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There has been strong criticism of the Mugabe family for splurging $5 million on a lavish wedding ceremony for daughter Bona, while not doing enough to help ordinary Zimbabweans who are starving in recently flooded areas and others stricken by disease. First daughter Bona tied the knot to Simba Chikore on Saturday at an extravagant ceremony attended by at least 4,000 guests, who included diplomats, Heads of State, government officials, church leaders, music stars and foreign dignitaries. Criticism has focused on the amount of money spent on the affair, with Robert Mugabe himself presenting the couple with $100,000 in addition to thousands more presented by other guests who also gave cattle as wedding presents. This took place while government is failing to help thousands of families from the Tokwe Mukosi Dam area that were recently relocated to Chingwizi Camp in Nuanetsi and are in dire need of food, water and shelter. Statistics availed by government’s Civil Protection Unit show that over 150, 000 tonnes of grains are needed and some families are going without food for as many as four days, according to the Daily News newspaper. A shortage of tents has also meant that thousands are sleeping out in the open. But there were no shortages at the wedding. A local mining company is reported to have presented $100,000 to the couple. The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) also threw in $10,000, despite claiming that they are failing to transport prisoners to court because there is no money for fuel. In addition, food and other services are in short supply in Zimbabwe’s prisons. Luke Zunga, from the Global Zimbabwe Forum in South Africa, said the whole affair showed that the country is in the hands of people who are very much out of touch with ordinary Zimbabweans and could not care less what happens to them. “It follows on the expensive birthday (Mugabe’s $1 million 90th celebration). Now there is the wedding extravaganza and it’s not good for the country. I think they have no appetite for running the country, they are just doing what they like. They own it,” Zunga told SW Radio Africa.“There is no government in Zimbabwe right now it’s just one guy doing what he wants. So they can spend money amidst poverty and high unemployment. Varikudga vachichata (They are eating and getting married),” Zunga added. Questions have also been raised as to where Mugabe managed to raise the money to pay for such a lavish ceremony, given that his salary in 2009 was reported to be only $1,733 per month including allowances. The figures were unveiled in the national budget in 2009 and reported by the local press. Zunga said: “There is no water. There is no electricity and you find leaders flying back and forth and fighting some battle with the British which doesn’t exist. In a country which is desperate, there is no planning for the future.”

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

Opposition parties have responded cautiously to MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s plea for a fresh coalition, reports said Tuesday. Addressing a rally in Budiriro on Sunday Tsvangirai pleaded with his former allies to return to the main MDC and form a strong alliance against the ruling ZANU PF. Tsvangirai made specific references to Welshman Ncube (MDC), Job Sikhala (MDC-99) as well as the National Constitutional Assembly leader Lovemore Madkuku. It was at the same rally that MDC-T organizing secretary Nelson Chamisa claimed that Tsvangirai was anointed by God and said ‘no one can replace’ him. Chamisa said Tsvangirai was the ‘founding father of democracy and a doyen of constitutionalism’ in Zimbabwe. According to reports Sikhala said he was open to negotiations while Madhuku refused to comment on the matter before a formal approach from Tsvangirai. A Daily News report said Nhlanhla Dube, a spokesman for Ncube’s party, said Tsvangirai should make his plea for a new union through ‘proper channels’. However the NewsDay quoted Dube saying his party was only prepared to re-engage if the MDC-T ‘changed its ways’ and shunned violence. Dube’s comments come at a time when the MDC-T is embroiled in intra-party squabbles which led to the assault of a senior executive member by suspected party youths last month. Deputy treasurer-general Elton Mangoma was assaulted at the party’s headquarters after he wrote a letter to Tsvangirai calling on him to step down from the leadership of the party. In 2005 Ncube and his colleagues cited violence as one of the reasons for the leaving the main MDC. Analyst Nixon Nyikadzino said while a reunion of parties stood to strengthen the opposition it was ‘worrying’ for Tsvangirai’s lieutenants to suggest his infallibility. He said: ‘It is critical that those who are fighting for democracy should be united before the 2018 elections. So we must be congratulatory that opposition leaders see things that way. But at the same time we must not compare people to biblical figures because we are human beings and we are all fallible. We must not fear to criticize leaders.’ Nyikadzino’s comments come after MDC-T deputy national chairman Morgen Komichi is also reported to have compared Tsvangirai to Moses who according to the bible delivered the Israelites from Egyptian bondage. Youth Assembly deputy chairperson, Costa Machingauta, also said just as there was no ANC without Nelson Mandela and no ZANU PF without Mugabe there is no MDC without Tsvangirai. Nyikadzino urged the MDC leaders not to behave like ZANU PF people. He said ‘What we don’t want is for the MDC to build a culture of praise singing like in ZANU PF. MDC must be a symbol of the good we want to see and they must be able to rise above the ZANU PF mentality of praising individuals’. Mugabe loyalists, who include presidential affairs minister Didymus Mutasa and former government minister the late Tony Gara, have previously referred to their leader as ‘God’s son’. Vice President Joice Mujuru referred to herself as Mugabe’s ‘daughter’ while Obert Mpofu calls himself Mugabe’s ‘ever obedient son’.

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

Zimbabwean human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa was on Tuesday among ten women from around the world awarded with a prestigious annual prize by the American government. US Deputy Secretary of State, Heather Higginbottom, on Tuesday morning presented the10 women from 10 countries with the 2014 International Women of Courage Award. First Lady Michelle Obama joined Higginbottom and the awardees as a special guest at the morning ceremony at the U.S. Department of State in Washington. The annual award recognises women around the globe who have demonstrated exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equality and women’s empowerment, often at great personal risk. Since the inception of the award in 2007, the Department of State has honored 76 women from 49 different countries. Two Zimbabwean women, rights activist Jestina Mukoko and WOZA leader Jenni Williams, have previously been recipients of the award. Mtetwa, who has in the past defended both Mukoko and Williams, was awarded along with women from India, Ukraine, Afghanistan and other countries. The prize is in recognition of her enduring commitment to the rule of law and human rights, despite facing harassment, assault, violence, and arrest by Zimbabwe’s security forces.

