IT never rains, but pours for former Zanu-PF secretary for Administration Didymus Mutasa as the Makoni Chieftainship council of elders yesterday publicly disowned him, saying he was the dynasty’s nephew and not of royal blood.
The council — led by Chief Makoni — said Mutasa was not of royal blood as he wanted everyone in the country to believe.
Mutasa all along claimed to be a Makoni or a Nyati, but for the first time, the clan publicly disputed his kinsmen status, saying he could not assume office as a bonafide member of the clan.
Chief Makoni, who was flanked by Mr Moses Gwasira and Ishe Muchembere during a Press conference at his court in Rusape, said this explained why Mutasa in the early 80s unsuccessfully launched a campaign to clinch the Mutasa chieftainship of the Shumba clan in Manicaland.
His bid crumbled after he failed to elucidate the genealogy and connectivity to that chieftainship.
This has also raised suspicion that he could be of the Shumba totem.
“Didymus Mutasa is not of royal blood because he is a nephew. His great grandmother was a muzvare (daughter of the Makonis called Marutse).
“He is tarnishing the image and integrity of the dynasty by his claims to be a Nyati. Our dynasty is being viewed with suspicions because of him, and this has prompted us to come in the open to expose his roots,” said Chief Makoni.
“He is neither a Nyati or a Makoni. The Mutasas were once our enemies, we fought wars against them to liberate our land and there is no way we could be of the same totem with them. Here is a nephew who adopted the totem of his uncles for lack of or ignorance of his own totem. Didymus Mutasa, thus, has no standing in the determination of matters that relate to the Makoni clan and Makoni Chieftainship. He wanted my throne. He frustrated the whole process for many years. He wanted to be Chief Makoni. He is greedy. He is evil and stops at nothing to grab power,” said Chief Makoni.
It is claimed that Mutasa is a descendant of one “Matambura”, a male born of a female sibling (Marutse) of the family of Chigudu, of the Zendera house.
The Makoni clan stems from its great grandfather Gunguwo, who had five sons, Fusire, Muswati, Zendera, Nyamanhindi and Nyakurukwa.
Marutse was a sister to Zendera who was allegedly killed in 1840.
After his death, Marutse and Zendera’s children were scattered in Mapore and other parts of Mutasa area.
The name Mutasa was derived from a suitor who allegedly rejected paternity.
Mutasa wanted to impose his late brother John Mutasa’s son Tichafara Topira Mutasa, popularly known as Rungutai, as Chief Makoni.
His interference was resisted by the likes of Moses Gwasira, Thomas Vhunduke Gwasira and Makoni District administrator Mr William Mashava.
Mutasa was working with a self-claimed installer and fire kindler of the Makoni dynasty one Paradzai Mukuwapasi.
Mukuwapasi wrote several letters to Mr Mashawa at the instigation of Mutasa, to fast-track Rungutai’s ascendance to the throne.
Rungutai serves as the Headlands constituency Zanu-PF political commissar.
Mutasa dispatched Mukuwapasi to Mr Mashava’s office to fast-track the process on numerous occasions, but the move suffered a still birth as the dynasty elders argued that the Mutasas where not on the family tree, and therefore not of loyal blood.
“He is not of loyal blood as he would want everybody to believe. The central role he played in 2014 as the eldest ‘living father’ of the Zendera family at my inauguration as Chief Makoni was purely political and out of coercion. It was a give and take because we wanted the process to go on as he had stalled it for two years. It was not based on connectivity to the chieftainship,” said Chief Makoni.
Another elder referred the Mutasas, who claim to be ‘Nyati Rutombo’ ‘Nyati Chena’ as ‘Nyati yemubhuku’, not Nyati of Makoni.
Minister of State for Provincial Affairs in Manicaland Mandi Chimene, attended the meeting and thanked the council of elders for biting the bullet and clarifying Mutasa’s true origin.
Mutasa’s political career took a nose dive after being linked to former VP Joice Mujuru’s cabal that wanted to depose or assassinate President Mugabe to facilitate Dr Mujuru’s ascendance to the Zanu-PF and national Presidency.
This was then followed by a series of events including his failure to get a Central Committee seat, being sacked from Government as well as impending disciplinary hearing by a special committee led by VP Phelekezela Mphoko that was recently set up by the Politburo.
Mutasa is threatening to sue Zanu-PF challenging some amendments made to the party’s constitution and that the outcome of the 6th Zanu-PF National People’s Congress was a legal nullity.

A security guard ran amok and shot dead two sisters before turning the gun on himself at Mtimukulu farm near Lake Chivero today.
In a pre-valentine blood bath and a typical Friday the 13th episode, the two sisters Jill and Jean Mahebe were shot dead under unclear circumstances by a guard who was dating one of them.
When the ZBC News arrived at the farm, the two sisters’ bodies were still lying at the scene of the crime while the body of the murderer who has been identified as Tawanda Galasi was lying in a nearby bush guarded by police details.
The elder of the two daughters’ Jean only turned 23 on Thursday the 12th of February.
The motive of the brutal killing is not known and witnesses were baffled as they claimed the three had shared some goodies a few minutes before the incident.
The father of the two girls Joseph Mahebe who was in a state of shock told the ZBC News he cannot imagine life without his two daughters.
The day had started like any other normal day for the girls’ mother, but Friday the 13th of February turned out to be a day of horror.
Though the circumstances are still unclear, initial evidence is leading to a crime of passion.
Most of the people who gathered called for a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding the security of the gun.

School kids and several people were injured on Friday afternoon in separate accidents across the city, Harare. Six people were injured when two commuter omnibuses fleeing from a City of Harare traffic police vehicle veered off the road near the Chicken Slice foud outlet along Chinhoyi street

In a surprising development, Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo has endorsed Bulawayo’s opposition MDC mayor Martin Moyo to be the new Zimbabwe Local Government Association (Zilga) chairman, a move that has courted the ire of the association’s Zanu PF members.
There were suggestions within Zilga’s Zanu PF caucus yesterday that the move was playing out along the ruling party’s ugly factional and succession wars of the past few months, with other sources saying that it may be a desperate bid by government to attract donor support to the country.
Zilga is an association of mayors and other local government leaders, whose mission includes promoting local government and its role in development and the provision of services.
While repeated efforts by the Daily News to talk to Chombo yesterday did not yield positive results, disgruntled Zanu PF Chombo backs MDC mayor.
Zilga members claimed that the newly-installed ruling party secretary for administration was meddling in the association’s business by voicing his support for Moyo — a move they said was outside the minister’s brief.
The minister, who has invited all district chairpersons and mayors for a crucial meeting scheduled for the Rainbow Towers in Harare today, apparently worked throughout the week to build support for the opposition mayor of Zimbabwe’s second largest city.
However, it is still not clear if Moyo, a close confidant of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, will secure the necessary votes to sail through unopposed at the Zilga ballot, which Chombo wants held before March 1.
Zanu PF has a majority 79 chairpersons and mayors countrywide in the 92-member strong Zilga.
“The disquiet highlights the broader split in the ruling party. Chombo has been persuading the Zanu PF chairpersons to back Moyo, and has told the chairpersons that to him the Bulawayo mayor was unchallenged and has virtually locked up that race.
“Ahead of this weekend’s meeting, the minister has been focused on the chairman’s nomination, and has been calling chairpersons and mayors, rounding up and even strong-arming them to back the Bulawayo MDC mayor, ostensibly because he is appealing to donors, mainly Germans, who can help unlock cash to bankroll the financially-troubled Zilga,” a well-placed source said yesterday.
Chombo had allegedly first met the chairpersons and mayors behind closed doors at a meeting held in Bulawayo last week. Assuming each chairperson and mayor in the 92-member conference participates, a candidate needs at least 46 votes for victory, although Chombo is said to want Moyo to stand unopposed.
The victorious leader will wield significant power in terms of the direction and tenor Zilga will take over the next three years.
That dynamic has frustrated many Zanu PF chairpersons and mayors given that the MDC has only 13 mayors in the 92-strong bloc.
“Chombo is raising fundraising arguments and is keen to build support from ambivalent Zanu PF chairpersons and mayors.
“He is also pledging to ensure a deputy Zilga chairman from Zanu PF.
He is proposing installing Alderman David Mutasa from Makoni as Moyo’s deputy,” another source added.
Chombo’s support of Moyo also comes as the minister is allegedly stitching a deal to introduce Easipark in Bulawayo.
The source said the disgruntled Zanu PF chairpersons were “working the phones” in a bid to derail Chombo’s plans.
“For now, the minister’s plan is short of critical votes, and his strategy risks hitting a brick-wall.
“In practice, democracy is governed by its most popularly understood principle, that is majority rule,” said another unhappy Zanu PF chairperson.
“The side with the most votes must win, and we are surprised why Combo wants us to back an MDC candidate. Many fear opposing him but certainly there is disquiet over this,” he added.
Another disgruntled chairman said, “Why doesn’t Chombo go with his proposal to president Mugabe that we must support an MDC mayor? What is he trying to do? Kutengesa ikoko. (He is a sell-out)”. – DailyNews

Defiant Bulawayo medical practitioner, Doctor Nkonzo Ndebele was yesterday arrested for failing to pay $350 per month maintenance order imposed on him by a Bulawayo maintenance court in September last year.
Appearing before magistrate Tinashe Tashaya and prosecuted by Adelaide Chimbete, Dr Ndebele was remanded into custody until the 2rd of March to answer charges why he has not met the maintenance order since it was issued by the court. A dejected Nkonzo was denied bail by the prosecutor after he had previously failed to appear in court to answer the maintenance charges.
Dr Ndebele who according to his estranged wife makes about $30 000 every month from his numerous surgeries in town, was ordered by the court to pay $350 per month for the upkeep of their six-year-old daughter. He was also ordered to pay all the costs of the child’s school fees and buy uniforms at least once each term.
Since the order was effected in September last year, Ndebele has not adhered to any of the provisions of the order. Instead huge amounts of money have been spent on legal fees as the two continue to fight over the apportionment of the property acquired over their eight year customary marriage.
In recent press reports, Ndebele was quoted to have said he was above the country’s laws and no one would do anything to him. He has since violated a restraint order against his wife issued by the courts and is currently on bail for contempt of court.

THE anti-Mujuru Zanu PF purge has infected Parliament where Ray Kaukonde (Marondera Central MP) and Enock Porusingazi (Chipinge South) were yesterday stripped of their chairmanship of Parliamentary Portfolio Committees and reduced to ordinary members.
The move occurred as Zanu PF threatened to reshuffle its administrative staff both at head office and provincial offices, a move observers described as meant to flush out all workers perceived to be sympathetic to Mujuru
Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda announced the development yesterday, saying it was a normal reshuffle, although it was widely believed to be part of the ongoing purge of pro-Mujuru legislators.
Mujuru was last December dismissed from her party and government posts alongside 16 Cabinet and deputy ministers, nine Zanu PF provincial chairpersons and other senior party officials on allegations of plotting to unconstitutionally topple President Robert Mugabe from power.
Kaukonde, who was chairperson of the Industry and Commerce Parliamentary Portfolio Committee, was immediately replaced by Masvingo Central MP Edmore Mhere (Zanu PF).
The former Mashonaland East Zanu PF provincial chairman, however, remained an ordinary member of the same committee.
Porusingazi’s chairmanship of the Foreign Affairs Portfolio Committee was taken over by another perceived Mujuru ally Epworth MP Amos Midzi (Zanu PF), who was previously the chairman of the Transport and Infrastructural Development Parliamentary Portfolio Committee.
Chegutu West MP Dexter Nduna (Zanu PF) will now chair the Transport and Infrastructural Development Committee. Porusingazi becomes an ordinary committee member.
Other perceived Mujuru camp MPs who chaired portfolio committees like Hurungwe West MP Temba Mliswa (Education, Sport, Arts and Culture) and Mbire MP David Butau (Lands and Agriculture) survived the axe as they were not affected and will continue leading their respective committees.
Dismissed ex-ministers and their deputies were also assigned to committees as ordinary members, save for former Presidential Affairs minister Didymus Mutasa and ex-Justice deputy minister Fortune Chasi (Mazowe South MP) whose future in the House remains unclear following campaigns to have them recalled.
Former Information Communication Technology minister and Zanu PF political commissar Webster Shamu and Mashonaland East’s ex-Provincial Affairs minister Simbaneuta Mudarikwa will now sit in portfolio committees as ordinary members as well as deputy ministers Paul Chimedza, Tongai Muzenda and Petronella Kagonye.
In Senate, ex-Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development minister Olivia Muchena, fired Energy and Power Development minister Dzikamai Mavhaire, and ex-Minister of State for Presidential Affairs Flora Buka were assigned to sit in different committees as ordinary members.
Mudenda also told the House that the Standing Rules and Orders Committee had made a decision to include a clause in the Parliamentary Standing Rules and Orders outlining penalties for offences of truancy by ministers during question and answer sessions.
“Section 107 (2) of the Constitution clearly states that the Vice-President, ministers and deputy ministers must attend Parliament, which is compulsory. Once the House has adopted the new Standing Rules and Orders, we shall proceed in terms of contempt because we as Parliament must protect the Constitution,” Mudenda said.
On Wednesday, party spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo told journalists in Harare that the staff restructuring exercise was the brainchild of secretary for administration Ignatius Chombo.
Khaya Moyo said Chombo had presented a report on staff complement from across the provinces and head office to the politburo, but declined to disclose finer details of the report.
“Cde Chombo gave an exposé on proposed administrative reorganisation at the headquarters and provinces. He gave a detailed staff complement province by province starting with the headquarters, but I can’t, however, give you reports on that,” Khaya Moyo said.
He added that the issues were more administrative and internal party matters which he could not disclose to the media.
However, Zanu PF insiders said the clean-up exercise was targeting workers employed during the Mutasa era.
Mutasa was accused of employing some people to the party without following procedures while ousted former party spokesperson Rugare Gumbo was at one point under fire for employing people perceived to be anti-Zanu PF. Zanu PF insiders said the administration and commissariat departments had been tasked to restructure the party after the divisive congress last December which saw several party heavyweights sidelined.
Meanwhile, Health and Child Care minister David Parirenyatwa told Senate that the Zimbabwean woman who died in Conakry, Guinea, and was initially believed to have succumbed to Ebola, had in fact died of malaria.
Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi also told Senators that Equatorial Guinea footed the bill of Zimbabwean security forces who provided VVIP security at the just-ended Africa Cup of Nations football tournament.

