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Africa Subsaharan

Zimbabwe: War Vets Threaten Zanu-PF Bigwigs

2018-10-18

[All Africa] War veterans yesterday petitioned the Zanu PF leadership demanding the removal of former Cabinet ministers from their full-time positions in the party, threatening to remove the bigwigs from their offices if their demands are not met. According to the petition addressed to Zanu PF chairperson Oppah Muchinguri and obtained by this publication last night, the former fighters want the party's secretary for administration Obert Mpofu, secretary for health David Parirenyatwa, commissar Engelbert Rugeje, secretary for finance Patrick Chinamasa and politburo member Sydney Sekeremayi fired. The war veterans accuse the Zanu PF heavyweights of sabotaging President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Rugeje, who retired from the army after the coup that toppled former president Bob Muggsy Mugabe Nonagenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case. Dumped in November 2017 when the Missus decided she wanted to be president, and opposed heer might against Crocodile Mnangawa Important safety tip: If your opponent goes by the name Crocodile andf your title is Shopper in Chief let him win.... in November last year, is being targeted for allegedly failing to campaign for Mnangagwa ahead of the July 30 elections. Mnangagwa narrowly avoided a run-off against MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa after registering a 50,6 % victory. Chamisa has refused to concede defeat saying the election result was manipulated in favour of Mnangagwa. The petition was signed yesterday by war veterans representatives from 10 provinces. The war veterans claimed it was difficult to restructure the party when there were still some members aligned to the G40 faction, which backed Mugabe at the height of Zanu PF's succession wars. The former fighters, who supported Mnangagwa during his tussle for control of the ruling party with G40, threatened to storm the Zanu PF headquarters to remove the targeted officials if the party failed to take action. "Consequently, in pursuit of our constitutional mandate as custodians of the Zim-bob-wean people's revolution, as patriots, loyal and stockholders of Zanu PF, we demand, as we hereby do through the copy of this petition, that the following members relinquish their posts and vacate offices at the Zanu PF headquarters with immediate effect," reads part of the petition. "Failure to do so, we, as veterans of the liberation struggle, shall force them out of the offices for the good of the people's revolution. "Cde Obert Mpofu needs to clear the corruption allegations levelled against him before resuming office." The war veterans said they wanted the Zanu PF commissariat to be overhauled immediately. "Their involvement in the primary elections affected the president's performance in harmonised elections. It leaves us with more questions than answers where the President gets 50,6% while MPs could get more than 73%. We need an uncompromising team of dedicated cadres to take us to the 2023 elections," the petition added. "Sekeramayi, Parirenyatwa and Chinamasa's unrepentant behaviour towards the new dispensation: Though we are not opposed to their ideas of having permanent appointments, these elements are known for factionalism and cannot be entrusted with such responsibility."

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Africa Subsaharan

Zimbabwe: Ministerial Team Gets Thumbs Up

2018-09-09

[All Africa] President Mnangagwa's new Cabinet is a refreshing start to the Second Republic as it blends young brains with seasoned technocrats with capacity to revive the economy, analysts said yesterday. The Head of State and Government yesterday named a 20-member Cabinet, which saw new faces coming into Government. Backgrounds of the team show that the new ministers were selected on the basis of competence and merit. Time will tell. The new Cabinet has six women. Political analyst Mr Tafadzwa Mugwadi said the new team had the capacity to take Zim-bob-we to the Promised Land. Or maybe make it the Breadbasket of Africa again. "The salient feature of this Cabinet is that it is an intergenerational mix where the majority are young and technocratic brains that have been blended with experienced and competent seniors," he said. "The decision to rest career Cabinet men and women is a strong signal that a new dispensation is upon us and real, with rejuvenated energy and vibrancy to take the country to another level. The President has assigned everyone according to their area of competence and merit and not on political considerations. The new Cabinet has raised optimism, sustained hope and created enthusiasm for Zim-bob-weans." Confederation of Zim-bob-we Industries (CZI) president Mr Sifelani Jabangwe said the appointment of chief economist and African Development Bank vice president Professor Mthuli Ncube as Finance and Economic Development Minister was spot on. "We believe Patrick Chinamasa (former Finance Minister) did good work but to take us to the next level, vision 2030, Prof Ncube is probably the right man," Mr Jabangwe said. "He has the right international contacts, which will make it easy to engage and he is also a technocrat who will be vital as we craft our way into a new future." MDC-T vice president Mr Obert Gutu said his party was happy with the new team. "It brings a new and refreshing set-up," he said. "If you look at the new Finance Minister, he has always been a brilliant academic, always top of his class. If we look again at Kirsty Coventry, our history making Olympian, she is young, warm and inspiring. If you take even Dr Obadiah Moyo, he managed to turn around the fortunes of Chitungwiza Central Hospital to be among the best managed medical facilities. Let us give these guys a chance. It is a refreshing start to the Second Republic."