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

Top officials at Zim Cricket have been accused of mismanaging $6 million obtained from the International Cricket Council, by investing it in a bank on whose board they sit. The money was part of a $9 million loan received from the International Cricket Council and was meant to service the local sports body’s debt with local banks. According to sports news source ESPNcricinfo, a key condition of the loan was that Zim Cricket would use the funds to pay off its existing debt. But Zim Cricket chairman Peter Chingoka, his deputy Wilson Manase and former managing director Ozias Bvute, ignored this condition and proceeded to invest $6 million in a non-interest bearing account at Metbank. Manase and Chingoka are board members at Metbank while Bvute is a major shareholder at the financial institution. The Zim Cricket debt to Metbank, facilitated by the trio, is said to be around $16 million which the sports body has been repaying at a killer interest rate of +20%. ESPNcricinfo calculations suggest that if the cricket body had invested the $6 million in an interest-bearing account, they would have earned around $300,000 which would have gone towards servicing their Metbank loan. “In December 2011, after learning of Zim Cricket’s high-interest loans from Metbank, the ICC loaned the cricket board $6 million with one rider: the money should be used to immediately retire ZC’s existing debt. Instead ZC deposited the money in a non-interest-bearing account with Metbank for more than five months.“Metbank would have benefited from the interest accruing on their high-interest loan to ZC, as well as from having ZC’s money in the non-interest-bearing account available to loan to third parties. ZC would, by the same deal, have lost out twice,” the ESPNcricinfo report further stated. Zim Cricket boss Chingoka has denied any wrongdoing, and says allegations of irregularities regarding the Metbank investment are “wrong and malicious. He said if they had serviced the Metbank debt as per ICC loan conditions, Zim Cricket wouldn’t have been able to borrow due to the prevailing liquidity situation prevailing in the country at the time. However, observers within the cricket community insist that the irregularities surrounding the Metbank loans plunged Zim Cricket into a deeper financial crisis. “The knock-on effect of those decisions was that ZC’s debt spiral continued, to the extent that the board had to seek a second ICC loan last month, worth $3 million, so that it could pay contracted players, umpires, scorers and other employees,” sports website ESPNcricinfo wrote. The latest loan requires Zim Cricket to move its accounts from Metbank. Reports suggest that the international cricket body will also pay off Zim Cricket’s debt to Metbank – effectively rescuing the troubled bank which has been experiencing serious financial problems. ICC will deduct the money from the annual benefits due to Zim Cricket.Part of the $3 million has been used to pay players who were threatening to boycott the ICC World Twenty20 competition being held in Bangladesh this month. This was just one of many salary protests by players who sometimes go for months without payment as a result of financial mismanagement at Zim Cricket. The Zimbabwe Professional Cricketers Association told SW Radio Africa that the players had called off the boycott after they were paid their outstanding wages. “We are negotiating for 25% of all ICC revenues to secure players’ salaries going forward to prevent these problems which are caused by Zim Cricket’s failure to honour its obligations,” said Eliah Zvimba, the association’s secretary-general. The cricket board is set to receive almost $9 million from the ICC for participating in the tournament, and the players want at least $2 million of this to go into a “players’ pool”, managed by their association to avoid future payment disputes.“Now that we know what their financial model is, we are offering to handle the players’ wages aspect of their responsibilities for them.“We don’t see Zim Cricket refusing because so far facts and figures show that they have failed to do their job and that is why we are stepping in,” Zvimba added. Metbank executive Bvute resigned from Zim Cricket in 2012 under unclear circumstances. He has been fingered in the unravelling scandal in which national carrier AirZim was looted of millions of dollars in dodgy deals. Last year, Bvute was also accused of conniving with Croco Motors to import cars from Japan under the cover that they belonged to Zim Cricket, so as to not pay duty, and selling them off for a huge profit.

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Almost 900 farm workers have lost their jobs since January 1st as a result of a recent spate of farm invasions across Zimbabwe, which have seen more than 40 properties face threats. Properties in Mashonaland West, Manicaland, Midlands and elsewhere have faced varying levels of threat and, according to the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), eight properties have been seized and the commercial farmers forced to leave. The seizures have allegedly been done in the name of‘land reform’, the ZANU PF policy that has destroyed the agricultural sector since it was launched over a decade ago. ZCTU secretary general Japhet Moyo said the latest land grabs had resulted in 890 farm workers losing their jobs, contributing to the 9,617 countrywide job losses recorded since January 1st. Commercial Farmers’ Union of Zimbabwe (CFU) president Charles Taffs confirmed that about 40 properties have been under threat this year, but he explained most of the issues had been “stabilised.”“I say stabilized, but not resolved. The uncertainty surrounding the land issue, land rights and land access, remains. And what we’re seeing in most cases is opportunism, with individuals trying to take advantage of this uncertainty. The overall perception is that farming in Zimbabwe is still a high risk practice,” Taffs said. He added: “We need to stabilize the land question once and for all. Let’s get this thing settled and have a system where we can turn agriculture around, on the back of which we can turn the entire economy around.” He explained that the confusion about the government’s land policy, as well as a lack of property rights, means even ‘beneficiaries’ of seized land do not have any confidence. Resettled farmers have never been granted the title deeds to the properties they received, and in some instance some resettled, small scale farmers, have faced threat of eviction.“So how secure are they? They do not have title deed so they do not have confidence,” Taffs said.

