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THE HERALD (ZIMBABWE) - ZCTU Strike, 'Regime Change', Chiefs

Support development programmes, chiefs urged
Chinhoyi Bureau

CHIEFS should support development programmes being implemented by the Government in their areas, the Deputy Minister of Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development, Cde Morris Sakabuya, has said. Speaking at a workshop organised by his ministry and the Zimbabwe Women Lawyers’ Association for chiefs in Mashonaland West Province last week, Cde Sakabuya said chiefs should spearhead programmes such as Zunde Ramambo and Operation Maguta to ensure food security in their areas.

He said chiefs should uphold high moral standards as they were custodians of cultural values. "It is disturbing to note that some of you (chiefs) are involved in corrupt activities when you should be the custodians of the country’s traditional and cultural values," he said.

ZWLA programme officer Mrs Queen Muzofa said chiefs played a key role in ensuring that people understood the provisions of the Domestic Violence Act, which seeks to eliminate all forms of abuse in the family. "We are trying to make chiefs understand that some cultural and traditional practices, like pledging of women and girls for purposes of appeasing avenging spirits, impinge on their rights and that they should explain to their subjects that it is against the law," she said.

Chief Mola said in his area pledging of women had never been accepted as a way of appeasing avenging spirits. "It has never been part and parcel of our culture because we used to pay through guns before we moved to goats and beads when the war broke out," he said.

The workshop was also aimed at educating chiefs on the local government system following confusion on the role of chiefs and councillors causing non-implementation of projects or animosity. "There are times when councillors go and implement programmes without my knowledge or have outrightly overlooked me on issues of development in my area. We need to know if councillors are now above chiefs," said one chief.

Kadoma district administrator Mr Kennedy Shumba said chiefs were empowered under the Traditional Leaders Act to oversee all developmental programmes in their areas and councillors should heed them.





http://www.herald.co.zw/inside.aspx?sectid=17340&cat=10

Zimbabweans fed up with MDC, ZCTU

EDITOR — What now ZCTU? Time is high for the ZCTU to review its relevance to the Zimbabwean worker following the total flop of its proposed stayaway that was scheduled for April 3 and 4.

The ZCTU is supposed to be a mandate-driven organisation and that injunction comes from the workers. The mandate should not come from MDC neither should it come from Western powers dangling the US dollar, which appears to be the motivating factor behind the actions of the ZCTU office bearers.

The ZCTU’s actions are at variance with the aspiration of the worker and why could this be the case? The ZCTU is perpetuating a political cause for the MDC and its handlers and the theme behind that cause is "Zimbabweans must suffer so that they can vote for the MDC (protest vote). This explains why the MDC has invited sanctions upon this country and the willingness by its handlers to see these sanctions in place despite the suffering the people are facing. This explains Morgan Tsvangirai’s wicked statement "Mati mune nzara, hamuna chikafu, zvino muchanyatsoshayisisa chaizvo izvo" (you will really starve).

Many people will remember Tsvangirai stuttering on SABC begging South Africa to cut off electricity supplies to Zimbabwe.

Now, Zimbabweans do not want to be used as a means to an end by some misguided politicians. Zimbabweans are not prepared to suffer for the MDC; they are not prepared to revert to the horse-rider relationship of yore. This is why workers ignored the ZCTU’s call for a stayaway as it was part of the illegal regime change drive.

Workers value their jobs, but they also want remuneration commensurate with the cost of living. Their aspirations can be catered for under the Tripartite Negotiating Form, which the ZCTU is running away from, opting for stayaways. If the business community is not driven by the desire for super profits, and if the ZCTU is not driven by political ambitions, the TNF would achieve positive results.

Zimbabweans have heard and seen MDC leaders calling for sanctions. They are living with the effects of the sanctions and have not been hoodwinked by the hullabaloo of alleged targeted sanctions.

Zimbabweans are well aware that if the sanctions are removed and if we get better rains, then we are masters of our own destiny since we now have the land firmly in our hands. Zimbabweans are now well aware of what stands between them and a better tomorrow; the obstacle is in the form of the MDC and all its appendages.

By not partaking in the stayaway, Zimbabweans have made their intentions very clear. They are fed up with the MDC and the ZCTU.

ZCTU leaders as you carry out a post-mortem of your desired course of action, please be very objective. Ask yourself, whose mandate are you serving? The workers have been asking you to turn left and you have turned right. They did not follow when you turned right, they insisted on a left turn. In short, you have lost the mandate to lead the workers. You can carry on with your right turn, because that’s where the MDC is and all its other allies, minus the people (workers).

