Saturday, February 09, 2013

Doing what others say can't be done

Doing what others say can't be done
Fri 08 Feb. 2013, 13:30 CAT

We shouldn't fear changes. All necessary changes to the way we do things should be made. It is interesting to see how well the creation of new districts has been received by the people of the affected areas. The new districts have certainly brought government closer to the people. But one wonders why some opposition leaders in Lusaka were so opposed to the creation of new districts. What is it that bothered them so much about the creation of new districts? Of course, pointed to the issue of expense and said it can't be done. But what they forgot is that there are many ways of running a district and the way they know is not the only way.

The colonial authorities didn't run the districts the way we had been running them over the past four decades. The colonial authorities had three people running a district - a district commissioner, a magistrate and a messenger - instead of the so many officers we today have in a district. And they functioned. The colonial authority was felt by the people.

It is good this government has decided to do what others say can't be done. If one visits Chinsali, one would wonder why Michael Sata decided to make it the provincial headquarters of the newly created Muchinga Province because the town has nothing in terms of infrastructure to accommodate a provincial headquarters. But without the necessary infrastructure, people are working very hard to create what is not there, what is missing and what is needed. The provincial minister has no house, he lives in a small room at some small guesthouse. And so is the provincial permanent secretary. But they are working and are determined to do what others say can't be done. This is a great lesson to all of us. We should do what takes us out of our comfort zones.

Michael is doing things that would appear crazy to some people who only want to operate in their comfort zones. This is what being revolutionary means. It means being like David. Find a giant and slay it. Always pick an obstacle big enough that it matters when you overcome it.

Until you give yourself some great cause, you haven't really begun to fully live. Henry Miller commented, "The man who looks for security, even in the mind, is like a man who would chop off his limbs in order to have artificial ones which would never give him pain or trouble."

It is said that nothing significant is ever accomplished by a fully realistic person. We know it is hard to understand some of these things. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding one's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave, to the creative ones, to those who are ready to do what others say can't be done.

It is also said that tradition offers no hope for the present and makes no preparation for the future. Day by day, year by year, broaden your horizon. Russel Davenport remarked, "Progress in every age results only from the fact that there are some men and women who refuse to believe that what they know to be right cannot be done."

Know the rules and then break some, we are advised by some wise people. Take the lid off. Melvin Evans said, "The men who build the future are those who know that greater things are yet to come, and that they themselves will help bring them about. The blazing sun of hope illuminates their minds. They never stop to doubt. They haven't time."

What do we learn from all this? Be involved in something bigger than you. God has never yet had any unqualified workers. "We are the wire, God is the current. Our only power is to let the current pass through it" (Carlo Carretto). Be a mind through which Christ thinks; a heart through which Christ loves; a voice through which Christ speaks; and a hand through which Christ helps.

If you really want to defend what you believe, live it. Dorothea Brand stated, "All that is necessary is to break the spell of inertia and frustration is this: act as if it were impossible to fail." Do a right-about-face that turns you from failure to success. One of the greatest pleasures you can discover is doing what people say you cannot do.

And this is the most interesting aspect of Michael and his government - they are doing things that people say they cannot do. What they are doing as a government can also be done at an individual level. We can all do what others say can't be done. We can all do what takes us out of our comfort zones. We can all move away from saying 'this has never been done this ways,' and 'it can never be done this way'.

Let us not forget that our future and the future of our country will be that which we ourselves as individuals and as a collective are able to build. And our future as individuals and as a nation will not be built in the future; it will be built on the threshold of what we as individuals and as a collective do today. The future is not built in the future. The future is built on what we do today.

What Michael and his colleagues are doing is pulling us into the future, and we should continue to follow them. There are of course challenges along the way. But when there are challenges, we should be daring, be brave and have that special grace, that special spirit that says, 'Give me a challenge and I will meet it with joy.' Let's have a hunger to create, to build where there is nothing. Let's have a desire to serve and serve all.

If we don't do these things for ourselves, if we don't take difficult decisions and work hard to change our lives, nobody will do it for us. We shouldn't wait for some stroke of good fortune, some benign giant, some socially conscious Samson to come along and pick up the wretched of the earth. We have to do it ourselves.

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MMD sees 'new hope for Zambia'

MMD sees 'new hope for Zambia'
By Allan Mulenga and Kombe Chimpinde
Fri 08 Feb. 2013, 13:20 CAT

MMD does not have the insatiable appetite to kick out PF from power, says the party's vice-president Michael Kaingu. Kaingu yesterday said MMD would not kill any human being just for a vote. He said UPND had its own formulas of unseating PF from power.

"How can we support them UPND when we have our own distance to run, we can't. They have their own formula. Us we don't have a formula. We have a vision for Zambia. We have a new slogan not 'the hour has come' but 'new hope for Zambia'. We have a vision we don't have these formulae," he said in reference to UPND's Mapatizya formula, which is blamed for violence during by-elections.

"I am so glad that PF has recognised that we are peaceful. We don't have the propensity or insatiable appetite to kick-out the PF government. What we want to do ourselves is, first of all to do proper checks and balances. PF must understand that if they allow us to do proper checks and balances, it will help them govern."

Kaingu said the social contract between the PF and Zambians would determine the future of the PF.
"We don't want to take stones and try to kill for a vote. No! Ours is to talk to our people; tell our people that we are the ones who transformed the Zambian economy. You know how it was before 1991. It was hard to live in this country. Zambia is our baby. We don't want to throw it together with dirty water. We want to protect this country for ourselves," he said.

"We are campaigning peacefully in Livingstone. We have made it clear to our youths that they should campaign peacefully and the youths themselves made a pledge that they will be as peaceful as possible. They will not apply anything whatever you may call it."

Asked on home affairs Permanent Secretary Max Nkole's directives to the Registrar of Societies to remove Reform Party as an official political party, Kaingu said the arrogance being exhibited by ministers was making the PF unnecessarily unpopular.

"They have brought shame to Nevers Mumba as the president of the party; shame to MMD as a group of cadres who are trying to protect democracy in the country. Now that the PS has come out like that, where does that put the minister who was not long ago seen brandishing papers from the Registrar of Societies? Who had been courting the media threatening to bring MMD into extinction? PF is making itself unnecessarily unpopular because Mr Lungu's behaviour is annoying," he said.

"He should know that those are some of the reasons MMD was kicked out of office because we had some arrogant individuals. I must confess that we had some arrogant individuals who campaigned in a manner that the people of Zambia didn't like and that is what Lungu also is doing today. He is showing that arrogance in the manner he is conducting himself. But in real sense, the general citizenship is not happy with him."

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Group of Zambians want to erect statues of Sata

Group of Zambians want to erect statues of Sata
By Ernest Chanda
Fri 08 Feb. 2013, 13:20 CAT

A GROUP of Zambians are seeking permission to erect 5-metre high statues around the country in honour of President Michael Sata. The group calling itself Consortium of Good Governance Supporters said President Sata had achieved a lot of things for the nation, hence the need to honour him when he is alive.

"Following his Excellency President Michael Sata's impressive performance, we herein humbly seek your permission to put up five-metre high statues in his great honour. We strongly believe this shall be something of value to our country, whilst acknowledging the few isolated challenges. Even in football it is the goals scored that count for a win, not the missed chances," group corporate affairs director Frederick Chinsala stated in a January 28, 2013 letter to justice minister Wynter Kabimba. Chinsala stated that the statues would be erected in Kalabo, Kasama, Lusaka, Chipata and along Great North Road.

"We have learnt from the past when the out pouring of people's favourable comments on the demised leader Levy Mwanawasa forced his widow Maureen to gravely lament that he demised without knowing his own people appreciated him. God forbid, by saying so we are not in any faintest way suggesting our incumbent may pass on, no please."

Chinsala stated that President Sata had adhered to pronouncements he made during his inauguration on September 23, 2011. He highlighted several achievements that President Sata scored in various sectors of life.

"The perfect action of handing back Finance Bank Zambia Limited (FBZ) to the rightful owner, Dr Rajan Mahtan after the previous regime sold such a profitable bank for a song of K27 billion, brings with it investor confidence that what is yours, shall remain yours," he stated.

"Similar to this FBZ success, is the repossession of the Zambia
Telecommunications Company Limited (Zamtel) which was fraudulently 'given' over to the Libyans. By this action, the people of Zambia have been assured that their properties are in good hands, all because of the superior leadership qualities of His Excellency the President. The situation is the same with Zambia Railways where Professor Clive Chirwa has been entrusted to turn things around."

Chinsala advanced other reasons as the rebasing of the kwacha,
which he stated had, among other benefits, simplified and quickened
transactions; thereby giving the people more production time as less time is spent counting the money.

"The improvement in the minimum wages and tax-free packages for the lowly paid has made former economic outcasts to at least feel part of this country. The quick intervention to avoid food riots by His Excellency the President in ensuring that mealie-meal prices did not continue choking the majority is a true mark of a caring government. The Link Zambia 8000 road project is a marvel milestone in infrastructural development to improve the economy," he stated.

On the judiciary, Chinsala stated that judicial reforms were underway.
He also stated that President Sata's administration was in the process of setting up district and provincial prosecutions departments, instead of every case going to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

"Qualitatively, the unprecedented guidance by the Minister of Justice that the judicial reforms shall go by way of the Commission deserves support from all right thinking Zambians, unless one is naturally anachronistic and lamentably filled with incurables of jealousy, hate, frustration, malice, tribalism and permanently backward…," Chinsala stated.

