SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

The Malawian Electoral Commission (MEC) has confirmed that it has received assistance from its discredited Zimbabwean counterparts, sparking an outcry from activists and opposition parties. Reports said members of the opposition stormed out in protest when MEC officials revealed at a National Election Consultative Forum a fortnight ago that they were consulting the Zimbabwe electoral body. According to reports the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Chairperson, Justice Rita Makarau, also confirmed the consultancy saying MEC and ZEC are ‘sister’ organizations. Makarau said the Malawians asked for results management forms to ascertain if they suit their process. Results management forms are used to transmit election results to the command center. Reports said ZEC has also agreed to supply MEC with gas lamps and tents. But opposition parties fear that ZEC is assisting the Malawian body to rig the May 20th polls in favour of President Joyce Banda. The fear is compounded by the fact that ZEC has presided over hotly disputed elections since 2000. Moreover, Banda is one of the African leaders who publicly congratulated Mugabe for ‘winning’ the July 31st poll, which many believe was rigged. Reports quoted United Democratic Front Presidential candidate, Atupele Muluzi, querying why MEC should borrow equipment from Zimbabwe when the country bought its own during the previous election. Chris Chisoni from the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace said MEC’s association with ZEC ‘raises eyebrows’ and as a result his organization was ‘on the alert.’ Democratic Alliance MP and South African Shadow Minister of Home Affairs, Masizole Mnqasela, said the concern of the Malawian opposition is in order. He said: ‘I think Malawians should be embarrassed. This is a huge disgrace and the opposition is right to be angry with their government. ZEC is utterly discredited and has zero credibility. ’ Mnqasela, who observed the Zimbabwean elections under the banner of the SADC Parliamentary Forum, said Malawi’s move is unacceptable and has sent a wrong signal to the rest of the SADC region. He added: ‘If they (MEC) wanted training and any form of assistance they should have come to South Africa because we have a credible electoral system and we have been training many neighboring countries.’ Speculation on the relationship between the two electoral bodies emerged last year, soon after ZEC announced that Mugabe beat MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai with 61 percent of the votes against his rival’s 34 percent. At the time Malawian Foreign Affairs Minister Ephraim Mganda denied the reports saying Lilongwe was only engaged in an ‘exchange programme’ with the Zimbabwe Homes Affairs department. The reports then said MEC was consulting both ZEC and the Israeli company, Nikuv International Projects. The controversial Israeli outfit, which specializes in consultancy over a range of diversified projects, is widely believed to have assisted ZEC to rig last year’s poll on behalf of Mugabe. Despite the African Union endorsing Zimbabwe’s election as ‘free, honest and credible’ few, if any, believe that Mugabe won the poll. To this date ZEC and the Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede have not made public the electronic copy of the voters roll that was used, as required by law. Last year Makarau told ZAPU leader Dumiso Dabengwa that the electronic copy will not be available anytime soon.

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

A controversial religious leader from Zimbabwe is once again in the headlines, this time for suing a sports company that published a report claiming he had predicted the English team Liverpool would win the Premiership title this season. Prophet Uebert Angel, the popular so-called spirit preacher and founder of Spirit Embassy Church in Zimbabwe, has reportedly sued SuperSport for $1.5 million, insisting he never made the prediction and the report was therefore defamatory. The article at the centre of the row, which was published in late December 2013, is no longer available on the SuperSport website. But according to a report on the AllAfrica.com news site, Prophet Angel claims the article “has put his reputation in jeopardy”, and he “risks losing followers as a result”. Liverpool last won the English title in 1990, just before the Premiership title was established and are currently one of the top four teams battling for the title. They were once a force to be reckoned with, having won the English league title 18 times. Prophet Angel is himself no stranger to headlines. Last month he was in the news after attending Robert Mugabe’s lavish birthday bash, where he was seen seated with the ageing leader on the front row, among the Who’s Who in ZANU PF. According to a NewsDay newspaper report, Angel praised Mugabe in his speech and endorsed the land grab scheme as “an opportunity the President has created” for the youths. He also revealed his life-long loyalty to ZANU PF then knelt before Grace Mugabe and whispered a message before leaving the podium. Anglican Reverend Lameck Mutete criticized this, saying religious leaders can pray for politicians but should not declare loyalty to them, as this might offend members of their congregation who belong to other political parties. He added that the Church should represent all who come to it, and not any specific groups. “The yardstick measure for us to be able to judge any prophecy is by using the word of God, the Bible in this case. I appreciate that the Church should engage the issues of the day like he is trying to do, but this engagement should be an outgrowth of the Gospel,” Reverend Mutete told SW Radio Africa. He explained that political issues, football and money should not be the main things that characterize the work of the Church, but the Gospel, Christ and his word should the focus. Lawyers for the Prophet Angel have reportedly served the court summons to SuperSport’s agent in Zimbabwe, Skynet, and are requesting that the case be heard in Zimbabwe’s High Court. In January last year the then Finance Minister Tendai Biti challenged Prophet Angel and Prophet Emmanuel Makandiwa to produce the billions of dollars that the country needed to settle its debts and pay for the referendum that was expected then. Biti made the challenge following reports that Prophet Angel had given “miracle money” to his followers at a “miracle night crusade” in Botswana and a “crossover night” at Harare City Sports Centre. No “miracle money” appeared.

