Messages From Zimbabwe

In Harare South, armed police details on Saturday disrupted an MDC rally scheduled to take place at Hopley Farm.  No reasons for the disruption were given. During the same day, the MDC Hopley Farm chairperson, Vengayi Chingorima was abducted at his home by nine Zanu PF supporters who included an army officer.

The nine who were driving a Mitsubishi L200 truck with registration number AAG 7624 assaulted Chingorima all over the body before he was left in bushy area at night.  His assailants threatened him with death if he continued to mobilise MDC activities in the area.

In a related matter, the house of Aleck Rapera, an MDC activist in Murehwa West, Mashonaland East province, was razed to the ground by Zanu PF supporters on Friday. Although no-one was injured in the arson attack, he lost all his property.  He has reported the case to the police but no arrests have been made although some suspects have been identified.

In Harare, two suspected killers of MDC activist, Gift Mutsvunguma were last month recruited as special police constabularies at Kuwadzana police Station, a move which has left the community in shock. Mutsvunguma who was 29, was abducted at his Kuwadzana home by the two suspects on 4 July 2008.

However, when his uncle, Wurayayi Mangwiro went to Kuwadzana police station to find out progress made in bringing the suspects to book, he was shocked at seeing the two at the police station carrying out police duties. Over 500 MDC supporters were murdered in 2008 and the suspects are still roaming free.

In Manicaland, police have summoned provincial spokesperson and Makoni South MP Pishai Muchauraya to appear before a Buhera magistrates court on Friday, 4 June 2010. He is alleged to have made utterances that undermine Mr Robert Mugabe’s office before the 2008 harmonised elections. Uniformed soldiers are reportedly harassing people in Makoni South ahead of the Constitution outreach programme set to begin on 15 June 2010.

(Source)

Two gay rights activists in Zimbabwe have been freed after six days in police custody where it is claimed they were abused and tortured.

Ellen Chadehama and Ignatius Mhambi were arrested last week accused of possessing pornographic material and insulting president Robert Mugabe.

Their employer, Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (Galz), said the two were assaulted by police while in custody.

They were also made to bend their knees into a sitting position with their arms outstretched for long periods and struck with bottles when they weakened and fell, according to their defence attorney, David Hofisi.

Nelson Chamisa, a government minister and spokesman for the Movement for Democratic Change, condemned the alleged abuse: “Ill treatment or inhumane handling of any human being for any reason goes against our philosophy. We do not believe harassment is the best way of doing business. It flies in the face of the democratic order.”

Chadehama and Mhambi were arrested last Friday for allegedly possessing photographs of gay sex and posting a letter in their office from former San Francisco mayor Willie Lewis Brown criticising Mugabe’s opposition to homosexuality. Under sweeping security laws it is an offence “to undermine the authority of the president”.

Magistrate Munamate Mutevedzi yesterday released the two on bail of $200 each until a trial set for 10 June, where they will face penalties of imprisonment or a fine.

Mutevedzi said provisions of Zimbabwe law on both allegations did not take into account the sexuality of suspected offenders.

Galz said Chadehama, 34, the administrator of Galz, and Mhambi, 38, an accountant, were married with children.

Homosexuality is illegal in Zimbabwe but arrests are rare and Galz operates openly. The public statements of politicians give cold comfort, however.

Mugabe, 86, has described same sex partners as “lower than dogs and pigs”. Morgan Tsvangirai, the prime minister, has said: “Women make up 52% of the population …there are more women than men, so why should men be proposing to men?”

The case is the latest in a series of flashpoints raising fears that gay rights are imperilled across Africa. Last week in Malawi a judge sentenced a gay couple to a maximum 14 years in prison with hard labour after the men made a public commitment to marriage.

That decision was condemned by South African president Jacob Zuma yesterday in a rare rebuke to a fellow African nation.

“We have condemned the action taken to arrest people in terms of our constitution,” Zuma told parliament in South Africa, where same-sex marriages are legally recognised. “We need to persuade, we need to make people understand, we need to move with them. We have never adopted a confrontational stance on matters.”

Phumi Mtetwa, director of the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project in South Africa, said: “The torture and harassment of the Galz comrades and the raid of the offices expresses Zimbabwe’s Zanu-PF government’s old tactics of dehumanising LGBTI people and Mugabe’s allies scoring political points by persecuting those who struggle for rights to equality.

