More pressure is building up in South Africa’s ruling ANC party as the party increases its call for a lifting of sanctions on President Robert Mugabe and persons close to his ZANU PF party.
Weeks after the expulsion of pro-Mugabe former youth president Julius Malema a spokesperson for the party’s junior arm the Youth League told ZimEye Thursday they nearly 14 days ago unanimously resolved to re-escalate the matter:

“The ANC Youth League has got a collective decision on it. Our policy conference that was held two weeks ago resolved that amongst the issues that we would take forward to the ANC policy conference is the lifting of sanctions on Zimbabwe,” she said.
The ANC controlled South African government Thursday made its latest call for the sanctions to be lifted. President Jacob Zuma’s top foreign policy advisor, Lindiwe Zulu(pictured-right) was quoted by Reuters on Thursday stating that sanctions have not worked. she said that the whole of Africa is calling for their lifting:
“It’s not just Zimbabwe that’s saying the sanctions are not working. The entire continent is saying that,” she said.
Zulu who is part of a delegation that for months has been leading negotiation efforts among the three parties, MDC-T, MDC, and ZANU PF, has in the past clashed with President Robert Mugabe.
South Africa’s ruling party has adopted a soft approach to the crisis across the Limpopo.
Analysts say the sanctions have been exploited by Mugabe for his political purposes, blaming them for his party’s economic blunders that have caused what once was one of Africa’s richest nations to now be among its poorest.
Zulu is part of a Southern African Development Community initiative led by Zuma aimed at ending the political turmoil in Zimbabwe and holding free and fair elections by next year.
South Africa’s president Jacob Zuma was tasked to mediate in the Zimbabwean crisis by SADC after MDC-T temporarily pulled out of the unity government in 2009 as frustration intensified over Mugabe’s refusal to fully implement the GPA.

Apart from outstanding issues such as the appointment of the Attorney General Johannes Tomana and Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono, the MDC formations have continuously expressed concern over the unilateral stripping of ministerial powers by President Robert Mugabe on its ministers. Among a list of thorny issues was the appointment of MDC-T Treasurer Roy Bennett who is now living in exile in the UK after he was constantly arrested tried, but later acquitted before new charges were laid on him again.
The most recent thorny matter has been the position of the Deputy Prime Minister which is currently being clutched by prof Arthur Mutambara who was ousted from party leadership, replaced by Prof Welshaman Ncube, and a High Court ruling rendered him party-less. But the DPM Mutamabra has continued to hold on and it was this week announced he would appeal to the Supreme Court.
It is largely speculated that ZANU PF fears that Welshamn Ncube’s connections with Jacob Zuma as an in law relation may make Ncube super powerful in the unity government. (ZIMBABWE, ZimEye)

Harare(ZimEye)The animal protection organisation, SPCA has cleared the Harare based Chinese owned, Shangri -La restaurant of allegations that it was selling dog and cat meat.
Following an investigation the SPCA has now issued a statement clearing the restaurant of the allegations.
An SPCA official told ZimEye on Wednesday:
“We have inspected recently, but we haven’t seen anything there recently… Basically… we are undergoing some investigations with some restaurants. But they are for investigative purposes. But with Shangri -La we actually haven’t had a problem.

And with the other ones, we are investigating at the moment.” she said adding that they continue to monitor all restaurants around the country for possible violations.
Shangri -La restaurant’s lawyers have issued a statement stating that their client is not involved in any dog, cat meat or other culturally unacceptable food business.
“This is a restaurant that has won awards with the Zim tourism authority here… No businessman worth their salt would do such a thing. Why would somebody come from China and engage in such business?,” he said More to follow…

Harare(ZimEye)-Mines and Mining Development Minister Obert Mpofu has invited the western diplomats to visit the controversial Marange Diamond fields as his ZANU(PF) party intensifies its efforts to lobby the west to lift sanctions.
“The EU and western diplomats are visiting the Marange Diamond fields next week .In fact they asked for that permission long back and we have now allowed them but they are reluctant to go because they expected us to refuse .This is the kind of duplicity and hypocrisy we are getting from people who are just looking for faults in a system,” Mines and Mining Development Minister announced during an Accountability Conference organised by Centre for Public Accountability in Harare early this week.
Over the years government has been reluctant to allow anyone other than President Robert Mugabe ally to visit the diamond extraction area, citing security reasons.
This made the public to believe that something amiss was happening at Marange.
Issues of gross human rights abuse by the military and corruption by senior ZANU(PF) officials have been raised by the civic society.
But the European Union delegation in Zimbabwe through its ambassador Aldo Dell Arricia in an interview with ZimEye Tuesday in Harare confirmed Minister Mpofu invited them not the reverse as Minister Mpofu had put it.
“It is not that we have been given the green light to visit Marange Diamond fields by its Mines Minister Obert Mpofu who invited us. The visit is going to be on at the end of this month. We will be there for few days in order to have a firsthand impression of the situation and of course how the mining plants are working because this is an important element in the economy of Zimbabwe. And as heads of European countries we are very much interested in seeing the operations of these mines,” Aldo Dell’Ariccia.
Minister Mpofu said the reason why they were reluctant to allow the west to tour the diamond fields is that they did not want them to know ZANU(PF)’s anti –sanctions strategies.
Marange Resources and Mbada Diamond Mining operating in Marange, were added to US Treasury Office of Foreign Affairs Control’s special designated nationals list.
The two Diamond Mining Companies were punished because they are operating under the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation which is under sanctions.(ZimEye,Zimbabwe)

Oregon(ZimEye)The city of Mutare was twinned with the US city of Portland, at the weekend.
The Zimbabwean flag and fame were carried majestically by the current Miss Northwest Africa Queen, Chido Dhliwayo, who was seen ascending the high platform with a crown on her head.
She later told ZimEye after the function:
“For me it was actually a way of being grounded because I miss home so much…,” she said.
“I am part of the Portland Mutare city association. It’s a non profit organisation and I was representing Zimbabwe and Mutare. It was a good experience, and the only thing I was worried about was the weather…”
There was also dancing, and various kinds of Zimbabwean joys, just as other nationalities also offered their tastes and flavours.
PHOTOS:
 

(Harare)A Zanu-PF legislator for Mudzi West, Aqualinah Katsande, is under the spot light for the crime of obstruction of justice on the murder of MDC-T local chairman, Mr Cephas Magura.
The Zanu-PF legislator who last week blamed the MDC-T party for Magura’s death, sparked international outrage after she claimed to know the exact precise cause of Magura’s death stating that he had died of a car accident instead, a claim the professional autopsy proved to be completely untrue.
Katsande had claimed:
‘It is not true that he was killed by our supporters, but fell off their moving vehicle’.
“Our youths were having their own meeting in a hall at Chimukoko when a group of MDC supporters, who were holding their meeting at a nearby ground, invaded our meeting and this was provocation. It resulted in the youths fighting,” she said.
“We have our members who were injured and we took them to hospital. We also reported the matter to the police.”
“The MDC supporters were outnumbered in the fight and they fled from the scene and drove away in their truck and one of their members who was seated in the back of the truck fell and hit his head on the ground resulting in his death.
“It is not true that he was killed by our supporters, but fell off their moving vehicle,” she said.
Katsande is now under the spot-watch of even ZANU PF gurus as comments were made by Oppah Muchinguri rubbishing her claims and stating that Magura’s death was indeed caused by brute murder.
The legislator is also slated with a controversial history of crimes against humanity. Her son, George Katsande orchestrated violence in 2008 presidential runoff elections and thereafter, leading to Mudzi being recorded as an area with most political motivated killings.
A legendary historian who built ZANU PF’s international image in 1977, Daina Mitchel,  once wrote in her blog about Ms Katsande:
“A blog for today can only say that I have read of the crass brutality of one Aquilina Katsande in Zim’s violently led ZANU (PF) and am horrified. I am regretful that it is likely that I shall not live long enough to see this woman and her ilk brought to account in this world. There is not much else one can say so long as the current regime rules,” wrote Mitchel who built and shaped Zanu PF’s international image when Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo were still regarded as terrorists.
 
This week MPs began a motion for the possible arrest of Aqualinah Katsande (Mudzi West) together with Newten Kachepa (who is MP for Mudzi North).

Eyewitnesses told the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (Jomic) last week that Kachepa’s pick-up truck and Katsande’s Mazda T3500 truck were used to ferry Zanu PF activists involved in the disruption of the police-sanctioned MDC-T rally and the attack on the party supporters that led to the murder of Magura.
Kadoma Central MP Editor Matamisa (MDC-T) called for the immediate arrest of Katsande and Kachepa. Glen View North MP Fani Munengami (also MDC-T) said Katsande even had “the guts” to lie saying the murdered MDC-T activist died
after he fell from a moving vehicle. “I am surprised that Katsande, a female MP, had the guts to say the person who died in Mutoko fell from a truck, and it’s a disgrace Kachepa, one of the MPs implicated, is in this House with us and I am challenging him to explain how those things happened in his constituency and how his vehicle was used to block and ferry people,” Munengami said.
“The two MPs are good at killing but have never contributed to any debate in the House and unless they are brought to book and explain what exactly happened, this House will continue labelling them killers.”
Aquillina Katsande case on Magura’s death will continue to haunt her as it is now being used by the United Nations as pivotally defining, just as the body prepares to setup a possible remote human  rights centre.

London(ZimEye)The expelled leader of South Africa’s ANC party Youth League, Julius Malema, has been barred from entering the United Kingdom, ZimEye can reveal.
Malema who was scheduled to address African and West Indian black exiles at a recent Birmingham Africa Liberation Day function, (at the weekend) failed to obtain a Visa together with another speaker from Tanzania who was also barred by the British embassy, according to conference organisers.
Conference organisers told ZimEye exclusively that Malema failed to obtain British embassy clearance.
“Julius Malema didn’t make it to Africa Liberation Day,” a senior organising committee member who declined to be named said adding that even another speaker from Tanzania had been barred.
“Neither the commissioner from Tanzania. The British embassy failed to issue a VISA when they should have. So that was a sabotage.
“It was deliberate. They have done it before, and of course we will be taking it with the relevant authorities,” he said.
Earlier last week, one of the senior organisers, Mr Bini Butuakwa, had told ZimEye Malema was having serious VISA problems:“We are having a bit of the problem at the moment which is getting him into the country. If we don’t get him….we going to get him on Skype,” he said.
“He was going to come but we are getting some problem”, he added.
 
Zimbabwe minister funding trip
Mr Butuakwa however stated that Zimbabwe’s information Minister Webster Shamu had promised to pay for Malema’s air fares, should he have problems.
“The Information Minister in Zimbabwe said that he will get him to come over and if he has a problem with paying he would cover the fare…,” he said. (ZIMBABWE, ZimEye)

Harare(ZimEye)-The European Union has consoled the Magura family and the MDC-T party following the brutal murder of Cephas Magura, the MDC-T ward 1 Mudzi North chairperson by ZANU (PF) supporters and urged the judiciary to quickly try the murderers.
The EU cites political violence as its justification for the imposition of sanctions on ZANU(PF) officials in 2002.
“Delegation presents its condolences to the family of the deceased and strongly condemns these acts and any complacency with political violence and intimidation as a political tool.
“It is encouraging to note the condemnation for these criminal acts that came from across the political spectrum. The EU delegation looks forward to urgent action by the police authorities and the Attorney General’s office to bring the alleged perpetrators and their instigators to justice, in order to give a clear and unequivocal message that political violence is totally unacceptable in Zimbabwe”,EU said in a statement Tuesday.
Magura was murdered in the presence of the police who were providing security to the rally which was authorised, making them liable for the brutal murder.
According to eye witnesses a ZANU PF mob attacked MDC-T activists at a rally that had been sanctioned by the police a week earlier.
ZANU PF had not been cleared to gather for any event, yet they gathered near the venue and started chanting slogans before approaching the MDC-T group.
Magura was buried in Mudzi on Sunday 3 June.
ZANU(PF) continues to perpetrate violence on MDC supporters despite several calls by its leader President Robert Mugabe denouncing violence.(ZimEye, Zimbabwe)

BULAWYO (ZimEye) – LOCAL Government Minister Ignatius Chombo has threatened to fire Bulawayo councillors over corruption allegations as the Zanu PF ministers continues sacking MDC-T elected city fathers.
Chombo has been on a whirlwind tour of councils firing MDC-T councillors and replacing them with “special interests councilors.”
Recently, Chombo suspended Gwanda Mayor Lionel De Necker even before investigations. He later appointed a four-member investigating team which earned $80 000 per week, a move which was castigated by Gwanda councilors and stakeholders.
But at the weekend Chombo said he would wield an axe against Bulawayo MDC-T councilors who were found guilty of corruption by his investigating team two months ago.
The controversial Minister said: “The probe team made some recommendations although I cannot give them off-hand. The committee would look at whether to fire, suspend or caution those councillors who would be found to have abused their powers and disadvantaged residents. It is possible that one or two councillors might be suspended.”
Chombo said five Chitungwiza councillors were suspended last week on allegations of corruption, charges that are being faced by Bulawayo councilors.
He said councilors were guilty of selling stands “under trees” at inflated prices, which was tantamount to abuse of office.
Chombo insisted that Bulawayo City Council would get special councillors whether the city fathers liked it or not, adding that his office has since been given suitable names by Zanu PF Bulawayo province.
Bulawayo has resisted efforts by Chombo to appoint eight special councilors. The matter is still pending at the Bulawayo High Court.
De Nekcer last week challenged Members of Parliament to amend the Urban Councils Act to clip Chombo’s sweeping powers which has resulted in the Minister treating local government as his fiefdom. (Zimbabwe, ZimEye)

HARARE (ZimEye) PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe’s call for elections this year has been thrown into disarray after a recent Extraordinary Session of the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) insisted that a new constitution be adopted before elections.
Mugabe, 88, has been threatening to call for elections in line with Zanu PF’s resolution at last year’s annual conference for polls this year.
But constitutional experts warned that a constitution would only be ready at the end of 2012, paving way for fresh elections early 2013. MDC-T, MDC and the civic society have been pushing for elections to be held next year after the full implementation of critical democratic and electoral reforms.
Fears were swelling that Mugabe was likely to unilaterally declare elections this year in effort in manage the succession battles in Zanu PF.
But a Sadc summit on June 1, poured cold water on Mugabe’s 2012 election ambition while his health is still permitting.
According to a Sadc communiqué released after the Luanda, Angola summit, the Heads of State and Government resolved that the Global Political Agreement (GPA) which was signed by Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara be fully implemented. There are several outstanding issues in the GPA, chief among them security sector reforms and the writing of a new governance charter.
The Sadc summit also resolved that the constitution making process be finalized before Mugabe proclaims election dates.

The communiqué stated that: “On Zimbabwe, Summit commended stakeholders for their commitment, cooperation and efforts towards the implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) and urged the parties to the GPA to finalise the constitution-making process and subject it to a referendum thereafter.
“Summit also urged the parties to the GPA, assisted by His Excellency Jacob G Zuma, President of the Republic of South Africa and SADC Facilitator of the Zimbabwe Political Dialogue, to develop an implementation mechanism and to set out time frames for the full implementation of the Roadmap to Elections.
“Summit further commended the Facilitator for his efforts towards the realisation of full implementation of GPA.”
However Zanu PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo played down the tough stance Sadc took against Mugabe, saying his boss would be ready for elections either this year or in 2013.
Mugabe, last week, dispatched emissaries to Sadc countries to lobby the regional block to back his plan to call for an early plebiscite regardless of numerous calls for the full implementation of critical reforms.
(Zimbabwe, ZimEye)

Bulawayo(ZimEye)-At least 100 children with severe disability of cerebral palsy and autism housed at Monica Brewer Day Centre in Bulawayo are losing out on their routine physiotherapy checkups as their parents are failing to raise an imposed weekly medical fee of US$100.
Cerebral palsy and autism are caused by brain damage while the baby is still in the mother’s womb and the conditions cannot be cured.
Professional Physiotherapists in Bulawayo however charge $100 per session and it is a requirement for the affected children to visit physiotherapists twice a week.

“This is one of the major challenges we are facing here at this centre because parents cannot raise US$200 per week per child for physiotherapy. As mitigation we are receiving basic physiotherapy training so that we can at least attend to our children here”, Zimbabwe Parents of Handicapped Children Association’s Programmes Officer Mrs Tendai Masumba told ZimEye in Bulawayo.
Mrs Masumba is also a parent of one of the disabled children being taken care of at Monica Brewer Day Centre.
The centre was established by mothers with children with severe disabilities after realising that they could not do anything profitable for a living if they concentrate with their children who need close attention every time.

At the centre parents take turns to look after their children with almost the same conditions so that they could do something for a living.
“As you can see these children cannot do anything on their own. We need tones of pampers, cotton wool and toilet tissues so that when they mess up they are quickly cleaned, and this is the other challenge we are facing,”Martha Sibanda mother to Luke Junior Sigauke (12) said.
Mrs Sibanda and her son are both HIV positive.
“My son needs walking frames as he can only move using his knees and hands. Because of his HIV positive condition he is on and off sick making his hospital bill always high and this is the challenge I am faced with” Mrs Sibanda said.
Babara Ncube an information officer for the institution taking care of these children with severe disabilities said they are lobbying government to include in the education curriculum children they are taking care of.
“We have held several meetings with the Ministry of Education and other stakeholders who have agreed and appreciated our call for the inclusion of these children in the mainstream education sector rather than leaving them to us or at their homes. What we are now waiting for is to hearing when this is going to be implemented because there are thousands unidentified children at homes,” she said.
UNICEF is also assisting the centre with material, financial and technical support all in an effort to alleviate the lives of the innocent vulnerable children living with this life condition. (ZIMBABWE, ZimEye)

(Harare)CIO agents fixed former MDC-99 spokesman, Aaron Muzungu, into driving away a display new Ford Ranger T6 vehicle from a Croco Motors fleet, after telling him President Robert Mugabe had paid cash for the vehicle as a special reward, ZimEye has been told.
The former MDC-99 spokesman, Aaron Muzungu, was arrested by Harare police and charged for allegedly stealing the Croco Motors display car which he freely took away from a demonstration session and drove more than 1300 kilometres away. It was at that time, last month claimed he stole the new Ford Ranger T6, and fled away with it over a long eight days span before being caught, according to a police report.
But ZimEye was on Thursday told Muzungu was actually set up by special CIO agents who told him president Robert Mugabe had paid for the vehicle and given him as a token of appreciation for exposing party president Job Sikhala who he allegedly claimed was attempting to topple Robert Mugabe in a coup.
The statement comes as a senior Croco Motors employee refusing to comment on the matter, repeatedly protested saying she would rather have her bosses at their Head Office respond to it.
Party spokesperson David Hwangwa told ZimEye in an exclusive interview Thursday:

“He had written a letter to president Robert Mugabe and saying he used to work for MDC-99 ….he knows everything that happens in the party. he knows all the secrets. He also told the president that the party is planning a coup…that Job Sikhala has been working with mercenaries from South Africa. And then also that hunger strike that Job Sikhala wanted to do, he told them that its not a hunger strike, …its a hunger strike in disguise and the people from the party are going to have weapons and they are going to ransack and go through  parliament….and shoot everyone in there and cause a coup; which in fact wasn’t true.
 
“Just take the keys and drive away”
“And so in exchange for all that information he wanted the president to buy him a Mercedes Benz… So on that day in question of the Ford Ranger that he stole, he was told by the people who were working with him… the CIO or the law and order… who had been assigned by the president to investigate him…he was to told go into that Ford Ranger, ‘just take the keys and drive away’.”
 
At Mozambiquan border
After driving away with the vehicle, all the way to the Mozambiquan border from the Chiredzi area, Muzungu then experienced difficulty crossing over and seeing an advert in the newspaper calling for information to a stolen vehicle, he then telephoned Croco Motors saying he had paid cash for the vehicle; Upon this juncture Mr Hwangwa alleges, Muzungu was advised to return to Harare to pick up the required documentation, shortly before being arrested on his way back.
When contacted, a Croco Motors employee refused to comment even anonymously and vehemently protested to our reporter:
“I do not want to comment on that, can you call our head office please.”
An attempt to reach Muzungu for comment was fruitless as we were told he was in remand prison at the time of writing.

BULAWAYO (ZimEye) – AN ex-ZIPRA official has broken the silence on the 1982 discovered arms caches that led to the Gukurahundi massacres, saying the weapons belonged to South Africa’s ruling party African National Congress (ANC) military wing, Umkhonto Wesizwe (MK).
Former Zipra cadre Cetshwayo Sithole told Zapu youths at the party’s regional offices in Bulawayo, that Zapu couldn’t reveal that the arms belonged to MK because it would be “improper.”
“It’s true that we were keeping arms but they belonged to Umkhonto Wesizwe’s arms. When we surrendered our arms at Brady barracks, we couldn’t surrender MK’s arms as well. The truth must be known. We had kept the arms. Dumiso Dabengwa and Lookout Masuku just kept quiet about it in court,” he said.

