A Chinotimba area Form Two pupil at Mosi-oa-Tunya Secondary School in Victoria Falls is battling for life at Mpilo Central Hospital in Bulawayo after he was gored by a wounded lone buffalo in the resort town on Sunday morning.Relatives said the attack took place at around 8AM between the gorges and a railway line near the veterinary offices.
They said 14-year-old Brendon Nkomazana was fetching firewood with his elder sister, Vanessa, in the company of four neighbours when he was attacked.
Some members of an apostolic sect who were conducting a service nearby reportedly took to their heels and abandoned church when they heard Vanessa screaming for help.
The family said by yesterday afternoon, the boy was yet to be attended to despite the fact that he was still semi conscious and bleeding from the mouth.
Brendon reportedly sustained injuries under the left ear as the buffalo’s horn narrowly missed his throat. His cousin, Cecilia Ndlovu, said Brendon was lucky to be alive.
“They left after 8AM to fetch firewood with three girls and two elderly women. They said they heard Brendon scream and shortly thereafter saw him being tossed into the air after the buffalo attacked him. He might not have seen it coming because the grass is long while trees are still green,” said Ndlovu.
She said the wounded buffalo tried to attack him again but failed because he lay still in the grass. “It threw him into the grass and he lay there still. The buffalo looked for him and trampled everywhere but couldn’t locate him. The other members of the group hid behind some bushes watching from a distance. When the buffalo moved away after failing to locate him, they quickly hurried to where Brendon lay and carried him while calling for help,” she said.
Brendon’s uncle, Calvin Lowani Shoko, said his nephew could hardly breathe when he was rushed to Victoria Falls District Hospital.
“I was at the bus terminus when I received a call that Brendon had been attacked by a buffalo. I rushed to the bush and found that he had already been carried to hospital by a Vehicle Inspectorate Department truck. After realising that the buffalo had moved away, Vanessa ran to seek help from a nearby church but the apostolic sect members picked up their garments and fled when she told them there was a wounded buffalo nearby.
“The two elderly women who had accompanied the children to fetch firewood helped carry Brendon and were later picked by a VID vehicle which rushed him to hospital. At that time he was bleeding profusely while the neck was swollen.
“Looking at where it gored him, it narrowly missed his throat and only God knows how he survived. He could hardly breathe and they stitched him to stop the bleeding but he started bleeding from the mouth. He was given some pain killers and immediately transferred to Mpilo Central Hospital where he is admitted,” said Shoko.
Brendon’s aunt, Nyembezi Ndlovu, who accompanied him to Bulawayo, said by yesterday afternoon he had not been treated as they were told to wait for a doctor.
“We arrived at around 3PM on Sunday and he was admitted. When we arrived for the afternoon visit today (yesterday) he hadn’t been put on a drip and hadn’t eaten anything. He can hardly breathe and is still bleeding from the mouth. He is still half conscious and that’s worrying us. We only hope God will intervene and heal him,” said Ndlovu.
Parks and Wildlife Management Authority rangers hunted down and shot the buffalo on Sunday. Last year, a man from Monde was killed by an elephant near Masue River while another was gored by a buffalo in Victoria Falls town as wild animals continue to wreak havoc.
Only last month, a 24-year-old Bulilima man escaped with severe injuries after a leopard attacked him while he was searching for donkeys in a bushy area.
Gift Moyo of Male Village in Dombodema area said the animal pounced on him from a tree. His seven dogs, which were accompanying him, saved his life as they fought the leopard off before the animal could injure him further.
Moyo’s wounds were stitched at the local Dombodema Clinic.

A 36-year-old Harare man was yesterday arraigned before the courts for assaulting his wife for denying him sex.
Oliver Chaibva, of number 16297 Sunningdale 2, Harare, was warned and cautioned by Mbare magistrate Ms Precious Muzondo not to repeat such barbaric behaviour. Chaibva pleaded guilty to physical abuse.
Circumstances are that on February 13 this year Chaibva and his wife Fatima Muma (34) were sleeping in their bedroom. The court heard that around 00:30 hours Chaibva woke his wife up and demanded sex.
The wife refused saying she was tired. Chaibva forcibly tried to have sex with Muma but failed. He beat her up. Chaibva was arrested after Muma reported the matter to the police.

The troublesome nationwide lecturers’ strike together with the subsequent students’ strike at the University of Zimbabwe are now no more, Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Minister and Pastor Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri has claimed.
As students slept rough on Harare’s streets with riot police pursuing them from behind into the night, Muchinguri-Kashiri issued a statement claiming that the strike should end.
This was so despite an official statement by the University of Zimbabwe authorities that the institution will only open on Tuesday the 24th March.
Mrs Muchinguri-Kashiri among other things said that the government had released outstanding salaries for state university lecturers and staff to end strikes which had forced the University of Zimbabwe to temporarily close.
Lecturers at state universities, including Midlands State University (MSU), National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Great Zimbabwe University (GZU) and the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) abandoned lectures last week in protest at the non-payment of February salaries and last year’s bonuses.
Muchinguri-Kashiri, speaking to reporters in Harare yesterday, said she met with representatives of university staff before appealing to Acting President Emmerson Mnangagwa for an urgent solution to end strikes at the institutions of higher learning, as well as a demonstration by students at the UZ.
“I wish to confirm the position taken as follows: that salaries will be mobilised and released before the end of the day, Tuesday, March 17, 2015, whilst the bonus will be staggered,” she said.
She said lecturers should return to work immediately. “Pursuant to this resolve, members of staff in all State Universities are requested to resume normal teaching, learning and research activities with immediate effect,” she said.
Muchinguri-Kashiri said treasury highlighted financial challenges the government was facing and efforts being made to address the situation at state universities.
“Treasury officials expressed their sincerest regret over the dismal failure to meet the dates designated as pay dates,” she said.
Meanwhile, the UZ announced on Tuesday it was closing until March 24, 2015, after students demonstrated in solidarity with lecturers and non-academic staff.
But Muchinguri-Kashiri said the UZ will open for lectures today.
“We’ve been communicating with Vice Chancellor Levy Nyagura to discuss the way forward given what we agreed with workers’ representatives. He did agree that he took the decision to close because of the demonstrations which took place,” she said.
“We both have agreed that activities have to resume and UZ will be opened tomorrow morning (today) with lectures. I hope all the institutions will adhere to the directive.(New Ziana/Additional Reporting)

FULL STORY – CLICK HERE to read

Zimbabwe’s parliament has expelled 17 legislators who left the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party after a bout of infighting in the party last year, the national assembly’s speaker said on Tuesday.
The expulsion of the members, including former MDC secretary general and finance minister Tendai Biti, could further weaken the opposition’s voice in parliament, where President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF enjoys a commanding majority.
Biti, an outspoken lawyer, was thrown out of the MDC by its leader Morgan Tsvangirai last April after his rebel MDC Renewal group failed in an attempt to oust Tsvangirai who has been at the helm of the MDC since its formation in 1999.
The opposition MDC party, which re-elected Tsvangirai as its leader in November, asked parliament early this month to expel Biti’s group for having left the party, deepening the turmoil that has split the MDC.
Speaker of parliament Jacob Mudenda said Biti and his group did not challenge the request by the MDC, and announced their expulsion. The affected members were ushered out of parliament.
Under Zimbabwe’s constitution, if a member of parliament joins or forms another political party, their seat is declared vacant and a fresh election is called within 90 days.
Four more members in the upper Senate chamber were expected to suffer the same fate.
Jacob Mafume, spokesman for the MDC Renewal group said they would use legal means to challenge the speaker’s decision. – Reuters

Several University of Zimbabwe students have been arrested for staging a demonstration against the protesting lecturers and starvation.[lightbox link=”http://www.zimeye.com/wp-content/live_images//2014/09/US-university-of-Zimbabwe.jpg” thumb=”http://www.zimeye.com/wp-content/live_images//2014/09/US-university-of-Zimbabwe-403×232.jpg” width=”403″ align=”none” title=”UZ university of Zimbabwe” frame=”true” icon=”image” caption=””]
Anti-Riot police mercilessly threw the striking students into their armored trucks and took them Harare Central Police.
The University then ordered all students to vacate the institution and closed the college until next week Wednesday.
Hundreds of frustrated University students had staged a demonstration at the campus which forced the Vice chancellor to flee.
They were demanding an end to a strike by lecturers which they said was compromising their education.
They also said the University was starving them and needed government to intervene.
The authorities called Anti-Riot police to disperse the angry students who resisted and vowed to stay put.
In a statement, the institution of higher learning said it was taking a ‘recess’ for one week to resolve issues that required ‘immediate attention’.
“The University of Zimbabwe is on recess from 17^th March to 24 March 2015 in order to address issues that require immediate attention. All students are expected to vacate the halls of residence and the University campus with immediate effect and by not later than 3pm today 17 March 2015.Lectures will resume on Wednesday 25 March 2015,”read part of the memo written the Registrar of the University one S M Chevo and seen by Zimeye.
 

By Chrispen Tabvura
ZimEye Correspondent
One of Zimbabwe’s successful young and upcoming musician Vengai Kanhema popularly known as Vekann, has set aside cash and clothing, for the Bulawayo’s dumpsite orphans.
The Harare based singer, Vekann, who has become an answer to the orphans’ prayers, contacted ZimEye.com, after reading what he described as an emotive story of the plight of the impoverished orphans, who are residing at the dumpsite, following deaths of parents and guardians.
“I was touched by the story, that’s why I have set aside a few goodies that I am taking to Bulawayo for these orphans. I am also going to stage shows in Bulawayo and surroundings, with 60% of the proceeds going towards the upkeep of these special people,” said Vengai.
The musician’s latest video ‘Usakanganwe’, was voted March 2015 video of the month on local Zimbabwean television.
Vengai has songs such as Rwendo, Dzikama, Tichafara, Rega ndiende, kabhachura, to mention but a few that have made it to the top chats.
He also applauded ZimEye.com for publishing human interest articles that also encouraged him to look for these orphans.
“You are doing a wonderful job ZimEye, had it not been for your stories concerning these innocent souls, the nation would not be in a position to guess,” he said.

A 40-YEAR-OLD Goromonzi man appeared at the High Court yesterday facing a murder charge after he allegedly killed his neighbour in 2007 and immediately inherited his wife.
Temba Lungu was arrested last year after having been on the run since he allegedly committed the offence. Temba, who is suspected to be part of a three-member gang that allegedly suffocated and threw Charles Kureti into the flooded Pote River, leaving him to die with his hands tied together at the back with a piece of wire, yesterday denied the murder charge.
The court heard that Temba allegedly started co-habiting with Kureti’s wife, Neria Wadson, barely five days after the murder. The alleged relationship continued until April 18 2010 when they separated.
According to prosecutor Henry Muringani, Temba and his accomplices, identified as Freza Wadson and Chrispen Lungu, killed Kureti on May 17 2007 at Ngwandangwanda village under Chief Chinamhora in Domboshava.
His alleged accomplices have already been convicted over the same charge.NJustice Owen Tagu heard that on the day in question, Temba invited Kureti and his wife to his parents’ home, claiming the family intended to resolve the couple’s marital disputes.
The three are alleged to have then tied Kureti’s hands with a piece of wire and force-marched him to Pote River where they shoved a T-shirt into his mouth, wrapped his head and face with his pair of trousers before throwing him into the water.
Kureti’s body was discovered floating in the river by Zivanai George who made a report to the police, but efforts to locate his relatives proved fruitless, prompting police to accord him a pauper’s burial.
In her statement to police, Neria said Temba confided in her that the body recovered floating in Pote River was her husband’s and as a result of fear, she gave in to his amorous advances.
In his defence, however, Temba denied participating in the murder, but told the court that he tried in vain to restrain his colleagues from causing harm to Kureti.
Through his lawyer Emmanuel Nyambuya, Temba said: “Accused will state that Chrispen Lungu and Freza Wadson are the culprits and the perpetrators of the crime as they are the ones who purportedly took the now-deceased out of the homestead of Radious Lungu claiming they were taking him to the police station.” The trial continues today.

By Chrispen Tabvura
ZimEye Correspondent
After several years of unsuccessfully requesting Bulawayo City Council authorities to rehabilitate all the streets and roads in his constituency, which are pothole manifested, Councillor Silas Chigora has decided to do it personally using his personal vehicle and shovels.
Several motorists, who were interviewed by ZimEye.com, said the servicing of these roads is long overdue and were supposed to be done more than 20 years ago, as this predicament has been haunting motorists and residents, for too long.
The potholes which have become an eyesore in the city of Bulawayo and his ward included have caused a lot of damage to vehicles. In an interview with Chigora during the implementation, he told ZimEye.com that he has long requested the council authorities to repair the streets but without success.
“I have requested the relevant council department to rehabilitate these streets, but I have realised that it has taken too long, and the community will think that I am not doing my job. I have also communicated this predicament to my constituency, and found it better to take the situation head on,” he said.
The Councillor, who had filled more than 120 potholes by midday yesterday, was also working on the cleaning exercise, with his Action team picking up litter from around the ward, to ensure a clean environment and improved health atmosphere.
“I am also trying to improve on achieving a litter free ward four to set the pace for other wards, so that they can learn from our area. I will be glad to see our council performing their duties as this will then spiritually encourage the ratepayers to pay off their arrears,” said Councillor Chigora.
Bulawayo City Council has been evading journalists since the beginning of 2015, as evidenced by the Mayor’s snubbing of two pressers and informal traders’ call to meet the City father.

UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE lecturers have launched a massive strike against their employer, government, after failing to get their salaries on time.
Every single lecturer has joined the strike as they voiced they are not backing down until government acts on their requests.
This came as they also met officials from the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development but nothing was forthcoming from the meetings.
The development also came after Midlands State lecturers began their own strike.
But UZ received the below comment from Media Minister Jonathan Moyo.
“I feel 4 the striking Cdes. Why are state varsities failing to be cost effective when private ones are not?,” he said in a tweet.
Meanwhile, sources at MSU revealed that the lecturers have not yet been paid February salaries yet it is almost towards the end of yet another month, March.
“We are still not sure when our salaries will be paid because the authorities keep on saying next week,” the source said.
“Last month we only got our salaries after two weeks of February,” they said

A TEACHER AT KUWADZANA 2 High School is in trouble for sending nude pictures to a 14 year old girl during lessons last week.
Mr Courage Chikowo, 24, the music teacher for the school, was trapped when he committed the offense during classes using social network Whatsapp.
Prosecutor Ms Revai Mudozori narrated charges against the educator that on March 13 Chikowo proposed love to the pupil through a text message and also sent out nude images.
Charges state that Chikowo would at various other times send the girl obscene messages.
Chikowo is alleged to have gone further and sent the pupil nude pictures of female organs.
The pupil arranged to meet Chikowo after school.
Chikowo was not aware that this was a trap.
Police arrested him right at the meeting place.
The teacher was on Saturday dragged before Mbare magistrate Ms Jackie Munyonga where he was charged with contravening section 88 (a) of the Postal and Telecommunications Act.
He admitted to the charge and was remanded in custody to today (Tuesday) for bail ruling.

The former Kingdom Bank founder Nigel Chanakira, has been granted an honourary doctorate from the Philanthropy Institute that ows its fame from bestowing the same on Harare businessman Phillip Chiyangwa.
Chanakira wrote commenting on Monday evening, “It’s official! I was today granted a doctorate in letters from the International Institute of Philanthropy. Henceforth to be referred to as Dr Nigel MK Chanakira. I was thinking of opening a surgery. Lol!”

Expelled ZANU PF Secretary for Administration Didymus Mutasa has defeated his boss Robert Mugabe so far on the constitutional court challenge against him and his nephew Temba Mliswa’s expulsion from the party.
Mugabe had to date threatened to humiliate any judge who dares to even consider Mutasa’s case for a hearing. READ MORE…-Mugabe Threatens Judges Hearing Didymus Mutasa’s Case.  Mugabe even said the challenge was useless and he would want to personally see which judge would hear it.
But yesterday Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku ruled that the constitutional challenge by former Zanu-PF secretary for Administration Mr Didymus Mutasa and his nephew Mr Temba Mliswa was urgent and must be heard by the Constitutional Court’s full bench on April 1.
Messrs Mutasa and Mliswa are contesting the constitutionality of their expulsion from Parliament as legislators for Headlands and Hurungwe West, respectively.
However, the latest decision did not suspend the proclamation by President Mugabe for by-elections to fill the vacant Headlands and Hurungwe West constituency seats.
Parliament recently declared the duo’s positions in the National Assembly vacant following their dismissal from Zanu-PF.
Mugabe’s lawyer Mr Terrence Hussein yesterday confirmed the outcome announced in a closed session in Chief Justice Chidyausiku’s chambers.
“Chief Justice Chidyausiku granted the relief that the two applicants wanted, that is, a pronouncement that their case was urgent and that an earlier hearing of the main challenge be set.
“The main challenge will be heard before the nine judges of the Constitutional Court on April 1 2015. However, the Presidential proclamation for the by-election remains in force unless the court rules otherwise on April 1,” said Mr Hussein.
Professor Lovemore Madhuku, who was representing Mutasa and Mliswa, confirmed the development.
“Our clients got the order that they sought and their main application will now be heard urgently on April 1,” said Prof Madhuku.
Prof Madhuku, who was being assisted by Mr Tafadzwa Mugabe and Mr Phillip Nyakutombwa, said the court will ensure that a determination is made before the set by-election nomination date, April 8 2015.
“Hearing in the main challenge has been set on April 1 to allow the court to finalise the case before April 8,” he said.
Parliament of Zimbabwe lawyer Mr Simplisius Chihambakwe filed a notice of opposition to the chamber application arguing that the matter lacked urgency.
He submitted that the applicants were expelled on March 3 but they decided to file the application nine days later, a confirmation that the matter was not urgent.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission did not oppose the chamber application for urgency.
But the court ruled in favour of Mliswa and Mutasa.
Messrs Mutasa and Mliswa argue that Zanu-PF did not follow due process in expelling them, hence the National Assembly Speaker’s decision to declare their seats vacant was a nullity.
The two seek to bar any by-election in Headlands and Hurungwe West constituencies.
National Assembly Speaker Advocate Jacob Mudenda, President Mugabe and the chairperson of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, Justice Rita Makarau, were listed as respondents in the court application.
Messrs Mutasa and Mliswa allege that their expulsion from Parliament violated their constitutional rights, hence the decision must be nullified.
They said that their right to equal protection of the law enshrined under Section 56 (1) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe was violated by Adv Mudenda’s conduct.
The duo’s right to stand for election for public office, if elected, has also been violated by the Speaker’s declaration of March 3 this year, they alleged.
The two argue that their right to administrative justice as protected by Section 68 of the Constitution had been infringed by the March 3 announcement.
The duo seeks an order nullifying the Speaker’s announcement and the declaration.
They also seek an order declaring them legitimate members of the National Assembly for
their respective constituencies.
Mr Mliswa filed a supporting affidavit, associating himself with the main affidavit deposed by Mr Mutasa.
He said his expulsion from Parliament was a humiliating incident because he had not been notified in advance. (State Media/Additional Reporting)

THE UK’s National Health Service (NHS) is demanding £3,000 from a Zimbabwean mother after she gave birth at Norwich University Hospital in 2013.
The National Health Service (NHS) is still pursuing a thirty-four year old Zimbabwean mother for the bill one and a half years later. The unpaid bill is part of the £62million cost of ‘health tourism’ to Britain, which has generated heated debate.
Caroline Nyadzayo, who was once pictured with the health minister Daniel Poulter on his visit to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, was an “NHS tourist” from Zimbabwe who is still facing demands to settle her hospital bill.
Nyadzayo, an advertising executive now in Harare, told The Sunday Times it was ‘unfair’ she was still being pursued, because the baby’s father is British.
“I know the system may believe I travelled [to Britain] to abuse the NHS benefits, but as a matter of fact I just wanted to have my first baby as a family and surely everyone is entitled to that.”
The couple was questioned about the birth when they entered Britain at Norwich Airport in October 2013 but were released when they agreed they would be paying for it.
“I was told because I was 31 weeks pregnant it was likely I was going to use the NHS to my advantage. We said we would pay for the birth. But we had no idea how much we’d be charged.”
The British government is facing growing pressure over the scale of “health tourism” to the country and the media in the UK are now using Nyadzayo’s case to profile the problem. Her photo opportunity with the Health Minister no doubt attracted attention.
Data released by NHS trusts show that one London hospital is owed £17.9million by foreigners not entitled to free services. A total of £62million is due to 100 trusts, according to information published under the Freedom of Information Act.
The scale of health tourism has been underestimated for years. The Department of Health recently estimated that the annual figure could be as high as £2billion. Analysis showed that one patient racked up a tab of more than £420,000.
Several others owed more than £100,000 for lifesaving treatments including dialysis, bone marrow transplants and chemotherapy. Another is being chased for more than £15,000 over treatment for alcoholism.