“These struggles have to be seen in light of the increasing public homophobia on the continent – Uganda, Rwanda, Malawi and even South Africa, to mention a few. The South African government has a constitutional obligation to challenge its counterparts to defend the human rights of LGBTI people on the continent.”

(Source)

Zimbabwean authorities arrested two gay-rights activists for displaying signs critical of President Robert Mugabe’s stance on homosexuality and “undermining” the 86-year-old leader’s authority.

Ellen Chademana and Ingatius Muhambi of the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe pressure group were arrested on May 21 after a police search of their offices in the capital, Harare, Kumbirai Mafunda, a lawyer with Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, said in a telephone interview from the city today.

“Police allege that Chademana and Muhambi displayed a plaque from former San Francisco Mayor Willie Lewis Brown in their office in which the African-American denounces President Robert Mugabe’s homophobia against gays and lesbians,” he said.

In 1995, Mugabe told a crowd including diplomats that homosexuals were “lower than pigs or dogs.” He has been the target of gay-rights activists on trips to Europe. Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena confirmed that Chademana and Muhambi were in police custody, though he declined to discuss the charges against them.

Chademana and Muhambi also face charges of possession of “indecent material,” Mafunda said.

“Some of the items seized from the GALZ office were taken during an illegal search without a warrant and will be contested in court,” he said.

The two activists may spend a fifth night in custody tonight because the courts are closed due to a public holiday, Mafunda said.

Zimbabwe is one of 38 countries in Africa that have laws criminalizing homosexuality, some with the death penalty, according to the website of the Brussels-based International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association’s website.

(Source)

President Robert Mugabe’s son, Robert jnr, is said to be causing security nightmares for his personal guards preferring a normal life.

Eye witness at the posh St John’s College in Borrowdale where he attends school, said last Friday Robert Jr had caused mayhem at the school when he drove to the nearby Chisipite shopping centre to buy lunch with his white friend in a bid to get a taste of public life.

“While at the shopping centre the two entered into Born Marche shop where they bought some ice cream, a life Robert is rarely exposed to,” said a source. “It  is at  this  time that the state security, which takes him home for lunch, arrived and discovered that he was nowhere to be found.”

People who reside near the college said there were noises of sirens coming from all directions during that time.

“We thought maybe the president had come for a meeting with the school when we heard noises of his motorcade. Everyone’s attention was drawn to that unusual noise. We quickly rushed to the school and discovered that the state security was asking children about the whereabouts of Robert (jnr) who at that time arrived in a friend’s posh car,” said eye witnesses.

“Robert is always telling us that he is tired of being closely monitored by the security. He told us that he misses a great deal because of confinement and that is why he decided to jump into his friend’s car to go to Chisipite,” said students at the school.

The students said he deliberately left earlier for lunch to avoid his security personnel.

A teacher at the school, who requested not to be named, said the President’s son was making their work difficult because of security agents.

“We have heard that he has on several times been denied getting out with  friends by our security and we are now afraid that he might cause us problems with the state security if he continues avoiding them,”said the teacher.

Robert Jnr, who is said to be doing his upper six at the elite College is normally drove home for lunch by state security every day.

(Source)

The President of the newly formed MDC99 Job Sikhala has now been formally charged for insulting the Robert Mugabe at a political gathering at Arcadia Hall, amid other accusations that he has in possession arms of war, his party spokesman said.

Party spokesman said, “President Sikhala and our Party Spokesperson will spend this Weekend in Police custody. They are detained at Harare Central Police Station Law and Order Section where new charges have been preferred against them.”

In a statement posted to The Zimbabwe Mail, party spokesman said, “President Sikhala now stands accused of insulting the office of President during our meeting at Arcadia Hall on Thursday plus the initial charge under POSA.

The statement went on to say, “the party wishes to inform you that Armed Police raided our President house in St Marys this morning around 1 am. They said they were looking for ARMS OF WAR kept there.”

Inspector Mukwaira of CID Law and Order led the group.

Hundreds of disgruntled Zimbabweans, fed-up with the current political system have shown some unprecedented support of Job Sikhala’s recently formed MDC 99, a report revealed.

The party formed and founded by disgruntled former MDC-T and MDC-M has received massive support from Zimbabwean masses, this website have found out.

Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara have joined President Mugabe’s ZANU PF government, in a coalition that has failed to take-off the ground, much to the frustration of millions of suffering Zimbabweans.

