for over several months into the man of the cloth now fully revealed as really a “man of the broth” as ZimEye.com prepares to offload a full video documentary expose’ on him.
Angel, real name Mudzanire has avoided journalists seeking his comment on the explosive matter.
His former Chief of Staff Terrence Madiro has however laid bare issues secretly discussed among members behind church walls.
Madiro tells a woman allegedly abused by Angel, “We will just hope that you earlier girls are well and we assume that perhaps that you were banged during the time he was still safe.” She (NN) reveals to Mr Terrence Madiro, (TM) she has something private she needs to tell the man. FULL INTERVIEW:
TM: We will just hope that you earlier girls are well and we assume that perhaps that you were banged during the time he was still safe.
NN: Safe, what are you trying to say?
TM: LAUGH
NN: Are you saying he is not well or what?
TM: I just said safe, I never said that he is not well.
NN: So which safe are you talking about then?
TM: Safe in that you can appease yourself that since he started on you, you were not touched by later dangers.
NN: What exactly?
TM: I mean catching the great disease, you never know.
NN: PAUSE. It’s very difficult and hard.
Terrence I have something to tell you but I am not sure if I can trust you.
TM: If you fail to trust me, remember I once looked for you at 3am, could I turn again to compromise you?
NN: I did say remember as I was shocked if you had come to threaten me, or you have come to talk to me.
TM: Hah no way, I never said or did anything to hurt you.
NN: By the way tell me about those messages we hear which are floating on Whatsapp. What’s going on?
TM: Which messages now?
NN: Someone is laying out several points on Angel.
TM: I haven’t see it. Let me in on it
NN: Ah the person is even saying she wants to write a book.
TM:Who is it?
NN:I don’t know but the person is from Spirit Embassy.
TM: What about the issue you want to reveal to me?
NN: Ah I hear that Bev has grown thin, what’s going on?
TM: Bev is it not an issue of stress? She has tended to watch her weight.
NN: Mhn!, I don’t think the level it has reached is still one of watching her weight.
TM: Is it now one of the great disease?
NN: I don’t know.
TM: Don’t speak to me in riddles.
NN: LAUGH.
TM: I am not playing up Terrence, I am asking you in all honesty as I am really concerned.
TM: Ah no, you just want to play with me here. Just tell me what you know. Why do you have to hide something that is now being talked the world over?
NN: You can say that again my friend there is nothing more someone like me Nyarai can still say, this person has blown everything into the open on his own.
TM: Yes..
NN: He used to lose his mind and pour everything out..
TM: You people used to be told about the Ruvimbos and the like.
TM: But you would then go and then leak to Lewis.
NN: Oh no I am telling you the truth. Who else was close?
TM: Mai Mutasa? Who else?

Dead end for the croc that ate the hippo?
Staff Reporter
Running to Mutare full of bubble hoping to get a thunderous reception of thousands of people, Vice President, Emmerson “Ngwena” Munangagwa was shocked to find only a handful of ZANU PF supporters waiting for him.

South Africa and Zulu King Zwelithini plots to secretly sneak into Zimbabwe for his brother’s wedding, ZimEye.com can reveal.
Up until the State Media broke the news that Zwelithini was on his way to Zimbabwe, the South Africa based organisers of the king’s trip to Zimbabwe thought they had it all under control.
Information appearing in South African media points to the direction that indeed a South Africa based Zimbabwean business man was undergoing the process of bringing the controversial king to grace his brother’s wedding in Gwanda at the end of August. Confirmed media reports from South Africa highlight that the businessman Mr Justice Maphosa had indeed approached the Zulu King with an invite to give his brother’s Gwanda wedding a royal blessing.
However, according to the New Age newspaper of South Africa the organisers of the King’s visit to Zimbabwe wanted the matter to be kept a secret and made a low profile visit. While the South African based organisers were still undergoing the process of clearing the king’s visit, local based organisers of the visit led by Pastor Sipho Mhizha of the Gwanda Brethren In Christ Church who will be presiding over the wedding disclosed to the local media that the Zulu King was on his way to Zimbabwe before all the diplomatic procedures to clear the king’s visit were completed.
The Zimbabwean media scoop appear to have muddled up all the preparations of the targeted secret visit of the king as Zimbabweans reacted angrily to the possibility of the King coming to Zimbabwe. Though received with mixed reactions, a majority of the people were against his coming to Zimbabwe following statements he made about foreigners in South Africa which led to very bloody xenophobic clashes in South Africa as citizens wanted foreigners out of their country in support of the king’s statement.
The angry reactions by the people of Zimbabwe prompted the King’s office in South Africa to deny the possibility of the King coming to Zimbabwe. Contacted for a comment by the New Age newspaper after the Royal Office’s decline of the rumours, Pastor Mhizha is said to have changed his previous confirmation that the king was indeed coming to Zimbabwe.
At the time of going to press it remains still unclear if King Zwelithini would still be able to make his way to Zimbabwe amid the resistance exhibited by the people of Zimbabwe. It is still yet to be established if the country’s foreign affairs ministry will clear the King to visit Zimbabwe after he directly blame President Robert Mugabe for the migration of Zimbabweans into South Africa describing him as a failed father.
South African music group, Freshly Ground, was recently refused entry into the country after they recorded a song which described President Robert Mugabe as a failed leader.

Six people are feared dead after a bloody accident occurred near an army barracks along the Harare road, Bulawayo.
The accident was all caused a police chase as ZRP cops pursued the driver for a spot fine, ZimEye.com can reveal.
The accident scene is on the outskirts of Park Lanes close to the dreaded Bred Barracks and soldiers were at the scene taking “selfies”.
The whole road was blocked on Thursday morning as police battled to rescue the casualities.
The accident was caused by a police chase after a Toyota Ipsum sped from marauding cops.
The Toyota tried to make a U-turn in front of a haulage truck while being chased by the police resulting in the horrific crash.
Witnesses told ZimEye.com the ZRP cops are “brooding for cash and in a short road distance of less than 8 kilometres they have mounted over  six road blocks.”

The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation ZBC has laid off close to 300 workers without any severence pay: The entire ZBC Gweru Radio Station called Voice of Zimbabwe and the Channel 2 based at Pockets Hill has been axed.
Sources at the state controlled Broadcasting station’s Pockets Hill head offices told ZimEye.com Wednesday that they suddenly received employment termination letters mid day Wednesday.
“It is true that there are some who have been given termination of employment letters, but I have not had the chance to see one (letter),” said a reporter who was in the Central Business District Wednesday afternoon.
In a statement to its members Wednesday the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists ZJU said
“Dear Comrades, unconfirmed reports indicate that more than 200 colleagues at ZBC have received three month notice termination letters”.
The dismissal of the ZBC employees is a result o f the July 17 Supreme Court ruling which gives the right to employers to terminate contracts of their employers on three months’ notice.
Sources at the Ministry of Information said the recommendations to trim the Parastatal’s workforce were done by the former Information Minister Jonathan Moyo.
ZBC spokesperson Gladman Bandama was not available for comment.

Philanthropist Jairos Jiri has been with us all this while more than 29 years after his recorded death, according to Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede’s office.
According to the office, the man only died 29 years later, in 2011 .

Robbers who used what residents described as “a bomb” to force break into a Zimpost and TELONE building in Binga last month have been nabbed.
Four suspects were arrested at the Binga tollgate on Friday afternoon on their way driving out of town.
The four are the ones suspected to have broken into the Binga ZIMPOST and TELONE security fence, further broke the burglary bars of the ZIMPOST window using a grinder gaining access. What residents thought was an accident was a violent raid by the robbers at around 3am on Monday 27th July, when they heard what they described as a loud dynamite explosion breaking off the cash safe.
The thugs got away with US$16,400 and left the security guard tied to a tree unhurt.
– See more at: http://www.zimeye.com/bomb-explosion/

THE Civil Service Commission (CSC) has embarked on a recruitment drive of teachers in the Bulawayo Metropolitan province to fill vacant posts in five districts. Scores of job seekers thronged the CSC offices at Mhlahlandlela building in Bulawayo last week to submit their applications. Officials said about 100 posts were up for grabs.
The recruitment is expected to reduce the shortage of teachers and beef up the delivery of quality education in the province. Among the applicants are university and college graduates with teaching or non-teaching qualifications. Retired teachers were also encouraged to apply.
Bulawayo Provincial Education Director, Dan Moyo, said on Friday that the vacancies were created following the transfer of some teachers to other provinces.
“A number of teachers have been cleared to transfer to other provinces. This has created vacancies which need to be filled. We need about 100 teachers in our five districts,” said Moyo.
According to an advert dated July 27, 2015, the recruitment is prioritising university graduates with teaching degrees, retired teachers, university graduates with non-teaching degrees, candidates with higher national diplomas and candidates with non-teaching diplomas.
The commission indicated that it would not recognise candidates who hold O and A-Level certificates only.
“Applications are invited from suitably qualified persons to fill relief, temporary and permanent teaching posts that have arisen in the Bulawayo province’s five districts,” reads part of the vacancy announcement.
Applicants were advised to submit applications indicating one district of their choice before August 21, 2015.
The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education reported that there was a critical shortage of teachers in the country, which has triggered a surge in the pupil to teacher ratio, especially in the rural areas.
The ministry also said there were more qualified teachers for languages than for Mathematics and Science subjects at secondary school level.
However, teachers’ unions have expressed concern on the over 3,000 qualified teachers who quit their jobs at the height of economic problems who are unemployed despite applying for re-employment in the civil service.

THREE gold panners were crushed to death at Geelong Mine in West Nicholson while the fourth one was seriously injured during an ill-fated search for gold in a 400 metre deep mineshaft. The bodies of the three men were retrieved yesterday at around 11AM following their death around midnight on Saturday.

Two ZRP recruits have been caught with fake O’Level certificates.
The two female twins were nabbed after submitting their papers Constabulary work.
They went for submissions last month when they triggered curiosity since they are identical twins and their names were appearing differently on the certificates.
The two Gladys Nyarai and Gracious Nyaradzai Marime (26) were convicted of the crime last week.
They however escaped a 9 month jail term after they were granted the option of community service at Chitungwiza Police Station.
The court heard that on July 30 this year, the twin sisters tendered their forged certificates at Chitungwiza Police Station seeking to be considered for training as police officers.
However, the receiving officer identified as Mavis Matenda became suspicious and immediately discovered that the surname on the certificates was different from their national identity cards.
Matenda then checked with Speciss College where the twins claimed to have sat for their “O”Level examinations and discovered that the certificates were fake.
This led to the twins’ arrest. (Newsday/Additional Reporting)

A victim of fugitive preacher Uebert Angel has spoken out hinting that the man inserted his manhood into her body. Worried that she contracted a deadly STD…..

…her confession is contained in a leaked recorded conversation with Angel’s former chief of Staff Terrence Madiro as the 37 year old preacher who makes church members address him as “Papa,” is fingered for sexually pleasuring himself on unsuspecting women from his church.

Since ZimEye.com blew the investigation findings on Angel, news readers have requested for a translation of the audio. The impeccable recording came after the same woman was forced to utter a denial saying, “Prophet Angel did not rape me.” She (NN) however later spoke to Mr Terrence Madiro, (TM) who engages her in the below:
TM: We will just hope that you earlier girls are well and we assume that perhaps that you were banged during the time he was still safe.
NN: Safe, what are you trying to say?
TM: LAUGH
NN: Are you saying he is not well or what?
TM: I just said safe, I never said that he is not well.
NN: So which safe are you talking about then?
TM: Safe in that you can appease yourself that since he started on you, you were not touched by later dangers.
NN: What exactly?
TM: I mean catching the great disease, you never know.
NN: PAUSE. It’s very difficult and hard.
Terrence I have something to tell you but I am not sure if I can trust you.
TM: If you fail to trust me, remember I once looked for you at 3am, could I turn again to compromise you?
NN: I did say remember as I was shocked if you had come to threaten me, or you have come to talk to me.
TM: Hah no way, I never said or did anything to hurt you.
NN: By the way tell me about those messages we hear which are floating on Whatsapp. What’s going on?
TM: Which messages now?
NN: Someone is laying out several points on Angel.
TM: I haven’t see it. Let me in on it
NN: Ah the person is even saying she wants to write a book.
TM:Who is it?
NN:I don’t know but the person is from Spirit Embassy.
TM: What about the issue you want to reveal to me?
NN: Ah I hear that Bev has grown thin, what’s going on?
TM: Bev is it not an issue of stress? She has tended to watch her weight.
NN: Mhn!, I don’t think the level it has reached is still one of watching her weight.
TM: Is it now one of the great disease?
NN: I don’t know.
TM: Don’t speak to me in riddles.
NN: LAUGH.
TM: I am not playing up Terrence, I am asking you in all honesty as I am really concerned.
TM: Ah no, you just want to play with me here. Just tell me what you know. Why do you have to hide something that is now being talked the world over?
NN: You can say that again my friend there is nothing more someone like me Nyarai can still say, this person has blown everything into the open on his own.
TM: Yes..
NN: He used to lose his mind and pour everything out..
TM: You people used to be told about the Ruvimbos and the like.
TM: But you would then go and then leak to Lewis.
NN: Oh no I am telling you the truth. Who else was close?
TM: Mai Mutasa? Who else?

The Zimbabwe Republic Police is hoping to set up a virtual police “station” on Whatsapp-cyber-space in what will be a futile exercise for spying due to the sophisticated encryption on the network that no government in the world can decipher.
But with a phone contact number for the force, that will help for people to efficiently report cases.
Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri made the revelations at the weekend, of the force hoping to stretch its juridiction into foreign territories; But they will only be able to merely send and receive Whatsapp messages since spying is impossible due to the complicated restrictions.
Making the announcement among other issues, Chihuri told cops saying they are not above the law and must discharge their duties diligently.
“We enforce the law and we are not above the law. When we enforce the law, we must do it within the provisions of the law,” he said. Comm-Gen Chihuri was speaking during the launch of the ZRP Client Service Charter in Harare on Friday.
“Our main objective as an organisation is to improve service delivery in line with the Government’s robust stance accurately captured in the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset) blueprint,” he said.The service charter spells out services offered by the ZRP. It also stipulates commitments and standards for service delivery.“In today’s democratic society, police services are no longer a privilege but a legitimate expectation. The people no longer wait for the police to react to crime and behave as aliens to the very foundations that define society.“They demand that the police should be part and parcel of their problems, challenges and day-to-day lives. It is also our firm belief as ZRP that you, our clients, are also not an exception to these fundamental world principles,” he said.
“Meeting people’s various policing needs has been and continues to be the cornerstone of the Zimbabwe Republic Police. It is against this background that the ZRP Client Service Charter sets the bar for us across the whole organisation in providing more and efficient services.”
Comm-Gen Chihuri said the force had put in place user-friendly communication tools like hot-lines, suggestion boxes, WhatsApp and other social media platforms to facilitate the flow of information between the police and the public.
He however did not reveal the Whatsapp numbers to be used for engaging the public.
He said they were soon going to launch a police website for interaction between the police and the public.

The Prosecutor General (PG) Johannes Tomana has gone after Cecil the lion’s killer Dr Walter Palmer.
Tomana has started processing papers for the extradition of the American dentist who killed Cecil the lion in Hwange.
Environment, Water and Climate Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri has confirmed the development saying the PG is working on the case.
According to the American law, an individual requires 100 000 petitions to be extradited and for the petition to be sent to the president.
In the case of Palmer, over a million petitions are now in place.
Minister Muchinguri said Zimbabwe is not against legal hunting, adding the killing of Cecil was illegal.
According to information from Hwange, Cecil the lion was initially shot with an arrow by Palmer.
He later killed it with a bullet two days later while the animal suffered a slow and painful death.

Today, the nation remembers the gallant sons and daughters of this country who fought a brutal war to bring about self-determination in the country of our birth.