"Anyone who loves Zambia will treasure this guidance and consequently
highly appreciate the able Minister of Justice and the PF government in general. Everyone, including corrupt judges, needs a properly functioning judiciary as it will not be justice if a corrupt judge is punished corruptly."

On the anti graft fight, Chinsala stated that President Sata's
administration added steam by restoring the Abuse of Office offence from
the Anti Corruption Act, which was removed by his predecessor.
He stated that the action implied that the PF administration had no
interest in abusing public office.

Chinsala stated that the budgetary allocation to the office of the First
Lady was a mark of transparency in the governance system.

"The unprecedented superior quality and genuine leadership through
transparency in the expenditures of the First Lady's office is a huge mark
of true leadership as it had been fashionable by the previous governments
to hide the sources of funds used by their then first ladies. Every sane
Zambian should rally behind this transparency and lobby for more funds for
the First Lady's noble office," Chinsala stated.

"The appointment of highly competent professionals to run corporations
deserves special acknowledgment. For instance, Dr Michael Gondwe at Bank
of Zambia, Mr Chibamba Kanyama at Zambia National Broadcasting
Corporation, Prof Clive Chirwa to run the Zambia Railways, to mention only
a few; as it used to be common in previous regimes for party cadres to be
appointed even when they lacked qualifications and experience for the
positions."

On prison conditions, Chinsala stated that the government had exposed such
through regular high level visits by the Vice-President, thereby raising
awareness for improvement.

On the media, Chinsala stated that the government had promoted freedom
although some were abusing it already.

He stated that plans to take the Freedom of Information bill to parliament
was another milestone.

On national security, Chinsala stated that government's decision to
register SIM cards would bring decency and security in communication.
He stated that the revocation of Lundazi Catholic priest Fr Viatour
Banyangandora's deportation showed government's willingness to listen.
Chinsala stated that above all, despite provocation from some groups of
people, the government maintained peace in the nation.

On sport, Chinsala stated that President Sata's leadership pedigree had
resulted in the national soccer team winning the African Cup of Nations
last year.

"The winning of the Africa Cup brought a sense of self belief and great
unity and happiness among Zambians. There are so many other achievements
that this government has done which have not been included here. Hence,
for these few foregoing highlights and many others not included here, we
strongly believe honouring our beloved competent President would be a step
in the right direction; for we should not be sitting idle and wait for
people abroad to call our leaders for awards," stated Chinsala.

"We can also give them what we can; after all, we are the direct
recipients of their good governance which guarantees us peace. Some
countries have never known peace."

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Its Tragic - 59 die in Chibombo accident

Its Tragic - 59 die in Chibombo accident
By Staff Reporters
Fri 08 Feb. 2013, 14:00 CAT

GOD is faithful because I was asleep in the bus but found myself in a maize field surrounded with a lot of dead bodies, says Gina Momba, who survived yesterdays' tragic road accident in Chibombo. And President Michael Sata says it is regrettable that the country has continued to lose valuable citizens through fatal road accidents.

A total of 59 people yesterday died in the accident in Chibombo district when a Lusaka bound 70 seater-Post Bus from Ndola collided head-on with a Hermis Transport Truck that was carrying South African branded 'blue bird' mealie-meal bags destined for the DR Congo.

At least 57 passengers on the bus from Ndola to Lusaka died while the other two were from the truck which lost control and hit into the bus.

Police picked 51 bodies on the accident scene, while seven who were critically injured were rushed to Liteta hospital.

Unfortunately, according to Central Province deputy police chief Andrew Mbewe, six died on the way to the hospital.
He said the condition of one of the survivors was still critical.
He said by midday people were still trapped in the bus.

"What happened is that there was a Land Cruiser that was trying to overtake the Post Bus but did not realise that there was a truck in front. When the truck of Congolese registration saw the cruiser, he tried to swerve, he lost control and hit into the Post Bus," he said.
Mbewe said there were 60 passengers on board the bus and that both drivers (from Post Bus and the truck) died on the spot.

He said police also removed two bodies from the truck, bringing the total number of dead persons to 59.

Speaking at Liteta Hospital where she is admitted, Momba, who looked terrified, said God was indeed a living God.

"I don't even know what to say because to say the truth, I don't even know what happened. God is there and I don't even know how to thank him! When I realised that we were involved in an accident, all I did was to see whether my son who is only a year old was okay. Just look at him, he is fine and I am also fine. I only sustained a cut on my hand and it is not even deep and my shoulder is paining but not very much," Momba said. "God is a living and faithful God because I was asleep in the bus but found myself in a maize field surrounded with a lot of dead bodies."
Another survivor, Musa Osman, 32, of Ndola said he was fast asleep when the accident happened and that he only realised that he was involved in an accident when he heard people shouting for help.
"It was by the grace of God that I survived the accident because I was supposed to seat somewhere in front but I was told to sit behind because I went to the station very late. Thank God I sat behind," Osman said.

And Kabanda Bwalya, a husband to one of the victims, said it is difficult to understand that his wife has died.

"It is bad, if she was unwell, I could have understood but it is not easy especially that she called me when they left Kabwe," said Bwalya.

Witnesses including motorists that were behind the bus and villagers that were at the scene when the fatal accident happened between 07:00 hours and 08:00 hours said that a Toyota Land Cruiser driven by a white man from Mkushi overtook the bus but found himself facing the oncoming Hermis truck that tried to swerve to avoid hitting the Cruiser and instead collided with the bus, resulting in 51 people dying on the spot.
The death toll is expected to rise due to the critical conditions in which some survivors were in and have since been rushed to Kabwe General Hospital and University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka.
Chibombo district medical officer Dr Priscilla Chisha said out of the 23 injured passengers that were taken to Liteta Hospital, two died whole seven had been taken to Kabwe General and six to UTH.

Post Master General Macpherson Chanda described the accident as tragic and unprecedented in the history of the Post Bus.
"This is really sad. I don't know what to say because this has never happened before, it is really tragic. We have organised transport to go and help out at the accident scene. We are also going to look into the modalities of ferrying the bodies and the injured to Ndola since most of them are Ndola residents," said Chanda.

President Sata in his message of condolences to the families of the 59 people who died said he was extremely saddened at the loss of more innocent lives in yet another road accident relating to public transport.?"Allow me on behalf of my Cabinet, the first lady and indeed on my own behalf to convey my deepest condolences to the bereaved families," President Sata said in a statement by his special assistant for press and public relations George Chellah. "We pray that the Lord almighty grants the bereaved families comfort and strength during this very painful period."?President Sata directed the Zambia Police Service and the Road Traffic and Safety Agency (RTSA) to promptly step up their actions to arrest the situation.
He wished the several injured victims a quick recovery.
Meanwhile, chief government spokesperson Kennedy Sakeni said government had received with shock and horror the death of the over 50 people.
Sakeni, who is also information minister, said the accident was a national tragedy of immense grief and sorrow.

"On behalf of the government and people of Zambia, I convey deep-felt condolences to the bereaved families on this tragic and untimely loss of lives. As a nation, we pray to God Almighty for strength and comfort as we go through this sad and painful loss. We also wish the injured a quick and full recovery," he said.

He said the government was deeply concerned about the frequent road fatalities on the Zambian roads and would not rest in ensuring that tragedies of this nature were minimised.

Sakeni urged RTSA and other law enforcement agencies to work closely with motorists and other road users in ensuring that traffic rules and regulations were observed in order to make roads safer.
RTSA chief executive officer Zindaba Soko said the accident was caused by dangerous driving.
He said RTSA would deal with drivers abrogating traffic rules and regulations.

Government departments such as the Army, Police, Fire Brigade, RTSA and Prisons were mobilised to help retrieve bodies of the people who were trapped in the wreckage of the truck.
The officers were also involved in transporting the injured and dead bodies to Liteta Hospital and mortuary respectively. However, the mortuary at Liteta could only accommodate 18 bodies and by press time, efforts were being made to take all the bodies to Kabwe General Hospital.

And home affairs deputy minister Stephen Kampyongo described the accident as a national disaster.
Kampyongo, who was at the scene of the accident with Central Province minister Philip Kosamu and works and supply deputy minister Colonel Panji Kaunda, said it was sad because the country had never lost so many lives in a single accident on the same day.

"God! This is a tragedy! This is a disaster to the nation. Losing over fifty people on the same day! No, this is a sad day for both the ministry and the nation. Bus drivers should always be extra cautious when transporting people. That is why we always tell people that seat belts are very important. Its' like all of them were not in seat belts," he said.

And agriculture minister Emmanuel Chenda, who was found at Liteta Hospital, searching for relatives, said losing more than 50 people in a single accident is heartbreaking.

And Chibombo district commissioner Felix Mung'wala, who rushed to the scene five minutes after the accident happened, said it was sad that even those that had been rushed to the hospital were badly injured and hoped that they would pull through.

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(NEWZIMBABWE) Maize output back to ‘90s levels

Maize output back to ‘90s levels
08/02/2013 00:00:00
by Reuters

MORE than a decade after the chaotic and violent seizure of white-run farms by allies of President Robert Mugabe, food production in Zimbabwe is returning to 1990s levels as the new owners get to grips with the job, according to a new book.

The farm takeovers led by pro-Mugabe independence war veterans from 2000 onwards are widely seen as the catalyst for an economic meltdown that culminated in hyperinflation and an estimated 40 percent contraction in output over eight years.

In his book "Zimbabwe Takes Back its Land", however, London School of Economics researcher Joseph Hanlon argues that the seizures - while delivering short-term economic trauma - were a radical form of land redistribution that is starting to bear fruit.

Output from farms seized the previous decade has soared, particularly since the hyper-inflating Zimbabwe dollar was scrapped in 2009 and prices were based on more stable rand and U.S. dollars.