The then Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Robert Mugabe deployed the 5th Brigade in Matabeleland and Midlands in 1983 after claiming to have unearthed an arms cache in February 1982 at Zipra properties.
Matabeleland and Midlands were Ndebele speaking strongholds of Zapu, who had won a paltry 20 parliamentary seats in the country’s first democratic elections in 1980.
However a treason trial in 1982 involving Lookout Masuku, Dumiso Dabengwa and four others, built around the discovery of the arms cache, failed to prove a case against them and they were all released.
Dabengwa and Masuku were re-detained without trial for four years but Masuku died in prison.
Sithole continued:
“We (Zapu) need to be in parliament so that we can send to the Hague people who are guilty of Gukurahundi. We should first take power, starting with Bulawayo,” he said.(ZimEye, Zimbabwe)

London(ZimEye)The Zimbabwean government has promised to pay air fares for expelled ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema’s for his upcoming UK meeting scheduled for Birmingham, ZimEye has been exclusively told.
Julius Malema, who apart from being expelled from South Africa’s ruling ANC party has recently challenged South African president Jacob Zuma for the presidency, is scheduled to speak at the upcoming Birmingham Africa Liberation movement conference on the 3rd June whose air fare the Zimbabwean government promised to pay, according to top sources in the Birmingham based organising committee for the function.
The function is a belated Africa Day celebration which would have been held on the appropriate day 25 May but was delayed for reasons undeclared.

One of the senior organisers, Mr Bini Butuakwa, of West Indian origin, confirmed to ZimEye on Saturday morning:
“The Information Minister in Zimbabwe said that he will get him to come over and if he has a problem with paying he would cover the fare…,” he said, adding that at present Malema was still struggling to obtain a travel visa.
“We are having a bit of the problem at the moment which is getting him into the country. If we don’t get him….we going to get him on Skype,” he said.
“He was going to come but we are getting some problem.
“We’ve been supporting the liberation movements in South Africa and Guinea Bissau since 1965”, he said.

Mr Butuakwa also indicated to ZimEye that in the entire ANC party Malema is the only person they selected as appropriate to address delegates at the belated function.
At the time of writing Malema had not obtained a British Visa.
Julius Malema was this year expelled from the ANC for his activities deemed to have brought the ANC party into disrepute which included announcing he would soon effect regime change in neighbouring Botswana as well as also publicly labeling his senior leader Jacob Zuma, a dictator.
Meanwhile, MDC south End On Sea branch chairman Stanford Biti has said that the party will demonstrate against Malema should he enter the UK:
“We the MDC in UK will protest against his visit and would like to meet him and send a clear message that he supped with the Zimbabwean Dictator Robert Mugabe and incited violence in Zimbabwe. Julius Malema has also been on the fore front advocating violent farm invasions and expropriation of property in South Africa on racial grounds. “Therefore on the 3^rd of June when he intends to address the people in Birmingham, we will be there in big numbers to meet him and confront him,” he said.
A comment from the Information Minister, Webster Shamu could not be obtained at the time of writing.
(ZimEye, UK)

London(ZimEye)The brother to Zimbabwe’s Finance minister Stanford Biti, has weighed in on MDC-T party findings that have resulted in Morgan Tsvangirai’s uncle relation Jaison Matewu, being probed for allegedly paying bribes in order to obtain parliamentary candidacy in Marondera Urban.
Mr Biti who during a UK meeting in 2009 in a yorky attack, assaulted former diasporan, Jaison Matewu with a bunch of eggs at a party function, this week told ZimEye that he is ‘not surprised’ that the Tsvangirai family man is now being investigated on corruption charges.

“I landed Matewu with half a dozen of eggs on his face,” he said, followed by a chuckle”
Biti who was immediately reported to UK police for the incident which he at first denied, said:

“We told them long before that these guys are corrupt …and that’s the reason why we refused to have …and Moyo came in and imposed an illegal structure. And that’s why we welcome the current amendment because it gives branches (autonomy),” the man who is the chairman of the MDC’s South End On Sea branch added.
Jaison Matewu who is on record saying of Tsvangirai that he spent his childhood life and went to primary school together with Tsvangirai in Buhera, was blasted by the party’s Organising Secretary, Nelson Chamisa.
“Who is this Matewu that people are complaining about? Does anyone know his political background or the status of his party membership?” asked Chamisa.

In order to secure parliamentary candidacy, Matewu is alleged to have bought designer suits for elected councilors at the local authority, donated a T-35 truck to Denga, dished out cash and furniture to leaders, and purchased a residential stand in Marondera for a former top official – among other allegations.

One of the organisers of the festival, who declined to be named, said he had kept in touch with Trelawny who was being “treated well”.

Foreign journalists intending to work in Zimbabwe must seek permission from the Information Ministry prior to entering the country under tough media laws.

Harare(ZimEye)-The visiting UN human rights chief Navi Pillay on Friday requested that Western countries should suspend sanctions on Zimbabwe and its President Robert Mugabe in order to give the country a chance to implement reforms.
Concluding her five day visit, Pillay said sanctions should be suspended until election time.
“I would urge those countries that are currently applying sanctions on Zimbabwe to suspend them, at least until the conduct of the elections and related reforms are clear,” she stated.
Pillay said in full:
“Finally, I would like to turn to a highly controversial issue that has come up again and again during my visit here, namely the various limited sanctions regimes that some countries have imposed on Zimbabwe over the past decade or so. The continuation of sanctions is now opposed by all three parties that make up the Inclusive Government, and I have yet to hear a single Zimbabwean inside the country say they definitely think sanctions should continue. The reason for this is a perception that sanctions, which were targeted at various named individuals and companies, are in fact having a wider impact on the general population. While it is difficult to disentangle the specific causes of Zimbabwe’s major social and economic ills, there seems little doubt that the existence of the sanctions regimes has, at the very least, acted as a serious disincentive to overseas banks and investors. It is also likely that the stigma of sanctions has limited certain imports and exports. Taken together, these and other unintended side-effects will in turn inevitably have had a negative impact on the economy at large, with possibly quite serious ramifications for the country’s poorest and most vulnerable populations who have also had to cope with the political instability and violence as well as a severe drought.
“The issues relating to the individuals targeted by the sanctions will I hope – assuming there is sufficient evidence – one day be sorted out in a court of law, which is the proper place to deal with serious crimes. In the meantime, I would urge those countries that are currently applying sanctions on Zimbabwe to suspend them, at least until the conduct and outcome of the elections and related reforms are clear.”
Pillay who is the highest ranking UN official to visit the country to date, stated that dispite her  five day visit, camped in the capital, she would not be drawn into making many conclusions since all she saw of Zimbabwe was just the capital city Harare.
Read more on Pillay’s closing speech . (ZimEye, Zimbabwe)
 

Manchester(ZimEye)A woman placed in a council flat in Manchester claims a Ghost she ‘found’ in the house is still inside months after she reported the matter.
The woman LS(REAL NAME WITHELD) who says Manchester Council’s Northwards Housing company told her “what you see is what you get”,  told ZimEye Tuesday afternoon:
“…nothing has changed ever since February. Its still the same,” she said.

The house is managed by the Manchester Council company who did not deny the complaints which included a previous tenant’s antiques left at the property for several weeks, only being removed following a ZimEye undercover investigation in February.
LS  aged 33, is a single mum of one who has been living at the property for the past five months and told ZimEye of her terror at the alleged “Ghost”:
“I am having sleepless nights with my child. I can’t even sleep,” she said.

LS claimed that the company’s housing officer however gave two conflicting accounts, one that stated that the previous tenant lived since 1986, and another that the same tenant lived for only three years.
ZimEye editors were left in stitches after we were told people had been busy chasing the “Ghost” around the house on the Wednesday afternoon in February when we began our investigations.
“…(We)are here busy chasing the chipoko(ghost)”, one woman who had been assisting LS said. “Its here, its busy breaking things and the council is saying there is nothing they can do,” she said. (UK, ZimEye)

The expelled former ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema heads for the United Kingdom to the second city of Birmingham where he is scheduled to speak on the Africa Liberation Day, a function celebrated worldwide since 1963.
The function is to be held on Saturday the 3rd June.
Speakers include pan Africanists: the historian Cecil Gutzmore, Sarudzayi Barnes, Anna Magowa, Makola Libango, lawyer and community organiser Afryea Adofo, and Julius Malema himself.
Scores of Zimbabweans and as well as other exiled Africans are expected to attend the meeting whose theme and motivation is: “an occasion when African people worldwide focus on the fight for total liberation and self determination”
More to follow
Poster:

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay on Tuesday met Zimbabwe’s NGO Forum organisation together with prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai after meetings with the President of the Senate and local human rights organisations.
Tsvangirai met with Pillay, a day after President Robert Mugabe’s party, in a fragile three-year coalition government, insisted to the envoy there was no state-sponsored violence in the country.
Tsvangirai, who was a victim of torture himself said that he hoped the upcoming elections will be “free and fair and away from violence.” Pillay said she had raised many “areas of concern” on violence with Tsvangirai.
On Monday the civil society in the country had raised concern over the government’s change of the top UN diplomat’s schedule where it had excluded the CSOs coalition preferring to hire some Zanu (PF) affiliated individuals and organizations including the Affirmative Action Group (AAG) a black empowerment group which led a campaign for the indigenization of foreign owned companies, Chris Mutangadura a chief law officer in the Attorney general’s office who has been used by the state to prosecute most human rights defenders and perceived Zanu (PF) critics in the country and Goodson Nguni, a known Zanu (PF) activist.
The Civil Service Community which stood by their declaration had cowed not to attend Pillay’s meeting at Parliament as rescheduled by the government left the UN Human Rights boss without an option but to see the CSOs separately from the ‘stage managed’ one.
Addressing journalists after their meeting, the Director of NGO Forum Abel Chikomo said they had met and presented their side of the human rights situation in the country which the government ignored.
“The government was welcome if they wanted to sit in and listen to what we were saying to the high commissioner, because these are the things that we tell them every day, the only thing is that government has never cared to listen at list to do anything about what we tell them, in fact we were expecting that Mr Mangota was going to sit in the meeting, especially Mr Mangota because he attempted to disrupt our meeting with the high commissioner,” said Chikomo.
Meanwhile police are out in full force pursuing the high profile human rights defender Chikomo fir charges not yet known to him, he told journalists soon after their meeting with the United Nations’ Pillay at the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights Offices in Harare. Chikomo said he had no idea why the police had been to his offices looking for him.

Harare(ZimEye)The government of Zimbabwe through the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice David Mangota has reportedly suppressed the interaction between the visiting UN High Commissioner on Human Rights and the local civil service organizations a move viewed as intended to stage manage the High Commissioner’s tour.
Addressing a joint press conference on Monday hosted by the Zimbabwe lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) endorsed by 37 local CSOs Abel Chikomo who read the statement on behalf of the NGO Forum claimed Mangota had instead hired some unknown human rights activists including a top human rights abuser the AAG and Zanu (PF) activist Goodson Nguni to stand as the CSOs in place of ‘the genuine ones’.
“The permanent secretary, David Mangota, ……….unilaterally changed the venue of the meeting, moving it to Parliament building and had invited several other ‘organisations’ that are not known to be doing any work on human rights in Zimbabwe,” said chikomo.
The CSOs said the actions of the government were a clear indication that they are the gross human rights abusers as evidenced by the fact that they have denied the CSOs just a thirty minute meeting with the High Commissioner out of her five day visit.
“Minister Chinamasa is already on record saying the government has nothing to hide – so why are they choosing to suppress interaction between Madam Pillay and credible and trusted CSOs who have been working on the ground for decades? We today are here to make it clear that genuine CSOs will not be commandeered by government to a stage-managed civil society meeting with the High Commissioner which is organised by the government; neither will we legitimise a fraudulent exercise meant to give the UN human rights chief a superficial picture of our country’s human rights situation,” said the NGO forum.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights Director Irene Petras said it was not up to government to say there were no human rights abuses but rather to the people who bear the brunt of the government’s abuses and that the actions of the government spoke volumes.
“It is very clear for every logical Zimbabwean who can read and write that the government is (or) could be hiding something. So let the people make their own conclusion on whether there are human rights abuses or not,” said Petras.
Outspoken constitutional lawyer Professor Lovemore Madhuku said the CSOs that had been invited by government to the meeting where just an extension of the state which stands accused of the abuses on its own people.
“These are just an extension of the state now pretending to be involved in Human Rights issues who want to abuse the visit by the High Commissioner; this is how naïve they are,” said Madhuku.
Meanwhile the NGO Forum indicated their intention to boycott the upcoming meeting saying it would not endorse and legitimize tomorrow’s meeting between Pillay and the Zanu (PF)’s purported CSOs by attending it adding that they would only show up at the originally agreed venue.
The NGO Forum said they had already prepared a report they handed to the High Commissioner directly. (ZIMBABWE, ZimEye)

Harare(ZimEye)Claims that president Robert Mugabe has died are not true, ZimEye is reliably told.
Many of our valued readers both telephoned and emailed our editors inquiring about the President’s condition after known CIO operatives claimed that Mugabe died in the early hours of Saturday morning.
“…CIO agent (name witheld) told me that the president Robert G Mugabe has passed away today. How far true is this?” inquired a reader only identified as Edwin.
Three other readers with connections to President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF party claimed they had heard the exact same rumour from named sources and telephoning our editors were seeking to know the truth.
But ZANU PF party spokesman Rugare Gumbo told ZimEye on Saturday that there was no truth in the claims.

“Which president? Ah where did you get that from?,” he said before hanging the phone saying we should call back in a few minutes after checking if there was any credibility to the reports.
“There is nothing like that,” Mr Gumbo later repeated to our reporter after checking with his party.
ZimEye also confirmed with several other top government sources Saturday afternoon who reported to be equally shocked at the inquiry.
On Wednesday a fit Robert Mugabe attended and chaired a 7 hour long politburo meeting, completely nullifying all claims on his health.
President Robert Mugabe’s health became a major subject of high media speculation following leaked US cables reported Reserve bank govenor Gideon Gono allegedly stating that Mugabe would not live beyond the year 2013 due to a long illness. Last month a rogue UK website following the rumours, mischievously   constructed a series of false incidents  claiming that Mugabe had fallen into a coma , and in the process  outrageously misleading  international newspapers on the matter.(ZIMBABWE, ZimEye)

BULAWAYO (ZimEye) – LOCAL Government Minister Ignatius Chombo’s probe team to investigate Gwanda Mayor Lionel De Necker is set to receive a staggering $20 000 each per week at a time when the council is battling financial problems.
Chombo, last month appointed a four member team to investigate suspended mayor, De Necker who was sacked for defying a directive on the appointment of chamber secretary Priscilla Nkala.
Chombo’s four team investigation team is set to receive $80 000 after the one week probe on the already suspended Mayor, meaning each official will get a cool $20 000 just after five days work.
Sources said the team is based in Bulawayo and commutes to Gwanda—120 km South of the country’s second largest city.

But Gwanda council is resisting Chombo probe team’s rich pickings. However, a storm is brewing in Gwanda after a $3 000 was given to the probe team by the town clerk Gilbert Mlilo without consent from councilors.
Gwanda deputy mayor Thoko Sibanda, confirmed that the municipality was prejudiced of $3 000.
“We did not stop them from doing their investigations but we came out clean and told them that we did not have the money,” Sibanda said.
But Mlilo insisted that he was empowered by the Urban Councils Act to approve cash payments without consulting councilors.
“The Urban Councils Act provides that when there is an investigation team sent by the minister, the costs are met by the council, council had said it did not have the money because we are currently in arrears in terms of payments of salaries,” he said.
(Zimbabwe, ZimEye)

London(ZimEye)A UK nurse has been allowed to continue working despite having purchased and used a fake passport, a crime she was convicted of in 2009.
The nurse, Bridget Khumalo, will as of May continue practicing as a nurse with full rights since she demonstrated remorse for her actions, and maintainted a good record at work.
Ms Khumalo, a qualified nurse who has been in the United Kingdom for 15 years struggled to survive in the country after a lawyer she had hired was struck off by national regulators after which time her original Home Office application became jeopardised. She then struggled to obtain work and as a result ended up buying a fake passport to use for the purpose of working, before being investigated at work and convicted for the crime barely a year later.
She did not deny knowing that she had bought a fake passport and submitted that she only chose to utilise it in order to support her children in the UK including her dying mother and a school going teenage brother in Zimbabwe.
However, after accpeting her conviction, Bridget Khumalo did not repeat the crime and later obtained indefinitie leave to remain status. She was on Tuesday 1st May taken before the local nursing regulatory panel for charges of misconduct relating to the fake passport matter.
But “throughout the hearing Ms Khumalo … expressed genuine regret and has apologised for her actions,” the panel ruled in its determination.”
The determination which only gave Ms Khumalo a caution order, read in part:
“The panel is satisfied that there has been no repetition of the misconduct. The panel has seen a reference and a testimonial to the effect that Ms Khumalo is a respected and dedicated nurse.
“The panel has in mind the case of Parkinson v Nursing and Midwifery Council [2010].
“In that case Mr Justice Mitting indicated that for a nurse to avoid a striking off in a dishonesty case, she must come before a panel and express remorse and realisation that the conduct criticised was dishonest and give an undertaking that there will be no repetition in order to convince the panel into giving a more lenient sanction. The panel finds that Ms Khumalo has demonstrated these features before it. The panel additionally finds that Ms Khumalo demonstrates most of the factors indicated in the Indicative Sanctions Guidance for a caution order. The panel finds that there are strong significant mitigating features in this case.
“Ms Khumalo has been a registered nurse since 2006. There have been no previous concerns noted against her by an employer or any other NMC panel.
“In light of this, the panel has determined that it is more advantageous and in the public interest that Ms Khumalo a skilled and valued practitioner, should remain in practice.
“The panel is satisfied that Ms Khumalo has demonstrated insight into her failings which has been expressed in her evidence before it. “In particular, the panel considered that Ms Khumalo has reflected upon her actions and has learnt an appropriate lesson and that the conduct that led to the conviction would not be repeated by her in the future. (ZIMBABWE, ZimEye)

The United States president Barack Obama is this year replacing the current ambassador to Harare, Charles Ray who now passes the button to a former professional theatre producer, David Bruce Wharton at the end of the year 2012.
Obama’s reappointment was communicated in a cable released on the 11th May 2012. Although US envoys are generally allocated a minimum 3 years in each term, their tenure can continue into the 6th year, but Ray who worked since December 2009, will be leaving by the end of 2012.
During his tenure, the outgoing envoy, Ray became the subject of high media speculation following several leaked confidential US cables which seemed to reveal among others controversial meetings with prominent people in Zimbabwe’s ZANU PF controlled government who included Vice President Joice ‘Teurai Ropa’ Mujuru, and Reserve Bank govenor Gideon Gono.
Ray also leaves the embassy as the only US envoy to have his email account hacked following which incident he threatened to send the offender to a very ‘dark place’.
He however also made history by becoming the first foreign envoy to personally launch onto and utilise the social networking website, Facebook where he constantly engaged the local youth, something no other ambassador in Harare did.

His term ends in December 2012 and it was not clear if and or where he will be reassigned.
The incoming ambassador David Bruce Wharton(pictured), is a former theatre producer who joined the Foreign Service in 1985 and has been posted abroad in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Guatemala, and served in Washington, DC from 1992 to 1995. He has received Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards from the Department of State and the U.S. Information Agency.
Wharton was born in Basel, Switzerland, and enjoyed a cross-cultural childhood with time spent in both Europe and Texas. He is a graduate of the University of Texas in Austin and speaks Spanish and German. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Mr. Wharton worked in professional theater in the Washington, DC area. (ZIMBABWE, ZimEye)

ITS A BOY! – Controversy-ridden preacher Admire Kasingakore(Kasi) has been blessed with a whooping baby boy.

Addy Kasi Junior, was born Saturday night at the eleventh hour – 2305Hours.
Kasi’s wife Gospel songbird, Ivy Kombo, burst into joy and laughter soon after receiving her baby prince.
The birth of Addy junior will bring Pastor Kasi into the line of the historical King David who 2900 years ago bedded someone’s wife and later after marrying the same woman and following God’s forgiveness was blessed with the next future King known as the wise Solomon. The Kasis sprung into controversy after they successfully kept underground a secret love affair for close to a decade as rumours went to and fro.
While he was still married to his former wife, Admire Kasi housed Ivy in a flat a few hundred yards from president Robert Mugabe’s state house residence.
Their affair was not made public until in 2009 when the preacher finally admitted the truth.
(ZIMBABWE, ZimEye)

HARARE(ZimEye)Zimbabwe’s Prime minister Dr Morgan Tsvangirai has called for the dismissal of Zanu (PF)’s Political Commissar Webster Shamu labeling him an impediment to the full implementation of the Global Political Agreement.
Addressing journalists who gathered in Kuwadzana on the World Press freedom Day celebrations organized by Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) on 3 May, Tsvangirai said the former radio disk jockey had become a liability for the country because of his refusal to reform the media environment.
“This man called Shamu happens to be Zanu (PF) political commissar at the same time being the Minister of information who in turn is refusing to implement media reforms as stated in the GPA. If such a man was coming from my party I would have sacked him long ago. The president should simply fire such a man,” said Tsvangirai.
The ICT Minister Nelson Chamisa who is also the legislator for Kuwadzana also made a jocular remark echoeing Prime Minister Tsvangirai’s sentiments.
“The President should fire Shamu just as the prime minister has said. I know the President normally is eager to take advice from the Prime Minister,” said the young Minister Chamisa.

