TEN boys from Western Commonage Police Camp aged between six and nine years were allegedly sodomised by a 12-year-old boy who stays in the same compound and his friends whose identities are unknown.
Three of the abused boys reportedly spent three days indoors as they could not walk after sustaining serious injuries.
The incident which occurred on Sunday, 14 June has been kept under tight wraps as the parents of the child who is accused of being the ring leader in the sodomy case are reportedly threatening the victim’s parents from reporting the matter.
The victims who are doing their primary education in various schools in the western suburbs were taken for medical examination at Mpilo Hospital where doctors found that three of the 10 children were seriously injured.
A parent whose child was seriously injured said the family had decided not to pursue the matter because “there are some serious threats which the victim’s families are receiving”.
A medical record which the family provided to Sunday News reads: “Child is definitely penetrated anally with the evidence of reflex anal dilatation and anal tissue.”
For the sake of her child, the parent said the matter should be dealt with so that there can be “peace at the camp and victims can have a peace of mind”.
“I only discovered that there was something wrong with my child when he came home limping. When I queried, he lied and said he got injured while he was playing. But I later realised that there was something wrong because his face was sour and after persisting, he then told me that he was sodomised,” the victim’s mother said.
“Unfortunately, from the whole crew which was sodomised, mine is among the three that were seriously injured. As the family we have already decided to let the issue go because the boy’s mother, whom our children are saying sodomised them, is threatening us that something bad can happen if we mention his child’s name. With that, we are no longer interested in the matter but our children need protection so that they can too grow up and have a peace of mind.”
Another parent whose child was seriously injured after being sodomised said she was shocked that children could abuse their juniors.
“Well my brother, the matter truly happened and I am still shocked on how a boy of that age can do such an act? My son is now taking some tablets which were prescribed by the doctor and I hope that he will remain at his level best. School authorities are not aware of that issue because sometimes telling them might result in the matter leaking and affecting their mental well-being,” she said.
Another victim’s parent confirmed the incident, saying her child vividly remembered what happened despite the doctor indicating that there was no penetration in the medical report.
“The child is among the children who were abused. When we ask him what happened, he tells us everything but when he went for medical examination the doctor said there was no penetration. He was also taken for counselling so that he cannot be affected by what happened,” she said.
Another parent whose six-year-old child claims to have been sodomised but whose medical report states that there was no damage or evidence of penetration, said he was having sleepless nights because his son’s behaviour had changed. He said he feared that the situation might get worse as his son continued to meet the perpetrator on a daily basis.
“The boy (name withheld) is the ring leader. He has his friends who stay outside the camp whom he brought and sodomised our kids. I am not settled because this matter is going to severely mentally affect my child. What is so disturbing is that the police seem not to be taking harsh measures to take the matter to court. How our children cannot get affected by this bad incident when on a daily basis they are seeing the person who sodomised them? My child told me that (name supplied) was the one who was sodomising him and police also know that,” he said.
The accused boy’s mother confirmed receiving the reports but denied that her child was a sodomite.
“The matter truly happened. Everybody here knows that there is that issue but my child is innocent. He is not involved in this issue; people are just spreading information which is not true at all. You can go to the charge office to get more information because that’s where the matter was reported. I never threatened people, what I simply did was to tell them to stop dragging my son’s name into the issue because he is not involved,” she said.
The mother of the third boy who is said to be seriously injured refused to divulge any information. She said the matter was not for public consumption. Despite other victim’s parents and some residents telling the paper that her child was seriously injured, she denied the matter.
“My child is not part of that crew which was sodomised. I will not entertain further questions on that matter,” she said before turning her back.
Contacted for a comment, Bulawayo police spokesperson Inspector Mandlenkosi Moyo said he could not give a comment because he had not received the report.
However, officers at his office had earlier indicated that they had compiled a report which they were waiting for Insp Moyo to release after he was done with a meeting he was attending. Sunday news

Criminal land barons who are illegally parcelling out residential stands using Zanu-PF’s name will be arrested, the ruling party’s Secretary for Administration and Local Government Minister Dr Ignatius Chombo has said.
Dr Chombo told The State Media last week that it was a criminal offence for party activists to parcel out land. He said Zanu-PF does not condone such behavior and those found on the wrong side of the law would be brought to book.
“All the laws in this country were made by Zanu-PF. So we cannot make laws that we do not want to follow. We want them to be followed to the later not only by our supporters and activists but also by the generality of Zimbabweans.
“We do not tolerate criminal activities and anyone who breaks the laws will be arrested especially land barons and unscrupulous land developers who are hiding behind the name of the party to do their criminal activities. I can assure you that they will find themselves behind bars,” he said.
He said his ministry had directed all local authorities to draft mechanisms to deal with illegal settlements.
“We have given them two months to deal with the issue of illegal settlements. So as we speak they are assessing the magnitude of the problem and they will make their presentations and we will take it from there,” he said.
Dr Chombo said some settlements would be regularised as the beneficiaries were mere victims of the criminal barons’ activities.
“We are legalising some of those illegal stands but obviously some will be affected. For example those who are building on institutional stands like schools, under power lines and so on (will be removed),” he said.
A fortnight ago, former Zanu-PF Harare province youth chair Cde Godwin Gomwe was arrested for allegedly giving out stands illegally.

The army were this month preparing to shoot Zimbabwe’s vendors, Morgan Tsvangirai says. FULL TEXT:
We meet today on the 27th of June, a day that invokes blood-soaked memories of the unmitigated and State-sponsored violence we witnessed seven years ago.
Exactly seven years ago to the day and three months after I had defeated him in an election; President Mugabe contested against himself in a bloody election run-off and claimed he had won.
Four days ago, we buried Brighton Matimba, the MDC’s head of social welfare whose office was burdened with the catastrophe of 2008. May his soul rest in eternal peace.
I pulled out of the run-off after that violence which was meant to punish the people for exercising their democratic right to vote for me and the MDC. But that did not stop Mr. Mugabe from participating in a ridiculous so-called election as a sole candidate.
We also meet today, two years after the people’s vote was subverted in yet another stolen election on 31 July 2013, but the economic collapse and the national despondency after that monumental fraud are now so palpable and evident to all they cannot be hidden anymore. Our country faces an unprecedented catastrophic economic and social collapse.
They told us then, that it was an overwhelming victory for Zanu PF; but we can now all testify that the true victor in that election was evil and the hopelessness of the people that we see around us today.
On Friday, 24 January 2014, I presented a state of the nation address in which I pointed to a country fast accelerating towards a monumental implosion.
Today, as I rightly predicted, the meltdown is upon us while the party in government remains pre-occupied with ceaseless internal purges and diversionary succession wars while the nation teeters on the brink of total collapse.
I have travelled across the country and seen for myself the problems facing the people. I have seen the desperation on many faces, the poverty and despondency that has been brought about by the inevitable failure of ZANU(PF) to keep their empty promises which they continue to make to the people.
From the flood victims of Mahuwe in Mashonaland Central, to the suffering many in Tsholotsho, from Chipinge to Binga, from Mudzi to Kariba, I have met and spoken to humble ordinary men and women who have testified to an unbearable life under the incompetent leadership of this government.
Apart from the discouraging economic signs now visible everywhere, the demon of State sponsored violence is back as typified by the abduction more than 100 days ago of Itai Dzamara, who remains missing to this day.
After co-existence of the political parties in an inclusive government for four years, we thought the violent past had become another country.
We were wrong. The leopard has remained faithful to its spots.
And in open provocation to the peace-loving, hardworking people of this country, the army only last month rescinded on a threat to gun down millions of suffering vendors eking an honest living by selling their wares on the streets.
Instead of promising the nation food, stability, development, progress and jobs, the government promised gunpowder and violent removal to the innocent millions of our people who are only trying to feed their families.
On the few occasions that he is in the country nowadays, we wonder if the President takes time to even think about the monumental economic and social crisis engulfing the nation and the suffering that we the ordinary people are going through. It is evident that Mugabe does not care and if he does, he surely has a funny way of showing it! Our country is on autopilot to nowhere.
The economy
It is now 26 months since the elections in July 2013 brought to an end the inclusive government that had ushered in outstanding progress and provided respite to the people.
It is now obvious to all serious observers that the elections in 2013 were perhaps the most manipulated and rigged election in our short history.
After years of poor governance, corruption and soaring inflation, the inclusive government brought price and fiscal stability, direction and rapid economic recovery that brought hope back.
This was most clearly demonstrated by revenue to the State which expanded from just $280 million in 2008 to $4,3 billion in 2013.
Zimbabweans remember with nostalgia the good times of the MDC in government but it all seems like a long time ago, given the dispiriting reality now around us. After the purported victory of 2013, the economy lost no time in casting a vote of no confidence in the Zanu PF led government that had been imposed on the people. Within days, values on the stock market began to decline and are now barely half what they were in 2013 while more than $2 billion has fled our markets over the past two years.
In the banking sector, most indigenous banks, rotten with patronage , insider loans, poor management and lack of regulatory oversight by the Reserve Bank, have all but collapsed. So much for indeginization!
In the past two years, 40 per cent of our commercial banks have either been placed under curatorship or in liquidation with the loss of over $1 billion of the people’s savings and income.
The flight of capital, loss of cash balances at the banks and the liquidation of investments have resulted in a cash crunch that is paralyzing the private sector, exacerbating the closure of companies and inhibiting economic activity throughout the country.
These immediate problems have been further exacerbated by the resumption of demands for the transfer of assets to politically connected individuals and military officers under the guise of indigenization.
The continued onslaught on the rule of law and property rights, have reduced Foreign Direct Investment to new record lows.
As a consequence, it is our view that the national economy in fact contracted in 2014 and that this contraction in economic activity is accelerating by the day. This view is supported by the decline in national tax receipts to $3,8 billion in 2014 and the revised budget of $3,5 billion in 2015. Even this reduced estimate is now looking optimistic.
It seems as if Zanu PF has learnt nothing from its 35 years in power. To illustrate this lack of understanding and ignorance of economic principles, the unjustified and unbudgeted expenditures in 2014 and in 2015 have pushed the budget from the surplus achieved during each of the years of the MDC control of the fiscus, to over $1 billion in 2014 and a projected $1,5 billion in 2015.
This means that the government has incurred a totally unsustainable budget deficit of 23 per cent of expenditure in 2014 and it should be noted that this is approaching 31 per cent in 2015. This is totally unacceptable and violates the fundamental principles underlying the International Monetary Fund’s Staff Monitored Programme (SMP), negotiated under the inclusive government and signed by President Mugabe in 2013.
The consequences of this accelerating collapse of the economy are extremely grave; unemployment has reached record highs, disposable incomes have declined and the State is unable to meet its day to day needs for it to be effective in delivering services to the people.
In the midst of this crisis, Zimbabwe faces the worst food shortages since 1992 when extreme drought conditions forced massive food imports and 2008/9 and over 70 per cent of the population needed food aid from the international community.
This is exacerbated this year by the collapse of incomes and the inability of millions of Zimbabweans to meet their basic needs. We have heard recently that now the government is begging for food aid from a donor community which they insult on every turn. That is not only embarrassing, but indicates the level of desperation and incompetence of this government.
One of the things that make this situation even worse, is the continued denial of the regime of the fact that their land reform programme has been an unmitigated disaster for everyone.
That disaster is characterized by the continuous land invasions, new farmers without security or support, land owners dispossessed of billions of dollars of assets without compensation and the displacement of two million people who used to make a living on the farms and the need to import virtually all of our food.
This is compounded by an incompetent and bungling Minister of Agriculture who neither understands what is wrong nor has a clue as to how to make things work again. He has persistently overestimated local production volumes to please the President with lies and this year is no exception.
This crisis is further compounded by the decision last year to tell the World Food Programme that they were “no longer needed”. As a consequence, the international community (with the exception of China and Russia), who have in the past 7 years poured billions of dollars into Zimbabwe and provided food and health services and assistance with clean water supplies, is ill-prepared for yet another year of desperate humanitarian needs for Zimbabwe.
Because of corruption and incompetence, the Grain Marketing Board and the Ministry of Finance simply do not have the resources or the capacity to respond to our urgent needs. Simply to protect his pride, the President does not have the courage to declare a food emergency and ask those whom he disparages for help.
What we have heard in an unclear and muffled tone is Mugabe’s deputy, Emmerson Mnangagwa, belatedly asking for $300 million from development agencies to mitigate this disaster.
And as the nation stares another season of starvation, we want to warn against any partisan distribution of food to the people of Zimbabwe. We suspect that this partisan approach to food distribution will happen once more, putting millions of our people at the risk of starvation.
We urge the world and the development agencies to look out for this persistent Zanu PF behavior to deny citizens their right to food along partisan and political lines. We as the MDC will also deal with these problems as best we can and our supporters will be asserting their right to food just as all other deserving Zimbabweans.
Fellow Zimbabweans, there will be consequences for this multi-layered crisis currently facing the country. One of these, will be an increase in human flight as thousands of Zimbabwean economic migrants flee to countries who offer opportunities denied in their home country. The South Africans are not responsible for Xenophobia – leaders like Robert Mugabe are directly responsible and yet continue to deny this fact but are quick to blame others. That is typical.
Another consequence of the collapse of the economy is the massive growth in our informal business sector which they are now calling the “new economy” in order to once more, blame exogenous factors for the problems they have clearly created.
Today, only eight per cent of all adults are formally employed and therefore 92 per cent of our population depends on informal business activity for a living. We have about 700 000 small scale peasant farmers, 2,5 million street traders, 500 000 small scale miners, 180 000 cross border traders and 100 000 mini bus operators who, despite the continuous harassment by the police, must move the nation every day with amazing ingenuity and efficiency.
Today, more money circulates in this “shadow” economy than in the formal sector and it makes a huge contribution to our collective welfare and being albeit informal. Without this army of hard working small business persons and without remittances from the estimated five million Zimbabweans now living outside the country, things in the country would be very much worse. In fact, they would be disastrous!
This community of hardworking, innovative and enterprising people is a breeding ground for the next generation of successful miners, farmers and entrepreneurs. Far from recognizing their contribution, Zanu PF regards them as “urban rubbish” and “illegal miners” and is doing all they can to dislodge them from their places of work and sustenance.
Let me remove any doubt from your minds, any attempts by the regime to mount a second “Murambatsvina” will be strongly resisted and the MDC commits itself to the protection of all informal business persons, their inclusion in our economy and to making it possible for them to grow and prosper.
This crisis we face now is quite different from the collapse that took place from 1997 to 2008. This time we have deflation, not inflation, we have a hard currency and no shortages but no money with which to buy what is in the supermarkets. In 2008 the region was assisting us in our efforts to secure the fundamental changes we needed to get our beautiful, hard-working country back on its feet. Today, the region is ignoring our situation.
In 2008, the Fishmonger Group of 17 countries committed themselves to our stability and recovery to give us time to get our democracy back on track. Today, they have other priorities and are leaving us to deal with this new crisis on our own.
Rights and governance
The governance MDC yearns for is social democracy with policies underpinned by the sacrosanct values of justice, solidarity and freedom. Contrary to the Zanu PF philosophy, we cannot have policies centred only on distribution of limited assets at the expense of production. In the absence of economic production, there is nothing to distribute.
True and genuine empowerment speaks to a welfare State based on production anchored on sound policies that promote domestic and foreign investment. Any other empowerment policies in the absence of production fall far short of what the people expect and deserve.
The primitive emphasis on re-distribution of limited assets, rent seeking mentality with unjustified entitlement is what has brought this economy and this country to its knees. As a nation, we had done well by writing our own Constitution to infuse the values and culture under which the people said they want to be governed. This is the only governance culture which will spur our national development and prosperity.
It is now over two years since this country adopted a new national Constitution, achieved after 15 years of struggle and popular demands for change. Apart from the respite given to the people of this country, the only other real achievement of the GPA and the inclusive government was the negotiation and agreement on a new constitutional dispensation.
Yet two years down the line, the new Constitution has not been implemented properly by changing the 400 instruments of legislation that require amendment if we are to bring the new governance charter to life. Even the Speaker of Parliament last week complained about the lethargy by the Minister of Justice, who is also the Vice President, in seeing to it that Zimbabweans live under their new Constitution.
It must be noted that if this process is concluded in a responsible and legal way, most of the reforms enshrined in that Constitution would return Zimbabwe to sanity, economic recovery, freedom and democracy.
We in the MDC hold dear the issue of credible elections and reforms that would poise this country for growth and development. As I have said, most of the reforms are now in our Constitution.
As a party, we have made a firm commitment to withdraw from the electoral system until it is reformed along the lines envisaged in the GPA, signed under the auspices of SADC and the AU.
There is little purpose in submitting our supporters to elections when the whole system is so subverted and undemocratic. So firm are we in our adherence to the implementation of the Constitution and a new governance culture that we are demanding full compliance with the SADC norms and values for democratic activity. Nothing short of that will suffice. Until that is achieved to our satisfaction we can confidently promise our people that we will not participate in any election.
In the past year, virtually every political party except the MDC has disintegrated, leaving the people with neither leadership nor hope. We in the MDC committed ourselves in 1999 to changing our government democratically, within the law and without violence.
We have stuck to those principles and we have neither beaten one policeman nor broken a single window in the past 16 years while we ourselves have been beaten, abducted and killed.
I am not sure whether we can maintain that stance into the future.
One thing is for sure, the present situation is untenable and unacceptable and perhaps the time has come for us to take matters into our own hands and force the changes that are needed.
I know that there are many in Zanu PF today who share that sentiment that the future is indeed in our hands.
The Social services sector
Our social services sector, particularly health, education, water and sanitation services, is in limbo. Once the pride and marvel of our people, our schools and hospitals have collapsed under this government’s watch.
Despite our major success in the education sector, during the era of the inclusive government, there has been palpable decline in terms of quality and access since 2013. For example, the recently introduced examination fees for Grade 7 students are not consistent with the new Constitution of Zimbabwe, which regards access to basic education and health as rights and not as privileges.
On the health sector, our major referral hospitals such as Harare hospital, Parirenyatwa and Mpilo have become death chambers while morale remains low as witnessed by the recent job action by doctors and nurses.
Whereas during the era of the inclusive government we had created the Education Transition Fund (ETF) and the Health Transition Fund (HTF) together with development partners to engender progress, today the social services sector has collapsed under ZANU(PF) mismanagement.
Even our local authorities are broke and struggling to provide clean water and sanitation services.
Zanu PF’s populist decision to cancel all debts in the run up to the last election has come back to haunt our councils as all of them are owed hundreds of millions of dollars, with government itself being the biggest debtor to local authorities.
These debts were cancelled in one fell swoop and today no resident feels encouraged to pay rates and services as they feel that the Zanu PF government will bring back the ill-advised bonanza towards the 2018 election.
Our streets are teeming with millions of Zimbabweans seeking to earn a living in these harsh economic times characterized by job losses and an unemployment rate of 90 percent. As it becomes apparent that the Zanu PF election promise to create two million jobs was just an election gimmick, the streets have provided sanctuary to the many unemployed Zimbabweans seeking to earn a living.
This is a ticking time bomb and a threat to national stability. The only viable solution is to create employment as opposed to threatening vendors on our streets with gunpowder. They simply want jobs and not bullets!
With government legitimacy, policy clarity and policy consistency, we can begin to deal with some of these problems that we in the MDC effectively dealt with during our short stint in government.
Security
The threat by the government to deploy soldiers to violently hound out vendors from the streets and the abduction of Itai Dzamara by State security agents have brought back the debate on the security of citizens in this country.
Today on 27th of June, the seventh anniversary of the violent clampdown on the people in 2008, we find ourselves in the ironic position where we are not safe in our own country. Zimbabweans are in the invidious position of being unsafe both in South Africa where others recently suffered xenophobic attacks, and even in their own country, where only last week innocent citizens in Gutu, Masvingo were violently driven out by soldiers from land they occupied in 2000.That is unacceptable.
Section 212 of our new Constitution is clear that the function of the Defence Forces is to protect Zimbabwe, its people, its national security and interests and its territorial integrity and to uphold this Constitution.
But the security forces, including the police, the intelligence services and even the prison services, have been made themselves become the biggest threats to the citizens of this country.
At Chikurubi Maximum security prison recently, police and prison officers shot and killed during several inmates following a riot over food. Many others were subsequently tortured and subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment in violation of the Constitutional rights of prisoners.
But it is the vicious assault of an honourable MP, Costa Machingauta, the assault of villagers and headmen in Hurungwe West and the abduction and disappearance of Dzamara that stick out like a sore thumb in the gross human rights abuses experienced this year alone.
I know that the security services themselves do not harbor any ill-intentions against their fellow citizens. They are a patriotic sector that is just abused by the State. In any case, most of them are under the age of 40 and have nothing to do with the power retention agenda of this government. Our soldiers, police officer and members of the intelligence services are professionals who want better working and living conditions like all of us. Left to their own desires, they would not harass anyone. They want decent salaries, better working conditions and decent uniforms. Like the rest of the citizenry, they also want a new Zimbabwe; a country where they would be able to prosper and to pursue and live their dreams.
We applaud the EU and other members and groups in the international community who have spoken out and made resolutions on the increasing human rights abuses in this country.
We urge the region, the continent and the broader international community not to abdicate their responsibility but to stand by the people of Zimbabwe in these trying times. They must speak out and make it clear to this brutal regime that the world will not stand by and watch while this country slides down this ruinous and violent path, negating and eroding all the positive signals that had been engendered by the inclusive government.
Infrastructure
Poor and collapsed infrastructure has become the bane of this country. Roads, railways, airports and our ports of entry have failed to inspire confidence; neither do they showcase a country ready to do business nor do they spur investment, tourism and economic growth.
Run-down infrastructure, coupled with industry grappling with obsolete and outdated machinery and capital equipment have not helped matters in creating a truly business environment that reflects a modern economy of the 21st century.
The dire state of key enablers for economic growth such as the energy sector and ICTs tell their own sad story. There are no tangible steps being taken towards increasing power generation especially in the area of utilizing renewable energy. With 3 000 hours of sunshine per year, we ought by now to have harnessed this critical enabler for growth and development and improved upon the framework we in the MDC had laid out during our short stint in government.
Instead of harnessing ICTs as key enablers for growth and development, this government thinks ICTs are a threat and not an opportunity. We have legislation that allows for snooping into private communications and several censorship laws that discourage rather than encourage the use of ICTs. Again, we have seen the undoing of the liberal environment we in the MDC tried to create when were in charge of this portfolio during the inclusive government.
Only last week, we missed the deadline to migrate from analogue to digital broadcasting but the government has instead tried to mislead the nation that the deadline was partly met when in fact it was totally missed.
While other countries have moved to the era of e-health and e-learning by harnessing the use of ICTs for growth and development, this government has dismally failed to improve on what we did during our time in government.
My Vision and the Way forward
For some of us, the new Zimbabwe we have fought for all these years is anchored on a clear vision for our country.
In the meantime, before we realize that vision, there have to be short-term recovery measures to rescue this economy and save this country from falling over the precipice. The short-term interventions must deal with the problems of starvation and social services sub-sectors of health, education, water and sanitation.
There has to be a new culture of professionalism in our State institutions which have proven their inefficiency and lack of proper work ethic expected of State entities. This of course, is because they are mired in patronage at the expense of delivery.
I want to say that we in the MDC believe that there is no sanctions regime and our national predicament has nothing to do with the so-called sanctions that have become a convenient cover-up for Zanu PF failure and incompetence. They have become masters in continually denying that the problems we face today were mainly created by them and them alone.
There is a basis for international engagement in these short term measures to bring back the country on the rails. But that engagement and intervention must be conditional on Zimbabwe respecting values such as democracy and respect of the rights of the citizen which must mean the demand and insistence by the international community for the implementation of far –reaching reforms.
As I have said, most of these reforms and new governance culture are enshrined in the Constitution that Zimbabweans wrote for themselves but which this government is refusing to implement.
I envision a new country with a vibrant economy that meets the aspirations of all Zimbabweans underpinned by policy consistency, growth and prosperity for all.
In the new Zimbabwe, I see a great nation rising from the ashes of Zanu PF misrule. I see the realization of our promise for a better future for our children and our great grandchildren in a land full of happiness, abundance and the inalienable right for all of us to pursue our ambitions without limit.
I see the possibility of reconciliation of all peoples regardless of race, tribe, gender or political affiliation; a nation working together in resolving its problems.
I envision a Zimbabwe with a new ethos, where people live in peaceful co-existence regardless of their cultural, ethnic, racial, religious or political differences.
I envision a Zimbabwe where all can live up to their full potential. Given our traumatic past, we must learn to tolerate and reconcile with each other; to draw a line in the sand and say never, never again should any citizen be slaughtered on ethnic, racial, political or any other grounds for that matter.
We must be an inclusive, united society that is ready to swim or sink together, where diversity is celebrated rather than punished.
It is the celebration of our differences that will ultimately make our democracy hold.
In the new Zimbabwe, there will be no compromise on the dignity of every citizen, which, thankfully, is now enshrined in our Constitution.
All citizens must enjoy the true meaning of life by being treated equally by government and all State institutions. The equality and dignity of all citizens will be the cornerstone upon which our democracy will be built in the new Zimbabwe.
We aspire for a Zimbabwe characterized by economic prosperity, equity with notable increases of GDP and individual income levels.
I envision a country that uses modern technologies to accelerate productivity through strategic investment partnerships in the agricultural, manufacturing and mining sectors; productivity that will ultimately benefit the ordinary citizen.
I yearn for a new Zimbabwe with a modernized transport infrastructure that includes the resuscitation of the competitiveness of our national airline. We need to invest in upgrading our airports to promote commerce, trade and tourism.
I see a new Zimbabwe where the participation of women and the youth in mainstream economic activities is guaranteed and encouraged.
We aspire for a new nation with an accountable government; a country where a prosperous and inclusive economy prevails underpinned by the rule of law, political stability, policy consistency and predictability.
We must build a corrupt-free Zimbabwe with a government that is at the forefront of aggressively tackling systemic graft and dismantling the rise of unjust scales.
An efficient public service is the cornerstone of an efficient government. There is need in the new society we envisage to de-politicize the public service; to harness efficiencies and new competences as well as implementing institutional transformation to prepare public institutions with the onerous role to efficiently serve the people of Zimbabwe.
Efficient social service delivery will engender happiness among our citizens by ensuring the provision of affordable and qualitative clean water, affordable housing, healthcare and education across the nation.
We strongly believe in the sacred commitment to our liberation war and democratic struggle objectives and honour all of our fallen heroes and heroines who paid the ultimate price for us to be free from oppression of man by man.
I pledge that all our fallen heroes and heroines will one day be fully recognized as the champions of our country’s important struggles. We pledge to always celebrate and honour them, and to respond to the welfare needs of their families in a sustainable manner.
Conclusion
The return to legitimacy through a credible election is the only durable and acceptable answer to the crisis facing the country.
It is for this reason that we have launched our Without Reforms, No elections campaign after noting that we needed to make this issue a priority ahead of the next election, whenever it is going to be held.
There has been some misinformed criticism of our decision not to participate in the just-ended by-elections. It must be understood that we are looking at a far much bigger picture and ahead of the 2018 elections, we must address those issues that have affected the credibility of our elections since 2000.
There has been convergence around the issue of non-participation from most players in the opposition party circles, including even those who only a few months ago were in the top echelons of Zanu PF.
They have come out in the open to laud our decision not to legitimize this charade masquerading as legitimate elections.
That convergence means that for once, the majority of Zimbabweans are united on the one key issue which is to ensure that the next election is not only truly free, fair but credible as well. We must begin to address, once and for all, the contentious issue of a disputed legitimacy which is the root cause of our current national crisis.
I want to tell Zimbabweans today, that our convergence on non-participation must mean that there are exciting political prospects on the horizon.
I as Morgan Tsvangirai, and the party I lead are prepared to work with Zimbabweans of all shades and political colours to bring back the country to sanity.
I see the true grand coalition not as the unity of individuals or leaders of political parties, but as a unity of Zimbabweans who possess shared values and convergence on the patriotic goal to take our country forward.
Today, I promise Zimbabweans that we are on the brink of an exciting political moment and they will be see us as political leaders converging on those issues that matter most to us all Zimbabweans.
It is on this score that I can tell you here that on the 11th of July in Harare, I will be joining other Zimbabweans from various political backgrounds at a prayer meeting for Itai Dzamara that is being organized by the church.
In the previous elections, the people of Zimbabwe have won the election but lost the results and we pledge in our diversity to continue to insist on the implementation of both the Constitution and the reforms agreed under the auspices of SADC and the African Union.
We urge SADC and the rest of Africa not to be by-standers on the insistence of these reforms that we as political parties agreed under their watch.
Twice in the past 10 months, I have written to heads of State of SADC and Africa on these issues but I will be directly engaging them in due course. The people’s victory has been stolen from us for far too long and it is time to draw a line in the sand and be the captains of our destiny.
We can no longer give that responsibility to others or to ZANU(PF) who have unashamedly shown us throughout the years that they neither care nor are they competent in taking Zimbabwe forward.
I have always said that at a personal level, I am greatly inspired by the story of David as a major lesson to victims of theft to salvage their stolen legacy and their pick-pocketed treasure.
After the enemy had stolen everything from him, as the enemy of freedom did to the people of this country on July 31, 2013, David does not resign to fate, as some people expected us to do.
According to the book of Samuel, David asks the Lord whether it would be possible for him to recover his property; his treasure which the enemy had stolen from him. The Lord says to David: “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake and recover all.”
And so the people of Zimbabwe shall pursue the one who stole their destiny on July 31, 2013 and in the previous national elections. They shall certainly overtake and recover all.
The people’s will is sovereign and no thief can steal God’s time.
The people’s sweet victory and the realization of the national dream can only be postponed or delayed but never abandoned.
We may not recover the lives which were lost in the senseless violence over the years and we may not be able to recover the lost time. But we shall definitely pursue and recover the lost dignity and the pride of this nation and its people.
Only then can those who have died in our war of liberation and democratic struggles of our nation rest in peace with the satisfaction that we have completed their quest for freedom and peace for all.
Yes, we owe it to those heroes and heroines and to future generations to deliver a free Zimbabwe well within our lifetime.
It is not impossible!
I thank you