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The MDC-T MP for Mbizo in KweKwe, Settlement Chikwinya, has said he’s astounded that the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) boss Gershem Pasi is contemplating a constitutional challenge to stop parliament debating issues like the salary-gate. Pasi, through his lawyers, has also petitioned the media to stop publishing details of his salary of $310,000 a month. During a parliamentary debate last week Chikwinya raised the concerns of all Zimbabweans at such a large salary. The disclosure irked Pasi who engaged lawyers to investigate if Chikwinya was abusing his parliamentary privileges to divulge what he described as ‘reckless and wholly unfounded statements.’ Pasi’s lawyers also charged that the reports emanating from the parliamentary debate were not only defamatory, but had also characterised their client as corrupt and amoral. However, the legislator hit back at Pasi suggesting the situation he’s now in is of his own making. Chikwinya told SW Radio Africa’s weekly program, Speak Out Padare, that it’s up to Pasi to clarify exactly how much he earns..‘On two occasions Pasi had an opportunity to divulge his earnings to parliamentarians but he declined. Firstly at a workshop organised by Parliament he said he could not tell us because there were subordinates from Zimra in attendance.‘On the other occasion, during an appearance before a parliamentary portfolio committee, he said he had already sent the salary schedule to the office of the president and cabinet and he felt he had no obligation to talk about it anymore,’ the MP said. Chikwinya said he was not sure what Pasi and his lawyers are trying to achieve by approaching the Constitutional Court. ‘This matter is very simple because I was very clear in my debate that this is public perception and this is the figure in the public domain. What I’m advocating for is for a parliamentary select committee to find out the truth.‘So Pasi can short-circuit this whole process by bringing to parliament the exact salary schedule as obtaining in Zimra, supported by bank documents to say since 1980, when I joined Zimra, this is what I’ve earned and as of the last pay date this is what I earned,’ explained the MP. Commenting on Pasi’s reluctance to talk about his salary, the MP retorted: ‘It’s either it’s too low he’s ashamed of his own salary or its too high he’s ashamed of the same salary. It is up to him to remove the shame and expose it to the public.’

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

Police in Bulawayo have blocked yet another memorial service for the victims of the Gukurahundi genocide, claiming that the event would stir emotions and end in violence. Reports said last Saturday the police occupied Stanley Square, which was the venue of the planned meeting, before dispersing the gathering crowds. It was the second time this year for the police to stop Ibhetshu Likazulu from commemorating the victims of the 1980s genocide. In January a prayer meeting failed to take place at the Baptist Church after the police ordered the congregants to disperse. Former Roman Catholic Church Archbishop Pius Ncube confronted the police, but was forced to conduct a short prayer session outside the venue after they refused to budge. The police claimed that the meeting was not a prayer meeting but a demonstration. This time the Bulawayo-based pressure group decided to notify the police of the public memorial but the police refused to sanction it. A Daily News report said the police wrote a letter to the pressure group claiming that the meeting stood to ‘cause disharmony.’ The police also claimed that ‘those opposed to the event may take advantage of the meeting.’ Edwin Ndlovu, an executive member at Ibhetshu Likazulu, told SW Radio Africa that after the meeting was banned the pressure group resolved to defy the order and go ahead with the event. He said it was the pressure group’s right to hold prayer meetings anytime they wanted to and the police have no right to stop them. He added: ‘We deny that the meetings we want to hold are divisive. Rather they are the way to go. People need to speak out and the perpetrators must apologise. By blocking such events the government is making things worse. People might be quiet now but they will not be quiet forever. Still waters run deep.’ It is not for the first time police have stopped gatherings to do with Mugabe’s genocide. In 2012 one Matobo family could not rebury Mvulo Nyathi, who was allegedly killed by the Fifth Brigade in 1984. Two years earlier police blocked an exhibition by visual artist Owen Maseko depicting the genocide 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 later transferred to the Constitutional Court after Maseko’s lawyers argued that criminalizing creative arts was an infringement on the artist’s right to freedom of expression. In January Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku reserved his ruling after the state said it may not have a case against Maseko.

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Three MDC-T activists, alleged to have played a part in the murder of police inspector Petros Mutedza in May, 2011, were on Monday set free after the state decided to withdraw charges against them. Two of the three suspects Jackson Mabota and Tarisai Kusotera, both MDC-T youth members in Glen View, were arrested one and half years after Mutedza’s death. The third suspect, Chenjerai Douglas Muchinenyika, was picked up in May 2013, two years after the alleged murder. Defence lawyer Gift Mtisi said the state withdrew charges against the trio following their application last week Friday for refusal of further remand. Mtisi said the state had failed to find any incriminating evidence against Mabota, Kusotera and Muchinenyika. Originally 30 MDC-T activists were arrested a few days after the murder, during disturbances in Glen View. After spending almost two years in police custody, twenty-one of the activists were acquitted by High Court judge Justice Chinembiri Bhunu in 2013 for lack of evidence. However, seven of them still face charges after Justice Bhunu ruled that the State had proved a prima facie case against them. Of the seven, four were granted bail late last year. The remaining three, Last Maengahama, Tungamirai Madzokere and Yvonne Musarurwa, who were all incarcerated at Chikurubi, were granted bail in January this year. An elated Mabota told SW Radio Africa that he was glad he was a free man at last and castigated the police for going on a fishing expedition when they arrested him and other activists. ‘I knew I was innocent all along. I knew that I hadn’t done what they accused me of doing. We realized after we were arrested that the police had a list of all prominent Glen View MDC-T activists and wondered which direction the investigation was leading to, as the arrests no longer had anything to do with the murder but political affiliation,’ Mabota said. He added that he was hopeful the trial of the remaining seven members will produce a similar outcome as some of the accused were nowhere near the scene of the crime on the day in question. The trial resumes on the 24th March. ‘A person like Maengahama, he was in church as he does every Sunday when the incident happened. They are so many witnesses who can place him there and not the crime scene,’ Mabota said.

