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.

Harare – Four Prince Edward pupils were yesterday run over by another school boy from a rich family, ZimEye.com reveal.
The latter who is unlicensed, was driving the vehicle within the school premises.
The injured four were rushed to Micheal Gelfand Health centre.
More to follow…

VOA|Nearly two years after the 2013-elections, characterized by some as a Zanu PF landslide, and others a farce, muddled politics in Zimbabwe have remained the order of the day, with ordinary Zimbabweans reeling from its impact.
Analysts have said Zimbabwe remains a threat to the region’s stability and security, and opposition parties and civil society organizations have called for urgent intervention from the regional body Southern African Development Community (SADC), and the continental Africa Union, both chaired by Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe.
Citing the alleged abduction of Occupy Africa Unity Square leader, Itai Dzamara, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition said Mr. Mugabe had so far failed to address human rights violations in Zimbabwe and other nations.
But with MDC opposition parties boycotting elections in Zimbabwe, and newly emerging parties adding their voice to calls for electoral reforms, the question remains if Zimbabwe will avert its political challenges in the nearest future.
Movement for Democratic Change formation of Morgan Tsvangirai spokesman Obert Gutu said with the political climate at a standstill, nothing in Zimbabwe will move forward. He challenged the accusations that his party’s refusal to enter any elections until the government makes reforms, play to the advantage of Zanu PF, saying the move is to place pressure on Mr. Mugabe and his government.
“What we are simply doing as the MDC is to exert pressure from the illegitimate Zanu PF administration to ensure that at the end of the day, they will carry out electoral reforms that will even up the playing field,” said Gutu
Responding Zanu PF activist and political commentator Morris Ngwenya said the statements by the MDC and Gutu were mere rhetoric.
“How can you now talk of reforms when almost the similar conditions that prevailed in 2013, when they were trounced in the elections, they participated under the same circumstances,” said Ngwenya.
He added Zanu PF is under no pressure as the status quo remains and the ruling party is working on the economy under its economic empowerment program, ZimAsset.

AN Inkomo Barracks-based soldier will perform 140 hours of community service after he was convicted of bashing his wife over her excessive drinking habits.
Felix Svova (25) appeared before Mbare magistrate Ms Gladys Moyo on Monday charged with domestic violence. Svosva pleaded for the court’s leniency arguing that he was a family man who was worried about the well-being of his minor child.
“Your worship, my son is 11 months old and I am the breadwinner. I assaulted my wife out of anger when I saw her drinking beer at a bar,” he said. Ms Moyo warned Svosva to resolve his marital disputes in a civilised manner.
“You should not resolve your problems with violence. Find more amicable ways of resolving your disputes, especially with your wife,” she said.
Ms Moyo also told Svosva that if he committed a similar offence in the next five years, he will be incarcerated without the option of a fine or community service.
Facts are that on June 13 Svosva followed Precious Dube (24) at Makomva Shopping Centre where she was drinking beer. He got angry with Dube and used an empty bottle to assault her several times on her head. Dube sustained injuries on the head.
Mr Stanley Musekiwa prosecuted.

TimesLive/RDM| twAmbush as SA Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni said: “A couple of years ago‚ I was instructed to work on an economic revival program for Zim together with Gono‚ Trevor and Herbert Murerwa.
“It came to nothing because of people like the supposed Prof … Zimbabweans are suffering. That’s the reality”.
“And leaders in Botswana‚ South Africa and Zambia are blind to this. Educated Zimbabweans are waiters and waitresses down to Cape Town. Hey?!”
 
A Twar has broken out between former Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni and Zimbabwe’s information minister Professor Jonathan Moyo.
The two senior politicians argued about a number of issues that included dictatorship‚ education‚ shopping and fronting.
The whole Twitter saga started when Mboweni posted a tweet about old dictators in Africa.
“I hate dictators. They complicate our lives! We need democracy in Africa. Get these old people out of office. Time for the under 50s now!!”
This saw Moyo joining the conversation in apparent defence of 91-year-old president Robert Mugabe. Moyo said: “No leadership theory tells us that men over 50 cannot lead”.
To this‚ he added‚ “It is obvious that 25-year-old North Korean ruler disproves rant by @tito_mboweni that young people =democracy & old people =dictatorship!”
Mboweni’s statement seeming angered Moyo into also posting this 6-point response – in which he used the derogatory epithet for a sell-out to describe Mboweni:
“1. Losing sleep over the @tito_mboweni exuberant rant linking dictatorship with old age was not an option. But he won’t go unchallenged!
“2. History has many examples of young & old dictators to expose link of dictatorship with old age by @tito_mboweni as a rant of a charlatan!
“3. The exuberant rant by @tito_mboweni linking dictatorship with old age is ahistorical‚ ideologically bankrupt & intellectually dishonest!
“4. Democracy yes‚ Youth Power yes but no to the exuberant rant by @tito_mboweni drawing an infantile link between dictatorship & old age!
“5. Linking dictatorship with old age is the latest example of the open mouth & shut mind politics of Uncle Toms in Africa today!
“6. The exuberant rant by @tito_mboweni linking dictatorship with old age boggles the mind how such an irrational mind was a Bank Governor!”
Undaunted‚ Mboweni also took on Moyo for attacking South Africa.
Moyo had decried the SA High Court order against Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir‚ who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes. “No court shoud demean itself as has done SA High Court by issuing a brutum fulmen judgment under the pretext of fulfilling the rule of law! (sic)‚” Moyo wrote.
Mboweni took up the cudgels‚ stating: “Jonathan Moyo irritates me. Writes fairy tales‚ shops in SA for basic things and talks such rubbish whilst his people suffer. Prof my foot!”
Referring to former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono and the two countries’ then finance ministers Trevor Manuel and Herbert Murerwa‚ he tweeted: “A couple of years ago‚ I was instructed to work on an economic revival program for Zim together with Gono‚ Trevor and Herbert Murerwa. It came to nothing because of people like the supposed Prof. Meanwhile back at the ranch‚ Zimbabweans are suffering. That’s the reality”.
“And leaders in Botswana‚ South Africa and Zambia are blind to this. Educated Zimbabweans are waiters and waitresses down to Cape Town. Hey?!”
The twitter rant was joined by a number of individuals in both sides of the Limpopo river.
Dumisani Sibanda @iamdumisibanda wrote “@tito_mboweni suddenly has become an authority on #Zimbabwe..mxxm seeking relevance” while @anti_ANC added his voice saying‚ “Dictators at any age are BAD but senile dictators like Mad Bob are positively dangerous”.
This is not the first time the pair have gone at each other publicly.
Mboweni drew Moyo’s ire when he was still SA’s central bank governor in 2001 for his comments that “the wheels have come off” in Zimbabwe and that this was hurting the rand. Mboweni also spoke out against Zimbabwe’s land grabs. At that time‚ Business Day quoted Moyo as saying: “For the verifiable record‚ there are no illegal land invasions in Zimbabwe and there is no beating up of people…”.
-RDM News Wire

A MARRIED Bulawayo businesswoman is reportedly at the centre of an adulterous storm following revelations that she is inviting a married man to her house and paying him for sex.
The businesswoman Lina Mukahiwa is hiring the services of the married man because she says her husband is in the UK.
The stunning news was revealed by Lina’s friend Tendai Masotsha at the Bulawayo Civil Court where Lina was seeking a peace order against her.
Tendai claimed that before they dragged each other to court, Lina was her close friend and they were sharing deep secrets, even those involving bedroom matters. She revealed that despite the fact they were married, during the subsistence of their acquaintance they were cheating on their husbands by engaging in extra-marital affairs.
Tendai’s claims came after Lina told a Bulawayo magistrate that she was violating her right to privacy by threatening to reveal her alleged adulterous liaisons to her husband.
“Tendai Masotsha has been causing despondency in my life, to my child, employees and business by threatening to release falsified and malicious information to my husband who is residing in the United Kingdom that I have extra-marital affairs. Tendai is also conniving with my employees to stalk me. She is also labelling me a prostitute in front of my employees.
“I am now living in fear because of the threats being perpetrated by Tendai against me. By doing so I believe she is infringing on my right to privacy. I am also seeking an order to bar her from coming to my house and workplace,” she stated in her affidavit.
Her claims however, courted Tendai’s anger, who did not mince her words and brazenly said: “I deny the allegations the applicant is levelling against me. We were close friends with Lina to the extent that we were sharing secrets even our bedroom matters. We are both married and we were engaging in extra-marital affairs since her husband is in the United Kingdom. She used to go to an apostolic sect where she was in love with one of the church leaders. After the break-up of that relationship she is now inviting a married man to her house and pays him for sleeping with her. She is also buying him groceries. I advised her to be careful since her husband would eventually know the affair like what happened when she was dating her church leader.”
The seemingly shocked magistrate Evylene Mashavakure ordered the two parties to keep peace between each other. She also ordered Tendai not to go to the applicant’s place of residence and workplace.-B Metro

ZIMBABWE’S Diasporans brought in over US$1 billion during the 17 months to May this year, bailing out a liquidity-starved economy that had international remittances amounting to US$2,5 billion during the period, the Financial Gazette can report.
Statistics from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) show that approximately US$1,2 billion was injected into the economy by Zimbabweans in the Diaspora. This is enough to fund nearly 40 percent of the country’s budget, pegged at US$3,5 billion for the current year.
The amount is also almost at par with contributions to gross domestic product (GDP) by the country’s mining industry, the single largest contributor to GDP whose earnings amounted to close to US$1,9 billion last year.
Information provided by the RBZ last week indicates that international remittances into Zimbabwe increased significantly from the US$1,76 billion recorded last year to US$2,5 billion, representing a 13 percent growth. This year alone, between January and May 31, Diasporans remitted approximately US$740,6 million.
While the figures may indicate Diasporans’ confidence in the use of formal channels to remit funds, the amount remitted might be much higher given that some funds come into the country through informal channels, especially from Zimbabweans resident in neighbouring countries such as South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia and Namibia.
This means, Zimbabweans living abroad, who left the country over the last decade or so, to escape a biting economic crisis — characterised by world record inflation and high unemployment — are helping to sustain the Zimbabwean economy.
It is understood that between three and four million of the country’s nationals have left Zimbabwe to seek employment mainly in South Africa and other countries in southern Africa, Europe, the Americas, Canada, Australia and Asia, as the economy progressively declined.
Diasporans have become an important class of investors and a vital economic cog not only in resuscitating the ailing economy but in national development.
“In 2014, international remittances into Zimbabwe amounted to about US$1,76 billion. This figure includes US$838 million from the Diaspora. In 2015, up to May 31, 2015, international remittances amounted to about US$740,6 million. This figure includes US$346,8 million from the Diaspora. The average growth rate of the international remittances is 13 percent,” said RBZ in an email response to the Financial Gazette’s enquiries.
International remittances comprise inflows from international non-governmental organisations and remittances by individuals in the Diaspora.
Diaspora remittances have a direct impact on poverty reduction, since they tend to flow directly to households and are used primarily for basic needs such as food.
Finance Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, recently said Diaspora remittances played a key role in many countries.
He said Zimbabwe needed to come up with ways of harnessing these resources.
“Most countries in the world, including our regional neighbours, are benefiting immensely from financial transfers by their nationals in the Diaspora. Zimbabwe’s Diasporans are also desirous to contribute towards the development of their country,” said Chinamasa.
“Many Zimbabwean professionals, artisans and other skilled persons who left the country, and may not come back soon, will want to invest and contribute to the country’s development process,” he said.
He said government was considering a number of ways of encouraging Diasporans to get involved in helping develop the country.
“I have in mind, to fund some of the small hydro-electric schemes, issuance of Diaspora Bonds, and for Diasporans to participate in their economy through some of the opportunities arising out of the indigenisation policy programme,” Chinamasa recently told Parliamentarians.
“Further, to harness the Diaspora potential, government will among other things promote investments by the Diaspora through tax and import duty incentives for qualifying investments in the manufacturing and other capital intensive industries.”
Presenting the 2015 National Budget, Chinamasa, said government recognised the “formidable role played by the Diaspora in national development” and as such, highlighted the need to establish a National Diaspora Policy.
CBZ Bank, the country’s biggest bank by assets and deposits, issued its maiden US$68 million Diaspora bond in 2012 which expired in April last year.
The bank plans to issue its second US$200 million bond, backed by Afreximbank, this year.
According to Chinamasa, Afreximbank will avail a six month, bridging finance gap of US$100 million towards the bond to provide funds for companies requiring urgent capital injection.
In the 1990s, the Diaspora mitigated the impact of Asian economic crisis with China and India coming up with three different business-oriented models in enlisting Diaspora contributions to development.
China invented a “brain trust” model designed at attracting its human capital in the Diaspora by opening investment trade opportunities through its overseas Chinese communities.
India’s Diaspora policy is multi-pronged, pursuing direct investment, portfolio investment, technology transfer, market opening and out-sourcing opportunities.
However, some analysts said unlike other countries where Diaspora remittances have significantly contributed towards economic development, the situation in Zimbabwe is different because most people working outside the country had low paying jobs.-FinGaz