Sikhala, a veteran Zimbabwean opposition politician, is a former MP for St Marys in Chitungwiza. He played a pivotal role together Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Tafadzwa Musekiwa and the late Learnmore Jongwe in the formation of the MDC in 1999.

And yesterday, more than a week after MDC-99 was launched by Sikhala, it became clear that more Zimbabweans are getting more disgruntled judging by the public support Sikhala’s new party was enjoying.

The party has announced that they will hold their first election in Harare to elect the party’s leadership.

In an interview with, the MDC99 founding president Mr Sikhala, said internal party elections will be held on Thursday to elect office holders for the Harare Province.

He said his party was growing at an “impressive” rate, hence the need to have structures in all provinces and districts across Zimbabwe.

“Zimbabwean masses are flocking to join the new party. The number of people joining the party daily is unprecedented; the party is growing at an alarming speed. I don’t know if the other parties still have anyone left behind them. The MDC 99 juggernaut is cruising on the road to new Zimbabwe, leaving no one behind.

“The response by people across the breadth and width of Zimbabwe is overwhelming. Zimbabweans have responded to the call to retrace our foot steps back to the founding principles of the MDC. The overwhelming response has shown how Zimbabweans are determined to see their total emancipation from dictatorship” said Sikhala.

Sikhala also said the elections were precipitated by the public who want to see the party grow from strength to strength.

“We have been taken by surprise by the surge of people leaving other parties to join MDC 99. The numbers forced us to set Thursday date for Harare provincial election to help in the administration of the party.

“We are quickly arranging logistics to hold elections in other provinces. Thereafter the party will embark on nationwide rallies, the first being the Zaka rally on the 29th of May,” he said.

The party’s headquarters at the Old Mutual House in Harare’s central business district has since its formation swarmed by Zimbabweans from all walks of life wishing to join Sikhala’s party. The  MDC 99 whose foundation basis are the MDC founding principles and values as of 1999 has brought hope to Zimbabwean masses who have become sceptical of MDC-T  after joining Mugabe in government.

(Source)

President Robert Mugabe used the recent G-15 summit in Tehran to make new threats to grab British and other foreign-owned business interests in Zimbabwe.

The threats were accompanied by the kind of extreme, almost incoherent rhetoric which places him in the same league as former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, who hounded out the Asian population from that country in the 1970s through similar racial and economic persecution.

Mugabe, 86, who faces an imminent election campaign after the end of the current transitional unity government, upped the stakes by threatening to seize foreign-owned mining interests, after “indigenising” all foreign-owned business interests. He accused the former colonial power, Britain, and other foreign interests of milking his country and denying its African inhabitants their birthright.

Rio Tinto, Anglo-American and Lonmin are among the British-American concerns which could see their assets in Zimbabwe confiscated. They mine copper, gold, asbestos and iron in the mineral-rich country. The world’s two largest platinum miners, Anglo Platinum and Impala Platinum, who have multi-million dollar investments in Zimbabwe, have also expressed concern at the new “indigenisation” legislation.

Mugabe said that after redistributing farmland confiscated from whites – ostensibly to benefit landless blacks but in reality to enrich himself and his supporters beyond their wildest dreams – his next goal was the “Africanisation” of the rest of the economy.

He singled out the mining sector for “aggressive indigenisation”. Speaking in a  speech peppered with hardline demagoguery, Mugabe slammed Britain and the US for “threatening to occupy smaller and weaker nations which are seeking to assert sovereignty over their resources for the betterment of their own people”.

“There must be Africans in there, as owners, not just as workers,” he thundered  to the G15, a group of 17 developing countries from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, set up to foster cooperation and provide input for other international groups.

“We are gold, copper, asbestos and iron producers. But most of the benefits are enjoyed by the former colonialists. At the end of the day, black people must be able to say, the resources are ours – our people own the mines, our people own the industry.”

Political analysts who have been critical of Mugabe’s rule warned him sternly against his plans. “This cannot help Zimbabwean jobs, wealth and opportunities,” said political commentator Ronald Shumba.

International mining giant Anglo American, which has significant interests in Zimbabwe, said this week it had discussed its operations with the Zimbabwe government but said that respect for the rule of law was of “prime concern to us and other investors”.

His Indigenisation minister, Savior Kasukuwere, insists he is plodding ahead with indigenisation plans, which took effect on March 1 – forcing foreign-owned companies to submit plans to show how they will sell 51 percent of their shares to black Zimbabweans within five years.

International jitters about Zimbabwe’s economy in the wake of planned expropriations can be expected to turn to full-blown panic at Mugabe’s latest position.