Vice President Emerson Mnangagwa has clashed with Speaker of the House of Assembly Jacob Mudenda over the appointment of a new clerk of Parliament.
The position of clerk of Parliament fell vacant in November following the ‘dismissal’ of Austin Zvoma who had been at the helm of the august house for three decades.
Zvoma was forced to retire after he had argued that despite having reached the 65 year retirement age ,the new constitution allowed him to serve for another two five year terms.
Officials at the Parliament told ZimEye.com on Monday  that Mudenda who pushed for the retirement of Zvoma was ‘vigorously’ pushing for  Helen Dingani to fill in Zvoma’s post.
Dingani is a former deputy clerk of Parliament and was in 2010 seconded to the Pan African Parliament, where she worked for three years.
Prior to the posting she had served Parliament for 29 years.
“Mudenda is vigorously pushing for the appointment of Dingani as the clerk of Parliament because they are both Ndebele speaking and come from the same region, Matabeleland North. Dingani hails from Hwange and Mudenda comes from Binga,” said the officials.
“But the Vice President is against the move and his argument is that Dingani is also a retirement-candidate, because she had also served the institution for close to three decades”.
Mnangagwa doubles as the Vice President and the Justice Minister, and parliament falls under his portfolio.
Early this year Mudenda barred Zvoma from visiting Parliament after the ousted former clerk was visiting the legislative assembly and conducting “secret meetings” with workers. 
Mudenda wrote to acting clerk of Parliament, Kenneth Chokuda, advising him to bar Zvoma from entering the Parliament premises.

A top Zimbabwean Prophet’s son was yesterday found dead in a bath tub just outside London.
Madzibaba Rungano “Gloryby” Jaravaza’s 22 year old son, Zvikomborero, was found drowned in the family’s bathroom in Luton on Sunday afternoon just after 4PM  in a case of suspected drowning. He had been bathing at the time, witnesses said.
“His younger sister had herself turned on the tap water in the tub for him when after walking downstairs, she was shocked to return finding him drowned,” a family source told ZimEye.com.
Zvikomborero Jaravaza (pictured) is said to have been suffering from epilepsy and a full post-mortem is now awaited.
Madzibaba “Gloryby” Jaravaza is known in the United Kingdom for his many predictions associated with exalted terrestrial beliefs. Believers claimed Sunday that his son’s death had been prophesied in a New Year eve service.
Floating rumours spiraling on Monday claimed the deceased was murdered in order to fulfill the prophecy.
But Madzibaba Jaravaza has denied the claims saying the child prophesied of in a New Years’ service is not his son and was a much younger lad. “That was a much younger child who we hoisted before everyone to see,” he said.
Zviko is to be buried in Zimbabwe soon after the postmortem has been conducted. More to follow as the story unravels…

SENATE President Edna Madzongwe has said a suburb must be named after First Lady Grace Mugabe in the Lowveld, as senior Zanu PF officials continue trying to outdo each other in an effort to curry favour with the First Family.
Speaking at a gala organised by the Zimbawe Amalgamated Housing Association (Zaha) in Chiredzi’s Chishamiso Stadium in Hippo Valley on Saturday, Madzongwe, standing in for Grace as guest of honour, said land should be provided for the construction of a suburb named after the First Lady.
“There is need for the creation of a housing scheme in Chiredzi, where a farm will be allocated to Killer Zivhu’s Zaha which will be named after Grace Mugabe,” she said to chants of approval from the guests.
Since her entry into mainstream politics, Grace has been the recipient of unrestrained fawning from Zanu PF members, who hope this could guarantee them positions in the party.
Speaking at the same function, newly-appointed Masvingo Provincial Affairs minister Shuvai Mahofa threatened sugar producing company Tongaat Hullet with closure for failing to adhere to the country’s indigenisation laws.
The threats come after accusations by top Zanu PF officials that the company — which employs about 10 000 people – was funding a plot by some members in the party to oust President Robert Mugabe.
“For Tongaat to be in Zimbabwe they should follow government rules because we can close it,” she warned. I can stop it any time.”
Recently, Tongaat reportedly spurned the government’s $30 million loan request to fund the completion of Tokwe-Mukosi Dam. Zanu PF officials, Mahofa included, last month demanded that the company cedes 20 000 hectares to be given to indigenous farmers.
Tongaat is among companies from Masvingo that are yet to contribute money to the Community Share Ownership Trusts. Mahofa, who replaced former Provincial Affairs minister Kudakwashe Bhasikiti, fired for his alleged links to axed Vice-President Joice Mujuru, said she was ready to settle land disputes in the province as well as chieftainship wrangles.
She revealed that 18 000 Tokwe-Mukosi flood victims housed in Nuanetsi Ranch were to be moved to Chiumburu Farm in Chiredzi.
Zanu PF legislators believed to be aligned to Mujuru-dubbed “gamatox faction”, among them former provincial chairperson Callisto Gwanesta, were embarrassed at the function, with both Madzongwe and Mahofa urging them to repent. southern eye

Didymus Mutasa,former Zanu PF administration secretary and Headlands MP has claimed that the ruling party is intimidating his supporters as it has deployed State security agents in the constituency ahead of a by-election to be held on  10th of  June this year.
Mutasa who was  fired from Zanu PF and recalled from Parliament over alleged indiscipline after he filed a court challenge seeking nullification of the party’s December 2014 congress outcome, has expressed that will contest and defend his parliamentary seat as a Zanu PF candidate as he has always done.
A total 15 aspiring candidates have been listed by Zanu PF to contest primary elections to choose a suitable candidate for the by-elections. Mutasa  said  nothing will deter him  and  is ready to contest in the by-election described himself as still belonging to  Zanu PF .
“I have already stated  that I will contest the by-election under the real Zanu PF, and I don’t know which other Zanu PF they are talking about. I am still a bona fide party member and l would contest any by-election in my constituency under the party’s name. I don’t want to let  down the people in my constituency.” he said.
Talking about his campaigns he described how  these were being  sabotaged by the state security agents.
“Already there is no fair play because the army and CIO (Central Intelligence Organisation) are already patrolling the area intimidating my supporters.
Those illegal party candidates should campaign for themselves without misusing State  instruments like the army, police, the CIO and other civil servants.”  said Mutasa.
Mutasa has named one of the  top Air Force of Zimbabwe official (name supplied), whois claimed  to be  leading the terror campaign against his supporters.
During his hey days in  Zanu PF, Mutasa was President Robert Mugabe’s close aide and was once  in charge of the CIO.
Samuel Udenge the  acting provincial chair for Manicaland Samuel Undenge has confirmed that 15 candidates were vying for  the Headlands seat.
Among those listed are former Manicaland governor Tinaye Chigudu, outspoken war veteran Nathaniel Mhiripiri, provincial youth league chairperson Dakarayi Mapuranga, Nation Madongorere, Christopher Chingosho, councillors Taurai Chiripamberi and Mathias Dakura.

FORMER VICE President Dr Joice Mujuru is facing charges of fraud after a Jonathan Moyo media investigation stated that she has communicated falsehoods regarding her dead husband Solomon’s estate and the latter’s children. A Police source said plans are underway to charge Mrs Mujuru after evidence showed she allegedly “lied” and there is “insurmountable evidence that she has personally falsified facts surrounding her late husband’s will” .
State Media Report:
Vice President Dr Joice Mujuru has disowned her late husband General Solomon Mujuru’s son as the fight for the national hero’s estate, believed to be running into billions of dollars, gets nasty.
Dr Mujuru is up in arms with Tendai Mujuru whom she wants to prove that he is General Mujuru’s blood.
Reliable sources told The Herald that the demand by Dr Mujuru is despite the fact that she has taken care of Tendai since the age of two.
All hell broke loose when General Mujuru died in an inferno at his Beatrice farm house on August 16, 2011.
Through her lawyers, Dr Mujuru wrote to Tendai’s lawyers on January 19, 2015 demanding that he proves that he is Gen Mujuru’s son.
“We advise that our client does not acknowledge the alleged paternity of Tendai Mujuru,” reads the letter.
This was after Tendai’s lawyers had written to Dr Mujuru on December 8, 2014 demanding that she releases Gen Mujuru’s Will if she was in possession of the document.
“Your client is free to take steps to establish such paternity and, should your client be so advised, they are free to institute any legal proceedings in connection with what they allege are their rights,” further reads Mujuru’s letter.
The Herald is reliably informed that when General Mujuru was alive, Tendai stayed at a family property — Plot Number 72 Lurna Road in Borrowdale.
He would also stay with Gen Mujuru at the Beatrice Farm.
It is a 100-hectare plot on which General Mujuru had hundreds of cattle.
“A week after Gen Mujuru’s funeral, riot police were sent to banish Tendai from the property,” said a source.
Dr Mujuru was still Vice President then.
While Dr Mujuru doubts Tendai’s paternity, his birth certificate indicates that he is the son of General Mujuru.
At his funeral, Tendai was paraded together with other children as General Mujuru’s son.
The Herald is also reliably informed that an executor is likely to be appointed this week to administer General Mujuru’s vast business empire.
He was ranked among the richest Zimbabweans with business interests cutting across almost all sectors of the economy from diamonds to Chrome.
General Mujuru’s will has disappeared, forcing Tendai to seek legal action after the national hero’s widow failed to register his estate as required by law.
According to the Administration of Estate Act Chapter 601 Section 5, the estate should have been registered within 14 days of Gen Mujuru’s death.
Dr Mujuru was supposed to have registered the Estate in her capacity as the closest person to the deceased, although the law does not bar intended beneficiaries from doing so.
Through his lawyers, Tendai wrote to Dr Mujuru demanding that she releases Gen Mujuru’s will if she is in possession of the document.
In a letter dated December 8, 2014 titled “Estate late Solomon Tapfumaneyi Ruzambu Mujuru”, the lawyers wrote: “We refer to the above matter and advise that we act on behalf of Mr Tendai Mujuru, kindly note our interest.
“Our client is a biological child to the late Solomon Mujuru. Our client has registered the estate of the late Solomon Mujuru under DR19/19/14. The estate had not been registered despite the time lapse since death.”
“We have been instructed to request from you a copy of the will of the late Solomon Mujuru if same is in your custody.
“Our instructions are that you may have a copy and if you could furnish it we would be most obliged.
“The Will is necessary for estate administration. We look forward to your response.”
Tendai’s lawyers threatened to convene a meeting and appoint an executor if Dr Mujuru does not co-operate.
“If we do not hear from you within seven days then our client will proceed to call for an edict meeting for the appointment of an executor.”

A Zvishavane Town Council manager for beer halls has appeared in court facing theft charges. Raphael Karanda,  50 who resides at  1718 Highlands Extension last week was remanded to Friday by magistrate Peter Madiba, as  his legal team Tafa and Associates prepared his defence. He is  now suspended.
While the council is alleging that Karanda prejudiced it of $100 000, the State outline showed a figure of only $936 as the total amount he diverted for his personal use after altering receipt books and journals.
Prosecutor Stanley Ncube told the court that from February 12 2015, Karanda received stock sheets duplicates from cashiers.
It is alleged that Karanda made alterations on the stock sheet bank copies and by means of the misrepresentation converted amounts altered to his own use, prejudicing Zvishavane Town Council.
The offence was discovered after an internal audit was carried out by senior accountant Obedience Nyakunhuwa.
The forged stock sheets and audit report will be used as exhibits during the trial.
Karanda is expected to appear in court tomorrow, when his legal representative presents his defence.
Meanwhile, Karanda appeared for the first council hearing at Zvishavane town council chambers facing theft charges of over $100 000.
Town Council chairman Esau Gwatipedza said Karanda’s hearing, pertaining charges levelled against him, was set to continue on March 25 and they were not going to leave any stone unturned over the issue.
“We had the first hearing at the town chambers with external arbitrators and the matter continues on the 25th of this month,” he said.
“But be rest assured that no stone shall be left unturned.
“Everything shall be unravelled to create order within our council.” -southern eye

A man accused of raping a 10-year-old girl left in his custody shocked the court last week when he told Zvishavane Magistrate, Story Rushambwa that he was not guilty of rape because he only inserted his fingers into the girl’s private parts.
Nabson Rupondo (49) of Chikudze Village, Chief Mtekedza Chivhu who was left in custody of two minors in October last year was brought to court by the parents of the two who allege that he raped one of the children twice.
It is the State case that sometime in October last year, at a stand at Dadaya Turn Off, Zvishavane Rupondo raped a the juvenile left in his custody after the parents went to their rural home.
Prosecutor Sheila Mupindu told the court that on the first count, the accused who is a friend of the complainant’s father sneaked into the juvenile’s blankets and removed her pants whilst she was asleep. He raped her once.
The minor only woke up to find the accused on top of her. The complainant cried out for help but was allegedly ordered to keep quiet. He also allegedly raped the girl on the second night.
It is alleged that the accused threatened the complainant and ordered hernot to tell her parents. The complainant did not tell anyone but the issue came to light on February 22, 2015 when she was interviewed by her mother after her teacher suspected that the complainant was sexually abused.
The complainant was examined at Zvishavane General Hospital. In his defense the accused who pleaded not guilty told the court that he only inserted his fingers into the child’s private parts. masvingo mirror

[lightbox link=”http://www.zimeye.com/wp-content/live_images//2015/03/11064746_1611430309078866_385477614189842755_n.jpg” thumb=”http://www.zimeye.com/wp-content/live_images//2015/03/11064746_1611430309078866_385477614189842755_n.jpg” width=”600″ align=”right” title=”11064746_1611430309078866_385477614189842755_n” frame=”true” icon=”image” caption=””]Information reaching Zimeye.com indicates that the government has backed down in its attempt to takeover Maleme farm.
Vice- President Phelekezela Mphoko visited Maleme farm and held closed door meetings with the local chiefs and the government lands committee.
Chief Vuyelwa Ndiweni Nyangazonke informed the masses gathered at the farm after the closed-door meeting that the takeover has been reversed.
“I have come to tell you that this farm is yours. Consultations have been made and government has agreed that no one should take it from you,” said chief Nyangazonke in a brief address which was met with wild celebrations from the crowd.
Soon after the chief‘s address, the crowd dispersed.

[lightbox link=”http://www.zimeye.com/wp-content/live_images//2015/03/11064746_1611430309078866_385477614189842755_n.jpg” thumb=”http://www.zimeye.com/wp-content/live_images//2015/03/11064746_1611430309078866_385477614189842755_n.jpg” width=”600″ align=”right” title=”11064746_1611430309078866_385477614189842755_n” frame=”true” icon=”image” caption=””]
[lightbox link=”http://www.zimeye.com/wp-content/live_images//2015/03/11058619_1611308609091036_6191462107641868535_n.jpg” thumb=”http://www.zimeye.com/wp-content/live_images//2015/03/11058619_1611308609091036_6191462107641868535_n.jpg” width=”350″ align=”right” title=”marching to Maleme farm” frame=”true” icon=”image” caption=”marching to Maleme farm”]The resistance by the people of Matebeleland over land seizures by Zanu aligned individuals is fast turning into a potential militant resistance mounted by Lobengula, Mbuya Nehanda against the colonialists.
Today the people of Matebeleland South marched to Maleme farm where they expected VP Phelekezela Mphoko to address them about the takeover of Maleme farm by CIO agent Rodrick Mashingaidze but he failed to turn up.
Hundreds drove to Maleme farm but were forced to abandon their cars by police who mounted road blocks at Maleme farm.
Determined villagers then marched to Maleme farm where VP Mphoko was expected to address them but he failed to turn up for the second time in two weeks.
One elder from the village asked for prayers as he marched to Maleme and vowed,’Sithi NO, NO and NO ngeMaleme yethu.’
‘Ngisaya eMaleme. May those going to church this morning pray for us all and pray for the land after Abantwa was once under Tjilale Bango during Mambo Empire and then Nzula the son of Princess Famona Khumalo whose grave is in this Maleme ranch during the AmaNdebele rule and under the British colonilists. Now we are independent Nzula Masuku, Sigombe Mathema, Mabuyane Ndiweni people and even Bangos and others who were displaced during the colonial rule should benefit from the land not a lone stranger or foreighner from the east. Sithi NO, NO and NO ngeMaleme yethu.’
Commenting on social media over the blockade mounted by police Ndba Nhuku said, ‘No surrender no retreat. The old and the young, women and men, the strong and ailing; all marching on together to see and hear VP Mphoko. If Mphoko is our VP, and has come to address people, why are they being turned away from hearing him?’
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Incarcerated preacher Robert Gumbura failed to flee prison fumes during Zimbabwe’s greatest ever prison escape on Friday.
As five prisoners made a successful exit, Pastor Gumbura (currently serving a half a century jail term for rape), failed to break out away from the rising smoke and he was also far away from the area where guards were overpowered.
Mr Gumbura’s cell was secured before any escape could be attempted, ZimEye.com can reveal.
Gumbura’s cell is in the B hall area and the riot took place in the C and D halls.

