SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

With pressure building on South Africa’s prosecuting authorities to investigate incidents of state sanctioned torture in Zimbabwe, calls are growing for the names of the alleged perpetrators to be revealed.

Last week, South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal upheld a landmark order for the prosecuting authorities there to investigate crimes against humanity in Zimbabwe. The original order was made by the High Court, which said that South Africa’s police and National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), had a duty under its international obligations to probe serious crimes, even if those crimes are not committed within its borders.

The Supreme Court of Appeal upheld this last week, ruling that the NPA and police’s refusal to undertake an investigation was “unlawful, inconsistent with the Constitution and therefore invalid.” The ruling further noted that the crimes, detailed in a dossier submitted to the NPA in 2008, strike “at the whole of humankind and impinge on the international conscience.”

The dossier detailed the torture of MDC activists in 2007 at the hands of ZANU PF perpetrators who, according to the document, travel frequently to South Africa. The dossier implicates 18 ZANU PF officials and military generals in torture and human rights abuses, after a violent raid on the MDC’s offices. More than 100 people were taken into custody, including people who were working nearby. MDC linked individuals were detained in police custody for several days where they were continuously tortured, facing mock executions, waterboarding and the use of electric shocks.

The ruling last week was only about the investigative powers of the police and NPA and not the final word on the contents of the dossier itself. Gabriel Shumba, who heads the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum which compiled the dossier, said that no time lines for an investigation have been determined by the courts, with the ruling focusing more on the powers the police and NPA have to investigate the crimes

“It would simply mean that there would be a need for the two organisations who have taken the case this far to approach the (prosecuting authorities) with an attempt to come to terms with the modus operandi of an investigation,” Shumba told SW Radio Africa.

He called on more people who have evidence that can be compiled to support their case, to come forward, saying there is a better chance of a successful investigation if there is a lot of evidence to present to the NPA.

He added: “I am calling upon individuals and organisations that can assist with this noble cause of curbing impunity to collaborate with us to ensure we make the world a much better place for the voiceless.”

To contact this reporter email [email protected] or follow on Twitter

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

Gideon Gono’s stewardship of the country’s Treasury has been the worst in the country’s history, according to economist Vince Musewe.

Gono’s 10-year tenure of the Reserve Bank constitutionally ended on Saturday and, in his farewell speech, he seconded his two deputies, Charity Dhliwayo and Khupukile Mlambo, to take over “until a substantive candidate is found”.

Gono further sought to justify his destructive actions while heading the central bank by saying he used “extraordinary measures to tackle extraordinary economic circumstances.”

In July ZANU PF and President Robert Mugabe  openly praised Gono for doing a sterling job in “reviving the economy”, but there will be many within political and economic circles who will remember Gono for the terrible governor that he has been – as his kamikaze monetary policies condemned the nation to unprecedented suffering.

As a party appointee and critical cog in the ZANU PF administration, Gono’s contribution to the total ruination of the country’s economy is well-documented.

“I think he is the governor who has done the most damage to this economy: his policies and his work with Mugabe’s ZANU PF, particularly around 2007-2008.

“This man (Gono) destroyed the Zimbabwean economy and I am shocked to hear some people saying that he was a good guy. This is a man who came in and decimated indigenous banks, hounding them for allegedly externalising foreign currency,” Musewe said.

Musewe blamed Gono for introducing and funding the farm mechanisation programme from RBZ coffers, a project also aimed at winning back a disillusioned rural population.

“Now the country, read ordinary poor Zimbabweans, sits with a debt of $1.3 billion created by Gono when he raided foreign currency accounts belonging to non-governmental organisations and other individuals,” he added.

Gono’s legacy includes the 100 trillion dollar note

Godwin Phiri, leader of Bulawayo-based youth group intsha.com, said people should not be fooled by Gono, who often referred to himself as the people’s governor.

“During his tenure, Gono was responsible for the unprecedented hyperinflationary levels ever recorded in any country, when he printed truckloads of worthless Zimdollars.

“As success stories go, Gono was successful as far as the ZANU PF project and mandate was concerned, but he was a total disaster for the country and ordinary Zimbabweans.

“It is thanks to Gono that Zimbabweans learned of the bearer and agro cheques and all sorts of currencies. Even as he steps down, the country has no currency of its own,” Phiri added.

Gono is the governor who presided over world-record inflation, which reached a whopping 500 billion percent in 2008. Until the dollarisation of the economy in 2009, Gono’s answer to the galloping inflation was to just lop off the zeros.

Shocked by Gono’s strategies then, MDC-T’s Tendai Biti, then Finance Minister described the former governor as “an economic saboteur, terrorist and number one Al-Qaeda who deserves to be shot by a firing squad.”

Commenting on Gono’s departure one Daily News reader, going by the name of Boorangoma, accused the former governor of crafting economic programmes aimed at aiding ZANU PF to loot national resources.

Boorangoma wrote: “Go away Gono. You are a criminal who destroyed the country for personal benefit. Your stupid programs like BACCOSSI  just helped you to loot national resources. How come that when the country’s fortunes were plummeting that’s when your personal wealth increased? As things stabilised, with the coming in of MDC, your personal empire started crumbling. Isn’t it ironic?”

In August, British newspaper the Daily Telegraph revealed how Gono accepted £104,000, paid into the accounts of his children, from Ravenscourt Corporation which sold fuel to the Mugabe regime in violation of western-imposed restrictive economic measures.

“Gono, who blames ‘illegal sanctions’ imposed by the West for the country’s economic woes, became the crucial deal-maker charged with ensuring the survival of Mugabe’s regime, negotiating with private companies to raise funds for vital imports.

