Zimbabwe’s coronavirus frontline nurses have been paid a measly ZW$700 as allowances for working since the spread of the deadly coronavirus pandemic in the country two months ago.

The money is insignificant considering the risks the health caregivers are exposed to on a daily basis and also considering that the local currency is constantly losing value against other currencies.

The soaring inflation in the country is also worsening the plight of workers who say that their salaries are constantly being eroded. One of the nurses who spoke to The Zimbabwe Independent this week said:

We received the money two days later and we got ZW$700 plus our salary which was ZW$3 000. We are living in fear and anxiety. We took care of the late patients and have come into contact with other positive patients.

These times are really difficult, we have worked even during outbreaks of other diseases such as cholera, but this time it is difficult because we are not receiving monetary support.

Previously, we would get US$30 per day.

These paltry allowances are paid amid reports that nurses are resigning en masse from public health institutions over poor remuneration, extended working hours and potential exposure to coronavirus.-Zimbabwe Independent

By A Correspondent- President Emmerson Mnangagwa has urged Zimbabwe and the SADC region at large to be resolute and united in the wake of the deadly coronavirus saying that it shall pass.

He made the remarks in his twitter post which appreciated South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa for chairing the meeting of regional leaders on SADC’s response to the virus.

He said:

I would like to thank HE President @CyrilRamaphosa for chairing this morning’s important meeting between heads of state regarding the ongoing response to COVID-19. I wish the people of Zimbabwe, & the entire region, a blessed & healthy weekend. We will get through this together!

He speaks when the virus has rapidly spread in many African countries especially South Africa where the officially confirmed coronavirus cases have now surpassed the 8232 mark while confirmed dearths are at 161 as of May 08, 2020, 14:24 GMT.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe has thirty-four confirmed cases including four deaths and nine recoveries. The virus has also worsened the economic and humanitarian crisis in the region and Zimbabwe in particular where the crisis was prevalent before the emergence of the virus.

SADC, in a bid to curb the virus, made a number of resolutions including the suspension of some of its meetings.

By A Correspondent- The RBZ order instructs Ecocash to freeze the agent lines of all traders whose transactions exceed $100 000 ZWL per month until certain KYC activities are completed.

The full statement from Ecocash on the issue:

Notice to Customers & Agents

EcoCash wishes to advise that we received a directive from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the Financial Intelligence Unit of Zimbabwe to the effect that all Agents with transaction limits of over ZWL$100.000 per month should have their accounts frozen with immediate effect, except for.

– Banking Institutions

– Bureaux de change

– Listed Companies (Zimbabwe Stock Exchange Listed Companies)

– International Organisations

– Microfinance Institutions

– Government and Quasi-government Institutions

This directive will impact Agent business operations as Agents will not have access to their float funds as well as liquidations. EcoCash was not consulted on this directive. We, therefore, did not provide any input into it. The directive will not only impact the affected Agents but also the transactions they do with over 53,000 other EcoCash Agents and consequently our 11 million customers countrywide who rely on the Agent network.

Agent-reliant transactions to be affected are;

Cash-in,

Cash-out,

Airtime sales,

Customer registrations,

Prepaid electricity sales,

Kindly note that all other EcoCash transactions are not affected by this directive. We will provide you with an update on any further developments.
EcoCash

Cassava Smartech

Watch the live video loading below…..

By A Correspondent- Zimbabwe’s coronavirus frontline nurses have been paid a measly ZW$700 as allowances for working since the spread of the deadly coronavirus pandemic in the country two months ago.

The money is insignificant considering the risks the health caregivers are exposed to on a daily basis and also considering that the local currency is constantly losing value against other currencies.

The soaring inflation in the country is also worsening the plight of workers who say that their salaries are constantly being eroded. One of the nurses who spoke to The Zimbabwe Independent this week said:

We received the money two days later and we got ZW$700 plus our salary which was ZW$3 000. We are living in fear and anxiety. We took care of the late patients and have come into contact with other positive patients. These times are really difficult, we have worked even during outbreaks of other diseases such as cholera, but this time it is difficult because we are not receiving monetary support. Previously, we would get US$30 per day.

These paltry allowances are paid amid reports that nurses are resigning en masse from public health institutions over poor remuneration, extended working hours and potential exposure to coronavirus.-Independent

Farai Dziva|MDC Alliance president Nelson Chamisa has urged Zimbabweans to remain vigilant as the struggle for real change reaches the twilight zone.

Said Chamisa:

“Hello Zimbabwe..I’m prompted to remind you that the darkest hour is before dawn.

A breakthrough is often preceded by the hardest point.

Our tears of sorrow shall soon be tears of joy.Good people always defeat the bad and evil ones.Cease your weeping..

Dare mighty things and be legendary!Stand up, Man up!!We shall soon overcome and celebrate.

By God’s Grace, we will get there.We are getting there! Mark my words! Be strong and be blessed this day”

The MDC Alliance national Disability Council of the MDC Alliance is totally dismayed over the recent illegal recall of four of our prominent legislators that was announced by the Speaker of Parliament on Tuesday the 5th of May.

Indeed, what was done does not come as a surprise to us because we understand that starting from the bizarre Supreme Court ruling which sought to de-legitimise our President Advocate Nelson Chamisa and hand our party to the terrible loser, Thokozani Kuphe; Zanu PF is now dangerously using state institutions such as the Parliament to fulfil its agenda of decimating the MDC Alliance as the People’s party.

And so to perform this nefarious task, Douglas Mwonzora and his cabal have sold their souls to the devil to become very useful tools in the hands of our evil oppressors.

As persons with disabilities, we have not forgotten the role which the affected legislators have played so far both in Parliament and in the People’s party at large, to ensure that Zimbabwe becomes a disability inclusive society.

We therefore, wish to express our full solidarity with all the affected legislators.

We also wish to reaffirm our support to the People’s party, the MDC Alliance and our leader, President Advocate Nelson Chamisa.

We take this opportunity to also reaffirm the fact that the MDC Alliance, as the People’s movement, is simply the only credible political party that can truly deliver a peaceful, prosperous and inclusive Zimbabwe in which our rights as person with disabilities will be fully provided, protected and promoted.

Further, we are also fully supportive of the resolution that was made by the National Standing Committee of disengaging all our MDC Alliance legislators from Parliament pending further consultations with both the relevant party structures and the public at large.

Famba Nero Famba. Tshisa Mpama Tshisa.

For and on behalf of the National Disability Council,

Dennias Mudzingwa
Secretary for Disability and Special Needs
MDC Alliance

izvi zviripachena semuswe wembudzi kuti Mambo munodiwa musavhunduka.chingotiratidzai gwanzi basi pic.twitter.com/kwzEyacI0m

— baby Groot? (@Humbalitious) May 8, 2020

Farai Dziva|Outspoken Masvingo based preacher, Isaac Makomichi insists dialogue will happen between rivals Emmerson Mnangagwa and MDC Alliance president Advocate Nelson Chamisa despite the political turmoil in the country.

Last week Makomichi claimed he was ready to facilitate dialogue between the two leaders.
Makomichi is the leader of Calvary Prayer Group and
the president of Vulnerable Youth Support Network Trust.

Commenting on the political turmoil in the country Makomichi said:

The problem is that you are looking at it(political situation) from a natural viewpoint – yet I am seeing it from a spiritual perspective.

I have read about the battles in the opposition party, MDC and as I have always said, national unity is unavoidable.

Don’t worry about the storm in a cup of tea.

The two men, President Mnangagwa and Mr Nelson Chamisa and will find each other very soon.

You will be surprised because very soon things will start happening,” said Makomichi.

He added:”I have been praying for national unity and very soon I will invite President Mnangagwa and Mr Chamisa to my house for key discussions.Once that happens national unity shall be attained.”

Makomichi also claimed former Zanu PF Political Commissar, Saviour Kasukuwere would be part of vital nation building processes.

However, an MDC official ruled out possible dialogue with Zanu PF:

“Given the current political tension, I don’t see that happening.As things stand we will not interact with Zanu PF at any level or platform. The space for dialogue is not available at the moment.”

By A Correspondent- A Bulawayo man suspected to be part of a syndicate that is fraudulently selling people’s houses was found with 32 national identity cards which he is suspected to have been using to illegally process property sales.

Thulani Ncube is being charged with 70 counts of being found in possession of articles used to commit crime. Bulawayo police spokesperson Inspector Abednico Ncube in an interview yesterday, said Ncube was assisting police in the Commercial Crimes Division with investigations as he had over 70 pending High Court applications involving a number of properties in the city.

“A man purporting to be Thulani Ncube around 40 years of age was arrested by police when he was found in possession of over 32 national identity documents belonging to various people who are property owners. This man was making some applications for houses. He would either obtain illegal identity documents, forge signatures and particulars in respect of the houses that he would target for sale to unsuspecting home seekers,” said Inspector Ncube.

Thulani Ncube Ncube would allegedly approach the High Court for eviction orders so that he would make occupants vacate premises that he would have earmarked for sale. He targeted properties whose owners are in the diaspora, especially where tenants do not know the owner of the house and rental payments are made to relatives or put in bank accounts.

“He would make applications to the High Court and pay fees of up to $50 so that he gets the application to evict the occupants of the houses. He has since been arrested and is assisting police with investigations. We are calling upon members of the public to come to CID Commercial Crimes Division to check on those IDs and if ever you see one that is yours, we work on the issues,” Inspector Ncube said.