The commotion was started when prisoners protested the inhumane treatment at the hands of prison guards and the sadza they were being constantly fed with which has nothing else besides soup. READ MORE – BREAKING NEWS: Chikurubi Riot: 7 Prisoners Shot Dead as Mass Torture Begins-

President Mugabe yesterday urged United Nations member states to find sustainable solutions to climate change, which continues to account for debilitating droughts and floods.
The African Union and Sadc Chair said focus should centre on key areas such as mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology transfer and capacity building. Mugabe and his large entourage of hangers on have gobbled $1 million on the trip to the Far East.
Addressing the Third UN Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction here, he said violent conflict should also be accorded due attention as it caused mass population displacement, infrastructure destruction and economic degradation.
“In my country, and I speak as current Chairperson of the African Union, droughts occurred generally once every 10 years. They now occur almost every five years. Other Southern African countries are also suffering the impact of more frequent hydro-meteorological disasters in the form of both droughts and torrential flooding.
“The same trend in respect of similar disasters caused by natural phenomenon can be observed elsewhere on the African continent and indeed across the globe.”
President Mugabe noted the marked increase in the frequency and severity of such disasters.
This, he said, suggested that while countries sought to reduce risks, greater focus should be on the nexus between natural disasters and climate change.
“We have that opportunity here on Sendai, but also in the ongoing negotiations in preparation for the 21st Session of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to be held in Paris in December this year.”
The President said since the Hygo Framework for Action was adopted in 2005, tangible progress has been made in addressing disasters and improving resilience.
“Many countries have adopted national disaster policies and strategies, have made budgetary provisions for disaster risk reduction, have formulated early warning systems and have extended school programmes to include disaster education.
“Regrettably, such progress is not universal, particularly in Africa, where our countries require international co-operation and support to improve and strengthen our capacities to develop these policies and strategies.
“We welcome, therefore, the efforts made to ensure that the successor to the Hygo Framework for Action builds on its successes, but also addresses the weaknesses and gaps identified over this past decade.”
President Mugabe said the agreement on seven global targets and indicators would enable individual assessment and collective action in implementing the priorities of the Post-2015
Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction.
The President added that interfacing ensured coherence and more effective alignment of policies, and would enable nations to further reinforce fundamental pillars of international co-operation “such as the principle of common but differentiated responsibility between developed and developing countries”.
He cautioned that international co-operation and solidarity that did not recognise this and other fundamental principles — or that sought to dilute them — would be unrealistic, unfair and insincere. President Mugabe said gender sensitivity was essential in disaster risk management as women and girls were often disproportionately affected by disasters.
He said Japan’s experience in disaster risk reduction, management and recovery held important lessons for all nations.
At the conference opening, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged US$4 billion to support implementation of the Sendai Co-operation Initiative for Disaster Risk Reduction over the next four years.

ALL the 40 candidates who had applied for the position of general manager at the ailing parastatal National Railways of Zimbabwe failed to make the grade, an official has said.
This, experts said, once again raised questions on whether the country could be feeling the effects of the brain drain or simply that the company had gone down to the extent of failing to attract qualified personnel.
At the beginning of the year at least 40 prospective candidates had applied to head the parastatal and six were shortlisted by end of February but all of them failed to make the grade, board chairman Engineer Alvord Mabena confirmed.
In an interview with Sunday Business, Eng Mabena said the parastatal was set to engage a local employment agency to hunt for the right person for the job with special focus on the diaspora to entice some of the Zimbabweans outside the country who might be interested in the job.“From the first attempt we made, we did not quite get suitable candidates. We have gone through the processes and we would like to test the market once again including the diaspora to find if there is any suitable Zimbabwean out there to fill the post,” said Eng Mabena.
He said the parastatal was now in a hurry to complete the process as it had managed to finalise positions at director level hence it was imperative to fill all vacant positions in order to stabilise the system.
“We managed to get two suitable candidates for the positions of director of operations and director of finance respectively. We want to fill all positions to stabilise the system so that when funding comes through we are ready to go,” he said.
Speaking on the type of person needed to head NRZ, Eng Mabena said they wanted “a robust person experienced in executive management with a good track record of turnaround strategies. The person has to be able to run a large company like NRZ and someone with a railway background will be preferable”.
The post of NRZ general manager fell vacant after Air Commodore Retired Mike Karakadzai died in August 2013 in a car accident.- State Media

Fake Itai Dzamara s besiege London embassy
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The Itai Dzamara In London protest gathered heat on Saturday with ‘angry’ protesters shutting down the Zimbabwean embassy at The Strand just as many assumed the person of the abducted activist.
‘I am Itai Dzamara as well, they can kill but they will not take me out,” shouted one only known as Frank from Kent.
As numerous others held out placards inscribed, ‘I am Itai Dzamara’, London protester Martin Chinyanga shouted out, “if they used acid on him, they can do it on me too, ”
Dzamara, who became the first Zimbabwean to write to the 91year old President Robert Mugabe telling him to step down because he is too old for the job, was abducted on Monday morning in Harare and his whereabouts are still unknown to this day. PICTURES:

(7) seven prisoners have been gunned down at Chikurubi Maximum Prison and authorities are battling to suppress the figures, ZimEye.com can reveal.
ZimEye.com which first broke the story as it happened early Friday afternoon, can exclusively reveal that the prisoners shot dead are those mainly from the prison’s C halls where armed police officers descended onto on their way from Harare Central.
They were shot dead by the police support unit called in to quell the rioting prisoners but they ended up over-reacting on the largely male inmates who were protesting being constantly served with sadza porridge and soup.
ZimEye.com can also reveal that a prison guard, Ascom Dhenya, was yesterday struck by a brick and sustained a fracture on his left leg. Other officers were also injured in the violent commotion as prisoners protested the inhumane food they are being fed with at the prison.
By Saturday morning the figure of the dead was nearing ten (10) after an additional two were confirmed dead.
But the prison’s spokesperson Elizabeth Banda-Karinda claimed that only one person was killed and even that same person was not shot but was crushed in a stampede.
“Unfortunately one prisoner died. He was caught up in the stampede and he wasn’t shot,” Elizabeth Banda said.
 
Beating to death
Prison cells were on Saturday morning smelling fresh blood as guards conducted beatings as punishment for the riot. Those singled out for rioting were separated into one cleared cell where they were being brutally beaten up at the time of writing.
 
Shocking Admission 
Banda however admitted that the police opened fire on the prisoners but said that the ammunition used was blank.
Banda-Karinda said the prisoners did not like the vegetables they were being served along with their sadza porridge.
The State Media said a “large number” of inmates were suffering from scurvy and pellagra, both linked to bad diet.
Some prisoners at Chikurubi tried to go on a hunger strike two weeks ago over the lack of food.
The seriously injured prisoners are being treated in hospital.
A commentator calling himself Zvakaoma wrote online: “They have the full right to protest. There are no blankets, no water and nothing at all.”
 
Prison bosses looting food.
The development comes as prison authorities led by ex army officer and ZANU PF member Paradzai Zimondi presided over massive looting of the prison’s resources. Sources told  ZimEye.com prison farms are in a desperate state as Zimondi and other senior bosses have been allegedly diverting not only prisoner manpower, but also

expensive equipment such as tractors and other tools to boost their personal farm properties, in a way that has seen the vast prison farm fields deprived so there is little food for the incarcerated. “This is what he does. Him and other bosses divert prisoner labour for their personal farms,” one of the sources said.

Last Thursday, Mahofa said she had barred Mzembi from taking over part of the Masvingo farm which is home to the province’s largest hatchery project that produces 100,000 day-old chicks per week.
But the Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi has vowed to stay put on the farm which the Provincial Affairs Minister Shuvai Mahofa described as “strategic” to the province.
Barquest Farm, which is owned by Hellen Mitchell, is located near Lake Mutirikwi.
Mahofa said Mzembi should relinquish any claim to the property, adding that land would be found for him elsewhere.
But Mzembi yesterday told The Chronicle that Senator Mahofa had no power over land matters as she can only make recommendations to the Minister of Lands and Rural Resettlement, Douglas Mombeshora.
“The correct position which I wish the public to know is that I was offered Subdivision 1 equivalent to 367.51 ha in extent of Barquest Extension, which was gazetted many years ago for the purposes of compulsory acquisition and resettlement by the government of Zimbabwe, leaving the Mitchells with an ungazetted portion in excess of 500 ha to pursue their business and family interests,” said the minister.
“On my portion, as I’ve already shared with the Mitchells, I’m going to develop a hatchery, abattoir and processing plant for a poultry venture whose business elements are on file with the provincial and national government. I intend to complement the production statistics that Cde Mahofa has alluded to and she has all the information in the submission that led to my being allocated the farm.”
He added: “In the meantime, I wish to advise all that I’m now the legitimate occupant of Barquest Extension that I was offered by the government and I will commence operations after due process.”
The minister said Mahofa was best advised to engage the Minister of Lands directly and to use official channels when dealing with the matter.
He said as this was official government business, the matter has its own channels of communication and does not need amplification through the media.
He went on: “My muted silence on the matter in the face of a barrage of attacks from public media and colleagues in government and the party shouldn’t be misconstrued as an admission of guilt.
“There’s a modicum of communication that’s generally expected of us at this senior level both in government and the party that I’m observing, notwithstanding how right or aggrieved I may feel about certain issues at play.
“However, because this matter is already planted in the mindset of readers through various articles that seem to suggest that I’m grabbing a viable chicken business belonging to the Mitchells, in very brief remarks I wish to state my position to the contrary.”
Senator Mahofa had earlier said the farm was strategic to Masvingo province in terms of supply of chicks and eggs. She said besides supplying day-old chicks and eggs to Masvingo, Mitchell’s hatchery project also serviced Manicaland and Midlands provinces.
Sen Mahofa said she had already informed officials in the Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement in Masvingo to identify another farm for Minister Mzembi.
She said other senior officials in the province like Zimbabwe Chiefs’ Council president Chief Fortune Charumbira wanted to take over the farm a few years ago but were stopped because of its strategic importance to Masvingo.
Sen Mahofa said the Masvingo provincial leadership would not tolerate the take-over of productive farms that benefit the majority of the people.-chronicle

Yesterday Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko  officially opened a classroom block at Majiji High School in Bubi District. Mphoko told pupils at this school  to focus on their studies and shun the habit of illegally  travelling to South Africa, saying there was nothing for them there but death in the neighbouring country.
Mphoko, a Zimbabwe’s former ambassador to South Africa,  donated 300 books worth $7,000 to Majiji High School,saying
“I’ve come to talk to the children. I want you to know one thing. Don’t think there’s life for you across the border. In these books is where your life is, there’s nothing for you in South Africa.
Concentrate on your education and not crossing to South Africa illegally,” said the Vice President.
The Vice President said he was speaking from experience as he had come across cases of young boys and girls who left school and ended up being exploited to become sex slaves and homosexuals.
VP Mphoko showed the pupils pictures of people who were attacked in South Africa during xenophobic violence. One of the pictures was that of a foreigner who was burnt after a tyre was put around his neck and set alight.
The VP said youths should set their sights on opportunities in the country after completing school.
He had another picture of amagumaguma (people who help others skip the border) carrying a child after the mother fled the police while crossing the Limpopo River illegally into the neighbouring country.
“What do you think this umagumaguma did to this child after the mother had fled? Obviously he threw the child into the water. You pay omalayitsha between R1,000 to R1,500 to cross illegally. Those who don’t have the money, if you’re a girl, omalayitsha — upon reaching South Africa — will detain you at their house and tell their friends that they’ve a young girl.
“They’ll hire you to their friends and by the time they recoup their money, you would have fallen sick and come back home in a coffin carrying flowers on your chest. The boys on the other hand would be hired to homosexuals.
“There’s no better place than home. Don’t rush to South Africa, there’s death there.”
VP Mphoko toured the school and officially opened an A-Level classroom block.
Majiji High School is the third school in Bubi district that has received books from the Vice President and the sixth in Matabeleland North province.
VP Mphoko has 11 tonnes of books that he will be distributing to schools around the country. He will soon visit Matabeleland South and Bulawayo.
Majiji High School head, Fisani Dube, said the school faced a number of challenges among them water problems and classroom shortages due to overwhelming enrolment.
“Honourable Vice President, we face a number of challenges particularly in the rainy season as some pupils are forced to stay for weeks or a month from school as River Mbembesi would be flooded and they cannot cross. We’re appealing for assistance to construct a bridge because this affects pupils’ performance,” said Dube.
The school with an enrolment of 513 pupils recorded a 100 percent pass rate in last year’s Advanced Level examinations.
VP Mphoko donated a personalised diary to Lower Sixth pupil Qaphela Nyathi, who was honoured as the best pupil at the school.
Speaking at the same occasion, Bubi legislator Clifford Sibanda thanked the VP for the gesture. -chronicle

Kaukonde meets Mnangagwa

-Report- by Newsday-
OUSTED top allies of ex-Vice-President Joyce Mujuru — who have been in hibernation since last year — yesterday made a surprise appearance in Marondera at a function addressed by Acting President Emmerson Mnangagwa, in a move described by many as a way of reaching out to the new leadership.
Mnangagwa, who is also Justice minister, was on a mission to explain the new Constitution to people in Mashonaland East.
The Mujuru loyalists who attended the event included former Higher and Tertiary Education minister Olivia Muchena, former Zanu PF provincial chairperson Ray Kaukonde and former Provincial Affairs minister Simbaneuta Mudarikwa.
It was not that comfortable for the three who spent several hours glued to their seats as Mnangagwa arrived to officiate at the event, over four hours late.
Kaukonde and Muchena sat side by side in the second row for the whole day while Mudarikwa spent much of the time outside in the sweltering heat.
After the event, Mudarikwa could not wait to mix and mingle with the people going straight to his vehicle while others headed for lunch.
Chiefs’ Council provincial chairperson Senator Chief Enos Musarurwa told Mnangagwa about the presence of Kaukonde and other ousted officials.
He said their appearance at the event meant they had endorsed the current leadership led by President Robert Mugabe.
“I am glad that some of the faces that had since disappeared have shown up, meaning that they have endorsed the current leadership. I acknowledge the presence of some of the worms (makonye) and I assure you that we will deal with them,” said Musarurwa.
Mujuru and several other officials were fired by President Robert Mugabe for allegedly plotting to topple him from power.
Kaukonde, who is Marondera Central MP, was accused of being the chief facilitator and bankroller of the Mujuru faction.
His appearance in public yesterday was the first since December last year.
Recently party members called for him to be recalled accusing him of abandoning his constituency.

A Harare High Court judge has ordered police to intensify the search for missing pro-democracy activist Itai Dzamara who was allegedly abducted in the capital city’s Glen View high density suburb by five unknown assailants on Monday.
High Court Judge David Mangota on Friday ordered the authorities to intensify investigations into the alleged abduction of Dzamara – leader of the Occupy Africa Unity Square pressure group – that is calling for President Robert Mugabe to step down for allegedly failing to run the country democratically and pushing Zimbabwe’s economy into the abyss.
One of Dzamara’s lawyers, Charles Kwaramba, confirmed that the ruling that was made following an urgent application filed by the activist’s wife, Sheffra, on Thursday.
The attorney said the judge, however, refused to order a search of the country’s intelligence holding cells and military bases citing security reasons.
This followed submissions by state counsel, Fortune Chimbaru, representing Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi , Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri and Central Intelligence Organization boss Happyton Bonyongwe, that the state was not aware of Dzamara’s whereabouts and was equally concerned.
A police report and court documents show that Dzamara was abducted by five unidentified men who were travelling in a white Isuzu vehicle.
Justice Mangota ordered the state to report back to the court every two weeks on the police’s progress in the investigations.
MDC founding president, Morgan Tsvangirai, is accusing Mr. Mugabe’s government of kidnapping Dzamara – a charge that Zanu PF spokesperson, Simon Khaya Moyo, has denied.
Police Commissioner Chihuri on Thursday also urged his officers to intensify their investigations into Dzamara’s disappearance while Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who described Dzamara’s kidnapping as “barbaric”, told parliament that the perpetrators would be brought to book if apprehended.
Local and international civic groups, the United States, European Union, Canada and other foreign governments and entities, have condemned the former journalist’s abduction.
Dzamara’s family and the pro-democracy movement in the country are worried about his abduction. In 2008, a number of MDC activists were abducted only to be found dead a few weeks later.
Human rights activist Jestina Mukoko was abducted in the same year. She was detained incommunicado for three months but no-one has been brought to book over the issue. The same applies to MDC activists and atrocities committed on innocent civilians in the early 1980s by a national army crack unit, the Five Brigade, which left almost 20,000 people dead in the Midlands and Matabeleland regions.

