Kumakomo Community Radio

Anglican Archbishop blocked from entering churches in Mutare

2011-10-11T11:33:00.001+02:00

A handful of supporters from excommunicated Anglican Church Bishop Nolbert Kunonga yesterday barred visiting Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams from entering the Anglican Cathedral in Mutare.

Williams was on a visit to Manicaland where he met Church of the Province of Central Africa followers who were kicked out from worshipping in the church building because they are aligned to Bishop Chad Gandiya.

Williams later met about 500 worshippers at Mutare Show Grounds who had come to welcome him to Manicaland.

The placard-waving Kunonga supporters were denouncing Williams for allegedly supporting homosexuality in the church. Some of the placards read “Gandiya, Makoni and Bakare how can you invite (a) homosexual on our soil,” “Manicaland Diocese says NO to homosexuality” and “Williams go and read Romans 1 verse 26 and 1 Corinthians 6 verse 9”.

“They condone homosexuality and we are saying let’s stand together and say no to that because it’s not biblical,” said Reverand Dean Mwando of the Anglican Cathedral.

One of the demonstrators, Virginia Kasipa, said Kunonga followers stood by the Word of God which did not allow homosexuality.

“We as Christians stand by the Word of God and these are our principles. Williams supports gay marriages and this is against the Bible. We do not fellowship with such kind of people,” said Kasipa.

From the Anglican Cathedral in the city centre Williams visited St Augustine’s Mission School, 20 kilometres north of Mutare, where Kunonga’s supporters had again converged to demonstrate against him.

The boom gate at the mission school was locked and Williams and his entourage had to leave their cars outside the gate and proceeded into the school yard on foot. They again were not allowed into the church at the mission.

Williams only managed to have a few photos taken outside the church and had a few prayers at the Anglican nuns’ premises.

Williams’ entourage included Archbishop Albert Chama, Bishop Julius Makoni, Bishop Trevor Mwamba from Botswana and Bishop Gandiya.

Sikhala trial fail to take off again

2011-09-23T09:40:00.003+02:00

The trial in which MDC 99 leader Job Sikhala is facing charges of kidnapping and trespassing in to Chiadzwa diamond fields failed to take off at Mutare Magistrate Court because the regional magistrate Livingtone Chipadza who was supposed to preside over the case is off duty.
Sikhala who is representing himself told Kumakomo Community Radio that he was given a new trial date because the magistrate is not available.
“I was told to come back next week on 29 September, the trial could not kick off today because the magistrate is attending to some family issues and the prosecutor’s whereabouts are not known, said a disappointed Sikhala.
The prosecutor for the case Malvern Musarurwa was also not at the court.
Sikhala who is out on a US$500 bail is being charged with kidnapping two men in Chiadzwa after being swindled US$2 500 in a diamond deal.
In the other account sikhala is being charged with trespassing after he entered the protected diamond rich area of Marange.
When Sikhala last appeared in Court he had applied for the state to drop the charges as they had failed to prosecute him for over six months since he was arrested. He argued that this was a violation of his constitutional rights. Musarurwa had agreed that should the trail fail to commence on September 22 2011 the charges will be dropped before plea.

Resident applauds council for not selling Meikles Park

2011-09-21T07:39:00.003+02:00

Residents of this eastern border city welcomed the decision taken by the City Council not to sale land at the Meikles Park to Anjin a Chinese Firm that is mining diamonds in Chiadzwa.
The Chinese Firm wanted to buy land at Meikles Park which is prime land in the central business district for US$1.6 million and they wanted to build an 18 storey hotel which would also house a supermarket and other shops.
Minister of Local Government Rural and Urban planning Dr Ignatius Chombo had ordered Mutare City Council to first give the land to Anjin in exchange for state land that the council would get from the government. Chombo later wanted to buy the prime site for a song and Mutare City Councillors passed a resolution not to sale the land to the Chinese.
Residents who spoke to Kumakomo Community Radio applauded Mutare Mayor Brian James and his councillors for taking a bold decision in denying to sale the land to the Chinese.
Former city of Mutare ward 11 councillor and Mutare businessman Edwin Mauppa said Chombo should stop interfering with councils in the country.
“Chombo can’t continue doing whatever he wants with council that were elected by the people, giving that land to the Chinese was tantamount to empowering the Chinese at the expense of the indigenous business people,” fumed Mauppa.
Victor Munemo another Mutare resident who runs a clothing shop in town said giving the land to the Chinese would have set a bad precedent among city councils across the country.
“I applaud our city councillors for remaining steadfast on matters of principle, this would have set a bad precedent amongst councils across the country, I hope council will manage to sell the land to prospective investors at the right amount,” said Munemo.
Another resident Malvern Magada who spoke to Kumakomo Community Radio said he applauds the decision taken by the councillors because council needs money so that they can improve service delivery in the city
“Mutare city councillors took a very wise decision of not exchanging prime land or even selling it at an inflated price that was going to benefit the Chinese in the long run, we should be careful with these Chinese as very soon they will colonise us,” said Magada.
Whilst others where applauding the local authority for the stance they took Mellissa Mukoyi thinks the Chinese firm should have been given the land, because they want to develop the land that has been lying idle for so many years.
“This land has been not in use for so ever since I was born and if an investor comes wanting to develop it they should give it to them, it’s not like they (Chinese) were going to get the land for free, there was an exchange with state land which council in turn was going to make use of by selling it as residential stands and get revenue,” said Mukoyi.

In Praise of Media Self Regulation.

2011-07-15T14:31:00.000+02:00

By Takura Zhangazha

A very significant debate on media self regulation has recently emerged in the United Kingdom and in media related professions across the world. The main reason for this is the phone hacking scandal of one of the UK’s leading private publications, News of the World. This scandal has since led the publication’s proprietors, on their own volition, to shut it down altogether. In the wake of these unfortunate developments, the Cameroon government, the Labour opposition, professional journalists and media related organizations have roundly criticized the media self regulatory body, the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) for failing to deal firmly with the unethical conduct of the now closed weekly. This is a debate that has since gone beyond the borders of the UK to countries such as the United States of America and Australia, among others, where the News of the World’s owner, Mr. Rupert Murdoch, has significant ownership of television and print media.
In Zimbabwe the thread has been picked up by some of our local papers and commentators and I am sure the debate has also been noted by those in policy making positions, either by way of Government, Constitutional Commissions or Parliament. It is also a debate that the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ) has keenly followed, particularly after the VMCZ Chairperson and other members of the Board were invited to make presentations before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Information, Media and Publicity in the first week of July 2011. It is from the submissions made by the VMCZ Chairperson, Mr. Muchadehama to the Parliamentary Committee that I put up my own perspective on the democratic importance of self regulation of the media in Zimbabwe, notwithstanding the outcome of the debate on the same in the UK or elsewhere.
The premise of self regulation of the media across the world has been the recognition of the right to freedom of expression and access to information that is enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and closer home, in Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights. This right is further fortified in our current constitution in Section 20 of the Bill of Rights which states that every Zimbabwean shall have the right to receive and impart information without interference.

Self regulation of the media, in seeking to promote the full enjoyment of the right to freedom of expression by citizens through professional, accountable, ethical, fair and balanced reporting as well as voluntary codes of conduct for media practitioners, does not negate from the media’s responsibility of what is in the public interest or the promotion of democratic practice or culture. In fact it reinforces this through promoting a culture of consensus between the media stakeholders and the public on best democratic practice and understanding of democratically justifiable and publicly accountable reporting.

Self regulation avoids the spectre of prison for anyone who says, writes, broadcasts or prints opinions in pursuit of their enjoyment of their right, as well as that of others, to freedom of expression and access to information. Where there is a false, unfair or unethical report in the media, voluntary self regulatory media councils establish complaints mechanisms that seek to acquire resolution to complaints about the conduct of the media via consensus, apology, retraction and avoidance of costly legal suits.

As the late national hero, Honourable Member of Parliament and former Chairman of the Parliamentary Legal Committee, Mr. Eddison Zvobgo once opined while delivering an adverse report during the third reading of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) which introduced statutory regulation in 2002, allowing the state to undertake such actions would be tantamount licensing it’s own people to ‘speak’ and therefore in violation of Section 20 of our constitution. Since AIPPA became law and regardless of the various negotiated amendments by our politicians to it, it has continued the clearly undemocratic practice of seeking to register all of us to be licensed to speak and where we do so without the requisite clearance, we get arrested.
It is exactly because the media, which is the primary target of AIPPA, remains the main medium through which Zimbabwean citizens seek or attempt to speak truth to power in the interests of the public good and democratic values that politicians, as yielders of power, seek to gag the press.

The current circumstances prevailing in our country wherein those in power, who should be monitored in their exercise of power, are the ones determining which media houses they will permit to publish in a carrot and stick fashion (with the stick the one that is more liberally used), are patently undemocratic and inimical to the exercise of our right to freedom of expression and access to information.
Further to this, the Minister of Media Information and Publicity, Mr. Webster Shamu has been quoted as saying that journalists must understand media freedom to be a privilege and not a right. Such a statement can only be described as unfortunate because it betrays an underlying but mistaken assumption that freedom of expression is only enjoyed at the behest of the governments of the day. Because of this in most instances, government officials and influential members of the public have always found it convenient to seek the arrest of journalists and editors with alarming levels of impunity. Even those that are tasked with executing the arbitrary arrests of journalists appear to consider it ‘normal’ to do so.
What is happening with the Press Complaints Commission in the UK provides important lessons to Zimbabwean media stakeholders, policy makers. The first lesson being that it does not demonstrate anything wrong with media self regulation as democratic practice and principle. It merely demonstrates an aberration in a society where it is generally not expected that journalists can be so unethical. The second and even more important lesson is that the media in the United Kingdom are not the same media in Zimbabwe. And that the Zimbabwean media has committed itself to self regulation does not mean it will go the same route as that of the most likely changes that are going to happen to the Press Complaints Committee in the UK. Given our country’s repressive media history, it is imperative that self regulation be carried through in fulfillment of the broad commitment that all Zimbabweans have in enjoying the right to say their opinion and to defend to the hilt the right of the other to do the same.

Zhangazha is the Executive Director of the VMCZ. He can be contacted on director@vmcz.co.zw; Facebook Username: TakuraZ.

Prominent Mutare Dealer Freed

2011-07-11T16:35:00.001+02:00

MUTARE – High Court Judge Justice Francis Bere has granted free bail to “prominent Mutare dealer” Farai Rimai who had been in remand prison since December last year on a charge of raping a then 16-year-old schoolgirl.
Rimai who prior to his re-arrest last December had been released earlier on by the courts and that he would re-appear in court by way of summons, but the police re-arrested him shortly before he had enjoyed his freedom reportedly on instructions from “above”.
High Court Judge Bere released Rimai on free bail unconditionally after his attorney Victor Chinzamba had made an application to a higher court challenging the re-arrest of the “businessman” by the police, as he had been released by the courts. Chinzamba had argued the re-arrest was unlawful.
On releasing Rimai, Justice Bere ruled that the lower court had erred as the accused had earlier been released and that he would appear in court by way of summons and that his arrest had had no change of circumstances. He said since the accused had been re-arrested before being called to court by way of summons without change of
circumstances it was tantamount infringing on his rights.
The state led by chief law officer Michael Mugabe in its submissions conceded to the application for the granting of bail to Rimai citing that Rimai’s re-arrest was “unlawful” and that his placement on remand was also “unlawful” as the accused’s appearance by way on summons had not been flouted.
Rimai, who last year had been reported to have been on the run after allegedly abducting and raping a 16-year-old Hillcrest College pupil in the eastern border city has been in Mutare remand prison for nearly seven months.
Rimai made news headline late last year as the police said the“dealer” was on AWOL and also top on their wanted list whilst he would be seen at most public social joints enjoying and partying with friends.
The state alleges that the “businessman” on August 4, 2010 at around midnight reportedly dragged the teenager from a school function in the city centre into his vehicle before raping her once.
The case, CR 41/08/10, was reported at Mutare Central Police Station on August 5 last year.
Rimai is denying the rape charge

Former City of Mutare Assistant Housing Director in Court

2011-07-11T16:30:00.002+02:00

Former Mutare City Council Assistant Housing Director Lovemore Chitima, up on allegations of criminal abuse of office for allegedly selling residential stands in the city at inflated priced and pocketing the difference appeared at the Mutare magistrates court Wednesday and remanded to 13 July 2011.
Chitima, 40, who resides in Dangamvura’s Area 13 in Mutare, appeared before regional magistrate Billiard Musakwa accused of selling nine residential stands to nine individuals at high prices without the permission of his employer.
The court heard that through Chitima’s alleged criminal activities the
Mutare city council was prejudiced of $6 595.
Chitima who is being represented in court by Ashel Mutungura of Mutungura and Associates is denying the charge.
The state led by Simon Chabuka is alleging that between 16 January 2009 and 17 February 2010, Chitima sold the nine stands to one T.M Munengwa, T. Mabhurukwa, F.Magombedze, D. Magurameno, C Mashazhu, G.Karimanzira, J Mhuriyengwe and one B. Manyere at inflated the prices and allegedly concerted the difference to his personal use.
Chabuka told the court that Chitima, whose duties included supervising, checking of all records of repossessed stands, allocation of stands in conjunction with the director of housing and community services abused his office when he sold the nine stands at costs not prescribed by the council.
He said the accused was supposed to have sold the stands for values pegged by the council but sold the stands at high prices, adding that Chitima by intentionally pocketing the difference from the sale of the stands was acting contrary and inconsistent with his duties as a public officer.
Chitima, who was fired from Mutare City Council in April last year after an internal investigating team and disciplinary team found him guilty for the said offence and took up the matter with the police. The ex-assistant housing director is appearing in court on summons and will be back in court next Wednesday.

Provincial Medical Director Warns Hospitals in Manicaland

2011-07-06T08:50:00.001+02:00

MUTARE: - The Manicaland Provincial Medical Director Dr Milton Chemhuru has urged all referral hospital to desist from making Tuberculosis, TB, patients pay when they seek treatment.
Dr Chemhuru was addressing media practitioners and a two day workshop organised by SAFAIDS under the theme “Telling the HIV Story”.
“TB treatment is free of charge, we should not negotiate about it, sputum test are also done for free so is the CD4 count tests, I want to urge all health workers to desist from making these people pay because they are poor,” said Dr Chemhuru.
Dr Chemhuru said in Manicaland they received a report that Hauna District Hopsital was making TB patients pay between US$2 and US$3 to have sputum tests and they have since intervened at it has since stopped.
“We have intervened and this has stopped,” said Dr Chemhuru.
Dr Chemhuru also said Manicaland now has seven microscopic centres where people can go and have sputum tests.
He also said Manicaland province now has two gene expert machines which were donated to Murambinda and Birchenough Hospitals by Medecines San Fronteers Belgium. Dr Chemhuru said the machines can examine 10 patients in just two hours.
“The machine can dictate that one has positive TB and that you are already resistant, this machine is more accurate than the microscopic tests,” said Dr Chemhuru.
Dr Chemhuru said these machines will increase the numbers of TB patients who were missing in the community even when microscopic tests where being conducted.
Dr Chemhuru said they are now currently working with communities in empowering them with knowledge on TB.

Parly probes ban on left hand cars

2011-06-23T10:10:00.001+02:00

MUTARE - A special parliamentary committee yesterday launched a
countrywide fact-finding mission on the ban of left-hand vehicles to
vitriolic attacks from businessmen in Mutare at the inaugural public
meeting.

Businesspeople in Mutare told the Parliamentary portfolio committee on
Transport and Infrastructural Development chaired by Blessing
Chebundo, MP for Kwekwe Central, that banning left-hand driven
vehicles and second hand cars more than five years old was irrational
and catastrophic to the economy.

The committee was in the eastern border city to launch a nationwide
mission to consult the public on the controversial move.

Businesspeople who attended the meeting, some who have heavily
invested in left-hand driven haulage trucks, said the government had
failed to show evidence that left-hand driven vehicles were to blame
for most of the carnage on the nation’s roads.

The government has given until end of June as the cut-off date for the
continued use of left-hand vehicles on the country’s roads blaming the
vehicles for a number of accidents experienced in recent years.

But haulage operators in the city advised the government to revamp the
road system in the country, which they said left a lot to be desired.

Hlanganiso Matangaidze, who runs a fleet of trucks plying the Sadc
region, noted that instead of banning the use of the left-hand
vehicles, the government should concentrate on dualising and improving
the road network throughout the country.

“The cause of accidents has nothing to do with these vehicles as
stated by the government. Banning the importation of such vehicles
would be catastrophic for the economy of Zimbabwe,” he said.

Matangaidze said the ban on vehicles that were five years old was
ill-conceived since these were the only vehicles affordable to many
Zimbabweans. He said the ban would reduce the rest of the population
to being public transport users making private vehicles a preserve of
the rich.

The businessman advised the committee to wait until the economy was
fully revived and when such companies as Quest Motor Corporation and
Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries began to function.

Another Mutare entrepreneur, Fungai Simango said he could not see the
rationale behind the proposed ban as Zimbabwe was yet to fully recover
from its decade-long economic collapse.

He said locally assembled vehicles were expensive and not readily available.

“Second-hand vehicles imported from Japan are creating employment for
the people as most of these vehicles are being used as taxis by the
people. Banning them is the same as condemning people to destitution
without offering them an alternative,” said Simango.

Misheck Chesa, who runs a transport business, implored the government
to consult people first before coming up with legislation which is
misplaced from the wishes and desires of the nation.

“The problem with these accidents being blamed on left-hand driven
trucks lies with the bad state of the roads that are potholed. One
does not require a rocket scientist to establish that. Work on the
roads and that’s all,” said Chesa.

Chebundo said his committee would take the consultations to Masvingo,
Bulawayo and Harare having kicked off in Mutare yesterday.

“We will present these finding to Parliament and eventually to Cabinet
so they can see for themselves what the people’s thoughts are on the
proposed ban,” said Chebundo, who was accompanied by other members of
the committee, Edward Raradza, Ordo Nyakudanga, Ailess Baloyi, Luke
Mushore, Gift Dzirutwe and Zvanyanya Dongo.

Villagers regret discovery of minerals

2011-06-23T10:06:00.001+02:00

MUTARE - Polluted rivers, displaced villagers and violence against
locals are all that Chinese and Russian mining firms operating in
Manicaland province have given back to communities, a public meeting
has heard.

Community members and civil society campaigners speaking at a meeting
on the worth of Zimbabwe’s mineral worth held in Mutare spoke on how
villagers had become poorer with the discovery of minerals and
entrance of shadowy foreign investors in their areas.

In Penhalonga, about 12km north of Mutare, a Russian firm mining gold
along a river basin in conjunction with a Zapu-owned company has left
a trail of environmental damage, including polluting the Sakubva River
which is the community’s main water source, residents said.

The same firm, the Development Trust of Zimbabwe in partnership with
Russian company All Russian Foreign Economic Association on Geological
Prospecting, Ozego, faced a barrage of similar criticism from
Chimanimani residents where it has been prospecting for diamonds.

Villagers from Marange, where Chinese firms are mining alluvial
diamonds in conjunction with state agency, the Zimbabwe Mining
Development Corporation, told horrific tales of miners setting vicious
dogs on locals and their livestock.

Communities expressed concern that without proper evaluation of the
minerals, the foreign firms could as well be plundering the resources
into extinction while ill-treating locals at the same time.

Representatives of civil society organisations said the government
should not be allowed to get away with statements such as “the country
is very rich” without giving actual figures.

“If we rightly know the value of our mineral wealth we can judge our
capacity to develop in terms of how much we need to extract and how
much we are capable of extracting and how much utility we can drive
from the resources.

“Therefore how much our communities can benefit from the mineral
wealth available in terms of per capita resources we can share
depending on the size of our communities,” Solomon Mumbure of the
Institute for Peace Leadership and Governance with the Africa
University and research fellow with the State University of New York
in the USA told delegates.

The Centre for Research and Development, which vigorously fights
unjust exploitation of mineral resources, organised the meeting.

“We want to allow the community to be aware of their rights in terms
of sharing some of the proceeds from what is extracted from areas
where they live, could it timber proceeds, gold and diamonds and even
black granite,” said Farai Maguwu, CRD director.

Trigger happy cop gets seven years

2011-06-23T10:01:00.002+02:00

A policeman deployed to Chiadzwa diamond fields, who used his
service AK47 rifle to shoot a reveller who failed a snooker challenge,
will spend the next seven years in jail.

Dominic Nyani, a 29-year-old sergeant with the crack Support Unit, was
convicted on attempted murder charges on his own plea.

The court heard that Nyani fired three shots on Weston Makarango’s
left arm and abdomen after Makarango failed to sink the black ball as
demanded by the policeman in December last year.

Regional magistrate Livingstone Chipadza said Nyani’s case was
aggravated by the fact that he was in police uniform, on duty and
drinking when he committed the offence.

Chipadza said Nyani used a lethal weapon on Makarango with no
provocation and premeditation hence deserved a lengthy jail term.

“The issue of intoxication of the accused was not reasonable as before
the shooting the accused had spoken to the complainant about the
threat to shoot him and went on to shoot after the black ball was not
sunk. Thus he knew what he was doing,” ruled Chipadza.

The court heard that Nyani was part of patrons drinking and dancing
the night away at Tripple K nightclub at Chakohwa business centre when
he suddenly threatened Makarango with death if he failed to sink the
black ball.

Nyani incredibly went on to shoot Makarango after the ball failed to
hit the spot, the court heard.

The policeman was based at Mike Troop base in Buchwa but was in
Marange as part of corps guarding the controversial diamond fields
where state security agents have been repeatedly accused of gross
human rights violations. Mutare lawyer Cosmas Chibaya of Chibaya and
Associates, represented Nyani.

Case deferred for lack of court space

2011-06-23T09:36:00.000+02:00

The trial of two Nyazura farmers Janse and Martinus Grobler (father and son), accused of negligent discharge of a firearm, failed to continue on Tuesday because of lack of space at Mutare Magistrates’ Courts.

The magistrates’ court doubles as a High Court circuit.

Regional magistrate Billiart Musakwa apologised to witnesses and said they would have to return on July 5 for resumption of the trial.

“Gentlemen, we are very sorry the trial can’t continue today because we have a High Court circuit and so the lower court has to give preference to the upper court,” said Musakwa.

Defence lawyer Victor Chinzamba is also attending to cases at the High Court circuit.

Janse and Martinus were initially charged with attempted murder after they allegedly fired shots in the air at suspected land invaders at their farm.

They own Geluk Farm in Chipembere area near Nyazura.

It is alleged on January 31 this year the two fired three shots at Onismus Makwengura, Ephraim Zibunge and Collins Mugayi who had come to settle a land dispute at the farm.

The farm had reportedly been designated for resettlement by the government.

