Messages From Zimbabwe

One of President Robert Mugabe’s security men was critically injured when his motor bike collided with a truck near Sam Levy’s Village in Borrowdale on Thursday evening.

The motorist is likely to be charged with negligent driving as he did not give way to the Presidential motorcade. President Mugabe was on his way to his Borrowdale mansion when the accident occurred.

The rider is part of the Presidential Guard.

The motorist was driving from Sam Levy Village near Domboshawa Road and the robot indicated that he had the right way but did not give way to the Presidential motorcade.

A Radio VOP correspondent witnessed the accident as the out-rider who led the motorcade rammed into the truck before swerving into a nearby ditch.

The Presidential Motorcade which has an ambulance in the convoy of about six cars did not stop to assist the Zimbabwe Republic Police rider who lay sprawled on the ground. He was later attended to a few minutes and is reportedly in a critical conditon.

The out-rider with a siren leads the way clearing the road giving ZIM 1 (President Robert Mugabe’s stretch limousine) a distance of  about 200 metres.

The Presidential Motorcade later follows in a diamond formation covering the tarmac with Mugabe’s limousine in between.

On hearing the siren the motorists on the road park their cars by the roadside to give way to the speeding Presidential motorcade. However on Thursday evening a motorist did not give the right way to the motorcade. It could not be established when the motorist would appear in court.

Several motorists have in the past been assaulted by Mugabe’s security men for not giving way to the Presidential motorcade. Some of the riders who led the motorcade have also been killed after some motorists fail to observe the unwritten law of giving way to the Presidential motorcade.

President Mugabe now spends most of his time at his mansion in Borrowdale mansion were he lives with his family.

In the past the First Family lived at State House which now normally used for State occasions before he retires to his Borrowdale mansion. President Mugabe’s motorcade has over the years been criticised as a waste of state resources.

(Source)

Former Information Minister and Tsolotsoh North MP Professor Jonathan Moyo has assumed control of State propaganda machinery in a delegate situation potentially setting up an explosive working relationship with George Charamba.

Charamba is Robert Mugabe’s spokesman and Permanent Secretary in the Information Ministry and Publicity, and there is no love lost between the control freaks.

Highly placed sources at the Herald house said Professor Jonathan Moyo is being consulted by the editors before the publication of political stories.

“He has returned to his propaganda carrier as the editor of stories critical to the Movement for Democratic Change leader and the country’s leader Morgan Tsvangirai which we are running every day. If any reporter has finished scripting such stories Professor Moyo is phoned for verification. He at  times  personally  phones the reporter or the news room to  find out how such  stories were  written before  they  are published,” said the source.

The state media is currently running stories meant to denounce the MDC president for accusing him of having invited sanctions in the country.

This move by the state media to lambast Tsvangirai on the sanctions issue came after BRITISH foreign secretary David Miliband had said the west’s decision on whether to lift sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe would be guided by advice from Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC party.

Miliband told the House of Commons last week that the UK government welcomed the recent agreement by the principals of the inclusive government to establish key commissions and would continue to press for progress in the implementation of the Global Political Agreement.

It is also reliably understood that News managers at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation have given a directive to the effect that Professor Moyo be the only political analyst on all stories concerning the same issue.

“We have been told not to use skip the learned Professor when seeking political analysis on the Tsvangirai and sanctions stories. He has been described to us as the best person to analyze those issues, “said one senior female newsperson based at ZBC headquarters.

During his time as the country’ Information minister Professor Jonathan Moyo crafted media draconian laws which led to the closure of publications which were deemed critical to the former ZANU-PF party.

He is viewed as a media hangman by Zimbabwean journalists for the sufferings he caused after the closure of newsrooms in which hundreds of them were earning a living from.

(Source)

A Zimbabwean magistrate court on Tuesday gave four white farmers 24 hours to vacate their properties, the Commercial Framers Union (CFU) said on Tuesday.

The mainly white CFU, which last week criticised the power-sharing government between President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai for failing to end chaos in the farming sector, said the magistrate ruled that the four farmers were guilty of refusing to vacate their properties.

The union said the farmers were slapped with a US$800 fine each and ordered to immediately move out of their homes and vacate their farms by Wednesday (today) evening – in a ruling that highlights worsening fortunes for Zimbabwe’s white farmers who have also come under increased attacks from Mugabe’s supporters since formation of the coalition government.