Harvests are now nearing the years when the former British colony's 4,500 white-owned commercial farms towered over the sector, according to Hanlon.

"It really does take a generation for people to dominate a farm. That was true for the white farmers in the 1950s. It was true with the 1980s land reform, and it's true now. It takes two decades," Hanlon said.

"We're only halfway down the line, so we're not claiming Zimbabwe is El Dorado, and we're not claiming even that you've done better than 2000. What we are claiming is you're getting close to the 1990s average."

To support his view, Hanlon cites government figures that put 2009/10 and 2010/11 harvests of maize, the staple food, at 78 percent and 86 percent, respectively, of the 1990s annual average.

In those two years, which admittedly enjoyed good rains, the International Monetary Fund says the economy grew at nearly 10 percent.
Basket case?

With the exception of tobacco, the picture for cash crops is even more promising, with the southern African nation producing more cotton, sugar and tea in 2010/11 than in an average year prior to the farm takeovers, according to the figures.
Furthermore, of all maize produced, Hanlon says half comes from farms taken over since 2000 by Mugabe war veterans.

With a figure as divisive as Mugabe, who has run the country since independence in 1980 and has been accused of crushing opposition by force, it is inevitable that Hanlon's findings do not meet with universal approval.

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The Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU), which represents the 4,000 white farmers who have lost their land in the last 10 years, publishes its own crop figures that put maize production at less than two-thirds of the government tallies.

The CFU also points to a United Nations appeal last month for $131 million in aid for nearly 1.7 million people - more than 10 percent of the population - who are facing hunger this year because of drought.

"It's an absolute joke," CFU President Charles Taffs said in an interview, dismissing the official figures as "fictitious propaganda" from the Ministry of Agriculture.

"It's a total and utter shambles here. If we were producing the maize the government says we're producing, why are we every year appealing for food assistance?"

Hanlon counters by saying that the perception of Zimbabwe was a regional breadbasket after independence is a "white myth" and that one in three of the new post-2000 farmers are now starting to produce on a significant commercial scale.

"There are a set that are in trouble; there are a set that are comfortable; and about a third of them who are really serious farmers," Hanlon said.




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Friday, February 08, 2013

(STICKY) (NEWZIMBABE) Coltart making a bad situation worse

COMMENT - This is nothing short of sabotage.

Coltart making a bad situation worse
07/02/2013 00:00:00
by Prof Jonathan Moyo, MP

WHILE Zimbabweans are still struggling to digest the appalling news that 81,6 percent of the 172,698 pupils who took Zimsec’s “O” Level examinations in 2012 failed to pass at least five subjects with a grade of “C” or better with only 31,767 managing to succeed, resulting in a pass rate of 18,4 percent, the embattled Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture—David Coltart—has typically proffered four spurious and emotive explanations of this shockingly high failure rate thereby scandalously making the bad situation worse.

In proffering his explanation in a self-indulgent press statement issued on Wednesday, Coltart unashamedly and arrogantly claimed that “the decline in the pass rate is an indication that Zimsec have followed my instruction that standards are to be maintained so that we have an accurate idea of the health of our education system”.

What does this mean? Simply put, Coltart is boldly and proudly declaring to all and sundry that the 81,6 percent figure of the pupils who failed to get at least five subjects with a grade of “C” or better is an expression of a direct instruction he gave to Zimsec to deliberately lower the pass rate and thus raise the failure rate so that “standards are maintained” in order to “have an accurate idea of the health of our education system”.

One does not have to like or dislike Coltart’s nonsense about education to understand that whether a child fails or passes an “O” Level subject should not, cannot and must not be subject to a political instruction to Zimsec from the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture. Passing or failing a Zimsec examination must necessarily and therefore only reflect the child’s examination performance in terms of objective criteria which is academic and professional without any political grounding of the kind sought by Coltart through his illegal instruction to Zimsec.

In the circumstances, the public and shameless admission by Coltart that the low pass rate “is an indication that Zimsec have followed my (Coltart’s) instruction” is not just scandalous in the extreme but it is also manifestly corrupt, unlawful and warrants an urgent and transparent criminal investigation of both Coltart and Zimsec whom he says followed his illegal instruction.

As if unaware of his own scandalous and criminal explanation that the unsettlingly high 2012 failure rate was a direct result of his illegal instruction to Zimsec, Coltart claimed in his Wednesday press statement that the low pass rate “is primarily in my view a reflection of the extreme crisis in education experienced between approximately 2005 and 2009 when thousands of teachers left the service and many teaching days were lost”.

While it is of course true and thus undeniable that the education sector took a battering between 2005 and 2009 when the effects of Western illegal economic sanctions combined with the hyperinflationary consequences of excessive quantitative easing otherwise known as “money printing”, Coltart’s reference to this truth explains why the high 2012 failure rate in “O” Level examinations is naively opportunistic.

It is hopeless for Coltart to, on the one hand, boast that the high failure rate is “an indication that Zimsec have followed” his instruction and, on the other hand, for him to claim that the same rate is “a reflection of the extreme crisis in education experienced between 2005 and 2009”.

The two statements from one and the same mouth contradict each other unless Coltart’s proposition is that his instruction for Zimsec to effectively lower the pass rate and increase the failure rate was made to justify his political view that education went through an extreme crisis between 2005 and 2009.

In any event, Coltart has been responsible for education as Minister since 2009 and the legitimate public expectation is that he should have attended to the setbacks which the education sector suffered between 2005 and 2009 as a matter of urgency and that by now the public should be seeing positive results from his interventions. But, alas, the evidence in the air shows that Coltart has been playing dirty politics with the critical education sector exemplified by his scandalous, corrupt and criminal instruction to Zimsec which must be investigated sooner rather than later in the national interest and to save education from Coltart’s very dangerous games.

Not satisfied that his criminal instruction to Zimsec to raise the failure rate in “O” Level examinations in order to corruptly justify his political view that the poor rate is a reflection of the “extreme crisis in education between 2005 and 2009” in the vain hope of creating a false 2013 election issue, Coltart proffered a third and quite inane explanation of the low pass rate claiming that, “another reason for the decline maybe the increase in numbers of children writing which can also result in a decline in the pass rate”.

This is an inane explanation whose illogical premise is that the higher the number of pupils taking the Zimsec “O” Level examinations the higher the number of failures. But this is pure and utter nonsense. For example, in 2010 the pass rate was better than the 2012 rate at 16,5 percent when 229,522 pupils sat the Zimsec “O” Level examinations compared to the 172,698 who took it last year. And in 2009 only 87,201 were examined yet the pass rate of 19,33 percent was not very different from the 2012 rate of 18,4 percent involving 172,698 pupils.

As such, anyone who believes Coltart’s assertion that “the increase in numbers of children writing the examination results in a decline in the pass rate” will sadly believe anything. Coltart’s assertion is political gibberish not supported by any sustainable empirical evidence from anywhere in the world. The cryptic message of his assertion which was the order of the day in Rhodesia is that “the majority must be failed by design (similar to Coltart’s instruction to Zimsec) in order for the few to get through so as for them not to challenge and swell the numbers of the learned in the racialised global scheme of things”.

Zimbabweans will recall that from the first day as Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Coltart has been irrationally determined to disprove a UNDP 2009 study which showed that Zimbabwe has the highest literacy rate in Africa ahead of Tunisia at 92%. Coltart’s illegal instruction to Zimsec to deliberately lower the pass rate in the spurious name of “maintaining standards” has all the political trappings of a self-fulfilling prophecy with Rhodesian echoes.

Coltart’s cat comes out of the bag with his fourth explanation for the high 81,6 failure rate in the 2012 “O” Level Zimsec examinations about which he said the following in his Press Statement issued on Wednesday:

“There is one other major factor to consider — our O Levels (sic.) are primarily academically oriented whereas many children are more practically oriented. This was a flaw recognised by the Nziramazanga (sic.) Commission in 1999 which we are now seeking to address through the programme of comprehensive review and reform of our curriculum which is now under way”.

Coltart’s insulting and extremely objectionable proclamation is a pregnant disclosure which should be unpacked by the permanent officials in the service of our national education system beyond this commentary because through his telling disclosure Coltart has made clear his dangerous intentions whose damage to our knowledge industry would be incalculable if his agenda is allowed to prevail beyond his tenure in the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture.

To put it mildly Coltart, like the architects of Rhodesian racist education before him, is basically saying that blacks have no academic orientation and cannot be taught through mind-based pedagogy that is cerebral or academic but are rather better taught through observational or so-called practical pedagogy that is based on the “monkey-see-monkey-do” colonial and UDI modules.

The fact that Coltart opportunistically cites the findings of the 1999 Nziramasanga Commission in support of his Rhodesian position whose objectives are the opposite of the goals of that Commission is enough to prove his sinister and unacceptable agenda.

Anyone who is familiar with the goings on in the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture these days of the Inclusive Government will readily attest to the fact that the last four years in that ministry have seen a spirited and determined onslaught against the findings and recommendations of the Nziramasanga Commission as a benchmark for reforming the education sector.

Under Coltart, the Nziramasanga Commission has been turned into a dirty phrase which has been replaced by the so-called “Education Transition Trust” whose vision of education in Zimbabwe doves tails neatly with the Rhodesian vision whose thrust was that blacks should be taught vocational skills and trained to be artisans and do things like carpentry allegedly because they are not academically oriented.