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

MDC99 leader Job Sikhala has rejoined the MDC-T, the party he left after the 2005 split, and immediately went on the verbal warpath against President Robert Mugabe, telling him to prepare ‘for the biggest fight of his lifetime.’‘I swear on my dead mother that the hour is now. The dictator must start panicking now. We are back in the trenches…the fight is ready,’ Sikhala said in Harare on Thursday. The former MP for St Mary’s when the MDC was united, did not waste time to articulate how a divided opposition will never win the fight against ZANU PF, urging all other democratic forces to follow his example.‘There is no strength in disunity than unity. Let’s unite and reinvigorate the party and adopt the spirit of 1999 and 2000 when we were a force to be reckoned with. We need to rejuvenate this struggle and this can only be achieved through unity,’ Sikhala said. He added: ‘We are going to use all our energy…all our ability to make sure change is delivered. 2018 is far away, a lot of things can happen between now and then. So vadictator tabatana zvino tuwuyako (to the dictator, we have now joined forces and we are coming your way)’ Party leader Morgan Tsvangirai who attended the press conference at Harvest House, dwelt at length on the issue of the factional infighting, that was triggered by attempts by his lieutenants to oust him, in particular the suspended deputy treasurer-general Elton Mangoma. He explained that party members who are not happy with his leadership will have an opportunity to express themselves at the congress, while the rest of Zimbabwe will judge him at the next election. Talking of the fissures, Tsvangirai said: ‘What is happening in the MDC-T is like a crisis in the cockpit…it will be sorted out. Any disagreements are sorted out by mutual discussion within the leadership.’‘On Tuesday we had fruitful discussions in the standing committee and only yesterday (Wednesday) we had a finance and administration meeting of the party were we once again engaged in constructive discussions.’ Both meetings were attended by the secretary-general Tendai Biti who is linked to Mangoma, judging by the fact that he declared Mangoma’s suspension a ‘nullity.’ Tsvangirai added that as he has promised before, he will ensure that all progressive forces join hands to fight ZANU PF and Mugabe as a united opposition, adding that ‘all we need to do is unite.’‘I will meet everyone, (Lovemore) Madhuku, (Welshman) Ncube to impress on them on the need for unification and only this week I met Simba Makoni to talk about that.’ Another founding member of the MDC who rejoined the Tsvangirai MDC-T on Thursday is Joubert Mudzumwe. After the split nine years ago, he joined the MDC-N and broke away with others to join then deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara’s MDC.