The Morgan Tsvangirai led MDC- UK branch has petitioned the United Nations to bar President Robert Mugabe from attending the 3rd United Nations Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Japan and order the aging Zimbabwean leader to reveal and ascertain the safety of the abducted human rights activist Itai Dzamara.
President Robert Mugabe flew to Japan via the Far East early this week to attend the 3-day, UN conference starting tomorrow.
The party’s Asia Pacific Region  representative Jacqueline Zwambila on Friday said Mugabe should be ‘booted’ out of the meeting and be ‘ordered to return home and put ‘his’ house in order.
“We call on the United Nations and regional countries, especially the host country, Japan, to demand the immediate release of Itai who was abducted on Monday in broad daylight,” the former Zimbabwe ambassador to Australia [lightbox link=”http://www.zimeye.com/wp-content/live_images//2015/03/Jacqueline-Zwambila.jpg” thumb=”http://www.zimeye.com/wp-content/live_images//2015/03/Jacqueline-Zwambila-186×232.jpg” width=”186″ align=”none” title=”Jacqueline Zwambila” frame=”true” icon=”image” caption=””] said. 
“Even if we consider that he was arrested, the 48 hour period of a lawful detention has elapsed without him brought to court. But his was not even an arrest because he was just bundled into a car – a practice that has been condemned by the Supreme Court in the case of Jestina Mukoko”.
Dzamara was abducted by unknown assailants in Harare on Monday, and up to now his whereabouts are unknown. 
The journalist cum –human rights activist had been staging peaceful demonstrations demanding for the stepping down of President Mugabe. 
The European Union, America and the Australian Governments through their local embassies on Tuesday expressed concern over the forced disappearance of Dzamara. 
MDC-T Members of Parliament yesterday walked out of Parliament in protest of Dzamara’s abduction.
 
 

A massive jailbreak has occurred as an inferno broke forth at the notorious Chikurubi Maximum prison in an incident that has seen emotional prisoners fighting off armed prison guards, ZimEye.com can reveal.
Hundreds of blankets and property worth thousands of dollars have been set ablaze as more than 200 prisoners vowed to die “if need be”. Chikurubi, a female and male prison located on the outskirts of Harare, is known for overcrowding and extremely poor sanitary conditions with cells typically measuring 9 metres (30 ft) by 4 metres (13 ft) and there can be as many as 28 prisoners housed in each cell.
“They were being given for their daily food sadza with Royco Usavi mix,” a source told ZimEye.com .
One prisoner has since been shot dead, according to a source at the site although this could not be immediately verified.
The more than 200 rioting prisoners are said to have since taken over the prison as “guards fled the scene”. Armed reinforcements have been called from the army who at the time of writing were seen in lorries heading to the institution, SEE INTERACTIVE MAP –
More to follow as the development unravels….

A 15-YEAR-OLD student at Ekuphumuleni Secondary School in Lupane, who was allegedly sexually abused by a teacher and hs testified to the same, has changed her statements, exonerating the educator, as she told the court that she was forced to make the claims by police officers who allegedly harassed and beat her up.
The teacher, Charles Muchavaka (35), got into trouble after he allegedly proposed love to the 15-year-old female learner, who accepted and the two allegedly had sexual intercourse while at the teacher’s cottage.
Muchavaka pleaded not guilty to a charge of having sexual intercourse with a young person when he appeared before Lupane resident magistrate Aelene Munamati. The state, represented by Sanders Sibanda, called the pupil to testify on Wednesday and she suddenly changed her statement, claiming the teacher never slept with her.
She said police officers investigating the case assaulted her to induce confession that the teacher had slept with her. “He never slept with me. I was forced by the police to say that he slept with me,” she said.
The magistrate remanded the case to March 16 for continuation and the State has lined up her mother to testify in the case on the day.Sibanda told the court that the student lives at Jotsholo in Lupane and attends the same school where Muchavaka teaches.
It is alleged that the matter stemmed from the fact that the head at the school and other teachers suspected that some male teachers were sexually abusing students.
That is when it was discovered that the learner was not at school, although she had been seen earlier. The head ordered that all teachers’ rooms be searched and Muchavaka refused to have his searched.
It is the State’s case that on February 2 this year Muchavaka proposed love to the student and she accepted.
On February 5 he called her to his room, where he asked to have sexual intercourse with her and she agreed. The love affair was reportedly discovered when the head found out the girl was not at school during a roll call.
Efforts to locate her on the day failed, only for her to resurface the following day. The head then took her to the police where she was questioned and revealed that she had been in the teacher’s room at the school.
It is alleged that the girl told the police that she slept with the teacher and enjoyed the encounter. The girl was taken to hospital for testing where a medical examination confirmed she had sexual intercourse.
A medical report was compiled and a report was made to the police, leading to Muchavaka’s arrest. southern eye

A vendor was pummelled when he demanded sex from a mother and his daughter after he gave them two mangoes.
Martha Zembe (55) was so incenced by Amos Magororo’s demand that she launched herself on him, before sitting on him and hitting him with a stone. She was arrested and hauled before court.
Magistrate Sibonginkosi Mkandla ordered Zembe to pay $200 fine for the offence. It is the State case that on January 24, 2015 at Kyle Dam, Magororo (30) approached Zembe and gave her two mangoes an offer which she gladly accepted.
After offering the mangoes to the accused person, it was heard in the courts that Magororo then asked for sex from Zembe and her daughter.
“Akati unoda kurara neni kana apedza neni ozorara nemwana wangu (He said he wanted to make love to me and thereafter make love to my daughter),” said Zembe.
This did not go down well with the accused person who felt denigrated by the young vendor’s request. She then took the matter into her own hands to discipline the 30 year old who she thought was ill-mannered. Mirror

[lightbox link=”http://www.zimeye.com/wp-content/live_images//2015/03/2015-03-13-09.30.39.jpg” thumb=”http://www.zimeye.com/wp-content/live_images//2015/03/2015-03-13-09.30.39.jpg” width=”710″ align=”right” title=”2015-03-13 09.30.39″ frame=”true” icon=”image” caption=”ZAPU Youth Front leader Arnold Dube at the embassy entrance in London today”]Zimbabwe’s embassies in UK, South Africa and other countries face disruptions today as diaspora ZAPU youths stage protest against the occupation of Maleme farm by ZANU PF CIO operative Rodrick Mashingaidze.
The youth told Zimeye.com that Mugabe and his government should brace up for a total resistance over displacement of people from their lands declaring they will close down the embassies till 2018.
ZAPU youth front leaders in UK said similar protest will take place in United States, Canada and other countries.
Today’s protest in London will extend to Saturday where ZAPU members will stand shoulder to shoulder with civil rights group Zimvigil to protest the illegal abduction of Itai Dzamara.
ZAPU YOUTH FRONT statement issued yesterday reads:
ZAPU YF protest against the occupation of Meleme farm tomorrow at Zimbabwe Embassy in London. Similar protest are to happen at Zimbabwe embassy in South Africa and America also.
The Youth Front of ZAPU will also like to invite all ZAPU Cadres and all Zimbabweans to join them and the civil rights group Vigil on Saturday at 12 pm at Zimbabwe embassy to protest the illegal abduction of Itai Dzamara.
We demand the release of Itai Dzamara and a full investigation as where he is and what has happened to him. The YF is committed is committed to protect the rights and well being of our fellow country men and will do that by all means necessary.
Join us 8:30 am Friday and 12 pm on Saturday at address: Zimbabwe House 429 Strand, London, WC2R 0JR
The Revolution Is A Relay!
By ZAPU YOUTH FRONT

Judges have ignored threats by president Robert Mugabe and have now proceeded to hear the grand lawsuit by expelled ZANU PF Secretary for Administration Didymus Mutasa who is suing the head of state and other agents for his and his nephew Temba Mliswa’s expulsion from parliament.
Their application will now be heard next week Monday at the Constitutional Court.
Robert Mugabe committed high contempt of court when he threatened any judge who would consider hearing the lawsuit.  [READ MORE – Mugabe Threatens Judges Hearing Didymus Mutasa’s Case  ]
The two argue in their application that Zanu PF did not follow due process in reaching its decision to have them expelled.
They are being represented by a legal team from Nyakutombwa and Mugabe Legal Practitioners.
Part of their lawsuit states that they seek to bar the looming by-election in Headlands and Hurungwe West constituencies. The government agents and Respondents in the case are National Assembly Speaker Advocate Jacob Mudenda, President Robert Mugabe and Zimbabwe Electoral Commission chairperson Justice Rita Makarau.

At a time when Zimbabwe is reeling under sanctions that ZANU PF calls “evil” the same government deploys nothing to do, thoughtless CIO agents who move around in an unmarked twin cab to kidnap a man who is holding lawful but peaceful protests as guaranteed in the Zimbabwe Constitution. This is the very country that has been ignored by China as not being serious. The same country that has not been trusted with serious financial aid because of a wanton appetite to focus on childish luxuries.
This is the very country that has been trying to polish its image so that it can appear to be in good behavior and appeal for the removal of economic sanctions. This is a country that has been ordered by the Bretton Woods, the IMF and World Bank to improve its human rights records in exchange for financial aid. A country whose Ministers are crying daily for sanctions to be removed so that they can explore better shopping malls for their wives and children in the West. Others like the Mugabe family even want their children to try the NBA in LA in the USA. Sadly, this is the very country that continues to isolate itself through careless abrupt decisions that cost the nation at large.
Zimbabwe’s economy is on life support. Nothing is moving. Minister Chinamasa is getting tired and running out of ideas. There are no jobs. The farms are not producing because people are lazy and just want to be cell-phone farmers. The mines are at a standstill. Chiyadzwa diamonds were sapped and the proceeds fell into private pockets as blood diamonds money. Now Zimbabwean leaders wake up and try to mislead the world that they know nothing about Itai Dzamara’s kidnapping after carefully arranging for the disappearance. Who believes that?? It is already known the world over. The CIO acts on orders. They are following strict orders from the top. But then Zimbabwe is never going to be taken seriously before the World. This is a country where NIKUV arranges for elections to be forged and stolen.
A nation where only the few top leaders live comfortably as the whole nation suffers. This is a country with leaders without ethics who simply say anything to anyone with impunity. A country with a Constitution that must remain a paper theory. A country where many are terrorized by the CIO that is supposed to protect them. A country where the CIO has become a Mugabe private wing to protect ZANU PF and Mugabe interests yet it survives on tax dollars. A country where 10 000 people are ghost workers in civil service and their supposed salaries are openly pocketed by Government Ministers. The World is watching. Zimbabwe has become a big joke. People are suffering because the leaders are childish if not cruel to the masses.
No one takes them seriously. Very soon the economy will come to a standstill. It is even worse in that the human rights records and the rule of law continue to be spurned willy-nilly. People either perish by arranged traffic accidents where they get killed somewhere by bullets and are planted on the highway in smashed cars that run under fallen trees. The whole CSI scenes are arranged in early hours of the morning. The world now knows that.
At times people get kidnapped and are sent to Mahehe underground camp where the CIO practice torture and then they rush to Banket to see the Malawi sangoma who must magically subdue the dead souls to block avenging spirits from hounding the CIO. Some even drink the blood of those they kill as some take out some body parts for evil rituals. That’s why many people who disappear emerge as dead bodies with missing parts like tongues, eyes, etc etc. How evil is that? And who doesn’t know that? Everyone keeps wondering where the nation is going when there is no rule of law and nothing is working. And the Zimbabwean leaders still expect the world to take them seriously when all the major global news headlines are crying foul over the Itai Dzamara kidnapping. They are actually making the Zimbabwean situation worse.
Jones N.Mhlanga

STATEMENT BY RESTORATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS (ROHR) ZIMBABWE ON THE ABDUCTION OF POLITICAL AND HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST ITAI DZAMARA
ROHR Zimbabwe has noted with grave concern the abduction of Political and Human Rights activist and leader of Occupy Africa Unity Square movement, Itai Dzamara purportedly by “unknown” people on Monday 9th March, 2015.
We cannot help but notice that this has all the hallmarks of the state agents and is reminiscent of numerous such abductions in the past, notably that of Jestina Mukoko on 3rd December, 2008 and Paul Chizuze on 8th February in 2012. The former went through an ordeal over a protracted period at the hands of state agents whilst the latter has not been found up to date.
ROHR Zimbabwe is urging the government of Zimbabwe to respect, among other things, the rights of citizens to express themselves and to associate with any movement or persons sharing their views as is enshrined in not only the Constitution of Zimbabwe but also in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the AU’s African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, and the Declaration of Principles of Freedom of Expression in Africa, to all of which Zimbabwe is a signatory.
Rather than seeking to eliminate dissenting views, the Government of Zimbabwe should be addressing the issues that are causing the dissent and should be promoting an environment and a culture that encourages and promotes all freedoms and rights of its citizens which in turn would ultimately lead to greater participation of citizens in governance issues.
We know that it is a ‘big ask’ to ask the Government of Zimbabwe to institute a thorough investigation into the abduction of Itai Dzamara as this is tantamount to asking the Government to investigate itself.
We urge the government of Zimbabwe to cease the culture of brutal repression at par with, if not worse than, that of the Smith regime.
Until the Government of Zimbabwe heeds our call and that of many other human rights, civic and political groups, we will continue to take all necessary action to demand the release of Itai Dzamara.
By Panyika Anselm Karimanzira
Spokesperson
Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) Zimbabwe

A Grace Mugabe daughter at heart has lost her bid to represent Zanu PF in the Hwedza North by-election.
Aplonia Munzverengi will be remembered for last week scattering around posters with Grace Mugabe’s portrait on them as she prided herself as Mrs Mugabe’s daughter.
But yesterday Munzverengi came third in a poll won by one David Musabayana. The seat fell vacant following the death of Simon Kundai Musanhu, who died in January at the age of 47. Musabayana, who is an economist by profession, beat seven other prospective candidates after garnering 2 227 votes.

His closest rival, Antony Parehwa, polled 1 583 followed by Aplonia Munzverengi, who got 1 533.
Announcing the results at the Hwedza Council offices on Wednesday night, presiding officer George Rutanhire who is also a Zanu-PF Politburo member, thanked the people of Wedza for voting peacefully. He urged party members to desist from vote-buying.
Rutanhire’s remarks came in the wake of reports that some prospective candidates were dishing out donations on the election day to sway voting patterns in their favour. “If you were using money to win support that should stop forthwith,” he said.
“Zanu-PF is a big institution and it was not built through vote buying. We fought the liberation struggle without being paid and where is this spirit coming from? “We are going to report everything to our leaders that we have seen here and make our recommendations.”
Rutanhire urged Zanu-PF members to be united saying Wedza constituency should be exemplary in terms of discipline.
He said other by-elections were likely to be held soon in 17 constituencies with MDC-T Members of Parliament if the Speaker considered the letter written by the faction seeking to recall the MPs.
In that regard, Rutanhire urged Zanu-PF to be ready for the polls and deliver resounding victory. Speaking to the Herald after being declared the winner, Musabayana said he was ready to be a servant of the people of Wedza. He said his priority was to ensure that people had access to safe drinking water.
Musabayana said most people in Wedza were drinking water from unprotected sources, exposing themselves to water borne diseases such as cholera.
“We have several projects that we have lined up such as fish harvesting and contract farming that we think if implemented may help to create employment for our youths,” he said.
Mashonaland East provincial chair Aenias Chigwedere said the primary elections had exposed some discrepancies that needed to be rectified.
Others who contested in the primary elections were Lawrence Muroyiwa, Nathan Matemera, Rodwell Zinyemba, Faith Chisango and Brain Nyaguse.

MDC-T Bulawayo East legislator Thabitha Khumalo yesterday stormed Njube Hall topless after violence erupted at the party’s district rally yesterday.
She briefly disrupted an address by the party’s vice president Thokozani Khupe, alleging she was undressed by police officers. Party leader Morgan Tsvangirai who was supposed to address the rally, had returned to Harare, where MDC-T officials said he had to deal with a crisis at the party’s headquarters.
The streets of Njube turned into a battlefield as MDC-T youths fought among themselves, accusing each other of being “Zanu-PF spies.” Baton-wielding police officers moved swiftly to restore order. A number of youths sought refuge at the police station as their colleagues bayed for their blood.
Senior party officials that include national organising secretary Abednico Bhebhe, national chairperson Lovemore Moyo, and Khupe seemed unmoved when Khumalo, clad in her bra, burst into the hall with a group of youths.
Bhebhe waved an agitated Khumalo aside saying: “We will deal with that later,” as Khupe continued with her address.
Khumalo alleged three other women were stripped naked by what she claimed were Zanu-PF supporters. A number of MDC-T supporters, however, said she gave her T-shirt to one of the women who were allegedly stripped.
Khumalo fumed: “We’re talking of Women’s Day and you are undressing women and they’re walking stark naked because there’re people with an upper hand. I’ve three women at the police station who had their clothes removed by Zanu-PF supporters.”
In her address Khupe admitted there were divisions in the party. She said power hungry members would not be tolerated in the party.
“Don’t be power driven, let’s be focused, our aim is to remove Zanu-PF from power. We’ve some elements in the party who joined the party to get leadership positions.”
“There are also some elements who think they’ve people here, no one owns anyone in this party, we’re here because of you so as from today no-one can come here and say that these are my people,” said Khupe.
She denounced the MDC Veteran Activists Association (VAA) saying it was sowing divisions in the party.
“We’re saying to VAA you cannot create structures within the party but you can be an affiliate group to the party, subscribing to the provincial leadership.
“We’re saying to the veterans use your energy to fight for the cause that saw the establishment of the party,” said Khupe.
Also present at the rally were national youth chairman Happymore Chidziva, Bulawayo Mayor Councillor Martin Moyo, his deputy Councillor Gift Banda, other councillors and the MDC-T provincial leadership.
Suspended Bulawayo provincial vice chairperson Dorcas Sibanda was conspicuous by her absence at yesterday’s rallies.
Lovemore Moyo said the party was fraught with divisive elements.
“We’ve heard your cries that there is indiscipline and we’ve moved forward to ensuring discipline in the party. We want to assure that my office will change things,” said Moyo.
The party officials denounced party legislators Matson Hlalo, Reggie Moyo and Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, who won seats on the MDC-T ticket but later defected to other formations. chronicle

Lawmakers of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formation led by Morgan Tsvangirai stormed out of parliament on Thursday after acting Speaker of Parliament, Reuben Marumahoko, blocked Kuwadzana East legislator Nelson Chamisa from introducing a motion to discuss the alleged abduction of Occupy Africa Unity Square leader and pro-democracy activist Itai Dzamara early this week.