Fortunately, we know for a fact that this is just garbage given the phenomenal strides that Zimbabwe has made in education since independence in 1980. An overwhelming majority of Zimbabweans are without doubt academically oriented and the Nziramasanga Commission acknowledged this fact whose evidence is everywhere nationally and in the Diaspora while noting that, like elsewhere around the world, there is a significant few who are not so-oriented and whose needs for vocational skills should be catered for by our system of education.

It is mischievous for Coltart to seek to falsify the record by giving the false impression that the Nziramasanga Commission concluded that the majority of Zimbabwean pupils are not academically oriented.

Given the foregoing, if Coltart imagines that he will use his impending exit not just from his ministry but also from Welshman Ncube’s MDC and indeed from Zimbabwe on his way to some international NGO to distort our education infrastructure by among other things corrupting Zimsec through criminal instructions, then he needs to think again because Zimbabwe will never be a colony, again. Never!

Professor Jonathan Moyo is MP for Tsholotsho North (Zanu PF) and a former Minister of Information

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Thursday, February 07, 2013

(SUNDAY MAIL ZW) MDC-T inciting violence: Madhuku

MDC-T inciting violence: Madhuku
Tuesday, 05 February 2013 14:52
Tinashe Farawo

National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) leader Professor Lovemore Madhuku has accused the MDC-T leadership of fanning violence ahead of the 2013 harmonised elections by using hate language against the party’s political opponents.

Prof Madhuku told The Sunday Mail soon after a Press conference in Harare today (Tuesday) that top party officials “usually take turns” to intimidate anyone who opposes their views.

He said such intolerance was retrogressive, citing slogans targeting particular individuals as constituting hate speech.

He fingered MDC-T secretary-general Mr Tendai Biti and his deputy, Mr Tapiwa Mashakada, among the culprits. Both Mr Biti and Mr Mashakada could not be reached for comment.

“We have heard very disappointing statements from their top leadership. They want us to believe that everyone who is against them is not standing for the country. The language is abusive.

“When we attended the funeral of Professor John Makumbe in Buhera, senior party leaders like Mashakada and Biti took turns to portray any Zimbabwean who does not subscribe to their thinking as unpatriotic.

“They used different words to describe all those who are against them. We do not expect such language. I was shocked by the level of intolerance. That kind of language is irresponsible considering that we are approaching elections.

“I think they are doing a disservice to the country. They are not representing the interests of the people. They have not done anything since they joined the inclusive Government; they have not even created employment.”

Addressing the Press conference, Prof Madhuku said the NCA was against the Draft Constitution compiled by the Constitution Select Committee, arguing that its crafting was not people-driven.

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Nevers still Reform Party leader, insists Registrar of Societies

Nevers still Reform Party leader, insists Registrar of Societies
By Allan Mulenga and Kombe Chimpinde
Wed 06 Feb. 2013, 16:10 CAT

THE Registrar of Societies has insisted that Reform Party exists and that Nevers Mumba is still its president. But Mumba says he will not debate issues of him being Reform Party leader because it is not his responsibility to update the records of the Registrar of Societies.

Appearing before the parliamentary committee on national security and foreign affairs chaired by Kembe MMD member of parliament Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha yesterday, acting Chief Registrar of Societies Willies Mangimela said although Reform Party exist, the party had not been remitting its annual returns to the institution from 2007.

"So as we are speaking right now, we are about to write them a letter of default. They haven't been remitting annual returns to the office," he said.

Mangimela urged political party leaders to notify the institution whenever there were changes of office bearers.

"At times as political parties when you have come up with a decision or probably you decide not to continue with that political party, there is always one omission which I have seen of not writing a letter to the Registrar of Societies telling them that the party is no longer existing or we have decided to forget about this party," he said.

"That is what is giving us a challenge, even in terms of the office bearers, political parties are supposed to write letters to the Registrar of Societies telling us that they have changed the bearers and giving us the minutes for the resolutions. But this is not happening."

Mangimela said the Registrar of Societies would soon sit down with leaders of Reform Party to determine the way forward.

"Because what they are saying is that the party no longer exists, but record-wise the party exists. We need to sit down and see where the problem is and that's when we are going to determine on whether they are owing the Registrar of Societies or not," he said.

Mwinilunga East UPND member of parliament Stephen Katuka then asked why the Registrar of Societies rushed to deregister MMD for not settling statutory fees of about KR390,000 whereas they failed to deregister Reform Party which had been defaulting since 2007.

Mangimela responded that the institution followed certain procedures before deregistering any political party.

"If Reform Party was not written to, the Registrar of Societies cannot rush in trying to deregister it. But if the other parties the formalities were followed, probably they sat with the officials from that political party and nothing came up and written procedures were done, hence that deregistration which took place. But if nothing has been done like this party in question, I think we haven't sat with them as Registrar of Societies and then that is why we have not taken action," said Mangimela.

Home affairs minister Edgar Lungu a fortnight ago said records at Registrar of Societies indicate that Mumba was still Reform Party president.

But Mumba insists that Reform Party ceased to exist in 2008 and there was communication to the Registrar of Societies. For MMD, Lungu indicated that records show Rupiah Banda as the party's president while Katele Kalumba was national secretary and Michael Mabenga as national chairperson.

But Mumba said in an interview, that he was surprised by the Registrar of Societies insistence that its latest records were indicating that he was still Reform Party president.

"I left Reform Party in July 2008, so it not my responsibility to go to the Registrar of Societies to remove my name from any document. That remains the responsibility of Reform Party and the Registrar. Just like the name of President Rupiah Banda was there…it was not president Banda's responsibility to go to the Registrar of societies to remove that name."

Mumba said he could not understand why there was insistence by the Registrar of Societies that he was the Reform Party president.

"You can go there. They are many presidents who are dead but their documents are there. Does it mean they are still presidents? You will go there, you will find President Michael Sata's name appearing as national secretary on many documents," Mumba said.

He challenged the Registrar of Societies to destroy the records that were no longer representing the current state of affairs, regarding the Reform Party and the MMD.

"Whatever they are talking about, it does not affect me. I resigned as Reform Party president, if there was anything Reform Party and registrar did not complete, it's up to them to go and clear that. As far as I am concerned, Reform Party had written to them and there is a letter. So they should stop being political about it and be professional," said Mumba.

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LCC kicks off 90-day emergency works on drainages

LCC kicks off 90-day emergency works on drainages
By Kombe Chimpinde
Wed 06 Feb. 2013, 15:50 CAT

THE Lusaka City Council has kicked off 90-day emergency works on Lusaka's drainage. A total of 700 casual workers have since been employed in various locations around the city to undertake the works.

The project drawn under the Inner Ring Road initiative for the emergency drainage works is expected to last for a period of three months.

Giving an update on the emergency drainage works yesterday at a media briefing, Lusaka mayor Daniel Chisenga said both supervisors and general workers under the Engineering Service Department and highways depot were assigned to different groups.

"The works are further monitored and supervised by officers under the Roads and Drainage section on a daily basis," he said.

Among the areas earmarked in the project are Pemba, Kasama, Sandulula roads in Chilenge, Chilimbulu road from Kasama road and from Mosi-O-Tunya junctions.

Others are Woodlands roundabout, Kabulonga roundabout, Mosi-Oa-Tunya Road, Yotum Muleya and Extension roads.

Burma Road from Yotum Muleya and Extension road to Sundulula Road, Nationalist Road, Chibwa Road, Kwa Banda area and Jon Hospice in Kamwala, unblocking of pits along Independence Avenue and Chimanga Road.

Others are Mother Theresa road, Alick Nkhata Road from Haile Selassie, Long acres, Great East Road from Chongwe, Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe, among many more.

"Due to the high traffic volume, works which include de-silting of the catch pits, removal of silt, unblocking of underground drainage in selected locations, in the central business district are undertaken on Sundays and workers are concentrated in the area," Chisenga said.

He also disclosed that PUSH has made available its tractor to the Council for use in the exercise to assist in the collection of waste and that the council would pay an allowance of K50 per day to the tractor operator.

"Additional funds shall be required for the payment of allowances for casual workers, operators and supervisors. The specified budget was underestimated for tools, protective clothing and administrative tools. This has however not deterred workers as some of them were encouraged to bring their tool," said Chisenga.



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YALI condemns politics of violence

YALI condemns politics of violence
By Masuzyo Chakwe
Wed 06 Feb. 2013, 15:40 CAT

ELECTIONS are merely a competition to serve in public office and not a matter of life and death, says the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI).

YALI executive board secretary Mundia Paul Hakoola said his organisation was disappointed by political players in the country that continue to exhibit politics of violence towards one another.

"Livingstone, Mpongwe, Kapiri-Mposhi and Lukulu West will be having by-elections and it is incumbent upon every political party that is participating to ensure that they refrain from any form of violence. YALI will continue to remind our politicians that elections are merely a competition to serve public office and not a matter of life and death and therefore our politicians should know that there is a country even after elections, Zambia is bigger than petty fights or insults, than all of us and it's the duty of those in government and aspiring to be in public office to protect the interests of the country and the youth. The binding factor, politicians should know, is that we are all Zambians despite having different political ideologies and political violence does not in any way help any social or economical aspect of our country," he said.

Hakoola said YALI had noticed with great sadness that politics were full of name calling and were not issue-based.

He said political campaigns were a platform for insulting each other instead of telling the electorate what the candidate was going to do for the people once elected and also selling their party manifestos.

"It's very sad that some politicians of today don't even know their party ideologies, the only thing they do is to insult their opponents and call them all sorts of names. This kind of politics does not inspire the young people of today and is in fact setting a very bad precedent to the young people of this country. Young people will think it is the normal way of governance when in fact it leaves too much to be desired," he said.

