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In what has been described as a ‘desperate situation’ scores of people, including women and children, have been sleeping in the open for the last two weeks after Chitungwiza South MP Christopher Chigumba evicted his own supporters. A NewsDay report Tuesday said nine families have so far been evicted from the Zano Remba Co-operative houses and 300 more are threatened. The report said ZANU PF supporters, who include war veterans and vendors, wailed and accused Chigumba of dishonesty as they narrated their ordeal Monday. District war veterans leader Irene Hove is said to have wept uncontrollably. The evictees also accused the police of beating them and further accused Chigumba of personalizing the project. Former St Mary’s legislator and leading Chitungwizwa community leader, Job Sikhala, told SW Radio Africa that the situation was desperate. Sikhala said the eviction was an act of ‘evil’ saying it was typical of ZANU PF which uses people during the campaign period only to dump them soon after the election. He urged humanitarian agencies to move in to rescue the women and children who are at the mercy of the ‘rains, mosquito and thugs.’ Sikhala said: ‘If there is a situation right now which must be publicized all over the world it is that of women and children who are sleeping in the open right in the middle of the rain season. These people were used and they believed that ZANU PF cared for them. We really need to sympathize with them.’ Chigumba, who is the patron of the co-operative, is quoted in the report claiming that the project is not a co-operative but his personal business. He also accused the members of being crooks. He is also said to be demanding $5,000 cash from the members in addition to what they contributed over the years. According to the report contributors to the housing project produced receipts which showed that the project is indeed a co-operative operating under the name Zano Remba Housing Co-operative and that they had been making monthly payments for several years. The co-operative was started in 2004 with the help of the then Harare provincial governor, the late Witness Mangwende. According to NewsDay Mavis Chibanda said the project is built on state land for low-income earners such as the war veterans, soldiers and vendors. Chibanda also said that Chigumba was brought in as a patron because he is a ZANU PF MP but to the member’s surprise debt collectors pitched up at the place in 2009 demanding $5,000 from each family. At the time members were also shocked to hear that the co-operative belonged to Chigumba, under his company Chigumba Holdings. According to NewsDay, the government ordered the Chitungwiza Municipality to surrender more than 1,000 stands to Chigumba ahead of the 2005 general elections.

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

Authorities at the Save valley Conservancy have denied claims that plans are underway to turn the area into a national park, after reports quoted the new tourism minister as saying this was in the pipeline. The Zimbabwe Independent last week quoted Minister Saviour Kasukuwere, the former Indigenisation Minister, as saying that negotiations with the Conservancy would result in the establishment of “a significant national park”.“We are moving ahead to indigenise Save Valley Conservancy and this is going to lead to the creation of a significant national park. I will provide specifics later but you can rest assured that it will be indigenised,” said Kasukuwere. The paper also quoted the Conservancy’s Vice Chairperson, Wilfried Pabst. as confirming this was going to happen. But Pabst told SW Radio Africa on Tuesday that the Zim Independent ‘misunderstood’.“No, the Conservancy will not be turned into a national park. That’s not the idea. The Conservancy will stay the way it is,” Pabst said. He explained that indigenisation negotiations are under way with the government, “but the details still need to be ironed out.” Part of the proposals currently on the table include protection for foreign investors, whose land makes up an estimated 36% of the Conservancy. Pabst said that “no one is going to get involved in the Conservancy if it affects any foreign investors. Foreign investors are safe, as they should be.” This is despite Zimbabwe’s indigenisation laws explicitly stating that foreign owned businesses are meant to hand over 51% of their shareholding to indigenous Zimbabweans. Pabst, a German investor, said instead that the only section of the Conservancy that could face these requirements are the estimated 36% of properties where “there is a hodge-podge of white and black Zimbabweans owning and sharing properties.”“I say these properties may be affected, because many of these properties are already indigenised, but the partners just need to be recognised,” Pabst said. He explained that in the event that some properties are earmarked for indigenous takeover, the National Parks authority would seek out financially stable investors as the new partners. Pabst said that certain criteria will be met to ensure there is not any abuse of authority or any financial losses. “If they (potential investors) have already received or invested in a farm in Zimbabwe then they won’t be considered. This means the gang of people in Masvingo who’ve been trying to jambanja the Conservancy, they won’t be considered,” Pabst said. He added: “The other criteria is that if someone has created a property and infrastructure and reputation worth millions, it will have to be recognised and paid for.”