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Africa Subsaharan

Zimbabwe unveils post-Mugabe economic order

2017-12-10

[Al Jazeera] Zim-bob-we's government, under newly inaugurated President Emmerson Mnangagwa, has announced "a new economic order" that signals a potentially significant change from the previous era of former President Bob Muggsy Mugabe Nonagenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case. Dumped in November 2017 when the Missus decided she wanted to be president, and opposed her might against Crocodile Mnangawa Important safety tip: If your opponent goes by the name Crocodile andf your title is Shopper in Chief let him win.... In a bid to revive the southern African nation's battered economy, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa has proposed a series of measures to attract foreign investment, along with tax concessions to local businesses. But Nelson Chamisa, a leader of the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance, the country's largest opposition coalition of seven political parties, has warned that this strategy could be hampered by the joint police-army patrols that began after a military operation was launched on November 15, targeting "criminals" associated with Mugabe. "The continued occupation of the streets by the army scares away investors. It does not inspire confidence," Chamisa said at a news conference in the capital Harare on Friday. Former Finance Minister Tendai Biti expressed scepticism that the 4.5 percent growth prediction could be achieved in 2018 and called for more severe cuts to government expenditures in order for the administration to operate within the $5.7bn budget. Police roadblocks An internal split within the ruling ZANU-PF sparked a military takeover on November 15 that saw Mugabe step down after 37 years in power. Members of the army and police continue to monitor roadblocks and strategic government sites. Despite criticism, Chinamasa appeared optimistic as he unveiled a raft of strategies to address corruption and the lack of fiscal discipline that typified the former regime. Key among the changes to woo investors is a revision of the indigenisation law, a cornerstone of the Mugabe regime. The controversial policy requires 51/49 percent ownership in favour of black Zim-bob-weans as majority shareholders in companies worth more than $500,000; however, from April 2018, indigenisation will be restricted to the diamond and platinum extractive industries. Simbarashe Mhuriro, the managing director of Oxygen Africa, a renewable energy company partnered with a Swiss enterprise, Meeco Invest AG, welcomed the policy shift.