Addressing another gathering at a Press Freedom Day organized by the statutory board, Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) led by media hangman Tafataona Mahoso the Information Minister Webster Shamu said government had no option but to intervene in the operations of the media as the practitioners continue to do their job irresponsibly.
“If the last five years of change do not show the media industry and the journalism profession to have fulfilled their promises, then the sovereign people of Zimbabwe have no option but to intervene and protect themselves through instruments of the state, that is to revert to the regulatory regime of 2001-2007,” said Shamu.
Meanwhile Shamu’s deputy Murisi Zwizwai (MDC-T) has also decried his boss’s lack of commitment adding that he does not see the difference between the party and Zanu (PF).
Zimbabwean media practitioners are currently working under a very repressed media environment with several unfounded lawsuits having been filed against journalists like Nqaba Matshazi, Nevanji Madanhire and Nqolisani Ncube among others being latest victims of defamation charges.(ZIMBABWE, ZimEye)

LONDON(ZimEye)The disgraced robber who threatened a shop keeper using a knife with his face covered in underwear, Tazviona Maluge Bhebe, started a fire from his prison cell, ZimEye can reveal.
ZimEye can also reveal that Bhebe has for years been making a public claim that he is a UK trained nurse who left his ‘nursing career’ shortly before being imprisoned for another knife crime incident in 2006.
“I was a mental heath nurse”, the violent man who may have practised using a false identity told friends.
The Zimbabwean man, has a history of grievous bodily harm and for years held claim that he was struck off the nursing register shortly after a mental health patient died in his care.
“I was struck off the register when a patient died, and they accused me of being negligent”, Bhebe said.
An investigation by ZimEye has however shown that Bhebe’s name has not been on the official national nursing register before or after his 2006 crime and it was not clear at the time of writing if Bhebe actually practiced without being detected by authorities; Many Zimbabweans have been caught in recent years working in nursing while using false identities, and in April 2012 alone, at least three Zimbabweans were struck off the register for using false identities.
Apart from his nursing claim, sources have told ZimEye that Bhebe recently converted to Islam following his 2006 knife crime incident. ‘He converted to Islam after he left nursing’ another source said.
In 2006, Bhebe was taken into police custody after he stabbed a fellow passenger on a local bus. He was later convicted at Croydon Crown court.

Ignited a fire in prison
In November 2011 when he was due to be released from HMP High Down in Surrey, following a licence recall, Bhebe attempted to burn down his prison cell. His prison cell in House Block 5 was almost burnt to a crisp had it not been for alert prison workers who entered in to stop the fire which he ignited using a light bulb. After investigations it was suspected that he had gone into a rage shortly after being advised that he had incorrectly filled in his commnity care grant form.
Two months following his release, Bhebe then attempted to rob a shop keeper shortly before being caught. With almost every media house in the world reporting the story of his robbery, Bhebe took the art to a whole new level as he attempted to rob his local cornershop with only a pair of his own underwear over his head as a disguise. (ZIMBABWE, ZimEye)

[flagallery gid=40 name=”Gallery”]

Nigerian church leader also known as Prophet TB Joshua, is truly headed for Zimbabwe at Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s official invitation, it has emerged.
The PM’s party had earlier reported the contrary claiming that it was not involved in the Nigerian ‘prophet’s’ visit stating rather that TB Joshua had been invited by a team of Harare based pastors instead.
But reports coming out of Harare reveal that Joshua may be landing in Harare in the upcoming weeks of May, 2012 at a date to be soon announced.
“The world-famous prophet is due in Harare in May for prayer meetings at the invitation of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai,” the Tsvangirai aligned Daily News paper reported yesterday.
A senior MDC official also told friends on social networking website Facebook that they were highly expecting TB Joshua’s visit.
MDC officials are reportedly hoping that TB Joshua will bestow a favourable magic charm or spell that will see the end of president Robert Mugabe’s rule and control over the southern African nation which has seen the 88 year old ruler being backed and supported by surrounding nations in the regional SADC and African Union authorities.
While the Prime Minister’s office could not be reached for comment at the time of writing, senior influencial leaders in the country had already voiced resistance for TB Joshua with spin doctor Proffesor Jonathan Moyo labelling him a false prophet and one who made a prediction rather than a prophecy on Mutharika’s death.
A string of world shaking events are however ascribed to TB Joshua which include the recent death of Malawi’s president Bingu Wa Mutharika.
ZimEye contributor, Chisulo Chizumo, has attempted to detail some of Joshua’s ascribed predictions as:
ZAMBIAN PRESIDENT’S DEATH:
On Sunday 29th June 2008, Joshua said, “Pray for one of your leaders that will be rushed out of the country… I see the body being rushed out in order to save this soul. I’m seeing a flag. Is it flying down?” On Tuesday 1st July 2008, Former Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa was rushed to a hospital in Paris, France where he died after suffering a stroke.
NEWS REPORT: Guardian 


INGRID BETANCOURT’S RELEASE:
In the same service on Sunday 29th June 2008, he said, “I’m seeing a hero, famous and popular… being saved – suddenly was saved from death. Let us pray on Tuesday and Thursday – let’s capture Wednesday…”. Three days later on Wednesday 2nd July 2008, the former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt was rescued after 6 years of captivity in the Colombian jungle.
VIDEO: http://vimeo.com/32310691
NEWS REPORT: LA Times 
 
PAKISTAN PRESIDENT RESIGNS
On Sunday, 4th May, 2008, T.B. Joshua prophesied concerning the nation of Pakistan. This was a follow up to the call for prayer he made on March 23, 2008 for the same nation. “I’m looking at the signature. a kind of signature – for somebody to sign and say, Hey, I’m resigning. What is the meaning of that?” On Monday 18th August 2008, in confirmation of the prophecy, President Pervez Musharraf announced his resignation as the President of the nation, Pakistan.
VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_EO-DTwHmo
NEWS REPORT: LA Times
 
GHANAIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2008
When the Ghanaian presidential elections were to be held in December 2008, Prophet T.B. Joshua prophesied on 26th October 2008, “We are praying for the nation Ghana… I see them recounting and re-voting again…a situation where we vote here and they say they must recount it, they must vote it again…” On 3rd January 2009, Professor John Evans Atta Mills was announced the winner after a vote which needed to be held three times before a president could be determined. Atta Mills came to The SCOAN following his inauguration to testify that Joshua had told him specific details of his three-round victory, culminating in his victory in January.
VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCXpzsjqLyY, http://vimeo.com/32311927
NEWS REPORT: Modern Ghana 


PLANE CRASH IN NEW YORK:
On Sunday 18th January 2009, Joshua gave a call to pray on the day of Friday, “Open your lips and pray for a nation ‘NY’. ‘NY’ is part of that country. Pray for God’s protection…” Later in the service, he continued, “February 13 – we should pray for the whole world.” On February 13th 2009, a Continental Airlines plane crashed into a home near Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 passengers on board and one person in the home. It was a Friday.
VIDEO: http://vimeo.com/32312230
NEWS REPORT: NY Times 
 
SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT’S SUICIDE:
On Sunday 26th April 2009, Joshua said, “On Saturday, somebody is being rushed to the hospital but from that hospital, he could not come back home.” He referred to the individual concerned as someone who “affects the world,” a person that mattered in society. On Saturday 23rd May 2009, former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun was rushed to hospital where he was declared dead after tragically throwing himself off a mountain.
VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNVk5Byxojk&
NEWS REPORT: CNN 
 
JUPITER
On Sunday the 24th May 2009, Prophet T.B. Joshua revealed that he was seeing “something that looks – mystery. People have never seen. In appearance, it’s looking small. But not in your country here, where ordinarily you cannot reach.” On 23rd July 2009 an amateur astronomer in Australia discovered an impact scar on planet Jupiter. It appeared very small on the cameras but in fact was the same diameter as planet Earth. This discovery caused a stir in the global scientific community.
VIDEO: http://vimeo.com/32316331
NEWS REPORT: Scientific American
 
MICHAEL JACKSON’S DEATH:
On Sunday 4^th January 2009, Joshua spoke about a great star about to embark on a journey of no return. “I’m seeing a great star. In his own area, he’s famous – he’s known everywhere. Great – too great… I see something will begin to happen to that star which may likely end in him going on the journey of no return.” Just over a month later on Sunday 22^nd February 2009, Joshua continued to call for prayer for the individual in question, stating that the star was “too young to leave your midst.” On Thursday 25^th June 2009, Michael Jackson, the international music icon and most famous pop star of modern times, died following a cardiac arrest in Los Angeles, California. The world was stunned by his passing at the early age of 50.
VIDEO: http://vimeo.com/31601562
NEWS REPORT: BBC 
 
BERLUSCONI ATTACK:
On Sunday 13th December 2009, T.B. Joshua said, “I see an attempt on one of the presidents of one of the great nations…Pray for protection. I see a narrow escape – very narrow, too narrow. But the whole thing failed.” Merely hours later, on that same evening, an attempt was made on Italian President Silvio Berlusconi’s life when he was assaulted with a metallic object at a campaign rally in Milan. He narrowly escaped with minor injuries.
VIDEO: http://vimeo.com/32713680
NEWS REPORT: CNN 
 
POLISH PLANE CRASH:
On Sunday 21st March 2010, Joshua prophesied about an impending air disaster, “I was in a vision and I saw where a balloon was full of people. It just lost control in the air… I’m seeing people that matter, government officials, they were inside the balloon. They are innocent souls…” The following week on Sunday 28th March, he further explained that he saw a flag being brought down with two colours, one of which was white. On Saturday 10th April, 2010, Polish President, Lech Kaczynski, the First Lady, the Chief of Army Staff, the Chairman of The Bank of Poland and many other prominent Polish Government Ministers were killed when their plane crashed in Russia. In an incident described as the most horrific in the nation’s history since World War II, the white and red Polish flag was lowered in honour of the fallen.
VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKk2jlHmMfQ
NEWS REPORT: NY Times 
 
NIGERIAN ELECTIONS PUSHED FORWARD:
On August 1, 2010, Prophet T.B. Joshua prophesied concerning the nation of Nigeria and their upcoming elections. “I’m hearing the word, extension. It has to do with this country. I’m hearing, extension for accountability.” When the prophecy was given, many scoffed at the notion, stating that constitutionally it was not permissible. Joshua later commented on the issue, “When they see what is going to happen, they would know the constitution would permit.” In confirmation of the prophet’s words, the much anticipated 2011 Nigerian parliamentary elections were pushed forward not once but three times due to circumstances beyond their control.
VIDEO: http://vimeo.com/33397530
NEWS REPORT: BBC
 
IVORY COAST PRESIDENT GBAGBO 2010
Joshua is also said to have prophesied concerning the disgraced former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo, long before the violent election-related crises erupted in November 2010. Joshua declared that Gbagbo should cede power in the upcoming elections with his counterpart Allassane Outtara, saying it was his time to leave office. Gbagbo sent emissaries to The SCOAN to request for prayers upon which Joshua requested his presence to tell him the mind of God. Unwilling to respond to or accept the prophecy, Gbagbo took matters into his own hands and dissolved his cabinet. After a six month struggle for power which resulted in hundreds of lives lost, Gbagbo was eventually arrested and is now to be tried by the International Criminal Court.
NEWS REPORT: Guardian 
 
NIGERIA VS GUINEA AFCON QUALIFIER 2011
Joshua’s revelations have not always been unchangeable as in the case of when he spoke of Nigeria’s qualifier for the African Cup of Nations against Guinea on 8th October 2011. The previous Sunday, 2nd October, he had said that: “God showed me the game between Nigeria and Guinea but what I saw was not favourable” and that “any team that scores first will take the day”. He said however that it was possible to change the outcome if the team played as if everything depended on them and prayed as if everything depended on God. The team however did not heed the advice. The match ended 2:2 – with Guinea scoring the first goal and then dramatically equalising in the dying seconds, sending Nigeria out of AFCON 2012 for the first time in 25 years.
VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWgnXOzG0R8
NEWS REPORT: Goal 
 
ZAMBIA AFCON 2012
Zambia’s smooth journey through AFCON 2012 shocked many, as they had not reached the final stages of the tournament for over 20 years but what was most shocking was when they met Ivory Coast, the ‘big guns’, in the final and emerged victorious as underdogs. Less than one hour before the opening of the match, Prophet Joshua in his service had said: “Yes, this blessing is for a country you are not expecting; this victory is for a country you are not expecting…God wants to make them happy because of the victims of what happened to them in the past.” Zambia emerged victorious on the same soil where they had tragically lost their entire national team, 19 years earlier in a fatal plane crash.
VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC7giIJT0pw
NEWS REPORT: MG

London(ZimEye)Zimbabwe is not part of a group former British colonies whose classified colonial crime record files began to be opened in April this year.
The country previously known as Rhodesia, led by the rebel government of Ian Smith, is excluded from the list which covers over a long list of 37 various countries across the world whose archives were collected in the 1960s, strictly classified, and shipped to the UK.
Thousands of the documents detail some of the most shameful acts and crimes committed during the final years of the British empire and were systematically destroyed to prevent them falling into the hands of post-independence governments, an official review concluded, according to the UK paper the Guardian. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office holds around 8,800 files, according to other reports.
“Those papers that survived the purge were flown discreetly to Britain where they were hidden for 50 years in a secret Foreign Office archive, beyond the reach of historians and members of the public, and in breach of legal obligations for them to be transferred into the public domain,” the paper wrote.
The records received the spotlight when Kenyan victims of the Mau Mau conflict successfully took the British government to court for crimes committed in the 1960s.
But Zimbabwean (Rhodesian) records may have been excluded as the former Ian Smith regime in 1965 rebelled against the British government, reorganised itself, and continued for more than 14 years before finally succumbing to pressure to hand back power back to Britain.
The countries named whose records began to be available from April are:Aden (and protectorates), Anguilla, Bahamas, Basutoland, Bechuanaland, British Indian Ocean Territory, Brunei, Cameroons, Ceylon, Cyprus, Fiji, Gambia, Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, Gold Coast, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaya, Malta, Mauritius, New Hebrides, Nigeria, Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland, Palestine, Sarawak, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Swaziland, Tanganyika, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, Uganda, West Indies Federation, Western Pacific High Commission and Zanzibar.
Unconfirmed reports claim that Rhodesia’s records were destroyed shortly before independence in 1980, during the ceasefire period which stretched from 1979 to 1980. (ZIMBABWE, ZimEye)

London(ZimEye) Another Zimbabwean nurse has been struck off the register here after being found guilty of forgery and identity deception.
Ms Heather Tafara Chiwerera has become the sixth Zimbabwean to be struck off in April 2012 alone.
Her charges are that she forged a false Home Office seal onto her passport which claimed she had indefinite leave to remain in the UK, which she the used to obtain a nursing bursary.
From the bursary, Chiwerera received more than 50,000 of British government funds.
” The count regarding false identity related to Ms Chiwerera having in her possession a Home Office letter which recorded that she had been granted indefinite leave to remain, which was false. Further counts relating to false identity related to documents supporting a second application for the NHS bursary and recording in the same way that Ms Chiwerera had indefinite leave to remain, which claim was, again, false,” the NMC ruling staes in part.
 She was sentenced to 10 months in prison which conviuction has led to her being struck off.

London(ZimEye)Some Zimbabweans were on Wednesday seen making a positive impact on the democratisation of the city of London.
During the just ended London Citizens Mayor’s election debate held at the heart of the city on Wednesday night, a number of Zimbabweans were seen at the function occupying strategic positions.
At the centre of a panel of senior organising committee members who thrust aspiring mayoral candidates to their defence was Active Horizons employee, Cynthia Masiyiwa. There were many other Zimbos seen stationed at various strategic roles for the meeting.
At the entrance was seen senior MDC official Jeff Sango who was the main first port of contact for all attendants, and also mother to modelling celebrity Sibo Bero, Linda Bero sitting in the terraces.
After 30 minutes of the meeting commencing, the mayoral candidates were drilled until they were submerged into sobreness after people had testified of their frustrations with one woman rubbishing the mayor for the way her employers were getting away with paying her a paltry £3 per hour for her hotel job, where customers reportedly pay a lumpsome £700 per night. Boris John son, Ken Livignstone, and Jenny Jones’ faces turned pale.
With a number of young women doing chores such as sweeping, serving, and ushering, one Zim man Mr Emmanuel Gotora was seen at the prestigious podium area as he singularly conferred awards to Londoners voted best citizens of the city. But Gotora who rubbed shoulders with former London mayors, was later also seen lifting heavy container boxes with his own bare hands at the end of function.

Concluding the function was Active Horizons employee Cynthia Masiyiwa, who works on London’s streets, pulling gangsters and roudy youths from street-life into workplaces, and who at the end led the more than 2500 attendants in the slogan: ‘Londoners Together We Can!’
As delegates left the building, it was not clear who is going to win the 3 May election for the soul of the capital city of the world – London
(ZIMBABWE, ZimEye) [In the pic above, Cynthia Masiyiwa prepares to end the meeting.]

London(ZimEye)The director of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, McDonald Lewanika, has blasted Zimbabwean politicians labeling them mere talking politicians who do very little listening.
Speaking after the just ended London Mayoral Accountability Assembly 2012, Lewanika said that he saw first hand a demonstration of how local citizens can have real power over their cities. During the assembly, mayoral candidates were drilled and put to task on what they are able to offer to London residents.

“I Have had a wonderful 5 weeks working with these guys, and saw first hand on the 25th of April at the London Citizens Mayoral Assembly, not just how powerful this organisation is, but how powerful they have made the Citizens of London.
“Where I am from, politicians do too much talking and very little listening,” Lewanika said.
As he described his admiration for London’s citizen activism, he graphically detailed how impressive he found the assembly to be:
“For 3 to 4 hours, the candidates for Mayor in London, all four of them including the incumbent), came to be with 2500 citizens and listened. After that they had 4 minutes each to respond to the peoples agenda and peoples issues, 2-3 minutes of cross examination and just 2 minutes to state why they should be elected Mayor of London.
“The testimonies were touching, from a mother [whose son was killed] because of unsafe streets, asking for a safer London, to a Chamber maid, who cleans rooms at the Hilton Hotel, costing as much as 700 pounds a night and yet get paid less than 3 pounds from it, and a testimony from a kid not more than 10 of how she and her brother have had to live with dangerous dampness conditions in her home.
“Their Campaigns are centered on real issues that impact people on a daily basis; their method is predicated on relationships amongst members of the community, and their actions targeted on those with the power to make the requisite changes. They don’t always win, but based on what I have seen, they should…but even when they don’t, they never fail to bring the politicians to at the very least be aware of the issues and at best to Account,” he said. (ZimEye, UK)
 

By Staff Reporter| PRIME MINISTER Morgan Tsvangirai plunged into controversy on Friday night when he engaged to marry the widow of a senior ranking military officer, Elizabeth Macheka.

The engagement ceremony was conducted on Friday night at the LaFarrranatta Restaurant along Mutoko Road. His engagement comes barely six months after he stopped marriage proceedings for another lady, Lorcadia Karimatsenga Tembo.

Loud romantic music could be heard in the background on Friday night as Tsvangirai’s spokesman, Luke Tamborinyoka told ZimEye.com: “Yes it is correct; I can confirm that the Prime Minister has engaged with his loved one. I am still at the function right now”, he said.

Tsvangirai has been widowed since his wife and mother of his six children, Susan, died in a car crash in March 2009.
Tsvangirai may have disappointed his late wife’s younger sister who was given to be his wife in replacement of his children’s mother, according to African culture, party members said on Friday night.

Elizabeth owns an upmarket beauty salon in Harare and her first husband, Mabasa Simba Guma, died in a car crash 10 years ago. His funeral was published on the front page of the state run Herald newspaper.
Social networking websites were ablaze with the story as people talked about Macheka once married to Airforce Wing Commander Mabasa Simba Guma, who has a record of leading the violent mass raiding of white owned farms in Chiredzi between 2000 and 2002. Mabasa Guma was a ruthless farm invader who was promoted to a senior military post as a reward for his farm invasions in the eastern town of Chegutu, something the MDC-T leader Tsvangirai may have paid a blind eye to, an army officer who deputised Guma told ZimEye.com.