“One such company was Ravenscourt Corporation, which sold 49 million litres of fuel – almost 5% of Zimbabwe’s annual fuel consumption – to the Reserve Bank as part of a joint venture in 2006 and 2007,” the paper said.

Gono is also said to have personally raised thousands of US dollars to fund Grace Mugabe’s foreign shopping sprees, when he was chief executive of one of the country’s largest commercial banks.

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

Gideon Gono’s stewardship of the country’s Treasury has been the worst in the country’s history, according to economist Vince Musewe.

Gono’s 10-year tenure of the Reserve Bank constitutionally ended on Saturday and, in his farewell speech, he seconded his two deputies, Charity Dhliwayo and Khupukile Mlambo, to take over “until a substantive candidate is found”.

Gono further sought to justify his destructive actions while heading the central bank by saying he used “extraordinary measures to tackle extraordinary economic circumstances.”

In July ZANU PF and President Robert Mugabe  openly praised Gono for doing a sterling job in “reviving the economy”, but there will be many within political and economic circles who will remember Gono for the terrible governor that he has been – as his kamikaze monetary policies condemned the nation to unprecedented suffering.

As a party appointee and critical cog in the ZANU PF administration, Gono’s contribution to the total ruination of the country’s economy is well-documented.

“I think he is the governor who has done the most damage to this economy: his policies and his work with Mugabe’s ZANU PF, particularly around 2007-2008.

“This man (Gono) destroyed the Zimbabwean economy and I am shocked to hear some people saying that he was a good guy. This is a man who came in and decimated indigenous banks, hounding them for allegedly externalising foreign currency,” Musewe said.

Musewe blamed Gono for introducing and funding the farm mechanisation programme from RBZ coffers, a project also aimed at winning back a disillusioned rural population.

“Now the country, read ordinary poor Zimbabweans, sits with a debt of $1.3 billion created by Gono when he raided foreign currency accounts belonging to non-governmental organisations and other individuals,” he added.

Gono’s legacy includes the 100 trillion dollar note

Godwin Phiri, leader of Bulawayo-based youth group intsha.com, said people should not be fooled by Gono, who often referred to himself as the people’s governor.

“During his tenure, Gono was responsible for the unprecedented hyperinflationary levels ever recorded in any country, when he printed truckloads of worthless Zimdollars.

“As success stories go, Gono was successful as far as the ZANU PF project and mandate was concerned, but he was a total disaster for the country and ordinary Zimbabweans.

“It is thanks to Gono that Zimbabweans learned of the bearer and agro cheques and all sorts of currencies. Even as he steps down, the country has no currency of its own,” Phiri added.

Gono is the governor who presided over world-record inflation, which reached a whopping 500 billion percent in 2008. Until the dollarisation of the economy in 2009, Gono’s answer to the galloping inflation was to just lop off the zeros.

Shocked by Gono’s strategies then, MDC-T’s Tendai Biti, then Finance Minister described the former governor as “an economic saboteur, terrorist and number one Al-Qaeda who deserves to be shot by a firing squad.”

Commenting on Gono’s departure one Daily News reader, going by the name of Boorangoma, accused the former governor of crafting economic programmes aimed at aiding ZANU PF to loot national resources.

Boorangoma wrote: “Go away Gono. You are a criminal who destroyed the country for personal benefit. Your stupid programs like BACCOSSI  just helped you to loot national resources. How come that when the country’s fortunes were plummeting that’s when your personal wealth increased? As things stabilised, with the coming in of MDC, your personal empire started crumbling. Isn’t it ironic?”

In August, British newspaper the Daily Telegraph revealed how Gono accepted £104,000, paid into the accounts of his children, from Ravenscourt Corporation which sold fuel to the Mugabe regime in violation of western-imposed restrictive economic measures.

“Gono, who blames ‘illegal sanctions’ imposed by the West for the country’s economic woes, became the crucial deal-maker charged with ensuring the survival of Mugabe’s regime, negotiating with private companies to raise funds for vital imports.

“One such company was Ravenscourt Corporation, which sold 49 million litres of fuel – almost 5% of Zimbabwe’s annual fuel consumption – to the Reserve Bank as part of a joint venture in 2006 and 2007,” the paper said.

Gono is also said to have personally raised thousands of US dollars to fund Grace Mugabe’s foreign shopping sprees, when he was chief executive of one of the country’s largest commercial banks.

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

Efforts by civil society groups to push a human rights agenda at the international diamond trade watchdog, the Kimberley Process (KP), are being undermined by some of the key beneficiaries of the sector, including ZANU PF.

The KP’s civil society wing have been fighting a drawn out battle to pressure the monitoring group to reform, in order to better fight diamond trade-linked human rights abuses.

The most recent plenary session of the KP again failed to take these reforms on board, with the views expressed by the civil society members of the body instead being criticised as “malicious.” That meeting was held in South Africa, whose rotating chairmanship will soon be handed over to China.

At that meeting, the representative of the Civil Society Coalition, Shamiso Mtisi, had strong words for South Africa and other KP member states for their slow pace of reform. He again voiced calls for the KP to start taking stern measures against countries where human rights abuses and illicit sales of diamonds are taking place, as in Zimbabwe.

“It is high time (the) KP makes mandatory the control and licensing of diamond mines, offers effective security and gives licenses to artisanal miners if needed,” he said.

Mtisi also criticised the body for certifying Zimbabwe’s compliance with its diamond sale benchmarks, while ignoring the lack of transparency and accountability in the extraction and sale of diamonds in Zimbabwe.

ZANU PF member Tafadzwa Musarara, who heads the party’s aligned Resources Exploitation Watch, then hit back at Mtisi in an opinion piece published by the Daily News newspaper. Musarara wrote that Mtisi’s comments were “malicious, contemptuous and riddled with falsehoods.”