ZANU PF song owl Energy Mutodi has written claiming that Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa is set to be assassinated, attracting negative backlash from opposition figures the likes of UCAD leader Albert Matapo.
The report comes after the same Mutodi claimed that abducted activist Itai Dzamara is currently hiding at a hotel in Botswana, and that he has evidence of Joyce Mujuru performing witchcraft rituals to kill President Robert Mugabe.

Below were the claims:
By Energy Mutodi
VP EMMERSON MNANGAGWA TARGETED FOR ASSASSINATION

A close ally of Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko businessman (F****** ********) is plotting an assassination on Hon. VP E.D Mnangagwa since last year it has emerged. At the core of the plot is the succession issue as well as Gukurahundi. According to documents that are now in our possession, (F****** ********) approached former MDC-T treasury general Roy Bennett in Fourways, South Africa, where he told him of his intention to assassinate Mnangagwa for what he said were unwarranted arrests and malicious Exchange Control crimes which were leveled against him at the direction of the VP in post independence Zimbabwe.
During the meeting, Mutanda who intimated that he had served as chief body guard to the late VP Dr Joshua Nkomo emphasised the need to avenge sufferings he endured from Mnangagwa. He said he had been victimized by Mnangagwa for trying to expose the role he had played in the Gukurahundi killings as well as that of the President.
Mutanda also briefed Bennet how he had lost millions of dollars after a Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe (CBZ) bank auctioned off his personal property and goods held at Caps Holdings under the orders of VP Mnangagwa. Mutanda then promised Bennet that he would help him recover his lost farmland in Chimanimani provided he helped him fight and oust Mnangagwa because he was sure that VP Mphoko was going to be the next president as they would strategically remove President Mugabe from power after tactfully isolating him from his strong and staunch supporters.
Mutanda further mentioned that there is no way Mphoko will not be President as they have a good link with Russians and the South African government who will help them in getting rid of President Mugabe as soon as Mnangagwa is eliminated. However Roy Bennet turned him down, mentioning he did not believe him and his plans. He suspected Mutanda could have been an imposter and CIO operative. Mutanda further met Roy for the second and third time but was again told off as the former MDCT legislator emphasised that he was no longer interested in politics and was focusing on his life and family.
Mutanda, who is said to be married to the late Joshua Nkomo’s daughter who was divorced by former Minister Francis Nhema is said to have disclosed in further meetings with different people that he was working with Professor Jonathan Moyo and Vice President Mphoko himself to make sure that Mnangagwa was blocked from taking over from President Mugabe. He added that Mphoko would work with a Mthwakazi Liberation Front party to keep the Gukurahundi issue alive in Matebeleland while Professor Moyo would use Zimpapers and other media houses to discredit Mnangagwa.
He also added that under the grand plan, which would be kept away from Mashonas such as Saviour Kasukuwere and Patrick Zhuwawo who may spill the beans due their ethnic backgrounds and closeness to Ngwena, newspapers would first accuse Mnangagwa as being at the centre of Gukurahundi atrocities while exonerating Mugabe so as to win the President’s support or at least make him indifferent.
They would also issue radio station licenses to their loyalists where campaigns against VP Mnangagwa will be executed. He added that when public support for Mnangagwa waned, a plan to assassinate him would be put into action whereby he would be shot in Bulawayo while attending a Bosso-Dembare challenge match in honour of Gushungo’s AU and SADC chairmanship. The shooting would be publicized as a Gukurahundi revenge act and when it happens, the VP would be in the company of his Shona speaking peers such as Saviour Kasukuwere who would not have been briefed of the plot.
In the long term plan, when the team would have succeeded to pull down both Mnangagwa and President Mugabe, Phelekezela Mphoko would serve only one term, becoming Africa’s new hero after Nelson Mandela. Albert Matapo would be appointed Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces while Emmanuel Marara would head the ZNA. Moyo will then take over from Mphoko as President of the Republic and Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces.

Sheffield – A prolific Morgan Tsvangirai party official who is seen in numerous footage standing by the MDC leader, Jenatry “Chihota” Muranganwa, has been convicted of raping a 12 year old girl.
Chihota was yesterday slapped with a five(5) year jail term for grooming and then pleasuring himself on the innocent minor.
He is set to be deported from the United Kingdom soon after his release.
The first investigative story which first appeared on ZimEye.com last year, revealed how Chihota popularly known for a long period for his energetic singing at MDC-T party meetings, had an affair with a married woman, (name withheld) whose daughter he would soon attack for his gratification.
He even at one time booked a room at a local Premier Inn and was seen pulling the minor into the budget hotel for intimacy.

When contacted by ZimEye during an investigation soon after the hotel fracas, Chinota did not deny abusing the girl.
But he soon afterwards hired lawyers attempting to block the fangs of the law.
The truth however prevailed and he was arrested and then tried. The trial which was heard on Thursday in court room 9 under case number T20147806, returned a guilty verdict for the severe statutory rape and grooming. He was subsequently sentenced on Friday morning.

A top pastor in the United Kingdom exposed while allegedly engaging in nature’s forbidden pleasures with a married woman, has been stripped.
ZimEye.com can reveal that Rev Tsaurai Kudakwashe Mapfeka has nosedived from a man of the cloth to that of the broth after being found guilty of jumping into bed with a congregant’s wife.
The development has left many Methodist church men regretting as they told ZimEye.com they would never again allow their wives to be counselled by a male pastor.
Mapfeka who earlier in the year was humiliated by his lover’s husband, Maxwell Chirewa in full view of worshippers, will have to sweep the United Kingdom’s streets for a living. He was on Thursday slapped by the church with a penalty of 2 years 6 months under the status of Involuntary Leave.
Internal church meetings now exclusively revealed by ZimEye.com show that
that the trial court for the Mapfeka-Chirewa Case was set on June 23 under Bishop Alfred Wesley Gwinn Jr who was presiding, which returned a verdict of guilty on June 24.
On the 25th June the jury went again into session to deliberate on the penalty. They returned with a penalty of 2years 6 months under the status of Involuntary Leave.
Rev Mapfeka will now report to the Board of Ordained Ministry about where he would be attending church. He will be required to maintain a good standing status during that time. The verdict and penalty will be with immediate effect as from June 25, 2015.
Sources told ZimEye Mapfeka has also been deprived of his church mansion.
“On the housing transition we leave it in the hands of the leaders in the UK to process, monitor and implement that transition in a way which does not go against the laws of the United Kingdom,” the source said.
Drama in church
Mapfeka was exposed early in january during the thanksgiving announcement by Mr. Chirewa who in the middle of church seized the microphone to announce that Rev Mapfeka was having an affair with his wife.
While elders tried intervened and took Chirewa outside for him to cool down, more drama ensued as the pastor and his wife followed on collecting their children for a speedy exit.
Chiwera then remained behind as he revealed all to members on that Mapfeka was having an affair with his wife, Linda Chirewa who he said once lied to him saying to have gone to Zimbabwe when she soon went to Germany on holiday with the reverend.

He produced photo-graphics of the two in Germany and a number of shocking WhatsApp messages. Among the text messages were exchanges said to have been between Linda and Mapfeka. In one of the messages Linda writes “Am thinking pane varikunakiranawo sesu so lolest (Just wondering if there are any out there who are enjoying each other just as we do ” to which the cleric replied “ukanzwa vamwe undiudzewo (If you hear of any do tell me).”

She continued “Musiwa 2 nguva dzino chinenge chakachaya kkk (On the 2nd at exactly this time we will be having fun” to which Mapfeka replies “8 days, wakavhura (Have you opened?” Linda asks: “Kuvhura (Opening?)” and the Revered replies “Ehe! (Yes)”.

AFP|A ZIMBABWEAN journalist has been sentenced to a year in jail for publishing a newspaper without government registration, the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) said Friday.
Foster Dongozi, ZUJ secretary-general, said Patrick Chitongo was convicted by a magistrate’s court on Thursday and received a one-year prison sentence.
“It’s a sad day for press freedom when people are jailed for disseminating information,” Dongozi told AFP.
“However, we advise that, much as we disagree with the law which compels journalists to register, those intending to practise or publish should comply to avoid ending up in dicey situations.”
Regional media freedom advocacy group, the Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA), said Chitongo had been jointly charged with three interns after publishing three issues of a newspaper called The Southern Mirror.
They were charged with breaching the country’s media laws, which forbid “carrying on or operating a mass media service without a valid registration certificate.”
Chitongo’s co-accused were acquitted after the court found that they were college students who did not have a say in the paper’s publication.
Chitongo denied the charges, saying the publications were dummies he intended to hand in to the media commission for registration.
Under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, journalists have to register annually with a government-appointed commission and publishers need to have a registration certificate.

Scores of Zimbabweans were nearly killed yesterday when three buses instantly caught fire in a “mysterious” incident that saw the flames extending all the way to two nearby trucks.
The accident occurred at around 4pm in Newton, along Main Street, the area where most Zimbabwean cross border buses park before they leave South Africa for Zimbabwe.

The trucks were carrying piles of luggage destined for various towns in Zimbabwe, Bulawayo Masvingo, Kwekwe, Gweru and Harare.
 
The Munhenzwa, Elite and Hi-Tec coaches were reduced to ashed-black metal by inferno some have suggested may have emanated from a cigarette butt that caught onto leaking petrol.