This is the umpteenth time he has said he would Africanise the mining sector. And his tone suggests there may be nothing that can sway him.

The MDC has accused him of trying to buy votes with a plan that could lead to economic disaster. Observers describe it as a desperate move by a desperate party that will do anything to stay in power.

Mining accounts for about 8 percent of Zimbabwe’s GDP, generating about 40 percent of annual export earnings. At its peak, Zimbabwe produced 28 tonnes of gold, raising nearly US$450m. Other mines extract coal, copper, nickel, chrome, asbestos and iron ore.

By setting his sights beyond land reform, Mugabe appears to be following the well-trodden – but discredited – path of Africanisers such as Uganda’s Idi Amin and Mobuto Sese Seko of Zaire.

Amin’s deportation of about 50,000 UK passport-holding South Asians in 1972 failed to bring promised prosperity, and saw the collapse of the commercial sector.

Meanwhile, the economic outcome of Mobutism was the wholesale plunder of Congo’s resources by the ruling elite.

(Source)

THE Zimbabwean Government will have to fork out at least US$70 million – close to N$530 million – should a renewed claim by three applicants against President Robert Mugabe’s government and its “unlawful land-reform programme” succeed in the SADC Tribunal.

Norman Tjombe filed the case on behalf of Christopher Mellish Jarret, Tengwe Estate and France Farm.

They applied to the Tribunal to order the Zimbabwean government to pay not only close to US$70 million but to also interest of 30 per cent on this amount, starting from September 14 2005 to the date of payment.

The applicants also asked for the Tribunal to order the Zimbabwean government to foot the bill for this legal application.

In the voluminous court documents, it is stated that Jarret, a Zimbabwean citizen, had been farming on Luchabi Ranch, a cattle and game farm situated in the Nyamandlovu district, “until it was illegally and compulsorily acquired by the respondent with effect from September 14 2005″.

Tengwe Estate was the owner of Fumeria Estate, a mixed farming enterprise situated in the Urungwe district, it is stated.

“Its title to the property similarly ceased on September 14 2005 as a consequence of the respondent’s unlawful land programme.”

It is further stated that a game ranch had been managed on Woodlands Estate A, owned by France Farm. The game ranch is situated near the Victoria Falls.

“It too suffered illegal dispossession of this property due to the respondent’s unlawful land programme.”

All three these applicants were part of the groundbreaking so-called William Michael Campbell case, of which the latest judgement against the Zimbabwean government was in June 2009.

“It is by now a matter of public notoriety that the respondent has persistently and contemptuously failed to give effect to the Tribunal’s award in the main Campbell case. Also the Tribunal’s subsequent orders are flagrantly repudiated by the respondent.”

The Zimbabwean government has until the end of May to file answering court papers with the Tribunal in Windhoek.

(Source)

The power struggles in the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai have re-ignited debate on who really pulls the strings in the former opposition party. Party president Tsvangirai and Tendai Biti, the secretary-general, were always seen as the main protagonists. But Ian Makone’s name continues to pop up in the fray. In political circles he has always been touted as a financier, king-maker and eminence grise behind the MDC-T but he has not been popular among the rank and file of the party.

Makone, a permanent secretary and adviser to Tsvangirai, is widely considered a “Johnny-come-lately” in the party who landed the top post from “nowhere” and is accused of destabilising MDC-T. His close relationship with Tsvangirai has also become a source of discomfort among some senior members of the party. Senior MDC officials say their advice and even access to the PM has been curtailed by Makone.

“Makone has ring-fenced Tsvangirai and it is now difficult to have access to him,’” said one MDC-T official who requested anonymity.

“This is why there is factionalism as some members feel Makone is getting too powerful and yet he only came in much later.”

They claimed that Makone came close to Tsvangirai at a time when the party was facing serious financial problems. Makone and his wife Theresa, the sources said, bailed out the party by paying salaries for MDC-T staff as well as pumping out money for the day-to-day operations.

“He came in as a donor because he has good connections in the white community and the corporate world where he worked for a long time,” said another a senior MDC-T official who requested anonymity.

“So this is now pay-back time for Tsvangirai.”

The current factionalism and violence has been linked to a power struggle between Biti and Makone. The two are reportedly jostling for the position of secretary-general which Biti holds, ahead of the party’s national congress next year. When the MDC split into two factions in 2005, Makone was outvoted by Biti but sources said the permanent secretary, an astute businessman and political schemer, is still determined to take up that post to consolidate his position in the popular movement.