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Africa Subsaharan

Mugabe's Family in Disarray After Ouster

2017-12-02

[All Africa] FOLLOWING the recent military intervention which brought to a dramatic end former president Bob Muggsy Mugabe Nonagenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case. Dumped in November 2017 when the Missus decided she wanted to be president, and opposed heer might against Crocodile Mnangawa Important safety tip: If your opponent goes by the name Crocodile andf your title is Shopper in Chief let him win.... 's 37-year-old rule, his family is now scattered across different countries, while their multi-million dollar businesses and deals face collapse. The Mugabe family has a multi-million-dollar empire built around numerous farms, prime real estate, various businesses and lucrative tenders which they wrested for self-aggrandisement. The family also benefitted heavily directly and indirectly from public funds during Mugabe's endless globe-trotting trips. On some occasions the family used public funds to acquire private assets. By mid-year, Mugabe had overspent on travel by US$23 million. His budget was US$30, but he spent US$53 million on largely futile foreign trips. Overall, his office had a US$43 million budget overrun. Investigations by the Zim-bob-we Independent show that Mugabe's wife Grace used to siphon millions during the trips. "On one occasion this year, for instance, his wife took about US$3,5 million during a foreign trip," a senior Treasury official said this week. "There is also another example; the money used to buy their mansion in Sandhurst, Sandton, Johannesburg in South Africa came from public funds through local banks. At one point Grace also demanded that Patrick Chinamasa (who was Finance minister and still is) buys cars for her and he had to find the money. "These are just a few examples, but there was a pattern or systematic looting of public funds. Ministry of Finance and Reserve Bank of Zim-bob-we officials know this." Sources close to the family told the Independent that while Mugabe and Grace still remain holed up in their Blue Roof mansion in Harare, their children have been scattered by the political upheavals which engulfed Zim-bob-we recently leading to their dramatic loss of power. The sources said Mugabe's step son, Russel Goreraza, who is Grace's first child with her former husband and hence the former president's step son, is the only one who is still in Harare. Their daughter Bona, son-in-law Simba Chikore and grandson Simbanashe left for Malaysia on Friday last week. Bona is said to be expecting her second child. Mugabe's party-loving boys Robert Junior and Bellarmine Chatunga are staying at their affluent Sandhurst mansion. In fact, they have two properties there and were contemplating buying another one. Mugabe's nephew Patrick Zhuwao is also holed up in Johannesburg after failing to return home from a trip to Argentina ...a country located on the other side of the Deep South. It is covered with Pampers and inhabited by Grouchos, who dance the Tangle. They used to have some islands called the Malvinas located where the Falklands are now. They're not supposed to cry for Evita... in the aftermath of the military takeover. His family members have reportedly joined him in South Africa. Grace's allies and former cabinet ministers Jonathan Moyo and Saviour Kasukuwere, as well as their families, who sought refuge at the Blue Roof after the army intervention, have also left the country. They are understood to be in Kenya. Moyo and Kasukuwere's families had remained in the country, but fled after the military raided their homes for the second time last Thursday. The army initially stormed their homes in the wee hours of November 15.

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Africa Subsaharan

Zimbabwe: Mugabe At Graduation Ceremony, Moyo Missing

2017-11-18

[All Africa] President Bob Muggsy Mugabe Nonagenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case... was Friday officiating at the Zim-bob-we Open University graduation ceremony in Harare despite reportedly being under house arrest. Missing from the event however, was higher education minister Jonathan Moyo who is usually by the president's side at such events. In place of Moyo, who is believed to be one of the officials wanted by the military, was deputy higher education minister Godfrey Gandawa. Also present at the event were the minister of state for Harare province Miriam Chikukwa, cyber security minister Patrick Chinamasa and counterpart Mike Bimha.

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Africa Subsaharan

Zimbabwe Makes Chinese Yuan Legal Tender

2015-12-24

Zimbabwe is adding the Chinese yuan to its list of acceptable currencies after Beijing agreed to cancel $40 million of debts owed by the southern African country, AFP reported. Just in time for the Chinese currency implosion... Zimbabwean Minister of Finance Patrick Chinamasa announced the debt cancellation on Monday, and that Zimbabwe was in the process of making the yuan legal tender. The southern African nation is heavily dependent on Chinese investment and shares a close relationship with Beijing. Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in Harare in December, prior to a regional summit in South Africa, overseeing the signing of 10 agreements between the two countries, including more than $1 billion of Chinese investment in Zimbabwe’s largest thermal-power station. China is one of Zimbabwe’s main trading partners: in 2014, China was Zimbabwe’s main export destination, with more than a quarter of exports heading to Beijing, while 8.8 percent of Zimbabwean imports came from China, second only to neighboring South Africa. Zimbabwe has run a multi-currency economy since abandoning its own dollar in 2009 due to hyperinflation and already uses foreign currencies including the U.S. dollar, the South African rand and the Botswanan pula. The Chinese currency is not currently approved for public transactions in Zimbabwe; Chinamasa said that use of the yuan “will be a function of trade between China and Zimbabwe and acceptability with customers in Zimbabwe,” according to AFP. Mugabe, who has been president of Zimbabwe for more than 35 years, adopted a pro-Beijing trade policy after his country was isolated by former Western trading partners over alleged human-rights abuses. The veteran Zimbabwean leader was awarded China’s Confucius Peace Prize—an award not affiliated to the government in Beijing but which has been dubbed as China’s version of the Nobel Peace Prize—in October for “injecting fresh energy” into efforts for world peace and African unity. I suppose all the raw materials China is extracting is worth it...