Zimbabwe’s ambassador to South Africa Mr Batiraishe Mukonoweshuro said the cause of the fire was yet to be established.
“Indications are that the fire started from an Elite coaches bus which then spread to Munhenzwa and Hi-Tech and the two trucks. However, no human life was claimed though property worth thousands of rands was reduced to ashes.
“We are yet to establish the total value of the property which was destroyed. Our officers are still on the ground,” he said.
Mr Mukonoweshuro said fire-fighters tried to pull the Munhenzwa bus from the scene, but it was too late.
One of the witnesses identified only as Mai Kuda, said the cause of the fire was still a mystery.
“It is a shock how a cigarette butt can be said to have caused so much damage to three buses and trucks. I heard that there was fire here and rushed to check if there were any people I knew, fortunately nobody was hurt except groceries and various properties which were damaged,” she said.
Of late there has been an upsurge in robberies by criminals purporting to be South African police officers targeting Zimbabwean cross border buses outside Polokwane and Pretoria cities.
The suspects are yet to be accounted for. Efforts to get comments from authorities at Munenzwa, Hi-Tech and Elite coaches were fruitless last night.
One of the ladies who works at the Newton area, Ms Tendai Zhou, said other bus crews had to drive off from the area as the fire raged on.
“The situation was terrible and we suspect that the fire was started deliberately by jealous people considering that most of the buses have been robbed along the N1 Highway.
“In most cases we will be having more than 50 buses here especially those going to Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia,” she said. (State Media/Additional Reporting)

Expelled former Media minister Jonathan Moyo is not returning to the government information department he was heading, impeccable sources have suggested of the man who met a humiliating end early this week when president Robert Mugabe kicked him out of cabinet in full view of colleagues.
Until today Jonathan Moyo had claimed that he was out of government only temporarily. He communicated this theory to his clique of handpicked editors who have continued to control the powerful state media broadsheets The Herald, Sunday Mail and The Chronicle.
But the worms of shame swam to shore on Friday afternoon when it emerged professor Moyo is unlikely to be reinstated.
This came despite numerous public comments aired that Mugabe was going to reinstate him.
“The President has his choice man who should be made known in a few days time. Jonathan Moyo all this while thought special irreplaceable but we have many literate, competent, and more deserving spokesmen in the party,” said a source.
Other sources said the “speed and stealth” with which Mugabe had dealt with Moyo not only suggested that “there is one centre of power in Zanu PF” but also that a major Cabinet reshuffle was in the offing, “which spells danger for many complacent bigwigs”.
“It is squeaky bum time at the top in Zanu PF and government, to borrow football lexicon. By freezing Moyo, even if this is temporary, Gushungo (Mugabe) is showing all and sundry that he is in charge and the sole centre of power in the party. It’s as simple as that for me.
“But others also say, and with good reason too, Fear as Cabinet reshuffle looms that a comprehensive and long-rumoured Cabinet reshuffle that should have happened after the ouster from power of Mai Mujuru and her allies last year is finally here, which spells danger for many complacent bigwigs who have until now thought that they are safe,” a senior Zanu PF official said yesterday.
Another insider said what had alarmed many ministers was the fact that Moyo’s removal from Cabinet had come “like a bolt from the blue” and at a time that the new Tsholotsho North legislator looked “very secure” both at party and government level, despite Zanu PF’s worsening factional and succession wars.
“Of all the comrades in the party, he was one of the few that behaved and moved around with a swagger, which is why we were all shocked when the president chased him away from the Cabinet meeting without notice,” a minister said.
Talk within Zanu PF has for the past few months been about looming Cabinet changes, with many insiders pointing to the need for Mugabe to not only rejuvenate his under-performing Cabinet, but also replace all the people he had fired as part of the ruling party’s ruthless purges of the past seven months.
Another source said yesterday that there was “an understanding” in Zanu PF that the ejection of Moyo from Cabinet was “part one of the equation” and that the political future of other bigwigs such as Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa, Tourism minister Walter Mzembi and Energy minister Samuel Undenge were also on the line.
“It’s not so much that the expectation is that any or all of these gentlemen will necessarily be fired, the emerging view is that they will more likely be re-assigned to other posts which may not sit well with some of them.
“It will also not be surprising if the president announces this long-awaited Cabinet reshuffle within the next two weeks, an opportunity that he may use to energise Cabinet and replace under-performing ministers in a continuing revamp that he started spearheading late last year,” a politburo member said.
Mugabe himself has recently expressed dissatisfaction with the performances of some of his Cabinet ministers, amidst a worsening economic crisis in the country that has seen Zimbabwe move from once being regarded as a regional bread basket to a much derided basket case.
Speaking in an interview with the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation current affairs to mark his 91st birthday in February, the only leader that Zimbabweans have known since the country’s independence from Britain in April 1980, said pointedly that some of his ministers were not delivering.
In the meantime, and as part of the toxic mix pulling Zimbabwe backwards, Zanu PF’s deadly factional and succession wars continue to cast a long shadow over the country and Mugabe’s own political life, with many of his trusted lieutenants divided on the basis of their factional orientations that saw former Vice President Joice Mujuru and her allies being purged from the post-congress party.
Among other party stalwarts who have been sacrificed in the mindless bloodletting since then include former Cabinet ministers Didymus Mutasa, Nicholas Goche, Francis Nhema, Olivia Muchena, Webster Shamu and Dzikamai Mavhaire.
Worryingly for many, there is no indication that the era of the brutal purges is now behind and that the party and country can now focus on critical governance and service delivery issues.
If anything, more senior officials are said to be facing the sack under the continuing party expulsions, with several ministers linked to Mujuru — among them Education minister Lazarus Dokora and Sports minister Andrew Langa — top of the guillotine list.
Mugabe’s freezing of Moyo out of Cabinet on Tuesday took many people by surprise, with no clarity up to today whether this is a permanent move or temporary one.
Moyo, who was appointed Information minister as a non-constituency Member of Parliament after the disputed 2013 harmonised elections, successfully contested for the Tsholotsho North constituency in the June 10 by-elections.
It was not clear whether his going for the seat allegedly without Mugabe’s blessing infuriated the nonagenarian or whether the president was merely throwing his weight around or just being a stickler to constitutionalism as Moyo’s legislative status had changed — which meant that he would need to be re-appointed as minister.
But the Daily News was told that the stunning drama that saw the loquacious politburo member being chased away from Cabinet began as soon as the Cabinet meeting started on the day when Mugabe allegedly summoned Moyo and told him to get out of the meeting.
A well-placed source claimed that a supposedly surprised Moyo had then approached Mugabe to ask for forgiveness, but that the nonagenarian would have none of it.
If Moyo’s banishment from Cabinet is not temporary, this would not be the first time that the Zanu PF secretary for science and technology has been shown the door by Mugabe — as he was booted out in 2005 after he allegedly refused to obey Mugabe’s orders not to stand as a candidate in the same constituency.
Moyo took part in the 2013 national elections but lost the Tsholotsho seat to a newcomer, Roselyne Nkomo.
A year ago, Mugabe savaged Moyo while speaking at the National Heroes Acre in Harare, at the burial of former Cabinet minister Nathan Shamuyarira, saying Zanu PF had been infested by weevils which needed to be taken care of.
This came in the wake of another brutal assault on the beleaguered Moyo a few days before that when he described the minister as the “devil incarnate”, as factionalism in Zanu PF reached alarming levels.
Mugabe then accused Moyo of causing confusion in Zanu PF, being dishonest and lacking principled vision — further describing him as a counter-revolutionary who had employed Zanu PF enemies as editors at State media companies.-DailyNews/Additional Reporting

Former Zanu (PF) provincial chair for Mashonaland West, Temba Mliswa, has alleged that Keith Guzah who beat him in a by-election in Hurungwe West recently, failed to disclose to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) that he was a car theft convict.
He then soon afterwards changed his real name the same way church preacher Uebert Angel has done (the latter who did so after being published for academic fraud).
Under the Electoral Act, candidates are supposed to declare their past convictions and failure to do so must lead to disqualification.
Mliswa, who held the Hurungwe West seat, ran as an independent after being fired from Zanu (PF) and lost narrowly to Guzah.
He is contesting the outcome of the pol and wants the results nullified.
ZEC chair, Rita Makarau, has already acknowledged that Guzah was not registered in the constituency as also required by the law.
In papers filed under case number EC05/15, Mliswa alleged that Guzah failed to disclose that he was once convicted for theft of a car.
Apparently, Guzah was convicted under an alias, Never Phiri.
Mliswa’s lawyer, Dunira Hungwe, confirmed the claim against Guzah in court papers yesterday.
“We filed papers for the nullification of the Hurungwe West by-election results and besides the now common cause that Guzah fraudulently refrained from advising the Electoral Commission that he was once convicted under the name of Never Phiri,” Hungwe said.-thezimbabwean

DESPITE having been married for the past 34 years, a Mutare man shamed his wife by stripping her naked in public following a domestic dispute.
Veronica Chikwinya had to seek shelter at a nearby house with her hands covering her private parts after her husband, Kephas Kunhuwa, assaulted and left her in her birthday suit.
The couple appeared before Mrs Yeukai Chigodora with Chikwinya seeking a protection order against her violent husband.
“We married in 1981 and since then I have been his punching bag. He recently stripped me naked after I had gone to his sister’s funeral in Mozambique and when I came back he assaulted and insulted me.
“He stripped me naked, Your Worship. I had to seek shelter at a nearby house with my hands covering my private parts. Your Worship I looked like a mad woman,” she said.
Kunhuwa admitted to stripping his wife, but blamed his wife for having extra marital relationships.
“At her age she is involved with a very young man who is old enough to be our grandchild and he was also one of our farm hands. That only provoked me and I am sure that she had not gone to my sister’s funeral , but to a honeymoon with her young lover. Of course I did strip her and I am not sorry about that. I do not assault her at all, she is lying to the court,” he said.
Mrs Chigodora asked him how Chikwinya got injured since she had shown the court scars all over her body. “Well, I did push her at one time and she fell,” he said.
Mrs Chigodora ordered Kunhuwa to desist from assaulting, insulting, harassing and disturbing his wife. However, she said she could not order them to separate since it was not in her jurisdiction to do so.-Manica Post

VOA|Panelists discussing the state of Zimbabwe’s democracy and economic development at an event hosted by the Washington Based think tank, National Endowment for Democracy (NED), expressed cautious optimism, of the country’s future.
United States Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Bruce Wharton, one three panelists at the NED event, titled, “The Challenges of Democratization and Economic Recovery in Zimbabwe”, dismissed an “Arab spring”-like revolt in Zimbabwe, despite the country’s political and economic hardships, citing the population’s high level of education and strong religious belief.
Wharton further said he was optimistic because Zimbabwe was in a very slow generational transition from a generation of men and women who fought against the minority government in the 60s and 70s to a modern pragmatic and less didactic group of people who are coming behind them.
Wharton attributed part of Zimbabwe’s problem to the caliber of the country’s politicians, whom he says are more interested in it as a way of living to pay their bills and get nice cars, than protecting the people.
Academic and Southern African Economic and Political Trust chairperson, Ibbo Mandaza, also a panelist, too expressed optimism for Zimbabwe, but described the last ten years as “tumultuous” but filled with “incorrigible optimism.”
But he questioned Zimbabwe’s ability to reform under the current leadership.
Mandaza, who is part of a movement called the National Convergence Convection, with Bishop Sebastian Bakare, advocates for engagement with the 50 percent of Zimbabwe’s skilled professionals living in the Diaspora.
Part of the audience which attended the panel discussion on Zimbabwe’s political and economic processes in Washington DC on Wednesday. (Photo: Marvellous Mhlanga Nyahuye)
Part of the audience which attended the panel discussion on Zimbabwe’s political and economic processes in Washington DC on Wednesday. (Photo: Marvellous Mhlanga Nyahuye)
Businessman and consultant, Shingi Munyeza, who was also part of a business delegation from Zimbabwe that is currently on a fact-finding mission to the U.S., said while prospects for an economic turnaround are high, raised concern over the lack of liquidity in the formal sector.
Munyeza said the adoption of the US dollar as a currency of exchange has plunged the country into a crisis because goods and services are more expensive than from South Africa.
Among the crowd in attendance for the discussion, which included members of Zimbabwe’s embassy staff, was Sharon Hwekwete, a Hubert Humphrey fellow and human rights lawyer.
Mandaza said he and his partners in the national convergence hope to raise $10 billion that will go toward debt relief, education and other programs that could help jump start the country’s economy.-VOA

THE Constitutional Court has barred President Robert Mugabe from declaring Mwenezi East constituency vacant following the expulsion of MP Kudakwashe Bhasikiti from Zanu PF.
The full Constitutional Court bench agreed with Bhasikiti that Mugabe should be stopped from declaring the seat vacant until the High Court finalizes his expulsion case.
Represented by MDC-Renewal Team’s Tendai Biti, the former Masvingo provincial state minister recently filed an urgent chamber application seeking to bar Mugabe from calling for by-election following hi recent ouster. Radiovop

The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority is launching out after millions made by Zimbabwe’s mushrooming prophets for taxes.
Millions of dollars are expected to be raised from the raid seen to start with controversial personalities the likes of Emmanuel Makandiwa, Uebert Angel, and Walter Magaya.
The move came after Ubert Angel(Mudzanire) boasted that he is worth $60million, a bounty made while working in Zimbabwe. He relocated from the United Kingdom a poor man only rising from the grass in Zimbabwe, meaning his fortunes were made from church offerings within the country. Zimra has been blasted for allowing prophets and preachers to make millions without paying tax.
As a result of numerous complaints, the government revenue collector has announced it is going after money made by preachers for taxation. Zimra’s Commissioner General Gershem Pasi told the portfolio committee on Small and Medium Enterprises and Cooperatives Development, “We are now focusing on them (churches) and we have engaged them, we are setting parameters.”
He continued, “we don’t care how they make their money and come November we will be through with our legislative proposals to the minister (Patrick Chinamasa Finance and Economic Development) which will tighten that area because we have seen loopholes there. They are not immune to taxation.”

It is now 35 years after Zimbabwe attained Independence from Britain but government still blames the former colonial masters  for its failures.
Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Wednesday shocked delegates attending a water conference underway in Harare when he said  government’s failure to provide portable water to its citizens was caused by Britain. 
Mnangagwa  said were it not because of the former “colonizers” who left obsolete water pipes government would be providing safe water. 
“Zimbabwe still has gaps that we inherited from the skewered system from former colonial masters. We need to address that,” said Mnangagwa.
As a result of government’s failure to provide portable water, women and children walk long distances to get the precious commodity. 
Most urban centres experience extreme water shortages for years now, raising fears of waterborne diseases that thrive in unhygienic conditions.
Residents have resorted to drilling boreholes in a bid to counter the water challenges, but this has been said to deplete the water table.
Most of these boreholes have not been sanctioned by authorities.
The worst affected are those who have moved onto new housing developments and settlements which do not have infrastructure for water.

President Robert Mugabe attempted a run away from journalists in Mozambique on Thursday afternoon amid fears that Nigerian journo Adeola Fayehun was present in the country.
Mugabe was met with a heavy atmosphere of humiliation upon touching down in Maputo as he had lost his liberation hero lustre being met by a generation that is future-looking. Mozambique has had at least eight Presidential changes since independence in 1975.
Mozambique is celebrating its 40th independence anniversary amid pomp, music , dance and drama.
Zimbabwe’s President was among dignitaries the likes of Presidents of Angola, Namibia, Zambia among others together with former president of Botswana Festus Mogae.
ZimEye.com’s correspondent in Maputo gave this update: A few minutes ago, Mugabe was seen chatting with other dignitaries . He also greeted one of Samora Machel’s grand daughters.
It was at that point that Mugabe attempted to evade journalists.
“Security initially had refused the journalists to get near him. But they later allowed the grilling after a vetting which determined that Nigerian journalist Adeola Fayehun was not among the group of scribes present.
“During the address Mugabe congratulated the people of Mozambique on the milestone of their 40th anniversary.
Mozambique has had at least eight Presidential changes since 1975 unlike Zimbabwe which has known only one leader.
Mugabe however said he and the people of Zimbabwe received with gladness Mozambique’s independence because it became a launchpad for the liberation of neighbouring countries.
“He bemoaned that key heroes he worked with Eduardo Modlane, and Samora Machel are not alive today. But they left a legacy, said Mugabe.
“He said the likes of Chisanno, Guebuza, Chipande and others are there to continue that legacy.
“After the laying of wreaths at the heroes acre Mugabe together with other dignitaries left for Machava stadium for the national event event.

Two days after he was expelled, former Information and Media Minister Jonathan Moyo has gone missing.
Moyo was fired by President Robert Mugabe in a development legal analysts say was deliberate as Mugabe did all under the guise of a technicality of Moyo having been elected an MP saying he needs a new appointment letter.
Moyo’s sympathisers led by Herald Editor Caesar Zvayi rushed to claim his ouster from cabinet was only temporary and he would be installed to his post.
But Moyo who has since switched off his cellphone is reportedly licking his wounds as it becometh clear he was jilted and Mugabe has shut the door on his political fortunes.
He was nowhere to be seen in parliament yesterday as his phone was also turned off.
Mugabe’s legal advisors claim that Moyo had to be removed from office to pave the way for a re-appointment after his return as an MP for Tsholotsho.
Top Legal Analyst Lovemore Madhuku however had a differing interpretation. Dr Madhuku says:
1. A person appointed as a Minister from outside Parliament in term of section 104(3) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, 2013 does not vacate his or her office as a Minister upon being elected a Member
of Parliament.
2. A person who is appointed from outside Parliament does not become a Member of Parliament. He or she is only entitled to sit and speak in Parliament, but without a vote: section 104(5) . He or
she has the same status in this regard as a Vice President or an Attorney General.
3. The only circumstances in which the office of a Minister becomes
vacant are specified in section 108.
4. Every Minister, whether appointed from in or outside Parliament, ceases to be a Minister if (i) fired by the President, (ii) he or she resigns or (iii) a new President assumes office.
5. Outside the above three situations, section 108 draws a distinction
between ministers appointed from Parliament and those appointed
from outside Parliament. A Minister appointed from Parliament
automatically vacates office as a Minister if he or she loses his or her seat in Parliament: section 108(2). A Minister appointed from outside Parliament remains a Minister if he or she gains a seat in Parliament because subsection 4 of section 108 does not require such a Minister to vacate office in those circumstances. On the contrary, the principle in the constitution is that such a Minister`s position is strengthened when he or she gains a seat in Parliament.
6. The President is only allowed to appoint a person from outside
Parliament on the basis of that person`s “professional skills and competence”. In other words, the President must only appoint persons from outside Parliament if he/she is of the opinion that there are no such professional skills or competencies in Parliament.
The President is limited to only 5 such Ministers. Thus, if some of the Ministers find seats in Parliament, the spirit of the Constitution is satisfied and the President may either not appoint new Ministers from outside or look for other skills still missing from Parliament to
maintain the quota of 5(for outsiders).
7. There is no new procedure required for a Minister appointed from outside Parliament to continue with his or her duties after gaining a seat in Parliament.
8. Regarding the reports surrounding Minister Jonathan Moyo, if it is true that some advice were given to the President suggesting that he ceased being a Minister upon becoming a Member of Parliament, that advice would certainly be an incorrect reading of the
Constitution.
9. The wrong advice may have stemmed from one or both of two situations. The first situation may be that the advisers thought he became a Member of Parliament upon being appointed a Minister and therefore ceased to be a Minister in terms of section 108(2). As
already indicated, a person appointed to be a Minister from outside Parliament does not become a Member of Parliament.
10. The second situation is that the advisers may have misunderstood
section 108(3) which provides as follows:
“.. a Minister or Deputy Minister who was not a Member of Parliament
on appointment as Minister or Deputy Minister vacates his or her office
as such if circumstances arise that would result in his or her seat becoming vacant were he or she a Member of Parliament.”
This provision refers to some aspects of section 129 such as ceasing to be qualified for registration as a voter, being declared insolvent and being convicted of certain offences. The provision has no application whatsoever to the issue of gaining a seat in
Parliament.
1. There are only two legal ways in which Jonathan Moyo may vacate office as a Minister in the current circumstances. These are (i) being fired by the President and (ii) himself resigning.
PROF LOVEMORE MADHUKU
24 JUNE, 2015

In the near future Zimbabweans may soon be immunised against HIV transmission if trials for a vaccine to stop the spread of the deadly virus are a success.
The same trials will also be carried out in Zambia and Malawi, as a step by Southern Africa gears up efforts to fight HIV.
Local scientists are already working on the commencement of the vaccine trials.
University of Zimbabwe scientist Dr Lynda Stranix-Chibanda is leading the trials on behalf of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) which is in partnership with UZ and the University of California San Francisco (UZ-UCSF).
Dr Stranix-Chibanda said they were conducting awareness campaigns in communities to ensure that processes involved in research and issues around vaccines are well understood.
After the awareness campaigns, recruitment of trial volunteers would start.
Dr Stranix-Chibanda said although more work still needed to be done at Seke South Clinic, which will be used for the research, they were close to having everything in place for the trials.
The study protocol was undergoing final revisions prior to being submitted for approval to regulatory authorities.
“While this delay may be frustrating, it emphasises the systematic process researchers and regulators follow to protect the safety and rights of participants,” Dr Stranix-Chibanda said.
She said the processes will see the trial beginning between October and December this year instead of the initial proposed dates in August.
“We will not be able to start the trial until the revised protocol has undergone full review and approval by all the regulatory bodies in Zimbabwe,” she said. “This would be the first time Zimbabwe is participating in an HIV vaccine trial.”
The study known as HVTN 107 is expected to recruit participants over a period of six months and follow them up very closely for three years to evaluate the vaccine product’s effect on the immune system and monitor for side effects.
Dr Stranix-Chibanda said it could take some time to conclude if the vaccines prevent new HIV infections.
“A product’s safety must first be verified in small studies before large-scale trials are conducted to see if it actually works to prevent new infections,” she said. “This is quite normal in vaccine research, the polio vaccine took 70 years to develop.”
Dr Stranix-Chibanda said it was important for Zimbabwe and the region to take part in such trials for HIV prevention because of the burden of the disease.
The product earmarked for trial in the three Southern African countries is based on a similar vaccine tested in Thailand a few years ago, whose results showed 60 percent protection in preventing HIV infections among adults in the first year after vaccination.
The product used in Thailand was modified for the HIV strain in Southern Africa.
Only the Thailand study out of six major vaccine studies conducted so far has promised to prevent new HIV infections.
A number of such trials will be conducted across Southern Africa to test different regimens of the virus.
Addressing journalists at a media symposium on HIV vaccines held in Zambia recently, a scientist with the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia Dr Margaret Kasaro said a vaccine was the answer to ending the spread of HIV.
Dr Kasaro said a vaccine that has a 30 percent chance of protecting people from getting HIV when administered to about 20 percent of the people who need protection can save up to six million lives.
Facilitated by AVAC – an organisation involved in simplifying science for the ordinary person, the media symposium was attended by journalists from Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi.  -State Media

