(NEWZIMBABWE) Mutambara slams Ncube, Tsvangirai Heroes Day boycott
Sending a message ... Zanu PF supporters holding placard at Heroes Acre
12/08/2013 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
AFTER an apparent political hiatus during the election season, the outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara re-emerged on Monday with an attack on other political party leaders for boycotting Heroes Day commemorations.
Mutambara, who pulled his MDC-M party out of the July 31 elections, had virtually gone out of sight but was at the Heroes Acre in Harare at an event addressed by President Robert Mugabe but boycotted by his main political rivals – MDC-T leader and outgoing Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC’s Welshman Ncube.
Mutambara, who laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the shrine where national heroes of the liberation struggle are buried, said the boycott by Tsvangirai and Ncube showed they had no respect for those who fought for Zimbabwe’s freedom from colonial rule.
“When gallant sons and daughters of the soil took up arms to redeem Zimbabwe from the clutches of oppression, they had one priority – driven by a shared goal, to liberate every Zimbabwean from colonial bondage,” he told ZBC TV.
“It is, therefore, proper for everyone to show some respect for the departed and living heroes and heroines, regardless of one’s political affiliation,” her added.
Tsvangirai and Ncube have previously complained that Mugabe and his Zanu PF party have failed to separate national events from party activities.
They would have felt vindicated as Mugabe all but turned the event into a Zanu PF rally, toasting his victory in the July 31 elections with the slogan ‘Pamberi nekuwhina maelections!’ (Forward with winning elections!).
Mugabe told his political rivals who were refusing to accept his victory to “go hang”, adding: “Those who can’t stomach the defeat, you can commit suicide. Even dogs will not sniff their carcasses.”
Heroes Day is a holiday in Zimbabwe to remember the dead and living heroes of the 1980s war of liberation from white colonial rule. Many of the veterans are Zanu PF members and dismiss rival parties as creations of Western countries bent on recolonising the country by establishing a puppet government.
Labels: ARTHUR MUTAMBARA, HEROES DAY
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Strive Masiyiwa: Blessing that can become a curse
Sunday, 23 June 2013 00:00
“INNOVATE or die,” Mutambara retorted dismissively in response to bankers’ complaints against the EcoCash platform. While it indeed might be true that the banking industry is protesting merely out of capitalist envy, they may have inadvertently stumbled on a serious regulatory issue.
If Econet is not reined in, it will soon present a significant national security threat. Yes, a national security threat.
Mutambara, despite his impressive technical background, has allowed the Econet PR machine to blur the facts of what is actually happening.
This is not a question of innovation; there is ample innovation within the mobile money sphere.
The point of contention is the USSD protocol and how Econet is trying to frustrate financial institutions that want to take advantage of USSD to create their own applications.
The USSD protocol cannot and should not be monopolised by a mobile operator.
Econet has managed to get away with their anti-competitive mischief by obfuscating the argument into one of integration with EcoCash.
This has absolutely nothing to do with EcoCash integration.
When questioned about these issues Econet misleads journalists by pointing to banks that have integrated with EcoCash.
USSD has nothing to do with EcoCash.
Financial institutions are interested in implementing their own solutions via USSD and Econet is frustrating their efforts.
A simple way to understand USSD is to think of it as an SMS service that can send commands and data to a computer. The computer then responds with information or a request for additional information.
The difference is that USSD creates what are known as sessions whereas SMS does not.
In an SMS you send a text to another phone while USSD involves a user interacting with computer software.
This is a crude abstraction but should be enough to give the technically uninitiated some insight into what is actually happening.
It would be outrageous if Econet refused to allow a competitor offering a rival product unfettered access to SMS.
This seems obvious to most of us as we use SMS daily and it seems intuitive that the service should be open to as many as can afford to pay the associated charges.
The same way subscribers feel about having unfettered access to SMS to conduct their daily business is precisely how software developers feel about USSD.
ZimSwitch has implemented its own mobile banking product that rivals EcoCash but Econet refuses to cooperate to allow its network to be used for unrestricted USSD operations outside of EcoCash. This is scandalous.
Telecel and NetOne have fully opened up their networks and ZimSwitch Mobile has already deployed on Telecel but the growth of their product is threatened because the largest network provider is being anti-competitive and is frustrating their efforts.
For the avoidance of doubt, I am talking about mobile-to-mobile payments on bank platforms as well as Zipit to mobile payments. Econet is the only operator in Zimbabwe that is refusing to allow these types of USSD transactions to operate on their network. When questioned, they offer slanderous and shamelessly dishonest excuses such as allegations that their customers will be spammed. This is nonsense.
It’s our spectrum not yours
It is important to realise that the spectrum that Econet is using belongs to the people of Zimbabwe.
There is a limited amount of spectrum and those who are given the privilege of being allocated usage of that spectrum must understand that they are leasing a resource that belongs to all Zimbabweans.
It is our spectrum; it does not belong to Econet.
It is because of this fact (the limited nature of spectrum) that network operators are obliged to allow access to the networks they develop.
This is the price they must pay for enjoying the privilege of having allocated space.
They cannot monopolise their networks through uncompetitive practices as Econet is currently doing.
The capital to set up the network might belong to Econet, but the right to use the limited spectrum is a privilege with carries with it a number of responsibilities.
Those responsibilities include providing access to other operators at reasonable cost. Econet is refusing outright to do this.
Regulating the Econet beast
This brings us to the wider issue of regulation.
While we applaud the growth of Econet and the many jobs it has created, we must also have the foresight to realise that this growth presents a number of regulatory challenges.
If we extrapolate the growth of Econet from the past five years into 2020, it is clear that it will soon completely dominate the market.
This is dangerous.
While Econet might seem very much benign with their cheerful ads on social responsibility, there are already some troubling indications that it is abusing its dominant market position.
The USSD battle with financial institutions is a clear example of this.
The authorities need to do more to create very vigorous regulatory framework to govern the operations of companies that gain a dominant market position like Econet.
This is not to suggest that they should be frustrated in their operations, far from it.
We simply need to ensure that they play by the rules of fairness and equity.
NetOne-MTN merger
It is quite unlikely that the management at NetOne (political as it is) will entertain a merger with MTN or another powerful player given that means they will likely lose their jobs.
Apart from political resistance, our indigenisation laws also present a number of complexities that would stand in the way of such a merger.
This is unfortunate.
A NetOne-MTN merger would rebalance Econet’s dominant position and ensure that a well-equipped rival keeps it in check. It would also offer mobile phone users more choice.
I am not in the know as to why the regulators are unwilling to allow a fourth player into the industry but I could bet a tidy sum that it has more to do with protecting incompetence and mediocrity than protecting the interests of ordinary people.
National Security
These past few weeks we have all watched in disbelief as Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor, detailed how PRISM, a covert spying operation by the Americans, is collecting mobile phone metadata and Internet communications and storing it in vast data centres. This has been facilitated through Internet companies and mobile phone network providers such a Verizon.
To put it in simple language, the United States has all the information that Walter Mzembi, Saviour Kasukuwere, Emmerson Mnangagwa, Jacob Zuma, Thabo Mbeki or any other public official has ever exchanged via services such as Yahoo, Gmail and other large internet companies.
We know that Verizon has been named as a co-conspirator as regards mobile phone metadata but cannot be sure that it is the only company that has co-operated with the Americans.
This brings us back to the issue of having a single dominant player who controls such a large amount of mobile communication data.
Given Masiyiwa’s cosy relations with the Americans one can be forgiven for being concerned.
The solution is not a direct assault on a particular operator.
Instead, what we need are broad regulations that impress upon all operators, encouraging open network as well as, perhaps even more importantly, robust competition.
Without that we risk entrusting one company with 80 percent of our national data.
Not entirely apropos
Talking about national security, I heard someone propose a communications interception centre of some sort.
Such a facility would chew up to US$22million
To me that would be a waste of funds.
We have plenty of office space at Mukwati Building.
What we need are competent computer scientists, software engineers and mathematicians.
Spending those millions on tempting back whiz kids like Tendekai Muchenje and other sharp minds who have been lured by Microsoft would be a far better use of funds.
The problem with information systems is the dynamic nature of the industry.
Hardware is not the issue.
You need to keep up with the leading technologies. Knowledge is the problem, not hardware. Many of the viruses wreaking havoc on the Internet are built in bedrooms and basements.
Many of the most prolific hackers do not even have offices.
It would be much more beneficial to invest those funds in human resources.
These talented minds will not subject themselves to poor salaries when they know full well what they are worth.
This is why GCHQ is now paying industry level salaries.
We need more brains and less bricks.
This is my own estimation; I hope time will prove me wrong.
Still deviating off topic, I remain puzzled by Strive’s self-imposed exile.
Unless he has done something particularly sinister that we do not know about I cannot see why the authorities would wish him ill.
Nigel Chanakira, who actually suffered scrapes with the law, lives peacefully in this country.
Geoff Nyarota, who did Strive’s Daily News dirty work, equally lives in peace to the point of actually seeking public office (an ambition sadly put to rest in the recent MDC-T primaries).
His political proxy, Tsvangirai, has cosied up to Mugabe and would have more reason to fear harm from an STI than fate at the hands of the security services.
He (Strive) has not been charged with any crime, nor has any public official made utterances that could be read as hostile.
Job Sikhala routinely calls Mugabe a murderer, but is allowed to carry on unmolested by the security services.
So what exactly is Strive afraid of?
Ndatenda, ndini muchembere wenyu Amai Jukwa
Labels: ARTHUR MUTAMBARA, ITC, MAI JUKWA
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UNDP refuses to back down on poll funds
Sunday, 21 April 2013 00:00
Kuda Bwititi
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is insisting on funding the forthcoming harmonised elections in a move that has raised eyebrows over its interest in the polls. This comes as the three-member Cabinet committee tasked with mobilising the funds is preparing to convene a crucial meeting this week to review strategy.
Last week, Government cancelled an earlier request for the UNDP to bankroll the polls after the UN agency refused to follow the stipulated terms of reference. Authorities said the country would work to meet the US$132 million poll budget using local resources.
However, the UNDP maintains it wants to be “invited to the party”. In a statement last Friday, the United Nations agency said it was still open to funding the plebiscite.
Part of the statement reads:
“The UN remains open to engage with the Government of Zimbabwe to determine if an agreement can be reached on the modalities that will allow the NAM (Needs Assessment Mission) to be conducted in accordance with the UN General Assembly resolutions.”
Deputy Prime Minister Professor Arthur Mutambara, who chairs the Cabinet committee, told The Sunday Mail yesterday that UNDP funding was no longer necessary since Zimbabwe has the capacity to hold the polls using local resources.
He said his committee will meet in Harare this week to deliberate on its fund-raising mission. Other committee members are Ministers Patrick Chinamasa (Justice and Legal Affairs) and Tendai Biti (Finance).
“We do not need the UNDP anymore. We can afford to fund the elections on our own, and that is exactly what we are going to do. It is not proper for us to have foreigners funding our own internal processes and setting conditions for us,” he said.
“We are going to have a crucial meeting this week. After this meeting, I am sure everything will be in place for the committee to announce that money will be ready for the polls and how we intend to raise the money.”
Prof Mutambara would not be drawn into divulging the amount of money his committee has raised so far.
He, however, revealed that key mining and telecommunications stakeholders have already made firm commitments to fund the elections.
“What I can only say at the moment is that we have received firm commitments from the mining sector and the mobile phone sector.
“From the look of things, it is clear that there is going to be enough money for the elections.”
Zimbabwe is scheduled to hold harmonised presidential, parliamentary and council elections this year.