Hakoola said the police played a critical role in maintaining non-violent campaigns by ensuring that there was high level of professionalism among officers when dealing with members of every political party despite their political affiliation and not showing favours to members of the ruling party.
He said the police should be impartial and level the playing field among all political players and should ensure that the rule of law prevails whose basic principal is that of equality before the law.

Hakoola said political parties should be allowed to hold rallies regardless of political affiliation.

He said YALI was convinced that electoral violence and any other type of violence was retrogressive to the growth of Zambia's nascent democracy and hindered effective youth and women participation in democratic activities.
"YALI is also aware that youth are abused to perpetrate violence and are themselves victims of violent campaigns in the electoral process. YALI is therefore urging all political parties to promote non-violent campaigns, tolerance of political beliefs, divergent views and defending political rights of individuals within our own political parties and in our multi-party system of politics," he said.

He called on all political parties to renounce violence against any political opponent within and outside political parties.

"YALI will not hesitate to denounce any political party or individual that will perpetuate, influence, sponsor or aid violence to take place in our country and will not hesitate to tell young people not to vote for violent leaders or those aiding violence," he said. "The culture by politicians of using young people for violence should stop because they are instilling bad seeds in the youths ... The only time they see youths useful is the time for political campaigns or when they are advancing their selfish interests. Young people should stand ready to defend our democratic ideologies and violence is not part of these ideologies."

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Choma feeder roads to benefit from Link 8,000 - Mulenga

Choma feeder roads to benefit from Link 8,000 - Mulenga
By Cynthia Phiri in Choma
Wed 06 Feb. 2013, 15:00 CAT

SOUTHERN Province permanent secretary Dr Chileshe Mulenga says government will ensure that all the urban and feeder roads in Choma are worked on under the Link Zambia 8,000 project.

In an interview, Dr Mulenga noted that most of the roads in the province were in a bad state. He said there was need to tar most of the roads in Choma because of its new provincial status which had already started attracting investors.

''Choma is looking up in terms of economic growth due its new status. Already it has started attracting investment and for us to attract more investors, we need to upgrade the road infrastructure to a state befitting its status. Most of our roads in the province are in a poor state but we should not worry because they will be covered in the Link Zambia 8,000 Project,' 'he said.

On the new Choma General Hospital being operational, Dr Mulenga acknowledged that there was a challenge in the health sector in Southern Province and attributed the delay in commissioning the new hospital to a number of unfinished structures that the PF government inherited from the previous regime.

''Because we inherited a lot of unfinished structures, it's very difficult to identify which people are responsible but then people should not worry. Choma is now the provincial capital and we will ensure that it has adequate infrastructure," he explained.

And Dr Mulenga said that all the provincial administration offices were now operating from Choma and had settled in very well despite the challenge of accommodation and office space.

"All departments have moved to Choma and we are using all the available space in government buildings," he said.

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Govt constitutes committee to engage stake holders on timber harvesting ban

Govt constitutes committee to engage stake holders on timber harvesting ban
By Gift Chanda
Wed 06 Feb. 2013, 14:20 CAT

GOVERNMENT has constituted a technical committee to consult various stakeholders across the country over the lifting of a ban on timber harvesting.

Lands permanent secretary Daisy Ng'ambi who announced the move yesterday said the committee will consult stakeholders around the country to ascertain the extent holders of timber licenses comply with their provisions.

The government on November 8, 2012, suspended all timber licences and banned harvesting of timber in a bid to protect depleting forest cover in the country.

Zambia is one of the top ten countries in the world with the highest deforestation rates, losing approximately 8,000 hectares of forest a year, government data shows.

"Following the suspension of the timber harvesting by the Minister of Lands, the government has constituted a technical committee to consult stakeholders around the country to ascertain to what extent holders of timber licenses," stated Ng'ambi.

"The committee will hold consultations in the various provinces and make recommendations to the Minster of Lands for consideration before the ban can be lifted."

According to the schedule, the committee is expected to hold meetings in Kabompo, Livingstone, Mongu, Mansa, Luangwa, Isoka and Kasama.

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Rupiah Refuses to Attend ACC Probe

Rupiah Refuses to Attend ACC Probe
By Mwala Kalaluka and Kombe Chimpinde
Thu 07 Feb. 2013, 14:00 CAT

FORMER president Rupiah Banda says he is not prepared to subject himself to a media trial.

But Dr Ludwig Sondashi says the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC's) summoning of Banda over a corruption probe is indicative that the state has a good case to ask Parliament to remove his immunity.

Meanwhile, Banda's administrative secretary Mikatazo Wakumelo says they will not go round circles over the former president's summoning by the ACC.

In his letter dated February 5, 2013, addressed to ACC director general Rosewin Wandi in response to his being invited for interviews over allegations of corruption and criminal activities, Banda said through his lawyers Central Chambers, that it would be wrong for him to agree to a scheme that circumvents the Constitution of the land.

"We refer to the above matter and your letter of the 4th February 2013
which has been handed over to us with instructions to reply," the
letter read. "As rightly stated in your letter, our client His Excellency the former president of the Republic of Zambia Mr Rupiah Bwezani Banda enjoys immunity under Article 43 of the Constitution.

The framers of the Constitution were minded to put in this Article for good reasons."
Banda stated that if the government was prepared to circumvent even the
Constitution, he wondered what guarantees he had that the other laws under which the proposed investigations and prosecutions would be held were going to be followed.

"We have read in the newspapers that the press are already aware of the steps you are taking and looking at the editorial deadlines the papers have and the time when the letter was delivered to our client's residence, it is clear that the press had the letter even before it was delivered to our client," the letter read further.

"Our client has seen that you wish to have a conviction through the press before you even go to court. This is borne out by the fact that you saw fit to leak your letter to all the state media and the press you consider favourable to the state. Our client is not prepared to subject himself to a media trial."

Sakwiba Sikota, who signed on the letter, advised that all further
communications on this matter to be directed through Messrs Mvunga
Associates, who were their co-counsels.

But Dr Sondashi, a former justice minister and Forum for
Democratic Alternatives president, said that Banda's alleged corrupt activities when he served as president could not be disputed, whether he agreed to appear before ACC or not.
"Rupiah Banda engaged in corruption and he allowed his children and other people in government to steal. I feel that the state has a good case to ask for his immunity to be removed by Parliament," Dr Sondashi said.
"My recommendation is let ACC make a good report to the President of facts because I believe there are so many facts. I don't know why ACC has used this procedure. Precedence has been made in Zambia on how to go about issues surrounding a former head of state. Let them prepare
that evidence and put it to Parliament so that Parliament can remove
his immunity just as Chiluba's immunity was removed."

Dr Sondashi also expressed displeasure with MMD leader Nevers Mumba for saying that the summoning of Banda was part of the on-going harassment of MMD officials in a bid to devastate the party.
"There is no need for Nevers Mumba to throw his weight behind Rupiah
Banda. Rupiah Banda does not need anyone to defend to him. There is no
need to raise a fracas over the matter," he said. "As far as I know in
this country, most Zambians do not want a trend where heads of state
steal from the people, so opposition members who are worth being
members of opposition parties are supposed to vote for the removal of
Rupiah Banda's immunity once his case has been laid out."

He said the correct procedure of prosecuting Banda must be followed so
that those defending him are not provided with any excuses as to why
his immunity must not be lifted.

"Let us follow that step so that we avoid unnecessary bickering which
appears to be coming up. Summoning of Banda may turn out be an
academic exercise, as he has powers not to attend to their summons,"
Dr Sondashi said. "There are no legal avenues apart from removing
immunity. If the government is convinced that Banda abused his
authority, much as I am convinced myself, they should take the road of
removing immunity from him after that, then he can be answerable to
anybody."

Meanwhile, when asked if Banda would appear before the public
investigative wings today, Wakumelo said as far as he was concerned,
Banda's lawyers had responded to the issue.

"State Counsel (Sakwiba Sikota) has already written a letter,"
Wakumelo said. "The State Counsel has written to Wandi so
you contact the director general. The position is that we can't be
going round circles. The issue is Sakwiba Sikota has written to the
ACC which has summoned the former president."

But chief government spokesperson Kennedy Sakeni says Banda should face the allegations leveled against him because he is immune prosecution, not investigations.

In a statement yesterday, Sakeni stated that Banda had been requested by law enforcement agencies to answer allegations leveled against him in ongoing corruption investigations.

"They have told him that whilst they respect his immunity, he should consider attending the interview to clear the air. There is nothing unconstitutional about this," he stated. "The government would like to advise all those who want to play national politics to learn to be honest. Misrepresenting facts will not take them anywhere.

"Mr Banda is immune to prosecution and not investigations. So, let him face the allegations leveled against him," he stated.

Sakeni stated that attacking President Michael Sata would not take away the allegations that Banda was facing.

"Let Mr Banda answer the corruption allegations because there is nothing illegal that law enforcement agencies have done," said Sakeni.
http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=30217

Rupiah Refuses to Attend ACC Probe
By Mwala Kalaluka and Kombe Chimpinde
Thu 07 Feb. 2013, 14:00 CAT

FORMER president Rupiah Banda says he is not prepared to subject
himself to a media trial.

But Dr Ludwig Sondashi says the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC's) summoning of Banda over a corruption probe is indicative that the state has a good case to ask Parliament to remove his immunity.
Meanwhile, Banda's administrative secretary Mikatazo Wakumelo says they will not go round circles over the former president's summoning by the ACC.

In his letter dated February 5, 2013, addressed to ACC director general Rosewin Wandi in response to his being invited for interviews over allegations of corruption and criminal activities, Banda said through his lawyers Central Chambers, that it would be wrong for him to agree to a scheme that circumvents the Constitution of the land.