THEMBA Mliswa has lodged a petition with the Electoral Court seeking to nullify the victory of Zanu-PF legislator Keith Guzah in the Hurungwe West by-election.
He argues that Guzah was not eligible to contest in the by-election because he was not a registered voter in the constituency. Mliswa wants the court to nullify Guzah’s victory and declare him the winner.
Guzah polled 5,961 votes against Mliswa’s 4,239 ballots in the by-election held on June 10.
In a petition filed at the Electoral Court yesterday, Mliswa also claimed that Guzah is an ex-convict.
He cited electoral malpractices as well as intimidation as the basis for his complaint.
“Having familiarised myself with the electoral law, I can safely state that one cannot stand as a parliamentary candidate in a constituency in which he or she is not registered,” stated Mliswa in his affidavit.
He said he would prove at trial of the petition that Guzah was not registered as a voter in any of the wards in Hurungwe West.
To that end, Mliswa claims Guzah stood disqualified from contesting in the constituency.
“The fact that respondent is not a registered voter in Hurungwe West, whether by error, negligence or design, clearly impugns the respondent’s election and the electoral return that declared him the winner,” he said.
“Having considered the legal import of the foregoing, this court (Electoral Court) is thereby enjoined to declare me the winner of the by-election due to my legitimacy.”
Mliswa further contends that Guzah’s previous conviction, coupled with his refusal to appraise electoral authorities of his criminal record, barred him from holding office as a Member of Parliament.
“The fact that the respondent hid the essential information from the electoral authorities substantiates the allegation that the respondent committed electoral fraud,” he said.
“In that case he is disqualified from being a Member of Parliament.”
Mliswa intends to lead evidence that Guzah and his agents engaged in widespread intimidation of the electorate.
“The most sinister of those intimidatory activities was the open deployment of military personnel at schools throughout the constituency, who declared that there would be widespread reprisal should I win the election,” he said.
He also accused Guzah of using traditional leaders’ influence in his political activities ahead of the polls and massive vote buying. Guzah has up to three weeks to respond to the petition.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission on Monday attempted to clear the air on the alleged bungling in handling the Hurungwe by-election.
ZEC declared that Guzah, was lawfully and procedurally nominated as a candidate for the Hurungwe West by-election though he failed to cast his ballot in the polls conducted on June 10.
Musindo Hungwe instructed by Advocate Tawanda Zhuwarara is acting for Mliswa.

In a bid to bring down the number of illegal immigrants, South Africa is expected to send around 800 Zimbabweans back home today by train.This will be the second batch to be brought home.
An official said that the first group of 796 men arrived in the country via the Beitbridge border post on June 3. The latest arrivals will bring the total number of people who have been deported from South Africa since the beginning of the year 8,750.
It is alleged that these people were picked up for violating South Africa’s immigration laws.
Yesterday Zimbabwe’s Consul General to South Africa, Batiraishe Mukonoweshuro said the documentation of those due for deportation would be completed today( Wednesday).
He went on to say the group would be left at the National Railways of Zimbabwe station adjacent to the government-run reception and support centre which has a carrying capacity of 1,000 people at any given time.
“We expect them to leave Johannesburg on Thursday (tomorrow) and arrive in Zimbabwe the next morning.
“There are over 800 people due for deportation, but we’ll have the exact number by end of day tomorrow (yesterday) upon completion of the documentation processes”.stated Mukonoweshuro.
He said they had agreed in principle with the Home Affairs department that children and women would always be deported in buses.
Mukonoweshuro said the train was introduced as a way to reduce over crowding at the Lindelani Transit Holding Centre by illegal immigrants.
He said the train would only be used in cases where there would be larger numbers of people at the centre.
Mukonoweshuro suggested the need for Zimbabweans travelling to South Africa to always ensure that they have the right needed documents. “Those travelling with children must be aware of the new requirements of long birth certificates and the requisite affidavits, in cases where only one of the parents is travelling with a minor,” he said.  -State Media

A Harare man has been slapped with jail sentence for insulting Búhera South legislator Joseph Chinotimba on the Whatsapp network.
Mr Tendai Benjamin Machingauta from Epworth, narrowly escaped prison when he opted for an alternative fine of $100, all for expressing himself on Chinotimba charges which the Buhera legislator told ZimEye.com soon after the trial, cause and incite violence.
The court yesterday upheld that Machingauta insulted Mr Chinotimba by his beard. The exact words used in the Whatsapp chat were “Pfutseki Chinotimba, mandebvu aro.”
Harare Magistrate Vakai Chikwekwe bowed to the prosecutor Sharon Mashavira’s arguments who said that the “insults can lead to inciting violence and, therefore, a short, sharp and effective prison term would be appropriate in these circumstances.”
At the end of trial Chikwekwe ruled that Machingauta’s words were violence centric. The magistrate indicated Machingauta deserved a worse sentence and was only saved because he is a first time offender. “In assessing sentence I took into consideration that the accused showed contrition by admitting to the charge and is married and has two children,”
“Imprisonment is rather harsh to a first offender and I, therefore, fine you $100 or one month in prison,” the magistrate said.
Contacted for comment soon after the trial, Mr Chinotimba told ZimEye.com even after Machingauta’s conviction, he would not forgive the 29 year old man.
“How can I forgive him, it is too late now that he is in cells. If I was to forgive him, it could only have been earlier”, Chinotimba said.
Chinotimba in the exclusive ZimEye.com interview added to his anger sating that Machingauta’s crime was that of forming a Whatsapp group in which he together with some friends started a party in which they added the legislator shortly before hurling insults on him.
“I never applied to be in their party, I am a ZANU PF member,” said Chinotimba.
When grilled over the fairness of the judgement given the fact that Chinotimba himself has insulted others beginning with MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai attacks which have credibly triggered violence over the years, Chinotimba replied saying, “You are now talking about the opposition party, that is something else, we do attack each other in parliament knowing that so and so is which side of politics.”
This man registered me into their party without my consent, Chinotimba hinted to ZimEye.

ZIMBABWE’S ROADS which could have all been fixed in less 7 days, are in a desperate state just as President Robert Mugabe’s family administration loots an estimated $11Million siphoned through the dodgy ZINARA parastatal government falsely claims is renovating the roads, attempting a job that can easily be completed by full salaried Transport Ministry staff members.
ZINARA which is headed and single handedly controlled by Mugabe’s cousin, Albert, failed to deduct $7,5 million being 10 percent withholding tax to 23 suppliers that had no tax clearance and proceeded to pay $4,1 million to creditors without authorised payment vouchers, an audit has revealed.
According to the audit, Mugabe’s senior management were paying themselves hefty monthly allowances, including $9 000 holiday allowance per individual outside the payroll, prejudicing the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority of revenue in tax. Zinara is among seven State entities that had adverse reports from Auditor-General Ms Mildred Chiri in her 2014 report that was made available yesterday.
Already Transport Minister Obert Mpofu has resigned from the blame as he told ZimEye.com earlier, “call ZINARA, don’t call me. ZINARA is under a board, why don’t you talk to the board chairman,” he said as he avoided naming Mr Mugabe’s name.
The parastatal collects more than $5,5 million per month from 26 tollgates, owes among its debtors the Development Bank of South Africa ($12,8 million), NMB ($8,5 million), the Department of Roads ($5 million) and Cimas for employees’ medical aid cover.
It also collects around $130 million annually from road access fees, vehicle licensing, transit fees, and fuel levy, among other revenue streams.
The State Media reports that the The Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation paid $3,1 million on corporate social responsibility with no breakdowns, acknowledgement of receipts from beneficiaries and gave non executive directors 2 940 litres per individual with $27 450 holiday allowance each without the parent ministry’s approval.
The Environmental Management Agency board raised its own fees without approval from the parent ministry, while the Health Services Board approved increased fuel allocations for board members without the concurrence of Treasury among other ills noted.
On Zinara, Ms Chiri said the Administration dealt with suppliers that had no valid tax clearance and had paid $75 million to 23 suppliers prejudicing Zimra of $7,5 million in tax.
“I observed that Zinara did not deduct 10 percent withholding tax for payments made to suppliers without valid tax clearance certificates,” she said.
Some of the firms were Infralink ($63,7 million), Twalumba Civils (2,4 million) Group Five Engineering ($200 000), Heritage Agro Equipment ($2,4million) Badon Enterprises ($2,4 million) Fremus Enterprise ($2,2 millon) Applied Wighing Scale ($200 000) Bitumen, Brown Engineering, Forit, Cortman Investments, Gratic Trading, Easthset, Gramaton, Tegasteel among others.
In response, Zinara management told the auditors that tax clearances lapsed after the firms were already contracted leading to the exposure but said efforts to recover the money were on course.
“Infralink has been part of Zinara and was formed only for the purposes of acquiring DBSA loan and repayment thereof. Zimra had two of its commissioners conflicting on Infralink registration for VAT and income taxes. One commissioner registered it and another de-registered it. This brought confusion and the likely exposure,” read the brief response.
On the $4,1 million payment that occurred between 2012 and 2013, Ms Chiri said in terms of Zinara standing instructions for payment to be made, payment voucher and the bank transfer request should be authorised by the relevant signatories.
“I observed that payments amounting to $4 157 937 were made without authorisation since the payment vouchers were not signed by the relevant signatories. The risk is that fraud and errors may not be detected resulting in financial loss to the organisation,” she said.
It was noted that management paid themselves allowances outside the payroll thereby circumventing payment of tax.
The monthly allowances were home telephone ($225), entertainment ($750), home security (24hours) private fuel (750 litres) and holiday allowance ($9 000.)
“Vehicle loans amounting to $140 000 availed to each of the directors were above the authorised $100 000 in the contracts of employment,” she said.
Zinara former chief executive, Mr Frank Chitukutuku unilaterally increased his salary from July to December 2013, said Ms Chri.
The Administration bought a Jeep Grand Cherokee and office furniture for an official in the parent ministry worth $83 000 and $10 230 respectively.
“I also noted that on December 28 2012 the Administration paid for Christmas hampers worth $173 000 to staff at the parent ministry in violation of the Roads Act.
The Administration disbursed funds to local authorities beyond the budgeted allocations as high as 1 503 percent while others received nothing.
For example, the Department of Roads got $14,3 million against an allocation of $3,3 million, Rusape town council got $668 000 against an allocation of $93 000 in 2013 while in 2012 it got $992 000 against an allocation of $124 000.
Kariba urban council did not get anything for in the two years while it had an allocation of $150 000 (2012) and $94 000 (2013).

The jailed Johanne Masowe eChishanu Vapositori sect leader Ishmael Chokurongerwa
has failed to obtain a bail release.
Madzibaba Ishmael’s hopes were dashed when the High Court dismissed it for lack of merit.
Justice Garainesu Mawadza ruled declaring there are no prospects of success on appeal for the cop basher leader.
The court dismissed Chokurongerwa’s application for bail pending appeal ruling that the lower court had properly assessed the credibility of the state witnesses’ evidence and that he found no fault in the judgement of the lower court.
Justice Mawadza said it is not in dispute that public violence occurred at the Budiriro shrine resulting in the assault and subsequent injuries on police officers, journalists and members of the Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe while what was in dispute was Chokurongerwa’s presence at the shrine.
He said Chokurongerwa in his defence outline failed to set grounds for the truthfulness of his alibi and failed to give all material facts relevant to his defence leaving the court to exercise its discretion.
On the sentence he said the 5-year jail term imposed on Chokurongerwa was commensurate with the seriousness of the offence, considering that people were seriously injured while state equipment was damaged.
He said the interests of due administration of justice and the rights of the appellant were balanced.-State Media

President Robert Mugabe ignored spending warnings once again on Wednesday flying out of the country for a party.
Mugabe flew away accompanied by a large crowd  headed  for Maputo, Mozambique for that country’s 40th Independence Day commemorations.
The function could have easily been attended by Zimbabwe’s ambassador who together with his large group of diplomats  are all on full government salary.
Mugabe was seen off at the Harare International Airport by his deputy  Emmerson Mnangagwa, Defence Minister Sidney Sekeramayi, Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Dr Misheck Sibanda and service chiefs.
Mozambique will this Thursday mark 40 years of independence from Portuguese rule.
Meanwhile the State Media defended Mugabe’s trip saying the neighbouring country’s history can not be separated from Zimbabwe as the two share not only common borders but a history of struggle against colonialism.

Police forces who came in armoured puma vehicles succumbed on Wednesday afternoon as vendors protesting against their removal continued charging into the Central Business District.
A barrier close to parliament was removed by the determined men and women as police retreated upon seeing hoardes of furious Street Merchants flooding into the city centre.
Gun totting cops became motionless upon seeing even disabled vendors pushing them away.
Our member living with disability in the wheel chair delivered her demands and the Deputy Clerk of Parliament received the petition only to sound back that it was the vendors right to deliver the requests without police hindrances. (Woman in spectacles addressing journalists soon after receiving the petition.)
 

The Zimbabwe National Vendors Union leader Stendrick Zvorwadza told ZimEye.com, “the constitution of Zimbabwe provides on section 59 Freedom to demonstrate and petition. ZRP is breaking the law by trying to stop the demonstration.
“I am pretty sure that fighting such a huge gathering is tantamount to simply inviting civil unrest unnecessarily. The right thing for ZRP under these circumstances is to monitor the situation from a distance.
 
“Remember, ZRP is heavily compromised because National Vendors Union Zimbabwe has other Civic Organisations in solidarity. We are also privileged to have a radical human rights organisation, ROHR Zimbabwe, with us on this demonstration.”
The vendors whose number exceeds 6 million unemployed people across the country, are taking the petition to Parliament this afternoon requesting a reversal of government action to remove them from the Central Business District.

Government owes diplomats at the country’s foreign missions, more than $40million in salaries.
This was revealed yesterday in parliament as non-constituency Member of Parliament Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, who sits on a parliamentary committee on foreign affairs said Treasury should cut travel costs and prioritise the welfare of ambassadors and embassy staff in foreign countries who have gone for months without receiving salaries.
Although Finance ministry secretary Willard Manungo, claimed that government owes over $10 million arrears for at least 43 diplomatic missions, the figure was revealed to far much higher.
“We have 43 foreign missions and we are not able to pay their salaries on time as we are doing with other civil servants,
“We are now proposing that we transfer their salaries to Salary Service Bureau through which we pay all the other civil servants rather than putting it through the ministry of Foreign Affairs.” Manungo claimed.
But in a separate hearing it was revealed as of March this year, staff at Zimbabwe’s foreign missions had not been paid for eight months and were owed $40 million in salary arrears. Foreign affairs secretary, Joey Bimha said then they have not received a salary increase in over 10 years as government struggles with budgetary constraints.
“You cannot have all your 100-plus directors travelling business class, if you look at your air travel expenses given the number of delegations you take to (foreign) summits, it is unsustainable,” said Misihairabwi-Mushonga, a former minister of regional integration and international co-operation in Zimbabwe’s unity government between 2009-13.
“How is it that a nation that is so poorly resourced can still behave in such a manner like there is so much money in the country yet we are facing a crisis?”…ALSO READ – Parliament Orders ‘High Flying’ Got Officials to Travel Economy Class

MIDLANDS police have launched an investigation after a Kwekwe gold miller was shot dead on the outskirts of the gold mining city on Sunday night.
Witnesses said a three-man gang shot Handson Moyo at around 11PM at his Dark-Horse gold mill in Marshville. The robbers made off with 350kg of carbons containing gold concentrate.
Moyo and his employees were at the carbon house where he was storing semi-processed gold preparing to transport it to Fidelity Printers when the robbers struck.
Dark-Horse Administrator, Tafadzwa Dzapasi, said when he got to the carbon house together with Moyo, the three men emerged from the dark and produced a pistol. They ordered them to lie down while they ferried the bags containing carbons to their getaway car. Dzapasi said Moyo was tied onto a pillar while the other two employees were ordered to undress as the robbers looted the semi-processed gold.
Moyo, said Dzapasi, managed to untie his hands and tried to wrest a pistol from one of the robbers. The robber fired a shot aimed at Moyo’s head and he died on the spot.
Dzapasi said the robbers went and robbed other employees who were working at the mill and stole gold ore.
Midlands Provincial Mining Director Engineer Tapererwa Paskwavaviri said cases of gold robbery were now rampant at mines and mills around the province.
“There’re several other cases that we’ve received of armed robbers who’re on a robbing spree, targeting small scale gold mines and mills,” said Paskwavaviri.

Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been humiliated by the Nigerian Journalist who grilled President Robert Mugabe on his exit date.
Mnangagwa was labelled a liar and a deceiver after he claimed without any evidence that Nigerian journo andSahara News scribe, Adeola Fayehun had apologised for her ‘unbecoming behaviour’ on Mugabe.
The TV presenter of the Keeping It Real, Fayehun, writes dressing down Mnangagwa on his claims questioning how Mnangagwa, Mugabe heir apparent thinks he can run the country when he cannot tell the simple truth.
“I don’t think I have laughed that much when a Zimbabwe website said I had apologised to Mugabe, they took my sarcasm and twisted it for their own interest,” she said in her latest show,” she said
She continued, “the most interesting article that I read this past week was the one where the Zimbabwean Vice-President said that they received an apology letter from me. So now the Vice-President is also a liar. How do you run a country like that?
“I mean you basically lied; I didn’t write any letter, bring it on.
“Anyway, for the record I did not write an apology letter for asking Mr Mugabe when he will step down.”
Mnangagwa claimed to Parliament while responding to a question from Gokwe-Nembudziya MP Justice Mayor Wadyajena, that the journalist had apologised. His claims where also published in the State Medi broadsheet The Herald, but there was no single recorded or written evidence to support it.
“I am aware that the journalist has written to her government apologising for her behaviour and the embarrassment she caused her country,” said Mnangagwa.