“This also goes to property owners as there are a number of properties that have been listed as having been sold by fictitious people who do not even exist. They use stolen IDs to process the transactions.”

Inspector Ncube said the Commercial Crimes Division was looking into how Ncube may have been acquiring the IDs after noticing that most of them looked new.

“We are still investing how he actually got those IDs because some look fairly new, indicating that he may be writing some affidavits or obtaining in his own name some of the IDs, and is targeting only those who own properties that he envies. Investigations are in progress,” said Inspector Ncube.

An online search showed the suspect uses the name Thulani Ncube on Facebook. There was only one picture and very few posts.-StateMedia

By A Correspondent- President Emmerson Mnangagwa, on Friday, held a follow-up Virtual Summit of Select SADC countries, chaired by South Africa’s President Ramaphosa.

According to Presidential Spokesperson George Charamba the virtual Summit is meant to enable neighbouring or geographically contiguous States to share experiences in fighting Coronavirus global pandemic. Zimbabwe has recorded 34 cases and suffered 4 deaths since the outbreak and has gone for a full week without new cases, pointing to effective interventions.

“The President highlighted measures Zimbabwe has taken to contain the pandemic,” Charamba said.

“Further, the President urged his colleagues in the region to exhaust consular services offered by reciprocal diplomatic missions before resorting to expulsions or deportations of each other’s citizens. The President thanked the world community for calling for an end to illegal sanctions whose impact has been compounded by repeated droughts and a Cyclone.

“The President urged his peers to think beyond the Covid-19 Pandemic by focusing on sub-regional recovery. He suggested consultations at the level of ministers of Industries and Central Bank Governors.”

By A Correspondent- Presidential Spokesperson George Charamba says the decision by the main MDC faction led by Advocate Nelson Chamisa to withdraw its members from parliament was disenfranchising the voters who mandated the MPs to lead them.

Charamba said, “What is the effect on constituencies of an MP withdrawing from parliamentary processes? Doesn’t that disenfranchise the concerned constituency, thus breaking the explicit contract between a voter and his MP?”

MDC announced that its members will boycott any platform that makes them interact with ZANU PF. The statement was delivered on Thursday by Job Sikhala.

Read Charamba’s response below:

DECISION BY CHAMISA AND TEAM raises quite some interesting issues of party constitutionality and general propriety. Do you suspend involvement in parliamentary business and then consult?? And if you have that latitude – and legal basis of it has to be established – why not go the whole hog and then consult on a substantive decision, namely disengaging wholly?

Secondly and more fundamentally, is an MP’s availability for parliamentary business/role a matter for a political party and its members?? Or is he bound by wishes of all who reside in a constituency to whom he offers surrogate presence in Parliament, itself a National – not Party – Institution??

In other words, are MPs in Parliament for themselves and their parties, or for whole constituencies regardless of individual political membership of constitutive electorate?? What is the effect on constituencies of an MP withdrawing from parliamentary processes? Doesn’t that disenfranchise the concerned constituency, thus breaking the explicit contract between a voter and his MP?

If so, what recourse does a voter have, singly and in concert with fellow voters registered under, and residing in a constituency??

Does that not provide a sound legal basis for class action well before we even wait or parliamentary rules sanctioning such (mis)conduct?? Should such a case be brought before a competent court, what are its chances??

Assuming there are good chances – and that’s my hunch – would an MP go by his/her party’s wishes, or submit to court decision? Will courts be (mis)construed as interfering with affairs of a voluntary organisation? Just a thought!!! Ndini hangu

By A Correspondent- Registrar General Clement Masango, who was arrested on Wednesday for criminal abuse of office, spent another night in custody as the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) was still recording statements.

Masango, according to ZACC, is accused of flouting tender procedures in procuring five Government vehicles.

He is also accused of taking seven other Government vehicles to his farm.

ZACC spokesperson Commissioner John Makamure said Masango was expected to appear in court today.

“He will appear in court tomorrow (today) in the morning. Today we needed to record statements from other witnesses,” Comm Makamure said.

Makamure said Masango was facing two counts of criminal abuse of office.

He said the Registrar-General is accused of procuring five vehicles without following laid down tender procedures and also faces another count of taking seven Government vehicles to his farm.

Last week, Masango clashed with the chief accountant in his office, Mr Peter Bwanya, who accused him of abuse of office.

Form No. 29C/Provisional Order/Rule 246 0277250

IN THE HIGH COURT OF ZIMBABWE CASE NO: HC 2199/20 HELD AT HARARE

In the matter between:- MOVEMENT FOR DEMOCRATIC CHANGE ALLIANCE (MDC ALLIANCE) APPLICANT And MINISTER OF JUSTICE LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS RESPONDENT MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

2nd RESPONDENT RESPONDENT PARLIAMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF ZIMBABWE

3rd RESPONDENT PROVISIONAL ORDER TO: THE RESPONDENTS TAKE NOTE that, on the 7th day of May 2020 the Honourable Mrs Justice Munangati-Manongwa sitting at Harare issued a provisional order.

The annexed Chamber application, affidavit/s and documents were issued in support of the application for this provisional order.

If you intend to oppose the confirmation of this provisional order, you will have to file a notice of Opposition in Form No. 29B, together with one or more opposing affidavit’s, with the Registrar, of the High Court at Harare within ten (10) days after the date of which this provisional order was served upon you.

You will also have to serve a copy of the Notice of Opposition and affidavits on the applicant at the address for service specified in the application. If you do not file an opposing affidavit within the period specified above, this matter will be set down for hearing in the High Court at Harare without further notice to you and will be dealt with as an unopposed application for confirmation of the provisional order.

If you wish to have the provisional order changes or set aside sooner than the rules of Court normally allow and can show good cause for this, you should approach the applicant/applicant’s legal practitioner to agree, in consultation with the Registrar, on a suitable hearing date. If this cannot be agreed or there is a great urgency, you make a Chamber application, on notice to the applicant, for directions from a judge as to when the matter can be argued.

TERMS OF FINAL ORDER SOUGHT

That you show cause to this Honourable Court why a final order should not be made in the following terms:- 1. It is ordered that:- i. Within 7 days from the date of service of this order, the It respondent, shall pay into the applicant’s account number 1036938297 held A Steward Bank, Al amounts due to the applicant in terms of the Political Parties Finance Act Chapter 2:11 in the sum of $7 492 500.00. ii. 3rd and 2nd respondents shall pay cost of suit.

TERMS OF INTERIM RELIEF

The and 2nd respondents be and are hereby interdicted, stopped and barred from disbursing the sum of $7 492 500.00 due to the applicant in terms of the Political Party Finance Act or any other amount thereof, to any party other than the MDC Alliance.

SERVICE OF THE ORDER

That the applicant’s legal practitioners are given authority to serve the order by way of delivery to the respondent’s legal practitioners.

BY THE JUDGE

The ministers of justice and finance have been barred by a court from disbursing Z$7.5 million due to the MDC Alliance under the Political Parties (Finances) Act as a battle for the party’s leadership intensifies.

Justice Munangati-Manongwa on Friday granted an interim order sought by the MDC Alliance blocking the disbursement of the money to a faction led by Thokozani Khupe, which has staked a claim for the leadership of the party.

“The 1st (justice minister) and 2nd (finance minister) respondents be and are hereby interdicted, stopped and barred from disbursing the sum of $7,492,500 due to the applicant in terms of the Political Parties (Finance) Act or any other amount thereof, to any party other than the MDC Alliance,” the order said.

The MDC Alliance – which is owed the money based on its share of the vote from the July 2018 elections – is seeking a final order compelling Justice Minister Ziyambo Ziyambi to pay the amount into its account.

Khupe stood in the last election representing the MDC-T party, polling just over 45,000 votes while Nelson Chamisa, who led the MDC Alliance, polled over 2.1 million votes, according to official election results.

The Supreme Court however ruled at the end of March this year that Nelson Chamisa’s assumption of the leadership of what was then known as the MDC-T party in February 2018, upon the death of founding leader Morgan Tsvangirai, was irregular.

Tsvangirai had broken the party constitution by elevating Chamisa and Elias Mudzuri to be his deputies in a triumvirate with Khupe, which positioned Chamisa within striking distance of the leadership upon the leader’s death, the court added.

The court ordered an extra-ordinary congress to be held within three months to elect a new leadership, while restoring the party leadership that was in position at the time of Tsvangirai’s death.

Khupe, whose party got two MPs, has now claimed leadership of the MDC Alliance which took part in the last election, despite entering the election as MDC-T leader herself.

MDC Alliance lawyers say the Supreme Court ruling was moot and therefore unenforceable.

Comparing the case to that of a man who seeks promotion at his workplace but dies before a court eventually rules in his favour, Chamisa’s lawyer Advocate Thabani Mpofu said:

“That judgment will not be worth the paper it is written on not because the authority of the court is being disdained, but because the court speaks to an impossibility. It speaks to the past as though it spoke to the present. The proverbial horse has bolted. The company no longer has anyone to promote even with all the will in the world.

By Vivid Gwede| Debate on the recent Supreme Court Judgement and the aftermath has focused on what has been painted out as the internal power dynamics within a fractious MDC party, but there is a bigger historical frame in which the story unfolds.

The State therefore has been taking more than just a keen interest in the matter.

Flogging Dead Horse

The decisions by the Supreme Court and Parliament have been given a purely legal credence (itself a single, even contestable factor), overlooking the political absurdity of imposing a minority’s will.