Yet that freedom was also due to our mothers and fathers as well as the sons and daughters who remained at home to support those on the warfront.
Today, we reflect on the brutality and the tenacious struggle that we had to go through as a people to be where we are today. I and the party I lead are proud of the sanctity of our war of liberation and we take full pride in what the sons and daughters of this country did to remove the oppressed people of this country from the yoke of colonialism.
Indeed, the MDC is a proud post-liberationmovement, not opposed to the sanctity of our previous struggle but formed merely to complete the unfinished business that remains outstanding to this day.
We realize, as a proud post-colonial movement, that independence came through blood, sweat and tears and we salute all those who took part in it, especially those that paid the ultimate price.
But the big regret for the nation is that political independence did not come with the attendant freedoms that so many of our people had fought and died for.
We in the MDC respect the heroes of our war of liberation and that is why at our 4th Congress in October 2014, we resolved to take an unequivocal position to commit ourselves to attend to the welfare of those who are still alive.
The MDC Congress therefore resolved to support the constitutional rights and welfare of genuine war veterans as enshrined in the new constitution and to ensure that they get assistance for rehabilitation, education, health and pension rights among others.
As MDC, we salute the heroic people of this country for supporting the MDC and the broader democratic movement in the fight for a new Constitution, which we had to force down the throat of our reluctant colleagues in Zanu PF.
Today, the national tragedy remains that the sacred document that we made for ourselves as a sovereign people remains unimplemented, despite its overwhelming authorship and endorsement by millions of the people of this country.
My biggest worry is that our Constitution remains a fantastic document in the closet, with the people not able to realize their aspirations and enjoying the full rights they should be accorded in line with that charter!
And today, as we remember those luminaries as the great Masotsha Ndlovu, Joshua Nkomo, Edgar Tekere, Sheba Tavarwisa, Josiah Tongogara, Margaret Dongo, Wilfred Mhanda and Solomon Mujuru; we must do so with a deep sense of reflection.
Today, if the dead among them were to resurrect, would they be proud of what has become of the country for which they waged a brutal and protracted war?
Would they be proud of the hunger and starvation now stalking the nation despite our people taking the land that belongs to us?
Would they be proud of this joblessness and desperation amid huge mineral wealth that continues to be exploited for the benefit of a chosen few?
Would all those heroes and heroines be proud that we have become a nation of vendors, from women vending their bodies for a living to the vendors that have become a huge spectacle on the streets of our cities?
As we ponder and reflect on all these issues on today, I want to humbly broaden the narrow definition of a national hero and submit that in light of the hard work and toil our citizens continue to brave to make an honest living for their families, we have become a nation of heroes!
All those ordinary Zimbabweans by the street side who have decided to make an honest living by selling their wares by the roadside are the new heroes of our time! They should be lauded because they have chosen hard work and honesty, and not crime!
Those small scale miners, the millions of young, uneducated graduates for which this government has failed to provide jobs but have instead chosen restraint are a venerable generation of heroes!
The few remaining workers that are now losing their jobs every week following the recent Supreme Court ruling are indeed a new crop of national heroes!
And yes, all those in the opposition in various political parties from the early 80s to the era of the MDC who were brutally killed in State-sponsored violence are heroes; all those who perished at the hands of our former saviours deserve their due remembrance today.
They are also heroes!
All our hard working sons and daughters slugging it out in the Diaspora for the sake of their families and their country are national heroes.
And of course, all those beneath this soil who died so that democracy could take root; Tonderai Ndira, Rebecca Mafukeni, Isaac Matongo, among many thousands others were brutally killed by Zanu PF are also national heroes.
And yes, Itai Dzamara, whose disappearance remains a mystery for after a tenacious fight for freedom and democracy in his country of birth, is a national hero.
And to the soldiers, the brave and patriotic men and women in uniform who defend us every day, our thoughts are with you this Defence Forces Day.
We have great respect for you and we pray that you have utmost respect and abide by the provisions of the new Constitution in which Zimbabweans set out clear guidelines in which the security sector should interact and protect the interests of the citizens.
At the centre of that relationship is respect for human rights and the need for our defence and security forces to defer to the civilian authority of the land.
The Constitution makes it clear that Defence forces or any other security institution must refrain from either promoting or demoting any political interests but should serve the nation professionally, in a non-partisan manner.
For the record, I as Morgan Tsvangirai and the party I lead will not create a new army, a new police force and a new intelligence unit. We will depend on the patriotic sons and daughters of this country who continue to serve their country in these security institutions with both honour and distinction.
We know that our security structures do not want to be abused but are national institutions committed to strictly abiding by their roles and responsibility as stipulated in the Constitution of Zimbabwe.
What some in the army did in 2008 remains a shame beneath the dignity and mandate of a national Defence Force. The active participation in the subversion of the people’s will through outright violence and assaults was beyond the mandate of a professional soldier sworn to defending the country’s citizens and their rights.
Loyalty to the country and the zeal to serve the country should reign supreme rather than any political or partisan interests. We know that our security institutions have no wish to serve individuals, particular leaders or political parties but they wish to only serve their country.
As a party that will soon be in government, we remain worried about the welfare of our men and women in uniform and we pledge to look seriously into the welfare of those who protect this nation and its people.
We have noted with serious concern that most of these respected men and women have torn uniforms and worn-out boots unbefitting of their dignity while their salaries and benefits remain woefully lower than the magnitude of their national responsibility.
Lastly, our fallen heroes must rest in peace in the full knowledge and comfort that we, the citizens, do not take for granted their sacrifice and the dignity they bestowed on the people of this country.
To the living heroes, rest in the comfort that we cherish your contribution to the making of this country called Zimbabwe.
I wish all Zimbabweans a blessed Heroes and Defence Forces holiday!

Expelled Vice President Joice Mujuru is dead President Robert Mugabe has said.
He said Mujuru and her group of supporters have no more life politically.
President Mugabe said there is no more challenge against his life and position after Mujuru tumbled down just before the 6th National People’s Congress in December 2014.
Mujuru’s scheme, Mugabe alleged, involved targeting key party organs, beginning with the youth. She once donated 20 computers to Chinhoyi university.
“When we went to Congress last year, some of our erstwhile comrades whose faces we do not see here today, were the ring-leaders behind a well-orchestrated subversive activity that, really, was about planning, planning of a coup de tat.
“They had their secret methods, which we discovered later. The clandestine use of money, use of certain privileges, exchanging them to certain persons of their own choice and promises made to many people; to some of us who are even here. ‘We will make you this, we will make you that’. Who were they to say so?”
He continued: “It was then I knew that something was afoot; that some of these evil plans had been hatched. They said, ‘Let the youth wing fail and then it would be the failure of the leadership of the party.’
And if that was so, then it was an occasion to say, ‘You see, under the leadership of President Mugabe and so and so . . . this is what they have done, let’s change it.’
“Of course, you know what the plan was: The youth were told that come Congress, they would all, in unison — women later — this was to be the case; they will all, in unison, say, ‘We want change, change, change and so change.’
“And that noise, if it was to have a heavy impact, would be regarded as the voice of the people. And that would then be the sentence passed on President Mugabe in favour of Mai Mujuru. You would think that such was naïve and the work of mature people turned into idiots.”
The President also said, “After those multitudes of people who voted me into power, then you get the Gamatox to say ‘go’. I say, ‘Who are you? Shout the loudest and I will not hear, but let the Congress say so, my Congress, the people’s Congress, but not you’.
“(Dr Mujuru) was a great believer in witchcraft . . . you would think that with all that understanding that she had gained in the party, all that apparent religion and education, through her doctorate, that one would certainly at least ask oneself: ‘Is this real?’”

THE country’s largest leather shoe manufacturer, Bata Shoe Company, on Friday offloaded close to 150 employees most of whom had served for close to half a century after taking advantage of the recent Supreme Court ruling that allows companies to terminate employees’ contracts on three months’ notice.
Bata employees were on Friday served with the notices of termination of contracts with effect from 7 August 2015.
“Management of the Zimbabwe Bata Shoe Company have decided to terminate your contract of employment with on notice in terms of the Labour Act of Chapter 28 (01) and/or in terms of common law of section 12 (4) of the Labour Act allow us to give you three months notice of termination of employment relationship.
As we hereby do, your notice shall take effect from 7 August 2015 (Friday) which is the date on which the notice is issued,” reads part of the termination of contract notices seen by Sunday News.
Mr Edson Mlambo, the vice chairman of the workers’ committee, who was also served with the notice, confirmed the development saying most of the employees who were sent packing had served the company for close to 50 years.
“I served the company for 36 years. I joined Bata before independence. Most of my colleagues have served the company for 46 years.
“It is sad that such long serving employees were not rewarded for their effort and the contribution they made to the company,” he said.
The termination of contracts also came in the wake of 19 other employees being suspended on allegations of inciting other employees when they organised a demonstration and later downed tools demanding a salary and allowances increment.
Bata, which had a workforce of more than 1 300, joins other big companies such as Zimbabwe Newspapers (1980) Limited, Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), National Railways of Zimbabwe, Sino, Grain Marketing Board (GMB) and Daily News, among others that have capitalised on the ruling to reduce their workforces.
Parliament said the proposed amendments to the Labour Act could be completed within a week once the Bill is brought to the legislature.
The Zanu-PF Politburo on Wednesday last week announced that Cabinet had approved the amendments that are meant to halt the spate of job terminations that have characterised the job market in the last fortnight.

Bulawayo East legislator Thabitha Khumalo has given prosecutor General Johannes Tomana a public bashing over child sex.
Khumalo expressed disgust on Prosecutor General Johannes Tomana’s utterances that a 12 year old girl can now consent to sex.
“In Zimbabwe in 1980 the girl child was denied the right to education and the women fought for the girl child to go to school and won,” said Khumalo.
She continued, “now 35 years down the line, the Government of Zimbabwe has a law… and in section 70 of this law ….we are told that a 12 year girl old can consent to sex.
“We have had cases whereby five ‘perverts’ I call them, raped a 13 and 12 year old. They went to court and the judge gave them community service, and they were made to go and work at a school.” Khumalo said.
She urged all the branches and the provinces in the diaspora to support and protect the girl child.
This comes after many people also criticised Tomana’s comments online, for endorsing the idea that girls as young as 12 can give consent. Information Minister Jonathan Moyo also joined in calling Mr Tomana’s interview “outrageous”, and suggesting that his comments compromised his position as prosecutor general.
In Zimbabwe, 4% of girls marry by the age of 15 and 30% by 18, the United Nations says.

All Zimbabwean political leaders of a progressive mindset will troop to Chitungwiza, Hururayadzo Shopping Centre for a forceful Itai Dzamara Prayer Rally on Saturday 15th August next week.
The Chitungwiza population is going to be given an opportunity to hear political leaders from all political parties in Zimbabwe speaking about the action plan on our demands to have Itai Dzamara produced alive in full body and good health.
Ladies and gentlemen the people of Zimbabwe and the the Dzamara family are no fools. We have every detail of where Dzamara is being drugged and tormented. Come in your thousands at Huruyadzo Shopping centre and hear your leaders speaking.
The Conveners of the Prayer Rally Bishop Magaya in his wisdom has told every invited political player that he will invite all political leaders. So far confirmations from all those who addressed the Zimbabwe Grounds Prayer Rally that is Dr. Simba Makoni, Jacob Ngarivhumwe, Dzikiti, Jabulani Sibanda, Themba Mliswa, Dr. Morgan Tsvangirai and all civic society leaders who attended.
The convener of the Prayer Rally Bishop Magaya has said that he will make sure that other leaders who did not attend the Zimbabwe Grounds Prayer Rally such as Margret Dongo, Tendai Biti, Prof Welshman Ncube, Elton Mangoma will be invited not to miss this one. We are Zimbabweans and we are one. Let’s get united on this issue. Revelations on where the state security agents are hiding Dzamara to be revealed

Harare City Council will this Wednesday embark on a massive water disconnection exercise to customers owing the local authority any amount above US$100 as the city seeks to recover over US$70 million owed by residents and companies.
The move is in defiance to a High Court ruling that outlawed Section 8 of the Water By-law Statutory Instrument 164 which empowered local authorities to cut water supplies arbitrarily in the absence of a court order.
Last year, Justice Chinembiri Bhunu issued an order against disconnecting water supplies to defaulting customers arguing the action was in breach of the Constitution of Zimbabwe Section 77.
The reference to the supreme law was made after a lawyer Mr Farai Mushoriwa took Harare City Council to court after being disconnected of water over a US$1 600 debt.
The lawyer argued that the Constitution of Zimbabwe Section 77 provides water as a basic right that should be accessed by every person.
Harare City Council has since approached the courts challenging the setting aside of the order and judiciary is yet to make a ruling.
However, information gathered by The Sunday Mail shows that Harare City Council will this week disconnect water supplies to defaulters.
The local authority has since June this year taken over 4 000 defaulting customers to court while at least 1 000 warrants to attach properties have been issued to water debtors.
Harare City Council water distribution and customer services manager, Engineer Hosiah Chisango said water disconnections would be effected despite a court ruling against the move.
“We made an appeal on the court ruling and the ruling is yet to be made, but we cannot wait for the ruling so we are continuing with disconnections,” he said.
“We have come up with an action plan and the exercise will be done in all residential suburbs. We are hoping to collect as much as we can so that we boost the local authorities coffers.
“We will disconnect for customers with debts ranging from $100 upwards. We will also be issuing summons worth more than US$40 million and warrants worth US$33 million in all residential suburbs in Harare,” he added.
Warrants of execution will be served to residents in Mt Pleasant, Westlea, Kambuzuma, Highfield, Malbourough, Rugare and Budiriro.
Engineer Chisango said the massive water cuts were in line with the council vision to improve service delivery to Harare residents.
Business expert, Mr Kingstone Khanyile said it was important that council provide efficient services to match the amounts they are charging customers.
“There is need for a balancing act between the service provided and revenue collection. The reason why council is pushing for a massive water disconnection now is because they have not been providing efficient services. It should be the norm that customers pay for services provided,” he said.
Harare is owed a cumulative US$360 million by debtors for water and other services. sunday mail

State security agents were today crushed by Bulawayo workers in a Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) planned demo to protest against the wave of redundancies triggered by the controversial Supreme Court judgement in the Don Nyamande and Kingstone Donga versus Zuva Petroleum case.  In Harare scenes were the opposite as blocked labourers were given a humiliating bashing by ZRP officers.
Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku’s ruling, which has so far seen 18 000 workers dismissed within a month upholds a common law precedent allowing employers ‘to terminate an employment contract by giving three months notice” without giving neither reason nor compensation for the loss of jobs.
Harare’s ZCTU offices were besieged by police, entrances were blocked while unionists chased away. Those who resisted were bundled into a truck and whisked to different parts of Harare where they were dumped.
“I myself was dropped at Mbare. My comrades were dropped at Mupedzanhamo. This is consistent with what we have come to know as the Mugabe Regime,” said ZCTU Secretary General, Japhet Moyo.
On the contrary, ZCTU defied the police in Bulawayo as a 1000 strong crowd took to the streets. ZCTU Vice President, Sithokozile Siwela told protesters that, “The rebranding of slavery is unacceptable. How can people work for 40 years and be sacked without as little as a match stick in token of appreciation.”

“We demand the establishment of a specialized Labour Court of Appeal distinct from the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe as well as appointment of specific Constitutional Court Judges distinct from the Supreme Court Judges,” said Sithokozile who read ZCTU President, George Nkiwane’s speech outside Bulawayo’s Mhlahlandlela Building.
“We are saying to the Government that workers are under siege from all spheres. The government has a duty to protect the vulnerable by moving swiftly either by using the Presidential Powers or Ministerial Powers as a stop gap measure before the amendment of the Labour Act to stop the current wave of job losses,” said Sithokozile.
According to Sithokozile, workers and Government clashed in past decade with Government trying to legalize labour market flexibility. After meeting resistance, Government then tried to use the Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF) and former Finance Minister, Tendai Biti, to introduce labour market flexibility. After failing to make headway, the “anti-labour schemers” then used Chidyausiku’s bad judgement to enact a law that contravenes International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 97and 98, specifies the rights of workers.
To add salt to injury, Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe (EMCOZ), Executive Director, John Mufukari, is on record saying “you can not grow an economy by making it impossible to shed labour when necessary because you will go into liquidation.” At a Stakeholders’ Consultative Meeting held recently in Harare, some EMCOZ members called for fixed retrenchment packages. Others supported the removal of legislation that pegs a minimum retrenchment package to be paid upon severing a contract of employment.
Although Chidyausiku’s ruling has angered some war veterans and pro-Zanu PF youths, Government will nevertheless plough ahead and enact labour market flexibility policies, which it has cherished for years.
“We will amend the law, because the judiciary and the judges did not do anything wrong,” said Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister, Prisca Mupfumira.

An accident has occurred along the Mutare’Harare road soon after Mucheke where a commutter omnibus and a sprinter 24 seater were involved in a head on collision.

Several people are dead and the deceased include children. Indications at around 7am were however that only 3 were killed.
More to follow
Are you near the accident? Send your findings and pictures to the editor.