Initially, the Government approached the UNDP for funding, but the UN agency appeared to have been in no position to grant the request after receiving the application late.
The inclusive Government principals later set up the Cabinet committee to mobilise funds locally with the UNDP initiative being complementary. Government objected to the UNDP’s involvement after the agency set conditions that included dispatching a mission to “assess” the political situation in the country.
Labels: 2013 ELECTIONS (ZW), ARTHUR MUTAMBARA, UNDP
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Mutambara, Ncube feud: Parliament speaks out
Thursday, 22 November 2012 00:00
Herald Reporter
PARLIAMENT will only intervene in the feud between Professors Arthur Mutambara and Welshman Ncube over the status of MDC Parliamentarians if the factions officially communicate their positions. Speaker of the House of Assembly Mr Lovemore Moyo yesterday said Parliament would not rush to take a position before the interested parties make the request.
He said he was yet to receive communication from the rival factions.
“They haven’t communicated their positions to me, so I wouldn’t want to be seen to be instigating them to take any actions,” he said. “I will only be able to comment and explain the procedure when I am confronted with a request. “If a party says it is withdrawing its support for so and so, then I will be able to explain the procedures.”
The feud between the two escalated on Monday when Prof Mutambara wrote Mr Moyo and Senate President Edna Madzongwe letters saying Prof Ncube had no authority to expel MDC legislators.
This followed the announcement by the Prof Ncube-led MDC faction on Monday that it had fired eight lawmakers and 49 councillors for indiscipline and crossing the floor to MDC-T.
Prof Mutambara advised Parliament’s presiding officers to disregard attempts by Prof Ncube’s faction to have the legislators fired.
The two are embroiled in a wrangle for leadership of MDC and the matter is still before the Supreme Court.
It is understood that some of the axed councillors openly declared that they had defected to MDC-T.
Section 41 of the Constitution is the one that is used to axe legislators from Parliament if they defect to another party.
The secretary-general of a political party is required to write to the Speaker of the House of Assembly and the Senate President informing them that the legislators no longer represent their party’s interest.
However, the Supreme Court is yet to make a determination of whom between Prof Mutambara and Prof Ncube is the legitimate leader.
Prof Ncube also expelled 49 councillors, but the Urban Councils Act does not provide for the sacking of councillors if they are fired from their parties.
MDC-T last year fired the entire Chitungwiza council and the mayor on allegations of corruption, but they have remained councillors.
It is the same case with the 12 councillors the party recently expelled over corruption allegations, they have remained at work because the law does not provide for their expulsion.
Labels: ARTHUR MUTAMBARA, MDC, MDC FACTIONS, MDC-M, WELSHMAN NCUBE
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Mutambara bids to block MP expulsions
20/11/2012 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
DEPUTY Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara has approached the Senate President and the Speaker of Parliament in a bid to block the expulsion of lawmakers sacked by the MDC party for insubordination on Monday.
The Welshman Ncube led party expelled three Members Parliament and two Senators accusing of them of undermining the party leadership by allegedly working with the MDC formation led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
Those sacked included Tsholotsho South MP Maxwell Dube, Thandeko Zinti Mkandla of Gwanda North, Umzingwane’s Nomalanga Khumalo and two senators Dalumuzi Khumalo of Lupane and Kembo Dube of Umzingwane.
MDC secretary general Priscilla Misihairabwi Mushonga told the legislators: “You have refused to work for the party and in fact rejected the authority of the party’s national leadership and the National Council and generally disassociated yourself from the party.
"By your conduct, you automatically expelled yourself from the party with effect from March 2011 when you refused to accept authority."
The party also approached the Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma, seeking to have the legislators expelled.
But Mutambara, who is fighting his removal as party leader at the Supreme Court, claimed in letters to the Speaker of Parliament and the President of the Senate that the sacking of the legislators from the party was “null and void”.
“These legislators were elected under my leadership as the President of the MDC. Both the issue of whether Welshman Ncube was duly elected President of the MDC in January 2011, and the matter of the legitimacy of the corresponding MDC Congress are before the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe,” said Mutambara.
“Consequently, all these issues are sub judice. Hence, the entire leadership led by Welshman Ncube, has no locus standi to expel members from the MDC. Hence they cannot purport to terminate the Parliamentary membership of any sitting member of the MDC.
“Once the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe has ruled in its favour in both the two pending Supreme Court cases, then the leadership led by Welshman Ncube can take action against the MPs.”
Khumalo, who was also the Deputy Speaker of Parliament shrugged off the purported dismissal saying: “They are embarrassing themselves because they are claiming to have fired people who have already defected. I told them from the word go that I was not part of them, but that I belong to Mutambara’s faction.
“I am also informed that about 12 councillors in Umzingwane defected to the MDC-T so they cannot say they have fired people who have already defected.”
Dube added: “For them to say they have expelled us is the same as saying Zanu PF has expelled me. I belong to the MDC on whose ticket I went to Parliament.
“The MDC led by Mutambara is the one I belong to. For them to say I defected to the MDC-T, that is their story that they believe.”
Mutambara added that Ncube could not continue to claim legitimacy in government having sacked most of his elected representatives.
Said the deputy premier: “Even in this scenario, how do you fire more than 70 percent of your elected representatives, and remain legitimate as a Party Leader and as a Government Minister?
“This has never happened in the history of constitutional democracies.”
Labels: ARTHUR MUTAMBARA, MDC, MDC FACTIONS
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A bad week for troubled Zuma
19/08/2012 00:00:00
by Jonathan Moyo
THERE are two kinds of different but equally shocking and reprehensible developments witnessed in Harare and Marikana within 24 hours of each other this past week whose damning consequences threaten to haunt, if not define, the legacy of South African President Jacob Zuma who is also the Sadc mediator in Zimbabwe’s GPA process whose end is now there for everyone to see as electoral clouds begin to gather in earnest.
The first development happened last Wednesday when Zuma used his much-awaited night visit to Harare ostensibly to review GPA progress ahead of Friday’s Sadc summit in Maputo to unilaterally install Welshman Ncube, who is also an in-law of his, as a GPA principal in a manner that shockingly violated Zimbabwe’s Constitution and sovereignty.
Less than 24 hours after Zuma’s opprobrium in Harare, at least 34 mine workers in Marikana were massacred in cold blood while at least 78 were critically injured, some in life-threatening ways by trigger-happy South African police whose lack of professional restraint was nauseatingly palpable as they unleashed an unnerving volley of gunfire from their state-of-the-art automatic weapons which were captured by television cameras and repeatedly broadcast worldwide.
While these two incidents, one in Harare and the other in Marikana, are indeed different they are nevertheless unified by quite important, legitimate and growing public concerns about President Zuma’s leadership or lack thereof on key South African and regional issues with wider cross-border implications on matters of the rule of law, constitutionalism, non-violence, accountability and respect for human life among many other related concerns.
One does not have to be a malcontent of any kind to point out that President Zuma’s handling of the Marikana massacre has seriously undermined his position as a legitimate or authoritative voice against state-perpetrated or sanctioned violence.
No matter how one looks at the Marikana tragedy, a cold-blooded massacre cannot be an appropriate police response to a labour action by down-trodden workers, even if their action is deemed illegal. By definition, a massacre breeds a culture of violence and entrenches institutional hatred.
It is for this reason that the August 16 Marikana massacre will go down in South Africa as a very dark day along with the apartheid massacres in Sharpeville and Soweto. A massacre is a massacre. Full stop. It must be condemned as a matter of course.
In civilised democracies that respect the rule of law and are committed to protecting human life, heads would have rolled by now through the immediate resignations of those who have already claimed responsibility for the Marikana massacre.
Against this backdrop, it should be said without any prejudice, fear or favour that President Zuma’s mediation capacity not just in Zimbabwe but also elsewhere in Sadc and beyond is now tainted and seriously compromised by the Marikana massacre beyond foreseeable recovery. Mediation on these matters is not about pontificating on the basis of lip-service or presumed superiority.
The integrity of mediation to foster non-violence is credible only when it is done by those who practise what they preach. This truth might be uncomfortable to some among us, especially in the solidarity front, but their discomfort cannot be as important as the truth.
There is no commission of inquiry which can erase this reality and that is why there’s no need for decent people, especially within Sadc, to wait for the findings of a commission of inquiry to unreservedly condemn the Marikana massacre in the strongest possible terms as a vulgar and intolerable attack on our moral sensibilities not just as Africans but as human beings. The tragedy speaks for itself.
People who do or defend a massacre like that in broad daylight will do or scheme worse things at night.
It is an unfortunate coincidence that the night before the Marikana massacre President Zuma was in Harare apparently scheming to install Welshman Ncube as a GPA principal in an illegal, unconstitutional, intrusive and impolitic attempt to use Sadc processes to get Welshman Ncube to replace Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara in the forum of GPA principals that is set to finalise the ill-fated Copac draft constitution one way or the other. The whole effort is informed by a plot to influence the conclusion of the draft constitution through Welshman Ncube being used as a GPA principal when he has already played his part as a member of the Copac management committee.
Last Tuesday prior to President Zuma’s Wednesday evening arrival in Harare, South Africa’s International Relations and Co-operation Deputy Minister, Ebrahim Ebrahim, told the media at large that “President Zuma is scheduled to undertake a working visit to Harare, Zimbabwe, on Wednesday.
“President Zuma undertakes this visit as the Sadc-mandated facilitator to the Zimbabwe political dialogue. During his visit, President Zuma will meet with political principals namely His Excellency, President Mugabe, Honourable Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Honourable Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara”. How and why then did things change within 24 hours?
It should be noted and emphasised that this widely circulated and quoted media statement whose contents confirmed the legal position on the composition of GPA principals did not come from any Zimbabwean but from a leading member of President Zuma’s foreign ministry team and that the statement was issued the day before President Zuma’s visit last Wednesday.
In a dramatic public display of intolerable inconsistency apparently driven by an equally intolerable big brother “knows it and does it all” mentality, upon arrival in Harare President Zuma somersaulted from the legal position given by his Deputy Minister of International Relations and Co-operation and decided to unilaterally recompose the forum of GPA principals by removing Deputy Prime Minister Mutambara and replacing him with Welshman Ncube, who is his relative through the marriage of their children, thereby opening himself to growing allegations of nepotism that are now beginning to stick given the unsatisfactory manner in which President Zuma has used his dual role as facilitator and outgoing chairman of the Organ Troika to mislead the Sadc summit into imposing Welshman Ncube as a GPA principal.
Lindiwe Zulu hopelessly sought to explain President Zuma’s embarrassing somersault by claiming to some sections of the media that Mutambara “. . . wasn’t invited to the meeting because the President (Zuma) was meeting with leaders of political parties as in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, President Robert Mugabe and Welshman Ncube”. What party does Welshman Ncube lead and how does Lindiwe Zulu know that since she is not a Zimbabwean and is not in charge of Zimbabwean courts that are yet to settle the dispute between Ncube and Mutambara?
Lindiwe Zulu’s rant was therefore not an explanation at all. In the first place, it is notable that her claim shamelessly contradicted Ebrahim Ebrahim’s official statement that President Zuma had been scheduled to meet with Deputy Prime Minister Mutambara in his capacity as a GPA principal. This very public contradiction clearly shows that all is not well in President Zuma’s facilitation team with Zulu’s unofficial hand clashing with Ebrahim’s official hand. It is not right that the ensuing internal differences within Zuma’s facilitation team should take a toll on the GPA.
The conflicting statements issued by Ebrahim Ebrahim and Lindiwe Zulu about one and the same thing and the fact that President Zuma went with Zulu’s unofficial line shows beyond doubt that the wheels are now falling off Zuma’s mediation in Zimbabwe as it is being clouded and compromised by nepotistic considerations.