Whatever temporal and out-dated leadership rights the courts thought had defaulted to Khupe in February 2018 (by accident of a death in the party) were clearly vetoed by the MDC membership, the ultimate arbiter in that institution, in the 2018 harmonised elections and the Gweru congress.

To countermand the MDC majority’s will and revive that temporal mandate for Khupe’s succour serves no present justice for the thousands of party faithful, except expired legal compliance and political imposition.

Given the obvious and foreseeable reality the case would be overtaken by events in light of the 2018 harmonised elections and the scheduled Gweru congress in October 2019, the case should have been heard urgently.

In fact, the aggrieved parties should have approached the courts as soon as they felt their rights were being violated with the appointment of the two vice-presidents, Mudzuri and Chamisa.

This would have ensured that a mass organisation was not held at ransom and inconvenienced in an attempt to secure the rights of the aggrieved individuals.

One Party State’s Ghost

The bigger frame is that the ruling Zanu-PF party has always been inconsolable about the fact that the one-party state it openly craved for post-independence has never materialised in the past 40 years.

Not only that, the trepidations that Zanu-PF always harboured about multi-party politics vis the emergence of a vibrant opposition party capable enough of up-staging it and eventually assuming power, may have been realized with the emergence of the MDC in September 1999.

In the early years of independence, Zanu-PF had worked hard to subdue PF Zapu and with the inking of the Unity Accord in December 1987, the dream “to establish one-party state in Zimbabwe” as point 6 of the Accord stated, appeared on the horizon.

But frustrated the dream was by the rise of radical student unionism, the transformation of the labour movement towards greater and critical independence, the pro-democracy skirmish of Edgar Tekere’s Zimbabwe Unity Movement (ZUM), and the global fall of the Berlin Wall/Cold War order in 1989.

But if a de jure one-party state could not be achieved, Zanu-PF has thereafter sought to establish a de facto one-party state, though with every other election the risk remains of the opposition calling its bluff as happened in March 2008.

The Same Mouth

MDC’s founding president Morgan Tsvangirai’s death in February 2018 had thus appeared to give Zanu-PF a new opportunity of revitalising its dream by dividing the opposition, thus destroying and removing the only biggest obstacle to its power for the foreseeable future.

Yet, perhaps sensing his own clock, Tsvangirai had already set out on a plan before his death to revitalise the MDC’s democracy project through the MDC Alliance.

In 2020, Zanu-PF therefore is not anywhere nearer to achieving its objective of a supine hegemony, which has always been its dream end-state to the nationalist project.

This is because in the year 2000’s general elections a new political fact was born – unmistakably characterised by competitive politics, though on an authoritarian canvas, but a new politics, nonetheless.

To highlight this, for the past 20 years, Zanu-PF has never been the governing party across Zimbabwe’s towns, thus being forced to maintain a tenuous existence as a rural party.

This was once again confirmed in the 2018 elections.

To quote Mark Ashurst and Gugulethu Moyo in The Day After Mugabe : “Zimbabwe’s ruling elite will remain a feature of the political landscape after Mugabe, but its near-monopoly of ideas and aspiration is irretrievably gone.”

Zanu-PF may not like the MDC, but as the saying goes, the tongue and the teeth may argue but will have to stay in the same mouth.

Inexorable march of history

History is a giant that marches on despite the feeble protest of its subjects.
The present-day fighter for democracy in Zimbabwe may therefore tell his black oppressor, ironically just as liberation fighter Hebert Chitepo did to his white oppressor’s attempts to frustrate the independence movement, that, “None of these schemes and devices will turn back the clock.”

In that remarkable essay, The Passing of Tribal Man: A Rhodesian View , Chitepo proclaimed: “There is a new force at work, a new vision and a new imperative.

“The people see a new hope and a new society in front of them.
“They have embraced it and they will inexorably follow the vision to its end.”

Back then, Chitepo saw Africans embracing a new sense of nationalism.
Zimbabweans see today the new vision and imperative of the passing of the monolithic politics of the one-party state style in Africa toward the future of multi-party democracy.

That Zimbabwe is a multiparty state, in 2020, albeit a stuttering one, indeed is water under the bridge and there is no point in an “attempt, like Canute, to order back to the sea the advancing tide…,” like as now being attempted, again to quote Chitepo.

What Zimbabweans now see, of course with much resistance and difficulties, but probably inexorably, is the rather natural displacement of “the dictatorial man” as an uncontested feature of African politics, with the yet slow but sure tide of history.

Dictatorial man being those oppressive tendencies, which though temporarily impervious to reform, are slowly losing grip, expiring and receding out of fashion in the new African – indeed Zimbabwean – citizen’s political consciousness

By A Correspondent- The ministers of justice and finance have been barred by a court from disbursing Z$7.5 million due to the MDC Alliance under the Political Parties (Finances) Act as a battle for the party’s leadership intensifies.

Justice Munangati-Manongwa on Friday granted an interim order sought by the MDC Alliance blocking the disbursement of the money to a faction led by Thokozani Khupe, which has staked a claim for the leadership of the party.

“The 1st (justice minister) and 2nd (finance minister) respondents be and are hereby interdicted, stopped and barred from disbursing the sum of $7,492,500 due to the applicant in terms of the Political Parties (Finance) Act or any other amount thereof, to any party other than the MDC Alliance,” the order said.

The MDC Alliance – which is owed the money based on its share of the vote from the July 2018 elections – is seeking a final order compelling Justice Minister Ziyambo Ziyambi to pay the amount into its account.

Khupe stood in the last election representing the MDC-T party, polling just over 45,000 votes while Nelson Chamisa, who led the MDC Alliance, polled over 2.1 million votes, according to official election results.

The Supreme Court however ruled at the end of March this year that Nelson Chamisa’s assumption of the leadership of what was then known as the MDC-T party in February 2018, upon the death of founding leader Morgan Tsvangirai, was irregular.

Tsvangirai had broken the party constitution by elevating Chamisa and Elias Mudzuri to be his deputies in a triumvirate with Khupe, which positioned Chamisa within striking distance of the leadership upon the leader’s death, the court added.

The court ordered an extra-ordinary congress to be held within three months to elect a new leadership, while restoring the party leadership that was in position at the time of Tsvangirai’s death.

Khupe, whose party got two MPs, has now claimed leadership of the MDC Alliance which took part in the last election, despite entering the election as MDC-T leader herself.

MDC Alliance lawyers say the Supreme Court ruling was moot and therefore unenforceable.

Comparing the case to that of a man who seeks promotion at his workplace but dies before a court eventually rules in his favour, Chamisa’s lawyer Advocate Thabani Mpofu said:

“That judgment will not be worth the paper it is written on not because the authority of the court is being disdained, but because the court speaks to an impossibility. It speaks to the past as though it spoke to the present. The proverbial horse has bolted. The company no longer has anyone to promote even with all the will in the world.”

Parliament will invoke the Constitution and Standing Orders to deal decisively with MDC-Alliance legislators who fail to attend sittings without reasonable cause, a Cabinet minister has said.

Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said Parliament would not deal with political parties, but individual legislators, should they fail to attend sittings and portfolio committee meetings.

At least four MPs were expelled from the chamber this week after MDC-T secretary-general, Mr Douglas Mwonzora wrote to Speaker of the National Assembly Advocate Jacob Mudenda saying they were no longer representing the interests of the party.

The four were Mr Charlton Hwende (Kuwadzana East), Prosper Mutseyami (Chikanga-Dangamvura), Tabitha Khumalo (Proportionate Representative) and Midlands Senator Lilian Timveous.

Minister Ziyambi’s remarks followed an announcement yesterday by the MDC-Alliance directing its Members of Parliament to “disengage” from the House.

The directive has since set the Nelson Chamisa-led MDC-Alliance on a collision course with its legislators who are weighing their options on whether or not to heed the decision given that they risk forfeiting the financial benefits that go with the office.

“As Parliament, we do not deal with political parties, but individual MPs when it comes to attendance of sittings and portfolio committee meetings. If a Member of Parliament fails to attend Parliament sittings and portfolio committee meetings the due process will be instituted,” said Minister Ziyambi who is also Leader of Government Business of House.

He said their failure to attend Parliament would not disrupt Parliamentary business given that Zanu PF has a two thirds majority.

Addressing journalists yesterday, MDC-Alliance deputy national chairperson, Mr Job Sikhala said the party’s national standing committee had resolved not to participate in all activities of Parliament by its legislators pending further consultation with a view to withdraw from the august House.

He said the party will not countenance the wishes of individual MPs such as their financial benefits like vehicles and salary.

“This is in the interest of the people and not the interest of individuals,” said Mr Sikhala.

“All MDC-Alliance MPs will forthwith suspend all participation in Parliament and disengage from all platforms in which the party has to interact with Zanu PF pending consultations with the relevant constituencies of the party, that is the electorate and Zimbabweans at large on the decision for a total withdrawal from Parliament.”

Mr Sikhala said Messrs Elias Mudzuri, Morgan Komichi and Mwonzora had “expelled themselves” from the party for working with MDC-T leader Dr Thokozani Khupe who was recently declared legitimate leader of the opposition party by the Supreme Court.

However, Mr Mudzuri dismissed the purported expulsion saying he could not be fired from Parliament by a non-existent political party.

“Ncube fired Tsvangirai (2005), but the party remained; Biti (2014) did the same but left the party intact. Today (2020), Sikhala fires us, but still the party shall remain. Let’s go for the extraordinary congress,” said Mr Mudzuri on his Twitter handle @EngMudzuri.

Adv Mudenda said he could only comment if the MDC-Alliance had put their concerns in writing.