ZANU PF has been exposed for demolishing home-seekers’ houses before telling the victims to join its shady housing associations afterwhich the same new houses will be demolished too and the people are made homeless again.
Living in the capital city or owning a house will remain a dream for Harare’s low income for a very long time. You buy a stand for $4000 and build a cottage and the next thing is, it is demolished by the same government you pay taxes to.
This was the case for many at Mokum’s Tirivepano Housing Cooperative, Harare South where residents saw truckloads of policemen accompanied by the deputy sheriff with an eviction order on Thursday the 6th of August 2015.

The ZRP cops had no kind words for the residents and they watched from a short distance as the deputy sheriff  raided all belongings.
They violently entered without showing any care whether the doors were locked or not. Their mission was to just take everything outside and when ZimEye.com visited the place Friday morning, one elderly woman crying, approached as she wiped her tears.
“Ndakatengesa mombe yangu last week mwanangu ndichiti ndawana stand mariyacho ndikaisa mumba pasi pematress asi ndawana musisina mari zvinhu zvangu zvaiswa kumhiri kweroad uko-I sold my beast last week so I could purchase this stand and now I come back to find my money and several belongings have been raided”, said the woman.
Numerous household items from families such as fridges, wardrobes, kitchen units, pots, including edibles such as cooked sadza were scattered across the road as people were left hopeless.
The cooperative’s management committee called an emergency meeting Friday and briefed the members saying they had no clue on what is taking place. The chairman, Mr Caiphas Njaira was at pains to explain to the cooperators what the future now holds “because all the papers are there and the Ministry of Lands gave us an offer letter but I don’t know where all this is coming from,” he said.
He just addressed them for less than thirty minutes before saying he was going back to the “courts” triggering an angry protest. The cooperators started demanding to know if it is safe for them to put up for the night. It took a Zanu Pf provincial youth member, Rhodrick Majoni to assure them saying,”Vabereki iniwo ndirimwana uye nyaya dzema Cooperatives hadzisi dzangu asi musangano haukurasei”, said Majoni.

President Robert Mugabe yesterday fired warning shots at cabinet re-assignee Jonathan Moyo saying he can be removed at any time.
Addressing the ZANU PF Central Committee, Mugabe said cabinet ministers and other senior Zanu-PF members must be satisfied with their positions while in particular mentioning some of them were spilling their disaffections onto the internet, a direct attack on the only Twitter, Facebook using cabinet member Jonathan Moyo who this year publicly attacked Mugabe’s Prosecutor General Johannes Tomana.
As he addressed the second session of the Zanu-PF Central Committee since the party’s National People’s Congress in December last year, Mugabe said there were some Zanu-PF officials and Cabinet ministers who were not satisfied with positions given to them.
“Amongst yourself also, when you are in a position, that position is a party position. It is not your post. Just as in Government, you are Minister of Industry or Minister of Mines.
The fact that you are that minister does not mean you own that ministry. It means you are there as a servant of the people to supervise that ministry. You may be changed tomorrow and someone else put in that place. And when you are shifted again, you shout ‘why was I changed’?
I don’t want this ministry which I have been given. I preferred this. It is me who did this or who did that, now the President does not recognise me. I don’t recognise you for working for a place. I recognise you for working for the people, for the party not for a post. We are not there to work for posts.
“We are there to work for the people and the people will recognise us. We are there to serve the people, but at the end of it all, well human beings are human beings. You cannot avoid to be some, you cannot avoid to look forward and say where shall I be if so-and-so is going to take over from the President, must I not be next to him. Must I not do what he wants?
When you are like that, you are a finished person, totally finished person and you have become a puppet and don’t be a puppet. Stand your ground. Whatever happens in future you will be there as a member of the party and serving the party”, he said.
President Mugabe blamed some party officials who turned to internet to show their dissatisfaction about party business. Party issues should be dealt with through structures of the party.
“Let us also not undermine each other,” said the President. “Throwing on the Internet this about so-and-so. No. If you are making objective accusations, why should they go to the Internet first?
“They should come to us. You have the various levels where you can make your complaints. We will take those reports and address them. But internet is the ground where all sorts of people play.
“It becomes the swimming pool for everybody and you go to the Internet you want to see what the internet says today, you get what it says, what the newspapers, the opposition papers say. You can get South African also, some filthy stories about (Jacob) Zuma. But that does not work. If you want to depend on the internet for your own direction then you are being misdirected”
Mugabe, the State Media reported saying, urged Zanu-PF members to be focused and refuse to be used by some people with misguided ambitions.
He said no one owns people in the party as they all belong to the party. President Mugabe also said some party members got lost along the way when they sided with former Vice President Joice Mujuru thinking that she was about to take over both party and State presidency.
“Some, of course, we know were quietly moving with ‘Gamatox’, but we said we could not get everybody,” he said. “Some thought what they were being told that the President will retire and give people way and they were beginning to plan for themselves. Where shall I be when the President is going?
“Okay, I must do this to Mai Mujuru, do this to that. Be strong as yourself. The members of Zanu-PF will make their decision properly. You don’t have to belong to someone. You don’t even belong to me. You belong to Zanu-PF. I am only your leader. I am a member of Zanu-PF, so are you. But you have made me your leader. Let’s be ourselves. Be yourself and be honest. Stop pretending.”
Mugabe said yesterday’s Central Committee, acting on behalf of the Congress, would hear some of the disciplinary cases reported to the Politburo.
He also spoke strongly against tribalism, saying all Zimbabweans were one nation.
Mugabe said unity was important for the development of the nation, adding that members of the party should be conversant with the party constitution.
In addition, President Mugabe urged party members to pay up their subscriptions, saying the party relied on them more for sustenance over and above the donations from its well-wishers and friends.
Mugabe also said the month of August was important in the history of Zimbabwe as the nation remembers the ultimate sacrifices made by the living and departed heroes who fought to liberate the country from the yoke of colonialism. – State Media

As expelled Hurungwe West MP Temba Mliswa lost his court case, the Tsvangirai MDC formation yesterday applauded the ruling by High Court judge, Justice Chinembiri Bhunu that a registered voter can lawfully contest in a national assembly election in any constituency in the country.
Party spokesman Obert Gutu, however said though the judge correctly interpreted the law, there’s need to amend the piece of legislation to curb abuses as some political parties may take advantage of the loophole to impose candidates in constituencies where they do not belong.
Justice Bhunu made the decision during a pre-trial conference in a matter in which Temba Mliswa was challenging the victory of Keith Guzah of Zanu PF whom he alleges contested in Hurungwe West but was not registered there.
Mliswa also accused Guzah of having a criminal record, but Justice Bhunu ruled that a criminal record was not reason enough to bar one from contesting in an election.
“That law is actually a law that can be abused very seriously because you can have a situation where people can choose to run for office as MPs in constituencies in which they do not have vested interests,” said Gutu – VOA

He made “gay” allegations against Professor Jonathan Moyo soon after he was slapped with investigations for serious fraud at the State broadcaster – suspended chief executive Mr Happison Muchechetere has been axed for good as the government parastatal chose to take advantage of the controversial Zuva Supreme Court verdict. In 2013, ZimEye.com revealed how at the height of Muchechetere’s fight back, he embarked on a rush to offload his personal assets, just as he claimed the then Information Minister Jonathan Moyo was taking him down after having exposed Moyo for a suspicious relationship he allegedly had with a known gay staffer. He at the time made apparent allegations Moyo also lured him to his private residence.

The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) has, with immediate effect, dismissed Happison Muchechetere, general manager-finance Mr Elliot Kasu, acting radio head Mr Allan Chiweshe and finance head Mr Ralph Nyambudzi. This comes as Zimbabwe Newspapers (1980) Limited yesterday terminated the contracts of 109 employees, including journalists, and gave them three months’ notice in line with the recent Supreme Court ruling.
Mr Chiweshe was suspended last November together with general manager News and Current Affairs Mr Tazzen Mandizvidza on allegations of misconduct and prejudicing the corporation of over $7 million.
Mr Mandizvidza has since been reinstated following his option to cooperate with investigations. Messrs Kasu and Nyambudzi were suspended, together with Mr Muchechetere, early last year on allegations of costing the national broadcaster millions of dollars.
ZBC board chairperson Father Gibson Munyoro said Messrs Muchechetere and Kasu were sacked for prejudicing the corporation because of their unethical and destructive behaviour.
He said the other two managers — Chiweshe and Nyambudzi — had their contracts terminated on three months’ notice.
“Hearings involving the accused were concluded and on the basis of the findings, ZBC has decided to fire chief executive Happison Muchechetere and general manager-finance Elliot Kasu on the basis of their unethical and destructive conduct while at ZBC in the past few years,” said Fr Munyoro.
“Their actions, decisions and behaviour contributed immensely to the destruction of the national broadcaster to a desperate financial depression it is currently suffering.”
Fr Munyoro said the cleansing exercise was a means of stemming the decay at the national broadcaster.
“The ZBC board is cleaning up all destructive elements within the corporation and opening a new page, on which a new story of ZBC shall be written. We believe it is possible for a parastatal to be run on the basis of good moral values, the principles of good governance and professional and effective business strategies. This is what we want ZBC to be, and it is indeed becoming that,” said Fr Munyoro.
Fr Munyoro said the exercise was meant to renew the moral and business-oriented face of the broadcaster as it gears itself for the digitisation exercise.
“As we migrate into the digital era, we want to ensure that ZBC is cleansed of all regressive and destructive elements, all corruption and unethical attitudes that obstruct the exclusive focus on digital broadcasting in competition with new arrivals in the broadcasting playfield.
“We want to engage new minds that ensure the development and adoption of an effective business strategy for the corporation.”
The senior management executives were also accused of allegedly awarding themselves hefty salaries at a time when the troubled national broadcaster’s employees went for more than six months without salaries.
Other allegations were that Mr Muchechetere and his top management entered into an agreement with China National Instruments Imports and Exports Corporation (Instrimpex) for the purchase of an Outside Broadcasting (OB) van worth $100 000, whose price was inflated to $1 050 000 with the connivance of some Instrimpex officials.
After the suspensions, ZBC instituted disciplinary proceedings against Messrs Muchechetere, Kasu, Mandizvidza, Chiweshe and Nyambudzi.
A hearing tribunal chaired by retired judge Justice James de Vitte was set up which led to the recall of Mr Mandizvidza after he opted to cooperate with investigations.(State Media/Additional Reporting)

As private companies destroy 20,000 workers’ contracts, the Zimbabwe Government’s media companies ZBC and Herald have betrayed their own employees by utilising the controversial Zuva Supreme Court loophole to axe their faithful labourers.
With Zimbabwe’s economy in the doldrums and showing no prospects of recovering any time soon, State media organisations — the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) and Zimpapers, the publishers of The Herald, the Sunday Mail and the Chronicle newspapers — are retrenching hundreds of their staff.
This is despite the fact that they have over the past few weeks been leading a crusade against scores of other companies, including media organisations, that have recently right-sized their operations in the worsening economic climate.
Zimpapers moved to lay off dozens of journalists and other support staff on Friday, in an exercise that insiders said could see up to 150 staff members losing their jobs by the end of next week.
The company’s newly-appointed chief executive, Pikirayi Deketeke, confirmed the retrenchments last night, but declined to give the exact numbers of those affected.
“I am in Jo’burg at the moment, but what is affecting the rest … is the same,” he said candidly.
Some of the affected Zimpapers journalists include Sydney Kawadza, Brenda Phiri, Fortious Nhambura, Mbachi Mutukula Maregera, Blackmore Mavhura and Augustine Hwata.
A letter that was written to the workers by the company cited the recent Supreme Court judgement as the basis for the dismissals.
“This letter serves to inform you that Zimpapers (1980 limited) has decided to terminate your employment contract on notice. The group has passed a decision to exercise its rights under common law which allows either party to terminate the employment contract on notice. In accordance with the provisions of section 12 (4) of the labour Act, we hereby give you three months’ notice to terminate your contract of employment.
“The notice shall start to run on delivery of this letter, or to the domicilium that you choose under your employment contract or such other address notified to human resources department at your branch by you in writing,” it read.
The fired workers were told not to report for duty forthwith.
On the other hand state controlled broadcaster ZBC has moved to fire its four top officials — suspended chief executive officer Happison Muchechetere, former General Manager (Finance) Elliot Kasu, ex-General Manager (Radio Services) Allan Chiweshe, and Head (Finance) Ralph Nyambudzi using the same ruling.
It was also understood that up to 400 other ZBC could face the chop by month-end, although the corporation’s spokesperson, Gladman Bandama, disputed this.
“At the moment there is no official position on whether we will be retrenching. Though there is no communication, 400 people will be too many to retrench,” Bandama said.
“We are very angry about all this and the sickening hypocrisy that our bosses have displayed. We all thought that we were safe because for weeks we were under pressure and at the forefront of writing nasty stories about other companies that have retrenched. Now this.
“It is now clear that we were being used to serve the political interests of our bosses and their handlers, not realising that the retrenchments here would be more widespread and severe than at other media houses,” a miffed Chronicle staffer said last night.
Virtually all the country’s media organisations have now trimmed their workforce as Zimbabwe’s economic crisis continues to deepen.
For Zimpapers and Alpha Media Holdings — the publishers of Newsday, the Standard and the Zimbabwe Independent — this is the second time in two years that they have embarked on retrenchments.
Thousands of formal sector workers have lost their jobs over the past few weeks following the recent confirmation by the Supreme Court that employers, just like employees, could terminate employment contracts on three months’ notice.
Other companies which have recently right-sized include Croco Motors, Econet Wireless, Moonlight Funeral Services, Sino Zimbabwe, Steward Bank, Unilever Zimbabwe, Choppies, TN Holdings and Medtech — as well as parastatals the same ch as the National Railways of Zimbabwe, Air Zimbabwe, the Grain Marketing Board and the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe.-Daily News/Additional Reporting

The Zanu-PF Mashonaland West provincial executive has passed a vote of no confidence in vice chairman Keith Guzah and secretary for administration Simbarashe Ziyambi for alleged dishonesty and fraud.
The motion was raised at the Provincial Executive Committee meeting in Chinhoyi on Thursday. Reading the petition, Youth League vice chairman Joseph Nyariri, said Guzah and Simbarashe Ziyambi connived to pass a vote of no confidence in the then acting chairman Ziyambi Ziyambi without following proper procedures.
“We, the undersigned, constituting the Mashonaland West Provincial Executive members, passed a vote of no confidence in Keith Guzah and Simbarashe Ziyambi on the 6th of August 2015,” reads the petition.
“This is being done in terms of Article 28(265) of the party constitution. The affirmation and confirmation of the majority of the Provincial Executive Committee members is per our signatures appended hereto.”
They are accused of clandestinely passing a vote of no confidence in Ziyambi Ziyambi using signatures of non-executive members. They contend that the said meeting where the motion to pass a vote of no confidence in Home Affairs Deputy Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi never took place.
Guzah was vice chairman at the time, while Simbarashe Ziyambi held his position as secretary for administration.
Asked for comment, Simbarashe Ziyambi said the motion was null and void.
“This is null and void. This is a circus and will not sail through. The national commissar wrote a letter confirming us as the provincial executive,” he said.
Guzah could not comment. A letter from the political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere was read in the PEC meeting confirming the appointment of Ephraim Chengeta as the interim chairman for Mashonaland West province.
The letter stated that all other positions remain the same. Home Affairs deputy minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said the letter was silent on his fate after being booted out of the executive.
Meanwhile, the PEC meeting discussed modalities of undertaking the party restructuring exercise which starts in Kariba district on Thursday next week.

Zimbabwe’s most prolific female war veteran, the highly respected Margaret Dongo, has spoken out for the first time following news of her starting a new powerful political movement on the birthday of abducted activist Itai Dzamara.
Dongo on Thursday told ZimEye.com the movement was formed to aid war veterans and the rest of the country’s citizens who are being haunted by State Security agents and some disappearing.
“We felt that especially us women are not safe. Most of us are being harassed and some disappearing like Itai Dzamara; and so our work is to coordinate structures countrywide so we can put this into motion,” she said.
Her organisation, Movement for People First, takes shape from today, Friday 7th August – which is Itai Dzamara’s 36th birthday.
Below was her press release:
In a unique commemoration of this 35th Zimbabwe Heroes Day Commemoration Anniversary there has emerged a great team of patriots driven by a very strong conviction that there is a need, a dire need, given this country’s prevailing political, social and economic circumstances, to come out with a truly and practically people-centred patriotic political formation whose premise is the people themselves. A formation whose focus is the people themselves, and whose cause and goal is again the interests of the people of Zimbabwe themselves as the mass of the people matter most. The Zimbabwe people come First. For us its people and not Policies that come first, for we hold the conviction, and we are driven by the conviction, that Policies are there to uplift, effect and promote and protect the people of Zimbabwe’s deserved aspirations. We believe in getting policies and guidance from the people.
 