But there is something much more fundamental here which needs to be unravelled and dealt with candidly and resolutely as it speaks to what is quintessentially wrong about what has been particularly wrong with President Zuma’s mediation in the wake of the departure of former President Thabo Mbeki.
The record will show that one major outcome of the Polokwane December 2007 ANC conference on Sadc mediation in Zimbabwe which had started in March 2007 under Mbeki was that after President Zuma’s facilitation team took over, it became a determined and discernible programme of what could be best described as the “erasing of the Mbeki legacy from the Zimbabwe mediation”.
In other words, rather than building on Mbeki’s work by undertaking or facilitating a mediation informed by the political situation in Zimbabwe, the mediation done by President Zuma’s team was informed by a political agenda to undo the Mbeki legacy right or wrong.
This explains, for example, why all the members of Mbeki’s facilitation team were summarily replaced by Zuma even though common sense and good practice would have dictated the retention of at least one of them for reasons of institutional memory at the very least. A clear evidence of an anti-Mbeki stance adopted by President Zuma’s facilitation team is the megaphone approach of Lindiwe Zulu, which is apparently intended to be the antithesis of Mbeki’s socalled quiet diplomacy.
Since diplomacy pursued by former President Mbeki is by definition not only quiet but also formal, procedural and legal, its opposite pursued by President Zuma’s facilitation team is by definition loquacious, informal, unprocedural and even illegal as epitomised by Lindiwe Zulu’s conduct.
As a result of its anti-Mbeki orientation for reasons that are entirely internal to South African politics arising from Polokwane that have nothing to do with Zimbabwe or Sadc for that matter, President Zuma’s mediation has, right from its inception, sought to renegotiate the GPA itself.
In this connection, the so-called Sadc Roadmap to Zimbabwe’s Elections is an unashamed attempted renegotiation of the GPA as if the facilitation team is unaware that the GPA as signed on September 15, 2008 under Mbeki’s facilitation is in fact a very clear election roadmap with very clear benchmarks or milestones and their timelines in Article VI.
Indeed, Zuma’s facilitation team has not understood that the GPA is an agreement to form a government and not an agreement to run a government. A government must run itself in terms of the laws of the land. There is no example of a government in the world that has been run on mediation.
But even so, a major difference between Mbeki’s and Zuma’s facilitation teams is that Mbeki’s team was very sensitive to matters of the rule of law and legality as central to its mediation to the point of having a lawyer within its ranks - Mojanku Gumbi - whereas Zuma’s team, which has no lawyer, has not given a damn about using the mediation to engender and foster the rule of law in Zimbabwe but has instead done things in accordance with the whims and caprices of the law of the jungle where anything goes regardless of the legal position.
It is in this context that President Zuma’s mediation in Zimbabwe has been unmistakably loud through the media where Lindiwe Zulu typically says whatever comes to her mouth as if she or her boss is part of the Zimbabwean political process and the mediation has also been informal, unprocedural and insensitive to legal or constitutional considerations and requirements with the imposition of Welshman Ncube on the forum of GPA principals as the latest despicable example.
In the past Zuma’s mediation has used unprocedural and informal channels through the forum of GPA negotiators to make illegal decisions that are supposed to be rubber-stamped by Cabinet and implemented by line ministries but all of which have been resisted in defence of the Cabinet process and the rule of law.
One case in point are the so-called media reforms whose shocking essence is that the GPA parties should share among themselves the spoils of board members in BAZ, ZBC and Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust against very clear legal provisions and requirements for the appointment to these boards.
Another example of how the GPA has been abused by Zuma’s facilitation team through the forum of GPA negotiators is the misapplication of Article XXI which provides that, “The Parties hereby agree that for a period of 12 months from the date of signing of this agreement, should any electoral vacancy arise in respect of a local authority or parliamentary seat, for whatever reason, only the party holding that seat prior to the vacancy occurring shall be entitled to nominate and field a candidate to fill the seat subject to the party complying with the rules governing its internal democracy”.
Under the tutelage of Zuma’s facilitation team amid Sadc silence, the legalities of this provision have been ignored while the provision itself was unprocedurally extended for another 12 months and has been illegally used to deny other political parties and unrepresented constituencies their constitutional rights by not holding parliamentary by-elections whose number is now over 30 and over 500 local government by-elections across the country.
Because it is not concerned with the legal and constitutional consequences of its actions, made worse by the fact that it does not have a lawyer in its ranks, President Zuma’s facilitation team has not understood the constitutional implications of a terrible situation that has been developing under its nose with GPA chickens now coming home to roost from a constitutional point of view in terms of the rule of law which requires that the elections must now be held. This is not a matter for negotiation or mediation, it is a requirement of the law and has nothing to do with who is or is not a GPA principal.
And so it is that while some well-known GPA creatures who have no chance in heaven of winning a free and fair election and who can only possibly come back to Parliament through nomination by their parties on a gender ticket under a controversial system of proportional representation can make their usual empty noises, claiming that the Sadc summit has declared that Welshman Ncube is a GPA principal in place of Mutambara, law-abiding Zimbabweans know better. The elections are coming because the law says they must come.
GPA creatures should put this reality in their thick and empty heads and they must understand that nobody is going to become a GPA principal or political leader in Zimbabwe on account of a Sadc communique made and facilitated by an important inlaw. That cannot be right no matter how many times it is written in as many Sadc communiques.
One does not have to hold a brief for Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara to understand five very clear things about why he is a GPA principal in terms of Zimbabwe’s laws and why only a court of law can change that.
First, Mutambara is a signatory to the GPA and that counts for something at law, especially given that his legal status as a GPA signatory has not been challenged in any court of law.
Second, the only matter that is in dispute before the courts is whether MDC-M held a lawful electoral congress through which Welshman Ncube was elected to replace Mutambara. That matter is on appeal at the Supreme Court and is yet to be finalised such that the issue is still to be settled legally.
Third, there is no legal challenge in any court of law to Mutambara’s GPA position as the Deputy Prime Minister of Zimbabwe and he is therefore secure in that regard whatever is the outcome of the challenge pending in the Supreme Court.
Fourth, it is not legally clear at all as to what party Welshman Ncube now leads and the status of that party in the GPA. Is it the same party that Mutambara represented under his name and signature when the GPA was signed on September 15, 2008?
How many elected MPs, if any, does Welshman Ncube - who does not want by-elections - actually have, given the indubitable fact that some of those he has previously claimed in the past have effectively crossed to the MDC-T while others swear that their loyalty is with Mutambara?
Fifth, it is now common cause that Welshman Ncube is one of the authors of Copac’s final draft produced on July 18 2012 and he did that not as a GPA principal but as a GPA negotiator because he clearly knew and understood that he is not a principal otherwise he would not have stooped that low.
Why then does Zuma’s facilitation team think it is right or legal under the false cover of Sadc to enable Ncube to now double-dip by posing as a GPA principal? Welshman Ncube has had his say on the Copac draft constitution as one of its drafters.
He must now let the GPA principals do their work unhindered and he certainly must refrain from pushing his in-laws in South Africa to bid for his politically hopeless and illegal cause.
Labels: ARTHUR MUTAMBARA, GLOBAL POLITICAL AGREEMENT, JACOB ZUMA, JONATHAN MOYO
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Zuma abusing SADC role to help Ncube: Moyo
19/08/2012 00:00:00
by Gilbert Nyambabvu
A SENIOR Zanu PF official has accused South Africa President, Jacob Zuma, of abusing his role as SADC facilitator to interfere in Zimbabwean politics and help boost the political fortunes of his relative Welshman Ncube.
Ncube – whose son is married to one of Zuma’s daughters – has been
battling to replace Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara as a GPA principal, having deposed him as leader of the MDC.
And the Industry and Commerce Minister appeared to receive a boost last week when Zuma refused to meet Mutambara during a visit to Harare ahead of the SADC summit in Maputo, Mozambique.
But the snub drew fire from Zanu PF politburo member Jonathan Moyo who accused Zuma of a nepotistic scheme to install Ncube as a GPA principal and described the move as “illegal, unconstitutional, intrusive and impolitic”.
Writing in the Sunday Mail, Moyo charged: “In a dramatic public display of intolerable inconsistency apparently driven by an equally intolerable big brother ‘knows it and does it all’ mentality, upon arrival in Harare President Zuma … decided to unilaterally recompose the forum of GPA principals by removing Deputy Prime Minister Mutambara and replacing him with Welshman Ncube, who is his relative through the marriage of their children, thereby opening himself to growing allegations of nepotism that are now beginning to stick given the unsatisfactory manner in which President Zuma has used his dual role as facilitator and outgoing chairman of the Organ Troika to mislead the Sadc summit into imposing Welshman Ncube as a GPA principal.”
Mutambara, still smarting from the snub, also angrily rebuked the South African leader in Maputo and acussed him of undermining Zimbabwe’s constitution.
“He (Zuma) came to Harare and unilaterally decided that Ncube is the MDC principal and that the MDC congress was valid and yet the matter is still pending before the Supreme Court which is the final legal authority,” Mutambara said.
“Anyone who undermines the Supreme Court by making a determination on a pending issue is violating Zimbabwe’s laws and Constitution.”
Moyo added: “The whole effort is informed by a plot to influence the conclusion of the draft constitution through Welshman Ncube being used as a GPA principal when he has already played his part as a member of the Copac management committee.
“It is now common cause that Ncube is one of the authors of Copac’s final draft produced on July 18 2012 and he did that not as a GPA principal but as a GPA negotiator because he clearly knew and understood that he is not a principal otherwise he would not have stooped that low.
“Why then does Zuma’s facilitation team think it is right or legal under the false cover of Sadc to enable Ncube to now double-dip by posing as a GPA principal?
“Ncube has had his say on the Copac draft constitution as one of its drafters. He must now let the GPA principals do their work unhindered and he certainly must refrain from pushing his in-laws in South Africa to bid for his politically hopeless and illegal cause.”
Still, the SADC meeting in Maputo appeared to back Zuma with part of the resolutions relating to Zimbabwe stating: “The facilitator and the chair of the Troika must engage on the Zimbabwe issues with the three political parties to the GPA through their Presidents and Principals, namely President Robert Mugabe (Zanu PF), Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai (MDC-T) and Professor Welshman Ncube (MDC).”
Commenting on the resolution a triumphant Ncube said: “Talk of the laws of unintended consequences! The Troika recommended to the full Summit that from now on, the facilitator and the Troika should no longer have any dealings with Mutambara and that consequently he should not be invited to any Troika or Summit meetings since SADC should only deal with the three political parties to the GPA.
“When President Robert Mugabe sought to draw a distinction between party leaders and GPA Principals, the Summit firmly rejected that distinction insisting that Mutambara did not sign the GPA in his personal capacity but in his representative capacity as then leader of the MDC.”
Moyo however, said the SADC communiqué did not make any difference and insisted that Mutambara would remain a GPA principal.
He said: “GPA creatures should put this reality in their thick and empty heads and they must understand that nobody is going to become a GPA principal or political leader in Zimbabwe on account of a Sadc communique made and facilitated by an important in-law.
“That cannot be right no matter how many times it is written in as many SADC communiqués.”
Labels: ARTHUR MUTAMBARA, COPAC, JACOB ZUMA, JONATHAN MOYO, SADC, WELSHMAN NCUBE
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MDC members contest Mutambara ouster
Thursday, 14 June 2012 14:07
Senior Court Reporter
THIRTEEN MDC members aligned to the Professor Arthur Mutambara faction yesterday appealed to the Supreme Court against the High Court decision confirming Professor Welshman Ncube the democratically-elected party leader.