Mkoba lawmaker Amos Chibaya attracted the ire of the acting speaker when he led his colleagues in singing a song denouncing the system after Marumahoko refused to give Chamisa’s motion the nod. He was ejected from the House shortly afterwards and members of his party stormed out in protest.
Chamisa’s said Dzamara’s disappearance was an issue of national concern hence his motion. He said he was disappointed by the acting speaker’s decision to postpone the motion to next Tuesday.
Earlier Marumahoko had said the matter had been adequately answered yesterday when Justice Minister and Deputy President Emmerson Mnangagwa said Dzamara’s abductors would be brought to book. Mnangagwa was responding to questions from lawmakers.
Chamisa said parliament cannot conduct business as usual when Dzamara has not been accounted for.
MDC -T chief whip Innocent Gonese addressed his colleagues after the walkout. He said given past cases of political violence where activists were abducted and found dead later, Dzamara’s case was of national importance and should be discussed in Parliament.
Dzamara was abducted by suspected state security agents on Monday and there has been no word about his whereabouts since.
Police spokeswoman Charity Charamba says the police are investigating Dzamara’s alleged kidnapping but she did not have any fresh information today. Pressure has been mounting on Harare to find Dzamara or to release him if he’s being held by state security agents. The civil society has also been calling for his immediate release. VOA

Am currently marooned inside Harvest House, the MDC headquarters. An armoured police vehicle with some 40 or so policemen is right at the entrance while about 50 armed police are at the back of the building. There are about 12 of us still inside the building. They are saying they want a police helmet and a baton, without explaining where, how and why those things should be inside the building. When I tried to go out, about 10 armed riot police charged towards me, saying no one will go out of the building without the police getting their helmet and baton. Cry, the beloved country, under the AU and SADC chair.  

– Luke Tamborinyoka, Morgan Tsvangirai’s Spokesperson.

 
Zimbabwe’s main opposition party said Thursday that police had closed its headquarters, arguing that they were doing so because they feared an upswing in popular violence following the alleged abduction of an anti-government activist.
Police are investigating the disappearance on Monday of former journalist Itai Dzamara. The government has denied claims by the opposition that he was abducted by state security agents.
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said police had closed its headquarters following a rally demanding Dzamara’s release on Wednesday.
“Heavily armed police have barricaded our headquarters,” with several party members unable to come out, MDC representative Obert Gutu said. He also accused police of assaulting more than 13 party members after Wednesday’s rally.
There was no immediate comment from the government. Police spokeswoman Charity Charamba defended the heavy police presence in Harare’s central business district, saying police needed to maintain order following the protest, which left at least seven people injured.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai cut short a visit to southern Zimbabwe.
Representatives of civil society organizations meanwhile said they would pressure the Southern African Development Community and the African Union to remove President Robert Mugabe as their chairman if Dzamara did not return.
Mugabe, 91, is the only leader Zimbabweans have known since independence from Britain in 1980.
Sapa-dpa

The seemingly “ever-shifting” Zimbabwean government has announced it is grabbing all diamond mining operations in the country.
In a move likely to further discourage already strained foreign investment, and this being the fourth time that government has shifted its policies in less than 10 years, the Ministry of Mines has announced that all diamond mining operations in the country are now to come under one firm in which the state will have a 50 percent shareholding. Mines minister Walter Chidhakwa announced on Thursday, adding that the miners have until Monday to accept the proposal.
President Robert Mugabe’s government has stakes of varying degrees in all firms operating in the Marange fields on the eastern border with Mozambique, but the new proposal could see Rio Tinto Plc’s Murowa Diamonds, which operates in south-central Zimbabwe, coming under government control.
Murowa, 78 percent owned by Rio, with the balance owned by Zimbabwean-listed spin-off RioZim, produced 344,000 carats of predominantly gem-quality diamonds in 2014.
Chidhakwa told a parliamentary portfolio committee on youth indigenization and economic empowerment that the state would own 50 percent of the new entity, which would include seven miners in Marange.
“At some point we started by saying we will first merge Gye Nyame and Kunesa concession into Marange. But we have realized that it is actually better just to bring everybody together in the first instance,” Chidhakwa said.
Gye Nyame Resources, a joint venture between the state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) and Bill Minerals, represented by Ghanaian businessman William Ato Essien, had its licence revoked last year due to insolvency and failure to adhere to environmental requirements.
The company, which was granted mining concessions in Marange in 2011, was placed under final judicial management last June.
Other miners in the Chiadzwa area include Marange Resources, Diamond Mining Company (DMC), Anjin, Jinan and Mbada Diamonds.
“The new structure was given to them on Monday to consult their boards of directors. They will be coming back on Monday to tell us the outcome of their discussions with their boards. But we are very clear, this is a regulatory matter and we have said to them the only way you can participate in diamond mining in Zimbabwe is by being in this company,” Chidhakwa said.
He added that said government was ready to buy out mining companies that are not willing to be part of the consolidated unit.
“If you do not want to be in this company, we might have to work out ways, methods of parting ways, the kind of compensation that we need to give to those who may not want to participate in this company,” he said.
“I expect that on Monday, we will be meeting with the companies so that we hear the positions of their shareholders and we know who will be proceeding into the future and who will not be with us as we go into the future.”
He said while some mining companies have run out of alluvial diamonds deposits at some concessions allocated to them, Zimbabwe still has viable reserves of the precious stones.
“Because government already owned 50 percent in each and every one of these companies except in the case of Murowa but Murowa was also expected to comply with the indigenization and economic empowerment act,” he said.
The mining sector had been the most dynamic sector of Zimbabwe’s economy over the last five years, with an average annualised growth of 35 percent.
“We are not cancelling their mining licences but that would be ultra vires the law but we are saying let us together form one big company and you own a lesser percentage of a bigger company. Getting all this to be agreed upon and getting all the shareholders to buy in is a process that you must go through so that as you forward, you move forward with everybody,” Chidhakwa said.

The Marange-Zimunya community has threatened to stop all diamond mining activities in Chiadzwa to compel firms operating in the area to honour their US$50 million pledge to the community share ownership scheme.
There are five diamond mining companies operating in Chiadzwa and all have failed to honour the US$50 million pledge to the community share ownership scheme.
Acting Chief Marange said traditional leaders cannot stop the community any more from interfering with mining activities as the diamond companies appear to be disregarding authorities of the land.
The Chairman of the Marange-Zimunya Community Share Ownership Scheme, Chief Zimunya said there is no excuse for diamond mining companies to fail to pay their dues to the trust as the companies are extracting the resource day and night.
The Minister of State for Manicaland Province, Mandi Chimene said government should put punitive measures to force the mining companies to comply.
The Marange-Zimunya Community Share Ownership Scheme was launched by President Robert Mugabe in July 2012 and on the occasion, the diamond mining companies pledged US$50 million.
Only US$400 000 has been released.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Mines and Mining Development, Walter Chidhakwa has blamed the previous Ministers of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment for not following proper procedures on the Marange-Zimunya Community Share Ownership Trust.
Chidhakwa said there is so much confusion in the whole issue, hence the need to bring all stakeholders together and deliberate on the way forward.
“There is so much confusion and there is need to correct some of the things which were not done properly as miners maintain they were not consulted, hence non-movement for the community share trust,” he said.
This response came after the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Youth Development, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment chaired by Gokwe Nembudziya legislator, Justice Mayor Wadyajena summoned Minister Chidhakwa to give his side of the story.
“We have heard about US$10 million meant for all companies or it was meant for one company as literature also points different figures of between US$5 million and US$10 million. Things have not been done properly,” said Wadyajena.
Legislators took the minister to task by producing correspondence between the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development and the Ministry of Youth Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment.
In all the circus, the biggest losers are the local people as the Marange-Zimunya Community Share Ownership Trust has failed to take off owing to non-funding.

The European Union said reluctance by President Robert Mugabe to realign laws with the new constitution was promoting gross human rights violations like the abduction and disappearance of human rights activist Itai Dzamara early this week.
For this reason the Western bloc said it was pouring  $1.28 million to  support  the country’s judiciary system so that it becomes ‘consolidated’ and fully equipped   to carry out its constitutional role of   ‘promoting democracy and rule of law’.
“What we need to do and what we shall do, very shortly, in partnership again with the civil society, the Parliament and the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentarian Affairs, is to provide support to the Judicial Service Commission to contribute to an improved administration of justice,” EU Ambassador to Zimbabwe Philippe Van Damme, told delegates witnessing the launch the support to constitutional alignment process in Harare Thursday.
The funding which will go for  two years will be  be channelled through the Centre for Applied Legal Research and directed to provide technical support to the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs for technical support.
EU said they were also going to fund the establishment  o f independent commissions  prescribed by  the  new constitution and  equip them.
“What we will do in the next steps, is make sure that the Constitutional Commissions are established and receive the human and financial means to fulfil their constitutional mandate in an independent way, and design a sector-wide approach to support the judiciary system in its various dimensions, in order to consolidate democracy, the respect for the human rights, the rule of law,” Ambassador Van Damme pledged.
EU and other western donors supported the country’s constitution making process during the tenure of the inclusive government which led to the adoption of the new Charter nearly one and a half years ago.
 

Grace Mugabe’s future  distant and  near, looks very dark after she was stripped into the open by expelled ZANU PF Secretary for Administration Didymus Mutasa.
Mutasa in his most latest correspondences to Grace’s husband, Robert, serialised Grace Mugabe’s moral failures in both depth and detail that now create a master-precedent for future lawsuits against her with or without her husband.
The revelations now legally empower every Minister, and other party  officials fired through her cyclonic tirade  who can now sue her for impropriety, legal analysts said Thursday.
In a damning letter written to Mugabe at the end of January this year, Mutasa also said the nonagenarian had done absolutely nothing to date to mitigate the ructions bedevilling the party, as well as the chaos spawned by his wife.
“The nationwide rallies and meetings conducted by the First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe became divisive and acrimonious, directly threatening party leaders and members perceived to be associated with the party Vice President and second secretary Amai Joice Teurai Ropa Mujuru.
“Contrary to expectations that your excellency would intervene objectively and restore sanity; you ominously joined the fray and became judge and juror, over all and sundry,” Mutasa said.
Grace entered mainstream politics last year, following her unexpected nomination to lead Zanu PF’s Women’s League.
But Mutasa, in his letter — which is an annexure to the Constitutional Court application that he filed together with his nephew Temba Mliswa challenging their disputed expulsion from Parliament last week — believes Grace’s entrance into politics was a major source of the problems bedevilling the party, particularly when she embarked on her controversial “Meet the people” rallies around the country.
During the rallies, Grace ruthlessly savaged a number of party bigwigs — chiefly Mujuru — accusing them of corruption and planning to topple her 91-year-old husband from power.
In the letter, Mutasa said pursuant to Grace’s utterances at her rallies, several party cadres perceived to be linked to Mujuru had been booted out from their offices through irregular votes of no confidence.
He described the purges as “unprocedural and unconstitutional”.
“The nomination process for central committee positions was fraught with intimidation, threats of violence, violence, repression and as such, in no way, could it have been free, fair and constitutional.
“Constitutional amendments were railroaded before the congress in direct contravention of the constitutional provisions that regulate such amendments, in particular Article 30 of the party Constitution read with Section 253,” Mutasa said.
He said the events in the period prior to, during, and after the congress resulted in the forced removal of constitutionally-elected party leaders in nine out of 10 provinces.
“The politburo and central committee meetings immediately preceding that congress were shrouded in threats, fear and total failure to express individual opinion.
“This is based on the glaring summary suspensions, expulsions and direct malicious accusations of treason and singularisation of individuals by the president,” Mutasa said.
He added that the actions resulted in a “highly divided party, illegal and unconstitutional structures in Zanu PF with no legal basis to form a credible government”.
“Your Excellency, sanity needs to be restored in the party and we appeal to you to decisively take the necessary and corrective actions for the welfare of the party and nation.
“We are confident of your desire to expeditiously resolve this fundamental and critical matter for the good of the valiant liberation party and legacy,” Mutasa said.
Mutasa also queried the way the ruling party’s congress delegates had been accredited, adding that the way the issue had been handled disregarded Zanu PF’s standing rules and procedures.
“Numerous elected leaders were barred from attending that congress through direct and unrestrained threats to their safety and well-being.
“Several members and senior leaders of Zanu PF, including myself, do not regard that December meeting as a congress,” he asserted.
Mutasa, together with former Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo, have since filed a High Court application seeking to nullify the congress.
“The present application is one that seeks a declaration to the effect that the first respondent (Zanu PF)’s congress that was held in December 2014 was a nullity and was held in breach of the respondent’s own constitution.
“Connected to the illegality of the congress is the unlawfulness and unconstitutionality of certain appointments and decisions that were made and of certain constitutional amendments that were made,” Mutasa said in his High Court affidavit. (DailyNews/Additional Reporting)

President Robert Mugabe is keeping his loyalists on tenterhooks as he delays replacing ministers he fired following a brutal purge, triggering frenzied jostling in his divided Zanu PF.
The party’s merciless purges, targeted at ex-vice president Joice Mujuru and her perceived loyalists — have claimed 17 ministers and deputies amid fears that residual elements linked to the widowed ex-VP could also be dropped from Cabinet.
“The President should reward those who worked for the party against Mai Mujuru and all those who wanted to remove him from power. We know the ‘gamatox’ (Mujuru loyalists) ministers and they should be chucked out from Cabinet,” said a source.
Ministers, who are still in government, linked to Mujuru include Sydney Sekeramayi (Defence), David Parirenyatwa (Health and Child Care), Lazarus Dokora (Education) and Andrew Langa (Sports and Recreation).
With the Constitution limiting Mugabe to appointing ministers from a pool of legislators in Parliament, the nonagenarian is presently limited to pick from those who were either elected during the 2013 elections or he appointed.
As it is, the Daily News is reliably informed that Mugabe might be forced to bring back some of the fired deputies who have thus far demonstrated unbridled loyalty to him and his increasingly powerful wife Grace.
“Three deputy ministers are coming back. Look at Tongai Muzenda (axed deputy minister of Labour) he is the son of the late vice president Simon Muzenda and there is pressure for him to be brought back because he has remained loyal to the president,” said the source.
Mugabe has thus far fired, Didymus Mutasa (Presidential Affairs minister), Webster Shamu (Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services), Francis Nhema (Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment), Olivia Muchena (Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development), Dzikamai Mavhaire (Energy and Power Development), Nicholas Goche (Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare), Simbaneuta Mudarikwa (Mashonaland East Provincial Affairs minister) and Munacho Mutezo (Energy and Power Development deputy minister).
While Mugabe has come up with replacements for most of the Cabinet posts, he is still to name the new minister of Women and Gender Affairs — with his wife Grace, who is now the secretary for women affairs in Zanu PF, likely to be appointed to the post.
Among those who have also been axed from government are, Flora Buka, minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Paul Chimedza deputy minister of Health and Child Care, Sylvester Nguni minister of State in former vice president Mujuru’s office), Muzenda, Petronella Kagonye deputy minister Transport, Fortune Chasi deputy minister of Justice and Tendai Savanhu the deputy minister of Lands and Rural Resettlement deputy minister.
But Mugabe has kept those accused of belonging to the Mujuru faction guessing and on the other hand Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s camp is keen on ensuring that they benefit from the reshuffle through appointments to influential posts.
Because of the looming reshuffle, many people are mudslinging and there is a raging war to discredit other people who have remote links to Mujuru, sources said.
The sources in Zanu PF accused Mugabe of taking long in rewarding his foot soldiers who “smoked out Mujuru” before the party’s controversial congress held in December last year.
“There are a lot of ‘gamatoxes’ (Mujuru supporters) that still need to be smoked out of Cabinet, as well as the key security sector and the civil service if factionalists are to be defeated once and for all,” said a party official close to Mnangagwa. daily news

The trial of Abundant Life Global Ministries pastor, Danmore Magorimbo entered day three with the state seeking clarification on a voice conversation transcript brought in as evidence.
Magorimbo is facing charges of indecent assault, attempted rape and rape but is denying all the three charges.
The trial kicked off with the state asking the complainant what Magorimbo was referring to when he was recorded saying ‘God told me the sacrifice must be dry and skin to skin,’ to which the complainant answered ‘the pastor wanted unprotected sexual intercourse with her.’
The state represented by Michael Reza also asked the complainant why the accused said it was tough to have sexual intercourse with her, and she replied that he knew that what he was doing was wrong.
The state further questioned the complainant why Magorimbo said she (the complainant) must not cause harm to the man of God and why he felt threatened when he had consensual sexual intercourse and she replied that, the accused person has been gripped by fear and wanted her not to take action as he knew what he did was wrong.
The pastor was recorded telling the complainant that, “Heavens sat down and sought how to enforce you. How it will assist you to fight and it saw it fit you to take power from the man of God. That is why it has to be dry, because heavens saw it fit that you lead the life of a man of God, life is in the blood and you know sperms are blood, it was God’s will so don’t take it lightly.”
The state said the statement proves the accused had sexual intercourse with the complainant and wanted to instil fear into her.
Magorimbo is alleged to have raped the complainant after tricking her that by having sexual intercourse with her, he will be able to drive away evil spirits allegedly unleashed on her by her husband.
-ZBC