Makone joined the party a few years after its formation through Professor Welshman Ncube’s office. Ncube was then secretary-general but Makone managed to manoeuvre his way into Tsvangirai’s inner circle. But he rose to prominence when he was appointed as one of the first political negotiators between MDC and Zanu PF after the disputed 2002 Presidential elections. He was later appointed director of elections.

It was during this tenure that he was arrested, detained and tortured by security forces in the aftermath of the March 2007 police brutalities. He was accused of training MDC activists to bomb police stations across the country. Before joining politics, Makone ran several businesses and sat on many boards of parastatals. He was also a chairman of First Mutual Life Society (FMLS), the country’s second largest life assurance company, where he worked with Norman Sachikonye, who is now a principal director in the Prime Minister’s Office.

In 2002, there was a campaign to have Makone placed on the European Union sanctions list imposed on President Robert Mugabe and his cronies because FMLS relied heavily on companies with government links such as Olivine and Zisco.

“Some have wondered why he has not been included on the list of persons barred from visiting America if his company benefits from government-owned company pensions,” wrote The Herald then.

Makone, the first black general manager of the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), also worked for Manica Freight Services, where he was responsible for the southern Africa region including countries such as Tanzania and Kenya. Sources said Makone is close to the Minister of Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Elton Mangoma after they worked together at the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) now Agribank. Then he was the chairman of the corporation.

Those close to Makone said he accumulated his vast wealth as a consultant for Mugabe’s administration through his businesses and the several companies he chaired before venturing into politics. Repeated efforts to get a comment from Makone were fruitless last week. His office said he was in meetings for the greater part of the week. On Saturday, he refused to talk to The Standard on party spokesperson Nelson Chamisa’s mobile phone. Chamisa however denied that Makone was preventing party officials and supporters from accessing Tsvangirai.

“The president is accessible at all levels,” said Chamisa. “Our challenge is actually that he is too much accessible which however is not even a problem considering that we are a broad-based party.”

He also refuted allegations that Makone at one point financed the party saying the allegations are malicious.

“There is no basis for such kind of malicious and dishonest allegations,” Chamisa said.

“Makone is a loyal and dedicated cadre of the party and his credentials are beyond scrutinising and questioning.”

Chamisa could not confirm whether Makone was once a government consultant.

Apart from owning several properties in Harare, his towering two-storey house in rural Domboshava, just outside Harare, is a spectacle. The house is guarded by armed state security details. However, in politics the name Makone has become synonymous with factionalism in the MDC-T over the past few years. His wife, Theresa, has also been entangled in factionalism after she allegedly elbowed Lucia Matibenga out of the race to lead the MDC-T’s women’s assembly in 2007, nearly splitting the party again into two camps.

In that conflict Tsvangirai supported Theresa to the chagrin of many of his supporters. But what further baffles those in the MDC-T is that while Makone appears to be very close to Tsvangirai, Theresa is a confidante of Jocelyn Chiwenga, the wife of Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) commander Constantine Chiwenga. The Public Works minister confirmed to the Zimbabwe Independent in 2007 that Jocelyn was her “long-standing friend”.

Ironically, Jocelyn’s husband is one of the service chiefs who have vowed not to salute Tsvangirai even if he wins an election to become the president of the country.

(Source)

Roy Bennett has no place in the inclusive Government because he is not just a former member of the notorious Selous Scouts but is an “unrepentant Rhodie” who even tried to undermine the country’s independence in 1980, war veterans and political analysts have said.

It is understood that Bennett was behind the formation of the Republican Front (RF) and later the Conservative Alliance of Zimbabwe (CAZ) – parties that were formed by racist white Rhodies during the early days of the country’s independence.

Reports indicate that Bennett was part of a group of Rhodies that confronted other whites who had defected to join ZANU PF in the early 1980s.

MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai nominated Bennett to the position of Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development.

However, he has not been appointed to the post and following his acquittal by the High Court last week on terrorism, banditry, insurgency and trying to overthrow President Mugabe from power in 2006, some quarters said the way was clear for his appointment.

However, the leader of the war veterans in the country, Cde Jabulani Sibanda, said Bennett was the connecting factor to the tenets of Rhodesia.

“During the struggle, a lot of people were butchered, maimed and tortured by the Selous Scouts,” he said.

“There is a lot that the group perpetrated. We even had people burnt by some acid.