Zimbabwe is teetering on the verge of total collapse and could drag the whole Southern African region into unprecedented chaos if President Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zanu PF are not reined in soon, the main opposition MDC led by former prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai has warned.
Warming up to the idea of confronting Mugabe and Zanu PF head-on as suggested by liberation struggle stalwart Rugare Gumbo, the MDC said yesterday that the longer the nonagenarian and his party remained in power, the worse things would turn for long-suffering Zimbabweans — many of whom live on less than a dollar a day.
The main opposition’s comments came as Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa revealed earlier in the week that Mugabe’s broke government did not have the money to source maize for millions of Zimbabweans who are staring hunger in the face, amid desperate calls for Western donors and the corporate world to fund the $300 million emergency project.
At the same time, industrial contraction and company closures continue to throw hundreds of people on the ever growing jobless list every month, compounding the country’s dire and deepening poverty levels. MDC spokesman, Obert Gutu, said everything that could go wrong in Zimbabwe had since gone wrong and was destined to get worse with Mugabe and Zanu PF in power.
“It is apparent that the Zanu PF regime is totally clueless regarding how to extricate the country from this debilitating economic mayhem and liquidity crunch. We are at the deep end. “Zimbabwe is crying out for an urgent economic and financial rescue package. The Zanu PF regime’s main challenge is lack of political legitimacy. This is a renegade and rogue administration that is completely and utterly incapable of rescuing the situation in the country.
“Time is of the essence. The future of Zimbabwe is firmly in our hands. None but ourselves can set us free. There is a total failure of government and the centre can clearly no longer hold. “The MDC calls upon all patriotic and peace-loving Zimbabweans to join hands in finding lasting and effective solutions to extricate our beloved motherland from the prevailing political and socio-economic quagmire,” Gutu said.
“Robert Mugabe and his rogue administration are bankrupt and are unable to harness adequate financial resources in order to import the maize that is now urgently required. The situation cannot be more desperate than what it is right now,” he added.
Pointing to the brutal factional and succession wars devouring Zanu PF and that are worsening the plight of ordinary Zimbabweans, the MDC said ruling party bigwigs were callously ignoring bread and butter issues for their personal aggrandisement.
“The country is on virtual auto-pilot as the nonagenarian Head of State continues with his endless, fruitless, purposeless and expensive foreign jamborees. It is high time that the renegade Zanu PF regime is called to order. “The streets of the country’s major cities, towns and growth points are teeming with thousands of desperate vendors who are struggling to eke out a living day in and day out.
“There is virtually no meaningful domestic and foreign direct investment (FDI) that is flowing into Zimbabwe mainly because the Zanu PF regime has effectively lost control of the state apparatus,” Gutu added. As a result, the MDC’s call was that it was time the country was “put back in the spotlight” by regional and continental bodies. “It would be folly for these two organisations (Sadc and the African Union AU) to proceed as if there is no crippling crisis in Zimbabwe.
“Robert Mugabe and his rogue Zanu PF regime should be confronted and told, in no uncertain terms, that the deteriorating political and economic situation in Zimbabwe is now a serious threat to both regional and continental security and stability,” Gutu warned.
Liberation struggle stalwart and spokesperson of the “original” Zanu PF that uses the slogan “People First”, Rugare Gumbo, said on Tuesday that the only way positive change would take place in the country was if Zimbabweans agitated for this constitutionally but robustly from Mugabe and the ruling party — and not employ “empty boycott protests”.
Speaking in an interview with the Daily News in the wake of the post-congress Zanu PF’s hollow victories in last week’s by-elections which were boycotted by the main opposition MDC, Gumbo said Zimbabweans needed to do more to foster democracy in the country.
He also defended his Zanu PF formation’s “moral support” for a number of independent candidates who took part in the by-elections even as they were “always aware that our erstwhile comrades are grand masters in vote manipulation”. “That was a bogus and sham election full of irregularities and intimidation.
The CIO (Central Intelligence Organisation), and post-congress Zanu PF party members were running the show. “Zec (the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) failed to conduct a free and fair election. It allowed Zanu PF to supervise the whole process and what really happened was unbelievable — a lot of intimidation and a lot of violence. “This whole process must be overhauled. It is a rotten system which stinks to high heaven,” the straight-talking Gumbo said.
Asked whether the main opposition was right in boycotting the elections, Gumbo said in his view staying away from electoral processes would not on its own give the “shameless post-congress Zanu PF any sleepless nights” — but would instead allow it to enjoy what it had always dreamt about, “the creation of a one-party state”.
“Let us take them head-on. They want to push their programmes without any opposition. But what we have had are mere by-elections. When we go to national elections, it will be difficult for them to cheat as they did in these by-elections,” he said. Gumbo a former Cabinet minister with intimate knowledge of the modus operandi of Zanu PF said his “power hungry” erstwhile comrades were not easily shaken by “petty resistance” — hence his call for a more robust approach to demands for change. Daily News

A POLICE officer stole bullet proof vests and material to make riot gear and stashed the loot at a colleague’s place at another police station, a court has heard. Tawanda Mahenyeri, 46, allegedly stole three complete riot jackets pieces, a back and a front panel for a riot jacket, four double rounds, four double bands for STU caps and some off-cuts from ZRP Bulawayo Tailors.
Bulawayo magistrate Charity Maphosa on Tuesday remanded Mahenyeri out of custody to July 6 on $50 bail. Maphosa ordered Mahenyeri not to interfere with state witnesses.
Prosecuting, Wayne Chinembiri, said on May 11 this year at ZRP Bulawayo Tailors, an officer in charge identified as Nicholas Kamutiti tasked Mahenyeri with making a list of garment material that was in stock in preparation for an internal audit.
“Mahenyeri ascertained that all was in order although there was extra material which he then stole,” said Chinembiri. The court heard that the matter came to light on May 23 when one Constable Dzingai of ZRP Fairbridge Tailors was found by the member in charge, Assistant Inspector Gokore in possession of the stolen material.
Cst Dzingai said he had been given the material by Mahenyeri for safekeeping.
“After Mahenyeri realised the material had been discovered at Fairbridge, he issued a voucher in retrospect,” Chinembiri told the court.
The stolen property was worth $260 and everything was recovered.

Watch “Makandiwa Responds to Fake Miracle SCANDAL – ZimEye
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Robbed white farmers now to be compensated from black rentals
THE government has started collecting rentals from A1 and A2 farmers as a way of raising funds to compensate white farmers from whom farms were acquired for the land reform programme. Lands and Rural Resettlement Minister Douglas Mombeshora said the government was expecting to raise about $22 million from the rentals per annum.
He said the programme has already started in all provinces throughout the country.
“We have started collecting rentals. I’m happy that in some provinces farmers have started paying, taking heed to the government directive. Every A1 and 2 farmer is expected to comply with this directive without fail,” Mombeshora told The State Media.
The minister said his ministry will use part of the expected $22 million rental money to compensate white farmers while 60 percent of it will be used for other programmes.
He said farmers should wean themselves from heavily depending on the government and using State land without remitting anything.
“Those who cannot pay the rentals should surrender farms to others who have the capacity to be productive and be able to honour their obligations,” said Mombeshora.
He said the government would not hurry all farmers in paying the rentals because they harvest their crops at different times but said all should have complied by year end.
He said the government will carry out regular assessments of farms.
“There are farmers who are giving excuses and I say those are lame excuses because there is no reason why a productive farmer can fail to pay $10 or $15 per year per hectare. One has the opportunity to make his 1,000 hectares of land very productive if he is serious in taking farming as a business. It’s against this background that government would not entertain such excuses.
“This programme has Cabinet approval and there is no going back. Those farmers who cannot pay rentals should surrender their farms to others who are serious,” said Mombeshora.
He said every farmer is obliged to pay the rentals and the ministry was working out ways to allow farmers who are distant from Ministry of Lands offices to use mobile cash transactions.
Mombeshora said in some countries, there are large tracts of land under desert but farmers are still able to produce enough.
“We’ve Israel as our case study. The country has vast tracts of land under desert but they have established a green belt there. They are exporting crops to almost every country in Europe,” said the minister.
The Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement will collect the cash from rentals and transfer it to the relevant ministry.
Farmers in Masvingo have started paying for their farms at the ministry offices in the provincial capital, an official said.
A1 farmers pay $2 per year per hectare while A2 farm owners pay $3 per year per ha and $2 unit tax.
The rentals will be an addition to the $1 farmers are already paying to rural district councils as unit tax.
An official said apart from the purposes of compensation, the rentals will assist in the financing of periodic land audits by the government.

The Constitutional Court has provisionally set aside a High Court order outlawing the caning of juveniles as a form of punishment.
Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku said while the case awaited hearing by the nine-member bench, magistrates could impose corporal punishment on juvenile offenders.
The landmark case is also expected to determine whether or not parents are allowed at law to beat up their naughty children.
It will also settle the matter of whether or not teachers are allowed at law to discipline pupils through beating.
The Chief Justice and nine other judges yesterday deferred the constitutional challenge after realising that all the parties involved were pushing for the imposition of corporal punishment on children.
In constitutional matters of that nature, the Chief Justice said, there was need for the court to at least hear some opposing arguments before making a proper decision.
“The court observes from submissions made by all the parties that there is an agreement. The court will be happier if it will hear some opposing views before making a determination. The matter is postponed sine die (indefinitely).
“For the avoidance of doubt and for the guidance of the subordinate courts, the order of Justice (Esther) Muremba is suspended.
“The law remains as it was before the issuance of the High Court order,” said Chief Justice Chidyausiku.
Mr Tendai Biti, who was in the same court for a different matter, volunteered to file opposing arguments protecting children from assault.
Justice Muremba earlier this year ruled that corporal punishment was unconstitutional and had no place in the country’s statutes because it was inhuman and degrading.
Justice Esther Muremba ruled against sentencing under-age offenders to strokes of the cane, while upholding the conviction of a 15-year old boy of rape.
The boy had been sentenced to receive moderate corporal punishment of three strokes with a rattan cane by a magistrate, but appealed against the sentence at the High Court.
He was sentenced on September 26 last year on the strength of Section 353(1) of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act which allows for the imposition of corporal punishment.
Justice Muremba said her interpretation of Section 53 and 86 of the new Constitution brought her to the conclusion that corporal punishment was now unconstitutional.
The Constitutional Court has invited Advocate Thabani Mpofu to assist with arguments as a friend of the court (amicus curiae).
Adv Mpofu said caning of children whether in school, home or at court, was for the good of the children.
“It is a form of treatment which is meant for the greater good of the recipient,” he said.
“To the criminal, it means they will not be debased by being required to share a cell with a 40-year old who might molest them.
“To a child in a home, it means being set on the dignified path and having one’s future secured.
“To a child in school, it means being provided with an opportunity to represent other people in court, that having been the exact effect of caning on present counsel and many others. It must be celebrated,” said Adv Mpofu.
He said the judge of the High Court was wrong in holding that corporal punishment was inhuman.
“Dogs do not receive corporal punishment, it is human beings who do. This is a form of punishment or treatment which is meant for human beings. It is as old as the world itself and it cannot seriously be argued that the treatment is inhuman,” Adv Mpofu argued.
“What is inhuman is to tell people that they cannot discipline their children. The world would surely come to an end,” he said.
Adv Mpofu added that even religiously, corporal punishment was an acceptable method of disciplining children.
“Religiously, it is to ensure that children grow up in favour of both God and man. The pedagogies employ the method in ensuring that children reach their potential and are not distracted in their studies. That cannot be cruel and it cannot be heartless. That cannot be spiteful,” he said