ZimEye can also reveal that Ms Macheka is daughter to the powerful former ZANU PF mayor for Chitungwiza, Joseph Macheka.
Her name became the subject of public discussions late last year after Tsvangirai had customarily married another woman Lorcadia Tembo.

Tsvangirai sent a delegation to Lorcadia Karimatsenga Tembo’s home on November 18 last year to request for her hand in marriage and pay lobola. But he soon terminated the relationship a few days later, stating: “I sent a delegation to the Karimatsenga family homestead to perform traditional and cultural rites to formalise this relationship.

“I have become a spectator in this relationship and things are happening too fast, on camera and without my knowledge. This has led me to conclude that there is a greater and thicker plot around this issue which has undermined my confidence in this relationship,” he said.

– CONTROVERSY –
Controversy however surrounds Ms Macheka’s conduct as friends of Guma claimed that she was no longer living with her former husband at the time of his death.

“The prime minister should have known and it is public knowledge that Elizabeth Guma was already living away from her husband at the time of his death”, two air force officers told ZimEye. “I don’t know maybe people change over time,” one of the ex-officers who requested not to be named, said.(ZIMBABWE, ZimEye)

London(ZimEye)Up to five Zimbabwean practicing nurses have been banned forever from the nursing profession in April 2012 so far, ZimEye can reveal.
The shocking figures show Zimbabwe to represent more than 21% of the total number of striking off orders on the nursing register in the United Kingdom.
The five nurses are: Munyaradzi Mazarura, Pauline Zvorwadza, Yvonne Tapuwa Tausa, Mavis Zvorwadza, and Nonhlanhla Nkomo.
One of the nurses was reported to have shown no remorse for her ‘offences’.
None of the four Zimbabwean nurses attended their respective hearing sessions and they were neither represented by a Solicitor.

Munyaradzi Mazarura was banned from the profession after being found guilty of possessing identity documents not his own while Mavis and Pauline ZVORWADZA, were found guilty of forgery, deception, and obtaining out a money transfer by
deception. Yvonne Tapuwa Tausa, like the aforementioned, was also charged for financial dishonesty having reportedly obtained a bursary by deception. Nonhlanhla Nkomo (reportedly Zimbabwean) had a string of three suspension orders in one year alone and was banned after failing to apply for a permit renewal, according to records.
The cumulative statistics of Zimbabweans banned from the profession was not clear at the time of writing.
Last year a Doncaster based Zimbabwean man, Rodney Gwamba fell from grace after being found guilty of growing a Mbanje (Cannabis) crop at his house where he reportedly also stole an electricity connection to use for his farm. (UK, ZimEye)

In what drew a fresh scare of another disease outbreak, most suburbs in Harare went without water on Thursday.
Fears of Cholera and Typhoid re re-ignited on Thursday after many Harare residents went for a whole day with a fresh water supply to their houses.
Eastlea, Highlands, Greendale, Derbyshire, Budiriro, Glen View, Highfield, Borrowdale, Shortson, Msasa Park were seen without water supply to their taps.

Two residents in Msasa Park told ZimEye their families had gone “throughout the day without a bath due to the crisis.”
A protest statement by the Harare Residents Association stated:
“Most suburbs in Harare have no water today. Harare Water is finding it extremely difficult to provide this precious liquid. How then do we prevent diseases outbreaks like cholera and typhoid if people live without water? ”
Harare this year became the talk of the world after the city’s water was found by a group of doctors to be contaminated with faeces. The city council refuted the findings.
Efforts to obtain a comment from the Harare city council on the water supply failure were frutless as the phone kept ringing without being answered. (ZIMBABWE ZimEye)

Bulawayo(ZimEye)-A group of Zimbabwean citizens calling itself the Zimbabwe United People’s Advocate Group (ZUPAG) says the government must compensate the Gukurahundi genocide victims a total of US$2 million per head.
The group led by one Reason Sibanda says the government turned a blind eye to victims of its own brutalities such as the Gukurahundi massacres committed by Mugabe’s 5th Brigade army which was commanded by the now Air Marshal Perrence Shiri.
“We are saying a compensation of $2m would be justifiable considering that the ZANU PF government did not pay any attention to victims of its own operations and even continues to maim more people in areas such as Chiadzwa diamond fields and others we are still to investigating.
“This government must also compensate victims of Mozambique’s Matsanga operations in Manicaland, Mashonaland and Masvingo provinces as it failed to provide adequate security to its people during the time,” said Sibanda.
After the country’s independence in 1980, Mugabe engaged the North Korean army to train the Zimbabwean soldiers for deployment to Matebeleland and parts of Midlands province to suppress an emerging crisis after Joshua Nkomo’s ZAPU was left disgruntled by Mugabe’s unfair treatment whom he had labeled dissidents.
Mugabe then deployed the notorious army personnel after training in September 1982 where Shiri’s group murdered an estimated 20 000 and maimed many others, with the single largest killing having been committed on 5 March 1983 where 62 people were shot at Cewale river resulting in 55 deaths while seven of them survived with gunshot wounds.
To this day Mugabe has refused to acknowledge the report findings of the Gukurahundi massacre that was done by Catholic Commission for peace and justice and Chihambakwe commission.
Mugabe had never publicly apologized to the people in Matabeleland only going as far as just saying “it was a moment of madness”.
In 2008 some human rights organizations claimed that President Mugabe’s army had murdered thousands of Marange villagers and illegal diamond miners who had thronged the diamond fields.
Mugabe stands accused of several human rights violations by the international community.(ZimEye, Bulawayo)

Harare(ZimEye)Mavambo Kusile Dawn leader, Simba Makoni, has fired back at President Robert Mugabe who recently ridiculed him calling him a memberless party leader who says people support him because he is called ‘Simba’.
In an address to ZANU PF Central Committee members on the 30th March 2012, Mugabe said that Makoni is struggling in a political wilderness and thinks people will support him merely because he is called ‘Simba’.
Said Mugabe: “I asked him who is following you?Oh by the way do you have a party? He then replied aah! the people will vote for me because I am called Simba”
Mugabe was speaking on the subject of disunity in his Party in general and the 2008 exit of Simba Makoni and Dumiso Dabengwa from ZANU PF in particular.
But in a statement the party fired back at Mugabe:

“Of all the people, President Mugabe should be the last person to wish Simba Makoni well. Makoni has the full support of the National Management Committee (NMC), which is the highest decision making body of the Party, working together as a team in search of a permanent solution to the country’s problems which the shaky Inclusive Government (IG) of Zimbabwe has failed to solve. In the country’s provinces, there are some M.K.D structures and activities going on.

M.K.D commands a strong backing from multitudes of Zimbabweans across the political divide. No amount of politicking will dissuade the suffering people of Zimbabwe from following the M.K.D idea.

We are satisfied with the Party’s pace of growth and have no reason whatsoever to be apologetic to President Mugabe. Any political competitor who elects to underestimate M.K.D and its leader is not respecting the people of Zimbabwe and will be doing so at his/her own peril. We will not justify even the least why M.K.D is now a force to reckon with in Zimbabwe’s body politic.

There is no doubt that Simba Makoni, his hardworking team together with the overwhelming support of enlightened Zimbabweans will form the next Government. We do not need the endorsement of intolerant political competitors. We would be worried if such remarks were coming from thirteen million (13 000 000) Zimbabweans. M.K.D has the backing of people and that is all we need at the moment. President Mugabe’s utterances do not reflect a popular sentiment and M.K.D will give him a rude awakening come next elections, which we hope will be conducted in an environment that guarantees a free and fair outcome.

Currently we are working for a better Zimbabwe of tolerance, inclusion, transparency, accountability, democracy and equal opportunities for all.

We are a serious game changer and neither an easy pushover nor cry baby in this field. We will stand our ground with equal measure. M.K.D has all it takes not only to contest, but win elections, govern effectively and efficiently and make this country work again.

Simba Makoni and M.K.D are here to stay and not going anywhere. We cannot be wished away just like that. By now, at least President Mugabe should know better. He would not have been so jittery if Makoni was not an issue in the country’s body politic. We urge all Zimbabweans to ignore such statements and remain focused. People of Zimbabwe know what is good for them. We sympathise with the majority of people during the painful phase that our nation is going through. The furnace of affliction produces refinement in the country and its people. A new beginning is nearing.

Let us all work very hard to usher in a new administration of leaders willing to serve and not be served. Leaders with people at heart!

Harare(ZimEye)A website that spread malicious false rumours about the condition of President Robert Mugabe’s health was left in shame on Thursday as Mugabe landed at Harare International airport “fit as a fiddle”.

Mugabe landed at Harare international airport at 7am today(Thursday).
The rogue website, name supplied, which is based in the UK, led a cunningly coordinated effort together with leading Australian newspapers which all collectively claimed the president was on the brink of death while on his visit to Singapore.
The group of websites which include two main Australian newspapers claimed that Mugabe was notvisiting his daughter in the country as reported by state media, but had actually collapsed and was airlifted from Harare in an emergency operation.
They constructed a series of alleged events which seemed to point that of a truth Mugabe was ebbing away. They claimed that a cancelled cabinet meeting meant that Mugabe was in a coma. Social networking websites subsequently became flooded with the false rumours.
ZimEye editors at the time found the story to be mere rumour and immediately treated it the same.
Mugabe, 88, arrived at Harare International Airport on a chartered flight accompanied by his wife Grace and was welcomed by deputy president Joice Mujuru, who was flanked by several government officials and security chiefs.
“The man is completely fit as a fiddle. Why do we wish somebody bad, why do we spread rumours, why do we lie about our head of state,” Information Minister Webster Shamu said.
“Do we have to pander to the agenda of imperialists,” he added.
Mugabe shook hands with the officials, talked with Vice President Mujuru who briefed him before he left the airport for state house.
The shame-ridden websites claimed Mugabe would soon be part of a prediction that an African President would die by the 16th February, a claim which others have rather pointed to Malawi’s former President Bingu Wa Mutharika who died on April 5 last week.(ZIMBABWE, ZimEye)

SPEECH BY FORMER PRESIDENT F W DE KLERK TO THE RIVER CLUB,
JOHANNESBURG, March 30 2012
POLITICIANS AND STATESMEN WHOM I HAVE KNOWN
Steven Mulholland suggested two topics that I might address – one that might
entertain you – and the other that would probably depress you.
I have decided to choose the former. It relates to my memories of the many
leaders that I have met during my political career – and subsequently.
Politics is a strange business.
It takes a particular type of personality to thrust himself before the
electorate and try to persuade his fellow citizens that he has the extraordinary
qualities required for leadership.
On the whole, politics is not a career that pays very well. In its traditional form it offered few financial inducements. This is of course no longer necessarily the case. Some of the far more astute politicians of the present age have elevated politics to one of the most profitable of businesses.
In my day most practitioners would probably have made much more money by
remaining in a respectable profession or by climbing the corporate ladder. In my
case, when I went into politics in 1972 I had to exchange a flourishing law
practice in Vereniging for the modest income of a back-bencher. We had to move
out of our beautiful home in on the banks of the Vaal and take up residence in a
converted army barracks in Acacia Park.
Life as a back-bencher is, at best, undistinguished.
As junior members of the caucus, young MPs generally speak when they are
spoken to. They must quickly adapt to the Byzantine manoeverings and jockeying
for position that characterise all political organisations. They must wait
desperately for a chance to catch the attention of the leadership on the rare
occasions when they are asked to speak in parliament. It is difficult to do so
if the topic they must address is the Railways Second Appropriation Bill. This
is not the stuff of which Gettysburg Addresses and Pericles Funeral Orations are
made.
It is for this reason that the attention of back benchers of all parties in
all dispensations is focused so firmly on the possibility of being appointed to
higher office. As soon as one becomes a deputy minister – or succeeds in
attaining the Olympian heights of cabinet membership – the world changes.
Suddenly, one has one’s own office and one’s own department. The new minister is
surrounded by public servants who quickly confirm his own view that he is a
pretty smart chap and a natural leader. The media are suddenly interested in his
pronouncements. There are press conferences and overseas trips, official cars
and private secretaries.
I was lucky. I was appointed to the cabinet in 1978 – only six years after
entering parliament.
However, once one has become a cabinet minister
other drawbacks become apparent. Everything the minister does is open to
scrutiny. Every peccadillo becomes a glaring headline on the back page of the
Sunday Times. Cartoonists and comedians have free rein to ridicule one. The
minister’s policies, his character and his family are exposed fairly – or
unfairly –  to merciless attack in public forums.
Managing democratic societies is often a thankless task. Leaders are
confronted with crises created by others – some of which are, frankly,
unsolvable in the period they have at their disposal. Whatever the politician
says, whatever he does, he is subjected to bitter criticism. As one American
President remarked: “Hell, every time I open my mouth I alienate 25% of the
population.”
And all the time there is relentless competition with one’s closest
colleagues.
As one disillusioned politician was heard to remark: “My opponents? They were
the people in the parties that opposed me in parliament. My enemies? Those are
the ones who were sitting beside and behind me”. It is more often the
politician’s colleagues rather than his opponents who finally bring his career
to an end.
It is perhaps for such reasons that commentators have observed that “All
political careers end in tears.”
These are also the reasons why so relatively few really competent people
stand for the Presidency of the United States. It is impossible to believe that
there are not thousands of people in America who would be far better candidates
than the crop that is currently contending for office. However, they are far too
prudent to do so. They do not need the money. They do not want to have their
private lives subjected to relentless, intrusive and often unfair scrutiny. They
do not want their families to be hopelessly disrupted. They do not want to
demean themselves by having to tailor their views according to the latest
opinion surveys – or to mouth the platitudes that pass for political
discourse.
Now, as you all know, much of this is true to a greater or lesser extent in
the careers of all successful men. Everyone who has become a CEO or company
chairman has also had to play hard-ball in board-room politics.
They say that the vindictiveness is worst between academics. When he was
asked why this was so Henry Kissinger replied “the competition between academics
is so bitter – because the stakes are so low.”
And yet – and yet the allure of politics and of power remains. Henry
Kissinger also observed that power is the greatest aphrodisiac.
Nero is famously supposed to have exclaimed just before he died that a great
artist perished in him!  He certainly was not a good exponent of the art of
statesmanship – but statesmanship is an art. It is practised on the largest
canvas that one can imagine: one’s country – and in some cases the world.
The fact remains that despite all its shortcomings as a career, politics
offers its exponents the opportunity to perform on the greatest stage of all:
the stage of history. The decisions that statesmen take can make the difference
between war and peace; between freedom and tyranny; between prosperity and
poverty. The stakes are immensely high: they are the happiness of and security
of tens of millions of ordinary people. They are the ability of ordinary people
to pursue what Yeats called the ceremonies of innocence: growing up; getting an
education; falling in love and raising a family; making a living and pursuing
one’s special dreams.
In my own career I have had the privilege of interacting with some great
leaders – who in their own ways have changed the histories of their countries or
even of the world.
Mikhail Gorbachev is one of the people whom I count as a friend.
The simple reality is that the history of the world, or Europe and of Russia
would have been fundamentally different if a hard-line communist had seized the
reins of power in the early 1980s. Even though the Soviet Union was doomed to
economic failure, an orthodox communist dictator might well have held the empire
together for decades. The cold war would not have come to an end.  The countries
of Eastern Europe would not have been liberated. The Soviet Union would not have
disintegrated – and Germany would still be divided between east and west.
Often it is the individual leader who puts his weight on one side or the
other of the political balance who changes the course of history.
Ironically, this is not necessarily what Gorbachev intended. In his book
Perestroika he still declared that communism was the best system – but merely
needed to be implemented in a more democratic and open manner. It was never his
intention that the Soviet Union should fall to pieces or that the Warsaw Pact
should be disbanded. Ultimately, he found it impossible to control the momentum
or the direction of the historic changes that he had unleashed.
Nevertheless, the world today would have been a substantially different – and
in my opinion worse – place had he not made the decisions that he made.
The leader who, perhaps, impressed me most was Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore.
Once again, he was an individual who changed the course of history. In many
respects he was the creator of modern Singapore. Without his leadership it might
still be just another city in Malaysia. As it is, and despite its tiny size, it
has become one of the most successful countries, with one of the freest
economies, in the world.
Lee Kuan Yew took the right decisions for his country; he chose the right
values and the right economic policies to ensure the development of a successful
society. In this, he was an artist painting on the largest canvas that society
can provide. He was also a very astute judge of the world and provided a very
canny and realistic assessment of our situation in South Africa when I met him
during the early ‘nineties.
Another great leader whom I count among my friends is Margaret Thatcher. Few
British Prime Ministers have had such a profound influence on the course of
their country’s history as she did.  She understood, when she became Prime
Minister, what the fundamental challenges were that she would have to address.
The most serious of these was a trade union movement and residual socialist
policies that were inexorably dragging Britain toward stagnation and national
failure.
Soon after she became Prime Minister she prophesied that within three years
she would be one of the most unpopular leaders that the country had ever seen.
“But two years after that” she said ” I shall be re-elected Prime Minister with
an increased majority.” And she was quite right. She took on the unions and won
– and subsequently she took on the Argentinians and beat them as well. In all
this she showed far greater determination and courage than any prime minister
since Winston Churchill.
Her free market middle-class conservatism set the paradigm not only for
British politics for decades to come, but changed democratic politics
everywhere. I remember an exasperated John Major telling me after the
Conservatives had lost the 1997 election that he wondered what Tony Blair would
do once he had run out of the Conservative Party’s policies. The reality is that
after Thatcher, British politics became a battlefield for the centre with the
new left jettisoning traditional socialist policies as fast as it could.
Margaret Thatcher also had a keen understanding of the unfolding situation in
South Africa. Although she was a consistent critic of apartheid, she had no
illusions about the nature of the challenges that we faced. She doggedly
resisted for as long as she could persistent demands for more sanctions against
South Africa in the Commonwealth and in the international community. She always
gave me – and our partners in the negotiations – strong and committed support
for the achievement of our goals.
Although I never met Deng Xiaoping, I believe that he will probably be
regarded by future generations as the greatest leader of the latter part of the
twentieth century. He himself was a victim of the Cultural Revolution but
nevertheless rebounded in 1978 to initiate the reforms that have fundamentally
changed his country. The process that he began has led to the most far-reaching
improvement in the lives of the largest number of people in the shortest period
in the whole sweep of human history. In so doing he has visibly improved the
daily lives of hundreds of millions of ordinary people and has established China
as a leading strategic and economic power.
Such is the great canvas of statesmanship. Deng succeeded in turning China
from a drab and paranoid ideologically obsessed backwater to a confident,
prosperous and successful society. I have no doubt that the daily lives of
hundreds of millions of people have been made far happier because of the
decisions that he took.
And in our own country I would like to mention two notable statesmen.
The first is P W Botha – a difficult and irascible man – who nevertheless
played an indispensible role in the transformation of our country. When he
became Prime Minister in the difficult circumstances that confronted the country
in 1978, he realised that we would have to ‘adapt or die’. He built up one of
the most effective armed forces not only in Africa but in the world. He
overhauled and rationalised the whole system of government. Under his
predecessor, John Vorster, the most junior minister wrote the cabinet minutes by
hand in a note book. P W Botha introduced an efficient system of cabinet
committees and properly compiled cabinet papers.
He understood the need for change and initiated the process that led to the
Tricameral Parliament. Obviously, it was never going to be the total answer to
the total problem because it still made no provision for black South Africans.
However, in the incremental world of reform politics it was a step in the right
direction. By 1986 the government had already repealed more than 100 apartheid
laws. Nevertheless, the crux of the matter was no longer reform – but
transformation.
However, PW ruled more by fear than by consensus. He did not encourage open
debate within the cabinet and dealt harshly with anyone who failed to toe the
line. When asked what the difference was between serving in my cabinet and PW’s
cabinet Pik Botha said that when I was president he did not wake every morning
with a shudder.
Shortly before he left office, P W Botha said that he had made two mistakes
as president: he had not moved forward rapidly enough with his reform policies;
and he had communicated badly. He was right on both counts. Nevertheless, there
is no doubt that he prepared the way for the negotiation process that I had the
privilege of initiating on 2 February 1990.
The other great South African leader of my generation was, of course, Nelson
Mandela. I do not subscribe to the general hagiography surrounding Mandela. He
was by no means the avuncular and saint-like figure so widely depicted today. As
a political opponent he could be brutal and quite unfair. During the
negotiations and while I served as Deputy President in the Government of
National Unity we often had bruising clashes.
Such is the nature of politics.
However, whenever the situation required it, he was able to rise above the
political passions of the moment and join me in hammering out reasonable
compromises that enabled the process to continue. He also had the stature and
the strength to hold his fractious alliance together – even at the most
difficult junctures. The source of his authority, consciously or unconsciously,
was the fact  that he was a Xhosa aristocrat – with all the bearing and natural
authority that came with his royal connections.
However, he is a principled man and a great communicator. Through his natural
charm and consideration he played an indispensible role in promoting
reconciliation and in laying the foundations of our new non-racial nation.