And, guided by the liberation war tactic of provoking the enemy in order to engage the coward and fence-sitters among us into battle, we have, this anniversary, crafted a position, through a National People’s Board, to work hard collecting and collating input from the mass of the people in our effort to come up with a national people-centred draft Party Constitution for a Political Party whose policies, structure, aims and objects, and core values, shall be settled upon through direct consultation of the mass of the people of Zimbabwe.
 
Accordingly we have since registered with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission The Movement for People First as a direct provocation to engage in an open and democratic confrontation with the ruling political enemy ZANU(PF). Therefore for all those persons who have been enjoying it on the fence claiming they are out of ZANU(PF) we say this is the occasion for them to show where they really stand, whether they like it or not. The enemy has been provoked, it is time to engage.
 
The Movement for People First is set to bring new, committed and patriotic leadership which is untainted with the past. Therefore to those with any uncleared baggage we say declare them and clear yourselves before the mass of the Zimbabwe people. We clearly hold that Zimbabwe’s issues cannot be solved by replacing corrupt and arrogant persons with other corrupt and arrogant persons.
 
In the interim, the Movement will participate in any local government and parliamentary by-elections that, through advices of its National People’s Board, it may so decide to contest. The Movement’s Constitution is also readily available for those who want to go through its detailed aims and objectives.
 
The ruling party’s activities have sickened us to the core. Talk about indigenisation of the economy, whose and to what ends? Owning and partying on our behalf? We now also have workers who are being fired willy-nilly because employers conveniently chose to misinterpret the Supreme Court ruling. In any case it is very easy for Government, had they cared, to move in with a clear amendment of the particular sections of the law. But they will not because they do not care; in the same way that while we survived in the bush on second-hand clothes today they want to rob the ordinary person’s only means of survival. We therefore appeal to Government to allow vending to continue as is, not because we do not care about the dirt, health, and image issues involved, but because the times we live demand that vendors be allowed to remain on the streets up and until government attends to the needs of the economy of the country.
Talking about survival, we also call upon Government to remove the artificial distinctions they made between so-called ‘trained’ and ‘untrained’ liberation war fighters. Both the dependants of those who fell in the struggle and those so-called ‘untrained’ should also partake of the pittance that is being afforded the claimed “trained”.
Let us all therefore Zimbabweans, around and in the diaspora, commit ourselves to the promise, to the undertaking, that the Unknown Soldier did not spill his or her blood in vain. That we here are to rekindle the unfinished revolution’s aspirations. We deserve and need their guidance. Let the Movement for People First strike in the hearts of the thieves and liars. Let us all unite for the cause.
I thank you.
MARGARET  T. DONGO
Co-founder  Zimbabwe National War Veterans Association

THE PRESIDENT ON FRIDAY: WEEKLY COMMENTARY ON
NATIONAL ISSUES
PROFESSOR WELSHMAN NCUBE, PRESIDENT, MDC
FRIDAY, 7 AUGUST 2015

For those of you, like me, with a deep interest in the subject of political economy, will remember the phrase ‘resource curse’. A quick reference to Wikipedia will tell you that the term “was first used by Richard Auty in 1993 to describe how countries rich in natural resources were unable to use that wealth to boost their economies and how, counter-intuitively, these countries had lower economic growth than countries without an abundance of natural resources.” For many decades, the ruling party, ZANU PF, has somewhat thoughtlessly and with disdain for common sense been shouting to all who care to listen that Zimbabwe is so rich in natural resources to be poor and hence they have argued that ‘Western governments are clamouring to re-colonise us’so as to have free access to our natural riches. Even though this is, of course rank madness born of childish but scandalous hallucination, ZANU PF politicians have not tired of listing most of Zimbabwe’s natural endowments – ranging from national monuments like the Victoria Falls to a whole bevy of minerals – including the world famous diamonds as the evidence that we are too rich to be poor!
From the time alluvial diamonds were ‘discovered’ in the Eastern Highlands in 2006, ZANU PF’s superficial world revolved around this gem. They lied, cheated, beat people and according to human rights organisations – even killed in the name of diamonds. However, we all know that this newly found enthusiasm brought nothing but misery to our people, particularly those around the areas of the “discovered” diamonds. For the people of Marange and Manicaland, this resource was nothing but a curse as they stood in awe as Chinese, Russians, Jordanians, ZRP and ZNA ‘commanders’ set up shop to plunder the gems in the name of ‘national wealth creation’. The people of Marange were not only made poorer, but also moved to new locations that had nothing but barren top soils, watching from a distance as their resources turned from purse to curse. Meanwhile, the new owners of this national treasure became richer, bought private jets, lush seaside homes in Durban while the government purse shrunk. Our country’s image was savaged as we came close to being classified as a ‘blood diamond’ nation. At one time the World Diamond Council agitated for our expulsion from the Kimberley Processes, saved only by our neighbors, South Africa.
When the MDC was part of the inclusive government we asked many questions which went unanswered such as why we read that our diamond resources were calibrated in billions of US dollars but we were failing to generate enough money to pay normal government expenses including workers’ wages. My colleague, Tendai Biti the then Minister for Finance, tried several times to visit these ‘rich national resources’ but was turned away because he was accused of being a Western puppet with a regime change agenda. However today, the new ZANU PF Minister of Mines and the relevant Parliamentary portfolio committee, now know all the talk about diamond wealth, Community Share Ownership schemes and ‘big kaylite cheques’ was one gigantic political fraud founded on illusions meant to hoodwink Zimbabweans as the diamond gems disappeared into the pockets of a few committed chefs and cronies.
I am writing this because I know that for lucky countries like Botswana and Angola, minerals have uplifted the lives of citizens. When a sensible, people-centred government manages a national endowment, minerals become a purse, not a curse. Angola’s export trade is largely driven by oil, as is its national budget. Botswana entered into a sensible resource management agreement with De Beers to form Debswana, one of the most sustainable mining agreements in the world.
Unfortunately for Zimbabwe, Nigeria and South Sudan, national endowments have caused the citizens anguish. ZANU PF has really no excuse. When President Mugabe took over the reins in 1980, Zimbabwe had a sophisticated mining industry. As a young man growing up in the Midlands, I encountered blissful towns like Shabanie, Mashaba and Queque whose entire lives depended on chrome or asbestos. They boasted sophisticated sporting and skills training facilities while young people hardly ever failed to secure jobs. Further west, we had Shangani, Turk mines while northwest was the world famous Hwange coalfields. Most roads leading to these mining centres were well maintained, but today, the glory days of Rio Tinto, Redcliff and Alaska are nothing but distant memory and history. Our country is not only saddled with a ten billion US dollar foreign debt, but also a ballooning unemployment rate which is skyrocketing in the face of the abuse and misuse of the recent Supreme Court judgement on notice termination of employment.
It is difficult to understand how a country of only five million employable adults can fail to secure safe jobs for its citizens when we are so blessed with so many natural resources! Ironically, the modern history of Zimbabwe actually began with mining as the Portuguese and the British sought mining concessions. From Cecil John Rhodes to Ian Smith – mineral resources fortified the Rhodesian colonial governance. However, as ‘late’ as July 2013, ZANU PF lied to Zimbabweans that of the 398 mines in the country, worth US$6,367,598,696 (six billion), President Mugabe’s ‘indigenisation policy’ would ‘unlock’ US$3,247,475,335 (three billion) worth of ‘wealth’ for locals. They went on to claim that they could receive well over one hundred million dollars as community shares.
You and I know our country is now classified as poor but with rich resources. We also know that there are once ‘resource-poor’ countries like Mauritius, Singapore and South Korea but now a thousands times richer than Zimbabwe. With all its curses, the racist colonial regime as part of its sanctions busting strategies had successfully diversified our economy to avoid overdependence on the extractive sector. The colonialists had seen what over-dependence on a single mineral (copper) had done to Zambia when the prices of copper plummeted. Our very own Mhangura town died when its copper mine was mothballed. Today, Zimbabwe has been extended a kind hand by fate to exploit platinum resources. According to a Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe report, our country has the second largest deposits of platinum in the world, estimated at about three billion tonnes, scattered along the Great Dyke (from Shurugwi to Selous). As if the ZANU PF government did not learn from the diamond plunder, they have allowed the ZNA to partner Russian prospectors Pen East Mining Company, Rostec State Corporation, Vi Holding and Vnesheconombank to angle for five billion platinum mines. Nobody knows, including Mining minister Walter Chidhakwa, how you and I will benefit from this ‘curse’.
For good reasons, mining seems to have been the only export sector that has survived the vagaries of bad ZANU PF governance. Note the use of the word survive rather than thrive, because according to the Robertson Economic Information Services report, the mining sector has witnessed staggering falls in production for just about every significant mineral with a few notable exceptions particularly Platinum and Platinum based minerals such as Ruthenium, Rhodium, Palladium and Iridium. Notable examples of the decline in the mining sector include Iron Ore which fell from a peak of 1.6 million tons in 1980 to zero consecutively from 2008 to date, asbestos from a peak of over 160 thousand tons in 2002 to zero consecutively from 2011 to date and Phosphate rock (used in the manufacture of fertilisers) from over 100 thousand tons in 2002 to less than 10 thousand tons by 2014. Notice I have not even commented on the potential for gas deposits (Lupane, Sengwa) or the timeless resilience of gold and yet there is nothing to indicate that we will soon be out of poverty. As Wikipedia warns: “When a country’s chaos and economic policies scare off foreign investors and send local entrepreneurs abroad to look for better opportunities, the economy becomes skewed.. ..Resource extraction becomes the “default sector” that still functions after other industries have come to a halt.”
As leader of MDC, I am aware how the absence of a devolved system of government has seen local communities fail to benefit from their God given natural resources. Mining is meant to be one of the top growth drivers and employer in Zimbabwe. Ordinarily, its revenue base must be able to drive the resurgence of Zimbabwe’s crumbling infrastructure. The tragedy is that corruption, greed, incompetence, policy intimidation and poor accountability have diverted mining proceeds to non-fiscal silos. This means even if Zimbabwe is one of the top platinum and diamond producers in the world, its citizens will remain poor because only a few beneficiaries of political patronage are pocketing the proceeds. With so many shady ‘mega deals’, it is difficult to impose value addition, exploit resources on behalf of communities and channel benefits to developing local infrastructure. The pervasive talk of expropriation of mining shares in the name of indigenisation has worsened the situation. So what chance will an MDC government have?
In order to drive an effective devolved growth-oriented mining program, the MDC will strive to ensure that proceeds from national minerals are invested in infrastructure development that is hinged on a devolved agenda to equitably distribute benefits and burdens at national level in all projects. Mining companies will be encouraged to fight for tax credits and incentives based on their investment in local community education, health, social and infrastructure sectors. The Mines and Minerals Commission will be made to account for every transaction relating to mining extraction, marketing and sales of minerals in the interests of shared benefits from a devolved national plan. Treasury will have a firm hand on mineral sale proceeds so that there is transparency in all transactions.
Policies will be put in place for mine employees to be empowered and decently remunerated and insured against major risks. It will be critical to ensure that all mining investment is sustainable, so that mines remain within acceptable environmental management standards to preserve the ecological balance.

Firebrand war veteran Margaret Dongo,yesterday launched a new political party to challenge President Robert Mugabe’s warring Zanu PF, noting bluntly that arrogant and corrupt ruling party bigwigs were fomenting Zimbabwe’s mounting political and economic woes.
The new party, the Movement for People First — which is different from the “original” Zanu PF formation fronted by liberation struggle stalwarts, that uses the slogan People First — will contest the much-anticipated 2018 national elections.
Dongo said the new party had “a great team of patriots driven by a very strong conviction that there is need, given this country’s prevailing political, social and economic circumstances to come up with a truly and practically people-centred, patriotic political formation whose premise is the people themselves”.
Analysts told the Daily News yesterday that Dongo’s move would put immense pressure on the seemingly hesitant former Vice President Joice Mujuru, who has been touted as the leader of the People First movement, although she is still to publicly pronounce her association with the rival Zanu PF formation herself.
“Therefore, for all those persons who have been enjoying it on the fence, claiming they are out of Zanu PF, we say this is the occasion for them to show where they really stand, whether they like it or not. The enemy has been provoked, it is time to engage,” Dongo said yesterday in remarks that could be interpreted as targeted at Mujuru.
She added that in launching the new party, she was “guided by the liberation war tactic of provoking the enemy in order to engage the coward and fence-sitters among us into battle”.
But moving to douse any perceived rivalry between the two parties, People First spokesperson Kudakwashe Bhasikiti said Dongo’s outfit “should not be news to anybody” — denying interpretations that Mujuru was the “coward and fence-sitter” that was being attacked.
The former Masvingo Provincial minister went on to say Dongo was free to join People First under Mujuru.
“Mujuru cannot be under Dongo,” Bhasikiti said, adding that the former VP was poised to be the next Zimbabwe president.
Bhasikiti said they were inviting “everyone and anyone interested in the restoration of Zimbabwe” to join the People First movement, which he reiterated would be officially launched soon.
Invoking the spirit of the liberation war and the optimism that prevailed during Zimbabwe’s first all-race elections in 1980, Dongo said yesterday that as the country marked its 35th Heroes Day commemoration, the dream of uplifting, promoting and protecting the people of Zimbabwe was dying under Mugabe and Zanu PF.
She said Zanu PF’s rule had “sickened us to the core”, while indigenisation was failing dismally — further urging the government to allow vending to continue, “not because we do not care about the dirt, health and image issues involved, but because the times we live in demand that vendors be allowed to remain on the streets up to and until government attends to the needs of the economy”.
“Accordingly, we have since registered with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission The Movement for People First as a direct provocation to engage in an open and democratic confrontation with the ruling political enemy, Zanu PF,” Dongo, who is the interim national chairperson of the party said.
“The Movement of People First is set to bring new, committed and patriotic leadership, which is untainted with the past. Therefore, to those with an uncleared baggage, we say declare them and clear yourselves before the mass of the Zimbabwe people.
“We clearly hold that Zimbabwe’s issues cannot be solved by replacing corrupt and arrogant persons with other corrupt and arrogant persons,” she said.
The analysts who spoke to the Daily News yesterday said Dongo, 55 — a former Zanu PF legislator and founder of the Zimbabwe Union of Democrats — could make a significant impact on the political scene given Zanu PF’s deadly infighting and the fact that she enjoyed the respect of many war veterans and ordinary Zimbabweans for her principled political stand.
Her re-entry into the congested political fray means that she would be among a stellar cast of candidates that include indefatigable opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, 63, who will take Mugabe head-on in the 2018 presidential elections — if the long-ruling and frail nonagenarian will still be the post-congress Zanu PF’s candidate in those polls.
Dongo, who says she was mentored into politics by Mugabe’s first wife Sally, recently received death threats, allegedly from government spooks, because of her political work. She has regularly challenged Mugabe and Zanu PF on their failings and misrule.
On its part, Zanu PF said yesterday that it had “noted” Dongo’s announcement, adding that she had nothing new to offer to Zimbabweans.
“Forming political parties has become so fashionable and a means of survival for many in Zimbabwe and Dongo, I am afraid, is evidently no exception,” spokesperson Psychology Maziwisa told the Daily News.
“She is obviously desperate for a few Western dollars and given the culture of opposition politics in Zimbabwe, that’s perfectly understandable. … the only positive thing from her so-called political party is that it enhances the democratic discourse.
“We obviously applaud that; it is precisely why President Mugabe went to war. But she is hideously mistaken if she thinks we will lose sleep over her useless party,” he added.
Dongo also urged Zimbabweans in the Diaspora to “commit ourselves to the promise, to the undertaking that the Unknown Soldier did not spill his or her blood in vain, that we are here to rekindle the unfinished revolution’s aspirations”.
“We deserve and need their guidance. Let the Movement for People First strike in the hearts of the thieves and liars. Let’s all unite for the cause,” she said.-DailyNews

The European Union says it is “irritated” by the continued silence by President Robert Mugabe on the disappearance of the abducted rights activist Itai  Dzamara.
Dzamara was abducted by suspected members of the dreaded Central Intelligence Organisation CIO in Harare on 9 March.
He was staging peaceful protests against President Robert Mugabe’s “misrule”.
Since his abduction western countries have been pressurizing Mugabe to search and bring him  back alive.
Government has angrily reacted to the pressure and threatened to deport any foreign diplomat who continues to demand Dzamara’s whereabouts.
Civil society organizations have also offered a token to anyone with information leading to Dzamara’s whereabouts.[lightbox link=”http://www.zimeye.com/http://www.zimeye.com/wp-content/live_images/2015/05/eu-flag2.jpg” thumb=”http://www.zimeye.com/http://www.zimeye.com/wp-content/live_images/2015/05/eu-flag2-387×232.jpg” width=”387″ align=”none” title=”eu-flag2″ frame=”true” icon=”image” caption=””] 
In a statement Friday the EU said they will continue putting pressure on Harare until Dzamara is found.
“We will continue to watch progress on this case closely,”said EU.
“We remain deeply concerned about the continued lack of progress in this case.
“We call the legal obligation for the authorities to provide regular and thorough progress reports on their search for Mr Dzamara, as ordered by the High Court.
“The EU notes that it is the responsibility of all respondents in this case, not only the police, to take the necessary measures to ascertain Mr Dzamara’s whereabouts”.
 