[lightbox link=”http://www.zimeye.com/http://www.zimeye.com/wp-content/live_images/2015/06/Smiling-for-the-love-of-the-Party…-these-MDC-women-were-captured-cheering-their-speaker-at-a-recent-MDC-rally-in-Bulawayo.-Picture-By-Chrispen-Tabvura.jpg” thumb=”http://www.zimeye.com/http://www.zimeye.com/wp-content/live_images/2015/06/Smiling-for-the-love-of-the-Party…-these-MDC-women-were-captured-cheering-their-speaker-at-a-recent-MDC-rally-in-Bulawayo.-Picture-By-Chrispen-Tabvura-348×232.jpg” width=”348″ align=”none” title=”Smiling for the love of the Party… these MDC women were captured cheering their speaker at a recent MDC rally in Bulawayo. Picture By Chrispen Tabvura” frame=”true” icon=”image” caption=””] Bulawayo-In what the party says is a way of strengthening the entity, the MDC-T leadership here has postulated new rules for members that they should sign their lives off through a Death Contract that strips them the right to take their party to court for anything.
The contract announced by senior Organising official Abednico Bhebhe strips from them the constitutional right of getting protection from the courts thus barring them from resorting to the judiciary in the event that there is a dispute of any kind.
Sources close to the party hierarchy who refused to be identified, told ZimEye.com the new rules are already taking form and shape but causing a lot of conflict within the party structures, although the Spokesperson Obert Gutu at the time of writing discounted them down to mere proposals.
The development has caused much disaffection with members attacking and saying that party leader Morgan Tsvangirai does not listen. “We have been telling Tsvangirai of all these problems but he turns a blind eye, on important issues to do with the survival of the party. Last time we warned him that his most close and trusted man (Name Withheld) was a CIO but he ignored. We do not want to point fingers at him that he has become a ZANU PF member in defacto, but he has become a liability like Robert Mugabe,” said an irate member.
Another source who works closely with the National MDC leadership, also blamed Morgan Tsvangirai for paying attention to petty issues leavng those that affect the growth of the party. Tsvangirai has been busy dining and partying with Mugabe’s CIOs and has been rewarded with a wife and house in the plash suburb, while the povo are suffering from abuse,” said the visibly angry security member.
“When MDC split in 2005, Bhebhe joined hands with Welshman Ncube, and now he is back to form a faction led by Thokozani Khupe, who is working closely with the dreaded Central Intelligence organisation, destroying the party from within,” said another senior member who also begged identity protection.
The MDC T has been rocked by splits and several conflicts after their humiliation and defeat by ZANU PF in the 2013 general elections, with Mangoma and Biti forming the Renewal Team that has also led into the formations of MDC Orange and Renewal Democrats of Zimbabwe.
This reporter tried in vain to get comment from Bhebhe whose mobile phone kept ringing without answer by the time of going to press.
MDC T National spokesperson Obert Gutu told ZimEye.com that Bhebhe was the National Organising Senior member, whose office draws up ideas that build the party, so what he said was a proposal that is not yet adopted by the party.
“We haven’t yet received that communication from Bhebhe. If ever that is a proposal, then we are yet to see it, and we are a democratic party that gives every member a chance to propose ideas that can help the party’s strength,” said Gutu.

Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday said a Nigerian journalist who accosted President Robert Mugabe in Abuja did not embarrass the 91-year-old leader.
Mnangagwa was responding in the National Assembly to questions from Gokwe Nembudziya lawmaker Justice Mayor Wadyajena (Zanu PF) who wanted to know if the Nigerian government had apologised for the Sahara Television journalist’s behaviour during the inauguration of President Mahammadu Buhari in May
“Under the Geneva Convention, the security of a visiting Head of State or foreign leader is the prerogative of the host government.
“In this case, it is the Nigerian government that should feel embarrassed because it failed in its duty,” Mnangagwa said.
“However, we have not received any apology from the Nigerians regarding the issue, but I am aware that the journalist has written to her government apologising for her behaviour and the embarrassment she caused her country.”
The Nigerian journalist asked Mugabe about his long stay in power and if there was respect for human rights in Zimbabwe.
Mugabe did not respond, but the episode made global headlines.
Mnangagwa also informed the National Assembly that he had not received instructions from Mugabe to change the country’s Constitution regarding the issue of presidential term limits.
He was responding to a question from Highfield East MP Eric Murayi (MDC-T) on whether government had intentions to amend the national charter in the wake of reports attributed to the African Union chairperson on “presidential term limits”.
Meanwhile, Information minister Jonathan Moyo said Zimbabwe had complied with the requirements of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) 2006 deadline for migration to digital transmission by yesterday (June 17).
Moyo told Parliament in a ministerial statement last night that Zimbabwe was compliant with ITU’s non-interference requirements for continued operation of analogue transmitters.
“Zimbabwe is fully compliant with ITU requirement for operation of analogue transmission to the digital services of neighbouring countries for both the VHF frequency range (174-230MHz) and the UHF frequency range (470-694MHz). The affected neighbours in this regard are Zambia, Mozambique, South Africa and Botswana,” said Moyo.
Moyo said Zimbabwe has 10 analogue transmitters located in border areas, namely Beitbridge, Chiredzi, Chimanimani, Kamativi, St Albert’s Mission (Muzarabani), Kariba, Mutare, Nyanga, Plumtree and Victoria Falls which have the potential to cause interference to the digital services of neighbouring countries.- Newsday

Zanu-PF Central Committee member Justin Zvandasara, who was jailed two years over $4,5 million fraud, was yesterday found not guilty and acquitted by the High Court.
Zvandasara was last year convicted of fraud involving $4,5 million on allegations that he grabbed over 10 hectares of land belonging to zanu-pf legislator for Mutare South Nyasha Chikwinya in Hatcliffe.
It was the State’s case that Zvandasara went on to allocate the land to unsuspecting home seekers under his housing co-operative.
Yesterday, Justices Felistus Chatukuta and David Mangota, sitting as an appeals court, held that the conviction was baseless before clearing Zvandasara of any wrongdoing.
This came after the politician’s lawyers Mr Tapson Dzvetero and Mr Tariro Machiridza of Antonio and Dzvetero law firm convinced the court that their client was wrongly convicted by a Harare magistrate.
State counsel Mr Tapuwa Muchini later conceded that Zvandasara’s conviction was not proper. After the court session yesterday, Zvandasara, his lawyers and family members broke into celebrations outside the court as they hugged and sang.
In an interview, Mr Dzvetero hailed the acquittal saying the High Court had correctly analysed the facts of the matter. “The court correctly found that the conviction was baseless before quashing it. We have been vindicated. Our client is innocent despite being vilified and politically tormented for no good reason,” said Mr Dzvetero.
Zvandasara said: “I am very happy. At least the whole nation now knows that I am an innocent man. Even the electorate that voted me to the Central Committee will now have more confidence in me.”
Regional magistrate Mr Temba Kuwanda convicted Zvandasara and Suruware after a fully contested trial.
Zvandasara of Plot 7 Weston Glen Forest is the president of Harare North Housing Co-operative Union, while Chikwinya is the director of Pilgrims Rest Properties, which specialises in property development.
According to the State papers, during the land redistribution exercise, Chikwinya was allocated Pilgrims Rest Farm measuring 150 hectares.
But Government demarcated the land into two and the other half was allocated to Mama Mafuyana Housing Co-operative.
Alternative land for Chikwinya’s company was also identified at Hatcliffe North Phase two.
Chikwinya obtained a development permit number SL818 from the Department of Physical Planning.
On June 21 2011, Chikwinya and the Ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development signed a memorandum of agreement allocating the land and transferring administration into her name.
She started servicing the land, subdividing it into low, medium and high-density stands under layout plan number HOE27.
It was the State’s case that Zvandasara and his colleagues misrepresented to unsuspecting home seekers that they had lawfully acquired the same piece of land.
They sold 496 stands to home seekers who immediately occupied the land.
He was also accused of selling 324 stands belonging to another land developer Mr Jonathan Gapare.

The investigation into Harare preacher prophet Emmanuel Makandiwa’s miracle for belly fat claim took a twist Wednesday morning when the husband of a woman the preacher said he healed of belly fat told ZimEye.com his wife never had the condition.
A UFIC churchman contacted ZimEye.com Wednesday morning arguing that Makandiwa of a truth cured people of belly-fat in April and the woman in a red dress appearing in the video(below) was healed before his eyes after he drove her from Kwekwe.

The woman’s is known as Mrs Muza according to the man.[ALSO READ -WATCH:Makandiwa Humiliated in Fake Miracle Shocker
The man said to be Mr. Joseph Muza whose number was provided by the churchman (the latter who asked not to be named), also revealed to ZimEye his wife has never informed him about ever being prayed for by Makandiwa since the church service held in April.
He was asked to confirm if it is true that the woman in a red dress is indeed his wife when he replied saying, “Ah ndofunga ehe but ndo church yaanopinda kwaMakandiwa ikoko.”
When pressed further on the wife’s alleged belly fat condition, he replied saying
“Ah vanga vasati vandizivisa- Oh no she had not told me yet.”
He was then asked to confirm if he lives with his wife to which he replied saying he is still fully married and lives with her but he was at present in Hurungwe.
Has your wife ever had a fat belly?, our reporter continued asking to which the man replied saying ,
“Ah all I know is a side problem she had,” he said. .[ALSO READ -WATCH:Makandiwa Humiliated in Fake Miracle Shocker]
After the interview and upon presenting the shocking contradictions, our source who is male replied back this time apologising and saying he had provided the wrong phone numbers. He then submitted two new numbers he said are the accurate contacts. DEVELOPING STORY – The investigation continues…

Expelled for Vice President Joyce Mujuru has been slapped with a lawsuit by prominent banker and lawyer Tawanda Nyambirai over farms the man says were stolen by her husband.
==Nyambirai has accused ousted former Vice President Dr Joice Mujuru and her late husband Retired General Solomon Mujuru of pushing him out of his three farms in Mashonaland East Province.
In papers filed at the High Court seeking to repossess the farms that have since been acquired by some Zanu-PF officials with the blessing of the couple in 2002, Mr Nyambirai claimed that his family and employees were subjected to intimidation and torture at the instigation of the Mujurus.