The evicted farmers are Algernon Taffs of Chirega Farm, Dawie Joubert of Stilfontein, Mike Odendaal of Hillcrest Farm, Mike Jahme of Silverton Farm – all from the south eastern district of Chipinge.

According to the CFU, the magistrate said if the four failed to vacate their properties as ordered by the court they would spend the next two years in jail and the union indicated that the farmers were preparing to appeal against the eviction orders.

“Under the Constitution of Zimbabwe everyone has the right to appeal but the magistrate denied them this right saying there was no doubt in his judgment. Urgent applications are currently taking place in Harare on behalf of the evicted farmers,” the CFU said, adding; “The farmers are desperately moving their life’s belongings into the local Dutch Reformed Church for safety.”

The unity government of Mugabe and Tsvangirai has watched helplessly as members of the security forces and hardliner activists of Mugabe’s ZANU PF party intensified in recent weeks a drive to seize all land still in white hands, causing deep frustration among the farmers.

The beleaguered white farmers, in a strongly worded statement last week labelled the ongoing farm seizures a “crime against humanity” and called on the coalition government to act to end lawlessness on farms in keeping with the 2008 power-sharing agreement that gave birth to the administration.

Under the power-sharing agreement Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, who is third signatory to the pact, promised to restore the rule of law in the farming sector, including carrying out a land audit to weed out multiple farm owners – nearly all of them senior ZANU PF officials who have hoarded most of the best farms seized from whites.

The coalition government is yet to act to fulfil the promise to restore law and order in the key agricultural sector, while more farms – including some owned by foreigners and protected under bilateral investment protection agreements between Zimbabwe and other nations – have been seized over the past few months.

And to make matters worse, according to the CFU, police and judicial officers who are supposed to enforce the rule of law were also among the beneficiaries of the free-for-all land grab.

(Source)

The MDC dismisses the story in today’s Herald that Hon. Eddie Cross, an MDC national executive member and Bulawayo South MP has been suspended from the party.

For the record neither the MDC Standing Committee nor the National Executive met to make such a decision.

Furthermore, no official has been affected by the decision as claimed by The Herald.

We note with concern desperate attempts engineered by the detractors of the people’s movement who continue to churn out falsehoods.

No amount of fiction and falsehoods will shift the MDC from being the agent of delivering real change to the people of Zimbabwe.

Source: via Skype

The Local Government Minister, Ignatius Chombo has threatened to replace elected local authorities with state-appointed commissions, opening yet another front in the increasingly bitter turf wars within the country’s coalition administration.

The MDC-T has in the past accused ZANU PF of using commissions to subvert the will of voters and win back control of local authorities that would have been won by the opposition in elections.

State commissions have previously been appointed to replace MDC local authorities in the capital Harare as well as the eastern border city of Mutare.

And Local Government Minister, Ignatius Chombo has warned that the provisions of the Urban Councils Act would yet again be invoked where cases of corruption are proven.

The councils said to be targeted are all MDC-T-run and include Bindura, Chitungwiza, Kadoma and Redcliff.

“Last year we forgave most of the councillors because they were newcomers, but ratepayers are now fed up with the levels of corruption in local authorities.

“As Government we cannot just sit back while local authorities milk ratepayers,” he is quoted by The Herald as saying.

In fairness to the Minister however, the MDC-T has itself condemned corruption in some of the councils, particularly Chitungwiza.

The Government has since dispatched investigators to probe the corruption allegations and Chombo warned that he would act on their recommendations.

“We have sent our forensic teams to investigate local authorities that are accused of mismanagement. All councillors who will be found on the wrong side of the law will be automatically dismissed.

“In the event that the whole council is found guilty, we will replace it with a commission until new elections are held,” Chombo is quoted by the state-owned Herald as saying.

He is also said to have written to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai expressing concern at the levels of corruption in local authorities that are dominated by MDC-T councillors.

(Source)

The joint head of the body meant to draft a new democratic constitution for Zimbabwe has been charged with insulting President Mugabe by calling him a goblin, lawyers confirmed Friday.

Douglas Mwonzora, an parliamentarian for prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and co-chairman of the key parliamentary constitutional commission, allegedly told MDC supporters that the 85-year-old Mugabe was a goblin.

The politician faces a maximum penalty of one year in jail if found guilty.

In Zimbabwean traditional mythology goblins are feared, hideous creatures with evil powers.

Mwonzora made the remarks nearly a year ago at a political rally ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections but was only summonsed on Monday this week, said lawyer Lewis Uriri.

MDC officials said the charges against him were Mwonzora deliberate harassment by Mugabes security agents.