Mutare residents want ZESA monopoly to end

2011-06-17T12:31:00.001+02:00

MUTARE: - Residents here told the Parliamentry Portifolio Committee on State Enterprises and Parastatals Management that they are not happy with the way the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority, ZESA was billing its consumers.
The parliamentary portfolio committee was in Mutare conducting a public hearing on ZESA service.
Denford Vambe the vice chairperson of Mutare Residents and Ratepayers Association, MRRA, said ZESA is sending huge bills yet they spend 16 hours without electricity.
“At the end of every month we get very high bills from ZESA yet we spend long hours without electricity every day,” said Vambe.
Simon Mapuyire complained to the committee that a lot of people were losing their electrical gadgets because of the incessant power cuts from ZESA.
“People are losing their electrical appliances because of these nonstop power cuts from ZESA,” said Mapuyire.
Councillor for ward nine in Dangamvura Chrispen Dube said ZESA should have consultative meetings with members of the public whenever they want to increase tariffs. Dube also the load shedding has also contributed to deforestation.
Huggins Kashiri complained that workers from ZESA are now deliberately disconnecting defaulters from the pole because they want to make more money.
“If one is disconnected from the pole they pay a reconnection fee of US$90 where as if one is switched off from the house you just pay US$10,” said Kashiri.
Sydney Sithole a Mutare resident present at the meeting also made submissions that ZESA should also look into other forms of energy sources rather than just relying on hydro-electrical power.
Sithole also said ZESA should stop exporting electricity to Namibia because they are failing to service its local consumers.
Chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on State Enterprises and Parastatals Management Lawrence Mavhima said they have been going around the country getting people’s views on the service that is being provided by ZESA.
“We will table these views in parliament and make recommendations based on the views that we have been getting from the people of Zimbabwe,” said Mavhima
Other portfolio committee members that attended the meeting are Edward Musumbu member of parliament for Norton, Chirumanzu members of parliament Phares Maramba, Prince Matibe who represents Chegutu in parliament and Patrick Sibanda of Binga.

Tekere is no more

2011-06-07T15:42:00.003+02:00

MUTARE: - veteran nationalist Edgar Twoboy Tekere is no more. Tekere passed away at 1330hrs at Murambi Garden Clinic in Mutare. Tekere was born on 1 April 1938.
Dr Ibbo Mandaza the family spokesperson said Tekere succumbed prostate cancer.
“He had been ill for some time , he had prostrate cancer which had now gone into the spine, he was put into the intensive care unit at Murambi Garden Clinic,” said Mandaza.
Dr Mandaza said they are waiting for the rest of the family to make funeral arrangements.
Tekere is survived by his wife Pamela Tekere and a daughter.
Mourners are gathered at 9 Alexander Road in Bordevale, Mutare.

Relocated families bitter

2011-05-26T17:35:00.001+02:00

MUTARE: - Families that were recently relocated from Chiadzwa said they are worried at unfulfilled promises made by the government and the companies that are mining diamonds in Marange.
The families said their grievances during a meeting held in Mutare that was organized by the Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers Association, ZELA, and the Chiadzwa Community Development Trust, CCDT.
So far about 60 families have been moved from the diamond rich area of Chiadzwa to ARDA Transau in Odzi area. The families are worried that they were promised that a health centre will be built for them but up to now nothing has been done.
“We were promised that a clinic will be built for us but up to now we have to walk to Odzi Township for medical attention,” said Susan Mangwiro one of the family members that was relocated to ARDA Transau.
Mangwiro also complained that besides not having a school nearby they do not have a good road network to ARDA Transau hence commuters do not ply the route.
“We have to walk a distance of 12 kilometers to the Mutare Harare highway in order for us to get transport into town,” she lamented.
Odzi is approximately 45 kilometers from Mutare along the Harare highway.
Lovemore Matende said they still have not received full compensation from the companies that are mining in Chiadzwa.
“We only got US$1 000 when we were moved from Chiadzwa,” said Matende. “We would also want the companies to construct dip tanks for us and put a perimeter fence along the railway line because we are losing our livestock to trains that are hitting them,” he added.
Gilbert Makore of ZELA said urged the families to remain united to effectively challenge the companies and government on some of the unfulfilled promises.
“You should not allow yourselves to be infiltrated, you have to remain focused until all your that you were promised has been fulfilled.
CCDT chairman Malvern Mudiwa said the companies still have to provide a source of clean water to the families in ARDA Transau.
“The families are still walking long distances to the nearest source of clean water and the companies are quite on this and many other issues,” said Mudiwa.
A Mbada Diamonds official who was present at the meeting refused to talk to the media on the issues that were raised by families that have been relocated.

Zanu Ndonga leader slams GNU

2011-05-18T11:40:00.000+02:00

CHECHECHE:- Wilson Tarugarira Khumbula the long forgotten Zanu Ndonga leader has come out of the political doldrums and likened Zimbabwe to a ship that does not have a captain to direct it and its just sailing own its own not knowing where it will end up.
Khumbula blamed the leaders of the three political parties that formed the Government of National Unity of spending most of their time fighting each other at the expense of national development.
“Zimbabwe is like a ship that has just been thrown into turbulent waters without anyone to give it direction,” said Khumbula. “These leaders are spending their energy fighting each other and nothing much has been done to advance the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans”.
The former Chipinge legislator said there was a lot that the three political parties promised the people but nothing has been done two years after the unity government has been formed.
Khumbula said schools still do not have adequate books, in hospitals there is no medicines and the police are mounting roadblocks at will so that they can get money from motorists.
“Police officers are mounting roadblocks so that they can extort from motorists and our soldiers are going to Chiadzwa so that they can get diamonds,” lamented Khumbula.
On the issue of elections Khumbula said his party is ready to participate in the next election. Khumbula said elections should be held so that the country becomes governable. But he also urged all opposition political parties to put their differences aside and unite so as to remove Zanu PF from power.
“We know things are hard and there is a lot of violence that takes place towards elections but that should not stop us from having elections, people should experience difficulties first in order to enjoy the fruits later,” he said.
Khumbula said Zanu PF uses violence as a tool to intimidate voters and the magnitude of violence increases when we approach an election but that should not stop a country from having elections.
“As Zanu Ndonga we have lost so many of our cadres due to political motivated violence and some have even skipped the country,” he said.
“We can’t go for another five years without an election as this will plunder the country into chaos, at present the country is not governable as there in no government to talk about,” said Khumbula.
On the structures of his party Khumbula said they now do not rely on having structures as they are infiltrated and destroyed by Zanu PF. He said instead they now just rely on having members across the country.
“Even Zanu Pf does not have structures maybe the only structures that hey have are from the police and the army, the MDC it’s the same because if they have structures they are beaten up, so we no longer rely on structure but by just having ordinary members allover the country,” said Khumbula.

Hunger stalks Manzvire in Chipinge

2011-05-18T11:37:00.000+02:00

MANZVIRE: - Drought has hit hard this part of Chipinge South and some women in this area have embarked on a food for work project that has been initiated by Christian Care a Non Governmental Organisation so that they can feed their families.
Villagers in this remote area of Chipinge South were anticipating a bumper harvest but the dry spell that has hit some parts of the country lately has left their crops wilting in the fields. The people of Chipinge normally plant small grain crops that are drought resistant such as rapoko and sorghum but these crops this time around could not stand the dry spell. Cotton is the only crop that seem to be doing well in the area but villagers who spoke to this reporter said the harvest is going to be below 50 percent. It’s easy for one to start fire and raze down the whole field as the crops have completely wilted and died from moisture stress.
NewsDay came across a group of ten women who were slashing tall grass along the Tanganda – Chiredzi highway. In normal circumstances the slashing of grass along the country’s highways is supposed to be done by the Ministry of Roads. These women at the end of the month they get food hand outs from Christian care which has initiated the food for work project.
Phillipa Mtetwa who leads this group of ten women said they have been slashing along the highway for and doing other road maintenance work for the past three months.
Mtetwa said each person gets a 10kg bag of maize meal at the end of the month but the distribution varies with how big one’s family is.
“The amount of food one gets depends on how big one’s family is, if one has registered that they are five in their family they get a $50kg bag of maize meal and five bottles of cooking oil,” said Mtetwa.
She said they are getting basic food stuff such as Matemba, cooking oil, soya chunks, beans, bulgur and maize meal and this has been going a long way in sustaining their families.
“If we had not been engaging in food for work, we could be starving by now,” said Mtetwa.
Another elderly woman who is part of the grass slashing project Lucia Mhlanga said some kids had stopped going to school because of hunger but because of the food handouts they are getting from Christian Care their problems have become minimal.
“Kids where absconding classes because of hunger and some young high school girls were now engaging in prostitution so as to put food on the table,” said Mhlanga.
Mhlanga said before Christian Care came to their rescue they have been engaging in some piece jobs at a farm owned by a company called SABOT in Chisumbanje area which is approximately 40 kilometers from Manzvire. SABOT is a company that is building a multi million ethanol plan in Chisumbanje and when the project is finished it is expected to create jobs for thousands of people in Chipinge area.
Mtetwa said their dilemma now was that the Christian Care food for work project is coming to an end at the end of March and she does not know how they will survive after that.
“Christian Care has indicated that they are going to suspend the project at the end of this month and we don’t know how we are going to survive after they have left,” said Mtetwa.
The secretary of the group Joice Mwaangireni said their wish is to venture into some income generating projects such as sewing clothes and brick molding.
“If we could get a donor who will give us sewing machines we can start income generating projects that can help us look after our families,” said Mwaangireni.
Mark Karinda the Christian Care regional area manager for Manicaland refused to shed more light on the projects they are carrying saying only Reverend Matonga the national director can comment on the humanitarian work they are doing.
“We are assisting the government in food distribution through empowering the community in doing projects that can help them,” said Karinda.
Manzvire and areas such as Checheche, Chibuwe, Tanganda and some areas in Buhera are some pats of Manicaland that have been hit hard by drought and they would need food assistance from the government.

Ex-beauty queen, CIO man extort diamond buyers

2010-09-06T16:28:00.001+02:00

Former Miss Mutare Derleen Soma and a CIO operative Walter Mupira teamed up with Zimbabwe Republic Police officers to extort and rob foreign diamond buyers in the city of their money.

The eight, who appeared at Mutare Magistrates’ Court recently, went on an extortion and robbing spree, mainly targeting foreign diamond buyers.

The police officers who were arrested are Munyaradzi Muza, Ernest Kariwo, Gift Msipa and Tichawona Joseph. The operation was led by a well-known diamond dealer, Trymore Gata and his friends Booker Chinamasa, Trevor Magirazi, Simo Korera and Blessing Tauro.

Police are hunting for the other three police officers who are now on the run. The three are Mike Masenda, Terrence Mashaire and Dumisani Ndlovu.

It is alleged Gata, together with his co-accused, on eight different occasions robbed or extorted money from 16 complainants from June this year.

In the first case Soma, Gata, Chinamasa, Magirazi and Ndlovu went to a foreign buyer’s house pretending they were selling diamonds and when they were turned down they threatened the foreigner with arrest for dealing in diamonds.

The buyer gave them $ 1 000 which they shared among themselves.

In the other cases the accused persons would identify themselves as police officers and threaten buyers with arrest if they did not pay them money.

In another case Mupira, Masenda, Mashaire, Gata and Ndlovu approached a complainant with pieces of diamonds but the buyer refused to take the diamonds, they produced four pistols and handcuffed the buyer. They then took away $3 000 from him and shared it among themselves.

Diamond reseacher's interview with SW Radio's Violet Gonda

2010-06-09T08:51:00.001+02:00

Farai Maguwu, the Director of the Centre for Research and Development (CRD), who has been investigating human rights abuses at the Chiadzwa diamond fields was forced into hiding after police raided his office, his house and arrested and assaulted some of his relatives last week. On Thursday he handed himself in to Mutare police and was immediately arrested. The CRD has been forced to shut down and all staff are in hiding. Speaking the night before his arrest Maguwu accuses the Kimberley Process (KP) monitor to Zimbabwe, Abbey Chikane, of setting him up, as a result of a confidential meeting the two had about the ongoing militarisation of the diamond fields. Maguwu says his troubles started when Chikane (from South Africa) betrayed his confidence and shopped him to the police. He spoke to Violet Gonda of SWRadio Africa for the programme Hot Seat.
Gonda started by asking him to explain the chain of events that resulted in him having to go into hiding.

FARAI MAGUWU: It all started on Tuesday last week, in fact prior to Tuesday, I received an email from Abbey Chikane requesting to meet me on his second visit to Zimbabwe and I duly agreed to meet him on Tuesday 25th of May at 6pm and that particular day, 26th of May, he called me early in the morning and said he was no longer able to meet me in the evening, I should come in the morning. I told him it was a public holiday and I was not prepared to go to work early so I need some time to prepare and he kept on phoning, telling me that I have to come now because he wanted to proceed to Chiadzwa. Then I went to meet him at Holiday Inn and to my surprise, there were a lot of suspicious people sitting in the lobby and others were standing outside, so I discussed with him what we were observing in Marange especially with the issues of human rights abuses which are continuing, the issues of illegal panning activities and the smuggling of diamonds without the KP certification. Then the following day, that’s when we saw on television, the government alleging that Chikane’s emails had been intercepted and his itinerary had been ‘drafted by the Americans’. Then I immediately felt insecure and the following morning I did not go to work early suspecting that something was going to happen and then at around half past nine in the morning, a truckload of men in suits pitched up at my home and they were armed to the teeth and when they were advancing to my door, I slipped through the window and then they went on to start beating my relatives at home and they took one of them into custody and they kept him in the police cells, beating him for the four days. He was arrested on Thursday and he was only released on Monday. So when I saw these events unfolding, I felt very insecure and I felt like they wanted to do a Ken Saro-Wiwa on me so I went into hiding.
GONDA: Right and is there any understanding as to why exactly they were after you?
MAGUWU: They are charging me that I gave Chikane a State Security document which was drafted by the army and they are saying that was prejudicial to the State and that’s why they are looking for me.
GONDA: And did you do this?

MAGUWU: I did not give Chikane anything but in the conversation, Chikane himself, he mentioned this document and asked me about the contents in that document and I told him that I had not seen the document, it is hard for me to comment on something which I have not seen. So little did I know that that meeting was a way to set me up so that Chikane can create a story out of that meeting and resulting in all these problems that we are facing now, emanating from a meeting that I had with one person and in close confidentiality.
GONDA: So are you accusing the Kimberley Process monitor of setting you up and, if so, why would he do this?
MAGUWU: The reasons are to me, he is now part of the gravy train, there must be something that is going on behind the scenes between Abbey Chikane and ZANU PF officials who are plundering the Marange diamonds. And he obviously, him now being an interested party, if this case goes to court he is going to be a witness against me and him now being an interested party, it means he’s now working to advance the interests of one party against the other, that is the interests of the government against me.
And the Centre for Research and Development is a member of the Kimberley Process Civil Society Coalition, and this month we were due to travel to Israel to present our findings on the goings on in Chiadzwa especially matters of human rights abuses which are continuing, panning and smuggling and this setting up and all these nefarious allegations being levelled against me are simply meant to start a long legal battle that will keep me in the country and that will also paralyse the operations of our organisation. I think that was the intentions of Chikane.
GONDA: So has he made any statements or said anything about your harassment and I understand that not only was your brother in Mutare arrested but that your elder brother who’s at the University of Zimbabwe was also quizzed by the police?

MAGUWU: Yes, first I confirmed that one of my brothers was arrested and beaten severely and the other one who is doing “A” level in Mutare, he was detained at home for two days and he was being tortured at home by the CIOs who were now sleeping in my house and cooking my food and doing everything as if they pay rent there. And my brother also at the University of Zimbabwe was taken temporarily today and they were quizzing him and some concerned human rights organisations have phoned Chikane and written emails to him enquiring why all these things are happening when I met with him in confidentiality and at his own request and to the surprise of everyone, he is very arrogant. He is saying I possessed a State Security document and he is saying I knew that it was a crime to possess that document so I’m 100 per cent responsible the consequences.
GONDA: And were you given assurances by Chikane that whatever you discussed with him during that meeting would remain confidential?
MAGUWU: In the beginning, before we started talking, I told Chikane we are living in a very difficult situation where human rights are not respected, where there is a rule by law and not rule of law and my life is not secure discussing these issues with you and I need your promise of confidentiality in everything that I’m going to discuss with you and he promised me and he gave me assurance that nothing that we were going to discuss was going to be revealed to anyone except only for his own mission to help him on his tour of Marange.
GONDA: So what implications do you think what you are saying and what you are accusing the KP monitor of doing; what implications does this have on the KP itself and also with its relationship with civic groups in Zimbabwe?
MAGUWU: I think it’s really going to affect the smooth running of the KP, especially given that Zimbabwe is taking centre stage in KP issues since 2008 and now that this monitor, he had been appointed to try to resolve these issues and also to work with all the stakeholders in trying to help Zimbabwe to get this certification. Now the civil society coalition in the KP obviously is very angered by this unfortunate and unprofessional behaviour by Chikane. He may be forced to withdraw, to halt his monitoring activities, possibly another monitor may have to be found who is agreeable to both the Zimbabwe and the KP membership but this behaviour is putting a dent on the KP operations and its credibility as an institution because Chikane was coming here holding the portfolio of the KP and representing the values of the KP and given this corrupt nature of his behaviour, he’s really a very terrible agent of such a very respectable organisation.
GONDA: I understand from well placed sources that Chikane has defended his decision, he claims that you gave him the document, this document by the security forces, and he was saying that he handed it over to the security agencies to find out if it was 'authentic’ because he didn’t want to be in possession of an ‘illegal document’. What do you think this is about then because it doesn’t add up?
MAGUWU: Yah it’s true, I agree with you that it does not add up. I’ll give you an example, some few years ago, after Operation Murambatsvina the United Nations sent a special envoy to Zimbabwe and she met a lot of stakeholders and at the end of her fact-finding mission, she thanked everyone, she went out of the country, she did her work professionally which was well received by all Zimbabweans and she did not leave any Zimbabwean in danger because of confiding in her what really happened to the people and this is unlike Abbey Chikane, he is actually talking like a ZANU PF activist. He has no sympathy, he has got no empathy, he has no feeling for what is happening to me, to my family and to all the people I work with. Right now the organisation, everyone is into hiding. We expected him to protest to the Zimbabwe government that these people spoke to me in confidentiality and they were actually helping to make my mission possible but to our surprise it appears like he came as wolf in sheep’s clothing. So it’s quite very unfortunate that he is even having the audacity to say he went to the government to try to authenticate. In any case, if he receives any documentation, that’s why he was on a fact finding mission, he was supposed to go to Marange on his own and try to see whether whatever information he got from all quarters was correct, not for him to go to the government to say I received this document from so-and-so and is it true? That is very childish and primitive.
GONDA: For the benefit of those people who would not know what your organisation actually does, can you tell us about your organisation and what were your finding?

MAGUWU: The Centre for Research and Development conducts research and advocacy in the areas of human rights, in the areas within and around the Marange diamond fields. We look at the issues of panning, we look at the issues of smuggling of diamonds, so we also do some cross-border research to see what is happening in the town of Manica across Mozambique with regard to the Zimbabwe diamonds. So when I met the monitor, I gave him a report, which was titled “Porous Security at Canadile Zimbabwe”. I also gave him a report of the CRD, which was produced in April about the escalation of human rights abuses in Marange where the soldiers were going around beating people at shopping centres. These are the two documents, which I handed over to him explaining the level of smuggling and also the increase in violence against the civilian population by the military.
GONDA: What about this ‘leaked document’ that was allegedly compiled by an assistant commissioner Mawere? What was he able to tell you about this document because I hear it also highlights the fact that there’s been no security sector reform under the Global Political Agreement and that JOC is still very much in control in the Chiadzwa area?

MAGUWU: What he simply talked about, he mentioned issues of certain military bases in the diamond field where he was asking me whether I know of the existence of those bases. He also wanted to know the issues of the syndicates, which were being operated by the army. He was actually agreeing with our reports that what we were reporting were also featuring in that document which he was holding in his hands which he allegedly got from ZANU PF’s office confirming the operations of the JOC. And he was shaking his head in disbelief saying – I don’t understand how people can deny these things because to me it’s very clear and obvious that the military is still in control of the diamond fields and even the areas which are under the companies, they are not very secure, in some areas the military are still gate crashing into these areas. He also complained about the smuggling across the border, which could be traced back to the operations of the military and the syndicates in the diamond fields. So those were the issues which he was simply raising from that particular document but which were also resonating with the reports I handed over to him.
GONDA: Earlier on you talked about Chikane’s stolen emails. Now media reports actually quote him blaming the theft of his emails on ‘naughty intelligence’. In your view, was this an appropriate response from him?
MAGUWU: He was actually showering praise on the person for his ingenuity in getting into his emails and the like. We were expecting Chikane to burst out in anger and say – how can this be, that the government has disrespected my person, they’ve disrespected my mission, how can a government agent break into my privacy? He was supposed to protest even to the KP chair and possibly he was supposed to walk out of the country and say I cannot continue with my mission because my security is not guaranteed. But to our surprise he went on even to promise that certification is within sight, within two weeks it should be done, which means he voluntarily gave this information to the government of Zimbabwe and he was trying to expose anybody - be these people be Zimbabwean or be American or British or South African - anyone who was trying to show him some elements of non-compliance, he exposed them to the government of Zimbabwe so that his relationship with the government is solidified for whatever benefits he is getting which we do not know.
GONDA: Have you complained to the mother body, the actual KP to tell them about what has been happening or even the civil society in Zimbabwe, have they issued a statement to KP to complain?

MAGUWU: I’m still in hiding, I have no access to the internet at the moment but I will have to start the legal processes tomorrow and depending on the outcome of these processes, I’ll then launch a formal complaint to the KP chair in Israel about the behaviour of Abbey Chikane.
GONDA: You are still in hiding but for how long? The police are still looking for you, what is your next move?

MAGUWU: We have been consulting and we have been setting up our legal team and building up our case so tomorrow I will hand in myself to the police in Mutare and then from there we will see, the rest will be determined by whatever the charges the State will prefer and the legal team will respond to that.
GONDA: And you feel that this is the best way to respond, bearing in mind what you were telling us about your family members being assaulted and arrested?

MAGUWU: Yes Violet, I am a Zimbabwean, this is the only country that I call home, I believe our fight for the rights of the people of Chiadzwa and our fight for transparency and accountability in Marange diamond is a just cause. It is a cause for which I’m very much prepared to suffer any consequences. The reason why I was hiding is simply because these people they raided my home without, I was not prepared to face them at that time, I had not set up any legal team to help me, but now I’ve done my ground work and I’m prepared to face them come what may. We need to continue with the struggle. Zimbabwe is for all Zimbabweans, it is not for a few privileged people no matter how powerful they are, no matter whatever weapons at their disposal, we need to share the cake, everyone must benefit from the resources of this country, not for Obert Mpofu and the political bosses to benefit with their families when everyone else is forced to feed on poverty and everyone else is forced to live on this island between malnutrition and starvation.
GONDA: Now I was actually going to ask you about those who are benefiting from the diamonds in Chiadzwa. Have you been able to actually gather the names of some of the people who are behind this plunder? And also do you know how much Zimbabwe is actually losing every month from diamond sales, from illegal diamond sales?
MAGUWU: For now it is difficult for me to mention names but all I can say is that the two companies that were formed which are mining in Chiadzwa were illegally licensed to mine there, in that the Minister did not follow the government tender regulations in awarding these licences. But coming to the issue of the losses which the government is incurring, we do not have a round figure of the total sums of the loss which the government is incurring - but the calculations we did on Canadile Mining alone, we noted that about two thousand carats are being lost daily through smuggling and theft by workers who we think have actually overtaken the syndicates and the army in supplying diamonds to buyers.
GONDA: And two thousand carats is roughly how much? Would you know?