Mr Nyambirai said he owns the farms — Kopje Alleen, The Beach and Rusfontein — through his companies Naval Phase Farming (Pvt) Ltd and Beach Farms Pvt Ltd.
The First and Second applicants are Naval Phase Farming (Pvt) Ltd and Beach Farms (Pvt) Ltd, while Mr Nyambirai is the Third Applicant.
The Minister of Lands, Land Reform and Rural Resettlement, former Zanu-PF MP for Chikomba Cde Bernard Makokove, suspended former Zanu-PF Mashonaland provincial vice chairperson, Cde Stephen Chiurayi and Mr Malvern Dzvairo are First, Second, Third and Fourth Respondents respectively.
Cde Chiurayi was recently suspended by Zanu-PF for being aligned to the Mujuru cabal.
“I acquired these two farms and all the moveable assets thereon through the acquisition of the entire issued capital of Second Applicant under two separate agreements dated 21 September 2000,” avers Mr Nyambirai.
“A copy of the agreement relating to the acquisition of the entire issued share capital of Second Applicant is attached hereto.
“The Applicants and I financed the acquisition of these farms from our own resources supplemented by loans that I got from NMB Bank Limited who were my employers at the time. I borrowed Z$10 million from NMB Bank Limited. The bank registered a mortgage bond over the property for the same amount.”
Mr Nyambirai said he was dispossessed of his farms in February 2002 while his brothers and employees were “terrorised, tortured and kidnapped”.
He was granted a provisional order by the High Court on February 10, 2002 to reclaim the land.
“My legal practitioner, Mrs (Beatrice) Mtetwa and I attempted to serve the provisional order on the illegal occupants of the farms. They intimidated us and chased us away. The intimidation continued at the Featherstone Police Station where we had sought assistance,” he said.
Mr Nyambirai said his brothers Emmanuel and Nobert were then kidnapped and subjected to ‘severe torture’.
“After this torture incident, I received a call from the late Retired General Solomon Mujuru with an instruction to meet him at his offices that were then in Milton Park (Harare). I went to meet with him.
“I was subjected to verbal abuse, including false accusations that I was merely fronting for white people. I showed the late Retired General all my papers, including copies of the mortgage bonds.
“However, he still insisted that I should vacate the farms as the occupants of the farms had his blessings to take away farms,” said Mr Nyambirai.
He said Rtd Gen Mujuru directed him to go and meet then Mashonaland East Governor David Karimanzira and his team where they were put in a room that had members of the Central Intelligence Organisation and the police.
“I was subjected to further threats and verbal abuse. I had previously sought the intervention of the late Vice President Joseph Msika. In the meeting, I was ordered never to see the late Vice President Msika over the issue.
“The officials present including the late Honorable David Karimanzira claimed that the late Vice President Msika was a titular Vice President without any power and that all power was vested in the late Retired General Mujuru.
“I was threatened with worse consequences than the kidnappings and torture of my brothers if I did not withdraw the High Court application and stop seeking the intervention of the late Vice President Msika. I succumbed to the pressure and the duress and instructed my lawyers to withdraw the High Court proceedings,” said Mr Nyambirai.
He said Dr Mujuru then filed applications and affidavits to the Administrative Court for the compulsory acquisition of the farms but was to later withdraw the applications midway the hearing.
Mr Nyambirai said the timing of the latest application was influenced by the latest political developments.
“After having been forced to withdraw a High Court application in which the applicants had an enforceable provisional order, the applicants were simply too scared to vindicate their property earlier.
“The applicants have been given courage to bring this application by the position taken by Government against abuse of power allegedly associated with the former Vice President Joice Teurai Ropa Mujuru,” said Mr Nyambirai.
Respondents’ opposing affidavits could not be obtained.

Renewal Democrats of Zimbabwe leader Elton Mangoma has romped to victory against allegations of having an affair with the wife of MDC Renewal Team provincial youth leader Believe Tevera.
Tevera had his application for a peace order against former party treasurer-general Elton Steers Mangoma dismissed after he failed to substantiate his allegations in court.
Harare Civil Court magistrate Ms Audrey Tarugarira dismissed Tevera’s application for lack of merit, saying he failed to substantiate his allegations against Mangoma.
“The complainant failed to corroborate all his allegations against the defendant.
“He failed to bring a medical affidavit to prove that he was attacked by the so-called thugs.
“He failed to bring a single witness to substantiate his allegations therefore, this application for a peace order is hereby dismissed,” she said.
In his opposing affidavit, Mangoma denied ever having an extra-marital affair with Tevera’s wife, Yemurai Maravanyika.
In his notice of opposition, Mangoma accused Tevera of making bald allegations of an extra-marital affair against him.
“I deny that the applicant established that I had an extra-marital affair with his alleged wife. It exists in his imagination. I never had any extra-marital affair with one Yemurai Maravanyika whom he claims to be his wife,” reads part of Mangoma’s notice of opposition.
Mangoma accused Tevera of making false allegations against him for political expediency.
“That is the reason why he wrote what he calls a petition to my political party. He is using the allegations as a red herring. Its unheard of that a cuckold would seek political solution to the infidelity of his wife,”
Mangoma said he never shouted at Tevera as alleged.
“He conveniently does not mention that he attacked me and I collapsed against the glass which injured me. I was rushed to Corporate 24 hospital to be medically attended to. I was sutured on my head, I had six stitches sutured. My wounds were dressed and bandaged,” reads the notice of opposition.
Mangoma denied instructing anyone to assault Tevera.
In his application through his lawyer Mr Tawanda Takaindisa, Tevera said he was now living in fear of Mangoma after some anonymous people called and threatened him with unspecified action.
“On or around May 9 this year I established that Mangoma was having an extra-marital affair with my wife, (Miss) Yemurai Maravanyika,” read the affidavit.
“And, the two had become love-birds hence causing serious marital problems and even affecting the welfare of our innocent year-old son as (Mr) Mangoma is having quality time with my wife.
“He is having an extra-marital affair with “his daughter” in age — my wife. I also want it to be clear with the court that when I went to the MDC Renewal offices on May 26, (Mr) Mangoma was there. All of a sudden he started shouting on top of his voice, pushed me, yet my crime was to seek justice through an inquiry why he is prejudicing my family having moonlight if not Romeo and Juliet romance.”
Furthermore, Mr Tevera said Mr Mangoma shouted abusive language and unprintable words.
“He went on to instruct a group of visibly drunk and bellicose hooligans to manhandle me, but I had no option than run for my life. However, luck did not go on my way as I was caught and thoroughly bashed by Mangoma thugs,” reads the application.

IN A DEVELOPMENT that reads more like a fairytale, an 18-year-old Gweru maid forced her employer’s two-year-old son to have sex with her, a court was told yesterday. Beatrice Sibanda appeared before Regional Magistrate Morgan Nemadire facing charges of aggravated indecent assault.
She pleaded guilty and was remanded in custody to June 22 for sentence. The boy’s mother told the court that she did not want Sibanda at her house anymore but begged the magistrate to spare her the agony of jail.
“I plead with the court to spare her a jail sentence as she has to take care of her grandmother in Gokwe but I don’t want her in my house anymore. Her presence is affecting my son,” she said.
Nemadire remanded Sibanda in custody as she has no place to stay.
“Since you’re of no fixed abode, I’m remanding you in custody until June 22 for your sentence,” said Nemadire. In her defence, Sibanda said she was sorry for what she did and asked for sympathy from the court and her employer.
“I know what I did was wrong and I beg for leniency from the court. I beg my employer to forgive me as well.”
“Please be lenient with me so I can take care of my grandmother who needs me. I don’t want to go to jail,” said Sibanda.
She told the court she was forced to drop out of school because she found the lessons difficult.
The magistrate asked her what she planned to do with her life and Sibanda said going back to school was out of the question as she is not academically gifted.
“Your worship I only want to work. I cannot go back to school because I’m very dull”, said Sibanda.
Prosecuting, Prisca Kanhukamwe told the court that on June 13 this year at around 12 AM, Sibanda was playing with the boy, his brother and their niece who was sitting on the bed.
The court heard that Sibanda took the boy and removed his trousers. She also removed her black leggings and panties and got under the blankets with the boy.
“The accused then put the boy on top of her while she lay facing upwards and she inserted the boy’s manhood inside her genitalia”, said Kanhukamwe.
The matter came to light when the boy’s brother told their mother that Sibanda had done a despicable act with his younger brother under the blankets, the court heard.
The boy’s mother reported the matter to the police, leading to Sibanda’s arrest.

In a sad confirmation of patronage in the ruling party, the Zanu PF provincial committee, Jappy Jaboon, has announced that the party is taking back a citrus farm given to former Minister of State for Masvingo, Kudakwashe Bhasikiti because he has been expelled from the party.
Addressing a Mwenezi inter-district meeting at Rutenga on Thursday last week, Masvingo political commissar and MP for Bikita East, Jaboon said the party is going to take from Bhasikiti the citrus farm in Mwenezi since he no longer belongs to Zanu PF.
Bhasikiti however, dismissed the utterances as wishful thinking adding that land reform was not based on political inclinations. He said Bhasikiti should not continue occupying the farm following his public attacks on the ruling party that he no longer belongs to Zanu PF hence he should not benefit from its programmes.
“As Zanu PF Masvingo province we are going to take that citrus farm from Bhasikiti. He no longer belongs to the party so why should he continue to benefit from its programmes. Relevant procedures are being taken so that the farm will be allocated to small scale farmers so that many people will benefit from it.
“Very soon we will announce a date for all the people of Mwenezi who did not have land to occupy the farm especially you Zanu PF officials and party members” said Jaboon.
Bhasikiti said that the farm was so productive that no person with a sound mind can talk about grabbing it from him.
“That is wishful thinking and those people have been saying that for the past three years. Land reform is a government programme regardless of political affiliations. Many people with divergent political views have benefitted from this programme including those from MDC. If someone wants my farm he may have to convince the Minister of Lands so that he will cancel my offer letter if the farm is not productive but that is not it” said Bhasikiti.
Bhasikiti also insisted that he was still a Zanu PF member since he has received no communication on his expulsion. He said he was elected on a solid popular vote which is difficult to challenge.
“What I know is I am yet to be informed about my expulsion. I was elected on a 99,9% popular vote. It cannot be overturned overnight. During central committee election they sent soldiers to intimidate people but I was elected and this time I will trash their candidate come elections. People want to see me as their MP until 2018,” said Bhasikiti.-Mirror

In a sad confirmation of patronage in the ruling party, the Zanu PF provincial committee, Jappy Jaboon, has announced that the party is taking back a citrus farm given to former Minister of State for Masvingo, Kudakwashe Bhasikiti because he has been expelled from the party.
Addressing a Mwenezi inter-district meeting at Rutenga on Thursday last week, Masvingo political commissar and MP for Bikita East, Jaboon said the party is going to take from Bhasikiti the citrus farm in Mwenezi since he no longer belongs to Zanu PF.
Bhasikiti however, dismissed the utterances as wishful thinking adding that land reform was not based on political inclinations. He said Bhasikiti should not continue occupying the farm following his public attacks on the ruling party that he no longer belongs to Zanu PF hence he should not benefit from its programmes.
“As Zanu PF Masvingo province we are going to take that citrus farm from Bhasikiti. He no longer belongs to the party so why should he continue to benefit from its programmes. Relevant procedures are being taken so that the farm will be allocated to small-scale farmers so that many people will benefit from it.
“Very soon we will announce a date for all the people of Mwenezi who did not have land to occupy the farm especially you Zanu PF officials and party members” said Jaboon.
Bhasikiti said that the farm was so productive that no person with a sound mind can talk about grabbing it from him.
“That is wishful thinking and those people have been saying that for the past three years. Land reform is a government programme regardless of political affiliations. Many people with divergent political views have benefitted from this programme including those from MDC. If someone wants my farm he may have to convince the Minister of Lands so that he will cancel my offer letter if the farm is not productive but that is not it” said Bhasikiti.
Bhasikiti also insisted that he was still a Zanu PF member since he has received no communication on his expulsion. He said he was elected on a solid popular vote which is difficult to challenge.
“What I know is I am yet to be informed about my expulsion. I was elected on a 99,9% popular vote. It cannot be overturned overnight. During central committee election they sent soldiers to intimidate people but I was elected and this time I will trash their candidate come elections. People want to see me as their MP until 2018,” said Bhasikiti. -state media