Justice Bharat Patel on Tuesday dismissed an application by Mr Morgan Changamire, Mr Jobert Mudzumwe and 11 other party members to nullify the January 2011 party congress in which Prof Ncube was elected president.
The court ruled that the congress was properly convened and that the election process that gave Prof Ncube mandate to lead the party was above board and in compliance with the party’s constitution.
The group, through its lawyer Mr Obey Shava of Mbidzo, Muchadehama and Makoni, appealed to the Supreme Court.
In the notice of appeal, the group stated that Justice Patel misdirected himself in interpreting the MDC constitution.
“The learned judge in the court-a-quo erred in holding that second respondent (Prof Ncube) had complied with the mandatory provision of the first respondent’s constitution.
“It is also submitted that the court-a-quo erred in holding that the provisions of first respondent’s constitution had not been violated.”
The group also contests the judgment on the basis that the election was not properly held.
The election, according to the group, was presided over by a person who was not constitutionally authorised to do so, thus making the outcome null and void.
Labels: ARTHUR MUTAMBARA, MDC, MDC-M
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Mutambara was a 'mad man': Mugabe
14/06/2012 00:00:00
by Moses Matenga I NewsDay
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe poked fun at Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara Wednesday saying
had it not been that Zimbabwe has a good education system, the former University of Zimbabwe (UZ) student leader would have remained “a mad man” he was back then.Addressing delegates at the launch of the Science Technology and Innovation Policy in Harare yesterday,
Mugabe said Mutambara used to behave like a “mad man” during his student activism days, but had transformed into an intellectual of note.
“Ten years ago we were here. In between lots of things happened, lots of technology and people have become much more sophisticated,” he said.
“I don’t know what Professor Mutambara was doing then in 2002. He used to be a mad man at University (of Zimbabwe),” Mugabe said.
“That education has its effects on persons. It gives them that essence of dignity. It makes an individual that would have been just a lump of flesh get to an intellectual level much more advanced than he was born with.”
In reference to Mutambara, Mugabe said: “It adapts you and you become mature, more polished, more loveable, and more handsome. There you are, but remember how you used to behave during your university days.”
Mugabe also said: “While we are very happy with the linkages that we have with friendly countries around the world, we are aware that some countries are hostile to our interests as manifested in the abrupt cutting of collaboration linkages in the past. I remain hopeful that our continued negotiations with the international community will result in the total removal of illegal sanctions.”
Earlier Mutambara urged Mugabe to dump the Zanu PF party slogan “Land is the Economy and the Economy is Land” and adopt “Science and Technology is the Economy and the Economy is Science and Technology.”
Mutambara led several violent protests at the UZ when he was a student leader between 1989 and the early 1990s leading to his arrest and imprisonment.
The launch was attended by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, DPM Thokozani Khupe, several ministers from all the political parties and MPs, among other guests.
Labels: ARTHUR MUTAMBARA, EDUCATION, ROBERT MUGABE
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Mutambara’s ouster above board — High Court
Wednesday, 13 June 2012 15:05
Daniel Nemukuyu Senior Court Reporter
PROFESSOR Welshman Ncube is the legitimate leader of MDC, the High Court ruled yesterday. Justice Bharat Patel also ruled that the congress held by the party in January 2011 was above board. The judge validated MDC’s election which gave Prof Ncube the mandate to lead the party as president.
The ruling follows an application by Jobert Mudzumwe, Morgan Changa-mire and other MDC members aligned to Prof Arthur Mutambara’s faction seeking to nullify the congress and the election of the party’s national executive.
The group — that was represented by Mr Obey Shava of Mbidzo, Muchadehama and Makoni — had argued that the congress was conducted in violation of the party constitution.
It was argued that organisers of the congress failed to send notices to all provinces and districts as required by the party constitution.
The group also argued that the election process was flawed in the sense that the party national organising secretary chaired the election, instead of the national chairman.
They also contested the election nomination process.
However, Justice Patel threw out the application for lack of merit.
He ruled that the national organising secretary was justified in chairing the election considering that the party chairman had deliberately absented himself.
Abandoning the congress because of the chairman’s deliberate absence would amount to promoting monopoly in party leadership.
“It follows that the resolution authorising the national organising secretary to perform the functions of the national chairperson at the congress, including the conduct of elections under Article 6.13.3 was perfectly competent under the aegis of Article 15.1.
“In the instant case, having deliberately absented himself from the congress the first applicant (Mudzumwe) cannot rely on his absence to argue that all the proceedings at the congress were a nullity because he was not present.
“To allow him to do so would enable him to benefit from his own deliberate abstention to the extreme prejudice of the entire MDC party membership.
“It would allow party leaders to circumvent and frustrate the electoral process and remain in office indefinitely through the simple stratagem of non-attendance,” he ruled.
Justice Patel shot down the challenge on proper notification of provinces and districts.
He ruled that the party members complied with the constitutional requirement.
“Over 4 000 delegates representing all the provinces and districts actually attended the congress.
“Those who did not attend, including the applicants, deliberately chose to boycott. In any event, virtually all the applicants were members of the national council and were present at the meeting where the dates of the congress were fixed.
“It follows in my view that the provision was not violated in any way and was duly complied with,” Justice Patel ruled.
The election process, the judge ruled, was above board and in line with the party constitution.
“In short, what transpired at the congress in casu was an electoral process. I am therefore inclined to conclude that the proceedings under consideration, notwithstanding the absence of any opposition to the candidates nominated, constituted elections in the formal sense, requiring the active involvement of a designated official to preside over the conduct of those elections,” the court ruled.
Mr Changamire said the group intended to appeal against the judgment.
“We are not happy with the judgment. The judgment left out a lot of issues. We are taking it up to the Supreme Court. We will soon file an appeal,” he said.
In December last year, Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Lawrence Kamocha granted an application by Prof Ncube to interdict Prof Mutambara from acting as both party president and principal to the Global Political Agreement.
Justice Kamocha ruled that basing on the final order sought, Prof Mutambara was no longer MDC president.
He said the party was justified in launching the application restraining Pro Mutambara from persisting with his behaviour.
The judge added that the outcome of the party congress remains valid until and unless it was set aside by a court of law.
However, the matter is still pending in the Supreme Court after Prof Mutambara appealed against the ruling.
Labels: ARTHUR MUTAMBARA, MDC, MDC FACTIONS, MDC-M, WELSHMAN NCUBE
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Elections possible this year: Mutambara
06/06/2012 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
DEPUTY Prime Minister Professor Arthur Mutambara has insisted that elections could still be held this year, ending the shaky inclusive government which has run the country since 2009.
President Robert Mugabe is pushing for fresh polls before year-end saying the coalition arrangement is no longer workable because of policy and other differences between the parties.
But his rivals, the MDC-T in particular, has insisted that the polls should be held after political reforms have been implemented to ensure the election outcome cannot be disputed.
A meeting of the SADC Organ on Defence, Politics and Security Co-operation in Luanda, Angola last week said new elections should be held within the next 12 months.
However, responding to a question in Parliament Wednesday, Mutambara said the country could hold elections this year.
Mutambara explained that SADC had outlined that there was need to agree on outstanding issues stalling the drafting of the new constitution.
"It is possible to have elections this year according to SADC," he said, adding,
"Our GPA allows us that if we reach a deadlock and its no longer workable then we have no choice we can have elections without a new constitution and the reforms. It is very likely.
“The other scenario is that we can actually do an analysis of what needs to be done and maybe agree that it will take us 13 months, which will take us to June 2013, which is when this Parliament expires because that is when the President was sworn in, the ultimate deadline is June 30, 2013."
Mutambara however, said it would be ideal for the country to hold elections with a new Constitution adding there was need for COPAC to "get their act together."
"Copac Select Committee must get its act together, the Management Committee must get their act together," he said.
“If we want reforms before the elections, we have to stop this dilly dallying. This House should also pass Bills, the Human Rights and the Electoral Amendment Bills, so we should get those done if we want reforms."
He said with the current delays in producing the draft Constitution the term of the current Parliament might expire without the new supreme law in place.
Mutambara also underscored the need to refrain from political violence as the nation edges towards the next polls.
"As you are now all aware there is now talk of elections but it does not make sense for us to envisage having a free and fair election when our people are violent to each other.
"You cannot legislate values and culture. These things must be built into the people to make sure that they are not violent," said Mutambara.
Labels: 2011 ELECTIONS (ZIMBABWE), ARTHUR MUTAMBARA
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DPM calls for commercial diplomacy with China
Wednesday, 09 May 2012 00:00
Herald Reporter
Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara has said that it is time relations between Zimbabwe and China move from being political to being commercial. He said the two countries should benefit equally from the good relations.
DPM Mutambara was speaking at his Munhumutapa Offices in Harare yesterday during a meeting with outgoing Chinese ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Xin Shunkang. He said every deal between Zimbabwe and China should result in a “win-win situation” for the two countries.
“It’s high time the interaction between China and Zimbabwe move to commercial diplomacy and we are happy Mr Xin had started doing that,” said DPM Mutambara.
“Mr Xin was pushing economics, trade and investment and this is the kind of relations we should now embrace. Every deal should be designed in a way that ensures that value is added to each country.”
DPM Mutambara said African countries should move away from negotiating bilateral deals but regional ones.
“We are small countries and we end up losing in most cases. We should engage China as Comesa, Sadc and the African Union for us to get better deals,” he said.
“As we move forward, we want a regional strategy that puts us in a better position to extract economies of scale.”
DPM Mutambara said Zimbabwe was “very lucky” to have historical ties with China.
“Let us leverage that history to benefit our people. That history should be used to drive our economy to greater heights. We have the resources and China has the cash and technical expertise which we must take advantage of,” he said.
DPM Mutambara thanked Mr Xin for being “active” during his term of office in Zimbabwe.
“He was such a dynamic man and we hope that his replacement would be the same,” he said.
“I also thank you for the support you have given us and recently you supported us when we launched the University of Zimbabwe fundraising project.”
Mr Xin said relations between Zimbabwe and China will continue to blossom in all sectors of the economy.
“We have to continue cementing these relations and there is no doubt that the exchanges we always have will take us to greater heights,” he said.
‘I had good working relations with Zimbabweans and the country will always be in my heart. I will not hesitate to come back here as Zimbabwe had become my second home.”
Mr Xin will leaves on Friday.
Labels: ARTHUR MUTAMBARA, CHINA
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Thabo Mbeki pays courtesy call on President
Saturday, 28 April 2012 20:46
Sunday Mail Reporter
Former South African president Mr Thabo Mbeki yesterday paid a courtesy call on President Mugabe at State House during which the two discussed recent political developments in Zimbabwe and the situation in Sudan and South Sudan which are on the brink of war over a border dispute.
Mr Mbeki met the Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces behind closed doors for one-and-a-half hours before later officiating at a dinner to launch a fund-raising initiative for the University of Zimbabwe.
Speaking briefly to journalists after meeting President Mugabe, Mr Mbeki said: “It was just a courtesy call. I briefed him (President Mugabe) on what we are doing in Sudan and South Sudan and he also updated me on the constitution-making process here. We hadn’t had such a discussion for almost three years.”
He would not give more details on the meeting and also declined to comment on political developments in Zimbabwe, saying he was not in a position to give an accurate assessment.
Deputy Prime Minister Professor Arthur Mutambara and Zanu-PF national chairman Ambassador Simon Khaya-Moyo accompanied Mr Mbeki to State House.
The former South African leader proceeded to the University of Zimbabwe campus where he was guest of honour at a dinner to launch the fund-raising campaign under which US$70 million is being sought to revive operations at the country’s oldest university.