The world will respect us if we define the Zimbabwe we want than when we are misled by some puppets into making a Zimbabwe their handlers want, a Zimbabwe their handlers exploited for the past century. It took the spilling of copious amounts blood to serve this country from exploitation and if it needs more blood to serve it from neo-colonialism, then so be it.

We don’t have so many weapons in our arsenal like the war-mongering Western powers, but with our blood we shall defend our sovereignty, our hard-won right to self-determination.

Simon Mwenewazvo.

Kwekwe




http://www.herald.co.zw/inside.aspx?sectid=17348&cat=1

US plot doomed to fail: Govt
Herald Reporter

THE United States’ plot to unseat President Mugabe and the legitimate Zimbabwean Government is doomed to fail, Information and Publicity Minister Dr Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said yesterday.

Dr Ndlovu said reports in the local and international media that Washington openly admitted funding and actively working with the opposition MDC and other civic groups to topple President Mugabe were not surprising as this had been known since the formation of opposition party in 1999.

In the Washington report entitled "Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: US Record 2006", released last week, the US State Department gives details of at least eight planks it is using in its doomed attempt to overthrow President Mugabe’s Government.

The report reveals clearly how the US government is actively working to undermine the Zimbabwean Government.

The efforts are camouflaged as measures to foster "democracy and human rights".

The US government says its approach is three-fold: "To maintain pressure on the Mugabe regime; to strengthen democratic forces; and to provide humanitarian aid for those left vulnerable by poor governance."

But Dr Ndlovu said the Americans’ bid to effect regime change was bound to fail and the Government would do everything to defend Zimbabwe’s sovereignty.

"This is not news. We have always said the US was supporting the MDC. They helped form it and funded it," said Dr Ndlovu.

"We have reports of many meetings held between Mr Morgan Tsvangirai of MDC and his masters at Harvest House."

Dr Ndlovu said Mr Tsvangirai, leader of the main faction, and his senior officers had been to the United Kingdom and European Union calling for illegal sanctions against Zimbabwe.

"It all started when we were repossessing land from the white farmers," he said.

The minister said Mr Tsvangirai was seen on television worldwide receiving cheques from whites when he promised to return them the land taken by the Government once he got into power.

"I must say at that time MDC were not as violent as they are now. They were still under the disguise of a political party," he said.

Dr Ndlovu said violence escalated when the party split and the arrival of Professor Arthur Mutambara to lead the splinter group.

When the party split, he said, violence within the MDC reared its ugly head as evidenced by the attacks on legislators Mr Job Sikhala and Ms Trudy Stevenson by supporters aligned to the Tsvangirai faction.

Dr Ndlovu said the EU met to consider the renewal of sanctions against Zimbabwe at a time the MDC was heightening its violence campaign.

The orgy of violence was meant to attract attention when the Government acts and get Zimbabwe onto the agenda of the United Nations but this failed dismally.

He said before the Extraordinary Sadc Summit in Tanzania last month, the MDC, through its masters, stepped up its violent activities, which were then blamed on the Government by the opposition and its Western allies.

The violence, he said, was used to justify the renewal and the widening of the illegal sanctions against Zimbabwe.

"All the violence and acts of terrorism were a prelude to these meetings. However, all their efforts were put to shame by Sadc which pledged its support for Zimbabwe and appealed to the West not to interfere in the internal affairs of fellow sovereignty states," he said.

Sadc also appealed to the EU and Britain to lift sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe.

The Sadc leaders also asked the British government to honour the promise to pay compensation to commercial farmers whose farms were acquired for resettlement in terms of the Lancaster House Agreement.

Britain has reneged on its colonial obligation to help fund land reform.

Dr Ndlovu said the MDC masters were creating the so-called crisis organising campaigns under the guise of the so-called Save Zimbabwe Campaign and human rights.

"To us, it’s not a surprise. People in Zimbabwe know that the hardships they are facing are due to the illegal sanctions.

"The sanctions have deprived them of balance of payment support through the International Monetary Fund, (and) lack of investment support because of threats by US to companies, international financial institutions which want to invest in Zimbabwe," he said.

Dr Ndlovu said the US was supporting a terrorist movement in Zimbabwe when it knew from the September 11 2001 experience how grave terror attacks were.

"This is what they are sponsoring here. When the bombings are done by their stoogies they are happy."

The minister said Zimbabweans should not lose sight of the fact that the Government has put in place measures to increase fuel outflow and directed oil companies not to overcharge fuel.

"We want to make it possible for workers to go to work," he said.

"The Government also put in place measures (so) that (prices of) basic commodities are not arbitrarily increased while the input costs of manufacturing of commodities are also reduced."

He said the Government was working on the social contract to stabilise the economy.

Labels: CHIEFS, ZCTU, ZIMBABWE

posted by MrK @ 2:47 PM