Musarara used the piece to laud the newly appointed Zim mines minister Walter Chidhakwa as “a shark” who faced the civil society “attack” with alleged “dignity.” Musarara wrote that “Chidhakwa succeeded in ensuring that the Civil Society Coalition sponsored reforms are thwarted by successfully mobilising African and Asian countries to vote against the motion.”

The KP was originally formed with the narrow mandate to prevent the trade in diamonds whose profits help fund terror, bloodshed and civil war. Civil society has been urging a reform of the body to include a human rights focus.

This would, according to the Civil Society Coalition, help end diamond mining linked abuses. Alan Martin, from the Partnership African Canada group, which is also part of the civil society wing of the KP, said that this reform agenda is critical for the KP to remain relevant.

“The KP is still stymied by a need for consensus on its decision making. If they continue to deny the need to reform, it gives credence to beliefs that they are no longer relevant” Martin told SW Radio Africa.

He explained that, although slow, there is beginning to be an acknowledgment that change is necessary and not merely a knee-jerk, polticised reaction to the Zimbabwe diamond situation. He dismissed the comments by Musarara, saying those attitudes do not reflect what is happening in the KP.

“These government NGO groups, like Resources Exploitation Watch, are always going to have these opinions. But they are not relevant because they’re absent from the process. They’re not at the table. So they are welcome to their opinion, but they really have no basis,” Martin said.

To contact this reporter email [email protected] or follow on Twitter

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

A Mutare magistrate has referred to the Constitutional Court the case in which provincial Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) boss, Patrick Mukorera, is seeking the eviction of 51 families from Reuben Clare Farm. Mukorera approached the court after the families refused to leave property following its allocation to him in 2010. In his application the CIO boss claimed that the 51 respondents have been living illegally at the 200-hectare property since 2010. However the respondents, who have been working on the farm since 1982 with legal owner Van Resberg, argued that Mukorera was violating their rights by seeking to evict them without offering ‘alternative accommodation’. Through their lawyer Passmore Nyakureba, the farm dwellers said their eviction would be in breach of sections 28, 51 and 72 of the constitution which protect an individuals right to shelter, human dignity and agricultural land. They also argued that ‘it can never be said or imagined that the legislations and constitutional provisions on the ‘land reform programme’ intended to disempower former black farm labourers if at all it seeks to empower them through the indigenisation of land’. The respondents also sought the referral of the matter to the Constitutional Court. According to a Monday NewsDay report magistrate Yeukai Chigodora granted them their wish. Chigodora said the application for the referral of the case to the Constitutional Court was ‘not frivolous and vexatious’ as it was based on the respondents’‘fear that that their rights were being violated’. The CIO operatives are traditionally known to act with impunity in many instances and in most cases their actions are not prosecuted.

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

Philip Chiyangwa has threatened a Harare lawyer for misrepresenting his wife in a divorce case filed last week, after family members moved in to try to save his marriage. Chiyangwa’s close relatives are reportedly seeking to end the feud which has revealed the Harare businessman’s extreme wealth, in a country where millions are wallowing in poverty. A Tuesday NewsDay report quoted Chiyangwa’s relative John Mapondera confirming that he had met with both Elizabeth and her husband and was mediating towards a ‘conciliation’. Mapondera said he first met with the wife in London last Saturday before meeting the Chiyangwa family in Harare earlier this week. Mapondera said he has suggested a ‘six month’‘cooling-off period’ during which the divorce case will remain in the courts as the pair ‘seeks conciliation’. Perhaps emboldened by the latest development Chiyangwa immediately launched a broadside at Elizabeth’s lawyer Isaiah Mureriwa, accusing him of misrepresenting his wife. Chiyangwa said ‘the matter is legally dead’ and Mureriwa has ‘mishandled’ the matter and ‘gone too far’ in filing the suit for divorce, the report said. Chiyangwa threatened ‘to go after’ Mureriwa whom he said ‘must be exposed’. However, according to the report, Mureriwa refused to be ‘dragged into that discussion’ choosing to say ‘every lawyer acts on instructions’.In her divorce papers Elizabeth said Chiyangwa has shown he no longer loves her by his numerous affairs with other women. Elizabeth is reportedly demanding an 85 percent stake in her husband’s $ 270 million business empire and maintenance of $83,000 a month for a period of 10 years. According to the NewsDay, Chiyangwa has ‘ring fenced his wealth into a family trust in which Elizabeth is a member alongside nine children, two of who are Elizabeth’s.

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa’s top lieutenants on Tuesday vowed his efforts to succeed President Robert Mugabe are not over yet, reminding their political opponents they see it as just round one of a boxing match. A faction reportedly led by Vice President Joice Mujuru scored a landslide victory in the party’s provincial elections held on Saturday, making her the odds-on favourite to take over the ZANU PF presidency. But despite the bravado from his loyalists Mnangagwa, known as ‘ngwena’ (crocodile) in ZANU PF circles, will need a virtuoso political performance in the coming year to achieve the dramatic come-from-behind win at the elective congress, slated for the end of 2014. Mujuru has proved that she is also an extraordinary organizer, who can match Mnangagwa pound for pound. Official results released by ZANU PF’s national chairman Simon Khaya-Moyo on Sunday showed Mujuru’s faction now controls nine out of the ten provinces. However Mnangagwa’s coterie of sidekicks, who attended Parliament in Harare, warned their opponents to write him off politically at their own peril, as he will vigorously work his way back.‘He’s been written off before but he always bounces back every time people think he’s down and out,’ a Midlands based ZANU PF legislator said. Political analyst Gideon Chitanga begged to differ with Mnangagwa’s camp, highlighting the fact that results from the weekend poll showed how just unpopular their man has become in the ruling party.‘Despite what his loyalists are saying the results from the provincial elections were a knock-out blow for Mnangagwa. He has become unpopular in his own party just as he is in the opposition and Civil Society Organisations,’ Chitanga said. The weekend polls were characterized by violence and so many allegations of vote rigging that even the state media criticized the conduct of the internal elections. An article in the Herald said the elections also raised serious questions about the concept of internal democracy in the revolutionary party. ‘ZANU-PF’s provincial elections held at the weekend in the remaining seven provinces were a classic story of the good, the bad and the ugly.‘The initial elections in Manicaland, Mashonaland and Midlands early last month were characterised by massive logistical challenges and reports of vote rigging, among other irregularities. Last weekend’s elections followed more or less the same script, all amid hype about alleged factions and succession race in ZANU-PF,’ the paper reported.