“They have not yet communicated that to me. In the absence of such communication I cannot comment,” said Adv Mudenda.

The decision to direct legislators from the MDC-Alliance has riled most of them as they risk losing sitting allowances, vehicle and other benefits all legislators are entitled.

Besides risking losing financial benefits, the legislators also face expulsion from Parliament should Mr Mwonzora further wield the axe on errant MPs.

-State Media

By Jane Mlambo| Opposition MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa has told his supporters to bear the tough times his movement is going through with the hope that it will translate to tears of joy.

Posting on Twitter, Chamisa whose party lost four legislators early this week after they were recalled by a rival grouping led by Thokozani Khupe said a breakthrough is always preceded by the hardest point.

“Hello Zimbabwe..I’m prompted to remind you that the darkest hour is before dawn.A breakthrough is often preceded by the hardest point.Our tears of sorrow shall soon be tears of joy.Good people always defeat the bad &evil ones.Cease your weeping..Dare mighty things, be legendary!,” said Chamisa.

Soon after the recall of his four legislators namely Prosper Mutseyami, Tabitha Khumalo, Charlton Hwende and Lilian Timveos, Chamisa warned the regime that he was fed up with their machinations.

His party later announced that it had disengaged its legislators from any parliamentary business as a protest against the abuse of state institutions and privileges by the ruling Zanu PF.

By A Correspondent- Lesotho Prime Minister Tom Thabane who is alleged to be involved in the 2017 murder of his estranged wife yesterday reportedly reiterated he would step down by the 31st of July or sooner on grounds of “old age”.

In announcing his decision Thabane said;

I wish to once again reaffirm my decision to retire as prime minister.

I have always been consistent that it is my wish to retire from office by the 31st of July, 2020, or earlier… if all the necessary conditions for my retirement are put in place.

The government and the political party that I lead will coordinate the process of my retirement

Thabane who said his resignation is voluntary, risk getting prosecuted for his alleged involvement in the murder that made the opposition and the ruling party put pressure on Thabane to step down as the murder case hovered over his presidency.-statemedia

By A Correspondent- A taxi driver from Victoria Falls who fled to Botswana after being sentenced to one year imprisonment for draining fuel from two vehicles to refuel his taxi, was arrested soon after release from a local quarantine centre.

Prosper Dziwanyika (32) of 4460 Chinotimba was arrested on Saturday soon after his release from Mosi-oa-Tunya High School quarantine centre where he had been isolated for 21 days following his deportation with other returning citizens.

Dziwanyika fled to Botswana in February this year after being sentenced to 12 months for a case of malicious damage to property and another of theft on January 24. The court suspended three months from the total sentence on condition he did not commit similar offences within five years.

A further seven months was suspended on condition that he performed 245 hours of community service at ZRP Victoria Falls Canine Section which he started on January 27.

The other two months had been suspended on condition that Dziwanyika restituted nearly $2 000 to the complainant Mr Lovemore Ndlovu.

The restitution was the cost of two petrol pipes he cut from two vehicles and was to be paid before January 31. Dziwanyika fled to Botswana before completing the community service or paying the restitution.

He was one of the Zimbabweans who were deported from Botswana early last month and quarantined in Victoria Falls.

Dziwanyika appeared before Victoria Falls magistrate Ms Lindiwe Maphosa for default inquiry. The magistrate brought into effect the whole sentence of 12 months after the court established that he had willfully defaulted both community service and restitution. The court was told that Dziwanyika last performed community service on February 4.

“I went to Botswana in April after asking for time to go and bury my grandmother,” said Dziwanyika when asked why he defaulted.

Prosecuting, Mr Jacob Kuzipa said Dziwanyika cut fuel pipes from Mr Ndlovu’s two vehicles and drained 40 litres of petrol on January 14. The vehicles were parked in front of Mr Ndlovu’s house.

“The complainant discovered the offence next day and reported the matter to the police. Investigations led to the arrest of the Dziwanyika and recovery of 20 litres which was in the taxi he was driving,” said the source.-statemedia

By A Correspondent- Advocate Thabani Mpofu has unpacked the various misconceptions and analysis regarding the Supreme Court ruling which nullified the presidency of opposition leader Nelson Chamisa.

We publish below the full text by Advocate Mpofu:

Various dishonest, insincere not to mention incompetent opinions have been bandied about in the aftermath of the Supreme Court judgment handed down during the lockdown. The matter has been approached with more haste than wisdom.

It is important that I deal, in part, with the anti Chamisa drivel, packaged as legal opinions, to which the public has been exposed. I will for purposes of this piece take those opinions at their highest and will show why they cannot possibly be correct. In many other respects, I will keep my powder dry for bigger game.

It has been suggested that the judgment of the Supreme Court affects President Chamisa’s position as leader of the MDC-Alliance in that it affects what are said to be processes of the MDC-T. This is utter rubbish!!

Ridiculousness unlocked

Let me enlist the aid of an example showing how ridiculous the proposition is. Suppose Mr Zorewa is employed by Fisheries (Private) Limited. Let us suppose further that a dispute erupts between him and his employer; his rejected position being that he is entitled to a promotion.

Let us also suppose that the dispute spills into courts; the matter is argued and judgment reserved. Let us finally suppose that during the intervening period Mr Zorewa dies, though the judgment comes out a few weeks after his death and is in his favour.

The judgment says Mr Zorewa “is” entitled to his promotion and given that the court is not dealing with the intervening circumstances of his death, simply orders that Fisheries (Private) Limited must elevate Zorewa, prepare fresh office space for him consistent with the new car he will drive and change his pay grade.

That judgment will not be worth the paper it is written on not because the authority of the court is being disdained but because the court speaks to an impossibility. It speaks to the past as though it spoke to the present. The proverbial horse has bolted.

The company no longer has anyone to promote even with all the will in the world. Neither can the company promote Mr Zorewa’s wife in his stead. There is no longer a concrete controversy to be arrested by the judgment in its operation. There is nothing on which it can take effect.

The Congress processes

Now when the High Court ordered the holding of an Extra-Ordinary Congress, the quintennial MDC congress had already become due. The judgment of the High Court was appealed, its effect suspended and Congress resultantly held. As it was entitled to do, the MDC passed certain resolutions by which it:

1 Formally adopted the position that Khupe and company had left the party in the first instance by reason of their dismissal therefrom, which dismissal has still not been challenged and also by reason of them having formed a rival political outfit.

Whilst noting the judgment of the High Court which was on appeal, ratified all decisions taken by Dr Morgan Tsvangirai in the appointment of additional Vice Presidents. At law, Congress could ratify even an unlawful decision.

Ratified the election of President Chamisa, by the highest decision making organ outside parliament as well as ratifying the decisions made by him as the leader of the party.

I must state in this regard that the processes by which President Chamisa was elected leader of the party were not chaired by him but by the National Chairman, Komichi.

President Chamisa was validly elected by the highest decision making organ outside congress and the finding to the contrary in the judgment of the High Court was queried by the Supreme Court and necessarily vacated.

Ratified the process by which Congress was convened. This was done for good measure. It is important to point out that Congress was not convened by President Chamisa.

Dispensed with the need for an Extra-Ordinary Congress having noted that its demands and more, had been satisfied by the Gweru Congress. In addition, its demands had been satisfied by time, the quintennial congress having already become due.

The point must be made that voluntary associations are subject to the rule of the majority. The majority has the power to even condone a breach of the constitution or to ratify any action taken outside the law.

It does not matter when this power is exercised by the majority so long as such majority is gathered at a properly convened congress.

What is key is that in this case, the power was exercised by unanimous assent. President Chamisa was elected and the legitimacy question properly buried.

All the decisions set out in paragraphs above were lawfully made and have not been challenged before any court of law.

By A Correspondent- A 70-year-old grandpa has appeared in a Beitbridge court for allegedly fatally stabbing his suspected lover who was married to his friend and neighbour.

Juta Makoni of Chabeta village under headman Siyoka is said to have ripped open the abdomen of his victim Salfina Ndou who died as a result of the attack.

He is also alleged to have stabbed his victim on the hand and later turned the weapon on himself in an unsuccessful suicide attempt.

It is alleged that on May 3, in violation of the COVID-19 lockdown, Makoni and his friend Tambulo Moyo, Ndou’s husband, engaged in a drinking binge.

Makoni later escorted Moyo and after seeing him safely home and indoors, he left for his own homestead.

He returned that night to see Ndou after which an argument ensued resulting in the fatal assault.

Moyo, who is believed to have been dead drunk, did not hear anything, but woke up next to his dead wife who had fallen on their bed after the attack.

But Ndou and Moyo’s child Meritha, awoken by the melee in her parents’ hut, witnessed the unfolding drama through a window, the State claims.

Meritha alerted other villagers who apprehended Makoni, who after realising that he had committed murder, slipped into the night and tried to commit suicide.

Makoni appeared in a court which sat in the male ward of Beitbridge District Hospital and was presided over by magistrate Annia Chimweta, who did not ask for a plea.

Makoni was remanded in custody for two weeks to allow for further investigations and confirmation of his statement in line with procedure.

Oswell Arufandi prosecuted.-Newsday

Zanu Pf's Energy Mutodi has suggested that the masses are saying recalled MDC Alliance MPs must be replaced by NOMINEES instead of going for by elections. Should they be replaced by NOMINEES or the electorate mst be given an opportunity to elect new leaders through BY-ELECTIONS?