I believed him when he said on 8 May 1996,
after the adoption of our new constitution, that the “founding principles of our
constitution are immutable.” He described the constitution as “our national
soul, our compact with one another as citizens, underpinned by our highest
aspirations and our deepest apprehensions”. He said our pledge is that: “Never
and never again shall the laws of our land rend our people apart or legalise
their oppression and repression. Together, we shall march, hand-in-hand, to a
brighter future.”

Now, 16 years later there are those in the ANC who are saying that “our
national soul, our compact with one another as citizens” was merely a temporary
compromise and that it must give way to a second transition based on less
immutable principles.
All of us should reject such thinking with all the resources that we and our constitution provide. But then, that is the other topic that Steven wanted me to address – and which you may explore in the question and answer session.
In the meantime one thing is clear. The great South African socio-political

Lilongwe(ZimEye)-The first female president in Malawi is set to take over the reigns of power following the sudden death of the country’s president, Bingu Wa Mutharika, aged 78.
Joyce Banda, 61, who has been vice president of Malawi under Mutharika‘s reign is now  the first female president in that country and joins Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in the line of Africa’s female Head of States. She is expected to lead the country until 2014 elections.
Joyce Banda who had a fall out with the late president leading to her expulsion from Mutharika‘s ruling party (DPP) in 2010, but not from her government post was feared could be sidelined by Mutharika‘s party.
Following Mutharika‘s death, hardliners in Mutharika‘s party looked on course to subvert the constitution and sideline her from assuming her official presidential duties as per constitutionally requirements that the vice president takes over the office of presidency in the event of death or incapacitation of the president.
But in her first press conference as president, Banda on Saturday looked to have overcome that hurdle and told the press that “The constitution is prevailing right now” and appealed for calm in Malawi.
“I call upon all Malawians to remain calm and to keep the peace during this time of bereavement,” Banda said.
The international community and Malawi’s former president Bakili Muluzi had raised their concern over the delay in transfer of power and the seemingly imminent constitutional coup by the late president’s party (DPP) who wanted to impose the late president’s brother, Peter.
“We are concerned about the delay in the transfer of power. We trust that the vice president who is next in line will be sworn in shortly,” said Johnnie Carson, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs on Friday.
The State has declared 10 days of official mourning for Mutharika whose body still remains in South Africa as the government is to commence arrangements to repatriate it back to Malawi.
Below is a video of Joyce Banda attending TB Joshua’s SCOAN church in Nigeria.

(ZimEye, Zimbabwe)
 

A democracy activist who announced he was launching a perpetual hunger strike in Harare, has abandoned his mission, ZimEye has been told.
Rhodes University graduate David T Hwangwa, 24, said earlier in the year that he and others would from the 11th March not eat food until the government has heeded their call for an immediate actioning of reforms and release of political prisoners, among other reforms which included the disbanding of the Mbare based youth group Chipangano, and the release of MDC youth leader Solomon Madzore.
But Hwangwa has not been seen anywhere near the city council office building in recent days where the activist intended to carry out his continuous hunger strike.
The protest was to last forever until the government heeds to their call.
A worker at the council building told our reporter that they had not seen anyone at all protesting at the premises in the past few weeks.
“We have neither seen anyone or even heard there is such a protest here,” the man only identified as Charles said.
Hwangwa told ZimEye that his hunger strike was motivated by personal concern because he himself ‘was also once a victim’ of persecution by the (CIO)Central Intelligence Organisation:

“I was a victim of abduction by the infamous Central Intelligence Organization (CIO). This has just made me stronger for the cause. There are no records of such abductions or detentions by the police and it is a matter of great concern because who knows of how many people vanish forever as a result of this. I aim to seek a stance against the government to take action and protect our people because as we approach the volatile election period, such cases and reports will become more common,” he said
His whereabouts were not known at the time of writing. (ZIMBABWE, ZimEye)

GWANDA (ZimEye) – LOCAL Government Minister Ignatius Chombo is set for a fierce clash with the MDC party after suspending Gwanda Mayor Lionel De Necker with immediate effect.
Chombo has launched a fight against MDC and MDC-T councilors as he is on whirlwind tirade against the democratically elected councilors.
But on Wednesday, Chombo dropped another bombshell after suspending De Necker for a ‘flimsy reason.” The minister, who has been treating the local government sector as his fiefdom, wrote a suspension letter to De Necker announcing the suspension for allegedly defying his directive to appoint Mrs P Nkala as a substantive Chamber Secretary for Gwanda Municipality.
The mayor confirmed to ZimEye he recieved the letter and said he was surprised at the decision and was already ‘winding up one or two things’ ready to leave the office as per Chombo’s command; But he elaborated that the directive from Chombo to appoint Mrs P Nkala in question had been dealt with within the appropriate council bodies and it was not his decision as an individual  to or no to adhere to the directive.
In a letter in possession of ZimEye, Chombo wrote:
Following your deliberate defiance of my directive of 30 November 2011 issued in terms of Section 314 of the Urban Councils Act (Chapter 29: 15), directing council to appoint Mrs P Nkala as the substantive Chamber Secretary for Gwanda Municipality as approved by the Local Government Board, I hereby, in terms of Section 114 of the afore-cited Act, suspend you from being a councilor for Gwanda Municipality with immediate effect.
“After you received my directive, you proceeded to challenge the activities of the Local Government Board appointed to carry out its responsibilities as specified in the Urban Councils Acvt. Furthermore, you even questioned the credibility of the Local Government Board which was setup in terms of the law thus undermining the powers of both the Minister and Board.
“During the period of your suspension, you shall not conduct any council business within or outside council premises, and you shall not be eligible to receive any form of any remuneration from the council,” wrote Chombo.
But the MDC led by Professor Welshman Ncube has dismissed the suspension and Chombo’s dictatorial tendencies.
Chombo is currently investigating the Bulawayo City Council and heads are set to roll at the MDC-T controlled council. (Zimbabwe, ZimEye)

Contrary to modern sensational propaganda, the British missionary David Livingstone (19 March 1813 – 1 May 1873) whose statue ZANU PF wants to remove and destroy, had plans for the 100% empowerment of black Zimbabweans and Zambians who he hoped would through his indigenisation program rise to become the envy of the world in a move that would in the process totally annihilate slave trade of human beings being shipped from the continent to America.
Livingstone’s diary notes in national archives and seen by ZimEye, reveal that the famous missionary hoped his program would develop the region Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi through to the rest of Africa in such a way that the black Africans involved in the slave trade business would be entirely discouraged from it, and like the rest of the world, begin to engage in diversities of commercial agriculture and modern commerce.

Other historical excepts which back Livingstone’s diary notes, reveal that few black Africans in the area around the rivers, engaged in sustainable agriculture at that time and were rather involved in the much condemned slave trade business.
Livingstone’s philanthropic program was financed by the British government from whom he obtained £5000 to donate cotton seeds to the villagers whose susbsistence and livelihood was at the time largely in bush life. The revelations show that native blacks in the area hardly did any farming and from Livingston’s program, they would be possibly motivated into commercial farming.
Writes Livingstone:
On my return from Africa my chief efforts will be directed to making the river Zambezi an open pathway to the interior healthy hihglands in order that a centre of civilisation and commerce will be formed. I shall visit all the chiefs along the banks and distribute cotton seeds – inviting the people to cultivate for our markets and I think if what I hope to begin is carried out that in the course of a dozen years Africa itself will have some material influence in diminishing the value of slave labour in America.
Other sections of Livingstone’s diary reveal that the missionary went further than the Zambezi river to attempt to establish modern commerce in the areas of the Lake Nyasa and beyond where the slave trade was also rampant.
“And if my disclosures regarding the terrible Ujijian slavery should lead to the suppression of the East Coast slave trade, I shall regard that as a greater matter by far than the discovery of all the Nile sources together,” – he wrote in a letter to the editor of the New York Herald.
He also wrote of the Zambezi and Lake Nyasa:
“It is highly probable that a small steamer on the Shire and Lake Nyasa would through the influence of the English name, prevent slave parties from passing the fords and, should our merchants not be obliged to ay dues for entering upon English discoveries for trade by a part of the Zambezi unsused by the Portuguese, goods could be furnished to the native traders at Lake Nyasa as cheap as they can get them on the East coast which involved a month’s journey further…The capability of the country for the production of cotton cannot be exaggerated”
When he died, the Zambian tribe in the area refused to hand over his body to the United Kingdom, and when they later chose to do so, they removed his heart, kept it to themselves, saying that they would give over his body, ‘but his heart belongs to Africa,’ other reports claim.
He died of malaria and internal bleeding and failed to see his indigenisation dream come to fulfilment.
Livingstone was a Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and his work has earned him a name as one of the best missionaries from the United Kingdom. Beyond missionary work, the explorer gathered mapping details of parts of Africa in areas which had not been documented on the world map.
Despite the missionary’s contribution to the region however, ZANU PF’s former govenor of Bulawayo, Cain Mathema, says the Zimbabwean government should pull down David Livingstone’s statue which is at Victoria Falls, saying that it is a symbol of oppression.{ABove pic: David Livingstone; the Upfumi Kuvadiki logo on the missionary as it could have been had Livingstone been alive today}(ZIMBABWE, ZimEye)

Harare(ZimEye) – United Kingdom Aid Head of the Department for International Development in Zimbabwe Dave Fish says continued reliance on foreign aid by Zimbabwe is caused by natural resources abuse.
“It is clear to anyone visiting this country that this country has three areas of massive potential relief. One of them is agriculture, the land issue needs to be addressed and the land needs to become productive to the interest of all Zimbabweans. The second is minerals; Zimbabwe is lucky to be endowed with all range of minerals and if they are extracted and used transparently to the interest of all Zimbabweans, investment in health, education and water supply by government will be greatly increased. The third area is tourism, and if visitors see this country as a safe destination they can freely visit and invest, the country will quickly take off,” United Kingdom Aid Head of the Department for International Development in Zimbabwe Dave Fish said in an exclusive interview at the weekend in Harare.
Concerns have been raised by the public over corruption and lack of transparency in the way government was and continues to managing natural resources.
The public is pointing at the mining sector as to where transparency is lacking and corruption is rampant.
As a result of such complaints and pressure government at the end of the week was forced to establish mining revenue oversight group called Zimbabwe Mining Revenue Transparency (ZMRT).
According to Finance Minister Tendai Biti Zimbabwe needs at least $14 billion to revive the economy following a decade-long downturn.
The country is also struggling to settle its $9.1 billion foreign debt it defaulted far back as 1999.
The country’s economy is however showing signs of recovery since the formation of a power-sharing government three years ago by long-time political rivals President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.(ZimEye, Zimbabwe)

Harare(ZimEye)President Robert Mugabe and Zanu-PF have nullified the elec­tion of Philip Chiyangwa as vice chairman for Mashona­land West Province.
Chiyangwa was elected on March 16 in Chinhoyi in an election whose outcome was later challenged by Hurungwe district coordinating committee (DCC) as having broken a gentleman’s agreement that the top six provincial position should be equally distributed within the province.
Hurungwe district who lost out on the top six position was gunning for a vice chairmanship position but somewhat lost to Chiyangwa from Makonde district prompting the DCC to write to both Zanu pf national commissar and national chairperson and secretary for administration protesting against the election, and pushed for the nullification of election results.
Zanu-PF spokesperson Cde Rugare Gumbo yesterday said the Politburo headed by Mugabe discussed the issue on Wednesday and decided to nullify Chiyangwa’s election to vice chairperson.
“There were reports recently that Cde Chiyangwa was elected as the vice chairman for Mashonaland West Province. The Politburo on Wednes­day reviewed that case and nullified the election.
“The decision was today endorsed by the Central Com­mittee. Cde Chiyangwa will remain as an ordinary member of the party until further notice,” said Gumbo.
Gumbo also announced that the party will now work on a date to elect a new provincial vice president and Chiyangwa will remain an ordinary member until the party decide otherwise. Chiyangwa was recently readmitted to the party after a suspension in 2006 following allegations of espionage against him by the State and it is understood that in February he was cleared to contest for any party position.
Late last year Mugabe was reported to have blocked an attempt to fast-track Chiyangwa’s re-admission to the party and insisted that Chiyangwa should start from grassroots as a member and work his way up, but Chiyangwa’s sudden election to vice chairperson seemed too soon for Mugabe’s approval who had in November blocked an earlier bid to contest the chairmanship.(ZimEye, Zimbabwe)

Harare(ZimEye)-The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings, the sole broadcaster in the country’s  finances are in shambles and the company has now put a emergency moratorium on wage reviews this year.
On Wednesday at the company’s Pockets Hill head offices tempers flared up between workers and the management during a meeting to review the company’s operations, with workers accusing the management of turning deaf ears on their demands for salary review whilst awarding themselves hefty packages.
Sources which attended the meeting said the meeting which was chaired by the chief executive officer Happison Muchechetere became emotional when he announced that the company was  not in a position to award them the 20 percent salary adjustment.
Instead Muchechetere is said to have proposed a moratorium on wage reviews, and this did not go down well with the workers who queried the company’s financial position accusing management of embarking on a recruitment drive which saw the wage bill ballooning to unsustainable levels.
He is also said to have proposed retrenchment, a suggestion which was another bitter pill as the workers felt they are now being sacrificed for poor management decisions.
“They refuse to listen to our grievances even our advice. Last year they embarked on a recruitment drive which saw the wage bill ballooning at a time when cash inflows are minimal”, fumed one worker who refused to be named said.
Another source who attended the meeting said it heated up when workers demanded to know the salary of the least paid manager.

Muchechetere failed to answer this question and ended up rather lashing back at them saying the least paid worker at the company was taking home more than what permanent secretaries earn.
ZBH senior managers are believed to be taking home between US$4000-$6000 monthly exclusive of allowances whilst the lowest paid worker takes home around US$300 per month.
According to one manager who refused to be named, the company has been operating on a hand to mouth basis for some time now as traditional sources for revenue have either dried up or being inefficiently managed.
Among the major sources for revenue for the state broadcaster is the licensing department, whose contribution has recently nose-dived as viewers and listeners’ no longer pay them.
Advertisers have also not been forthcoming with some running away from the astronomical charges being levied whilst others choosing other media avenues in order to realize value. Poor programming has also scared away advertisers.
The ZBC is the sole broadcaster in the country and of late the company has been failing to pay workers salaries on time with some getting paid a week later from the due salary date. Apart from financial problems, said the sources, most of the broadcaster’s transmission equipment and cameras are obsolete and constantly break down.
The corporation is now heavily reliant on innovative technician who “cannibalise”broken down equipment to keep the public broadcaster going.
The managers drive top-of-the-range vehicles that leave executives leading profit-making entities on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange green with envy.
The corporation’s chief executive officer Happison Muchechetere drives a classy Mercedes Benz, an S350, valued at nearly US$200 000.
Other managers drive the latest Land cruisers.
Efforts ZimEye to get a comment from Muchechetere were fruitless as his mobile phone was not reachable.
ZBH presently employs over 900 workers.

Harare(ZimEye)- Government has given in to demands by the civic society and democratic forces to end corruption and bring transparency in the mining sector by partnering with civil society and mining companies to establish an oversight group called Zimbabwe Mining Revenue Transparency (ZMRT).
The mining revenue oversight group which will be chaired by Thabani Mpofu a Principal Director in the Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s office comprises stakeholders from the Chamber of Mines, the government of Zimbabwe and civil society organisations which are concerned with mineral extraction.
It is being implemented under the mandate of the Cabinet Committee on Resource Mobilisation.
“I don’t think there is anywhere in the world where people will say we are totally happy with the levels of transparency so we are saying that transparency monitoring should be continuous. This is a dialogue that should be ongoing. The rules are there but having them without people acting does not help matters so that is why we came with this organization. If you are doing your business above board you are not afraid who knows what you are doing and this will also help with bringing in more partners as people are interested in working with organizations that are transparent, ”Principal Director in the office of Deputy Prime Minister Thokhozani Khupe, Samukele Hadebe told Zimeye in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the formation of the oversight group in Harare.
Civil Society Coalition (CSC) Secretary General Joshua Marufu believes the group will bring sanity in the mining sector whose activities had for long time been secretive.
“Some people were doing things that were not in the national interests so its time as a nation to come together. We need to shape up and make sure that business is accountable. What the government is doing is offering a framework where as civil society we meet with the business community and resolve these issues. We hope that revenue collected will benefit the whole population and we are hopeful that we will be successful and help the country develop.
“As civil society what the government has done is to enable every person to be included as we will talk freely to both the government and the mining companies,” Marufu told Zimeye in an interview at the event.
Complaints of corruption and secrecy in the operations at Marange Diamond fields and the entire mining sector had been raised by the civil society.
Government has been defending itself against the allegations saying the mining sector is a sensitive area.(ZimEye, Zimbabwe)

The London based protest organisation, Zim Vigil, misled the world about the recent visit by Technology Minister Nelson Chamisa at whose conference they claimed MDC-T members were barred from asking the minister questions, a top MDC official has revealed.
Thousands of Zimbabweans were fed with false information which claimed that party members were instructed to keep quiet and told not ask Chamisa questions, during Chamisa’s recent visit to the United Kingdom, the party’s chair for London district, Karma Matambanadzo told ZimEye in a conversation.
“Zimbabweans in the UK who heard about the low-key visit by ICT Minister Nelson Chamisa were puzzled to be told by the organisers ‘ask no questions,’” a statement by the Vigil read on the 4th March.
But even journalists who actually attended the meeting in Birmingham have said that MDC members at Birmingham enjoyed unprecedented freedom with minister Chamisa with the meeting stretching beyond its time as members young and old were given a chance to engage the Technology minister. At one time, minister Chamisa actually came to the aid of a middle aged man who had been drowned by the crowds while he was inquiring on why unemployed members were required to pay exorbitant amounts of subscription fees.
SW Radio Africa’s Lance Guma who among other journos was present at the meeting expressed his deep concerns at the Vigil report. The journo told ZimEye: “The ZimVigil statement on Chamisa’s visit was a bit misleading. I covered the rally and at no point were people barred from asking him questions.”
This is not the first time the Zim Vigil has clashed with the MDC-T party. Two years ago, the protest organisation clashed with Morgan Tsvangirai’s ambassador designate to Germany, Hebson Makuvise and have in recent years often been against the party’s activities.
In the Vigil’s management team is former MDC chairman Ephraim Tapa who has continued to attack party leader Morgan Tsvangirai on various issues. (ZIMBABWE, ZimEye)

Birmingham(ZimEye)Claims by renegade members that MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai changed his party’s constitution so that he can stay at the helm  for much longer  are unfounded, the MDC-T’s Organising Secretary, Nelson Chamisa  has said.
Chamisa(pictured) told ZimEye that Tsvangirai was re-elected by the party’s majority membership. The decision to retain him as party President after completing his two year term is within their policy.
Some disillusioned members of the party have in recent months charged at Morgan Tsvangirai claiming that he should have resigned soon after he failed to win elections in 2008.
But Chamisa refuted “His tenure was never extended. He was voted squarely; in fact completely by all the provinces”.
Chamisa said that there was never a change of the MDC-T’s constitution:
“This fallacy that there was a change of the constitution; There was never a change of the constitution. We don’t change constitutions in the MDC. Our principle is that anybody who serves in government is supposed to be serving for two terms, as a policy.  And we are not yet in government, we are in opposition.”
The Organising Secretary who is also Zimbabwe’s Information, Communication and Technology Minister said that it is only when Tsvangirai becomes President that the party will start counting his two term tenure as president.
A term is 5 years long.
“Once president Tsvangirai gets into government, we then start counting – But in government, not in the party.”

At this juncture, our reporter then asked “What if you never make it into government?,”

Chamisa replied: “But that’s an assumption. We cannot work on an assumption”, .
Chamisa’s comments were also buttressed by Home Affairs Minister Theresa Makone, who said that Tsvangirai has been performing well and so the party sees no need to replace him at the moment.”If a person is performing well, why should we remove him?,” she said.
Chamisa together with Theresa Makone were responding to questions in a press conference during their recent visit to Birmingham, UK.  (ZIMBABWE, ZimEye)

BULAWAYO (ZimEye) – ZANU-PF Bulawayo province has been thrown into a serious chaos threatening to split the party amid a battle for the control of the province.
The fight within Zanu PF has seen provincial chairman Isaac Dakamela facing the boot and replaced by Killian Sibanda who was deputy chairperson.
The fight turned nasty on Monday after youths allegedly “sent by senior party officials” grabbed the Toyota Hilux Dakamela was using.
While Dakamela was said to have been suspended at a provincial coordinating committee meeting on Sunday, he insists he is still the chairman.
Politburo member Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, who catapulted Dakamela to the post of chairman, is fighting in his blue-eyed boy’s corner. He said the Sunday meeting could not effect suspensions.
In defiance, Dakamela visited his office at Davies Hall where he compiled minutes about previous meetings and writing his report about the developments in the province.