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

MDC-T legislator Jessie Majome has called on the government to take concrete and urgent steps to avert a “brewing humanitarian crisis” in the country’s prisons. Majome made the call on Tuesday after justice ministry and prison officials revealed that at least 100 inmates have died this year at the country’s 55 facilities. The deaths were poor nutrition-related, according to Virginia Mabhiza and Agrey Machingauta, from the justice ministry and prisons services. The two officials told the parliamentary portfolio committee that the country’s prisons were experiencing serious food shortages because it they were not receiving enough money to source food for the 18,460 prisoners. They told parliamentarians that although $1.2 million was required monthly for food for the prisoners, only $300,000 was being allocated. As a result, prisoners were no longer receiving the required three meals a day, a situation which had led to nutrition-related illnesses and deaths. MDC-T Harare West legislator and shadow justice minister Majome, who is also the MDC-T shadow minister for justice, said she was shocked by the report “because it is reminiscent of the humanitarian disaster experienced in 2007/2008.“At the time prisoners were dying like flies at the rate of about eight per day, and as deputy justice minister at the time, I helped to come up with a situation to alleviate this disaster.“And this included appealing to humanitarian organisations such as the Red Cross who had to contend with a lot of unnecessary bureaucracy but finally stepped in and assisted with food as well as management training for the prison services. As a result the death rate fell by about 93%,” Majome said. Majome said she was alarmed and disappointed that conditions seemed to be deteriorating to the 2007/2008 levels. “It is a great concern that the prisons services is constantly broke and prisoners constantly facing starvation despite the department owning farms where they can grow food to the point of being self-sustaining,” the legislator said. She said her committee will investigate further “to see how legislators can work with the justice ministry to find for solutions to the problems in our prisons.“The prevailing conditions are a serious human rights concern and if, as a country, we cannot look after vulnerable members such as prisoners, then that speaks volumes about how far we still have to go towards civilisation,” Majome added. As SW Radio Africa reported last year, the Red Cross withdrew food assistance in 2011, saying the country’s prison services were “far more capable of meeting the dietary needs of inmates”. The global charity stepped in at about the same time as a disturbing 2009 report by the Zimbabwe Association for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Offender revealed how most prisoners wished for death to escape the dire conditions and misery at the country’s correctional facilities. The report detailed how serious food shortages, overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, lack of proper food nad medical care, had contributed to diseases, with many prisoners dying from vitamin deficiency conditions such as pellagra. Ex-intelligence operative and SA apartheid double-agent Kevin Woods spent 18 years at Harare’s Chikurubi Prison, five of these naked and in solitary confinement. He wrote a book, The Kevin Woods Story: In the Shadows of Mugabe’s Gallows, which captured the inhumane and dire conditions at the country’s prisons. In October human rights activist Douglas Muzanenhamo, who spent a month in remand prison and was denied access to critical anti-retroviral drugs, told SW Radio Africa that conditions in Zimbabwe’s prisons are “hell on earth”.“There is filth everywhere, the corridors, the holding cells, the blankets, and the prison regalia. When I was arrested and taken to Harare Remand Prison, I was given dirty and lice-infested clothes. I was thrown into a filthy, overcrowded cell where we had buckets for toilets,” Muzanenhamo said. Upon his release, Muzanenhamo approached the Constitutional Court in a bid to force a review of the treatment of inmates by the prisons services. Although the Court reserved judgement, Muzanenhamo says at least the case has lifted the lid on the gross human rights violations within the prison system.