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The MDC-T national chairman, Lovemore Moyo, has withdrawn his election petition because of the electoral court’s bias against the main opposition party. The former speaker had been contesting the results of the July 31st elections in Matobo North constituency, citing electoral fraud, but he withdrew the petition on Monday. He was defeated by ZANU PF’s Never Khanye who got 5,300 votes to Moyo’s 5,219. He filed a petition with the Electoral Court on August 15th last year. Following the July 31st election the MDC-T filed 39 petitions but are left with only eight, following Moyo’s withdrawal. Many of the petitions have been dismissed by the electoral court after they failed to pass the preliminary stage of the hearings, while others have been withdrawn for alleged lack of evidence. The MDC-T has accused the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) of frustrating efforts by the party to prove the July 31st elections were rigged on a ‘monumental scale’ after the electoral body refused to make available documents that would help prove its claim of vote manipulation. Our correspondent in Bulawayo, Lionel Saungweme, said Moyo told him on Tuesday that many of the petitions filed by the MDC-T have been thrown out for no apparent reason. ‘He believes the courts have set a trend by dismissing almost all MDC-T petitions, to a point where he also felt his would also be thrown out,’ Saungweme said. Most losing MDC-T MPs said they did not expect any fair trials as the electoral court had been formed by President Robert Mugabe, the same person the opposition parties were trying to defeat at the election. The MDC-T have still been denied access to an electronic copy of the voters roll.

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Police in Bulawayo have been heavily criticized after they blocked a Gukurahundi prayer meeting which they had initially cleared. Organised by the Bulawayo-based pressure group Ibhetshu Likazulu the prayer meeting was due to take place on Saturday at the Baptist Church in the city center. But the event failed to take off after plain clothes police officers pitched up shortly before the start of the meeting and ordered the congregants to disperse. A Monday Southern Eye report quoted organizers saying the police claimed that their intelligence showed that the meeting was not a prayer meeting but a demonstration. Ibhetshu Likazulu Secretary General, Mbuso Fuzwayo, confirmed the development. In an interview with SW Radio Africa he said the police were on Tuesday still questioning some of their members with regards to the aborted Saturday meeting. He emphasized that the meeting was indeed a prayer meeting for the victims of the genocide and ‘follow up crackdowns on the people of Zimbabwe.’ The police ban enraged the participants, among whom were former Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church Pius Ncube, and former National Healing minister Moses Mzila-dlovu. According to the report Ncube, a fierce critic of the ZANU PF government policies, confronted the police and ‘asked them who they were to stop people from meeting with God.’ Ncube is a leading advocate for justice for the victims of the 1980s Gukurahundi genocide which left an estimated 20,000 people dead. ZANU PF politburo member Sikhanyiso Ndlovu provoked fury Monday after he was quoted in the Zimbabwe Mail accusing the organizers of the meeting for trying to gain political mileage over the issue of the Gukurahundi. Ndlovu said the issue was ‘dealt with’ a long time ago through the 1987 Unity Accord signed between ZANU PF and PF ZAPU and should not be revived. Activists from across the country resorted to the social media to heap personal abuse on Ndlovu for his comments which they invariably described as ‘insensitive’ and ‘idiotic.’ An irate Fuzwayo said it was ‘because of the actions of people like Ndlovu’ that it has become difficult to achieve justice for the victims of the Matabeleland massacres. It is not the first time for the police to stop gatherings to do with Mugabe’s 1980s genocide. In 2012 they stopped a Matobo family from conducting a reburial ceremony of Mvulo Nyathi, who was allegedly beaten to death by the Fifth Brigade in 1984. Two years earlier they had blocked an exhibition by visual artist Owen Maseko depicting the Gukurahundi at the Bulawayo Art Gallery. Maseko was arrested and charged with undermining the authority of the President and ‘causing offence to persons of a particular race.’ The case was then referred to the Constitutional Court after his lawyers argued that criminalizing creative arts was an infringement on Maseko’s right to freedom of expression. This case has been ongoing and it was last week that the Chief Justice, Godfrey Chidyausiku, reserved his ruling after the state conceded that it may not have a case against Maseko.

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Civil service unions have accepted the government’s offer of a $79 salary increment, which will see the lowest-paid worker earning a monthly wage of $375. The civil servants had wanted the lowest paid worker to earn $540, in line with the poverty datum line, and as promised by Mugabe during last year’s elections. But this was rejected by the government which says it has no money. Union representatives told the press that their hopes were now pinned on the mid-term budget review to achieve a decent wage. Progressive Teachers Union President, Takavafira Zhou, said teachers, whose salaries have been increased by $54, were not buying the claim that there is no money. “Government just does not prioritise education or value the civil service. How can they say there is no money when the country has all these mineral resources?“We have a self-centred government that priorities looting, nepotism and all the ‘isms’ you can think of at the expense of its workers,” Zhou told SW Radio Africa Tuesday. He said the $54 dollars government offer will see teachers, regardless of years in service, earning a salary of $500 to $530, which is still below the poverty threshold. “The government has negotiated in bad faith. They took our position paper and tweaked it, and never exchanged theirs until we went into discussions.” Zhou said they would now focus on negotiating with their employer over the promised non-monetary incentives, which include housing stands. “Even with these incentives, there is no clarity or indication of how and when the government will begin to roll them out. All we were told was that the government will approach the local authorities, but no time frame has been set,” Zhou added. The union leader slammed other civil service unions for lacking a unity of purpose during negotiations. “The government was able to get away with this paltry offer because some union representatives were quick to accept the employer’s position without even consulting the membership,” Zhou told SW Radio Africa. The head of the Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe, Manuel Nyawo, told the Newsday newspaper that they were unhappy with the offer but compromised in order to reach an agreement with government.