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Plans to oust MDC-T President Morgan Tsvangirai from his position have fallen flat in two Matebeleland provinces, after pro-Tsvangirai loyalists managed to force the provincial chairmen there to step down. The two chairpersons Wachi Sibanda, Matebeleland South and Sengezo Tshabangu, Matebeleland North were fingered to be part of a group in the party that has been plotting to remove Tsvangirai. The duo has since been replaced by diehard Tsvangirai supporters. SW Radio Africa is reliably informed more heads are likely to roll this Friday. This is when the party convenes its first national council meeting since the leadership renewal debate was ignited by deputy treasurer-general Elton Mangoma’s letter to Tsvangirai asking him to step down. The national council is highest decision making body of the party. A senior party official at Harvest House told us a list that contains all the ‘coup plotters’ has been drawn up and the names will be exposed on Friday. He said there is more to follow from what transpired with Sibanda and Tshabangu. It was discovered that the two senior party leaders had in the last month been holding clandestine meetings with some individuals pushing for the ouster of Tsvangirai. But their involvement in the ‘coup plot’ has backfired as both their provincial councils met and passed a vote of no confidence in their leadership, at the same time unanimously endorsed Tsvangirai as their leader. Our correspondent in Bulawayo, Lionel Saungweme, told our weekly program The Hidden Story that council members were not amused by the actions of Sibanda and Tshabangu and immediately called for their expulsion from the party. Saungweme said it appears Tsvangirai is gaining an upper hand in entrenching his power base ahead of a congress he believes the party might convene before the end of this year. Bulawayo province has already said it solidly stands behind Tsvangirai and the former trade unionist can now sleep with ease knowing he can count on the support of delegates from Bulawayo, Mat South and North, Midlands North and South, Mash West and East and Harare. The women and youth leagues, led by Theresa Makone and Solomon Madzore, have endorsed the MDC leader, but individuals like Madzore have allegedly been linked to the group that was baying for Tsvangirai’s blood. Saungweme told us that in one of the provincial meetings held in Bulawayo last week, party members deplored the alleged involvement of some diplomats of having a hand in attempts to force Tsvangirai to step down. Unconfirmed reports have suggested that diplomats have been meeting the leadership renewal members in Harare behind Tsvangirai’s back, a situation he talked about at a rally on Sunday. Tsvangirai ordered diplomats supporting the leadership renewal calls to back off, saying change of leadership within the party was the prerogative of its grassroot structures. Tsvangirai accused the diplomats of fuelling divisions in his party. ‘We have our friends out there. We are surprised by people who say we want that one to lead the party. Is that the work of diplomats? Tsvangirai asked. A source in Harare said it’s now inevitable that the party will call for an early congress to deal with leadership dispute and not let it rumble on and cause massive damage to its structures.

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

Zimbabweans are being urged to name and shame any officials involved in corrupt activities, including police officers and government ministers, in an effort to end the worsening corruption problem in the country. The Anti-Corruption Trust of Southern Africa (ACT-Southern Africa) said this week that public outcry over corruption in Zimbabwe needs to grow for there to be any real action. The group is collecting signatures from Zimbabweans across the world who are being called on to join calls for Robert Mugabe and the ZANU PF administration to tackle corruption head on. ACT-Southern Africa’s Alouis Munyaradzi Chaumba told SW Radio Africa that corruption is “totally endemic and it needs political will to sort it out.”“It seems that every state department or unit is trying to make a killing from Zimbabweans by hook or by crook. The economic situation is dire, and people who are making an honest living are finding it hard, because they are always being pounced on,” Chaumba said. He deplored the latest scam involving police officers at roadblocks, who have roped in kombi drivers, airtime vendors and newspaper vendors to keep bribe money safe from discovery by their superiors. According to the NewsDay newspaper, “officers manning roadblocks in and around Harare have also roped in airtime and newspaper vendors operating within their vicinity to keep safe money clandestinely collected from errant kombi crews in case their bosses pounce on them.” In separate interviews, kombi drivers confirmed to NewsDay that some of them had found “employment” with the police for keeping their money in return for being allowed to pass freely at roadblocks.“There are drivers who work with the police and they benefit a lot from keeping the money police get from motorists. If you watch closely at roadblocks, there is always a kombi parked nearby as if the police are dealing with the driver yet the driver will be waiting to receive money for safekeeping,” one of the drivers said.“These days, you don’t give cash directly to the policemen. They tell you to go and give it to the kombi driver or conductor parked nearby and they record who would have received what, then reconcile after work and share.” ACT-Southern Africa’s Chaumba said the actions of the police “leave a lot to be desired,” but he emphasised that the problems will persist until there is a complete change in how such activities are dealt with.“The problem is that the authorities are very good at lip service and want to hoodwink people when they say they are dealing with corruption. The best strategy is to name and shame people involved until the government is forced into actual action,” Chaumba said.

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Local government minister and ZANU PF secretary for land, Ignatius Chombo, has been exposed as an unproductive land-grabber with his ex-wife telling the court that he is a ‘cell phone and weekend’ farmer. Marian Mhloyi made these claims before the High Court last week in a case in which she is fighting her ex-husband over the ownership of the Allan Grange Farm. Mhloyi also revealed the size of the farm which she said is 3,100 hectares, almost eight times more than the government gazetted size. The ownership of the Rafingora-located property was not decided when the two were formally divorced two years ago. Chombo recently approached the court seeking the ejection of his ex-wife from the farm, but Mhloyi wants to keep 400 hectares, which she said is in line with the government gazetted farm sizes. She is currently engaged in livestock production on a small section of the property. Mhloyi argued that Chombo has no time for agriculture and is also unproductive. She said if Chombo does not want to farm alongside her he stood a chance of getting another farm through his influential positions in government and in ZANU PF. She also produced utility bills for water and electricity which were all under her name to prove that she was active on the farm. Chombo told the court that he deserved the property to enable him to repay bank loans of over one million dollars. Chombo also admitted that he did not tell Metbank and CBZ banks that he co-owned the property with his ex-wife when he applied for loans. He said he obtained the loans to buy machinery and finance farming activities through his private company, Growfin. Mhloyi’s lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa argued that Growfin had no legal claim to the farm as the property was jointly owned by Chombo and his ex-wife in accordance with the offer letter and the lease agreement. She accused Chombo of deliberately incurring debts to defeat his ex-wife’s claim to the property. Justice for Agriculture (JAG) head John Worsley-Worswick said he is not surprised to hear that Chombo is a bad farmer. He said Chombo is one of the many beneficiaries of the land-grab exercise who have neither time nor skills to farm productively. Speaking on SW Radio Africa’s Cutting Edge programme, Worsley-Worswick said Chombo is one of the many ZANU PF people who have ‘destroyed commercial agriculture and the economy.’ According to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks, a 2003 cable from US envoy Joseph Sullivan said Chombo was one of the many top ZANU PF officials who had received more than one farm through the land grab exercise.