IN PICTURES: More demolitions resumed in various parts of Harare on Friday as the Ministry of Local Government brought misery to families. The following a pictures of houses just being razed down Friday afternoon. Hundreds of people stood watching this morning as they were told their belongings will be turned into rubble by the end of day.

A 51-year-old Chipadze Primary School teacher in Bindura was this week slapped with the worst sentence for rape- 105 years imprisonment.
The teacher met “mercy” with 45 of those years suspended meaning he was effectively sentenced to a running 60 years in prison on seven counts of raping a 12-year-old girl.
Thomas Chamunorwa Paraziva (51) was convicted of seven counts of rape by Bindura regional magistrate, Mr William Billa.
Paraziva was sentenced to 15 years on each count for a total of 105 years but he will serve an effective 60 years after 10 years were suspended while 35 years will run concurrently.
According to the state represented by prosecutor, Ms Gossy Mudambo, Paraziva was the class teacher of the complainant who is in Grade 6.
The state alleges that during the period between February and May this year, Paraziva on seven occasions took advantage of the complainant who came to school early to rape her and threatening to beat her up if she refused.
On each occasion after committing the act, Paraziva would threaten to kill the complainant if she disclosed the matter to anyone.
The matter only came to light when the complainant’s mother probed her on why she was requesting to be transferred from Chipadze primary school.

ZANU PF’s new Harare East Member of Parliament HON Terence Mukupe, was on Tuesday pounced on by ZRP cops on charges of violence.
He was then detained overnight on public violence charges. He was later allowed out of prison the following day after paying a fine.
Mukupe led a group of youths that besieged Mabvuku Police Station and ordered the officer-in-charge to remove his uniform if he wanted to be a politician, the court heard yesterday.

Mukupe confirmed his experience in filthy cells saying he has since developed greater respect for President Robert Mugabe.
“I had my first taste of prison life. I must say it was a humbling experience. I came out with greater respect for my President RG Mugabe,” he said.
He continued, “I only spent a night whilst he spent 10 years with no prospects of being released.
“I was worried that my son was sick but I got comfort that my President lost his son and was denied the chance to bury him by our colonisers but they failed to break him.
“I have come out of my incarceration bolder and more vigilant.
“I will stand for what is right and for my people. The land barons and their God father will not break my spirit. “They killed my dog and have tried to intimidate me but I will stay the course as shown by our inspirational leader.
“I will soldier on with my quest for zero tolerance for corruption! Viva Zanu PF! Viva my hero and my President Mugabe”
 
Why Mukupe was arrested.
Meanwhile, the court yesterday heard that Mukupe was trying to rescue seven Zanu-PF members who were arrested for invading an open space in New Tafara leased to Shelter Zimbabwe by Harare City Council.
The seven are Jonasi Jonasi, Brian Mungwari, Richard Yuda, Emmanuel Kamuchira, Darlington Mutambara, Nevedi Takundikana and Linah Munhenzva. They are facing criminal trespass charges in contravention of section 132 of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act.
The seven are represented by their lawyer Mr Musindo Hungwe.
While testifying against granting of bail for the seven, the investigating officer, Constable Batsirai Gadzai said Mukupe was subsequently arrested.
“He came leading a group of youths and they stormed the officer-in-charge’s office, referring to him as a small child. He also told him that if he wanted to be a politician he should take off his uniform.”
Prosecutor Mr Michael Reza, alleged that on Monday the accused went to an open space in New Tafara owned by Harare City Council.
It is alleged that the group unlawfully erected their cabins and distributed the land between themselves. They set up bill boards at the site with the names of their housing co-operatives.
The group allegedly threatened to use violence on the police and the lessee, Shelter Zimbabwe. The accused were arrested at the site while blocking Shelter Zimbabwe employees.

As the Heroes Day draws near, impoverished communities are being terrorised countrywide by being forced to foot the Heroes Day celebrations bill at the expense of their starving families; ZimEye.com can reveal that the Ministry of Local Government is making civil servants pay for the same function.
Local Government workers are being forced to pay $2 each for the Heroes Celebrations.
Civil Servants under Kasukuwere, are among the ones forced to pay for Heroes Day celebrations as reflected on impeccable document check-lists unearthed by ZimEye.com. The aforementioned documents are official and carry the “indelible” government stamp on them.

“We are forced to pay and to keep our jobs we just have to act,” one worker told ZimEye.com in confidence.
The orders to collect money from civil servants were effected during the time that Ignatius Chombo was Minister over that ministry. Minister Kasukuwere  was unavailable for commenting at the time of writing.
Meanwhile The local NGO, “Heal Zimbabwe” has expressed concerns over the reports that Village Heads in Zaka West were forcing villagers to contribute towards the Heroes day celebrations to be held on the 10th of August 2015.
The Trust said on 5 August 2015, Village Head Cleto Vhudzi, who also doubles as a ZANU PF elected Councillor, told villagers in Ward 24 that every household is obliged to pay $1 towards the Provincial Heroes Day Commemorations.
Most of the villagers are living in poverty; as they fail even to fend for their families due to shortage of cash and resources. Some of their children dropped out of school after they failed to pay fees.
“The traditional leader threatened that if people fail to pay the money voluntarily, ZANU PF youths would move around households collecting the money themselves,” said the Trust. “He also warned villagers against not paying because he will keep a register of those who would have paid and use it during the distribution of any food aid or farming inputs.”
The Trust said intimidation by Village Head Vhudzi is a direct violation of people’s fundamental human rights and freedoms which carry rights such as right to personal security and equality.
“Section 281 of the Constitution stipulates that Traditional leaders should not violate the fundamental rights and freedoms of any person,” said Heal Zimbabwe Trust.
“Zaka is not the only area where Traditional leaders are demanding money for Heroes celebration in their area.”
He said in Makoni District, some Village Heads are alleging that Manicaland Provincial Minister, Mandi Chimene issued a directive to Chiefs in the area to inform their Village Heads that they should contribute money towards the Heroes Day celebrations which will be held at Vhengere stadium in Rusape. Similar incidents have also been recorded in Mbire and Murehwa.
“It is worrying that the demand for money for Heroes Day celebrations comes against a backdrop of a harsh economic environment which has exacerbated the cost of living and is compounded by alarming rates of unemployment,” said the Trust.
“Heal Zimbabwe implores Traditional leaders to fulfil and uphold their constitutional mandate of treating all persons within their areas equally and fairly. They should also be conduits for the propagation of peace by resolving disputes amongst people in their communities so as to attain peace. Peaceful communities bring development.”

HUNDREDS of houses were yesterday destroyed by the Sheriff of the High Court at an area known as Mokum in Harare South after owners of the land on which the houses were built were granted a writ of ejection.
The houses were reduced to rubble, leaving thousands homeless when the writ of ejection granted in favour of Tobacco Sales Limited (TSL) and HGP Vostermans Private Limited was effected.
This came as Government has intensified the fight against land barons, politicians and co-operative chairpersons illegally settling people on council, private and State land.
The High Court order was granted on November 12, 2014 permitting TSL and HGP Vostermans Ltd to access the land that had been illegally taken over by Tirivepano housing co-operative and Nyasha dzaMwari housing co-operative.
The writ of ejection also granted the police the go-ahead to arrest those engaging in unlawful activities on the land and help restore law and order.
Officials from the Sheriff of the High Court destroyed the houses under the watchful eye of the police to avoid violence. The two housing co-operatives illegally occupied the land last year and sold residential stands of different sizes to unsuspecting prospective home owners for between $2 500 and $5 000.
The co-operatives’ senior officials Mr Caiphas Njaira and Mr Obert Masaletulini disappeared when the demolitions started.
National Assembly member for Harare South Shadreck Mashayamombe appealed to people in his constituency not to buy residential stands without verifying the status of the land.
“I want to warn people in the constituency not to resettle themselves,” he said.
“They must check with the Ministry of Local Government and the city council before getting the land.”
Mashayamombe said he will compile a report and submit it to the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing to find ways to assist those displaced.
“In the meantime, we will approach TSL and try to negotiate with them to accommodate the people until we find a suitable area to relocate them,” he said.
“We will also reach out to them to find out if they cannot compensate those who lost their houses.”

Electoral Court judge Justice Chinembiri Bhunu has ruled that a registered voter can lawfully stand as a candidate in a National Assembly election even if he or she is not registered in the particular constituency vied for.
He also said a criminal record was not a reason to bar one from contesting in an election.
Justice Bhunu made the landmark decision during the pre-trial conference held in a matter in which former Zanu-PF chairman for Mashonaland West Province Mr Temba Mliswa is contesting the victory of Keith Guzah in the Hurungwe West parliamentary by-election.
In his challenge, Mr Mliswa — the immediate-past MP for the constituency — argued that Guzah was not eligible to contest in the by-election because he was not a registered voter in Hurungwe West.
He also argued that Guzah had a criminal past and that he was at law not allowed to contest in an election. Mr Mliswa further argued that Guzah used violence, vote-buying and intimidation to win the by-election.
The pre-trial conference was held in Justice Bhunu’s chambers yesterday, but lawyers representing all the parties confirmed that the judge found that Section 125 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe does not specifically require a candidate to be a
registered voter in the contested constituency.
The judge, according to the lawyers, said as long as one is a registered voter, he or she can qualify to contest for any seat in Zimbabwe before striking down the two grounds — that Guzah was not a registered voter in the constituency and that he had a criminal past.
Guzah’s lawyer Advocate Sylvester Hashiti said:“The judge ruled that in terms of Section 125 of the Constitution, you must only be a registered voter to qualify as a candidate and that the Section does not specifically indicate that the candidate must be registered in that particular constituency.
“It was also the judge’s finding that the same section of the Constitution does not regard criminal past as a bar.
“The judge then struck off the two grounds and referred to trial the issue of whether or not Guzah used violence, intimidation, vote buying or bribery to win an election.”
Mr Musindo Hungwe, who acted for Mr Mliswa, confirmed the same position.
“The judge ruled that Section 125 of the Constitution was silent on whether or not a candidate must be registered to vote in the constituency in question,” he said.
“He then interpreted it to mean that as long as one is a registered voter anywhere in Zimbabwe, he or she can qualify to contest in any constituency. The judge also found that the same section does not take having a criminal past as a disqualifier.”
In the by-election held on June 10 this year, Guzah polled 5 961 votes against Mr Mliswa’s 4 239 ballots. The by-election arose after Mr Mliswa was expelled from Parliament when Zanu-PF wrote disowning him.
He had been first expelled from the party for acting against the party’s leadership in conniveance with expelled former vice president Dr Joice Mujuru.

A headmaster at Sunview Private College in Chitungwiza has been hauled before the courts for allegedly squeazing a Form 2 pupil at the school on two occasions.
The head who is from Sunview Private College in Chitungwiza and who after the incident allegedly threatened to the “complainant from the institution if she revealed the offence, yesterday appeared in court.
Peter Ngandu (48) of Gwarigwati Village in Seke , however, denied two counts of indecent assault charges when he appeared before Chitungwiza magistrate Mr Lazarus Murendo. He was remanded to August 13 on $50 bail. In his defence, Ngandu told the court that the minor was bent on tarnishing his image since on the day in question the girl was absent from school.
“I have enough evidence that the complainant did not come to school on the day in question. Rather, she only came at around 6pm accompanied by her grandmother when she had slept at her boyfriend’s house,” he said.
Ngandu accused the minor of being a troublesome child who was also a gossip monger and a liar.
He claimed she also proposed love to Form 3 and Form 4 boys at the school.
“She would entice them with good quality food, money and her grandmother even confessed that the girl has problems of stealing at home and lying. She also called her grandmother’s friend in South Africa proposing love,” claimed Ngandu.
The prosecutor, Mr Tatenda Mukatera, alleged that on July 24 this year, Ngandu allegedly squeazed the 14-year-old’s breasts and she never told anybody. This was after Ngandu allegedly threatened to chase her away from the school.
He reportedly repeated the act by fondling her back when she was sweeping at the reception.
The matter came to light when she was asked by her grandmother about her missing cellphone, which she took to school.
This was the time she revealed to her that Ngandu had been fondling her and the matter was reported to police leading to his arrest.-State Media/Additional Reporting

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s overtures urging those who had left his party and crossed floors to a rival MDC outfit led by Tendai Biti to return to the opposition party have been snubbed.
Following an acrimonious fallout with some of his former comrades, including former treasurer-general Elton Mangoma who was calling for leadership renewal in the aftermath of Tsvangirai’s disputed loss to President Robert Mugabe in the 2013 elections, the MDC leader extended an olive branch to the rebels to renounce their rebellion.
Tsvangirai’s party deployed secretary for mobilisation and recruitment Job Sikhala to lure back the erstwhile allies.
Sikhala’s mission was doomed after he was snubbed by over a dozen high-ranking MDC Renewal Team officials.
Former MDC MP for Hurungwe West Severino Tall Chambati, who is now Renewal Team’s organising secretary for Mashonaland West province, told the Daily News yesterday that he and little-known officials including national executive member Tawanda Bvumo, provincial chairman Eddy Ndiraire and Tonderai Kusemamuriwo, had met Tsvangirai and turned down his request.
To his credit, however, Sikhala managed to rope back to the mainstream MDC former Chegutu mayor Francis Dhlakama and former Mashonaland West spokesperson Biggie Haurobi.
“Sikhala came to persuade us to return and he facilitated a meeting with Tsvangirai at his house some two weeks ago after we demanded to hear what he had to say,” Chambati said.
“We did not, however, agree on anything because the president did not give us assurances that we would be truly and genuinely accommodated. All he did was to tell us that we were welcome but we wanted to know how, what was there for us because we have not forgotten that Morgen Komichi once told us that the party was better without us.”
Tsvangirai’s spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka confirmed that the former trade unionist met with the rebels.
“They had a very fruitful meeting with the president,” Tamborinyoka said.
“I am, however, not sure where that is now coming from. From the record, anyone is welcome to the MDC big tent especially the respected founding members of the party like Chambati.”
Chambati said he still had residual respect for Tsvangirai but said he was worried that the people who surround the former prime minister were “badly” advising him.