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A sold out concert for Canadian rock star Bryan Adams in Zimbabwe, has sparked debate about attempts to legitimise the Robert Mugabe regime. The show is taking place at the Harare International Conference Centre on Friday, the day before Adams performs in South Africa. Tickets, which ranged between $30 and $100, promptly sold out after the concert was announced and buzz about the show has been building. But the concert is not being welcomed by all, amid concerns about efforts to normalise the situation in Zimbabwe since the highly disputed elections last year that saw Mugabe and ZANU PF resume total control of the country. “Certainly it is improper considering the timing and possibility that it could send a wrong message about the situation in Zimbabwe following the flawed elections,” said Dewa Mavhinga, a senior researcher with the Africa division of Human Rights Watch. He told SW Radio Africa on Wednesday that if high profile artists like Adams decide to visit Zimbabwe, then they have a responsibility to highlight the challenges the country faces. “It should not be a trip for the elite which ignores the suffering in the country. There is a need to balance it out and say that if you are in the country then you have an obligation to speak out against human rights abuses and be an advocate for democratic change,” Mavhinga said. Other critics have compared the situation to that of apartheid South Africa, where an international cultural boycott began in 1961, with musicians and other performers refusing to travel to South Africa while apartheid existed. In Zimbabwe however, despite the myriad of human rights atrocities committed by the Mugabe regime (including the Gukurahundi genocide, the deadly Operation Hakudzokwi at the Chiadzwa diamond fields, and Murambatsvina), there is no such international action. Mavhinga said this lack of united international action was a result of the power of ZANU PF’s “propaganda machinery,” which has successfully divided international opinion.“One must acknowledge that the ZANU PF propaganda machinery has been in overdrive. The flawed elections in July 2013 did not get the condemnation they deserved because countries like South Africa endorsed the process; even SADC was hoodwinked and endorsed the process. So did the African Union. So that gives a difficult context to mount a cultural boycott or any other kind of international campaign,” Mavhinga said. Other Zimbabweans have meanwhile said that boycotting the country is not the answer. “Zimbabweans have a real hunger for contact with the outside world,” said Petina Gappah, a Zimbabwean novelist quoted by the Globe and Mail newspaper.“Isolation has not worked. I think engagement is the way to go.” An online commentator agreed, saying: “People must learn to separate issues, do they mean Zimbabweans staying in Zimbabwe should stop living, enjoying some of these finer things in life simply becoz Mugabe is still alive and ruling? Leave politics kupolitics, Mugabe is not even going to attend this show, Bryan Adams waita zvako iwe, Zimbabwe is not Robert Mugabe and his cronies they are millions of other Zimbabweans in Zimbabwe…” Others however said that the international community was risking not only normalising an abnormal situation, but also giving credibility to a flawed election process and illegal regime. Similar comments were also voiced when the United National (UN) tourism body hosted a high level, international conference in Victoria Falls, a month after the disputed elections last July. Another online commentator said such events “risk romanticising squalor at the expense of progress.” Mavhinga agreed, warning that there should not be a different human rights standard for Zimbabwe for the sake of ‘engagement’.“The challenge is that the international community has sought to accommodate ZANU PF in many ways and there’s been a lowering of international standards to accommodate ZANU PF. What we are saying is that universal values like human rights should not have a special yardstick just for Zimbabwe alone,” Mavhinga said.

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President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday revealed some home truths, including how his father caused him pain by abandoning his family, leaving him to take charge of the Mugabes at a tender age. Speaking at the burial of his sister Bridget who died at the weekend Mugabe said when his father left he was naturally forced to take charge of the family because his elder brothers, Michael and Raphael, had died. According to a Wednesday NewsDay report, Mugabe said his father abandoned the family following the death of Michael, who died of food poisoning. Mugabe said his father was not happy with his son’s death and suspected that there was ‘something wrong’ at their home and left for Bulawayo in 1934. Mugabe told mourners that following his father’s departure he wrote a letter to him to express his displeasure. Following his father’s failure to return home Mugabe then decided to trace him to Makokoba in Bulawayo in 1943. Mugabe was to discover that his father had settled in Nyamandlovu as a carpenter and married an Ndebele woman who had borne him two more sons, David and Albert. Mugabe’s father was to die a few years later, after his return to Zvimba with his sons, leaving Mugabe in charge of the entire extended family at the age of 21. According to the reports Mugabe further revealed the difference between Bridget and the other departed sister Sabina, whom he described as ‘academic’ and ‘practical’ respectively. Mugabe described how self-reliant Sabina was, while Bridget was dependent on her brother as she stayed with him at State House. Mugabe further revealed that Bridget’s situation made him introduce the ministry on psychomotor activities which is led by Josaya Hungwe. When the portfolio was announced in September last year most people expressed ignorance about the functions of such a ministry. Hungwe was to later explain that his duty would be integrate primary and vocational training so that Zimbabwe produces educated and productive personnel. Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition programmes manager, Nixon Nyikadzino, said Mugabe was feeling ‘isolated’ because most of his liberation war friends and family members are dead, hence his public revelations on family life. Dumisani Muleya, an editor at the Zimbabwe Independent, agreed with Nyikadzino adding that Mugabe was feeling lonely at both family and political level, forcing him to share his home truths including family secrets with the broader public. Muleya further warned that Mugabe could be feeling ‘vulnerable and insecure’ as well and there was a danger that ‘that vulnerability could manifest itself by way of digging in.’He said: ‘He might be feeling that he is better off just hanging in there until the end; he could be feeling that there is nothing out there for him.’ Both Muleya and Nyikadzino were speaking on SW Radio Africa’s Cutting Edge programme.

