Messages From Zimbabwe

People who attended on Friday gathered in Bulawayo to celebrate President Robert Mugabe’s birthday said they only attended the event because of its low price and huge number of artistes including Jamaican reggae guru Sizzla Kalonji.

Tickets for the music showcase held at the ZITF were going for a mere US$2 advance and US$3 at the gate.

One fan who attended the show said: “Where can you watch an international artiste like Sizzla for a mere US$3? This is a one time opportunity that will probably never happen.

“That is why I came here, I am not here to celebrate Mugabe’s birthday but to take advantage of the presence of these musicians,” said the fan, who refused to be named.

A crowd estimated to be between 5000 and 7000 attended the show where more than 30 musicians and dance groups took to the stage including the likes of urban groover, Rocqui, Sebede, Bob Nyabinde, Cephas Machakada, Sandra Ndebele, Chase Skuza, IYASA, Charles Charamba, Soul Brothers and Sizzla among others.

A man who identified himself as Steven Moyo said getting to watch all those musicians at one show was worth going there.

“I would never celebrate that man’s (Mugabe) birthday after all what he has done to us Zimbabweans,” he said.

Most people seem to have gone there to watch Sizzla as he is the artiste who received the biggest response from the audience and most people started streaming out immediately after he had performed at about 3 am.

Mugabe’s birthday celebrations are estimated to have cost about $500,000 and come in the backdrop of the country facing starvation owing to crop failure due to drought.

Many have criticised the lavish celebrations as a waste of money and should be dedicated to better causes such as feeding the hungry or helping to revive the ailing economy.

(Source)

Zimbabwe’s premier spy agency, the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) has recruited hundreds of youthful street vendors and illegal street dealers as informers, a report revealed.

Sources within the spy agency said hundreds of street vendors, particularly airtime vendors and others have been recruited to monitor the activities of Movement for Democratic Change Officials and supporters, as well as diplomats and members of  civil society including trade unionists.

The source said the youths have received ZANU PF ideological training and were now considered as a reserve militia.

The move is a caricature of former Romanian Communist dictator Nicolai Ceausescu who employed the tactics of husband and wife spying on each other. In the end kicthen utensils where bugged with eavesdroping gadgets. In 1980, after independence, Robert Mugabe’s intelligence officers and military pilots were trained in Romania.

“They have  been deployed along  streets, at shopping malls and outside hotels and restaurants where they will be able to observe the activities of unsuspecting  targeted individuals,” he said.

The CIO source said most of the recruited youths have been issued with police special constabulary identity cards which empowers them to make arrests in the event of something happening.

A cellphone airtime vendor operating in Harare City Centre confirmed to Zimdiaspora that he was recruited by the CIO as an informer.

He said he was tasked with informing  authorities whenever demonstrations are being held by members of civil society and political parties other than ZANU PF.

“We were told to infiltrate all demonstrations involving MDC and civil society members,” said the Vendor. “Whenever possible, we are expected to hijack such demonstrations by causing violence in order to discredit the demonstrators.”

An illegal foreign exchange dealer at Harare’s Roadport who now offers cross-rates for the United States dollar  and  South African Rand following last year’s demise of the Zimdollar said he was forced to become an informer after he was threatened with arrest.

“I was arrested together with my colleagues for illegal foreign currency dealings and  taken to CIO’s provincial offices at Harare Central Police Station. They gave us  an option of going to jail or becoming informers. We chose to become informers because they told us that if we refuse,  we will not be able to operate in any city or town in the country,” he said.

The vendors were part of ZANU PF youths who this week marched in Harare against Western imposed sanctions and the so called pirate radio stations.

The marchers threatened unspecified action against Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai if the sanctions are not removed immediately. MDC has already called on the police to arrest the ZANU PF youths for threatening the life of Tsvangirai and the office of the Prime Minister.

The youths recruited as informers by the  CIO said they have been promised jobs in the police force, army, CIO and other government departments.

Zimbabwe’s CIO and the military have been accused of gross human rights abuses and in the run up to the June 2008 Presidential run-off, led a ZANU PF terror campaign which saw hundreds of opposition supporters and officials murdered, tortured and assaulted.

Despite the formation of a Government of National Unity between ZANU PF and the MDC which won the March 29, 2008 harmonised elections,  the military and the intelligence have remained partisan, largely refusing to recognise the Global Political Agreement.

