Messages From Zimbabwe

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)

Zimbabwe’s High Court Wednesday admitted disputed email evidence implicating opposition politician Roy Bennett in a plot against President Robert Mugabe’s government.

Bennett, a white farmer and a senior official in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), faces a possible death penalty if convicted of illegal possession of arms for “terrorism, banditry and sabotage.”

Defence lawyers had asked the court to reject emails linking Bennett to the alleged crime, arguing that they had been doctored and that a key state witness, Peter Hitschmann, who is alleged to have conspired with Bennett, disowned them.

The court had previously thrown out confessions by Hitschmann linking Bennett to the crime, on the grounds that the statements had been extracted under torture.

High Court judge Chinembiri Bhunu ruled that the emails were created before Hitschmann’s alleged assault.

“The emails cannot be tainted by the alleged abuse suffered by Hitschmann,” Bhunu said.

“They are relevant and vital to the fair resolution of the case and are hereby admitted as evidence.”

The arrest and trial of Bennett, MDC nominee for deputy agriculture minister in a government set up by Mugabe and Tsvangirai, has raised tensions in the power-sharing administration. 

The state charges Bennett with funding a 2006 plot to blow up a major communication link in the country and assassinate key government figures. He is accused of having deposited funds in Hitschmann’s Mozambican account for the operation.

Bennett denies the charges, which he says are politically motivated. Hitschmann, an arms trader and key state witness who faced the same charges but was convicted in 2006 on a lesser charge of possessing dangerous weapons, has absolved Bennett.

(Source)

Defense lawyers for a top prime minister’s aide can raise torture allegations at his trial, a judge ruled Wednesday in a case that has shaken Zimbabwe’s troubled coalition government.

Judge Chinembiri Bhunu also ruled that a weapons dealer can testify at Roy Bennett’s trial, setting the stage for lawyers to spar over his testimony and how it was obtained once the proceedings begin in earnest Thursday.

The weapons case against Bennett, a top aide to Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, stems from allegations of a plot to topple President Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai says the charges are baseless and part of efforts by Mugabe loyalists to undermine the coalition formed in February between the longtime rivals.

Bennett’s lawyers say weapons dealer Peter Michael Hitschmann, who is the main prosecution witness, was not only tortured but also did not implicate Bennett during his own trial.

Hitschmann was arrested in 2006 and initially accused of plotting to assassinate Mugabe. Bennett had not been linked to the case until his arrest in February.

Hitschmann was cleared on charges of treason and “possessing weapons for the purpose of terrorism,” the same charges Bennett faces that carry a possible death sentence or life imprisonment if convicted. Hitschmann spent 2 1/2 years in jail on lesser charges of possessing illegal weapons.

Zimbabwe’s neighbors had pressed for the coalition to be formed after a series of inconclusive elections marred by violence blamed on Mugabe loyalists, saying the country’s factions needed to stop bickering and find solutions to their economic and political crises.

Tsvangirai temporarily withdrew from the coalition because of the case against Bennett among other issues. Last week, South Africa and other neighbors called a summit at which they persuaded Tsvangirai to end his boycott.

Ayanda Ntsaluba, the top civil servant in South Africa’s foreign ministry, told reporters Tuesday that leaders at the summit made clear that they believed “the political leadership of Zimbabwe must not squander what appears to be the opportunity, perhaps their only opportunity, to pull the country out of the abyss.”

Ntsaluba said that outside countries had to step carefully though.

“We are dealing with people who really have been at war with one another virtually, and that the levels of trust are not exactly where you would want them to be,” Ntsaluba said.

(Source)

Prosecutors want to prevent a top aide to Zimbabwe’s prime minister from arguing that evidence against him in a weapons trial was obtained through torture.

Roy Bennett’s trial, which has strained Zimbabwe’s coalition government, opened Monday with the attorney general asking the judge to bar a defense argument.

Bennett’s lawyers say the weapons dealer who is the main prosecution witness was not only tortured, but did not implicate Bennett during his own trial.

The weapons dealer was arrested in 2006 and initially accused of plotting to assassinate longtime President Robert Mugabe. Bennett had not been linked to the case until his arrest in February.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says “the malicious prosecution” of Bennett must stop.

(Source)

WOZA leaders, Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu, were due to appear in Bulawayo Magistrate’s Court this morning for the ongoing saga of their arrest on 16 October 2008. The matter has been postponed until tomorrow, 15 October, however as the clerk of the court who is holding their file was not available. Their file is considered to be too sensitive to be held with other court documents and is apparently being kept by a senior clerk of the court who has it locked away. Although their case was due to be heard at 8.30 this morning, the clerk was not available to present the file.

The full panel of Supreme Court judges had met to consider the case on 4th June and had given a verbal ruling before they reserved judgement that the two women had been unlawfully arrested and that they should be looking to indict the arresting officers. The state had conceded in their response that the arrest on 16th October 2008 had indeed been unlawful. Judge Chidyausiku undertook to provide the written ruling before 7th July. Despite the fact that several requests have been made to the Supreme Court requesting the ruling, the written ruling has not yet been received.

Magodonga Mahlangu and WOZA are the recipients of the 2009 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award. The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award was established in 1984 to honour courageous and innovative human rights defenders throughout the world who stand up against injustice.

(Source: by email)