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High Court Judge Chinembiri Bhunu on Tuesday reserved judgement on a bail application, filed by defence lawyers for the three Glen View activists still held in custody at Chikurubi Maximum security prison. Last Maingehama, Yvonne Musarurwa and Tungamirai Madzokere, plus 26 other activists, were arrested in 2011 on allegations of murdering police officer Petros Mutedzi during disturbances in Glen View. Their co-accused were granted bail in November 2012 and September last year, but Maingehama, Musarurwa and Madzokere have remained behind bars after Judge Bhunu ruled that they were a flight risk. Twenty-one of the MDC-T supporters accused of murdering the police inspector were acquitted by Judge Bhunu in September last year after he ruled that none of the evidence put forward by the State implicated them on the murder charge. Seven of the accused will, however, have to defend themselves in court when the murder trial resumes on February 24th. The other four, who were bailed last year but will appear in court next month, are Lazarus Maengahama, Edwin Muingiri, Phineas Nhatarikwa, and Paul Rukanda. Another activist, Rebecca Mafukeni, died last year while still detained at Chikurubi, following several unsuccessful bail attempts. Defence lawyer Charles Kwaramba told SW Radio Africa on Wednesday that there was a chamber hearing on Tuesday where Judge Bhunu reserved judgement on the latest bail application for the trio. Kwaramba said they felt the three had spent so much time behind bars without a trial and believed they were the right candidates for bail. The activists have always complained that their rights to a speedy trial are being violated. Promise Mkwananzi, the secretary-general of the MDC-T youth assembly, said the activists’ case can best be described as a miscarriage of justice that has continued from 2011.‘It’s the darkest hour of justice delivery system in Zimbabwe,’ said Mkwananzi, adding that the incarceration and trial of the activists was a ZANU PF plot to weaken the MDC-T. Some of those who were acquitted have notified police commissioner-general Augustine Chihuri of their intention to sue after spending over two years in prison under inhuman conditions. The acquitted activists said they wore clothes which exposed their private parts, lost their jobs and were subjected to ill-prepared non nutritious food while in prison. Five of the 21 activists have written demanding $65,000 each for the emotional stress they went through in remand and defamation of their characters.

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More than 100,000 Kwekwe residents spent three days without water after the country’s water authority disconnected the city over an outstanding debt. Kwekwe City Council owes the state-owned Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) more than $1.2 million. The city council is struggling to pay its creditors, largely due to the politically-induced debt cancellation scheme which wiped off $10 million. From Sunday until Tuesday night, there was no running water in thousands of households in the city as supplies were cut off to force the council to pay up. Weston Masiya, the councillor for Ward 3 in Mbizo, told this station that water supply was restored after the municipality paid a token sum to the water authority. “The Kwekwe City Council owes ZINWA a lot of money, but its capacity to service its debts was severely eroded by last year’s debt write-off directive.“The council is struggling to provide services to residents and if that directive was about the welfare of residents, then government should have extended the cancellation to cover debts owed by local authorities to government bodies such as ZINWA,” councillor Masiya said. Kwekwe legislator for the Mbizo Constituency, Settlement Chikwinya, criticised the water authority for failing to warn residents that it would be disconnecting supply. “For ZINWA to cut off Kwekwe’s water supply for three days without any warning is inhuman, unprofessional and barbaric.“Residents were caught unawares because we don’t usually have water problems in Kwekwe. Many families were left with no water to drink or flush toilets, and such situations expose people to waterborne diseases,” Chikwinya said. He told SW Radio Africa that hundreds of families queued for hours to fetch water from a borehole located in one of the constituency schools. “I do not condone non-payment of dues owed to ZINWA by the city council but there are other measures that could have been taken by ZINWA to recover debt, than shutting off raw water supplies.” He said the water authority could have used the courts to attach council property, including the mayoral residence which Chikwinya said is still being occupied by ex-mayor Stanford Bonyongwa, whose term expired in 2008. The MDC-T MP also blamed Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo’s debt write-off for depriving local authorities of much-needed revenue, saying the directive “was insincere and lacked business sense”. ZANU PF forced local authorities to cancel rate payers’ debts just before the July 31st polls, a move which municipal administrators slammed as an ill-conceived populist gimmick which plunged all the 92 authorities into the red.