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

A new dossier containing detailed accounts of torture and abuse at the hands of known ZANU PF perpetrators has been handed to South Africa’s prosecuting authorities, in the wake of a landmark ruling that compels this cross border probe. The South African Supreme Court of Appeal last week set a precedent for the investigation of crimes against humanity committed outside its borders, after upholding a ruling by a lower court that compelled the authorities to investigate torture in Zimbabwe. That ruling last year by the North Gauteng High Court was based on a dossier of evidence, submitted by the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum and the Southern African Litigation Centre, who handed over the document to the South African police and National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in 2008. The dossier detailed the torture and abuse of scores of MDC activists at the hands of 18 named ZANU PF officials who were all regular travelers to South Africa. But the NPA and the police refused to undertake an investigation, citing among other reasons potential diplomatic tensions between the two countries. The High Court however said that the prosecuting authorities were duty bound to investigate the crimes, because South Africa is a signatory to the Rome Statute. The Supreme Court of Appeal upheld this ruling last week, opening the doors for other cases to be brought before the authorities. And on Monday a fresh dossier was handed to the police. The new dossier, submitted by the civil rights initiative AfriForum and former Chegutu farmer turned activist Ben Freeth, contains detailed evidence of crimes against humanity committed by 58 known individuals in Zimbabwe. The dossier is based on 24 affidavits, with six from former commercial farmers and the rest from former farm workers, who suffered serious abuses during the ZANU PF led land grab campaign. This includes vicious beatings, wrongful imprisonment in filthy, inhumane jails, the shooting of farm workers and farmers, the theft of homes, farmers’ and farm workers’ houses being set on fire or petrol bombed and death threats. In one affidavit, seven labourers were picked up by police officers, beaten throughout the journey to a police station and while in custody were beaten with an armoured cable and batons. Other examples of torture committed included some victims being beaten over the head with a rifle butt which resulted in a fractured skull, or being beaten on the soles of the feet with a sjambok, logs, cables or iron bars. One of the farm workers reported being beaten over the head with an iron bar and then, after his attackers had urinated on him, they threw him onto a fire they had lit in an open pit. The dossier also lists 58 named perpetrators, responsible either directly or as commanders of the abuses committed. Included in this list of 58 are government ministers, two members of Joint Operations Command (JOC), senior police officials, a senator, a previous government minister and his son, a Reserve Bank deputy governor, police officers of various ranks and army personnel. Freeth told SW Radio Africa that based on the precedent set by the Supreme Court of Appeal, the South African police are now duty bound to investigate the crimes. “The dossier shows very clearly what has been taking place, even since the (unity government) when many people have said that Zimbabwe came right. At the same time, what has happening was people were being tortured, their homes were burnt down, and people were being severely tortured in police custody. Crimes against humanity were taking place in a systematic process even when the unity government was in place,” Freeth said. The dossier was handed to the police on Monday, and Freeth said that it has been passed on to the highest investigatory body in South Africa, the Hawks.

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

The High Court has again postponed hearing the matter in which a charity is challenging the theft of half a million dollars from its account by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. The case was being heard by Justice Felistus Chatukuta, who deferred the hearing to 22nd January 2014, to accommodate the festive break. The funds were taken from the Zimbabwe AIDS Network’s Standard Chartered Bank account in 2008 following an order by outgoing RBZ governor Gideon Gono, directing banks to surrender all foreign currency accounts to the central bank. This ‘centralisation’ gave Gono access to more than $1 billion belonging to charities and corporates and was used to prop up an economy that was finally buckling under one of the world’s highest inflation rates, relentless looting and mismanagement by ZANU PF. Several charities, including the Zimbabwe AIDS Network (ZAN) lost large sums of donor funds meant for humanitarian projects. ZAN lost US$500,000 and challenged the seizure of its funds, accusing both the RBZ and StanChart of acting illegally. Last month a judge postponed the case to give the RBZ and StanChart time to conduct talks, after both banks tried to shirk responsibility to return the funds. StanChart argued that it had acted on a directive from the RBZ, while the central bank in turn tried to seek immunity from prosecution over the issue. Also last month, a Chinese-owned firm in Kwekwe, China Shougang International, won its case against StanChart, after its funds were seized under similar circumstances. Stanchart had denied responsibility and urged the Chinese firm to approach the RBZ for their money. But the Supreme Court disagreed and ordered StanChart to pay the firm almost $50,000. On Monday lawyer Belinda Chinowawa told SW Radio Africa that this is a judicial precedent that the two banking institutions should consider when negotiating a deal with the AIDS charity. In June, the High Court also ordered the RBZ to return over $1 million to the Trojan Nickel Mine firm, whose funds were seized from its BancABC account. The RBZ is appealing the High Court decision, seeking to shift liability to BancABC. Earlier this week, the state-owned media revealed that Cabinet had approved the takeover of the $1.35 billion RBZ debt by the State to enable the central bank to, among other things, repay “foreign currency account balances taken over during hyperinflation”. Observers, including economist Vince Musewe, have criticised the move, saying this will shift the burden to poor Zimbabweans when the real beneficiaries of Gono’s reckless monetary policies were ZANU PF. In his farewell speech Saturday Gono said he was leaving the central bank “a happy man”. He said he had successfully fulfilled President Mugabe’s mandate “to defend the country’s sovereignty and economic interests”.

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

As Zimbabwe struggles to shed its rogue image a leading human rights activist, Arthur Gwagwa, is recommending that the government be put on a probation period of 12 months until it makes ‘clear choices’. Gwagwa, an official at the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, was speaking to SW Radio Africa following the recent release of a document by his organisation titled Zimbabwe-EU relations – a Balancing Act. The document observes the conflicting developments within the country and the dilemma the EU faces ahead of the February 2014 meeting during which a decision on the targeted sanctions is expected. According to the document the EU’s dilemma over its relations with Zimbabwe stems from the fact that the EU agreed to rely on the judgment of both the African Union and the SADC on the outcome of the July 31st election.While the African bodies endorsed the election, the view that they were not free and fair is widely held across the world, something which has left the EU in a dilemma. Already there seems to be conflicting signals from the EU member states, with some calling for the lifting of the remaining restrictive measures against nine key members of President Mugabe’s inner circle and one company. Gwagwa told our Cutting Edge programme that the government is involved in a calculated effort to clean up its image with a view to gaining acceptance but is already finding it difficult to make ‘clear choices.’ According to Gwagwa the conflicting developments are highlighted by the fact that as human rights activists Beatrice Mtetwa and Abel Chikomo were both being acquitted in the courts, the WOZA women were being beaten and assaulted by the police. On being acquitted two weeks ago on charges of obstructing justice and running an unregistered organisation, both Chikomo and Mtetwa warned that their victories were not worth celebrating because abuses are still commonplace in the country. But Gwagwa said the government is trying to exploit such developments, as their acquittals, as evidence that there is rule of law in the country. Gwagwa said rather than try and score cheap points the government had better ensure a ‘consistent application of the rule of law’.He urged the Zimbabwean government to be ‘humble and diversify its international relations’ to engage with the rest of the international community as opposed to just relying on China. Gwagwa said while the EU is in a dilemma as to what to do ahead of the February 2014 meeting, Harare is equally under pressure from some of its regional neighbors who want reforms. The EU imposed the restrictive measures in 2002, following the expulsion of the head of its observer mission Pierre Schori and the deteriorating human rights situation in the country. Over the years the targeted sanctions regime has been carefully eased for specific reforms. But Mugabe’s government blames the targeted sanctions for all the country’s economic problems and wants them lifted immediately.