He was due to submit the report to party’s headquarters in Harare.
Dakamela further threatened to deal with the rowdy youths led by youth provincial chairperson Butho Gatsi.
“The youths should stay out of issues that do not concern them. If they continue like that, we will deal with them as a party because we are trying to prepare for elections. Meetings are called by the chairman and whoever would have wanted the meeting whether they liked me or not, should have called it through me,” he told journalists.
Ndlovu also added that: “That meeting and decision is not effective until it is confirmed by the Politburo. Dakamela remains chairman.”
Gatsi said the youths would stick to the suspension of Dakamela.
(Zimbabwe, ZimEye)

Zimbabwe’s used to boast of one of the top literacy rates in Africa, but the nation is now worse than it was in 2002.
Zimbabwe’s much touted literacy rate of more than 90% has been disputed as having been outdated since the figures are based on data collected by UNESCO and the government more than a decade ago.
According to a Zimbabwe Reads survey conducted in 2011 based on interviews with donor organizations, booksellers, publishers, librarians and educators late 2011 “best guesses are that Zimbabwe’s current literacy rate is now in the low-80s and is dropping. We roughly estimate that the literacy rate for those over 15 is dropping
a half percent each year and that will accelerate to 1% each year as those who left school after 2005 reach age 15,” writes Zimbabwe Reads in its website.
The same organization goes on to state that the Zimbabwean education situation is likely to worsen if the current conditions continue to prevail adding that Zimbabwe might not even be the continent’s highest literary country.
“If current conditions continue, Zimbabwe will have a literacy rate of 70% in 2020. At this stage, it seems unlikely that Zimbabwe still has the highest literacy rate in Africa, with the more reliable estimates from Botswana (85%) and Tunisia (87%) probably surpassing it,” it states.
Zimbabwe Reads observes what it refers to as “a very disturbing tendency” of high rate of children dropping out of school since 2005 where it states that about 15% of the country’s children never enter the school system while a further 30% never make it to secondary schools.
According to the organization, the number of patrons in almost all the libraries in the country continue to decrease since the late 80s with the current figures standing at as less as half the 1989 figures. “In 1989, there were more than 150,000 registered public library users using 76 public libraries. The user numbers for 2011 are certainly less than half of that. The Bulawayo Public Library reported 10,289
patrons for the year preceding July 2011; the National Free Library had 8016 patrons (but only 250 paid the registration fee to borrow).”
The organization has also noted that most libraries in the country carry materials that are published only in English at the neglect of local languages estimating fewer than 50 titles in indigenous languages. Most books with titles in local languages are reported to have been published long ago and have been kept in stock by local
bookshops like Mambo Press.
The Zimbabwean government and UNESCO reports that the country has a literacy rate of more than 90% with the current Minister of Education David Coltart intensifying efforts to restore the education sector which had sharply declined as a result of the economic meltdown which characterized the country for a period spanning to more than a decade.
Meanwhile the United Kingdom through its Department of International Development (DFID), has injected 24 million pounds (around 38 million USD) into the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Zimbabwe, to support the country’s second phase of the Education Transition Fund (ETF II) which is a multi-donor pooled fund set up at the inception of the inclusive government in 2009 by Education, Sports, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart in partnership with UNICEF in a bid to bridge the sector’s funding gap from emergence to recovery.

Harare(ZimEye)-Socialist firebrand Munyaradzi Gwisai who is also a University lecturer has been sentenced to 420 community service coupled with a $500 fine on allegations of conspiring to cause public violence.
Jarabini suspended twelve months on condition that they performed community service and a further twelve months was suspended on condition that the accused persons does not within a period of five years commit an offence of the same nature on top of paying a $500 fine failure of which the accused persons would serve the alternative sentence which is ten months.
In passing sentence Harare magistrate Kudakwashe Jarabini considered the six accused persons’ carrier objectives leading to what he referred to as a lenient sentence but went on to point that the facts tendered by the six accused as mitigation was not an a justification for them to committee offences.

Responding to the court’s verdict, defense lawyer Aleck Muchadehama notified the court of his intention to appeal against both sentence and conviction at the high court.
In his submissions Muchadehama applied for time to pay which was successfully granted. The accused persons were ordered to pay the fine by the 26^th of March while the community service would commence on 30 March after the application for the suspension of the community service is heard on 26 March.
Meanwhile a number of University of Zimbabwe students were have been arrested while celebrating the non-custodial sentence handed down to their lecturer and his accomplices. The students were singing and ululating at the court entrance inviting the police to disperse them and other leaders of the civil society including the militant Secretary General of ZCTU Raymond Majongwe.
Addressing journalists after the court session, Muchadehama said he remained hopeful that he would succeed in his application at the high court.
Gwisai together with 44 other labour activists was arrested on February 19 last year at Zimbabwe Labour Centre, at Number 43 Julius Nyerere Way in Harare where they were charged with treason a charge which was to be later altered to lesser serious charge of conspiring to cause public violence after the state failed to prove its case.(ZimEye, Zimbabwe)

(Harare)There was drama on Tuesday when two factions of Upfumi Kuvadiki, a youth empowerment pressure group aligned to President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) violently clashed at a press conference in the capital, as they fought each for the control of the organisation.
The two groups clashed over a number of issues among them: the South African company-EasyPark company deal, control of the retail sector, as well as the involvement of youths in mainstream business opportunities.
The press conference had been called by the Alson Darikayi led faction clad in Julius Malema style regalia which comprised of a cap inscribed with the 88 year old President Mugabe’s signature.
Halfway into the conference the Pedzisai Sakupwanya led faction led by Tatenda Marodza (Secretary General) then stormed the venue, violently disrupted and looted the other faction’s banners and refreshments at the full glare of the media. The chaos reached a boiling point that there was a possibility of degeneration into a physical fight.

Sakupwanya faction members climbed on tables in a barbaric manner leaving Darikayi and his entourage shell shocked before plucking off banners, stealing sweets and drinks meant for the conference.
Journalists also had to scurry for cover after some of the Sakupwanya group members threatened to beat them up for paying attention to Darikayi, he ordered journalists to leave or else they face unspecified action.
Sakupwanya’s faction is reported to be backed by the Youth Empowerment and indigenization Minister Savior Kasukuwere of Zanu (PF) while Darikayi’s faction is backed by the party’s secretary for administration Dydmus Mutasa.
According Sakupwanya, Darikayi has been fighting through a parallel structure that he formed and misled the people into believing that he is the legitimate leader yet he is not.
“Darikayi is the only member from Upfumi Kuvadiki whom we have realized but not as President of the organization but rather as the spokesperson. He is misrepresenting himself to the media and our members that he is the leader of this thing,” said Sakupwanya.
On the other hand Darikayi’s faction accused Sakupwanya’s faction of trying to hijack a project where they had been rejected by the Board of Trustees due to their alleged corrupt activities.
“Sakupwanya seized to be the President of this organization last year when his executive was dissolved on allegations of corruption paving way for a Darikayi led interim committee which was later adopted as the substantive committee to this day,” said a member of the Darikayi faction.
Darikayi’s group said it was 100% behind the ageing dictator President Robert Mugabe in his economic Empowerment initiative but said his group was not as violent as the Sakupwanya faction whose behavior was described as rowdy by the Darikayi faction Secretary General, one Withus Tatenda Masunda.
“Can we allow such a rowdy behavior in the name of indigenisation? And throw out our respect and dignity? What we are saying as Upfumi Kuvadiki as opposed to this group of violent thugs is that we approach the government over our concerns rather than violently take over companies without following due process,” he said.
Darikayi’s Secretary General said the reason why authorities have not been taking the youths seriously was because of the militant approach that is being used by the groups.
Upfumi Kuvadiki has over the years threatened to takeover companies to “empower the youths” and among the entities: Econet Zimbabwe owned by an indigenous Zimbabwean, Strive Masiyiwa. The same group looted property worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from shops belonging to foreigners at the popular Gulf Complex in Harare. (ZIMBABWE, ZimEye)

Masvingo(ZimEye)-An MDC employee was arrested last Sunday for allegedly possessing details of military commanders accused of leading the bloody 2008 presidential election runoff campaign.
Shepherd Mazorodze who is based at Harvest House-the MDC Headquarters in Harare- was arrested in Gutu and charged with undermining police confidence in the national army. The police alleged he was in possession of documents containing names of army generals who allegedly perpetrated a reign of terror in the 2008 sham presidential election runoff.
Mazorodze appeared before Masvingo magistrate Learnmore Mapiye Mpandasekwa Thursday. He was charged under the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform Act) for publishing and communicating falsehoods about the Zimbabwe National Army. Facts of the state case are that Mazorodze was arrested by the police after being found in possession of documents for the purpose of publishing information that the army provided uniforms to the youth militia, operated bases and supplied AK 47 rifles for the purpose of causing terror in the rural areas.
The state led by Sivaziso Mpome further alleged that the documents contained details of torture harassment and murder of MDC supporters in 2008 ahead of the presidential election runoff. It is alleged Mazorodze wanted to expose top army generals reportedly involved in acts of terror in 2008.
Mazorodze, who is being represented by Collin Maboke of Mwonzora and Associates, has since denied the charges. He will be back in court on 30 April.
Below is a list supplied to ZimEye showing some of the soldiers deployed
The list shows the province, district or constituency in which the soldier will be based and the name of the soldier:
Harare Metropolitan Province – AVM Karakadzai
Bulawayo Province – Col. C. Sibanda
Bulawayo central – Maj. J. Ndhlovu, Maj. J. Ncube
Manicaland and Mutare South – Brig. Tarumbwa
Buhera Central – Col. Morgan. Mzilikazi (MID)
Buhera North – Maj. L. M. Svosve
Buhera South – Maj. D. Muchena
Buhera West – Lt. Col. Kamonge, Major Nhachi
Chimanimani East – Lt. Col. Murecherwa
Chimanimani West – Maj. Mabvuu
Headlands – Col. Mutsvunguma
Makoni North – Maj. V. Chisuko
Makoni South – Wing Commander Mandeya
Mutare Central – Lt. Col. Tsodzai, Lt. Col. Sedze
Mutare West – Lt. Col. B. Kashiri
Mutare North – Lt. Col. Chizengwe, Lt. Col. Mazaiwana
Mashonaland Central – Brig. Gen. Shungu
Bindura South – Col. Chipwere
Bindura North – Lt. Col. Parwada
Muzarabani North – Lt. Col. Kazaza
Muzarabani South – Maj. H. Maziri
Rushinga – Col. F. Mhonda, Lt. Col. Betheuni
Shamva North – Lt. Col. Dzuda
Shamva South – Lt. Col. Makumire
Midlands Province – AVM Muchena, Brig. Gen. S. B. Moyo, Lt Colonel Kuhuni
Chirumhanzu South – Maj T. Tsvangirai
Mberengwa East – Col. B. Mavire
Mberengwa West – Maj T. Marufu
Matebeleland South – AVM Abu Basutu
Beit Bridge East – Group Cpt. Mayera, Rtd. Maj. Mbedzi, Lt. Col. B. Moyo
Gwanda South – Maj J. D. Moyo
Gwanda Central – Maj. B. Tshuma
Matopo North – Lt. Col. Maphosa
Matebeleland North – Brig. Gen. Khumalo
Binga North – Maj E. S. Matonga
Lupane East – Lt Col. Mkwananzi
Lupane West – Lt Col. Mabhena
Tsholotsho – Lt. Col. Mlalazi
Hwange Central – Lt. Col P. Ndhlovu
Masvingo Province – Maj. Gen. E. A. Rugeje
Bikita West – Maj. B. R. Murwira
Chiredzi Central – Col G. Mashava
Chiredzi West – Maj. E. Gono
Gutu South – Maj. Chimedza
Masvingo – Lt. Col. Takavingofa
Mwenezi West – Lt. Col. Muchono
Mwenezi East – Lt. Col. Mpabanga
Zaka East – Maj. R. Kwenda
Mash West Province – Brig. Gen. Sigauke
Chinhoyi – Col Gwekwerere
Chegutu East – Lt. Colonel W. Tutisa
Hurungwe East – Lt. Col. B. Mabambe
Mhondoro Mubaira – Col. C. T. Gurira
Zvimba North – Cpt. T. Majongwe
Mashonaland East – Rtd. Brig Gen Rungani
Chikomba Central – Lt. Col. Marara
Goromonzi North – Lt Col. Mudzimba, Maj F. Mbewe
Marondera Central – Maj. Gen. Chedondo (COSG), Lt. Col B. Kashiri
Marondera West Squadron Leader – U. Chitauro
Murehwa South – Maj. Gurure
Murehwa North – Lt. Col. Mukurazhizha, Lt. Col. Chinete
Gutu North-Retired Colonel Mutero Masanganise
Gutu South-Colonel Muchechetere
(ZIMBABWE, ZimEye)

Clueless invaders have moved into the animal habitat, Ruware Ranch in Chiredzi.
ZimEye can reveal that invaders at the weekend had already set up permanent shelter structures in the dry nature conservancy area designated by government for wild animal habitation.
The ranch is situated on arid soil which is not suitable for crop making.
The invasions continue despite a government order by Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi that anyone caught doing so would be arrested.

Attempts to reach Minister Mzembi were fruitless at the time of writing as he was said to be out of the country.
PHOTOS:
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(London)A fiery critic of President Robert Mugabe, the Uganda-born clergyman John Sentamu, is set to take over the highest post in the powerful Church of England organisation as the current leader the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has now resigned.
Rowan Williams, now aged 61, will leave at the end of December in time to start his new role at a local university in 2013.
At the time of writing John Sentamu  had been named as the leading favourite in the line of nominations for Britain’s most powerful post.
The UK’s Prime Minister, David Cameron is to announce the new leader after being handed the “preferred person’s name” by the Church’s appointments commission, which is made up of three clergy and three members of the laity.
Sentamu is well known for a vow he made  in December 2007 when he made history by cutting off his ‘holy’ clerical collar on live television and declared that he would not wear the ceremonial sacrament again until Mugabe is gone:
“As far as I am concerned, from now on I am not going to wear a dog collar until Mugabe is gone.” Since the 2007-vow, Sentamu has remained true to his convictions and has for the past few years been seen as the only church leader without the ‘holy’ white collar.
Sentamu’s great chances to succeed Williams are now almost certain having been challenged by only one person: the Bishop of London who is viewed as less qualifying because of ideological differences on women ordination, a technicality which automatically places Sentamu as the most ideal replacement for Williams. The Bishop of London Rev Richard Chartres is recorded telling clergymen in the church heirarchy that the move to remove Williams and promote Sentamu could be beneficial for the Church. A source quoted by the UK Telegraph newspaper said: “Richard has been saying it’s time for Rowan to stand down so that Sentamu can take over but can’t have forgotten that he’s the same age as Sentamu. He would have just as good a chance of becoming archbishop given his connection with the royal family, but the only problem is his opposition to women’s ordination.”

A church of England source last year announced that Dr Williams as far back as 2011 had already planned to declare his resignation soon after the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
This could allow for John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, to succeed him.
Another senior source in the church of England told ZimEye in Wakefield that Sentamu is certain to take over the post beign a favourite of many Anglicans.
The church of England is a thorny issue to both Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom as a president Robert Mugabe-loyal bishop has in the past few years been seizing church property and disturbing church services with the help of state police. It is believed that when Sentamu takes over the church leadership, he may influence events against Mugabe’s more than 30 year-rule over the nation. (ZimEye)

London(ZimEye)A young Zimbabwean girl has made all proud by winning a special London award in recognition of her artistic works for climate change awareness.
Celeste Chinyanga, daughter to UK based Zimbabwean science scholar Martin Chinyanga, won first price for the draft poster image deemed as best to inspire ‘green’ awareness.
The Deputy Mayor of London personally awarded Celeste Chinyanga with the first price award.
Celeste who is curently in year two, was handed her award whose surname though was misspelt as Chinyango.
Photos of Celeste show how passionate she is on science, art, and conservation.

The summary verdict on the much awaited findings and conclusions from the inquest into retired General Solomon Mujuru’s death has finally been revealed.
The verdict comes exactly 7 months after the mysterious death of Zimbabwe’s most decorated army general Solomon Mujuru(pictured) who died in an unexplained fire which gutted his house on the 16th August 2011.
The Mujuru family lawyer Takhor Kewada revealed the summary verdict made by magistrate Walter Chikwanha.

“We are no better off than before the inquiry started,” Kewada was quoted by the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme.
Exactly 213 days after the tragic death of Ret’d General Solomon Mujuru, the Mujuru family are still demanding answers and clues to what may have happened to Zimbabwe’s highly decorated army general. They are now demanding that Mujuru’s body be exhumed.
“The authorities should allow us to exhume the body and get the pathologist we wish to call to examine the body,” Kewada said.
The detailed report remains top secret as revelations that it is now fully ready but will not be made public in the near future having been handed over to the Attorney General Johannes Tomana.
Harare regional magistrate Walter Chikwanha who presided over the inquest submitted the report to  Tomana, Thursday.
Johannes Tomana confirmed receiving the report, but said he would not make it public as he has to study the determination. “I can confirm I received the findings this morning and I need time to go through the results before making any announcement on the matter, he said,” Tomana said
Solomon Mujuru died on the 16th-17th of August, last year in a mysterious house fire that burnt his body to a crisp yet leaving the wall paint next to the body pure white in colour. Shortly following his death police in Harare were instructed to maintain silence and not to communicate to the media about their findings.

Contrary to protests from readers who have dismissed Prime Minister Morgan Richard Tsvangirai’s holding of a doctorate certificate, it is accurate that the PM holds a Doctorate of Laws, ZimEye has been told.
Some readers attacked ZimEye over a story pertaining Tsvangirai’s birthday party in Masvingo which had photographs of MDC-T members as they carried a large portrait of the PM marked: “Happy Birthday- Dr Richard Morgan Tsvangirai.” Others who called ZimEye suggested that the photos were computer-manufactured.
But ZimEye has been told that the PM “was conferred with an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws by Pai Chai University when he visited South Korea recently. Tsvangirai’s is the 13th such honorary degree conferred to an individual in the 125-year history of this United Methodist Church institution”

A reading on Tsvangirai’s website also states that: “Pai Chai University is ranked 8th out of the 400 institutions of higher learning in the Republic Korea and is regarded as a centre of technological excellence in the Korean peninsula.”

BULAWAYO (ZimEye) – IN a spine chilling incident, a Bulawayo man chopped his wife’s skull into pieces before turning her hands into minced flesh using a machete on early Monday morning.
Bulawayo acting police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Precious Simango confirmed the incident.
The 33-year old man even tried to commit suicide but failed and was rushed to Mpilo Hosiptal.
The grisly murder occurred after a heated debate over an undisclosed matter when the husband Goodman Nyoni, viciously attacked his wife, Miriam Takavingofa Nyoni, 34, a mother of two children aged five and six.
The gruesome killing which happened at Block 37/1212 in Mpopoma has become the talk of the city with residents expressing shock over the sad incident while other neighbours wept uncontrollably at the sight of the Miriam’s body which was reduced to pieces.
When police visited the home, Miriam’s body was covered in a pool of blood while blood was splashed on the doors, walls, evidence of a gruesome and ruthless murder.
Women were whispering softly to each other with some vowing that if marriage was that horrible, they would not allow their daughters to marry.
Nyoni, who was under police guard at Mpilo Hospital, declined to talk to the press.
But police spokesperson Simango said: “We are investigating a case of murder which involves a man and his wife who were on separation. The husband had moved out of the house and left the wife staying with their two children. Nyoni had earlier on visited the woman and found the gate and doors locked as the whole family had gone to church. He waited for them and when they returned, he later on joined them for supper.