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

The ZANU PF government has been accused of wasting Zimbabwe’s resource potential, through corruption, bad legislation and incompetence. The accusations, voiced by numerous observers, come as the Robert Mugabe administration is under pressure to halt the rapid decline of the economy that has continued despite Zimbabwe’s wealth of resources. A lack of transparency and accountability, along with the prevailing corruption problem, means the extractive sector is not benefitting the economy or the country. For example, the completion of the long-awaited Zim Diamond Technology Centre (ZDTC) hangs in the balance due to suspected corruption, a problem already widespread in the diamond sector. Located in Mt. Hampden, the ZDTC allegedly will house up to 500 factories, each able to employ 200 diamond cutters and polishers. It has been touted by ZANU PF as a having the potential to employ over 100,000 Zimbabweans, making it not only central to Zimbabwe’s mineral’s beneficiation plans, but also key to the ZANU PF’s economic recovery plan, ZimAsset. But according to the Financial Gazette, the end of the already overdue project is unclear, with the contractor, architects, engineers and quantity surveyors of the building, among other professionals, taking the ZDTC owner, Lovemore Kurotwi, to court. Kurotwi, a retired army colonel and reportedly a nephew of the late General Vitalis Zvinavashe, has failed to pay almost $5 million in fees and interest. Farai Maguwu, from the Center for Natural Resource Governance in Zimbabwe, said Thursday that the country’s economic woes could be solved simply by “sorting out” the mining sector. He disagreed that ‘incompetence’ was a problem, saying corruption and bad governance were the main issues“There is a serious governance deficit in the country, which means that in the extractive sector, there is a free-for-all. It is chaotic and we need to stop all mining activities and find out who is doing what. On corruption, we need the political will to stamp it out,” Maguwu told SW Radio Africa. Meanwhile, cash opportunities that are readily available to the financially strapped government are not being harnessed. It was reported this week that despite “huge” pressure on Zimbabwe to relax a law that bans exports of unprocessed chrome ore, a move that could help attract millions of dollars into the fiscus, Mines Minister Walter Chidhakwa has said this probably won’t happen.“It’s not going to be easy for us to relax the ban. To open the window for ore exports when we have said we want beneficiation, we will be sending a message that there is no need for value addition. It might discourage investors willing to go into value addition,” Chidhakwa was quoted by Bloomberg as saying. The ban on chrome ore exports in 2011 was done to try and force local companies to process the chrome on home soil. But it has led to some producers, such as the Harare-based Zimbabwe Alloys Chrome Ltd., shutting down mining operations completely because of the country’s inadequate smelting capacity. Economist Masimba Kuchera said the ‘beneficiation’ argument is not benefitting anyone, because the country does not have the capacity, ability or financial means to start local refinement of raw minerals.“It’s true that any economy that engages in beneficiation will get more for its resources. But it’s an issue of capacity. A ban on raw exports without the infrastructural capacity will not support anyone. You need the infrastructure, you need stable electricity supply, and water supply, and these are things that are just not there,” Kuchera said. The Finance Ministry meanwhile is still looking for multi-million dollar loans to shore up the failing economy, with the traditional lenders refusing the hugely indebted country more credit. But this is not proving successful, and even Zimbabwe’s ‘friend’, China, has reportedly refused a bailout. Last November, China pledged to give Africa some $1 trillion in aid over the next 12 years, and the just elected ZANU PF government said it would be receiving about $30 billion of this. But this cash-injection seems doubtful and even Mugabe’s spokesmen have been steadily downgrading the size of the financial ‘loan’, from $30 billion to $10 billion, to $3 billion, and then last month, to $400 million. A Chinese ambassador last week then moved to rule out any direct financial aid.“We don’t normally provide budgetary support to other countries but we try to help Zimbabwe in our own way,” the Chinese ambassador to Zimbabwe told reporters.

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

Yet another party to celebrate President Robert Mugabe turning 90 years of age last month was held Friday in Harare with more than 1,000 people thought to have attended. A statement released this week by the Chairman of the Public Service Commission, Mariyawanda Nzuwah, said the luncheon would be hosted by the service commissioners of defence, prisons and the police. Nzuwah said the luncheon would be held to honour Mugabe for ‘the vital role he played in delivering political and economic freedom.’ According to reports, last month’s bash, during which 90 beasts were slaughtered, cost more than $1 million. That was to be followed a few weeks later by Mugabe’s daughter Bona’s wedding which reportedly cost $5 million. On the first occasion, few journalists from the independent media were admitted while none were allowed into the second event which was held at Mugabe’s house in Borrowdale. On Friday a number of journalists told SW Radio Africa that they did not bother themselves this time around. It came as a shock that the government is capable of such extravagance at a time when it is struggling to pay civil servants. According to Nzuwah’s statement, the celebrations were expected to be held not just in Harare but throughout the country, with 4,000 people expected to attend. Moreover, the government has reportedly just signed a deal with North Korea to build two statues of Mugabe at an estimated cost of $5 million. These developments also come at a time when Zimbabwe is reported to have loan arrears of $11 billion and has just lost a hoped-for bailout from China. The government is also struggling to assist victims of flooding which hit the country recently and has stopped its funding for school children from poor homes.