HOME Affairs minister Kembo Mohadi could be heading into another bruising legal battle after a private pegger gave him mining claims on a wildlife sanctuary, Longueville Farm, in Gwanda, belonging to a war veteran and former police commander, Andrew Mupungu.
The pegger, identified as Brighton Kwaipa, is licensed by the Mines and Mining Development ministry to peg mines in Matabeleland South.
He reportedly pegged five blocks of the wildlife sanctuary, which translated into 50 hectares of land, reportedly without advising Mupungu in April 2014.
To make matters worse, the area Kwaipa pegged the main shaft is inhabited by zebras and a large number of pythons — a protected species under Zimbabwean law.
The farm has large numbers of sables, kudus, elands, impalas, guinea fowls and waterbucks.
Efforts to get a comment from Mohadi and Kwaipa were fruitless as they could not be reached on their mobile phones.
However, Mupungu, a former Bulawayo-based Criminal Investigations Department Law and Order Section commander, yesterday confirmed the developments to Southern Eye.
“Kwaipa is the one who pegged the area without my knowledge,” Mupungu said.
“The law says if peggers are given the right to peg, they should advise the owner of the land if it belongs to a private person like me. If he had informed me I could have spoken to Mohadi.
“I am a war veteran; we meet and he’s my former minister. If I had been given that chance, I was going to tell him that I keep wildlife and that doesn’t go hand in hand with mining.
“The damage has already been done and there is no remedy as the paperwork is now complete.”
Mupungu said he was seeking legal advice to stop the acquisition of his land before Mohadi invests money developing the mining claims.
Mupungu said coincidentally, Kwaipa pegged mining claims for his (Mupungu) Pioneer Syndicate in Filabusi where he also later pegged for another person identified as Eziel Dube, creating a dispute.
“I gathered that last week Mohadi’s brother went to my farm with surveyors to set in motion the mining,” he said.
“I don’t know whether it’s deliberate that Kwaipa created a dispute for us in Filabusi in 2013, which is still ongoing, and in Gwanda he has created a conflict for me with the minister.”
A new legal battle in this matter could weigh heavily on Mohadi’s reputation as he has been at the Bulawayo High Court several times over claims that his family members wanted to grab land from villagers.
He has been linked to company grabs.

THE Zimbabwe National Roads Administration will no longer handle funds collected from tollgates because it did not put the money to good use and, in some instances, failed to account for it, a Cabinet minister has said.
Money collected from tollgates will now be handled by a board constituted by various Government ministries.
Speaking in an interview after addressing students of the Joint Command and Staff Course (JCSC) Number 28 at the Zimbabwe Staff College yesterday, Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Dr Obert Mpofu said Government recently appointed the board of experts, who are also helping with restructuring the management of Zinara.
“Also, currently appointed is a board that has been drawn from various stakeholders such as the Ministry of Finance, Local Government, Public Works and National Housing and the District Development Fund and the President’s Office,” he said.
“Funds are scrutinised before disbursement and the board is very effective as proved by our tollgates collections ranging from $1,7 million to $2 million per month.”
The establishment of the board is expected to result in the quick rehabilitation of the country’s road network which has been affected by potholes.
“This initiative has helped a lot as proved by the improvements in our roads, the payment of permits and licences has also risen,” said Dr Mpofu.
Zinara has been accused by several stakeholders of failing to properly handle the money raised from toll gates as the road network continued to deteriorate.
Dr Mpofu said Government was working on 10 toll gates out of the 30 that were on plan for commissioning this year.
“The City–Harare International Airport road will be completed in the next few weeks,” he said. “Government undertook the project single handedly which showed us that the ministry can do its own things without involving outsiders if allowed to implement proposed programmes.”
Dr Mpofu said regional trade corridors needed rehabilitation with the first project being the Plumtree-Harare Road (823km) now at 90 percent completion.
“Our focus is directed on rehabilitating and upgrading Beitbridge-Harare-Chirundu (feasibility study done and estimated cost is $1,8 billion), Harare-Nyamapanda (feasibility study to be done in 2015 with an estimated cost of $360 million) and Beitbridge-Bulawayo-Victoria Falls (feasibility study is under way with an estimated cost of $800 million),” he said.
The minister said the state of the transport system and infrastructure in Zimbabwe was critical in the development of continental trade and in promoting economic linkages.
“Transport is a major component of any economic development in a country,” he said “Our primary strategic thrust is to rehabilitate and upgrade the bulk of the basic infrastructure assets of the country and reinforce the existing integration of Zimbabwe’s infrastructure network with those of the other countries in Sadc region.”
Dr Mpofu said key features of the proposed programme included increased resource allocations for both upgrading and maintenance of the transport infrastructure facilities.
“Government through Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) has undertaken the Harare International Airport runway rehabilitation project which is at 65 percent, acquisition of materials for airfield ground lighting system and will shortly be working on the remaining aero-bridges.” said Dr Mpofu.
He said there was need for a second runway at the airport to ensure that further expansion will not encroach into housing development projects.

An ambulance veered off the road and overturned along Chiredzi-Roy Highway killing a 19-year-old pregnant woman and a nurse while seriously injuring the driver.
Memory Ndlovu of Muhlanguleni Primary School in Chikombedzi was being ferried from Chiredzi District Hospital to Masvingo General Hospital after developing complications with her pregnancy when the accident occurred.
Ndlovu died on the spot, while Julia Shereni (33), a nurse at Chiredzi General Hospital, who was accompanying her, died on admission at Musiso Mission Hospital in Zaka after sustaining severe injuries.
Acting Masvingo provincial police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Kudakwashe Dhewa yesterday said the driver of the ambulance, Simon Jengwa was battling for life at Masvingo General Hospital after sustaining severe injuries.
“Preliminary investigations indicate that Jengwa, who was driving the Land Cruiser ambulance failed to negotiate a curve at the 53km peg along the Chiredzi-Roy Highway and lost control of the vehicle which veered off the road to the left side and overturned once before landing on its wheels on the right side of the road,’’ he said.
“Ndlovu died on the spot after sustaining a deep cut on the forehead while Shereni succumbed to serious head injuries upon admission at Musiso Hospital.’’
Asst Insp Dhewa said the ambulance was extensively damaged and taken to the Vehicle Inspection Department depot in Masvingo.
He urged drivers to exercise caution on the roads, saying police were worried about the high number of fatal accidents along the province’s roads.
Last year, Masvingo Province recorded 1 974 road accidents that claimed 31 lives.

A jilted woman broke into her ex-husband’s bedroom and sliced his buttocks with a razor blade while he was asleep, the Harare Civil Court heard yesterday.
Leonard Shumbaimwe claimed Nyaradzo Mahembe was always threatening to kill him with a razor blade each time she visited his house. Shumbaimwe was seeking a protection order against Mahembe whom he was accusing of breaching his peace.
“This woman is violent. I got seriously injured after she broke into my bedroom and sliced my buttocks (with a razor blade) while I was asleep,” he said.
Shumbaimwe told magistrate Ms Ruth Kamangira that Mahembe was also in the habit of verbally and physically abusing him even at his workplace.
“She follows me to my workplace insulting me all the way and at times she physically abuses me in front of my workmates. This is embarrassing me,” said Shumbaimwe.
He told the court that Mahembe was making his life horrible through her violent behaviour.
“I can’t even sleep at night because she is always threatening to attack and kill me with a razor blade,” he said.
Shumbaimwe claimed Mahembe once destroyed his company car at the height of a misunderstanding.
Mahembe denied the allegations that were being levelled against her by Shumbaimwe and accused him of not maintaining their minor children.
“I only go to his house to ask for money to buy food for the children only because he is neglecting them,” she said.
Mahembe claimed Shumbaimwe was trying to avoid her because she is HIV positive.
Ms Kamangira granted the order in Shumbaimwe’s favour which barred Mahembe from verbally or physically abusing him.
She ordered Mahembe to keep peace towards Shumbaimwe at all times. herald

A Matobo man has admitted to raping a 91 year old woman and in mitigation pleaded saying he viewed her as a young woman having been seduced by a mini-skirt the nonagenarian “was wearing”.
Mr Nicholas Ndlovu from the nearby Natisa village area, admitted guilt before Gwanda magistrate Joseph Mabeza when he conceded how he invaded the elderly woman[name withheld]’s house on the 23^rd November last year.
He on that day entered the granny’s property after claiming he needed a glass of water to drink.
After being given the first glass of water, the man then withdrew to take out a knife having begged for a second one. It was at the point of her returning that he then flung the sharp knife towards her threatening to kill her if she protests.
The court heard that he then knocked the elderly to the floor descending there and raped her once.
Upon rising up, he once again threatened her, this time telling her that if she dare told anyone, he would come back and kill her.
But word soon reached Chief Malaki Masuku when two neighbours were alerted by the woman leading to Mr Ndlovu’s arrest.
The prosecutor sounded that there are records that Ndlovu had barely a few weeks before been released from prison having served a seven year sentence for a similar rape attack in 2007.
Magistrate Mabeza ruled that a sentencing will be done tomorrow, Friday.

AT least 20 people were injured, while four cattle were killed at Christmas Pass (Mutare) Thursday afternoon when an ISUZU lorry carrying 15 cattle lost balance after one of its front tyres burst and crashed into a Trip Trans Yutong bus travelling from Harare to Mutare. The lorry was travelling from Chinhoyi to Chipinge.

NehandaRadio|Baba Jukwa bounces back barely 48hours after Jonathan Moyo enters Twittersphere and social networking website Facebook.

 The mystery surrounding controversial Facebook blogger Baba Jukwa grows even more after the popular character resurfaced on Thursday and began posting again. The last time the page was updated was 11 August 2014.
Baba Jukwa taking notes in Nyoka and Kunyepa satire of a cabinet meeting
Baba Jukwa taking notes in Nyoka and Kunyepa satire of a cabinet meeting
“From meetings within and without over here one thing is fixed: There are three animals crawling: The Snake, The Crocodile, and The Hippo. Death is the end of at least two, and only one animal will survive this war before Zimbabwe is set free forever. Didymus is no fool hear me great people,” he posted on Thursday.
This was followed by another post, an hour later saying;
“List of people to disappear in February: You’ll remember I told you of how many officers will die in 2014 before it all happened. Three more junior CIOs are going to disappear between 15 February and 5 March.
“You will not hear much of them and it will be like nothing has happened. But their bodies will be turned into ashes. I will give you the updated full list on Monday and will also tell you where and how this is all to go. Watch your back vafana watch!!!,” the blogger said.
The page currently has over 409 000 followers. It grew in popularity towards the 2013 elections as it delivered juicy reports on Zanu PF politburo meetings and several scandals involving senior government officials. The page also quickly grew into a platform for naming and shaming people involved in corruption, theft, murder and other vices.
Sunday Mail editor Edmund Kudzayi was arrested last year following claims that he was in fact Baba Jukwa. He is facing charges of attempting to subvert a constitutionally elected government, banditry, insurgency and demeaning the office of the President and is jointly charged with his brother Phillip.
Jonathan Moyo and Edmund Kudzayi
Jonathan Moyo and his sidekick Edmund Kudzayi
Since Kudzayi’s arrest the number of posts on the page has declined considerably. In the past the page has been taken offline and come back online again. The latest period, 6 months, is the longest the popular page has been offline.
Last month Kudzayi threatened to take legal action against the police accusing them of dragging their feet in investigating the Baba Jukwa saga.
Through his lawyer Admire Rubaya, Kudzayi wrote a letter dated January 12, 2015, and copied to prosecutor-general Johannes Tomana, the then Justice minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, among others. Mnangagwa is now the Vice President.
“It is common cause that our client was arrested in June 2014, where the State claimed it had ample evidence and would be ready for trial by July of the same year. Seven months have since passed,” Rubaya said.
Interestingly Baba Jukwa is back on Facebook exactly three days after Information Minister Jonathan Moyo officially announced he had joined Facebook and Twitter. It was Moyo in his capacity as Information Minister who appointed Kudzayi to be editor of the state owned but Zanu PF controlled Sunday Mail newspaper.

Investigations into the alleged plots to assassinate President Robert Mugabe are complete and the police are consulting Prosecutor General Johannes Tomana on what to do next.
“The police have done their work concerning the issue but they have to get the opinion the Prosecutor General on the matter before they can proceed. Yes, the investigations were done and now the Prosecutor General has to give his opinion on the matter,” said Home Affairs Deputy Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi in a telephone interview.
He said people implicated in the alleged plot would be arrested should the police find overwhelming evidence against them, and promised action “soon”.
Ex-Vice President Joice Mujuru, former Zanu (PF) Secretary for Administration Didymus Mutasa, ex-minister of Public Service Nicholas Goche and ousted spokesperson Rugare Gumbo stand accused of plotting the assassination.
The alleged plot came to light following a scathing attack on Mujuru by Mugabe’s wife Grace last year. Grace blamed Mujuru for working in cahoots with forces opposed to Mugabe’s rule to unconstitutionally unseat him.
Mutasa reportedly revealed during the run up to Zanu (PF’s) December congress that Mugabe would be shot if he did not allow Mujuru to take over from him. Gumbo stands accused of saying that Mugabe’s fate would be similar to that of late Democrat Republic of Congo (DRC) President Laurent Kabila, who was shot by one of his aides in 2001.
Goche is accused of having approached hit men in South Africa and Israel to plot the assassination of Mugabe. Other allegations against Goche are that in September last year he warned that there would be war before congress.
Once Mugabe’s close confidant, Mutasa has maintained that he is unfazed by plans to have him and other officials arrested for trying to kill the Zanu (PF) leader.
Last month, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Secretary Virginia Mabiza said government officials were living in fear following an attempt on Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s life.
Last year, burglars broke into Mnangagwa’s office at Zanu (PF) Headquarters in Harare and reportedly sprinkled cyanide on furniture and floors in a bid to assassinate him. Three staffers were reportedly affected and later treated.
There has been growing criticism in Zanu (PF) circles of the manner in which the police was handling the issue of the alleged assassins loyal to Mujuru. Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri has been fingered as a Mujuru loyalist.
However, the ZRP is on record distancing itself from factional wars within Zanu (PF) saying that the force was non-partisan in its operations. Police spokesperson, Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba, was evasive when asked about police progress on the alleged plots to assassinate Mugabe. “I am in a meeting at the moment. Call me later when I finish,” she said. Efforts to contact her later proved fruitless as her mobile phone went unanswered.
A source at the PG’s office who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed that the police were making a number of consultations on the way forward. “The Prosecutor General’s office is currently seized with the issue. I think any course of action that the police take would be based on recommendations from Tomana,” said the source. – TheZimbabwean

Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa caused a stir Thursday when he came out opposing Justice Bere on the illegality of spot fines charged by police officers on motorists.
Mnangagwa against the judge, defended spot fines saying they are an administrative process that was put in place for the convenience of the justice delivery system.
His words and direct swipe at a sitting judge came at the peak of wide media coverage this week over spot fines.
In an interview with the State Media on the sidelines of a presentation at the Zimbabwe Staff College, Vice President Mnangagwa, who is also the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, said while the judge made his comment outside a court of law, what is important is whether the payment of spot fines is done in accordance with the law or not.
 
He said the payment of spot fines was “made to ease the administrative processes in the payment of the fines for travelling motorists”.
 
But last week Justice Bere blasted the police for demanding spot fines from errant motorists explaining that “there is no law which compels a motorist to deposit a fine with the police if he desires to challenge the alleged offence. But it looks like the motorists are being forced to pay these fines on our public roads irrespective of their attitude to the charges.
“It occurs to me that any collection made by the police must be made in terms of Section 356 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act (Chapter 9:07). That piece of legislation does not support the manner in which the spot fines are being collected and handled by the police,” Justice Bere said.
 
Police defiance
In response, the police defied Justice Bere’s Monday utterances saying they will continue collecting spot fines.
Senior Lawyer and MDC Secretary for legal affairs, David Coltart, said the outburst from the police was not surprising as spot fines had become a source of revenue for the ZRP.
“I am not surprised by this remark because we all know that the number of road blocks and the rampant fining which takes place at them is a key source of revenue for the ZRP,” said Coltart.
“The Chief Superintendent is correct in saying that remarks at the opening of the High Court are not binding as a judgement would be. However the ZRP should not be so dismissive of the learned Judge’s remarks and a more temperate reply would have been more appropriate.”
Coltart attacked the police for wanting to convict people instead of leaving that role to the courts.
“The ZRP are not there to convict people-they are there to identify crime/infractions of the law and then to bring those to the Courts to decide whether there is guilt or not. That right is entrenched in Section 69(1) of the Constitution which states “Every person accused of an offence has the right to a fair and public trial within a reasonable time before an independent and impartial court”,” said Coltart.
 