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The decision by the ZANU PF government to acquire luxury vehicles for its ministers has outraged legislators who have not been allocated a single vehicle since they assumed office seven months ago. The issue arose during the ongoing parliamentary debate on corruption, when legislators unanimously called for the government to provide them with vehicles to enable them to effectively carry out their duties. Last month the government bought Mercedes Benz E350 sedans, Toyota Land Cruisers and Range Rover Sport vehicles for 10 provincial ministers and 24 deputy ministers, the weekly Zimbabwe Independent newspaper reported Friday. The vehicles cost an estimated $130,000 for a Mercedes Benz, up to $160,000 for the Range Rover Sport and $140,000 for a Toyota Land Cruiser. ZANU PF has already spent $20 million on top-of-the-range vehicles for its 26 Cabinet ministers. “Members of Parliament are not demanding vehicles because they are being demeaned as is being reported, but they are saying give us what is due to us,” Mabvuku Tafara legislator James Maridadi told SW Radio Africa. Maridadi said every legislator is entitled to a vehicle for use in their constituency during their five-year term in office. “MPs don’t get given vehicles as such but they get a loan to purchase one and have to pay back these loans. This is unlike the ministers’ benefit where they are allocated two luxury vehicles which they don’t pay for.“All we are saying is that the loans and the vehicles must be made available so that MPs can do their constituency work without hindrance. There is nothing scandalous at all in what we are asking for.” Ministers also get a third vehicle under the same loan scheme as the MPs. The Mabvuku MP said there was consensus in the House that the government was neglecting them while showing preferential treatment to ministers. “Within 48 hours of being appointed, ministers had received their entitlements while elected MPs continue to struggle to get fuel coupons.“Since I was elected, I haven’t received a penny as sitting allowance and I have only received fuel about five times, but ministers get their allocations accordingly.” Maridadi said it was clear that government did not consider the legislature important “and this is wrong, the people should come first and luxuries second.” The MP said they did not understand what the hold-up is in releasing loans. The ZANU PF administration has been saying that Treasury has no money for essential projects, so this latest spend on luxury vehicles for party stalwarts raises eyebrows. Running into millions, the spending comes amid a multi-million dollar birthday and wedding for President Mugabe and his daughter – whose funding sources have not been adequately explained. In the Masvingo District, thousands of families displaced by floods at Tokwe-Mukosi are without tents and food, following more flooding at Chingwizi where they are temporarily sheltered. Millions others are on the verge of starvation, with a cash-strapped United Nations issuing an appeal to raise $60 million to feed hungry Zimbabweans. Lowly paid teachers are yet to receive their backdated wage increments despite several promises from the government and Mugabe himself. Service delivery has ground to a halt, with poor service and infrastructure haunting the country’s hospitals and schools. It is being left up to western donors to try and ensure that some essential services remain functional. From this month, the British will be paying school fees for 250,000 poor children, while the Americans are heavily involved in the Tokwe-Mukosi disaster relief.

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There are reports that the 22 Zimbabwean miners who died in a disused shaft in Johannesburg last week unwittingly exposed themselves to deadly gas in a bid to evade arrest by the South African police force. It is believed the deceased were all known to each and lived in areas bordering the Roodepoort mine, the scene of the tragedy. One body was claimed by relatives last week and has since been buried while 21 will be repatriated on Friday. Among the victims was a woman, Sipho Ntimeni, who came from Kezi under Chief Malaba. South African police were reportedly waiting for the miners to emerge from the shaft to arrest them, as they had no proper documentation to live in South Africa. Determined to avoid detention and immediate deportation, the miners decided to buy time and sought refuge inside the mine. They were not trapped but decided to stay underground in the hope the police would go away. In the process they unknowingly exposed themselves to carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide is a gas you can’t see, taste or smell it and it can kill quickly with no warning. Our correspondent Ezra ‘Tshisa’ Sibanda, who visited Roodepoort Mine in Johannesburg last week when the miners were still underground, said had the police retreated, the miners would be alive today.‘I was visiting a friend in the area when this incident happened. The police at the scene were actually laughing and commenting that the illegal miners were too scared to walk out as they faced imminent arrest.‘If they had retreated and allowed emergency services to come in and convinced the miners to walk out and be treated for inhaling the deadly gas, this whole tragedy wouldn’t have happened,’ said Sibanda. He said the illegal miners who perished had run away from the economic and political troubles in Zimbabwe, and were risking their lives to enter disused mines in search of income. ‘They were trying to earn a living, though using dangerous methods. You can’t blame them for that, you have to blame the system that is forcing them to run away from home,’ Sibanda added. Our Bulawayo correspondent Lionel Saungweme said the bodies would be repatriated to Bulawayo on Friday where a funeral service will be held on Saturday. After the service, all the bodies will be taken to their respective towns and villages for burial. The majority of the victims will be buried in Bulawayo. List of the victims. From Nkayi district under Chief Madliwa Mpilo Siziba, Kwanele Siziba, Ndumiso Siziba, Melusi Siziba, Mthandazo Ncube, Mehluli Ncube, Danisa Ncube, Carrington Siwela, Brighton Moyo, Khethani Mbiba, Tshepo Sibanda, Shepherd Mnkandla Brighton Mlambo From Gokwe under chief Makora Dickson Gumbi, Life Ndlovu, Mjombi Mpofu, Edward Ncube Nqobani Mlambo. From Tsholotsho under chief Siphoso Ndodana Mathe Caanan Dube One victim with surname Mathe From KweKwe under chief Nduku