"We refer to the above matter and your letter of the 4th February 2013
which has been handed over to us with instructions to reply," the
letter read. "As rightly stated in your letter, our client His Excellency the former president of the Republic of Zambia Mr Rupiah Bwezani Banda enjoys immunity under Article 43 of the Constitution.

The framers of the Constitution were minded to put in this Article for good reasons."
Banda stated that if the government was prepared to circumvent even the
Constitution, he wondered what guarantees he had that the other laws under which the proposed investigations and prosecutions would be held were going to be followed.

"We have read in the newspapers that the press are already aware of the steps you are taking and looking at the editorial deadlines the papers have and the time when the letter was delivered to our client's residence, it is clear that the press had the letter even before it was delivered to our client," the letter read further.

"Our client has seen that you wish to have a conviction through the press before you even go to court. This is borne out by the fact that you saw fit to leak your letter to all the state media and the press you consider favourable to the state. Our client is not prepared to subject himself to a media trial."

Sakwiba Sikota, who signed on the letter, advised that all further
communications on this matter to be directed through Messrs Mvunga
Associates, who were their co-counsels.

But Dr Sondashi, a former justice minister and Forum for
Democratic Alternatives president, said that Banda's alleged corrupt activities when he served as president could not be disputed, whether he agreed to appear before ACC or not.
"Rupiah Banda engaged in corruption and he allowed his children and other people in government to steal. I feel that the state has a good case to ask for his immunity to be removed by Parliament," Dr Sondashi said.
"My recommendation is let ACC make a good report to the President of facts because I believe there are so many facts. I don't know why ACC has used this procedure. Precedence has been made in Zambia on how to go about issues surrounding a former head of state. Let them prepare
that evidence and put it to Parliament so that Parliament can remove
his immunity just as Chiluba's immunity was removed."

Dr Sondashi also expressed displeasure with MMD leader Nevers Mumba for saying that the summoning of Banda was part of the on-going harassment of MMD officials in a bid to devastate the party.
"There is no need for Nevers Mumba to throw his weight behind Rupiah
Banda. Rupiah Banda does not need anyone to defend to him. There is no
need to raise a fracas over the matter," he said. "As far as I know in
this country, most Zambians do not want a trend where heads of state
steal from the people, so opposition members who are worth being
members of opposition parties are supposed to vote for the removal of
Rupiah Banda's immunity once his case has been laid out."

He said the correct procedure of prosecuting Banda must be followed so
that those defending him are not provided with any excuses as to why
his immunity must not be lifted.

"Let us follow that step so that we avoid unnecessary bickering which
appears to be coming up. Summoning of Banda may turn out be an
academic exercise, as he has powers not to attend to their summons,"
Dr Sondashi said. "There are no legal avenues apart from removing
immunity. If the government is convinced that Banda abused his
authority, much as I am convinced myself, they should take the road of
removing immunity from him after that, then he can be answerable to
anybody."

Meanwhile, when asked if Banda would appear before the public
investigative wings today, Wakumelo said as far as he was concerned,
Banda's lawyers had responded to the issue.

"State Counsel (Sakwiba Sikota) has already written a letter,"
Wakumelo said. "The State Counsel has written to Wandi so
you contact the director general. The position is that we can't be
going round circles. The issue is Sakwiba Sikota has written to the
ACC which has summoned the former president."

But chief government spokesperson Kennedy Sakeni says Banda should face the allegations leveled against him because he is immune prosecution, not investigations.

In a statement yesterday, Sakeni stated that Banda had been requested by law enforcement agencies to answer allegations leveled against him in ongoing corruption investigations.

"They have told him that whilst they respect his immunity, he should consider attending the interview to clear the air. There is nothing unconstitutional about this," he stated. "The government would like to advise all those who want to play national politics to learn to be honest. Misrepresenting facts will not take them anywhere.

"Mr Banda is immune to prosecution and not investigations. So, let him face the allegations leveled against him," he stated.

Sakeni stated that attacking President Michael Sata would not take away the allegations that Banda was facing.

"Let Mr Banda answer the corruption allegations because there is nothing illegal that law enforcement agencies have done," said Sakeni.

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(MnG SA) Zille’s web of lies

Zille’s web of lies
Brad Cibane
Posted on: February 6, 2013

Transparency and accountability are vital pillars of democracy. Without transparency there cannot be accountability and without accountability transparency is redundant. Our Constitution recognises and entrenches principles of transparency and accountability in government. Section 41(1) (c) provides that “spheres of government and all organs of state within each sphere must provide effective, transparent, accountable and coherent government for the Republic as a whole”.

But it seems South African politics are on an evolutionary trajectory from a practice of spin-doctoring the truth, to a culture of blatant and incessant lying without consequence. Blatant dishonesty by public representatives has become a methodical practice. While the practice long became synonymous with the ruling party, it appears the opposition’s roof is leaking heavily too.

The Democratic Alliance, as the official opposition party, is indispensable to building a strong democracy. The question then is: What happens when the opposition becomes caught up in the same web of blatant lies and deceit? Consider the following chain of events:

[1] On 05.03.2011 — The Sunday Times published a story alleging that the influential Gupta brothers often “bragged” about giving money to both the opposition and the ruling party. The brothers allegedly donated to a number of parties including the Democratic Alliance. According to the report the DA refused to answer to the allegations, stating that it was against the party’s policy to disclose the identity of party donors.

[2] On 27.01.2013 — The Weekend Argus ran a front-page story saying the DA allegedly ”took money from the Guptas”. The report stated that DA leader Helen Zille had allegedly gone into the Gupta compound and emerged with a substantial cheque.

[3] On 29.01.2013 — Zille responded to the allegations in her weekly newsletter. She said the DA had received a donation from Stefan Nel, an executive at one of the Gupta companies. Although she admitted to being invited to receive the cheque at the Gupta household in Saxonwold, she said it “was a personal cheque from his personal bank account. It did NOT come from a Gupta company, nor from the Guptas, but it was handed over at their home … the DA subsequently thanked the donor … and, because we had been guests at the Gupta’s home, our fundraising department included our standard letter of thanks to the Guptas, even though the donation had not come from them”. Zille makes no mention of an electronic transfer.

[4] On the same day (29.01.2013) — The New Age, in response to Zille, reported that the alleged donor, Nel, had denied making donations in his personal capacity. According to the report, a donation receipt issued in his name was subsequently corrected. The report included photocopies of a letter addressed to Atul Gupta (“Managing Director, Sahara Computer (Pty) Ltd”) and a receipt for R300 000.

[5] On the 30.01.2013 — The Independent Online reported that Zille had shed more light on the donation. According to the report, Zille — addressing to reporters at parliament — did not deny the letter but said “she was under the impression the cheque came from Sahara and not Nel in his personal capacity”. (Very different from the above.)

[6] On 02.02.2013 — DA chief executive Jonathan Moakes released a statement apparently to clarify the facts about the donations. According to the statement the DA had been assured by the supposed donor (Nel) that the donations were indeed in his personal capacity. The statement says “click here for the correspondence” but there is no link! It includes a link to scans of two cheques drawn by a Mr SJD Nel. Moakes concludes that “[t]he bottom line is: the DA has received donations from Stefan Nel, an executive at Sahara computers, in his personal capacity”. (Now, go back to number 5)

[7] On the 3.02.2013 — Zille tweeted something totally different (see some tweets captured here). She said that she did receive a donation from Sahara, allegedly intended by the Guptas as a bribe. She said she had accepted the money but was “not bribable”. In her own words, she said: (a) “I asked for a donation. Not as a bribe. I received it as a donation and treated it as such. What is so hard to understand?” (b) “In 2009 there was no reason not to ask for a donation from Sahara computers. The Gupta controversies arose in 2010” and (c) “ … we did nothing wrong in accepting the money as a donation. The Guptas’ intentions are irrelevant. We were not bribed.” (For your satisfaction, I have uploaded some of the tweets here.)

For me there are inconsistencies so glaring they are insulting to any comprehending person: (i) Why did Zille go to the Gupta compound and what was discussed? (ii) If there were two cheques from Nel, why did the DA address the receipt for R300 000 to Sahara for the attention of “Mr Atul Gupta”? (iii) On her Twitter page Zille admits to accepting money allegedly intended as a bribe. What money is she referring to?

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(NEWZIMBABWE) Zimbabwe implicated in CIA torture

Zimbabwe implicated in CIA torture
06/02/2013 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWE was among the countries which helped the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) torture individuals associated with Al Qaeda and suspected of involvement in the September 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington.

According to a report by the Open Society Foundation released this week, Zimbabwe was among 54 countries involved in the “secret detention and extra-ordinary rendition” of suspects as the US hunted down those responsible for the attack.

The report claims that five suspects were held in Zimbabwe for a month following their illegal arrest in Malawi during a secret joint operation involving the CIA and the country’s National Intelligence Bureau.

Saudi national Fahad al Bahli, Ibrahim Habaci from Turkey and three other individuals were arrested in June 2003 and were taken to Harare where they spent a month before being shipped off to Sudan.
Intelligence authorities in Harare have not commented on the allegations.

After the 9/11 attacks the CIA launched a twin programme under which suspected terrorists were held at centres outside the US where they were subjected to so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” that also involved torture and other forms of abuse.

The agency was also granted authority to engage in “extraordinary rendition” or the transfer without legal process of detainees to the custody of foreign governments for purposes of detention and interrogation.

