Heavily armed riot police officers totalling around 50 raided my house yesterday at 5am. I was in bed by the time they arrived. My wife woke me up and told me that there were strangers at the house as people in the vicinity were shouting.

I woke up and went outside and realized ferocious faced elements breathing as if there was shortage of oxygen. We anticipated those who shouted from a distance and on social media that they were coming to besiege my house.

I quickly noticed and realized one ZANU PF youth in riot gear and I noticed these were ZANU PF youth in police gear. I asked him when he joined the police.

He started mumbling in broken English endlessly and could not even understand him. One of them told me that they were under the Command of the Officer In Charge St. Mary’s and that she wanted to talk to me.

I asked her to talk to me but already the road was full of a huge crowd that was shouting why they persistently abuse my fundamental rights to peace and happiness while I have never wronged anyone.

The people were alerted to the threat that was posed against myself by a shadowy ZANU PF group and wanted to see how these demented cowards were going to carry out their threat.

The Officer in Charge, St. Mary’s then asked me to report to St. Mary’s Police Station as she wanted to inquire something from me. I went to St. Mary’s Police Station and waited endlessly for more than two hours and no one showed up.

After arriving at St. Mary’s Police Station I was told that one Supritendent Chuma is the one who wanted to talk to me. I waited and waited until I left. When I arrived back I was briefed that they wanted to dissuade me to St. Mary’s Police Station while they remain behind attacking my house and everybody inside.

I found people in running battles with the police all over and I just went into my house and sat. I was later told that when they asked me to go to the Police Station, they arrested 12 people who had visited me.

The whole chaos that took place in the area was as a result of aggression by the people who were in riot Police gear one whom I identified to be a ZANU PF youth who is not a member of our Police Services.

It must be known to all Zimbabweans that with the identification of a ZANU PF youth in riot Police gear, it must be known that all those people who are attacking and abusing human rights in Zimbabwe are ZANU PF who have been given police riot gear.

But this will never absolve the police from civil liabilities of paying constitutional damages for the violation of my liberty, peace and happiness. The Jestina Mukoko case is very clear.

A person can claim constitutional damages against those who violate your constitutional rights. I am compiling the names of all those who disturbed my constitutional rights and I am going to sue them in their individual capabilities.

I have the right as a lawyer to seek the remedies available from the Courts.

Hon Job Wiwa Sikhala
MDC National Vice Chairman

Statement By The MDC-T|The MDC-T, notes with great disappointment and disdain a tweet from Professor Jonathan Moyo, which purports that the MDC-T through its President Dr Khupe, sought funding from a ZANU PF, faction going by the name of G40 through her then aide Mr Witness Dube.

The truth of the matter is that Prof Moyo has relations with many Zimbabweans including those in opposition politics and even those close to Dr Khupe.

The MDC-T would like to put it on record that at no stage did the Party ever sought funding from any ZANU PF, faction directly or through a proxy. The meeting between Prof Moyo and Mr Witness Dube, took place at the request of Professor Moyo, in which he sought to appeal to Mr Witness Dube, that he (Witness) persuades Dr Khupe, to ignore the violent and unconstitutional ascendancy of Mr Chamisa to the MDC-T leadership.

It is common knowledge that Dr Khupe, dismissed that proposition with the contempt it deserves and went ahead to call for an extraordinary congress the following month in which Adv Gutu, was then elected Vice President thus the movement splitting into two after the said meeting.

It cannot therefore, be correct, that Prof Jonathan Moyo, arranges a meeting with Mr Witness Dube, on the 28th March 2018, on the strength of his private relationship with Mr Dube, and that personal meeting somehow constitutes a delegation (plural) for funding by the MDC-T, which had its extraordinary congress on the 21 April 2018.

What is apparent for everyone is that Prof Jonathan Moyo, is clutching at straws in his desperate attempt to hide from the general public that MDC-A is either a ZANU PF G40 project or has been taken over by the same.

A meeting with Mr Dube, who happened to be one of DR Khupe’s aides at the time, will not be enough to implicate Dr Khupe, and the MDC-T, in Prof Moyo’s absurd accusations.

The issue of the legitimate successor to the late MDC-T President Dr. Tsvangirai, was dealt with at the Bulawayo and Harare High Courts and both Courts ruled in favour of President Dr Khupe.

Therefore Prof Moyo must stop with the mischief of inserting Mr Kuda Tagwirei, in some tenuous conspiracy theory and instead Prof Moyo, must accept that he wasted his money trying to launder an illegitimate person and the long arm of the law has caught up with his imposter president of the MDC-T.

Correspondent|A Grade Six pupil at Masuku Primary School in Tshabalala, Bulawayo is battling for life in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Mpilo Central Hospital after being knocked down by a bus on Friday.

Bulawayo provincial police spokesperson Inspector Abednico Ncube confirmed the incident.

“The incident involved a Mayezane Tours bus (under the Zupco contract) which was heading to town when it knocked down a pupil who was on his way to school.

“The driver seemed to have failed to exercise due caution as students were crossing the road. The bus had 60 passengers on board and no one was injured,” said Insp Ncube.

He urged motorists to exercise caution and be on the lookout for pedestrians.

However, Insp Ncube said police have also noticed that pedestrians were also not exercising caution when crossing the roads.

“We have realised that most pedestrians just cross the road anyhow. In town I have seen some crossing when the robot is red therefore I would advise members of the public to be extra careful on the roads and to follow traffic lights because they are not only meant for cars but pedestrians too,” said Insp Ncube.

The military taskforce set up by government to oversee Zupco operations following the fuel price protests in January last year, is furious with company bosses over the IT server handling the database for the tapcard system. This comes amid shocking weekly revenue shortfalls detected in an audit conducted by the company’s Risk Department.

ZimEye reveals the massive looting at the current rate showing for instance at at least $22,000 in the snap audit cited 2 weeks ago.

Where do you think they are hiding the Zupco IT server? 

Where do you think Directors are hiding the Zupco IT server?

— ZimEye (@ZimEye) March 1, 2020

– ORIGINAL ARTICLE BELOW –

readers advised – there were frantic efforts from many quarters in both Zimbabwe and UK to stop this report from being published.

By Simba Chikanza | PART 1 | Within 3 days of Emmerson Mnangagwa striking a deal with the Belarusian government on the 17th Jan 2019, revenue money had already started disappearing from the transport company, ZUPCO, an exclusive ZimEye investigation based on the latest internal risk audit reveals.

In this documentary, several offices are probed by ZimEye and they include [see the satellite map below], the company’s Willowvale, and Belvedere buildings. 

 – military taskforce

 –embarrassing cash leaks detected

-shortfalls on scan machines

-machine discovered inside a toilet with no ID number

-Zupco’s Tagwirei speaks to ZimEye [interview]

Fearing rising protests, Mnangagwa had launched the “noble” venture of purchasing hundreds of buses in order to lower the burden of transport costs. This would have worked well and the quality of life improved. But the multi million dollar investment is now set for another disappointment, as an embarrassing audit in ZimEye’s possession reveals how more than $22,000 vanished, the looting beginning right within 72 hours of the Belarus meeting. The conclusion from the snap audit are that the company policy on the timing of banking revenue receipts was violated.

At the centre of Zupco’s scandal, is the notorious collusion of two directors, the CEO and the Director of Operations:

– The Acting CEO – [substantive post, Financial Director], Mr Everisto Madangwa.

– The Marketing (Acting Divisions Operations Manager) Tito Chirau … he is Madangwa’s enforcer of corruption.

Chirau has gained the reputation of being the ZUPCO Tagwirei, as it were, – a man who has taken over operations, marketing, and accounting, and the 5th department he is now in charge of is the HR department.

Military led taskforce

There is a task force team in ZUPCO appointed early last year by the minister of Defence through the Ministry of Local Government. The taskforce oversees the safety of buses, and it comprises, the ZDF, the police, and the CIO. The head of the taskforce delegation is Col Richard Mapanda, and he is deputised by Ass Comm Moyo, and DIO Ndabezihle Ndoro. This team was generally effective in the first few weeks of 2019, but from around April time they were rendered inept by a systematic cartel comprising at least three bigwigs: The chairman of ZUPCO, Dr Talon Garikai, is the Vice Chancellor of Harare Institute Of Technology. Everything happening in ZUPCO is now being run from the HIT. The tap card system came from HIT. Stationery supplies are coming HIT. The booking of Intercity buses system, is being run by the HIT, which means that ZUPCO is now literally operating from HIT.

Embarrassing Cash leaks detected

The cash amount of leaks detected from the snap audit are respectively:
– RTGS 19267.00, ZAR 2070.00 and RTGS 378.

In a summary, the report says: “the Accountant and Cashier were invited to explain and justify the departure from the company’s policy regarding the timing of banking revenue receipts. In their written responses, they attributed this departure to the temporary shift of the cash office from Willowvale Depot to Belvedere Depot as well as transport problems to transmit the cash receipts to the bank.

“It was however established that the temporary shift took place on 20 January 2019. Willowvale cash office resumed its operations on 12 February 2019. Their explanation does not hold water as the delays in banking continued beyond the 12 February 2019 when CIT – cash in transit services were available to the Depot.”

When a decision was passed to bring in the police and the anti-corruption commission, ZACC, to investigate, an accountant was then used to make some diversionary responses, on the 15th October 2019.

• shortfalls on scan machines

• machine which was discovered inside a toilet with no ID number inside it

Further to all this, there was last year a scandal of shortfalls on scan machines, which resulted in machine number 8 which leaked thousands to an unknown receiving account. This happened in October 2019. There is machine number 8 which was stationed at Willowvale Depot, it caused shortages running up to the thousands. That machine was tracked by IT, it was found the machine was not sending money to accounts, it was sending somewhere else. When the audit was being conducted Chirau blocked that investigations. There is a machine which was discovered inside a toilet, and was found without an identification number, and no sim card in it, but found inside a toilet. The identification number and the sim card would have made it easy to track the operator and the account number where the money is being routed.

Zupco has since fired its Risk, & Audit Control Manager, a Mr Chimbanda in the first week of February. Mr Chimbanda who had been appointed Risk Manager on the 1st August 2019, was suddenly fired within 6 months just before commencing a human resources audit. Impeccable sources revealed to ZimEye, he had at the time attempted to do an indepth risk audit, following several scandals in the human resources department, that have seen unqualified drivers being employed. This comes amid the rising spate of accidents. The CEO and the Operations Division blocked the audit and rushed to remove Chimbanda from the post.

The audit comes as it is revealed Chirau drafts what he terms a non renewal list through which long serving employees are randomly lined up for dismissal, and in their place, his own personal handpicks are given the jobs.