The fund-raising initiative is the brainchild of Prof Mutambara, himself a former student leader at the university. Several speakers, most of them prominent former students, were lined up to make presentations mainly focusing on the history of UZ since its inception in 1957.
Zimbabwe’s former ambassador to China, Cde Chris Mutsvangwa, was one of the speakers while other eminent Zimbabweans such as Zimbabwe Electoral Commission chair Justice Simpson Mtambanengwe and Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku were also expected to make presentations.
In his paper titled “University of Rhodesia Generation ’70s: Visionary Revolutionaries and Selfless Heroes”, Ambassador Mutsvangwa paid tribute to the heroic former students of the then University of Rhodesia who left the lecture rooms to offer their lives in the battlefields across Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Zambia.
“I was part of the group that left in July 1975, a few days after the independence of Mozambique. Willard aka Hapana Zororo was our leader. He was studying in the Faculty of Engineering. We had known each other since our days at the famed St Augustine’s School.
Ambassador John Mayowe aka Robert Mandebvu from the Faculty of Arts had helped (Zororo) Duri recruit our unit. Doctor Masimba Mwazva aka Mamvura was a third member. I was approached by Duri and lost no time in bringing in former Attorney-General Sobusa Gula Ndebele, both of us from the Faculty of Law,” recalled Ambassador Mutsvangwa.
Stanley Chigwedere, the late diplomat, co-ordinated our absconding from the University of Zimbabwe to Mozambique. He was assisted by Dr Thompson Tsodzo and later diplomat and war veteran George Mvenge. We all ended up at Zhunda Camp on the outskirts of Chimoio which had recently been a cantonment of the Portuguese colonial fascist army.”
Other University of Rhodesia students who soon joined them included Permanent Secretary Justin Mupamhanga aka Top Ten, Judge President George Chiweshe aka Arafat and the late Neville Dembetembe aka Malcolm X.
Ambassador Mutsvangwa said ss the war progressed, the University of Rhodesia would pour more of its students into the ranks of the fighting forces. “The biggest group was made of 16 cadets who included diplomats Crispen Mavodza and the late Arafat Jani. A full count still needs to be done to account for all.
“What the UZ war heroes left to Zimbabwe was a legacy of sacrifice that was blind to the promise, prospects and privilege that come with intellectual endowment and achievement. A liberation struggle is as much a physical effort of battlefield gallantry as it is an intellectual undertaking of the highest demand. With our academic background we played our role in sharpening the ideologically content of the freedom fighter,” said Ambassador Mutsvangwa.
Labels: ARTHUR MUTAMBARA, ROBERT MUGABE, THABO MBEKI
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Principals issue final demand
Wednesday, 25 April 2012 00:00
Herald Reporter
PRINCIPALS in the inclusive Government yesterday ordered the Constitution Select Committee and the management committee to conclude drafting the new Constitution and deliver the document to them next week.
They gave the directive at yesterday’s Cabinet meeting. In a statement, Media, Information and Publicity Minister Webster Shamu said Cabinet “unanimously” agreed with the principals.
He said the principals expressed concern over the failure by Copac and the management committee to brief them on the challenges they were facing.
“During today’s (yesterday’s) Cabinet meeting, the principals to the Global Political Agreement expressed concern at the delay in concluding the Constitution by both the Constitution Parliamentary Select Committee and the management committee.
“The principals, the Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, His Excellency President Mugabe, Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara also expressed concern at the failure by both the Select Committee and the management committee to brief the principals on any challenges they may be facing in the Constitution-making process,” he said.
Minister Shamu said the principals directed Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Eric Matinenga to “work closely” with Copac and the management committee to produce the draft.
“The principals directed that the Minister of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs, Advocate Eric Matinenga, should work closely with the Select Committee and the management committee in order to conclude the drafting process by next week so as to deliver the draft Constitution to the principals.
“Advocate Matinenga was directed to brief Cabinet regularly on progress in the Constitution-making process. Cabinet unanimously agreed with the principals,” he said.
The directive comes at a time when Copac and the management committee were accusing each other of stalling the finalisation of the new supreme law.
Copac said the management committee was failing to resolve outstanding issues while the latter said they were waiting for a draft from Copac.
The management committee said devolution of power was the only outstanding issue which cannot stop the Constitution-making process.
The management committee is made up of GPA negotiators.
Copac claims the management committee is yet to agree on devolution and dual citizenship, among other issues that need to be incorporated into the new Constitution.
Last month President Mugabe indicated that elections will be held this year with or without a new Constitution.
The writing of the new Constitution started three years ago but has been stalled on several occasions by disagreements among political parties driving the process.
Observers have accused Copac of turning the process into a money-spinning venture.
Labels: ARTHUR MUTAMBARA, COPAC, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, ROBERT MUGABE, WEBSTER SHAMU
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COMMENT - Just one more neoliberal who wants to get paid for handing the people's raw materials (DIAMONDS AND PLATINUM) over for the cancellation of the IMF's debt.
Mutambara: Natural resources important in debt reduction
Posted by By Brett Mashingaidze at 9 April, at 01 : 17 AM
ZIMBABWE can leverage its natural resources to settle its debt and harness development if it carefully enters into deals with foreign firms, Deputy Prime Minister Mutambara has said.
Addressing a seminar on “Debt, diamonds and development in Zimbabwe,” in Harare last week, DPM Mutambara said one “good” deal could offset the country’s sovereign debt of US$9,1 billion. However, Zimbabwe is losing billions of dollars in “bad” mining deals and Government will soon revisit these transactions.
Mutambara said big foreign mining companies were not declaring the value of the unmined assets, whose value could help in debt reduction.
This, he said, was prejudicing the country.
He said iron ore miner Essar of India had not declared the US$20 billion asset as it entered into a deal with Government, while Zimplats also made no mention of US$4 billion worth of unmined platinum.
The deputy premier also gave an example of diamond concern, the Diamond Mining Company, which did not declare the value of the US$500 million and went on to recoup its US$43 million investments in two transactions.
“This is a case against mining laws obtaining in most African countries, we as deal makers and our systems of investment,” he said.
Zimbabwe, Mutambara said, must now take steps to know the value of its assets and enter deals with open eyes.
“Zimbabwe’s mineralisation or geology must be quantified for all minerals,” he said. “Valuation of these assets must be done and capacity must be built in an internal team to advise on deals with investors.
“Alternatively, independent consultants must be hired to advise on deals and they must be paid in cash.
“What is the point of not paying a million dollars for a deal worth billions?”
Mutambara called for amendments to the Mines and Mining Development Act, which should entail the right to mining as linked to payment for the value of the unmined asset, the decriminalisation of informal miners and the enactment of a new Diamond Act.
He emphasised the need to know the value of claims saying the country gets capital for development and investors have a sense of reasonable quantum to inject.
“We must review all existing mining contracts, align them with this new thinking and indigenisation and change or create necessary laws, Statutes and instruments,” he said.
Meanwhile, Prof Mutambara said Zimplats should pay Zimbabwe US$3.5 billion for the platinum resource the mining giant got “for free” and whose US$4 billion value it did not declare.
Labels: ARTHUR MUTAMBARA, DEBT, HIPC, NEOCOLONIALISM
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Mugabe is God-given: Tsvangirai
Posted by By Our reporter at 12 February, at 01 : 37
MDC-T leader and Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday described President Robert Mugabe as a “God-given” leader. He made the statement at a Chitungwiza Peace Prayer meeting on Sunday adding that the President was chosen to guide Zimbabwe into prosperity. The meeting was organised by the Zimbabwe Pastors’ Fellowship.
”President Mugabe is chosen by God, he is God-given and all leaders are chosen by God, so it is important for all Zimbabweans to pray for their leaders,” he was quoted by The Herald as saying, amid ululation from the audience. The PM downplayed political differences between Zanu-PF and his MDC-T party.
“Whether you like us or not, but as your leaders you are obliged to pray for us, so that we develop the vision and wisdom needed to lead the country. You can like (President) Mugabe or hate him, but that should not stop you from praying for him.
“In the same vein, you can dislike the Prime Minister, but that should also not stop you from praying for me. You should pray for the leaders so that they can have the vision and foresight that the country needs to succeed.”
Tsvangirai also spoke against violence, adding that peace was the foundation for progress.
“We should desist from violence because chibharanzi (it’s backward); we must also pray for peace in this country and for that demon which causes violence to go away,” said Prime Minister Tsvangirai.
“Peace is the foundation for economic and social progress of a country. Violence is like a demon which has the knack of manifesting itself whenever elections are approaching. So we should pray for this spirit to go away,” he said.
He said the three principals in the inclusive Government were committed to peace and development.
“I can speak on behalf of President Mugabe and categorically say that I know he has made a commitment for peace.
“Deputy Prime Minister Mutambara is also committed to non-violent conduct and that is why we decided to hold the anti-violence conference last year,” he said.
Co-odinator of Zimbabwe Pastors’ Fellowship Rev Watson Furayi said the gathering, which was meant to encourage Zimbabweans to pray for their leaders, had been successful.
“We are encouraging people to pray for our leaders so that they get the vision to lead the country and we also want to make sure that as countrymen we are at peace with each other,” he said.
The event was attended by several pastors and thousands of people from Chitungwiza.
Gospel musicians Charles Charamba and his wife Olivia as well as new sensation Blessing Shumba entertained the crowd.
Labels: ARTHUR MUTAMBARA, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, ROBERT MUGABE
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PM overestimates his power: Madhuku
10/02/2012 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
A LEADING constitutional lawyer says there is nothing to stop President Robert Mugabe renewing the contracts of the military and police top brass.
Lovemore Madhuku, chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly, says Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his deputy Arthur Mutambara negotiated a flawed power sharing agreement which left all executive authority at Mugabe's discretion.
Tsvangirai and Mutambara are fuming after Mugabe extended the term of Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri to 2014.
Mugabe’s announcement of the move came a day after the MDC duo came out of a meeting with the veteran leader and told journalists that the police chief was in the position in an acting capacity while consultations continue.
Mugabe’s rivals are keen to see the back of Chihuri, accusing him of presiding over a partisan police force and unprofessionalism.
But Madhuku says Tsvangirai and Mutambara are seriously constrained by their lack of authority on the matter.
"This is what we have always seen with the inclusive government,” Madhuku told the Voice of America’s Studio 7 on Friday night.
“The reality is that power resides with the President, but the other players in the inclusive government will always want to pretend that they also have some power, some responsibility, and this is what keeps creating this circus.”
Tsvangirai’s spokesman, Luke Tamborinyoka, insisted on Friday that Mugabe had agreed in meetings with the Prime Minister on Monday and Wednesday to delay Chihuri’s appointment until further consultations had been held.
“We refuse to be seduced into believing the position being articulated by Cde George Charamba [Mugabe’s spokesman] merely because it is averse and allergic to common sense; it is allergic to the constitution and it is allergic to the agreement by the principals themselves.”
He described Mugabe’s decision to extend Chihuri’s term as mischievous and called it a “technical coup”.
“I would assume that the principals will put finality to this whole issue when they meet again on Monday,” Tamborinyoka added.
Labels: ARTHUR MUTAMBARA, GLOBAL POLITICAL AGREEMENT, LOVEMORE MADHUKU, MDC, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, NATIONAL UNITY GOVERNMENT
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MDC-T: When a fool and his power soon part ways
Friday, 16 December 2011 00:00
Reared within a martial milieu, Chinua Achebe's Okonkwo mischaracterised his father for an utter failure, a man to be shunned at all times. Yet Unoka, Okonkwo's father, was not a failure. His real tragedy was that he was an aesthete in the age of the sword and of war. His world had a different yardstick, another value. He hated war, and thus became a loser in an ethos of warriors. He loved those arts which got whole communities to convoke, converge and celebrate life in unison. War divided.