Abuse of Authority
However Mnangagwa said the government is worried about the abuse of authority by some police officers who are demanding bribes saying it requires the participation of all stakeholders to curb the vice. In his presentation to the officers attending the Joint Command and Staff Course Number 28 at the Zimbabwe Staff College, Vice President Mnangagwa said corruption and fraudulent activities are derailing efforts in achieving goals set out in the new constitution.
The establishment of independent commissions such as the Anti-Corruption Commission and the National Prosecuting Authority were deliberate efforts by the country to allow independence in the prosecution of cases.

In a more well-mannered way of appealing to well-wishers, Entembeni old people’s 50 inhabitants are in need of food, clothing and basic medication as their home is struggling to look after them.
This came to light during a drama which was held in honour of the aged and orphaned community in Bulawayo recently.

The Entembeni dwellers, an average age of 80 years old, are impoverished and in dire need of food and basic medical support.
For several years to date, Entembeni people have been surviving on hand-outs from well-wishers who are also struggling. The nurses at the home are fighting tirelessly to work with available resources such as using firewood to prepare lunch for the 50 old folk.
The old people appealed to drama actors to share their pleas to the international world and well-wishers to assist in kind, especially medication.
The old people’s plight was highlighted by the drama after the theme of the drama appealed to the veterans to open their hearts and empty their troubles.
The drama theme entered the hearts of the elderly Entembeni Old People’s home dwellers, who have since begged the group for more shows, which they said are ‘taking them to their heydays’.
The Nurse in Charge, Ms Maphosa, told ZimEye.com of how much they appreciated the drama performances, and the community work carried by the group.
“Please come again with your shows because old people are missing you and your show,” said a Nurse in Charge at the centre.

A Zimbabwean man based in Gwanda decided to convert a $5 note to $50 by adding a zero to it.
A 32-YEAR-OLD man will spend three months in jail for adding a zero to a $5 note to make it look like $50.
Godness Owen Godha, of no fixed abode was arrested as he tried to buy a pint of beer using the fake $50 note.
The $5 note had zeros added on all the corners using a green mighty marker, to make it appear like a $50 note.
Godha admitted he wanted to buy beer using the fake money but denied being the one responsible for adding a zero to the note.
Gwanda magistrate, Arafat Kozanai, convicted Godha of possessing a fake note and sentenced him to an effective three months in prison.
Godha told the court he had been given the fake note by one Maphala, who is a teacher at St Christopher’s School in Gwanda Town.
“I had a bunch of notes and had not realised that I had fake money,” he said in his defence.
However, magistrate Kozanai said in trying to defend himself, Godha had actually raised points that exposed him that he had knowledge of possessing fake money.
“You put these zeros to make it look like $50, but your attempts failed. You have great knowledge of where you found the money. So you should go to prison where you belong otherwise you will end up painting other monies,” said Kozanai.
Prosecuting, Getrude Zvidzai said Godha tried to buy beer at Njula bottle store using a fake $50 but the cashier immediately noticed it.
The matter was reported to some detectives who were at the bottle store leading to Godha’s arrest. – Chronicle

“I killed my own child…” UK Zim woman confesses
On the 30th January a mother of two, Emily Munemo, died after being found stabbed twice in her kitchen in Hillingdon, London. A man who sired two children with the deceased was soon charged with her murder. ZimEye.com was within 24 hours of the arrest contacted by a UK based anonymous woman who complained alleging ZimEye is publishing falsehoods. Today we are herewith joined by this woman who claims to be Gibson’s first wife.
She in this interview says she was troubled by the deceased and confesses killing her own child because of the late Munemo. I am not speaking in Gibson’s defence at all, but I just need to release myself, she tells ZimEye.com
FULL AUDIO :

A woman yesterday told the court that her son was in the habit of demanding to share her bed every time he came home drunk.
Elizabeth Bheka claimed Nathan Takadza also verbally abused her using vulgar words in front of her other children. Bheka made the revelations at the Harare Civil Court where she was seeking a protection order against Takadza whom she accused of breaching her peace.
“He comes home drunk during midnight and knocks on my bedroom door demanding to share the same bed with me,” she said.
Bheka told magistrate Ms Ruth Kamangira that Takadza was trying to chase her out of her matrimonial home which was left in her name by her late husband.
“My son is threatening to set me ablaze or poison my food if I don’t move out of my house where he is chasing me out everyday,” said Bheka.
She told the court that Takadza was in the habit of selling her household property and sometimes exchanged it for alcohol. Takadza did not turn up in court. Ms Kamangira granted the protection order in default which barred Takadza from threatening and verbally or physically abusing Bheka.
She also ordered Takadza to keep peace towards Bheka at all times. herald

The exiled and bed ridden Grace Mugabe has in absentia been handed more than 67 kilometres of prime Mazowe land, ZimEye.com can reveal.
The development means Mrs Mugabe will now own the richest land between Harare and Bindura.

Mrs Mugabe currently in a foreign hospital and recovering from a critical operation, has by proxy utilised the strained police, army and the Department of National Parks to carve for herself 6700 hectares of Mazowe land meaning she now becomes the biggest land owner in Mashonaland Central.
This was revealed through the lawyer for the abused Manzou villagers who have taken Mrs Mugabe to court and won three High Court rulings in a roll against her.
Mr Gift Mtisi of the Zimbabwe Lawyers For Human Rights read out papers to ZimEye.com presented him showing how the government’s has deliberately carved out 6700 hectares for Grace.
Mr Mtisi revealed that the Manzou residents who woke up to the shock of 100 zebras transported from the Zambezi area and offloaded onto their village by the Department of National Parks under Grace’s command, have since been handed offer letters to take new farm lands, and Mrs Mugabe will now move in to take up a total 6700 hectares.
“The area called Manzou is not one farm, it covers a number of farms,” Mtisi said.
He continued, “the lawyers for the authorities were saying…Manzou comprises three distinct farms, and in total they are ranging in size 6700 hectares.”
Mrs Mugabe caused constenation last year when she announced she was evicting 200 whole families including vulnerable children from Manzou farm to make way for her animal farm project.

Chinhoyi- A man who attempted to rescue the late Mavambo Kusile Dawn party official Liberty Mukwakwami killed by a crocodile in December, met bad luck when he was today struck by the same crocodile(according to witneesses).
The man, in his 30s, whose name has been withheld until after relatives are notified, was killed at the same spot that Mr Mukwakwami disappeared last year. [READ MORE –  Horror as Mystery Crocodile Kills Mavambo Leader During Whatsapp Chat].
He was fishing in the river at the time of the attack, ZimEye.com has been told.
The rare 16-foot crocodile which killed Mr Mukwakwami reportedly sneaked in on him while he was snagging a fishing line late Wednesday afternoon.
The large reptile well-known amongst Chinhoyi residents, is said to be still at large in the waters.
 
A Mermaid?
Community superstitious speculation has been rife that because all casualties for years to date are men, the croc it is not real, is actually a mythical mermaid. Last year several people told ZimEye.com the croc attacks are those a mermaid which is backfiring on men. But investigations carried out by ZimEye.com have shown that the crocodiles are now a problem in the area after they were released following a recent farm invasion on a plot previously owned by a white farmer who used  the reptiles for croc farming.
Meanwhile scores of villagers are currently congregated close to the river-side at a place called Muteputepu whre the attack took place.
ZimEye.com will inform our valued readers as events unravel.

Mission schools have this year dominated the ZIMSEC national ‘O’ level top 100, accounting for 75 percent.
The major talking point has been rural and high density schools which are forced to take students who failed Grade 7 yet they are rated together with schools that take the cream.
Another part of the ZIMSEC rating system that has been queried is the failure to recognise schools that have many candidates.
Pamushana in Bikita had 239 candidates but recorded 01.63 percent.
In contrast, the top rated school Monte Casino had only 83 candidates.
Other schools that had high numbers of candidates yet made it into the top 100 are St Dominics (237), Gokomere (236) and Goromonzi (205).
The worst performing schools were in Matabeleland South Province.
Meanwhile, Mathematics and Integrated Science were the most problematic subjects for students who sat for the 2014 ‘O’ level examinations, with the former recording a dismal 21 percent while later has 21,9 percent.
There is a general belief that the subjects are tough but analysts say the problem is linked to the brain drain that has attracted competent teachers to neighbouring countries.
High pass rates were recorded in Literature in English with 82,54 percent, Physics 89,08 percent, Statistics 77,96 percent, Additional Mathematics 79,62 percent, Home Management 82,46 percent and Computer Studies 78,43 percent.
But why do students continue to register low passes in Science and Mathematics subjects?
An analyst, Pardon Mugari cited ill-equipped laboratories, brain drain and unacceptable teacher to pupil ratio as some of the contributors to low pass rate in the subjects.
According to the November 2014 examinations top 100 best performing schools released by ZIMSEC, government schools once again played second fiddle to church schools while private colleges were the worst performers.
The percentage pass rate continued to go down, with the rate for school candidates standing at 22.38 percent while private candidates recorded a mere 8.47 percent.
The total number of candidates examined in the November 2014 ‘O’ level examination session was 316 003.
Candidates who sat for five subjects and above was 173 856 while those who passed five subjects and above with a grade C or better were 36 031.
On a worrying note, male school candidates performed better than their female counterparts with a 27.23 percent pass rate compared with 18.76 percent pass rate for girls.
However, mission schools once again maintained their stranglehold on the top 100, accounting for 75 percent.
The mission schools dominated the top 10 with only ZRP High School in Harare, Nyanga High School and Knowstic Academy spoiling an almost clean sweep.
Schools from Manicaland Province were the top performers with four of the schools making it into the top 5 while the Midlands Province provided Anderson and Regina Mundi into the top 10.
Mashonaland East has St Ignatius College and St Dominics Chishawasha in the top 10.
However, experts are querying the way ZIMSEC is rating the schools, alleging the system is flawed.-ZBC

At least three people are murdered every month in Masvingo, it has emerged.

High Court judge Justice Francis Bere has bemoaned the increase in murder cases in Masvingo province where an average of three people are killed every month mostly over petty issues.
Addressing guests at the official opening of the Masvingo High Court Circuit on Monday, Justice Bere said the statistics were worrisome.
“I have noticed that over the years, we deal with an average of 12 murder cases per circuit which roughly translates to almost three murder cases per month and these figures are too high for a small country like ours,” Justice Bere said.
“We must be concerned as a country with our strange appetite to resort to violence as a way to resolve our differences. We must, as a people, learn to exercise restraint in the event of disputes and seek the intervention of both our traditional and civic leadership in the event of disputes. Spilling blood invariably leads to further complications.
“Always remember animals quarrel and fight to stamp their authority over others, but man must learn to debate and discuss in order to have permanent solutions to their challenges,” he said.
Justice Bere also urged the police to be techno-savvy in investigating matters to be brought before the courts and move with modern policing trends to avoid the culprits walking scot-free due to lack of evidence.
“It occurs to me that there is need for the ZRP as an institution to enthuse itself with modern trends in investigations, especially when dealing with more complex matters such as rape, armed robbery and murder cases.
“We would want to see more use of forensic examinations to avoid the culprits being let off the hook on some other technicalities,” Justice Bere said.
The judge also urged the police to remain cognisant of the people’s rights as laid down in the Constitution in order to avoid litigation. – Newsday

BINGA villagers under Chief Pashu woke up to a horrific sight when they discovered a partly devoured body of a school temporary teacher who went missing last week, reportedly after he was swallowed by a flooded river and attacked by crocodiles.
Reports from Binga district said the teacher, identified as Mlamuli Khumalo, was swept away by the flooded Nakapande River last week and his body had not been found for nearly a week until Thursday.
However, to the shock of villagers the body was discovered devoured by crocodiles with several parts, including bowels missing.
The teacher was recently deployed to teach at Kamalungu Primary School in the district under Chief Pashu.
However, Southern Eye yesterday could not establish where Khumalo comes from or locate his relatives, who have reportedly been informed of his death.
Binga councillor for Ward 4, Elmon Mudenda, confirmed the morbid incident.
“Yes, I heard that he tried to cross a flooded Nakapande River and was attacked by crocodiles, according to the police, but it seems the issue is quite complicated,” he said.
A police source confirmed that Khumalo was trying to cross the flooded river to school when he was swept away.
“He went missing for some days,” the officer said.
“However, his body was later recovered last week mauled by crocodiles.
“It was taken to Binga mortuary,” he said.
Another source said it was like watching a horror movie.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” he said.
“You could not look at the decomposing body. Crocodiles left it in bad shape. The scene resembled a horror movie.
“I haven’t seen such horror in real life except in movies.
“It was not a sight for those of a nervous disposition, it was shocking.”
He said Khumalo had recently been deployed to Kamalungu Primary School as a temporary teacher.
Although the roads to Kariangwe and Lusulu are in a better condition, the road network in Binga is generally poor, making it difficult for some of the remote areas to be accessed, especially during the rainy season. – SouthernEye

VENERANDA LANGA|DEFIANT former Zanu PF secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa yesterday turned up in Parliament almost two months after he went out of public life following his ugly fallout with President Robert Mugabe.
Mutasa, who is Headlands MP, sneaked into the House of Assembly shortly before Speaker Jacob Mudenda opened the proceedings and quietly sat next to former Information Communication Technology minister Webster Shamu for approximately 25 minutes before he left.
Mutasa’s stay in Zanu PF now hangs in the balance after top party officials have publicly called for his ouster after he denounced the party’s December congress resolutions as illegal and threatened to take the party to court over the matter.
The former Zanu PF strongman has refused to be silenced and even scoffed at threats to have him expelled from the party.
Mutasa has even defied Mugabe and at one time sought to have him reprimanded by his Sadc and African Union colleagues for “holding an illegal party congress” that endorsed the ouster of former Vice-President Joice Mujuru and several other party gurus.
They were relieved of their government and party posts over allegations of plotting to topple Mugabe from power. Several former ministers who were swept away in the December tide have of late been attending Parliament in their capacity as MPs, but keeping a low profile.
Morale among them seems low, and most of them have been wearing forlorn faces in Parliament.
This comes amid reports that the Zanu PF purge, which started in the run-up to the party’s December congress, is likely to be extended to chairpersons of thematic committees, the majority of whom are perceived as Mujuru allies.
Sources said the Parliamentary Standing Rules and Orders Committee met this week to discuss re-alignment of MPs to different committees and that Zanu PF might remove MPs aligned to the Mujuru faction from chairing parliamentary committees.
The axe is likely to fall on Hurungwe West MP Temba Mliswa (Education, Sport, Arts and Culture), Mbire MP David Butau (Lands, Agriculture and Mechanisation), Marondera Central MP Ray Kaukonde (Industry and Commerce) and Epworth MP Amos Midzi (Transport and Infrastructural Development) — all of whom were booted out of their provincial chairmanship on allegations of supporting Mujuru.
Mudenda announced last week that there was going to be a reshuffle of MPs in committees.
Meanwhile, opposition MPs yesterday continued to resist the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Debt Assumption Bill which is currently in the Second Reading Stage before the National Assembly.
However, Zanu PF MPs said if the opposition MPs described the RBZ farm mechanisation scheme as looting, then they might as well return the vehicles that the central bank bought for them during the government of national unity.
Hatfield MP Tapiwa Mashakada (MDC-T) said although he was in favour of passage of the Bill to enable the RBZ to assume a clean balance sheet, its quasi-fiscal activities which brought about the $1,3 billion debt were an act of recklessness.
Bulawayo East MP Tabitha Khumalo (MDC-T) said the Bill sought to normalise fraudulent activities.
Mbizo MP Settlement Chikwinya (MDC-T) said failure to force the farm mechanisation beneficiaries to pay back was a violation of the Constitution which demanded transparency and accountability. Mkoba MP Amos Chibaya (MDC-T) said there was need for people to know what debts they would be paying for.
But Zanu PF MP Masango Matambanadzo (Kwekwe Central) said opposition legislators benefited from the RBZ vehicle scheme and should therefore return the cars.
Chegutu West MP Dexter Nduna (Zanu PF) added that part of the debt was accrued in the purchase of MPs’ vehicles by the RBZ. – Newsday