After Chimbanda was removed, he (Chimbanda) raised a complaint with the Task Force, but they did nothing at all.

Hot Questions the two ZUPCO bosses must answer are as follows:

– Has the more than $22,000 bankage shortage between Jan and June 2019 been finally restored?

– How come this shortage was not publicly declared?

– Why did you fire the Risk Control manager, Mr Chimbanda at a time when the June audit findings are still to be addressed?

– Why did you block the HR audit when it was needed seeing the number of non qualified drivers and rising number of accidents?

– Why did you block the HR audit and then you start firing people using your own non renewal list not based on an audit?

– Why have you allowed Eng, Talon Garikai to continue holding multiple posts without declaring his asset s according to the Companies Act ?

– In your estimation how many weeks does Zupco have before it requires capital injection from government?

– Why haven’t you addressed the conflict of interest in the TapCard system managed by the ZUPCO Board chairman’s other organisation, HIT ?

– Why did you reject the task force member from the CIO who was appointed to work with the HR officer… and investigate allegations of job seekers being made to pay bribes of 20 USD to get jobs?

– In October 2019, Mr Chirawu and Madangwa you promised the sacked Lewis Matutu that you were going to fire 100 conductors to replace them with 100 Zanu PF youths. Why have you continued in this course of action and is this not abuse of office?

– To Mr Chirau, records show that you on the 22nd January 2020, you telephoned HR department to reinstate Mr Liberty Masomere, (work ID 9083), who is colonel Richard Mapanda’s secretary’s brother, was that not abuse of office?

Zupco’s Tagwirei speaks to ZimEye [interview]

While efforts to get a comment from the demoted Risk Manager were fruitless, ZimEye managed to get a hold of the Operations Director, Mr Tito Chirau who briefly spoke to ZimEye. He at first denied the existence of the audit report, saying the only persons who can be called auditors are external auditors. He also said the Risk & Audit Control Department does not conduct any audits. Towards the end of the interview, he once again discredited the audit report this time however acknowledging its existence saying it was truly prepared by the Risk Department.

Will this money which leaked, the $22,000 be returned?, he was questioned. He replied saying,
“Eeeeh, please speak to the CEO,” he said.

He continued loudly charging, “ you can call the CEO and speak to him.”

But you are the Operations Director Mr Chirau, he was asked, and he went on to reply saying:
“What I can tell you right now is that there is nothing factual from all that you are saying, but anyway, I will just refer you to the CEO.”

The audit is not factual?, he was asked. He said, “yes it’s not factual, everything that you have there it’s people who don’t want to see ZUPCO succeeding, and the funny thing is you are just being verbose and loud, but when we speak about numbers, numbers don’t lie.

“And I can tell you right now that all those things that you are speaking about, if you are humble enough to speak to the CEO and gather facts, then you are going to see that it’s just people who are just trying to smear ZUPCO for their nefarious means.

“ZUPCO is one of the most successful government initiatives and a lot of people don’t like it, and you can tell that from your tone, you seem to have just believed those people who don’t want to see ZUPCO succeed.

“So please go speak to the CEO and I am sure if there is merit at what you are asking, he will be able to prove to you that it is all lies, the bunch of people who are probably aggrieved for wrong reasons, who are peddling these things they are all over the place. Speak to the CEO, and he will help,” he ended.

So the copy of the June audit that you have which one is it?, he was asked.

He answered saying, “the problem that you have is you are trying to be high sounding and clever for nothing. Eeh, what is an audit report? What is an audit report?

“An audit is done by approved auditors and the auditors they produce a report and this is a public company; those reports are there for government they are there for everyone to see.

“So when you speak of an audit, you see … you are trying to fight a battle for people who are aggrieved, and I am shocked I don’t know which country you are living in. ZUPCO is the biggest success story of the government; buses are on the road, and more buses are coming. So when you begin to say these things I wonder what agenda you are trying to drive at.”

Why do you say so? This is an audit by your Risk department, he was asked.

He replied:
“So you see in this conversation all you are mentioning is the Risk department, and the Risk department is the one that has been featuring in all those articles that you are talking about. So you guys are fighting the battle of one aggrieved department, or one aggrieved worker without probably going directly to ZUPCO,” he said.
I am not fighting any battle for a worker, ZimEye’s Simba Chikanza said. To this he hit back saying,
“You are, the thing that you are raising you are trying to be high sounding, but I think you didn’t take time to go through the questions that you want to ask, for example you are talking about an audit, an audit, an annual audit is done by big companies that went to tender and was chosen that’s the company that does audits for ZUPCO. So if you are talking about an internal audit report that was generated by someone, and you are saying that the Risk department generates audit report, which company has got a Risk department that generates audit reports?

“No I am telling you now, I am calling you now, audit reports are done by the office of the auditor, the Risk department does not do audits. So if you come to ZUPCO,” he concluded just before putting the phone down.

Efforts to get a comment from the CEO, and the Zupco board Chair were fruitless up to the time of publishing.

– THIS ARTICLE IS ONLY PART 1 OF THIS SERIES: EXPOSING CRIMINALS STATIONED AT ZESA. JUMP ONTO ZIMEYE.COM FOR MORE

For the full interview:
AUDIO LOADING BELOW – ZIMEYE.COM

Armed police siege St Mary’s

The illegitimate ED regime has gone utterly berserk in Chitungwiza, with heavily armed police sealing off St Mary’s, persecuting party leaders and indiscriminately arresting party youths in this high density area of Chitungwiza.

Among those arrested is National Youth Assembly spokesperson Stephen Sarkozy Chuma while the MP for the area and MDC Deputy National Chair Hon. Hon Sikhala was summoned to the police for no clear reason.

The police went on an orgy of violence in St Mary’s, breaking doors and barging into private homes in search of anyone suspected to be MDC.

No reason was given for the siege and the State-sanctioned violence. Last week, Zanu PF distributed fliers mobilising their supporters to siege the rural home of President Nelson Chamisa in Gutu as well as the urban homes of Vice President Tendai Biti and Deputy National Chairperson Hon. Sikhala.

The MDC regards the siege in St Mary’s and the incessant harassment of party leaders as needless persecution. The regime is treating the MDC as a terrorist organisation when it is a legitimate political party represented in Parliament and running the majority of local government councils.

The MDC has declared 2020 as the year of Action and no amount of intimidation will cow the nation from sonorously expressing their displeasure at the illegitimate regime that has dismally failed to address the challenges facing the people.

It is the people who are truly sovereign and terror tactics will not work. State-sanctioned violence will not stop any idea whose time has come.

Luke Tamborinyoka
Deputy National Spokesperson

By Own Correspondent| A Bulawayo woman has been keeping part of her severed middle finger for the past five months to use “as evidence” at the civil court following domestic violence.

Tendai Ncube (59) of Beuna Vista dried the tip of the left-hand finger after it was bitten off by a neighbour on 20 November last year while they fought over a bucket of maize.

Ncube said she went for treatment at United Bulawayo Hospitals (UHB) and was told to throw the finger away but she insisted that she will discard it once the matter is settled (by the civil court).

Meanwhile, a consultant pathologist, Dr Blessing Zambuko, said the normal procedure was to submit the severed part of the finger to hospital authorities.

He said:

The normal procedure is that one must submit the limb to a hospital who will then send it to the laboratory for examination or they hand it over to the police who will send it to forensic pathology for examination.

After all, is done, all specimen will not be returned to the patient but shall be properly disposed of by incineration. Under normal circumstances, the limb cannot, and must not be kept in the home.

Ncube suffered permanent disability following the biting incident as she cannot use the affected hand as two of the fingers can no longer bend.- Statemedia

Own Correspondent|Police in Chitungwiza besieged MDC National Vice Chairman Job Sikhala’s house in the early hours of Saturday morning and arrested the party youths who are alleged to have been guarding Sikhala’s house in anticipation of ZANU PF youths who threatened to invade the house.

The arrests forced MDC members to take to the streets in protest causing police to beat citizens indiscriminately in Zengeza and doing door to door patrols.

In a statement yesterday, national police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said the youths had been mobilised by some senior opposition party officials.

“The Zimbabwe Republic Police condemns acts of violence by unruly youths who were obviously mobilised to engage in disturbances at Chigovanyika in St Mary’s, Huruyadzo shops and Zengeza 2 shops in Chitungwiza this morning (Saturday),” said Asst Comm Nyathi.

“The MDC youths were burning tyres and interfering with the smooth flow of traffic in the suburbs.

“The youths went on to shatter a Zupco bus windscreen, while some passengers were attacked, with some losing their cellphones.

“Police moved in and restored order in the area. “Eleven have since been arrested and are in police custody.”

He warned members of the public against acts of violence, intimidation or harassment of innocent individuals, groups and businesspersons.

“Members of the public are, therefore, urged to follow the due process of the law in undertaking various activities.

“Police will not hesitate to effect arrests on anyone who disregards the laws of the country.”

St Mary’s Member of Parliament Job Sikhala professed ignorance of demonstrations in his constituency, but alleged that police had raided his house in the morning.

“I was never arrested. What happened is I was asked to meet Superintendent Chuma at St Mary’s Police Station. I went there and waited for him for two hours and when he did not show up, I left,” he said.

“It’s absolutely nonsense to say that there was a demonstration in St Mary’s. What happened is that the police raided my house at 5am. There was no march that took place. It’s nonsense!”

State Media|Border officials intercepted 92 minors who were being smuggled through Beitbridge Border Post last year and arrested more than 16 000 people for illegal crossings in the six months to June 2019.

A parliamentary inquiry into the state of border posts said this was indicative of porous borders.

The minors were subsequently referred to the Department of Social Welfare. The findings, which were collated from oral testimonies from Government officials and visits to Beitbridge and Forbes border posts, are contained in a report that was tabled in Parliament last week by chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Defence, Home Affairs and Security Services, Brigadier-General Levi Mayihlome (Retired).

“The committee noted that the Department (of Immigration) has on record a total of 92 minors whom they had referred to the Department of Social Welfare after being intercepted at Beitbridge Border Post in 2019. In addition, a total of 82 deportations had been effected from January to June. Thus, on average about 15 people being trafficked per month,” said Brig-Gen(Rtd) Mayihlome.

“Statistics submitted to the committee showed that a total of 16 187 have been arrested for illegal crossing from January to June 2019. This is a significant number and it can be quantified that on average 1 350 people are being arrested on monthly basis,” he said.

Security services were reportedly finding it difficult to patrol the country’s border lines because of their vast expanse.

The Zimbabwe-South African border stretches for 255 kilometres, while the border with South Africa extends to 1 231km.