Former Presidential Affairs minister Didymus Mutasa says the way President Robert Mugabe had failed to recognise the late Amos Midzi as a national hero showed that the ruling party had now morphed into an “undemocratic animal” that was controlled by one man — the long-ruling nonagenarian.
A former minister and diplomat, Midzi, died on Tuesday last week in a suspected suicide and was buried at the Glen Forest Cemetery in Harare, with Mugabe and the ruling party flatly refusing to accord him hero status, not even at district level — because he was linked to former Vice President Joice Mujuru.
Sources who spoke to the Daily News at the weekend revealed that Midzi had died “a very bitter man” and had been unable to take his “ruthless rejection by a party he worked so hard for” on untested charges of being part of a so-called “putschist cabal” linked to Mujuru that was allegedly plotting to oust and kill Mugabe.
So controversial were the circumstances that led to Midzi’s death that many in the warring ruling party have raised serious questions about how exactly he met his fate, in addition to re-igniting raging national debate about who qualifies to be a national hero in the country.
Mutasa, a former politburo member who faces the same inglorious fate that Midzi had to endure until his death despite his long service to the divided ruling party, told the Daily News yesterday that it was clear that Mugabe and the post-congress Zanu PF were determined to deny many deserving Zimbabweans the status of national heroes — just because these people had dared to challenge the party or were wrongly suspected of plotting against Mugabe.
“It now appears as if anyone who is not in good books with the post-congress Zanu PF will not be recognised. Even people like me who have worked for Zanu since its inception are going to be ignored. Zanu PF ought not to be selfish as they are doing now and should recognise anyone deserving to be a hero,” Mutasa said.
By making this call, Mutasa joins opposition parties, including the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC, who have long lost faith in the partisan way used to select national heroes — who now derisively call the National Heroes Acre “Gushungo Heroes Acre”.
On his part, Mugabe has urged those who question the ruling party’s partisan role in determining who becomes a national hero to find “their own mountain” and bury their dead there.
Asked whether Zanu PF’s criteria when bestowing hero status was holistic given his inside knowledge Mutasa, a former influential politburo member and close confidante to Mugabe, said “things (the selection) should be simple and straightforward”.
“Our sympathy goes to the Midzi family and we sympathise with his daughter and we support her and what she said about her father being a hero,” he said.
Probed further by the Daily News if Midzi, who was once linked to the Zanu PF vigilante militia group called Chipangano that terrorised opposition party supporters in the Harare high density suburb of Mbare ahead of the 2013 polls, qualified to be a hero, Mutasa said he had “the attributes that eclipsed” those of some who were buried at the Heroes Acre.
“There should have been some recognition of what he did for Zanu. At least he should have been given a provincial hero status because he was the Harare chairperson and thus automatically had the credentials to be a provincial hero.
“The work which he did for Harare province should have been recognised by Zanu PF. What is beyond doubt is that Midzi was indeed a national hero. The fact that he was suspended is neither here nor there. He did a lot for the party,” Mutasa said.
Midzi’s death came at a time that Zanu PF is being disembowelled by deadly factional and succession wars. It further exposed the deep fissures in the ruling party as his funeral was characterised by clashes between the two distinct and bitterly-opposed Zanu PF formations that now obtain since late last year — with most liberation struggle stalwarts now operating as the “original” Zanu PF.
Mutasa said the seemingly unstoppable fights in Zanu PF explained in part why Midzi was totally ignored by the warring ruling party as a hero.
“The people of Harare province were very happy with what Midzi did for the party.
“They should have worked hard to ensure that he was declared a hero, but the supposed chairperson (now expelled Godwills Masimirembwa) could not do anything because he appears to be in trouble himself,” he said.
Quizzed on whether only people with connections to Zanu PF were supposed to be declared heroes, Mutasa said “even vendors who are soldiering on” deserve to be recognised as heroes.
“All sorts of people need to be recognised if they did something outstanding for the country. Unfortunately, this has been personalised and Midzi’s death shows how democracy has died in Zanu PF,” Mutasa said.-Daily News

STV|A former university lecturer who founded his own church and sexually abused members has avoided jail after a sheriff said he had “already suffered a spectacular fall from grace”.
Walter Masocha, who called himself “The Prophet”, was made subject to a community payback order with the condition that he performs 250 hours unpaid work.
The 51-year-old was also placed on supervision and the sex offenders register for 12 months.
The “Archbishop” of the Stirling-based Agape for All Nations Church, who put his hand down the trousers of a schoolgirl saying he was trying to remove demons, was assessed by social workers as at “moderate risk” of re-offending.
Masocha, who also groped a young deaconess while he was supposed to be praying for a problem she had with her stomach, was told by Sheriff Kenneth McGowan his conduct must have left his victims “hurt and bewildered”.
The sheriff said: “The evidence was that you touched each of the complainers inappropriately on several occasions. At the time they were both members of a church of which you were leader.
“You held a position of trust which you abused, and a further aggravating factor in relation to one of the victims is her relatively young age.
“Dealing with the question of harm, the complainers must have been left hurt and bewildered by your conduct, at the time it happened and thereafter.”
Sheriff McGowan said the law required courts only to impose custodial sentences when no other disposal was appropriate.
He said: “There are many cases where the gravity of the offences are such that a custodial sentence is inevitable.
“Without in any way seeking to downplay the severity of the offences in this case, my view is that this is not the position here.
“The criminal justice social work report has assessed you as suitable for a community-based disposal, and in addition you have already suffered a spectacular fall from grace.”
The sheriff added Masocha was otherwise of good character, saying “It is very clear from references submitted on your behalf that you have carried out charitable and other works and are respected for that.”
Masocha stood head bowed in the dock at Falkirk Sheriff Court as the sheriff spoke. On the public benches his wife Judith, labelled The Prophetess within the church.
The man, who used to teach at Stirling University, appeared for sentence after being found guilty of sexually assaulting the deaconess and sexually touching the schoolgirl after a six day trial in April.
Jurors, who took less than half an hour to reach their verdicts, had heard the schoolgirl aged 15 was left in tears after Masocha “pinged” her knicker-elastic and pinched her bottom claiming she had demons in her pants.
The deaconess, a 32-year-old mother-of-four, was also told The Prophet had been “trying to remove ‘something’ from her genitals”.
Both were targeted between April 2012 and January 2014 at Masocha’s £500,000 seven-bedroom mansion, Coseyneuk House, near Stirling, where the Zimbabwe-born churchman received a steady stream of followers.
During the trial the schoolgirl now 16, said she regarded Masocha as her “spiritual father”, and like many people in the church called him “Dad”.
She said in late 2013 she was with other girls in an upstairs games room when Masocha came in and waved her over.
She said: “He placed his hand round my lower back, and moved his hand down until he got to my underwear, and he sort of pinged my underwear.
“He repeatedly pinged my underwear, ran his hand down my bottom, and grabbed and pinched my bottom.”
The Stirlingshire secondary school pupil said she felt violated and later asked Masocha why he had done it. He replied he had seen “demons and things that shouldn’t be there” in her pants and he was clearing them away.
She broke into tears because she thought she had been bad without realising. Mascocha said he would pray to remove the “demons” and left the room.
In another incident, when she was 13 or 14 , she said Masocha had been sitting down at his home, very close to her, advising her about school when he suddenly said, “You’ll always be mine”, and kissed her on the lips.
She said at the time she was happy, because members of the church had been taught anything they received from Masocha was a blessing from God, but now she felt disgusted.
The deaconess said Masocha had hugged her “very intimately”, caressing her back and kissing her round the neck, and saying “receive my love”.
On another occasion said she had once gone to his office for prayer with a stomach complaint.
She said: “He said he was going to pray it away. He touched my tummy, then his hand went down my body, onto my private parts.
“It was like he was feeling me. I was so shocked. At that time I saw him as somebody who could never do any wrong, because that was what he used to teach us. He used to teach us his hugs were anointed.”
She told her husband, a devoted member of the church, from whom she has since separated, and he said: “The Prophet is seeing something in your genitals that needs to be removed, so he was removing that.”
The woman, a trained nurse, later fled her matrimonial home with her children, and spoke about what had happened to her brother, and others.
She said: “Suddenly, my eyes were opened.”
She began an online blog to expose the activities of the church, which she called “a cult”.
In other incidents, she described how as part of her involvement with the church, she had to undergo an all-night “deliverance” after her husband told her she had to be delivered from demons.
Shortly before she left the organisation for good, church members called an ambulance to a service she was attending in England and tried to get her sectioned under the Mental Health Act.
Paramedics declined to act, concluding the call had been an “act of public humiliation”.
Defence advocate John Scullion QC said Masocha had since resigned from “active participation in the church” and members of the congregation were “no longer welcomed” at Cosyneuk House, which had reverted to the role of a family home.
Outside court, Cindy Martin, a former pastor at Agape, hit out at the fact Masocha was not jailed.
She said: “It’s like a slap in the face for female members of the church.”
She also claimed Masocha was still active in the church and had been at a church event in St Andrews, Fife, only on Sunday “lapping up adulation”. -STV

The Zimbabwe Republic Police has announced blanket action against calls for an independent investigation into the death of former Cabinet Minister and ZANU PF Harare Chair Amos Midzi saying there is no need as they are “convinced” of the findings made to date.
Police were on Tuesday morning winding off what they claimed was a probe into the death of former Zanu-PF Harare provincial chairman and Cabinet Minister Amos Midzi, who was found dead in his car at his farm in Beatrice last Tuesday.
A whistleblower has said Mr Midzi was assassinated and analysts say if their claims were false leaving suicide as the conclusion, still the evidence of mental torture on Midzi, a loyal Grace Mugabe supporter, would point to an assassination by inducing the act.  They wrote on the day Midzi died saying: Amos Midzi wasn’t a saint but neither did he kill himself out, a quick google of “Umbrella death” will confirm your worst fears. Though it wasn’t an umbrella literally used on Midzi’s death our intelligence has been for a long time acquiring silent killing methods from the Israelis and of interest Ricin a poisonous substance topped the list of our research, this agent kills quickly when injected in one’s body and toxicology tests will take a long time to detect especially in Zimbabwe were we don’t have proper lab facilities. But why would they use that on Midzi? Prior to his suspension a few weeks ago he had blown the lid on the real diamond looters and vendors cash scandal and Grace Mugabe’s name featured so much on his dossier armed with tangible evidence Midzi was courting foreign media Daily Mail UK, Mail & Guardian SA mistake he made was dealing with Savanhu who in turn found an opportunity to cleanse himself sold out the whole plot to Mashayamombe and Omega Hungwe, Cleveria Chizema and they had a round table with Pupurai Togarepi. Martin Mukatyei(you once wrote about him on Chindori Chininga death) That’s when the military intel took over the issue because of their interests in the diamond sector and the damming info that was about to be unleashed they just resolved to silence him. His suspension from Zanu PF was a well calculated move to make it seem as had become depressed and commit suicide.
But the Police say there was nothing sinister on their findings and a “post-mortem conducted last Wednesday on the deceased’s body revealed that he died of poisoning”. They said no foul play was suspected and Midzi’s case would be treated like any sudden death.
“We are in the process of concluding the case and the matter will be treated just like any sudden death case since no foul play is suspected,” a senior police officer said.
The matter is being handled by detectives from the CID Law and Order Section based at Marondera Police Station.
Midzi’s post-mortem was carried out by a team of three doctors who concluded that the death was due to market pulmonary oedema due to poisoning.
In a statement last week, police chief spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba said further samples were taken for toxicology tests.
Police recovered a one-litre bottle of poisonous methamidophos and sleeping tablets from Midzi’s vehicle, raising fears that he could have committed suicide.
A cup containing a bluish liquid was also recovered from the car, a Ford Everest registration number ACY 3329, grey in colour, which had all doors locked.
Midzi was buried on Saturday at Glen Forest Memorial Park.(State Media/Additional Reporting)