(Source)

Indigenisation Minister Saviour Kasukuwere on Wednesday said regulations to force foreign firms to offload controlling stake to local blacks will come into force next Monday, appearing to brush aside objections to the controversial rules by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

Under the regulations announced by Kasukuwere in line with an Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Bill passed by the then ZANU PF-controlled Parliament in 2007 and signed into law by President Robert Mugabe in March 2008, foreign owned firms will be required to cede 51 percent of shareholding to indigenous Zimbabweans within the next five years.

Tsvangirai has opposed the laws saying they were invalid because they were never discussed and adopted by Cabinet, while business leaders have been lobbying government to shelve implementation of the regulations they say will only help reinforce perceptions of Zimbabwe as a high political risk investment destination.

But Kasukuwere was adamant implementation of the regulations would go ahead as planned.

He said: “Consultations are on going but the Act will be effective. The Act will become effective March 1 as already stated. We can’t have gatherings every time to finalise this matter. Consultations will always be there, but the law will become effective Monday.”

Under the empowerment regulations foreign-owned businesses operating in Zimbabwe, including banks, mines and factories will be forced to sell a majority stake to locals by March 2015.

The regulations provides for foreigners to be compelled to sell stake to local Zimbabweans but are silent on where impoverished locals will get money to pay for stake in large mines and industries.

Many had hoped the law and other controversial laws including repressive press and security laws to be repealed following formation of the power-sharing government.

Revival of the empowerment laws has sparked fears among business of a repeat of in industry of a repeat of the chaos that befell agriculture after a similar government programme to empower blacks saw white-owned commercial farms seized without compensation.

(Source)

President Mugabe’s ZANU PF and the mainstream Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have traded accusations of political violence following the disruption of rally organised by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s party.

Tsvangirai’s MDC says it has noticed an increase in attacks on its party members, with a rally scheduled for Epworth Sunday violently disrupted by ZANU PF supporters.

Epworth MDC MP Eliah Jembere said the rally, planned for Epworth High School , was scuttled and party supporters beaten up by militants from President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF party.

The militants went from door-to-door, sniffing out MDC supporters before attacking them.

Jembere alleged the attackers were bussed to the rally by ZANU PF Harare Province chairman and losing candidate for Epworth in the 2008 parliamentary election, Amos Midzi.

He said Midzi initially trucked in logs that were used in the attack on the eve of the rally. He said ZANU PF youths then conducted an all-night vigil at the rally venue, before pouncing on MDC supporters after the aborted rally.

ZANU PF has described the comments as cheap propaganda, saying it was the MDC supporters who attacked ZANU PF youths.

ZANU PF Harare provincial secretary for security Tonga Nheta insisted the logs were ferried to Solani in Epworth where he claimed ZANU PF youths ran a firewood project.

“The firewood delivered by Honourable Midzi was for the firewood project, not to attack MDC supporters,” he said.

While the MDC says 70 people were injured in the attack, ZANU PF says 60 MDC youths were responsible for the violence.

While MDC says Midzi’s truck was involved in the well-orchestrated attack, ZANU PF says its truck, a Mazda twin cab, was damaged by MDC youths.

ZANU PF named Ceclia Chivhunga, the Youth League deputy information secretary, and one Marbel Nzenza, who the party said were critically injured in the violence.

On the other hand, the MDC says over and above the 70 injured, four had been hospitalised after the attack. Both parties claim the injured were hospitalised at Parirenyatwa Hospital .

The MDC named Ben Zvokuomba, the MDC Ward 7 chairperson, MDC activist Patience Ziki, as some of the victims of the alleged ZANU PF violence.

The MDC alleges that acts of violence against MDC supporters had started happening in both urban and rural areas, amid reports inter-party violence had also flared up in Chegutu on Monday.

The pattern of violence was reminiscent of the attacks on MDC supporters during the 2008 elections, Jembere said.

On Monday, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader, expressed exasperation at ZANU PF’s perceived failure to implement measures agreed to as a part of the power-sharing deal, and warned that the hold-up in the Constitution-making process was also raising tensions.

The MDC has threatened to call for fresh elections if calls for regional bloc the Southern African Development Community (SADC) fails to break the deadlock.

Nelson Chamisa, the MDC spokesman said the violence could be the beginning of worse things to come, and the depth of the crisis could not be underestimated.

“We take this very seriously,” said Chamisa, party spokesman. “We are possibly on the brink of another storm of persecution and intimidation.”

Midzi, denied the allegations he was involved in the violence.