FORMER Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono has been sued at the High Court in Harare over a $2,2 million debt, barely two weeks after Oasis Motors approached the same court over a $1,5 million debt.
This brings the total amount Gono is being sued for at the High Court over his failure to pay debts to $3,7 million. In the latest case, a South African company, ASP Marketing CC, alleges that Gono, who is the director of Lunar Chickens, entered into various agreements for the supply of maize and soya beans that would be used to produce feed for the poultry business.
Lunar Chickens did not pay for the delivery, resulting in ASP Marketing approaching the High Court for an order compelling the poultry firm to settle the debt.
A fortnight ago, Gono made headlines over failure to pay a $1,5 million debt to Oasis Motors for vehicles he purchased for Lunar Chickens staff in 2010.
ASP director Alida Aletta Craukamp deposed a founding affidavit chronicling how Gono entered into the agreements for maize and soya beans deliveries and ended up failing to pay.
Craukamp said her company was in the business of purchasing and selling agricultural products like maize, soya beans and maize bags.
Gono, according to Craukamp, met ASP officials at his New Donnington Farm in Norton and they sealed a deal for the supply of maize to Lunar Chickens at the price of $395 per metric tonne.
Each delivery, according to the agreement, would be separately invoiced and payment would be done by telegraphic transfer within 60 days from the date of presentation of the invoice.
Between December 2009 and May 2010, ASP delivered to Gono 2,209,72MT of white maize at the agreed price. Lunar Chickens also signed another agreement in which it received 2,966,07MT of soya beans at the price of $495 per MT between June and July 2010 from ASP.
Several other consignments of grain were delivered to Lunar Chickens, but Gono failed to comply with the payment agreements, resulting in the matter spilling into the courts.
In respect of maize deliveries, ASP issued and presented its invoices to Lunar Chickens, but payment was not done within the stipulated 60-day period.
For soya bean deliveries, the deadline for payment was end of August 2010.
ASP officials met Gono in South Africa in 2011 and he undertook to pay the debt with interest.
In the same year, Gono acknowledged the debt and paid $140 000, leaving a balance of more than $2,2 million.
Despite demand, Gono has refused or failed to pay the debt, it is alleged.
Responding to the application, Lunar Chickens chief executive officer Velenjani Lupankwa argued that ASP had adopted the wrong route in claiming the debt.
He submitted that Clause 14 of the parties’ agreement stated that disputes of breach of contract should be referred for arbitration in South Africa and not the local High Court.
Lupankwa argued that the agreement relied upon was an illegal one as it infringed Section 11 of the Exchange Control regulations of 1996.
The company argued that no exchange control authority had been obtained to allow Lunar Chickens to send money outside the country and that the High Court cannot be asked to sanction an illegality. Lunar Chickens argued that ASP, being a foreign company, failed to pay security of costs rendering the application fatal.
Lunar Chickens also argued that ASP sued the wrong party as it dealt with New Donnington Farm (Pvt) Ltd and RT Feeds in the agreements.
It was also stated in the opposing papers that the three-year period stipulated under the Prescription Act as the period in which a claim may be made had since lapsed and that the claim must be dismissed.
Litigation, according to Lunar Chickens, ought to have been instituted at least by July 25, 2013. Lunar Chickens also argued that the maize and soya beans were imported without paying customs duty.
Gono, according to Lunar Chickens, had no authority to act on behalf of the company when he dealt with ASP, hence the company that was sued had nothing to do with the case.
Lunar Chickens denied ever dealing with ASP, urging the court to dismiss the application with costs. herald

Dodgy Employees from the Ministry of Land and Rural Resettlement have pocketed more than $61 000 after illegally selling land to desperate land seekers. Eight employees allegedly sold land to unsuspecting people in need of farms.  Minister of Lands and Rural Resettlement, Dr Douglas Mombeshora confirmed the incident, adding the suspects have been suspended from work.
The matter is now with police who are  investigating the case.
“All the cases were related to corruption involving illegal selling of land. The employees were working as syndicates with some people who were not employed in the ministry. I believe the money collected from the land seekers could be above $61 000. Some of the land seekers paid for land using cattle and goats. They were made to pay money ranging from $100 to $7 000 per individual,” he said.
The employees are from Mashonaland West, Mashonaland East, Matabeleland South and one from the ministry’s headquarters in Harare.
Minister Mombeshora said the employees were arrested after the affected people made reports.
In some cases, the illegal land dealers were trapped. Minister Mombeshora discouraged people from seeking farms through unprocedural means.
“It is difficult to deal with issues of corruption. This case involves two parties, the land officer and the land seeker,” he said. “Most of the people who were duped knew that what they were doing was illegal.
“We have been to the districts and provinces telling people on the correct procedures of acquiring land.
“One has to apply and be on the waiting list. Land is for free and no one should pay any money even for transport or fuel. The moment someone asks for money it becomes an illegal deal,” he said.
Dr Mombeshora said land seekers were sometimes forced to pay for transport and fuel costs by illegal land dealers.
There are more than 500 000 people on the waiting list. -State Media

•    200 workers to be rendered jobless
•    Weekly production of 100 000 day old chicks stopped
In a development that has shocked the business community around Masvingo, Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi who has a derelict farm about 5km from Masvingo City has grabbed a productive hatchery project 20km away on the eastern shorelines of Lake Mutirikwi.
The move will see 200 workers at the farm owned by Hellen Mitchell losing jobs and a vibrant project which is the sole supplier of 100 000 day old chicks per week to Masvingo, Midlands and Manicaland provinces being shut down.
Mitchell has been given three months to wind up.
Barquest Farm is the only remaining meaningful industry in Masvingo after mostly Zanu PF politicians took over and destroyed every economic activity including conservancies that created thousands of jobs for Zimbabweans who are now economic refugees in their millions in South Africa and other countries.
Mitchell said she was not commenting on the matter.
Shattered workers were milling around the farm when The Mirror visited last week not sure what will happen next. Some of them were close to tears when they were approached for interviews.
Mzembi who is not new to such controversies confirmed the move to The Mirror. He said he would keep the Mitchells on the land but added that would also run a similar multi-million dollar project on the farm.
He said the peri-urban Farm near Stop Over which he ran derelict was his personal asset and he had title deeds to it. He said Barquest Farm was being given to him by Government under the land resettlement programme.
Asked why he could not do the same chicken project on the farm that he ran derelict, Mzembi said his project there was sabotaged by rogue elements who came and throttled 30 000 birds to death. He said all the birds were killed in one night.
This is not the first publicly known project run by Mzembi to fail. He used to have a supermarket in the city centre called BW which was also run down until workers failed to get salaries. The building is now abandoned and an eyesore.
Mzembi also made headlines in February 2013 when he and former MP Irvine Dzingirai declared that they had grabbed Renco Mine which is probably Masvingo’s biggest mining venture. There was a public outcry and the two only moved out of the mine after the court declared their move illegal.
The current land grab at Barquest is also not the first time that Mzembi has been linked to interests in the land around the Lake area. Sometime last year, the newly installed Chief Boniface Musara told The Mirror that it was Mzembi who worked to ensure that Musara was installed chief in that area. Musara was installed chief late last year.
Musara said he and Mzembi were from the same clan and that whole area around the lake and Masvingo peri-urban used to belong to their forefathers.
However, Chief Chikwanda and his people of the Vaduma totem are viciously resisting the appointment. In December last year Chief Chikwanda’s advisers resolved to approach Shuvai Mahofa and Josiah Hungwe as Zanu PF godfathers in Masvingo to have Musara’s chieftainship reversed.
Chief Musara was reportedly present when Mzembi and security agents went to the farm last week to announce the takeover.
Mzembi’s offer was signed by the Minister of Lands and Rural Settlements Dr Douglas Mombeshora.
When contacted for comment Mombeshora said those who think black farmers cannot be good farmers are from the opposition.
“As Zanu PF government we believe we should empower black farmers in the same manner the British and Ian Smith governments supported their farmers. Those who think black farmers are not good are from the opposition.”
However, MDCT Secretary General Douglas Mwonzora rubbished Mombeshora’s comment and said the new wave of farm invasions by Zanu PF was the last nail on their coffin.
“That’s total rubbish. It doesn’t need a rocket scientist to see that that’s the final on Zanu PF’s coffin. They have run down the economy and they are soon going to reach a dead end. After this where do they go,” said Mwonzora.
Mzembi has been inconsistent in as far as fresh land invasions are concerned. He was recently attacking his colleagues in Zanu PF for invading conservancies and thereby tarnishing the tourism industry abroad. Analysts also said that Zanu PF was contradicting its ZIMASSET goal of creating two million jobs by 2018 when it allows the loss of 200 jobs at Barquest Farm just to please one man who claims a piece of land simply because his forefather either stayed or passed through there.
Masvingo is the most deindustrialised town in Zimbabwe since the beginning of the land reform programme. The whole industry except a few hotels tottering on the brink has closed down.
The analysts also said the Mitchells who have financially supported Zanu PF over the years have learned the hard way about the Zanu PF politics.
“Let me put the record right. I am not invading the farm neither am I trying to push the Mitchells out but I was just allocated the farm. It’s unfortunate that currently their buildings are on that gazetted piece of land but I am willing to work with them. I am going to have the same project on the farm and I am going to invest over 1 million Euros.
“The other farm you are referring to is my personal farm and I have title deeds for that farm. I only abandoned that poultry project after some rogues strangled over 30 000 birds on the farm,” said Mzembi. – Mirror

A WHITE commercial farmer from Insiza District, Bruce Moffat, who is the grandson cousin-relation of former Rhodesian Prime Minister, Ian Smith was yesterday ordered to vacate Oaklands Farm which was acquired by the government for resettlement.
Moffat, grandson to Howard Unwin Moffat, Southern Rhodesia’s second premier from 1927 to 1933, was dragged to court by a Bulawayo woman, Sibongile Shava for refusing to vacate Oaklands Farm which was acquired by the government and sub-divided into three sections to accommodate newly resettled farmers in 2010.
The Moffats are cousin brother-relatives to the country’s last white Prime Minister, Ian Smith.
Sibongile, a widow of the late Vice-President Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo’s driver, Colleen Shava, was allocated Sub-division Two of the farm, but Moffat disputed her ownership of the property. He argued that he was in possession of a recommendation letter issued by officials from the lands office in Filabusi authorising him to retain two thirds of the farm.
Magistrate Singandu Jele ruled that Moffat’s letter could not supersede Shava’s offer letter, which was signed by the Minister of Lands and Rural Resettlement, Douglas Mombeshora. “The recommendation letter that the defendant produced in court can’t supersede an offer letter and as such Moffat can’t remain in occupation of Oaklands Farm. You’re accordingly ordered to vacate the farm forthwith,” said Jele.
Shava had approached the Small Claims courts seeking an order to evict Moffat from the property.
According to the summons, Moffat was cited as the defendant while Shava is the plaintiff.
In her claim, Shava sought the eviction of the white farmer whom she accused of arrogance.
“My plaintiff’s claim is that Bruce Moffat be evicted from my farm. I’ve tried to talk to him but he refuses to communicate with me insisting that I should talk to his lawyer,” she said.
Shava said Moffat refused to recognise her offer letter from the Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement.
“Despite producing my offer letter, which I was given by officials from the Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement in Filabusi, Moffat is refusing to vacate my farm, arguing that it isn’t genuine, which is why I had to resort to the courts seeking recourse,” Shava said.
Moffat queried the authenticity of the document, arguing that it lacked a date stamp among other things.
Moffat also argued that the Small Claims had no jurisdiction to handle the dispute because of the value of the land. According to the Small Claims Court Act, the court cannot handle cases involving money or property whose value is in excess of $10, 000.
However, in response, Jele said in the event that the land is acquired by the State it ceases to have value in terms of the Agricultural Land Settlement Act.
Oakland Farm has been at the centre of controversy since 2013 when Shava was allocated the land by the Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement. She was given her offer letter on June 6, 2014.
According to the letter, which is in The Chronicle’s possession, Shava was offered Subdivision Two of the 216-hectare farm. chronicle

Retired judge and former Judge President, Justice Wilson Sandura has died.  He was 74.

Justice Sandura died at the Avenues Clinic in Harare where he was receiving treatment after being involved in an accident on the 27th of February this year.

A legal practitioner, Tendai Ammon Toto described the retired judge as a professional who left a legacy in the law profession and the country at large. Toto said the law profession has learnt the death of Justice Sandura with shock, saying there is no doubt he contributed immensely in post independence Zimbabwe’s law development.

Justice Sandura retired from the bench on the 29th of July 2011 at the age of 70.  In 1989, he became prominent when he presided over a commission to investigate the abuse of office by government officials in acquiring motor vehicles through Willowvale motors.  The high profile case became known as the Willowgate scandal.

Democracy activist Itai Dzamara is reported to have been found at Harare Central Police Station Wednesday afternoon, but the reports have not been verified.
A message circulated on Wednesday claimed that the 36 year old man has been located inside the cells. This came just as photographs of the dead body of a burnt man of the same height as him was circulated on social networks.
ZimEye.com had at 4PM been promised to receive an official statement by Police Spokesperson Charity Charamba who said she would issue it out in an hour’s time but her telephone number became unreachable shortly afterwards.
The Central Intelligence Organisation’s agents are said to have abducted the activist and journalist when he went missing in Harare’s Glen View outpost on Monday morning.
Dzamara was violently apprehended by five unknown men at a barber shop as on Monday morning who sped from the scene in a white Isuzu twin cab vehicle according to witnesses. His abductors were travelling in that bakkie vehicle which had a “blurred” number plate, the Lawyers for Human Rights’ group said.
Witnesses have said the men accused him of stealing a cow.
On the day of his abduction, Dzamara’s phone was ringing continuously without being answered. The following day, Tuesday it responded as having been switched off just as his wife and family struggled to know his whereabouts.
While a social networking page speculated Wednesday with a photograph of a burnt man alleged to be that of Dzamara, the ZLHR reported that they “have since filed an urgent… application to compel whoever is holding Dzamara to bring him before the court so as to determine if he should really be in detention.”
Dzamara had been staging an on-off protest in central Harare calling for President Robert Mugabe to step down. Police in the capital beat him unconscious in November 2014, and attacked a rights lawyer who had gone to his defence.
Police Statement:
The Police told ZimEye.com on Wednesday afternoon they have launched “a massive search” to find facts on the abduction Itai Dzamara on Monday. A junior Police spokesperson told ZimEye.com “but at present the assailants are not known, and so we are doing out best.” The most senior of spokesperson Charity Charamba answering calls, told ZimEye.com she would communicate fully in an hour’s time Wednesday concerning Dzamara. “I am in a meeting at the moment, please call me back after an hour,” she said in part.

Several ZANU PF campaign posters seen splattered in and around Hwedza North, bearing an illustrious photograph of First Lady Grace Mugabe have sparked controversy amid growing belief that she is now the automatic successor of her husband for the Head of State position.

The large posters display Grace Mugabe in full colour ink in ways that have never been seen of a President’s wife since the days of the late Sally Mugabe.
Previously posters used to carry portraits of Robert Mugabe alone.
Grace at the end of last year vocally indicated there is no reason why she can not be made President of Zimbabwe: “They say I want to be president. Why not? Am I not a Zimbabwean?,” she said in a loud tirade against her detractors, two months before she appeared in the politburo last month flanking the President as a  deputy visual.
The posters come after Robert Mugabe last year attempted to reason with party colleagues saying, “Why do you not want the President’s wife to lead,” in an utterance interpreted to mean he means the headship of the entire nation.
The development has attracted an uproar from the public with some Zimbabweans on social networks screaming out obscenities in protest.
One Zimbabwean said the poster shocker indicates Grace is now far much higher than Mugabe himself and her predecessor Oppah Muchinguri who was Women’s League leader was never treated under such recognition.
“One thing I find striking is the presence of the current secretary for women’s affairs’ picture. was Cde Muchinguri’s picture ever used in that manner?”
 
One prolific Facebooker, burst out saying,  “I would rather die poor than licking another man or another woman’s **s. We all know who has taken us to this point in our lives. A past so cruel and a present so divisive and a future so bleak.
“Another chembere has been roped in wechidiki muchingopemberera nxaaaaa woke up folks you are being used.
“We want to talk about the future of Zimbabwe here. But the people being imposed to represent the masses does not show the future. They all represent the past.”
Meanwhile Mrs Mugabe has challenged the head of the army saying that post can be taken by a woman pick at any time

Zimbabwe’s Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku has fired a warning on Robert Mugabe  instructing him to refrain from publicly commenting on matters under consideration by the courts.
 
Chidyausiku in a grand statement the first of its kind in Zimbabwe’s history issued on a sitting Head of State, said Mugabe’s statements are in violation of the sub-judice court protocol bar.  Robert Mugabe last week abused his office and committed the highest contempt of court by threatening and also violating court protocol by saying the case raised by expelled party Secretary for Administration Didymus Mutasa and former Spokesman Rugare Gumbo was useless and any judge who even considers it for hearing must appear before him for questioning.
 
Mugabe went further denigrating the office of Zimbabwe’s honourable High Court judges saying he will have their qualifications questioned if they entertain the pair who are challenging their ouster from both party and leadership.
 
In a statement read on his behalf by the Chief Registrar of Superior Courts Mr Munamato Mutevedzi at a Press conference Tuesday, Justice Chidyausiku took a direct swipe at Mugabe saying the aged President should not seek to interfere with the administration of justice.
 
“The Chief Justice calls upon all to refrain from publicly commenting on matters under consideration by the courts in violation of the sub-judice rule,” said Chief Justice Chidyausiku.
He said the courts will not be swayed by the comments and that all the pending cases will be dealt with in terms of the law.
“Notwithstanding the comments and reports on pending matters, the Chief Justice reassures all that matters before the courts are and will be determined in accordance with nothing other than the law,” he said.
The head of the Judiciary said he issued the statement in response to comments carried in the public media regarding pending court cases.
“The Chief Justice notes with concern the proliferation in the public media of inappropriate comments on matters pending before the courts, contrary to the time honoured and internationally accepted practice of refraining from publicly commenting on matters that are sub-judice,” he said.
“However, such reports and comments must not seek to, or be perceived as seeking to prejudice, influence or interfere with the due administration of justice or fair trials of the matters reported on.”
Didymus Mutasa and former spokesperson Mr Rugare Gumbo have moved to seek the nullification of the ZANU PF December 2014 party’s congress and its outcome.
Addressing thousands of people gathered at Chinyika Ranch Ward 2 in Chirumanzu-Zibagwe Constituency to witness a ground-breaking technology, the exothermic (Alluminathemic) demonstration by African Chrome Field, President Mugabe last week reportedly said it would be interference with Zanu-PF’s internal matters if the Judiciary entertained the court challenge by Messrs Mutasa and Gumbo.
Professional Legal analysts reveal Mr Mutasa is now unlikely to get a fair court hearing following the President’s comments.
Constitutional lawyer Dr Alex Magaisa and University of Zimbabwe lecturer Professor Lovemore Madhuku also talked about the case, with Prof Madhuku being quoted as calling on Chief Justice Chidyausiku to issue a statement demanding that the Executive stops interfering with the Judiciary.
But Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo who has no legal training whatsoever said that the lawyers were misdirecting themselves in twisting the President’s statement. He said Mugabe was entitled to this legal defence, and was within his rights to challenge the court’s jurisdiction as a respondent in the matter. Moyo said it was entirely up to the court, which would hear the case, to determine whether or not it had the jurisdiction that had been wrongly presumed by Messrs Mutasa and Gumbo.
Legal analysts have however laid their full facts that Mutasa and Gumbo’s case has become compromised. More to follow…

…Today the world woke up to news pointing and suggesting that prolific activist Itai Dzamara has been murdered by the CIO. This development comes as the grand women’s boycott nears that Dzamara inspired when he wrote his master-letter to Robert Mugabe telling him to leave…. READ ON
 
A sixth and last letter to all women in Zimbabwe in preparation for the grand boycott!
“Passive resistance”
This is the sixth and last letter, a two days before the grand boycott starts.
This time we ask not only men/ husbands, brothers, sons, men friends, men in the police- and the armed forces of the Republic of Zimbabwe. We are extending our cause to the Honourable Members of Parliament in the opposition. We are saying to those Members of Parliament who are in the opposition please smell the coffee and come and join us in the Grand Boycott by not only staying away from Parliament but actually resigning and make the government of Zimbabwe collapse and we start all over again in the general elections.