MAGUWU: Unfortunately I cannot really give a figure because this one is actually, I have tried, we are still making some consultations on the exact value of such amount of diamonds so I cannot really disclose at the moment how much that can cost.
GONDA: What about the issue of the human rights abuses?

MAGUWU: We have gone to the fields, we have gone to areas surrounding Chiadzwa where the army occasionally go out to beat people indiscriminately. We are talking of elderly people who are going to the shops or coming from church, people are just beaten for no apparent reason. Then there are cases of armed robberies by the military where they are robbing people of their valuables. There are also cases of sexual harassment where women are taken as sex slaves. All these things are happening in and around Chiadzwa and there are people, there is a man who is a former headmaster and he is paralysed now, he can’t even walk because he was beaten severely by the military. So these are the abuses we are saying they should stop.
And go all over the world there is nowhere where the military is involved in mining. The role of the military is to defend the country from external enemies. There are companies, there are a lot of Zimbabweans who are jobless. Unemployment rate is standing at about 85 per cent at the moment. We can’t say the government has failed to find people who can work in Marange and produce diamonds for the country. So the military has to be replaced by trained security guards.
And also the other problem Violet I must bring to your attention is that Marange diamond field stretches for about 70 000 hectares. Of that 70 000 hectares only about less than ten per cent is under production and as long as all these vast fields are lying idle, the problem of panning will never stop and therefore we will always get this lame excuse that we need the military because we need to protect the diamond field. Why is the area lying idle when the country is keeping on singing this song that we don’t have money, we need help from outside?
GONDA: So what about the inclusive government itself, especially the MDC? You’ve complained about the Mines Minister Obert Mpofu as being one of those people benefiting from what is happening in Chiadzwa. What is the MDC doing about it? Are you happy with the way the MDC is handling, if at all, this issue in Chiadzwa?

MAGUWU: I think the MDC has really disappointed in the area of Marange. First of all, when we talk about Obert Mpofu we must also remember that his Deputy is Murisi Zwizwai who is an MDC official and he has not really shown any light - we are talking about Murisi here. He has not protested about these things happening, rather it appears he is also part of the gravy train. We are not seeing him showing direction as a party that was carrying the hopes and aspirations of the people of Zimbabwe. The question that people are asking is - will the MDC produce a better diamond policy than ZANU PF when they are quiet when all these things are happening? So I should say as civil society we are quite disappointed by the silence of the MDC. Even right now, that ZANU PF is trying to pin me down, they are trying to do a Ken Saro-Wiwa on me because I’m speaking out against these human rights abuses and this theft of the national resource, the MDC is quiet about it which means they are complicit or they are supporting what is happening.
GONDA: I understand that recently a parliamentary committee was actually blocked from going or entering the Chiadzwa area, now I wonder have government ministers been able to go there?

MAGUWU: People like Murisi they go there whenever they want to and we have not heard them protesting against this denial by the police to accept the parliamentary committee into the diamond field. Whereas the, the ministers were not chosen by the grassroots people but the parliamentarians are the voice of the people because they have got a mandate of the people to be the people’s eye. So when these parliamentarians who have got all the legitimacy to debate anything and to go anywhere in the country are being denied access to such a rich national resource, then we begin to ask – to whom do these diamonds belong?
GONDA: Right and of course I’m speaking to you on the night before you actually go and hand yourself in to the police. What’s going through your mind with all that has been happening to you?

MAGUWU: Of course there’s the fear of being abused, you know in Zimbabwe even if you are, a country where the words ‘human rights’ do not exist so no matter how strong your arguments are you are never guaranteed of any protection of the law therefore there is this fear of handing myself to people who have been hunting me like they were hunting for a wild animal and who have been beating my relatives. If they have been beating even school-going kids, how much more when they find me? If they have been sleeping in my house for one week, sleeping on my bed, cooking my food, waiting for me in every corner of the neighbourhood, you can wonder what will happen if they meet me. So those are some of the things, which have been just coming to my mind as I ask myself whether I have made the correct decision to hand myself into them. But at the end of the day you’d say, it has to be done, we have to move forward, we have to tell them we are the people and these are our concerns - we too believe we have the right to live.
I thank everyone who is standing with us at the CRD. There is a lot of support from civil society within Zimbabwe and beyond and I encourage everyone to know, to stand up for our resources. This is a rich country but the moment we remain silent about things that matter, this is when evil will thrive so we need to unite and stand up for what is right and denounce what is wrong.
GONDA: Thank you Farai Maguwu for speaking to us on the programme Hot Seat.
MAGUWU: Thank you very much Violet.

NGO director turn himself in to police

2010-06-03T15:56:00.001+02:00

MUTARE: Farai Maguwu the Director for Centre for Research and Development, CRD, turned himself in to the police on Thursday after a week on the run from the long arm of the law.
Maguwu’s organisation has been on the centre of exposing high levels of abuse which have been going on at the Chiadzwa Diamond fields.
Maguwu met with the Kimberly Process Monitor Abbey Chikane last Tuesday, during the meeting Maguwu raised concerns about human rights violations going on at Chiadzwa diamond fields.
Maguwu turned handed himself in the presence of Mutare based lawyers Tinoziwa Bere and Johane Zviuya of Bere Brothers in Mutare.
His lawyer said Maguwu is being charged with contravening section 31 of the criminal law codification and reform act.
“He is being accused of communicating false information to the Kimberly Process monitor,” said Bere.
Bere said police are yet to record at statement from his client.
Police and state security agents last week on Thursday raided the offices of CRD at Fidelity Life Centre in this eastern border city. They failed to find Maguwu at the time of the raid but the proceeded to Maguwu’s home in the high density suburb of Chikanga where they arrested his young brother.
Bere said Maguwu is expected to appear in court once the police are through with their investigations.

War vet fired for denouncing Mugabe

2010-04-12T12:46:00.001+02:00

THE Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association (ZNLWA) has fired one of its top members after he denounced President Mugabe for continuously holding on to power.
Maxwell Marange, who was the association’s chairman in Manicaland Province, chanted slogans denouncing Mugabe in 2007 at the Meikles Park in Mutare during a march organized to support the aging leader’s presidential candidacy in the 2008 elections
But Marange took everybody by surprise when he took to the podium and chanted: “Pasi naMugabe”!!! (Down with Mugabe).
Marange was among Zanu PF supporters who felt Mugabe was not the appropriate candidate to stands on behalf of Zanu PF in the 2008 harmonized poll.
He went on to lose to Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader but he refused to step down on the grounds the victor had not garnered the required 51 percent votes and therefore there was need for a run –off.
The run –off was marred by violence which forced Tsvangirai to drop out of the contest leaving Mugabe un-opposed. But the run- off was so discredited both at home and abroad forcing Mugabe into negotiations with Tsvangirai to form a unity government.
Marange was not available for comment but officials from the war veterans’ association confirmed the developments.
However, other war veterans are insisting he must be brought back saying when he denounced Mugabe he was merely expressing his own opinion.
“Marange was just saying what he thought was good for the party,” said a war veteran based in Mutare. “After all he was right because we saw what happened. We lost the election and by the grace of God we forced a run- off. It is not health for people to think that Mugabe is always right.”
But Ephraim Zibuke, the association’s vice-chairman in Mutare District said: “As the hosting district we wrote a report on the issue which we copied to Zanu PF provincial chairman, Provincial Intelligence Officer and secretary general ZNLWA Manicaland Province. We wonder whether those saying Marange should be reinstated are saying Marange was right.”
A report outlying Marange’s charge reads: “On arrival at the Meikles Park after the march from the Chiefs’ Hall, the hosting chairperson of the province was given the floor to address the gathering."
"Cde Marange chanted his slogan. In the process he was advised by the people in the gathering to raise his hand in the process of making his slogan. Cde Marange started afresh and in the process of his slogan he said ‘Down with the President’, a move which irked the gathering.”

Former CIO linked to Nyanga bank heist

2010-04-12T12:42:00.001+02:00

THE ring-leader in the fatal shootout between police and a group of armed robbers last Saturday morning is a former security aide to Dydmus Mutasa, minister of presidential affairs.
Security sources on Wednesday said the ring leader was a Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) operative who was assigned to Mutasa for the greater part of 2008.
He is one of two arrested during the shoot –out along Samora Machel Avenue in Harare around 2 am.
Detective Sergeant Joseph Maximus (29) was shot in the abdomen and chest in the process.
The third suspect, John Jeremin, also known as John Katsande, of 1016 Mabvazuva in Rusape, escaped. He was already on the police most wanted list and is considered armed and dangerous.
Police have since arrested two of the robbers and recovered US$59 000 and R4 000 believed to be part of the money looted after the Nyanga heist.
The information came to light after a crack team from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) from Harare interrogated the father of the operative at his rural home at St Faith, Rusape.
Sources said during the interrogation the CID team recovered a gun which was then linked to the robbers’ ring – leader.
“His father told the investigating officers that the gun belonged to him and that he was indeed one of the robbers involved in the Nyanga heist,” said a security source.
The sources said the CIO operative moved around with Mutasa during the 2008 harmonized elections and the bloody presidential run- off.
There was widespread violence in Headlands even during the harmonised elections which were relatively peaceful throughout the country.
“The guy has always been violent,” said another source. “He always thought he was above the law especially the days he was with Dydmus Mutasa.”
The robbers struck the bank last Thursday, making off with US$116 000 and R14 000 after they sprayed ZB Bank tellers with an unidentified substance in the eyes before raiding their cubicles.

Mines portifoli committee barred from entering Chiadzwa

2010-04-12T12:39:00.001+02:00

MUTARE – The government on Wednesday barred parliamentarians from the Mine and Energy Portfolio committee from touring the Chiadzwa diamond fields on a fact finding mission amid allegations of underhand dealings involving senior officials in both government and Zanu PF.
The 13-member committee was also denied entry at Canadile Mining offices in the eastern border city on the grounds they did not have a police clearance.
The parliamentarians were yesterday stranded in Mutare after they were denied access to visit Chiadzwa by Chris Mushowe, the governor and resident minister for Manicaland who declared that Chiadzwa was a “highly” protected zone.
Mushowe reportedly wrote to the police advising them it was not proper for the parliamentarians to visit Chiadzwa on the grounds “they will pick diamonds which are all over the place”.
Despite being cleared to tour the diamond fields on a mission to inspect the operations of companies licensed to mine the precious stones, the MPs were told not to proceed to Chiadzwa.
The committee also wanted to hold public hearings with people from the Chiadzwa community on activities in the diamond rich area were human rights violations by state security agents are said to be rampant.
Chindori Chininga, committee chairperson, declined to comment saying he was ready to speak with the media.
Mushowe was also not available, his mobile phone was not reachable.
But Moses Mare, MP of Chiredzi West, who is a member of the portfolio committee, said by barring them the government was attempting to conceal the goings on at Chiadzwa.
He said they had been given a green light to tour Chiadzwa by the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) to supervise activities there and to hold public hearings with people from the community. The ZMDC has entered into controversial joint ventures with Canadile Mining and Mbada Diamonds to extract diamonds from Chiadzwa.
”We have had problems in entering the area,” Mare said. “The governor is refusing us entry saying this is a protected area. He said we will pick up diamonds which are all over. There is something they are trying to hide. If at all there was transparency they would have allowed us to visit.”
“The governor always tours the place so does that mean he picks up diamonds?”
He said his committee was surprised that they did not face any difficulties when they visit other diamond mines – Murowa Diamonds and River Ranch.
“We are an organ of government and we are the owners of the diamonds fields. They are trying to make this a Mafia industry,” Mare said.
Mare said the committee has previously toured the diamond fields in Chiadzwa without facing any resistance from the government.
He said the committee will not relent on its efforts to establish the goings on at the diamond rich area where senior government and Zanu PF officials are alleged to be involved in illegal transactions. There were also reports suggesting Chinese nationals were also sighted at the fields mining diamonds. This could, however, not be independently verified.

Roy Bennet's trial postponed again

2009-10-19T15:24:00.000+02:00

MUTARE- The trial of Roy Bennett, Zimbabwe’s Deputy Agriculture
Designate, has been postponed to 9 November this year at the High
Court in this eastern border city.
The new trial date was reached after both the State and the defence
team consented.
The defence, led by Beatrice Mtetwa, a Harare-based lawyer, complained
they had not been furnished with the necessary papers and other
materials for them to adequately prepare for the trial.
Mtetwa also challenged Bennett’s indictment saying the State had not
followed the proper procedures. She said written statements from some
key State witnesses were not eligible.
Johannes Tomana, the Attorney General, said the State will furnish
Mtetwa and his team with all the required papers by the end of the day
(Monday).
The State will also furnish Bennett’s lawyers with video footage which
will be used as evidence.
Tomana told High Court judge, Justice Joseph Musakwa, sitting with
assessors, Jivas Chidawanyika and David Magorokosho, that the case
should be finalized because it had far-reaching consequences for the
government of Zimbabwe.
He said the matter had divided the government of Zimbabwe and was
threatening the stability of the country. Tomana said the government
wants the matter to be finalized as soon as possible.
“Its importance has a direct bearing on the stability of the
country,” Tomana said in court. “The government, through JOMIC, wants
this case finalized.”
JOMIC was set up to supervise the performance of the unity government,
formed in February this year after a disputed election.
Bennett faces charges of possessing arms for the purposes of
terrorism, sabotage, banditry and insurgency. If convicted he faces a
possible life sentence.
Bennett told journalists outside the court that he has lost everything
that he has worked for his entire life because of the court case.
“I have been victimized from day one,” he said. “I have been in and
out of prison so many times. The sooner this is over the better.”

Kenyan national arrested in Mutare

2009-09-25T09:22:00.001+02:00

MUTARE – Zimbabwean police have arrested a Kenyan environmental activist accusing him of making undesirable political statements during a workshop organized by the Zimbabwe Environmental Association (ZELA).

The Kenyan, identified by other participants at the three-day workshop as Patrick Ochieng, was being held at the Mutare Central Police Station last night (as at 6pm). The participants say he is from an organization called Ujamaa Centre based in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

Although details were sketchy at the time of writing human rights lawyers attending to his case Trust Maanda and Blessing Nyamaropa confirmed the arrest.

They said police have not yet preferred any criminal charges against him as yet but had indicated he has a case to answer.

“Police are holding him for an alleged statement which they say he said during a workshop organized by the Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers Association,” Nyamaropa said. “We do not know as yet the statements he is alleged to have said.”

The workshop is being attended by legislators and environmental conversation from across the country.

Some of the participants are drawn from African countries. The workshop started on Monday and was expected to end on Thursday.

Sources at the workshop said Ochieng made a contribution during discussions on how countries should exploit mineral resources without doing harm to the environment.

He is said to have castigated unorthodox ways being used to exploit diamond resources in Chiadzwa by the Zimbabwean government.

Zimbabwe has come under international condemnation over the exploitation of diamonds from Chiadzwa, west of Mutare. Although much of the condemnation has been the violation of human rights by security forces and soldiers manning the diamond fields the government has also been widely criticized for primitive mining methods being used by the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ).

Lawyer warns journalists not to use hate laungage

2009-08-25T08:34:00.001+02:00

MUTARE – A senior human rights lawyer has warned Zimbabwean journalists that they risk facing criminal prosecution under international law if they propagate hate language and support violation of human rights.
Tinoziva Bere, a Mutare – based lawyer, told journalists attending an elections reporting workshop held in this eastern border city that journalists who support violations of human rights and the murder of citizens should not only be prepared to face sanctions but should face criminal prosecution under international law.
“Any journalist who supports violations of human rights and the murder of citizens should not only face sanctions from the United States but should face criminal prosecution,” Bere said.
He was responding to a question on whether it was appropriate for the United States to slap travel sanctions on journalists.
Some Zimbabwean journalists from the government-controlled media have been put on travel sanctions along with President Mugabe and his top lieutenants in Zanu PF for not respecting human rights.
Some of the affected journalists include Pilkirayi Deketeke, Ceazer Zvayi, Munyaradzi Huni all from Zimpapers and Rueben Barwe and Judith Makwanya from the public broadcaster, Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation. The journalists are accused of complicity in the violations of human rights in Zimbabwe.
President Mugabe and his Zanu PF party have been accused of violating human rights since 2000 when a serious political challenge to unseat the 85-year old former guerilla leader was mounted by the MDC, led by Morgan Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai is now Prime Minister under a political settlement reached at so as to ease mounting tensions caused by a flawed presidential run – off held on June 27 last year.
Human rights campaigners estimate about 100 MDC activists and sympathizers were murdered in cold blood during the campaign but such horrendous acts were never exposed in the State controlled media. Instead, newspapers under the Zimpapers stable and the ZBC sought to cover up the violent acts.
Bere said journalists should instead take a leading role in defending the rights of citizens instead of supporting and covering up acts of violence and violations of human rights.
Journalists and media executives from the central African country of Rwanda are serving lengthy jail terms after they were convicted by an international tribunal trying genocide suspects in Arusha, Tanzania.
The journalists and media owners were accused of using their newspapers and radio stations to fan the genocide that saw close to a million Rwandans from the Tutsi ethnic group being slaughtered between April and July of 1994 in Rwanda.

Biti says Mugabe now too old to continue ruling

2009-08-13T12:57:00.000+02:00

MUTARE - Tendai Biti, Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister and a top MDC official says President Mugabe has now become too old to continue ruling the country in an effective manner.
Biti, the MDC secretary general, told about four hundred people at Dangamvura Grounds, that Zimbabwe now urgently needed younger politicians like Morgan Tsvangirai to effectively tackle the problems facing the country.
Tsvangirai, the MDC leader, is the country’s Prime Minister under the inclusive government negotiated to end a political stalemate caused by a flawed presidential run off held last year on June 27.
“The major problem is that our country is being led by very elderly people,” Biti said amid applause. “We now need wheelchairs in Cabinet because a lot of too old.”
He was speaking during election victory celebrations held by Giles Mutsekwa, the MP for Dangamvura-Chikanga constituency. Mutsekwa is the home affairs minister together with Kembo Mohadi of Zanu PF.
Biti said it was disappointing when leaders hang on to power despite their very advanced ages. He said if civil servants were forced to retire when they reach 60 years it was imperative for political leaders to also emulate that.
He said President Mugabe and his geriatric lieutenants should move now move aside because of old age and allow Tsvangirai, who is relatively younger and raring to go, to take over.
“Chipai Save wachirikutemwa dzinobuda ropa kuti watonge,” he said, meaning to say: “Give Save a chance who still has the energy to take over.” Tsvangirai is commonly referred to as Save, his totem, in MDC circles.
President Mugabe, now 85, still wants to cling on to power after enjoying close to a decade of unfettered rule which has culminated in the collapse of a country once marveled as the breadbasket of southern Africa.
Biti said it was disheartening when leaders die whilst in office instead of retiring and resting from the hectic political offices.
This was seen as a veiled reference to Joseph Msika, the country’s vice president, who died last week at the age of 87.
Biti said Tsvangirai can not effectively solve the country’s problems as long as “they are two drivers on the stirring wheel”.
Biti said the MDC entered into the power sharing deal with its sworn political nemesis so as to extricate the country from a 10-year unprecedented economic and political crisis.
Biti said the MDC was committed to have a liberalized media in Zimbabwe and bring international news organizations such as CNN, BBC and Sky News into the country.
He said they were also committed to ensure the country goes through a proper national healing process to unite the people divided for almost a decade because of the political rivarly between the two major political parties.
Biti attacked the country’s justice system saying it was being selectively applied to victimize MDC legislators.
He queried why eight MDC Members of Parliament have been arrested and promptly convicted of various criminal offences when at the same time no Zanu PF MP was facing the same treatment.
“The justice system has become effective when it comes to convicting MDC MPs but Joseph Mwale is a free man,” he said.
Joseph Mwale, the reclusive Central Intelligence Organisation operative, continue to be a free man despite calls by the High Court to have him arrested for the gruesome murder of two MDC activists, Talent Mabika and Tichaona Chiminya at Murambinda Growth Point, Buhera in 2000.

Soldiers desert ZNA

2009-08-01T08:41:00.000+02:00

NYANGA – UP to 500 soldiers from the Zimbabwe Defences Forces (ZDF) deserted the army during the past few years, a senior army officer has revealed.
Major General Martin Chedondo, the army’s Chief of Staff, made the revelation when officiating at a graduation ceremony for 60 soldiers who had successfully completed six months training programme on Group Company Commanders Course and Platoon Commanders’ Course.
The ceremony was held at the All Arms Battle School in Nyanga.
While addressing the grandaunts, Major General Chedondo said the 500 soldiers who deserted the army were “cowards” who had failed to “withstand the heat”.
However, army sources said Major General Chedondo was being conservative with the figures suggesting the number of deserters could be much higher.
“We have between 400 and 500 members of the force who were coward enough to have deserted the army because of the difficult conditions,” Major General Chedondo said.
He said those who deserted did so at time when the country was facing serious challenges ad needed them most.
But Major General Chedondo said they have now managed to wither the storm and all was now well in the army. “Those who celebrated that the Defence Forces were now torn apart should try it and see,” he said.
The senior military man said the difficulties had been caused by “illegal sanctions” imposed by the Western World.
Zimbabwe has faced serious economic and political which observers and analysts blame on skewed policies by President Mugabe’s Zanu PF political party, which enjoyed 28-years of unfettered rule. But President Mugabe and his lieutenants blame the problems on Western countries which they say wanted to effect a regime change in Zimbabwe.
During the past turbulent eight years millions of Zimbabwean’s, both skilled and unskilled, fled the country to seek a better life in the Diaspora.
Soldiers also deserted the army and fled out of the country’s borders. Many of them joined the British military while others were scattered in neighboring countries prompting the Zanu PF government to claim they had been recruited by the MDC, then in opposition, to invade the country with the help of countries such as Botswana.
The claims were shot down by both the MDC and the Batswana government.
The two rival political parties are now in a coalition government.
Major General Chedondo, meanwhile, told the graduants in Nyanga that the inclusive government should be supported for the country to move forward.
He said the leaders should always remember the country was freed from colonial rule by the blood of thousands of young Zimbabweans and should therefore not allow anybody to reverse the “gains” of independence.