A top US Congressman has dropped a bombshell account outlining future US-Zimbabwe relations. In what is a sure disappointment to 91-year-old President Robert Mugabe currently begging for the lifting of US sanctions, Rep. Christopher H. Smith, R-N.J trailed Zimbabwe’s history for over 120 years since British explorer Cecil John Rhodes’ times, concluding ominously at the end that Mugabe and his leadership are at a dead no-return end.
The narrative reveals that US relations have a hope only after the current crop of resented leaders under the 91-year-old leader are gone. The US government which played a key role in bringing down the racist Rhodesian government, has been influential in fighting for Zimbabwe’s democratisation.
Below was his speech addressed to the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives:
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, Zimbabwe is a country the size of the state of Montana, with a population of nearly 14 million people. However, its mineral wealth gives it an outsized importance. The southern African nation is the world’s third largest source of platinum group metals and has significant reserves of nickel, gold, chromium and dozens of other metals and minerals. Significant diamond reserves were discovered in 2006. Currently, about 40 percent of the country’s foreign exchange is earned from the export of these metals and minerals.
It was the abundance of such mineral resources, and their exploitation, which has driven the relationship between the West and Zimbabwe. Since its colonization by Cecil Rhodes’ British South Africa Company in 1889 on behalf of Great Britain, the area once known as Southern Rhodesia has experienced a tumultuous history.
The white minority gained self-governance in 1922, and a 1930 Land Apportionment Act restricted black access to land, making many Africans laborers and not land owners. In 1964, the white minority government unsuccessfully sought independence from Great Britain, and then unilaterally declared independence a year later under white rule. This move sparked international outrage and economic sanctions, and that regime was never widely recognized by the international community, though the support of white-ruled South Africa enabled the government to limp along.
Meanwhile, black opposition to minority rule, which began in the 1930s, erupted into a guerilla war in 1972. Attempts to end the conflict diplomatically failed until the 1979 talks brokered by Great Britain resulted in British-supervised independence elections. The winner of those elections was Robert Mugabe, leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union, or ZANU, who at age 91 continues to rule this country, in large part through intimidation and manipulation of elections.
As a hero of the independence and majority rule movements, Mugabe has enjoyed the support of many other African leaders, who have considered him an honored elder and have generally declined to join in international efforts to sanction his government. This has placed the United States in an awkward position, with limited African support for political and economic reforms in Zimbabwe.
Although many observers have credited the Mugabe government with productive management until fairly recent years, there were political problems from the beginning of his rule.
For example, Mugabe fired fellow independence leader Joshua Nkomo in 1982 and then launched a campaign to suppress what his government called a rebellion by pro-Nkomo forces. The Mugabe regime has been accused of killing thousands of ethnic Ndebele citizens over the next few years to end the supposed rebellion, assisted by military advisors from East Germany and North Korea.
Once one of the leading industrial nations in Africa, Zimbabwe began a long economic downward spiral in the late 1990s. Squatters, with the support of the Zimbabwe government, seized white farms they claimed had been stolen by white settlers in the past. Despite government assurances, these farms were not transferred to black farm workers, but rather to cronies of the Mugabe government who lacked agricultural experience. Both whites and blacks in Zimbabwe acknowledged that the land policies had been unfair, but the manner of addressing this problem led to serious economic problems for the country.
Agricultural production fell, and the manufacturing sector, heavily tied to agriculture, also diminished. Efforts to squeeze currency for shrinking national reserves from businesses, coupled with the disastrous requirement that businesses use the fictitious exchange rate, caused retailers to lose money with each sale. The effort to close the many vendors who supplied tourists with souvenirs and citizens with necessary household items was yet another milestone in Zimbabwe’s economic collapse. By 2006, year-on-year inflation exceeded 1,000 percent. Devaluation of the currency and the subsequent use of foreign currency are credited with eventually preventing a complete economic collapse.
Zimbabwe and the United States have had a tempestuous relationship since that southern African country emerged from white minority rule. Part of the problem has been resentment by Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and his closest advisers against the United States for not supporting their liberation movement, the backdrop to which was the geopolitical conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States. Another part of the problem has been the justifiable public criticism of repressive political policies by the Mugabe government by successive U.S. administrations. Consequently, the minimal communications between our two governments has contributed to suspicions and an inability for U.S. officials to reach out to cooperative Zimbabwe officials.
Successive elections have been the subject of opposition and international criticism for the lack of political space allowed to those who would challenge the ruling ZANU party. Arrests, incarcerations, torture in custody, beatings at public rallies and demonstrations and disappearances of government opponents have denied legitimacy to the Zimbabwe election processes. The country’s commitment to democratic governance has been further placed in question due to a series of repressive laws preventing freedoms of speech, association and movement.
As if the government’s repressive tactics are not troubling enough, political jockeying in Zimbabwe, including the recent dismissal of Vice President Joice Mujuru, places the succession to President Mugabe in doubt, which puts U.S. policy in question. Last week’s hearing examined current U.S. policy toward Zimbabwe and the prospects for an enhanced relationship depending on events that have not yet taken place.
Of course, in foreign policy, one cannot wait until a crisis materializes in order to create a planned response. A leader nearing the century mark, presiding over a fractious political scene in a country that has experienced political and economic turmoil creates a situation in which planning for a positive outcome to regime change must be devised.
Zimbabwe is a country rich in both natural and human potential. Once the resentments of the current old guard have passed and democratic governance can be established, U.S.-Zimbabwe relations can become what they have never been: harmonious and mutually beneficial.

ZimSentinel|Hurungwe West losing candidate, Temba Mliswa has blasted African Union and SADC Chair President Robert Mugabe saying he should observe democracy in his own country first before preaching to African Union.
 
Describing the by –election held on 10 June as not ‘free and fair’. Mliswa lost the seat to a ZANU PF candidate, Keith Guzah who polled 5961 votes against Mliswa’s 4 239.

Addressing journalists at the Media Centre on Monday morning, Mliswa alleged that ZANU PF had intimidated his supporters and many of his supporters had been turned away by officials conducting the poll.
In ward 16, 127 voters were turned away while 51 were assisted in voting. He claimed that over 150 people were assaulted in the run up to the election and during the election.
Mliswa accused the police of folding their arms while ZANU PF supporters perpetrated violence on his supporters. Several cases were reported to the police but the police did not turn up or record any of these cases.
The losing candidate who was reading from a dossier said that given these circumstances it was clear that the election could not be declared free and fair.
However readers online said Mliswa had no right to cry foul given that he had won these elections under the same circumstances in the 201 3 harmonised elections.
“Mliswa won the Hurungwe seat under the same condition. Zvarwadza now?” asked the reader.
Mliswa added that he would be contesting the outcome of the election in court. ‘We will succeed in court because our legal representatives have learnt from their mistakes’ said Mliswa.
He urged other candidates to participate in these elections as it was the only way to gauge if reforms were being effected. Participating would also make the opposition learn from their mistakes he argued.
The recent elections have been dismissed by many civic organisations as a waste of time. Many of the organisations argue that the government has not yet implemented the necessary reforms prescribed by the new constitution to hold free and fair elections.

Asylum seeking singer says I’ve been an MDC member since 1987

Coventry Telegraph |AN ASYLUM seeking singer claims he would face torture and violence if he was sent back to Zimbabwe because of a CD he made criticising President Robert Mugabe.
A tribunal heard Prince Mapetosa Mazwi, who has been living in Coventry, had made a musical CD in the UK country criticising Mugabe’s controversial regime.
His legal adviser, Andrew Nyamayaro, wanted to play the “Voice of Freedom” CD to Immigration and Asylum judge H S Sangha as the drummer sought asylum at an Immigration and Asylum Tribunal in Birmingham.
But Sangha said the courtroom did not have the facilities.
Sangha said: ‘‘We don’t even know if the voice on the CD is that of Mr Mazwi. It could be anyone.”
Nyamayaro said the voice was that of the appellant and that he would be at risk if sent back to Zimbabwe as a result of making the CD.
Mazwi of Stoke Heath, Coventry, said he was a member of the Movement for Democratic Change, which opposed the Government.
He said he had appeared on Twitter denouncing the Zimbabwe Government after making the CD in the UK.
The tribunal was told that Mazwi sang controversial lyrics on the CD apart from playing the drums with his group.
He complained he had been tortured and beaten up by security forces because of his protests shortly before fleeing to the UK.
Mazwi appealed against a Home Office recommendation that his asylum seeking application should be refused after warning that he faced further torture and violence if sent back home.
“After being attacked and tortured in Zimbabwe I went into hiding, staying with friends, before coming to England,” he said. “I moved from place to place in Zimbabwe to avoid detection.”
Mazwi made the CD in 2010. He had been a member of the opposition group since 1987 and said he had attended protest rallies.
John Proctor, representing the Home Office, questioned whether Mazwi would be at risk if he was sent back to Zimbabwe.
“The Home Office previously refused to grant Mazwi asylum which has prompted his appeal today,” said Mr Proctor.
Sangha said he would made a decision at a later date.
President Mugabe is now 91 and has been control of an alleged “violent and tumultuous” regime since 1980 despite unsuccessful attempts to remove him.
Zimbabwe is said to have one of the poorest economic situations in the world.

The crisis ridden Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CIZC) has blamed the protest call for Director McDonald Lewanika’s exit, on Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF party.
In a statement, the NGO alleged that Mugabe’s ZANU PF activists were responsible for the protests which began last year over alleged abuse of office and organisation funds.
The NGO’s board said in the broad presser it has since reported the case to the police. The full statement read:
“The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CIZC) Board and the entire membership strongly condemns the unruly behavior by some malcontents, as exhibited, on Friday 12 June 2015.
“These malcontents whom we hugely suspect to be ZANU PF thugs came around 9:30 am. They started knocking the gate violently and directing insults at the outgoing director, Mr. McDonald Lewanika.
“After realizing that no one was responding, they wrote insulting messages on the gate using graffiti. They also threw placards inside the gate denigrating the person of Mr. Lewanika. This followed efforts to open the gate using a metal bars and pliers.These cannibalistic actions instilled fear in all the employees who were present.
“The insults as well robbed Mr. Lewanika of his deserved dignity.
“As the board, we therefore sincerely apologize to Mr.Mr. Lewanika and the entire secretariat. It is our heartfelt belief that the secretariat does not deserve such treatment, in the wake of the tireless efforts they make to raise the flag of Crisis Coalition.
“Imagine, Mr Lewanika has served the organization for more than 8 years. We would like to hasten, to tell our employees that such actions strengthen, rather than weaken them.All the Anti-democracy forces feel threatened by the existence of Crisis Coalition by virtue of its active stance against injustices since its formation. We have since made a report at Highlands Police Station and the investigations to bring these criminals to book are underway.
“The Chairperson, Ms Samukeliso Khumalo is also going to set an investigation committee shortly after her return from South Africa.Meanwhile CIZC will circulate a report on its recent visit to the AU meeting in Sandton; South Africa, last week.CIZC was represented by Incoming Acting Director, Nixon Nyikadzino, Board Chairperson, Samukeliso Khumalo and Mfundo Mlilo, the Spokesperson.
“Please note that the Coalition will not be deterred by any form of disturbances. Issued by Mfundo Mlilo on the 13th of June 2015329 Samora Machel.”

As Zimbabwe faces mass starvation, Acting President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been left with an egg on his face after it emerged he lied when he claimed that no one in the country would starve and that government had purchased enough grain and other foods to feed every person in the country.
 
During bi election campaign rallies early June, Mnangagwa told Zimbabweans the country was well resourced on food aid and that no one would starve.  He even claimed that government had paid every dime needed to cover for a whole year.
 
But he yesterday exposed himself when he admitted at least $300 million is still required to import food due to the poor harvest that was recorded during the 2014-15 season. The government does not have even a fraction of that money, Mnangagwa humiliated himself revealing.
Speaking during the official launch of the Zimbabwe Zero Hunger Strategic Review Report yesterday, Mnangagwa said Government was sourcing the funds from different stakeholders to assist the drought affected areas.
“Approximately $300 million is required to import food to cover the deficit and see us through to the next harvest, hoping that it will be significantly better than the current one,” he said.
“While we need 1,4 million tonnes of maize a year for consumption, our produce for the 2014-15 season has gone down by approximately 49 percent.
“I am therefore calling upon all our partners, from development agencies and the private sector, to assist us in providing the necessary resources to ensure that none of the communities nationwide is exposed to hunger and starvation.”
The Zimbabwe Zero Hunger Strategic Review Plan, which was produced by the World Food Programme, is aimed at reducing food shortages in the country.
The objective of the review report was to establish a comprehensive understanding of the context and status regarding food and nutrition security and facilitate development of a national zero hunger roadmap.
The report reviews relevant statutes, protocols and frameworks at national, regional and global level that underpin Zimbabwe’s response to food and nutrition security.
“I am encouraged by the observation from the review that the country has a conducive policy environment and has put adequate structures to address food and nutrition security,” said the Acting President.
“All we need to do then is follow up with carefully crafted monitoring and evaluation plans to ensure an implementation process that leads to observable results.”
Mnangagwa said the initiative by the World Food Programme was capable of enhancing community resilience through diversified agricultural production.
“The initiative integrates principles of sustainable land management, gender main streaming and food security,” he said.
The launch of the report was running under the theme: “A Zimbabwe free from hunger and malnutrition”.