“The barbaric act is a clear demonstration of wilful disrespect for the national healing process that the President has been championing,” said Midzi. “It is also a direct breach of the letter and spirit of the Global Political Agreement.

(Source)

Seed Co International Limited is suing the embattled Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe over a US$3,6 million debt after the latter allegedly failed to pay for seed it ordered from the firm’s Botswana branch during the 2007 and 2008 farming seasons.

The firm issued summons in November last year and the bank never responded prompting Seed Co to apply for a default judgment at the High Court.

Justice Charles Hungwe is expected to make a ruling on the chamber application soon.

Atherstone and Cook Legal Practitioners are appearing for Seed Co while Chitapi and Associates are representing the central bank.

In the application, Seed Co submitted: “Defendant was served with a copy of summons on November 2 2009. Although they entered an appearance to defend on November 5, defendant has failed to plead. The defendant has lost right to defend the matter.”

According to the summons, during the 2007 and 2008 farming seasons, the RBZ ordered maize seed from Seed Co International’s Botswana depot.

In 2007, seed valued at US$6 376 350 was delivered to RBZ from Botswana and early 2008 another consignment of seed worth US$6 999 654 25 came in.

RBZ, according to the papers, had paid US$10 million by April 2008, leaving a balance of US$3 634 830 80.

It is Seed Co’s claim that the RBZ undertook to pay the balance in weekly installments of US$400 000 with effect from May 2008.

Seed Co said the payment plan was never fulfilled, prompting the firm to seek the High Court’s intervention to recover the money.

Meanwhile, The Registrar General (RG) Tobaiwa Mudede has closed a foreign currency account held with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) after failing to recover US$7 million deposited with the central bank.

A recent parliamentary report said following the closure of the RBZ account, the registrar’s general resorted to keeping revenues collected at its offices in violation of the country’s banking requirements.

At one stage during a visit by members of Parliament (MPs) the money kept at the offices amounted to nearly US$253 000 and 88 000 Rand.

The RG’s Office is said to have since opened accounts with various other banking institutions.

“Regarding the violation of banking requirements, the registrar general’s office used to bank all its money with the RBZ. However, the department could at one point not get the money.

“A total of US$7 million could to date not be recovered,” the parliamentary report said.

The report added that MPs had quarried why the RG’s Office was retaining 100 percent of all revenue collected, when the law authorized it to keep 10 percent only.

“The department is authorized to retain 10 percent of all revenue collected for purposes of financing its operations.

“The department was however retaining 100 percent apparently on the basis of a variation minute issued by treasury dated 5 September 2002 and expired on 31 December 2003.

“It is considered that the variation is invalid as it cannot override a determination which was passed by Parliament,” the report added.

Meanwhile the RG’s department is just but one of several institutions and companies that have failed to recover money deposited with the country’s undercapitalised central bank.

The RBZ recently extended for another six months special bonds issued to gold miners in lieu of deliveries after failing to honour them when the matured at the beginning of the month.

The country’s biggest platinum miner Zimplats is also owed US$34 million.

(Source)

Beleaguered Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s circle of friends appears to be slowly shrinking amid revelations that his trusted Chinese comrades are beginning to demand more than the usual rhetoric and want to see tangible progress – and repayment of loans advanced.

Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara said despite the celebrated “all-weather” friendship between Harare and Beijing, the Chinese government had recently hardened its position regarding economic ties with Zimbabwe, insisting on clearance of loan arrears before releasing more aid. Mutambara said message was conveyed by Chinese President Hu Jintao and other senior Beijing officials during bilateral meetings with Zimbabwean officials on the sidelines of the just-ended World Economic Summit in Davos, Switzerland.

He said it was made clear to him that the two countries were “business partners” and not “friends”.

“China has stopped working with us. The Chinese, though comrades, are not giving us any money until we clear our debts,” Mutambara told a meeting of chief executives held on the sidelines of last week’s international tourism investment summit in Harare.

Harare owes Beijing an undisclosed amount in unpaid loans given to the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) and the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (ZISCOSTEEL).

Mutambara revealed that Zimbabwe had early this month paid US$5 million to the Chinese, being part of the ZISCOSTEEL debt. He said Jintao made it clear that while China would not publicly criticise the Zimbabwean government for its shortcomings, Beijing was unwilling to provide much-needed economic aid to Harare until “we do the right thing”.

“The Chinese have said ‘We’ll not condemn you publicly but we’ll not give you cash’. Unless we do the right thing the Chinese will not work with us,” Mutambara said.