Please Mai Mujuru, tell your fellow Members of Parliament who have been purged just like you to resign this March and bring that government to a standstill. Please President Tsvangirai, tell your Honourable Members of Parliament to resign from the sitting Parliament and bring that government to a standstill. Please Honourable Holland/Biti/Ncube/Mangoma, tell your sitting Members of Parliament to march out of Parliament and resign so as to make the government of Zimbabwe collapse and we start all over again and have credible elections without rigging.
Mai Mujuru, you have nothing to lose but all to gain if you told your fellow Members of Parliament not only to boycott Parliament but to actually resign from Parliament and call for fresh elections. If you did that you will make history for yourself and your legacy will be: it’s Mai Mujuru who brought down a despotic government that has no respect for other fellow citizens. Mai Mujuru, you lost your hubby, one, you lost your Vice Presidency, two, you lost your Parliament Seat, three, you lost the Zanu party membership, four, you are labelled a killer five, you are told you are now a witch, you solicited witch doctors to kill “The Great Leader” six. Now what is there to lose still if you told yourself that enough is enough? Parliament Speaker, Mudenda has shown us how hypocritical he can be to throw out Mutasa and Mliswa out of Parliament but not doing the same in the same situation with MDC-T MPs. It is the fear that Zanu PF the government will collapse if your MPs left the Parliament and resigned. Use this fear Mai Mujuru, let them fart on their dresses and trousers. This is yet a golden opportunity to bring change in Zimbabwe that will surprise you to capture that fear Zanu PF has and use it to change the statuesque forever.
President Morgan Richard Tsvangirai, instead of boycotting the By-elections, tell your MPs to resign and bring the government to a halt, to a standstill. Boycotting by-elections is not effective, you know this yourself. Why go for ineffective solutions and never consider very bold and effective moves to change government? You are no longer beholden of Zanu PF, Richard Morgan. The answer to Zimbabwe’s problems is right on your reach, you fail to act at the spur of the moment all the time the past 15 years as opposition leader. You can do two things, boycott By elections and tell your MPs to resign and the government will have no option but to call for elections, general elections Can’t you see this as the most possible solution to oust Zanu from power? Work together with Mai Mujuru and the renewal team that has MPs in Parliament too, to tell your MPs to resign and disable the Parliament. Do not think too much about the stomachs, sacrifice were it is effective once and for all.
Dear UMDC and your valued Members of Parliament, let’s bring change, make us all proud by working together with MDC-T and Mai Mujuru to all at the same time boycott _Parliament and also resign from Parliament and bring the government to a stop! There shall be a standstill that will set shock waves across Zimbabwe and inflict fear to the ruling Zanu PF, fear of change that will be inevitable only by your resignation from Parliament participation.
Let’s also think it at a different angle. This Parliament of the Republic of Zimbabwe is bloated. We have a President, two Vice Presidents, several Ministers, and numerous Members of Parliament. The good question what for? Which economy are they administrating as our economy is collapsed? The unemployment is 90% and companies are closing down every month. Is this bloated Parliament a way of giving people employment or what? If so then it shows very poor management skills on the part of an African government. How can we have such a big administrative government and with little or nothing to administrate? Ever since the Parliament sat after the elections what significant projects have been implemented by the Parliamentarians? Which department is designated to address the curse of rape cases that are rising by the day? What are the women Parliamentarians saying in Parliament about it?
Why do opposition members of Parliament continue to sustain the government they purport to hate with passion? It was understandable perhaps back then when Biti wrote a letter to Parliament speaker to halt their dismissal from Parliament following a letter from MDC-T to expel the Parliamentarians from the renewal team. The significance of it was going to be minimal indeed just scoring cheap political ends. Now we have a larger opposition in Parliament that can change and shift the politics if there is some political will from all opposition to change. Can you not see that the purging of Mai Mujuru out of Zanu is a blessing in disguise? God is giving us answers and we do not utilize those possibilities because of selfishness in politics, no less.
Please opposition Members of Parliament, we shall take you seriously if you boycott Parliament and also stage a blanket resignation of all opposition MPs and bring down this government openly and constitutionally. We shall then know you and respect you; you are politicians who serve the interest of the people of Zimbabwe.  Let your continued stay in parliament not be construed as the politics of the stomach, whereby you are saying “we are fine until the next elections; at least we have our monthly pay.” (Pangu pakanaka until 2018 elections) If that is so, then you will have demonstrated meanness in your politics. Then you are not servants of the people. You know better than me dear opposition Honourable Members of Parliament that millions of people especially in the country side and indeed in towns and cities are languishing in abject poverty unprecedented in the history of Zimbabwe. We are indeed a laughing stock in Africa and the world. We are people who know how to cry and show self-pity and nothing beyond crying. We run away from problems and seek asylum in far off countries. We cannot always run away from problems. Let’s face our government head on bring it down and change it to the democratic system that we all want. I am a text book case of one of those who thought staying in a far away country (Germany) will give me the freedom I yearned for. It is my conscience I could not silence. It constantly tells me that you must go back home and work hard for those young girls and boys who deserve better future in Zimbabwe.
We also ask the 90% unemployed citizens to be vigilant the whole of March. Taking to the streets will be harmful please do not go out into the streets and demonstrate. We do not want any more drop of blood as we have shed already enough of it the past 35 years. Taste the waters and see if the police and the armed forces are going out in the streets and demonstrating, bring down the rot Zanu PF government. Your support will be necessary in the event of any police and army demonstrations in towns and cities. We need more than courage to do this exercise. We need commitment and dedication to take this grand boycott to action. I do not know any section of our societies who are happy about what is happening politically in our country except those in the corridors of power, those who are eating and their stomachs are full because of dire selfishness. It is therefore very easy to take this grand boycott to action as everyone is just fed up with it all. God will hear our prayers and he will answer them by and by. Let’s take those opportunities He opens up for us to grab and utilize. This opposition Parliamentary boycott and collective resignation of MPs was an absolute opportunity never to be missed by any one person in the opposition party.
Dear women of Zimbabwe please see to it that you have enough food in the kitchen shelves as the day is coming that we want to use to bring change in the country we all love most. Remember we have only this one country. We cannot be in servitude for so long, it is not normal at all. Zimbabwe belongs to all of us and not selected few. We want the national resources shared equally to all citizens and not a few selected ones.  Let’s look and learn from other countries how they serve their citizens, we could do the same. We want development in the country and not these dilapidated infrastructures left to us by Ian Douglas Smith. We have never managed to do better or at least maintain them. Zimbabwe is now a byword for a failed state.
“I repeat; peaceful protests and industrial actions are the only way that is going to bring a change of government in Zimbabwe. Forget about the ZANU PF controlled ballot system“. By Zanda Shumba
Fasting during the time of boycott is essential as we are telling God to bring change in our lives. We cannot afford to live the lives of servitude for 35 years. We the citizens of Zimbabwe want to break the bondage and be free. We fast by giving up exactly what we think is very important in our spiritual lives, sex. Fasting is a holy and blessed time to talk to God in complete humbleness and dedication. We lift our heart and ask God to hear our humble prayers. I rest my case in you citizens of Zimbabwe.
Yimi Ugogo omncane
Ndini Chirikadzi Yenyu
Yes we can!
 
Nomazulu Thata is a political activist who resides in Germany. This call to boycott is a call to all women citizens of Zimbabwe of all political parties and non political oriented persons at the dawn of the International Women’s Day 2015. She can be contacted on: [email protected]

Dear Editor.
A Zimbabwean man was brutally beaten up assumably for mere public drinking. A source said, “I have contacted the ZRP through their Whatsapp hotline and they say they are aware of where it happened and I have impressed upon them to publicise the findings of their investigations, if any are being done. This is so inhumane!” VIDEO:

Zimbabwe’s much resented ruler Robert Mugabe and his wife, Grace on Tuesday flew of Zimbabwe to Japan.
Sendai, Japan to attend the third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction.
The meeting will run from the 14th to the 18th of this month, the State Media reported saying. Mugabe was seen off at the Harare International Airpiort by the two vice presidents, Emmerson Mnangagwa and Phelekheze Mphoko, cabinet ministers, service chiefs and the Japanese Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Yayishi Tendai Herashimi.
At the meeting, Mugabe will join other world leaders, experts on disaster management and the United Nations family dealing with disaster risk reduction. Some issues to be discussed at the meeting include long term agreements on disaster risk reduction and measures to reduce the effects of climate change.
In his remarks in Harare ahead of the conference in Japan, the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, Ignatius Chombo said Zimbabwe will learn a lot from the summit.
Chombo said Zimbabwe has faced several natural disasters especially floods in Muzarabani and in Tokwe-Mukosi, adding that the forthcoming meeting will give Zimbabwe an opportunity to learn from world experts on disaster management. – State Media

In a circus development, another Zimbabwean bank has been indigenised just as the the rest of the country’s so called indigenised banks crumbled.
Report by Daily News:
Nedbank Group Limited (Nedbank)’s Zimbabwean unit MBCA Bank (MBCA) has been indigenised in line with the country’s empowerment policy.
The bank – 74 percent owned by the South African Nedbank – said its empowerment compliance plan was approved by Zimbabwe’s Indigenisation ministry.
Although President Robert Mugabe’s government has hinted that indigenisation thresholds will be on a sectorial basis, the country’s empowerment policy – enacted in 2008 – compels foreigners to cede majority shareholding to black locals.
While he did not give detail on the compliance plan, MBCA chairman Richard Zireva said in the institution’s financials for the year to December 2014 that all the preliminary processes were completed last year.
He said the bank’s empowerment plan – which had been under discussions for over a year – “was approved… during the course of the year and implementation is underway”.
MBCA is one of the four foreign-owned banks required to comply with the indigenisation policy, aimed at empowering economically disadvantaged Zimbabweans.
The other foreign owned banks are British-owned Barclays Zimbabwe and Standard Chartered Bank of Zimbabwe, and Stanbic Bank – a unit of South Africa’s Standard Bank.
Last year, the Bankers Association of Zimbabwe (Baz) indicated that foreign banks were yet to comply with the indigenisation policy due to authorities’ delays in approving their compliance plans. – Business Live
This is despite government’s pressure for the institutions to conform with the law, with former Empowerment minister Savior Kasukuwere giving them numerous ultimatums.
In December, businessdaily gathered that Nedbank planned to rename MBCA to Nedbank Zimbabwe sometime this year.
Charity Jinya, MBCA’s managing director, neither denied nor confirmed the plan.
“It is currently too early to confirm our plans on rebranding. We will advise you once definitive plans are in place,” she said at the time.
This came as two years ago, MBCA embarked on a partial rebranding exercise by changing its predominantly blue colour to green, a colour also used by Nedbank.
Then, the bank’s spokesperson Dedrey Mutimutema said they were partially rebranding in line with Nedbank’s strategies.
“Our plan is to align our activities, make up, and design with the rest of the Nedbank group,” she said.
Meanwhile, MBCA posted a 33 percent increase in profit after tax to $5,4 million for the period under review on the back of a rise in net interest income.
Profit after tax for MBCA grew from the 2013 figure of $4 million.
“This increase was attributable to $2,222 million growth in net interest income on the back on increased lending to our customers. The bank’s total income grew from $22,617 million to $25,5 million representing a 13% increase from the prior year,” MBCA managing director Charity Jinya said in the same statement.
The group’s operating expenses grew at a lower rate at 7,4 percent resulting in an increase in profit, with the balance sheet for the group at $188,936 million from $179,689 million due to repayments from major customers in the period under review.
Loans and advances constituted 49 percent of the total balance sheet compared to the same period 2013. Loans deposit ratio increase to 67 percent from 59 percent in 2013.
Jinya also said the operating environment continues to be challenging due to low investment inflows, lack of competitiveness and low levels of productivity.
Meanwhile, MBCA posted a 33 percent increase in profit after tax to $5,4 million for the period under review on the back of a rise in net interest income.
Profit after tax for MBCA grew from the 2013 figure of $4 million.
“This increase was attributable to $2,222 million growth in net interest income on the back on increased lending to our customers. The bank’s total income grew from $22,617 million to $25,5 million representing a 13% increase from the prior year,” MBCA managing director Charity Jinya said in the same statement.
The group’s operating expenses grew at a lower rate at 7,4 percent resulting in an increase in profit, with the balance sheet for the group at $188,936 million from $179,689 million due to repayments from major customers in the period under review.
Loans and advances constituted 49 percent of the total balance sheet compared to the same period 2013. Loans deposit ratio increase to 67 percent from 59 percent in 2013.
Jinya also said the operating environment continues to be challenging due to low investment inflows, lack of competitiveness and low levels of productivity.

The abduction and eventual murder-likely of Unity Square Protest activist Itai Dzamara took a twist when an enraged MDC_T leader Morgan Tsvangirai moved in to blast the government.
Tsvangirai broke his silence when he shoved away from his birthday celebrations on Tuesday announcing that he holds the ZANU PF controlled government responsible for the attack on Dzamara.
Below was his full statement:

Today is supposed to be my birthday and I never budgeted that on what was supposed to be my day of joy, I could end up talking about a morbid abduction and disappearance of an innocent citizen.
As a party, we fear for the worst.
The callous abduction of Itai Dzamara has come as a complete shock to me, to the MDC and to Zimbabweans at large.Only yesterday, we heard he was abducted from a hair salon and driven away in an Isuzu vehicle by five unknown men. Late afternoon yesterday, I received a call from his wife, saying Dzamara had been abducted and the family could not find him.
To the MDC family, his abduction and disappearance comes as a shock because at our rally at Zimbabwe Grounds on Saturday, he gave a solidarity speech in which he supported our call for action and protests against the deteriorating situation in the country.
We are in no doubt as to the perpetrators of this abduction. We hold Mugabe and his regime responsible for this morbid and senseless act. The President, who is also AU and SADC chair, cannot preside over a country where innocent citizens get abducted and disappear.
Only recently, the Vice President of the country was saying he was trained to shoot and kill. It is no wonder that with such reckless and misguided talk from the top leadership of the country, an innocent Zimbabwean is abducted in very suspicious circumstances.
We hold the State culpable. We hold Zanu PF responsible. We demand a full investigation and arrests of the culprits so that Zimbabweans can live in the comfort that we have a government that cares and takes seriously its responsibility to protect citizens.
The circumstances of Dzamara’s abduction are very familiar to the MDC family, which has lost many cadres in similar circumstance. Tonderai Ndira, Tichaona Chiminya, Beta Chokururama and many others have been abducted and in most cases found murdered. In 2008, many MDC activists were maimed, raped or murdered and seven years later, no single arrest has been made in connection with the crimes.
Today, in an almost similar script, Dzamara is abducted in broad daylight and that is why we fear for the worst. We thought this country had moved on and was past these barbaric and shameful acts. We thought we had moved to full civilization but it appears the leopard has remained faithful to its spots.
This is a morbid message to Zimbabweans, to SADC, to Africa and the broader international community that the demon is back; that violence remains very much part of our political culture.
We all know that Dzamara has been leading public but constitutional protests against the government, for which he has previously been brutally attacked by State security agents. For us, there is no wonder as to the identity of the people behind his abduction and disappearance.
Zimbabweans should join us in demanding that the truth be revealed about what has happened to this innocent man. We in the MDC demand nothing short of a full investigation and the immediate arrest of the perpetrators of this barbaric act.