Martial heroism was individualistic and often life-denying. That made the warlike world unattractive to a man to whom the sound of the flute spelt blessedness and peace. But Okonkwo being Okonkwo, anything short of a flaming sword smacked of utter failure, indeed passed for a forbidding model. And that forbidding model was found in his very home, indeed was his own father Unoka who never brought a single trophy from any war, Unoka whose granaries always bared their bottom in utter emptiness when the rest of the villages showed and paraded fat yams, yams the size of an overgrown human head.
For Okonkwo, failure was home, was so overbearingly close. It revulsed him, thereby creating a compensatory martial reflex in him. He had to be seen to be a man of steel, a man of the sword, ready to take risk, preferably single-handedly against all odds, however enormous.
Like a hammer-wielding carpenter, everything looked like a nail head. It had to be knocked in, driven in by a hammer, all with uncharacteristic or oversized ardour. The hammer was an all-time solution, whatever the size of the problem.
When fear commits an abomination
That won him awe; that won him fearful admiration. Above all, it personally won him remarkable tragedy, particularly when he chose to make do with a sword for all seasons, make do with a martial response even where mere compassion was needed.
When Ikemefuna, the ill-fated, sacrificial boy who had called him father fled to him for protection, he responded with a swift, deadly blow that sundered the hapless boy still and cold.
His raging urge to be viewed as a man of steel, a man of unflinching courage and decisiveness, had in fact offended and vitiated against a cardinal value of Umuofia which forbade the killing by one of anyone who called one father. The example of fear and indecisiveness, an example which his own father incarnated, had driven him into committing the abominable sin for which an inglorious suicide would be the only remedy.
Complex in overdrive
But even before this abomination, Achebe had shown Okonkwo in lower but illustrative skirmishes with this overbearingly tragic complex. Coming from a lusterless hunt, empty handed, he sought compensation for this failure by high-handedly admonishing his wives for "killing" a banana tree.
Far from killed, the banana tree was a well and healthy, its dark green lives swaying leisurely in the gentle wind, branches bowing with plenty. Clearly his was aggression sought provocation, a martial urge hungry for a spectacular display. It got worse, much worse for his young wife Ekwefi, who made the near-fatal mistake of murmuring about guns that never shot! Murmured against a man who had returned home from a hunt, empty handed, Ekwefi had recklessly stood between a bear and its anger.
Okonkwo loaded his gun, took aim in the direction of his offending wife, and squeezed the trigger to a loud echo that rang across the whole village, supported by a chorus of wailing hysteria from a suitably terrified team of Okonkwo's concubines. A minute after this raucous rupture, all stood silent and still, only broken by fitful sobs from a frightened but unhurt Ekwefi.
As with the hunt, Okonkwo had missed his target, again, itself yet another instance of glaring yet insufferable failure. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe explores a debilitating complex thrust into overdrive, one hurtling a lofty personality headlong to a tragic end.
Crossing after the bridge
After weeks of bruising media coverage of the Prime Minister and his many women, the MDC-T party may have ear-marked this week as a comeback week, a week of regaining initiative and overwriting the demeaning story of grinning zips and knickers in an age of restraint.
And the Prime Minister's party chose Parliament as the locale for such a comeback.
This drive has lifted the Inclusive Government to a new and dizzy echelon of dysfunctionality. Of course the backdrop was built elsewhere, well away from the Prime Minister and his party.
Welshman Ncube, the other leader of the other MDC faction, thought he was doing himself and his party a favour by expelling the few MPs his party thought it had in Parliament. The idea was for him to create a situation where he could force these affected MPs to formally cross a floor they had long jumped past and over anyway, all to join the other side, that of the Prime Minister and his MDC-T party.
Once that happened, so our man from Wales thought, his party would then formally notify Parliament that the affected MPs had crossed the floor, much against the laws and rules of the august house. Like Tracy Mutinhiri of Zanu- PF, our good professor hoped the affected MPs would then be frozen out of the House. And with the insurance of no by-election stance of the GPA, this was a risk-free course.
Mutambara, MDC-T's warehouse
I cannot say he miscalculated. I am sure he knew the dissident MPs would formalise their membership to MDC-T which they had long joined at the start of the Inclusive Government anyway, if not well before. The move helped this learned man force these turncoats don and assume their real colours.
That far it worked. The move helped create a new dilemma for Mutambara, himself a contestant to MDC leadership. That far it, too, worked. And with both, Ncube is free to reorganise and organise a party in readiness for elections which are expected in June 2012 at the latest. But beyond that, all was disaster for the lawyer-politician. He cannot win, and he knows that.
Cleverly, the disowned, renegade MPs flew into Mutambara's unclenching arms, thereby surviving on the legal and leadership ambiguities pitting MDC's warring leadership. But at heart, they remain MDC-T to the core, with Mutambara incapable of owning, let alone running them.
And the Bench weighs in
Then we did not have the Justice Kamocha judgment, strangely delivered on the good judge's behalf by a fellow judge, one Justice Mathonsi who is a blood relative of the complainant, Welshman Ncube. The Bench must be careful, very careful not to invite needless questions especially in a case of such a clear high profile. That judgment handed down defeat to Mutambara, lifted up Welshman Ncube and what remains of his MDC.
So the rebel MPs were warehoused in Mutambara's threadbare camp, in the process creating a dilemma for Mutambara who is now being viewed in Zanu-PF as playing armoury to an otherwise de-commissioned, ineffectual weapon of the MDC-T. For a law professor who had donated Mutambara to Zanu-PF, this was done to good effect. Give it to him.
Ncube on the offensive?
Whatever consanguineous links between Judge Mathonsi and Ncube, one wants to believe Ncube had no presentiment of the judgment on his leadership wrangle with Mutambara. The judgment itself is Judge Kamocha's, after all. The Thursday judgment has now created a new situation, both for the rebel MPs and for Mutambara.
After the judgment, Mutambara can no longer lay claim to the leadership of MDC-N, the only party which is recognised in Parliament and by the GPA. He can only seek to contest it by way of an appeal to the Supreme Court, as indeed he says he will. So the rebel MPs can no longer claim to be in Parliament on Mutambara's ticket, on a Mutambara parading symbolically as leader of MDC-M, albeit without owning it.
They have to formally cross the floor, or posthumously seek to contest their dismissal from MDC-N, which will be legally fatal. Ncube can now proceed to notify the Speaker of Parliament, himself an MDC-T official whose role in causing and profiting from these defections is well known.
Mutambara's dilemma
And if Mutambara's hope is to freeze matters by noting an appeal, he faces a real dilemma of a choice between giving succour to MDC-T through this warehouse facility he has granted them, or dismantling that warehouse which is beginning to hurt Zanu-PF through skewed voting on motions in Parliament.
In fact it's worse. Advertently or inadvertently, Mutambara has undermined the very principle of wielding a balancing vote on which the Inclusive Government was founded.
The impact on Zanu-PF has been potentially hurtful, even though no damage has been levied so far. Would Mutambara want to extend the life of a warehouse facility that damages Zanu-PF which can, overnight through its leader, terminate his career as Deputy Prime Minister, itself the only thread fastening him to the whole political edifice?
And of course by not appealing he will have precipitated the ouster of the rebel MPs, conceded defeat to Ncube, all to worse outcomes for the Prime Minister, his party and himself. That takes me to my main point.
Flaunting transient power
I said the MDC-T designated this week as its comeback week after a debilitating coverage on their leader's dashing, totem-less sexuality. The party has sought to do that through Parliament by way of two motions: one against the Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma, the hatred of whom by the MDC-T is quite fathomable; two against the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) and its allocation of licenses for national radio to Zimpapers and AB Communications.
Buoyed by the rebel MPs from MDC-N, lately the MDC-T has been wagging its Parliamentarian tail. It has been sponsoring motions no so much to get the august House to engage and debate issues constructively, but to flaunt its majority in the Lower House and to legitimise a skewed vote which it knows must decide issues in the end.
It has the numbers in the Lower House; it has the Speaker in the chair. It has looked formidable, at the very least for these few weeks. And for the few weeks, it has flaunted this new found power so much and so recklessly that it did not see ruin stealing on it.
Confirming Zvoma's need
Much worse, it has not been able to flaunt that power with finesse, in the process raising a whole ogre of unconstitutional waywardness, aggravated by sheer incompetence. Tellingly, it is a type of incompetence which vividly recalls the failings of its leader and his staff.
First, the Zvoma case. I cannot visualise an employment structure which takes the whole of Parliament as the employer of a mere officer, however senior. It is unprecedented; it is legally unfeasible.
One might be employed by Government in the abstract sense, but one is engaged by the Public Service Commission. And to imagine that Cabinet sits to decide termination of a civil servant is remarkably ridiculous. To imagine that Parliament opens a debate on an employe with the goal of deciding his employment fate is just amazing. And that such senselessness took place this week in Parliament clearly shows how unready an MDC-T-dominated Parliament is to do without the profound advice of Zvoma. And this un-readiness has shown itself in a way that exposes Parliament as vulnerable to men and women of ill-will, spite and vindictiveness, indeed that shows Parliament as very susceptible, if not a bad employer who assesses performance on politics rather than on merit.
Flouting a greater principle
And Zvoma complicated matters for Parliament. He went to court. He, in other words, approached Parliament's checking and balancing institution by way of the Judiciary. This complicating insertion came well before spiteful MPs had exhausted their ardour, thereby generating an immense, unstoppable momentum that recklessly hurtled the whole institution against a forbidding outward legal fact. The debate proceeded regardless and a motion was still passed on a matter already lodged with the Bench for arbitration. At that point Zvoma ceased to be an issue. What became the issue was Parliament itself, the MDC-T MPs who had whipped themselves into frenzied overdrive, and of course the Inclusive Government and its myriad susceptibilities. With a surfeit of lawyers, MDC-T should have known when to stop, all to redeem itself. It didn't, which is why one sees clear analogy with Okonkwo. Having been consigned to margins and powerless, the MDC-T seized on an ephemeral power conjunction to compensate for this erstwhile powerlessness. And it did so with the restraint of Okonkwo, in the process offending against more decisive sensitivities, not least of them the foundational principles upon which the doctrine of separation of powers rests. An abomination has thus been committed in Parliament, thanks to the incompetence which only the MDC-T alone is capable of. Are we glimpsing at the future with an MDC-T at the helm? Or, as the Prime Minister eruditely and flauntingly told Chief Negomo through Selby Hwacha and his boys, is the Bench about to be told that it has no jurisdiction and should never seek to try its "superiors"?
Why all the calories?
Then you have the BAZ issue. Repeatedly we were told during the debate on the matter that the BAZ Board is "unconstitutionally" constituted. I am still at a loss how a creature of a mere statute is capable of offending against the Constitution of a country, merely by the circumstances of its creation or being. Or how Parliament becomes the proper setting for remedying such an abomination? Or how those who claim harm from BAZ's "unconstitutional" conduct ever find relief from a mere administrative court? So Parliament moves a motion to get BAZ dissolved, more to flaunt votes than to cause dissolution of BAZ. And after the vote has been taken, with all gladiators panting for breath, chief whips of the contesting parties agree in perfect unison uncharacteristic of the preceding debate that indeed the motion itself has no effect on BAZ or on the Ministry with an oversight role. So why all the calories? And the amount of ignorance exhibited during the debate! Cry my beloved country! The dishonesty involved in pushing arguments which fly right into the face of documented facts! Cry, cry my beloved country!