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The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights has said it has no authority in the fight to fully reinstate the Southern African human rights Tribunal, which was suspended after ruling against Robert Mugabe. The Commission decided last year to reject a landmark challenge filed by Zimbabwean farmers and victims of the Mugabe led land grab campaign, who cited all 14 Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders in its application to have the Tribunal restored. It was the first time in legal history that a group of heads of state was cited by individuals as the respondent in an application to an international body. The Tribunal was suspended in 2011 by SADC leaders, who chose to hobble the work of the court rather than take action against Mugabe. This was after the Tribunal ruled against Mugabe in 2008 in an historic case that pitted dispossessed Zim commercial farmers against the now 90 year old despot. The human rights court ruled that Mugabe’s land grab was unlawful and inherently racist, a ruling that ZANU PF and its leader actively ignored. SADC leaders then went on to suspend the court and have since deliberately hamstrung the Tribunal’s future, with SADC deciding that the court will only be allowed to continue its work if individual access to it is stopped. This means that the court cannot fulfil its chief mandate, which is to uphold the human rights of all 250 million SADC citizens. But despite this grave threat to the human rights of African citizens, the African Commission has said it is powerless to do anything and has rejected the challenge filed by Zimbabwean farmers Ben Freeth and Luke Tembani. The Commission, whose decision was only communicated over the weekend, criticised SADC for its handling of the Tribunal situation, but maintained that it cannot do anything further. Lawyer Willie Spies, who submitted the application on behalf of Freeth and Tembani, told SW Radio Africa on Wednesday that the Commission’s decision is based on a ‘technicality’. He explained that the original complaint was based on two articles within the African Human Rights Charter, the guiding text of the Commission, “which state that African Union member states are not allowed to prevent individuals within their countries to having access to courts within their territories.”“We said that in 2011, when SADC leaders got together and Robert Mugabe managed to convince them to suspend the operations of the Tribunal, those 14 heads of state contravened the African Human Rights charter,” Spies said. He continued: “But after a process drawn out for over two and a half years, the Commission has now said that the articles (which the complaint was based on) say nothing about regional courts. And since the Tribunal is a regional human rights court, it is not covered by the (charter).” Former Chegutu farmer Freeth, who is also the spokesperson of the SADC Tribunal Rights Watch group, said in a statement that the Commission’s “reasoning that the African Charter does not include within its protection courts not known at the time the African Union was formed, cannot be accepted.”“When we are barred by Zimbabwe law to access the Zimbabwe courts or the Zimbabwe courts fail us, is it not guaranteed by the African Charter that we should have access to justice? We have to question the role and purpose of the African Charter and the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights if this fundamental human right is not guaranteed,” said Freeth. His co-complainant Tembani meanwhile also said in a statement that the decision by the Commission is “a great injustice for Africans.”“We ask the world and anyone who cares about human rights, justice, the rule of law and property rights in Africa, to help protect Africans from this injustice which threatens the development of the region. The African Union through the African Commission has made me despair that justice will come – so that Africans can take their rightful place in our world and stop us from being beggars on our resource-rich continent,” Tembani said. Spies meanwhile said the Commission’s decision is a major blow to the efforts to reinstate the Tribunal, a legal fight he said has now reached the end of the road.“The problem was created by politicians and the problem will need to be solved by politicians. It’s only a political interference by SADC leaders, a political change in Zimbabwe and a political solution to this situation that can resolve the issue. Legally we have come to the end of the road,” Spies said.

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The Central Mechanical Equipment Department (CMED) is almost broke, amid revelations that the parastatal entered into a $2.7 million dodgy deal with a fuel company that never delivered. Details about the multi-million-dollar black hole came to light when Davison Mhaka, a director at government transport services provider CMED, appeared before a parliamentary committee on transport Monday. Mhaka told legislators that they signed a deal with First Oil to supply CMED with four million litres of fuel, but nothing has been delivered to date. The MDC-T MP for Warren Park, Elias Mudzuri, who sits on the transport committee, said the appearance of CMED officials before legislators was routine. “But we now know that they are almost broke and we have also discovered something that convinces us that there is corruption surrounding the $2.7 million fuel tender,” Mudzuri said. The money was paid to First Oil last year in March. “They (CMED officials) claimed that they have always paid in advance for the fuel and in this case, the fuel was supposed to be delivered in 24 hours.“To us this smells of corruption and fraud because the circumstances couldn’t have changed in 24 hours. If indeed the fuel was there in the tanks as alleged, then it should have been delivered.” Mudzuri said the fuel deal had all the hallmarks of white-collar crime, where money disappears and everyone pretends not to know what happened. The matter is now before the courts, but MPs are accusing top CMED officials of being part of the scheme to defraud the State enterprise, and question why it had taken so long to institute proceedings to recover the funds. Two months ago the Zim Mail reported how the CMED fuel procurement scam had sucked in another State enterprise, Petrotrade, and a shadowy Hong Kong fuel supplier. The newspaper said it had documents that pointed to “the tacit involvement of top management at CMED, Petrotrade and First Oil in the deal that went awry.” According to the paper, the $2.7 million deal was done through an offshore account on the strength of two letters from Petrotrade, that it had secured the fuel on behalf of First Oil and pledged to deliver to CMED once paid. But Petrotrade did not receive any payment from First Oil, which in turn denied receiving the funds from CMED. First Oil claimed that they had been duped, together with CMED, by Hong Kong based fuel supplier Micro Petroleum. CMED has failed to recover the money from Micro Petroleum’s owner Tony Blanco, who is blaming US restrictive measures against ZANU PF for his failure to honour the CMED deal. Blanco is currently serving time in a US jail on undisclosed charges. The businessman is reportedly arguing that the $2.7 million from ZB Bank (Zimbank) was intercepted by the US government because the financial institution was subject to restrictive measures when the transaction went through. “You can’t pay a new supplier $2 million without security, there is always a security bond which is needed and how did the CMED do so without these basic checks? Something is not right here.“This is all part of the decay that started way back in the 1980s with the Willowgate scandal and we have now got to a point where people are rewarded for being corrupt,” MP Mudzuri told SW Radio Africa. ZANU PF Chegutu West legislator Dexter Nduna said CMED officials were “naive, ignorant, or involved in this scam”. During the probe, legislators also learned that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has failed to pay CMED $4.5 million for vehicles hired through the parastatal during last year’s constitutional referendum. In November, a ZEC official said they were still waiting for a Treasury allocation to enable them to pay. The government also owes the firm $1 million for car rental, fuel and other services. Last week the transport service provider was asked to contract and supply hundreds of luxury vehicles for use at the wedding of President Mugabe’s daughter Bona. Zimbabweans suspected that the funds to pay for the luxury vehicle hire will come from public coffers, at a time when millions are starving.