All eyes will be on President Robert Mugabe and former Vice President Joice Mujuru on Monday, when the two feuding liberation struggle stalwarts are expected to come face to face at the National Heroes Acre in Harare — their first meeting since General Solomon Mujuru’s popular widow was brutally purged from the post-congress Zanu PF late last year.
Although efforts by the Daily News yesterday to confirm Mujuru’s attendance at the annual commemorations were unsuccessful, well-placed sources told the newspaper that she was planning to do so, although this was “not a certainty”.
“Our understanding is that Mai Mujuru is planning to be at the Heroes Acre to pay her respects to the heroes of the liberation struggle, but this is not a certainty at the moment. If she does (go there), it will be a very interesting day as she would be bound to meet the president.
“As you may know, (the late) General Mujuru is buried next to the president’s late wife, Sally, with only a vacant spot for two graves separating them. It would be almost impossible for the two not to meet if she goes there,” one of the sources said.
Contacted for comment on the likelihood of the two meeting, Mugabe’s spokesperson, George Charamba, said Mujuru was free to attend the commemorations, going further to criticise the media for focussing unnecessarily on issues that they did not fully understand and appreciate.
“Let me tell you something very personal, ma-comrades anonzwisisana (comrades understand each other). They know when to quarrel and when to get together. You at the Daily News are outsiders,” Charamba said — in comments that hinted at a looming rapprochement between Mugabe and Mujuru.
But Rugare Gumbo, one of the spokespeople of the Zanu PF formation that uses the slogan People First, and which is closely linked to Mujuru, said yesterday that it was unlikely that he or any other top officials of their movement would attend the commemorations.
“I am not sure that I will go and it is unlikely that Mai Mujuru will go to the event either,” Gumbo said.
Former Presidential Affairs minister, Didymus Mutasa, another close ally of Mujuru, also dismissed outright any prospects of him attending the Heroes Day commemorations, saying scathingly that the people in charge “of the whole process have veered off course and are not worth associating with”.
“I didn’t go to Independence Day (either) because I don’t feel I have any friends within the current administration who I can mark the day with. If I want, I can have own celebrations with Mai Mujuru, Comrade Gumbo and Comrade (Kudakwashe) Bhasikiti, and the best place will be in private. I cannot remember that day with fake people,” Mutasa said.
On his part Bhasikiti, who is also another top ally of Mujuru, said he did not know whether the former VP would go to Heroes Acre, “considering that those in the ruling party hate her passionately”.
“I am not sure whether Mai Mujuru would go because that is very personal. What I can tell you is, I will not go because Zanu PF could unleash its supporters on me,” he said.
Mujuru’s close associates who spoke to the Daily News, while non-committal about the certainty of the former VP being at Heroes Acre next week, said yesterday that there was “absolutely nothing” that could stop her and them from attending the event that was set aside to honour the country’s fallen heroes.
“Our hero is buried there and it makes sense that we are part of that. Whether we are welcome or not is another issue but what cannot be doubted is that Solomon Mujuru was a distinguished hero,” said the close associate.
Solomon Mujuru, whose war-time nom de guerre was Rex Nhongo, died in disputed circumstances in August 2011, and controversy still shrouds the manner of his death after his remains were discovered following a mysterious inferno at his farmhouse in Beatrice — just outside Harare.
And while his funeral attracted the biggest crowd ever witnessed at the Heroes Acre, his name has still been dragged in the mud as the warring Zanu PF’s mindless bloodletting continues unabated.
A report prepared by the former liberation movement’s disciplinary committee, and which was adopted by the party’s politburo, made stunning allegations that the country’s celebrated struggle icon had, before his untimely death, plotted to assassinate Mugabe.
If Mujuru does eventually go to the Heroes Acre, it will also be the first time that she would likely come face to face with the Mugabe’s controversies, but increasingly influential wife, Grace — who once said infamously that if the former VP died, even flies would ignore her rotting carcass.
“The youths have alerted me about someone who is spearheading factionalism in this (Mashonaland Central) province and I told Baba (Mugabe) to ‘baby-dump’ that person. I told him that if he does not dump the person, we will do it ourselves,” Grace thundered.
But Zimbabwe’s fluid politics appear to be changing again, amid claims that Mugabe no longer believed that Mujuru plotted to oust and assassinate him, as well as suggestions to the effect that some post-congress Zanu PF bigwigs are actively working to lure her back to the warring party.
On the other hand Mujuru’s allies, who include Mutasa, Gumbo and Bhasikiti have dismissed any chances of their leader ever rejoining the faction-torn Zanu PF — with Mutasa going further to say Mugabe and Zanu PF would need to apologise first before that could even be considered.
“Look at the way she was belittled, look at the way lies were said about her. It’s a shame. If there are any good leaders left in Zanu PF, this is the time for them to confess that what they did to Mai Mujuru was iniquitous.
“They should publicly say we are sorry and if they can’t do that then at least should ask the chairperson of the disciplinary committee to do that on their behalf. Look, the longer you live with that atrocity God will curse you,” Mutasa said.-Daiily News

Book review: a novel about the intersecting of five troubled marriages in a morally bankrupt police state. [Robert Mugabe attends the funeral of Solomon Mujuru (Photo: Getty) ]
 

This novel comes with two mysteries attached, one substantial, the other superficial. The big mystery is the author’s identity. Gender-neutral, nominally Anglo-Saxon, almost provocatively bland, ‘C.B. George’

This novel comes with two mysteries attached, one substantial, the other superficial. The big mystery is the author’s identity. Gender-neutral, nominally Anglo-Saxon, almost provocatively bland, ‘C.B. George’ screams ‘pseudonym’ to any reader. A call to the literary agent confirms the suspicion: the author is keeping his identity secret ‘for personal reasons’, which may or may not be connected to Zimbabwe’s political situation.
The second puzzle is why said author chose The Death of Rex Nhongo as his title. The preface explains that ‘Rex Nhongo’ was the nom de guerre of Solomon Mujuru, the Zimbabwean general whose body was discovered lying in the charred debris of a farmhouse he had seized from a white farmer in 2011. The story is supposedly connected to what many Zimbabweans assume was a political murder. But the connection — everything hinges on a gun which may or may not have been used to kill Mujuru — is so slight that I found myself riffling fruitlessly through the pages, assuming I had missed it on first read-through. MacGuffins rarely come more elliptical than this.
Both questions are, however, essentially distractions. Because whoever wroteThe Death of Rex Nhongo knew what he was doing: I rather doubt that this muscular, confident novel is a first attempt. While I never quite swallowed the MacGuffin, I managed to stop caring. The book has almost nothing to say about the sudden demise of a man seen by many as President Robert Mugabe’s most credible challenger and likely successor. It is, instead, a sympathetic exploration of the intersection between five troubled marriages lived in the sour miasma of a morally bankrupt African police state.

April, a British diplomat, and Jerry, her well-meaning nurse of a husband, make up one couple. The author is clearly at home in the ‘expat’ world of barbecues around the pool, racial unease and hardened alcoholism. The emasculated Anglo-Saxon liberal male is in danger of becoming a form of post-colonial score-settling in African literature — white protagonists who can maintain an erection are few and far between — but C.B. George’s account of that strained relationship is horribly convincing.
Then there’s Shawn, a manipulative African-American with ambitions to become a gold smuggler, his distressed Zimbabwean wife Kuda and their daughter Rosie, who chatters gaily about what all the adults agree must be an imaginary friend, but is in fact a vampire. Rosie’s private conversations with the evil spirit — expression of a West African ancestry Shawn boastfully exploited to impress his friends — are a genuinely creepy thread running through the narrative.
The account of the stoical taxi-driver Patson’s marriage to Fadzai, who runs a workers’ food stall, is much warmer, as is the depiction of his brother-in-law Gilbert’s attempts to do the right thing by Bessie, the young spouse who works as April and Jerry’s live-in maid. As the characters stumble into each other’s trajectories, the author pulls off the impressive feat of being both forensic and forgiving.
In the final chapters we are suddenly treated to a summarised account of the fates — as tragic as they seem inevitable —allotted the various players. It’s a telescoping I could have done without, and which left me feeling slightly aggrieved. When a writer manages to make his readers truly care about his characters, he perhaps owes it to both his audience and his creations to see them through to the end.

This article first appeared in the print edition of The Spectator magazine, dated 8 August 2015

Bulawayo Town Clerk faces arrest

Local Government Minister Saviour Kasukuwere is expected to overhaul the entire City Council shortly as the Affirmative Action Group (AAG) will this afternoon effect a citizens’ arrest on Bulawayo Town Clerk, Middleton Nyoni, at the Bulawayo City Hall Chambers.
The AAG is citing corruption, and abuse of office and maladministration by both council officials and councillors.
Nyoni is reported to have arrived at work on Monday after a lengthy leave due to ill-health. Mrs Sikhangele Zhou was acting during Nyoni’s absence.
Before muting plans to effect a citizens’ arrest on Nyoni, the AAG filed an urgent High Court chamber application on 31 July 2015 to compel Minister of Local Government, Saviour Kasukuwere and Provincial Administrator for Bulawayo Province, Konzani Dube to exercise their discretionary powers in terms of Section 114 of the Urban Councils Act (Ch 29: 15) and dissolve Bulawayo City Council.”
The Zanu PF aligned pressure group, wants Minister Kasukuwere to dissolve Bulawayo City Council and suspend its councillors pending a public enquiry. This will most likely see the tenure in office of Bulawayo’s 29 councillors, most of who were elected to office on a Movement for Democratic Change (MDCT) ticket, cut abruptly before their terms expire.
More to follow:

POLICE have been instructed to arrest ZANU-PF youth league national secretary for administration, Lewis Matutu, for extortion after he allegedly authorised party youths to forcibly take over a school in Caledonia under the pretext that it belonged to First Lady, Grace Mugabe.
The youths allegedly went on to collect school fees amounting to US$70 000 after misrepresenting that they were collecting the money on behalf of Grace Mugabe and converted it to personal use, a secretary at the school said yesterday.
Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister, Saviour Kasukuwere, then ordered the arrest of Matutu and the youths involved. Kasukuwere later made a report to the ZANU-PF Politburo yesterday which also recommended tough action of those who abuse the party for personal gain.
“There was a long debate on illegal settlements in urban areas, especially in Caledonia where young people are going around extorting innocent people of their hard earned money using the party and its leadership. The Politburo agreed that this must stop forthwith. Law enforcement agents are going to pursue this issue with utmost vigour,” said ZANU-PF spokesman, Simon Khaya Moyo in his briefing to journalists at the end of the meeting.
Parents and guardians of pupils at Eastview School also gave harrowing narrations of how they were terrorised by youths acting on Matutu’s instruction. This emerged during Kasukuwere’s fact finding mission to the slum settlement on the outskirts of Harare.
Ironically, this comes as another prominent ZANU-PF youth leader, Godwin Gomwe, is appearing at the Harare magistrates court facing similar charges. Parents told Kasukuwere, who was accompanied by Energy and Power Development Minister, Samuel Undenge, Primary and Secondary Education Minister, Lazarus Dokora and Harare Metropolitan Provincial Affairs Minister, Miriam Chikukwa, that party youths dislodged the local committee to run the affairs of the school at the beginning of this term in May and have been collecting school fees since then.
Parents said the militant youths took advantage of the confusion at the school, which currently has two headmasters, to fleece parents. They are accused of pocketing all the money, part of which was earmarked for construction of infrastructure.
Pupils at the school conduct lessons in dusty open shacks, with some pupils testifying that they fail to conduct lessons when it rains as they get drenched. Armed with Matutu’s letters, the residents of Caledonia recounted to the ministers how the violent youths ransacked the school, driving away pupils that failed to pay and attacked others with stones.
They are also reported have vandalised furniture and intimidated teachers.
“The youths came here with letters written by one Lewis Matutu who works at the party (ZANU-PF) headquarters and claimed they were sent by the first lady. They claimed that she was the owner of the school and demanded that all the school fees be surrendered to them,” one parent said.
“Many parents obliged and those who resisted had their children thrown out of school. Some children were beaten and stoned,” one of the parents, Tendai Sabvure, said.
An enraged Kasukuwere immediately instructed police to go after the youths, saying anyone who abuses the name of the first lady was inviting the governing party’s anger.
“Where are the police? We want you to get all these people arrested,” he charged at some of the police details present and the event before he told the press that they everyone involved in the scum would be brought to justice.
“Those who have been behind this scum will be dealt with. The full wrath of the law will visit them,” he said. “We are going to protect the name and image of our leadership. The first lady is not to be abused. If you abuse the first lady, you invite all of us to get involved and defend her. Those who are making money out of abusing the first lady must be warned. They must stop it.
“She has nothing to do with this chaos and you know very well how her standards are from the institutions she has built. This is definitely not what she would want to see. The first lady is not part of this corruption,” fumed Kasukuwere.
Matutu, who has also been taken to the High Court by a Zvishavane businessman, Tendai Mpofu, who is accusing him of swindling him of more than US$12 000 in a botched mining deal, was not immediately available for comment.
Dokora said his ministry would take over the school next month and quickly establish proper infrastructure.
Currently, the school has a massive enrolment of 1 496 pupils cutting across all levels from early childhood development to advanced level, all learning in shakes and attended to by just 19 teachers, only two of whom are qualified. Financial Gazette

ANALYSIS|Expelled Vice President Joyce Mujuru has effectively dislodged President Robert Mugabe as heads begin rolling at the beleaguered Shake-Shake building that houses ZANU PF, following leaked information that there are a good number of legislators, cabinet ministers and service chiefs who are working hand in glove with the ousted Mujuru.
Sources close to the goings on at the ruling party’s headquarters, who refused to be named revealed that they have a cache of documents that show that many current cabinet ministers, service chiefs, senior government officials, legislators and war veterans around the country were fully behind Joice Mujuru.
According to the sources many of the people who now claim to have been against her are actually at the forefront of supporting Mujuru as future leader.
This has also led the hatching of a plan to reschedule the 2018 general elections, which the ruling party is hoodwinking Tsvangirai with a vice president post.
Some of the leaders named include Ignatius Chombo, Douglas Mombeshora, and Prisca Mupfumira. Already several war veterans the likes of Rugare Gumbo, Nicholas Goche, Jabulani Sibanda, Kudakwashe Bhasikiti and Marvelous Mkwebu have stuck by their guns to stand by Mujuru, while others such as Joseph Chinotimba are said to be sitting on the fence.
“There is no denying at all that Mujuru has badly affected the party. As we get into December, there will be more purges because many in the party are still silently supporting Joyce Mujuru,” a source close to Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa said.
They added:
“What adds to hurt is the fact that Mujuru is celebrated by your media guys in the same way you once did Tsvangirai. This does not go well in the President’s favour, ” the source said.
According to Temba Mliswa’s last Bulawayo press address, many cabinet members and legislators are afraid to come out in the open, but will do so when the time is appropriate, that is before the 2018 elections.

THE GOVERNMENT has ordered parastatals to cut down on employees, taking advantage of the recent Supreme Court ruling giving employers the green light to terminate contracts on three months’ notice.
According to reports, 18 000 workers have been fired in less than three weeks after the landmark ruling by the Supreme Court last month in a case between Zuva Petroleum and its former managers.
President Robert Mugabe has criticised the job carnage and recently described the labour law as an ass.But the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA), a government body, says it received a government directive to cut down on its employees using the same law that has seen workers being thrown out without any benefits.
ZTA chief executive Karikoga Kaseke told the local NewsDay on Tuesday that Cabinet had given them the green light to trim their workforce.
“It’s something coming to us. It’s not like we chose it ourselves,” he said. “It was a decision by the Cabinet that those parastatals who can take advantage of this ruling can do so, but as ZTA, we are not.”
Efforts to contact both Tourism minister Walter Mzembi and acting Information minister Prisca Mupfumira were fruitless as both ministers’ mobile phones were unreachable on Wednesday.
Labour ministry permanent secretary Ngoni Masoka said he could not comment because he was not in the office.
“I am out of office, but you can phone our offices and talk to acting secretary Marimba or the legal officer Sibiya,” he said. Both officials could also not be reached for comment.
By Wednesday, five parastatals had sent thousands of their workers home citing the court ruling. These include National Railways of Zimbabwe (350), Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (309), Air Zimbabwe (100), CMED (Pvt) Ltd (200) and Grain Marketing Board (400). Part of the termination letter sent to GMB workers read: “The GMB has decided to exercise its right in terms of the common law to terminate your contract of employment with GMB on three months’ notice. Consequently, you are no longer required to come to work with effect from 5 August 2015.”
The letter was signed by GMB deputy general manager (human resources) Sibongile Muchirahondo. Sources said 400 GMB workers, mostly from Bulawayo, had been affected by the job cuts amid reports that the parastatal was targeting 1 500 staffers countrywide.
Mupfumira, who doubles as Labour minister, has been on record over the past week saying government was seeking ways to stop the job losses triggered by the court ruling.
Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo said amendments would soon be made to stop the firing of workers willy-nilly.
“Cabinet last week approved the labour law amendment, which seeks to protect the workers as well as the employer.
“The (Zanu PF) politburo received a full briefing on the issue and now awaits the Bill to be tabled in Parliament,”
he said.
However, political analyst Takura Zhangazha said government was being populist in the manner it was handling the matter.
“The government is essentially talking about civil servants and does not view those that work for parastatals as such,” he said.
“It, is however, being populist in seeking to claim it does not fire its workers when the Minister of Finance (Patrick Chinamasa) has already announced an intention to downsize the civil service in keeping with the Staff- Monitored Programme of the IMF (International Monetary Fund.”
Zhangazha said under these circumstances, even civil servants were not safe. Opposition MDC-T spokesperson Obert Gutu accused the Zanu PF government of using deceptive language.
“The Zanu PF regime is notorious for doublespeak. They always indicate right, but almost, invariably, they always turn left. This regime is a curse on the people of Zimbabwe,” he said.
“This regime doesn’t care one iota about the suffering of the ordinary person. “Zimbabwe is under the yoke of a fully-fledged kleptocracy; a renegade,fascist regime that only cares about one thing, that is its hold on power.”
MDC Renewal Team spokesperson Jacob Mafume weighed in, accusing the government of doing nothing to avert the situation.
“One must know that the parastatals are under the government and also the so-called companies are now owned by government-linked individuals,” he said.
“These are double standards of the highest order. The government is running with hares while hunting with the dogs.”
Meanwhile, Primary and Secondary Education minister Lazarus Dokora confirmed that his office had been inundated with teachers who did not receive their July salaries.
He said his ministry was referring those affected to the relevant authorities.
“The question of salaries is a dialogue between the workers and the employers. They are deployed to work in my ministry by the employer,” Dokora said.
“The question of salaries is a dialogue that you do with the employer.
“That engagement is ongoing between the two ministries and the (Civil Service) Commission. That is an ongoing engagement and I am glad that you said they did not receive their salaries and not that they were fired.”
The government says the over 3 000 teachers who did not receive their salaries last month had not been found at their workstations during a recent headcount as part of efforts to weed out ghost workers.
An audit carried out during the inclusive government era showed that there were at least 75 000 ghost workers in the civil service.-Newsday