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Mine workers at Gaths Asbestos Mine, who had been on strike to protest unpaid wages, have been threatened with dismissal, forcing them to return to work. More than 800 workers at the Mashava-based mine have not been paid for more than six months. Last week, the workers went on strike to try and force their employer to pay them. But the industrial action was called off Tuesday when ZANU PF officials, state security agents, and war vets, threatened workers with dismissal if they persisted with the strike, according to a Daily News report. Some workers told the paper that ZANU PF legislator for Masvingo West Ezra Chadzamira ordered them to return to work while the wage issue was being addressed. “We were just told to go and work while we wait for our salaries, but it’s not clear when that will be,” the Daily News quoted one of the workers as saying. Another worker told the paper: “We were ordered to go back to work or we get fired. They said those who resisted the order were opposition supporters and were threatened with unspecified consequences.” Gaths Mine is part of the Shabanie Mashava Mines, which was seized by government 10 years ago from its owner Mutumwa Mawere. The South African-based businessman has been fighting to regain his companies since. In October last year he filed an application at the Constitutional Court seeking to repossess several of his businesses, including SMM. National Mine Workers’ Union of Zimbabwe president Tinashe Mugwira said he was disturbed by what is happening in the mining sector.“Most mines, particularly small-scale ones, are being run mafia-style since the indigenisation programme started.“The new managers are disregarding labour laws and ill-treat workers. Some withhold workers’ wages or pay them as little as $50,” Mugwira told SW Radio Africa on Wednesday. Mugwira said it was a workers’ right to embark on industrial action as a part of the bargaining process and it was wrong for politicians to interfere in labour issues.“Rather than intimidating workers, Chadzamira should be sympathising with his constituents and highlighting their plight at the highest level.“It is unfortunate that in Zimbabwe those who are supposed to be representing the people are actually the ones who are promoting their exploitation,” Mugwira added. Mugwira said the mine workers union was dealing with another case at Ox Mining in Kadoma, where deputy mines minister Freddy Moyo was failing to pay hundreds of workers after he took over the mining concern from some international investors.

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Just weeks before a second international auction of Zimbabwe’s diamonds is planned to take place, a report detailing ongoing abuses at the Chiadzwa alluvial fields has been released. The auction, which is set to take place in Belgium in February, follows the sale of almost 300,000 carats of Zimbabwe’s diamonds last year. That auction was the first since Europe removed its restrictive measures from the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) shortly after the disputed elections in July 2013. The European Union (EU), and in particular Belgium, has faced intense criticism for allowing Zimbabwe’s diamonds back onto the international market, despite human rights and other concerns at the Chiadzwa diamond fields. These concerns have again been highlighted in a report by the Centre for Research and Development (CRD) which has detailed ongoing abuses of diamond panners and local villagers. The report also raises serious questions about transparency and accountability at the diamond mines. The report details incidents of assaults, dog attacks and prolonged detentions by security officials working for the mining firms, against people accused of illegal diamond panning. 13 pages of the report details these attacks, which all happened over the last year, with accompanying pictures showing the extent of the injuries people have sustained. James Mupfumi, the acting Director of the CRD, said Wednesday that the government, as a joint venture partner of the firms implicated in the abuses, has a direct responsibility to intervene and ensure the situation is controlled. “We are worried about these continuing incidents of human rights abuses and the failure by government to address the issue, especially the issue of illegal panners which we believe is a direct result of the desperate socio economic problems in the country,” Mupfumi told SW Radio Africa.“The panners are acting out of desperation. There is no support for the local communities,” Mupfumi added. The CRD report also calls for better transparency measures to be enforced at the diamond mines, to ensure that diamond profits help the communities, as promised by the government. “The biggest challenge though is that the arrangement of the mining companies and the people involved, involve government and influential people in government. So the police won’t investigate. We need political will and proper transparency measures to combat this,” Mupfumi said.