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The ZANU PF legislator for Kadoma Central, Fani Phanuel Phiri, has been implicated in a case in which two children were kidnapped for ritual purposes, reports suggest. According to the Daily News, details of the MP’s alleged involvement emerged during the trial and sentencing of five Kadoma residents, Dominic Musapurwa, Odrina Gwerengwe, Joyce Watyoka, Chipo Muradi, and Kaiser Ncube. The five told the presiding magistrate that they had received instructions from Phiri to kidnap the two girls who were then taken to a traditional healer so that they could be sacrificed to boost Phiri’s chances of winning the July 31st elections. However the children were spared after the ‘traditional healer’, identified as Christopher Mudhuchwa, refused to sacrifice them arguing that the accused had stolen the children when the instruction had been that they should bring their own. The five revealed that rituals were rife during the elections, and were encouraged by named ZANU PF provincial leadership who wanted victory over the MDC-T. Gwerengwe was jailed for six months, Muradi and Musapurwa (both aspiring ZANU PF councilors) for six and nine months respectively. Watyoka and Ncube will each serve four years in jail while Mudhuchwa is still at large. MDC-99 president Job Sikhala said the case was just one example showing that the country is being run by a regime of killers and cultists. “It is frightening to see that in their insatiable appetite for political power, they will even go to the extent of committing such devilish acts as killing children.“The implicated legislator is also a former mayor of Kadoma while some of those jailed stood as candidates in the local council elections and this raises serious questions about the kind of leadership we have,” Sikhala said. The outspoken politician said the police should investigate the Kadoma legislator’s role in the ritual kidnapping as “the allegations are most likely to be true as they were made under oath”. Sikhala also said he wouldn’t be surprised if the political violence perpetrated by ZANU PF supporters at poll times is part of nation-wide ritual killings by the party.“Going back to 1980, you see a party that has always believed in killing opposition party supporters to maintain their hold on power,” Sikhala added. He urged all Zimbabweans to speak out against “such primitive acts of Satanism” that he said were contributing to the daily abuse of children. Commenting on the Daily News story one reader, who identified himself as Bob, called on ZANU PF deputy president Joice Mujuru to take the lead in denouncing such acts by her party colleagues. “How can a politician sacrifice the future of innocent children for their political position? Can VP Mujuru please comment? Vana vacheche here baba Mugabe murikuzvinzwa here zvirikuita vanhu ava. Tibatsireiwo please, takakupai mavotes kuti tigare zvakanaka asi honai zvirikuita maparasites (President Mugabe we voted for you so that you could fix things but see what these parasites are doing). Culturalist Prince Zwide KaLanga Khumalo said anyone who encourages the spilling of human blood as a solution to problems is not a traditional healer. “In our culture such people are not traditional healers but practice witchcraft which makes them abathakathi (witches and wizards). They upset communities and as such fall on the extreme end of spiritualism and this makes them deviants.“Traditional healers use traditional medicine and herbs to heal people and advising anyone to kill innocent children or spill innocent blood is not part of traditional healing,” Khumalo said. He said Zimbabweans should not allow themselves to be hoodwinked by opportunists masquerading as traditional healers and prophets. “There are numerous social problems being experienced by Zimbabweans and false prophets and healers are capitalising on the desperation of some people by giving them wrong advice.“This partly explains the surge in ritual rapes and murders, including that of children. But this has never worked for the recipients of such advice but instead, it only aggravates the matters by creating more problems for them.“It is therefore important that as a people we respect human life and reject any so-called solutions that involve violating the rights of others or upsetting our communities,” Khumalo said.

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The European Union (EU) has moved to distance itself from claims that a German firm is bypassing targeted restrictions on Zimbabwe to trade with Robert Mugabe, saying the responsibility to investigate the matter falls on Germany. According to the news and analysis site Africa Confidential the German firm Wilhelm Guth Ventiltechnik has been supplying components to Robert and Grace Mugabe’s Gushungo Dairy Estate for the past four years. The components are supplied through the wholly owned subsidiary of the German firm, Guth South Africa. This is despite the EU targeted restrictive measures that are still in place against Mugabe and his wife, which ban any EU member countries from doing business with the individuals or companies on the targeted list. The European leadership bloc has lifted its measures against the majority of the Mugabe regime, but the ZANU PF leader and Grace Mugabe remain targeted. When contacted for comment a spokesperson for the EU’s High Representative of Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton said: “Doing business with companies associated with designated persons should be prohibited if it is assessed that this would benefit indirectly the designated persons.” The spokesperson added in an emailed reaction: “In case of a possible violation of sanctions, the Member State where the company is registered would carry out an investigation…The enforcement of sanctions is a matter for Member States.” There has not yet been a response from the German authorities to SW Radio Africa’s request for more information. Political analyst Clifford Mashiri said that the EU has “no backbone” to deal with the Mugabe regime anymore, because it is being led by its own, personal interests.“Human rights are no longer on the agenda of the European Union. They have sought to re-engage with Mugabe and there are concerns that come February (when the EU leadership meets) there won’t be any more measure against him,” Mashiri said. He explained that efforts to pass the responsibility to Germany were “not surprising,” because “it has acquiesced and accepted Mugabe, particularly for economic motives.”“As long as they are guaranteed the right to deal in Zimbabwe’s diamonds, they will do this,” Mashiri said. More European countries have moved to voice support for the total lifting of the targeted measures on the Mugabe regime, after Belgium successfully campaigned for the removal of the restrictions on the state run Zimbabwe Mining and Development Corporation (ZMDC). Greece has since said that it wants the measures removed by the time it takes over the Presidency of the EU in 2014.

