Dewa Mavhinga, regional coordinator of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition

By Tichaona Sibanda
16 May 2012

A faction in ZANU PF is allegedly pushing for a wholesale revision of the draft constitution, in an attempt to smuggle in a provision that allows serving military officers to be active in political parties of their choice.

The current constitution in Zimbabwe prohibits members of the security services to engage in partisan political activity. However, that has not stopped the military elite from endorsing Robert Mugabe as a ZANU PF presidential candidate in almost every election since independence.

The Zimbabwe Defence Act also prohibits any military personnel from engaging in any partisan political activity. In a normal democracy any military personnel found involved campaigning for political parties are dealt with accordingly.

“This is unacceptable and find it very disturbing,” said Dewa Mavhinga, the regional director for the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition.

He said Wednesday: “It is absolutely alarming that we are witnessing a rapid militarization of the constitutional reform process. We hear now that the army is pushing for recognition in the new draft for its members to become involved in party structures of their choice, like having a Brigadier being the district chairperson for ZANU PF.”

Speaking on SW Radio Africa’s Hidden Story program on Wednesday, Mavhinga said the same faction in ZANU PF is attempting to scuttle the constitutional process by handing in, at this eleventh hour, a position paper whose demands are inadmissible.

It is believed this ZANU PF faction includes individuals like Jonathan Moyo and Tafataona Mahoso, who have been vocal in opposing the new draft. Mavhinga said attempts by this group to block the new draft seem to have failed.

“The efforts have failed dismally and we want to continue on that track to say it is not for Professor Jonathan Moyo to decide for Zimbabweans whether or not their views are in the draft. It is for every Zimbabwean to read the document, to interact with it and to decide for themselves, and reflect their positions in a national referendum draft,” explained Mavhinga.

He said he believes the views of Zimbabweans cannot be assigned to a few individuals to decide for them whether or not to accept the draft.

“This is the problem with some of these professionals who think they know better than all Zimbabweans put together, who think they’re right to prescribe to Zimbabweans what they think is correct,” Mavhinga said.

He added: “This thinking is driven by narrow parochial interests that seeks to advance their positions in the belief that if Zimbabwe is to go to the next election under an uneven political field, under the current Lancaster House constitution, then it would retain the kind of regime that would maintain the status quo, which is benefitting the same individuals.”

Donated food is not being distributed to MDC supporters in Lupane East

By Tererai Karimakwenda
16 May 2012

A total of six traditional leaders in Lupane East constituency of Matabeleland have been accused of working with ZANU PF district structures, in a scheme to deny donated food and other local resources to MDC supporters.

SW Radio Africa correspondent Lionel Saungweme said villagers known to support any MDC formation are being denied everything from maize seed to spray dips for livestock and fair trials at traditional courts. The intensified strategy is meant to force villagers to support ZANU PF in the next election.

Saungweme said: “The six village heads have been co-opted into the DCC (District Coordinating Council) structures of ZANU PF and this is happening in Lupane constituency which is a very big area with many villages.”

According to Saungweme, the village heads recruited by ZANU PF are taking control of donations made by NGOs in Lupane East and using them to benefit their party members only.

“Even the bee-keeping projects under Environment Africa are benefitting ZANU PF youth wing members. The NGOs should know this and realise that their donations are being diverted to one party,” Saungweme said.

In Lupane’s Gomoza Ward, Councillor Janet Mpofu was accused of diverting seed maize meant to benefit the community and distributing it to her entire family, while other villagers went hungry.

Saungweme named village heads Morris Ndlovu of Maphanda, Luke Mguni of Sikhwehle, Jacob Nxele-Moyo of Wolomoka, Joel Tshuma of Siyatshaya and Timothy Sibanda of Nzalikhwa Village as the headman working with Gomoza DCC Chairman Thomas Moyo.

Speaker of parliament Lovemore Moyo

By Alex Bell
16 May 2012

Debate in Zimbabwe’s parliament was once again stalled as it resumed sitting on Wednesday, with a ZANU PF attempt to block a private members bill.

Speaker of parliament Lovemore Moyo opened the session Wednesday by announcing that debate on the Urban Councils Amendment Bill would not be allowed, because Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo is challenging the bill in the Supreme Court.

The private members bill was introduced by the MDC-T Buhera Central legislator, Tangwara Matimba in February this year, and seeks to trim the substantive powers of the Local Government Minister.