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

The South African government is facing intense pressure to ban the canned lion hunting trade, as part of global efforts to protect the long term survival of the lion species. People from around the world will be gathering in over 60 cities on Saturday to take part in the Global March for Lions. They will be calling for action from South Africa, but also from international governments which are in turn being urged to take measures to stop the importation of lion parts. The Global March which will see different individual marches converging mostly on South African embassies worldwide, will culminate in the handing over of a formal document, demanding an end to canned hunting. The global action on Saturday forms part of ongoing efforts to protect lions in the wild, with fewer animals living free than those in captivity. Canned hunting is legal in South Africa, where lions are bred in captivity ultimately as commodities in the tourism trade. They are hand reared for use in the cub petting industry, where thousands of tourists handle them as babies. But when these tame lions are big enough, they are the subject of canned hunting: shot and killed in an enclosure, displayed as trophies in exchange for large sums of money. Lion bones are also a source of huge income, with Asian markets touting the bones as having ‘medicinal’ properties. This trade is also booming and is said to be linked to a rise in wild lion poaching. Wildlife activist Chris Mercer, the head of the Campaign against Canned Hunting says there is “unspeakable cruelty” in the canned hunting and captive breeding process. His organisation has also warned that the impact on and threat to wild lions is serious. The group says the on-going capture of wild lions to introduce fresh blood into captive breeding, as well as the growth of the lion bone trade to Asia will impact severely on wild lions. An estimate 2,592 lion trophies were exported from South Africa to the United States and a further 1,206 to EU Member States, during 2007 through 2012. Linda Tucker, from the Global White Lion Protection Trust, told SW Radio Africa that the problem “is a crisis of huge magnitude.”“We are talking about the captive killing of captive lions for tourism. Lions are being force to breed to become commodities. And those same cubs that are petted by tourists are then put before the bullet,” Tucker said. He added: “We are talking here about protecting a global heritage. And our main focus needs to be on protecting wild lions so we have a heritage to look forward to. The related issue is the shutting down of an industry that treats lion abominably.” Members of the public are being urged to either take part in the Global March on Saturday, or join the ongoing efforts to shut the industry down. More information about how people can get involved can be read here . People can also sign the online petition calling for a ban on canned hunting here .

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

Former Harare Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda, has provoked fury for defending Town Clerk Tendai Mahachi’s much derided salary of $37,000 a month, which he claimed was inclusive of back pay. According to reports Masunda, who was addressing a public meeting organized by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights Tuesday, said that unless he was ill-informed Mahachi ‘does not earn anything near that figure’. Masunda was also quoted saying ‘it never happened during my lifetime and I don’t think it is happening now.’ But civic groups and community rights activists reacted angrily to Masunda’s comments describing them as ‘reckless’, ‘insensitive’ and ‘dishonest.’ Harare Residents’ Trust director, Precious Shumba, linked the situation at Town House to Masunda’s stewardship. He said: ‘The kind of situation we have represents the height of his failure where he allowed an elite to dictate expenditure at Town House. He failed to ensure that there were strict regulations in place to control how public funds were spent.’ Chairperson of the Elected Councillors Association of Zimbabwe, Warship Dumba, said during his time as mayor Masunda hijacked the issue of salaries and took unilateral decisions. Dumba accused Masunda of starting the culture of hiding the salaries of the city bosses. He said: ‘This issue of salaries started in 2009 during the introduction of the US dollar as the medium of currency. When we, as councillors, asked how much the Town Clerk was earning Masunda said the issue of salaries is a “minefield” and we must keep away from it.’ According to reports, Masunda further defended the salaries of other Town House directors saying they were ‘commensurate with their high qualifications and experiences.’ He said there was ‘need to retain the best brains in the city.’ Masunda cited director of water engineering Christopher Zvobgo, saying people like him needed to be paid ‘handsomely’ as it would be difficult to replace them when they leave. At the emergence of the Town House salary scam in January, reports said Zvobgo was also earning as much as Mahachi, a salary that could pay as many as 227 low earning council workers. It was also reported then that the Town House bosses were taking home a combined $500,000 when the council was struggling to pay workers and not providing services to residents. Mahachi was suspended over the salary scam, only for local government minister Ignatius Chombo to reverse Mayor Bernard Manyenyeni’s decision within days. This week Mahachi reportedly failed to justify his salary before Parliament.