“There is no way we can tolerate Bennett.

“For us to accommodate people like Bennett is an insult to those who liberated the country.”

The Selous Scouts was a special unit of the Rhodesian army which operated between 1973 and the attainment of independence in 1980.

The brutal regiment helped to perpetuate Ian Smith’s apartheid system whose policy was segregationist.

The regiment earned the name “psychopathic killers” for its brutality and it is believed that it was behind the deaths of about 68 percent of the liberation fighters.

Notable were the gruesome deaths at Nyadzonia Camp in Mozambique, where more than 1200 black Zimbabweans died after an attack.

The Selous Scouts were also responsible for the killing of refugees at Chimoio, Tembwe, Mkushi, Luangwa and Solwezi, where men, women and children lie today buried in mass graves.

Cde Sibanda said the “monster” that Bennett represents should not be tolerated.

“It was the most feared apartheid regime in Africa. It is shocking that the whole MDC is appearing like the transformation of Rhodesians,” he said.

Political analyst Professor Jonathan Moyo said it was unacceptable politically to give room to Bennett in the inclusive Government.

“He represents the unforgettable face of the brutality of Rhodesia, a regime that was provocative and insensitive to the majority,” he said.

“This guy is a well-known Rhodesian whose hands are dripping with the blood of innocent Zimbabweans. We are going to oppose him with all our ounces of energy and with all our imagination.”

Prof Moyo said opposition parties were trying to bring the Rhodesians back.

“While we accept reconciliation, it does not mean that you should come and run my house,” he said.

“We are not saying all the Rhodesians are bad, but Bennett is objectionable.”

ZANU PF secretary for administration Cde Didymus Mutasa said: “Unfortunately at Lancaster House, it was agreed to forgive.

“At that time we never thought that the Bennett problem would ever arise. As ZANU PF, we go by forgiveness.”

With the advent of independence, Bennett was part of the group of Rhodies who still believed in white supremacy that formed the Republican Front (RF) party.

After the demise of the RF, with many whites defecting to ZANU PF and helping restore democracy, Bennett and a few other whites insisted on keeping the offshoot of the racist party.

After the political failure of RF, Bennett launched a campaign against the defectors and encouraged them to join the Conservative Alliance of Zimbabwe.

The CAZ failed to yield success again, but some of its members played a significant role in the formation of the MDC in 1999.

However, MDC-M spokesperson Mr Edwin Mushoriwa said Bennett should be appointed to the ministerial post just as a matter of “compromise”.

“The inclusive Government is a product of compromise, so Mr Bennett should be appointed to the post on that basis,” he said.

“All the three parties were given a chance to select ministers and MDC-T should be given the chance to exercise that right.”

MDC-T spokesperson Nelson Chamisa denied that Bennett was a Selous Scout.

“Where did you hear that? As far as I know he was not a Selous Scout,” he said.

Mr Chamisa said the Bennett issue was one of the main points discussed during the party’s national executive meeting that was held yesterday.

“We took a common position (at the meeting) that Bennett should be sworn-in as soon as possible,” he said.

Attorney-General Mr Johannes Tomana has since filed an appeal at the Supreme Court against the acquittal of Bennett.

(Source)

Thousands of former National Youth Training Service recruits and ZANU PF youths, who were improperly recruited into the public service, today thronged several banks in Harare demanding their salaries. The youths, who are illegally employed by the Ministry of Youth as ZANU PF ward, district or provincial youth officers, brought business to a virtual halt at some banks and nearby shops as they violently demanded their salaries.

Some banks and nearby shops closed briefly as they feared the youths could turn violent and loot their goods. At some banks, such as First Banking Corporation along Nelson Mandela Avenue, police had to be brought in to restore order. Over 30000 ZANU PF youths were illegally recruited by Saviour Kasukuwere in 2008 for the terror campaign ahead of the June 2008 presidential run-off after ZANU PF had been defeated by the earlier round of the harmonised plebiscite.

The State sponsored violence of 2008 led to the deaths of over 500 youths while thousands sustained serious injuries and others had their property and livestock looted. At present, the youths are known for being notorious in fanning violence especially in the rural areas against those who are perceived to be MDC supporters. The infamous youth training camps were abolished last year following the formation of the inclusive government.

The Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts in January gave a directive to the Public Service Commission, the ministries of Youth and Public Service to correct the anomalies regarding the illegal employment of the ZANU PF youth officers.

(Source: via email)