— ZimEye (@ZimEye) May 7, 2020

By A Correspondent- Parliament will invoke the Constitution and Standing Orders to deal decisively with MDC-Alliance legislators who fail to attend sittings without reasonable cause, a Cabinet minister has said.

Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said Parliament would not deal with political parties, but individual legislators, should they fail to attend sittings and portfolio committee meetings.

At least four MPs were expelled from the chamber this week after MDC-T secretary-general, Mr Douglas Mwonzora wrote to Speaker of the National Assembly Advocate Jacob Mudenda saying they were no longer representing the interests of the party.

The four were Mr Charlton Hwende (Kuwadzana East), Prosper Mutseyami (Chikanga-Dangamvura), Tabitha Khumalo (Proportionate Representative) and Midlands Senator Lilian Timveous. Minister Ziyambi’s remarks followed an announcement yesterday by the MDC-Alliance directing its Members of Parliament to “disengage” from the House.

The directive has since set the Nelson Chamisa-led MDC-Alliance on a collision course with its legislators who are weighing their options on whether or not to heed the decision given that they risk forfeiting the financial benefits that go with the office.

“As Parliament, we do not deal with political parties, but individual MPs when it comes to attendance of sittings and portfolio committee meetings. If a Member of Parliament fails to attend Parliament sittings and portfolio committee meetings the due process will be instituted,” said Minister Ziyambi who is also Leader of Government Business of House.

He said their failure to attend Parliament would not disrupt Parliamentary business given that Zanu PF has a two thirds majority.

Addressing journalists yesterday, MDC-Alliance deputy national chairperson, Mr Job Sikhala said the party’s national standing committee had resolved not to participate in all activities of Parliament by its legislators pending further consultation with a view to withdraw from the august House. He said the party will not countenance the wishes of individual MPs such as their financial benefits like vehicles and salary.

“This is in the interest of the people and not the interest of individuals,” said Mr Sikhala. “All MDC-Alliance MPs will forthwith suspend all participation in Parliament and disengage from all platforms in which the party has to interact with Zanu PF pending consultations with the relevant constituencies of the party, that is the electorate and Zimbabweans at large on the decision for a total withdrawal from Parliament.”

Mr Sikhala said Messrs Elias Mudzuri, Morgan Komichi and Mwonzora had “expelled themselves” from the party for working with MDC-T leader Dr Thokozani Khupe who was recently declared legitimate leader of the opposition party by the Supreme Court. However, Mr Mudzuri dismissed the purported expulsion saying he could not be fired from Parliament by a non-existent political party.

“Ncube fired Tsvangirai (2005), but the party remained; Biti (2014) did the same but left the party intact. Today (2020), Sikhala fires us, but still the party shall remain. Let’s go for the extraordinary congress,” said Mr Mudzuri on his Twitter handle @EngMudzuri. Adv Mudenda said he could only comment if the MDC-Alliance had put their concerns in writing.

“They have not yet communicated that to me. In the absence of such communication I cannot comment,” said Adv Mudenda.

The decision to direct legislators from the MDC-Alliance has riled most of them as they risk losing sitting allowances, vehicle and other benefits all legislators are entitled. Besides risking losing financial benefits, the legislators also face expulsion from Parliament should Mr Mwonzora further wield the axe on errant MPs.-Newsday

By A Correspondent- South African immigration officials at Beitbridge Border Post were yesterday reportedly imposing five-year bans on returning Zimbabweans without explanation.

This was revealed yesterday when 141 returnees arrived aboard three buses from Johannesburg.

Immigration officials at Beitbridge were not immediately available for comment.

Beitbridge east legislator Albert Nguluvhe said imposing bans on returnees might have been an overreaction considering that some of the returnees were shoppers caught up when the lockdown to stop the spread of coronavirus commenced.

“I am not sure if this is the international arrangement, but I think South African immigration officials at Beitbridge are overreacting,” Nguluvhe said.

Sharon Sibanda (27) of Filabusi said all those aboard the bus she was on had a five-year ban imposed.

“They did not explain, but just banned us. They seemed cheeky,” she said.

Of the 141 who arrived, 51 were from Cape Town, who arrived earlier in the morning while the remainder arrived after midday. They were screened by health officials and profiled by Social Welfare Department officials who immediately separated them according to their destinations.

At least four Zupco buses were on standby to ferry them to their various provinces while some will be quarantined in Gwanda, Masvingo, harare, Gweru, Bulawayo and Mutare

SOUTH African immigration officials at Beitbridge Border Post were yesterday reportedly imposing five-year bans on returning Zimbabweans without explanation.

This was revealed yesterday when 141 returnees arrived aboard three buses from Johannesburg.

Immigration officials at Beitbridge were not immediately available for comment.

Beitbridge east legislator Albert Nguluvhe said imposing bans on returnees might have been an overreaction considering that some of the returnees were shoppers caught up when the lockdown to stop the spread of coronavirus commenced.

“I am not sure if this is the international arrangement, but I think South African immigration officials at Beitbridge are overreacting,” Nguluvhe said.

Sharon Sibanda (27) of Filabusi said all those aboard the bus she was on had a five-year ban imposed.

“They did not explain, but just banned us. They seemed cheeky,” she said.

Of the 141 who arrived, 51 were from Cape Town, who arrived earlier in the morning while the remainder arrived after midday. They were screened by health officials and profiled by Social Welfare Department officials who immediately separated them according to their destinations.

At least four Zupco buses were on standby to ferry them to their various provinces while some will be quarantined in Gwanda, Masvingo, harare, Gweru, Bulawayo and Mutare.

Former Movement for Democratic Change-Tsvangirai, Vice President Engineer Elias Mudzuri, has laughed off claims by the MDC-Alliance that he has been expelled from the party.

In a communiqué, the party said: “The MDC Alliance has noted that Morgen Komichi, Douglas Mwonzora and Elias Mudzuri have decided to cooperate with ZANU-PF and the state.

“They therefore have expelled themselves from the MDC Alliance and are forthwith relieved of their positions and membership in the party. They are further withdrawn from all positions to which they had been deployed by the party. Replacements have been made and shall be announced in due course.”

In response, Mudzuri, whose vice-presidency in the party was also ruled illegal, tweeted:

How can I be fired from Parliament by a non – existent political party? Ncube fired Tsvangirai (2005) but the party remained Biti (2014) did the same but left the party intact Today(2020) Sikhala fires us but still the party shall remain Let's go for the Extraordinary Congress

— Elias Mudzuri (@EngMudzuri) May 7, 2020

“How can I be fired from Parliament by a non – existent political party?

“Ncube (Welshman) fired Tsvangirai (2005) but the party remained Biti (2014) did the same but left the party intact Today(2020) Sikhala fires us but still the party shall remain Let’s go for the Extraordinary Congress.” said Mudzuri in his Twitter page.

Addressing journalists yesterday, MDC-Alliance deputy national chairperson, Mr Job Sikhala said the party’s national standing committee had resolved not to participate in all activities of Parliament by its legislators pending further consultation with a view to withdraw from the august House.

He said the party will not countenance the wishes of individual MPs such as their financial benefits like vehicles and salary.

“This is in the interest of the people and not the interest of individuals,” said Mr Sikhala.

“All MDC-Alliance MPs will forthwith suspend all participation in Parliament and disengage from all platforms in which the party has to interact with Zanu PF pending consultations with the relevant constituencies of the party, that is the electorate and Zimbabweans at large on the decision for a total withdrawal from Parliament.”

MDC Deputy National Chairman Job Sikhala has taken former party colleague Douglas Mwonzora for the deaths of three members of the Morgan Tsvangirai family.

Emotionally writing on Twitter, Sikhala called Mwonzora an undercover agent who has information about the death of the 3 Tsvangirai family members.

Sikhala tweeted:

Undercover @DMwonzoraknows & has info on Mai Susan Tsvangirai’s accident which led to her death .

Dogg knows bout M. R. Tsvangirai cause of cancer which led to M.T’s death

Dogg knows &has info on what caused the accident which led 2the death of Tsvangirai’s daughter Vimbai.

https://twitter.com/JobWiwaSikala/status/1257881124967235584?s=19

Susan Tsvangirai died in a car accident in 2009, Morgan Tsvangirai succumbed to cancer on 14 February 2018 while Vimbai Tsvangirai passed on in hospital on 10 June 2019, a few weeks after being involved in an accident.

Source: Twitter 

Advocate Thabani Mpofu who is the lawyer of opposition leader Nelson Chamisa has claimed that the recalling of four MDC legislators from Parliament was illegal.

Below is Mpofu’s submission.

The illegal recall

Purporting to give effect to the Supreme Court judgment by recalling MDC-Alliance MPs from Parliament is unlawful for many reasons. I give a few:

Douglas Mwonzora is no longer the Secretary-General of the political party whether it be called MDC-T or MDC-Alliance.

The Alliance is a political party for purposes of the Electoral Act, was recognised as such by ZEC and contested the elections in its name and right. That counts for something. Various judgments of the court accept that including the 137 paged judgment in the presidential election petition. You would need to temporarily suspend honour and reality before you can take a position to the contrary.

Contrary to popular belief based on hysteria, the Alliance does not need a written constitution constituting it as a universitas personarum at law. A universitas personarum is created by contract. Such contract can be reflected in a constitution but does not have to be. It could be orally established. In certain instances, the contract may even be established by conduct. Surely that there is a political party known as the MDC-Alliance is known even by my dog.