The residents of Emakhandeni suburb in Bulawayo got the shock of their lives as they witnessesd a horrifying incident of a woman who totured her 11-year-old son.Nomalanga Maphosa tied up her son and repeatedly struck him with an iron bar on the head before burning him all over the body using a burning plastic paper.
There was blood every where as the woman was accusing her son of selling her dog.The incident happened on Tuesday around 8pm.
Nomalanga Maphosa, 29, yesterday appeared before provincial magistrate Willard Maphios Moyo facing a charge of ill-treatment /neglect of children and young persons.
She was not asked to plead and was remanded in custody to today for trial.
Prosecuting Kingston Mkanganwi told the court that Maphosa assaulted her son because he had failed to disclose the whereabouts of the dog.
“She assaulted him after failing to disclose the whereabouts of the dog which disappeared sometime last year and she was accusing him of having sold it,” said Mkanganwi.
The court heard that on Tuesday last week around 8PM, Maphosa asked her son about the dog,
After the boy failed to disclose the whereabouts of the dog, she started accusing him of having sold it, the court heard.
Maphosa then allegedly tied the boy’s hands and legs with a rope and struck him four times on the head with a metal bar.
The court heard that Maphosa went on to light a plastic paper which she allegedly used to burn the boy all over the body.
The boy sustained some cuts on the head and blisters all over the body as a result of the torture.

The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) has dismissed claims that spot fines are illegal, saying they are empowered by law to accept them on all offenders whether it is a criminal or traffic offence.
This follows statements by High Court judge, Justice Francis Bere during the official opening of the 2015 Masvingo High court legal year that spot fines are illegal.
In a statement, Police Spokesperson, Chief Superintendent Paul Nyathi dismissed Justice Bere’s statement, saying it was his own personal views and made outside the court as it was not an issue brought before the court by someone.
He added that Justice Bere’s statement is not binding on police operations and the issue of admission of guilty is regulated by section 356 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act chapter 9.07.
“The issue of deposit fines was duly tabled before Parliament and approved by Cabinet and justified by Honourable Minister of Home Affairs on several occasions in Parliament, Portfolio Committees, deliberations and public fora. As an organisation, we view the quoted comments as interference on the separation of powers between the Executive, Parliament and Judiciary,” said Chief Superintendent Nyathi.
Chief Superintendent Nyathi urged the public to continue cooperating with the police on all activities to ensure the smooth delivery of justice in the country.
After Justice Bere’s statement, motorists were quick to call on authorities to scrap spot fines.

A Bulawayo woman has been caught in a fix after becoming intimate with her own father in law.
Sibusisiwe Sibanda fell in love with her father-in-law resulting in the pair moving in together. Ndebele culture regards one’s father in law, their own parent.
The father-in-law is widowed while the woman also lost her husband. The daughter-in-law Sibusisiwe Sibanda, moved out of her lodgings in Emakhandeni suburb to stay with her father in-law-cum-lover David Mwale in Njube suburb.
However, the two’s relationship was discovered after Mwale took one of his tenants Dorothy Nyathi as his live-in girlfriend much to the anger of Sibanda who had seen herself as his wife.
The two women — Nyathi and Sibanda — who are staying in the same house are reportedly fighting for Mwale’s attention.
So nasty is the bedroom war that Nyathi who apparently is overwhelmed by jealousy after suspecting that Mwale was allegedly clocking more hours in Sibanda’s bedroom last week approached the Bulawayo Civil Court seeking a restraining order against her claiming she was disturbing her relationship with Mwale.
At the court she made some stunning disclosures to the effect that Sibanda was madly in love with her father-in-law.
She said spirited efforts to evict her from the house have dismally failed as she was always receiving support from Mwale.
“I am married to David Mwale and we have been living peacefully until 2011 when Sibusisiwe moved in. She is subjecting us to harassment. Despite the fact that we live in the same house she does not talk to me. She is doing whatever she wants in the house without consulting me.
“Whenever I finish cooking for my husband she rushes to take the food to serve him. She is saying my husband is also her husband. I didn’t want to say this before the court but because of anger I am now revealing it. She is madly in love with my husband who is also her father-in-law. Really it’s a shame. The relationship started after the death of
her husband Isaac some years back. I want her to move out of the house since what she is doing is taboo,” said Nyathi.
In response Sibanda refuted Nyathi’s allegations maintaining that she would not move out of the house as long as Mwale “loves”
her as her only daughter in-law.
“Nyathi is not telling the truth. She is not married to
Mwale, she is just a live-in girlfriend who came as a tenant. She does not have
the right to evict me from the house since it does not belong to her. I am
staying there with the blessings of my father-in-law who said I should not go
anywhere,” she said.
Presiding magistrate Evelyne Mashavakure who however,
seemed to have been shocked by the revelations postponed the matter and said he wanted to hear Mwale’s side of the
story. b metro

Barely one month after one prophet claimed President Robert Mugabe is dying this year, a renowned Malawian prophet has said that Mugabe will die in less than 46 weeks’ time.
The Maravi Post newspaper reports Apostle Kenneth Eagle saying he “spoke to an angel” who spoke in clear words of Mugabe’s imminent exit from human life.
Kenneth Eagle of the Holy Tabernacle Ministries in the Lukuni township of Lilongwe, said he was just doing his job as watchman quoting Amos 3 v 7 which says “The Lord will not do a thing without revealing it to his seers”.
[ALSO READ -PROPHECY: Mugabe’s Exact Death Date, and Grace Mugabe’s Shocking Doom ]

ANTI-RIOT police yesterday descended at Maleme Ranch in Matopo and severely beat up villagers who had gathered for a prayer meeting on the farm.
The villagers were against the acquisition of the ranch by an official from the office of the president, Rodney Mashingaidze. The locals had at the weekend resolved to hold two days of prayer to stop the acquisition of the farm which belonged to a white farmer, David Cunningham.
The prayers were supposed to continue yesterday, but all hell broke loose when baton-wielding riot police descended on villagers and beat them up for allegedly trying to stop the farm acquisition.
Chief Malaki Masuku confirmed receiving reports that locals had been assaulted by the police.
“Yes, I have a report that my people are being beaten up by the riot police for holding peace prayers at Shalom campsite,” he said.
This follows reports that Mashingaidze on Friday led a group of 16 people from outside the region, who pitched tents around the ranch and ordered farm workers to stop their routine tasks at the farm.
A foreman was arrested and taken to Kezi.
Unconfirmed reports claimed Cunningham had been taken to the local police station.
Matabeleland South police spokesperson Inspector Philisani Ndebele said he was not aware of the matter.
Local chiefs had been vehemently opposed to the acquisition and approached Provincial Affairs minister Abedinico Ncube, who has so far been indifferent to their pleas.
In response to the chiefs’ pleas, war veterans’ leader Chris Mutsvangwa warned traditional leaders in the province to stop meddling in land issues, but to stick to their mandate of safeguarding traditional values.
Mutsvangwa, who is minister in charge of the welfare of the former freedom fighters, said this while addressing hundreds of war veterans at the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Polytechnic, Gwanda, on Saturday.
“We respect our chiefs, but you should stop meddling in land issues, as it is not your mandate to do so. Concentrate on tradition,” he said. “Land is a revolutionary issue. We went to war because of land.”
Matabeleland South Senator Chief Nyangazonke and other chiefs challenged land officials to explain how Maleme Ranch was allocated to Mashingaidze without their approval. But Mutsvangwa said the chiefs were not mandated to allocate land.
War vets secretary-general Victor Matemadanda added the chiefs where working in cahoots with the provincial administrator Midard Khumalo, district administrators and land officials, who he said should be fired for engaging in corruption.
“Matabeleland South has the worst case of land corruption in the country and this is disgusting,” he said. “Traditional leaders, provincial administrator, district administrators and lands officials are involved in illegal dealings and we will have them fired.” southern eye

A 50-YEAR-OLD Chitungwiza male teacher who allegedly summoned a female student to his office where he hugged and kissed her and fondled her breast, appeared in court yesterday charged with indecent assault.
Cornelious Muradzi, a teacher at Genius College, however, denied the charge when he appeared before Chitungwiza magistrate Lazarus Murendo. He was granted $50 bail and remanded to tomorrow for continuation of trial.
It is alleged that on February 5 at around 7:20am, the 17-year-old complainant was in class when Muradzi came to conduct a Shona lesson. The court heard that Muradzi asked the complainant why she had failed to come to school the previous day. He then summoned her to his office so that they could discuss the issue.
Prosecutor Norman Koropi told the court that as they were in the office, the complainant was overcome with emotion while explaining herself and Muradzi allegedly drew closer, hugged and kissed her and fondled her breast in a purported bid to console her.
The complainant immediately stormed out of the office and informed a janitor at the college, leading to Muradzi’s arrest. newsday

A lumpsum $670,000 poured out by government for unemployed graduates is set to disappear, it has emerged.
Sources say there is no framework set up by government for the funds to be accounted for. This money was set out clearly to assist graduates but government has no way of controlling it’s disbursement, a source in the Ministry of Finance said.
As at Monday it was revealed Teritary Education Minister Oppah Muchinguri does not yet have an available policy and procedure for the disbursement of the funds. This became clear when upon requesting a copy of the document ministry officials confessed that it dfoes not exist.  “There is no such a document, why don’t you call on Wednesday morning,” a woman who identified herself as the Minister’s Secretary said.
Government last week announced in the State Media it has set aside $670 000 from Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund (ZIMDEF) to fund projects for unemployed graduates, a Cabinet Minister has said.
Speaking in Harare last Thursday at an event organised by the Zimbabwe Congress of Students Union, (ZICOSU), Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development, Minister Oppah Muchinguri said through a programme called Graduate Entrepreneurship and Employment Promotion Programme (GEEPP), the money would be used to fund projects for the unemployed graduates, teaching them to be self-reliant and innovative.
Minister Muchinguri said the programme will cascade to all provinces, and in order to mobilise additional resources, she will create linkages with external partners by exploiting bilateral and multilateral agreements already in place.
“President Mugabe noted that the number of unemployed graduates on our streets was increasing. My ministry responded by deliberately resuscitating the Graduate Entrepreneurship and Employment Promotion Programme,” Muchinguri  said.

One of the senior partners at a leading Bulawayo law firm, Cheda and Partners, Mlamuli Ncube, is being sued for $46,500 by a city businessman after he was allegedly implicated in a bungled sale of a house.The deal also involved a bogus estate agent, Charles Mawire, 34, who sold the property for $60,000 and allegedly issued fake title deeds to the businessman.
According to the summons issued at the Bulawayo High Court on February 2, Ncube was cited as the first defendant while Cheda and Partners is the second defendant. The businessman, Bernard Muntanga, is the plaintiff.
“Wherefore plaintiff claim payment of $46,500 jointly and severally with one paying the other to be absolved, being money due and payable to the plaintiff, the sum being owed by the first defendant who was acting within the course and scope of employment under the employ of second defendant in the abortive sale of House Number 8 Glenwood Road, Woodlands in Bulawayo,” said Muntanga through his lawyer, David Mhiribidi of Mutuso, Taruvinga and Mhiribidi Attorneys.
In the court papers, Muntanga is accusing Ncube and Cheda and Partners of failing to honour their agreement to settle the debt whose deadline was January 31, 2015.
“First defendant duly admitted liability of this sum in an acknowledgement of debt signed on December 10, 2014 wherein he had undertaken to pay the said sum on or before January 31, 2015, but failed and/or neglected to do so,” he said.
Muntanga is also claiming a collection commission fee in terms of the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) by-laws, an interest thereon at prescribed rate per annum and the cost of suit.
Ncube has up to Thursday to enter an appearance to defend at the office of the Registrar of High Court.
Mawire of Mpopoma Flats has since appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Sibongile Msipa-Marondedze facing a fraud charge and operating as an illegal practitioner.
Cheda and Partners has since been placed under voluntary curatorship by order of the Bulawayo High Court. Ncube and his partner, Sindiso Shepherd Mazibisa have since voluntarily agreed to surrender their practising certificates to the LSZ pending forensic audit of the law firm’s trust account. LSZ has appointed Advocate Perpetua Dube as the curator of the law firm until March 31 when the curatorship expires.
The latest development comes at a time when a third of the lawyers practising in Zimbabwe are being investigated by LSZ for various cases of fraud and corruption which they committed throughout the course of last year.
There were 1,240 registered lawyers in 2014, but almost 400 of them are under investigation, putting a dent on the profession for which honesty is a cardinal rule.

The collection of spot fines from motorists by the police and the impounding of their vehicles if they fail to pay up is illegal and must be stopped forthwith, a High Court Judge has said.
Officially opening the 2015 Masvingo High Court Legal Year yesterday, Justice Francis Bere said there was neither a legal framework nor any law which either compelled a motorist to pay a spot fine or which empowered police to impound someone’s vehicle.
He said Section 356 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act (Chapter 9:07), which is often cited on the matter, did not give police officers powers to force a motorist to pay a spot fine.
Justice Bere said spot fines and their retention by the police needed to be clarified as the matter has caused a lot of debate.
“It has been reported extensively in the media that these collections by the police are meant to meet the force’s pressing operational needs,’’ he said.
“I fully understand the predicament the Home Affairs Ministry finds itself in, but it occurs to me that currently there is no legal framework justifying the manner in which these collections are being done.
“There is no law which compels a motorist to deposit a fine with the police if he desires to challenge the alleged offence, but it looks like the motorists are being forced to pay these fines on our public roads irrespective of their attitude to the charges.
“Any attempt to refuse to pay is met by threats to have the vehicle impounded by the police.’’
Justice Bere decried the continuous flouting of legislation that governs the collection and retention of spot fines, a development he said was affecting the force’s ability to fully execute its core business.
“The Section (356 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act, Chapter 9:07) compels the police to forthwith transmit all the documentation to do with the payment of spot fines to the court for confirmation by a magistrate,” he said.
“All these provisions of the law are being flouted, with everyone watching helplessly whilst this illegality continues. There may be no problems with the police operating as an extension of Treasury, but if that is what is desired, then the legal framework must be put in place to support such kind of a development.’’
Justice Bere said the police were “cursed” if it was true that the force was superintending co-ordinate collection of “security fees” to give commuter omnibus drivers free passage at roadblocks.
“Quite often, one hears of more illegal collections which are being made by the police,” he said.
“There is talk of well co-ordinated collections of security fees on our public roads, particularly from commuter omnibuses, which fees are meant to give commuters free and unhindered passage at police roadblocks.
“If this is true, then the department (police) is surely cursed. How can a nation continue to condone such malpractices which create a breeding ground for corrupt tendencies?
“We talk of determination for the need to rid this country of corruption. How can we achieve this when we allow our police officers to conduct themselves in such a corrupt manner? My view is that all these issues must be seriously looked at and corrective action be taken without further delays.”
Justice Bere said it was crucial for the police to jealously guard its repution as an international brand by fully and fairly playing its role in the justice delivery system.
Turning to the contentious issue of the death penalty, Justice Bere said there was urgent need to align certain laws with the provisions of the new Constitution to avoid confusion.
He said some High Court judges strongly believed that there should be no imposition of the death penalty at the moment until a new law that defines aggravating circumstances was created.
During the circuit of the High Court in Masvingo, Justice Bere will hear 11 murder cases. – State Media

The Harare Municipality Town Clerk has a pocket-dip of $63,000 available for his personal use every month, it has emerged. The Harare Residents Trusts writes revealing the shocking salary discrepancies in the council.