Zimbabwe’s vendors are charging on government this morning over the eviction from the Central Business District.
In a mass protest the first of its kind set to cause shockwaves across Harare the street merchants are enflaming at Parliament house.
National vendors union of Zimbabwe chairperson, Sten Zvorwadza told ZimEye.com, “We are marching from Parkade to Parliament to deliver a petition to prevent the government from evicting vendors from CBDs across the country.
“Civic Society Organisations are also attending the march as partners. ROHR( (Restoration of Human Rights) Zimbabwe will be a key partner. There will be heavy riot police presence in Harare today.”
The move comes at a time when the vendors also filed an urgent chamber application at the High Court to bar police from disturbing their planned march aimed at seeking suspension of their removal from the streets on Friday.
Government gave notice that all illegal vendors will be evicted from the streets on Friday.
But the vendors’ body, National Vendors Union of Zimbabwe is opposed to the removal and they seek to petition Parliament to suspend the decision to evict them.
To that end, the NVUZ wants to hold a march today in Harare where they will petition the Parliament of Zimbabwe to defer the eviction pencilled for Friday.
In the urgent application filed yesterday by Maunga, Maanda and Associates, Officer Commanding Police in Harare Central District, Police Commissioner General and Home Affairs Minister were listed as respondents.
The lawyers filed the papers after their clients had been barred by the police from holding the march.
In an affidavit, NVUZ national director Mr Samuel Wadzanai said the union wanted Parliament to intervene and ensure the postponement of the eviction to allow the illegal vendors to properly register and be allocated vending sites.
“Applicant is aware that Parliament has an oversight role over the acts of the executive or any other authority.
“It is in this light that applicant intends to petition Parliament seeking it to intervene by seeking to postpone the impending removal of the applicant’s members from the streets.
“The petition the applicant intends to hand over to Parliament is to seek its attention in order for it to suspend applicant’s members’ eviction for some time to enable certain measures to be put in place,” said Mr Wadzanai.
Mr Wadzanai said the police threatened to stop the march if the vendors persisted.(State Media/ZimEye)

THE High Court yesterday ruled that children born in and out of wedlock now have the same right to their parents’ estate and property should be shared equally without discrimination.
In a landmark inheritance judgment, Justice Hlekani Mwayera, outlawed the practice of discriminating against children born out of wedlock in inheritance matters, saying it was in violation of the Constitution.
The judge made the ruling in a case in which a Harare widow Ms Elsie Bhila, was trying to bar her late husband’s three children (born out of wedlock) from benefiting from their father’s estate.
Justice Mwayera frowned at the outdated and unconstitutional belief of viewing children born out of wedlock as “bastards”, “devils” and “illegitimate”.
Harare lawyer Mr Caleb Mucheche of Matsikidze and Mucheche Legal Practitioners, represented the three children in the matter, while Mambosasa Legal Practice acted for Ms Bhila.
Justice Mwayera’s judgment was based on Section 56 (3) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe which reads:
“Every person has the right not to be treated in an unfairly discriminatory manner on such grounds as their nationality, colour, tribe, place of birth, ethnic or social origin, language, class, religious belief, political affiliation, opinion, custom, culture, sex, gender, marital status, age, pregnancy, disability, or economic or social status or whether they were born in or out of wedlock.”
The judge said the common law position of excluding children born out of wedlock in inheritance matters was discriminatory and in breach of the Constitution.
“The common law position of excluding children born out of wedlock violated the constitutional rights to protection of the law and freedom from discrimination.
“These rights have always been in the Zimbabwean Constitution, the old Act 1979 and have been more pronounced by the wording in the new Act, the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No.20) Act 2013.
“A reading of this section (56 (3) of the Constitution) clearly outlaws discrimination on the basis of being born out of wedlock. “The third to fifth respondents (three children) have a right to equality and non-discrimination,” said Justice Mwayera.
However, the judge said the surviving spouse was entitled to inheriting the matrimonial home that the couple used to stay at the time of death.
The other properties, according to the judge, fell under the free residue of the estate that should be shared among all the beneficiaries.
“The surviving spouse is entitled to the matrimonial house plus goods and effects and in case of a civilly married spouse, he or she is entitled to a share in the joint estate and further share in free residue while descendants, parents, brothers or sisters are also entitled to a share in the free residue . . . ”
Mr Hillary Hoyini Komati Bhila, who was married to Ms Bhila died in 1999.
The estate was registered with the office of the Master of High Court.
Ms Bhila, being the surviving spouse, was appointed executor but an independent executor later replaced her upon discovery of the existence of the three other children.
The estate had two houses, one in Borrowdale and the other one in Houghton Park among other properties.
Ms Bhila was awarded the matrimonial home House Number 1247 Mukuvisi Road in Houghton Park and the Borrowdale house together with other property were treated as free residue to be shared among the other beneficiaries.
Irked by the decision, Ms Bhila approached the High Court arguing that she worked hard to acquire all the property although it was registered in her late husband’s name.
Ms Bhila argued that the three children born out of wedlock were not entitled to the free residue.
That resulted in the matter spilling into the High Court for determination.

Debate in the National Assembly opened yesterday with harsh criticism of Prosecutor General Johannes Tomana over his remarks that 12-year-old girls can consent to sex.
Legislators also want the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act to be repealed.
The legislators diverted the debate, which was on the report on public consultations recently carried out in several cities around the country on the gender commission, to direct attacks on Prosecutor General Tomana.
For Ms Thabita Khumalo, Nyasha Chikwinya and Beatrice Nyamupinga (Chairperson of Gender Parliamentary Portfolio Committee), the matter is simple, a 12-year-old is not a woman but a child.
While Prosecutor General Tomana is in the eye of the storm, Section 70(3) of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act states that ‘defence under a charge of engaging in sex with a minor can be derived if there is reasonable grounds to prove to a court of law that the perpetrator had enough reason to believe that the young person concerned was over the age of 14 years at the time of committing the crime.’ 
The argument in the court of public opinion which saw Prosecutor General Tomana’s utterances courting the ire of Parliament is that while the he was interpreting the law, he went on to express his personal opinion. 
With the constitution now clear that the age of sexual consent is 18, there is consensus the statute is not only outdated but morally wrong.

Temba Mliswa, who contested as an independent candidate and lost in the Hurungwe West by-election, is today expected to approach the Electoral Court challenging the victory of Zanu-PF lawmaker Keith Guzah.
Guzah polled 5 961 votes against Mliswa’s 4 239 in a hotly contested by-election on June 10.Mliswa’s lawyer Mr Msindo Hungwe of Kadzere, Hungwe and Mandevere Legal Practitioners told The Herald yesterday that they were ready to challenge Guzah’s victory in court.
“We believe that our legal argument is unassailable,” said Mr Hungwe. He said they have finished drafting papers and were ready to go to the Electoral Court.
“We are filing our petition first thing in the morning tomorrow (today),” he said.
“For the finer details of what is contained in the petition, the world has to wait for the filed copy.”
Sources close to the matter said Mliswa’s lawyers have instructed a top lawyer Advocate Tawanda Zhuwarara to argue the petition.
The move to challenge Guzah’s victory comes after the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) on Monday cleared the air on the alleged bungling in handling the Hurungwe West by-election.
ZEC declared that Guzah was lawfully and procedurally nominated as a candidate for the Hurungwe West by-election, although he failed to cast his ballot in the polls.
It emerged that Guzah did not vote because his name was not yet appearing on the Hurungwe West Constituency voters’ roll after he transferred his voting registration from Magunje Constituency.
ZEC chairperson Justice Rita Makarau said notwithstanding that he had transferred his registration as a voter to Hurungwe West, Guzah’s name was not electronically updated on the voters’ roll for that constituency because of a transposition of the block numbers relating to his old and new registrations.
“His old block number was captured as his new block number and the transfer was therefore not effected on the computer,” said Justice Makarau.
In line with ZEC’s policy to avoid counterfeit slips, Guzah was denied the right to vote in the by-elections.
Justice Makarau challenged anyone with evidence that Guzah voted to approach the electoral body for further investigations.
Reports in sections of the private media claimed that the electoral body accepted Guzah’s nomination papers without verifying.
However, Justice Makarau said the Zanu-PF candidate’s nomination was qualified based on his transfer whose V3 form was there for inspection by anyone.

Information and Media Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo has been axed from his influential role as cabinet minister.
In a development that has left not only cabinet but the entire Politburo shivering, Moyo was told to pack his bags and go home following a cabinet meeting Tuesday afternoon, ZimEye.com can reveal.
Moyo was shown the door from the cabinet shortly after his protest against Prosecutor General Johannes Tomana. The mouthy Minister publicly humiliated Tomana over comments he made on the age of consent in which Tomana said girls 12 years old could have sexual relations.
Moyo dressed down Tomana not only on social network website Twitter, but also through the powerful State Media the Herald and the Chronicle.
Contacted for comment, sources close to the Minister maintained that the development is likely to be reversed Wednesday after Moyo had presented his appeal.
Many in the Chipfukuto group that supports Emmerson Mnangagwa’s ascendancy to the Presidium, also continued claiming Moyo was the Faceless Facebook character Baba Jukwa, despite an investigation that excused him from the allegations.
But the cause for Moyo’s suspension or being fired could be off tune because Moyo had a valid cause to comment on children’s rights.
Speaking on the 12 year consent issue, another commentator wrote,
“People should not speak in tongues when they want to state the obvious. It’s such a disappointment when subject matter experts cry foul over the obvious. The public takes what it’s given. It doesn’t concern itself on what the letter of the law states. By the end of it all, it’s your words versus public opinion. The PG was not talking to lawyers. He was talking to lay persons. They take it the way it’s given.”
More to follow…

The US State Department has said Zimbabwe must make public President Robert Mugabe’s office budget as a step towards improving fiscal transparency.
This comes after the Comptroller and Auditor-General Mildred Chiri revealed that the President’s Office failed to produce documents for auditing purposes such as invoices, receipts and goods received to support payments.
“Zimbabwe’s fiscal transparency would be improved by detailing revenues and expenditures including allocations to the office of the President and Cabinet, and revenues from state-owned enterprises and natural resources; and making supreme audit institution reports publicly available within a reasonable period of time,” the US State Department’s 2015 Fiscal Transparency Report says.
The report said the budget is publicly available but does not clearly detail the large allocation to the office of the president and Cabinet.
Chiri’s latest report on the 2011 budget appropriations tabled in Parliament said Mugabe’s office paid for assets valued at about $500 000 without attaching invoices to validate the payments.
“The supreme audit institution audits the budget but its reports are not publicly available within a reasonable period of time,” the US State Department report said.
George Charamba, the presidential affairs spokesperson, could not be immediately reached for comment yesterday.
Annual reviews of the fiscal transparency of governments that receive US assistance help ensure taxpayers’ money is used appropriately and provides opportunities to dialogue with governments on the importance of fiscal transparency.
The US has provided over $2,6 billion in development assistance to Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, according to Shannon Smith, deputy assistant secretary for the bureau of African affairs.
“Zimbabwe’s fiscal transparency would also be improved by establishing laws and regulations governing natural resource extraction contracts and licensing, following the law in practice, and making basic information about such awards and contracts publicly available,” the US report said.
Fiscal transparency is a critical element of effective public financial management, helps in building market confidence, and underpins economic sustainability, as well as fostering government accountability. Daily News

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday revealed how a desperate Zanu PF had dispatched its leading lights to him, allegedly including former State Security minister Nicholas Goche, to try and broker a deal that would save the party’s and President Robert Mugabe’s bacon after they had lost the March 2008 elections.
Amplifying the stunning revelations at the weekend by former Presidential Affairs minister Didymus Mutasa that Zanu PF bigwigs had been left numbed by that surprising loss, the former prime minister’s spokesperson, Luke Tamborinyoka, said Zanu PF had initially conceded defeat but soon changed its position and went on to use thuggish methods to remain in power.
Speaking to the Daily News from Tsvangirai’s Highlands home where he said he had gone to get more details and “the true story” about the 2008 events from his boss, Tamborinyoka however, disputed Mutasa’s assertion that the opposition leader had contrived to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by running away from the country after winning the polls instead of seizing power at the time.
He said Tsvangirai had only left the country for Botswana at the time because his life was indisputably in danger at the time, in addition to also using the opportunity to drum up much-needed regional and continental support.
“You should know, for example, that Goche held a meeting with (former MDC deputy treasurer-general Elton) Mangoma and conceded defeat. Goche asked that we accommodate Zanu PF in the new government. After initially conceding defeat, they then went on to hold their own politburo meeting where they reversed that decision and said they would now go for a presidential run-off.
“Mind you, in the March 14 Sadc meeting before the delayed election results came out (former South African President Thabo) Mbeki spoke about the possibility of a run-off and when we look in retrospect we can now conclude that a plan was already underway to subvert the will of the people,” Tamborinyoka said.
Goche, who has since been brutally purged from both the post-congress Zanu PF formation and the government — on untested claims that he, former Vice President Joice Mujuru and other party bigwigs were plotting to oust and kill Mugabe — was once one of the nonagenarian’s most trusted lieutenants.
It was in that light that he was subsequently appointed one of Zanu PF’s negotiators in the Global Political Agreement (GPA) talks that ultimately led to the formation of a stabilising government of national unity.
Although the MDC and Tsvangirai won the 2008 elections, authorities later said, after weeks of suspicious prevaricating on the election outcome, that he had failed to garner enough votes to win the presidential poll outright — which they claimed necessitated the holding of a run-off that was characterised by serious violence and the murder of hundreds of opposition supporters.
“Tsvangirai went out to engage the region and he didn’t flee as alleged by some. He went to engage the region and the region did intervene if you check the record,” Tamborinyoka said yesterday, going on to urge Mutasa to “reveal all and stop hiding under the alleged oath of secrecy”.
“It is really amazing that Mutasa is finally coming out and stating what took place. But we want to know everything. He should tell the nation who withheld the results, who killed innocent Zimbabweans and who subverted the will of the people. He should tell all,” Tamborinyoka said.
“While we appreciate that he has finally seen the light, he must stop hiding behind the oath of secrecy and reveal all about the murders, abductions and violence,” he added. Tamborinyoka said Mutasa’s weekend remarks fully justified why his party had resolved to boycott elections until critically-needed electoral reforms were implemented.
“What Mutasa said vindicates our stance that no reforms, no elections. As long as there are no reforms, the will of the people will always be subverted. So we say no reforms, no elections and we are not going back on that,” he said.
Mutasa, a former close Mugabe confidante revealed for the first time at the weekend that he and other Zanu PF officials were shocked out of their pants after Tsvangirai and the MDC won the 2008 elections — to the extent that he had rushed to Harare from Rusape to try and protect Mugabe at his official residence.
Now out in the cold after being axed from the ruling party for siding with Mujuru, Mutasa said: “I immediately drove, at speed and alone, from my home in Rusape, to State House in Harare.
“I was terrified, I had to go and protect the president from harm as we were frightened Tsvangirai would do what he said he would do and march to State House. If he had, no policeman would have stopped him. Instead,” Mutasa laughed, “Tsvangirai went to Botswana.”
In those elections, Mutasa was the only Zanu PF senior official who retained his parliamentary seat, while Tsvangirai easily beat Mugabe in the first round of the presidential poll before pulling out of the second round because hundreds of his supporters had been killed.
“I don’t know how much cheating there was in elections, but I do know that in 2013 (Finance minister) Patrick Chinamasa cheated to win. He bussed people in (to vote for him.) I protested to him and to the Zimbabwe Election Commission.
“We will never know how many people voted for Zanu PF out of fear. I didn’t know there was fear in those days. I now see it myself. And there is a lot of fear. And I must say, again, I am very, very sorry. That I must stand up to be counted.”
Mutasa also said that he regularly chaired the informal but powerful Joint Operations Command, a structure of top security personnel that meets once a week.
“We discussed many things, such as violence. How to stop it. If food was short we talked about how to find it, usually from South Africa. The joint command did produce top-secret documents every week.
“Secrecy still binds me, from when I was minister. But of course, you know that some waiters in hotels work for the CIO. Your phones are listened to a lot. The CIO is huge.
“It produces many reports. From the UN, there will regularly be a report. A report about the British. Or India. Not very good reports really. I had to read them. They made me tired.”
“I do now know that Zanu PF did violence. And cheated in elections. But both sides did violence, I accept it was mostly Zanu PF violence. I am very sorry about that,” Mutasa said.-Daily News

Local government and National Housing Minister Ignatius Chombo is socialite Pokello Nare’s father.
Since the day ZimEye.com released the expose in 2013, it is now official that Pokello is daughter of the controversial minister. Chombo appeared as Pokello’s father at her wedding with her Ghananian Elikem last week.

It is claimed that Pokello, now nicknamed Pornello’s immoral behaviour witnessed on live international television, is a result of her upbringing caused by poor parenting.
 
A source said,  “you want to know more about this girl? She is indeed Chombo’s daughter and in the eighties all through the nineties he was constantly together with them – Pokello’s mom in Harare. I saw them myself, call him now and see if he will deny it. Just take a look at her, you can see Chombo painted on her face. Mhanza iyo ndeya Chombo- That forehead is Chombo’s,” the source who requested anonymity said.
He added that there was a decision to never use the Chombo surname.
“There was obviously an agreement to use the surname Nare and that she never uses Chombo as the minister feared that would ruin his career,” he said.
Chombo labelled a Sex Beast, has presided over an unpopular era of local government administration which has seen many mayors belonging to non-ZANU PF parties being removed by him only to be reinstated when discovered that Chombo was the one in breach.

In a revelation that has left many Zimbabweans shocked, more than 45% of the illegal vendors in Bulawayo and Harare are Zimbabwe Republic Police officers’ wives just as many cops are themselves also street merchants.
According to vendors’ representatives, the wives who are mostly selling meat and fish do not face the wrath of their husbands, and what they sell would have been confiscated from the civilian vendors.
“We have been victims of Police and municipal security, as they do not arrest vendors from Ross Camp, which house police and their spouses. On several occasions, we have been arrested by municipal police and our goods ending up in the hands of their spouses reselling them on the streets, much to our pain,” said Sikhola Bhebhe a Lobengula street vendor.
Another Bulawayo’s Fife street vendor also told the mayor during the meeting that, it was the duty of the city fathers to treat their ratepayers equally, without segregation. “I am not happy with the way municipal police and the ZRP handle our issues. They only arrest us, leaving their wives to feast on our wares. One day we will poison our wares and let them eat as they are also using evil tactics,” said a visibly dejected Sitshengisiwe.
The vendors and informal traders’ chairperson and president, Edward manning, confirmed that police wives constitute the said percentage. “That is true that police wives and their relatives sell meat at Lobengula Street and also in the surrounding streets. They are the highest number of illegal vendors, as they are not affected by police raids and municipal security. We are appealing to the responsible authorities to take action equally not selectively as is the case at present,” said Manning.
Asked to comment, the Bulawayo Mayor told ZimEye.com that he was not sure of the number of police spouses and that he was currently busy trying to find solutions before the 26th June deadline.
“I am currently concerned with the way forward on how to solve our deadline issue with vendors, who are our ratepayers. Our colleagues in the council will look into that accusation, as this was said by a number of vendors’ representatives,” said Mayor Councillor Martin Moyo.

Former CIO Boss and cabinet minister, Nicholas Goche’s son, Nicholas (jnr) Goche has died in South Africa.
Goche died last week after collapsing at his apartment.
Family sources said Nicholas (jnr) died in South Africa after collapsing and fracturing his skull at his flat in Morningside, South Africa.
Information availed to reporters is that Nicholas (jnr) was chatting with a relative on Sunday 14 June 2015 and suddenly passed out.
This prompted the relative to rush to his flat. The relative broke into the flat and found Nicholas (jnr) lying down which made the relative to call an Ambulance which responded after some time.
“Doctors had to put him in a medically induced coma but he succumbed to the injuries during the week,” said the source.
Nicholas has been on kidney dialysis for sometime.

Former ZANU PF Security and Administration boss Didymus Mutasa says he is ready to offload NIKUV election rigging files to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
When he was kicked out of the party last year, Mutasa fled with a pile of secret files he ‘looted’ from the ZANU PF Shake Shake building. Speaking for the first time Mr Mutasa who Mugabe “betrayed” by expelling him from ZANU PF, said he will now let all Zimbabwe know what really happened in successive elections beginning with the 2013 polls.
Mutasa’s files are set to reveal as well how ZANU PF killed ZEC officials. A recent exclusive investigation by ZimEye.com shows that top ZEC official Shupikai Mashereni was killed shortly after he approached Mr Mutasa for a Headlands farm promised as a reward for a sterling job for the 2013 election fraud.
Mutasa yesterday further told the daily Newsday he was ready to stand in court and give evidence on how the ruling Zanu PF party rigged the 2008 election “if approached” by the opposition MDC-T.
Mutasa said that “if the MDC people approach me”, he was more than willing to testify as an MDC-T witness, adding that he had over the past few months held several meetings with MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai to strategise for the 2018 elections.
“Even (President Robert) Mugabe said it at congress (that the MDC-T won by a landslide). Am I not saying something that has been said before? The president of Zanu PF had said it before. When I met Tsvangirai several times, he always told me about it.
Three months ago, I met Tsvangirai and he said it again. If the MDC-T approaches me, then I will consider that matter (to stand as a witness),” Mutasa said.
The former Headlands MP is one of the main figures in the People First project which comprises expelled Zanu PF members and believed to be led by former Vice-President Joice Mujuru.
The opposition MDC-T was reportedly mulling dragging the ruling party to court, engage African Union (AU), regional power broker Sadc as well as lobbying the international community over Mugabe’s alleged electoral fraud.
MDC-T spokesperson Obert Gutu said the opposition party would use the information coming from Mutasa to lobby local, regional and international bodies against Zanu PF.
“The revelation from Didymus Mutasa merely confirms what we, as the MDC, have always known. In fact, we did not narrowly win the 2008 harmonised elections. We won those elections with a landslide of well over 73%.
“Mutasa’s confession simply solidifies our conviction to ensure that the electoral playing field in Zimbabwe be evened up in order to produce free and fair elections that will give rise to legitimate results,” Gutu said.
“We will use this information in our ongoing peaceful and democratic struggle to convince Zimbabweans and, indeed, all peace-loving people within Sadc, the AU and the entire universe, that the Zanu PF regime is illegitimate. For as long as it lacks political legitimacy, this regime will never ever be able to turn around the economic fortunes of Zimbabwe.”
Gutu, however, could neither deny nor confirm his boss’ meetings with Mutasa.
“I am not in a position to comment on who my president meets and what it is they discuss. He has a spokesperson,” Gutu said.
Tsvangirai’s spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka was not available for comment.
Gutu, however, disputed Mutasa’s claims that Tsvangirai instead of claiming power had fled to Botswana.
“Morgan Tsvangirai did not flee the country after the 2008 elections. Surely, matters of a security nature cannot be divulged in the public domain. Do you know that practicing politics in Zimbabwe, particularly opposition politics, is a very high risk activity? Don’t you know that Big Brother is always snooping and watching every move that you make? Come on, my brother!” Gutu said.
Last year, in what has become common, Mugabe in a gaffé told war veterans ahead of his party’s congress that Tsvangirai “won by 73%” though his spin doctors said this was “a slip of the tongue”.
Meanwhile, Information minister Jonathan Moyo questioned how “a petrified Mutasa” would have sought to protect the Zanu PF leader following rumours that Mugabe had lost the elections to Tsvangirai.
“How could a frightened Mutasa rush to State House to protect Pres(ident) Mugabe after 2008 polls? We know he went (into) hiding!” Moyo queried.
As regards the Gukurahundi atrocities that Mutasa claims he was not aware of, the Information minister, who reports say lost a relative in the decade-long State-sponsored violence that targeted Matabeleland and parts of Midlands provinces, pointed out that Mutasa would have known about the atrocities as he was head of the country’s legislature.
“Mutasa says he didn’t know of Gukurahundi as he was Parliament Speaker in Harare yet PF Zapu told all in Parliament!” Moyo said.
But Mutasa maintained he was never briefed, saying that Moyo could check with parliamentary records.
“They can always check with the Hansard (official National Assembly publication), I did not know about that (Gukurahundi),” Mutasa said.
Reports claim that some 20 000 civilians were callously murdered by the North Korean-trained 5th Brigade unleashed by Mugabe, then Prime Minister, to “quell” the disturbances blamed on a handful of “bandits” allegedly linked to the late PF Zapu leader Joshua Nkomo who was later to become Vice-President.