Following a ZANU PF caucus meeting this year, Chombo wrote to the Speaker and the Clerk of parliament stating that under the Global Political Agreement (GPA), only Government Ministers can introduce Bills in parliament, not private members. Chombo also argued that parliament therefore had no power to consider Matimba’s amendment bill.

The Clerk replied in a letter that parliament disagreed with the ZANU PF argument, which has since led to Chombo filing an application with the Supreme Court to block Matimba’s amendment bill.

MDC-T Chief Whip Innocent Gonese told SW Radio Africa on Wednesday that Chombo’s legal challenge is “unfortunate,” not only because it has stalled parliamentary work.

“It is very unfortunate that this court application has resulted in a situation where debate cannot take place. It is taking us backwards instead of forwards,” Gonese said.

He added that it is a “political move to try and frustrate the efforts of members who have misgivings about the bill as it stands.”

There are now concerns that Chombo’s legal challenge is paving the way for other private members bills to be blocked, including a bill to amend the repressive Public Order and Security Act (POSA).

According to the parliamentary watchdog group, Veritas, if Chombo were to win the ‘sub judice’ argument while the case is with the court, “it would also benefit his party not to have the other private member’s bills in the pipeline go through parliament.”

Veritas warned that the court’s final ruling “will serve as a precedent for other private member’s bills.” The MDC-T Chief Whip Gonese also expressed concern about the possible implications this court challenge will have.

“Obviously if the argument is sustained it would mean no private member can then introduce any motion in parliament in relation to any piece of legislation,” Gonese explained.

Veritas also said that it would be “most unfortunate if this case results in a precedent for using the ‘sub judice’ rule to stop debate on a parliamentary agenda item every time a dissatisfied MP lodges court papers challenging Parliament’s handling of the item.”

“That might encourage flimsy applications to court simply to delay proceedings in Parliament. Parliament’s legislative work could be disrupted and bogged down,” Veritas said.

To contact this reporter email alex@swradioafrica.com

Aaron Muzungu went for a drive

By Lance Guma
16 May 2012

Aaron Muzungu the former spokesman of the breakaway MDC-99 party was arrested Saturday on allegations that he stole a brand new Ford Ranger T6 vehicle that was on display at the Harare Sports Club.

It’s alleged that two weeks ago Muzungu gate crashed a big launch party for the new car that was being hosted by Croco Motors, who hold the Ford franchise in the country. Muzungu took advantage of the lax security at the launch by claiming to be a potential buyer before driving the car out of the display unnoticed.

Croco Motors were forced to flight adverts offering US$5 000 for information leading to the recovery of the car which is thought to be valued at US$57 000. On Saturday police caught up with Muzungu who was claiming he had bought the car in which he had already clocked more than 1300 km over eight days.

Detectives recovered the vehicle from his house. Muzungu has already appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to the theft charges. The 38 year old was remanded in custody to the 19^th of June by Harare regional magistrate Hosea Mujaya.

On Monday MDC-99 leader Job Sikhala told SW Radio Africa that Muzungu and police Detective Inspector Henry Sostain Dhowa, were working with the Central Intelligence Organisation to ‘vilify and defile’ his name using ‘preposterous’ allegations that he raped a South African national working as his personal assistant.

On Wednesday Sikhala’s party issued a statement claiming that Muzungu had previously “defrauded ZANU PF spokesman, Rugare Gumbo of his Mercedes Benz purporting to be a car dealer. This only came to light when he was involved in an accident with Rugare Gumbo’s car.”

The “MDC-99 denies any association with Aaron Muzungu as the media reports suggest. We totally disassociate our party from this fraudulent man. We issued a statement when he was expelled in January. He has long been replaced by David Hwangwa as party spokesman.”

To contact this journalist e-mail lance@swradioafrica.com

GMB refusing to work with MDC councillors

By Tererai Karimakwenda
16 May 2012

At least 350 starving families were recently denied maize seed under the government’s grain loan scheme in Chimanimani, because officials at the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) refused to deal with their MDC-T councillor.

The GMB is required to release the maize to councillors who present a list of needy families in their constituency, regardless of the political party they support. The councillors in turn work in collaboration with chiefs and headmen, but no political interference is required.

According to activist Peter Chanetsa in Chimanimani, Manicaland Province, officials at the GMB at Bumba depot recently turned away councillor David Munengu, of ward 15 in Chimani urban. The councillor had a list with 350 families from different political parties, but was told only the ZANU PF chairperson had the authority.