A BULAWAYO man broke into a house in Nkulumane suburb and demanded to know a woman’s HIV status before wearing a condom and raping her, a court has heard.
Talent Chakanyuka, 35, allegedly threatened to kill the victim, 21, if she resisted or told anyone afterwards. He went on to raid groceries from the house. Chakanyuka appeared before Western Commonage magistrate Sibongile Msipa-Marondedze charged with unlawful entry, theft and rape.
He was remanded in custody to June 25 before being advised to apply for bail at the High court. “You’re advised to apply for bail at the High court because this court doesn’t have the power to grant you bail,” said Msipa-Marondedze.
Prosecuting Mufaro Mageza, said on June 8 this year at around 9PM, the woman locked the doors, windows and switched off the lights before retiring to bed.
“At around 3AM Chakanyuka cut the burglar bars to gain entry through a window. The complainant woke up to find him standing over her, holding a knife and a torch,” said Mageza.
The prosecutor said the victim told Chakanyuka she was HIV positive.
Mageza said Chakanyuka told the woman that he could not have sexual intercourse with an HIV infected woman. The court heard that Chakanyuka reached for a condom that was in his pocket, put it on and raped the woman once.
He threatened the woman with death if she screamed, said Mageza. He said Chakanyuka then robbed the woman of R100 and asked her why she stayed alone. “He went to the kitchen where he stole groceries that included flour, body lotion and macaroni,” said Mageza.
He told the court that the next day the victim was walking in her neighbourhood with her cousin when she saw Chakanyuka at his house. She reported the matter at Nkulumane Police Station leading to Chakanyuka’s arrest.- Chronicle

Shrewd Central Intelligence, security Agents and personal aides to President Robert Mugabe are murdering the Head of State. The officers who are on full payroll have subjected the elderly statesman to abusive pressure beyond any human being can bear, experts charge citing latest disturbing footage from Mugabe’s AU Summit in South Africa where the 91 year old was filmed struggling to lift one leg over a single step.
Although President Mugabe recently complained of struggles with his health in particular his sleep routine, aides have watched him physically deteriorate but still pushing him forward.  “All those security guys are doing this for their selfish benefit knowing Gushungo will be gone very soon, and pushing him to the limits only serves them to sustain their cash pots,” commented political analyst Herbert Juma. He spoke over a  recent medical paper combining results of different studies over the last 50 years, which has found that spending too long at work resulted in a 40 to 80 percent greater chance of heart disease compared to an eight hour work day.
“Under these conditions President Mugabe will be dead in 3 months’ time,” he added.
The latest findings discovered by scientists at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health support results from a 2011 survey that revealed that doing more than 11 hours of work a day raised heart disease risks by 67 percent. Lead researcher Dr. Marianna Virtanen and her team gathered data from 12 different studies going back to 1958, when researchers first suggested that working long hours could be linked to poor heart health. In total, the studies involved more than 22,000 participants, from Britain, the USA, Japan, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands.

In a stunning revelation likely to stump the enemies of ex-Vice President Joice Mujuru, the executor of her late husband Solomon Mujuru’s estate says it is in debt to the tune of $2 million-plus.
This also comes amid reports that the ex-liberation fighter’s family has not been involved in the administration of the estate and in a development, which also dampens claims that the popular politician had a multi-billion dollar fortune.
According to an interim report by the estate’s executor Stern Mufara, Mujuru’s “most prized asset” was his Hogerty Hill matrimonial home — worth $350 000 — and which he shared with his widow Joice, the former Zanu PF and national vice president.
“I advise that we are attending to evaluations. I shall soon be meeting to discuss the affairs of this estate with a view to file the first interim administration and distribution account,” the Nyika, Kanengoni & Partners (NKP) staffer wrote to the High Court master on June 12.
Apart from the Borrowdale property, Mujuru’s other listed assets include interests in publicly-traded and private companies as well as immovable properties in, and around the capital worth an estimated $1,5 to $2 million.
While the report lists a parcel of one million African Sun shares, a paltry 22 in Merzig Enterprises, 391 Ruwa Golf Resort Holdings shares, 4 430 in Zimbabwe Motor Assemblers and Distributors, and shares in Oriel Pharmacy, some of his immovable assets were given as a Marondera house valued at $100 000, a Bindura stand worth $80 000, livestock and farm equipment at Ruzambo Farm, which is yet to be valued.
“My second report, and hopefully my last, will deal with the remainder of the property after compilation of the inventory viz-a-viz the movable property at Ruzambu… and Rylance,” Mufara said.
Mujuru’s holdings also included a stand in Shamva, Warren Park and a flat at the rundown Gail Court in Harare’s Samora Machel Avenue. In the meantime, Mufara’s listings also include a 100 percent share in Kalmic Investments, Kumirinje Farms, Rylance, Kuphikile Resources (Kuphikile) and Thurlow & Company (Thurlow), although the latter two have long ceased to operate.
While Kuphikile — a 50 percent joint venture with Tirivanhu Mudariki — was a minority shareholder in liquidated River Ranch Mines, Thurlow was a retail operator, which was closed in the 80s. And with Ruzambu registered under Joice’s name in terms of its 99 year lease, and claims against the estate — from Agribank, Hanagwe (Private) Limited and others — mounting, it is likely that the Beatrice farm will also be inherited by the former VP and just as it cannot form part of the estate.
Like the Mashonaland East farm, most of the property — about 50 percent of the estate — will be taken by the beleaguered widow, as this is in accordance with the marriage law. Under Zimbabwean laws, heroes are also exempt from paying tax, so the debt-ridden estate is safe from that front.
While a Ruwa joint Plaka Tarven had been listed among Mujuru’s assets, it turns out that it was jointly run by Zimbabwe Prison Services boss Paradzai Zimondi under a lease.
Amid suggestions that the liberation struggle stalwart had amassed a multi-billion dollar fortune in the region of $9 to $25 billion, the current findings — if not numbers — have shown that the late General was a man of modest means.
Like Mujuru himself, the handling of his estate has been marked by serious controversy around the number of likely beneficiaries — given his alleged brood — and the choice of executors, especially given that NKP’s forerunner George Chikumbirike & Associates used to do some work for one of Zanu PF’s top leaders.
While the anti-Joice Mujuru lobby was hoping to use the issue of Solomon Mujuru’s estate to galvanise the view that the Mujurus were corrupt, Mufara’s report has stumped many as the figures are diametrically at odds with the loose talk within the ruling party. daily news

The Sudanese President, General Omar al Bashir, who was in South Africa attending the 25th African Union summit escaped police arrest by a whisker managing to secretly lift off into the air for his country in the wee hours of Monday morning.
General Bashir’s arrival in South Africa on Friday opened a police case after him with calls for his immediate arrest and handing over to the International Criminal Court for his various crimes against humanity.
South Africa is a signatory of the ICC.
His spokesperson, Hussein Kashumi, confirmed that Bashir left Monday morning.
South African authorities have said Bashir is a guest of the African Union, whose stance against the ICC is well known.
Robert Mugabe has through the AU repeatedly labeled the ICC as racist and anti-African. He said the continental body will not cooperate with the ICC.
The ruling by a South African judge, Hans Fabricuis had been made that Bashir should not leave the country until a hearing to determine his fate has been held.
There was confusion Monday morning with some reports suggesting that General al Bashir had already left South Africa, while others said he was still around.
 
The State Media claimed Monday that any attempt to arrest al Bashir could have turned at South Africa’s image on the African scene, especially after it voted together with Nigeria and Gabon for the Security Council to intervene in Libya. The decision saw the invasion of that country and the subsequent death of Col Muammar Gaddafi.

VIDEO: Expelled former Hurungwe West MP Themba Mliswa fights back on his enemies today Monday. The live address begins at 11.00am Harare time.

Newsday|POLICE detectives investigating the Air Zimbabwe $10 million fleet insurance fraud have reportedly roped in the airline’s jailed former executive Grace Pfumbidzayi and senior official Maxwell Madziwa to turn them into State witnesses to testify against Transport ministry secretary Munesu Munodawafa.
Munodawafa is currently on $1 000 bail following his arrest in April after he was linked to the alleged scam.
Sources close to the matter confirmed that Pfumbidzai (former AirZim legal secretary) and Madziwa (former human resources manager) were called in by the Serious Frauds Squad for interviews in the last couple of weeks. Pfumbidzai, who is serving a seven-year jail sentence at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison, was summoned to assist police with investigations.
“The calling of Pfumbidzai by Serious Frauds Squad is in connection with the investigation of Munodawafa and they are hoping to bring her as a witness in the matter,” the source said.
Pfumbidzai’s lawyer Andrew Muvirimi was not immediately available for comment. Muvirimi is still trying to get his client out on bail pending appeal against both conviction and sentence at the High Court.
Madziwa who is alleged to be part of the top brass that was involved in signing some of the payments to Navistar Insurance was also summoned to give a statement and possible appearance in court as a witness.
Madziwa’s lawyer Donald Sibanda told NewsDay his client had attended a meeting at the Serious Frauds Squad offices, but declined to speak in detail on the matter. National police spokesman Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba could not be reached for comment yesterday.-Newsday

Abducted civic rights activist Itai Dzamara’s brother Patson has opened fire on all church pastors saying they are out for riches.
Soon attracting a backlash from Christians left right and centre, he said this as he complained that pastors he invited to the weekend Dzamara prayer meeting were out just to make money using his brother’s name. He named for instance one specific pastor he had deployed to organise police clearance for the Saturday function.
He wrote, “as far as my knowledge is concerned, The Pastors Fellowship of Zimbabwe representing the church was invited to the table but it appears as if they are seeking to posit that the prayer initiative was their brainchild.
“That is not correct. Through the help of well wishers in the civic society, as a family we have been hosting prayer meetings for Itai Dzamara on a monthly basis since his disappearance and that is public knowledge.
“Its unfortunate and curious that of all the prayer meetings we have hosted as a family, The Pastors Fellowship of Zimbabwe never showed up. Neither were they a part of the process. In fact most church leaders never came through to pray with us because they are afraid to be marked by the authorities and eventually missing out on what they love the most, richies.”
His comments drew an artillery from furious Zimbabweans some who began challenging his educational credentials being the doctorate he displays as “Dr.”
Wrote news columnist Ndaba Nhuku, “this should be worrying. Maybe Patson Dzamara needs to find a neutral family spokesperson who will handle these concerns to avoid creating enemies. I see statements like this presenting future problems. Parson needs to not be reminded that many political players have been taking advantage of Itai’s case; and he never issued a statement against them. Something is amiss here. We also don’t see the explanation on how these guys were financially going to benefit from this prayer. It seems something is not in order.”
Another Zimbo Denzel Nkhata weighed in saying “I once read somewhere pakanzi Dr Patson Dzamara.. but I now wonder…is this guy a doctor?#
“Minus the boring vain repetitions in his statement , a doctor cannot lack fore sight to such an extent neither can he be so dumb as to claim to be issuing such rubbish on behalf of the whole Dzamara family.”
One networker named as “Sacha Forest” also poured her fury saying, “Patson ane mawara, speedy mupfana uyu, accusing all and sundry, haasiriye here who was attending leadership conferences with the likes of Kasukuwere and Chiyangwa, takamubvunza kuti ndeipi ? he mouthed off, hezvoka.”