“After supper, the maid and the two children retired to bed, leaving Nyoni and Mrs Nyoni in the lounge. At around 11pm the maid was awakened by screams of the deceased but went back to sleep after Nyoni convinced her that they were just talking and there was nothing to worry about.
“It is believed that the man had already killed his wife by that time. He called his elder brother and told him that there was a problem. The brother then headed to Mpopoma sensing that there could be danger.”
Musasa, a women’s organisation regional manager Lindile Ndebele condemned the case of domestic violence. (Zimbabwe, ZimEye)

Gutu(ZimEye)-Gutu Central Constituency legislator, Honourable Oliver Chirume has dismissed media reports that he was arrested on domestic violence charges as baseless and unfounded.
Honourable Chirume last week described recent media claims that he had been arrested for allegedly assaulting his wife Eunice Chifeva as sensational and devoid of truth. He was referring to a report published by a local weekly newspaper that claimed the legislator had bashed his wife and was later arrested.
“There are people who are trying to use the media to black list me but I will not be deterred by such reports. I was shocked to read that I had been arrested and that is unfounded. I know that my political enemies are determined to demonize me. The article is meant to create the impression that I am a social renegade. I will not focus on stories based on heresy, “said Honourable Chirume.
Honourable Chirume, who is also the MDC youth chairman for Masvingo Province said he was aware there were people who were battling to tarnish the image of the party.
“By portraying me as a hooligan it would create an impression that the MDC is full of reckless individuals and social rebels –yet that is not the case. I am too used to these cheap political moves. Last year some people alleged that I was hatching a plan to petrol bomb the 41 army barracks in Gutu.It is all part of well calculated efforts to destabilize our march towards democratic change. I never assaulted my
wife and I will not do that. We are a party of excellence and that should be reflected all the time, “said Honourable Chirume.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai turned 60 at the weekend while on his tour of the ancient city of Masvingo, and a party was held for him. PHOTOS:
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A Harare man tomorrow begins an indefinite hunger strike that he said will not stop until the Mugabe controlled government changes its ways, bring back the rule of law, and release political prisoners.
David T Hwangwa, 24, a Rhodes University graduate, has declared that he and others will not eat food until the government has heeded their call.
Hwangwa is scheduled to begin his hunger strike just after midnight and himself together with backers are set to go without food indefinitely.
It was not clear how many people are joining Hwanga.
The protest action is titled: Strike for Peace, Justice and Freedom HUMAN RIGHTS FOR ALL 2012, and will be launched at the Africa Unity Square Gardens in Harare. The Hunger Strike will go indefinitely until the principals in the Zimbabwe Global Political Agreement (GPA) attend to the petitions listed on his promotional material reprinted below
·         An end to Human Rights abuses
·         An end to political violence
·         Prosecution of perpetrators of violence
·         Peaceful hosting of political rallies by political parties, giving each and every party an equal chance to conduct their rallies without the use of intimidation or bias by the law enforcement agents
·         A stop to the use of youths to act as perpetrators for violence on behalf of the political parties
·         The disbanding of the Chipangano group
·         Violent invasion of the remaining farms still owned by the white farmers and the intimidation henceforth to the members of the Commercial Farmers Union
·         An end to violation of women’s rights
·         A free and fair election that guarantees the respect of people’s freedom and fundamental rights
·         A recognition of minority rights
·         The release of Solomon Madzore

MasvingoZimEye)-The province`s largest medical institution, Masvingo Provincial Hospital, has closed down its X-ray services due to shortage of radiographers.
Masvingo Provincial Medical Director, Robert Mudyiradima last week
said the shortage of radiographers forced the giant medical institution to close down its X-ray services .This means patients will have to visit private clinics for X-ray services -although they charge astronomical prices that are beyond the reach of the majority of the patients. The situation is critical and health experts have warned the move could jeopardize the lives of hundreds of patients across the province. Private hospitals charge between $ 50 and $70 dollars for X-ray services compared to only $ 30 for similar services at Masvingo Provincial hospital.
Dr Mudyiradima said the giant medical institution is the referral centre for at least 2 million people across the province. He said the big hospital had been operating without radiographers for more than two years.
“There are no radiographers and the situation has been like that for more than two years. We were looking at one X-ray operator whom we must commend for his dedication to duty despite the setbacks. When he decided to go on leave we had to plead with him to cut short his leave days since we had no other alternative, “he said.
He added:”We sincerely regret what happened because the situation is really bad and it greatly affects the patients. It is sad to note that such a big hospital had to look up to one X-ray operator.”
He lamented bureaucratic tendencies adding bottle necks were hampering the recruitment of qualified personnel at the institution. He said the person who was suitably qualified for the job left the hospital two years ago- further creating woes in the X-ray department.
“The X- ray operator, Mr Sithole has an abnormal schedule that sees
him working on a daily basis without a break, “he said.
Loreen Mubayiwa of Rujeko suburb in Masvingo said she visited the hospital several times hoping to get an X-ray but her efforts came to naught as she was constantly referred to private clinics –yet she could not afford the money. (ZIMBABWE, ZimEye)

Harare(ZimEye)The capital city Harare’s typhoid situation is set to continue after it emerged that drainage water is now flowing into people’s houses through to their bedrooms.
The Harare Residents’ Trust told ZimEye that there is poor drainage piping along the roads which is leading to water flowing into residents’ houses especially areas around Third Circle.
This has compounded the health situation in the capital where it has recently been proven that drinking water is contaminated with faeces flowing into the water resevoirs, facts which the Harare city council however continues to deny. Commentators argue that the recent typhoid outbreak has been facilitated by the water problem.
“The quality of water continues to be a concern for the residents as it is smelly, especially in the morning and has visible impurities. Residents now prefer borehole water and the one borehole that has been sunk in the suburb is insufficient”, said the HRT in a statement.;
Below are some of the latest vivid images reportedly from the Sunningdale area, 4 kilometres from the CBD area, of this appaling state of the capital city’s surbubs. The images show pale coloured drainage water flowing like a natural river into residential stands through paths where people walk and children play.

(Birmingham)The MDC-T party does not condone homosexuality, the party’s organising secretary, who is also Zimbabwe’s minister of Information and Technology, Nelson Chamisa has said.
Speaking at a recently held rally in Birmingham on Saturday, Chamisa said that his party is very clear on the subject of homosexuality. Said Chamisa:
“We are clear on this. Very clear. We don’t believe that a man should marry another man. We dont believe that a woman should marry another woman. We believe that God created men and women for a particular reason. In fact you know Soddom and Gommorrah were actually candidates for destruction because of doing exactly that. But we are also conscious of the fact that we should not be the judge of people’s character. In as much as we feel it is not good for a man to marry another man, let the choice be an individual’s choice …let the people’s be the people’s choice.”
He said that Morgan Tsvangirai has been consistent on this thorny matter.
“That is what the president has always said. He clarified this it all over again…,” he said.
Chamisa’s comments follow recent controversies which were triggered last year after Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and leader of the party, claimed to a BBC journalist that gay rights will be supported in Zimbabwe’s constitution. This was interpreted as a contradiction to Tsvangirai’s earlier declarations.
Chamisa was responding to questions directed to him by journalists in Birmingham on Saturday. (ZIMBABWE, ZimEye)

Harare(ZimEye)He may have been involved in a fatal accident, but the ZANU PF legislator for Guruve South Edward Chindori Chininga, is now recovering in hospital, ZimEye has been told.
The legislator who got trapped for more than half an hour in his Mercedes Benz car following a tragic accident that claimed one life, is now at Harare’s West End Hospital, as at the time of writing.
The accident which occurred about 50km from Harare along Guruve road, close to 5km from Harare-Bindura road, became the speculation of some websites as people claimed that certain colleagues in Chindori Chininga’s party, ZANU PF were behind the accident. But ZimEye which broke the story arrived on the scene within 15 minutes of the accident occuring and witnessed the legislator battling as he remained trapped in his vehicle with yet a drip supply attached to his body. Our Guruve senior correspondent however did not observe any evidence of foul play at the scene.
So fatal was the accident however that an unnamed woman died on the spot and the legislator’s mercedes benz was marred beyond recognition.

Speaking in the aftermath of the accident, the ZRP National Traffic police spokesperson Inspector Tigere Chigome said the injured were taken to Concession Hospital while Chindori Chininga was later taken to West End Hospital in Harare.
They were all reported to be in stable conditions, while the body of the woman who died in the accident was taken to Concession Hospital mortuary.
Insp Chigome said the driver of the pick-up truck tried to overtake a commuter omnibus. The driver of the kombi is reported to have accelerated resulting in the collision.
“The commuter omnibus driver sped off after the accident. Investigations are still in progress to ascertain the cause of the accident,” Insp Chigome said.
The Benz and truck were extensively damaged.
Chindori Chininga’s young brother Mr Victor Chindori-Chininga was quoted stating: “I was told that the truck driver failed to avoid the Mercedes Benz when he tried to overtake a commuter omnibus.
“When the kombi driver saw that the accident was imminent, he accelerated leaving the two vehicles.”

Mazoe(ZimEye)The ZANU PF MP for Guruve South who was recently fired from COPAC after ZANU PF Secretary General Didymus Mutasa accused him of leaking secrets to the opposition MDC party, Edward Chindori Chininga, has been involved in a car accident, ZimEye can exclusively reveal.
The MP was caught up in a life threatening road traffic accident that left him bleeding profusely and at the time of writing police officers were standing helplessly at the scene as the legislator remained trapped inside the vehicle.

The accident occured about 50km from Harare along Guruve road, close to 5km from Harare-Bindura road.

The MP also had an emergency drip supply being administered owing to the excessive bleeding.
His vehicle collided with a certain 4×4 pick up truck on his way to Harare.
Other accident victims were rushed to hospital, leaving behind Chindori Chininga still trapped inside his car.
More to follow (Zimbabwe, ZimEye)

Harare(ZimEye)A Carpenter who allegedy joked that President Robert Mugabe would not have the puff to blow his birthday balloons during the Head of state’s 21st celebrations last week, has been arrested.
The Carpenter was arrested while sipping a pint of beer in a bar as he watched the Mutare celebrations live on national TV.
The Lawyers for Human Rights organisation said Wednesday the man who was not named, has been charged for insulting and undermining the authority of the country’s president.

People who called the police to the ‘scene’ in the bar claim that they heard the joiner referring to Mugabe’s deteriorating health and sounded doubts that he would manage to inflate a balloon.
He was arrested swiftly before leaving the bar and is to reappear in court March 12 when he might be fined if found guilty.
This is not the first time that a Zimbabwean citizen has been brought before the courts on such allegations. Recently three Chiweshe men were dragged to court facing charges of undermining the authority of the President as provided for in Section 33 (2) b) of the Criminal Law, Codification and Reform Act while more including the MDC-T spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora, legislator for Nyanga North were incarcerated on the same allegations. In August last year, a Bindura man was hauled before the courts for allegedly calling Mugabe ‘a dog’ among other things. (ZimEye)

Harare(ZimEye)An MDC-T MP who recently typed unprintable obscene insults towards a Zimbabwean internet protege Barbara Nyagomo, has reportedly denied ever typing the detestable words.
MP Perez Hamandishe Maramwidze who also labels himself a Messianic Pastor, reportedly claimed to a journalist a few days ago that he did not type the unprintable words. He was quoted stating:
“I do not know what is happening at the moment. I have received several calls from people asking about this issue.
“The facebook account is mine but I do not know who posted that message but I suspect that there is politics at play.”
But speaking to ZimEye, MP Perez Hamandishe Maramwidze confirmed his bitter

altercation with Barbara Nyagomo. He even went on to suggest that it was Nyagomo who had abused him and failing to make proof of his allegations against Nyagomo, Maramwidze soon hung the phone in the middle of the teleconversation. See: Outrage as MDC MP spits vulgar on Facebook
The MDC-T MP brought his party into gross disrepute and was blasted by many on the social networking website. Wrote one collegue on the website:
“This is a shame, thats why cant progress, many of the MDCT socalled leaders behave just the same and we need deal with it. The party cannot build a stronger country where its own party is weak, its MPS engage in all kinda misbehaving and they get away with in No” (Zimbabwe, ZimEye)
 

BULAWAYO (ZimEye)-A 29-YEAR OLD Bulawayo man stabbed his close friend to death with a kitchen knife following an argument over headphones.
According to police spokesman Inspector Mandlenkosi Moyo, the spin-chilling incident happened on Sunday at around 10pm when the two-Zukho Mazinyane, 29, and Erick Sikhosana, 25, were from a beer binge.
They stayed together as close friends at 2299 Old Pumula and they were sucked in a bitter quarrel over headphones before exchanging blows.
Moyo added that Mazinyane then drew a kitchen knife and stabbed Sikhosana three times before he escaped through a window. Sikhosana, who was bleeding profusely, was rushed to hospital but died before arrival.
The police spokesman said Mazinyane has since been arrested and would be dragged to court soon.
“This murder could have been avoided; we discourage people from engaging in violence over trivial issues,” said Moyo. (Zimbabwe, ZimEye)

BULAWAYO (ZimEye)-ZANU PF activists who forcibly occupied a building in central Bulawayo have been ordered by High Court judge Justice Martin Makonese to vacate the premises within 48hours.
A group of marauding youths invaded Elons Court under the guise of the indigenisation policy but property owners Khalil and Shabeira Gaibei sought the High Court for redress.
Justice Makonese said if the youths fail to vacate the building within 48hours, then the Deputy Sherriff would be instructed to effect the eviction.

“The respondents be and are hereby interdicted from disturbing the applicants’ vacant and peaceful possession of Elons Court, Bulawayo,” reads part of the judgment.
“The respondents and all those claiming through them be and are hereby interdicted from denying the applicants or their authorized agents access to the premises.
The judge said the war veterans and Zanu PF youths had no lease to allow them occupy the building.
He added: “Their occupation is unlawful and this court cannot condone an act of illegality.”
(Zimbabwe, ZimEye)

(Johannesburg)Zimbabwe will no longer be represented in this year’s Mr Gay World after the man who intended to compete finally withdrew from the contest.
Taurai Zhanje, who last week was verbally attacked by many from his local community, pulled out of the contest citing personal reasons.
His decision comes after it was revealed that in December last year the first-ever Mr. Gay Namibia, one Hamutenya, was assaulted by men who demanded his winnings soon after he was crowned.

The competition says it aims “to advance national and international gay rights through education and public performance”.
Zhanje’s intentions had been celebrated by many organisations in the gay community. The Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe had issued a statement following Zhanje’s announcement:
GALZ wishes to congratulate Taurai Zhanje on entering the Mr Gay world Pageant to be held in Johannesburg South Africa .Being one of only four African contestants and the first from Zimbabwe is a historical feat that we are extremely proud of. Taurai naturally becomes our ambassador and role model for the Zimbabwean Gay Community. With the intense climate of homophobia existing in Zimbabwe and the restrictive legislation that makes it difficult for Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender people to be open about their sexuality and to use public space in safety, Taurai has exhibited immense courage and boldness by entering the Mr. Gay World contest.
The “Mr Gay World” Director for Africa, Coenie Kukkuk said: “We are sad to loose Taurai, but in Africa, the personal sacrifice for gay and human rights is sometimes too much to expect from people. Taurai already made a very brave stand against the oppression of the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual and intersex persons and we have to respect his decision. We wish him and his family only the best for the future.”
Kukkuk said that they will explore all avenues to find another country from Africa to take Zimbabwe’s place, but that the general political climate in Africa is not conducive to LGBTI rights being recognised and that it will be very difficult to do so.
Recently, at an African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has urged African leaders to respect gay rights.
The Mr Gay World competition is defined as an annual contest for gay men, seeking to establish ambassadors for LGBT and human rights, with winners of national contests competing as delegates in a variety of categories. It is not a beauty contest and there is no age limit. This competition is the most publicized gay contest in the world and unashamedly uses the attention it garners to focus attention on the plight of LGBTI people worldwide, with the focus in 2012 being on African LGBTIs specifically. The delegate chosen to represent his peers on a global stage will not only have the inner beauty of confidence, self assurance, charisma and natural leadership abilities but he will also take care in his outward appearance. He will also have knowledge of LGBTI general history and recent news.
GALZ has pleaded with Zimbabweans to embrace reality and common rights of those who are gay.
A statement read:
“As GALZ we do not expect every individual Zimbabwean to embrace gay rights or the issue of homosexuality. But we do expect Zimbabweans to understand and promote the fundamental, inalienable and indivisible nature of human rights, including non-discrimination on the basis of race, gender, tribe, culture and sexual orientation. We Salute your bravery and hope that your participation will inspire us all to come out and celebrate our lives despite the very difficult circumstances we live in. Zimbabwe has institutionalised homophobia making it difficult for the LGBTI community to lead positive lives hence we are ecstatic about your participation as it demonstrates the resilient character Zimbabweans generally exhibit in overcoming challenges. We wish you all the best and hope that you will win the ultimate title. The Zimbabwean LGBTI Community is rallying behind you.”
The 2012 Mr. Gay World competition will be held in Johannesburg from 4 to 8 April.

Many London citizens pacing through the Zimbabwean embassy on Saturday instantly fell in love with the sound of the percussion drumming at the Zim Vigil protest in London.
ZimEye witnessed more than 15 Londoners stop by to enjoy the

Zimbabwean drums being palmed by protesters who included others from the Swazi Vigil. Some were seen determinedly penetrating into the crowd as they bounced in splendid African dance.
Many were seen also signing the register whose inclusion rose up to 73 endorsements, while a London company may have thought to make profit from the protest after it swiftly moved in to station its sandwich-making open van outside the embassy here.[flagallery gid=34 name=”Gallery”]
The ZimVigil organisation has been running for more than 10 years as they protest of the political situation in Zimbabwe.
Some of the demonstrators stepped aside to talk to ZimEye and poured their hearts cry to see political change in their nation Zimbabwe.
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Victoria Falls(ZimEye)Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai at the weekend said peace was the missing link in Zimbabwe’s growth endeavour as he addressed business leaders on the key issue of ensuring a $100 billion economy in Zimbabwe by 2040.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was addressing delegates and business leaders at the CEO Africa Roundtable held Saturday at Victoria Falls where stakeholders in the economy discuss issues that could enable the country to achieve its projected $100 billion economy by 2040.
“But ladies and gentlemen, let me also say that the key ingredient towards growth and sustainable development is peace!
“Peace will unlock all the doors to hidden opportunities.
“Peace and tolerance will ensure that we all live harmoniously, despite our political, tribal and religious differences.

“Peace will always be a key factor today, tomorrow and the day after.
“Peace amongst ourselves will unleash our collective potential and guarantee that we lift each other up, irrespective of whether one runs a small or a big business, or whether one is Zanu PF or MDC.
“Indeed, peace is the missing link in this country.
“We can lay plans, draw up lofty visions, craft comprehensive economic policies but all that can only be achieved in an environment of peace and tolerance.
“So as the leadership of this country, we will strive to create and encourage peace in Zimbabwe so that everyone has the freedom to pursue and live their dreams,” said PM Tsvangirai before he sought to put straight a misqoute of his previous speech by some media houses.
“Last week, I attended the National Day of Prayer for Peace and I was humbled by the thousands of people who turned up to pray for a peaceful Zimbabwe, especially as we go towards the next election.
“I am quite aware that my speech there was misquoted by I will repeat what I said in the full hope that you will agree with me on this one.
“As chief executive officers and key players in business, I urge you to pray for us as the national leadership so that God guides us and gives us the necessary wisdom as we navigate this delicate transition.
“Indeed, President Mugabe and I deserve your prayers as we have been entrusted with the stewardship of this nation.
“Pray for us in your factories, in your homes and in your churches but above all, pray for Zimbabwe so that his land is blessed and that we achieve our collective dreams and aspirations.
“Without God, we are doomed to fail.
“So while we pray for a $100 billion economy by 2040, I also want to say Zimbabwe for Jesus by 2040!”(ZimEye, Zimbabwe)

BULAWAYO(ZimEye)A Zvishavane man who raped a helpless 17-year old girl has had his manhood stay erect for a whole nine days; and has since been admitted at a hospital for special treatment.
Samson Chikoki of 140 Mandava is admitted at Zvishavane District Hospital receiving treatment although he is under heavy prison guard.
Chikoki appeared before Zvishavane magistrate Tavengwa Sangster with his erect manhood and he was remanded to February 28 in custody.
It is the State’s case that Chikoki on February 9 met a 17-year old girl who was stranded in the streets and offered to help her. The girl told the accused that she had no place to stay but Chikoki led the girl to his house although he had initially offered to accommodate her at his mother’s house.
Prosecutor William Man’ombe said at the house, the accused raped the girl twice but the following morning the victim reported the matter to Sophia Mugodhia, a member of the neighbourhood watch committee, who arrested Chikoki two days later.
Although he appeared in court for the incident which occurred on February 9, he was rushed to hospital for treatment for unusual incident, which is suspected to be ulunyoka/runyoka. (Zimbabwe, ZimEye)

A Zimbabwean man has deported after being found guilty of attacking a prostitute, old enough to be his mother.
Wilson Chibasa, 24, was booted out of Canada after being found guilty of attacking a 43 year old prostitute in Abbotsford.
Police have stated that the ‘victim’ in the attack had an uninterupted sex session with Chibasa in an apartment on the 24th September 2010.
The victim soon afterwards demanded payment.
It was upon this juncture that Chibasa refused to pay and ended up attacking the woman and hurling her to the ground and then throwing his fingers at her throat in order to stop her from screaming aloud, as she attempted to cry for help.

“He refused to pay and pushed her to the ground,” investigating officer Constable Ian MacDonald said. “He actually stuck his fingers down her throat as she was trying to call out, which caused her pain and stopped any ability she had to call out for help.”
The woman however soon called police and Chibasa was arrested soon after.
“This is a case where a person at this point in her life may have felt marginalized and disadvantaged, but had the courage to stick up for herself and other women,” MacDonald said. “It was based on her drive and her courage that we were able to bring forward a very strong case against this man.”
“The victim was kept in hospital to ensure her throat didn’t swell and her airway would remain open,” said Constable MacDonald.
Chibasa was airlifted to Zimbabwe in a plane two weeks ago, on the 30th of January 2012.