Much ado about nothing
Much worse, no one reminded the august House that Parliament was behaving unconstitutionally through pushing a motion which had nothing to do with the constitution, or with the lawful role designated for Parliament itself in a proper, functioning democracy. Again, you got the sense of a House sorely missing its Clerk. BAZ is an arm of the Executive. It is an instrument of executing policy, itself the domain of the Executive. Just how the Legislature seeks the dissolution of an implementation arm of the Executive, hardly anyone can ever fathom. How Parliament challenges the putting together of that arm, ahead of the Judiciary whose bounden duty is to test the legality of such bodies, again hardly anyone can ever fathom. Much worse, how that debate still must proceed in spite of an approach to the Bench by one of the applicants, again, again no one can explain. It was a massive show of much ado about nothing. Not by Parliament, but by parliamentarians. You cannot fault the responsible Ministry of watching the whole charade equanimously.
Sharp teeth on soft tissue
And the keen reader has seen that both cases cited above hinge on MDC-T's conduct before it gets power, more accurately the crimes it already commits with very little power conceded it. In the first place it is itself part of the Executive and yet seeks to undermine that arm of Government. Secondly, it is in the Legislature yet seeks to abuse Parliament by both turning it into a vehicle for reversing losses suffered elsewhere, and by overreaching. Thirdly it claims to believe in the rule of law and yet it seeks to undermine that Bench by new and even more worrisome conduct which makes its leader's snubbing of Chief Negomo's court an ominous sub-plot for worse things to come in the main act. Lastly and much worse, this whole conduct shows how unwieldy and un-neat power becomes when exercise by people whose brains pull down together with their loose zips! To what may have begun as a lofty quest for heroic recovery and honour, the week has closed with a limping Okonkwo, mortally hurt not heroically by an enemy blow in battle, but bathetically by an embittered hooker sneaked into camp, settling an unsettled bill through sharp teeth on soft tissue.
Self-fulfilling prophecy
I wonder if the MDC-T sees the larger picture. It is spewing up evidence and spectacular examples of the sheer dysfunctionality of the Inclusive Government. And that dysfunctionality is beginning to threaten other arms of State. The MDC-T must never think that Zanu (PF) will continue to be entertained by this noisy pantomime.
Quite the contrary, Zanu (PF) eagerly watches these hefty failures, all the time waiting for that day the scales will tilt decisively, justifying the equally eagerly awaited conclusion that enough is enough. This thing cannot work. Back to the people, please. That way, a fool and his ill-gotten, pilfered power shall be made to part. Icho!
nathaniel.manheru@zimpapers.co.zw
Labels: ARTHUR MUTAMBARA
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New executive for MDC-M
Monday, 05 December 2011 00:00
Senior Reporter
PROFESSOR Arthur Mutambara-led MDC faction on Friday announced a new national executive with Deputy Speaker of Parliament Nomalanga Mzilikhazi Khumalo appointed deputy party leader.
The party said Prof Mutambara remained the party's president until the legal dispute over control of the party, which is pending in the courts, was finalised. Prof Mutambara is still the Deputy Prime Minister in the inclusive government.
Faction chairman, Mr Jourbert Mudzumwe, said a decision had been made by the National Council to fill positions of members that the party had been "expelled" for being linked with Professor Welshman Ncube's faction and the "illegitimate" February 11 2011 meeting.
Ms Khumalo is the deputy president.
Maxwell Zimuto is the party's new secretary general while Ms Beauty Kerr Mthetwa is the treasurer.
Mr Robson Mashiri is the national organising secretary while Mr Morgan Changamire is the party's spokesperson.
Ms Tsitsi Dangarembga will be the director of elections.
Mr Mudzumwe claimed that sitting MPs were on their side.
He said: "MDC wishes to advise the public that the under listed Honourable members (of Parliament" wish to categorically reaffirm their allegiance to MDC-M party, on whose ticket they were elected into office; Nomalanga Khumalo, Maxwell Dube, Zinti Thandeko Mnkandla, Khmer Dube and Khumalo Dalimuzi. The remaining MPs will make their positions known soon, with regards the above."
Ms Khumalo immediately took a swipe at Prof Ncube, who expelled her from the party, much to the displeasure of fellow MPs. Ms Khumalo said she had joined the Mutambara faction because she had set her "priorities correctly" and that the party "was the only party which is going to move the country forward."
And she fired a broadside at Prof Ncube, commending the support she received from MPs who walked out on Prof Ncube on Thursday.
"I was elected and didn't come through the back door. We can't have a person who wasn't elected dismissing those who were elected," she said.
Contacted for comment, the Ncube faction dismissed manoeuvres by the Mutambara faction as a "nullity".
Mr Kurauone Chihwayi the faction's deputy spokesperson, said: "As far as we are concerned we have already dealt with Arthur Mutambara.
"We are not worried or shaken by political clowns masquerading as politicians. Our understanding is that we donated them to Zanu-PF."
He said "the Arthur Mutambara project" was a Zanu-PF project meant to sow confusion in the party.
He said the party was waiting for a formal communication from the MPs and Senators who had purportedly joined the Mutambara faction.
"As far as we are concerned they are still MDC members and it is not for Jourbert Mudzumwe to speak for them. They should make that announcement themselves," Chihwayi said.
MPs elected on the MDC ticket during the March 2008 harmonised elections also include Moses Mzila Ndlovu, Edward Mkhosi, Malandu Ncube, Norman Mpofu, Thandeko Mnkandla and Senators Addington Tapela and Robert Makhula.
The latest twist of events is likely to deepen confusion in the smaller MDC faction following the fallout between Prof Mutambara and Prof Ncube.
Last month, the Mutambara faction was barred from attending the anti-violence indaba that parties convened allowing for the interaction of the central committee of Zanu-PF and the national councils of the MDC formations.
Labels: ARTHUR MUTAMBARA, MDC-M
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WikiLeaks: Zanu PF leadership renewal versus MDC treasonous plots
By Jonathan MoyoPolitics Last updated on: September 19, 2011
WHILE the media hullabaloo over the so-called Wiki-Leaks saga has been useful in exposing the illiterate foreign-funded ranks of the so-called independent press, this hubbub has been useless in enabling the same audiences to understand current US policy on Zimbabwe as revealed by the same WikiLeaks that are getting unprecedented media coverage.
Our journalists have not explained to their audiences why they have suddenly abandoned their fib whose line two weeks ago was that the most important issue in Zimbabwe today is the SADC electoral roadmap in favour of sensationalising some personalities mentioned in the WikiLeaks cables.
In the process, the innocent and, in fact, harmless clamour for leadership change and renewal espoused by Zanu PF interlocutors in the cables filed in Washington by US diplomats in Harare have been conflated and confused with the US policy for illegal regime change in Zimbabwe through MDC violence which is unambiguously and fully captured and revealed by WikiLeaks in ways that must worry any thinking Zimbabwean, especially in the media.
As such, the whole compendium of WikiLeaks now in the public domain tells two different and diametrically opposed stories that Zimbabweans need to interrogate in order to appreciate what is at stake: One WikiLeaks story confirms the previously known thoughts and frustrations of individuals, particularly but not only high-profile personalities, about President Mugabe’s succession under the banner of leadership change while the other story reveals the diabolic content and extent of US regime-change policy in Zimbabwe which has been based on discreetly sponsoring and publicly covering up MDC violence whose record over the years is revealed by WikiLeaks.
What this means is that while the illiterate and brown envelope-seeking editors of the so-called independent media have been only making noise about everyday calls for leadership renewal which are a constant political truth found in political organisations and movements around the world, they have been corruptly silent about the violent regime-change agenda of the US government in Zimbabwe which has been fully exposed by the American diplomatic cables made public by WikiLeaks.
Against this background, and if there is one unfortunate thing that can be said about the current coverage of the WikiLeaks saga by the so-called independent Press, it is that unlike in other parts of the world in 273 countries including all SADC states that have their own WikiLeaks to contend with, three or so media moguls who own or control publications that have been recklessly vocal about the WikiLeaks have unleashed their brown envelope-seeking and illiterate scribes to singularly and scandalously focus on a few maliciously targeted individuals.
The sad and unfortunate result of this self-serving posture has been to ignore very serious US policy issues arising from the WikiLeaks with far-reaching implications on Zimbabwe’s national interests and security.
This is sad and unfortunate because, as responsible media houses in the other 273 countries have realised about their own cases which have no shortage of personal titbits, some of which are embarrassing, the 251,287 US diplomatic cables covering all US diplomatic posts around the world and released in their entirety by WikiLeaks on August 30 are not about personalities at all but about US policies not only in each of the affected 274 countries over a 44-year period since 1966 but also within the regional groupings to which they belong such as SADC.
In the case of Zimbabwe, a thorough, balanced and informed reading of the entire batch of 2,998 US diplomatic cables now in the public domain would be very significant and important for us to analyse and understand not because of what the various personalities among our compatriots said but because of what the US diplomats said about our country to their government and the US policies that have come from that, such as the institutionalisation of MDC violence as a cynical American strategy to justify regime change in Zimbabwe.
To be sure, what our Zanu PF compatriots said is, of course, interesting from an anecdotal point. This is true, for example, of some outlandish comments made in the cables about President Mugabe’s health along with changing political sentiments that he must go between 1998 and 2008 which changed to become that he must stay since the 2008 presidential run-off election and became even more pronounced with added MDC voices since the formation of the inclusive government in 2009.
The compelling fact is that none of these very interesting comments or sentiments can be said to be policy beyond everyday politics. What people have thought or said about President Mugabe at various times to various audiences whether in the media or as revealed by WikiLeaks through US diplomatic cables is ultimately irrelevant because President Mugabe’s leadership of Zanu PF and our country has always been resolved by election.
In any event, everything that has been reported so far about WikiLeaks revelations on what some Zanu PF leaders are supposed to have told US diplomats is not new at all nor is it abnormal nor criminal nor about regime change. What the Zanu PF comrades are alleged to have said through US diplomatic cables revealed by WikiLeaks is simply and only about the need for leadership change or leadership renewal in Zanu PF and in the country.
While the detail about this need is indeed open to legitimate political questions and debate, its sum and substance in terms of the bigger picture of Zanu PF’s and our country’s future survival is not illegal or wrong and thus cannot be denied by any rational person.
This is why only Zanu PF interlocutors in the US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks can afford with clear consciences to come clean and admit the conversations they held with American diplomats since they have nothing to hide except the innocent and harmless truth and nothing to fear except fear itself. Seeking leadership change in your party or government and telling anyone who is in the country legally with the blessing of the State is not a crime at all because it’s just a thought and we don’t have thought crimes in Zimbabwean laws.
Therefore, Zanu PF leaders who shared their succession thoughts with American diplomats have only their consciences and political careers to deal with, nothing else to worry about and that is why they must come clean and move on. The same goes for MDC politicians including the party’s Cabinet ministers who are reported to have told US diplomats that they have no confidence in Morgan Tsvangirai’s leadership because, among other things, he is mindless, indecisive and lacks the capacity to govern. On this score, the MDC politicians who said this, such as Tendai Biti, Nelson Chamisa, Obert Gutu and Roy Bennett, among others, have nothing to regret, not least because their views are shared by the US government and its British and European allies.
In fact, there is no single cable out of the 2 998 on Zimbabwe which describes Tsvangirai as an effective, capable or desirable national leader. Like everyone else who has encountered him, all interlocutors who spoke to US diplomats revealed by WikiLeaks say in one way or another that Tsvangirai is a hopeless leader with no mind of his own and that he takes the advice of the last person he speaks to.