Former State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa has caused a stir with a latest photograph of him. Zimbabweans have claimed that Mr Mutasa in physically unwell hence his forlon countenance and loss of glitter. PICTURES:

The British government is under fire for taking away into their “care” a 15 year old troublesome Zimbabwean boy from his mother who were flying past London en route to Harare, in a case that has sent shockwaves in the Zim diaspora community there, as the boy took advantage of the British police system by saying that he does not like his home country, Zimbabwe.
What further irked Zimbabweans was the fact that the Zimbabwean and Canadian embassies were not informed on time of the actions taken by UK. The boy has both Zimbabwean and Canadian citizenship.
Families this week blew their horn in online protests after the lad, an offspring of a well known South African religious leader, was taken into British care even though he has no UK residency and was in transit past the island country to Harare. Current legal guidelines until this week barred British social workers from taking the children of foreigners into care.
What shocked the Zimbabwean community was the fact that there is now a legal precedent which empowers foreign children to obtain an easy way to live on British taxpayer funds.
The lad, whose identity cannot be disclosed due to his age, was traveling back to Zimbabwe in March when upon arriving in the UK, he sought police help claiming that his mother was abusing him by forcing him to return to Zimbabwe.
Investigations showed that contrary to claims of abuse raised by the 15 year old, the lad actually has a posh life as is also enrolled at Harare’s expensive Eaglesvale Secondary School.
Police investigations which cleared the mother of any wrong doing also found the boy was a trouble maker in Switzerland, where he lived for over a year. It was unearthed that there is no case whatsoever against the mother as boy had earlier claimed to British police. Court documents reflect that at that tender age, he is now not only a habitual cannabis drug taker, but a trouble maker.
The Father together with the known church leader(grandfather), have not played any part in the child’s life and not been notified of these proceedings, the court found.
There was no order or determination made that the mother is incapable of taking  care of her child other than the decision to uphold the lad’s protest that he does not want to return to Harare.
But last week’s interim order stated that the lad is now placed in the care of the London Borough of Sutton until the finalisation of the proceedings or further order.  The verdict read in part:
 

16. EXPERTS

1. An application was made for the instruction of an expert in Canadian Law relating to the potential placement of the lad in a kinship placement in Alberta.

1. The local authority shall take the lead in instructing a lawyer qualified in the state of Alberta to advise on the legality of placement options for the child in Canada in the event that the court makes a care order or supervision order or special guardianship order or child arrangement order in favour of the sister and to advise on whether mirror orders can be obtained and the legal procedure to do this.

1. the local authority shall take the lead on the instruction on 7 August 2015

1. the local authority shall dispatch the agreed letter of instruction by 4pm on 11 August 2015

1. Such advice to be filed and served by 4pm on 24 September 2015.

17. OTHER ORDERS

1. The respondent mother the mother’s application in her letter dated 30 July 2015 to discharge the order of 21 May 2015 and any other court related order is hereby refused.

1. The need for the local authority to file and serve a formal part 25 compliant application in respect of the instruction of an expert in Canadian law be dispensed with

1. The Local authority is to use their best endeavours to serve notice of these proceedings on the Father, (Name Withheld) by 4pm on 27 August 2015, such notice to include service of the application, case summaries filed by the local authority, position statements filed on behalf of the Child’s Guardian, orders made by the court and contact details for the local authority solicitor. Permission for substituted service of notice of these proceedings and the above documents via the father’s lawyers in South Africa.

1. In the event that the Father wishes to take part in these proceedings he shall contact the Local Authority forthwith and, if so advised, shall seek an urgent directions appointment which the Court shall list as a matter of urgency.

1. The time for the Local Authority, as holders of parental responsibility for the lad under an interim care order, to apply for a replacement passport for the lad from the Canadian Embassy in London is extended to 4.00pm on 3 August 2015. Upon issue the London Borough of Sutton shall hold the replacement passport for the boy until further order.

1. The Local authority shall file and serve a kinship assessment on the child’s sister who is in Canada, known as a Home Study Report, such assessment to be filed no later than by 4pm on 5 November 2015. This assessment shall either be completed by a local authority social worker employee or agent of the London Borough of Sutton working in co-operation with Alberta Social Services, such assessment to be agreed in advance with the Alberta social services and Canadian Central authority. In the event that such agreement is not forthcoming by 4pm on 10 August 2015, the London Borough of Sutton shall instruct CFAB Child and Families Across Borders to complete the Home Study Report.

1. The local authority shall by 4pm on 3 August 2015 complete the CFAB referral form.

1. The local authority shall by 4pm on 3 August 2015 contact Anne Scully or her colleague, working at the Delegated Central Authority under the Hague Convention Alberta Ministry of Human Services to enquire whether the Central Authority would agree for a local authority social worker employee or agent of the London Borough of Sutton to work in co-operation with Alberta Social Services to carry out a Home Study Report in respect of the sister in Canada, requesting a response by 4pm on 10 August.

1. The Local Authority shall file its final evidence, final threshold and final care plan for the lad by 4.00pm on 20 November 2015. The local authority final evidence shall review and discuss all of the possible options for the lad and provide a balance sheet of all the advantages and disadvantages of each potential option.

1. The local authority shall by 4.00pm on 20 November 2015 file and serve a statement setting out the efforts made to trace the father prior to the final hearing listed below.

1. The Mother shall file and serve a position statement by 11am on 25 November 2015

Zimbabwe is expected to lower workers’ retirement age so that it becomes congruent to the life expectancy of its citizens which now falls far below the age 65.
A Parliamentary Portfolio Committee has recommended that the National Social Security Authority reduces the retirement age to be in line with the depressed life expectancy in Zimbabwe.
In its first report on the operations of NSSA, the Portfolio Committee on Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare said the majority of Zimbabweans were dying before reaching retirement age, thereby depriving them of enjoying their benefits.
Zanu-PF MP for Gutu East, Berita Chikwama, chairs the committee that also implored NSSA to raise monthly pension payouts to at least $150 from $60.
Although 65 years is the normal retirement age, 60 years is considered the normal retirement age in terms of the National Pension Scheme while those in arduous employment like mining, agriculture and heavy truck driving can have an early retirement at 55 years.
“We hope that the ministry would seriously consider our recommendations regarding downward review of the retirement age considering the low life expectancy of Zimbabweans which, according to research, is currently estimated to be 54 years for males and, 52, 7 for females,” said Chikwama last week.
“This ultimately means most workers die before 55 years and never get to enjoy their retirement benefits.” Chikwama also urged Government to seriously consider raising monthly pension payouts.
“Increment of the monthly pension payouts would be a most welcome development for pensioners and beneficiaries as the paltry $60 hardly caters for the basic needs of families in the current economic environment,” she said.
The committee said the assurance by Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Prisca Mupfumira that the NSSA Investment Policy was under review brought hope that it would end NSSA’s failed investments. Chikwama said the undertaking by Minister Mupfumira that the NSSA board would deliberate on the need to build referral hospitals country-wide was a welcome move for workers.
The committee said there was need for further decentralisation of NSSA services despite being represented in all the provinces and sub-offices in some districts.
“However, the majority of pensioners and survivors are still referred to the NSSA head office in Harare where they are tossed from one office to the other. In short, I am saying NSSA offices should be established in all the districts of the country closer to most of its beneficiaries as on retirement, most people move from towns to reside in rural areas. NSSA should improve the quality of its services to clients,” said Chikwama.

Outgoing US Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Bruce Wharton has finished his tour of duty and will now be leaving Zimbabwe after being replaced.
Wharton says his country is on a drive to forge new diplomatic ties with nations once deemed as hostile.
Wharton, who paid a courtesy call on Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa at his Munhumutapa offices today, said US recently mended relations with Iran and Cuba and is willing to forge stronger ties with Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe’s relations with the US have been frosty for the past 15 years.
Ambassador Wharton, who replaced Ambassador Charles Ray, is however upbeat the relations between his country and Zimbabwe are on the mend and can be better.
On the issue of Cecil the lion, which was allegedly killed by an American citizen Walter Palmer, Ambassador Wharton said the American government is waiting for a formal request through official channels from the Zimbabwean government so that the two governments can come up with a common position.
The US government has since appointed Ambassador Harry Kay Thomas to replace Ambassador Wharton, who is expected to complete his tour of duty next month.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Country Representative, Mr Reza Hussein also paid a courtesy call on Mnangagwa.
UNICEF is funding a number of projects in various sectors including education and maternal health.
Mr Reza commended strides made by the country in reducing the maternal mortality rate and improving access to primary education despite the prevailing harsh economic conditions.
Ambassador of the Republic of Sudan, Hamdan Ebeidalla who began his tour of duty in the country in 2013 also met the Vice President.
Zimbabwe has expertise in sectors such as mining that the republic of Sudan can exploit.

Twenty people this afternoon escaped death by a whisker after a commuter omnibus they were travelling on from Matopos, veered off the road trying to avoid a head on collision with a taxi, along the Matopos highway.

The accident comes within 48 hours of another kombi crash which killed four people along Bulawayo road in Harare.
In typical Hollywood style, the BUPTA commuter omnibus flew from the main road and landed at a nearby concrete wall, injuring all 18 passengers on board. The other two passengers who were travelling in a taxi sustained injuries, and were all taken to United Bulawayo Hospital for treatment.
ZimEye.com tried to get a comment from the police officers who were at the scene, but they refused referring all questions to the press and liaison office.
According to eye witnesses, the BUPTA Association commuter bus was racing with the unregistered pirate taxis, as is their cat and mouse business of fighting for customers, and lost control of the passenger vehicle injuring all passengers on board.
The commuter bus collided with the taxi in a bid to avoid head on collision before landing at a close concrete wall along the highway.

Villagers in the rural Gwanda villages are in a panic mode as the country’s statistics officials go through the villages conducting a national health survey which involves involuntary testing for HIV and amnesia.
The National Health Demographic Survey is being conducted nationwide by ZIMSTATS on behalf of the Ministry of Health. The exercise meant to last six months, involves random sampling of people to check on the prevalence of HIV and anaemia in the country.
The exercise includes involuntary testing of the respondents’ blood and where anaemia is detected the respondent is given treatment immediately, however HIV test results are not immediately disclosed to the person involved but retained for statistics. ZIMSTATS officials have been trained by the Ministry of Health to administer the tests and treatment.
However, Gwanda villagers who claim not to have been fully informed of the exercise are resisting the exercise and physically running away from ZIMSTATS officials carrying out the programme. Information gathered from the villagers indicates that the villagers are against the exercise as misinformation about the whole programme is being spread around.
Weird claims are amass within the communities such as that the exercise is being run to pick out HIV positive people in order to quarantine them out of the communities. Some are also being made to believe that the officials are in fact deliberately injecting them with the HIV Virus in order to reduce the population which government is failing to feed.
Samuel Ndlovu a headman in one village south of Gwanda told Zimeye correspondent that his village is in a serious panic mode as people are not sure what the exercise entails and resultantly wrong information about the exercise is being spread within the communities.
“This exercise was not fully communicated to the people, we only saw people making their way into the villages demanding to test people’s blood and not quite explained what they are being tested for,” he said.
“Normally when a government programme of this nature is to be done we get notices from councillors and other heads including radio announcements but this one was not explained we just saw people coming with posters and beginning to do the tests and that is not fair to us as villagers,” said one Thabang Setoboli from the same village.
The NHDS exercise is expected to be carried out countrywide in both rural and urban settlements. A quick check on the publicity of the exercise revealed that even the urban residents were not fully informed of the exercise and are resisting the programme. A ZIMSTATS official carrying out the exercise in Gwanda town confirmed that there is a general heavy resistance to the exercise which she attributed to low publicity and the stigma still associated to HIV/AIDS.
“There is indeed strong resistance to the exercise particularly in the urban areas and most likely this is due to lack of publicity on the exercise. We hope that sensitisation of the programme will be intensified as we progress and people will begin cooperating with us,” she said.
“There are numerous incidents where we are dismissed sometimes even violently by the people who claim that the exercise is not a priority to them at this juncture,” she added.
An official statement from both the Central Statistics Office, ZIMSTATS and the Ministry of Health is still being sourced as both offices in Gwanda and Bulawayo asked for written submissions on the matter.

A rapist who was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for raping a girl, 5, stunned a packed court yesterday when he said that his manhood was as big as that of a donkey.
Therefore, he said, if he had indeed raped the girl considering his massive manhood, she was going to suffer ruptured private parts.
Frank Phiri, who was employed as a herdsman by a Bulilima family, told regional magistrate Abedneco Ndebele, that the sheer size of his male organ was reason enough to prove he did not rape the girl.
“When this girl came and testified against me, she was walking properly with no evidence that she had been raped. She wasn’t even limping. I’ve a huge pe**s, and if I had raped her, she wasn’t going to walk properly,” said Phiri.
“I didn’t rape the girl and I think all witnesses in this court were bribed to convict and send me to jail.” In mitigation, Phiri said he was a father of three children whose ages he did not know as he last saw them 10 years ago.
“I’ve five goats and no money on my person,” said Phiri. Ndebele, however, said it was clear that Phiri had raped the girl.
“The five year old girl was brave enough to testify against you in court and her testimony was straight to the point. You are found guilty as charged and therefore sentenced to 20 years imprisonment of which two years are suspended on condition of good behaviour,” said Ndebele.
During trial, Phiri presented four defence outlines claiming that he was being framed by the girl’s mother.
“This woman got angry when I refused to give her US dollars in exchange of Rands. She was irked by my actions and made a fake rape report,” said Phiri in his first defence.
“When the girl was taken to the hospital for medical examination, her mother gave the nurse-in-charge $50 as bribe so she could fabricate a medical report that proves the girl was raped.”
Phiri later claimed he was assaulted by police officers who made him admit to raping the girl.
“There’s something I’ve been keeping to myself which proves I didn’t rape her because I didn’t want to embarrass a lot of people. I also saw a group of children who took a plastic paper and rolled it up before inserting it into the girl’s privates. I witnessed them doing that,” he said leaving the court in stitches at the end of the defence case.
Prosecuting, Concilia Ncube said the girl’s mother left her daughter under Phiri’s supervision on April 22 around 7AM.
“The complainant’s mother left her daughter at her neighbour’s homestead under the care of Phiri who works as a herdsman as she went to fetch water from a nearby borehole. In her absence, Phiri summoned the child into his bedroom hut where he raped her once and ordered her to remain quiet over the incident,” said Phiri.
She said upon her return, the juvenile’s mother found her daughter crying and learnt that she had been raped by their neighbour’s herdsman.
Ncube said the woman reported the matter to the police resulting in Phiri’s immediate arrest.Chronicle

The MDC Renewal, the Tendai Biti led splinter political party that left Tsvangirai last year  after disagreements on several sections of their constitution, and administration of the main opposition, is set to change its name to become the People’s Democratic Party if the party’s national convention would approve it by the end of August, this year, it has emerged.
According to the senior member of the struggling upcoming political party Butholezwe Nyathi, who made the revelations today, the logistics have already been finalised.
“Yes…we are changing our name from MDC Renewal Team to this, if approved by our National Convention before the end of this month,” he said.
“The alternative is here. It is the New Way out of the government and leadership crisis that Zanu-pf put us in. We will also avail our economic policy called hope. Good morning Zimbabweans and others”, he announced.
The political formation’s strength was damaged early this year after its co-president Sekai Holland resigned and ditched their marriage with the Welshman led MDC, whose coalition was officially held at Stanely square in Bulawayo.