ZANU-PF Buhera South National Assembly representative Joseph Chinotimba is up in arms with the Zimbabwe Urban and Rural Council Workers’ Union who accuse him of siphoning funds from the labour body when he is no longer a trade unionist.
Chinotimba is a former ZURCWU president and ceased to be its leader when he joined politics in 2008. The politician resurfaced last year after appointing himself executive ZURCWU patron for life.
ZURCWU secretary-general Mr Bernad Dhanda yesterday told The Herald that Chinotimba was directing union funds into his personal CBZ Kwame Nkrumah bank account.
He said acting on the instruction, Mutare City Council deposited $9 540,83. Chinotimba is also being accused of confiscating the union’s registration certificate.
“As Chinotimba continued his discord in the local government sector masquerading as a trade union official, he has proved that he is not doing this to represent workers, but that he is aiming to fraudulently siphon union funds into his personal account,” said Mr Dhanda.
“He ceased to be a union official in 2008 when he resigned from Harare City Council municipal police and stopped to be a subscribing member.”
Mr Dhanda said the ZURCWU constitution stipulated that for one to be a president, one must be recommended by council or branch where one is employed.
“It is a union for the workers in the local government sector employed by either an urban or rural council. But Comrade Chinotimba is saying the constitution does not matter, the union is mine as long as I am in possession of the original copy of the union’s certificate of registration.”
The ZURCWU has since reported Chinotimba at Mutare Central Police Station under RRB 2390113.
The union is also accusing Chinotimba of using his political muscle to order Gweru, Kwekwe and Chegutu town councils to deposit workers’ union dues in his account.
Mr Dhanda said the ZURCWU was investigating the amounts of money Chinotimba took from these councils.
Yesterday, Chinotimba maintained he was still ZURCWU president.
“Dhanda does not know what he is doing. I am the president of that union. I formed it, I own it and will not give the certificate to anyone. How can I give the certificate to anyone else when it is mine?”
Added Chinotimba: “The constitution says that any Zimbabwean can be a union member as long as workers like you. He no longer has people who like him that is why he is acting in such a manner.
“The case is at the High Court yet he is already making a lot of noise. Let us wait till the judgment is made and see who the president of the union will be,” he said.
He denied that unions funds were being deposited in his personal account. “The account being used is for the ZURCWU and I am just a signatory there.”

THREE Bulawayo women, who were recently arrested for allegedly loitering in the city for the purposes of prostitution, have dragged the Minister of Home Affairs Kembo Mohadi and the police to court for violating their constitutional rights and unlawful detention.

Lindiwe Moyo, Lingiwe Moyo and Renny Sithole who are the applicants in the matter cited Minister Mohadi, Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri, the officer in charge of Bulawayo Central Police Station, Inspector Loyiso Mpofu and one Constable Chipfira as respondents.
The three women through their lawyers, Phulu and Ncube Legal Practitioners, last week filed a court application at the Bulawayo High Court seeking an order compelling the respondents to refund them the $5 admission fines for the purported crime within 14 days.
The trio also seeks a court order declaring the arrest on April 17, 2015, illegal.
They argue that it violated their fundamental rights to personal liberty protected by section 49 (1) (b) of the constitution.
In her founding affidavit, Lindiwe challenged the police actions, saying the charge under which she was arrested was unlawful and invalid.
“I’m making this application for an order to declare my arrest illegal on the basis that I was arrested for an offence that doesn’t exist in law and for an order that my right to personal liberty in terms of section 49 (1) (b) of the constitution was violated,” she said.
“I was arrested for a non-existent crime of loitering for the purpose of prostitution, which was provided for under section 4 of the Miscellaneous Causes Act. The Miscellaneous Causes Act was repealed on July 1, 2006 and replaced by the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act.”
Under the Criminal Law (Reform and Codification) Act, there is no longer a crime called loitering for the purposes of prostitution.
Lingiwe and Sithole in their supporting affidavit concurred with Lindiwe. The three applicants were arrested shortly after 5AM while standing outside Golden Grill food outlet situated between Fort Street and 10TH Avenue.
They are denying any wrongdoing, saying they were forced to pay admission of guilt fines.
“I was standing outside Golden Grill in the company of Lingiwe while Renny was inside the shop when a uniformed police officer confronted us and said we were under arrest for loitering for the purposes of prostitution before demanding $3 from us,” said Lingiwe.
“When I demanded an explanation two other police officers emerged just when Renny was coming out of the shop and they handcuffed us.”
She said they were taken to Bulawayo Central Police Station where they were detained for several hours before being ordered to pay $5 admission fines.
“We were treated in the most degrading manner. We were labelled prostitutes by police officers who continually taunted us. Despite denying any wrongdoing we were forced to pay a fine of $5 for the crime of loitering for the purposes of prostitution,” said Lindiwe.
Mpofu has through the Attorney General’s Office (Civil Division) filed a notice of opposition challenging the application by the three women.
Mpofu argued that the trio failed to adhere to the Order 33 Rule 259 of the High Court Rules 1971 by delaying in filing the application.
“They (applicants) paid the fines on April 17, 2015 and only filed their application for review eight weeks later. The applicants were arrested and charged in terms of section 81 of the Criminal Law (Reform and Codification) Act,” said Mpofu.
He said the three women voluntarily paid the fines and signed the forms of admission of guilt.
“They were advised of the options to be taken to court that same morning for the same charges preferred against them if they were not willing to pay the fines. The applicants should explain how they paid if they were not aware of their charges,” argued Mpofu in his opposing affidavit.
Last month the Constitutional Court ruled against the routine arrest of women on allegations of soliciting for paid sex in the streets.
The court said as long as there were no men who would confirm being approached by the women for the service the arrests were unconstitutional.
This was after nine women had filed an application challenging the constitutionality of Section 81 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act [Chapter 9:23], after they were arrested and charged with soliciting for the purposes of prostitution.
In their application, the women argued that the crime of soliciting requires allegations of an act and a person so acted upon rather than the mere fact of being found at a street corner or being a woman in the central business district at night. The women, who argued that they were a vulnerable group, also said their right to personal liberty guaranteed in Section 49 of the Constitution and their right to equal protection and benefit of the law under Section 56 (1) of the Constitution had been violated. chronicle

Harare Businessman Phillip Chiyangwa has been discharged from hospital.
Chiyangwa told ZimEye.com Monday afternoon he is now at home after his long surgery stay since his falling to injuries from his house fire last Thursday.
Mr Chiyangwa needed bottles removed from one of his legs, the hurt he received after entering his bedroom seeking to retrieve something as the fire raged on his White House mansion on Thursday morning.
He told ZimEye.com at 14:21Hrs(GMT) Monday, “Been discharged going home now.”
Many at the weekend rushed to circulate bizarre speculative claims that the fire which began in Chiyangwa’s bedroom was of juju origins saying a witchcraft snake caused it, and one message read in part: “ZANUPF Phillip Chiyangwa’s money snake spit fire instead of money and burnt his mansion….”
But Mr Chiyangwa’s assistant told ZimEye.com the causes of the fire are now fully known. Ruling out foul play, he said “there was a conflict of connections between air cons and the lighting wires triggering an electric fault,” he said. READ MORE–Chiyangwa Deadly Fire Mystery Solved

Harare businessman Phillip Chiyangwa who is still in hospital for treatment despite coming out of theatre Saturday has communicated that the mystery to the fire that could have taken his life has been solved.
Many rushed to create and circulate bizarre speculative claims that the fire which began in Chiyangwa’s bedroom was of juju origins saying a witchcraft snake caused it, and one message read in part: “ZANUPF Phillip Chiyangwa’s money snake spit fire instead of money and burnt his mansion….”
But Mr Chiyangwa’s assistant told ZimEye.com the causes of the fire are now fully known. Ruling out foul play, he said “there was a conflict of connections between air cons and the lighting wires triggering an electric fault.”
Meanwhile Mr Chiyangwa has not fully recovered from injuries inflicted from the inferno that blazed a large part of of his mansion last Thursday morning. Chiyangwa who came out of theatre on Saturday is stuck in hospital until possibly tomorrow Tuesday when he might be released.
His PA also told ZimEye.com, ” He is at the hospital”,
“He is out tomorrow”, he said.

The government has reportedly dispatched auditors to investigate alleged abuse of nearly $4 million siphoned from the war veterans’ pension and education fund.
This came amid reports that war veterans have not been receiving their monthly payouts and education allowances for some time due to lack of funds, resulting in some of their children dropping out of school or colleges.
Although officials in Treasury and War Veterans’ ministry refused to comment over the matter yesterday, sources privy to the investigations told NewsDay that the money mysteriously “vanished” before the reconstituted war veterans’ department.
“The department received the money early this year to pay for education and pension allowances to war veterans, but the money cannot be traced now. Not even a cent of it,” a source who declined to be named said.
“The issue only came to light when senior civil servants from the ministry responsible for war veterans headed by Christopher Mutsvangwa approached Treasury cap in hand for funds to pay for war veterans children’s examination fees.
“They were quizzed on how they had used the $4 million and this group knew nothing about the issue. So those who were in charge of the department before the ministry was created are now being called to account.”
Zimbabwe Defence Forces spokesperson Colonel Overson Mugwisi requested questions in writing.
“Could you please email me your questions so that those who were in charge of the department answer for themselves,” Mugwisi said.
Mutsvangwa, who is also Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association chairperson, confirmed that his ministry had indeed sought Treasury help, but denied sanctioning an “audit yet”.
“I have not yet sanctioned an audit, but it is true that we recently approached Treasury for funding. We were given about $1 million, but we still need more because there are a lot of things that still need to be set up, but of great concern to us is the welfare of war veterans and we think Treasury can do more to support us,” he said.
Mutsvangwa could neither deny nor confirm whether his officials were quizzed by Treasury over the abuse of the funds, but the ministry’s secretary, Asher Walter Tapfumaneyi, insisted that those who abused the funds should be made accountable.
“If people committed any crimes, the law will catch up with them and if any audit is to be sanctioned in future, then it will be in order, but it will not be a witch-hunt. People should act with probity when handling public funds and we should be seen to account for public funds when we deal with them,” Tapfumaneyi said.
“We have a mandate to deliver on the welfare of war veterans those things that have not been done for the past 35 years and will not be distracted by rumours.
“As a ministry we have only been in existence for two months and have not been given the chance to implement what we think are programmes that will solve the problems that have been created over time.” -Newsday

Grace Mugabe’s first born son Russell Goreraza reportedly misrepresented facts at the Harare Magistrates Court over his marital status in a reported bid to walk away with a lenient sentence after being recently convicted of culpable homicide.
Goreraza allegedly misled the court two weeks ago when he appeared before Harare provincial magistrate Vakayi Douglas Chikwekwe on a charge of fatally running over a city vagrant.
However NewsDay claims that it has it on good record that Goreraza’s divorce matter was still pending at the High Court under case number HC11013/14.
According to the court papers, President Robert Mugabe’s step son filed for divorce against Gladys Chiedza Goreraza (nee Chiwaya) on December 11 last year and the matter was yet to be entertained by the judges of the High Court.
Goreraza told the court that he was a divorcee who was looking after his minor child with his “former” wife.
Goreraza’s submission, however, persuaded Chikwekwe to spare him a jail term and instead fined him $800 for an offence which often attracts incarceration and cancellation of the driver’s licence or prohibition from driving for a certain period.

UNDER-FIRE Prosecutor-General Johannes Tomana has dug in his heels declaring he would not be haunted into resigning from his post following his alleged gaffé over the age of sexual consent.
Tomana last week torched a fierce storm after he was quoted as saying children below the age of 16 could legally consent to sex and marriage. His remarks attracted a backlash from politicians and child rights defenders, some of whom labelled him “a sexual pervert” and “child abuser”.
However, Tomana yesterday told NewsDay his statement had been misinterpreted and politicised to force him out of government, but vowed to hang on despite the heavy criticism.
“Why should I resign? Because the social media has been making unsubstantiated allegations against me? Some people have decided to crucify me without even trying to put the facts of what I really said on the table,” Tomana said.
“I have been called a pervert, a child abuser. I am already tainted and tarnished, but processes will be followed and they should be followed to make sure that those that are right are proven right and those in the wrong are proven so.”
While at first the opposition MDC-T demanded Tomana’s expulsion, the party spokesperson Obert Gutu said after listening to the audio, it became clear that the statements had been politicised.
“It’s apparent that Tomana has now been caught up in the crumbling Zanu PF’s factional wars. The political vultures are going for the jugular,” Gutu said.
“I am of the opinion that he was very careless and imprecise with his remarks, particularly considering the fact that he was commenting on a very emotive subject. As a lawyer, he should learn to be precise and smart when answering difficult questions. He should have categorically condemned the practice of having very young girls taken into marriage. I am afraid to say that he was dodgy, incoherent and evasive in that interview. The least he can do now is to apologise for making those controversial remarks.”
Political and social scientist Eldred Masunungure concurred that the Prosecutor-General had been entangled in a political cobweb.
“Everything in this country has political interpretations, especially if one is a senior public official. For Tomana, it is even worse because rumours that he had been in the wrong basket and had a soft spot for former Vice-President Joice Mujuru seem to have been proven right by the manner in which he was hanged out to dry,” Masunungure said.
“But Tomana also needs to reconcile the fact that in the print version of his interview, he seemed to insist that he was proffering a personal opinion, but in the rebuttal that we have read, he is emphatic that he was only interpreting the law as is, whether he likes it or not.”
Children’s rights activist and Katswe Sistahood programmes manager Winnet Shamuyarira said Tomana’s problem was that he was not emphatic in his condemnation of the existing law’s tacit support for child abuse.
“While he seemed to have been explaining the law, he (Tomana) creates a problem in that he advocated against the realignment of the law that encourages abuse of children. That, we have a problem with,” Shamuyarira said.
“We cannot be seen to celebrate paedophiles and those that abuse children because if an older man seeks out a 12-year-old and has sex with them, then that man has a problem.
“If we are saying a 12-year-old can sustain a family and have children as a mother, we should then go ahead and allow them to vote as well as have driver’s licences because basically, we are saying they are able to make any decision that older people can make. Our problem is that we view girls and women as sex objects.”
Legal expert Alex Magaisa said Tomana “spoke like a man in a pub” and deserves every condemnation coming his way.
“Of course, he lost it! There is no question about it. Everything that is printed is what he said. You guys (media) should not fall into the trap of politicising everything. This is an important social issue over which the country’s highest legal officer has made some reckless and thoughtless comments,” Magaisa said.
“Tomana spoke like a man in a pub and he has no business doing that. We get a poor government because there are people out there who are prepared to accept mediocrity and to understand mediocrity.
You heard him there making some ridiculous policy pronouncements on child marriage, saying 15-year-olds can make conscious decisions to marry, but the Constitution very clearly says the age of marriage is 18.”-Newsday

Bulawayo  – Another prisoner has fallen at Matebeleland’s Khami Prison after being denied medication.
Mr Mxoli Dlamini, 52, died last Thursday at the facility which has seen record numbers dying in cells.
Last year a total of 108 prisoners were released on medical grounds.
Dlamini had been imprisoned for a six year jail term for beating a stock thief to death, a sentence he served two years until the fateful day last week.
Dlamini’s 32 year old brother, Mangangandile told ZimEye.com, “My brother and four others were arrested in 2013.”
He said the man was denied medication leading to his eventual death Thursday.
“He kept complaining of chest pains and easily got tired and failed to complete a sentence as you tried to enquire on his health.
“Before his death he had lost his left eye .
“He was feeling well and used to tell me but he was denied to go to check ups,” he said.
Prison bosses were not available for comment.
The family was given funeral assistance by the UK based philanthropist Barbara Nyagomo.
They thanked Miss Nyagomo saying,
“Mhuri yekwaDlamini yatenda Madam President nechipo chehuku, zvichitevera rubatsiro rwavakapa kumhuri iyi panguva yenhamo. Tinotenda, pachivanhu chedu chipo chikuru. Mwari arambe anavo.
-Usapho lwakoDlamini lukhombise isintu kanye lokubonga ngokunikeza uMadam President isipho senkukhu ngemva kokuba esizile emfeni. Esintwini sethu inkukhu yisipho esikhulu. Siyabonga, uNkulunkulu asikelele.
-The Dlamini family has offered a token of appreciation to Madam President in form of a chicken following her assistance financially during the funeral wake. In our culture, such a present is very important. May the Lord keep His acquaintance upon them and give them peace.”
 
 

There was drama at Saturday Retreat when Harare South member of parliament, Shadreck Mashayamombe was humiliated by over a thousand furious residents.
 
There was commotion when some went on a rampage beating drums, shouting and screaming during his address. Some of the residents kept shouting “mbavha mbavha” as he spoke.
Mashayamombe had come to update the residents about CFI Holdings’ takeover of the one thousand and fifty-seven(57) hectare residential aerea which is already occupied. The M.O.U which was signed by the ministry of Local Government principal director Joseph Mhakayakora states that the land is supposed to be compensated direct to CFI Holdings in return for title deeds.
It however became apparent to the people that Mashayamombe and the cooperative leadership led by Ezekiel Karimanzira connived to fleece people their hard earned cash by deliberately including residents from New Ceney Park who are not supposed to pay to CFI Holdings but the government instead.
The humiliation he suffered was described as terrible and one that has never happened to a member of parliament for a long time.
“Shaddie akapusa, pakadai aifanira kuregedza kutouya”.
“While other MPs are attending the inauguration of the junior parliament he is busy talking about land,” others said.

The Zimbabwe Republic Police and the State Security agents were fully ready to make MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai President of Zimbabwe soon after the 2008 elections, Robert Mugabe’s former State Security Boss Didymus Mutasa said.
Mutasa speaking for the first time to the South African Independent newspaper, said Tsvangirai should have simply rushed to State House and no one was going to stop him, but the MDC leader fled to Botswana in retreat.