There would be absolutely no issue or problem if the musings of MDC politicians exposed by WikiLeaks were only about Tsvangirai’s widely acknowledged poor and treacherous leadership which he is able to exercise only when he is under the manipulative “massive hand-holding” of the US government and its European allies.
The problem, and it is a very serious one, arises from the fact that, over and above their lamentations about President Mugabe’s succession, Zanu PF’s alleged shortcomings and Tsvangirai’s acknowledged fatally poor leadership, the MDC cable interlocutors exposed by WikiLeaks also confirmed their illegal and treasonous intentions, thoughts, violent plans and violent actions since 2000 in support of the US illegal regime change policy that permeates WikiLeaks on Zimbabwe.
This explains why no single MDC leader exposed by WikiLeaks has been willing or able to come clean to confirm their conversations with US diplomats about MDC violence which can no longer be denied.
Instead, Tsvangirai himself, who knows only better about the extent of his treasonous treachery, has pleaded with everyone to please “forget WikiLeaks” because he knows better while the likes of Nelson Chamisa are swearing by their mothers that they never uttered anything of the sort contained in the cables that illiterate media morons in the so-called independent Press foolishly imagine is dynamite against Zanu-PF.
In fact, MDC denials, which do not compare with strategic Zanu-PF silence, are an interesting reminder to the legendary tale of a husband who used to serially cheat his wife by passing through his secret small house every day after work for some good sexual healing before retiring home to his loving wife. On one fateful similar day the cheating husband had the misfortune that there was a Zesa power blackout while he was being intimate with his small house and had to dress up in the dark after the intimacy.
As he was dressing up in the dark, the cheating husband ended up putting on the underwear of his small house by mistake. Upon arrival home a bit later than usual the cheating husband found his loving wife already in bed and she had switched off the bedroom lights. Pretending to be in a romantic mood, the cheating husband switched on the lights, jumped on the bed and started undressing while saying rehearsed sweet nothings to his not-so-interested wife.
When he had undressed to the underwear, his wife looked at the spot in utter shock and agitation during a moment which was supposed to be very romantic. The cheating husband looked down and exclaimed with his own utter shock, “ndiani andipfekedza underwear iyi?” (Who put this underwear on me?)
The reaction of the cheating husband to the fact that he had exposed himself to his wife while wearing the underwear of his small house is equivalent to the reaction of MDC politicians like Nelson Chamisa who find themselves exposed not only to Tsvangirai, who is in no better position, but to Zimbabweans in typically treacherous ways that are criminally treasonous and therefore prosecutable.
Take Chamisa’s case. In January 2009, US Ambassador sent a cable to Washington revealed by WikiLeaks reporting that, “Turning to US policy, Chamisa said rhetoric that ‘Mugabe must go’ was empty and counterproductive. Regime opponents initially hoped that the rhetoric would be complemented by action. Inaction on the part of the US was causing people to lose heart.
Further, Zanu-PF was using US statements as a pretext to crack down on the MDC and civil society, both of which it was accusing of collaborating with the US to bring about regime change. We asked Chamisa what concrete actions the US and international community could take. He responded: military intervention to remove the regime, indictments of Mugabe and other Zanu-PF officials in international courts, and sanctioning of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.”
While Chamisa wants Zimbabweans to think that Americans have put the above words revealed by WikiLeaks into his mouth in the same way the cheating husband wanted his loving wife to think somebody else had put the underwear of his small house on him, the fact is that Chamisa’s words reveal an illegal and treasonous intention and they do not at all compare with anything said about any Zanu-PF interlocutor currently being vilified by the so-called independent media whose illiterate scribes have decided to go personal on WikiLeaks.
Take another criminal and treasonous example involving Econet and Strive Masiyiwa who for all these years has claimed to be apolitical and who is behind a particularly treacherous and treasonous daily newspaper that gets free newsprint from the US government and whose illiterate but corrupt and financially hungry editors have been getting brown envelopes from USAID and from a well-known and now desperate local media mogul and businessman who risks drowning in the mud of WikiLeaks politics as well as through foreign-founded and funded regime-change organisations like Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition and Idazim.
A US diplomatic cable filed from the US Embassy in Pretoria reveals the following entry about Masiyiwa’s illegal collaboration with the MDC-T and Econet which prima facie establishes a prosecutable case: “Working with the MDC, Masiyiwa has developed a sophisticated, two-part plan to prevent Mugabe from rigging the election, or at least reduce the extent of rigging. (Note: Masiyiwa asked
Staffdel to strictly protect this information, stating that he was only sharing this information with the USG, not other governments, and had planned to do so only next week. Any public disclosure would doom the initiative, Masiyiwa stressed. In addition to the anti-rigging effort, Masiyiwa is funding campaign materials for the MDC, which are being printed in South Africa and smuggled into Zimbabwe.
“First, the Masiyiwa/MDC team is reaching out to local-level GOZ election officials across the country with cards and other materials to urge them not to rig the election, pointing out that rigging is a criminal offence. He has created a hotline to report rigging, with financial rewards for those who report verifiable cheating.
“While Masiyiwa recognises the limitation of this effort, he believes many local officials will be sympathetic to this message; he also notes that even a small reduction in rigging is potentially useful. Second, Masiyiwa has created a parallel vote count centre, based in Johannesburg, that will report the results publicly as soon as they are available, independent of and in advance of, any Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) announcements.
“The plan works like this: Once the results are announced at each polling place, the MDC agents will text message or call in the results to a Zimbabwe cellphone number. (Masiyiwa and the MDC are ensuring that all their agents have access to cellphones or even satellite phones as necessary, in the event that the local network is interrupted.) The call will be secretly rerouted to a computer centre in Johannesburg, where Masiyiwa has compiled a team of technical experts to enter the results into a database.
“MDC observers will also count the number of people who enter each local polling station and will compare this number with the local precinct vote count, highlighting discrepancies. The centre will then post the results on an Internet site as they come in, essentially pre-empting the Zimbabwe Election Commission results and any ill intention of Mugabe to falsely claim victory. Masiyiwa’s team will send the Internet link to diplomats and journalists once the results are tabulated. Masiyiwa hopes that the quick public announcement on his Internet site — before the ZEC has time to consult with Mugabe — will generate intense public pressure on Mugabe to accept defeat. The parallel results could be used by the USG and others to encourage South African President Mbeki, AU chairman Kikwete, and others to intervene with Mugabe.”
There’s more evidence from the WikiLeaks cables which the so-called independent Press has deliberately avoided not only because of its links to the likes of Strive Masiyiwa whose illegal dirty tricks and actual financing of the MDC has been exposed by the US diplomatic cables but also the likes of Trevor Ncube whose NewsDay daily newspaper — that has been publishing sensationalised rubbish about some Zanu PF personalities under the editorship of one tired, ageing and irrelevant Iden Wetherell who still dreams that Zimbabwe will return to Rhodesia — has been going out of its way to please nefarious US government interests fronted by its staggering US$4 million funding as revealed by WikiLeaks.
But all this illegal and treasonous stuff which the so-called independent media will not dare report about WikiLeaks because of its fatal attraction to Zanu-PF personalities and its penchant for brown envelopes is nothing compared to the as-yet-unreported WikiLeaks revelations that the US has been aware of and behind systematic regime-change violence perpetrated by Tsvangirai’s MDC against Zanu-PF and Zimbabweans in general. Consider these three examples from US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks on August 30.
On March 17 2003, the US Embassy in Harare sent a cable reporting to Washington that “MDC Member of Parliament and National Executive member Tendai Biti… reported that MDC youths are planning to stone or burn commuter omnibuses which attempt to transport people to work in the city centre”.
Commenting on Biti’s startling disclosure to US diplomats that the MDC was planning violence “to stone people and burn commuter minibuses”, the US cable released by WikiLeaks on August 30 reveals that, “the MDC has worked intensively during the past year to establish structures (of violence) in most of Zimbabwe’s urban centres capable of organising mass action.
The fact that Tsvangirai, who has been under enormous pressure to take such a step for much of the past year, has now called for mass action, suggests he believes that the necessary organisation is in place and that the eminently patient Zimbabwean population, angered by political repression and the economic implosion, are finally ready to demonstrate their displeasure. During the past several months, the MDC has planned a number of small-scale protests in Harare’s high-density suburbs — at bus stations, police stations (quite a few were indeed attacked and there is evidence about that), and food queues — and appears ready to broaden these activities”.
And on May 19, 2003, a cable marked “secret” from the US Embassy in Harare reported to Washington that: “MDC activist Sedweak Munyaradzi Mupazviripo Munya (protect) has informed embassy officer that he had made and thrown nine petrol bombs at three different Zanu-PF meetings-in-progress on about April 25.”
Building on this apparently entrenched culture of MDC violence quietly condoned by the US government which all along has been going mad about alleged Zanu PF violence, the US Embassy staff in Harare reported to Washington on June 3, 2006, that: “MDC Secretary for Presidential Affairs (and principal aide to Party President Morgan Tsvangirai) Gandi Mudzingwa on June 1 (2006) told poloff (political officials) that the party was working closely with civil society to foment protests over the GOZ (Government of Zimbabwe) crackdown against the informal sector. Mudzingwa asserted that the party planned to stimulate urban and rural disturbances that would lay the foundation of a larger national action) possibly a ‘stay-away’) within a few weeks.
“He reported that a recent retreat in Botswana among the party leadership had reduced intra-party tensions but suggested that some friction likely remained. According to Mudzingwa, party leaders had been meeting with leaders of prominent civil society leaders nearly daily for the past week to co-ordinate strategies in response to the GOZ crackdown against ‘illegal structures’.”
A meeting later on June 1 was to have divided responsibilities among the party, churches, students, and NGOs such as the Combined Harare Residents’ Association (CHRA) and Lovemore Madhuku’s National Constitutional Assembly (NCA). The MDC’s liaison committee would be chaired by national chairman (the late) Isaac Matongo and include youth chairperson Nelson Chamisa and women’s chairperson Lucia Matibenga. The developing plan was to stimulate local disturbances that appeared to be spontaneous, and not associated with the party. The MDC would be rhetorically supportive of such activity but not take responsibility for it publicly.
“Mudzingwa asserted that overt involvement in fomenting resistance would give the GOZ a pretext to arrest the MDC leadership. Mudzingwa conceded that the party had yet to develop a plan for reaching out to the many Zimbabweans displaced by the crackdown. Most of these people had been apolitical but now represented a potential asset for the MDC.
“The party’s efforts to tap into them would likely be decentralised, with local leaders empowered to reach out to the displaced from both inside and outside MDC structures. Mudzingwa asserted that rural disturbances would keep authorities stretched thinner and open up more opportunities in the cities.”
There is more, but this is enough to make the point, namely that quietly there’s a difference of night and day between the US diplomatic cables revealed by WikiLeaks on August 30 which, on the one hand, deal with the MDC and which, on the other hand, deal with Zanu PF.
As asserted in the foregoing, and this is categorical and thus cannot be contradicted by the public record, there’s not a single WikiLeaks cable disclosing any criminal intent against the State by any Zanu PF interlocutor covered in the cables. Yet, as empirically shown also in the foregoing and as revealed by a staggering host of cables not yet covered by the media, there’s unimpeachable evidence of criminal and treasonous MDC intent and practice to seek not leadership but illegal regime change in Zimbabwe through the use of organised and systematic violence against Zanu PF and Zimbabweans sponsored by the US government. This is very serious stuff and heads must roll without fear or favour.
In other words, the law must take its course without being distracted by the senseless preoccupation with personalities in the so-called independent Press in Zimbabwe run by the US government.
Labels: ARTHUR MUTAMBARA, JONATHAN MOYO, WIKILEAKS
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