The stretch between Zimbabwe and Zambia covers 797km and the borderline with Botswana is 813km.

However, of the 255km length separating Zimbabwe and South Africa, “border policing is being done in areas covering less than 50km and the remaining area becomes easily accessible for illegal crossing”, Parliament noted. Border officials and law enforcement agents were also poorly resourced and poorly equipped to adequately and meaningfully police both border areas and ports of entry and exit.

For example, ZRP officials deployed to man the areas have not been paid travel and subsistence allowances for the past 12 years, and are owed in excess of US$300 000.

On average, the deployments take more than 30 days.

The report said: “The committee was told that travelling and subsistence allowances were last paid in 2008 . . . Members were dividing their meagre salaries between themselves and their families in order to sustain themselves whilst on deployments at large distances far away from their ordinary places of residence.

“The committee learnt that the Department (of Immigration) did not have vehicles for border patrol operations and currently they are relying on private hire to chase criminals. At Beitbridge Border Post, the committee was informed that currently nine motorbikes were being used to patrol the whole stretch for anti-smuggling along the Limpopo River from Chikwarakwara on the east up to Shashe River . . .”

Police officers deployed at the country’s ports of entry also do not have luggage scanners and rely on “physical searching methods”, which are largely considered to be ineffective in detecting smuggled items. Beitbridge Border Post, for example, handles 12 000 travellers daily, with the number rising to more than 28 000 during peak periods such as the festive season.

This, Parliament argues, results in smuggling of goods, drugs and precious minerals.

According to the report, “border control officials also lacked skills, decent accommodation, office space and they usually work for long hours daily”, which opens them up to corruption.

Out of the 186 immigration officials that were implicated for corruption, 177 were convicted and nine were acquitted.

Notwithstanding the lack of surveillance and scanning equipment, the border areas — which rely on “a multi-sectoral approach” to coordinate “a myriad of systems in place to control the movement of goods and people across national boundaries” — were most often characterised by confusion between the various departments.

“It was reported to the committee that there is confusion of who is in charge of the border between the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority and Immigration Department since there is no Ports Authority. An appeal was made for the establishment of Ports Authority,” said Brig-Gen (Rtd) Mayihlome. But Parliament believes that the multimillion-dollar upgrade of Beitbridge Border Post will significantly transform management of the border area.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa launched the US$241 million project in 2018 after it had been awarded to Zimborders in 2017.

It is envisioned that the project will see Zimbabwe and South Africa implementing the One-Stop Border Post concept.

The upgrade includes construction of commercial customs offices, facilities to handle vehicle traffic according to their categories, a bridge to link with South Africa, as well as upgrading some of Beitbridge’s key infrastructure.

Overall, Parliament believes that in addition to be paid their travel and subsistence allowances, the ZRP should be well-equipped with patrol kits including vehicles, scanners, drones, tents and other necessities.

It also recommends stiffer and deterrent laws against smugglers.

Government once considered introducing a Ports Authority to coordinate activities at the country’s ports of entry, but progress has been at a snail’s pace.

The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) has identified some of the culprits that are hoarding and selling grain and mealie-meal on the black market, and arrests are expected soon.

There are reports shortages of mealie-meal are being compounded by unscrupulous millers and retailers who are funnelling the commodity to the parallel market.

Prices of subsided mealie-meal are pegged at $70 for a 10kg bag, but the staple is selling for over $120 on the alternative market.

There were long queues at large retail outlets such as OK and Pick n Pay in the capital last week as people lined up to buy the subsidised roller meal.

ZACC spokesperson Commissioner John Makamure told The Sunday Mail that the anti-graft body had identified some of the culprits involved in the roller-meal scandal.

“There are intense investigations currently underway. Several arrests will be made soon. It is a matter receiving utmost attention from the commission.

“Some of the culprits are high profile in terms of the quantum involved,” he said.

“We always thoroughly investigate. Very soon you will see for yourself.”

National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said the blitz against those involved in underhand mealie-meal deals had intensified.

“We are aware that the shortages of mealie-meal is at the heart of many Zimbabweans’ concerns and we have since launched a nationwide operation.

“The operation is targeting the hoarding of mealie-meal as well as those who are diverting it to the black market.

“We want to warn retailers and milling companies against this practice and our officers are now on high alert across the whole country. The full wrath of the law will catch up with them.”

He encouraged members of the public to report malpractices in the distribution of mealie-meal.

Last week, Grain Millers’ Association of Zimbabwe chairperson Mr Tafadzwa Musarara was grilled in Parliament after he failed to account for US$27 million which the association received from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to import wheat.

He could not provide evidence that the association used part of the money to repair Grain Marketing Board (GMB) silos.

The illegitimate ED regime has gone utterly berserk in Chitungwiza, with heavily armed police sealing off St Mary’s, persecuting party leaders and indiscriminately arresting party youths in this high density area of Chitungwiza.

Among those arrested is National Youth Assembly spokesperson Stephen Sarkozy Chuma while the MP for the area and MDC Deputy National Chair Hon. Hon Sikhala was summoned to the police for no clear reason.

The police went on an orgy of violence in St Mary’s, breaking doors and barging into private homes in search of anyone suspected to be MDC.

No reason was given for the siege and the State-sanctioned violence. Last week, Zanu PF distributed fliers mobilising their supporters to siege the rural home of President Nelson Chamisa in Gutu as well as the urban homes of Vice President Tendai Biti and Deputy National Chairperson Hon. Sikhala.

The MDC regards the siege in St Mary’s and the incessant harassment of party leaders as needless persecution. The regime is treating the MDC as a terrorist organisation when it is a legitimate political party represented in Parliament and running the majority of local government councils.

The MDC has declared 2020 as the year of Action and no amount of intimidation will cow the nation from sonorously expressing their displeasure at the illegitimate regime that has dismally failed to address the challenges facing the people.

It is the people who are truly sovereign and terror tactics will not work. State-sanctioned violence will not stop any idea whose time has come.

Luke Tamborinyoka
Deputy National Spokesperson

Late former President Cannan Banana’s son Nathan did not know what awaited him when he took to Twitter to advice Zimbabweans to direct their frustration with the government to productive activities and not seek to gain social following while demeaning the country.

While that appeared like a genuine call on his fellow citizens, he may live to regret his decision after angry Zimbabweans descended on him like a tornado, with some using unprintable words to attack and condemn him.

“Some Zimbabwe tweets are like it’s a competition of who will get the most RTs for saying the worst things about their country rather than it being a competition on who has the best positive examples. There’s need to divert our anger and frustration to more productive activities,” tweeted Nathan.

Below are some of responses from angry Zimbabweans:

“With all due respect Mr Banana on these streets we critise, expose and complain about the wrong things done to us by the government. Zimbabweans deserve far better than what the government is offering. So we will not not stop. This is too much a burden”

“Nathan if u want to know what it is that our pple as a collective r wasting their time n imaginations on just luk around their lives. If u see poverty,corruption,bad governance etc just knw thats what the pple around wastes their imaginations on. Lets change this paradigm?”

“Blaming the victim and giving the villain a pass really?

So when people relate how they are without food, electricity , clean water and how the GoZ is actively impoverishing them you think the solution is to think positively?”

“What positive thing is there to talk about? U can share, we are listening?…other countries talk about bullet trains, car assemblies, Jobs created per month, stable inflation rates, economic growth, going to Mars, …what are we supposed to talk about as Zimbos?”

“What people encounter and need in life is so different wangu. If my father cannot get medication for his BP should we ululate? Tipembere here kuti they busy taking the chief to court just so MDC people can get food aid from govt of the day? Tipembere being forced kugara diaspora”

Sunday Mail: Can you please kindly provide us with a general overview of the just-ended workshop — that is, its intentions and resolutions?

Loice Matanda Moyo: The workshop was meant to train our investigators in tracing Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs). I realise that we were lacking in that regard and we solicited for help, for training, from the Unitted Nationas Office on Drugs and Crime (UODC) and World Bank. They sent StAR (Stole Asset Recovery Initiative) to train our officers in asset recovery.

It was a productive week and our officers have learnt a lot on how to trace assets from country of origin to country of destination, and the kind of evidence that is required in those matters.

It was a productive workshop and I want to believe that from henceforth, our officers are well-equipped in tracking IFFs and we are going to see an improvement in asset recovery.

In short, we are really stepping up the fight against asset recovery.

Sunday Mail: Now that your officers have been trained, what is ZACC’s next strategy to ensure the country recovers the wealth that has been plundered?

LMM: We have just set up the Asset Recovery Unit within ZACC and the strategy is to have officers who are well-equipped in the know-how, legalities and modalities of tracing these assets and recovering them.

Asset recovery is a process and it takes a lot of time. In Nigeria, for example, it took them 15 years to repatriate Sani Abacha’s wealth (The US$300 million that was stolen by former military ruler General Sani Abacha, who ruled Nigeria from 1993 until his death in 1998). But I want to believe that with international cooperation, which is happening these days, it should not take more than five years.

Sunday Mail: You have mentioned that US$7 billion is stashed out of the country. May you please provide names of some of the people behind this?

LMM: No, we cannot give you any names at the moment. That will have the effect of jeopardising investigations. There will come a time when we will be in a position to reveal identities.

Sunday Mail: In the face of international law and immunity of foreign investments in some jurisdictions, how does ZACC seek to navigate these challenges in repatriating back the wealth?

LMM: Asset recovery is a process and that has been the reason why we conducted this training. These are some of the skills that have been imparted to our officers.

We are funded by Treasury and where we lack resources, we are confident that our cooperating partners will assist.

Sunday Mail: How many cases are on ZACC’s table right now and of these, how many are high profile?

LMM: We have over 700 cases under investigations now. Out of these, 74 relate to high-profile matters.

Sunday Mail: Given this high number of cases, do you have the capacity to handle the huge volumes?

LMM: We are in the process of strengthening capacity, we have recruited officers and some of them have been vetted. By Monday (tomorrow) we are going to have some of the new members joining us. We are expecting 20 officers to be joining us on Monday. All in all, we are going to have 60, but only 30 have been vetted so far.

Sunday Mail: Your critics say ZACC has been captured and there is no political will to investigate high-profile cases? What is your response?

LMM: There is political will to deal with both high-profile and low-profile matters. With regard to high-profile matters, our laws and rules are such that the accused are allowed to make interlocutory applications.

Some of these applications have the effect of suspending the main trial. Once that application is made at the High Court, this will stop proceedings before the magistrates’ courts.

That does not mean that the matter is over, but just that the process is pending and the case becomes longer. However, we are lobbying for changes in the rules of the courts so that even if a person makes an interlocutory application that application will not have a bearing on the matter before the magistrates’ court.