A body suspected to be that of abducted outspoken government critic Itai Dzamara has been seen near Goromonzi-Harare turn off by the roadside.
Police officers are at the sight right now but they are chasing away and confiscating cameras of people near the scene, a source told ZimEye.com
Dzamara, formerly a journalist, was abducted on Monday morning by five men two days after he organised a successful anti Mugabe rally in Harare and had begun working with MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
ZimEye.com could not at the time of writing verify from the photos that the body is truly that of Dzamara.
Meanwhile telephone calls to his mobile phone failed as it reported to be switched off. The previous day it had been ringing without being answered.
Goromonzi hosts the site where intelligence agents once tortured Econet Wireless founder Strive Masiyiwa when President Robert Mugabe fought to strip the businessman of his cellphone company innovation in the 90s.
…More to follow as details and the story unfold…

HIGH Court judge Justice Martin Makonese has bemoaned the disintegration of the family unit which has left many families and couples with no platform for settling disputes, leading to an upsurge in crimes of passion.
Officially opening the first session of the Hwange High Court circuit, Makonese said the breakdown in family referral pathways has often promoted violent crimes, which were being worsened by harsh economic conditions, among both poor people and the rich.
“It is my view that the general disintegration of the family unit coupled with harsh economic conditions has left many families or couples in distress with no platform for settlement of domestic disputes,” he said.
“What is of interest is that these crimes of passion occur among both the rich and poor.”
Makonese called on stakeholders such as traditional leaders, police, civic society and the general public to shun turning a blind eye to families and relationships in distress, but insisted courts would continue imposing stiffer sentences.
The media has been awash with reports of grisly passion murders committed because of misunderstandings arising from love triangles and extramarital affairs.
On Valentines’ Day, a disgruntled security guard gunned down his lover and her sister in Kariba before turning the gun on himself.
A few days later, a 30-year-old Wedza man committed suicide after axeing his wife to death following allegations of an extramarital affair.
Makonese noted the rise in divorce cases, which was further adding to the disintegration of the family unit, was a result of misunderstandings arising from prevailing economic conditions.
“While I’m still on matters of the family, it is saddening to note that divorce cases continue to increase,” he said.
“It seems that most relationships are being stretched by the prevailing economic conditions.
“I would urge couples to receive adequate counselling before entering into marriage contracts.
“In this regard, the church and traditional leaders have a duty to give moral direction to young couples.”
The Bulawayo High Court processed 474 divorce cases last year and dealt with an average of 10 unopposed cases every week.
A total of 13 murder cases are lined up to be heard during the circuit, including that of Wonder Munsaka from Binga who is alleged to have gruesomely murdered his wife in a domestic dispute before chopping off her head and putting it in a box. – SouthernEye

Mugabe heir-elusive Emmerson Mnangagwa has fired back at National Constitutional Assembly leader Professor Lovemore Madhuku who is seeking to nullify his appointment and that of Phelekezela Mphoko, the latter two, as Vice President’s of Zimbabwe.
Mnangagwa speaking on Monday labelled Madhuku a mischievous” fellow.
He pleaded with the public saying the challenge must be dismissed.
Madhuku last year challenged the VP appointments saying it was unconstitutional.
He is contesting the specific assignment of Mnagagwa and Mphoko to double their duties as Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and Minister of National Healing, Peace and Reconciliation respectively.
Prof Madhuku argued that Section 103 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe does not allow serving Vice Presidents to hold any other public office.
In his founding affidavit, Prof Madhuku said the decision was against the will of the people who contributed to the crafting of the Constitution.
Prof Madhuku said since President Mugabe decided to work with one Vice President Dr Joice Mujuru in 2013 after his election, he cannot now make a U-turn and appoint two to replace Dr Mujuru.
However, in an opposing affidavit filed by the Attorney General’s Office recently, VP Mnangagwa urged the court to throw out the application.
“On the basis of the foregoing, I therefore, humbly submit that applicants’ application is not only entirely without merit, but is mischievous and it should, therefore, be dismissed with costs on the higher scale,” he said.
VP Mnangagwa scoffed at the application by Prof Madhuku saying such a substandard case was not expected of a professor.
“I have perused and understood the founding affidavit of Professor Lovemore Madhuku, the second applicant and respond thereto in the paragraphs that follow.
“I have, however, always assumed that the term ‘Professor’ which appears in his name was a professional title or designation, and not part of his name. No doubt, I was wrong in this assumption,” said VP Mnangagwa.
He defended President Mugabe’s actions saying they were supported by law.
“In any event, I respectfully submit that the provisions of paragraph 14(2) (a) and (b) (of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution) fully authorises first respondent (President Mugabe) to act in the manner that he did in initially appointing one Vice President and then subsequently two Vice Presidents after dismissing the initial appointee.
“I believe that the problem applicants suffer from is that they fail to read and interpret the Constitution as a living or organic document which adapts itself to a variety of situations or circumstances in order to achieve the purpose intended by its makers,” said VP Mnangagwa.
He also submitted that the President was legally correct in assigning the VPs to the ministerial duties.
“Finally, with regard to the assignment by first respondent of the administration of certain ministerial duties, I respectfully submit that first respondent is authorised to make the assignment in terms of the specific provisions of Section 99 of the Constitution, and that the reference to appointment to ‘any other public office’ in Section 103 of the Constitution excludes the specific provisions of Section 99 as both sections appear under the same Part 2 of Chapter 5 of the Constitution dealing with ‘The Executive’.
“Applicants’ submissions that the assignments made by first respondent are unconstitutional is therefore, entirely, without merit, and should be dismissed by this honourable court,” reads the affidavit.
VP Mnangagwa challenged the citation of the two VPs as respondents by names in the constitutional application.
“I wish to object to the manner of my citation in these proceedings, and also that of third respondent (VP Mphoko).
“Both of us are VPs of the Republic of Zimbabwe and that should have been included in our citation in order for the provisions of the State Liabilities Act to have been complied with.
“In the event those provisions were not complied with, and the proceedings against us should, therefore, be struck out merely on the basis of such non-compliance,” he said. The parties are yet to file heads of argument before the matter is set down for hearing.

Kombi operators in Nkulumane have staged an indefinite strike refusing to operate as they protest against an unscrupulous police force robbing them of their hard earned cash.
Running battles erupted in Nketa, Nkulumane, Sizinda and eMganwini townships between armed Zimbabwe Republic Police and scores of kombi drivers and touts. The country’s public transport operators are complaining of sustained harassment by the police who demand spot ‘fines’ without stating the offence committed.
Hundreds of people in Nketa, Nkulumane and Emganwini high density suburbs in Bulawayo were left stranded.
School children, workers and other travellers were left stranded when commuter operators parked their vehicles in protest over alleged harassment by the police.
When the ZBC News arrived in the suburbs, hundreds of people could be seen milling around while others had to walk to work upon realising that time was not on their side.
A representative of the striking commuter omnibus operators said they decided on the industrial action not to carry passengers as police are demanding too much money from them.
Riot police had to be called in after some rowdy commuter operators threatened to overturn some private cars which were carrying people.
Efforts to get a comment from the Bulawayo Police Spokesperson, Inspector Mandlenkosi Moyo were fruitless as he referred this reporter to National Traffic Police Spokesperson, Inspector Tigere Chigome who was said to be in a meeting.

Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa will have expired 10 years beyond the retirement age when he becomes President of Zimbabwe.
This will be so if Mrs Stop It, does not stop him.
Mrs Stop it, the motor-mouth-Grace Mugabe, is reported to be aiming for the rulership of the ZANU PF party despite her having no liberation credentials and she last year openly ranted saying there is no reason why she cannot lead the country. Why not? Am I not a Zimbabwean?,” she said during her vitriolic tirade expelled vice president Joice Mujuru, and would later this year also declare that Zimbabwe must have a female Army Commander.
Mnangagwa on the other hand is said to be enjoying full backing of the greater part of ZANU PF including the security chiefs and being born 15 September 1942, he will be 75 at the time of the 2018 elections when his boss Robert Mugabe is expected to have over power. Speculative reports say Mnangagwa known for his gross disrespect for women, having also sired a battalion of random children, will not for a minute tolerate Grace Mugabe and might sa claimed, “put her out”.

TWO teenage boys from Binga landed themselves in trouble when they allegedly took turns to rape a 12-year-old Grade 4 pupil, whom they had reportedly proposed love to.
The teenagers who are school dropouts aged 17 and 14, both from Dumbwe village under Chief Binga, allegedly took turns to rape the Grade 4 pupil, with one holding her down while covering her mouth to restrain her from screaming for help.
The two, who cannot be named to protect their identity and that of the complainant, shocked the courts last Tuesday when they claimed that they met the girl with her friend before escorting them while proposing love.
However, along the way, the complainant’s friend left and the older teen asked for sexual favours from the girl. Afterwards it was the turn of the 14-year-old to sleep with the girl.
“Your worship, complainant is my girlfriend, we did not rape her, but she agreed to the encounter, first with me, then with my friend,” one of the teenagers said when they appeared before Hwange regional magistrate Dambudzo Malunga facing rape charges.
It is understood that sometime on March 27 last year, the complainant was with her friend on their way to their grandmother’s homestead when they were joined by the two teenagers whom they walked with for a short distance before parting ways.
The two later rejoined them and immediately got hold of the complainant’s hand and pulled her into a nearby bush, tripped her and the 17-year-old raped her. The juveniles then switched places, with the 14-year-old now raping her, while the former covered her mouth.
They dragged her to where the 17-year-old lives. The girl managed to escape and she told her grandmother what had happened and a report was made to the police. The trial continues on March 6. The two are denying the charges. Tawanda Sigauke prosecuted. southern eye

Nigerian preacher TB Joshua’s attempts to evade a coroner’s inquest into the mass death of 116 people killed by his giant church hostel last September, have been quashed by the Lagos State High Court which has ordered him into line. The preacher had used lawyers to obfuscate his appearance for questioning into the circumstances which led to the disaster which also killed top MDC-T cadre Greenwich Ndanga.
The Lagos State High Court in Ikeja on Friday affirmed the witness summons issued on the Founder of Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), Prophet T.B. Joshua, to appear before the Coroner probing the cause of death of the 116 persons in the church’s collapsed building on September 12, 2014.
The presiding judge, Justice Lateefa Okunnu, also held that the Coroner, Magistrate O.A. Komolafe, had the power to inquire into the cause of the building collapse in his mandate to determine the direct cause and manner of the victims’ death.
The Judge further held that the allegation of bias levelled against Komolafe by T.B. Joshua in the conduct of the inquest was unsubstantiated as the proof that T.B. Joshua adduced were mere conjectures which lacked any evidential weight.
“Having read the transcripts from the proceedings, I regret that I do not share the applicants’ point of view that the respondent had been biased or unfair and had breached the principle of natural justice,” Okunnu held.
The Judge also struck out the Coroner’s court as a respondent in the suit, on the grounds that it was not a juristic person that could be sued.
Following the collapse of the SCOAN’s six-storey guest house on September 12, last year, killing about 116 persons and injuring many, the Lagos State Government had set up the Coroner’s inquest to determine the cause of death and the circumstances leading to the mishap.
But weeks into the Coroner’s inquest, which began on October 13, 2014, T.B. Joshua had approached Okunnu asking for a judicial review of the Coroner’s proceedings.
In the said application, the prophet asked Okunnu to determine whether the witness summons served on him to appear and testify before the Coroner was not a breach of his right to fair hearing when no material fact had been placed against him before the Coroner.
He also asked the Judge to determine whether it was not beyond the power of the Coroner to venture into the possible cause of the building collapse.
T.B. Joshua also alleged that the Coroner had shown bias against him, arguing that the Coroner compromised his neutrality and demonstrated personal interest at the point when he threatened to order Joshua’s arrest for failure to honour the witness summons.
T.B. Joshua’s lawyers, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) and Olalekan Ojo, also contended that the duty of the Coroner did not go beyond ascertaining the reason for the victims’ death.
According to them, it was beyond the Coroner to enquire into the possible reason why the building, wherein the victims perished, collapsed in terms of building approval and the quality of materials used in the construction.
They, therefore, urged the court to stop the Coroner from further extending his inquisitions into areas beyond his statutory scope.
They further asked the court to pronounce as null and void, all previous proceedings already conducted by the magistrate in excess of jurisdiction.
But Okunnu, on Friday, resolved all the issues raised in favour of the Coroner.
The Judge held that it was up to the Coroner to determine what types of material evidence and witnesses that would be relevant to his findings, adding that he had unlimited power to summon anyone in the execution of his duty.
“It is the Coroner himself that largely hunts for the evidence that he considers to be useful to him,” Okunnu held, adding that the Coroner “is a master of his own proceedings.”
The Judge added that by virtue of Section 26 and 27 of the Coroner System Laws of Lagos State, 2007, the Coroner was empowered to compel the attendance of any witness he considered to be useful to his inquisitions, including Joshua.
She held, “The Coroner has the prerogative of calling witnesses who he believes would be of assistance to his fact-finding mission.”
In the final analysis, the Judge adjudged Joshua’s application to be lacking in merit and consequently dismissed it.
Meanwhile, a Structural Engineer and Consultant to the Lagos State Material Testing Agency, Saheed Ariyori, on Friday told the Coroner that his examination revealed that there were no signs of stress on the building prior to its collapse.
The witness, who had earlier asserted that faulty or inadequate foundation was responsible for the collapse, however, admitted that he was not a professional in the field of sub-soil investigation, adding that there was an error of calculation in the report he tendered before the Coroner.
Further hearing in the inquest has been adjourned till March 12, 2015. – Punch

ZimEye.com is receiving reports that Unity Square protest activist, Itai Dzamara has been abducted by intelligence agents. While the reports could not be verified at the time of writing, telephone calls to Dzamara’s main cellphone were ringing continuously without being answered, something two of Dzamara’s friends said is worryingly unusual.
The two friends reported claiming he was on Monday morning abduted by Central Intelligence Organisation agents while one of the friends suggested that the development is likely an attack by Dzamara’s own colleagues, which is the continuation of an argument triggered last week when he was during an altercation, suspended from the movement.
But according to DARE party president Gilbert Dzikiti, Dzamara was trully abducted on his way out of a barbershop on Monday morning by security agents and taken away in a white Isuzu twin cab vehicle.
Wrote Dzikiti n full: Good afternoon Zimbabwe, my party intelligence department has just informed us that Mr Itai Dzamara has been kidnapped soon after leaving a barbershop by unkown four men in an Isuzu White twin cab in the city centre. We condemn such brazen acts of the violation of the constitution of Zimbabwe.
Individual freedoms must be respected and Itai Dzamara must be released from whoever has taken him immediately. Kidnappings have been in the increase in Zimbabwe.and militia is operating above the law which is not surprising considering recent speeches intimidating judges.
Lets all brace ourselves for action and action alone towards those who are trashing the constitution of the Republic Of Zimbabwe.An injury to one is an injury to us all.

Former Masvingo Provincial Affairs minister Kudakwashe Bhasikiti has said several top-ranking Zanu PF officials have secretly toured his farm and are spreading falsehoods that he is destroying his citrus plantations as part of preparations to flee the country.Bhasikiti has claimed that some party bigwigs in the province were now angling to grab his farm after he was recently chucked out of office by President Robert Mugabe over allegations of supporting ousted former Vice-President Joice Mujuru.
This comes at a time Zanu PF has scaled up its campaign to purge all Mujuru loyalists with companies aligned to the faction denied government contracts. “I don’t know why they want to destroy my life because I have invested a lot in this farm. I heard some party officials from this area (Mwenezi) passed by, but they did not say anything,” Bhasikiti said.
“We started pruning in December last year and we are continuing with the process. Now that I have been relieved of my duties by the President, some party officials want to take advantage of that and push me out by spreading false reports,” he said.
Bhasikiti’s farm manager Simon Muchongu said they always pruned their citrus plants every five years to allow for development of new shoots.
“I have been around for the past 34 years and this exercise has always been done from December onwards to April. Since my boss took over this farm, this is the third time we have pruned the trees,” Muchonga said.
“We were shocked to see a ZTV crew coming and shooting only that section which was pruned last week and they refused to come and shoot this other section where we pruned in December and the shoots are already coming up.” newsday

In a shock move that is expected to trigger mass actions across Matabeleland Region, Villagers from Matobo North and South Constituencies and neighbouring Gwanda North Constituency have called on the President and ruling party to immediately recall their Members of Parliament and dismiss the Minister of State of Provincial Affairs for Matabeleland South allegedly for neglecting the people in the districts and disrespecting traditional leaders in the area.
Speaking at the volatile Maleme Ranch meeting on Sunday afternoon, villagers called on the president to immediately recall the MPs and the Minister as they have failed to listen to nor represent the wishes of the people. The meeting which attracted scores of people from the three districts that surround and benefit from projects run by Maleme Ranch which was supposed to be addressed by Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko, turned violent after the Vice President, the MPs and Provincial Affairs Minister failed to turn up at the last minute.
Speaker after speaker at the gathering claimed that the people of Matabeleland have been turned into orphans as a result of neglect by the people elected to lead the region. The speakers accused Provincial Affairs Minister Abednico Ncube for selling out the people’s land by signing fraudulent land allocation letters to people from outside the region while locals remained unsettled.
Ncube is understood to have allocated Maleme Ranch to a Central Intelligence Officer Rodrick Mashingaidze without approval of the lands committee and without consulting the local traditional leaders about the land. Mashingaidze who had since began occupying the farm and forcing villagers and the white owners out of the farm faced massive resistance from the people to occupy the farm forcing him to report the matter to the High Court on the basis of the allocation letter signed by Ncube. The High Court ruling is still pending.
On the other hand people from the two Matobo Constituencies and Gwanda North, want their MPs Never Khanye, Saul Mahalima Ncube and Madodana Sibanda removed from the august house because of what they call neglecting the constituencies and undermining the authority of the chiefs and other traditional leaders. The three MPs are accused of remaining silent through out the Maleme Ranch fiasco, ignoring calls from the chiefs for them to stop the land occupation but choosing to side with the people accused of grabbing the land.
Speaking in an interview on the sidelines of the gathering , one of the leaders of the villagers accused the MPs and the Minister for “bowing to instructions from Harare instead of advising Harare of the wishes of the people on the ground.”
“We have a serious problem with these yes man MPs, they bow to instructions from Harare instead of telling Harare what people on the ground want,” he said.
“The Maleme Ranch issue has been dragging for over a year now and they are aware of it and its their people affected but they have not said a word about it in Parliament not even to the lands committee or Minister, so why are they there? They must just go,” he fumed.
Another of the leaders blamed the MPs for neglecting the people as evidenced by their failure to turn up for the meeting and stopping people from attending the meeting.
“If these MPs really cared they should have been here with us but because they don’t care they have never attended even a single meeting to sort this land problem out.”
“We are very well informed that the MPs were the ones sending their youth around telling people that the meeting had been cancelled and that anyone who would attend the meeting will be beaten by riot police or even get arrested,” said the leader.
“This attitude from our leaders is the one that caused this mayhem you see happening now. They don’t regard us as people and so we want them to feel that we are people too and they must go. If they cared they should have been here with us and its them that should have been explaining to us what really is happening here not Vice President Mphoko,” he said.
Sources within the villagers have indicated that a petition is circulating around the constituencies calling on President Mugabe and the speaker of Parliament to recall the three MPs and the Provincial Affairs Minister. The sources claim that they are happy because the move to oust the MPs and Minister is being led by known ZANU PF members united with those perceived to be opposition which makes it a genuine people concern not a political agenda.
“We are very happy that people of Matobo and Wenlock are united on this matter as one without political affiliation and agree to fight for what is theirs. We have people from both ZANU PF and opposition parties joining church leaders and other organisations to move this matter forward and so can not be made political,” said a villager.