A senior Chinese diplomat recently revealed that Beijing had slowed investment in Zimbabwe in a sign that it may be heeding Western demands that it quit backing regimes considered despotic. Zimbabwe has since 2000 strengthened its relations with China as part of a  “Look East” policy premised on the need to find new trading partners and markets following the souring of relations with Western governments that protested President Robert Mugabe’s violent land-grab programme.

China soon became the investor with the fastest direct foreign investment growth in Zimbabwe, replacing the Western countries. The two countries have signed a series of agreements in infrastructure, tourism, energy and mining but the cooperation has largely not translated into an improved standard of living for ordinary Zimbabweans.

Harare has literally handed over control of most sectors of the economy to the Chinese during the past few years in return for short-term financial assistance to enable Mugabe’s government to ride one crisis after another.

Analysts have however criticised Mugabe for mortgaging the country for the sake of short-term benefits. The withdrawal of economic support from Zimbabwe’s largest investor and only major global backer is a serious blow to Mugabe, an 86-year-old liberation hero who has clung to power in Zimbabwe for three decades.

(Source)

Zimbabwe’s police force members have been ordered to join the on-going ZANU PF propelled civil servants strike, it has been established.

The police like other members of the unformed forces are legally not supposed to take industrial action.

“An order has been circulated ordering the police not to disturb the strike as it was legalized by the government. This is surprising because as the police we have never been allowed to participate in any strike because it contradicts with our code of employment. The radio says we must not go to the strike in uniform,” sources at Police General Headquarters (PGHQ) told Radio VOP.

“We were told at a parade after the radio signal was read to us that we should join the strike because we are civil servants. They said if we join the job action this was going to push Minister of Finance Tendai Biti who is a senior member of the MDC to give us money. They said MDC was on record for saying it was going to give civil servants a hefty salary if they got in power, “said police officers who requested anonymity.

The Morgan Tsvangirai led Movement for Democratic Change has already said it suspects a third hand in the civil servants strike by ZANU PF detractors who do not want the new unity government, which is a year old, to succeed. The fragile coalition government is threatened with collapse following a deadlock in talks to negotiate the full implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that brought about the unity government.

The GPA talks have stalled due to disagreements about the appointments of governors, the Reserve Bank Governor and Attorney General. The MDC is also demanding the swearing in of its deputy Agriculture Minister Designate, Roy Bennett, currently facing terrorism charges.

MDC says the charges against Bennett are trumped up. ZANU PF has demanded that MDC push for the removal of the Western sanctions and the banning of exiled radio stations.

Civil servants, led by APEX President and Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association Boss,Tendai Chikowore called on their members to go on strike following a deadlock with government on salary increase negotiations. The civil servants are demanding USD 600 from current US$ 150.

Friday’s demonstration was the second one in two weeks, where the civil servants marched and gathered in Harare gardens and Africa unity Square where they were addressed  by the APEX leadership and resolved to continue with the strike until their demands were heard.

In other parts of the country, teachers have been forced to join the strike. This week Masvingo teachers were forced to join the strike at gun point.

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) President Lovemore Matombo condemned the politicisation of the civil servant’s strike.

“From the on-set of this job action we have been suspicious and we are watching it very closely. It’s surprising to see some of the strike drivers who for the past decade, during the economic crisis, refused to join us in such demonstrations but now are mobilising civil servants to strike. We know these people and some of them have openly declared their patronage to ZANU PF.

“We are  also  worried that  the strike  has been hijacked  by these  people to be a ZANU PF project aimed at denigrating Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, a situation which is totally political not  trade unionism. As ZCTU we are condemning the leaders of this strike who are short-changing genuine workers with genuine concerns,” said Matombo.

(Source)

After the relative optimism of last year, the situation in Zimbabwe is deteriorating badly. South African-mediated talks between ZANU PF, the party of President Robert Mugabe, and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), led by the Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, which are aimed at shoring up their shaky power-sharing pact, have broken down, maybe irretrievably. This leaves the one-year-old “government of national unity” as good as dead. Schools, hospitals, courts and other state services have been brought to a halt by striking civil servants. Meanwhile, all new investment projects have been put on hold following the promulgation of “indigenisation” rules obliging companies worth more than $500,000 to cede a 51% stake to black Zimbabweans - or face up to five years in jail.