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A four member MDC-T committee, tasked with investigating party councillors who allegedly voted for ZANU PF mayors in the elections in August this year, has recommended the dismissal of some of the rebellious councillors. The MDC claims the councilors were bribed by ZANU PF to vote for its candidates. It’s alleged the councillors received cash and residential and commercial stands to betray the party led by Morgan Tsvangirai. Shepherd Mushonga, a former MDC-T MP for Mazowe Central and the chairman of the disciplinary committee, told SW Radio Africa on Wednesday that they handed over their recommendations to the party last month. Other members of the committee were Women’s Assembly secretary-general Sibusisiwe Bhuda-Masara, Youth Assembly spokesperson Clifford Hlatshwayo and Chitungwiza Senator James Makore. Mushonga, a Harare based lawyer, confirmed their report contained recommendations that the party fire councillors who instigated and played a leading role, but declined to identify those facing dismissal. The committee was set up to investigate the ‘defiant’ councillors in Victoria Falls, Gweru, Norton, Redcliff and Mutare.‘I can confirm that after thorough investigations, we came out with recommendations that we forwarded to the party. In some instances we recommended that some councillors be dismissed and some be fined for their role they played in the mayoral elections.‘But unfortunately I cannot disclose who is on the firing line because the party leadership has to study the recommendations and make their own conclusions before they release the contents,’ Mushonga said. The party’s standing committee met in Harare on Wednesday where a decision was expected to be taken on the rebels, most of whom were suspended a few days after the elections. However Nelson Chamisa, the national organizing secretary of the party, said the decision will only be made after the party’s national executive meeting on Thursday. The MDC-T MP for Mbizo in KweKwe, Settlement Chikwinya, implored the party to act decisively against the rebels. The legislator said the MDC-T is driven by principles and values and, as an organization brought about by people who despise ZANU PF for its corruption, the councillors should have known better. ‘If you want to be an MDC member you must act different from a ZANU PF member as you must be immune to corruption. Poverty must not drive you to compromise and poverty must not drive you to become a thief, and poverty must not drive you to compromise our values as a party,’ he said. The MP explained that the MDC-T is a party brought about by poor people which is why their policies are pro-poor, adding that nobody in the MDC-T family should compromise party values to vote ZANU PF in whatever forum.

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The government has been urged to rein in the police and end the impunity enjoyed by some members of the force, in the wake of the unexplained death of a Shamva man while in detention. Matthew Mwale died in police custody on Sunday, two hours after his arrest and detention at a local police station. His father Shadreck Mwale told the NewsDay newspaper this week that he suspects foul play, after being told his son drank poison while behind bars. It is alleged that Matthew was picked up around 4pm on Sunday at Wadzanai commuter omnibus rank by two plainclothes police officers, who claimed to be from the CID Minerals Section in Bindura. It is unclear why the 26 year old Matthew was detained. His father was called by a local councillor to say that his son had died while in detention. He was then contacted by a police officer who told him that Matthew had drunk poison while in custody. “I asked him how he could have drunk poison in the cell since people are searched before they are put in the cells, and he (the police officer) said that the issue was for their administration and they had witnesses whom I did not see,” Mwale was quoted as saying. These details have come to light at the same time that people in Harare’s business district have been left reeling by a horror crash in the capital, caused by two police officers who then fled the scene. A war vet named Raphael Mbanje died after being hit by a commuter kombi, which was trying to flee the police officers.“The vehicle was moving in reverse in Chinhoyi Street as the driver drove away from the police,” a witness has said.“A policeman then approached the vehicle and smashed the windscreen with a baton stick. I heard a sound and the driver continued to reverse it and ran over the man once.”“People screamed and shouted and the kombi driver panicked and continued to drive, running over the man again and killing him on the spot.” A crowd soon gathered and demanded that national police be barred from street patrols in the city, saying council police should be given the mandate to patrol the streets. The crowd allegedly threatened to beat up police officers, prompting a call for riot police to intervene. According to local news, there was “pandemonium” as baton-wielding riot police moved in to disperse the crowd. Harare Resident Trust Director Precious Shumba told SW Radio Africa that there is still anger among residents about the attitude of police members, saying “there is no political will to deal with the situation.”

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ZANU PF parliamentary candidates, who campaigned and then ran for election in the July poll, have defied party orders to surrender their campaign vehicles, worth millions of dollars. Didymus Mutasa, ZANU PF’s secretary for administration and Presidential Affairs Minister, in the new government, wrote to provincial chairpersons in October instructing them to hand over the Ford Everest cars they used during their campaigns.“Each candidate is instructed to return the vehicles to their provincial headquarters. This is the final call for the surrender of the vehicles,” Mutasa said, indicating that initial calls for the return of the vehicles had been ignored. The Ford Everest reportedly costs between R384,800 to R450,800, suggesting that ZANU PF spent some $10 million on the cars. Losing candidates have resisted returning the vehicles saying ZANU PF should sell them at “nominal prices.” According to the Daily News newspaper, a Harare candidate said: “We are not being rebellious but we have hope that the party will consider giving us the vehicles or allow us to buy because we still need to continue mobilising supporters and maintain our visibility as a party until the next election in 2018.”