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe laid into Nigerian and South Africa saying Africa would never agree to them getting permanent seats on the UN Security Council.
This Mugabe said was because they had both voted for UN Security Council Resolution 1973 in 2011, which authorised military action against the regime of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. They had betrayed the continent which could never trust them, sources reported him as saying.
Mugabe intervened in a meeting of the so-called “Committee of 10” at the summit on Saturday which was discussing possible amendments to the “Ezulwini Consensus” which stated Africa’s position on reform of the UN Security Council.
The 2005 Ezulwini Consensus was that Africa should demand at least two permanent and five non-permanent seats on the council as part of the protracted, wider reform to make it more representative of the world.
The consensus also demanded that the two permanent seats should come with the same veto powers as were enjoyed by the five current permanent members, the US, UK, China, Russia and France.
This demand for vetoes had effectively stymied Africa’s chances of reforming the council. And so the South African government was calling for Africa to adopt a more flexible approach by dropping the veto demand.
This was what the so-called G4 group of nations – Germany, Japan, India and Brazil – who were also seeking permanent seats on the council had done, as a tactical manoeuvre to try to diminish resistance to their bid.
Last year South African President Jacob Zuma said: “Africa needs to compromise – not reiterate fixed positions as it has done for the past nine years.”
And he organised a retreat of African Foreign Ministers in February 2014 to review the Ezulwini Consensus.
South Africa also intended to raise it in the Committee of 10 meeting here on Saturday. The Committee of 10 was appointed by the AU many years ago to pursue the UN Security Council reform.
But one regional official who was in the meeting said he believed that Mugabe’s attack on South Africa and Nigeria had seriously damaged South Africa’s case for reviewing the Ezulwini Consensus.
The official said Mugabe had not mentioned the two countries by name. But it was clear to all in the room who he was referring to as he referred to African governments who had been on the UN Security Council when Resolution 1973 on Libya was adopted in 2011.
South Africa and Nigeria were both on the council at the time, occupying two of the ten, non-permanent, two-year seats. South Africa’s vote for Resolution 1973 was highly controversial even within South Africa. But the South African government justified it on the grounds that a foreign military intervention was necessary to prevent Gaddafi’s forces slaughtering his opponents in their Benghazi stronghold, as he threatened to do.
Pretoria later condemned the Nato-led military coalition for going beyond the mandate which was to protect civilians, by helping rebels overthrow Gaddafi.
But South Africa suspects that countries like Zimbabwe are avoiding review of the Ezulwini Consensus and insisting on a hardline, maximalist position on UN Security Council reform because they don’t want bigger African countries like South Africa and Nigeria to get permanent seats on the council.-IOL

–Mnangagwa family speaks out–
Close family members in Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s family unit intentionally leaked embarrassing video footage of the 12 year old UK based grandson who is filmed cursing his mother, ZimEye.com can reveal.
ZimEye is reliably told of the whole plot against the boy’s mother which continued at the weekend as the several family members suddenly became increasing friendly in the last few days .
The development comes after the two week fiasco after the video of the lad hurling unprintable insults at his mother, many say show an extremely difficult family environ.
“There are two people we know of a certain did this,” a family senior told ZimEye.com.
“It is very unfair and really shocking that someone would do such a thing. The boy has a health condition, an illness and this is well known to family members,” the elderly woman who cannot be named said.
ZimEye.com in the upcoming days pursues to reveal and expose the names of the two who have violated the family and ubuntu ethics by causing the lad to come under vicious ridicule and abuse from the public.

London (ZimEye) Zimbabwean ex-servicemen have been left out of the roll of honour and the United Kingdom government should honour Rhodesian/Zimbabwean army heroes in the same way they do mainland ex- servicemen, a petition on the UK government website reads.
The petition has been crafted by Zimbabweans living in the United Kingdom who protest that the UK government has stopped recognising the sacrifice and courage that Rhodesian/Zimbabwean service men of all races have made on behalf of Great Britain since the Second World War.
This petition comes in time with the annual remembrance ceremonies annually officiated by the Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

The Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe VMCZ has lunched prestigious professional Journalism awards which is aimed at motivating ethical reporting .
The two awards namely “The Story of The Year” and “Most Professional Media House” will be held every November starting this year. 
VMCZ board member Chris Chinaka at the event held in Harare last week to  announce the development said they want to improve the deteriorating reportage the country is experiencing hence the  introduction of the award. 
“There is a very serious violation of ethics now, and there is no questions about that .I think we all need serious introspection as journalists. To have a frank discussion about the state of our profession and this part of this discussion which must lead to recognizing where we have done well,”said Chinaka. 
Chinaka acknowledged that profession of journalism had  been eroded by both political and businesses interests and challenged the public to advocate for media freedom. 
“Journalists serve the public and it is the responsibility of the public to cry out loud and demand that politicians and business people must not interfere with the profession of journalism. Journalists should be independent and should not be told what to or what not to report on by anyone,”he said. 
VMCZ said  winners of the prestigious award will pocket no less than $1000 in cash. 
A team of seasoned journalists according to VMCZ will be selected to adjudicate over stories which would have been produced from January to October submitted by either individual journalists or their editors for the completion.

The brave Nigerian journalist who stood out to grill Robert Mugabe on his departure date, has been reportedly harassed out of work.
After a string of attacks from Mugabe’s ZANU PF party on the journo’s media house SaharaTV, Adeola Fayehun is now off the screens, a development which has seen the Jonathan Moyo controlled State Media writing in celebratory mode.

State Media Report| There is a feast of humble pie at Sahara Reporters, with the biggest portion reserved for Adeola Fayehun who has apologised to President Mugabe for her “awful” and “disrespectful” behaviour.
The behaviour in question relates to how she bypassed security and tried to heckle President Mugabe at the recent inauguration of Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.
The local private media ran screaming headlines celebrating Fayehun’s antics even as sober minds pointed out how unprofessional it was.
Fayehun’s many critics also questioned the security arrangements that allowed a reporter from a media house senior Nigerian military officers have called a supporter of Boko Haram terror to get so close to a Head of State and Government and the African Union Chair.
Now her programme, “Keeping it Real” has been pulled off air and she is apologising profusely to President Mugabe.
In her “interview”, she shouted there was no democracy in Zimbabwe and that “President Mugabe” should step down, notwithstanding the fact that the AU and Sadc Chair resoundingly won a national election as recently as 2013.
President Mugabe maintained his dignity and ignored her.
And last Wednesday, Fayehun said: “I think you have heard of what happened between me and Mr Mugabe, an encounter that has led to the end of my career . . . I completely agree with you guys that asking (President) Mugabe when he would step down was awful, it was awful, it was disrespectful of me . . .
“Which is why this will be my very last episode of ‘Keeping it Real’. I figured it is better to end the show myself.
“It has been real and I have tried for at least three years to keep it real until what happened with (President) Mugabe and for the sake of peace so that there won’t be any more fights . . .”
In an earlier show on Sahara FM Radio titled “With the Humble Prince”, Fayehun said: “I wasn’t making fun saying he (President Mugabe) is too old. I really apologise for my comments.”
Efforts to get a comment from Fayehun were unsuccessful last night, and Sahara Reporters news editor Declan Galvin said: “We cannot provide you with her contact details, it is against our company policy. I cannot confirm on that (that her programme has been taken off air); you can go on her social media platform or website to see what is going on.”
Fayehun’s Facebook page was filled with posts questioning the move to terminate the show, while a web page on her programme had Fayehun confirming its end.
A fortnight ago, Media, Information and Broadcasting Services Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo likened her unprofessional conduct to Boko Haram, in reference to the terror group that has wreaked havoc in Nigeria and neighbouring countries for several years now.
On his Twitter account, the minister asked; “Of course those are human beings, but are they journalists or Boko Haram? How do you know those were journalists, especially since they did not behave as such?”
Tellingly, last December, the Nigerian Army accused Sharara Reporters of being a propaganda arm of Boko Haram.
The then Nigerian Army public relations director, Brigadier-General Olajide Laleye said: “It is noteworthy but sad and unfortunate that Sahara Reporters has committed itself to support for terrorism and fighting Nigeria, its people, its military and particularly the Nigerian Army.”
And in the aftermath of Fayehun’s disgraceful show at President Buhari’s inauguration, Zimbabwe’s private media went into overdrive, lionising behaviour that the reporter herself has admitted was “awful”and “disrespectful”.
NewZimbabwe.com said “Mugabe humiliated in Nigeria”, while NewsDay claimed “Mugabe suffers humiliation in Nigeria”.
Daily News, which like NewsDay is a rabid advocate of anything anti-President Mugabe to the point of publishing several notable inaccuracies to further its crusade, was not to be left out as the private media tried to claim the continent was turning against Zimbabwe’s leader.
However, the massive backlash in Nigeria and across Africa to Fayehun’s behaviour has given the lie to those claims.
The question that remains is: will the media houses that celebrated this “awful”and “disrespectful”behaviour take their places at the table and join Fayehun in eating humble pie?

A STUDENT teacher with a local college earned himself a 20-day jail term after he shoplifted a collection of perfumes from Mutare Spar Supermarket.
Leeroy Banda (22) was convicted on his own guilty plea to the charges of theft he was facing. Presiding was Mr Langton Mukwengi, while Mr Shepherd Chavarika prosecuted. He was ordered to pay $20 fine or risk a 20-day jail term.
Banda was nabbed by Mutare Spar’s security personnel after he had tried to leave the shop with unpaid for toiletries which included Intessa Perfume, Adidas Perfume, Adidas Roll-on and a 20s Dunhill cigarettes packet.
Said Mr Chavarika: “All the stolen items were recovered by the security personnel from his bag before he left the shop. He admitted to having had stolen the items which led to his arrest.”
Asked if he was a smoker since he had stolen a packet of cigarettes, Banda said he wanted to sell the cigarettes.
“I wanted to sell the cigarettes and use the money for food at college since campus life is hard these days Your Worship.” However, he said the perfume was for personal use.
“I wanted to use the Adidas collection myself and give the Intessa perfume to my girlfriend,” he said. Banda begged for leniency from the court by stating that he was only a college student who had made a great mistake by shoplifting. -Manica Post

President Robert Mugabe’s Second Wife, Grace yesterday bunked former cabinet minister and legislator for Epworth constituency, Amos Midzi’s burial.
Midzi who died on Tuesday this week also had her husband’s government hand him an ordinary civilian burial which was at Glen Forest Cemetery in Harare Saturday afternoon.
Midzi was one of the few loyal ZANU PF officials who faithfully tirelessly followed through Mrs Mugabe during her meet the people rallies in the run up to the Mujuru purgings. PIC:

Hundreds of people thronged the cemetery to bid farewell to the late Midzi, a former cabinet minister, diplomat, Member of Parliament and provincial leader.
Relatives, friends and workmates described the late Midzi as a humble and loving figure who dedicated his life to the people of Zimbabwe.

The Minister of State for Harare Metropolitan province, Miriam Chikukwa the most senior official to attend the burial pleaded with delegates saying people should not take advantage of Midzi’s death to divide Zanu PF.
It was claimed through the State Media that Mugabe had “honoured Midzi” by conferring on him a state assisted funeral.
The government claims the late former Zanu PF Harare provincial chairman died of marked pulmonary oedema due to poisoning but loopholes in the investigation have pointed to a cover up for murder and the various substances seen at the site are said to be cheap elements concealing the crime.
This was revealed by results of a post mortem performed by three independent doctors as part of investigations into Midzi’s death.
He is survived by his wife Alice and three children.

A large rock(asteroid) fell from heaven and violently targeted Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s office building going straight for his desk, a senior government official revealed. It broke through the roof nearly killing his secretary as it landed on Mnangagwa’s desk ” according to the official report.

Six (6) months after a cyanide attack, Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s office has also remained a hot spot for his staff who complain of deadly demons in there… …CONTINUE READING… :