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

The ministry of Mines racked up more than $320,000 in travel and subsistence expenses in 2012. This was at a time when the former Finance Minister Tendai Biti was encouraging ministers and their officials to cut down on travel expenditure. A recent report by the Comptroller and Auditor General revealed that the ministry of mines under Obert Mpofu ‘illegally’ spent the huge amount of money borrowed from the Mining Development Fund (MDF). Auditor General Mildred Chiri said the borrowings were unconstitutional and in breach of the Mines and Mining Development Fund constitution, whose core objective is to support and sustain the mining titles system. ‘However a total of $108,283 had been reimbursed to the Fund by the end of the year, leaving a balance of $210,711 which is still outstanding,’ she said. The revelations will again taint the image of Mpofu, who was the former Mines minister during the inclusive government but now holds the Transport portfolio under the ruling ZANU PF government. The wealthy Mpofu earlier this year had to dispel claims that he is a ‘thief’ who got rich through stealing and corruption. He is considered one of the richest people in the country and has in the past boasted he had never been poor. Political analyst Bekithemba Mhlanga said while Mpofu is known to have had businesses from the early 1980’s, he will find it hard shrug off allegations of corruption because of the amount of wealth he accumulated during his tenure as mines minister.‘It is undeniable that he made huge amounts as mines minister during which time there was plenty of activity at the alluvial diamond mines in Marange,’ Mhlanga added. The burly Mpofu is well known for being Matabeleland’s richest man and owns virtually half of all commercial properties in Matabeland North. He is also the major shareholder of Allied Bank, formerly known as ZABG. The Umguza MP said he started off as a paprika farmer and the project generated him a lot of foreign currency, which he used to buy a farm and cattle to feed for resale. ‘We started selling cattle and now I have many cattle. We sell 100 cattle per week. Go to the Cold Storage Company and you will see where we steal money. Let us compete with love and not jealousy,’ he said recently in an interview.

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

A storm on Wednesday night ripped off roofs and blew away tents at a new transit camp set up for flood victims of the Tokwe-Mukosi dam. The flood crisis for over 3,400 families in the area deepened as heavy rain and high winds lashed Chingwizi camp in Mwenezi, causing misery and leaving behind scenes of destruction. 10 people were injured, two of them seriously. Admire Mashenjere from the Tokwe-Mukosi Rehabilitation and Resettlement Trust, told SW Radio Africa that flying metal sheets from roofs caused most of the injuries. He said two of the seriously injured victims were ferried to Chiredzi district hospital, suffering from deep cuts from the zinc roofing sheets. ‘Eight of the victims are being treated at the red cross tent that was set up when we were relocated from the Tokwe-Mukosi flood basin. Most other victims lost their donor supplied tents that were blown away and they still haven’t found them,’ Mashenjere said.‘It was terrifying,’ said Mashenjere. ‘It sounded like a train was passing through the camp; it was so windy we expected somebody to be blown away.’ He confirmed news reports that organisations helping the flood victims were not amused that ZANU PF officials were claiming credit for most of the humanitarian work there. ‘Whenever there is a crisis, you always get such people who want to politicise the things for their benefit. But we know the government is getting help from foreign donors so ZANU PF should not bother coming here lying that about the source of the funds as we all know were its coming from,’ he added. A South African based disaster relief charity, Gift of Givers has also come to the aid of the flood victims. The group will transport all its supplies from South Africa to the transit camps in Masvingo province and the distribution will be carried out personally by teams from the organisation. Apart from sinking a borehole for drinking water purposes, the group will provide food, blankets, clothing, mattresses, towels, personal and environmental hygiene packs, water buckets and medical assistance to the relocated families. Meanwhile it has also emerged that the Chingwizi area is full of mineral wealth, according to the Newsday newspaper. A government official told the paper that the place in rich in diamond deposits. Vice-President Joice Mujuru was told of the diamond deposits last month when she visited the flood victims. The area had earlier been earmarked for Billy Rautenbach’s Green Fuels project. The land was meant for expansion of his ethanol project. The controversial businessman gave conditions that the families can only stay put on the piece of land provided they agree to work for his ethanol project.