The relationship between the MDC-T and MDC-Alliance has been completely if not dishonestly misunderstood. The Speaker of Parliament does not at law know anything other than the political parties represented in Parliament. He is not required to know how they came into existence much the same way he cannot take notice of the relationship between Zanu PF and organisations that support and have established synergies with it. He only knows that there is an MDC-Alliance which has members directly elected and yet others elected by proportional representation through a party list system. The party list system was utilised on an MDC-Alliance list. He cannot be blind to that reality “only for five minutes” during a national lockdown. Neither can he properly forget that there is a political party in his House called the MDC-T.

For my present purposes, I wish to make it abundantly clear that this is the position in law. In law, the processes of the MDC-Alliance cannot and have not been affected by anything. To the contrary, they have been insulated by the Gweru congress whose resolutions have legal effect.

The Supreme Court judgment came late in the day and has no effect for the reasons I have given. As regards Parliamentary business, the Speaker can only deal with the MDC-Alliance in matters that affect MDC-Alliance members. THIS IS THE LAW!

Advocate Thabani Mpofu is a lawyer for MDC-Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa

The Ministry would like to report that today, 1150 rapid screening tests and 333 PCR tests were done in the public sector. No PCR tests were done in Bulawayo today. All the PCR tests done in Harare today were negative for COVID-19. Therefore, to date, Zimbabwe has thirty-four confirmed cases. including nine recoveries and four deaths.

The latest recoveries include 4 cases from Harare. These were confirmed through two consecutive PCR negative tests from samples taken at least 24 hrs apart in line with the WHO guidance.

Cumulatively, a total of 9 594 rapid screening tests and 8 141 PCR diagnostic tests have been done to date.

Most of the screening tests were conducted on returning residents who were screened for COVID-19 at our ports of entry. As one of the mitigatory measures against COVID-19. all returning residents will undergo mandatory quarantine at designated centres. Additionally. diagnostic PCR testing will he done on all before discharge from the quarantine centre.

The Ministry continues to be on HIGH alert to the COVID-I9 pandemic and would like to remind the nation the most effective ways to protect yourself and others against COVID-19 are to practise good personal hygiene, always wear a face mask in public places and exercise social distancing.

The Opposition Movement for Democratic Party (MDC) has dismissed allegations by the Deputy Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Energy Mutodi, that Nelson Chamisa faces arrest for misusing party coffers.

Commotion in MDC-Alliance as over 40 MDCT legislators disagree with decision to withdraw from Parliament. Chamisa also faces arrest for misappropriating party funds.

— Dr Energy Mutodi (@energymutodi) May 7, 2020

Mutodi had posted on Twitter reiterating the claims which were previously made on social media which suggested that Chamisa had directed into personal use the $2 million dollars which MDC was allocated under the Parties Act.

The MDC responded:

2. Stop telling malicious, defamatory lies. President @nelsonchamisa has no power to misappropriate party funds as he is not a signatory to any of the party accounts. Only the Treasurer-General @DavidColtart & Secretary-General @hwendec control party finances. https://t.co/FGJalxec2J

— Citizens' Coalition for Change (@CCCZimbabwe) May 7, 2020

All councils have been given the green light to continue cleaning-up and renovating workspaces occupied by informal traders to improve their state ahead of resumption of business when the lockdown ends, according to a Government circular.

Some informal traders and residents’ associations had blocked the exercise after lodging an urgent chamber application at the High Court seeking an order to stop the demolition of illegal structures countrywide.

The High Court recently ordered local authorities to stop the demolition of workspaces used by informal traders in Epworth and Chitungwiza saying the act was illegal.

Government’s latest directive is contained in a circular5 May 2020 written by Secretary for Local Government and Public Works Mr Zvinechimwe Churu.

It was directed to all town clerks, town secretaries and chief executive officers.

Reads the circular in part: “The court in its final determination ordered that the Circular Minute Number 3 of 2020 is legal and the clean-ups and renovations of Small and Medium Enterprises and informal traders’ workspaces by local authorities should proceed.” Chitungwiza Residents Trust (Chitrest), which is part of the group that approached the High Court to block the demolition of tuckshops and vending stalls, yesterday raised a red flag again.

“The circular is misleading. The court order never said the circular was lawful. The lawfulness of the circular has not yet been decided. We got a consent order stopping the demolitions as they are un-procedural so as residents we stick to that,” said Chitrest director Alice Kuveya.

In the initial circular dated April 8, 2020, Mr Churu said Cabinet had directed all local authorities to take advantage of the national lockdown to clean-up and renovate workspaces occupied by informal traders and by small and medium enterprises “so that these areas will be more conducive to operate from when business reopens”.

The circular designated as essential the workers doing the renovations and clean-up.

In the consent order stopping the demolitions, residents and vendors organisations including Kushinga Epworth Residents’ Association were represented by Dr Tarisai Mutangi and Moses Nkomo of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.

They said the widespread demolition, by local and central Government, of tuckshops, vending stalls and other property used by small and medium enterprises and informal traders was unlawful and should be stopped immediately.

MDC MPs quitting parliament sounds like the juiciest news in ZANU PF’s ears.

An overly excited Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi has immediately warned that parliament will quickly invoke the Constitution and Standing Orders to deal decisively with MDC-Alliance legislators who fail to attend parliament sittings.

Ziyambi Ziyambi said Parliament would not deal with political parties, but individual legislators, should they fail to attend sittings and portfolio committee meetings.

Minister Ziyambi’s remarks followed an announcement yesterday by the MDC-Alliance directing its Members of Parliament to “disengage” from the House.

“As Parliament, we do not deal with political parties, but individual MPs when it comes to attendance of sittings and portfolio committee meetings. If a Member of Parliament fails to attend Parliament sittings and portfolio committee meetings the due process will be instituted,” said Minister Ziyambi who is also Leader of Government Business of House.

He said their failure to attend Parliament would not disrupt Parliamentary business given that Zanu PF has a two thirds majority.

Addressing journalists yesterday, MDC-Alliance deputy national chairperson, Mr Job Sikhala said the party’s national standing committee had resolved not to participate in all activities of Parliament by its legislators pending further consultation with a view to withdraw from the august House.

He said the party will not countenance the wishes of individual MPs such as their financial benefits like vehicles and salary.

“This is in the interest of the people and not the interest of individuals,” said Mr Sikhala.

“All MDC-Alliance MPs will forthwith suspend all participation in Parliament and disengage from all platforms in which the party has to interact with Zanu PF pending consultations with the relevant constituencies of the party, that is the electorate and Zimbabweans at large on the decision for a total withdrawal from Parliament.”

Mr Sikhala said Messrs Elias Mudzuri, Morgan Komichi and Mwonzora had “expelled themselves” from the party for working with MDC-T leader Dr Thokozani Khupe who was recently declared legitimate leader of the opposition party by the Supreme Court.

Adv Mudenda said he could only comment if the MDC-Alliance had put their concerns in writing.

“They have not yet communicated that to me. In the absence of such communication I cannot comment,” said Adv Mudenda.

The decision to direct legislators from the MDC-Alliance has riled most of them as they risk losing sitting allowances, vehicle and other benefits all legislators are entitled.

Besides risking losing financial benefits, the legislators also face expulsion from Parliament should Mr Mwonzora further wield the axe on errant MPs.

Source: State Media

GOVERNMENT has dismissed as false, reports that Zimbabwe has deployed troops to Mozambique stressing that it will tell the people, as constitutionally required, if forces are sent outside the country.

Defence and War Veterans Affairs Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri said the Government had noted with concern continued false reports claiming that Zimbabwe had deployed its army to fight an Islamic State insurgency in Mozambique.

In a statement, Minister Muchinguri-Kashiri said the deployment of soldiers in foreign countries was governed by the Constitution and members of the public would be told whenever the Government makes such a decision.

“The Ministry of Defence and War Veterans Affairs would like to inform the public that it is not true that the Zimbabwe Defence Forces has deployed troops in Mozambique to fight some armed elements destabilising that country. The deployment allegations are not only outright falsehoods but malicious hence the fake news should be dismissed with the contempt it deserves.

Whenever the ZDF is deployed, the population is always informed in accordance with the dictates of the country’s Constitution,” said Minister Muchinguri-Kashiri.

There have been disturbances in some parts of Mozambique where gruesome acts have been committed by Islamist terrorists.

A fortnight ago President Mnangagwa held a one-day working meeting with Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi in Chimoio, where they discussed the security situation in Cabo Delgado and parts of Mozambique’s Manica and Sofala provinces.

The two leaders shared information and exchanged views on the political and economic situation in their two countries, Sadc, Africa and the world at large.-State media

Farai Dziva|MDC Alliance national youth leader Tererai Obey Sithole has declared that the vibrant wing is prepared to fight for real change in spite of desperate attempts by Zanu PF to destroy the people’s movement.

See full statement below :
The events that have unraveled in our country over the past month have proven beyond any reasonable doubt that we are at war with ZANU-PF and that the war requires nothing short of our vigilance and clarity to confront the people’s enemy head on.

It has become more clearer that it is ZANUPF’s immediate plan to destroy the our party, the people’s party and consequently suffocating the democratic space in Zimbabwe and this has been further confirmed by the recent illegal recalling of four MDC Alliance MPs.

We would like to state it categorically, here and now that any plans to undermine the very stability of our party will not be taken lightly, we are up for the task to protect all the democratic space.

In that regard, we would like to assure the generality of the citizenry that we the young people, remain resolute in the execution of our democratic revolution for the restoration of hope and dignity to the citizens of this country.