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Twenty-one questions on the Parliament’s Order Paper were Wednesday deferred, after several ZANU PF ministers failed to turn up for the Questions and Answer session, reports said Thursday. A NewsDay report said this ‘sparked an outcry’ from the MDC-T MPs who accused their ZANU PF counterparts of not taking parliament business seriously. Glen View MP Fani Munengami set the ball rolling by raising a point of order with the Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda. Munengami expressed concern over the absence of the ministers, the report said. Munengami is said to have asked if it is ‘government policy that when MPs want to ask questions, there are no ministers to answer them in the House of Assembly.’ He added that he had no choice but to direct his questions to Mudenda since he could not see any minister in Parliament. However Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa who, according to the report was the only minister present, chipped in to say the absence of his colleagues was ‘not a policy issue.’ Chinamasa is reported to have promised to ‘convey to his colleagues the imperative to attend Parliament.’ Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, Local government minister Ignatius Chombo, Agriculture minister Joseph Made and a few other deputy ministers are said to have walked in later. However, no sooner had Mnangagwa taken his seat than he was taken to task by Kuwadzana MP Nelson Chamisa. Chamisa is said to have asked Mnangagwa, who is the leader of the House, to explain why the ministers were not coming to Parliament to answer questions. According to the report, Chamisa added that their absence was an indication that they were underperforming in Parliament. Mnangagwa is reported to have fired back saying it was not the duty of the MDC-T to rate ministers. He added that the ministers’ performance is assessed by President Mugabe and the voting public. In an interview with SW Radio Africa, Chamisa confirmed the Wednesday developments. Chamisa said it was not the first time for the ministers to fail to attend parliament. “It has become a culture and a way of doing things,’ said Chamisa. He added: ‘We have many problems in the country ranging from energy to water and the people we represent in parliament want answers from us. So how do we account to them if the ministers don’t turn up to answer our questions?’

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A multi-million dollar loan, earmarked primarily for power and water support in Zimbabwe, has been handed to the ZANU PF government by the African Development Bank. The $53 million loan agreement was signed on Wednesday by the Bank’s representative Mateus Magala and Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa. Of that amount, almost $40 million is being funded by the Zimbabwe Multi-Donor Trust Fund, set up in 2010 to support the Zim government’s ‘priority recovery’ activities. The major donors of that Fund include Australia, Denmark, Germany, Norway Switzerland and the United Kingdom, who have for years poured money into Zimbabwe by way of humanitarian relief. This latest loan is meant for water supply, sanitation and power infrastructure rehabilitation projects. The rest of the Development Bank grant is being paid out by the African Development Fund and is set to finance governance and institutional strengthening programs, youth and tourism enhancement projects and more. There was no detail provided about what accountability measures would be enforced to ensure that ZANU PF spends the money where it is needed, with the party responsible for years of financial mismanagement and widespread economic destruction. Economic analyst Bekithemba Mhlanga said it was likely that some enforcement measures would be in place. “If you take a place like Zimbabwe where there are concerns about how these kinds of funds are used, and about transparency and accountability, you’ll find mechanisms are in place to ensure a confidence level of transparency and proper use of the funds,” Mhlanga said. Zimbabwe’s external debt is pegged at about $11 billion, and global lenders like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have not given the country any new loans on this basis. Mhlanga said that the ZANU PF government could start paying off its debt, if it kick-started the country’s economic recovery. He added: “Water and power remain critical for Zimbabwe’s economic recovery and it is important the money is used for those purposes. What these loans say to Zimbabwe is that this is a second chance. This is an opportunity for Zimbabwe to take that second chance and demonstrate that they are able to live by whatever commercial obligations it has.”

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The ruling ZANU PF government should curb obscene salaries for heads of parastatals as a matter of urgency, the opposition MDC-T party said on Thursday. Douglas Mwonzora, spokesman for the MDC-T, said the level of CEO remuneration in the public sector is sending out the wrong message to the average worker. His comments follow a report in the Herald that showed the salary schedule of the top management at the Premier Service Medical Aid Society (PSMAS), which is gobbling up at least US$1 million in monthly salaries for senior management. PSMAS is the largest medical aid society in Zimbabwe catering for more than 600,000 people, most of whom are in the civil service and uniformed forces. At the same time the PSMAS is tottering under a US$38 million debt. The state controlled daily said as of December 31st the society owed service providers US$38 million in unpaid bills for medical services rendered to its members. Documents show that the PSMAS group chief executive Cuthbert Dube earned a basic monthly salary of US$230,000. Dube is also the current chairman of the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) and former board chairman of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC). He is believed to have been the board member who authorized suspended ZBC chief executive Happison Muchechetere’s basic salary of $27,000, along with a monthly allowance of $3,000 and another $2,500 for his domestic staff. Mwonzora said there is justified public outrage at the obscenely large executive compensation, adding that government should regulate compensations for all parastatal heads. ‘We can’t ignore what is happening in certain sectors which border on poor board decisions and greed,’ he said disclosing that their party will table a parliamentary debate on high salaries in the public sector. Mwonzora said the MDC-T raised the issue of salaries during the inclusive government but ZANU PF was not interested to listen to their concerns because they wanted to protect their ‘friends and cronies.’