The MDC won the elections but were then forced into a second round of the presidential ballot which was preceded by a wave of state-run violence that saw at least 100 MDC supporters murdered and thousands tortured and made homeless.

Mugabe was declared the winner after Tsvangirai withdrew because of the violence, and the poll was universally denounced as a fraud.

Shortly after, Southern African nations intervened to set up the inauguration of an unequal power-sharing government between Tsvangirai and Mugabe in which the autocrat controls the security forces.

Hundreds of people have been arrested and fined or jailed under Zimbabwean laws that make it an offence to make derisory comments about Mugabe, the worlds oldest head of state who has been in power for nearly 30 years.

On Tuesday, an MDC provincial chairman in southern Zimbabwe was arrested for telling a party rally that the people must not allow Mugabe to cheat them in elections again.

The constitutional commission was set up under the coalition agreement, but progress has been bogged down by continual blockading by ZANU PF officials who, analysts say, fear they will be swamped in a democratic election held under a constitution guaranteeing human rights and the rule of law.

(Source)

President Mugabe briefly returned from his annual leave to bury the widow of veteran nationalist Leopold Takawira who was declared a national hero and interred at the national shrine in Harare yesterday.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai made his second official appearance at the Heroes Acre and was accompanied by his two deputies, Arthur Mutambara and Thokozani Khupe. Mugabe’s two deputies, Joyce Mujuru and John Nkomo also attended to complete a rare public appearance of the country’s entire top executive.

Mugabe, who made an unusual departure from his traditional attack of Britain and the West, took most of his speech to recall the works of the late Amai Sunny Ntombiyelanga Takawira and to relive the life of her husband, the legendary Takawira who died in prison in colonial Rhodesia.

His speech would however have been incomplete without mention of the ‘white outsiders’ and Zimbabwe’s sovereignty.

Mugabe said ‘outsiders’ were welcome in Zimbabwe only if they were coming to partner Zimbabweans in the exploitation of the country’s resources for the benefit of Zimbabweans.

“The destiny of our country is in our own hands. Outsiders, yes we need, but only to the extent that they want to partner us in exploiting the country’s resources for the development of Zimbabwe and its people.

“Our country’s interests come first and Zimbabweans must be prepared to defend those interests. The country’s sovereignty is non-negotiable, and the unity of our people remains paramount in all our endeavours.

Ministers and officials from Tsvangirai and Mutambara’s parties made conspicuous appearance leaving analysts wondering if Mugabe and his two protagonists had finally agreed on the contentious criteria for choosing national heroes.

The former opposition leaders had always complained about Mugabe using his party’s supreme governing body, the politburo, to unilaterally decide on who was to be declared a national hero.

This had been presented as one of the reasons why Tsvangirai’s attendance at the national shrine was not always guaranteed.

(Source)

Senior freelance journalist Stanley Kwenda has reportedly fled the country after he was allegedly phoned and threatened with death by a senior police officer.

Kwenda fled the country over the weekend after he was phoned on his cellphone on 15 January 2010 by the alleged senior police officer over a story reportedly published in The Zimbabwean newspaper.

The police officer allegedly told him that he would not survive the weekend. Kwenda who is a member of MISA-Zimbabwe’s Harare Advocacy Committee, is the director of the Artists for Democracy Zimbabwe Trust (ADZT).

MISA-Zimbabwe condemns this development as yet another serious threat to media freedom and the right of journalists to conduct their lawful professional duties without fear or hindrance from any quarters.

MISA-Zimbabwe urges the inclusive government and the Police Commissioner General to unequivocally guarantee the safety of journalists and to assure Kwenda of his security pending full investigations into the alleged threats.

(Source)

The feuding MDC-T and ZANU PF are headed for a fresh clash over the diplomatic post that will be left vacant when Zimbabwe’s ambassador to South Africa, Simon Khaya Moyo, assumes fulltime the national chairmanship of his party. According to an agreement reached by the two MDC formations and ZANU PF late last year, the allocation of diplomatic posts is to be decided as and when vacancies arise.

The three parties agreed that the diplomatic vacancies would be shared between MDC-T and MDC-M using a formula based on the March 2008 harmonised elections.

However, it emerged this week that ZANU PF has decided that Moyo would not relinquish his position in Pretoria but will continue as the country’s ambassador while at the same time chairing the party from the neighbouring country.