The pregnancy of a cat does not bother a bull, we are MDC Alliance, we are unmoved by the happenings in other parties even those that aspire to be us, we remain solidly behind our visionary leader, the only legitimate foot forward, President Nelson Chamisa.

While others remain busy in planning to destroy us, I urge every young person of this country to get ready, stand up and be counted as we embark on a series of political action in defense of democracy which is under serious threat and the broad implementation of our #Agenda2020.

Zimbabwe has been robbed of almost everything else by the illegitimate Mnangagwa and his cabal, we would like to warn the regime and its enablers that we will defend what is left for us fearlessly by all means necessary.

Stay calm Zimbabwe, Wamba Dia Wamba is in charge and we are on guard.

Obey Sithole
“Cde Luther”
MDC Alliance Youth Chairperson

Farai Dziva|Discredited Zanu PF heavyweight Obert Mpofu has claimed the ruling party has nothing to do with the infighting in the Movement for Democratic Change.

Said Mpofu:
“That’s a recognition that we are the party in power.

We are the party of choice. The MDC is grappling with a decision by the Supreme Court and how Zanu-PF comes into it is something we fail to understand.

We are happy that the law has taken its course, not only to MDC, but in all court cases, as a law abiding party, as a law abiding Government.

So it’s not a question of being happy but respecting the rule of law which they have been talking about themselves and in any case it’s not Zanu-PF that went to court it’s themselves that went to court so the problem there is their own making and Zanu-PF can only say the law has taken its course.”

He added:”They think that by aligning with him Zanu-PF, their supporters will believe that he is Zanu-PF but he is not. But what would you expect from a frustrated and defeated leader?”

Communique from the
National Standing Committee read by MDC national vice chairperson Hon Job Sikhala

The National Standing Committee of the MDC -Alliance met in Harare and made the following resolutions:

1. The Standing Committee noted the perverse and insidious attempt by ZANUPF and its proxies to dismember the MDC Alliance by executing a coup against the legitimately elected leadership of the MDC Alliance under the guise of implementing the equally insidious judgement of the Supreme Court which seeks to foist ZANUPF proxies as leaders of the MDC Alliance in brazen violation of the MDC Constitution.
2. The MDC Alliance Parliamentary Caucus shall forthwith suspend its participation in all Parliamentary processes, programmes and activities pending the party’s consultations with its structures and a final resolution of the National Council on the way forward given the ZANUPF insidious attempted coup against the elected and legitimate leadership of the MDC Alliance.
3. The MDC Alliance shall forthwith disengage from all platforms in which the party has to interact with Zanu PF.

4.The Standing Committee noted that Zanu PF staged an illegal and unconstitutional coup against Robert Mugabe in November 2017 and yet another one on the 30th July 2018 against the people’s sovereign will by which the people had elected Nelson Chamisa as the President of the country.

5. The Standing Committee further noted the in progress attempt to stage yet another coup, this time against the leadership of the MDC Alliance duly elected at the party’s Congress in Gweru in May 2019, a Congress which has not been set aside by any Court of law.
6. The Standing Committee resolved to reject in toto and with utter contempt the ZANUPF and its proxies attempt to foist modern day Muzorewas as leaders of the MDC Alliance.

7.The Standing Committee maintains the truism that only the MDC Alliance has the power and authority to recall iMPs elected under its ticket.

8The Standing Committee resolved to urgently consult the structures of the party at Provincial and constituency levels through the National Executive Committee and the National Council on appropriate responses to the attempts to dismember the party by staging a coup against its elected leadership.

9.The MDC Alliance will not allow Zanu PF to hold a Congress under the name of the MDC. Zanu PF cannot write another political party’s constitution and hold a congress under its name.

10.The Standing Committee noted that Morgen Komichi, Douglas Mwonzora and Elias Mudzuri expelled themselves from the MDC Alliance by joining another party and thereby automatically expelled themselves from the party which has accordingly resolved to relieve them of their positions in the party and to withdraw them from all positions to which they had been deployed by the party.

11.The Standing Committee resolved to demand all monies due to the MDC Alliance under the Political Parties Finance Act and to take all necessary steps and measures to lain claim to its money.

12.The Covid-19 Supreme Court judgement has engendered an illegality by seeking to extend the mandates of the 2014 structures which had since expired. The terms of office of all 2014 structures expired in October 2019 and the toxic judgement illegally seeks to give a Lazarus moment by seeking to resurrect the expired mandate of the 2014 MDC-T structures.

13
The meeting took note of the COVID19 pandemic and the dislocated livelihoods of the vulnerable and the majority of Zimbabweans who are surviving in the informal sector. The illegitimate regime has provided no safety nets whatsoever to assist the despondent Zimbabweans.

They have instead destroyed the vending stalls where the majority of Zimbabweans are eking a living through informal trading

The Ministry would like to report that all the PCR tests done in and Bulawayo on the 5S of May 2020 were negative for COVID-19.

Cumulatively a total of 8 244 rapid screening tests and 7 808 PCR diagnostic tests have been done to date.

Today 564 rapid screening tests and 667 PCR tests were done.

In the public institutions all the PCR tests done today were negative for COVID-19.

Therefore to date
Zimbabwe has thirty -four confirmed cases, including five recoveries and four deaths.

The Ministry continues to implement a comprehensive approach in response to COVID-19- this includes prevention and intensified survailance to ensure early case detection timely testing, isolation and appropriate case management.

Seven days have passed since the last reported PCR confirmed case.

The Ministry continues to be on HIGH alert to the COVID-19 pandemic and would like to remind the nation the most effective ways to protect yourself and others against COVID-19 are to practise personal hygiene and exercise social distancing.

Wash your hands frequently with soap and water or use an alcohol-based hand rub.

Cover your nose and mouth with tissue paper or flexed elbow when coughing and sneezing. ..

Maintain at least 1 metre (3 feet) disinter between yourself and others.

Always wear a face mask in public places.

DARING armed robbers raided a Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) container depot in Bulawayo and went away with a consignment of 148 boxes of Broncleer, a cough mixture which was banned over abuse as a euphoric drug.

The total value of the contraband, which includes four cases of gin, is about US$20 000.

The stolen goods believed to have been smuggled from South Africa were confiscated by Zimra on Tuesday and the gang struck at the depot on the same day at around 7.30PM.

The suspects were armed with an FN rifle and they threatened to shoot the security guards who were manning the premises in the event that they raised alarm before tying their hands using a rope.

The suspects whose exact number could not ascertained used bolt cutters to destroy the locks at the main gate to access the premises.

They found four security guards and ordered them to lie down at gunpoint before they tied them and offloaded the impounded goods from the truck.

The contraband, which was concealed under a consignment of groceries, was being transported to Bulawayo in a haulage truck when it was intercepted by police in Esigodini.

The truck was seized and taken to the Zimra container depot at Raylton Industrial Area in Bulawayo.-State media

Watch the live video loading below……

Zanu Pf's Energy Mutodi has suggested that the masses are saying recalled MDC Alliance MPs must be replaced by NOMINEES instead of going for by elections. Should they be replaced by NOMINEES or the electorate mst be given an opportunity to elect new leaders through BY-ELECTIONS?

— ZimEye (@ZimEye) May 7, 2020

Constitutional Law lawyer, Professor Lovemore Madhuku has said that the recalling of four MDC Alliance MPs from Parliament was in accordance with the Constitution.

He said this in remarks on Twitter in response to questions by Open Parly who wanted to know the legality of the move.

Madhuku who was representing Thokozani Khupe in the MDC stewardship case which she eventually won said:

The MPs were recalled in terms of section 129(1)(k) of the Constitution. That section refers to “a political party of which he or she was a member when elected”. Parliament proceeded on the basis that party concerned is the MDC and not MDC ALLIANCE. Only a court can reverse.

His remarks come when MDC members aligned to Nelson Chamisa are saying that the recalling of the legislators is a political move by the ruling ZANU PF.

They said that Thokozani Khupe who was reinstated by the Supreme Court as the leader of the opposition MDC has no authority to “recall legislators who belong to MDC Alliance since she was reinstated as the leader of the MDC-T.”

Douglas Mwonzora, the reinstated MDC-T Secretary-General says the recalled members had “expelled themselves from the MDC-T, the party they belonged to which joined the MDC Alliance in 2018 and for the purposes of that year’s elections,” therefore they had to be recalled.

More: Lovemore Madhuku

Pindula

REGISTRAR General (RG) Clemence Masango will spend another night in police cells awaiting his court appearance this Friday.

Masango was expected to appear in court Thursday but he did not show up amid reports that his docket was still being prepared by police investigating officers.

The RG was arrested by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) Wednesday on allegations of flouting tender procedures.

ZACC spokesperson John Makamure said he is facing two counts of abuse of public office and flouting tender procedures.

Makamure claimed in the first count, Masango purchased Ford Ranger Wilde truck and five Isuzu trucks without authority and following tender procedures.

“The value of Wilde Track is valued at US$78 000 while Isuzu pickup trucks are at US$95 000,” said Makamure.

On the second count, the former high ranking police officer is accused of abusing his office by diverting seven vehicles meant for use at the Registrar’s district offices for personal use at his farm and house.

State run Herald Deputy Editor Ranga Mataire (RM) spoke to MDC-T secretary-general Senator Douglas Mwonzora (DM) on the reasons behind the recall of four MDC legislators and the way forward on leadership wrangles that threaten to decimate the opposition political party.

Mwonzora said party leader Nelson Chamisa disrespected them leading to the move to recall the MPs.

Read the interview below.