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In what could be the strongest indication yet that the ZANU PF government’s anticorruption drive is a sideshow, Parliament this week moved to bar MPs from making statements ‘suspected’ to be harmful to other people’s rights. Speaker Jacob Mudenda claimed Wednesday that the move was meant to stop MPs from making what he termed ‘unsubstantiated’ statements under the cover of parliamentary privileges. Parliamentary privilege is a legal provision granting MPs protection against civil or criminal liability for actions or statements made in the course of their legislative duties. The move comes after MDC-T MP for Mbizo, Settlement Chikwinya, claimed in Parliament that Zimbabwe Revenue Authority commissioner-general Gershem Pasi was earning $310,000 a month. Chikwinya further claimed that Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma was enjoying pay and benefits which he said were superior to those of the legislators. Pasi has since threatened legal action claiming that Chikwinya defamed him. MDC-T Chief Whip Innocent Gonese told SW Radio Africa that despite cheers from some ZANU PF legislators ‘most of the MPs across the political divide were taken aback’ by the Speaker’s order. He said: ‘It is a puzzle as to why these issues should raise eye brows now because in the past we have been able to articulate issues which had come to our attention. From the face of it, it appears as if it is an attempt to muzzle debate’. According to reports Mudenda warned that any MP who defies his order could be charged with contempt of Parliament. Mudenda said the charge could arise if a legislator uttered statements suspected to be false against fellow MPs or members of the public. A Thursday NewsDay report said Mudenda further banned MPs from ‘attacking the integrity of the administration of Parliament.’ However, Gonese urged public officials to be forthcoming with relevant information such as salaries and allowances. He said the government must allow free debate on corruption and avoid being seen to be blocking it. Prior to Mudenda’s order, police in Harare banned a peaceful demonstration against corruption in state run institutions and local authorities. The Zimbabwe Human Rights Association said it had intended to hand over a petition to local government minister Ignatius Chombo, under whom local authorities fall. Bans on parliamentary debate and public demonstrations are largely seen as confirmation that the government is not serious about fighting corruption .It is widely believed that the revelations on corporate graft are more about ZANU PF infighting as opposed to being a genuine crusade against corruption.

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As friends and families of 22 of the 23 Zimbabweans who perished in a disused mine in South Africa prepare to accompany the bodies home, an official at the funeral parlour that is handling the repatriations has spoken out. Roy Ncube, the chairman of Johannesburg-based Queens and Kings Funeral Parlour, says handling the 23 bodies of his fellow countrymen has been a very emotional and painful experience. The family of the 23rd dead miner collected his body last week. “These were young people, they must have been aged 30 years and below, judging by the pictures that were brought by their loved ones for the memorial service Wednesday,” Ncube told SW Radio Africa’s Big Picture programme. According to Ncube, colleagues of the deceased sent out a distress call to the funeral parlour and appealed for food and blankets before the scale of the disaster became known. He thanked SA-based fellow Zimbabweans for their contributions. “But the real heroes in all this are the brave young people who sacrificed their lives trying to rescue their trapped friends,” Ncube said. There are reports that the Zimbabwean miners unwittingly exposed themselves to deadly gas in a bid to evade arrest by the South African police force. It’s believed the deceased were all known to each other and lived in areas bordering the Roodepoort mine. South African police were reportedly waiting for the miners to emerge from the shaft to arrest them, as they had no proper documentation to live in South Africa. The businessman said the tragedy should be a message to the South African government to recognise that ‘illegal’ foreigners had the potential to contribute positively to the country’s economy and regularise their stay in the country.“This will also ensure that they operate legally and in a safe way. The South African government estimates that there are 16,000 illegal miners in the country and the lives of all these people will remain at risk unless something is done,” Ncube added. The funeral procession is expected to arrive in Bulawayo this weekend where a mass memorial service is planned, before bodies are ferried to different parts of Matebeleland and the Midlands for burial. Kings and Queens Funeral Parlour provided the coffins and handled the storage and preparation of the bodies ahead of the repatriation. Other groups have also donated towards the funeral expenses. “This is our 10th year in operation, and when we first started our aim was to afford our compatriots the dignity they deserve both after their death and while mourning the loss of their loved ones. We have stuck to that founding principle,” Ncube added.