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Africa Subsaharan

Zimbabwe's Mugabe to hold elections by end-July

2013-06-03

[Pak Daily Times] Zim-bob-wean President Bob Muggsy Mugabe Octogenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case... will hold elections by the end of July in line with a court order, angering rivals who want them delayed to allow for reforms to ensure a fair vote, state media reported on Sunday. The Constitutional Court ruled on Friday that parliamentary and presidential polls must take place before July 31 and that Mugabe must set a date for them before parliament's term ends on June 29, stoking a political row over the timing and funding of the vote in the southern African state. The Zim-bob-we Broadcasting Corporation quoted Mugabe as saying he would comply with the court decision and would set the date after consulting Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa. The court ruling followed an application by rights activist Jealousy Mawarire demanding that Mugabe, 89 and in power since independence from Britannia in 1980, call elections this month. Mugabe's main challenger for the presidency will be his long-time rival Morgan Tsvangirai, who says the vote can only be truly democratic if reforms are enacted to open up broadcast media, register new voters and make the military apolitical. His Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said it would have no problem with a July election date if its demands were met.

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Africa Subsaharan

UN rights chief pushes West to halt Zimbabwe sanctions

2012-05-26

[Bangla Daily Star] UN rights chief Navi Pillay yesterday urged the West to suspend sanctions against Zim-bob-wean leader Bob Muggsy Mugabe Octogenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case... and his close aides to give the country a chance to implement much needed reforms. Ummmn... It's not the sanctions that make Zim a kleptocratic state with an oppressive one-party system. The former Breadbasket of Africa didn't tank because of the sanctions. "I would urge those countries that are currently applying sanctions on Zim-bob-we to suspend them, at least until the conduct of the elections and related reforms are clear," she said in Harare after a five-day visit. The sanctions don't do a thing to inhibit the one-party system. "Sanctions should be entirely suspended for people to entirely focus on economic issues that need to be addressed." "I have yet to hear a single Zim-bob-wean inside the country say they definitely think sanctions should continue," she said. Zim-bob-we immediately welcomed Pillay's calls with Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa saying the embargo should be scrapped "unconditionally". "We want sanctions to be lifted unconditionally. We do not want any talk about suspension of sanctions, they have to be lifted unconditionally because in the first instance they are illegal," he told a news conference shortly after Pillay spoke.

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Africa Subsaharan

Mediators move to revive Zimbabwe unity govt

2009-10-31

[Mail and Globe] African mediators were set to meet on Friday with President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in a bid to revive Zimbabwe's unity deal, paralysed over the arrest of an aide to the premier. Tsvangirai, the former opposition leader, joined the unity government with his long-time rival in February hoping to end political violence and halt the nation's economic freefall. Two weeks ago he suspended cooperation with Mugabe's Zanu-PF party in protest over the arrest of Roy Bennett, his nominee for deputy agriculture minister. "All we want is Zanu-PF to honour part of their bargain as stated," Nelson Chamisa, spokesperson for Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said. "We hope that there is going to be an objective assessment" by the mediators, he said. "The situation on the ground is not good." A team from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) arrived in Harare on Wednesday in hopes of breaking the deadlock. Mediators, led by Mozambican Foreign Minister Oldemiro Baloi, met on Thursday with negotiators from each party, and were set to hold talks late on Friday with the two leaders, according to SADC. Mugabe's party accuses the MDC of failing to lobby Western nations for the lifting of a travel ban and asset freeze on the president and about 200 of his family members and allies. Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, who met with the negotiators on Thursday, told state media that the sanctions on Mugabe's inner circle were the main threat to the unity deal.