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Former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s legal efforts to gain access to materials from last year’s disputed elections suffered a setback again Thursday, when the Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s finding that the case was not an urgent matter. The MDC-T leader filed two urgent applications at the Electoral Court in August last year, seeking an order directing the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to open ballot boxes from the disputed July 31st poll. Tsvangirai insisted there had been massive rigging and Mugabe’s claim to a 61% victory was therefore fraudulent. But Justice Chinembiri Bhunu dismissed the applications saying there was no urgency. This was upheld by the Supreme Court on Thursday. Back in August Justice Bhunu also went further to accuse Tsvangirai’s lawyers of “bringing the integrity of the judiciary into disrepute” and recommended that they be prosecuted by the then Attorney General, Johannes Tomana. The lawyers, Alec Muchadehama, Advocate Lewis Uriri and Tarisai Mutangi had simply included with their applications, a report from the MDC-T which criticized the judiciary. “The Supreme Court disagreed with the judge of the Electoral Court, where he found that the lawyers were contemptuous or had brought the reputation of the court into disrepute. The Court found this ruling was not even necessary. It should not have been made in the first place,” lawyer Mutangi told SW Radio Africa. Regarding Tsvangirai’s appeal, Mutangi said: “It means the applications are not urgent and do not have to be dealt with immediately. They are to be filed and then follow the normal procedure of all other court applications. This could mean months before the case is heard or considered.” With the Supreme Court now having upheld Justice Bhunu’s dismissal, it is not clear what the MDC-T leader will do next. But more than six months have passed since the election results that he is challenging were announced. The MDC-T is participating in parliament and in local Councils. Some observers now question the point of continuing the legal case.

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MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai has deferred to Friday his state of the nation address which was initially scheduled for Tuesday. On Tuesday guests. who included diplomats, journalists, the business community, and the labour movement, were kept waiting before they were informed that Tsvangirai had postponed the event to Thursday. Tsvangirai’s spokesman Luke Tamborinyoka sent out a statement which said the postponement was a show of respect to President Robert Mugabe, whose sister Bridget was being buried Tuesday. Tsvangirai did not attend the burial. Harare-based correspondent Simon Muchemwa criticised the way the MDC-T leader’s office has handled the postponements, saying guests were not being notified on time.“On Tuesday, the announcement was made late, and many people, including some diplomats, had already arrived at the venue,” Muchemwa said.“Today (Thursday) I had to phone the MDC-T office to find out what was happening and that is when I was told the address will now happen Friday evening.” The Tuesday postponement was emailed to those on the party’s mailing list, posted on the party’s website and also on Tsvangirai’s Facebook page, but the latest move to Friday was not. Luke Tamborinyoka however denied that his team was not informing people in time about the delays. “It is a lie that we have not informed people on time. We have actually written to journalists, diplomats, students and all the institutions that we had invited.“Anyone who did not receive the message about the postponement was not invited in the first place,” Tamboriyoka added. Political analyst Pedzisai Ruhanya said Tsvangirai should perhaps be addressing the state of his own office and party first, before attempting to offer national solutions. “Such confusion shows that the MDC-T is failing to manage its public political programmes and this is what people have been saying for some time.“Perhaps the MDC-T leader should be telling Zimbabweans what the state of the party is since the July 31st poll outcome,” Ruhanya told this station on Thursday’s Big Picture programme. Josh Mhambi, an official within the MDC led by Welshman Ncube, said Tsvangirai was displaying a lack of decisiveness. “For a respected leader of the main opposition party to keep postponing an event to which diplomats have been invited serious dents his credibility and by the time he delivers his address, people would have lost interest. It is such situations that make people say that he flips flops,” Mhambi said. The MDC-T says Friday’s event, if it takes place, is “meant to unpack the problems facing the country and proffer solutions on the way forward in light of the magnitude of the economic problems facing the people of Zimbabwe.” Tamborinyoka said Tsvangirai will deliver the address at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, in Harare, at 5pm.

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ZANU PF has stated it is “not bothered” by the US decision not to invite Robert Mugabe to a landmark summit, set to be hosted by Barack Obama later this year. 47 African leaders will receive invites to the US-Africa summit being held in August, with the Obama administration looking to widen trade, development and security ties with African nations. The invites are only being extended to those nations in ‘good standing’ with the US, or who are not currently suspended by the African Union. This means Mugabe, who remains targeted under the US government’s restrictive measures, will not be included. Asked to comment on this ‘snub’, Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba was quoted by the NewsDay newspaper as saying: “The world is larger than America. So we are not bothered.” He added: “In any case, it would have been very cynical for an American President presiding over runners of sanctions against Zimbabwe to invite its president for dinner.” Former Zimbabwean diplomat Clifford Mashiri said the US was “making a clear statement” by not following the lead of other Western nations who have been attempting to re-engage with the Mugabe regime.“The US is sending a clear signal that Mugabe’s administration is illegitimate. So it is just registering this point to the world that he’s not welcome,” Mashiri said. He added that this was in strong contrast to the position taken by European nations, which have been steadily working to welcome Zimbabwe back into the fold. These re-engagement efforts have persisted, despite the disputed elections in July 2013. “The US is taking an independent position, and with regards to the illegitimate regime in Zimbabwe, I would like to think this position will not change just because Europe is re-engaging,” Mashiri said. Other countries who will not be invited to the US-Africa summit include Egypt, Madagascar and Sudan. However, Kenya’s leader Uhuru Kenyatta is set to be part of the summit, despite facing charges before the International Criminal Court.