The Harare City Council has 16 grades of employees with Grade One being the Town Clerk, reportedly earning US$21 000 in monthly salary and allowances, excluding vehicles, housing, cellphone and workshops.
On top of this the City of Harare gives workers in Grades 1- 3 school fees assistance for a maximum of three children per year, each child receiving the equivalent of one month’s salary and allowances.
Following this approach, the Town Clerk on paper would be entitled to school fees allowance of US$63 000 if he has three children in school.
The HRT now reveals what each of the grades is entitled to from the coffers of the Harare City Council. We only reveal the minimum figures revealed.
Those in Grades 1-3
Grade Two (six employees)- each earns US $19 073.16
Grade Three (2 employees)- each earning US$13 622.50
Grade Four (32 workers)- each earning US $10 048.25.
Those in Grade Four are entitled to US$18 000 school fees every year if they produce invoices and birth certificates of their children.
Grade Five (28 workers)- each getting US$2 778.21
Grade Six (44 workers)- each earning US$2 387.23
Grade Seven (101 workers)- each getting US$2 126.57
Grade Eight (267 workers)- each getting US $1 848.14
Grade Nine (920 workers)- each earning US$1655.17
Grade 10 (439 workers)- each earning US $1 186.22
Grade 11 (1761 workers)- each takes US $997.62
Grade 12 (874 workers)- each earning US $821.78
Grade 13 (873 workers)- each earning US $683.40
Grade 14 (735 workers)- each earning US $560.97
Grade 15/16 (1 587 workers)- each getting US$472.36
The figures in the number of employees reflects the official figures after their rationalisation exercise. Before the rationalisation there were 44 workers in Grade 4 but have been reduced to 32 while there are now two employees in Grade Three from five.
These allowances exclude the other payments given to them, including vehicles, cellphones, housing and their attending of workshops. The HRT continues to investigate.

MDC Renewal Team secretary general, Tendai Biti, has described a grand coalition of Zimbabwe’s opposition political parties as the “only solution” to the country’s social, economic and political problems.
He said this while addressing Mutare residents at Joppa Hall in Chikanga suburb on Saturday.
His party has announced that it is re-uniting with the MDC party led by Welshman Ncube ahead of a planned launch of their United Movement for Democratic Change (UMDC) on March 1 2015 I Bulawayo.
It is not clear if the grand coalition Biti wants would include Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC-T.
“We are working with other political parties to build a grand coalition. A lot of work is happening. We have to work together to build this coalition,” Biti said.
He bemoaned the industrial decline in the border city of Mutare which used to be a bustling commercial zone.
“Mutare is now a ghost town, a pale shadow of its former glory. There were big companies here like Mutare Border Timbers, Mutare Board and Paper and Quest Motors, but now you cannot talk about that to the young generation without having to explain yourself why these companies are no longer there.
“At one stage in 1995, wealth in Mutare, alone was more than the wealth of the whole of Mozambique in terms of the GDP but now the city is now a scary centre of poverty,” Biti said.
He said the continuous economic decline as well as infrastructure deterioration in Mutare demonstrated Zanu (PF)’s cluelessness on how to remedy the situation.
“As the MDC Renewal Team, we will not leave the people suffering like. That is why we are offering the solution,” he said.
He said the economic challenges facing the people of Zimbabwe had resulted in many people living in squalid housing as they cannot afford decent housing, a situation he said was not conducive for raising families.
“The national constitution talks about the right to human dignity, that dignity has been taken away from men and women of Zimbabwe because they can no longer play their role of providing for their families including buying basic items like bread and milk,” Biti said. -TheZimbabwean

First Lady Grace Mugabe is furious over her husband’s fall and is reported to have caused the suspension of bodyguards now blamed for Mugabe’s sudden disgrace last Wednesday.
A worried First Lady, Grace Mugabe, is said to be apoplectic about the alleged poor planning and response by President Robert Mugabe’s aides when the nonagenarian fell at the Harare International Airport last Wednesday.
Sources told the Daily News on Sunday yesterday that so angry was Grace — whom Mugabe has said is recuperating from a minor operation in Singapore — that she had allegedly demanded the heads of all the implicated people to roll, including those of some security details.
“She was raving mad when she heard of the incident and felt that his aides and security team were negligent in this unfortunate issue. “As any spouse would do, she is clearly fearful that things could have turned really nasty on the day given the president’s age and state of health, and is thus keen to see that this is never repeated.
“This is one of the reasons why petrified government officials and State media have gone into overdrive to try and play down the incident, and to abuse anyone who has shone a negative spotlight on the incident,” one of the sources said.
Another source claimed that Grace’s anger emanated from the fact that Mugabe’s aides had seemingly not planned the airport rally and podium arrangements well, as well as the fact that security details had allegedly taken too long to react to the nonagenarian’s fall.
“She is angry because President Mugabe’s staff knew very well that he has difficulty walking, especially climbing and walking down steps, but did not appear to have factored this in at the airport.
“And when he tumbled over, the security team appears to have been taken unawares, which calls into question their alertness,” the second source said.
The increasingly frail Mugabe fell after he had just finished addressing his supporters after returning from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he took over the rotating ceremonial chairmanship of the African Union.
Although he appeared unhurt after the nasty incident — which occurred in full view of gathered bigwigs, Zanu PF rank and file members and journalists — it triggered visible panic among senior government officials and security chiefs, who all scrambled to try and help him get on his feet and to ensure that he was alright.
It apparently did not also assist Grace’s mood that photographs and video evidence of the fall had leaked on the Internet almost immediately after the incident, and despite
assurances that the secret service had confiscated and destroyed all images that had been captured by the private media.
This had created suspicions about the source of the images and whether State media or Zanu PF officials and members had been complicit in the damaging leaks that made global news.
Aggressive security personnel moved promptly to force gathered photojournalists, including a crew from the Daily News and the Daily News on Sunday, to delete their prized pictures of the fall.
“There is a witch hunt as we speak to sniff out the sources of the leaks, amid reports that Amai wants those responsible to be severely punished.
“You must remember how allergic she is to these kinds of intrusions as exemplified by her negative reaction to a pesky photographer in the Far East a few years ago,” another source said.
It is understood that the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) is now conducting an internal review to determine the facts around the president’s fall, although it is not known when this is expected to be completed — with the results expected to guide any security adjustments and personnel actions that may be necessary to ensure the health and safety of the First Family.
Meanwhile, other sources claim that there are efforts to get respected former African heads of States such as Thabo Mbeki and ailing former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda to persuade Grace — the self-evident power behind the throne — to let Mugabe retire owing to his failing health and advanced age.
“It’s Grace who holds the cards and has the final decision if Mugabe is to retire, but no one is very optimistic given Grace’s behaviour,” one of the sources said. daily news

MDC-T Spokesman Obert Gutu writes denying his boss Morgan Tsvangirai’s recent ban of Whatsapp, Facebook and Twitter use. He did not do it, Obert Gutu says against the backdrop of a full letter penned by Mr Tavangirai in person which saysbthe contrary.
By Obert Gutu:
The MDC is a social democratic party whose main ethos and principles are benchmarked on tolerance, love, empathy, peace and harmony. As a party of excellence, the MDC deeply values, respects and upholds fundamental and basic human rights particularly freedom of expression and freedom of association. We would like to put the record straight that President Morgan Tsvangirai has not banned party members from using social media such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter etc. President Morgan Tsvangirai is a champion of democracy and free speech and indeed; his track record as the country’s most popular politician speaks for itself.
Throughout his political activism, President Tsvangirai has personally championed the cause for the opening up of both the public and private media space to enable all Zimbabweans to freely articulate and propagate their political and other views.
As a voluntary association, the MDC is bound by certain rules and regulations. Indeed, all voluntary associations the world over (including churches and business associations); have to abide by a certain code of conduct in order to achieve stability, unity and cohesion. MDC members are a disciplined group of cadres who very much appreciate the need to use social media platforms for the purpose of maintaining and promoting party discipline, unity and cohesion. The insinuation that party members are no longer allowed to use social media is thus palpably false misleading, preposterous and malicious.
Party members are free to use social media in accordance with the guidelines and standards that are being set up by the party leadership. Social media platforms should not be abused to promote hatred, division, gossiping and rumour -mongering. These guidelines are being made available to all party members who would like to use social media platforms to communicate amongst themselves. Should there be any doubt as to what these guidelines are, my office is more than willing and able to assist any party members who are keen to activate their social media platforms.
The MDC is a beacon of hope for all progressive and democratic – minded Zimbabweans and as such ; the party will do everything within its power to ensure that freedom of expression and freedom of association are not only respected but that they are also jealously guarded and protected.
MDC: EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL
Obert Chaurura Gutu
MDC National Spokesperson

In pics, Vice President Pelekezela Mphoko addresses ZANU PF party elders in Gwanda hand-in-pocket.

Welshman Ncube led MDC want out Secretary General Priscilla Misihairabwi Mushonga has described the party she has fallen out of love with as a junk yard.
In a Facebook update, Misihairabwi Mushonga lamented at belonging to the Ncube led MDC as being sore to belong to a junk yard with an “ouch!!’ Mushonga said this responding to a letter written to the editor of The Daily News of February 7 by a G S Maphosa of Gweru calling on the longtime politician to resign from the party or face forced removal by party members.
In her damning statement Misihairabwi Mushonga challenged the party members to push her out of the party quickly to allow the party to “march to State House fast riding on donkeys”. Over the last weeks Mushonga has come out trailblazing against party President Professor Welshman Ncube who she has described as being difficult to work with.
“Just saw the letter in the Daily News, ouch it’s sore to be in junk yard, and am so waiting to be pushed out, no one is indispensable the sooner you do it the faster you march to statehouse riding on donkeys,” reads Misihairabwi Mushonga’s posting.
In the letter to the editor, Maphosa challenged Mushonga to leave the party immediately as her media statements make it clear that she is no longer an asset in the party. Maphosa claims that the departure of Mushonga from the party will be celebrated by members of the party as “good riddance of bad rubbish.”
“Priscilla is a good example of a person who has outlived her usefulness at a great party that she has always tried to destroy from within,” wrote Maphosa.
“As supporters of the party we will celebrate the departure of this deflated figure within our organisation. Her departure will obviously be seen as good riddance of bad rubbish and will give a new lease of life to the party,” said the letter.
In her response Mushonga challenged the party members to continue writing about her as it revealed to her that a lot more people in the party not only dislike her but hate her.
“…please keep writing it is so gratifying to know that that they are so many of you that really genuinely not just dislike me but hate me, Aluta continua I so await for the next installment . happy hating,” writes Mushonga.
Commenting further, Misihairabwi Mushonga challenges the members of the MDC to push her out of the party quickly and in style if her removal from the party would give party members peace of mind and what she calls “better satisfying sex”.
“If abusing me puts more money in their pockets, more peace, more joy and better satisfying sex more power to them if people are having lighter chests, lower blood pressure, if it helps you to write about me, I am more than happy to have more healthier people so write please write and when you are ready for the final push do it with style I can’t wait!”
Maphosa meanwhile in his letter warned party members siding with Misihairabwi Mushonga that no one will ever be allowed to be bigger than the party. Maphosa accused Mushonga of working with a cohort known as the “gang of four” which must disband urgently or face being exposed.
“The gang of four should disband now or risk being exposed.”
“Party members following this sellouts should be advised to stop it before their cover is blown. Party members thinking Priscilla Misihairabwi will one day be president of the MDC should wake up and smell the coffee. We are fed up with Misihairabwi,” reads the letter.
In her response Mushonga called on party members backing her “cause” to help those fighting for her removal to speed up the process.
“I don’t mind those that think that the revolution will be achieved by pushing me out the sooner they do it the faster we all can leave happily ever after, so let’s encourage them they may be the saviours we were looking for, they must know something we don’t know, that our
problems would just go as soon as this evil person Priscilla is banished please let’s support their cause,” she wrote.
“I hear them they genuinely believe they lives would be much better if it
wasn’t for me they may be right it might actually get better but the sooner they act instead of issuing threats the better it’s been two years, is it not time to deal with this woman who has brought so much misery and pain for a a whole party let alone a nation,” challenged Mushonga.
Meanwhile sources within the party revealed to the media that the Matebeleland South Province Standing Committee of the party was meeting in Gwanda yesterday to pass a recommendation to party’s National Standing Committee to dismiss Misihairabwi Mushonga from the party and recall her from parliament where she represents the province as a member of Muzingwane District. Efforts to get an update on the outcome of the meeting are still underway.