“Both the secret detention program and the extraordinary rendition program were highly classified, conducted outside the United States, and designed to place detainee interrogations beyond the reach of the law. Torture was a hallmark of both,” the Open Society report claimed.

The report says there were no known judicial cases or investigations in Zimbabwe relating to its participation in CIA secret detention and extraordinary rendition operations.

But it adds that while primary responsibility for the human rights violations associated with the CIA’s secret programmes “no doubt lies with the United States”, countries that participated or assisted in these operations also bore responsibility for the violations.

“International human rights law not only bars states from directly committing the violations associated with the extraordinary rendition and secret detention programmes, but also obligates them not to transfer individuals to states where they are at real risk of torture or to otherwise cooperate with or facilitate the commission of those violations,” the report says.


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(MnG) Mining and agriculture must change to survive, says Ramphele

COMMENT - The ANC needs to immediately turn it's back on the neoliberal school of economics. People need to own property, including land. They already own the country's natural resources like gold, diamonds and platinum, and they are not getting paid for them. Nationalize or tax them extremely heavily, but that is where the money is going to come from, to invest in agriculture, manufacturing, infrastructure, and free education and healthcare. 'Just jobs' isn't a policy that is going to do it, especially when the labour conditions are terrible and wages are low in order to appease foreign ownership. It is the government's job to expand the middle class to 90% or more of the population.

Mining and agriculture must change to survive, says Ramphele
06 Feb 2013 12:18 - Staff Reporter

Mamphela Ramphele has warned unrest in the mining and agricultural sectors would continue if efforts were not made to change the industries' dynamics.

Speaking at the mining indaba in Cape Town on Wednesday, the Gold Fields chair and struggle stalwart said: "It's time to think differently … the mining industry has no option but to make a fresh start [if it hopes to survive]."

Ramphele said it was important for business government and labour to heed the wake-up call of the unrest and the "bombs in South Africa waiting to go off".

Many workers in the mining sector have been striking since last year August.

In one of the most controversial tragedies last year, 44 people died at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine after violence during a labour strike, 34 of which were miners who were killed after shootout with police at the mine. The incident resulted in an inquiry into what happened at the mine.

Meanwhile, workers at Anglo American Platinum embarked on a two-month wildcat strike after the company said it wanted to close four of its shafts, shedding about 14 000 jobs. Government has since been in talks with the company and workers in an attempt to alleviate the effects.

The miner's profit also plummeted by 180% for the year ended December 31 2012 from a R7.9-billion gain in 2011.

Ramphele added on Wednesday the government needed to produce high-quality social infrastructure, education and a good legislative environment, while business needed to ensure that its actions took into consideration the needs of communities around the mine and the labour sourcing areas.

Sustainable job creation

She said labour also needed to move away from short-term wage goals and understand the importance of sustainable job creation.

Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant on Monday announced a new minimum wage for farmworkers of R105.

The new rate, R36 more than the current minimum wage of R69 a day, was due to take effect from March 1 after countrywide public hearings on a new minimum wage for the agriculture sector was prompted by violent protests by farmworkers across parts of the Western Cape.

At the indaba Ramphele also took a swipe at black economic empowerment, saying it failed to realise its objective of empowerment of the masses, instead it resulting in the empowerment of a few.

Ramphele was rumoured to start her own political party after reports that she thought stronger opposition was needed when President Jacob Zuma was re-elected ANC president at the party's elective conference in Mangaung in December. - additional reporting by Sapa


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Wednesday, February 06, 2013

(NEWZIMBABWE) Coltart: playing cricket with education

Coltart: playing cricket with education
05/02/2013 00:00:00
by Simba Chakanyuka

O’ LEVEL results released on Monday – showing a frightening 81,6 percent of children who sat exams last November failing – are quite alarming by any measure. Sports, Education and Culture Minister David Coltart has earned rave reviews over perceived gains in the education sector since he took over in 2009, but these figures tell their own story. The A’ Level results released last month showed a two percentage point drop from the 2011 pass rate.

It can be argued that this is probably the worst crisis facing Zimbabwe – perhaps only matched by a sick health delivery system and unemployment. So, you would expect a minister confronted by such a crisis to be calling emergency meetings with the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (ZIMSEC), regional directors, headmasters and consulting ordinary teachers on how to pull together out of this mess.

But no, the minister’s mind is elsewhere: cricket. Like a playful student, Coltart appears more at home stoking racism fires in cricket than discussing the needs of our teachers, pupils and parents – the three pillars of a successful education system.

Coltart will not get away with calling black students dunderheads [“Our O’ Levels are primarily academically orientated whereas many children are more practically orientated”]. Or blaming the education failures on the economic crisis of 2005-2009. We are long past that. A Form 1 pupil in 2009 when he took over is among the 141,000 now sitting at home contemplating a bleak future after getting their results slip from ZIMSEC on Monday.

I will leave the education crisis to others to dissect; it is the minister’s pet subject – cricket – to which I want to return.

After a patently racist directive which sought to re-establish cricket as a white sport, setting back years of racial rationalisation founded on producing young and competent black cricketers from school level and nurturing them through to the top, Coltart made a new intervention on Tuesday.

Zimbabwe Cricket announced that batting coach Grant Flower, bowling coach Heath Streak and fitness trainer Lorraine Chivandire would be staying behind when the national team tours the West Indies later this month.

The technical change, as the ZC explained, was informed by a desire to accommodate more touring players as the tour will feature three ODIs, two Twenty20 Internationals and two Tests.

Critically, media reports suggest financial constraints could also be a factor in the decision.

Coltart took to Facebook to question the ZC move – with a helping hand from a curious statement from skipper Brendan Taylor – claiming that the players had not been consulted.

It is well and good if some still want to give the man the benefit of doubt. But if his meddling in cricket – which is not new by the way – does not do so much as raise your eyebrow, then you cannot be in the land of the living.

It has been said, and if it has been denied I have yet to see such a denial, that Coltart was behind the black armband protest by Andy Flower and Henry Olonga during the 2003 ICC World Cup in South Africa to mourn the “death of democracy in Zimbabwe”.

Subsequent to that, white players like Streak and the Flower brothers – joined by their lackey in the form of Olonga – quit the national team. In part, they were unhappy with a deliberate decision by Zimbabwe Cricket under the leadership of chairman Peter Chingoka and managing director Ozias Bvute to push for the promotion of competent black players to the senior team structure.

Coltart later travelled the world lobbying Test playing nations – in particular England, New Zealand and Australia – not to tour Zimbabwe.

The sum total of his and the actions of the white deserters, led by Heath Streak, was that Zimbabwe Cricket suffered. No-one would tour the country. Without television money, debt piled up – hardly a unique problem in sport but one Coltart, Streak and others cannot now project as Chingoka and Bvute’s doing.

When the ZC is taking austerity measures by rightsizing the travelling party to the West Indies, Coltart’s protests on behalf of his mates ring hollow when he is very much part of the problem.

It was an act of magnanimity by Chingoka and Bvute that they extended an olive branch to deserters like Streak and Flower – the same people Coltart now demands to be consulted over when they are excluded, albeit temporarily.

Is it necessary for Coltart to be throwing his Rhodesian weight around on cricket fields when other crises elsewhere demand his immediate attention, not least education and the non-performing football team? Why cricket?

Zimbabwe Cricket has called a stakeholder conference for late March to deal with racism in cricket. It should not be one where ZC throws in the towel to an obdurate racist minority stuck in a 1970s time warp.

This is no time for surrender. Coltart and his ilk who find representation in the current playing and coaching staff should be left in no doubt that the New Zimbabwe train is hurtling along full steam ahead, they can get off here if they can’t handle the bumps.

Simba Chakanyuka is an avid cricket fan. He can be contacted on e-mail: chakanyukasimba@gmail.com

COMMENT

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Zhenharo Nepfuti

Its obvious that the allocation of Ministers by the MDC was completely void of any desire to get results. It was more to do with just taking ministries away from Zanu PF. But as is just too obvious now. this party realised too late that their lack of strategy would soon be badly exposed. Ever since they came into government, which ministry, or department showed any signs of progress. Even city councils are all way beyond redenption all because of mere visitation by these guys. David Coldheart"s recent disgusting discharges regarding Cricket was a desperate bid to divert attention from the impending disasterous results in the form of :O: and A-Level results.His assumption of his post as the Minister of fducation had nothing to do with the improvement of the system. We all know what the educational policy in Rhodesia was like. At what point then did he becone interested in the quality of education for Blacks? The amount of effort he has put in meddling with the affairs of cricket will never be matched in education. How many people did he want to improve if at all his ill advised directives were to be adopted? Yet education affects the whole nation, he would prefer show that he is THE minister when it comes to cricket while shouting like a mere onlooker when it comes to education. I hope the people will vote wisely this year and get rid of all the dead wood in the issues of governance.
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tendax

Vakuru marasika apa
*
ProudZimbabwean

Tinovamamisa ma born and bred racists aTsvangirai awa!!


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(LUSAKATIMES) 2,000 journalists to be trained on monitoring government expenditure

2,000 journalists to be trained on monitoring government expenditure
Time Posted: February 6, 2013 1:52 pm

The Zambia Institute of Mass Communication (ZAMCOM), in conjunction with PANOS Institute Southern Africa, will soon embark on a project to train 2,000 journalists to monitor government expenditure in the health and education sectors.

ZAMCOM Director Oliver Kanene disclosed that the journalists will focus on how government funds on health and education infrastructure were spent.

Mr. Kanene said the reporters, who will all have to be based in Lusaka, will be empowered with smart phones that will enable them to access information on how much money government was spending on various projects in the two sectors.