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As the news was coming out that the treasury is struggling to finance its wage bill ZANU PF announced that it will Friday hold a fund raising dinner where the most expensive table will be going for $25,000. A Thursday Daily News report quoted ZANU PF deputy secretary for finance, Charles Tavengwa, saying his party wants to raise $3 million for its 14th annual conference to be held in Chinhoyi in a couple of weeks. Ironically, the conference will be held under the theme, Zim Asset: Growing the Economy for Empowerment and Employment. The dinner will be held at the up- market Golden Peacock Hotel in the Manicaland capital of Mutare. Supa Mandiwanzira said the Diamond table will be the most expensive, followed by the Platinum and Gold which will be going for $15,000 and $5,000 respectively with individuals forking out $100 each. But according to reports this week the government is in such dire straits that some civil servants will only have their Christmas bonuses paid next year. The news of the dinner also comes at a time when workers at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings have gone for five months without being paid. Only a fortnight ago Mandiwanzira, who is also the deputy minister of Information, was in the news saying the government would ensure that journalists, as well as the civil servants, are paid their wages. But a ZBC reporter told SW Radio Africa Thursday that things were getting worse with the state broadcaster paying them only allowances of as little as $50. Analyst Itai Dzamara told SW Radio Africa that it was not surprising that ZANU PF was prioritising its own conference because it has ‘always had an upside down approach to issues of national concern’. Dzamara said it was hypocrisy on Mandiwanzira’s part to appear to be more active on ZANU PF matters, soon after he promised to ensure the ZBC workers’ plight was attended to. In the Daily News report Mandiwanzira is quoted inviting guests to come to the dinner and witness Didymus or Oppah Muchinguri ‘jiving away’ to local music.

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The ZANU PF politburo has endorsed results from the seven provincial elections that were held last weekend, that saw Vice President Joice Mujuru’s faction score a landslide victory. The results make Mujuru odds-on favourite to succeed Mugabe, in place of party strongman Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa. Sunday’s election results which showed Mujuru’s faction taking control of nine out of the ten provinces were endorsed by the politburo in Harare on Thursday. Vice-President Mujuru has been fighting a bitter turf-war with Mnangagwa for the right to replace Mugabe, but her allies took charge of Harare, Bulawayo, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland West, Masvingo and Matabeleland South provinces. Only Matabeleland North province was won by an ally close to Mnangagwa. Observers have said that people should still keep an eye on Mnangagwa as he is unlikely to go quietly.

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Police in Harare on Wednesday arrested 37 women protestors who were marking the ongoing 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence. According to the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights information officer, Kumbirai Mafunda, the women were briefly detained at the Harare Central Police station and later released after being told to apply for police clearance for their future activities. Only last week police in Bulawayo assaulted scores of members of the Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA). The activists were on their way to Mat North Resident Minister Sithokozile Mathuthu’s offices to submit a petition on women’s needs and expectations. The 37 women arrested Wednesday are affiliated to the Katswe Sistahood, a movement of young women fighting for sexual and reproductive health rights in Zimbabwe. The 16 Days of activism Against Gender Violence is an international campaign that starts on November 25th and ends December 10th. The campaign hopes to raise awareness about gender-based violence as a human rights issue at the local, national, regional and international levels. This year’s theme is ‘Let’s challenge militarism and end violence against women’.

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Government has been warned that it must keep its word and pay civil servants their bonuses this month, as failure to do so will be a serious dereliction of duty. This was said by the Progressive Teachers’ Union’s Raymond Majongwe, who also warned that his group will not stand by and watch government spoil Christmas for its membership.“At the moment it is still a rumour, and we have not heard anything official from the government. But should this turn out to be true this is will be “a serious abdication of responsibility by the government and, as teachers, we will not take kindly to this,” Majongwe said. At the beginning of November, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa told the state-controlled Chronicle newspaper that civil servants will be paid their bonuses beginning last month. Chinamasa was quoted as having said: “We are working towards the payment of the 13th cheque and that will be done at the end of November. We will honour it.” While army personnel have since received their 13th cheque as promised, and teachers were expecting to get theirs before Christmas, an unconfirmed rumour suggests that may not happen as the government is broke. A Thursday report in the NewsDay newspaper said teachers were expected to get their December salaries on the 13th, with suggestions that the bonus will follow later, probably on the 27th. Unions have since written to the Public Service Ministry for clarification, with the Zimbabwe Teachers’ Union (ZIMTA) warning that failure to pay the bonuses will cause problems for future labour relations.“They (government) promised and they should deliver. They have given bonuses to soldiers and the police. It will be a travesty of justice,” Sifiso Ndlovu, the ZIMTA leader said. Speaking to SW Radio Africa Majongwe – the secretary-general of the PTUZ which represents 15,000 teachers – said if the government was able to find money to give to farmers and soldiers, it will be unacceptable for the State to then say they can’t pay other civil servants.“Any deviation from paying bonuses to teachers who continue to do their bit for the civil service, will be an insult. So far we have not heard anything from government, and they are just leaving us to guess.“ZANU PF is heading towards its congress where they are obviously going to be spending millions of dollars. In my view, it is in bad taste for them to forge ahead with that programme knowing well that they would have spoilt Christmas for us,” said Majongwe. The union leader said teachers will not accept any excuses that the Treasury has no funds to pay bonuses as normal “in a country that we know is oozing with abundant mineral wealth”. At the inauguration of the new government, ZANU PF pledged to address the plight of the civil servants, including improving working conditions and salaries. But nothing has happened with indications that negotiations between the relevant ministry and the Apex Council, the umbrella civil servants body, have stalled due to divisions in the latter. Majongwe said suspicion was rife that the government created this disharmony and lack of cooperation within the civil service “at the level of the so-called Apex Council”.“But despite all that, we gave this new administration the benefit of the doubt but that is now wearing thin. We want to make it clear that we expect them to deliver on the promises made both at election time and at inauguration,” Majongwe added.