We want the cases to continue to trial while those applications are going through. In other countries such as Nigeria, for example, the Supreme Court has made those rulings that once you are charged with corruption and you make an application, that application does not have the effect of stopping trial.

Sunday Mail: Recently there were allegations raised by the now suspended Zanu-PF youth leaders, Godfrey Tsenengamu and Lewis Matutu, related to cartels and three prominent businesspeople. What is ZACC’s position on those allegations?

LMM: Some of those persons were already under investigations by ZACC, but the Zanu-PF Youth League members were not the complainants.

What happened was that only one of the two came to ZACC and made a general report and said that so and so is corrupt.

As ZACC, those are not the sort of reports that we expect. There are standards that have to be met. You have to meet basic standards to enable ZACC to open a file.

Imagine if ZACC was to open a file based on a general allegation that so and so is corrupt, how many files would we have?

We do not just take opinions, they must be some basis for saying someone is corrupt.

We are not a political outfit. ZACC is apolitical and we do not want to be used in any political fights. If people have evidence and positive leads, we are their friends.

But let me categorically state that we have never received any solid complaints regards their cases. What they said was just an allegation without any prima facie evidence.

So whatever matters we are investigating are not because of them.

Sunday Mail: What is the latest in terms of decentralising ZACC?

LMM: The Judicial Service Commission has provided for the setting up of anti-corruption courts in six or seven provinces. This year, they are expecting to put up these courts in these provinces. As ZACC, we are only in Harare and have offices in Bulawayo and Gweru that are manned by not more than two officers each.

We now want to decentralise to other parts of the country and to make sure that our offices are really capacitated to deal with corruption cases in these provinces, and they can feed into the courts. By the end of this year, we should be in six provinces — Midlands, Bulawayo, Manicaland, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland West and Masvingo.

Sunday Mail: ZACC has previously indicated that it was seeking prosecutorial powers. Is there any update on this?

LMM: We are still using the Prosecutor-General’s Office for prosecuting our matters. There is nothing new as yet.

IN a bizarre incident, a Bulawayo woman has for the past five months been keeping part of her severed middle finger, which she first allowed to dry after it was bitten off by a neighbour following a misunderstanding over a bucket of maize.

Ms Tendai Ncube (59) of Beuna Vista dried the tip of the left hand finger and has been moving around with it in her handbag since the incident happened on 20 November last year.

“I will always keep this fingertip as evidence that my neighbour bit me over a bucket of maize, I am still hurt,” she said, showing Sunday News the tip of her finger. 

According to Ms Ncube, who survives on picking plastic bottles and selling them to local companies in the city, trouble started when she borrowed a bucket of maize from Mrs Bekezela (Matsha) Matshazi who lives in the same suburb.

“Matsha is my good friend, she is 62 years old and is my neighbour. I have a big stand and I planted my maize there so one of the people who assisted me in ploughing the land needed to be paid so I asked Matsha for a bucket of maize which I intended to use as payment. My daughter had said she would bring me the maize from her home in Cowdray Park the following week but I needed to pay the worker earlier,” she said.

Ms Ncube said her daughter had promised to bring the maize on a Friday but she failed. 

“The next Wednesday early in the morning Matsha came to my house and as usual I went to the gate to welcome her but she was not in a friendly mood. She started shouting saying she didn’t want to see me ever again as I had not delivered the maize. So I reached out to hold her hand so that we get into the house to avoid attracting the attention of neighbours but she started to beat me up and I held her trying to push her away and she grabbed my hand and bit my finger,” added Ms Ncube.

She said her daughter then came outside after hearing their noise and found them wrestling on the ground.

“When my daughter came out of the house, that is when Matshazi spit out my finger which she had bitten off and walked away. I then composed myself and saw that my finger was now on the ground with threads of flesh hanging. I then screamed at her saying she had bitten off my finger over a bucket of maize and she shouted back a statement that I did not hear,” she said.

Ms Ncube said she rushed to report the matter to the police and passed through her friend’s home where people had gathered after hearing about the incident.

Ms Matshazi is said to have arrived at the police station before Ms Ncube and made a police report saying she was assaulted.

The matter was heard before the courts where Ms Matshazi was found not guilty as she argued that she was “defending herself from assault”. Ms Ncube said she will take the matter to the civil courts as she still feels justice was not served and that she also catered for her own medical bills which she says her friend should have taken care of.

Doctors have, however, said she suffered permanent disability after the incident and she now has trouble in that she cannot use the affected hand as two of the fingers can no longer bend. She also says she can no longer work in her fields or pick up plastics as she used to before the incident.

The friendship also has turned sour as Ms Matshazi does not talk to Ms Ncube anymore.

“She does not respond to my greetings and I am actually scared of her now. I also feel the courts did not do justice as she never even apologised to me. I am very bitter,” she said, waving the remains of her finger in the air.

Asked why she still keeps a part of the finger, she said she will stop doing that once she feels that justice on the case has been delivered.

“After I went for treatment at UHB they told me to throw it away but I didn’t. I will discard the finger once the matter is settled,” she said.

However, Dr Blessing Zambuko a consultant pathologist said the normal procedure was to submit the severed part of the finger  to  hospital authorities.

“The normal procedure is that one must submit the limb to a hospital who will then send it to the laboratory for examination or they hand it over to the police who will send it to forensic pathology for examination. After all is done, all specimen will not be returned to the patient but shall be properly disposed of by incineration. Under normal circumstances, the limb cannot, and must not be kept in the home,” said Dr Zambuko.

-State media

Government expects to complete aligning all laws to the Constitution before year-end, with the outstanding 50 statutes to be tabled before Parliament within the next three months.

The enactment of the Constitution in 2013 meant more than 400 laws which were out of sync with some of the refreshed provisions of the supreme law had to be aligned, while 63 needed to either be repealed, extensively amended or redrafted.

Out of the 63 laws, 10 have been passed by Parliament and assented to by the President.

The General Laws Amendment (Statutory Bodies and Gender Parity Provisions) Bill No. 1 provided for minor amendments to 125 laws, while the General Laws Amendment (Statutory Bodies and Gender Parity Provisions) Bill No. 2 — which is still being developed — provides for minor amendments to 66 laws.

The Sunday Mail gathered that an Inter-Ministerial Task Force (IMT) on the Alignment of Legislation to the Constitution, which was created to expedite the process, is also updating Cabinet weekly, while all State law officers have been trained in legal drafting.

The Centre for Applied Legal Research (CALR) — a research institution that offers specialised legal training and technical support — oversaw the training.

Secretry for Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Mrs Virginia Mabiza said the task force is using a real-time Bill Tracker to expeditiously gazette new Bills.

“The Attorney-General is the driver of the alignment process and he is also the chief drafter,” said Mrs Mabiza.

“I agree he has been doing a lot on the ground, including developing a Bill tracking mechanism which they are using to quicken the process.

“We only have less than 50 pieces of legislation that require alignment and we are working on a strategy to table these Bills before the end of June.”

The IMT has divided laws requiring alignment into 10 different clusters —media and information laws; citizenship and movement of people; security; local government; social services; environment and natural resources; justice delivery; economic services; political and civil rights; and the cross-cutting clusters.

Under the media and information laws cluster, the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act is being repealed and will be replaced by the three separate pieces of legislation —the Zimbabwe Media Commission Bill, the Freedom of Information Bill and the Protection of Personal Information Bill.

Both the ZMC Bill and the Freedom of Information Bill are before Parliament, while the Protection of Personal Information Bill will be tabled this month, according to IMT Bill Tracker.

Also under the same cluster, the draft Broadcasting Services Amendment Bill has been developed and stakeholder consultations were undertaken after principles for the Bill were approved in May 2019.

Under the citizenship and movement of people cluster, principles for the Citizenship of Zimbabwe Bill were approved by Cabinet on February 26 2019 and the draft Bill was prepared.

It is now awaiting submission to the Cabinet Committee on Legislation (CCL).

“Principles for the Immigration Amendment Bill were approved by Cabinet on February 5 2019. A draft Bill was prepared and is awaiting submission to the CCL,” reads the Bill Tracker.

Laws awaiting alignment under the security cluster include amending the Official Secrets Act, the Police Act, the Unlawful Organisations Act, the Defence Act, the Emergency Powers Act, the Interception of Communications Act, National Security Council Act and the Prisons Act.

“The Veterans of the Liberation Struggle Bill repeals and replaces the War Veterans Act and Ex-Political Detainees and Restrictees Act.

“The Bill was approved by Cabinet on September 10 2019 and was gazetted on November 1 2019.

“The National Peace and Reconciliation Commission Bill was assented to on January 5 2018 and is now an Act of Parliament,” according to the last information from the Bill Tracker.

In addition, six laws will be aligned under the local government cluster to facilitate devolution.

Principles of the Provincial Councils and Administration Bill were approved by Cabinet in November 2018 and the draft Bill has been forwarded to the AG’s Office.

The Bill is now awaiting the outcome of the proposed Constitutional amendments for it to be completed.

According to CALR, 13 laws have now been aligned to the Constitution.

“CALR is providing technical and financial support to the Government for the alignment process.

“The technical support entails: technical legal research to identify gaps in laws that line Ministries administer; legislative drafting – development of draft Bills; stakeholder consultations – technical and grassroots; technical support to the Inter-Ministerial Task Force on the Alignment of Legislation to the Constitution (IMT)

“On the number of laws that have been aligned to the Constitution, there is a difference between alignment, reform and law revision.

“The IMT is concerned with alignment, which means ensuring that existing laws are in conformity to the provisions of the Constitution.

“IMT developed an IMT Bill Tracker which outlines the priority laws that need to be aligned and the stage that these laws are at.

“In terms of the Bill Tracker, 13 laws have been aligned; 50 laws are remaining.”

-State media

Sports minister Kirsty Coventry on Saturday visited the National Sports Stadium amid government’s effortts to renovate local stadiums.

This comes after CAF sanctioned all local stadiums from hosting international games citing failure to meet stipulated standards, a setback which has put government, especially Coventry as the minister in charge, under scrutiny.

The former Olympic gold medalist visited the giant facility and declared the following on her Twitter page:

 “Bringing all stakeholders together at the National Sports Stadium to get it right. I’m very optimistic about the changes that are required to get it to the level required by CA. It’s not over yet.”-Soccer 24

Farai Dziva|Masvingo based actor and drama icon, Sabhuku Vharazipi, whose real name is David Mubaiwa in Collaboration with the Community Tolerance Reconciliation and Development (COTRAD) produced a video skit calling for fair distribution of government aid by public officials.
The video skit provides an overview of how the government aid is being used for retributive purposes.