Sources within ZANU PF said the party was not comfortable with allowing the MDC-T to take control of the embassy in Pretoria, as ZANU PF feared the party would take advantage of the posting and use its ambassador to create strong relations with the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

“ZANU PF does not want to let go of powerful diplomatic missions as they feel that the MDC-T will have influence if it is offered diplomatic postings in powerful countries,” one of the sources said. “ZANU PF is also afraid that an MDC-T ambassador in Pretoria will work towards creating strong links between the MDC-T and the ANC, so ZANU PF wants Moyo to chair the party from South Africa.”

The source said ZANU PF was prepared to offer the two MDC formations any postings in Europe.

ZANU PF deputy spokesperson Ephraim Masawi however said whether Moyo stayed or moved from Pretoria would depend on what the party leadership decides.

“The party leadership will decide whether there is more work at party headquarters that will warrant Moyo leaving his diplomatic posting,” Masawi said this week. “If the workload is deemed too much, he will come back home but if the party decides that he stays in South Africa he will stay there.”

But MDC-T spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said the issue of who filled the diplomatic posts in South Africa was not under debate.

“Entertaining debate on this matter is a waste of time as the parties agreed on sharing the diplomatic postings and the vacant positions in Brussels and in Pretoria should be filled by the MDC-T, this should not be a grab-and-take all, it should be a give-and-take affair,” Chamisa said.

Chamisa said Moyo should vacate the position in Pretoria as he was now in the top echelons of leadership in ZANU PF and thus should not hold a diplomatic posting as the parties agreed that diplomats should be apolitical.

“When we allow diplomats to be senior officials holding senior positions in parties we risk having party interests subordinating national interests and as Moyo is in the ZANU PF presidium he should leave his diplomatic job,” Chamisa said.

However, the MDC-M and MDC-T have also appointed other senior party officials as ambassador designates. Trudy Stevenson, a senior MDC-M member, has been appointed Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Senegal and has already been deployed to the West African country.

The other four ambassadors nominated by the MDC-T formation to represent the country abroad are Hebson Makuvise, Hilda Suka-Mafudze, Jacqueline Nomhla Zwambila and Mabed Khumbulani.

Makuvise has been assigned to Germany, Zwambila to Australia, Mafudze to Sudan and Khumbulani to Nigeria.

The four held various senior positions in the party before their posting.

(Source)

While the campaign to drive white farmers from their farms intensifies, the Zimbabwean government is giving 100 000ha of land to controversial South African businessman Billy Rautenbach.

The land will be used to grow sugar cane which will be converted into bio-fuel.

“It’s an absolute disgrace, when we’re being driven off our farms like dogs - farms which produce food for Zimbabwe,” Charles Taffs, deputy chair of the Zimbabwean Farmers’ Association told Beeld on Wednesday.

The Nuanetsi estate in the Masvingo province belongs to the Josua Nkomo trust and is not one of the farms which have been seized from white farmers since 2002.

“It’s a matter of principle, and not because Rautenbach is white or about white farmers. He has close ties with Mugabe’s Zanu-PF. It’s all about money. Besides the loss of land for urgently needed agricultural production, over 10 000 people will be driven off the estate,” said Taffs.

Rautenbach will apparently invest over $1bn in the project through his company, Zimbabwe Bio-Energy. President Robert Mugabe and Emmerson Mnangagwa, minister of defence, allegedly own shares in Rautenbach’s company.

A South African court has recently acquitted him of a string of criminal charges, in return for his testimony in the trial of former police commissioner, Jackie Selebi.

The decision to make the land available to Rautenbach has the support of deputy president, John Nkomo, who’s also one of the trustees.

However, it doesn’t carry the approval of all Zanu-PF supporters in Masvingo. The transfer of highly fertile soil is being opposed by the provincial leadership of Zanu-PF.

“We have to ask ourselves: where is black empowerment if we’re going to allow one white man to take over such a large piece of land?” said Lovemore Matuke, provincial chair of Zanu-PF, according to the Zimbabwe Times.

He’s supported by the governor of Masvingo, Titus Maluleke.

According to the government mouthpiece, The Herald, Nkomo said in reaction to the criticism that those who are opposed to Rautenbach’s role, are “witches who oppose the development of Masvingo. Billy [Rautenbach] is our friend and those who want to drive him off the farm, are MDC supporters.”

The MDC is opposed to the Rautenbach project as well.

A spokesperson for the MDC, Nelson Chamisa, on Wednesday said such a project “should only be considered after a comprehensive land audit has been completed in Zimbabwe“.

(Source)