Obituary

2009-07-28T14:01:00.001+02:00

CHARLES Fungayi Pemhenayi was laid to rest at the Manicaland Provincial Heroes’ Acre on Tuesday. Weeks earlier he was part to a group of war veterans who embarked on a clean up exercise of the provincial heroes’ shrine as if he knew this was to be his final resting place.
During the clean up exercise of the heroes’ shrines Pemhenayi said it was important to always maintain the shrine because the heroes lying there were an integral part of Zimbabwe’s history which should always be cherished and celebrated.
Befitting a heroes’ send off thousands of people from all corners of the country and from different persuasions thronged the provincial shrine to pay their last respect to a man whose passion was to see the economic development of Zimbabwe.
Pemhenayi was tragically taken in a car accident last Friday five kilometers along the Troutbeck Nyanga road at a prime age of 48.
Pemhenayi was the MP for Mutare North. Admirers and foes alike agree Pemhenayi was endowed with an array of talents. He was a duke of all trades.
He played junior football with the likes of the late great players such as Joel Shambo and Stanley Ndunduma in Mufakose in Harare. Had he pursued a carrier in football Pemhenayi could easily have become a powerhouse in the sporting discipline but he chose to pursue academic studies. His first born child, Batsirayi is also a talented footballer. He is a utility player but like Father like Son Batsirayi has opted to pursue other interests at the expense of football.
Pemhenayi trained as a journalist but again did not pursue the profession. This explains his passion for journalism. He was an active member of the Mutare Press Club where he initiated debates on thorny issues affecting Mutare and Zimbabwe at large.
His presentations at the Press Club became popular not only with journalists but also with fellow politicians from Zanu PF and other political formations, business people, students, civic society and ordinary Zimbabweans.
He was frank and honest in his assessment of issues at hand. As a result Pemehanyi became a permanent feature at important media forums such as the World Press Freedom Day and media advocacy activities. He was an advocate of a free press and was working hard to ensure Mutare has its own community radio station.
During Press Club debates he would always castigate journalists whose works lacked depth and incisiveness. In the same vein, Pemhenayi was also critical of politicians and community leaders who loved to dominate news pages and radio and television news bulletins while their messages were bereft of substance.
“Journalists should resist individuals, irrespective of their status, who enjoy unfettered coverage when thy do not have any meaningful messages to the people,” Pemhenayi could always say.
Pemhenayi was a lecturer in marketing, sales and public relations. He was popular with students because of his lively presentations during lectures.
Some of his former students include Eddie Dube, now a prominent entrepreneur, Moses Maunze, a manager at the Rainbow Cinemas and Chengetai Murimwa, a senior journalist based in Mutare.
Dube once told me he derived a lot of inspiration from Pemhenayi’s lectures. Dube now runs a chain of companies and has asserted himselves as a captain of industry and commerce in Mutare.
“We enjoyed Pemhenayi’s lectures,” Dube said during a social gathering last year. “I drew a lot of inspiration from him.”
Pemhenayi also had his tentacles in farming - becoming one of the leading tobacco farmers in Manicaland within the five years he moved into Have Farm in the Odzi basin.
His exceptional farming skills gave credit to the land reform programme which was largely vilified by the Western World.
Pemhenayi was an excellent communicator. He vowed students at colleges around Mutare during motivational speaking sessions. During one of his motivational speaking sessions at Mutare Teachers’ College, Pemhenayi stole the hearts of hundreds of students in the lecturer theatre. His main message was that they should never give up hope in the face of economic, political and social challenges. His emphasis was to remain positive and hopeful.
Perhaps his major strength was to be able to communicate and interact with people from different persuasions from Cabinet Ministers, business executives, students, peasants and disadvantaged people in the communities.
He was involved in charity work. In 2006 he launched an education fund which paid school fees for orphaned children at Chikanga Primary School.
Then he said: “I grew up as an orphan so I understand the problems that orphaned children go through in their daily lives.”
His parents died in a car crash when he was still a raw teenage boy. In Dangamvura and Sakubva, Pemhenayi also assisted poor and disadvantaged families.
Pemhenayi was also endowed with entrepreneurial skills. He was managing director of several companies. Of note is labour broking concern, Clive Bruce and Charles, which employed several hundreds of people, especially youths.
During his days as a councilor for Ward 10 Pemhenayi distinguished himself as a dedicated city father with in-depth inputs during council debates.
“Every time he raised his hand to contribute during council debates you were sure to hear substance from him,” said Lovemore Chitima, the council’s deputy housing and community services director. During these days Chitima was a committee officer whose tasks also included recording minutes during council debates.
During the March 2008 harmonized elections Pemhenayi preached the word of peace and togetherness. He discouraged violence in Mutare North. At one of his campaign meetings in Nyamajura he told Zanu PF supporters that anybody who used violence as a campaign tool should not be part of his campaign team.
“I do not want anybody to spoil my victory by using violence as a campaign tool,” he told about 2000 cheering supporters. “I want a clean victory.”
There were minimal incidents of violence in Mutare North. He proceeded to win the constituency.
To many especially his colleagues in Zanu PF his victory appeared easy but contrary to that somewhat misplaced belief Pemhenayi worked round the clock to achieve victory.
“Pemhenayi made things look very easy because he had his own unique way of doing things,” one senior Zanu PF politician told me during his burial on Tuesday. “But what appeared so easy could be very difficult to achieve.”
In the constituency he initiated several projects that were benefitting small holder tobacco farmers.
After the June 27 presidential run-off Pemhenayi was one of the first politicians to suggest the need for the need for a poltical settlement between Zanu PF and the two MDC poltical parties.
To drive his point home Pemhenayi wrote a series of articles which were published in the Financial Gazette encouraging Zimbabwe’s poltical leaders to find common ground for the benefit of the nation. His aspirations were realized when President Mugabe and the leaders of the MDC, Morgan Tsvangirai and Authur Mutambara signed the Global Political Agreement that ushered in a government of national unity.
Pemhenayi was an avid fan of Chimurenga music guru, Thomas Mapfumo and Dynamos Football Club. But he had a soft spot for Jazz and blues.
He served on several boards and also led industrial bodies such as Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries and Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe.
In Parliament he was a member of the media, information and technologies portifolio committee. He met his untimely death when his poltical carrier was bossoloming.
During his funeral wake speaker after speaker described Pemhenayi as a affable person whose motivation was to improve the socio-economic status of Mutare and Zimbabwe at large.
He lives behind a young family - his wife, Bridgette and four children. His burning desire was to see his first born child, Batsirayi become an entrepreneur. He always spoke of his strong wish to see her daughter Nangisayi succeed in her studies at Africa University and help him run the farm and his business activities.
Sadily he never lived to see his dreams come true. But he can get solace in that both Batsirayi and Nangisayi have vowed never to let their father down.
Batsirayi’s declaration at the heroes’ shrine that , at the appropriate time, he will fulfill his father’s aspirations of developing Mutare North were touching just as the passionate promise by Nangisayi that she would thrive to succeed in her studies and take charge at Have Farm. We wish them success. In Pemhenayi, the people of Mutare and Zimbabwe have lost a true hero in every respect.
Chirandu, we will always remember you. Rest in eternal peace.

Diamond trade on the increase

2009-07-17T14:09:00.000+02:00

MUTARE – The illicit trade in diamonds has surged dramatically in this eastern border city amid reports top police officers and soldiers have formed syndicates with wealthy foreign buyers and illegal miners to smuggle the precious gems from Chiadzwa in Marange.
The illegal practice had stopped about six months ago after the army launched a brutal campaign to flush out illegal miners and traders from the diamond rich area.
But illegal miners and foreign buyers have once again found their way back to Chiadzwa and are operating at full throttle with complete impunity – courtesy of the syndicates they have formed with senior army personnel and police officers.
Police sources this week revealed foreign buyers were enjoying the protection of named top police officers based at the Mutare Central Police station. The sources gave the names of the officers to this newspaper.
The foreign buyers are said to be from countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the West African states of Guinea and Nigeria, Lebanon and Israel.
“These foreigners are enjoying unfettered access to Chiadzwa because they enjoy maximum protection from senior police officers and some in the army,” said a junior police officer based at Mutare Central Police Station.
The emergence of the notorious syndicates involving the top officers from the police, army and rich foreigners come as the government is raising concern over the increased smuggling of precious gems from Chiadzwa.
Daring dealers from Mutare and Harare are also part of the cartels that have emerged over the past month, said police sources.
Giles Mutsekwa, co-Minister of Home Affairs in the inclusive government, at the weekend promised to take action to stop the illegal mining and smuggling of diamonds from Chiadzwa.
He said he would soon consult his co-Minister, Kembo Mohadi on the course of action to take.
Police officers who declined to be named said so powerful have become the foreign buyers such that they can use the police to solve personal issues or matters arising from their illegal dealings.
The sources said a foreign buyer from the DRC has enlisted the services of top police officers in Mutare and Harare to trek down a woman from this eastern border city who is alleged to have disappeared with about US$30 000 belonging to the Congolese.
The sources said the woman disappeared with the cash two months ago after a dispute over payment of commission she was due to receive from the Congolese buyer. The Congolese dealer is now based in Mutare trading in diamonds while also pursuing this woman believed to be in her early 30s. She is believed to have skipped the border into South Africa.
The transaction that turned sour was done in Manica Town of Mozambique.
The sources said it was surprising how senior police officers would seek to arrest the woman and take her to Mozambique because the transaction was not done on Zimbabwean soil. Mozambican police have not made any requests to have the woman arrested and taken to Mozambique.
“What is clear here is that this so called criminal offence committed in Mozambique but what is now surprising if not shocking is that our seniors here are busy pursuing the case,” said one police source.
“Instead they should be asking this Congolese guy what kind of business he is conducting here in Zimbabwe.”

Manicaland province endorses Mugabe

2009-07-17T14:06:00.002+02:00

MUTARE- The provincial leadership of Zanu PF here has declared President Mugabe should continue to rule the country despite internal calls for leadership succession.
During a meeting held in this eastern border city and the weekend, the Zanu PF leadership in Manicaland said no-one should be allowed to challenge President Mugabe at the party’s conference to be held at the end of the year.
This, it appears, effectively put to end suggestions that Zanu PF would effect leadership renewal at its annual conference to be held at the end of the year.
Sources said should other provinces make such declarations it means President Mugabe will seek another term of office should elections at the end of the life of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) which ushered in a unity government formed by Zanu PF and the two MDC political parties.
According to the GPA fresh elections should be held in 18 months’ time. The inclusive government was formed in February this year.
There was widespread talk within the ranks of Zanu PF that President Mugabe would step down at the end of the life of the GPA and pave the way for a new and younger leader to take over in Zanu PF.
The succession issue was expected to be tabled at the conference but indications are that the matter is now being stifled.
But Bezel Nyabadza, the Zanu PF acting provincial chairman in Manicaland, told a party meeting they would not tolerate any challenges to Mugabe’s continued stay in office.
Nyabadza is largely seen as a political disciple of Didymus Mutasa, a Zanu PF strongman and a Mugabe loyalist.
Nyabadza told the Mutare meeting individuals within the women and youth wings of the party, who were seen to be opposing Mugabe’s continued hold to power, should not be allowed to attend their respective conferences to be held in a few months time.
The conferences, to be held separately for the Zanu PF’s women and youth leagues respectively, are expected to prepare the agenda for the crucial conference.
Nyabadza reportedly told the Zanu PF provincial meeting that: “We should make sure those in the women’s league and youth wing are behind President Mugabe. Those that think otherwise should not find their way to their conferences because they will betray us.”
Sources within the ruling party in Mutare said they were shocked to realize their leaders still wanted President Mugabe to continue ruling despite his advanced age.
“We were shocked to hear that we have leaders who still want Mugabe to continue ruling when all indications are that we should have new leadership for the party to remain relevant,” said a Zanu PF senior district official based in Mutare. “I think that will be the end of the party. This is a self destructive button.”
President Mugabe, 84, has also indicated his unwillingness to step down and pave the way for new blood saying he wanted to ensure their was unity first within his party.
Efforts to get comment from Nyabadza or the Zanu PF provincial spokesman, Kenneth Saruchera, were not successful.

Trial date for Roy Bennet Set

2009-07-17T13:56:00.000+02:00

MUTARE –The trial date for Senator Roy Bennet, the top MDC official, facing treason charges, has been set for October 13 this year.
Bennet, Deputy Agriculture Minister designate, is facing charges of attempting to assassinate President Mugabe four years ago. He dismisses the charges as politically motivated.
His bail conditions were also relaxed and will now have to report to the police once every two weeks instead of the previous conditions were he was supposed to report once every week.
His defence counsel led by Trust Maanda, a Mutare-based lawyer told the court should the state fail to proceed with the case on October 13 Bennet should be removed from remand.
State prosecutor, Michael Mugabe agreed saying he would make sure the trial commences on the given date.
“I want it to be put on record that on 13 October if the state is not ready Bennet will be removed from remand,” Maanda said in court on Wednesday.
Mugabe responded saying: “I will ensure that by 13 October the trial will proceed. If we are not ready the defence can go ahead and make an application to have him removed from remand.”
Magistrate Lucy Mungwari consented.
Bennet faces the death sentence if convicted. President Mugabe has refused to swear him into the inclusive government until the matter is finalized.

New supermarket opens in Mutare

2009-04-15T14:18:00.002+02:00

GIANT hardware outlet, BAFS Hardware, is extending its tentacles into the groceries business with an aim of providing the Mutare market with affordable consumer goods.
Zeps Superette, a subsidiary of BAFS Hardware, is opening its doors to Mutare residents on Monday with a mission to provide the market with goods at competitive and fair prices.
Zepplin Mahati, managing director of BAFS Hardware, said they were diversifying into the groceries business as part of the Group’s mission to provide the Mutare community with a wide range of consumer products at low cost.
“We are diversifying into the groceries business so that we can give the Mutare community a wide range of products other than hardware,” Mahati said. “We want people to have groceries at fair and competitive prices.”
The new outlet, situated along Tembwe Street a stone throw away from Mudzviti Bus terminus, is stocked with an assortment of groceries which will be disposed to the market at low prices.
The outlet is spacious and meets international standards.
“We are coming into the market with good products which are friendly priced,” Mahati said.
He said Zeps Superette was committed to ensuring that the Mutare community accesses groceries at almost cost price.
The new outlet employs 20 people who are highly trained and professional. The new entrant into the groceries’ field will be managed by Manoji Raja, who has vast experience in the industry.
Mahati said Zeps Superette will soon expand its brand to other areas surrounding Manicaland Province.
“I have worked all my life for the people of Mutare and it is my wish to ensure everybody can afford to access consumer goods at affordable prices,” Mahati said.
The soft spoken and humble businessman was born and bred in Mutare. Born in 1971 in Mutare, Mahati grew up in the poor township of Sakubva. He is the first born of Zebediah and Gloriah Mahati.
Like any other child who grew up in Sakubva, Mahati was exposed to the rough and tumble of township life at an early age.
Mahati did his primary education at Mutanda Primary School in Sakubva before enrolling at Mutare Boys High School for his high school education.
In 1990 he joined BAFS Hardware as a counter salesman. Simultaneously, Mahati was enrolled part-time at Mutare Poly technical College where he successfully obtained a national diploma in business studies. He is currently enrolled with UNISA.
Through hard work and determination, Mahati rose through the ranks at BAFS Hardware becoming a salesman in 1997 and later general manager the following year.
Through the support of a financial institution, Mahati started to buy shares in BAFS Hardware, then wholly owned by Arun Mooljee, an accomplished businessman. Mooljee owns a leading hardware outlet in Harare, FABS.
In 2007 Mahati took over BAFS Hardware after acquiring a controlling stake in the giant hardware concern.
BAFS Hardware employs a total of 35 people. The hardware giant leads the pack in the industry.
It distributes an array of building materials ranging from asbestos, door frames, window frames, timber, treated poles, imported solid meranti doors, an assortment of paints, tiles and plumbing materials.
BAFS Hardware also distributes farming implements and chemicals, protective clothing, electric motors, wielding machines and car batteries.
“Today, Mahati has kept BAFS as a leading supplier for building materials in Manicaland,” says Mooljee, Mahati’s long-time business mentor.
The captain of Mutare’s industry and commerce says he was inspired by his grandfather who ran a general dealer shop, Madakadze Store at 22-Miles, south of Mutare.
From the humble beginnings in Sakubva’s Old Chisamba section, Mahati always dreamt that one day he would emulate his grand father and become a successful businessman with his roots and beliefs firmly to do the best for the community in Mutare, Manicaland and the country.
His advice to the youth is: “If you work hard in whatever you are doing you can achieve and realize your goals.”
Over the past 20 years Mahati has ploughed back to the community through assisting and developing schools in Manicaland and helping needy children with school fees.
He is also credited with assisting several schools build houses for teachers and staff in the province. Mahati, as a Christian, has helped in the development of churches.
“We are all part of one community and its only through supporting one another can our community grow,” Mahati said. “I thank Mutare for giving me that opportunity and support of my project.”

Current political instability could derail GNU

2009-04-09T16:08:00.000+02:00

MUTARE – The current disturbances at the farms and the continued detention of political prisoners threatens the success of the inclusive government in Zimbabwe, church organizations have warned.
The Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference (ZCBC), Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ) and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) warned the government of national unity, formed by President Mugabe’s Zanu PF and the two MDC political parties led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, was under threat.
The organizations, under the banner Churches in Manicaland, said they were concerned by the current happenings which they deem as a threat to the success of the inclusive government.
They said threats to teachers returning to schools, the continued land invasions, arrest and detention of political prisoners was harming the spirit of the Global Political Agreement of 15 September 2009.
The church organizations are also concerned at the interference by law enforcement agents with community peace initiatives aimed at remedying ills committed during the run –up to the June 27 bloody presidential run-off.
They said they were equally worried about the exorbitant pricing of goods and services, pegged in US Dollars, SA Rands and Botswana Pula.
They said prices of goods and services in Zimbabwe were far much higher than those charged within the region.
They said service charges by both our local authorities and parastatals are unreasonable. They gave an example of charges for rates, water by ZINWA, telephone bills and television and radio licenses by ZBH which they said are out of this world. Water charges can go p to US100 per household while television and radio licenses are pegged at US50.
The majority of civil servants in Zimbabwe earn US100 a month.

Soldier forces rival to drink raw sewage

2009-04-09T16:04:00.000+02:00

IN a bizarre case, a Zimbabwean soldier forced a 29-year old man to drink raw sewage from a burst pipe as punishment for being intimate with his 25-year old wife.
The incident happened in Dangamvura, a poor township in Mutare, Zimbabwe’s third largest city which is 265 km east of Harare, the capital.
Simon Chauke, a solider with the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA), caught Laison Zvemisha red – handed being intimate with his wife at his matrimonial house in Dangamvura high density suburb after he had set up a trap.
Chauke, based at 4: 1 Infantry Battalion in Masvingo, a town about 300km south of Harare, was tipped off by neghbours that his wife Chiedza Chombo was having an adulterous affair with Zvemisha. The soldier was told his wife and Zvemisha would on several occasions lock each other at his house while he was away on duty.
He then lied to his wife that he was going on tour of duty but instead went to a friend’s place in the neighborhood where he waited until he got information that his rival suitor had entered his house.
According to a report carried by a local weekly here, The Manica Post, the soldier, in the company of a fellow member of the ZNA ambushed the house and found the two lovebirds between the sheets.
The soldiers then started beating up Zvemisha, reported the newspaper. After beating him severely the soldiers then dragged the terrified man to a nearby burst sewage pipe and forced him to drink raw sewage.
They said it was punishment for being intimate with Chauke’s wife.
The hapless man was saved by the intervention of members of the public who felt he had had enough and that the punishment was also awkward.
The police did not arrest the soldiers. The fate of Zvemisha is not known as neighbours say he has deserted his residence in Dangamvura. Zimbabwe is currently battling a cholera outbreak that has claimed several thousands lives.
According to the report Zvemisha was renowned in the neighborhood for his “insatiable thirst” for married woman.
The Manica Post is a government controlled provincial weekly.

High Court to decide Bennet's bail application next Tuesday

2009-02-20T15:45:00.000+02:00

HARARE – THE High Court will determine next Tuesday whether or not jailed top MDC official, Roy Bennet should be freed on bail, his lawyers said on Friday.
Bennet is in remand prison after a magistrate in the eastern border city of Mutare ruled he should remanded in custody on the grounds there were enough evidence to show the deputy agriculture minister designate had a case to answer.
He was remanded to March 4.
Bennet is facing charges of attempting to sabotage, banditry, terrorism or insurgency.
His lawyer, Trust Maanda, said they have already filed the bail application at the High Court and he matter will be decided on Tuesday.
“The papers have been signed and the application will decide on Tuesday morning,” Maanda said.
Bennet was due to be sworn in by President Mugabe as the country’s Deputy Minister of Agriculture in an inclusive government formed by Zanu PF and the two MDC political parties led by Prime Minister Moran Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara.
He was not sworn in as he is languishing at a remand prison in Mutare.
The continued detention of Bennet has infuriated MDC supporters here who threatened to run riot but were calmed by the MDC provincial leadership.
Patrick Chitaka, the MDC provincial chairman, told angry supporters who kept vigil outside the magistrate’s courts on Wednesday that they should be calm and allow the courts to decide on the matter.

Bennet refuses blanket amnesty

2009-02-20T15:00:00.001+02:00

MUTARE – Roy Bennet, the incarcerated top MDC official, declined to be part of a deal in which he was to secure his freedom in return to a blanket clemency for anybody who committed human rights abuses from 2000.
Instead, Bennet said he would rather face trial than to be part of a deal that would see individuals who committed crimes against humanity walk scot-free.
Sources within the MDC and the police said Bennet declared he would want to see individuals that perpetrated crimes against humanity made to account for their actions.
Supporters of President Mugabe’s Zanu PF and security details stand accused of perpetrating human rights abuses since the 2000 bloody elections.
Hundreds have been killed and maimed while thousands were displaced as a result of the violence that has characterized elections in Zimbabwe since 2000.
But under a deal being worked out by the leadership of all the three political parties that are governing the country all those accused of human rights crimes and those in prison for “recruiting” people for “military training to forcefully remove” President Mugabe from office, will receive a blanket amnesty.
But Bennet has distanced himself from such an arrangement saying he would not want to be part to such a deal.
Sources said Elton Mangoma, a senior MDC official and a Cabinet Minister phoned Bennet while he was in police custody to assure him his freedom was imminent under the envisaged deal.
The sources said Mangoma phoned Bennet and told him he had spoken to Patrick Chinamasa, the justice minister, who had assured him the former white farmer would be freed under the amnesty deal.
“But Bennet told Mangoma he was against the deal and said he would rather face trial than to have people who killed and maimed Zimbabweans go scot-free,” said one source. “The police put him on speaker phone so they could hear the conversation.”
Bennet’s lawyer, Trust Maanda confirmed saying: “Bennet does not want to benefit from the sympathy of anybody by way of amnesty. He wants to be freed by the courts after a trial because he knows he did not commit the offence.”
Bennet is facing charges of attempting to commit acts of insurgency, banditry, terrorism or sabotage. He was remanded to 4 March 2009 after a magistrate rejected an application to remove him from remand.
“He (Bennet) wants to clear his name,” Maanda added, “He is saying he heard from other quarters that individuals who committed heinous crimes want to use him to get amnesty. If he gets amnesty they will also get a blanket amnesty for their heinous crimes.”
Under the envisaged deal Zanu PF militants, army and intelligence officers who committed crimes against humanity will not be arrested and prosecuted. These also includes individuals such as Joseph Mwale, the feared Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) detail, who masterminded the gruesome murder of two MDC supporters at Murambinda Growth point in Buhera during the run up to the 2000 elections. Talent Mabika and Tichaona Chiminya were burnt to death after they were petrol bombed while campaigning for the MDC.
Mwale has evaded justice since then.
Hundreds other MDC supporters were to be murdered in subsequent elections held in 2002, 2005 and during the June 27 2008 presidential re-run.
Several thousands were maimed and displaced either after receiving threats or after their houses were set ablaze.
More were killed, maimed and left homeless after the government launched a bloody land “reform” programme in which Zanu PF supporters and sympathizers seized farmland from white farmers.
On the other hand MDC activists and sympathisers who are accused of “recruiting people for military training” outside Zimbabwe will also benefit from the deal.