(Mutare)Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC party has resolved to disregard and rubbish the minister of Local Government Ignatius Chombo’s suspension of the mayor of Mutare, and will soon dump the document into a public bin in the sight of all.
In a meeting held at the party’s provincial headquarters at the weekend, the MDC-T party resolved to ignore Chombo’s suspension of Mayor Brian James and as a demonstration of repulsion, to physically dump Chombo’s suspension document into a public bin at the civic centre in the sight of all.
The decision comes as it was revealed that Chombo’s suspension of Clr James is illegal. Mayor Brian James was last week suspended by Local government minister Ignatius Chombo on allegations of misconduct, but Chombo is believed to be fighting hard to remove James, who only recently blocked the sale of land at the Meikles Park to Anjin, a Chinese firm that is mining diamonds in Chiadzwa in partnership with the State owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC).
The MDC-T party at the weekend resolved to continue recognising Clr James as the rightful mayor of Mutare. The party will continue to “engage the mayor on all matters to do with the city of Mutare,” the party said in a statement.

The MDC-T party will also “establish a Party Harmonisation team to establish various issues of concern in the council. The team which will be led by one Hon Mudiwa includes other senior respected leaders-Willas Madzimure, Senator and MDC founding member James Makore, Hon Evelyn Masaiti and attorney David Tandire a prominent Mutare lawyer.
The team was tasked to also: “look into the circumstances sorrounding the fraud charges levelled against Cllr Upare, his relationship with the contractor and why he was paid money by the contractor. The effects of the disappearance of $300 000 dollars on the water project and whether the money would be recovered.

They have been deprived the pleasure of sex for 1,700 years, Roman Catholic Priests together with their Nuns will soon be freed and allowed to marry and enjoy God’s special gift to mankind, a prominent Catholic missionary Priest predicts.
Missionary Priest Fr Shay Cullen who is of Irish origin has claimed that the church will soon abolish celibacy as he described it as a mere ‘business arrangement’ for the Catholic Church, rather than a commandment of God.
Celibacy is a lifeless law imposed by mere human beings not God, hints Fr Shay Cullen, a highly respected Catholic church official who has to date won three Nobel Peace Prize nominations for his work saving children from sexual abuse in the Philippines for the past 40 years.

The world’s oldest Christian institution should now abolish ‘this celibate thing’ and get on with life, argues the prominent priest.
Fr Cullen told Irish broadcaster Gay Byrne on state television station RTE, that celibacy will soon be outdated.
“Celibacy is only a practice mostly to keep property out of the hands of married couples, it’s more sort of a business type of arrangement,
“All of the other Christian churches manage very well. Many Anglicans who were married and had family and children and came over to the Catholics were warmly accepted.
“Now we have many married priests in the Catholic Church and it is working, so why not? It is only another step to abolishing this celibate thing and getting on with life,” he said.
 
Temptation
But for almost 1700 years to date, the Catholic church has imposed that for a person to be a Priest or a Nun they have to be celibate. In Zimbabwe alone the country’s former Archbishop for the southern part of the country, Pius Ncube reportedly fell into temptation of intimacy. This year, a Nun from Matebeleland also left the service merely because she had given in to nature’s call.
 
Child Abuse
Beyond mere temptation and nature, the church’s celibacy requirement is blamed for thousands of child abuse cases which have seen many children across the world being sexually abused by the so called holy men of the cloth.  The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA)  has summed the number of priests with allegations of sexual abuse for the period 1960-2002 to 4,127.
 
HIV Aids
. Another complexity to the matter has been the issue of HIV Aids. A reader on an irish website commented:

(London)Former Chikurubi Maximum Security prisoner Simon Mann has released a book that may serve to reveal what truly transpired with the man who reportedly planned to topple an African government with the help of a Zimbabwean army supply of weapons of war.
The book is titled “Cry Havoc”.
Simon Mann, a former British SAS highly trained officer, was arrested just after receiving the weapons in Harare because of his involvement in the plot to overthrow the ruling tyrant of Equatorial Guinea.
Next month 7th March will mark Mann’s 8th year anniversary since his failed mission attempt when he was arrested at Harare international airport in 2004.

Mann is from a strong military background and had connections in the Zimbabwean army. The book may reveal who Mann was actually friends with, news detail Zimbabwean media failed to obtain.
His paternal grandfather served with the Scots Guards in the Great War and his maternal grandfather served as a senior engineer in the South African Division in World War II.
His father and three uncles also served in the Scots Guards in World War II, his father winning two MCs and a DSO. Born into the Mann brewing dynasty, Simon Mann went to Eton and then Sandhurst. The Scots Guards and the SAS followed. Simon then became a businessman, drifting slowly but surely into the world of security consultancy and intelligence for hire.
Mann rejoined the British Army for the first Gulf War, serving on the staff of General Sir Peter de la Billiere. From there, Simon became an oil man, a move which threw him into the Angolan Civil war in 1993. This was followed by his involvement in the civil war in Sierra Leone form 1994 to 1996.
In 2004, he was arrested in Zimbabwe because of his involvement in the plot to overthrow the ruling tyrant of Equatorial Guinea. Simon has seven children and now lives by the sea with his wife, Amanda. The book can bought from the Amazon website

Former Big Brother celebrity who was also a nurse, Makosi Musambasi in the past 48 hours tweeted a number of encouraging tweets following her deportation to Nigeria by British immigration officials.
Hours after she landed on Nigerian soil, Makosi off-loaded a number of uplifting Biblical tweets on social networking website, Facebook, sometimes appearing as if hitting back at her disappointment with British immigration officials which may actually be her “best opportunity” in disguise.
Some of the tweets read:

 “A crisis separates your critics from your companions.

Former Big Brother contestant and former nurse, Makosi Musambasi(pictured) has been deported from the United Kingdom when she tried to get in using a friend’s passport on her way from Nigeria, The Sun claims.
The controversial television celebrity may have to catch up with violence currently ravaging the Nigerian nation after being banned from entering Britain having been caught with a fake passport and a large tranch of money.
According to the paper, UK Border Agency officers recognised the 31-year-old after she arrived at Heathrow Airport on a flight from Lagos in Nigeria where she is currently living according to the paper.

Makosi was deported after they found the dodgy passport and confiscated £12,000 in cash, which the UKBA is now investigating.
When ZimEye attempted to make obtain a comment from her, it was discovered that even her Facebook account was suspended and could not be viewed at the time of writing.

“Makosi is a refugee, and in a case where they have identified her and established that she has leave to enter the UK, you would think the UK Border Agency would arrest and prosecute her for document fraud,” Nyawanza said.
“It sounds improper that they would simply send her back to Lagos. It could be that she volunteered to return, but I would say in a large majority of such cases she would have been given leave to enter and then prosecuted, if the claims about her using a relative’s passport are true.”
Makosi came third in Big Brother 6 a few years ago and performed a nude scence on the show causing outrage in the Zimbabwean community, later returning to the house for Ultimate Big Brother, but still  did not make it to the final contest. (ZimEye-UK)

Manchester(ZimEye)A Zimbabwean woman here was placed into a flat she has said has a ghost inside following furniture and sundry items belonging to the previous tenant the Manchester Council left at the property prior to her moving in.
The house is managed by Manchester Council’s Northwards Housing company who have not removed a previous tenant’s belongings at the property for several weeks .
ZimEye editors were left in multiple-stitches after we were told people had been busy chasing the “Ghost” around the house on Wednesday.
“…(We)are here busy chasing the chipoko(ghost)”, one woman who had been assisting LS said. “Its here, its busy breaking things and the council is saying there is nothing they can do,” she said.
The woman LS(REAL NAME WITHELD), aged 33, who is a single mum of one, has been living at the property for the past month and told ZimEye her terror at the alleged “Ghost”:
“I am having sleepless nights with my child. I can’t even sleep,” she said.

“When I moved in, I told them…that this is the situation, but they only answered : ‘we have never had complaints about that house,'” she said.
LS claimed that the company’s housing officer however gave two conflicting accounts, one that stated that the previous tenant lived since 1986, and another that the tenant lived for only three years.
“They told me that there was an old lady who lived at the house since 1986, but the same person who talked to me would also tell me that the last person only lived for 3 years, which showed me it was a lie,” she said.
What has been chief in LS’s plight is the fact that the company is still to remove the previous tenant’s belongings more than three weeks after she complained about their presence at the property. The belongings include furniture remains, and picture frames, LS said she even fears touching. “The paintings are extremely weird, ” she told ZimEye.
ZimEye has established that Northwards Housing Company indeed received a complaint more than three weeks ago and LS’s fight to get the items removed continues (ZimEye-UK)

Harare(ZimEye)As Zimbabwean coroner Walter Chikwana turned down an appeal by the family of a late former army general Solomon Mujuru to have his remains exhumed for re-examination by an independent pathologist, it emerged that the current army supremo Constantine Chiwenga provided a strong hint and what may be compelling grounds for an exhumation of Mujuru’s body.
The army boss caused a scene when he connected Mujuru’s death to political violence during the late Gen Mujuru’s funeral parade. This was also the first time in Zimbabwe’s history that a serving army general vocally denounced the practice of violence in Zimbabwe, something that only politicians are known to do.

 
During the procession in August, Chiwenga surprised people by referring to political violence while in the official act of conducting the funeral parade for Mujuru at the One commando barracks in August last year.
Concerned with the horrific level of political violence, the army commander even stated that Mujuru was at the forefront of distilling the political violence, giving a hint that this may have cost the death of Zimbabwe’s most revered retired army General.
“He (Mujuru) was at the fore front of denouncing all forms of violence and I call upon all Zimbabweans to desist from such acts of lawlessness as these violate the core values of the liberation struggle. We must defend what he stood for. We must defend Zimbabwe’s independence and sovereignty at all costs, uphold peace and values that the late general has left us,” Chiwenga said.
Despite Chiwenga’s hint, the commander has been himself accused of instructing junior soldiers during the bloody June 27 2008 Presidential run-off elections to butcher suspected MDC supporters.
Last Friday the Mujuru family lawyer Kewada lodged an application asking magistrate Chikwanha to order that Mujuru’s remains be exhumed so that a professional autopsy can be conducted by the family’s South African pathologist.
This came after Reggie Perumal, the South African forensic scientist hired by the Mujuru family, raised doubts on the hurried autopsy conducted by Cuban pathologist, Gabriel Gonzales Alvero. Perumal said Alvero had not used the appropriate tools and also queried why Alvero did the autopsy when he is not registered in Zimbabwe on the medical practitioners list, a thorny find in the Inquest which stretched into the second week many days further than originally intended.
During the inquest hearings, Kewada repeatedly told the court there were many unanswered questions on how Mujuru’s remains were identified as well as the establishment of the cause of death at his farm last August.
Vice President Mujuru and the widow to the deceased, the last witness (number 39) in the inquest, was not asked to take to the witness’s stand but her affidavit was read in court.
Mujuru, in a written statement to the inquest described the response by fire fighters at the general’s farmhouse as “totally ineffective”.
The fire department told the court earlier the tanks of all its fire trucks leaked water.
In his determination, the magistrate blasted Kewada for attempting to arm twist him into doing what the Inquest act does not empower him to do.
The Mujuru family lawyer Thekor Kewada would soon state that he accepted any criticism against him:
“Whatever criticism was made of me I have got broad shoulders, I take it on,” Kewada also told journalists after the court’s verdict.
“I think we have played our part I will accept the magistrate’s criticism as he puts it. I don’t think he intended to say anything other than saying well ‘look this is what the Act says and what the rules say,” he said.
“What is important is that through the inquest we have managed to reveal important information to the public. Those who have been following the inquest will agree with me. On the issue of the exhumation request yes I am aware that we have to apply to the Ministry of Home Affairs, and we will wait for the recommendations which the presiding magistrate is going to make to the Attorney General before and take it from there,” he said.
Mujuru was found dead after a mysterious fire outbreak which gutted his Beatrice farm house in August last year. He had resigned in the army, entered into politics, and later stepped down as MP in 1995 to concentrate on his private businesses. (ZimEye, Zimbabwe)

(Johannesburg)A man who claims to be a South African musician who died and was buried two years ago is to remain under police custody and be thrust into court after intensive DNA tests proved his identity not to match that of the late singer Khulekani “Mgqumeni” Khumalo.
Police issued a statement that the man(pictured-right) is to face fraud charges after authorities said his fingerprints do not match those of the late Khulekani “Mgqumeni” Khumalo.
Fingerprint matching  identified the man as Sibusiso John Gcabashe, 28.
“The man is currently in custody pending a criminal investigation. Detectives have been questioning the man this morning and are conducting further investigation,” said police spokesman Jay Naicker.
Khumalo died in December 2009 after drinking something he got from a traditional healer. He was buried by his family in the KwaGxobanyawo cemetery in early 2010.
The man who has made claim that he is the late Zulu traditional music singer Khulekani Khumalo, also known as “Mgqumeni,” was seen at the musician’s home last week at Nqutu village in east South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province.

Mgqumeni was South Africa’s second best musician widely adored across the country.
On Sunday the “resurrected” man  addressed thousands of fans who had gathered to see the resurrected Mgqumeni and said that he was not dead but was a victim of witchcraft.
“I have been suffering a lot at the place where I was kept with zombies. It was hell there and I am so grateful that I was able to free myself and return to my family and you, my supporters.”
To add to the mystery, two of his common-law wives and his maternal grandmother told reporters they believed the man was indeed the “dead” musician.
Nomkhosi Mbatha and Thembi Ntombela said that after seeing their “husband” and spending some time with him, they needed no further convincing that it was him.
Khumalo’s daughter, Amanda, said her “father” had been the first to recognise her, calling her by name.
Khumalo’s maternal grandmother Zintombi Mseleku said she knew the moment she set her eyes on her “grandson” that it was him.
“There is no way I can get confused over Kwakhe, it really is him. He is looking a little worn, and his cheeks are less chubby, but it’s him,” she said, her eyes welling with tears of joy.
“I went in and looked at him. I called him and asked him if he knew who I was, and he said, ‘You’re my grandmother, MaSibiya. I looked at his feet and hands and I was satisfied that it is him.”

Staff Reporter|Newsday| The letter authored by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai which leaked to journalists at the weekend is 100% authentic, the MDC leader’s chief of staff Jameson Timba has confirmed.
Timba who is the Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, said although the correspondence was authentic, its publication was in breach of the Official Secrets Act and Cabinet rules.
Timba has burst out in rage charging that Sunday Mail journalists breached Official Secrets act by publishing the letter before either Tsvangirai or Mugabe published it, a claim which Presidential spokesperson George Charamba denies and lays blame on Tsvangirai’s MDC party for allegedly leaking the document.

“Indeed the letter in question was delivered to the President on Friday and such correspondence is governed by the Official Secrets Act and the rules of Cabinet, which means the only people who can publish it are the President and the Prime Minister,” he said.
“The publication of that memorandum was against the law and in conflict with known Cabinet rules.
“If they were to publish that information, it would have been proper if they had waited for the President or the Prime Minister to make it public information.”
But Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba defended The Sunday Mail and accused officials from the PM’s Office of leaking the memorandum. He claimed the letter had not been delivered to Mugabe.
“Who breached the Official Secrets Act — is it the newspaper which published the document or the people who leaked it? In the first place, nothing came to the President and he did not receive anything from the PM.
“One cannot breach confidentiality on something that does not exist and, as things stand, there was no dispatch from the PM to the President,” Charamba said.
“The PM should be wary of his staff who are betraying his trust and confidentiality,” said Charamba

London(ZimEye)Ex-Zimbabwe policeman Guy Taylor who has endured years of asylum-waiting turmoil in the United Kingdom has failed up to 4 consecutive asylum applications instead of just two as earlier reported, it has emerged.
Taylor told ZimEye that the British government has denied him up to four fresh asylum applications in the past 2 years.
Correcting a recent ZimEye article, Guy Taylor wrote:
“This was actually my fourth refusal!”
Taylor who has shown his papers to ZimEye said he fears
his being of white ethnic origin and a known former employee of the police force will land him in trouble upon returning to Zimbabwe.(ZimEye, Zimbabwe)

A certain journalist or contributor who has been writing for the weekly Zimbabwe Standard newspaper has come under the spotlight following a string of articles whose authenticity has been queried.
The writer sometimes claims he or she is writing from London, and at other times writing from Bulawayo.
ZimEye refused to process an article written by Mr or Mrs Gugugu Magorira, which claimed that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai had been dumped by the European Union following their disappointment of the MDC leader. Magorira’s article sighted a Europe based meeting and afterwards we found out that no such meeting had taken place.
The latest article blocked by ZimEye carried the theme: “We will never forgive Tsvangirai.” It claimed that reknowned activists who were murdered by ZANU militants were themselves terrorists who should not be called heroes.
Some of the articles written by Gugugu Magorira on the Zimbabwe Standard website are:

Tsvangirai leadership under spotlight

Trusting Mugabe, Tsvangirai’s undoing

Harare(ZimEye)The incarcerated MDC-T Youth leader Solomon Madzore would have been a Priest by now had it not been for his decision to drop his religious studies at a seminary to become an employee of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s party in 2000, a Madzore family member has told ZimEye.
The Madzore sibling who declined being named, told ZimEye that the youth leader who captivates people with his unique singing techniques, during the years up to 2000, was attending an unnamed foreign seminary before he it is alleged Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai requested him to return to Zimbabwe and join his newly formed MDC party, and Solomon ‘was promised a senior party position’ following the party’s formation in 1999.
“Solomon was a very clean and devoted person who loved his Bible and used to always give the whole family Bibilical correction whenever we went astray. He was at a seminary when Tsvangirai through my brother Paul asked him to join the party,” she said without disclosing the name of the seminary.

ZimEye was also told that Madzore vowed never to marry and if he saw a family member being mischievous, he would be quick to give firm correction.
“He did not even like girl-friends and if when we would be seen playing with our morals, he would charge and ‘land’ on us.”
After joining politics, Madzore however later married.
It was after Madzore joined the MDC party that he also fell out of favour with President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF party who have been arresting both him and his brother Paul annually since 2000. It is believed that they are being deliberately persecuted.
The MDC leader who was arrested last year and has been in prison for months is being charged for the alleged murder of a police officer in Glen View last year. Independent reports gathered to date however state that the officer was killed by unknown revelers after provoking the latter at a beerhall in the high density surbub early last year (ZimEye, Zimbabwe)

Guruve(ZimEye)Mangava village residents of Guruve were left shell-shocked when two men who are also parents in their own right connived to rape an eighteen month-old baby for ritual purposes in a bid to enhance business growth.
Two men: Latemore Masango (26) and Givemore Jokonya (30) were caught in the detestable act, according to state papers.
It is alleged that Givemore Jokonya who is also the village head for Jokonya village sought the assistance of Latemore Masango of Mudoka village to help him in his ordeal of raping the minor from Mangava village so that he could use the blood of the said minor conceived from the breaking of the minor’s membrane to mix with some traditional herbs to use for the growth of his Sadza cooking business in the gold panning area of Mangurenje.
According to Masango, Jokonya runs a sadza cooking business which he supplies to gold panners in the area while at the same time he himself is also a gold panner, and he would take the blood of the minor, mix it with some traditional herbs and conceal it underneath his fire place where he operates his canteen. However Jokonya was reluctant to tell the his side of the story but only to refer to Masango who is his co-accused as a mentally derailed person while the later is accusing his co-accused of the evil plan which led to their arrest.
“He does not want to tell the truth because he knows it was very evil, and he is to blame for my arrest. He had promised to give me five beasts of cattle as part of the payment for my assistance in this deal,” said Masango.
According to the state, Jokonya approached Masango over the deal when they were drinking at Mangurenje Business Centre on the 25th of December with him (Jokonya) promising his accomplice five beasts of cattle out of his total of six. Masango, attracted by the lucrative deal is said to have quickly agreed resulting in the two visiting their victim’s place of residence whose father they had left at the same business center.
Upon arrival, it is when Masango allegedly instilled fear in the minor’s mother resulting in her fleeing her homestead shouting for help while Jokonya stole the baby whom he in no time raped and took her blood with him. After committing the offence, Jokonya is said to have concealed the baby at an unknown place before fleeing. The baby was found alive after two days.
The two accused persons’ luck ran out when Masango dropped his mobile phone during the ordeal leading to his arrest before implicating Jokonya as the main culprit. However Jokonya insists he knows nothing concerning the deal with his reason being that Masango who appears very normal is mentally derailed.
They initially appeared before Guruve provincial magistrate Augustine Borerwe before being handed over to Bindura regional magistrate William Billa who is expected to hear the trial on 7 February this year. (ZimEye, Zimbabwe)