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

A motorist was briefly “detained” by Mutare police on Tuesday for failing to display a radio listener’s licence, according to a lawyers’ group. Irimayi Mukwishu was driving along the Mutare-Masvingo highway when police stopped him at roadblock and demanded to see his ZBC licence, according to the Zim Lawyers for Human Rights. When Mukwishu failed to produce the document the police slapped him with a fine which he refused to pay, leading to the arrest. Officers then impounded Mukwishu’s vehicle and took him to Mutare Police Station where they formally charged him. His lawyer Blessing Nyamaropa said police accused his client of possessing a receiver without a licence, in breach of Section 38 of the Broadcasting Services Act. Mukwishu denies the charge and, according to his lawyer, this is because he feels that compelling him to have a licence for a station he does not listen to violates his rights. “There are other stations broadcasting in the country and a radio receiver does not mean that one is listening to the ZBC.“My client feels that linking his radio receiver to the ZBC denies him his right to freedom of choice,” Nyamaropa told SW Radio Africa on Tuesday. The police released Mukwishu and indicated that they will proceed by way of summons. However his lawyer said he was confident that Mukwishu will be vindicated. “There are pending cases in higher courts where other Zimbabweans are challenging the constitutionality of provisions of the same section of the Broadcasting Services Act under which Mukwishu is being charged.“The provisions violate people’s rights and I think we need to move past policies that curtail people’s rights. People should be able to pay for what they listen to or view through pay-per-view schemes,” Nyamaropa added. Last year, lawyer and MDC-T legislator for Harare West Jessie Majome appealed to the Constitutional Court to try and force the State broadcaster to encrypt its signals so that only those who wished to access its “biased programmes” can do so. Majome refused to pay her ZBC licence. She argued that sections of the country’s broadcasting laws infringed on her rights by providing a legal framework for ZBC’s monopoly over the airwaves. The ConCourt is yet to rule on the matter. Earlier this year the government announced plans to scrap the controversial listeners’ fees that are being indiscriminately charged to anyone with a receiver.

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

A Grain Marketing Board (GMB) manager and her assistant are accused of stealing 500 bags of fertilizer, meant for Goromonzi farmers under the Presidential Inputs Scheme. Manager Lillian Mudhara and her assistant at the parastatal, Godfrey Mabasa, are being charged together with ZANU PF councillor Paradzai Chogugudza and Agriculture Rural Extension officer Mark Matipano. Chogugudza is the councillor for Ward 5 in Chinamhora, Goromonzi. Mudhara is still at large while her co-accused appeared before Harare Magistrate Tendai Mahwe on Monday, charged with theft of property. The three were bailed until April 3rd on $100 each. They were also ordered to report to the police twice a week, and not interfere with witnesses. Charges against them arose after the fertilizer, which was meant for distribution under the government scheme, failed to reach the intended beneficiaries, who then made a police report. Investigations by the police revealed that the accused had connived and sold the fertiliser to some dealers in Harare. Police retrieved four 50kg bags from an agro-chemical shop run by Thomson Hove who had received 300 bags. At Musanhi hardware shop in Mbare, police recovered 14 bags from Tichaona Simbanegavi, who had bought 200 bags, the Herald newspaper reported Monday. The total value of the stolen fertiliser is approximately $16,000 while the recovered bags are worth $576. Over the past three months, the media have been exposing the corruption and looting of State-linked enterprises by public officials. There is no evidence that the government will act decisively to punish those involved, and political observers say small fish will likely be sacrificed while the big looters in government corridors go scot-free.