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Outspoken and controversial ZANU PF MP Themba Mliswa has repeated his call for ministers to declare their assets, if the government is serious in fighting graft and fixing the economy. Contributing to a parliamentary debate on corruption Mliswa, the legislator for Hurungwe West, said that government should take the bull by the horns and go after those who are corrupt, going as far as questioning where some ministers got their money to buy a bank. This was in apparent reference to Transport Minister Obert Mpofu, who two years ago bought the then Zimbabwe Allied Banking Group for US$22.8 million to become the major shareholder in the bank. It has since rebranded and it now called Allied Bank. Mliswa, who is also the chairman of the ZANU PF province for Mashonaland West, suggested that ministers intending to venture into full-time business should resign from government. ‘In an economy like this, it is sad that a minister would actually buy a bank. My plea to the honorable ministers is that when they think about going into business, they must go into business and resign before his Excellency (President Robert Mugabe) and ensure that they do business,’ he said. The debate on corruption has generated a lot of interest with many MPs from both ZANU PF and the MDC-T pointing out that eradicating corruption will help fix the economy. Others support Mliswa’s call for transparency saying corruption is the biggest problem that Zimbabwe faces and if they can get rid of it, most of the problems bedeviling the country can be resolved. Economic analyst Luke Zunga said Mliswa’s exasperation is shared by many. He told SW Radio Africa on Thursday that the country is gripped by a sense that corruption has never been as bad as it is today and that it is destroying the very foundations of the country’s economic development. Zunga added that corruption has been deeply ingrained in Zimbabwean society since independence, blaming ZANU PF and President Mugabe for turning a blind eye to the scourge.` He said Mugabe was more interested in protecting his presidency than anything else, explaining that the ageing leader would crackdown mercilessly on opponents or anyone who challenge his position as president, rather than deal ruthlessly with corrupt officials. Two years ago, a regional watchdog, Anti-Corruption Trust of Southern Africa (ACT), named Mugabe and his wife Grace among the country’s top 56 corrupt individuals. In a report titled, “Corruption Cases: Lest We Forget: Bad Leadership Examples for Accountability, Transparency and Integrity in Zimbabwe”, the ACT said according to their findings the Mugabes and senior ZANU PF officials have over the years fleeced Zimbabwe of billions of dollars.‘Instead of Mugabe’s promised clamp-down on corruption, we are seeing a crackdown against those that want to expose it. Parliamentarians are being gagged from debating it while others are filing petitions to stop newspapers reporting on corruption,’ explained Zunga. He pointed out that the lavish lifestyles of some cabinet members, MPs and those that are politically connected had set the public questioning their sources of income, adding, that an economy overseen by the corrupt and greedy, especially when they hold key positions, is doomed to fail.

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Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister has revealed that the country’s economic reserves are made up solely of gold coins, worth an estimated half a million dollars. In a another sign of the desperate state of the country’s economy, Patrick Chinamasa said Wednesday that Zimbabwe’s reserves would only be enough to buy 1,400 tonnes of maize.“The (central) bank does not hold any gold reserves except for gold coins, which were valued at $501,390 as at the end of January 2014,” Chinamasa said. Resource rich Zimbabwe last year reportedly produced 13 tonnes of gold, but corruption and a lack of transparency continue to bleed the fiscus of any meaningful gain. According to Transparency International Zimbabwe, an estimated $50 million worth of gold is smuggled out of Zimbabwe every month and the country is losing more through secret financial deals, tax evasion and other illegal activities. The watchdog group’s Sibonokuhle Ndhlovu-Ncube, further revealed last week that an estimated $1.7m worth of gold is being smuggled out of Penhalonga alone every year. Speaking at a workshop on debt in Bulawayo Ncube said according to the Global Financial Integrity Report, Zimbabwe has lost $12 billion in the last three decades. Economic analyst Masimba Kuchera told SW Radio Africa that the revelation of the dire state of the country’s reserves was a “clear depiction of where we are as a country, financially at the moment.” He said years of mismanagement at the Reserve Bank had put Zimbabwe in this position.“We probably had gold reserves that we liquidated as a country between 2002 and 2008 when the Reserve Bank took qausi-fiscal matters into its own hands. It means the Reserve Bank did not look to the future when it decided to liquidate everything at once,” Kuchera said. Kuchera explained that the lack of gold reserves puts the country in a desperate and dependent position, unable to pay off critical debts or reintroduce its own currency. “This is an indication that we may not be able to bring back our currency soon, because we don’t have the reserves (to pay debts). If you are owing, you would need something like gold which you can sell and pay your debts. The reserves are also used to support a national currency. You need actual gold in reserve to be able to sell later,” Kuchera said. Zimbabwe’s massive international debt has seen it being refused more credit by the traditional lenders, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. However, the country is still receiving huge financial loans from Western nations, including a recent $10 million education loan from the UK. Kuchera said these loans, while “useful” do not help shore up the country’s reserves.“Not having gold reserves means you don’t have a savings account and you are basically living hand to mouth. It means you don’t have any savings to fall back on,” Kuchera said. Meanwhile the dire state of the economy has not stopped the ZANU PF government from splashing out millions on luxury cars for government Ministers. The party also hosted a $1 million dollar birthday party for Mugabe, who two weeks later celebrated his daughter’s $5 million wedding.

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The decision by Africa’s top human rights court to allow the deliberate hobbling of the Southern African regional Tribunal has been described as a ‘devastating’ indictment of justice on the continent. The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights has rejected a complaint filed by Zimbabwe farmers, who have been fighting to get the regional SADC Tribunal fully reinstated. The human rights court was suspended in 2011 after ruling against Robert Mugabe in 2008 when it declared the land grab campaign unlawful. The farmers, Ben Freeth and Luke Tembani, both victims of that campaign, cited 14 SADC leaders in its complaint to the Commission. The landmark application was based in part on two articles within the African Charter on human rights, a binding piece of African Union (AU) law, which explicitly state that no AU members can prevent their citizens from accessing justice at national courts. But the Commission has rejected the application on the technicality that the articles in the Charter refer only to national courts, and not regional courts like the SADC Tribunal. Freeth told SW Radio Africa on Friday that the Commission’s decision is a “heavy blow” for human rights.“It is a cop out by the Commission and says that it is ultimately only there to rubber stamp decisions of the EU executive. It has lost huge credibility as a result of this decision,” Freeth said. He added that there is much speculation about the Commission’s decision being influenced by the AU’s decision to appoint Mugabe to a top position in the AU council last year. That development, which puts Mugabe in line to take over the chairmanship of the AU in 2015, coincided with the Commission’s decision.“It is an absolute farce when the respondent in a case is ultimately someone determining the outcome of the case. And it is a mockery of justice in Africa,” Freeth said.