Mutasa revealed for the first time that he and other Zanu-PF officials were shocked after Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) won the 2008 elections – so shocked that he had rushed to protect Mugabe at his official residence.
Didymus Mutasa, now out in the cold after being axed from the ruling party for siding with ousted vice-president Joice Mujuru, said he and others in Zanu-PF were “absolutely shocked” when the parliamentary election results were released in 2008. The MDC won narrowly.
“I immediately drove, at speed and alone, from my home in Rusape, to State House in Harare. I was terrified, I had to go and protect the president from harm as we were frightened Tsvangirai would do what he said he would do and march to State House. If he had, no policeman would have stopped him.
“Instead,” Mutasa laughed, “Tsvangirai went to Botswana.”
He has previously told ZimEye.com that “the 2008 election results were announced when all contestants were at their constituencies. I was at Rusape, he must have been at Kwekwe facing his defeat.
“On hearing the results I rushed from Rusape to State House and was the first person to be with the President.”
In those elections Mutasa was the only Zanu-PF senior to retain his parliamentary seat in the eastern Manicaland province. Tsvangirai, who easily beat Mugabe in the first round of the presidential poll, pulled out before the second round because hundreds of his supporters had been killed.
“I don’t know how much cheating there was in elections, but I do know that in 2013 (finance minister) Patrick Chinamasa cheated to win. He bussed people in (to vote for him.) I protested to him and to the Zimbabwe Election Commission.
“We will never know how many people voted for Zanu-PF out of fear. I didn’t know there was fear in those days. I now see it myself. And there is a lot of fear. And I must say, again, I am very, very sorry. That I must stand up to be counted.”
Mutasa was among Zimbabwe’s most feared men, particularly when he was minister in charge of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO).
He said he regularly chaired the informal but powerful Joint Operation Command, a structure of top security personnel that meets once a week. We discussed many things, such as violence. How to stop it. If food was short we talked about how to find it, usually from South Africa. The joint command did produce top- secret documents every week.
“Secrecy still binds me, from when I was minister. But of course you know that some waiters in hotels work for the CIO. Your phones are listened to a lot. The CIO is huge.
“It produces many reports. From the UN there will regularly be a report. A report about the British. Or India. Not very good reports really. I had to read them. They made me tired.”
But it seems Mutasa has forgotten much of the ruling Zanu-PF’s bloody rule. In conversation with him at his home, it seems as if his ears were blocked for 35 years. Or, perhaps, to put it more kindly, he really did live in another, much kinder Zimbabwean world.
He can’t recognise the names of some of the well-known political activists killed by Zanu-PF operatives, the party with which he was closely involved for most of his life.
“I didn’t know about that. I never heard about it then. No, I don’t know his name, I never even heard that before. Was it in the papers?” were some of the answers Mutasa gave to the stream of questions put to him on Thursday at his home, east of Harare.
His home is now being guarded by private security, for which he is paying. The police had provided protection for him since 1980.
“I do now know that Zanu-PF did violence. And cheated in elections. But both sides did violence, I accept it was mostly Zanu-PF violence. I am very sorry about that.”
The Legal Resources Foundation and the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace documented massacres and the widespread repression of opposition supporters by North Korean-trained soldiers in Matabeleland in 1983 to 1987. An estimated 20 000 people died in what became known as Gukurahundi.
“I did not know about Gukurahundi as I was Speaker of Parliament in Harare for the first 10 years of independence. We didn’t speak about it in parliament. No one told me about it. I would only know about violence if I read it in the newspapers,” Mutasa said.
“I don’t know that name,” he said, when asked about the May 2008 murder of Tonderai Ndira, one of the opposition MDC’s best-known activists, abducted at night from his bed at home.
Now 80, Mutasa, Mujuru and others were accused by first lady Grace Mugabe of plotting a coup d’etat. They deny the accusation.
“Zimbabwe has become a miserable place. I say this about the state, my country,” Mutasa said.
“Now everybody is broke. The economy is broke, mining, agriculture, and we should have done something about that 10 years ago.
“Now it is too late.”
Mutasa scoffs at the new vice-president, Emmerson Mnangagwa.
“He never won an election for that post. Mugabe appointed him, and he is not popular. He can’t win elections.”
Mutasa said he hoped to get a pension some time. “If I don’t get my pension I will continue farming. I was given one (white-owned) farm, called Lonkop. I have a manager.”

Barely two weeks after he was arrested and released, former Zanu-PF Mashonaland West provincial chairman Mr Temba Mliswa is in trouble once again and probed by police over what they say is stolen farm equipment. The development comes in tandem with his rival Keith Guzah who has been disqualified for his parliamentary seat.
 
Police yesterday said investigations on Mliswa, who is being probed for possessing suspected stolen farming equipment at one of his warehouses in Harare, are still continuing.
Chief police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba confirmed the developments. “Yes, there is equipment under police guard belonging to Mliswa. We are carrying out investigations,” she said without divulging any other details for fear of jeopardising the investigations.
Although the details were still sketchy, it is believed that the equipment was part of those that were distributed under the Government’s Farm Mechanisation Programme, a few years ago.
Police were recently deployed to the warehouse, which is along Simon Mazorodze Road, to guard the equipment. Last week, police and officials from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe also visited the premises and Mr Mliswa will soon be summoned for questioning.
In February, the embattled former Hurungwe legislator was arrested for illegally possessing seven AK47 assault rifles, with the police still to establish the intention for which he held the guns.
This was not the first time that Mr Mliswa has had a brush with the law, although he was acquitted on several occasions. In 2010, his lawyers sensationally revealed that he was facing up to 78 charges in Zimbabwe’s court system.
This was after he was arrested in the same year on allegations of extorting $1 600 from relatives of his two employees and the theft of 56 cattle in Karoi.
In the same year, Mr Mliswa, along with Mr Martin Mutasa and Mr George Marere, spent weeks in prison after being arrested on charges of fraud involving $1,05 million.
The three were alleged to have defrauded a Harare man, Mr Paul Westwood of his 50 percent shares in Noshio Motors, a registered car dealer company jointly owned by Mr Westwood and Mr Hammarskjöld Banda and his wife Brendaly.
Mr Mliswa and his co-accused were acquitted of the case in June 2011.
After release on bail, Mr Mliswa was re-arrested and charged for crimes dating back to 2002, which included cases of assault and common assault, theft, public violence, contempt of court, extortion, malicious damage to property, Shop Licences Act violation, Firearms Act violation and housebreaking.
Some of the other cases were also dropped in various other circumstances including State witnesses denying ever reporting Mr Mliswa to the police.
In 2013, Mr Mliswa was arrested following skirmishes where Hurungwe East legislator Cde Sarah Mahoka was injured in an attack by youths while trying to address a meeting at Zimonja Business Centre in Zvipani.
Mr Mliswa was ousted as the Zanu-PF provincial chairperson for Mashonaland West after it became clear that he supported ousted Vice President Joice Mujuru’s bid to illegally oust President Mugabe.
He recently lost the by-election in Hurungwe West to Zanu-PF’s Cde Keith Guzah after he contested as an independent candidate.

Government is inviting all those who graduated from tertiary colleges since 1980 to forward their names for possible employment in several African countries with which it has signed agreements for labour exportation.
Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Deputy Minister Dr Godfrey Gandawa said yesterday that a database of the graduates was being created for possible job placements both abroad and locally when opportunities arise.
He said the Government would financially benefit from the arrangement as the receiving countries would pay a certain amount, as well as cater for the welfare of the exported staff.
The development was well-received by teachers’ unions who said apart from commercially benefiting the Government, the move was a promotion of “brain circulation” on the continent.
Brain circulation benefited countries like India, which witnessed a large-scale deliberate emigration of engineers from its premier engineering institutes in the 1960s, only for them to return in the 90s as prospects improved markedly.
The Asian countries’ massive development is also attributed to this circular movement of skilled labour. With Zimbabwe faced with an unemployment rate of 11 percent, according to the latest Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency report, many countries in Africa have expressed interest in recruiting local graduates.
Dr Gandawa said Government had seen it fit to assist thousands of jobless graduates, while it worked on various ways of creating employment as espoused in its economic blueprint, Zim-Asset.
“We are coming up with a policy as a Ministry to help our skilled manpower get jobs because there are countries with vacancies in various fields, but our people do not have access to those vacancies out there,” he said.
“As a ministry, we have taken the initiative to look for the jobs in those countries. We are still developing our human export policy and we have already signed memoranda of understanding with countries like South Sudan, Botswana, Angola and Namibia on that.”
Dr Gandawa said they were working on the human export policy in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour, Public Service and Social Welfare and the Civil Service Commission.
“The companies or Governments employing will pay us if the policy comes to be, while workers will earn their salaries there,” he said. “In that way, Government will recoup its investment in human capital.”
Dr Gandawa said the database they were creating would include all the people who have graduated from the country’s tertiary institutions and those trained abroad since 1980.
“With this databank, we will get to know where our graduates are and how they are doing,” he said.
“We have not been tracking where they are.” The Government yesterday flighted an advert in the press requiring the graduates to register for the database creation.
“All those who graduated from universities, polytechnics or teachers college in Zimbabwe or graduated from any other university outside the country and working in or outside Zimbabwe should register with the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technolgy Development,” read the advert.
“Registration forms are accessible at the ministry’s head office in Harare or at any university, polytechnic or teachers college in your province.”
The forms can also be downloaded from the ministry’s website: http//www.mhtestd.gov.zw.
Countries like Cuba make money from exporting health staff to other countries and there are a number of doctors working in Zimbabwe from the North American country.
It has emerged that countries like South Sudan and Namibia need professionals like teachers, engineers, pharmacists and administrators from Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe Teachers Association of Zimbabwe chief executive Mr Sifiso Ndlovu yesterday described the idea to export human capital as noble.
“It is a good move as long as it is a Government to Government arrangement because we will get remittances for exporting labour,” he said.
“That circular movement brings tangible knowledge that will in the future be valuable for the country’s development. By doing this, we are upgrading and making useful our human capital.”
Zimbabwe’s universities churn out more than 10 000 graduates every year with thousands more coming from polytechnics, teachers colleges and other institutions of higher learning.

President Robert Mugabe has attacked members of the Vapositori (apostolic sect members), for refusing to take their children to school and hospitals, citing it as one of the country’s major draw backs.
Speaking at a ceremony for the official opening of the junior Parliament and the swearing in of the junior president in Harare yesterday, Mugabe said that members of the Vapositori were not forthcoming on the issue of education and medical treatment.
“Yes then, you will also have church dzimwe dzevapositori dzisingadi kuti vana vadzidze, (that do not allow children to go to school) but we have managed to convince others semutumwa wekwaMarange,” Mugabe said.
He said thousands of the church’s denominations gather for the pass over ceremony every year.
“….and at those meetings it’s not always easy to persuade people that to go without education is disastrous in their lives, when they have their bible, their tenets and the principles of their religious group,” he said.
He told the gathering at Parliament building that government had only managed to convince one leader in Marange to send his members’ children to school. He said the Vapositori in that area had taken heed of the call and managed to build schools.
“But that’s only one community, what about the others?” Mugabe queried.
He also attacked Vapositori on their adamant denial to go to hospitals.
“They do not believe also that when a person gets ill he should go to hospital and be treated medically. Vane mvura yavo yavanoti yakanatswa nemutungamiri, ndoyanongonwa. Havamboda kubata kana piritsi rimwe chete, havadi, saka (they drink holy water from their leader. They do not want to take even a single tablet, so) we should do a lot of teaching.
“Kwamutumwa kwatakaenda (with mutumwa) we have succeeded in education but we haven’t succeeded on the other one, yehealth. Those are some of the things that draw us back,” he said.
He added, “We are therefore urging chiefs, traditional and spiritual leaders and other community leaders to sensitise their communities and to encourage our young people to stay in school. We should put the interest of our children first.”
Mugabe’s attack on Vapositori comes following another scathing attack from Prophetic Healing and Deliverance ministries founder Walter Magaya on the way the Vapositori handle spiritual issues.
Magaya alleged that Vapositori were powered by the underworld of the marine kingdom, an allegation they did not take lightly.
One of the Vapositori’s controversial beliefs include child marriages. However, Mugabe yesterday said the government was mulling aligning the country’s laws relating to marriages to forbid the marriage of young people below the age of 18.
“This alignment is in sync with our Constitution,” he said.
He said early marriages had robbed children the valuable experience of childhood, adding that some were being forced into early marriages because they could not proceed with their education due to lack of funds.
“The Multi Indicator Cluster Survey (Mics 2014) reports that 24, 5 percent of girls aged between 15 to 19 years, are currently married or in union, while only 1, 7 percent of boys in the same age group are married or in union.
“The Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey (ZDHS) 2010 to 2011 also reported that 33 percent of women aged 20 to 49, were married before reaching the age of 18,” Mugabe said.
He said that it was clear that there was need to do more to ensure that the society allows young women to grow and reach their fullest potential.
Yesterday’s swearing in ceremony was conducted as the country also commemorated the Day of the African Child, which is celebrated every year on June 16.
Samuel Nyarenda, a form three student at Mazowe Boys High School in Mashonaland Central was sworn-in as the child president after amassing 48 votes, beating nine other contestants.
The Day of the African Child is celebrated in honour of school children who lost their lives on June 16, 1976, during the Soweto uprising in apartheid South Africa.-DailyNews

An sms message circulating world-wide via the WhatsApp network claiming that abducted activist Itai Dzamara has been found, is false and misleading.
The malicious message claimed that Dzamara was found at Harare Central Police Station on Monday and the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights have confirmed the development.
Investigations have however found the report to be a hoax.
Dzamara’s whereabouts have remained unknown since his abduction on the 9th March.
The false report reads in full:Jessie Dendere wrote on twitter,
“#ItaiDzamara has been found, let us not
forget less prominent citizens whose
whereabouts remain unknown and those who didnt make it alive.”
ZLHR Lawyers have confirmed that Dzamara, abducted Monday, is currently
detained at Harare Central Police Station.
LauraAngela Bagnetto says, “Just spoke to a source close to #ItaiDzamara case. He just got a call to pick Dzamara up at a police station in downtown #Harare.i
#Zimbabwe”
Counseling Services Units says he is at
Harare Central Police Station.

Information Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo says only “depraved and corrupt elements” think children under the age of 16 can consent to sexual intercourse.
This follows remarks by Prosecutor-General Mr Johannes Tomana on the age of consent in which he said children below 16 could legally consent to sex and marriage. Mr Tomana has drawn widespread condemnation for his statements, which he subsequently appeared to backtrack on, saying they were merely an interpretation of the law as it currently is rather than them being his own personal sentiments.
At the the Sanganai/Hlanganani World Tourism Expo awards ceremony in Harare last night, guest of honour Prof Moyo said promoting and/or condoning child sex allowed paedophiles to perpetrate abuses.
“Of particular concern are widespread reports that even children as young as 12 years or even as nine can be in economic or cultural, or whatever, circumstances where they can consent to sex.
“These development must ring alarm bells in the tourism sector. There’s a clear and present danger that some depraved and corrupt elements in our midst can exploit the situation to create or promote a child sex industry in the country under the cover of tourism,” he said.
Prof Moyo said it was “outrageous” to even suggest there could be an excuse to allow young children to consent to sex, adding that laws should be amended to outlaw paedophilia if they were not presently sufficient to combat the scourge.
“The view that a child under the age of 16 can consent to any sexual act under any circumstances is totally unacceptable as it is offensive to our moral sensibilities. It is also outrageous for anyone to suggest that there can be extenuating or mitigating circumstances that provide for an excuse for child sex.
“If the law is not clear on child sex, then there’s an urgent need for it to be clarified and amended where necessary to provide that a child under the age of 16 years cannot consent to any sexual act whatsoever. Meanwhile, the tourism sector will do itself and the nation a lot of good if it added its voice against child sex. The sector needs to attract tourists, not paedophiles.
“This is because our country is truly a paradise with four truths that make Zimbabwe an amazing tourist magnet in ways that are paradigmatic.
“Firstly, we have the best sunshine in the world which is best experienced here and nowhere else in the world. Secondly, we have unmatched natural resources like the Victoria Falls whose best view is here in Zimbabwe and nowhere elsewhere, and I mean nowhere else. The claim by the likes of South African Airways that you can fly to South Africa and see the Victoria Falls proves my point.
“Thirdly, we have spellbinding wonders or historic human creations such as the Great Zimbabwe Monuments whose existence is testimony to our early participation and contribution to human civilisation.
“Fourthly, and thanks to the principles and iconic leadership of our President, Cde Robert Mugabe, we are the only country in the world with an ideology that is now a tourist attraction.”
Prof Moyo presented awards to exhibitors with the best stands at the three-day tourism expo, which attracted 110 international buyers and 40 media establishments from 18 countries. sunday mail

Tatelicious, born Tatenda Zenzo Karigambe, says he has spent more than $80 000 transforming himself into a woman.

Now legally a woman after registering as a female with the Registrar-General’s Office, Tatelicious caused a stir when she walked into The Sunday Mail offices last Wednesday for a scheduled interview.
Wearing designer high heels, winter stockings, denim miniskirt, chiffon blouse and Pierre Cardin coat, Tatelicious (who said the clothing was worth over £3 500, or US$5 540) said she was ready to die for her right to transform from male to female.
Asked how old she was, she said: “I usually don’t want to reveal my age – I’m a lady. As ladies we don’t reveal our age. I’m in my late 20s.” She also refused to produce any documentary evidence to support her claims that a few years ago she was male.
“I was confirmed a boy at birth, but I just had a male body with a female mind,” said Karigambe, who says she completed the sex change in 2013 when the Registrar-General officially gave her documentation as a female.
The process of becoming a woman has involved doctors and lawyers. Tatelicious is adamant that she is not gay, though she identifies with lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders and intersexuals in the community more commonly referred to as LGBTI. She also dismisses claims that she is a sponsored science-culture project that many see as a direct attack on African value systems.
“I chose to liberate myself from the confines of society. I have spent more than US$80 000 on breast augmentation and vaginoplasty (male to female sex reassignment surgery). I invested in businesses and saved money – family, friends and other silent partners chipped in,” said Tatelicious, who added that the surgery was life-threatening as she was diabetic.
“I did not do this for money. Growing up, my mother (availed) everything for us; we went to trips as far as the UK, Italy and the US. I’m a chemical engineer, I do consultancy and I run my own organisation, Tatenda NGO, and my husband is rich. He is a neurosurgeon, he is Scottish.
“We have a lovely (adopted) daughter, Trish, who is four. We run businesses; we are into transport, mining etc. I didn’t do this for money, this is who I am.”
Having grown up in one of Harare’s tough ghettos, Budiriro, and living in a country whose laws only recognise two sexes and whose culture abhors sex changes, one wonders how Tatelicious became a transwoman.
“I’m a twin in a family of four. Since I was growing up I had that disconnection – my brain and my body: seeing a male organ on me but being feminine in everything since kindergarten. As I grew up people thought I would change, they thought I was acting like a girl because there were lots of girls at home, and that I would change as I (got older).
“When I was a teenager it became worse, I became my own enemy, I hated myself, ‘internal transphobia’. I would see other boys talking about girls and dating them and it would tear me apart because I wondered why I was not doing the same.
“I later on spoke to my mom and I said mom you know what, people are already calling me ngochani (gay), I was 12 or 13-years-old then. I wanted men to ask me out. Even on prom night I wore a dress.
“My mom said to me as long as you are my child I’m satisfied with whom you are. I find no wrongness in you. But she never came out in the open to tell me that I was either gay or a transgender,” said Tatelicious.
But the family did not accept these changes easily, and they tried their best to exorcise the “demon” in their deviant brother, nephew and son.
“Some people may say maybe because I was brought up by a single mother with an absentee father that is why I turned out this way – no. My single parent was both a mother and father to me. My uncles thought they could beat me up until I became a man but it was all in vain.
“It ended up as child abuse. Imagine, at one time I was forced to eat 40 raw eggs and slept in some bushy mountain. They said they would exorcise the female demon in me. Vakandiendesa kumapostori nekun’anga, if Magaya was around then maybe I would have been taken there as well and drowned in anointing oil. Ndaiyendeswa kwaWimbo, Nzira etc. People came up with all sorts of remedies and my mother would try them. And when they failed they would say aneshavi rechikadzi (she is possessed by a female spirit). After eating (the raw) eggs I almost died. I was resuscitated at Avenues Clinic. That is when my mother just accepted me the way I am.
“She and I both realised that each time they took me to these n’angas I actually got stronger in terms of being a female. My mother was troubled, it wasn’t easy for her to come to terms with it but there came a time when she had to accept me as I am.
“My mother was a treasurer of a certain church and she got chucked out of church because of me. She was told to ‘choose whether to stay with this Satanic child of yours or with the church’. She chose me.”
For that, Tatelicious does not go to church, but says she believes in God.
“My family became my backbone. I sought refuge in my mum and my sisters. My family says just speak of us in passing in your interviews. My sisters are married and have their lives – I prefer to talk just about myself and maybe my mother.
“My father is a doctor and he lives in Massachusetts, US and he gave me his blessings and lots of support when I went there for surgery.”
Tatelicious says at Eastridge Primary School in Harare, it was tough being different. But worse was to come in secondary school.
“I was expelled from secondary school when I was in Form Two at Nyahuni. I fell in love with the headboy and we were caught in a compromising position, I was expelled and was chased away from residence, and he had to write exams coming from the surrounding communities.
“I then went Glen View High 2 (in Harare), where I became the head boy there until I left to go to Watershed in Mazowe. When I finished A-Level that is when I realised that I wasn’t gay but a transwoman.
“When we say transgender, it is an umbrella term that covers many people in terms of gender identification. It is different when you say gay – gay is a man who likes other men but does not feel like he is a woman.
“I identify myself with women. I’m a wife, a mother, at work I’m a lady. I was always feminine,” she explained.
Tatelicious says she will fight for her kind, which is why she studies to develop herself.
“I studied at the Harare Institute of Technology but there was drama there so I left. I got a scholarship to Stellenbosch University (South Africa); finished my undergrad Chemical Engineering and I’m working on doing my masters now. I believe that I would never have performed to my capacity if I had remained a man. It was a game of thrones in my mind.
“I represent ‘key populations’, people living with HIV and Aids, commercial sex workers, transgender, intersex and sometimes the disabled people. It’s a small community but they should be catered for. All this time there has been no evidence. People have been asking: vamborikupi vanhu ava? I know of (other) Zimbabweans who are turning 40-something (who feel like me). I’m not the first one to go under the knife to change sex here in Zimbabwe. It has long been done and there are people who live like me while some died with their secrets.
“I want people like me to find peace from broken pieces. I want to educate my own country. I wanted to remove the stereotype kuti ngochani hadzina kudzidza. Let us evolve as Zimbabweans. Let us adapt to change. Back in the day albinos were killed. Matwins ayiurayiwa. Zvinhu zvinochinja. Vakadzi vaisa shanda now they rule – things change.
I’m tired of my story making headlines on CNN, why not in my home country? I’m not alone in this. Handidi kunzwirwa tsitsi kana kudiwa – I just want respect. I respect you with your wife at home so respect me as well. Let God that created me be the one to judge me. Our country only recognises two sexes, that is female and male. But there is a third one – intersex, where we find transgender, hermaphrodites. People think this is Western, American – but this is us – people who know me since I was young know that I grew up like this.
“The vernacular for people who are not heterosexuals is ngochani. I have a right to gender identity, although transgender is not in the Constitution. When Bruce Jenner, who is now Caitlyn Jenner, came out, people were like ‘thank God. I’m a proud to be Zimbabwean. Kwedu hakuna zvakadaro’. They didn’t know that they are many of us but they don’t want to come out because they will be judged. Sodom and Gomorrah and other scriptures will be quoted.
“If trees are not seen they are always strange. That is why transgender people have to come out so that they do not become strange. It’s about us being transparent. People are committing suicide because of this – because their communities won’t accept them.
“I lead the Gender Identity Revolution – Zimbabwe yakauya neChimurenga. I may not live to see transgender people sitting at a table with heterosexuals discussing issues but we will fight for it.
“If you want the whole history of Tatelicious go to Budiriro 2 – they knew me and still know me as Tete Tate.” Tatelicious says she takes hormone adjusting medication to suppress beard growth, but the voice gives away her past as a man. She will have to take these drugs for the rest of her life.
She feels her kind should stop leading reckless lives. “Transwomen are susceptible to diseases. For every two heterosexual women living with HIV and Aids there are six in the transgender community. We easily catch cancer and other opportunistic infections because of the reconstruction.”-SundayMail