An international banking giant, HSBC, made huge profits by allegedly engaging in shady deals of over $270 million with some Zimbabwean citizens seven years ago, in the process, disadvantaging the poor southern African nation of the much-needed foreign currency, documents in Studio7’s possession have revealed.
These secret documents, obtained from the French newspaper, Le Monde, by the renowned International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a Washington-based journalist organization with members from more than 65 countries, including Zimbabwe, cover bank accounts up to 2007 said to have allegedly belonged to 198 clients connected to Zimbabwe by birth, or residence, amounting to $272 million.
The account records also show that HSBC in 2006/7 had accounts holding about $102 billion deposited by individuals and companies from 203 nations, Zimbabwe included.
The dealings between HSBC’s Swiss private banking arm show what some banking experts in Washington, who requested not to be identified, described as “illegal behavior by the bank, especially in hiding millions of dollars from tax authorities the world over.”
TOP LIST
Topping the list of individuals from Zimbabwe are politicians, doctors, business people, farmers, sports people and what the document refers to as “housewives”, though further investigations by Studio7 reveal that some of these so-called ‘housewives’ are directors of private companies and trusts.
The documents reveal that some of the political figures include former Zanu PF senator, Aguy Clement Georgias, who owns Trinity Engineering and a trucking company; the late Zanu PF youth boss and Zimbabwe Air Force commander, Air Marshal Josiah Tungamirayi; cricketer, Stuart David Robertson; businessman, Frederick Mutanda, chairman of Caps Holdings and the Patel family, among others.
Mukanda did not answer his phone, and Robertson was not reachable.
Georgias, whose account is now listed in the documents as closed, was added on the European Union (EU) sanctions list in April 2007, following his appointment as economic development deputy minister by President Robert Mugabe. He was removed from the sanctions list in February 2011.
The controversial politician took the EU to court claiming 6 million euros in loss of business after he was denied entry into Britain in 2007. But the EU’s general court rejected his application.
Georgias did not answer his phone when Studio 7 contacted him for comment.
MONEY WITHDRAWALS
According to documents in Studio 7’s possession, clients allegedly traveled to Geneva to withdraw huge sums of money, and in some cases, some of them were said to have been advised by HSBC on how to take a range of measures to avoid paying taxes in their home countries.
For example, on January 27, 2005 a Zimbabwean client (name supplied) met HSBC staff in Cape Town and was advised on how to take $500,000 in cash to support his son’s credit card request. The son had to emigrate to California to supervise property investments there by the client.
These internal discussions between the bank and clients will be made available tomorrow, including the amounts each individual had with the bank.
Reacting to reports of these alleged transactions, former finance minister, Tendai Biti, told VOA Studio 7 the suspected offshore banking by Zimbabweans indicate that the money did not come from a legal source. “One cannot send money outside Zimbabwe without the central bank knowing. At the time the transactions were made, the Zimbabwean laws were very strict when it comes to foreign exchange.”
Biti, who is a corporate lawyer, said the economy was on its knees when the transactions were made. “Most foreign currency was bought on the parallel market and it was difficult to trace it. Although there is no law that stops Zimbabweans from opening bank accounts in other countries, the law requires all residents to declare interest earned when filing tax returns.”
HSBC RESPONSE
In response to ICIJ inquiry, HSBC, with head office in London and offices in 74 countries and territories in six continents, admitted that its compliance culture and standard of due diligence in its Swiss private bank, as well as the industry in general, were significantly lower than they are today.
HSBC added that it had taken significant steps over the past several years to implement reforms and exit clients who did not meet strict new HSBC standards, including those where it had concerns in relation to tax compliance.
The bank further said, “As a result of this repositioning, HSBC’s Swiss private bank has reduced its client base by almost 70% since 2007.”
Asked for comment, a former senior government official who requested anonymity said, “Every truthful person knows that the hyper-inflation in Zimbabwe was not just the result of money printing pinned on former central bank governor, Dr. Gideon Gono’s door, but was also caused by a lack of foreign currency in Zimbabwe to buy raw material inputs for improved capacity utilization by the private sector.”
The official, who is a Zanu PF member, said any form of externalization of foreign currency into any foreign bank worldwide was a direct attack on the Zimbabwe’s economy.
MORE FOREIGN BANK ACCOUNTS
The official said the amount revealed in the Swiss account of HSBC was a tiny fraction of the estimated $4,5 billion in Zimbabwean money allegedly stashed in other banks in Switzerland, and almost up to $3 billion stashed in South Africa, Virgin and Cayman Islands, in offshore tax havens like Guernsey, Mauritius, Seychelles, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, China and Dubai.
“Zimbabwean people and business operators are some of the most unpatriotic and crafty people on this planet when it comes to economic patriotism and the monetary love for their country. Given the chance, they would sell the country and stash the money very very far away from Zimbabwe itself,” said the official.
Finance Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, was not immediately available for comment. Gono’s number was not reachable.
HSBC 1,9 BILLION FINE
HSBC was fined $1,9 billion in 2012 by the US’s Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for allowing drug cartels to launder hundreds of millions of ill-gotten dollars through its US operations.
Ray Choto is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists working with other ICIJ members on the HSBC scandal.
-VOA

ZANU PF bigwigs and ex-Zanla commanders who fought in the war of liberation, have been fingered in the case of rampant sexual abuse of female combatants who now demand compensation for their suffering.
Ex-women freedom fighters said comments attributed to Zanu PF Politburo member and war veteran Oppah Muchinguri, accusing former Vice-President Joice Mujuru of forcing young women to sleep with male combatants during the liberation struggle, have all but confirmed the shenanigans by “chefs”.
The women said the admission gives them a fresh opportunity to demand compensation for their suffering.
The war veterans said all along their claims for compensation for the abuse they suffered during the liberation struggle were suppressed by their colleagues in “higher offices,” who were now accusing each other of perpetrating the crime.
Muchinguri was quoted by The Sunday Mail a few weeks ago as saying: “When Joice came back from Zambia, in fact she did not undergo any form of training.
“A few days after she joined us in Mozambique, Joice physically assaulted me. I, Cde Duri and Cde Chitsotso, resisted sleeping with the likes of Cde [Didymus] Mutasa, Cde Bhombandiani and I was whipped for that. Imagine, Joice was there!
“We want you to understand how young female soldiers suffered as Joice engineered all these abuses.”
But Muchinguri denied Saturday ever making such allegations.
“I never said that. What I said was recorded and it is not correct that I said she [Mujuru] did that,” she told The Standard.
Mujuru, who could not be reached for comment yesterday, married her husband, the late former army commander General Solomon Mujuru in Mozambique. A number of other Zanla commanders and Zanu PF officials, among them Mutasa, also married women combatants.
Outspoken former female freedom fighter and Zimbabwe Union of Democrats (ZUD) president Margaret Dongo said what Muchinguri said was a tip of the iceberg as a lot was still to be revealed.
“The truth of the matter has not yet been told….abuses of female ex-freedom fighters were so high and sophisticated that they deserve to be paid damages,” said Dongo.
Another ex-combatant and prolific writer, Freedom Nyamubaya said the abuse of female combatants was a very sensitive matter.
“The issue of abused former female combatants by chefs is a hot potato. I talked about it in most of my books and poems,” said Nyamubaya.
Among Nyamubaya works, the poem, For Suzana is irresistible for its gentle narration of ordeals of a woman who sacrifices her life to train and carry arms for freedom before suffering humiliation through rape when her body becomes a “church for high-ranking monks to relieve their stress”.
Another female ex-combatant who only wanted to be identified as Chapwititi (her Chimurenga name), said it was sad to note that Muchinguri accused Mujuru when she knew very well that both of them were survivors (victims).
“It is very sad that Muchinguri can accuse Teurai [Mujuru] when she is aware that both of them are victims,” she said with tears in her eyes.
“We had tasked them to raise the issue once we were back but they forgot, probably because of the comfort they were now enjoying.”
A Chinhoyi-based single parent and female war veteran agreed, saying most of her colleagues in the struggle were abused despite their positions.
She said most of them failed to get married because most ordinary people did not understand them or feared their past.
“Most of us were abused including those in higher positions by these chefs during the war of liberation and we agreed while in Mozambique that we would push for compensation back home,” said the ex-freedom fighter.
“But after independence the women in higher offices including Muchinguri and Mujuru dragged their feet saying it was disrespectful to our leaders…zvino chaipa chii? [what has gone wrong?]”
But their male counterparts said sex among ex-combatants was consensual even with the povo (civilians).
 – Article originally published in The Standard

A record 28 CIO bodyguards have been suspended from work over Mugabe’s embarrassing fall last Wednesday.
Sources within the intelligence organisation reveal that the security men are being probed for either causing or at the least allowing Mr Mugabe to fall on himself.
The guards could even be charged for allowing the incident to occur, another source said.
“They could be charged for remaining immobilised as His Excellency tripped and fell …” they said.
The full list of names of the suspended could not be ascertained at the time of writing.
Mugabe after returning from Ethiopia on Wednesday fell after descending a staircase just after addressing people at the Harare International Airport. He had been addressing people bussed in from Harare’s High Density surbubs brought in to welcome and celebrate his elevation at the African Union summit.
The incident has seen several people blamed for it including expelled Vice President Joice Mujuru’s faction the State Media claimed supplied the carpet on which Mugabe landed his feet on Wednesday. READ MORE – Mujuru Faction Caused Airport Fall – Herald Editor

What a wonderful wedding in Rusape – people are now using donkeys and carts as a source of wedding transport.

Presidential heir apparent Emmerson Mnangagwa’s faction has muted a record three criminal charges against ousted Secretary for Administration, Didymus Mutasa, which may land Mutasa in prison in a matter of days.
The dramatic bill of charges include allegations that Mutasa,a Mujuru ally, looted $200,000 from a community project in Manicaland. He is also accused of dishing out farms to said “girlfriends”. It was claimed that one of the charges has been in the courts since 2004, but beyond a verbal claim by a ZANU PF militant, there was no evidence presented of supporting court papers to validate those claims. The below was the article by the Jonathan Moyo run State Media:

Disgraced former Presidential Affairs Minister Didymus Mutasa allegedly looted development funds and assets of two schools in Nyanga, and converted the money to personal use.
The case is before the courts and the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has opened its own investigations.
Nyafaru primary and secondary schools were constructed after independence on land President Mugabe gave the Tangwena people in appreciation for their help when he crossed into Mozambique in 1975 to prosecute the liberation struggle.
Mutasa is the director of Nyafaru Development Company (NDC) which oversees the running of the schools.
He and NDC chair Pearson Kasu allegedly grabbed four vehicles, including an ambulance, donated to the community.
Mutasa, it is alleged, also took at least 400 head of cattle from the Tangwena people and has over the years tried to take over their land.
Primary and Secondary Education Minister Lazarus Dokora said: “The matter is before the courts. We cannot, at the moment, give the exact amounts that are alleged to have been looted. However, a report will be complete in the coming week.”
Nyafaru Secondary School Development Committee legal representative Mr Amon Toto said the case has been in the courts since 2004.
He alleges that Mutasa interfered with the school’s financial administration and took money for personal expenses.
In papers filed at the High Court, the school development committee wants Mutasa and his company barred from interfering further.
NDC, the Ministry of Education and Mutasa are respondents.
The papers read, in part, “On the other hand, the first respondent (NDC) through its officials have done everything in their power to derail development of the school including vandalising the school property through the thugs that they have been sponsoring.
“Establishing a bar selling alcohol within the premises of the school. In one instance, 72 window panes were broken by one of the agents of the officials of the first respondent.
“Despite the resolution of September 16, 2004, the first and third (Mutasa) respondents have been trying to disturb the smooth operations of the two schools in various ways.”
SDC chair Mr Nhamo Nyagondora said Mutasa and Kasu allegedly took 20 percent of school funds intermittently.
“We have since dragged Cde Mutasa to the courts so that NDC will be excluded from handling the schools’ affairs.
‘‘Cde Mutasa and his company are failing to explain to us the whereabouts of a tractor, an ambulance, two Land-Rovers and a five-tonne truck.
“He is also failing to account for the 400 cattle.
‘‘We are urging the relevant authorities to intervene so that Cde Mutasa is removed from being part of the Tangwena community. We have since told education officers that were dispatched from Harare how the NDC management was siphoning school funds for their personal use. We have failed to construct two classrooms as a result of this interference.”
Manicaland Provincial Affairs Minister Mandi Chimene said: “We have met representatives from the Tangwena community who alleged that Cde Mutasa and his team were taking school funds for their personal use.
“Our office is going to visit the Nyafaru community and carry out an audit with the aid of education officers so that we establish the exact amount of money that is alleged to have been looted by the parties involved.”

The risk of President Robert Mugabe’s flights being compromised  by an unexpected plane accident has risen to more than 85%.
An aviation-watch consortium has drawn up statistics showing a sharp ascending rise in plane crash risk to levels worse than 65 years ago in 1950 when aviation technology was still primitive.
This has become so especially for those who fly across Asian skies where President Mugabe frequents for medical treatment.
“Aircraft passing through Asian airspace must take utmost precaution as the risk has risen to 90%”, said David Cohen, of the AVS organisation.

The highest ever number of fatalities was in 1972. In 1950 the number was lower than 700, but in 2014, it went past the 50 marker.
 
Cohen however added that the risk is now high for flights to Asian countries like Malaysia and Singapore where President Mugabe flies, “Pilots should research well every time before taking into the skies for the number of danger spots in the oceanic territories has risen.”

[codepeople-html5-media-player id=1] Zanu PF youths yesterday staged a demonstration at the Mbudzi roundabout in Harare after a party supporter was allegedly killed by a kombi crew on Wednesday.
Blaring car horns, the supporters invaded the roundabout singing revolutionary songs and threatening kombis.
Godwin Gomwe, Zanu PF Harare youth chair, said kombi crews should treat passengers with respect.
“Kombi crews should know that they are ferrying passengers and not sacks of maize,” Gomwe fumed.
“So they must respect passengers and treat them in a dignified manner because they are the source of their income.
“What happened is a tragedy and as a party, we lost a dedicated cadre.”
Zanu PF Harare youth league vice chair Edson Takataka blamed the police for kombis’ wayward behaviour.
“This must come to an end,” he said. “We are not just talking about our deceased cadre only, but all those who have suffered at the hands of these reckless and careless people.
“Police should do their work and enforce the law. We are having all these problems because our law enforcement agencies are sleeping on duty.”
Tapiwa Chibvunza, Zanu PF secretary for administration for Ushewokunze district, was allegedly killed on Wednesday by a kombi driver and a conductor. He was travelling from Harare International Airport to Hopley.
The kombi had been hired to ferry Zanu PF supporters to the airport to welcome President Robert Mugabe and on their way back to Hopley, a dispute between Zanu PF supporters and the kombi crew erupted.
This led to the kombi crew allegedly fatally beating Chibvunza with an iron bar.

Controversial ZANU PF legislator Temba Mliswa abused President Robert Mugabe’s name to illegally grab businessman Paul Westwood’s  company. Westwood today writes to President Mugabe reminding him to take action on Mliswa for this.
 