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Africa Subsaharan

Court victory for Zimbabwean journalists

2009-06-06

[Iran Press TV Latest] Zimbabwe's High Court rules in favor of journalists and labels a state media commission responsible for accrediting journalists as illegal. The court said on Friday that the commission had no legal authority as its term expired in January 2008, a lawyer for a journalists' lobby group said after the court ruling. Four freelance reporters - Stanley Gam, Valentine Maponga, Stanley Kwenda and Jealous Mawarire - sued Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai after he barred them from covering the weekend trade bloc summit of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), held in the resort town of Victoria Falls. "Applicants are hereby allowed, upon being registered with the COMESA summit secretariat, to cover the event without the need to produce an accreditation card from the media and information commission," said Judge Bharat Patel. The judge added that accreditation carried out by MIC from January 2008 was invalid. In 2002, President Robert Mugabe's government passed the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act that compels journalists and media organizations to register with a government-appointed media commission. Critics say Mugabe has used the media laws to muzzle his opponents. In April, Mugabe's Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa told the state-run Herald newspaper that the new government was looking at relaxing the stringent media laws. A new body was supposed to be appointed by the unity government. But a power-sharing pact signed last year by Mugabe and Tsvangirai, which led to the formation of the unity government in February, is yet to be fully implemented.

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Africa Subsaharan

Zim to relax media restrictions

2009-04-07

[Mail and Globe] Zimbabwe's new power-sharing government will relax the country's harsh media laws and improve prison conditions as part of reforms to be implemented within 100 days, a minister told state media on Monday. "There was an agreement to review the media policy so as to create a climate where divergent voices will be heard," Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa told the state-run Herald newspaper, after a three-day ministerial retreat in the resort town of Victoria Falls over the weekend. "We want to see a multiplicity of media houses." In 2002 President Robert Mugabe's government introduced stringent media laws, which banned foreign reporters and privately-owned daily newspapers, including a famously critical local paper. Chinamasa said the government would also address the plight of prisoners. "We want to improve the justice delivery system including the restoration of prisoners' rights," he said. Last week, a television documentary filmed secretly by a South African investigative news programme showed shocking conditions inside Zimbabwean jails. Pictures of emaciated prisoners suffering from malnutrition-related diseases, highlighted the plight of the hundreds of thousands prisoners starving inside prisons. "We have agreed to meet the basic needs of all prisoners in terms of food, clothing, bedding and health within the next 30 days," said Chinamasa.

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Africa Subsaharan

Zim's prisons: Death no matter what

2009-04-01

Zimbabwe's prisons have long been notorious for being dirty, disease-ridden places of despair, where opponents of President Robert Mugabe languish for months, usually on murky charges of plotting against him. But just how bad conditions have become within prison walls, while the economy collapses without, is only beginning to come to light. A documentary to be screened on SABC television on Tuesday evening shows emaciated prisoners teetering at death's door for lack of food and medication. The documentary, which is based on secret footage obtained by officials and prisoners, also tells of how relatives coming to collect their loved ones' remains are forced to rummage through mounds of dead bodies. The Zimbabwean Association for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Offender (Zacro) estimates that at least 20 prisoners die each day in the country's 55 prisons. According to Edison Chiota, Zacro national director, most die of HIV/Aids or associated diseases such as tuberculosis, which thrive in unhygienic conditions. The incidence of pellagra, a skin disease caused by malnutrition that can cause serious psychological problems and even death, has also soared. Cholera, on the other hand, a diarrhoeal disease that has killed more than 4 000 Zimbabweans since last autumn, had been been brought under control in prisons "to a certain extent", he said. In the SABC documentary, entitled Hell Hole, 28-year-old Brighton Mudadi's life is shown to to be hanging by a thread. Mudadi, who is serving an 18-month sentence for robbery in the southern Beitbridge prison, has tuberculosis and is severely malnourished. His rib cage protrudes through his matchstick frame as a fellow prisoner helps him wash himself and the soiled pants he is wearing. Accounts from three prisons revealed most prisoners receive only one fist-sized portion of maize porridge a day, with no meat and little to no vegetables. Many rely on family for food supplements. But in a country where more than half the population -- about seven million -- can no longer feed itself, some families have nothing to spare. "The truth is there is not any food in the prisons at the moment and there is no medication to cope with the diseases," said Zacro's Chiota. Ex-prisoners talk of excrement seeping out of blocked toilets and of uncollected bodies piling up in back rooms because families can no longer afford to bury their dead. Zimbabwe's Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa admitted in Parliament that the hardship afflicting the country was "hitting hardest inside prisons" and appealed for assistance. While many prisoners have complained of overcrowding, Zacro backed up Chinamasa's contention that the prison population had fallen to about 14 000, below the capacity of 17 000, following an amnesty last year.

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