Public officials continue to use political lenses in the selection of beneficiaries of government aid.
The video also shows the inherent flaws and popular criticisms of aid distribution systems in Zimbabwe and Masvingo province in particular.

Specifically, it shows that the aid beneficiary selection process is not always based on equal opportunity or either guided by vulnerability but determined by political affiliation and power.

Consequently, most of those who are supposed to get aid fail to access it due to their political affiliation.

The actors point out that public officials must serve everyone under their jurisdiction regardless of their political affiliation.

The video also encourages public officials to consult the people during the process of selecting beneficiaries.

Masvingo is hit by severe drought and most people require food aid.

Government has been providing rice and maize to vulnerable families.

The selection processes for beneficiaries remain high jacked by traditional leaders and elected official who use the aid to punish their critics.

A COTRAD official, Ishmael Kupfuwa has also said there is need to involve VIDCOs and WADCOs and the general citizenry starting from the beneficiary selection process up to the distribution point for transparency and accountability purposes.
“Traditional leaders should rigorously undergo human rights trainings so that they understand and acclimatize to the human rights based approach when executing their paramount roles and responsibilities bestowed to them,” said Kupfuwa.
Click the link below to view the video: https://youtu.be/eUSgaU4P3kQ

STATE broadcaster, Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) yesterday told Parliament that government’s numerous programmes were draining its coffers, resulting in the current financial crisis.

ZBC board chairperson Josiah Tayi poured his heart out when his board appeared before the Prince Dubeko Sibanda-led Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Media to give oral evidence on the state of affairs at the public broadcaster.

Tayi told Parliament that licence fees charged by ZBC could not sustain its operations, resulting in the institution failing to appropriately remunerate its staff, with some workers earning as low as $300 per month.

“Hybrid operations created confused funding models and the corporate lost its government grant from funding scheme and licensing was presumed to be enough to fund the broadcaster,” he said.

“Licensing is meant to be a gatekeeper and buffer on the budget, but demands of diaries by government departments and ministries are perceived wrongly that the services were free and such an approach created a downward spiral on ZBC with a disastrous end.

“The national mandate constitutes 80% of ZBC costs and 5% of funding to ZBC is licence costs, of which payment of licences has dwindled and yet they are supposed to be part of the funding model.

Another problem with licensing is that it has not been reviewed for a long time. It is sad that broadcasting licences are not reviewed regularly just like what happens with tollgates and other service providers.”

The ZBC board chairman said despite an increase in operational costs, there was little support from the fiscus and yet 60% of costs they incurred were of imports of broadcasting components.

Tayi said some of the major challenges experienced by the ZBC included electricity outages, non-payment by government departments, non-taking over of their legacy debt by government, high indebtedness on medical aid and employee pensions and acute foreign currency shortages and non-acquittals of foreign currency purchases of equipment.

The committee expressed concern over political and commercial interference at ZBC.

ZBC head of programmes Gilbert Nyambabvu said inadequate equipment and poor salaries exposed staff to manipulation and bribery.

“If people are not paid well, they are vulnerable to cheque book journalism. Do we also have regulations to ensure editorial independence?” Nyambabvu asked.

But Sibanda could have none of his explanations, saying lack of equipment was no excuse for being biased.

-Newsday

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has denied allegations that it gave President Emmerson Mnanagwa’s daughter Farai Mnangagwa US$250 000 on Friday without any receipts.

RBZ was responding to allegations raised by Professor Jonathan Moyo who had said, “Farai Mlotshwa (nee Mnangagwa) was today given USD250K in cash by the Dealers Section of @ReserveBankZIM ‘s Treasury Division. On 19 February 2020, RBZ was ordered to pay her USD 5m in tranches of USD 1m over five weeks. There’re no invoices for the transactions! 

Farai Mnangagwa is married to lawyer Gerald Mlotshwa.

RBZ in a statement posted on Twitter responded denying the allegations saying no such transaction had happened.

“The Reserve Bank would like to dismiss the article circulating on social media on USD250 000 as fake news. The Reserve Bank only deals directly with Banks and Bureaux de Change.”

Fake News on USD250 000 Cash
The Reserve Bank would like to dismiss the article circulating on social media on USD250 000 as fake news. The Reserve Bank only deals directly with Banks and Bureaux de Change.

Moyo responded to RBZ statement saying it was a fake denial.

“FAKE DENIAL. It’s known that Shavano and Mawire directed communications to deny, deny & deny some more. Mawire even sought to have staff involved in the Farai Mnangagwa transaction detained, but was stopped by security’s Muradzikwa who warned the detention would confirm the deal.”

The MDC-T, notes with great disappointment and disdain a tweet from Professor Jonathan  Moyo, which purports that the MDC-T through its President Dr Khupe, sought funding from  a ZANU PF, faction going by the name of G40 through her then aide Mr Witness Dube.

The truth of the matter is that Prof Moyo has relations with many Zimbabweans including those in opposition politics and even those close to Dr Khupe.

The MDC-T would like to put it on record that at no stage did the Party ever sought funding  from any ZANU PF, faction directly or through a proxy.  The meeting between Prof Moyo and Mr Witness Dube, took place at the request of Professor  Moyo, in which he sought to appeal to Mr Witness Dube, that he (Witness) persuades Dr Khupe, to ignore the violent and unconstitutional ascendancy of Mr Chamisa to the MDC-T leadership.

It is common knowledge that Dr Khupe, dismissed that proposition with the contempt it deserves and went ahead to call for an extraordinary congress the following month in which Adv Gutu, was then elected Vice President thus the movement splitting into two after the said meeting.

It cannot therefore, be correct, that Prof Jonathan Moyo, arranges a meeting with Mr Witness  Dube, on the 28th March 2018, on the strength of his private relationship with Mr Dube, and  that personal meeting somehow constitutes a delegation (plural) for funding by the MDC-T,  which had its extraordinary congress on the 21 April 2018.

What is apparent for everyone is that Prof Jonathan Moyo, is clutching at straws in his desperate attempt to hide from the general public that MDC-A is either a ZANU PF G40  project or has been taken over by the same.

A meeting with Mr Dube, who happened to be one of DR Khupe’s aides at the time, will not be enough to implicate Dr Khupe, and the MDC-T, in Prof Moyo’s absurd accusations.

The issue of the legitimate successor to the late MDC-T President Dr. Tsvangirai, was dealt  with at the Bulawayo and Harare High Courts and both Courts ruled in favour of President Dr  Khupe. Therefore Prof Moyo must stop with the mischief of inserting Mr Kuda Tagwirei, in  some tenuous conspiracy theory and instead Prof Moyo, must accept that he wasted his  money trying to launder an illegitimate person and the long arm of the law has caught up with his imposter president of the MDC-T.

The illegitimate ED regime has gone utterly berserk in Chitungwiza, with heavily armed police sealing off St Mary’s, persecuting party leaders and indiscriminately arresting party youths in this high density area of Chitungwiza.

VIDEO LOADING BELOW…

Among those arrested is National Youth Assembly spokesperson Stephen Sarkozy Chuma while the MP for the area and MDC Deputy National Chair Hon. Hon Sikhala was summoned to the police for no clear reason.

The police went on an orgy of violence in St Mary’s, breaking doors and barging into private homes in search of anyone suspected to be MDC.

No reason was given for the siege and the State-sanctioned violence. Last week, Zanu PF distributed fliers mobilising their supporters to siege the rural home of President Nelson Chamisa in Gutu as well as the urban homes of Vice President Tendai Biti and Deputy National Chairperson Hon. Sikhala.

The MDC regards the siege in St Mary’s and the incessant harassment of party leaders as needless persecution. The regime is treating the MDC as a terrorist organisation when it is a legitimate political party represented in Parliament and running the majority of local government councils.

The MDC has declared 2020 as the year of Action and no amount of intimidation will cow the nation from sonorously expressing their displeasure at the illegitimate regime that has dismally failed to address the challenges facing the people.

It is the people who are truly sovereign and terror tactics will not work. State-sanctioned violence will not stop any idea whose time has come.

Luke Tamborinyoka
Deputy National Spokesperson

HARARE Magistrate Rumbidzai Mugwagwa will on Monday 2 March 2020 hand down a ruling on a bid by the State to keep Kuwadzana East constituency legislator Hon. Chalton Hwende under prosecution without
being put on trial on charges of plotting to overthrow President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government.

When Hon. Hwende appeared before Magistrate Mugwagwa at Harare
Magistrates Court on Friday 28 February 2020, it was anticipated that
the State would indict him for trial at the High Court.

But prosecutors from the National Prosecuting Authority told Magistrate Mugwagwa that the State was not ready to do so and applied that the opposition MDC Alliance party Secretary-General’s matter be postponed to 16 March 2020.

However, the application for postponement of the matter was vigorously opposed by Hon. Hwende’s lawyer Harrison Nkomo of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, who argued that the opposition legislator should be
removed from remand as the state had taken close to a year without
putting his client on trial.

Magistrate Mugwagwa will hand down her ruling on both the state’s bid
to keep Hon. Hwende under prosecution and his lawyers’ challenge of
further remand.

Hon. Hwende was arrested on 5 March 2019 and charged with subverting
constitutional government as defined in section 22(2)(a)(iii) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act for allegedly posting some messages on Twitter encouraging members of the public to revolt against President Mnangagwa’s government.

Prosecutors allege that Hon. Hwende posted some messages on Twitter
between 28 December 2018 to 31 December 2018, which had the effect of
inciting people to revolt against and overthrow President Mnangagwa’s
government.

In response to Hon. Hwende’s messages, the state alleged, members of
the public committed various acts of public violence and hooliganism
throughout Zimbabwe between 14 January 2019 to 16 January 2019 after
they were incited to engage in mass protest.

By A Correspondent| Everything has been shut in Chitungwiza following running attacks against civilians in Chitungwiza.

13 people who had simply visited their MP, Job Sikhala had been reported arrested at the time of writing.

VIDEO LOADING BELOW.

Zengeza MP Job Sikhala told ZimEye, ‘the battle is still ongoing, everything has been shut down in Chitungwiza and St Mary’s, and there are no buses nothing is moving.”

He was asked to comment about possible casualties and he said, “injuries I haven’t received anything but what I heard is that the police without moving hunting door-to-door, trying to hunt for MDC persons, MDC members houses in St Mary’s and what I understand is that 13 of those people who visited my house were arrested.”

29 February 2020

Sydney Barson | At least 38.1％ of orphans in Zimbabwe are in Matabeleland North Province where 17 Grade 7 girls from the same school dropped out of school to get married, if a 2009 study is anything to go by.