 – His Excellency President Mugabe; Take Action On Temba Mliswa – 
This is very important as Temba Mliswa wrongfully and illegally seized my company on December 18 2009 claiming he had “authorisation” from his Excellency.
I know this is not true and you DO NOT like people using your name in vain for self gain.
My MP wrote to you and I humbly ask for your divine intervention Gushungo. Zimbabwe needs FDI and what happened to me was wrong, immoral, and illegal. My partner was a Pastor from the church and his wife was running the finance department. I called for a forensic audit which is why Temba Peter Mliswa was called in. They claim a “Banda Trust” was formed, but as of February 2010 no “Banda Trust” ever existed! Mliswa threatened to rape my wife and kidnap my 2 boys (who are Catholic) and threatened me with death.
Minister Didymus Mutasa has distanced himself from his own nephew as he knows the type of character he is. The whole world know my story.
I know you DO NOT stand for corruption and illegal activities so I humbly ask and pray I receive compensation from Temba Mliswa.
My company was Zimbabwe’s Number One Choice in manufacturing and Mliswa destroyed it over night. Some workers had been there from the time of it’s inception in the 90’s. New potential investors want to believe the same thing will not happen to them so Temba Mliswa must be held accountable for his own actions for what he did. This is not about race, or the West but about an investment which I made in good faith in Zimbabwe and created employment only to lose the entire lot to Temba’s personal greed.
I sincerely ask that as a man of God and President your wisdom and knowledge is applied here and hope and pray you help my family and I.
Paul Westwood

AILING President Robert Mugabe can be removed from power quietly anytime from now after it emerged parliamentarians have super powers to vote to unseat him. This emerged as appetite grew from within ZANU PF to give him a rest and avoid any further abuse of Zimbabwe’s liberation icon.
Not only can parliament do this but any Zimbabwean citizen can approach the High Court who can session even at the weekend to rule on Mugabe’s capacity to lead the country.
This came as opposition MPs began warming up to possible unity with disgruntled Zanu PF MPs in a move aimed at impeaching President Robert Mugabe who they argue is now incapacitated and unable to continue at the helm given his advanced age and ill-health.
The move, according to MPs interviewed yesterday, was now necessary particularly coming after Mugabe fell at Harare International Airport upon arrival from Addis Ababa where he was made Africa Union chairman.
MDC Renewal Team spokesperson Jacob Mafume said it was now the duty of current MPs to consider the move and ensure Mugabe is “saved” from the “abuse” by Zanu PF for wanting to keep him in power at that age.“I do believe we have maintained that State House is not an old people’s home and we should find other places to accommodate him and if Parliament is toothless in that regard, someone can approach the High Court to seek that Mugabe be checked medically if he is still fit to be on the job,” Mafume said.
“We see now there has been lapse in concentration on his part and we should understand that old age is illness humanity can’t cure.”Mbizo MP Settlement Chikwinya said given immediate past experiences where Mugabe’s lapse in concentration has been exposed, this could be the time for Parliament to act.Chikwinya’s argument was raised from three separate instances where the President showed signs of old age and lapse in concentration observers attributed to old age.
The first one was when Mugabe said Tsvangirai won the 2008 elections by 73% while addressing war veterans in Harare during the December Zanu PF congress.He also chanted “pasi neZanu PF” during the Zanu congress just after revealing that the First Lady Grace, was now controlling him even at home.
The debate was also ignited earlier this year with fears expressed by Mashonaland Central Zanu PF chairman Dickson Mafios whosaid that all MPs aligned to fired former Vice-President Mujuru should be recalled from Parliament amid fears they would gang up with opposition counterparts to impeach Mugabe.
“There are also rumours that they want to impeach President Mugabe if they unite with the MDC-T. So, right now we are not sure if their allegiance is towards the President and how loyal they are to government,” he said.The MDC-T has 91 seats in House of Assembly and Senate while Zanu PF has 234. But Zanu PF fears that more than 100 of its PF MPs were aligned to Mujuru and could form an alliance with MDC formations. Newsday/additional reporting.

A man was attacked by a leopard and escaped with severe injuries while he was searching for donkeys in a bushy area. Gift Moyo,24 from Dombodema area in Bulilima said the animal surprisingly pounced on him from a tree on Wednesday at around 7AM.
His seven dogs came to his rescue as they fought and drove the leopard away before the big spotted cat could cause more damage. Moyo was alone in the forest and was left bleeding from his wounds,but he managed to walk back home resting several times on the way.
He described how the animal scratched him with its paws on the head and then sunk its teeth into his left arm.
Moyo said despite the agonizing pain, he held onto the leopard’s paw and grabbed its ear in a bid to stop the vicious animal.
“I left home on Wednesday morning and headed for Sibantubanye Farm which is about 10 kilometres away in search of my donkeys.
Along the way, my seven dogs which were ahead of me started barking and growling. When Icaught up with them I could not see anything as the path was clear,” said Moyo.
He continued with his journey and after walking a few metres he heard a tree branch snap above his head.
Moyo said he then heard a growl and he was searching for the source of the strange sound, the leopard jumped to the ground.
“I was shocked and before I could recover, the leopard jumped onto my head and scratched me,grabbed me by the left arm and I fell down. The animal maintained its grip,” said Moyo.
He said he held onto the leopard’s ear and left paw as the animal continued to growl while trying to reach for his neck.
Moyo said his dogs rushed to his help and attacked the animal which quickly fled from the scene.
He said he remained on the ground for a couple of minutes as he was bleeding.
“I was in much pain but I knew that I had to get up and go back home. I staggered towards a nearby stream and washed some of the blood off my body to avoid attracting other wild animals.
I struggled to get home because I had to walk about 10 kilometres. On the way, I would stop to rest under tree shades occasionally because of the pain,” said Moyo.
Moyo was rushed to Dombodema Clinic where his wounds were sutured,and he said his two fingers were still numb as a result of the attack.
The village head, Bowel Sibanda said incidents of animal attacks on humans were not common in the area but there were isolated cases of attacks on livestock.
“People are still shocked by the incident but we hope that we will not experience a similar case again. We have advised people to exercise caution while travelling through bushy areas,” Sibanda said.

Things seens to be falling apart for ZIFA president Cuthbert Dube who suffered yet another humiliation yesterday when his personal property worth about US$281 000 was attached over a debt in which he offered himself as guarantor in a matter where the association owes Pandhari Lodge hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The country’s under-fire football controlling body enjoyed the hospitality and services at Pandhari Lodge in Harare between February 2 and September 30, 2013, but did not settle the debt.
Dube then undertook to settle the debt, hence his citation in court proceedings as a defendant.
The Sheriff of Zimbabwe, Mcdoff Madhega, yesterday morning stormed Dube’s double-storey Groombridge mansion with a fleet of trucks to ferry movable property, but removal was temporarily halted after the ZIFA president’s lawyers sought extension of repayment period by 10 days.
There was drama at Number 7 Crighton Road, in Groombridge, as the security guards at Dube’s mansion house locked up the gate to bar the Sheriff from entering the premises.
Madhega’s team then parked a seven-tonne truck in front of the gate to make sure no vehicles or any other property would be moved out of the premises.
The Sheriff called a locksmith to assist his team to forcibly break into the yard but a woman, believed to be Dube’s wife, arrived with the news of the lawyers’ request.
Madhega and his two officers entered the premises to meet Dube who had locked himself inside to prevent the removal of the property. They spent more than an hour inside the premises before coming out to call off the mission.
The property attached include five vehicles:
Toyota Land Cruiser (AAD 1368)
Land Rover Discovery (AAQ 3270)
Mercedes Benz S600 (ACO 0649)
Mercedes Benz ML (AAC 1979)
Mini Cooper (ACM 2807)
The sheriff also attached household property including:
5 x refrigerators
5 x plasma television sets
6x sets of leather sofas
1x black massaging chair
kitchen tables and chairs
dish washers
microwaves and many others
The property was attached on the strength of a court order issued by Justice Lavender Makoni on January 21 this year.
The order reads:
“It is ordered that the application for summary judgment be and is hereby granted. The respondents (ZIFA and Dr Dube) shall pay to the applicant (Pandhari Lodge), jointly or severally the one paying the other, to be absolved the sum of US$268 435,57 together with interest at the prescribed rate of 5 percent per annum from the date of summons (October 24, 2013) to the date of full and final payment . . .”
The Herald had sight of a copy of the letter from Scanlen and Holderness that sought the postponement of the removal of property.
The lawyers stated that Dube had negotiated with Pandhari Lodge for an extension of the period in which money should be raised to clear the debt.
“The debtor has negotiated for a longer period of payment with the creditor.
“Accordingly, we have instructions to request that you (sheriff) postpone removal of the goods attached for a period of 10 days to enable the debtor to settle, failing which you may proceed with removal,” reads part of the letter.
ZIFA chief executive, Jonathan Mashingaidze, also appeared at Dube’s house yesterday in a Nissan Bluebird Sylphy, but refused to talk to the media.
Dube, through his security team, also refused to entertain the journalists preferring to talk on the phone but he was unreachable.
The ZIFA president has come under increasing pressure, in recent weeks, to quit with a number of stakeholders concerned that the game has not gained in value since he took over as the leader of domestic football.
This week, former Premier Soccer League chairman, Tapiwa Matangaidze, who is now the MP (Zanu-PF) for Shurugwi South constituency, issued a chilling warning that there was a danger ZIFA could be liquidated. He was also very critical of the way Dube has been running domestic football for the past five years.
“The media has been at pains chronicling ZIFA and Cuthbert Dube’s recorded failure in running our football,” Matangaidze wrote in a piece published in The Herald.
“The football people which Dube is quoted as choosing to call ‘people of the streets’, have in unison called for his graceful resignation.
“What is not in dispute, and can never be, is that — under his stewardship — Zimbabwean football has sunk to an all-time low.
“Do I hear somebody saying ‘Thank you but no thank you to Mr Dube?’
“The so-called ‘people from the street’ hope that one day sanity will prevail and ZIFA will turn a new leaf.
“ZIFA, with a debt overhang of $6 million, is insolvent. Recently we have read of attempts to spin the figure to US$4 million. Regardless, the Association is insolvent.
ZIFA’s continued financial transactions with other organisations, and companies in this country, clearly exposes those firms and entities.
However,should one,two or several of ZIFA’s creditos call for its liquidation,and the appointmentof a judicial manager in the interim,surely this can never be misconstrued to be government intervention.
ZIFA’s creditors have a right at law to be protected by the country’s judiciary system.
The creditors gave a service to ZIFA in good faith and in a normal business transaction. The creditors have a right to be paid. Our laws, just like laws in other countries, are very clear on creditor/debtor relationships.
As things stand, ZIFA simply has no capacity to pay off its debts.”
Matangaidze said time was running out for ZIFA.
“If ZIFA has well-wishers, locally and internationally, Mr Dube included, who can settle the debts, then by all means, let it be done quickly, failing which I humbly submit the following for the football community’s debate:
(a) That at least one of ZIFA’s creditors petition the courts for its compulsory liquidation and the appointment of a Judicial Manager
(b) The Judicial Manager, so appointed, should engage FIFA in pursuing options to fund and reconstruct ZIFA
(c) That ZIFA Board members and Councillors be appraised of the implications of specification with regards to the people at the helm of liquidated organisations.”
Interestingly, ZIFA have more than $700 000, which could not be accounted for by their auditors, a sensitive subject that remains a huge talking point, despite Mashingaidze’s spirited attempts for the case to die a natural death.
THE ZIFA Assembly took their board to task over the audit report which unearthed financial irregularities of about $1 million.
The audit showed that in the financial year ending December 2013, total liabilities exceeded assets by $4 792 748.
It was, however, the $744 635 which the auditors noted was unaccounted for in the 2011 report which sparked a lot of concern among the councillors.
Expenditure, without supporting documentation, was unearthed.
“Included in the consolidated financial statements are direct match expenses amounting to $1 291 636 and we were not able to obtain appropriate and sufficient supporting documentation or confirmations from third parties,” reads the statement from the auditors.
“We were not able to obtain appropriate audit evidence in relation to the association’s recorded accounts payables amounting to $744 635 of the $781 588 recorded in the consolidated financial statements, over which there was no system of internal control on which we could rely for the purpose of audit.” -herald

Zimbabwe School Examinations Council November 2014 Ordinary Level results are out,and the pass rate risen by more than 10 percent to 30,85 percent as compared to 2013 overall percentage which was 20,72.
Zimsec director Mr Esau Nhandara said in a statement yesterday that the results have been dispatched to the examination council’s regional offices and candidates should start collecting them on Monday.
“I would like to extend my gratitude to the examiners and all the Zimsec staff members who worked tirelessly throughout the setting, managing and marking processes to the point where we now have analyses and results to give to the nation,” he said.
Mr Nhandara pointed out tha the leakage in the Mathematics and English papers had no impact in influencing the pass rate in the two papers if their pass rate is compared to last year.
“Zimsec is pleased to note the seemingly low impact the leakages of the Mathematics and English papers has had on the candidates’ overall pass rate. It is notable that the performance of candidates in the papers that were re-sat was comparable to the November 2013 results.”
Mr Nhandara said there was an increase in the number of candidates who sat for the November 2014 examinations compared to the previous year.
“The total number of candidates examined in the November 2014 ‘O’ Level examination session was 316 003. Of these, 86 308 were female school candidates and 77 545 were female private candidates. The total number of male school candidates was 99 999 and 52 151 were male private candidates.”
Mr Nhandara said the performance of school candidates was better compared to private candidates.
An analysis of the results shows that boys performed better than girls in the examinations.
“The performance of male school candidates (27,23 percent) in the examinations was better than that of female school candidates (18,76 percent),” Mr Nhandara said.
“This is consistent with the 2013 results which showed that male candidates (27,41 percent) out-performed female school candidates (18,51 percent).”
High pass rates were recorded in Literature in English (82,54 percent), Physics (89,08 percent) , Statistics (77,96 percent), Additional Mathematics (calculator version) (79,62 percnet), Home Management (82,46 percent) and Computer Studies (78,43 percent). -herald

A single mother from Gokwe who threw her year-old daughter into a deep well to please her lover who had promised to marry her, has been sentenced to 21years in prison by the High Court.Talent Bango, 23, of Horomba Village, Chief Njelele, Gokwe South, threw her infant Tanaka Simbaza into a deep well on August 24, in 2013 and she drowned.
The toddler’s body was found floating in the well four days later. Justice Lawrence Kamocha of the Bulawayo High Court, sitting on circuit in Gweru, found Bango who was pregnant from her lover when she committed the crime, guilty of murder with actual intent.
He sentenced her to 21 years in prison.
State prosecutor, Tafadzwa Mupariwa, in aggravation said Bango had committed the crime to please her boyfriend who had promised to marry her if she got rid of her two children.
It was the State case that on the day in question, Bango took her daughter to the well and threw her inside and went back home as if nothing had happened.
When asked by fellow villagers where her baby was, Bango lied that she had been taken by some relatives to Kadoma. However, four days later, the body of baby Simbaza was found floating in the well and a report was made to the police leading to Bango’s arrest.
The toddler’s body was retrieved and taken for post-mortem whose results indicated that she had died from asphyxia and bronchoaspiration due to drowning.
In another case, Justice Kamocha sentenced a 42-year-old Mberengwa man to 10 years in prison after finding him guilty of a lesser charge of culpable homicide. Todzai Murindi Moyo of Mbulawa village, Chief Mahlebadza, Mberengwa was convicted of causing the death of his cousin, Avis Zivevekwa, 55, on June 4, 2008.
Justice Kamocha described Moyo as a lucky man since his matter was classified between murder with constructive intent and culpable homicide. “You are lucky that the State agreed to a lesser charge of culpable homicide. Your matter is on the border between constructive intent and culpable homicide,” he said.
It was the State case that on June 4, 2008, Moyo struck Zivevekwa once on the head and once on the arm with a log after accusing him of having an affair with his wife.
Zivevekwa was conveyed to Mavorovondo clinic before he was referred to Harare Hospital where he died on June 14. chronicle

First Lady, Grace Mugabe’s appendectomy operation in Singapore last month did not go well, resulting in her alleged admittance into intensive care, as doctors are now reportedly battling to save her life, a report by a UK based website says.
The West Midlands based ‘Telescope News’ tabloid claims according to it’s ‘findings, Mrs Mugabe could also be suffering from septicemia, as her real medical problems remain a mystery.
 
Singapore based sources said: “there is not much information here either, but what we have heard is that Mugabe’s wife was admitted into ICU in January, and she is in a critical condition.”
 
“Furthermore, grapevine has it that she is suffering from septicemia, or blood poisoning.”
 
The source remained unverified at the time of writing.
Meanwhile another report states the contrary, that Mrs Mugabe is not suffering from any disease at all, but went low after being involved in a bitter altercation with her husband over her husband’s alleged ex- lover Oppah Muchinguri whose daughter Mugabe has mysteriously added to his will. While particular report could not be verified, it could be ascertained that Mugabe sometime in the 1980s made a mysterious donation to Mrs Muchinguri in the form of a gigantic house in the posh Mt Pleasant area. The donation was made via a sale for a paltry $1 which was advertised in the Herald newspaper.