The ZRP in Glen Norah are suspected to be covering up on the murder of a teenage girl on Monday.
The girl (Name Supplied) was axed to death by her boyfriend following a suspected fits of rage after being dumped for another lover.
The girl lived at Chitubu, Glen Norah until the fateful day on Monday when she was found lifeless in a pool of blood.
Footage from the murder scene availed to ZimEye.com show the girl’s body in a mutilated state. The case has however been suppressed in the State Information apparatus.

 
Questions have since been raised why the police have suppressed [lightbox link=”http://www.zimeye.com/http://www.zimeye.com/wp-content/live_images/2015/06/GlenView-Murder2.jpg” thumb=”http://www.zimeye.com/http://www.zimeye.com/wp-content/live_images/2015/06/warning.png” width=”412″ align=”right” title=”warning” frame=”true” icon=”image” caption=””]information having not also issued a statement to date regarding the murder despite apprehending the offender.

A minister of religion says Zimbabwe is not doing enough to find Occupy Africa Unity square leader, Itai Dzamara, who was allegedly abducted by unknown assailants more than three months ago.
Reverend Dr. Ray Motsi of the Baptist Church, who is also president of the Theological College of Zimbabwe, told VOA Studio 7 the disappearance of Dzamara is worrying.
He said most local people and the international community believe that secret state security agents of the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) allegedly abducted Dzamara, whose organization is urging President Robert Mugabe to step down for failing to properly run the country.
Rev. Dr. Motsi said it is the duty of the government to protect all citizens as enshrined in the country’s new constitution adopted by the unity government formed in 2009, which disbanded in 2013 following national general polls won by Mr. Mugabe’s party.
But Morris Ngwenya, a Zanu PF activist and political commentator, said such remarks are misleading.
There are several people like former state employee Rashiwe Guzha, paralegal activist Paul Chizuze and other Zimbabweans, who have disappeared without trace in the country.-VOA

A 32-year-old Zimbabwean herdman hanged himself in Botswana last week after accusing his girlfriend of being promiscuous.
Botswana police spokesperson Superintendent Molefhe Patrick Molefhe said Herbert Nyamatendedza who had been staying with his wife had set a hut on fire and tried to kill his five-year-old stepdaughter.
“It appears from our investigations that they had had some differences before the deceased eventually took his life. He had also tried to kill his stepdaughter, but the young girl managed to escape,” Molefhe said.
On the fateful day, Nnyamatendedza who had fought with his girlfriend, Nnyana Sakarea (22), left her at Mabuo village and told her that he was going to the nearby Moiyabana village to look for a house to rent as their relationship had ended.
Instead of going to Moiyabana he went to the cattle-post where he was working as a herdboy. The following day Sakarea received a call from a neighbour informing her that her boyfriend had committed suicide.
Before hanging himself, Nyamatendedza had tried to kill his stepdaughter by hanging her with a string from the rafters of a hut.
Luckily the string snapped and the young girl managed to escape. Nyamatendedza then set one of the huts on fire and left a suicide note before he hanged himself.
The note read: “I killed myself because of my wife. I want her to enjoy her life with her boyfriends, I also killed my daughter so that she can feel the pain.
“Don’t take my body to Zimbabwe, kill my goats, chickens and my cattle so that people can have something to eat during our funeral.”
Nyamatendedza’s family has since collected his body and his employers were charged for employing a foreigner without a work permit. The Voice

ECONET Wireless, Zimbabwe’s largest mobile phone company, is cutting salaries by 35 percent across the board starting in July. The cuts will also be felt at Econet’s subsidiaries, Steward Bank, Mutare Bottling and Liquid Telecom. Several sources last night told The Chronicle that Econet’s 1,000 plus staff were told of the impending cuts early this month.
The company’s revenues took a heavy knock when telecommunications regulator, POTRAZ, ordered all telecoms firms to slash tariffs in October last year.Econet fought the tariffs cuts in the courts, but its case was dismissed by the Supreme Court in March this year
For the year ended February 2015, Econet released annual results showing a staggering 41 percent dip in profits from 2013.Now the company, which was founded by Strive Masiyiwa and started operating in 1998, is passing the pain to its workers.
A senior company executive said: “The tariff cuts coupled with a depressed economy and huge capital investments already underway have made this course of action unavoidable. The other option would have been job cuts, but we decided that can only be the last resort.
“The reality is our staff costs are too high, compared to our revenues. Some corrective action had to be taken, and the options in that situation are never palatable.”
Workers are furious that the company gave them just a month’s notice.
“We’ve not had a salary increase since 2009. The perception people have out there is that Econet pays the best salaries. The truth is Econet rewards its top executives really well, but the rest of the staff’s remuneration is quite shameful. Our salaries don’t compare to what NetOne and Telecel are paying, for instance,” one engineer said.
A call centre employee added: “We’ve known for weeks that our pay is going to be cut, but nothing really prepares you for it. The other issue really troubling workers is that the 35 percent cut is across the board, most workers would have preferred a sliding scale approach. Imagine a cleaner already earning peanuts having his pay cut by almost half.
“The top executives are already better off and it would’ve made sense for them to give up their mega salaries.”
Econet Chief Executive Officer Douglas Mboweni was not immediately reachable for comment.Steward Bank CEO Lance Mambondiani referred all questions to Econet’s corporate communications manager Ranga Mberi who was also not reachable last night.
However, when Econet reported a 41 percent decline in after-tax profits, the company blamed the voice tariff cut and taxes on airtime and mobile handsets for the reduced revenues.
It also said NetOne and TelOne’s failure to settle interconnection debts, that reached $26,3 million in the year under review, threatened the viability of the telecommunications sector.
“The introduction of a 5 percent excise duty on airtime sales, a 25 percent duty on handsets, and a 5 cents levy per transaction on mobile money transfers, compounded by a 35 percent voice tariff reduction has negatively affected the viability of the telecommunication sector, which has hitherto been a mainstay of investment, economic vitality, and employment creation in our country,” Econet said.
“The company has had to cut capital expenditure, and stop further employment creation for the first time since it began operations. Econet is one of the largest employers in the country, both directly and indirectly, and is concerned about the job losses that now looks inevitable.” chronicle

Chinhoyi regional magistrate Never Katiyo last week got stuck to his crown chair and suffered a temporary blackout in a suspected case of juju as he delivered judgement against a 38-year-old man accused of raping his maid three times.
The rapist, Willard Chimanikire, was eventually slapped with a 40-year prison term after being convicted of raping his 15-year-old housemaid sometime in February 2013.
However, there was drama at the Chinhoyi Magistrates’ Court on Thursday last week when Chimanikire was called into the dock to listen to the judgment after both the State and Chimanikire had closed their cases.
While in the process of delivering judgment, Katiyo paused as if to take a breather, but the situation got worse as he then failed to read his own hand writing prompting him to request prosecutor Mercy Ndingadii to call for an adjournment.
As if that was not enough, Ndingadii called for silence in court to enable the magistrate to stand up and take a break, but to everyone’s surprise, Katiyo remained seated.
The prosecutor repeated the call for all to rise in court two more times, but Katiyo would not manage to stand up.
He simply stared at the gallery as the effect of the alleged juju was taking its toll on him.
After more than 30 seconds of being stuck to his chair, Katiyo suddenly stood up and called Ndingadii to follow him to his chambers.
Invited by NewsDay to comment on what had befallen him, the magistrate simply laughed, adding he was not permitted to talk to the Press.
But the news had already spread to other court officials and members of the public.
After more than two hours of resting, the court convened and Katiyo managed to finish delivering his judgment.
Chimanikire was found guilty of rape and slapped with an effective 35-year jail term after five years were suspended on condition of good behaviour.
According to the State case, Chimanikire, who is married and has children, pounced on his housemaid on three different occasions while his wife was away.
The court heard at one point, Chimanikire raped the girl, telling her she could not have eaten his sweets for nothing, but threatened to send her to her rural home if she disclosed the incident to his wife.
However, Chimanikire’s luck ran out when the teenage girl was caught abusing her employer’s five-year old son and upon being quizzed over the incident by the police, she blamed it on the sexual encounters.-Newsday

President Robert Mugabe has complained that he is constantly shot down by several African presidents who dislike visit him.
He blamed their actions on Western countries he said create the pressure for this to happen.
He said this on Thursday while sending off Malian President Mr Ibrahim Boubacar Keita at the end of the latter’s three day State visit.
Mugabe saluted only a handful African nations for standing by Zimbabwe despite pressure from Western countries compelling them to isolate the country.
A few African countries, Mugabe said, had at the last minute turned down invitations to visit Zimbabwe for fear of reprisals from powerful countries in Europe and America.
He said the visit by President Keita and his delegation should not be taken lightly as it was a sign that the country did not succumb to pressure from the Western world.
“Many of our friends in Africa have been frightened by the fact that Europe and America have wanted them to distance themselves from Zimbabwe, but our friends have refused to do so,” Mugabe said.
“That is why we are still going and going strong. It is that resistance they have shown but others, a few, have not behaved in the same way. We have invited, I think two, and they have said yes they will come to open our Trade Fair, Agricultural Show and only a week or so before the Show, they have said, No we have some other business. And we knew it was pressure from outside. But you did not feel that pressure, you have got the blood of Modiba Keita (Mali founding President).”
President Mugabe said President Keita’s visit, the first by a Malian Head of State, had been “friendly and rewarding” and more partnership should be forged going forward.
“That is a friendship we look forward to. Whatever they say in Europe and America is their own business and what we do here is the African visit, friendship, Pan-Africanism to the full,” he said.
“We managed just to take him (President Keita) to our Dairy (farm) and processing plant but the greater part was interaction between us, the two sides and the fact of the visit is historic in itself. It is a start of a new relationship with Mali and we will play our part in taking that relationship far. We can assure you that as he came, he was coming to a country with friends but friends have become allies now. We want to work together.”
Added President Mugabe: “We are very happy you and your dear lady (Aminata Maiga Keita) have visited unfortunately you found my dear lady (Dr Grace Mugabe) out but she will be coming in few days but be rest assured we are personal friends that is apart from our communities.”
President Mugabe said his visit to Mali last month to witness the signing of the Peace and Reconciliation Agreement between President Keita’s government and the Tuareg Seperatist rebels had enlivened the relationship between the two African nations.
“And it was because of that visit that he made up his mind that as soon as we will have finished with our African Union business in Johannesburg, he will pay us a State visit,” he said.
President Keita said together with his delegation, they had seen for themselves the successes that Zimbabwe attained under President Mugabe’s wise leadership.
He said his country would never succumb to any international pressure as Africa pushed its agenda adding that all the Malian people were behind the State visit.
“We do understand that if we are not walking as our ancient masters’ wish obviously they will try to do everything possible to drop you in your way forward,” President Keita said.
“We have no right to be under the pressure of anyone in this world. There is behaviour we will never accept in the land of Modiba Keita. The whole of Malians are proud of my being here in Zimbabwe. We want to be respected as we indeed respect others.”
President Mugabe’s Mali visit, he said, had been greatly appreciated by the Malians to the extent that every young leader in the West African country wanted to be part of his entourage.
President Keita said the AU chair had even earned great respect and the hearts of many young Malian parliamentarians like Oumar Mariko and academics with some of them craving to meet him.
Some, he said, had sent him messages congratulating and thanking him just for inviting President Mugabe to Bamako.
“We have a lady, who is not at all liked by Western Governments because she says strong things about the economic relationships in Africa and the developed world,” President Keita said.
“She is working and underscoring all the injustices done by the Europeans. Some countries have refused to grant her visas, she is one of your greatest admires.” President Mugabe asked President Keita to put in place plans to ensure that the lady, Aminata Dramane Traore visits Zimbabwe to meet him.

Prophet Makandiwa’s humiliation having performed a false belly fat miracle has seen Zimbabweans speaking out with the latest being a challenge call for him to perform a similar “miracle” on Transport Minister Obert Mpofu, a development that has seen the cabinet official responding to the request.
Makandiwa has admitted that his miracle has no evidence of having happened, but scores of his UFIC church members have continued maintaining the preacher is a holy man who did not conduct himself deceitfully. The “prophet” in a video address attempting to dismiss the investigation, however called on journalists to appoint someone with a fat belly to be tested. [SEE Makandiwa Panics, Battles to Convince Church Fake Miracle Was Real.]
In answer to that call, newsreaders Friday night spoke out against him with one Zexie Mashonga screaming out “Ngaapedze dhumbu ra Obert Mphofu kana ari pachokwadi – Let him remove Obert Mpofu’s belly if he is in the truth.”
Makandiwa will not need to travel to see Minister Mpofu, he can even pray for him via phone as he is fully ready for a challenge, said Bible Studies Lecturer Freeman Ncube.
ZimEye then within minutes caught up with Minister Mpofu Friday night who responding launched a veiled attack on Makandiwa saying the preacher does not operate Biblically.


He told ZimEye.com, “I don’t belong to Makandiwa. I belong to SDA church for the rest of my life. The family belongs to that church. I’ve never been to any church where there are some prophecy whatever, because I don’t believe in those things. I believe in what the Bible says and I have been in SDA.”
“I don’t subscribe to some of those things that are happening outside my church,” he added.
 
[Visit ZimEye.com again for the following article on Makandiwa’s admission.]

A THREE-DAY marriage with a teenager (14) backfired for a Zimunya man after he was arrested. It is alleged that Barnabas Kumhasi (20) asked the teenager’s hand in marriage from her parents and they consented. However, Kumhasi stayed with the teenager for three days before disappearing. It was later discovered that he had left for South Africa without the knowledge of his ‘new bride’.
Kumhasi is now facing charges of having sexual intercourse with a minor as defined in Section 70 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, Chapter 9:23.
His trial was expected to commence on Monday, but was rolled over to Tuesday. However, it failed to commence and he was remanded out of custody to June 30 on $100 bail. Senior Mutare magistrate, Mrs Sekai Chiundura presided over the matter.
It was the State’s case led by Mr Douglas Matiure that on an unknown date during the last four months of last year, Kumhasi knowing that the complainant was a minor had sexual intercourse with her on different occasions.
Kumhasi pleaded guilty to these charges and told the court that he was officially married to the minor.
“I admit that I had sexual intercourse with her, but I am officially married to the girl. I went to her parents’ home to ask for her hand in marriage and they agreed to that.
“After three days, I left for South Africa without the knowledge of my wife and she went back to her parents’ home.
“After some time she learnt that I was in South Africa and followed me there. I sent her back home on September 30. She was not feeling well and had to be taken to hospital where it was discovered that she had a sexual transmitted disease. This did not go down well with her family which opted to report me to the police, yet they had given me their daughter as a wife,” said Kumhasi.
After telling this to the court, the plea of guilty was changed to not guilty since the parents of the minor are alleged to be involved.

African Union (AU) and SADC chair President Robert Mugabe has announced saying Africa must create its own International Criminal Court (ICC) which should prosecute Western leaders the likes of former UK and US supremos Tony Blair and George Bush.
Wester leaders who have committed crimes on the continent must be tried here, Mugabe said.
Mugabe quoted in the State Media said it was high time Africa set up a criminal court which would seek justice for “serious” war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the West, particularity during the colonial era.
“They committed crimes, colonial crimes galore – the slaughter of our people and all that imprisonment… I have a case, why was I imprisoned for 11 years? We forgave them, but perhaps we’ve not done ourselves justice… You set up the ICC, we set our ICC to try Europeans, to try Mr [George] Bush and Mr [Tony] Blair,” Mugabe said.
Mugabe added saying the International Criminal Court was a court for Western countries, dispensing Western injustice on Africans.
Mugabe said this while addressing journalists at the Harare international airport where he was seeing off his Malian counterpart Ibrahim Boubacar Keita after his three-day state visit to the southern African country.
Keita concurred, adding it was “up to Africans, not Europeans or Americans to judge their leaders”.
Mugabe’s remarks came a few days after Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir evaded an ICC arrest order by leaving early from an African Union summit that was held in Johannesburg.
At the summit, Mugabe wanted a mass withdrawal of African states from the ICC.
The veteran leader harshly criticised the ICC after Al-Bashir dodged his arrest, saying the international court was not wanted in Africa.
“This is not the headquarters of the ICC, we do not want it in this region at all,” Mugabe said.
Mugabe also took a swipe at the “foreign” funded non-governmental organisations (NGOs), whom he said were angling for Al-Bashir’s arrest.

BUSINESS MOGUL, Philip Chiyangwa’s Borrowdale house is reportedly being gutted down by fire, ZimEye.com can reveal.
The house which is usually referred to as the “White House” at No. 62 Crowhill is arguably the largest and most expensive residential property after President Robert Mugabe’s State House. The mansion has 15 carports, 18 bedrooms, 25 lounges, 4 balconies, 9 servant quarters, 2 swimming pools and 3 heliports.
In an interview with this ZimEye.com, Chiyangwa’s daughter Vanessa confirmed the developments although she could not not disclose the source of the inferno.

“Yes its true, the house is actually burning as I speak, I am coming from there right now and can confirm the development. Fire brigade had arrived by the time i left,” she said.
Efforts to obtain a comment from Mr Chiyangwa himself were fruitless as his phone rang without being answered.