Harare, the capital, is abuzz with talk of a snap general election, possibly as early as April. Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s president, is understood to have convinced Mr Tsvangirai to abandon all his demands in his negotiations with Mr Mugabe save those essential for ensuring a fair democratic poll. With ZANU PF blocking every MDC attempt at reform, Mr Zuma appears to agree that the unity government has become a sham. He is determined that no trouble on South Africa’s northern border should upset his country’s hosting of the football World Cup in June and July.

Some argue that the unity government has made a bit of progress over the past year. They point to the huge improvement in the economic situation, with a 4.7% expansion of GDP last year, the first growth in a decade, as well as the reopening of schools and hospitals. Although all this is true, it has more to do with the replacement of Zimbabwe’s worthless currency by the dollar, which happened before the unity government was set up, than anything the government itself has done.

Apart from the economy, the situation on the ground has barely changed at all, with Mr Mugabe holding on to the reins of real power. White-owned farms continue to be invaded. Human-rights and MDC activists are still being beaten up and arrested. MDC provincial governors have still not been allowed to take up their posts. Mr Mugabe continues to control the security forces. The affable Mr Tsvangirai has borne all the sleights and humiliations with astonishing calm. But even he appears to have run out of patience. The only way forward, he now says, is to agree on a “road map” to a fresh election.

If genuinely free, the MDC would be sure to win this hands down. Polls suggest that support for ZANU PF, in power for the past 30 years, has shrunk to less than 20%. But there are fears that, without the planned new democratic constitution or independent electoral commission in place, there would be a return to the violence that marked the latest elections—unless the Southern African Development Community, a fairly spineless 15-member regional group, is prepared to take tough measures. Those should include, some argue, sending in troops if necessary.

(Source)

The Supreme Court has ordered the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation and the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe to cease operations on diamond mining claims formerly owned by African Consolidated Resources in Chiadzwa pending finalisation of the ownership wrangle.

This means the two firms exploiting the diamond fields should also stop, but retain the right to remain on the sites pending a solution.

In the full judgment explaining a Supreme Court order handed down on January 25, Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku emphasised that 129400 carats of diamonds seized from ACR in 2007, when Government cancelled their permits, should be kept at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

He said a letter earlier written by the Registrar of the Supreme Court informing the concerned parties of the court’s intention to give reasons for the order of January 25 should not be misinterpreted as reversing the order.

The Chief Justice said if anyone had removed the diamonds from the central bank, that would be deemed unlawful and contemptuous of the highest court in the land.

“The balance of convenience favours the applicants (ZMDC and MMCZ) remaining on the site of the claims pending appeal, but they must cease all mining activities and it is so ordered,” said Chief Justice Chidyausiku in the judgment made available yesterday.

“Allowing the applicants to continue mining has the potential of causing irreparable damage to the respondents should the appeal fail.

“The diamonds are to be kept at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe until the finalisation of the appeal.

“To interpret the letter of the Registrar to the parties as reversing my very clear order of January 25, 2010 that the diamonds are to be kept at the Reserve Bank pending appeal is the height of mischief.

“If anyone has removed the diamonds from the Reserve Bank, he has done so unlawfully and in contempt of the order of this court.

“The diamonds must be returned to RBZ immediately in order to purge the contempt. Failure to do so should attract serious consequences,” he added.

ACR and its five subsidiaries - Canape, Dashaloo, Heavy Stuff, Possession and Olebile Investments - owned the claims until 2006 when Government cancelled their permit.

Through their lawyer, Mr Jonathan Samkange of Venturas and Samkange, ACR successfully challenged the cancellation in the High Court and Justice Charles Hungwe validated it.

He ordered the seized diamonds to be returned to ACR.

But ZMDC and MMCZ appealed against the judgement in the Supreme Court. That appeal is yet to be determined.

Chief Justice Chidyausiku’s order instead directed the diamonds to be taken to the RBZ as a neutral and secure place, pending finalisation of the matter.

Different interpretations were drawn from the January 25 order with some parties seeking to evict the firms that were on the disputed claims while others suggested the Registrar’s letter meant the Chief Justice had completely set aside the High Court order.

(Source)

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has threatened to sell diamonds from a field where the military is suspected of using forced labour.

The Kimberley Process has given Zimbabwe until June to rectify alleged military abuses against civilians at the eastern Marange diamond fields.

But Mugabe threatened to sell the diamonds without the watchdog’s permission.

“We are trying to play it their own way, that is following the KP, but we can do it otherwise,” Mugabe told reporters in Harare. “We can sell our own diamonds elsewhere.”

(Source)