Speaking at the launch of the Zimbabwe Education Fund Trust (ZIMEFU) in Lupane yesterday, Econet Sales and Marketing Manager Thandekile Chibanda applauded the launch of ZIMEFU as an important development to assist orphans and curb teen pregnancies so rampant in the province.

‘’According to a 2009 study, 38.1％ of all orphans in Zimbabwe were living in Matabeleland North Province, these statistics could be more by now. Therefore the launch of ZIMEFU will go a long way alleviating the plight of thes young ones.‘’ said Chibanda.

She highlighted several successful people who impacted the world yet grew up as orphans.

Speaking at the same occasion Kusile Rural District Council Chief Executive Officer Mr. Chuma said ZIMEFU is a welcome development in Lupane and urged the new organisation to work alongside government as partners and not competitors.

Founded by Gibsom Mwinde ZIMEFU was registered as a Trust in January 2020 and to date the organisation has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the local authority.

The newly instituted Trust seeks to provide sanitary wear in schools in Lupane and Binga, pay school fees and provide uniforms for orphans and vulnerable children.

Board member Laison Mwinde also highlighted that 17 Grade 7 girls dropped out at some school where he was teaching in Binga to get married hence the rationale to change mindsets in such communitites.

In a solidarity message Lupane Women Development Trust Manager Mrs Mufukare urged the new organisation to remain focussed and leave politics to politicians before donating a sewing machine and 40 reusable sanitary towels. They also received donations in form of clothes, and more sanitary wear from other players.

Their mission statement is to eradicate poverty in Africa through sustainable education and empowering every school going girls and boys in remote areas

ZIMEFU’s motto is Inspire orphans,inspire your world.

Todate the Trust shall be operating in Lupane and Binga only though plans for expansion are there.

The trustees are Naome Nkiwane, Tamuka Nyoni, Laison Mwinde, Sithembekile Riyano while Gugulethu Nkomo is the District Coordinator.

Farai Dziva|Masvingo based actor and drama icon, Sabhuku Vharazipi, whose real name is David Mubaiwa in Collaboration with the Community Tolerance Reconciliation and Development (COTRAD) produced a video skit calling for fair distribution of government aid by public officials.
The video skit provides an overview of how the government aid is being used for retributive purposes.

Public officials continue to use political lenses in the selection of beneficiaries of government aid.
The video also shows the inherent flaws and popular criticisms of aid distribution systems in Zimbabwe and Masvingo province in particular.

Specifically, it shows that the aid beneficiary selection process is not always based on equal opportunity or either guided by vulnerability but determined by political affiliation and power.

Consequently, most of those who are supposed to get aid fail to access it due to their political affiliation.

The actors point out that public officials must serve everyone under their jurisdiction regardless of their political affiliation.

The video also encourages public officials to consult the people during the process of selecting beneficiaries.

Masvingo is hit by severe drought and most people require food aid.

Government has been providing rice and maize to vulnerable families.

The selection processes for beneficiaries remain high jacked by traditional leaders and elected official who use the aid to punish their critics.

A COTRAD official, Ishmael Kupfuwa has also said there is need to involve VIDCOs and WADCOs and the general citizenry starting from the beneficiary selection process up to the distribution point for transparency and accountability purposes.
“Traditional leaders should rigorously undergo human rights trainings so that they understand and acclimatize to the human rights based approach when executing their paramount roles and responsibilities bestowed to them,” said Kupfuwa.
Click the link below to view the video: https://youtu.be/eUSgaU4P3kQ

By A Correspondent| Zimbabwean students studying in the Chinese city of Wuhan have accused the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa of abandoning them in the midst of a deadly coronavirus outbreak.

A Zimbabwean student who spoke to a local publication on condition of anonymity revealed that some countries within the Southern African region are assisting their nationals in the Chinese city while they have received nothing from their government.

Said the student:

Zimbabweans are desperate. The coronavirus situation is bad. Everything is closed and some people have run out of food. Government is not helping. Some countries are helping their students who are here.

Zambia, Botswana, Ghana and Namibia gave their nationals some money, and we have not received a cent from the government. For us, we now survive from the benevolence of some Zimbabweans living in China to complement the help we get from the Chinese government.

We managed to get the ambassador (Martin Chedondo)’s contacts a few days ago and we spoke to him, but he did not promise anything, while other countries are giving financial assistance to their distraught citizens.

The students, who are estimated to be around 350, were caught up in the COVID-19 outbreak which occurred in the middle of December.

Chinese authorities have restricted movement in parts of the country to curb the spread of the flue-like ailment.-Newsday

By A Correspondent| Bulawayo City Council has suspended ambulance, refuse collection, attendance to water and sewer faults due to fuel shortages for the second time in just over two months.

In a statement on Thursday, Bulawayo Town Clerk Christopher Dube told residents that Council will not be able to offer them ambulance services as well as the collection of refuse and other services until the fuel situation improves.

Said, Dube:

The City’s Fire and Emergency Services will be prioritising calls and responding to critical emergencies in terms of the following services;

Road traffic accidents referred Council clinic maternity cases and public collapses. The public is advised to use alternative means until the situation improves.

The City of Bulawayo would like to advise residents that there may be an interruption in numerous services such as the collection of refuse, attendance to water and sewer faults due to fuel shortages.

Residents are advised that Council is working on ensuring a speedy delivery of fuel supplies so as to resume normal services.

BCC issued a similar statement on 29 December last year. However, the suspension did not come into effect as the situation immediately returned to normalcy.-Statemedia

By Own Correspondent| The government has given police and magistrates’ courts the green light to impose fines of between $200 and $120 000 for various criminal offences.

The new fines schedule was published in the Government Gazette on Friday and comes into effect immediately.

Admission of guilt fine for levels one to three offences has been hiked to $200 from $20.

Levels 4 to 14 offences now attract between $1 500 and $120 000. The maximum charge used to be $10 000.

Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs minister Ziyambi Ziyambi gazetted the new standard scale of fines under Statutory Instrument (SI) 57 of 2020.

He said:

This notice may be cited as the Criminal Law Codification and Reform (Standard Scale of Fines) Notice, 2020. The First Schedule to the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act is repealed and the following is substituted “First Schedule (Sections 2(1) and 280) Standard Scale of Fines.

The officer in charge will determine what the accused will pay for level one to level three and the fine will range between $200 and $500.

Some of the crimes under this level include driving without due care, public drinking and/or public fighting.-Newsday

By Own Correspondent| A teacher suddenly collapsed and died in front of colleagues and pupils at a primary school in Bulawayo’s Njube suburb on Friday.

The deceased teacher, identified as Freddy Murimirajaoba (53), was forced to abandon a Physical Education lesson after complaining of a headache and was taken to the headmistress’ office at around 9 AM where he collapsed and died.

Bulawayo police spokesman Inspector Abednico Ncube confirmed the incident.

He said:

“I can confirm that police are investigating the sudden death of a 53-year-old teacher at Mtshede Primary School who collapsed and died in the office of the headmistress.

We have information that the teacher had not been coming to school for a few weeks owing to poor health, and the headmistress had called him in to understand more about his health troubles when he suddenly died.

Murimirajaoba was from Mt Darwin in Mashonaland Central Province and had been at the school for 10 years. He was taking the Grade 3 class

TWO Bulawayo MDC activists, who were facing charges of fatally stoning a police officer during the January 2019 protests against fuel price hikes, were yesterday placed off remand after the State indicated that it was not yet ready to prosecute the matter.

Charles Thomas (54), of Njube, and Bernard Sibanda (18), of New Lobengula, were being charged with the murder of Constable Alexio Maune (32).

Through their lawyer Dumisani Dube, the two successfully sought to be placed off remand, arguing that the State had failed to formally charge them 13 months after their arrest.

State allegations were that the two activists stoned Maune in Entumbane on January 14, 2019, but the pair denied the charge, claiming they were victims of a dragnet arrest by police officers.

They both argued that they were not at the scene of the crime on that particular day.

GOVERNMENT has ordered a probe into issuance of passports at the Lupane registry office in Matabeleland North province following reports of underhand dealings and alleged victimisation of whistleblowers.

Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe told Southern Eye on Thursday that he ordered the probe after receiving complaints from some junior officers, who claimed harassment by their superiors for daring to expose the vice.

The junior officers claimed passport applicants were being made to bribe their way to get the travel document.

“You can neither confirm nor deny (the allegations) until you investigate, but yes, I have received a couple of letters. I don’t throw away the letters because information is power, I always make a follow-up. It is a matter under investigation,” Kazembe said.

“We have a couple of letters that I have sent to the (Home Affairs) permanent secretary to investigate. Dealing with corruption is a collective responsibility of everyone and, as such, we would want the informers to also come forward with more information. We will conceal their identities, even an anonymous call will help as we need that information,” Kazembe added.

Some of the junior staffers said they were recently suspended or transferred from Lupane by the provincial registrar Willard Sayenda, to ostensibly conceal the alleged illicit dealings.

But Sayenda refused to comment over the matter, saying it was confidential.

In one of the letters addressed to the Registrar-General Clemence Masango, the disgruntled workers said the alleged scam involved everyone, “including the head”.

“We would pay a tollgate fee to our boss (Sayenda) and we would do our passport applications (sic) as many as we want without even restrictions of the daily limited application which you had put,” the letter read.

“Lupane had few applicants and we had to heavily rely on Bulawayo clients who could not come to Lupane. We would take their fingerprints from Bulawayo, which is not procedural, but just an act of unlawful practice.”

Correspondent|President Emmerson Mnangagwa has appealed for help in pulling his debt-ridden country out of “financial isolation” across the country, Zimbabwe.

According to Emmerson Mnangagwa,he made his passionate call for international funding after he failed to secure new loans from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, African Development Bank and the paris club due to outstanding foreign debts of $8bn (£6.2bn).

Addressing the Africa forum on sustainable development in Zimbabwe’s northern town of Victoria Falls this week he said: “Our five-year national development plans running up to 2063 will endeavour to achieve an upper middle-income status by 2030“The need to remain alive to the shocks of drought and the impact of climate change through the necessary social safety nets cannot be overemphasised,” he said. “We appeal for multilateral support to augment our efforts.”

According to the president,the country is also facing rising.poverty levels and hyperinflation. Mnangagwa knows that only immediate political and economic reforms will secure fresh funding but he has stressed that change will cost money.

The government has given police and magistrates’ courts the green light to impose fines of between $200 and $120 000 for various criminal offences.

The new fines schedule was published in the Government Gazette on Friday and comes into effect immediately.

Admission of guilt fine for levels one to three offences has been hiked to $200 from $20.