He was speaking during a community radio station information and communication technologies (ICTs) training workshop for journalists in Lusaka today.

And Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) Director for Legal and Regulatory Affairs, Thomas Malama, said government and all members of the public play an important role in positively exploiting ICT for the betterment of society.

Mr. Malama said it was important for journalists to be acquainted with ICT as it was the most efficient information delivery vehicle.

He disclosed that ZICTA has so far embarked on a project to put up towers in several areas to improve access to internet services.

And PANOS Institute Southern Africa Executive Director Lillian Kiefer explained that the workshop was meant to enhance the ability of journalists in fulfilling their responsibilities using ICT tools.

Ms. Kiefer said community radio stations were an important tool in engaging government and communities on various matters.

ZANIS

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(NEWZIMBABWE) India's Surat looks to Marange as gem supplies fall

India's Surat looks to Marange as gem supplies fall
05/02/2013 00:00:00
by India Times

GEM processors in India’s Surat, the world's biggest diamond cutting and polishing centre, are looking at Zimbabwe for the required supplies of rough diamonds during the year as diamond production of mining companies like De Beers has decreased phenomenally.

Two of the largest diamond mines in the world - Canada's Ekati and Diavik mines - have exhausted open pit resources and now both are underground mines.

Converting a mine from an open pit operation to an underground operation typically results in curtailed production given the geology of Kimberlite pipes - the geologic formation of the resource is shaped like a carrot and gets narrower at depth.

Ekati's production declined 28 per cent year-over-year in 2012 and Diavik's output is estimated to fall 17 per cent year-over-year in 2013.

Three more of the world's largest mines are set to go underground over the next few years as Russia's Udachny mine is expected to be converted to an underground operation in the next two to four years and Botswana's Jwaneng and Orapa mines are expected to follow suit.

Rough diamonds achieved record prices in the summer of 2011, but have since slipped back to 2010 levels on global macroeconomic worries.

However, current prices are still higher than historic levels of summer 2008, and supply is estimated to fall short of new demand over the next two decades, which could take prices back to new highs.

The rough diamond demand in India is pegged at $15 billion per annum since the last three years with the increased production following the rising demand of polished diamonds.

According to a recent government report Zimbabwe expects diamond production from its Marange fields to double to 16.9 million carats in 2013 as the mining companies' ramp up production in the region where human rights groups have flagged concerns over rights abuses.

The government through its mining firm Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) operates five joint venture mines in Marange, which produced 8 million carats in 2012 and generated $685 million in exports.

Diamond analyst Aniruddha Lidbide said: "As the rough diamond production in world's leading mines are on a decline, Zimbabwe is the only hope for Indian diamantaires. It is only Surat, which has the skill to cut and polish the Zimbabwe stones."

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(NEWZIMBABWE) Unilever Zimbabwe set to resume exports

Unilever Zimbabwe set to resume exports
05/02/2013 00:00:00
by NewZiana

UNILEVER Zimbabwe will resume exports in the region by the end of the year after being forced to abandon exports in the 1990s due to an economic crisis.

Founded in 1943, the company is a subsidiary of British-Dutch multinational Unilever - the world's third largest consumer goods manufacturer by revenue. Its main products in Zimbabwe are soaps and foodstuffs.

Managing director Nancy Guzha said the company's local production had increased that allows resumption of exports in the region.

"We will resume exports to Zambia and Malawi and some other countries later this year. Some products we were importing during difficult times have been produced locally since 2009," she said.

"We are working on a three-year product development plan that will see Unilever going back to what we used to do in the 1990s."
The company is one of the country's largest manufacturing businesses and offers vast potential in export.

But a combination of a lack of affordable credit, inconsistent power supplies and other factors are holding Unilever and other companies back.
The manufacturing sector is currently operating at 45.5 percent capacity, down from 57 percent last year.


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Tuesday, February 05, 2013

(MnG SA) Apartheid's 'Dr Shock' jailed for five years in Canada

Apartheid's 'Dr Shock' jailed for five years in Canada
05 Feb 2013 08:31 - Sapa

Aubrey Levin, known as Dr Shock after using electrotherapy to "cure" gay military conscripts, has been imprisoned for sexually abusing his patients. Aubrey Levin was known as "Dr Shock" during the apartheid era, when he headed a programme in Pretoria that aimed to 'cure' homosexual soldiers with shocktherapy. (Anti-Levin Facebook page)
Click here to find out more!

Levin (74) was sentenced in a Calgary court last Thursday, and was earlier struck off the roll of medical practitioners, the Beeld reported on Tuesday

His wife Erica was charged with defeating the ends of justice after she allegedly tried to bribe a juror in the case.

"Your patients came to you for help. Instead, you were responsible for creating more problems. This was a horrible violation of trust," court of queen's bench Justice Donna Shelley told Levin during sentencing.

Levin was found guilty on three of nine charges against him. His Canadian offences came to light in March 2010 when the original complainant showed two videos, taken on a spy camera, which showed Levin fondling his genitals.

Shelley said Levin deserved eight years in jail, but was given a reduced sentence because of his age and ill health.

Levin, who would be registered as a sex offender, was known as "Dr Shock" during the apartheid era when he headed a programme in Pretoria that aimed to "cure" homosexual soldiers with shocktherapy.

'Treating' homosexuality

According to the Daily Maverick: "Ward 22 of 1 Military Hospital at Voortrekkerhoogte, near Pretoria, was where he operated. That’s where suspected gays in the army were sent to Dr Aubrey Levin for 'treatment'.

"Levin was positively evangelical about curing homosexuality: in 1968 he wrote to Parliament asking to address its members on potential changes to the laws on homosexuality, noting that he had 'treated' many homosexuals and lesbians and enjoyed some measure of success in therapy.”

In March 2010, the Mail & Guardian reported that South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission heard that Levin was guilty of “gross human rights abuses”, including the chemical castration of gay men. But after arriving in Canada in 1995 he managed to suppress public discussion of his past by threatening lawsuits against news organisations that attempted to explore it.

Following the arrest, other male patients have contacted the authorities.

One, who was not identified, told CTV in Canada that he had gone to Levin for help with a gambling addiction and alleged he had been questioned about his sex life and subject to sexual advances.

Levin, who made no secret of his hard right-wing views and was a member of the ruling National Party during apartheid, has a long history of homophobia.

Still to be dealt with is a contempt charge against the offender’s wife, Erica (69), who allegedly tried to bribe a juror on January 11 by offering a female juror an envelope with cash inside in an attempt to get her to find her husband not guilty, said the Calgary Herald.

She has been under house arrest and banned from attending court until her husband’s trial was over.

Levin's legal team was expected to file an appeal within two weeks.


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Nationalisation of mines won't happen, says Shabangu

Nationalisation of mines won't happen, says Shabangu
05 Feb 2013 11:29 - Chantelle Benjamin

The mines minister has told delegates at the mining indaba that the ANC and government are not interested in making mine nationalisation policy. Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu has taken a reconciliatory approach at the 2013 African Mining Indaba, taking special effort to reassure investors that Africa, and South Africa in particular, is a lucrative investment.

Shabangu said on Tuesday she was aware that investors worldwide were looking with interest to government for indications about their positions on nationalisation and whether government would assist in creating an environment that allowed for mining industry, following the very public spat between the minister and Anglo American Platinum over its decision to close four shafts and retrench about 14 000 staff members there.

The minister started her speech by recognising outgoing Anglo American chief executive Cynthia Carroll and incoming chief executive Mark Cutifani in the audience, Shabangu said South Africa was putting in place legislation that was intended to assist the mining sector and consequently the economy and government's job creation plans.

She told about 7 000 investors that nationalisation was not on the cards and was not being considered by the ANC or government. "Nationalisation is not an option for our country," she said.

The minister said the mining sector and government would need to work together to ensure that the social and structural problems that led to the unrest at the end of last year and into 2013 did not happen again.

"I am requesting that the mining sector work together to avoid a repeat of what happened last year. We cannot afford another Marikana," she said, referring to the violence that took place at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine in August that left 44 people dead.

Shabangu acknowledged some challenges facing the mining sectors, including lower metal prices and higher energy costs. The platinum sector in particular was highlighted by her. She said a committee was set up last year June to look into the platinum sector.

A more coordinated strategy was being developed by government around the awarding of mining licenses to ensure faster turnaround for mining companies when it came to the approval and to ensurance that quality licenses were awarded.

Skills shortage

Skills shortage in the mining sector was recognised by government and it was actively working to address that, Shabangu said.

"I am very encouraged by the number of learners who are enrolling as engineers," she said.

Shabangu said the growth in the number of mines from 993 in 2004 to 1 000 in 2013 and employment now at 530 000 – down slightly in quarter four – was encouraging and indicated the value of South Africa as a mining destination.

She said it was important for all stakeholders to "be flexible to changes" and to ensure long term sustainability. Shabangu added it was vital for the country to have a sustainable tax regime that ensured South Africa's mining sector became the sector of choice.

Cape Town's mayor Patricia de Lille on Monday told delegates at the mining indaba that it was time for South Africa to see the benefits of being a mineral rich country.

"This indaba comes at a critical point in mining in South Africa. SA seems to have drawn little benefit from the commodity boom," she said.

Giving back

Taking government's line, De Lille told about 4 000 mining industry and subsidiary services that it was time to give something back after years of benefitting from the resources.

She said that there was a need at the indaba for meaningful debate around how to ensure that the country benefitted directly from its resources through beneficiation.

This year's conference is the largest ever held, with over 7 500 delegates, including mining executives, ministers, foreign investors and analysts.



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