The State Media writes claiming former Zanu-PF Secretary for Administration Minister Didymus Mutasa is in an attempt to grab two schools for his enrichment.
Didymus Mutasa is embroiled in a nasty fight to control two community schools in Nyanga so that he can pocket at least $150 000 annually in school fees and has since directed school officials to pay rentals to him.
Mr Mutasa, who is reported to have hit hard times, recently wrote to the school officials informing them that Nyafaru Primary and Nyafaru Secondary schools in Kairezi Range, under Chief Tangwena on the border with Mozambique, belong to him.
The schools are a cash cow considering that they have a combined enrolment of 776 pupils.
Of these pupils, 511 are at Nyafaru Secondary, which offers boarding facilities at $360 a term, while day scholars pay $60.
The primary school has an enrolment of 265 pupils and each child pays $20 a term.
The fees translate to close to $50 000 a term in fees and $150 000 a year.
Documents in possession of The Herald show that the schools belonged to Nyanga Rural District Council after Nyafaru Development Company (Pvt) Ltd, a company linked to Mr Mutasa, donated them to the community.
In a letter to the Manicaland Provincial Education director dated December 10, 2004, the company, through its managing director Mr Pearson Kasu, relinquished the schools to Nyanga Rural District Council following pressure from the Tangwena community.
“This letter replaces our letter of 23 October 2004,’’ wrote Mr Kasu. ‘’It is also a response to your letter of 5 October 2004 in which you requested through Nyanga Rural District Council that the company should write a letter of accepting to relinquish its authority over the two schools to Nyanga Rural District Council.
‘’We, therefore, respond as follows – the company resolved that it relinquishes its authority over the two schools to Nyanga Rural District Council. The company recommends that the books of the two schools be audited to facilitate the smooth handover and takeover and the company’s accountant and manager will assist the audit.”
Mr Mutasa is the chairman of Nyafaru Development Company whose directorship includes his wife Mrs Getrude Mutasa, Mr John Deary and Mr Pearson Kasu.
Nine years after the firm’s letter of relinguishing the schools, Mr Mutasa, through his lawyers, wrote to the Manicaland provincial education director reclaiming them.
Reads his letter dated February 2013: “We represent Nyafaru Development Company (Pvt) Ltd, the responsible authority for the above captioned schools (Nyafaru Primary and Secondary).
Please be advised that we have since reconsidered our position of relinquishing authority over the schools to Nyanga Rural District Council. We intend to remain as the responsible authority, thus withdraw our offer of 2004 which negotiations did not materialise. May you be guided accordingly.”
Lawyers that represented the Tangwena community in the matter at the time wrote to the provincial education director for Manicaland contesting the decision by Mr Mutasa and Nyafaru Development Company to re-take the schools that are situated on several hectares of fertile land.
“Our response on behalf of our clients is simple and crystal clear and is to the effect that the contents of the letter that was written to you are not true and are meant to mislead you,’’ said the lawyers.
“Nyafaru Development Company, which is defunct and was defunct even in 2004, relinquished control and authority over the two schools and it is indeed a closed chapter which was and is fruitful. We advise you that the said company cannot approbate and reprobate at the same time. What was done was properly done and concluded and it cannot be reopened at this juncture.”
Using Nyafaru Development Company as cover, Mr Mutasa wrote to Nyafaru Primary and Secondary schools demanding payment of close to $200 000 in what he termed rental arrears.
Reads his letter dated March 24, 2015: “We act for Nyafaru Development Company (Pvt) Ltd and are advised as follows: Our client is the owner and responsible authority of Nyafaru Secondary School, charged with the establishment, maintenance and administration of the school and owns land and buildings on which the school is situated.
We have been instructed by our client to demand payment by the school to the company of rentals in the sum of $2 000 a month, backdated to the 1st of January 2009, as well as legal costs for recovery of the rentals.”
The lawyers said Nyafaru Development Company was justified to seek rentals as it was the lawful owners of the land and the schools.
“In this light, we hereby demand: the total of US$150 000.00 which is rentals from the 1st of January 2009 to March 2015, they said.
Holding over damages of US$2000 per month calculated from the 1st of April 2015 up to the date the school begins to be run with accountability to the company. Legal costs US$93.00.”
Another letter was written to Nyafaru Primary School demanding payment of over $15 000 in rentals.
The documents in The Herald’s possession show that Mr Mutasa interferred with the running of the school using his political muscle before he was kicked out of Zanu-PF and Government.
At one point, he wrote to then Education and Culture Minister Aeneas Chigwedere seeking the dismissal of Nyafaru Secondary School headmaster Mr Bernard Maoko not only from the school, but employment as well.
In a letter bearing a Zanu-PF letterhead, Mr Mutasa wrote: “I refer to our previous correspondence and discussion about the removal of Mr Bernard Mawoko from the headmastership of Nyafaru Secondary School.
We now appeal to you as the ultimate authority in the Ministry of Education and Culture to remove him from Nyafaru Farm and preferably from being a civil servant in your ministry.”
Added Mr Mutasa: “We have had problems running our farm and school on his account. He has taken me to court and disputes my authority on the school. Generally speaking, he is not one of us. He employs MDC lawyers and tactics to disrupt the smooth running of the school, which I have, personally, helped to establish and run since 1960.”
The Tangwena community has vowed to fight Mr Mutasa to the end. Mr Mutasa was not immediately available for comment. A woman who answered his mobile phone said he was not available.

President Robert Mugabe has revealed that he did not marry Grace out of love but just for baby making.
Zimbabwe’s Head of State confessed the deepest secret to the shock of  Zimbabweans saying there was no attraction or bond whatsoever between him and Grace.
He said he acted due to pressure from his mother. “The doctors said your wife cannot bear children anymore because of the kidney ailment . . . So too my mother, she would say, “My child, you will grow old without a child.’ Aah! And she was telling others and my uncles – ‘Ko iye Robert kana akangowana zvake musikana waanotora, kuti ndingowana mwana wandinobata ndisati ndafa?”
“So, there was that impulsion too on the side of my mother. So after the death of Sally, I decided to marry. I just made up my mind. I married this girl. It was a definite choice. It was not something just out of fancy or emotion, but a definite decision that I must marry and the girl I must marry is this.”
Mugabe added saying that there was nothing at all, and not even natural instinct that bonded him with Grace shortly before they mated. He said, “as I say, she was very young, and I wondered whether me, so many years older than she, would be able to put up with this young girl. I think she must have had the same problem in her own mind. As young as she was, would she be able to put up with this man in his seventies. But we got married and got to learn each other’s likes and dislikes,” said Mugabe.
He also added that he usually quoted Shakespeare when writing Grace’s birthday card. “The day before yesterday, the 23rd of July, which was the actual birthday of Amai Mugabe, in the morning, I rose and went and got the two boys, Tino and Bellarmine, and then we went and sang, ‘happy birthday to you’ to the mother,” he said.
“But I did not give my wife a card. I had written it the usual way to say – I reiterate what I have said before – that I love you and love you so much; that I will still continue to love you.
“I said to her, I had earlier on quoted Shakespeare on the card but on second thoughts I refrained from doing so. She said why, and I said, well, I was going to quote what Shakespeare said in ‘Antony and Cleopatra’.
“There was this lady called Cleopatra, very beautiful and from Africa, and the Roman commanders, you know Egypt and that part of North Africa was occupied by Romans, all admired her. Even Julius Caesar did, and after him, a guy called Antony.
“And he (Antony) says about Cleopatra – and this is what I thought I should also say to my wife: ‘Age does not wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety’. She gives her most, she takes. If you look at my wife, you’ll think she is 30, 35.
“That’s why I thought I wanted to say age does not wither her nor is she spoilt by those customs which tend to make some of our wives in the eyes of their husbands primitive.
“So, age does not wither her nor custom stale her variety. There she is. I got married to her and the age between her and me, the difference doesn’t change. I wish she would grow and grow in age faster than myself.
“She was very young – just about 20-plus. And at that time my mother Bona had gone in years. I had married earlier a Ghanaian lady and she had died of kidney ailment. We had one child who died when I was in prison, Nhamodzenyika. He was about three-and-a-half-years-old. I went to see where he was buried.

Beleaguered Jukwa inventor and mastermind Edmund Kudzayi, has been kicked out of his Sunday Mail editor-ship job role.
Kudzayi who was arrested on allegations of setting up the controversial Baba Jukwa Facebook page and later acquitted, is now on the street after the State insisted it is still pursuing extra-territorial investigations and are prowling to proceed by way of summons after Kudzayi admitted creating the Amai Jukwa facebook page but denied having anything to do with Baba Jukwa.
 
Higher Education Minister Jonathan Moyo who headed the Information Ministry is the one who appointed Kudzayi.
Zimpapers Group Chief Executive Mr Pikirayi Deketeke on Monday announced in a statement four senior appointments to fill vacant positions at the head office and the newspaper and radio divisions.
Mr Farai Matanhire is the new Group Chief Finance Officer replacing Mr Adolf Majome, who left the group last year.
Mr Matanhire previously worked as finance director at Lafarge Cement Ltd and also held senior finance positions at several other companies.
Mabasa Sasa, who has been acting editor of The Sunday Mail since June 2014, has been appointed as the substantive editor of the publication.
He previously served as Editor of the Southern Times based in Namibia from April 2011 to November 2013 when he became Deputy Editor of The Herald.
Comfort Mbofana has been appointed general manager of Zimpapers’ radio station, Star FM.
He previously served as deputy general manager and programmes manager of the same radio station.
Joram Nyathi replaces Sasa as Deputy Editor of The Herald after serving as Senior Assistant Editor and Group Political Editor since December 2013 until his latest appointment.
The appointments are with effect from August 1, 2015.

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s party is fighting tooth and nail LOCAL Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister, Saviour Kasukuwere, after the latter fired two Gweru councillors.
Kasukuwere said he expelled  them for allegedly misusing council property and engaging in corruption.
The fired councillors are Albert Chirau of Ward 11 and Moses Marecha of Ward 5, both of the MDC-T who were on suspension.
The duo received their expulsion letters yesterday while a third councillor, Kenneth Sithole of Ward 4 received a final written warning.
Chirau and Marecha confirmed receiving the letters of dismissal from Kasukuwere but refused to comment directing The State Media to their party spokesperson, Obert Gutu. Sithole, who was also on suspension for allegedly assaulting a council employee, was found not guilty by the courts but issued with a final warning by Kasukuwere.
Gutu said, “Yes I confirm that two of our councillors in Gweru received expulsion letters from the Ministry of Local Government. The move is null and void as we understand that the Minister violated Section 278 (2) of the Constitution which calls for the establishment of an independent tribunal to exercise the function of removing from office, mayors, chairperson and councillors. So we’re going to take the legal course for the matter to be addressed.”
Kasukuwere used Section 114 (1) Chapter 9:15 of the Urban Councils Act to fire the councillors. It states that the Local Government Minister can suspend and dismiss a councillor after an independent committee thoroughly inquired into the councillor’s misconduct prior to dismissal.
Prior to their dismissal, Chirau and Marecha had been first suspended and ordered to stop conducting council duties in their respective wards until the outcome of the investigations conducted by the Ministry.
“Following allegations of abuse of office and council property levelled against you, I with immediate effect suspend you from being a councillor for Ward 5 according to Section 114 (1) Chapter 9:15 of the Urban Councils Act. I will send a team to investigate you as soon as possible and you will be advised accordingly,” reads a letter signed by the then Minister of Local Government, Ignatius Chombo and addressed to Marecha.
The suspension letter dated May 21 was also copied to city Mayor, Clr Hamutendi Kombayi and the Town Clerk, Daniel Matawu.
Gweru City Council’s Workers Committee, which is notoriously known as “Boko Haram”, had for the past year been calling for the expulsion of Chirau and Marecha. They previously held demonstrations against the councillors at the Town House.
Workers’ committee spokesperson, Cornelius Selipiwe said workers were overjoyed with the decision by the government to fire “the corrupt councillors”.
He said Chirau and Marecha did not deserve to be in the council.
Selipiwe said: “It was good that the government sent in an investigation team to look into the allegations of corruption and misuse of council property against the two councillors. As workers’ committee we’re there to raise alarm and that’s what we did in this case. We expect more heads to roll after the audit report is released because we feel there is a lot of rot in this municipality. It’s our hope to bring back progress into the City of Progress.”
Chirau was accused of renting out a council club house in his ward and pocketing the rentals while Marecha was accused of selling pit sand and gravel in Senga Suburb to a public contractor and pocketing the money.
On the other hand, Clr Sithole once appeared before a Gweru magistrate court charged with assaulting a council driver Simbarashe Lebo following a dispute over the late payment of salaries by the local authority. Clr Sithole was found not guilty.

Following the court ruling that employers can now fire workers as they wish, ZCTU has set the 8th of August to take to the streets of the main towns of Zimbabwe to make their voice heard.
The following is a statement released by Japhet Moyo, the Secretary General.
 
PRESS RELEASE
 
RE: ZCTU National Demonstrations Against Job Losses
This Press Release is to inform the workers and the general public that the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)’s highest decision-making body in between the Congress, the General Council, met on 1 August 2015 and resolved that workers in Zimbabwe embark on a national protest against the continuing job losses and the threat to the existence of trade union.
The demonstrations will be held on Saturday 8 August 2015.
This follows the Supreme Court ruling that authorized employers to terminate employment contracts on notice and without giving any reason.
The national demonstrations will be held in Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru, Chinhoyi and Mutare. The police will be informed on these activities.
We urge all workers, sympathizers and those who have lost their jobs to join hands to denounce what is currently happening and to call upon the government to immediately stop the abuse of workers.
Japhet Moyo
Secretary-General

After several years of suffering in silence, Nkayi community who are relatives of Zimbabwe’s Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko have resolved to take him head on.
The kinsmen who opened up to ZimEye.com on Monday, said that they have since alerted the two Chiefs, Dakamela and Sikobokobo on their intention to deliver their outburst to the vice president, who they say is responsible for their predicament.
“We have since written a petition to blood relative Phelekezela, who is showing no interest in our lives. He has been traveling to this area in a chopper, while we are involved in fatal accidents due to the road which has become a death trap.
“How can he neglect us when he was born and bred here in Nkayi. Mabhena was fired from the government because he challenged the state on the road condition, and now Mphoko wants to do the same,” complained Zwelibanzi Mkwananzi.
Another relative who identified herself as Idah Mphoko of Dakamela village told ZimEye.com that their brother, Mphoko is doing little to deliver them from poverty and under development that is stalking the Bubi district.
“We were expecting swift development from Phelekezela, who is well versed with problems facing his district of birth and yet he ignores,” said Idah.
Another villager Saliwe Nkomo, of Nkayi, who told ZimEye.com that Phelekezela was his cousin, said that Mphoko must take advantage of his position to deliver his relatives from the bondage of poverty.
“We celebrated after his appointment last year, but we celebrate for a negligent relative. Mzenda developed his home area of Gutu, and constructed roads to his homeland for his relatives, while our cousin Phelekezela is doing the opposite,” she said bitterly.
Asked to comment on the situation, Chief Sikobokobo downplayed the plight of the community, and blamed it on DDF, who he said was delaying the roads services.
“This is all DDF’s problem, because they are not doing their job. I will meet the management of the local government to discuss the road issue and map the way forward,” he said.
Chief Dakamela, opted to play the ball close to her chest and said, “I think it’s in the government’s plan to deliver Nkayi from all their predicaments, so let’s be patient for a while and see what happens.

After the much celebrated large folder of deals signed by Robert Mugabe earlier this year, and another penned by Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe is this Friday signing another batch of eight project deals, as the country gets sold off.
Already the diamonds at Chiadzwa have been sold off to China for a whole 20 years since 2013 after ZANU PF sold the mine fields away in exchange for a small building complex now called, the Zimbabwe Defense College.
The Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Dr Misheck Sibanda revealed this development at a reception held for so called “Chinese experts” in Harare last night.
The said team of experts from the National Development and Reform Commission of China, were found to be really members of China’s Communist party.
The State Media claimed that this is a follow up to the various memoranda of understanding signed between Zimbabwe and Chinese companies when Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa visited the Asian country last month.
About eight projects from key sectors such as roads and railways, energy and power, tourism, mining, manufacturing among others, will be put into effect.
Sibanda said eight deals to be signed are set to be completed at the shortest possible time.
“Cooperation on national economic planning, transportation infrastructure has been given high priority, according the Chinese team leader, Mr. Dong Shongshen,” he said.
China and Zimbabwe have sound political relations and the two countries are working towards boosting their economic cooperation.