Levels 4 to 14 offences now attract between $1 500 and $120 000. The maximum charge used to be $10 000.

Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs minister Ziyambi Ziyambi gazetted the new standard scale of fines under Statutory Instrument (SI) 57 of 2020. He said:

This notice may be cited as the Criminal Law Codification and Reform (Standard Scale of Fines) Notice, 2020. The First Schedule to the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act is repealed and the following is substituted “First Schedule (Sections 2(1) and 280) Standard Scale of Fines.

The officer in charge will determine what the accused will pay for level one to level three and the fine will range between $200 and $500.

Some of the crimes under this level include driving without due care, public drinking and/or public fighting.

Former Cabinet Minister and ZANU PF Politburo member Jonathan Moyo has claimed that ZANU PF-linked controversial fuel mogul, Kuda Tagwirei has been plotting to use US$2.4 million to buy Justice Garwe, who is said to be drafting the judgment in the Khupe vs Chamisa case so that he gives MDC-T leader Thokozani Khupe control of MDC properties. Said Moyo:

One momentous development this February is that Kuda Tagwirei has been plotting, with hypocrites who have maliciously alleged “G40” links with #Chamisa, to use USD 2,4m to buy the Supreme Court judgment for Thokozani Khupe in her case against #Chamisa to control the #MDC!

Kuda Tagwirei has been scandalously pledging to use cartel money “to compromise” Justice Garwe, whom they say is allegedly drafting the judgment in the Kupe case. A well-known co-conspirator in the matter has been calling the Supreme Court daily, asking for the judgment!

In 2018 the MDC secretary for Gokwe Sesame district, Elias Mashavira approached the High Court seeking an order that declares that Chamisa is neither the acting president nor president of MDC party.

This came after Chamisa had taken control of the MDC following the death of Morgan Tsvangirai in February of the same year. Mashavira is considered Khupe’s proxy in her battle to take control of MDC properties.

The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) is investigating circumstances leading to the release of a top Registrar General’s Office staffer Gorden Tsuro from jail, amid complaints of an irregularity.

Tsuro, who was in 2012 jailed three years for attacking his wife with an axe, unlawfully enjoyed freedom for seven years following the dismissal of his criminal appeal until last year when The Herald unearthed the scandal.

He was in November last year arrested and locked up in prison, but a month later the prosecution consented to the reinstatement of his 2013 appeal.

The prosecution, in a space of days after reinstatement of the appeal, again consented to Tsuro’s release on bail.

The Special Anti-Corruption Unit (SACU) last week asked ZACC to investigate circumstances surrounding the release of Tsuro on bail, saying the prosecution might have acted improperly.

This week, ZACC chairperson Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo confirmed receipt of a complaint from SACU, saying investigations had already begun.

“We have opened investigations into the matter”, said the ZACC boss.

Head of SACU, Mr Thabani Mpofu, last week wrote to Justice Matanda-Moyo asking her to look into how an officer in the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) consented to the reinstatement of Tsuro’s appeal and release on bail after the appeal had been struck off the roll because he (Tsuro) had missed deadlines to pursue his appeal.

The Herald exposed the irregularity last year after Tsuro, who was sentenced to three years in jail in 2012 for attacking his wife with an axe, had his appeal dismissed by the High Court in 2013 after he failed to pursue the matter.

After the dismissal of the appeal, he was supposed to be sent back to the magistrates’ court to be committed to prison to serve his sentence, but he continued enjoying his freedom for six years with some thinking he had been acquitted by the High Court.

He was only arrested and committed to prison at the end of last year.

Investigations by The Herald revealed that Tsuro briefly showed up at work upon his release this year and went into his office, much to the surprise of his colleagues who thought he was serving jail time.

Authorities at the RG’s Office immediately suspended Tsuro to allow them to have an appreciation of his case after they read in The Herald that he had been committed to prison to serve his three-year-jail term.

Tsuro (49) was on June 26, 2012, convicted of seriously injuring his wife, Ms Rosemary Charlie, after striking her with an axe during a domestic dispute.

He was initially charged with attempted murder, but then Harare regional magistrate Mr William Bhila found him guilty of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

On the same date, Tsuro’s lawyers, Mupindu & Mugiya, filed a notice of appeal against both conviction and sentence at the High Court, but this was not pursued.

In terms of the law, such a dismissal of the appeal must be followed by the issuance of a warrant of arrest to apprehend the convict and commit him or her to prison.

The Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority has announced fuel prices effective Friday 28 February 2020.

Government has advised members of the public to be cautious when buying tinned fish, especially the Pilchards brandimported from South Africa after the suppliers, West Point Processors, announced a recall of their 400-gramme cans last Saturday, citing a canning deficiency that may make the product unfit for human consumption.

The recall relates to cans with the batch codes starting with ZST29 and ZSC29.

A survey carried out by The Herald on Thursday indicated that most shops in Harare did not have the affected cans, but had 155-gramme and 425-gramme cans of the brand.

Acting Secretary for Health and Child Care Dr Gibson Mhlanga on Thursday said they had not received reports of tinned Pilchards being withdrawn in Zimbabwe.

“There is a system and protocol that health inspectors follow,” he said.

“This ensures the safety of imports ranging from edibles to other commodities. Our Expert Health Data System (EHDS) checks if food imports are correctly labelled and engage in a systematic process that does follow-ups on various food items to ensure the health and well-being of Zimbabweans nationwide.

“There has not been any case of the products being recalled in Zimbabwe; rather the assumptions of faulty canning could be a domestic issue for South Africa.”

Industry and Commerce Deputy Minister Raj Modi urged people to be cautious when buying the canned product.

“We are telling people to be aware of the dangers of consuming such food,” he said. “We are advising retailers that may have the affected products to withdraw them from the shelves and list them.

“We will engage our South African counterparts so that we can be able to return the contaminated cans and ensure the affected retailers can be refunded.”

Pick n Pay Joina City branch manager, Mr Daniel Moyo, said they put in place measures to ensure the safety of consumers.

Necessary precautions have to be applied when grocery shopping.

“Consumers tend to overlook aspects they find minor and these are some of the things that can either support life or cause death,” he said.

“Things such as expiry dates of commodities are some of the important details that consumers need to pay attention to.”

Zambian Energy Minister Mathew Nkhuwa says water levels in the Kariba Dam are not rising as expected this rainy season because the facility is over-generating electricity from the little water available.

And Nkhuwa says power generation at Kafue Gorge Upper has increased to 700 megawatts.

Meanwhile, Nkhuwa disclosed that the country will continue receiving power from South Africa’s Eskom until the US$5 million that the power utility is still owing Zambia from the US$20 million paid prior to the first power importation in November is exhausted.

Updating Parliament on the country’s electricity generation, Wednesday, Nkhuwa said the Kariba Dam was not doing well and that government was expecting that the dam would only be filled up if the country had about three consecutive years of good rainfall.

“The water levels in Kariba are not rising as we expected. One of the reasons that water is not rising so much is that we are over-generating power on the Kariba, therefore, we are depleting the water. But also, the floods which we had in Eastern Province are after the Kariba Dam, therefore, water that goes into the Luangwa River actually ends up getting into Cabora Basa and without getting into the Kariba because that part of the country is on the lower side and sending the water into Mozambique. The Zambezi River starts from Mwinilunga and it goes through into Angola and comes back into Zambia,” Nkhuwa said.

“So, we are getting a bit of rainfall through Angola which is helping us a bit for it to rise. But I must also say that the water levels of the Kafue are far much better, even at the worst position, we only lost about 35 per cent generation. The Kafue upper which is supposed to produce 990 megawatts could now produce 600. But now we have gone up to about 700 megawatts. So the Kafue is doing well, meaning that the Itezhi-tezhi and the Kafue Upper and when the Kafue Lower comes in, we will be able to do much better. But the Kariba is not doing well and if the rainfall was good, we expect to fill up the Kariba in about three years. With three years of good rainfall, we can fill up the Kariba. But as for now, that Kariba catchment area is not well Mr Speaker.”

And responding to Bwana Mkubwa member of parliament Dr Jonas Chanda who wanted to find out what mechanism the ministry was using to give the right information to citizens on the electricity supply situation in the country to avoid misinformation, the minister said his ministry had instructed the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) to be giving the nation updates fortnightly on water levels.

“Zambezi River Authority has been instructed to be giving a report to the nation every two weeks. So every fortnight, Zambezi River Authority do go to the radio, they do hold a press briefing in their offices to announce to the people the water levels and so on. Even further, there is a team of Zesco Public Relations department going round the country and sensitizing the people on the usage of electricity and the shortage of water in the Kariba. So both Zesco and Zambezi River Authority, with my ministry, are on top of things making sure that we sensitise the Zambian community,” Nkhuwa explained.

Meanwhile, giving an update on the load shedding status, he said power imports from Eskom would continue until the upfront money paid is exhausted.

“We began to import 300 megawatts of power from Eskom power company of South Africa in November, 2019 and this power import was a mitigation measure to cushion the impact of the power deficit on the economy. However, due to similar power challenges Zambia and the Republic of South Africa experienced during the same period, we only managed to import an average of 218 megawatts of non-thermal power daily from 22:00 hours to 05:00 hours until 3rd December, 2019 at a total cost of USD $15.5 million. You may recall that we had made an initial payment of USD $20 million prior to the importation. Therefore, this implies that we shall continue to get power from Eskom to exhaust the remaining balance,” Nkhuwa said.

He said the country’s power deficit currently stood at 810 megawatts while load-shedding for a minimum of 10 hours had been scheduled for different customer categories under distribution.

“In order to cushion this [power] deficit in the short term, the following projects and interventions are expected to be actualised: Kafue Gorge Lower is set to commission the first unit at 150 megawatts generation by end of quarter two, 2020; Lusiwasi upper is expected to be commissioned before end of quarter one, 2020; load-shedding for minimum of 10 hours is scheduled for different customer categories. Zero-rated taxes on solar equipment and gas stoves has been introduced. We have banned the use of incandescent bulbs. We have also developed a resource map for solar and we need to quicken and encourage investment in solar and wind. Mr Speaker, Zambia’s economy is largely dependent on the energy sector and electricity is the major source of energy. In this regard, government, through my ministry, will continue to implement measures that will accelerate the generation of electricity countrywide,” said Nkhuwa.

1/21 #NovemberInFebruary
“For keen students of Zimbabwean history, this February is threatening to replace November as the month of momentous events!”.
29 January 2020

Strangely but tellingly, some took this metaphoric tweet as a prediction of a military coup in February. Ok!