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The MDC-T MP for Bulawayo South, Eddie Cross, was on Friday acquitted of charges of racial slurs and contravening the Posts and Telecommunications Act, by a Bulawayo magistrate. The 73 year-old politician was dragged to court by the party’s provincial administrator, Nkululeko Ndlovu, who accused Cross of insulting him over the phone by saying that black people shall never run this country properly. Ndlovu alleged that Cross offended him by suggesting that he was stupid and talking “crap.’ The veteran politician strenuously denied the charges, saying the charges were politically motivated. The two fell out when Cross asked Ndlovu to reconcile money that he had been given by the party for election campaign purposes. The MP accused Ndlovu of misappropriating about $5,000. Magistrate Gladmore Mushove dismissed the charges against Cross and told the court that the judiciary should not be burdened by such trivial cases which should have been settled at party level. However, the ruling did not satisfy Ndlovu who told our correspondent in Bulawayo, Lionel Saungweme, that he is going to approach the civil court and file a case against Cross. He said he will sue the MP for tarnishing his image and will be seeking redress in the courts. Cross said he was not worried by the threats because they had all the facts and evidence that Ndlovu had abused party funds. ‘If he’s got the money to approach the courts that’s fine with me but he should know that I was not put to my defence in this case, so if he wants to give me an opportunity in court to prove that he stole money I will gladly accept the offer,’ Cross said.

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Residents at Hwange Colliery, in Matebeleland North, have been experiencing water problems since December when the main pump broke down. Residents at the coal mining town now fear an outbreak of diseases such as cholera and typhoid, if the water problem persists. “It’s now a health hazard because the toilets are not being cleaned,” one of the workers, Welshman Moyo, told SW Radio Africa Friday. Moyo said the authorities have said water will be rationed until the pump returns from Harare, and sometimes there is no water for two days. “We don’t understand why they sent it to be fixed in Harare because there is a shop locally where the pump could have been repaired.“The water is being rationed across all the townships but the hardest-hit were Number 2, 3, and Cinderella where general workers and their families live.“The rationing measures however do not affect the Number 1 section, where the bosses (managers) live,” Moyo added. Moyo said the pump is old but when workers asked the mining authorities to replace it, they were told there are no funds. The mining town does not have any boreholes to use as backup, and residents who miss the opportunity to fill up during the few hours when water is turned on have to wait for the next time, he added. Another colliery resident told the NewsDay newspaper Thursday that they sometimes spend the whole day queuing for water. “A councillor for the (Nguminja) ward has been providing a water bowser, but on Wednesday people queued from 6am until the end of the day. We were told the councillor was instructed by some high office not to supply the water,” the resident said. Businessman and former Hwange West MP Jealous Sansole told SW Radio Africa that he failed to get water to drink and to fill up his car radiator when he visited the colliery Wednesday. “I left the town very thirsty, but at the time I was not aware that colliery residents have gone for so long without any water,” Sansole said.

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The MDC party led by Welshman Ncube is reportedly facing collapse due to financial problems but officials are denying the reports. A Friday Daily News report quoted a Bulawayo-based party member saying ‘the end is nigh’ for the party which has since closed seven of its provincial offices. The official also claimed that Ncube has since disappeared and was nowhere to be seen. The unnamed official said so dire is the situation that members have been told to personally fund the party, which could die if they don’t do so. According to the report the party has closed offices in Bulawayo, Matabeleland North, Midlands North, Midlands South, Masvingo, Mashonaland West and Manicaland. The official was quoted saying the party had not only closed most of its provincial offices but some workers had already been retrenched. The party, which did not win a single seat during last year’s elections, plunged into internal squabbles after the poll. Members from Matabeleland South accused the executive of imposing Secretary General Priscilla Misihairambwi-Mushonga on the province. The squabble led to the expulsion of some members, including the provincial chairperson Petros Mukwena. As if that was not enough, the party’s national director of policy and research, Qhubani Moyo, also resigned at that time. But in an interview with SW Radio Africa MDC spokesman, Nhlanhla Dube, scoffed at the reports. Dube said: ‘There is nothing like that. I am the spokesperson and so anyone who purports to be speaking about the party without being confident enough to disclose their name is just a phantom.’ He added: ‘I can tell you with absolute certainty that there is nowhere in the operation of the party where we have failed or are failing because of lack of funds.’ Dube also denied claims that Ncube has disappeared. He said such claims ‘can only come from people who walk around with their eyes and ears closed’ because Ncube has addressed ‘countless’ party meetings since the last election.