Chanetsa said the MDC-T councillor was infuriated because the families in his ward are struggling to feed themselves.

“Some are surviving by cooking raw bananas because they had no harvest this year,” Chanetsa told SW Radio Africa.

He explained that the grain loan scheme was designed to assist hungry villagers to grow their own food and then repay the GMB by the next harvest. Each family receives a 50 kg bag of maize seed.

“Some of the maize now ends up being sold on the black market and the government is not paid back,” Chanetsa added.

Reports of ZANU PF using food as a political weapon have intensified countrywide. The MDC-T has criticized this abuse of state resources and reported documented cases to the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC). It is not clear what JOMIC intends to do with these cases, but the abuses have continued.

Mines Minister Obert Mpofu said the new fees were proving profitable

By Alex Bell
16 May 2012

New mining fees in Zimbabwe, which have been condemned as ‘exorbitant’, will not be reviewed, after Mines Minister Obert Mpofu said the new fees were proving profitable.

The new licence fees for the mining sector were gazetted in January this year and range between US$3000 and US$5 million. This has represented an increase of up to 5000% which analysts and observers have warned will impact local mining ventures the hardest.

A parliamentary committee on mining has also said that the new fee increases could be illegal and called on Mpofu to explain his decision. The committee said in a report last month that the fees “impose a hefty financial burden on citizens and non-citizens alike who opt to invest in the mining sector.”

But Mpofu told the committee this week that the new fees regime had started paying dividends.

“Since we increased the fees we have so far collected US$10 million because now we have serious miners who are mining than the scenario we had before, where people would hoard mining claims for speculative purposes,” Mpofu said.

He explained his reasoning behind the fee increase, saying it was an effort to curb ‘speculative behaviour’ by some claim owners.

“We have been tracking the listing of companies and we realised most of them are registered and listed in foreign countries,” said Mpofu.

Mpofu said: “On the ground they won’t be doing anything but just use the mines to count them as their assets. We thought if we could come up with these fees it would be a deterrent measure for those who hoard claims for speculative purposes and I must say it has started paying off.”

To contact this reporter email alex@swradioafrica.com

Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo

By Lance Guma
15 May 2012

Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo has urged traditional chiefs to banish “people who support homosexuality” from their communities and take away their land. The ZANU PF MP was addressing villagers in Lupane who had come to witness the installation of Chief Mabhikwa Khumalo last Thursday.

“The chiefs are there to protect and promote our cultural values and those who support same sex marriages must be banished from the communities and be dispossessed of their land. What kind of madness is this that when we have beautiful women in our country some people want to marry other men,” he said.

The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) condemned the remarks saying: “Such utterances will give rise to an increase in incidents of harassment, persecution, as well as unlawful arbitrary evictions and seizure of property,” all of which violate national, regional and international human rights.

The lawyers said: “Chombo’s appetite for forced evictions, especially in the month of May, is reminiscent of the scorched earth programme of Operation Murambatsvina which had far-reaching consequences on a large portion of the Zimbabwean population.”

In 2005 Mugabe’s regime sanctioned a large scale campaign to forcibly clear so-called slum areas and ‘illegally’ built structures across the country. According to United Nations estimates over 700,000 people were affected directly through loss of their homes or livelihoods, while a another 2,4 million were affected indirectly.

The ZLHR say the latest remarks by Chombo underline the blatant disrespect for the rule of law and “the lack of sincerity by a minister from a political party which pretends to support economic and social justice.” Almost 7 years after Operation Murambatsvina some victims still live in plastic shacks without basic services.

“Chombo should be ashamed of his, and the government’s failure to provide adequate alternative accommodation and/or compensation to those people who were left homeless and jobless almost 7 years ago,” the lawyers group said.

To contact this journalist e-mail lance@swradioafrica.com

Gabriel Shumba

By Alex Bell
15 May 2012

South Africa has been urged to deal with the situation at its border with Zimbabwe, which an activist has described as ‘chaos’.

There are ongoing reports of victimisation and violence at the border where thousands of Zimbabweans cross between the two countries every week. While many of the crossings are legal, others continue to be done illegally, with Zimbabweans still risking jumping the border into South Africa to flee the situation back home.

The border is a notoriously dangerous place for a border jumper, who fall prey to violence and corruption mostly led by the ‘guma guma’ gang. The gang operates along the border, targeting illegal crossers, and are thought to be responsible for thousands of gang rapes, murders, assaults and thefts.