2/21 The words of the tweet speak for themselves, despite the misplaced but understandable attempts to squeeze blood out of them. Zimbabwe is at the crossroads. The country is pregnant with change. Something is afoot. But there’s no telling what it is or when it will be born!

3/21 I used the November metaphor to capture & convey the gestalt of the moment. Besides its sacred Shona myths, November has historical significance in Zimbabwe as the month of momentous events. The pioneer column of Cecil John Rhodes moved on King Lobengula in November 1893!

4/21 Ian Smith’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence was in Nov 1965. The so-called Tsholotsho Declaration was in November 2004. Black Friday, when the Zim dollar first crushed in value & lost 72% against the USD was in November 1997. The military coup was in November 2017!

5/21 Because of ZanuPF’s dominance of state politics in Zimbabwe since 1980, the fact that it holds its congress or annual conference in December, has guaranteed that November is a month of momentous events when all manner of power shenanigans and skulduggery politics take place!

6/21 While November did not disappoint in 2019, what with the foiled military coup, political intrigue in ZanuPF did not play out as usual, in the runup to the party’s Goromonzi annual conference. Chiwenga’s unexpected return in November flatfooted plotters & changed everything!

7/21 Due to the foiled military coup, trigerred by simmering grievances among middle & lower ranks in the army; coupled with Chiwenga’s surprise return from China, political programs that were meant for November 2019 were pushed back to play out in February; after the holidays!

8/21 Momentous events that usually happen in November were seen this February like bolts from the blue. The dismissal from the politburo of two key youth leaders, Togarepi & Matutu was momentous; as was the dismissal of Matutu & Tsenengamu from the party’s central committee!

9/21 Even more momentous were the reasons for the dismissal of the youth leaders: their calling out gross corruption by fuel & mealie meal “cartels” fronted by Kuda Tagwirei, Billy Rautenbach & Tafadzwa Musarara; all godfathered by Mnangagwa. This was November stuff in February!

10/21 The November in February was not only in ZanuPF. When @EdmundKudzayi, @PatrickZhuwao & I were pushed to disclose our support for the MDC-ALLIANCE in the 2018 elections, #ZanuPF & other detractors pounced on the disclosure to allege this was “G40” support for @nelsonchamisa!

11/21 And @GutuObert became a #ZanuPF voice; lying that our disclosure had vindicated him & “proved” alleged “G40” links with #Chamisa. Yet we had secured a ticket & accomodation for Thokozani Kupe’s aide, Witness Dube, who was sent to ask for funding from us on 28 March 2018! https://t.co/ELNw6IIm4B

12/21 And, for a perspective, on 28 December 2017; @PatrickZhuwao sent me a WhatsApp msg inviting me to a meeting, the next day, with @DMwonzora & Theresa Makoni who said they’d been sent by #Tsvangirai to get the “G40” to arrange a meeting for him with Pres Mugabe in Singapore!

13/21 Besides the delegations from Thokozani Kupe’s MDC-T who wanted resources, and the high powered team of @DMwonzora & Theresa Makoni, we received, on two separate occasions in February 2018 & April 2018, visitations by senior leadership from Joice Mujuru’s Rainbow Coalition!

14/21 It should be clear that encounters & engagements in politics do not constitute relationships. February claims that the so-called G40 forged permanent links with @nelsonchamisa in 2018 are false and hypocritical, as they have come from hypocrites who sought our support!

15/21 One momentous development this February is that Kuda Tagwirei has been plotting, with hypocrites who have maliciously alleged “G40” links with #Chamisa, to use USD 2,4m to buy the Supreme Court judgment for Thokozani Kupe in her case against #Chamisa to control the #MDC!

16/21 Kuda Tagwirei has been scandalously pledging to use cartel money “to compromise” Justice Garwe, whom they say is allegedly drafting the judgment in the Kupe case. A well known co-conspirator in the matter has been calling the Supreme Court daily, asking for the judgment!

17/21 Meanwhile the November in February politics have been hectic for Mnangagwa who has a momentous decision to make: does he resign & take the lucrative exit package on the table; or does he press on, fight it out as some of his cronies are urging him & risk being forced out!

18/21 The garrison shops in February, which are off budget, are evidence of Mnangagwa’s desperate inclination to fight on. But it’s a case of too little too late, as the horses have bolted. Soldiers do not live by bread alone. Where are the garrison schools, clinics & hospitals?

19/21 Another example of Mnangagwa’s continued digging in a hole, when he should be getting out, is his appointment of his nephew, Edwin Manikai, as the chairman of PAC. The scandalous appointment is being fiercely resisted by the few remaining neutrals in Mnangagwa’s cartels!

20/21 But it seems the bravado to fight on is in fact a dummy to facilitate the massive looting of assets and externalisation of forex by Mnangagwa’s cronies & family members. For example, his daughter, Farai has used @ReserveBankZIM to externalise USD 5m since 19 February 2020!

21/21 While all this has been happening, the real sign of November trouble in February is that army Commanders have been sleeping at KGVI, Tongogara Barracks. The last time they did that in November 2017, there was a coup. The country’s security situation is on a knife-edge!

TWO soldiers, who allegedly led armed robbery gangs in incidences that occurred in Kuwadzana and Chitungwiza last week appeared in court yesterday.

The soldiers, Emmanuel Tafirenyika Kambanje, 28, who is employed at 53 Infantry Battalion, Kwekwe and Rwatirera Zunde, 40, of Msasa Base Workshops appeared before Harare magistrate Barbra Mateko yesterday.

Kambanje is being charged with robbery while Zunde faces armed robbery charges and he was advised to approach the High Court for bail. Kambanje will be back in court tomorrow for his bail application.

The first complainants are Percy Kureva and Universe Mapati of Chitungwiza. Prosecutor Sabastian Mutizirwa alleged that on February 17 around 9pm Kureva arrived home from work and left the kitchen door unlocked.

Zunde and his three accomplices, who are still at large, followed Kureva into the house and manhandled him at gun point.

They allegedly demanded US$200 000 and ordered complainants to lie before they were tied hands and legs with electric cables.

The court heard that Kureva surrendered US$150 and $100 and told them that that was the only money he had before they dragged his wife to the bedroom and threatened to rape her.

It was alleged that she reached for her purse and surrendered $20 but Zunde continued insisting that there was US$200 000 hidden somewhere in that house.

They allegedly ransacked the house and stole the couple’s clothes, three cell phones and various other valuables valued US$1 350.

At that moment, detectives at Chitungwiza Police Station received an anonymous call alerting them of the robbery and swiftly rushed to the scene.

They fired warning shots on arrival and the gang managed to flee from the scene but left their Toyota Premio which had been parked in the yard.

The car was searched and police recovered a cell phone with an Econet line and had a screen saver of Zunde’s picture and he was subsequently arrested on February 20.

Searches conducted at Zunde’s house led to the recovery two Emulites tubes and Ignitor code explosives hidden under his bed.

He was positively identified by Kureva and Mapati during a parade.

The other incident occurred on February 22 at Sifra Shopping Centre, Kuwadzana in Harare.

Kambanje was in the company of his four accomplices Tatenda Nyakudyano and one Richard and Silas, who are still at large.

They approached the complainant (name not supplied) who was seated in his car, a silver Toyota Allion and began assaulting him accusing him of illegally dealing in foreign currency.

The court heard that Kambanje dragged the complainant out of his car and teamed up with his accomplices to assault him.

They allegedly searched him and stole US$20 000 and $420 before the complainant fired a warning shot causing the gang to flee.

However, Kambanje was apprehended with the assistance of the public and was taken to Kuwadzana Police Station.

— DailyNews

Fuel supplies should be stabilised urgently for industry and farmers to access it and increase production to ensure food security and conservation of foreign currency, experts have said.

Businesses and farmer organisations fear that the sale of fuel in foreign currency by some service stations will lead to redollarisation, which could affect the competitiveness of industry.

They said they no longer get special treatment in terms of fuel allocation and were spending production hours in queues like any other motorist.

At fuel stations, corruption has become the order of the day, as attendants connive with some customers and demand kickbacks.

Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) immediate-past president Mr Sifelani Jabangwe said the shortage of fuel, which is a major economic enabler, has adversely affected production.

Said Mr Jabangwe: “Fuel is the enabler of everything and should be stabilised. From agriculture to mining, everyone heavily depends on fuel.

“Yes, Government has allowed those with free funds to import fuel and sell it in forex, but this should be a temporary measure.”

He said selling fuel in forex will only benefit those who accessed it, while the majority who earn the local currency will continue to struggle.

“There should be no segregation in accessing fuel,” he said. “Those who import using their money want to recoup their expenses and they will continue selling in hard currency.”

Selling fuel in forex, added Mr Jabangwe, would lead to redollarisation, which the country is not ready to adopt.

“It is very difficult for the economy to redollarise,” he said. “We do not have enough forex reserves to sustain that because it will mean that one needs hard currency to buy basics like tomatoes.”

Farmers’ union representatives said maize farmers required at least 100 litres of diesel per hectare from land preparation up to harvesting, while their tobacco counterparts require about 200 litres per hectare.More in Home

Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU) president Mr Wonder Chabikwa said agriculture produced 60 percent of the raw materials needed by the manufacturing sector and should be prioritised in fuel allocations.

“Sixty percent of the raw materials that power the manufacturing sector come from agriculture. In the past, farmers would get special fuel supplying facilities and would buy it at wholesale price, but now we are being made to queue for long hours just like any other motorist and this is adversely affecting production,” he said.

Mr Chabikwa said his membership had the potential to increase production if they got the necessary support from the Government and stakeholders.

“We should not reinvent the wheel and we should not kill the hen that lays the golden egg. Tobacco farmers are the most affected by the prevailing fuel shortages. Those with an irrigated crop are now busy harvesting. There is a lot of trailer work involved at this crucial stage and this requires a lot of fuel as tobacco has to be transported from the fields to curing barns and then to the auction floors.”

Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union president Mr Shadreck Makombe said farmers should be allowed to access fuel directly from the National Oil Infrastructure Company (NOIC).

-State media

The leader of a gang of illegal gold panners, whose group recently stormed Redwing Mine in Penhalonga and attacked security guards with machetes and axes, has been slapped with a three-year jail sentence.

Zondai Urayayi (24), was found guilty of public violence and theft by Senior Mutare magistrate Tendai Mahwe, who acquitted three other suspects as there was no incriminating evidence against them.

Urayayi will, however, serve 30 months behind bars after six months of the sentence were set aside on condition of good behaviour.

Theophilus Gapara (28), Godfrey Dzingirayi (42) and Darlington Mutsingo (26), who where Urayayi’s alleged accomplices — were acquitted.-State media