PUPILS at Baobab Primary School in Victoria Falls were on Tuesday treated to free drama after the school head, Grace Ndlovu, was allegedly involved in a fistfight with a male teacher on the school grounds for reasons which could not be ascertained yesterday.
The drama started unfolding at around 10am when the school head, Grace — wife of former Victoria Falls town council chamber secretary Phillip Ndlovu — picked up a quarrel with a Grade Three teacher only identified as Chakazero.
After some moments of shouting and arguing, the row degenerated into a fistfight in the presence of other school teachers.
“It happened so fast and pupils were peeping through the windows,” one of the teachers revealed.
“They had to be restrained by Mr Sibanda, who teaches Grade Sevens after they had exchanged some blows.
“The school head is said to be rough to members of staff.
“They always complain about her conduct, as she is said to be a bully and short-tempered.”
The source said after the pair had been restrained from pummelling each other further, Ndlovu retreated to her office, while Chakazero left the school premises for an unknown destination.
Chakazero reported for duty the following day, but yesterday it was reported that the headmistress did not show up.
Efforts to get a comment from the two were fruitless.
This is not the first time that the school head has been involved in a fistfight as she was in March 2014 arraigned before the courts for allegedly assaulting her husband’s lover, Sithembile Ncube.
The two had exchanged harsh words and Grace struck Ncube twice on the head with a fist.
Her husband restrained them.-SouthernEye

Another Toyota Granvia Commuter omnibus belonging to a cop has crashed in Gwanda killing one person on the spot while injuring several others.
The omnibus traveling from Bulawayo to Gwanda with 11 passengers on board, burst a rear tyre a few meters from Mtshabezi turn off on the Bulawayo Gwanda Highway 25 kilometers from Gwanda town. According to witnesses the vehicle burst the left rear tyre and overturned landing on its left side about 150 meters away from the point where the tyre burst.
One person who was seated on the front passenger seat was thrown out of the vehicle as it overturned hit the hard surface outside head first and died on the spot. The other passengers who were in the vehicle survived the accident with minor injuries and were rushed to near by Gwanda Hospital. According to hospital authorities most of them were treated for minor injuries and discharged while a few were still under going trauma therapy.
One of the survivors of the accident blamed the tyre burst on the high temperatures in the area during the day. The survivor refused to be drawn to a conclusion that the driver was over speeding which some witnesses claimed to have been the case. According to the survivor the driver was driving at a fairly comfortable speed all the way from Bulawayo but was unfortunate to fail to control the vehicle after the tyre burst.
“I don’t want to unnecessarily put the blame on the driver, he tried the best he could to control the vehicle after the tyre burst but failed. He was not at all speeding as he was already slowing down to drop off some people at Mtshabezi turn off bus stop,” he said.
The Toyota Granvia vehicle continues to be involved in a number of fatal accidents on the country’s roads mainly due to tyre bursts and high speed. Several times the government has threatened to remove the vehicle from the roads as a public transport vehicle but nothing concrete has ever come out of it.
Information supplied by some sources also indicates that the vehicle belonged to a senior police officer in Gwanda and was in the habit of not adhering to rules at the taxi ranks as it was often seen loading passengers from unauthorised pick up points. The sources claim that the tyre burst may have been caused by the fact that the vehicle was never stopping to rest and join the que like all other vehicles but would jostle to make quick trips back to make more money. The government has in the meantime banned police officers from owning public transport vehicles to curb corruption on the roads.

Six (6) people including the driver were confirmed dead on the spot when a Commuter Omni-bus (Kombi) they were travelling in -burst its rear tyre and rolled several times before it landed by its roof.
More than 10 survivors including a Police Constable- whose left arm was viciously amputated, were badly injured and were taken to a nearby rural health centre – Kondo Clinic.

The accident occurred Thursday afternoon at around 12:30pm along the Checheche – Tanganda road near Middle Sabi. The road is tarred but just like all other roads country wide. It is littered with numerous making driving very difficult. This coupled with a scotching sun and blistering heat being experienced in this part of the country, could have contributed much to the tyre burst.
We also heard that the driver was speeding and most of these ex-Japanese cars are known for being poorly serviced.

A Bikita woman who was desperate to get money to go and look for a job in South Africa, has been arrested after she allegedly allowed her boyfriend to have sex with her and her five-year-old daughter in turns.
Nyaradzo Maungwa (29) of Duma Suburb, Nyika Growth Point allegedly watched her daughter crying out in pain as her boyfriend only identified as Spencer raped her after the two had just also had sex.Maungwa was arrested by Police details at Nyika Growth Point on Saturday.
She appeared before Bikita Resident Magistrate Bishard Chineka and was remanded out of custody to allow Police to find the alleged rapist.She would be called to court by way of summons.
Maungwa wanted to travel to South Africa but had no money. She approached Spencer seeking bus fare. Spencer promised to give her the money on condition that they slept together.
The two agreed and sometime in October last year, Spencer came to Maungwa’s home and the two had sex. Spencer was not satisfied to the extent that he paid little money to Maungwa. Maungwa complained that the money was not enough for the trip and Spencer then suggested that he could pay more on condition he was allowed to have sex with Maungwa’s five-year-old daughter.
Maungwa agreed and summoned her daughter who was then raped by Spencer while she watched. Maungwa ignored the daughter’s pleas as she suffered pain. She was then given the money and went to South Africa.The matter came to light after the child told neighbours about the rape. The neighbours then told teachers at the school where the child was in grade zero. School authorities then took the matter to the Department of Social Welfare who later made a police report.
Maungwa was told by her brother that Police had opened a docket on the matter and it was then that she came and tried to take her daughter back to South Africa in a bid to conceal the crime but was arrested soon after arrival. mirror

At least five people died on the spot while other passengers were injured this afternoon when a commuter omnibus burst a rear tyre and overturned twice along the Tanganda-Ngundu highway.
The injured were rushed to Chipinge District Hospital. The number of the injured could, however, not be established. According to eye witnesses, the driver was speeding resulting in loss of control when the car burst its rear tyre. Police are investigating the cause if the accident. More details to follow… – Chronicle

Mugabe to go East for another op
President Robert Mugabe’s prostate cancer reportedly needs constant attention and he is likely to return to Singapore for follow-up treatment in February.
Sources from his office who declined to be named said Mugabe was advised to return for the operation by his foreign doctors. When he returned from the Far East after more than a month away, Mugabe told supporters at the Harare International Airport that his wife Grace had undergone an appendicitis operation and had remained behind to recuperate.
“It is true that the First Lady underwent an operation but information we have received shows that it was not as big as the president claimed. Instead, it is him who had a major operation for prostate cancer and he is supposed to go back to Singapore.
“He is likely to go back very soon and the First Lady had to remain behind so that it would look as though President Mugabe would be going there to check on her. She could have returned to Zimbabwe with him if she wanted because her own condition is not that serious,” said one of the sources. Mugabe will turn 91 on February 21 and is already displaying signs of advanced age as his speech has become slurred and confused, he suffers loss of memory and has difficulty in maintaining balance. Last year, he made several verbal slips, among them remarking that Morgan Tsvangirai had won the 2008 elections by 74 percent, denouncing his own party and telling former Zambian leader Kenneth Kaunda that he was ruling under duress.
His personal aides are on high alert whenever he appears in public, moving swiftly towards him whenever he shows signs of losing balance.
The sources said the president was receiving combined therapy that included radiation, chemotherapy and surgery. “We hear that the prostate cancer is spreading to other parts of the body and his doctors say that cannot be stopped but remedied through constant treatment. Some local and foreign doctors also attend to him here (in Zimbabwe) frequently.
“The treatment includes routines that strengthen his bladder so that he can control the passage of urine. The president is suffering from back-aches and cannot sit in an upright position for long. He is always shifting in his chair,” said another source.
George Charamba, Mugabe’s personal spokesperson and permanent secretary in the information ministry, has dismissed reports that Mugabe underwent a major operation while on annual holiday in the Far East. – The Zimbabwean

The executor of the late Vice-President John Landa Nkomo’s estate has appealed against the attachment of the deceased’s bus to settle wages arrears at Astra Building Company, which the politician owned.
Christopher Dube-Banda, a legal representative, who is the executor of the estate, filed the appeal at the Bulawayo High Court recently.
The matter is yet to be set down for hearing. Sometime in December 2013, the Messenger of Court served a writ of execution, seized and attached a Mercedes Benz bus which was in the possession of Astra Building Centre.
This was in accordance with an arbitral award obtained in November 2013 for the payment by Nkomo’s Astra Building Centre of salary arrears.
Dube-Banda, the executor, however, holds that the property seized belongs to the estate of the late vice-president and not to Astra Building Centre.
In the notice of appeal, the executor notes that the court erred by holding that the late Nkomo was the managing director of the Astra Building Centre without evidence.
“The court a quo erred by holding that relevant documentary evidence demonstrates that the vehicle in question belongs to Astra Building Centre when the best evidence placed before court in form of the vehicle registration book shows that the vehicle is registered in the name of the late John Landa Nkomo,” stated the notice.
The salary dispute dates back as far as 2012, when there were reports that Nkomo’s Nathi Investments Group of companies had failed to pay workers, with some owed in excess of five months’ salary.
Nathi Investments Group that comprised of Astra Building Centre, Downtown Spar and Daguiar Tyres, all in Bulawayo and Kirton Farms, was owned and chaired by the late vice-president.
The group reportedly had over 180 workers. Prominent lawyer, Samuel Mulaudzi is representing the disgruntled workers. Zimbabwe Mail

Tormented villagers in Zimbabwe’s southern province of Masvingo are succumbing to death owing to the fatalness of scorpion stings and an outbreak of diarrhea and malaria, it has emerged.
In February last year, the government displaced 20 000 villagers who used to reside in Tokwe Mukorsi and moved them to arid land at Chingwizi transit camp, due to massive floods, which critics and experts say could have been avoided.
 
Some Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) living in Chingwizi told journalists in Harare on Tuesday at the launch of a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report that several people including children were dying owing to poisonous scorpions stings.
Apart from the scorpion bites, the IDPs said people were dying from diseases such as malaria and diarrhea.
“The conditions that we are living in are uninhabitable. Hunger and diseases such as malaria and diarrhea and scorpions bites are causing deaths. Please rescue us by taking us out of where we are living,” said Vanisai Muzenda, who recently survived a scorpion bite.
One of the flood victims, Admire Mashenjere told journalists that one of her relatives Susan Chikosi had succumbed to death after suffering a scorpion bite.
Kenneth Hlavano, a retired soldier and a flood victim living in Chingwizi bemoaned poor sanitation facilities and food shortages which have been forcing children to drop out of school.
In its 57 page report entitled Homeless, Landless and Destitute-The Plight of Zimbabwe’s Tokwe-Mukorsi Flood Victims, the HRW held the government accountable for the saddening plight of the flood victims who have not been given alternative land to build houses and grow their crops.
“The Zimbabwean government has stopped at nothing to coerce 20,000 flood victims to accept a resettlement package that provides labor for a government project, but leaves the flood victims utterly destitute,” said Dewa Mavhinga, the southern Africa senior researcher at HRW.
Mavhinga implored the government to immediately give the victims adequate aid without conditions and compensate them fairly for their losses.
In December, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) rescued 26 of the IDPs who were arrested in August and charged with committing public violence. The 26 were acquitted at the close of the State case after undergoing trial for allegedly assaulting police officers during a protest staged last August at the transit camp against the relocation of medical facilities.
Only four out of 30 villagers who were arrested and tortured by the police were found guilty of committing public violence. However, their lawyers from ZLHR have appealed against both conviction and the harsh sentence which the country’s leading defence group has described as a “shocker”. – RadioVop

Members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police leave Gampu Primary School with the body of the child who was struck by lightning at the school premises in Bulawayo yesterday (Picture by Obey Sibanda)
Oswell Moyo and Marvelous Moyo
A GRADE 6 pupil died yesterday after being struck by lightning while walking to a dustbin within the school grounds.
Tragic Sandra Netsanza, 11, who had just helped clean up a classroom at Gampu Primary School in Bulawayo’s Mpopoma suburb, was carrying a dust pan heading to a waste bin with classmates when lightning struck at around 1PM, witnesses said.
A teacher, who was among the first people to find young Sandra’s body, told The Chronicle: “It was around 1PM after the lunch bell had rung. Sandra and her classmates had been sweeping their class and they were going to dispose of the rubbish.
“It was drizzling at the time after heavy rains earlier. Suddenly, we were jolted by screams and we rushed to find Sandra already dead, apparently struck by lightning. Her mates that she was walking with were spared though.
“It was slightly strange really, because there is a tall tree just metres from where she fell. Were we not taught that lightning strikes the tallest object? It’s sad really, many thought it was African science (witchcraft).”
When our news crew arrived at the school shortly after 4PM, Sandra’s distraught schoolmates were struggling to comprehend what had just happened, dozens of parents rushed to the school to pick up their children.
Her relatives, who are members of a church sect known as Vapostori, had also arrived. Emotions ran high as they manhandled a news crew from another newspaper and threatened our photographer. Dressed in their white gowns, they also threatened witnesses from talking to journalists.
Police took more than three hours to arrive at the school, finally removing Sandra’s body from the scene after 5PM. By then, a large crowd had gathered.
Her body was placed in a silver metallic coffin which was loaded onto the back of an open-top police truck.
On Monday, six children and an adult were killed when lightning struck two huts in Mugwinyi Village in Bikita.
The dead have been identified as Marian Nebvuma, 32, Fadzai Chenjerai, 11, Gloria Chenjerai, 5, Odrey Masunda, 4, Esther Muchakagara, 5, Claudia Mugwinyi, 4 and Crywind Mugwinyi, 6.
Meanwhile, a Grade 6 pupil at Marvel Primary School pupil in Filabusi collapsed during an athletics practise session and later died after efforts to revive her failed.
The 12-year-old girl, identified as Mercy Chizema, collapsed in the school’s sports field on Monday at around 2.30PM.
A teacher said: “After running for a distance of about 400m, she fell to the ground. The training teacher attended to her and later called other teachers to the scene.
“Everyone thought she had fainted. Efforts were made to resuscitate her but to no avail. She was quickly rushed to Filabusi District Hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival,” said the source.
Matabeleland South provincial police spokesperson Inspector Philisani Ndebele said: “We received a report of a female juvenile who collapsed at the school grounds and was certified dead upon arrival at the hospital. No foul play is suspected.” – SouthernEye

The murder trial of the spouse of 41-year-old mum of two Emily Munemo slain in cold blood last week Friday, has seen the deceased’s spouse Shonhiwa Gibson Mazikana being remanded in custody.
Mazikana appeared in court at 10 am Wednesday accused of stabbing Emily to death in her house in London. He is accused of killing the mum-of-two, Emily Munemo, in Collingwood Road on Friday (January 30).
Munemo was found with stab wounds at around 11am. Paramedics were unable to save the 41-year-old’s life and she died at 12.22pm.
Th accused appeared at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, charged with murder, where his case was sent to the Old Bailey.
His brother, a 35-year-old, was detained by police at the weekend after Gibson went missing.
Mazikana, of Reid Close,Hayes, is now due to appear at the central criminal court for a bail hearing on February 18.