Police officials on both sides of the border have also been accused of intimidation and corruption, with reports that some officers from Zimbabwe and South Africa demand bribes to help facilitate illegal crossings.

Gabriel Shumba from the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum told SW Radio Africa on Tuesday that the situation is chaotic.

“We continue to hear of rape, demands for bribes…it is the complete breakdown of the rule of law at the borders,” Shumba explained.

He urged the South African authorities to honour its international commitments to human rights and the protection of asylum seekers by ensuring the border was safe.

Shumba warned that the country’s credibility was already being brought into question amid reports that the country’s police and crime fighting unit, the Hawks, are involved in illegal ‘renditions’ with their Zimbabwean counterparts.

The renditions, which are illegal transfers of suspects between the two countries, are said to have resulted in the deaths of Zimbabwean nationals, who have been apprehended in South Africa, handed over to Zim authorities, tortured and killed.

The reported involvement of the South African authorities has led to a preliminary probe by the country’s police. Shumba said that an independent inquiry will be more credible, especially if the security forces in South Africa are working in cahoots with Zimbabwe.

“I believe there are rogue and over zealous elements acting in cahoots with Zimbabwe security forces. I shudder to think what it means for Zimbabweans in South Africa if the South African government is not reining in these rogue elements,” Shumba said.

To contact this reporter email alex@swradioafrica.com

Senator Obert Gutu

By Tererai Karimakwenda
15 May 2012

The state run Sunday Mail newspaper is being sued by the Deputy Minister for Justice, Obert Gutu, after the paper accused him of receiving payment from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to write positive reports about the ongoing constitutional review process.

Last week’s edition of the paper claimed that the UNDP was “clandestinely” recruiting writers and paying $200 each for stories which portray COPAC and the new draft charter in a positive light. The report also alleged that the MDC-T, through Gutu, had taken the lead in praising the COPAC draft.
Minister Gutu, who is also MDC-T Harare Province Secretary, denied the allegations, calling them “false, wrongful and malicious”. He described the report as a “smear campaign” against the COPAC process in general and the MDC-T in particular.

“I feel grossly insulted. I’ve been practicing law for nearly a quarter century now. I earn my living through law and for them to insinuate that I can be bought for $200 to write an article for the UNDP is ridiculous,” Gutu said.
He added: “They have targeted people like myself because they know that I write frequently. Writing is my hobby and I think they found it easy to use my name as one of the people who’s been commissioned by the UNDP, which is false and slanderous.”

The Deputy Minister said he has been submitting articles for at least 15 years and has “never charged a single penny” to any of the publications to which he sends his articles.

“For The Sunday Mail to baldly declare I was hired, I felt very insulted . I had my reputation lowered,” Gutu explained.

Gutu is suing for nearly $1, 3 million. He said it is not the amount of money but the principle, which is at stake.

Zanu PF political commissar Webster Shamu

By Tichaona Sibanda
15 May 2012

An overzealous senior CIO operative based in Masvingo on Sunday barred two independent journalists from covering a ZANU PF meeting convened by the party’s political commissar Webster Shamu.

The meeting was called to discuss events that led to ZANU PF groups engaging in open warfare, following the hotly disputed District Coordinating Committee (DCC) elections in the province.

The intelligence officer, identified as Huni and based at the district offices of the spooks in the town, instructed the two journalists, Tatenda Chitagu from NewsDay and Godfrey Mutimba from the Daily News not to enter the Chiefs Hall in Mucheke, the venue of the meeting.

SW Radio Africa is reliably informed Huni told the two scribes that they were not welcome to cover ‘their meeting’ implying he was part of the ZANU PF gathering. The senior spy, a well known figure in Masvingo asked a group of war vets to keep an eye on the two journalists, who were told to stand outside the gates to the Chiefs hall.

“The two scribes obliged and went and waited by the gate but Huni wanted them to move further from the premises at which the journalists remonstrated that he had no powers to control their movements on a street,” a source said.

While the meeting took place inside the hall, a group of war vets kept monitoring the movements of the two journalists, who had to wait 10 hours before the acrimonious meeting ended.

That meeting resulted in Shamu ordering the rerun of district polls in Chiredzi. But he reportedly upheld results from three other districts as the party battles to bring order in its structures riddled with factionalism.

It’s reported that Masvingo has a faction sympathetic to Defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa in a decade long battle to outflank the other faction aligned to Vice-President Joice Mujuru.