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

Chitungwiza Town Council workers this week claimed that senior managers were milking the council dry by siphoning funds from secret bank accounts, from which they paid themselves high salaries. The workers union told the parliamentary portfolio committee on public service that they had unearthed a suspected scam in which 18 managers withdrew $235,000 a month from a secret account. Reports said the workers fingered town planner Conrad Muchesa and finance director Evangelista Machona, as chief culprits in the scam in which each manager is said to have pocketed between $12,000 and $33,000 per month. According to the union, while the managers’ pay slips showed that they were not being paid just like everyone else, they were in fact running a secret payroll. Workers union chairman Ephraim Katsina reportedly produced management pay slips and bank statements and other official documents to support the claims. Among other details, the documents showed that Town Clerk George Makunde was in January 2013 paid $10,000 from an identified secret bank account when officially he earns no more than $5,000. Katsina said in March the same year Makunde secretly received a further payment of $6,000. Katsina and his colleagues also revealed that between January 2013 and February 2014 the municipality collected $14.5 million as revenue and out of that amount $10 million was not accounted for. Parliament also heard that the local authority in January this year asked government for $ 1.7 million for workers’ salaries. But according to the workers union the figure was inflated with the management having added 10 ‘ghost managers’ to the list. Chitungwiza Residents Trust programmes coordinator Marvelous Khumalo congratulated the workers for exposing the corruption. He said: ‘For far too long we have been knocking on the council door asking them to account and to improve service delivery but all along they have ignored us. Now we know why they were so uncooperative and we say thank you to the workers union.’ Khumalo said service delivery has ‘virtually collapsed’ in the dormitory town with ‘persistent and unexplained’ water cuts being the order of the day. Khumalo said as a result the trust was consulting lawyers with the intention of suing the local authority for continuing to bill the residents for non-existent services. Allegations of corruption and poor service delivery against the Chitungwiza municipality have been going on for a long time. Last year former Town Clerk Godfrey Tanyanyiwa was jailed after he was found to have fleeced the council of $80,000. The latest allegations come at a time when several local authorities and parastatals are struggling to shrug off bad images arising from reports of ‘corrupt salaries’ awarded to senior managers.

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

A three member tribunal panel made up of experienced legal experts has been set up by the MDC-T, to hear the case of the suspended deputy Treasurer-General, Elton Mangoma. A party insider revealed that leading advocates Trust Maanda, Eric Matinenga and Mordecai Mahlangu will form part of the disciplinary tribunal that will deal with arguments from both the MDC-T and Mangoma and his legal team. SW Radio Africa is reliably informed that Matinenga, a former MDC-T MP and minister in the inclusive government, might opt out of the tribunal to avoid a conflict of interest. The advocate and Mangoma are both from Manicaland province and also sat in the cabinet of the unity government. However a source told us that in the event Matinenga drops out, the MDC-T has already lined-up Brian Crozier, a former director of legal drafting in the Attorney-General’s office and one of the three JOMIC drafters who worked on the new constitution adopted last year. Mangoma was suspended on 7th March following a meeting of the national council in Harare for allegedly ‘provoking divisions and bringing the movement into disrepute’. This is the first time since the formation of the MDC that a member of the standing committee has been suspended. The four charges slapped on Mangoma were; undermining and bringing the party into disrepute, organizing factional meetings, disrespecting party organs, especially members of the standing committee, national executive and national council, and undermining the relationship between the MDC-T and its strategic partners. His suspension ignited the slow-burning crisis in the MDC-T as other members are agitating for a split. At the heart of complaints from Mangoma’s camp is the alleged authoritarianism within the party, that has seen party leader Morgan Tsvangirai refusing to step down. The former energy minister under the unity government wrote a four-page letter to Tsvangirai in January advising him to step down and allow for leadership renewal. He accused Tsvangirai of tarnishing the image of the party through a controversial love life and failing to guard against an MDC-T defeat in the 2013 general elections, controversially won by ZANU PF. Party national chairman Lovemore Moyo has defended dragging Mangoma before a disciplinary hearing saying it was necessary to rein in individuals bent on destroying the party for selfish gains. He said as a voluntary organization, the party will not expel members from the movement but expects those wishing to move out to do so freely, as they don’t want to waste their time and energy dealing with ‘rebels.’ Meanwhile the Harare province of the MDC-T on Monday passed a vote of no confidence in its provincial leadership led by Glen View South MP, Paul Madzore. Provincial spokesman Obert Gutu confirmed on his Facebook page on Monday night that all the councillors from the party districts in the province unanimously passed a vote of no confidence in Madzore, Willas Madzimure, the provincial secretary and Tichaona Munyanyi, the provincial organizing secretary. The MDC-T has warned its members against using social media networks to wash the movement’s dirty linen in the public. Party spokesman Douglas Mwonzora is quoted confirming that they will now be monitoring Facebook messages posted by its officials to ensure they did not disclose internal party fights to the public.