RM: Mr Mwonzora, I understand you are a signatory to a letter to the Speaker of Parliament requesting the recalling of four MDC-T legislators. What informed this decision?
DM: Basically, the four are senior members who ought to have acted responsibly in the discharge of their duties, particularly after the Supreme Court ruling, which directed that we revert to the 2014 structures.

RM: Have you tried yourself or as a group to engage Mr Chamisa after the Supreme Court ruling?
DM: Yes, we did through Honourable Elias Mudzuri. He tried to set an appointment with Advocate Chamisa. He was not forthcoming and we sense that he did not have enough respect for us. Maybe he thought that we don’t matter.

But as I said before, our aim is never to divide the party, but to have a responsible leadership. If you can see; Adv Chamisa has not commented for one month. He has not commented on the Supreme Court decision and we think that he has commented via his deputy presidents and other party officials who were just dismissive.

All they would say is that anybody speaking a different opinion was a ZANU PF agent. That’s their standard answer. Anybody who differs with them is ZANU PF and is supposed to have been bought. Sometimes they even volunteer figures. This is their trademark and its tragic. These are young people and they ought to do things in a modern way.

RM: When you say “us” and “them”, who are you referring to?
DM: The party, the majority is us. The people who are saying let’s follow the law; let’s follow values, let us be a party of discipline, let’s follow our own constitution and let us be a party of rules. It is critically important. I heard someone saying that why should we worry about the constitution and what does it help?

The world’s biggest economy is the United States economy and that country’s economy is predicated on its strong constitution and the respect for that constitution. If you have respect for constitution, you will then have respect for institutions and a country with strong and inclusive institutions has been shown by empirical evidence to develop faster.

Even in commerce, we must have rules otherwise we have corruption and clientelism setting in.

Constitutionalism is critically important. People who meet in a particular political party are not necessarily friends. They are united by certain values. A political party must be known for something. It must be known to represent something. Does it represent democracy? Does it represent nationalism? Does it represent anarchy? Where we were going was anarchy.

RM: How do you respond to the accusation that what is happening has happened before and you are a divisive element sent by ZANU PF to destroy the MDC? Others are saying Mr Chamisa will remain the MDC-T leader in the court of public opinion despite the Supreme Court’s ruling.
DM: Well, what has happened has not happened before. Definitely not. This is very unique. This is a division caused by a court judgment. And the difference between all the court judgments in the past, for example, the court judgment versus President Mnangagwa. It was a court judgment versus an external person.

In this court case, it was an MDC’s Elias Mashavira who is the organising secretary in Gokwe versus the MDC president. So it was MDC versus MDC. It was an internal dispute that spilled onto the public arena.

Once you have an internal dispute between yourselves and is resolved by the highest court in the land, you have to obey it because if you don’t, when that dispute comes back home, it doesn’t go away. That’s why some of us were saying we must follow the ruling.

So the basis for the division is between anarchy and lawfulness. It is a moral issue. It is not always true that there was a problem of Biti and Tsvangirai and the former lost in the court of public opinion and there was a problem between Welshman and Tsvangirai and again Welshman lost in the court of public opinion.

Therefore, if there is a conflict between Chamisa and Komichi or Chamisa and Mwonzora then the court of public opinion will be in Chamisa’s favour.

History will show that this is too early for people to write off other people. Nelson Chamisa is certainly not Tsvangirai and the disputes are different. The worrying thing is that instead of listening to one another to say what exactly is the issue, people rush to say you have been bought by ZANU PF and that I am sponsored.

I can’t be sponsored by ZANU-PF. I have been a lawyer for almost 30 years and in those years I have attempted three times to write the Constitution of Zimbabwe. I failed on two occasions, but on the third occasion together with others, I succeeded. My passion is constitutionalism. It is order, it is against anarchy.

RM: Assuming that we have by-elections for the seats left vacant by the recalled MPs, how do you foresee the candidates in terms of their representations?
DM: These will be by-elections you have never seen before. I am sure you have seen the number of people in the provinces writing statements in support of the court judgments. There have been statements from youths in Manicaland, Masvingo, Mashonaland Central, women in Mashonaland East, youths in Harare and I am told that the South African province has also issued a statement. This is unprecedented in the history of the movement and leaders must begin to listen.

RM: But Mr Mwonzora, I don’t remember any youths in Harare issuing a statement in support of the Supreme Court ruling.
DM: Yes, through Paul Gorekore, he issued a statement a few days ago and I can send you a copy.

RM: So Mr Mwonzora, you are saying we don’t anticipate to have more MPs  recalled? The ones who were recalled were the ones who had acted irresponsibly as leaders.
DM: Not only that. They actually did something that was positively wrong. Besides being in authority, they actually acted in a manner that invited the recall. For example, Mr Hwende tweeted that he was no longer a member of the MDC that was once led by Tsvangirai.

That was a positive act and that is a statement we can never allow. First of all, it is factually incorrect and secondly, it is politically incorrect.

RM: Lastly, how far have you gone with preparations for the extraordinary congress?
DM: The preparations are going on very well. We have been reconstructing the structures because there was a lack of cooperation on the part of the immediate past administration.

They were refusing to give us information of the people. But we are now in communication with these people. We have, of course, been disturbed by the Covid-19 pandemic, which makes certain organisation methods not appropriate.

For example, we are going to have our national council meeting online on Friday. And then after that we will find ways of getting to the delegates without jeopardising their health and our technical team is looking at all this. On Friday, we will be announcing the date of the congress and unveiling the rules concerning the nomination of the candidates. Our hope is that if we get one candidate nominated unopposed, then there may not be need for a bigger gathering.

Once a candidate has been nominated unopposed, then they are automatically elected unopposed.

RM: Then how do you hope to resolve the issue of the party headquarters currently occupied by the faction aligned to Mr Chamisa?
DM: We have said to the people who were occupying the building that they should hand it over, but they have not done so.

In fact, they have been promising a bloodbath. I am told there are about 30 youths holed inside there with all manner of crude weapons to do harm to anybody who comes. Now, that is something we cannot accept. We are trying to use dialogue and persuasion for them to see sense and do what is right. The long and short of it is that we will have the building.

The MDC Alliance Parliamentary Caucus will forthwith suspend its participation in all Parliamentary processes, programmes and activities pending the party’s consultations with its structures.

This was said by the party’s national vice chairperson Job Sikhala during a media briefing in Harare on Thursday.

Meantime BREAKING NEWS is that an attempt by Douglas Mwonzora to take over the party headquarters MRT House with the help of the police has failed.

10 ZRP Police allegedly stormed MRT House accompanied by Rhino Mashaya. They had come to effect a letter from Mwonzora instructing the security team to hand over keys to Mashaya and Crew.

Follow our live discussion on these issues on the video downloading below:

2/ The political parties in this country have perception challenges. People have lost confidence in political parties. I see an influx of Independent legislators, especially in areas where the elected are popular & serve the people.

— Sabhuku Temba P. Mliswa (@TembaMliswa) May 7, 2020

4/ The only safe person in Parly is myself, an Independent as I cannot be recalled by anybody, I can only recall myself. Once people understand what being Independent means, the number of Independent MPs is likely to increase. The way to go is Independence.

— Sabhuku Temba P. Mliswa (@TembaMliswa) May 7, 2020

6/ It’s important to realise the true extent & depth of people’s despondency. The by-elections will illustrate whether people are for @nelsonchamisa or not. Will the numbers emerging be more or less?

— Sabhuku Temba P. Mliswa (@TembaMliswa) May 7, 2020

8/ Chamisa must now prove his mettle as a true brand, the so called two million people that followed him must now come through. Unfortunately most Presidential voters, don’t belong to political parties, this fact usually emerges during an election.

— Sabhuku Temba P. Mliswa (@TembaMliswa) May 7, 2020

10/ The real issue here is @ZANUPF_Official can’t celebrate too soon. Political parties must stop seizing opportunities through other parties by negative means. ZANU-PF at times acts like an opposition party not the governing party.

— Sabhuku Temba P. Mliswa (@TembaMliswa) May 7, 2020

12/ I don’t think they will though. If they were well organised, they could do a lot that would be difficult to amend in the future. However history will show that there are many constitutional amendments that have never seen the light of day due to the lack of organisation

— Sabhuku Temba P. Mliswa (@TembaMliswa) May 7, 2020

14/MDC are confused, this will be a test. If they really believe in their vision & leader Chamisa, resigning en masse isn’t an option. The trouble with Zim politics is the politicians are not wealthy. After vacating their office as a legislator they’ve no other means of income.

— Sabhuku Temba P. Mliswa (@TembaMliswa) May 7, 2020

16/ Ultimately @nelsonchamisa will know who’s for him & who’s not, an important lesson to go through in life. When I was persecuted by the RGM/Chihuri regime, I knew who was for me & who wasn’t, I knew who was powerful & who wasn’t; but ultimately God was forever there.

— Sabhuku Temba P. Mliswa (@TembaMliswa) May 7, 2020

18/ Politics is about being on the ground for people, not just appearing in Parly. Sitting in Parly is a fraction of what’s needed to be done as a politician, the rest is on the ground with the people.

— Sabhuku Temba P. Mliswa (@TembaMliswa) May 7, 2020

20/ I look forward to their comeback as we need a strong opposition in this country to keep the ruling party on their toes. MDC needs to put its house in order as there was a cocktail of bananas, apples, oranges etc they need to separate themselves&understand who they really are

— Sabhuku Temba P. Mliswa (@TembaMliswa) May 7, 2020