Magistrate rules Bennet has case to answer

2009-02-18T17:18:00.001+02:00

MUTARE – A provincial magistrate here has ruled there are enough reasonable grounds to suspect Roy Bennet, the incarcerated top MDC official, has a case to answer.
Livingstone Chipadze ruled that Bennet should not be removed from remand on charges of contravening Section 10 of the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) or the alterative charge of possessing firearms without ministerial authority.
He is alleged to have stockpiled weapons for the purposes of insurgency, banditry, sabotage or terrorism.
The magistrate ruled there are reasonable grounds to suspect Bennet worked in common cause with Peter Michael Hitschmann, the police constabulary already serving a four year jail term for a similar offence.
Bennet was remanded in custody to Mach 4 this year. There was a deafening silence in court after the ruling. Bennet, clad in prison torn prison garb, remained clam throughout the process. He, however, looked distressed and tired. He shook his head after the magistrate delivered the ruling.
His lawyers will now have to apply to the High Court to get bail.
But Bennet was cleared on lesser charges of contravening immigration laws when he allegedly attempted to leave the country for South Africa on February 13 without presenting him selves to an immigration officer.
Tension is building up in this eastern border city. Armed police are patrolling the streets supported by two water cannons.

Bennet to know his fate tomorrow

2009-02-18T17:15:00.000+02:00

MUTARE – Incarcerated top MDC official and Deputy Minister of Agriculture Designate, Roy Bennet will know his fate tomorrow afternoon.
Provincial magistrate, Livingstone Chipadze, will make a ruling on whether Bennet has a case to answer or not.
Chipadze told a packed court that he will deliver his ruling at 2:15 PM tomorrow. He however, ruled that Bennet should be sent to remand prison and not police holding cells as had been requested by his defence team.
Bennet was calm throughout the proceedings. He was clad in a white t-shirt and white three-quarter (cargo pants) shorts.
Proceedings at the court were brought to a temporary halt after the arrival of Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe.
The Deputy Minister attended the afternoon session and left to address MDC top provincial leadership in Manicaland Province.
Meanwhile hundreds of MDC supporters kept vigil outside the court yard throughout the day.
Bennet’s lawyers argued heir client had no case to answer and dismissed evidence brought by the State.
Trust Maanda, who is leading the defence counsel, argued that an email message the State was alleging was evidence of communication between Bennet and Peter Michael Hitschmann, the jailed former police constabulary, was concocted and discredited.
“The email from Bennet was concocted,” Maanda told the court. “Anybody can play with the computer and open an email address.”
Maanda said Hitschmann should be called to give evidence in court since the State was linking him to Bennet. The State opposed. Magistrate Chipadze then ruled that Hitschmann’s evidence as not required at the moment but perhaps at a later stage should it still be necessary.
Hitschmann was convicted And sentenced to four years on charges of possessing dangerous weapons but was cleared of more severe charges of attempting to commit acts of banditry, sabotage, terrorism or insurgency.
The defence denied Bennet committed any offence. The State led by Tawanda Zvakare insisted Bennet had a case to answer saying they had evidence he funded the purchase of the weapons found in Hitschmann’s possession in 2006.
They said the evidence was contained in the email message they found in Hitschmann’s possession.
On the other charge of violating immigration laws, Bennet’s defence produced proof that he indeed presented himself to an immigration official.

Lawyers in frantic bid to secure Bennet's release

2009-02-16T18:05:00.001+02:00

Lawyers representing incarcerated top MDC official Roy Bennet wants the High Court to order the police to immediately present him to court.
Chris Ndlovu one of Bennett’s lawyers said they will tomorrow petition the High Court to force the police to release Bennet to court.
This was after the police ad successfully sought a warrant to further detain the deputy minister of Agriculture designate for a further 48hours.
The warrant was signed by regional magistrate Billiard Musakwa.
Meanwhile tension is rising among MDC supporters gathered outside the court.
On Friday hundreds of MDC supporters besieged the police station and attempted to force their way into the police station.
They were dispersed after police fired rubber bullets at the crowd.
But angry MDC supporters went on a rampage smashing shop windows in the city centre's central business area.
About 10 MDC activists were arrested and are still languishing in police holding cells at Mutare Central Police Station.
Bennet was expected to appear in court today (Monday) but police did not present him to the court. The docket has been taken to police Headquarters in Harare. The investigating officer a Superintendent Makone was summoned to Police Headquarters to update his superiors on the case.
Bennet is facing charges of committing acts of sabotage and terrorism.

From rags to riches

2008-12-09T08:34:00.000+02:00

MUTARE – Douglas Dube was one of the first people to descend on Chiadzwa when word spread that diamonds had been discovered in the arid and impoverished area in Manicaland Province.
Dube, 31, an unemployed father of two, was wallowing in poverty. He could hardly pay rentals for a one-roomed house he lodged in the poor township of Sakubva, Mutare’s oldest high-density suburb.
When word reached him about the discovery of diamonds in Chiadzwa Dube joined thousands of other desperate citizens to Chiadzwa, then an unknown and desolate place.
A few months later Dube’s life had been transformed. Like the old adage Dube’s story was that of rags to riches.
Suddenly he was a proud owner of a Sedan 323 vehicle and an assortment of household properties that he had never dreamt of owning in his lifetime.
Then he moved into more decent accommodation in the city’s middle class high-density suburb of Dangamvura.
But despite his newly acquired status Dube never stopped going to the fields to mine for the precious gems.
Once he got the diamonds from the fields immediately he could sell to buyers who were readily available close to the fields.
The buyers came from all over the world – from South Africa, Mozambique, Nigeria, Guinea, Mauritania, Lebanon, Iraq, Israel and Belgium.
The buyers could part with as much as $US200 a carat – a killing considering one could sell up to 15 carat stones.
Dube’s only impediment was the police and their vicious dogs that could constantly chase them from the fields. But Dube, and thousands others, soon found a way round the problem. They formed syndicates with the police officers manning the fields.
Suddenly poor police officers who earn less than US$10 a month found themselves driving automobiles of all kinds and shapes.
Police launched several operations to rid Chiadzwa of illegal miners but these never yielded results largely because they were seen as superficial exercises meant to hoodwink authorities. Thus, illegal mining continued unabated.
Then two weeks ago Dube was surprised to see helicopters hovering over the diamond fields. Then heavily armed soldiers entered the fields.
That was the beginning of a brutal campaign to remove illegal miners from the fields and also to rid the area of dealers.
Reports then began to filter that bodies of dead panners were piling up at the mortuary at Mutare Provincial Hospital. As of yesterday 19 bodies, in a state of decomposition, had not been claimed by relatives and are still at the mortuary. This prompted the police to make a public call to relatives with missing relatives to visit the mortuary.
“We have 19 bodies at Mutare Provincial Hospital all of the them unidentified from Chiadzwa area and another body from the same area at Old Mutare Hospital. We are appealing to people whose relatives have been missing from Chiadzwa area to go and check with the hospital authorities,” said police spokesman in Manicaland Inspector Brian Makomeke.
“We have a total of 20 unidentified bodies. The hospital authorities have said their mortuary facilities are not working well and the pilling of bodies is straining their facilities. Some of the deceased panners might be foreigners and we are not sure because they all did not have any form of identification. Most of the panners come to Chiadzwa without any form of identification with some coming from as far Bulawayo. There are no forms of identification,” Insp Makomeke said.
An unknown number of bodies were scattered in the forests surrounding the fields. Several died from gunfire wounds while others died from aliments such as cholera.
So brutal was the campaign that it was dubbed Operation Hakudzokwi kumunda meaning Operation you would never go back to the diamond fields.
About 20 000 illegal panners who had made the diamond fields their permanent homes fled in all directions. They had come from all over Zimbabwe. Within a week of the operation there was not a single miner left in the diamonds fields.
Dube was lucky to escape unhurt. But he says it was hell and vowed not to return to the diamond fields as long as the soldiers are there. “I thank my Gods I escaped unhurt,” Dube said a day after arriving in Mutare. “It was hell on earth. The soldiers are shooting to kill.”
Human rights organizations said the army was using heavy-handed tactics to remove the illegal miners and described the operation as “genocide”.
“This is genocide,” said Trust Maanda, regional coordinator of the internationally acclaimed Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.
Reverend Stephen Maengamhura, regional coordinator of ZimRights, a human rights watchdog said the soldiers were violating human rights. “There is a wholesome violation of rights,” Rev Maengamhuru said.
He said while it was noble to bring order at the fields but it did not warrant the violations of human rights being perpetrated by the soldiers.
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition weighed in saying the violations should be documented so that the perpetrators will be brought to book once normalcy comes to Zimbabwe.
With the diamond business now history, Dube is likely to return to his old ways – poverty. But perhaps he may offload some of the valuables such as the 323 vehicle and other household goods he had bought if he is to sustain his family.
“I am not employed and this was now my only means of survival,” he says, adding: “I may now be forced to sell what I had bought when I was in Chiadzwa.”
Dube’s story is similar to that of thousands other desperate Zimbabweans who descended on Chiadzwa seeking for instant fortunes.
Professionals were not spared either. Teachers, especially those in schools close to the diamond fields abandoned the chalk and joined the illegal mining business. School children also deserted the classroom to join their teachers. Even factories and industries were left with skeleton staff after workers left for Chiadzwa.
Jonathan Matondo, 37, a senior Mathematics teacher at a secondary school close to Chiadzwa has not reported to duty for almost a year now.
“Why should I suffer when I can easily go to Chiadzwa and become a rich person,” Matondo said. He said if things normalize he could go back to the classroom.

Security agents flush out illegal diamonds dealers from Mutare streets

2008-12-02T16:41:00.001+02:00

MUTARE – Security agents have taken their campaign against illegal diamond dealing onto the streets of this eastern border city where they are arresting anybody found in possession of foreign currency.

Several vehicles have been confiscated from suspected diamond dealers and miners.

Those arrested are being taken to the Chiadzwa diamond fields where they are forced to fill up gullies that were left by illegal miners.

The campaign, being spearheaded by the army and the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), has been round condemned by human rights activists as illegal and inhumane.

The Zimbabwe Republic Police have subordinated themselves in this campaign which has seen about 500 people being rounded up and taken to Chiadzwa.

Trust Maanda, regional coordinator of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) said: “They are taking people without regard to whether they are dealing with diamonds or not. In fact, they are abducting people and commandeering them into ZUPCO buses and taking them to diamond fields of Chiadzwa where they are tortured.”

Maanda added: “We condemned it in the strongest terms. It’s illegal. The process o the law is that if somebody is suspected on reasonable grounds to have committed an offence that person must be brought before a court of law in accordance with the normal procedure not to be taken to Chiadzwa.”

Maanda said the campaign was inhumane and degrading and should be immediately stopped.

“It’s not a sustainable way of dealing with Chiadzwa,” he said. Maanda said assets belonging to suspected diamond dealers and miners have been confiscated by security agents.

He said the security agents were disregarding court orders to return assets they have taken from suspects.

Since Monday soldiers, CIO operatives and police details have been moving around the city centre and high density suburbs rounding up suspected diamond dealers and miners and searching them.

Anybody found in possession of foreign currency especially United States Dollars, British Pounds and South African Rands are immediately arrested.

Then they are taken to Mutare Central police station where ZUPCO buses will take them to Chiadzwa.

By yesterday six bus loads of suspects had been taken to the diamond fields.

One police officer said those taken t the diamond fields to fill up gullies were being denied food and water.

“It’s a disaster,” the police officer, based at Mutare Central police station, said. “People are forced to work for two days without food or water.”

They were reports that female suspects taken to Chiadzwa were being sexual abuse b security agents so as to avoid being beaten up or tortured.

The latest campaign come as soldiers intensified their ruthless operation to flush out illegal miners and dealers from Chiadzwa diamond fields.

Bodies of dead panners and dealer are piling up at Mutare Provincial Hospital while several others are scattered in the forests surrounding the diamond fields.

An unknown number of dead bodies are buried in collapsed tunnels inside the diamond fields.

Community Radio project gathers momentum

2008-11-22T10:15:00.000+02:00

AN initiative by Mutare based journalists to set up a community radio station in the eastern border city is gathering momentum.

The community radio station, to be known as Kumakomo Community Radio Station, will broadcast news and events happening in Mutare and its immediate environs.

Community broadcasting is provided for under sections of the Broadcasting Services Act.

“The primary aim of setting up a community radio station in Mutare is to provide residents with a medium of communication,” said Kelvin Jakachira, chairman of Kumakomo Community Radio Station. “We want residents to have a platform to discuss and debate community issues.”

Jakachira, also national executive member of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists, said the community radio will shun political issues but will dwell exclusively on community issues such as HIV-Aids and other health related matters, farming, cultural issues, social and developmental issues, education, sport and entertainment.

Jakachira said they will soon embark on a massive awareness campaign to inform Mutare residents about community broadcasting.

“We soon will embark on road shows, public meetings and other activities throughout the city to let residents know about this project,” he said. “Residents of Mutare will be the owners of the community radio station.

Jakachira said his committee was happy with the positive responds they have received from community leaders in Mutare.

Other members of the committee include Chengetai Murimwa, a former journalist for the defunct Eastern Star and Tambudzai Zindi, former Manica Post senior reporter.

A board of trustees has already been put in place. It is chaired by Mutare based educationist Daniel Chigudu.

Jakachira said Zimbabwe was one of the few countries in Africa that id not have community radio stations.

He said in countries such as Mozambique and South Africa community radio stations were very popular.

“We can not be left behind in the information highway,” he said, adding: “In these days of advanced information systems community radio can offer some form of media education thereby creating an information culture.”

Jakachira said his committee will go on a fundraising campaign to raise funds for the project. He said the community radio station should be self sustained.

Tears roll down as Shooting Dogs is shown in Mutare

2008-09-09T12:35:00.002+02:00

MUTARE – Tears rolled down the cheeks of several young Zimbabweans during the screening of Shooting Dogs, a movie that depicts events of the Rwandan genocide in 1994.
The film was screening at Rainbow Theater in this eastern border city on Monday and will continue showing until this Saturday.
During the course of the movie, several people had tears rolling down their cheeks as they failed to come to terms with chilling scenes of mass killings of people by machete wielding militants.
The film is based on a true story of accounts of the genocide in which close to a million Rwandan from the ethnic minority Tutsis were massacred by Hutu militants.
The Hutu ethnic group consists of more than 80 percent of the population in Rwanda.
The film is based on a true story. An exhausted Catholic priest and a young idealistic English teacher find themselves caught in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. They must now choose whether to stay with the thousands of Tutsis about to be massacred or to flee for safety. The 2500 refugees were eventually abandoned and were all murdered by machete wielding militants.
Shooting Dogs, the film's title, refers to the actions of United Nations soldiers in shooting at the stray dogs that scavenged the dead bodies scattered all over the country’s roadsides.
Since the UN soldiers were not allowed to shoot at the Hutus that had caused the deaths in the first place, the shooting of dogs is symbolic of the madness of the situation that the film attempts to capture.
Those that watched the film in Mutare, Zimbabwe’s third largest city said they could not believe that such atrocities could occur in the presence of armed UN solders.
“Initially, I thought it was just one of those fiction films but when I got to know it was actually based on a true story I broke down,” said Tendai Matondo, a 23-year old man from Sakubva, a poor township in this eastern border city. “I cannot imagine the scale of indiscriminate killing that I watched in this film.”
Joice Mawoko, 21, from Murambi, an up market low density suburb, said she could not help but shed tears. “I have never imagined people can be that cruel to the extent of murdering others to such a scale,” Mawoko said.
Morris Gonda, 38, a community development worker, said events in Rwanda should never be allowed to happen again in a civilised world.
“It was a bitter lesson. Allowing barbaric to take control of any situation is very dangerous and a serious threat to mankind,” Gonda said, also failing to come to terms with what he had seen in the film.
The film was screened in the country at a time when the unstable political situation in Zimbabwe was increasingly being equated to that of Rwanda during the run – up to the genocide.
Romeo Dallaire, the retired Canadian solider who led a depleted UN peacekeeping force in Rwanda in 1994 told a recent peace and security workshop in Pretoria that the situation in the Darfur Region and Zimbabwe was similar to that of Rwanda in 1994.
Paul Kagame, the Rwandan President, whose rebel army stopped the genocide in May 1994 , and took over the country, also joined in saying the situation in Zimbabwe was dangerous and needed a quick solution.
Zimbabwe is going through an unprecedented political crisis which was worsened by presidential elections condemned by the international community as illegitimate. President Mugabe lost the first round to the opposition’s Morgan Tsvangirai but a run-off was called after the opposition failed to garner the required percentage to take office.
The run- off was marred by violence, murder and intimidation resulting in Tsvangirai pulling out and igniting an international outcry.
Mugabe, Tsvangirai and leaders of a breakaway faction of the MDC are engaged in talks aimed at solving the political crisis but a solution has remained elusive amid accusations and counter accusations by the negotiating parties.
In Shooting Dogs after the airplane of the Hutu President of Rwanda is shot down, the Hutu militias slaughter the Tutsi population. In the Ecole Technique Officielle, the Catholic priest Christopher and the idealistic English teacher Joe Connor lodge 2500 Rwandans refugees, under the protection of the Belgian UN force and under siege by Hutu militia. When the Tutsi refugees are abandoned by the UN soldiers, they are murdered by the extremist militia
The movie released in the United States as Beyond the Gates, is a 2005 film, directed by Michael Caton-Jones and starring John Hurt, Hugh Dancy and Claire-Hope Ashitey. It is based on the experiences of BBC news producer David Belton, who worked in Rwanda during the Rwandan Genocide. Belton is the film's co-writer and one of its producers.
Unlike Hotel Rwanda, which was filmed in South Africa using South African actors, the film was shot in the original location of the scenes it portrays. Also, many survivors of the massacre were employed as part of the production crew and minor acting roles.

Diamond dealers wreck peoples marriages

2008-09-09T12:32:00.001+02:00

The discovery of diamonds in Marange may have brought fortunes and riches to hundreds of people, most of them who were wallowing in abject poverty, but it has led to an alarming erosion of societal values.
Children and their teachers have abandoned classrooms to camp at Chiadzwa, while workers have also deserted the workshops and factories to search for the precious stones. Women of the oldest profession from across the country have descended on Chiadzwa in search of greener pastures.
But lately, it is the house wives who are deserting their matrimonial homes for diamond dealers and miners who are always awash with money, especially the elusive Greenback and South African Rands.
While it is against Zimbabwean cultural values for married women to engage in extra marital activities in Mutare and Marange diamond dealers and miners are causing havoc at several matrimonial homes.
Research done over the past three months has revealed an alarming numbers of married women who are trekking down to Marange not to sell any wares but to engage in illicit relationships with diamond dealers and miners.
Similarly, most Zimbabwean young women have moved into the homes of foreigners who are in Mutare to buy diamonds.
Most of the buyers are from the Middle East, Belgium , West Africa and North Africa .
The illicit relationships fuelled by the illegal diamond trade have stoked fears of an upsurge in HIV-Aids infections in a country already reeling from the effects of the scourge.
“The biggest problem is that most of the people involved in the diamond business are very informal persons who are prone to casual sexual tendencies,” said Morris Gonda, a community development worker. “These are people who do not know about safe sex and the dangers of multiple sexual partners. What it essentially means is that married women who are involved in illicit love affairs with these guys are exposing their families to the dangers of HIV-Aids and this may have devastating effects to the society at large.”
Gonda said health workers should cast their nets much wider to include diamond dealers and miners to make them aware of the dangers they pose to the communities.
A marriage counsel who refused to be named said their office was failing to cope with the increasing number of couples fighting as a result of cases of infidelity which at most times involves diamond dealers or miners.
“You will always hear that a diamond person is the source of the quarrel between married couples,” said the marriage counsel, a middle aged woman.
A court official at the civic courts in Mutare said on a daily basis they were handling at least five cases of couple divorcing as a result of infidelity involving the wife.
“Its alarming now,” said the court official, “At the rate things are happening it’s almost a crisis now.”
Several people interviewed in Mutare’s poor townships of Sakubva, Dangamvura and Chikanga said they were worried about the level of promiscuity involving married women especially with cash rich diamond dealers and miners.
“They pretend to be going to sell wares in Chiadzwa and the Marange area yet they are involved in love affairs with dealers and gwejas,” said Tendai Mbodza from Sakubva. Illegal diamond miners are commonly referred to as Gwejas.
Abraham Mhlanga from Dangamvura, a middle class township, said he was not surprised most men now do not allow their wives to go to Marange to sell wares.
“Those guys have money,” Mhlanga said, referring to the diamond dealers and miners, “Imagine a person who never even dreamt he will handle $100US holding a wad of $100 000 US . That person can do anything with that money including spending it on women, married or single.”
A clear diamond can fetch up to $2000US per carat depending on the clarity of the stone.
Hundreds of young people are now driving latest vehicles only found on the streets of HollyHood in the United States.

Diamond dealers eastablish powerful cartels

2008-08-02T10:20:00.004+02:00

Illegal diamond dealers have now organized themselves into powerful cartels that have become immune to arrest and prosecution despite repeated threats by Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono that they would be brought to book.
This has stoked fears this otherwise quiet eastern border city of Mutare could soon be plunged into a hub of organized crime and lawlessness.
Mutare is close to the Chiadzwa diamond fields in Marange.
Diamond dealers now do their illegal transactions publicly on the streets amid reports the country is losing several millions of United States dollars every week as a resulting of the illegal trading of the precious gems.
The dealers operate in organized groups with some of them armed with small firearms. There have been reports of people being killed after diamond deals went sour.
Three weeks ago a 21-year old man from Chikanga was murdered at a nightspot after a transaction had culminated into a heated dispute.
Police have launched superficial raids at the Chiadzwa diamond fields in Marange, which have only netted small-time miners and dealers.
Up to 2000 people have been arrested since an operation to stem the illegal mining and selling of diamonds was launched in May this year under Operation Restore Order at Chiadzwa.
Only last week about 334 illegal miners and 74 dealers were nabbed under the operation.
The police recovered 334 pieces of diamonds, US$17 295, 7 923 Rands and ZW$ 18 trillion during the operation. Seventy-six vehicles were also impounded during the operation.
Several of those arrested have been brought to court were they were sentenced to jail terms of upwards of two years.
But police sources said only the small players were nabbed leaving behind the barons known to enjoy immunity from both the police and other security organs.
“What we are seeing here is a situation where the bid diamond dealers have become so powerful so much that it is now very difficult of them to be arrested,” said a police officer who participated in the last operation. “These guys have organized themselves into very powerful cartels. We are also now becoming afraid of them because they are above the law.”
The police sources said it was now an open secret that big diamond dealers were greasing the palms of top officers in the force to ensure they are immune from arrest and prosecution.
But police spokesman in Manicaland Province, Brian Makomeke, said the police would thrive to end the illegal mining and trading of the gems.
“We want to want people that Chiadzwa is a protected area and sporadic raids will continue until we have flushed out all diamond dealers and panners,” Makomeke told journalists.
But our sources in the force said there was no will power within the top ranks of the police force to stamp out the menace because they also were benefiting.
“The police is aware of who is involved in this illegal game but they give it a blind eye because they are benefiting big time,” said another police office that has a junior rank.
This comes amid repeated but futile threats by Gono that the illegal mining and trading of diamonds could soon be stamped out.
Illegal buyers of the gems from Europe, the Middle East, Nigeria, Guinea, South Africa and Asia have descended on Mutare and Marange.
The trade in diamonds has transformed the lives of previously poor people to the status of mega rich.

Police nab diamond baron

2008-08-02T10:01:00.000+02:00

A diamond baron suspected to have links with the wealthy Mujuru family was arrested after he was found in possession of 262 pieces of diamonds, the largest single haul since the discovery of the gems over two years ago.
The diamonds are estimated by industry experts to be valued at close to US$1, 3 million although the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe valued them at ZW$52 trillion (US$520).
Misheck Muhwehwesa, a Mutare resident was nabbed in Chiadzwa, Marange two weeks ago after police stopped him at a road block at Mutimba Bridge in Marange.
The diamonds were recovered from his vehicle’s air cleaner. The gems weighed 668 carats. A carat can fetch to as much as US$2000 depending on the clarity of the stone.
Muhwehwesa, 38 of Number 8 Pike Place in Mutare’s medium-density of Yeovil, has since appeared in court and is out on ZW$25 trillion (US$250) bail. Senior Magistrate Billiard Musakwa presided over the bail hearing.
Muhwehwesa’s lawyer, Chris Ndlovu has applied for the discharge of their client arguing the State did not have solid evidence to prove the diamonds belonged to Muhwehwesa.
Muhwehwesa, a renowned diamond dealer, is suspected to have strong links with the country’s Second Family. His connection with the Mujuru family came to light after Muhwehwesa successfully sought the prosecution of a Zanu PF politician and losing candidate for Mutasa South, Sherrington Dumbura, who had allegedly swindled him of an unknown number of diamonds valued at millions of United States Dollars.
Muhwehwesa is said to have approached retired General Solomon Mujuru to have Dumbura arrested and prosecuted. Dumbura is also involved in the illegal diamond trade.
To settle matters and avoid being jailed Dumbura, a lightweight Zanu PF politician in the eastern border city, he ceded several top of the range vehicles and an assortment of other properties. He was immediately freed.
It was not possible to get comment from Mujuru as this correspondent could have easily been identified as working for a publication blacklisted by authorities. Journalists working for online publications such as thezimbabwetimes face great risk if identified and caught.
The arrest of Muhwehwesa come amid growing concern that police operations to quell illegal diamond mining and trading was targeting small players only. Over 2000 have been arrested during the past two months and sentenced to jail terms of up wards of two years each. But it has proved difficult for the police to arrest big players in the mega rich trade.
However, court officials said they were eager to see how Muhwehwesa’s case would be handled given his vast wealth which he allegedly accumulated through the illegal trade in diamonds.
If convicted he faces up to five years in jail.
“This will be very interesting because we have never seen any of the big guys being send to jail,” said one court official. “It will be a precedent if this guy is convicted.”
Top diamond dealers have formed powerful cartels which have become immune to both arrest and prosecution despite repeated threats by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, Gideon Gono that the long arm of the law was closing in on the illegal dealers and miners.

MP abducted at gunpoint outside High Court

2008-07-09T10:05:00.001+02:00

MUTARE - The whereabouts of Naison Nemadziva, the recently elected Member of Parliament for Buhera South who was abducted at gunpoint gangster-style outside the Mutare High Court on Monday, remain unknown.

Nemadziwa, who represents the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) attended the High Court as defendant. Joseph Chinotimba, the losing Zanu-PF candidate in the constituency in Manicaland Province is petitioning Nemadziva over the result of the March 29 election.

As the MP emerged from the court at around midday, five armed men in army fatigues bundled him into a waiting Toyota Twin-cab truck and drove off at high speed. The vehicle had no registration plates.

One of the abductors was identified allegedly as Colonel Morgan Mzilikazi of the Zimbabwe National Army.

Lawyers representing the MDC filed a report with the police in Mutare. They were told that Nemadziwa had been taken to Muzokomba police station in Buhera. However, the police officers there said they had no idea of the legislator’s whereabouts.

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Magistrate defies high court order on Matinenga

2008-06-19T13:26:00.000+02:00

RUSAPE – A regional magistrate has defied a High Court order to release incarcerated top lawyer and MDC MP –elect, Eric Matinenga, whop was arrested on charges of inciting public violence.
Herbert Mandeya, a regional magistrate in Harare, presided over Matinenga’s case after all magistrates in Rusape had recused themselves on varying reasons.
Matinenga was arrested a day after he had been cleared of any wrongdoing by a senior magistrate in Mutare on charges that he was involved in public violence that had flared up in his constituency.
But surprisingly, Matinenga was re-arrested on the same charges he had been acquitted of by Hlekani Mwayera in Mutare.
After his second arrest on same charges his lawyers petitioned the High Court and Justice Chitakunye ordered his immediate release.
But Mandeya, sitting in Rusape declined to obey the High Court order saying the allegations were the same but the charges were different.
Matinenga was taken to court after languishing in police cells for almost a week.
The State, led by Tawanda Zvakare of the Attorney General’s office, said Matinenga was facing the same allegations but the charges had been altered to that of inciting public violence instead of involvement in public violence.
The State alleged the MP-elect incited public violence in Buhera West on 28 and 31 May respectively.
According to Trust Maanda, one of his lawyers, the court established that Matinenga was in Harare on 28 May representing a client at the regional courts. The client is James Mushore, the former NMB executive facing allegations of committing financial crimes.
But the court said he had a case to answer on the second count.
He was granted bail with very stringent measures but Zvakare of the AG’s office lodged an appeal, which meant Matinenga would remain incacerated pending the noting of the appeal.
Maanda said the State has up to seven days to file the appeal meaning Matinenga will have to remain in custody all that time.
“All this is in violation of a high Court order granted by Justice Chitakunye,” Maanda, a human rights lawyer, said. “We are lodging an immediate appeal at the High Court. All along they are holding him illegally.”
Maanda said by refusing to allow him get freed under very stringent measures it was clear the State was determined, at all cost, to ensure Matinenga continues to be incarcerated.
The magistrate had ordered Matinenga to surrender title deeds of one of his immovable properties, deposit ZW$500 billion cash and to report everyday between 6am and 6pm to the nearest police station.
“Effectively it was meant to immobilize him but the State insisted that in spite of these very stringent conditions he must be denied bail,” said Maanda. “The State is so determined to have him incarcerated.”

Police officers held over missing ballots

2008-06-15T11:31:00.002+02:00

By Clemence Manyukwe

HEADLANDS- Twenty police officers at Headlands police station were detained last week when 31 postal ballot paper applications went missing in an incident that saw law enforcement agents at four stations in Makoni district being summoned for parades and forced to chant ZANU-PF slogans.
Half of the officers are currently detained at Chikurubi Maximum prison.
The Headlands police station officers were detained in their station’s cells before being “screened”, leaving at least 12 facing disciplinary hearings.
The hearings started on Monday under a panel of five officers who include the Deputy Officer Commanding Mutare Rural, Joshua Tigere and the Officer Commanding CID, Rusape District, who was identified only as Chief Superintendent Dube.
Contacted for comment by The Financial Gazette yesterday, Tigere, a former police spokesperson for Manicaland province said: “I no longer comment on press queries, go to our spokesperson. I just presided over the case but you have to contact the spokesperson, he will tell you how I handled the case.”
Police national spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena yesterday said he was yet to confirm the incident.
Police sources yesterday said some of the officers were severely assaulted following their arrest and one, identified as Muringayi is now walking with the aid of crutches.
After the Headlands incident, the arresting officers proceeded to Rusape, Inyati and Nyazura police stations all in Makoni District where they summoned officers for parades and forced them to chant ZANU-PF songs and slogans.
“The arresting officers said they wanted to knock sense into our heads because we were supporting the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change). They forced us to chant ZANU-PF slogans. Constable Banda of Inyati police station volunteered to resign after refusing to chant ZANU-PF songs,” a police source said.
The names of police officers who were arrested at Headlands police station were given as Wilbert Mushayavanhu, Gerison Gome, and Fidelis Zingwangwa with the rest being identified only as Nhendere, Munetsi, Maruva, Nyamayaro, Mudzuto, Chifamba and Mate.
The checking of applications for postal votes started on June 4 and will close on June 17 when all applications are supposed to reach the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), by noon.
A stilted campaign among armed forces has been launched to ensure that members vote for incumbent President Robert Mugabe in the June 27 election, which pits him against first round winner Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC.
The MDC has complained about ZANU-PF, in collusion with top military generals, going all out to coerce junior members of the army, the police and their spouses to vote for President Mugabe.
The uniformed forces vote two days before June 27 under the supervision of their superiors.

Violence breaks out in Chimanimani

2008-06-15T09:23:00.000+02:00

CHIMANIMANI – About 500 people have fled from their homes in Cashel Valley and Mutambara after armed militants and Zanu PF supporters attacked their homes.
The attack began on Saturday.
War veterans, soldiers and Zanu PF youths who are camped at Cashel Valley moved from house to house beating up villagers accusing them of not supporting Robert Mugabe’s bid to retain the country’s presidency.
On Monday they descended on Mutambara Mission school and hospital where they indiscriminately attacked residents at the mission. One man from Cashel Valley was shot dead and three were seriously injured and taken to Mutambara Mission Hospital.
Another man identified as Musere, an elderly farm labourer at the mission, is missing amid fears the Zanu PF militants abducted him.
“People are sleeping in the mountains,” said one victim who fled to Mutare. “Those of us who are lucky have managed to come all this way to Mutare.”
The victim refused to be identified.
There were fears authorities at the mission could close down both the school and the hospital because of the intensifying violence.
Another victim who fled at the dead of the night on Monday said gunfire sound was heard throughout the previous night.
War veterans and soldiers camped at a Zanu PF base in Cashel Valley are armed with AK rifles an assortment of light arms, sources said on Tuesday.
“It is very frightening,” he said, “But the biggest worry is that all these is happening while the police are just watching and not doing anything.”
Cashel Valley and Mutambara are in Chimanimani West. The constituency was won by MDC; s Lynette Karinye who beat Cabinet Minister Munacho Mutezo.
Mutezo was not immediately available for comment as his mobile phone was continuously not reachable.
Pishai Muchauraya, the MDC spokesman in Manicaland said the violence has also spread to Nedziwa and other surrounding areas.
"It's frightening," Muchauraya said, "The level of violence against our supporters is now very alarming. It is not only in Chimanimani but throughout the province."
The violence in Chimanimani West is calculated at cowing voters not to cast their ballots in favour of Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader who squares it up with the Zanu PF ageing leader, Mugabe, who lost the March 29 vote.
Tsvangirai won the poll but not with enough votes to form a government. Political analysts believe Tsvangirai can win the June 27 run –off if it is conducted in a free and fair environment. But if the violence against perceived opposition supporters and sympathizers continue as the case, a Zanu PF victory is beckoning.
Victims of the Chimanimnai violence said the Zanu PF militants are threatening an all out war should Mugabe lose the run off.

"We will not let Tsvangira rule this country" Chinotimba

2008-06-15T09:18:00.002+02:00

MUTARE – Veterans of Zimbabwe’s war of liberation have vowed never to allow Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader, to take over power from President Mugabe should he win the June 27 election run – off.
Joseph Chinotimba, a leader of the war veterans told thousands of Zanu PF supporters at Bambazonke Business Centre that Tsvangirai will not be allowed to take over power.
Chinotimba, national vice-chairman of the war veterans’ association and a member of the Zanu PF central committee, was speaking at the official launch of the Zanu PF presidential campaign in Manicaland.
Voting for Tsvangirai would “reverse the gains of independence”, Chinotimba told the gathering.
He said was veterans would not stand and just watch as the country was being “taken back to former colonizers”.
"We, as war veterans, are geared to retain our Presidential candidate and will not let Morgan Tsvangirai win this election,” He said. “Remember, we went to war for this country and many sons and daughters of this beloved nation perished as the whites resisted majority rule.”
"We will not stand and just watch as the Western-sponsored MDC gives back this country to the former colonizers.”
Chinotimba’s threats that the MDC leader will not be allowed to take over power in the wake of similar threats issued by top ranking military and security officials who have publicly declared they will not salute Tsvangirai.
But such utterances have been roundly condemned by local and international human rights organization. They say the threats are calculated at undermining democracy and perpetuate Mugabe’s 28-year hold to power.
Mugabe faces Tsvangirai in a run up that has been marred by politically motivated violence which has been blamed on both political parties.
However, human rights groups blames much of the fracas on Zanu PF supporters whom they say, are being backed by the army and war veterans.

Court Dismisses Former ZBC Staffer's Application - Defence Appeals

2008-06-06T19:54:00.001+02:00

Mutare Provincial Magistrate Chipadze on 5 June 2008 dismissed an application by lawyers representing former Manicaland, Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) Bureau Chief, Andrew Neshamba.
The application was made on the basis that Neshamba was charged under a wrong law.

Magistrate Chipadze agreed with the defence's contention that ZBC as currently constituted is a company registered in terms of the Companies Act and that at all material times, Neshamba was employed by Newsnet Private Limited.However, he argued that in terms of the ZBC (Commercialisation) Act, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings was supposed to prioritise serving the needs of the state.

He ruled that the accused's conditions of service were those he enjoyed as an employee of ZBC, before the repeal of the ZBC Act. He interpreted this to mean that what had just changed were names. He, therefore, concluded that the accused was a public officer as defined in the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform)Act.

Soon after the ruling, the defence applied for stop proceedings in the Magistrate Court . They further appealed to the High Court, against the Magistrate's ruling arguing that the Magistrate had misdirected himself in refusing the defence's application and the misdirection was gross.

For the state, Nelson Makunyire opposed the application arguing that only in exceptional circumstances should proceedings be stopped to allow an appeal. He said it will be better for the defence to appeal once should the accused person be convicted.

Magistrate Chipadze will deliver his ruling on the latest application on 9 June 200.

Background

Allegations against Neshamba are that on 4 February 2007 he and William Gumbo facilitated the entry of Peter Moyo, a South African based E-TV unaccredited journalist into Chiadzwa diamond fields in Marange and took video footage of the mine fields.

On 2 June 2008 the defence made an application that Neshamba who faces charges of abuse of duty as a public officer in contravention of Section 174 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act was not a public officer as envisaged by the Act.

Zanu PF blames parastatals for loss in elections

2008-06-02T13:10:00.001+02:00

MUTARE - The Zanu PF leadership in Manicaland Province has accused the police force and parastatals for being responsible for their party's dismal performance in the March 29 elections.
Some government institutions also came under fire from the Zanu PF leadership.
They say parastatals and key government institutions withheld their services towards the crucial polls resulting in voters "turning against" Zanu PF.
President Mugabe's party lost 18 of the 26 seats during the March 29 polls. The MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai also got a much bigger chunk of the votes in the province.
Six Cabinet Ministers fell by the wayside during the poll. They are Oppah Muchinguri, Mike Nyambuya, Patrick Chinamasa, Joseph Made, Munacho Mutezo and Chris Mushowe.
At a meeting to review Zanu PF 's performance during the March 29 polls and to strategize for the presidential run – off several party members blamed parastatals and government institutions for the dismal performance.
Parastatals and government institutions that came under fire includes the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA), Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA), the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) and the Mutare City Council.
Interestingly, the organizations are led and manned by individuals widely believed and known to be Zanu PF activists.
The super-charged meeting was held at the government complex, which houses the offices of the provincial governor, the provincial administrator, the Central Intelligence Organisation and other key government offices.
At the meeting Esau Mupfumi, a Zanu PF central committee member and losing candidate for the Mutare senatorial seat, "We have discovered that some parastatals are now working with foreign forces to unseat President Mugabe. We should all go to the run – off knowing what we fought for. We are now giving leaders of these parastatals up to Wednesday to mend things. We want to find ways of improving service delivery."
Power utility, Zesa, was accused of sabotaging Zanu PF because of its high bills and incessant power cuts.
"To us this is sabotage," said Cecilia Gambe, a senior Zanu PF official in Mutare, "How can electricity be switched off in critical areas like hospitals?"
Gambe said by switching off electicity at places such as Dangamvura Clinic which houses a maternity wing Zesa was sabotaging Zanu PF.
Other Zanu PF members blamed ZINWA for Mutezo's defeat in Chimanimani. The officials said ZINWA's poor billing and poor service delivery affected Mutezo and President Mugabe during the elections.
The police was accused of sympathizing with the MDC and supplying them with key and sensitive information during the campaign. The GMB was blamed for not availing enough maize meal to use for campaigning.
The Mutare City Council, which is run by a commission appointed by Ignatius Chombo, was accused of failing to provide a proper service delivery to residents and also corruption.

Prison conditions in Mutare appaling

2008-05-23T08:43:00.002+02:00

Mutare – The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)is worried at the appalling prison conditions at Mutare Remand Prison following a recent operation by police to net people allegedly hunting for the precious diamonds at Chiadzwa fields in Marange, about 90 km south of Mutare.

"The prison service in Mutare has been overwhelmed seriously and Mutare Remand Prison for instance now holds over 1 100 prisoners instead of 300 which is its capacity," said Tinoziva Bere, a senior member of the Law Society of Zimbabwe.

Two weeks ago the police launched a massive operation to restore order at the diamond fields and close to 1 500 illegal miners, dealers and vendors which included children as young as 12 and 13 years of age.

Those arrested have been appearing in court in groups of 10 to 12 and forced to make chorus pleas.

Bere said armed police with specially trained dogs invaded the Chiadzwa area and arrested hundreds of men, women and children and detained them in conditions that were inhumane.

The exercise resulted in some of the people being bitten by the dogs, others were assaulted by the police officers and others sustained injuries from falling as they were being chased by the ferocious police dogs.

"Many complain that they were arrested from the main road, their homes, the grazing fields, shopping centres and villages/homestead in and around the Chiadzwa area."

Some claimed they had nothing to do with the hunting of the precious mineral but were vendors selling their goods in and around the area while others said they were mere visitors to their relatives and friends in the area.

The lawyers said the police forcefully opened their homes and confiscated foodstuff and groceries some which was thrown away and destroyed.

"Those who had money on them claim that it was taken by the police without being recorded," said "Bere.

"Most detainees claim that they were taken to various detention places and police stations where they were kept in crowded filthy conditions for as long as four to five days in some cases before being brought to court. The numbers were such the toilet and bathing facilities were inadequate to non-existent. Most when brought to court had not bathed since arrest and some had nothing or little to eat."

Most carried visible injuries especially vicious and deep dog bites and had not received any tetanus injection or any medication at all.

"They still wore the clothes they were in when arrested and some had visible bloodstains. A number had to be assisted to get into and out of court," said the lawyers, adding, at least 25 in every 100 prisoners are injured in one way or the other.

"All those interviewed never had warned and cautioned statements recorded from them and were simply told when they get to court to plead guilty to the charges so that they would be asked to pay a mere fine for environmental damage and be released. Many were not aware that in fact the charges preferred were tied to a minimum sentence of 2 years imprisonment."

Bere accused judiciary officers of failing to discharge their duties properly. Magistrates were accused of conducting fast track mass trials which were a miscarriage of justice.

"There is chaos in the record keeping, the movement of prisoners, the identities of prisoners, and the identification of appropriate courts where proceedings should take place, there is no recording equipment, and there is a terrible stench that one senses from the court house because of the numbers of wounded, unbathed prisoners."

The lawyers said the detained suspects had little or no access to their relatives and lawyers were having difficulty tracing their clients or the record or prison numbers or venues for their hearings.

Commercial sex workers now want forex

2008-05-21T15:30:00.003+02:00

MUTARE – Commercial sex workers have joined the bandwagon of providers of goods and services charging their products in foreign currency as the Zimbabwean Dollar continue to loose value.
The relentless free fall of the Zimbabwean Dollar and galloping hyper inflation has resulted in most businesses and property owners charging in foreign currency for their goods and services.
The government has warned such practices are illegal and anyone caught charging in foreign currency risk arrest and imprisonment. But businesses and property owners remain defiant ignoring the threats.
Commercial sex workers in this eastern border city have also joined in and are now charging in foreign currency for their services. They say this will also hedge them against inflation which is now estimated at 350 000 percent, the world’s highest.
The women plying the world’s oldest profession are charging amounts raging from between US$30 to US$150 – amounts which are excessive if converted into the Zimbabwean currency.
Thirty United States Dollars are equlvalent to just over ZW$ 10 billion and US$150 is just over ZW$ 52 Billion.
Senior civil servants earn a monthly income of ZW $20 Billion. The harsh economic situation in Zimbabwe has driven most women, both young and old, into prostitution as a means of survival.
There is no shortage of business for these women. The eastern border city is awash with the Greenback as it is close to the diamond fields in Marange.
Thousands of people either mines illegally mine the germs or they are go between foreign buyers and the miners.
Thousands of United States Dollars exchange hands everyday in the streets of Mutare. The discovery of diamonds at Chadzwa, Marange, about 40 km south of Mutare changed the face of the city.
Hundreds of previously impoverished people had their status instantly transformed from rags to mega riches as a result of dealing in diamonds.
The majority of them spend their instantly found fortunes in entertainment and in the process fuel prostitution.
“Diamond dealers are very generous,” said a 21-year old commercial sex worker from Sakubva high density suburb, who identified herself only as Sarah. “They can pay an amount in US Dollars as long as he enjoys your service.”
Sarah operates from a lodge nestled between the city’s up market low density suburbs of Murambi and Morningside.
Her colleague scantly dressed and in heavy make-up, weighed in saying, most of her clients were diamond dealers and at times whites who would have visited the city from across the border in Mozambique.
“The Zimbabwean Dollar is depreciating everyday so it is better to do business using the US Dollar,” she said, “I have since stopped charging in Zimbabwe Dollars because the money is worthless the next morning.” The woman, in her early twenties declined to identify herself.
The upsurge in the numbers of commercial sex workers has stoked fears of an increase in the number of HIV-AIDS cases in a country already rated as one of the most affected in the world.
One in every five adults in Zimbabwe is infected by HIV or is already suffering from AIDS related ailments.
Prostitution is illegal in Zimbabwe but authorities appear to be losing the war against the oldest profession that has attracted hundreds of thousands of young women.

Manyika inciting violence

2008-05-21T15:26:00.002+02:00

MUTARE – President Mugabe’s Zanu PF party has embarked on a campaign reminiscent of that launched during the run up to the Rwandan genocide in 1994 as it desperately tries to hang on to power on June 27.
Senior Zanu PF leaders are inciting their party supporters, in pre-Rwandan genocide style, to be on the lookout of opposition supporters within their communities.
Leaders and supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) are being denounced and labeled “sellouts and “traitors”.
Eliot Manyika, the Zanu PF secretary for the commissariat, told villagers at Chinyauhwera Business Centre, 22miles south of Mutare City that their party supporters should be on the lookout for “sellouts” and “traitors” who wanted to give back the country to former colonizer, Britain.
Manyika is in charge of the Zanu PF sub-committee for mobilization.
"You should be on the lookout for traitors,” Manyika said. “They are among us. We have enemies all around us".
Hours after Manyika’s rally Zanu F supporters and a group of men in army uniforms moved from homestead to homestead in Chigodora and Chitakatira villages attacking MDC activists and burning their houses.
About six top activists in the villages were taken to hospital in Mutare after sustaining serious injuries. Some of the affected were only identified as Mwedzi and Mutsoto.
About three teachers at Matika Primary School were also forced to flee their station after they were threatened by Zanu PF activists. The teachers participated in a voter education campaign during the run-up to the March 29 polls. They were confronted by Zanu PF activists led by a woman identified only as Mrs Mangirazi and accused to misleading villagers to vote for the MDC. The teachers are now staying in Mutare.
Chigodora, Chitakatira and Matika villages are in Mutare South which was won by a Zanu PF candidate, Fred Kanzama.
Manyika’s calls at Chinyauhwera Business Centre for Zanu PF to be the lookout for so called sellouts and traitors is similar to how former leaders in Rwanda incited ethnic tension in the tiny and impoverished central African country during the run – up to the 1994 genocide which left about one million Rwandans dead.
The campaign was targeted at the minority Tutsis and the politically moderate Hutus, from the majority ethnic group. However, several former leaders who encouraged and incited ethnic tension in Rwanda have been convicted for crimes against humanity by an international tribunal sitting in Arusha, Tanzania. Others are still being tried.
Manyika said villagers should be on the lookout for MDC supporters because the MDC was being used by whites to "re-colonise" Zimbabwe.
"The whites found out that Tsvangirai is a willing tool and are using him to re-colonise the country. Now that we have our independence, we are forgetting what we went through during the armed colonial era and today some are saying we want Tsvangirai who wants to return the country to the whites."
"Tsvangirai ran away during the liberation struggle and today the whites are using him to cause confusion in the country."

Teachers arrested in Chipinge

2008-05-07T16:21:00.000+02:00

CHIPINGE – Twenty –three teachers have been arrested here for allegedly prejudicing Robert Mugabe of an undisclosed number of votes in Chipinge Central during the March 29 elections.
The teachers were working for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) during the controversial polls which the MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai won 47 percent of the vote beating the incumbent, Mugabe who managed 42 percent. The MDC claims it won a bigger percentage.
They were presiding officers at polling stations in the constituency.
The teachers appeared in court today (Wednesday) and were each granted ZW$100 million bail by magistrate Samuel Zuze.
They were arrested last week but were taken to court today (Wednesday).
Chipinge lawyer Langton Mhungu successfully applied for their release on bail.
The electoral officials are alleged to have worked in cohorts with opposition forces during the poll to discount votes cast for Mugabe so as to deny him victory.
They deny the charges.
After the 29 March polls police launched a systematic campaign of arresting polling officials accusing them of conniving with the opposition MDC, Western powers and non-governmental organizations to ensure a Tsvangirai victory.
This is, however, seen as a smokescreen by the ageing Zanu PF leader to divert attention and mislead the world.

Diamond miner shot dead

2008-05-02T12:08:00.000+02:00

MUTARE – Police officers manning the Chiadzwa diamond fields have killed a suspected illegal diamond miner.
Tonderai Kanyenze was shot dead after two police officers opened fire at him while he was in the diamond fields.
Police have confirmed the incident saying Kanyenze was part of a group of 200 people that invaded the diamond fields armed with iron bars, hoes and other digging tools.
Police spokesman, Brian Makomeke, said police officers first shot into the air to disperse the illegal miners but this did not scare them.
Makomeke said the police then opened fire and killed Kanyenze in the process.
The police spokesperson said the Chiadzwa diamond fields were a no go area.
The shooting of Kanyenze, whose age could not be immediately ascertained, come in the wake of an upsurge in the number of illegal panners invading the diamond fields and corrupt activities involving police officers.
Security details manning the fields have been accused of working in cohorts with illegal miners and buyers in Chiadzwa.
It is alleged that the police allow panners into the fields for a fee. The fee can be as much as US$200.

"Don't vote for Tsvangirai" - Police chief warns officers

2008-04-30T13:30:00.005+02:00

MUTARE – Voting for Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition MDC in a presidential run –off election expected in three weeks’ time is tantamount to plunging the country into a civil war, a high ranking police officer has warned.
The warning was issued by Senior Assistant Commissioner Musarashana Godwin Mabunda during a meeting with police officers here on Tuesday.
Mabunda is a top lieutenant and confidante to Augustine Chihuri, the police chief.
He is on a countrywide tour – meeting officers of all ranks and warning them of the dangers of voting for Tsvangirai in a run off election which is expected to be held any time from May 24 this year.
Mabunda vowed during a meeting with the police officers drawn from all the province’s eight districts that President Mugabe will never be ousted by Tsvangirai. Should that happen, Mabunda reportedly said a civil war will immediately break out.
The meeting was held at the police Main Camp on the edge of the city’s central business district.
Officers who attended the meeting said the environment a tense. “We were told in no uncertain terms that voting for Tsvangirai is just like voting for war,” said one officer, a constable based at Mutare Central police station.
Most junior and middle ranking police officers are believed to have voted for the MDC during the March 29 poll. The ruling party got fewer votes than the opposition at polling stations which also included police residences.
“Mabunda told us that anyone who will dare continue supporting or sympathizing with the MDC will be in serious problems,’ said another officer.
The warning by a top police officer coincides with reports of escalating violence targeted at MDC supporters in both the urban and rural areas.
The violence is widely blamed on state security agents, war veterans and Zanu F militants.
Thousands of opposition supporters have been displaced while about 200 have been badly assaulted.
On Saturday the MDC provincial youth leader, Knowledge Nyamhoka, was abducted by security agents at midnight from his Sakubva home and taken to a secluded area where he was badly beaten and left for dead.
He was rescued by passersby who found him lying unconscious and taken to a private hospital, the Seventh Avenue Surgical Unit, where he is recuperating.
Two other youth activists from Nyanga were also rushed to the same hospital after meeting the same fate as their leader.
The MDC chairman in Manicaland, Patrick Chitaka, said what the situation was degenerating very fast and urgent measures should be put in place to avert“genocide” from occurring in Zimbabwe. ends

Few teachers report for duty

2008-04-30T13:12:00.004+02:00

MUTARE - Schools re-opened in Zimbabwe for the second term calendar with very few teachers reporting for duty.
In the urban centers most teachers refused to report for duty saying they were working for nothing. The lowest paid teacher earn as little as ZW$2 billion (US$20) a month.
At Mutare Girls' High School, an elite all girls' school, pupils were loitering in the school yard.
"Teachers are not there," said one Form Three pupil. "We are not doing anything at all."
One teacher from Dangamvura High School in Dangamvura high density suburb in Mutare said until they have been awarded a reasonable salary increase then they will go to work.
"Personally I will not go to work until I am given a better salary," a Form Four teacher said.
Reasons given by teachers in the urban centers were different from those from the rural areas who didn’t report for duty fearing for their lives.
Teachers working in the rural areas are blamed by Zanu PF and its leadership for the popular support the opposition got in those areas.
Most teachers were engaged by the Zimbabwe Elections Commission (ZEC) which is largely blamed for President Mugabe's poor showing in his traditional strongholds in the countryside.
Several teachers fled their stations soon after the government embarked on a wave of arrests of ZEC officials accusing them of "stealing" votes from President Mugabe.
An official from the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) said almost the entire teaching force in the rural areas have not reported for duty.
Those that were not engaged by ZEC are equally culpable because they are accused of campaigning for the opposition in their respective areas. Teachers are generally respected in the communities they work from in the rural areas.
"About 9000 teachers who are based in the rural areas are afraid of reporting to duty," said a PTUZ official based in this eastern border city. "They fear that they may be attacked because they sided with the opposition."
There are about 14 000 teachers in Manicaland Province.
The opening of schools also coincides with the setting up of bases by Zanu PF activists, army officers and other security agents in areas where President Mugabe performed dismally.
One such base at the Odzi Country Club, about 30 km north of Mutare, was on Monday burnt by angry villagers. Several ruling party activists were operating from there - hunting down MDC supporters and rounding them up at the base where they were beaten up and tortured.
Odzi Country Club is a community social centre where farmers used to patronise for alcoholic beverages, sporting activities and family gatherings such as parties and weddings. But it has now been converted into a base by ruling party militants.
Politically motivated violence is also escalating in the province with reports that MDC supporters were now retaliating and beating up ruling party activists and burning their houses. Such incidents were reported in Mayo in Headlands, 70km north of Mutare. In Sakubva high density suburb in Mutare supporters of both the MDC and Zanu PF were engaged in running battles amid reports two houses had been razed down. Police confirmed the incident saying investigations were in progress

Trial of former ZBC bureau chief postponed

2008-04-28T09:38:00.000+02:00

MUTARE -The trial of former Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation’s (ZBC) Manicaland bureau chief Andrew Neshamba accused of contravening the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act was on 23 April 2008 postponed to 2 June 2008.

The trial was postponed because the trial magistrate was not feeling well.

Neshamba has pleaded not guilty to a charge of contravening Section 174(1) (a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act (Criminal Abuse of Duty as Public Officers).

Allegations against Neshamba are that on 4 February 2007 he and William Gumbo facilitated the entry of Peter Moyo, a South African based E-TV unaccredited journalist into Chiadzwa diamond fields in Marange and took video footage of the mine fields.

Moyo was convicted on his own plea for contravening Section 83 (1) of AIPPA which deals with practicing journalism without accreditation.

Moyo was arrested together with ZBC cameraperson William Gumbo in the eastern border town of Mutare after they were found in possession of filming equipment which they were accused of using to cover illegal diamond mining activities in Marange Village in Manicaland Province .

Bush condems violence in Zimbabwe

2008-04-22T09:49:00.000+02:00

The Bush administration has condemned forces loyal to Zimbabwe's government for using violence against opposition supporters, and U.S. officials also criticized Zimbabwe's electoral authorities for their plan to recount the March 29 presidential vote.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said members of Zimbabwe's security forces and supporters of President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party have been using violence and intimidation in the wake of Zimbabwe's March 29 presidential and parliamentary elections.
"These incidents appear to target individuals who voted against ZANU-PF candidates during the elections," McCormack said in a statement released in Harare on Wednesday.
Calling on President Mugabe's government to stop perpetrating such incidents immediately and to show restraint and respect for human rights, McCormack said there is "no place for violence or intimidation in a democratic society."
The State Department also updated its travel alert to American citizens in Zimbabwe, saying that some military and police forces, as well as war veterans, are "creating a climate of intimidation and fear across the country."
The travel alert said Americans should be aware that these forces have been especially active in rural areas and high-density suburbs. "There have been attacks on opposition supporters, renewed farm invasions, and arrests of election officials accused of vote tampering. There is a continued risk of arbitrary detention or arrest," the travel alert said.
President Bush telephoned U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on April 15 to discuss the situation in Zimbabwe, according to White House national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe. According to Johndroe, Bush told Ban it is "important for the situation in Zimbabwe to be resolved peacefully and soon. It's gone on too long."
In remarks to reporters April 15, McCormack said Zimbabwe "is in a crisis," both politically, because the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has refused to announce the results of the March 29 presidential contest, and economically, because of long-standing government policies that have led to hyperinflation, food shortages and mass unemployment.
Despite never having released the presidential ballot results, the commission, which is made up of individuals appointed by Mugabe's government, now is calling for a recount of the vote.
McCormack criticized the idea, saying "there has not been a good chain-of-custody regime in place" for the ballots and ballot boxes since the March 29 vote. "Anything could have happened between election day and when a recount takes place, and that's a cause of deep concern not only for the United States but other countries around the globe," he said.

Calm as people ignore MDC call for stayaway

2008-04-15T13:28:00.002+02:00

MUTARE:The situation in this eastern border city is calm as residents go about their normal business despite a call by the opposition to stay at their homes.

Businesses were operating as usual but there was a heavy police presence in the city centre and in all the high density suburbs.

The police are armed with AK rifles, teargas canisters and baton sticks. Water cannons were being driven throughout the suburbs.

There were no incidents of violence as of mid morning. However, there was a surprise presence of Chinese soldiers armed with revolvers in the city. The Chinese, together with about 70 Zimbabwean senior army officers are staying at the Holiday Inn, in the city's central business district.

There are about 10 Chinese soldiers. "We were shocked to see Chinese soldiers in their full military regalia and armed with pistols checking at the hotel," said one worker. "When they signed checking in forms they did not indicate the nature of business that they are doing and even their addresses."

Violence on MDC supporters escalating in Manicaland

2008-04-15T13:26:00.000+02:00

MUTARE - Violence targeted at opposition supporters is escalating in Manicaland Province as the MDC announced it was in desperate need for tents and food to assist hundreds of displaced people in the rural areas.

Patrick Chitaka, the MDC chairman in Manicaland Province, said the party needed, as a matter of urgency thousands of tents, food packs and medicines to assist thousands of MDC supporters who have been displaced in the province's rural areas.

According to the MDC about 200 people have been beaten up while about 1000 have been displaced by the violence.

"The violence has now throughout the province. It's a disaster, that's how the Darfur crisis started," Chitaka said.

"We have reports of systematic violence against our supporters. Apart from beating up people they are now burning houses. We are going to have thousands of internally displaced people if the situation is not contained fast."

Chitaka spoke as ZimRights, a human rights watchdog, also raised their concern over the spreading violence which is targeted as MDC supporters.

Reverend Stephen Maengamhuru, the ZimRights' regional officer, told a post election workshop held in this eastern border city on Monday that hundreds of MDC supporters were sleeping in the open in Chipinge and Mutare South because they fear spending the night at their houses.

The MDC and human rights organisations blame the violence on security agents and members of the military who were angered by the loss of President Mugabe to the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.

"We now have a situation where people sleep out in the open because they fear spending the night at their homes," Rev Maengamhuru said.

The MDC, on the other hand, said violence has now spread to Chipinge, Nyanga, Marange and the farming communities of Burma Valley, Mutasa South and Chimanimani.

The MDC chairman, Chitaka, said the most disturbing aspect was that MDC supporters were the ones being arrested by the police instead of being protected.

He said the violence would soon target MDC candidates who won the just ended elections. Chitaka, himself, won the senatorial seat for Nyanga on an MDC ticket.

About 50 huts belonging to MDC supporters had been burned at a farm about 20 km west of the city forcing 103 people to flee into the forest.

The MDC supporters fled from EnVant Farm after a war veteran identified as Muniya set their huts alight around 4 pm yesterday (Monday).

The majority of the affected people have been staying at the farm for about 30 years. The farm was then allocated to Muniya, the war veteran during the chaotic land reform programme in 2000. However, he allowed the people he found already staying there not to move out. But after learning that the majority of the people had voted for the MDC the new farmer decided to take matters into his own hands.

"There is a humanitarian disaster," said MP elect for Mutasa South, Misheck Kagurabadza. "Children and elderly people are sleeping in the open. We need blankets urgently and a place where hey can stay for now."

Headmaster in court for stealing Mugabe's votes

2008-04-10T09:30:00.001+02:00

MUTARE - A school headmaster at a primary school in Mutasa South constituency, who was a election presiding officer, appeared in court today facing charges that he prejudiced President Mugabe of 10 votes.
Shadreck Mufute, 47, of Hartzel Primary School, about 20 km north-west of Mutare, is alleged to have swooped ballots which were in favour of Mugabe with those of Morgan Tsvangirai.
State prosecutor Arnold Chiwara alleged Mugabe polled 40 votes at Five Streams polling station while Tsvangirai got 30 votes.
Mufute is alleged to have swooped the votes that Mugabe is said to have won with those of Tsvangirai thereby prejuding Mugabe of 10 votes.
Magistrate Chipadze asked Mufute to pay bail of ZW$600 million with conditions that he satys at the school where he works and that he reports once every Friday to a police station near his place of residence. He was remanded to 23 April 2008.
Mufute, who denies the charges, was represented by human rights lawyers Trust Maanda and Akisayi Dhliwayo.

Zanu PF supporters on retribution exercise

2008-04-08T12:28:00.002+02:00

MUTARE -Ruling Zanu PF activists have gone on a retribution exercise beating up and harassing supporters of the opposition MDC in Mutasa South constituency.
About 60 families in the constituency have been displaced as a result of the campaign which is directed towards perceived opposition supporters and sympathisers.
White commercial farmers in the constituency have also not been spared. War veterans have circulated letters directing the farmers to vacate their properties within 10 hours or face dire consequences.
One such letter in possession of this journalist reads in part: “If you are celebrating the outcome of the harmonized elections partial results in unison with your brethren before the outcome of the final polls be advised you risk vacating that location unceremoniously forthwith within 10 hours from this moment.”
The letters are signed by war veterans in Manicaland Province.
Much of the violence is directed at MDC supporters in areas such as EN Avant Farm and Grange.
“People are being beaten for supporting the MDC,” said Misheck Kagurabadza, who won the constituency on an MDC ticket.
Kagurabadza has sourced blankets which he is distributing to displaced families. However, he is now appealing for food and medicine for he victims of the retribution exercise.
The MP elect said a report has already been made at Penhalonga Police Station, 20 km north of Mutare. The Reports Received Book (RRB) number is 0068705. Inspector Machipisa is handling the matter.
One of the affected MDC activists is John Saramu, 39, an election agent during the just ended polls. Saramu was assaulted and suffered serious injuries. He lost ZW$5 billion, a radio and MDC regalia were confisticated by the war veterans that attacked him.
However, Kagurabadza said the MDC has positively identified those instigating the violence.
He said the have been identified as Fabion Gume and Cassim Nasho.

Mocambicans don't like Tsvangirai

2008-04-07T13:15:00.004+02:00

MANICA, Mozambique – Mozambicans appear skeptical of Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition MDC leader, who defeated Zimbabwe’s long-time leader, President Robert Mugabe in polls whose results are yet to be made public.
Most Mozambicans appear to have fallen victim to the Zanu PF propaganda that labels Tsvangirai and his political party as “fronts” of Western imperialists “who are seeking to re-colonize through the backdoor”.
In separate interviews Mozambican nationals said by voting for Tsvangirai and his MDC party, Zimbabweans had betrayed the liberation struggle. They said thousands of Zimbabweans whose bodies were buried inside Mozambique would have been betrayed.
“What are you going to do with all those people buried here?” asked a foreign currency dealer who identified himself as Maya. “You people from Zimbabwe are not clever. You have sold your country because you wan margarine and bread.”
Moses Macapa, a vendor, said he was surprised the majority of Zimbabwean voters had voted for Tsvangirai instead of Mugabe.
“Bob has done a lot of good things to all of us,” Macapa said, “he must be left to rule Zimbabwe.” Mugabe is widely referred to as Bob by admirers and supporters.
Dominic Machande, a civil servant, weighed in saying Mugabe should not step down for Tsvangirai whom he said was a “front of the Whiteman”.
Mozambicans widely credits Mugabe for helping bring about peace in Mozambique after years of civil war which pitted government forces and Renamo then an armed rebel group.
Several other Mozambicans expressed similar sentiments.
However, most Zimbabwean national staying in Mozambique, sad they were happy that Mugabe was now going.
“I will come back home as soon as Mugabe steps down,” said Thomas Matongo, an informal trader at a market in Manica Town, about 60 km east of Mutare. “That man has destroyed our country.”
Matongo’s views were shared by many other Zimbabweans staying in this shanty town.

Polls unite voters from unique Makoni West

2008-04-07T09:42:00.001+02:00

By Clemence Manyukwe

RUSAPE, MANICALAND — Two rivers divide Makoni West voters, but last Saturday, one major thing united them.
As Tatenda Makono crossed Mucheke River, heading for a polling station at Chinyadza Primary School, at the other end of the same constituency, Albert Chirasasa was also crossing Rusape River to cast his vote at Tsanzaguru School.
Both had the same thing on their minds.
They both believed the presidential race was more important than the contest for Parliament.
Makoni West is a unique constituency, as it binds urban and rural voters together. Chinyadza lies in a rural area, while Tsanzaguru is in the urban.
I saw Makono being turned away just after 2pm at the polling station at Chinyadza School.
He voted at the same venue at the last election in 2005, but this time his name could not be found on the voters’ roll.
All he wanted was to vote in the Presidential election.
Asked why he believed the Presidential poll mattered the most, he chronicled the constituency’s woes, which he said could never be solved by any Member of Parliament (MP).
President Robert Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, faced opposition from his former finance minister Simba Makoni, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai and little know Langton Towungana, in the elections held last Saturday.
Makoni constituency had three senatorial candidates, namely Stanley Sakupwanya of ZANU-PF, Ethel Mtangadura of the MDC faction led by Tsvangirai, and Matilda Mutigwa of the other MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara.
Makoni West had five House of Assembly contestants, outgoing agriculture mechinisation minister Joseph Made, who was being challenged by another ZANU-PF member, Nation Madongorere, Webber Chinyadza of the MDC faction led by Tsvangirai, Collias Madechiwe of ZURD and Justin Kawonza an independent candidate.
Many voters here had been early to the polls, eager to avoid queues.
But there were no queues in this rural area. A polling station we visited at midday was empty, with nearly 500 people already having voted.
Unlike in previous years, Makono reported that chiefs and headman had not shepherded people to polling stations, allowing voters to go to the polls in peace.
At the last election, politicians had plied villagers with promises of income-generating projects. But many of these folded quickly as the economic crisis worsened.
The heaps of money poured into the projects had failed to sway voters.
“We had projects sponsored by the Ministry of Youth and Gender, mainly selling paraffin and poultry projects.
“All the paraffin projects collapsed, but a few poultry projects are still viable,” he said.
Most of the poultry projects here are run by women.
“At Dewedzo government hospital and at St Theresa Rural Mission Hospital, there is no life. Everything here is collapsing,” Makono added.
Both hospitals have no resident doctors, forcing residents and villagers to travel hundreds of kilometres for specialist treatment.
Makono would not say who he voted for, but anybody except President Mugabe would do, he said.
At Tsanzaguru, Makono’s fellow Makoni West constituent, Chirasasa, said although ZANU-PF boasts of achievements in education, residents in his area thought less of the ruling party due to years of empty promises.
“There is no school offering A’Level here. I wanted to go for A’Level, but my parents could not afford to send me outside our area.
“If we had a school nearby, I could have had much better prospects in my life,” Chirasasa said.
It appeared that the concerns are the same for a voter casting his or her ballot at Tsanzaguru, a high-density suburb, and for the voter at Chinyadza primary school, in a rural area, both want to respond to ZANU-PF’s failure to improve their daily lives.

Civic Society groups petition SADC heads of state

2008-04-02T12:41:00.001+02:00

Civic society groups in Zimbabwe have petitioned SADC heads of State to exert pressure on President Mugabe not to manipulate results of the March 29 polls.
The groups includes the National Constitutional Assemby, ZimRights, Zimbabwe Elections Support Network, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights and the International Commission of Jurists.
The groups said they were concerned about the delay in announcing results of the poll. Results have been released by ZEC in bits and pieces angering Zimbabweans who are earger to know the future of their country.
The groups said President Mugabe and his government should allow results to be released immediately without being tampered with.
They said SADC leaders should exert pressure on President Mugabe not to declare a state of emergency. The groups also implored on SADC leaders to apply pressure on President Mugabe's millitary and intelligence agents not to manipulate results and to accept the people's verdict in the elections.

Anxiety and Confusion as Mutare residents wait for poll results

2008-04-01T09:04:00.000+02:00

MUTARE - Anxiety and confusion has gripped residents here as they impatiently wait for the outcome of the presidential poll.
The city is quiet with little activity in the city's central business district. In the Chikanga high density surbub police broke up a group of MDC supporters who had begun celebrating. In Sakubva and Dangamvura high density surbubs the situaton was calm. Armed police are patrolling the streets.
Official results so far show that seven Cabinet Ministers in Mugabe's government have lost to MDC candidates.
These are Joseph Made (agriculture), Chris Mushowe (transport),Munacho Mutezo (Water), Patrick Chinamasa (justice), Samuel Undenge (economic affairs), Oppah Muchinguri (women affairs) and Mike Nyambuya (energy).
The ruling party has so far won five of the 26 seats in the province. Independent presidential hopeful, Simba Makoni, perfomed badly in his home province.

Soldiers Intimidate voters in Chikanga

2008-04-01T09:01:00.000+02:00

MUTARE- Voting remained peaceful here although the MDC has complained there were attempts by some soldiers to intimidate people at a polling station in Chikanga high density suburb.
Some MDC candidates said they were also “shocked” by the high number of people who have been turned away at polling stations either because their names do not appear on the voters’ roll or they were in the wrong ward.
They were no queues at most polling stations in the city’s high-density suburbs although in the afternoon.
At most polling stations there were more polling agents and police details than the number of people queuing to vote.
But there were reports of high voter turn out in constituencies in Chipinge, 190 km south of Mutare. In one constituency, Musikavanhu, there was a high turn out at Chisumbanje Primary School.. Voting was peaceful in the constituency, according to Learnmore Madhuku, an MDC youth activist.
The MDC candidate for senate in Mutare, Keresenzia Chabuka said some soldiers based at Three Brigade were intimidating voters at a polling station at the Manicaland Agricultural Showground’s. The showground’s are next the army barracks.
Misheck Kagurabadza, the MDC candidate for Mutasa South, said he was “shocked” by the high number of people being turned away at the polling stations. He said at one polling station about 20 people were turned away in just two hours. Ends
Zanu PF election agents said there were satisfied with the voting process.

Voting kicked off peacefully in Mutare

2008-04-01T09:00:00.000+02:00

MUTARE- Voting kicked off peacefully here with fewer voters than expected queuing to cast their ballots in these crucial elections.
The verve that characterized the pre-election period was a far cry from the voter turn – out. In Sakubva, the most populous high density suburb, there were very short queues at most polling stations. In Dangamvura, the second populous high-density suburb, the situation was the same.
I n the city center, the queues were short. At one time, this reporter counted about 40 people lining up to vote.
Only in the new high-density suburb of Hobhouse there were long queues. One voter, Obvious Zengeya, who cast his ballot in Hobhouse said he was confident of a change of government in Zimbabwe. “I made sure my vote is counted,” Zengeya said. “My vote will contribute towards change to a better Zimbabwe.”
Voters were expected to flood voting stations in the afternoon, an official manning a polling booth in Sakubva said.
There were no incidents of violence reported anywhere as of mid day in Manicaland Province.
The pre – election hype that characterized the campaign period has not yet matched the number of people going to the polling stations.

Political parties winds up election campaign rallies in Manicaland

2008-03-27T13:13:00.004+02:00

CAMPAIGNING for the March 29 harmonised polls shifted into top gear this week with candidates from both the ruling Zanu PF political party and the opposition winding up their election campaign.

Independent presidential hopeful, Simba Makoni, got a shot in the arm when chiefs in Makoni District, his home area, endorsing his candidacy. Makoni, a former finance minister in President Mugabe’s cabinet, got the endorsement when he addressed about 6 000 supporters at Vengere Stadium in Rusape, 187 km east of Harare . It is very rare in Zimbabwe for traditional leaders to publicly back an anti-Mugabe campaign. Mugabe’s Zanu PF has over the years enjoyed unwavering support from traditional leaders who were instrumental in mobilizing support in the rural areas.
Headmen Mapako and Mukuwapasi told Makoni’s supporters at Vengere Stadium that they were solidly behind Makoni.
The headmen said all other traditional leaders in the district were behind Makoni and would ensure he wins in their respective area of jurisdiction.
This now means three senior Cabinet Minister in Mugabe’s government now face the danger of losing to candidates being sponsored by Makoni. The powerful security minister, Didymus Mutasa, agriculture minister, Joseph Made and justice minister Patrick Chinamasa are contesting seats in Makoni District.

While Makoni was in Rusape the ruling party was hosting a rally at Odzi Country club which attracted about 3000 people. The rally was organised by the Zanu PF candidate in Mutare North, Charles Pemhenayi, a tobacco farmer and businessman.
The rally was addressed by the Zanu PF chairman in Manicaland province and also provincial governor, Tinaye Chigudu.
Chigudu pleaded with Zanu PF supporters to refrain from using violence when campaigning. The rally was marred by news that three Zanu PF activists had died in an accident while traveling to the rally venue. About 20 were injured at taken to Mutare General Hospital .

The opposition MDC candidates also intensified their campaigns throughout the province. In Mutare, Innocent Gonese, who is contesting in Mutare Central, addressed cheering supporters at Sakubva Beit Hall, encouraging them to vote out Mugabe.
Gonese accused Mugabe and his government of running down a once promising country through skewed economic and political policies.
In Mutare’s central business district campaign posters bearing images of Mugabe were plastered all over on shop walls and trees.
The posters are inscribed messages such as “revolutionary, yesterday, today and tomorrow”, “for principles, consistent and fearless leadership” and “the fist of empowerment”.
There were reports that the Zanu PF candidate for Mutare South, Fred Kanzama were telling villagers in the constituency that if they vote for the opposition MDC the country will be plunged into a civil war.
Kanzama and his campaign team repeated the threats at Gombakomba and Zimunya Primary School, 20 km south-east of Mutare that Morgan Tsvangirai will not be allowed to rule the country even if he wins the poll.

Manicaland CIO boss on his way out

2008-03-20T14:30:00.002+02:00

HARARE – The fissures tearing apart President Mugabe’s spy agency have claimed the scalp of another top agent, Bester Rawire, the Central Intelligence Organisation's (CIO) provincial head in Manicaland Province.
Rawire, the CIO’s provincial intelligence organization officer in Manicaland, has been linked to Simba Makoni’s presidential campaign. He is now on his way out, CIO sources said yesterday.
Rawire’s fate was worsened because he is believed to be a kinsman of the former finance minister. He hails from Makoni District, the native home for the former finance minister.
“Rawire is on his way out,” said a top officer based at the spy agency’s headquarters in the capital. “He has bee linked to Makoni.”
Rawire will become the second high flying agent to be a victim of a witch-hunt ordered by President Mugabe to sniff out those secretly supporting Makoni’s presidential bid.
His boss Happyton Bonyongwe is also in the departure lounge after he was fingured to be secretly supporting Makoni.
Although Bonyongwe has vehemently denied having any links with Makoni sources say his fate has already been sealed.
Sources within the CIO say Rawire’s problems started at Mugabe’s campaign rally held at Bezerly Bridge last week.
A senior CIO operative, identified as Jessica Chidza, reportedly approached Mugabe and informed the 84-year old leader that their boss in Manicaland was “informing members of the spy agency that Makoni’s campaign was part of a Zanu PF project to divide the opposition in the urban areas”.
Mugabe is said to have reacted furiously telling Chidza that Makoni had rebelled against him and should therefore be treated as an enemy.
Chidza, the CIO head in Mutare District is also a member of the Zanu PF central committee.
The actions against Rawire ad his boss, Bonyongwe are clear signals that divisions in the ruling ZANU PF party may be filtering down to the security establishment.
The divisions were sparked by Makoni’s decision to challenge Mugabe at the March 29 polls.
Makoni, who was expelled from Zanu PF last month, has repeatedly said he is closely working with several top people in the ruling party and government who he has not named but who he says are equally eager to see the March 29 elections usher in a new leadership for the country.
No comment could be obtained from the CIO, which does not disclose its affairs to the media as a matter of policy. A hostile Intelligence Minister Didymus Mutasa does not entertain media enquiries regarding the operations of the secret service.
“The CIO is not run through the media. Why do you think I can talk to you about the country's intelligence matters," Mutasa said, in response to enquiries from Mutareradio.

Villagers flee upsurge in violence in Makoni district of Manicaland

2008-03-19T10:53:00.001+02:00

By Tichaona Sibanda

Villagers in Makoni district have been fleeing their homes since Saturday after an increase in night attacks perpetrated by stone throwing and stick wielding groups, led by a prominent Zanu-PF activist.
Tension has been high in the district after villagers in Nzimbe in Makoni South boycotted a ruling party star rally on Saturday. Realising that a Zanu-PF candidate could not attract a huge crowd, word quickly spread that Robert Mugabe was to address the rally. But this again failed to move the people.The rally was eventually cancelled and this angered Zanu-PF activists, who under district co-coordinator Nathaniel Punish Mhiripiri, allegedly went on a retribution exercise, targeting villagers perceived to be MDC supporters. The violent groups systematically beat up men, women and boys they suspected of backing the MDC.Pishai Muchauraya, the MDC parliamentary candidate for Makoni south, has condemned the violence and called for the arrest of the perpetrators. He said frightened villagers are spending nights in the cold despite their appeals for them to return to their homes.‘They claim to us their homes were no longer safe despite the visible presence of more police officers on the ground. Fear has also spread in other areas as Mhiripiri has been to 15 villages so far where people are spending nights in the cold for fear of attacks,’ Muchauraya said.The MDC has urged the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to investigate the attacks and bring the culprits to book. The MDC said the attacks were political and if left unchecked, would leave the villagers too scared to go and vote on the 29th.The MDC said five of its activists are locked up at Chisumbanje police station because they campaigned door-to-door in Chipinge. The group was picked up from Checheche’s ward 24. The police in Makoni west picked up another eight for campaigning as well.‘The province is currently under siege. Eight other activists were threatened with arrest today (Tuesday) in Makoni south. The strange thing is that the police are complicit in what ever Zanu-PF is doing to our supporters. Police have done more harm to our campaigns that Zanu-PF itself,’ claimed Muchauraya.

About Kumakomo Community Radio Station

2008-03-18T14:20:00.003+02:00

Situated in the heart of Zimbabwe’s eastern border town of Mutare, Kumakomo Community Radio Station (KCRS) intends to serve the geographical community of Manicaland by broadcasting the broad interests of its community that includes health, social and developmental issues.Mutare is the provincial capital of Manicaland province, which includes districts such as Chipinge, Chimanimani, Buhera, Marange, Zimunya and Makoni. Manicaland is also home to the Ndau, Vahera, Mabocha, Samanyika, Maungwe and Majindwi all of whom share common values.KCRS intends to take the form of its vast community, in character and content and be the common meeting point for all the tribes focusingon empowering them to develop their community and preserve their cultural values.KCRS when it evenually broadcasts will strive to maintain the station’s independence and ensure that its operation focus on the needs of the people of Manicaland.The committee spearheading KCRS is made up of Kelvin Jakachira as chairman, Sydney Saize is the vice chairman while Chengetai Murimwa is the secretary. Evidence Chenjerai, Thembani Mudavanhu, Tambudzai Zindi and Pepe Guwila are committee members.KCRS has been wellcomed by the community with even some Zanu PF members urgng Zimbabweans to demand the granting of licences for community broadcasters.The board is trustee is made up of Daniel Chigudu,as chairman, other members of the board are Trust Maanda, Mike Tembo, Vonesi Masanganise and Charles Chikwama.

What is community broadcasting?

2008-03-18T14:19:00.000+02:00

Community broadcasting is broadcasting from community to the community, covering everyday events and issues related to socio-economic, politics or culture in the languages/s spoken and understood within a geographic area or a community of interest.Many state broadcasters in the region have a tendency of making themselves busy by covering state functions only, deliberately ignoring issues occurring in rural or pre-urban areas, thus creating a vacuum. Community broadcasters have taken up that role to inform, educate and entertain local communities. Currently many countries have not set guidelines on how community broadcasters should operate. MISA will campaign for transformation of Community Broadcasters into fully-fledged entities as provided for in the various SADC Protocols and Declarations and the guidelines as provided in the African Charter on Broadcasting.

Ian Smith was better than Mugabe - Tekere

2008-03-18T14:18:00.000+02:00

MUTARE-Edgar Tekere, a former Zanu PF strongman and a luminary of Zimbabwe’s war of liberation says the regime of Ian Smith was far less brutal to dissenting voices than the post independence government led by Robert Mugabe.Tekere told a political gathering in this eastern border city that during the struggle for independence the Smith regime never ill-treated opposition activisits in the manner in which Mugabe’s government does.He was referring to the brutal beatings, by the police in their custody, of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and several of his party activists last year.Tsvangirai and his fellow supporters were brutally assaulted by police while in custody after they were rounded up during a prayer meeting at Zimbabwe Grounds. MDC activists such as Grace Kwinjeh and Sekai Holland had to seek medical treatment in South Africa.“Ian Smith’s regime never treated us in the manner in which Mugabe is doing to the opposition,” the tough-talking politician said. “That’s the legacy of Zimbabwean governance.”Smith was the prime minister of Rhodesia before it was liberated in 1980 and renamed Zimbabwe. Smith’s regime was notorious for jailing and torturing independence activists during the turbulent 1970’s. But Tekere says such treatment, which nationalists endured under Smith, was far from what the Mugabe’s government was doing to those opposed to his iron-grip rule.Tekere, a former Zanu PF secretary general and Cabinet Minister, is contesting the March 29 polls as a senatorial candidate for Dangamvura-Chikanga, Mutare Central and Mutare North. He is standing as an independent but representing Simba Makoni, the independent presidential candidate.The fiery politician castigated Mugabe for boasting that he had degrees of violence saying such behavior had damaged the image of the country.Tekere said if Mugabe were to be removed at the March polls international investors would immediately descend on Zimbabwe –even before they were told who would have taken over. “If they hear that Mugabe is no longer there, without being told who has taken over, they will run to this country and things will start moving,” he said amid applause.

National association of community radios finds it’s feet

2008-03-18T14:14:00.000+02:00

A national association of community radio stations, the Zimbabwe Association of Community Radio Stations (ZACRAS), held its first substantive annual general meeting in Harare on 22 July 2007. ZACRAS comprises eight community radio initiatives that are based in eight Zimbabwean towns, namely, Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru, Mutare, Kwekwe, Hwange, Kadoma and Masvingo. It is the brain child of community media activists who, since 2002, have been involved in a campaign for broadcasting diversity and the recognition of community radio as a critical freedom of expression/information tool. ZACRAS is the foremost advocacy initiative in Zimbabwe that has committed itself to community media activism through involvement in community based advocacy activities publicising the concept of community as an alternative to state controlled radio stations. The association has done this largely through road shows, audio cassette production, public meetings, press club discussions and agricultural show exhibitions. The current chairperson of ZACRAS, Mr. Christopher Mhike who also serves on the community radio Harare Initiative board has indicated that the organisation’s major focus for the next 12 months will, apart from road shows and other forms of public activities, be on capacity building through people-centered advocacy training, radio production training, gender mainstreaming and fundraising training. The ZACRAS Executive Committee which comprises Kudzai Kwangwari (Radio Dialogue Bulawayo) Howard Masaninga (Radio Kwelaz, Kwekwe), Chengetayi Murimwa (Kumakomo Community Radio Station, Mutare,) Munyaradzi Makoni (Ngabazwe, Gweru), Micah Zinduru (Wezhira, Masvingo), Nkosana Mpofu (Radio Hwange), Emmanuel Mavata (Kadoma) Kholiwe Nyoni and Sharon Sithole, (Radio Dialogue), has also accepted the need for an alternative democratic broadcasting law for Zimbabwe. In this instance the executive committee has agreed to work with MISA Zimbabwe in finalising the Alternative Broadcasting and Telecommunications Law, which will be used in the processes of lobbying the Parliament of Zimbabwe as well as civil society organisations. The Executive Committee is on record defining the current broadcasting environment in Zimbabwe as repressive due to Acts of Parliament such as the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA), the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and only recently, the Interception of Communication Act. In light of this repressive media environment, the Association has pledged to utilise ‘people-centered’ advocacy struggles. ZACRAS will work largely within communities, addressing community issues that relate to development and publicise these issues as far as is possible through alternative media strategies such as audio cassettes, road shows, drama shows and music festivals. ZACRAS Contact Details: Kudzai Kwangwari (Deputy Chairman) kudzai@radiodialogue.co.zwKholiwe Nyoni : khoenyoni@gmail.comSharon Sithole (Secretary): ssharrie@hotmail.com

Mutare journalist to appear in court

2008-03-18T14:13:00.001+02:00

MUTARE – Sydney Saize, a journalist based in this eastern border city, will next month appear before the magistrate courts here facing charges of practicing journalism without accreditation from the government regulating body. Saize is alleged to have had worked as a journalist without being accredited by the Media and Information Commission which has since been renamed Zimbabwe Media Commission. Saize, 34, was arrested in January 2006 at the Aloe Park in the city after he was caught allegedly gathering news on behalf of Studio 7 a Washington DC based radio station. Several Zimbabwean journalists work for Studio 7, a radio station based in the United States Capital. The radio station broadcasts on short-wave and beams news on Zimbabwe on a daily basis. While a good number of Zimbabwean journalists are based in Washington DC working for Studio 7, the radio station has several correspondents operating within Zimbabwe. Saize was detained for three days at Mutare Central Police Station and released on summons. His trail date has now been set for 22 April 2008. According to the police, Saize violated Chapter 10.27 of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), in that enjoyed the privilege of an accredited journalist by gathering news from Gomorefu Secondary School in Marange. Saize is alleged to have a covered a story in which two teachers at the school were assaulted by Zanu PF youths and war veterans. The teachers were accused of being supporters or sympathizers of the opposition MDC. Saize, a former Daily News journalist, is not the only journalist to be arrested and charged for violating sections of AIPPA. About 100 journalists have been arrested and arraigned before the courts. Several others have fled the country after being arrested under the draconian law. Among those who fled the country includes the founding editor of the popular Daily News Geoff Nyarota, Conrad Nyamutata, Basildon Peta, Sandra Nyaira and Lloyd Mudiwa. However, since AIPPA came into law the State has not successfully prosecuted a single journalist.

Simba Makoni takes campaign trail to Mutare

2008-03-18T14:09:00.002+02:00

MUTARE – Independent presidential hopeful, Simba Makoni says Zanu PF stalwarts who are reluctant to come out in the open and support his bid to oust President Mugabe are letting Zimbabweans and the country down.Makoni told an enthusiastic crowd, estimated at 5000 that attended his campaign rally at Sakubva Stadium on Sunday, that those that continue to be with Mugabe instead of coming out publicly to back his candidacy were responsible for the continued decay of the country’s economy and the suffering being endured by the country’s population..“Those who are supporting Mugabe instead of coming out in the open are the ones killing our education system,” Makoni said. “The health system in Zimbabwe has collapsed; there are no teachers at our schools, no books and no chalks.”Makoni’s comments were seen as directed at ruling party stalwarts that have been rumored to be working with the former finance minister in his bid to remove Mugabe from power.Makoni is widely believed to be enjoying the backing of former army generals, Solomon Mujuru and Vitalis Zvinavashe, Vice Presidents Joseph Msika and Joice Mujru, Zanu PF national chairman, John Nkomo and other heavyweights.Only Dumiso Dabengwa has come out in the open and offered his support to Makoni.The rest have instead, through the official media, distanced them from Makoni and assured Mugabe of their “unwavering support”.Makoni told the crowd at Sakubva Stadium that the health delivery system has collapsed to levels such that if one is admitted in hospital that person would be assured of death instead of getting treated.Makoni said he was disappointed Mugabe was monopolizing the legacy of the liberation struggle that brought independence in 1980.He said the struggle for independence was a collective effort by thousands of Zimbabweans not one man. “I played my small part and others also played a part in liberating Zimbabwe. Now Mugabe claims he is the only person who liberated the country.” Makoni said Mugabe was misleading Zimbabweans into believing that he will reverse the land reform programme once elected into office.“ I said Gushungo, where did you get these lies.”Makoni said what he wants is to ensure there is production at the farms and that multi farm owners would remain with one farm.Makoni said he wanted to clear a misconception that he was being used by Mugabe as a way for the 84-year old leader to hang on to power. This, Makoni said, was being propagated by Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader and also presidential candidate.Makoni lashed out at Mugabe for lying that he did not do his duties properly when he was sent to Europe during the liberation struggle. “Our African culture teaches us very well, that Gudo guru peta muswe kuti wadiki wakutye kana kuti vakuru musafukure hapwa nekuti vadiki vanozozwa kuti inonhuhwa.”Addressing the same rally, Edgar Tekere, a former Zanu PF secretary general and Cabinet Minister, said he was disappointed Mugabe was hanging on to power when he should hand over the leadership of the country to a younger leader.Tekere said leaders such as Botswana’s Fostase Mogae, who came to power decades after Mugabe was already in office, were now leaving and paving the way for younger leaders.Tekere, a luminary of the liberation struggle, is contesting on Makoni’s ticket for the post of senate in the Dnangamvura-Chikanga, Mutare Central, Mutare North and Mutasa South constituencies.