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

Belgium has again faced criticism from concerned Zimbabweans after an official from the Antwerp diamond centre admitted they lobbied on ZANU PF’s behalf for the removal of targeted sanctions. This was done to facilitate the sale of Chiadzwa diamonds, a trade that until last year was restricted because of the targeted measures in place against the Robert Mugabe regime. Antwerp World Diamond Council (AWDC) chief executive Ari Epstein told a recent Parliamentary meeting in Harare that he“made a commitment” to former Zim Mines Minister Obert Mpofu to lobby for the removal of the European restrictions, in exchange for the sale of Chiadzwa diamonds in Belgium.“I made a commitment to the minister to help lift sanctions on Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) and I worked extremely hard to keep these promises,” said Epstein in an address to the two-day parliamentary seminar in Harare. Last year, just weeks after the hotly disputed elections in Zimbabwe, the European Union (EU) lifted its restrictions from the ZMDC, paving the way for the international sale of the country’s gems. An almost total lifting of the measures then followed last month, amid criticism that the EU was giving credence to a flawed electoral process in Zimbabwe. James Mupfumi, the Acting Director of the Centre for Research and Development (CRD), said that Belgium was thinking “only of its business interests” in its campaign for the removal of the targeted sanctions. He told SW Radio Africa that the measures were used as a “tool” for years by officials in the Zim diamond sector, who were busy “siphoning this resource.”“The sanctions were used as a tool by interested people in the sector who were benefiting from the resource for years, because those diamonds were being sold illicitly. So the sanctions mantra was being used to cover-up the siphoning of that resource. For Belgium, this campaign to remove the measures was a way to be allowed to trade formally (with Zimbabwe), even though diamonds were traded secretly for years,” Mupfumi said. Belgium meanwhile has expressed concern that despite its best efforts to lobby on ZANU PF’s behalf, the party-led government is now looking elsewhere to sell diamonds. The government has said it wants to sell its gems at the Dubai and Shanghai diamond centres to accurately gauge their worth, but the AWDC has said this would ‘betray’ its commitment.“The export of Marange diamonds were resumed, unfortunately not to Antwerp but to the rest of the world,” said Epstein in Harare. “Why, when the sanctions are lifted are you imposing sanctions on yourselves?” Robert Mhlanga, chairman of Mbada diamonds last week told Parliament that he was opposed to EU diamond sales, describing the auctions as “appeasing Zimbabwe’s EU foes.” The CRD’s Mupfumi meanwhile has joined calls for all mining activities at Chiadzwa to be stopped, until a full audit of the operations there are completed. He said a transparent process that will ultimately result in the adoption of best practice policies was the only way forward.“We are grudgingly welcoming the moves by the Mines Minister Walter Chidhakwa to root out corruption. But we need more than grandstanding. An audit for example was done on Marange Resources, but the results of that are still being kept by the President’s Office,” Mupfumi explained. He added: “We need a transparent audit and we simply want the best policies followed, so this resource can benefit Zimbabweans. Until then, all mining must be stopped.”

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe

SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe