Con men swindle Lundazi farmers over fertiliser
By Peter Sukwa in Lundazi
Mon 20 Jan. 2014, 14:00 CAT
LUNDAZI district commissioner Janet Mvula says about 4,000 farmers have been swindled out of their money by some con men who promised to give them fertiliser. In an interview in Lundazi, Mvula disclosed that the conmen collected some money from the farmers under the pretext that they would give them fertiliser which they did not do.
She explained that unscrupulous businessmen were going round registering farmers in the district that they were an organisation which wanted to assist farmers to purchase fertiliser.
Mvula said the conmen who were moving with a small national flag deceived farmers who thought they were from the government and trusted them to deliver inputs.
She said the farmers were made to pay K200 per group of ten.
Mvula further said the conmen promised to supply about 80 packs of fertiliser to the farmers.
She disclosed that the affected farmers were from Chikomeni, Mucheleka and other parts of the district.
"Yes, I received a report that conmen swindled some farmers here in the district out of an undisclosed amount of money and have since run away. These conmen were spread in other parts like Chipata and Petauke but they were networking with the Lundazi team. To make things worse, these people were moving with a national flag pretending to be government officers but farmers did not report the matter to my office not until they disappeared without supplying inputs," Mvula said.
She, however, said the farmers were to blame and that this should serve as a warning to them as they did not want to report the matter to the government early.
Mvula said there was need for farmers in the district to report anyone who came to do business in the district to her office to avoid being swindled.
And Mvula further disclosed that the district had received two truckloads of Urea fertiliser under the Farmer Input Support Programme two weeks ago.
She said the district had received a total of 57 metric tonnes of both D-compound and Urea fertiliser for the 2013/2014 farming season.
Mvula said all the fertiliser received had since been distributed.
Labels: CRIME, FERTILIZER
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(HERALD ZW) 51 killed in robberies, domestic violence
November 15, 2013 Obert Chifamba Local News
Crime Reporter
COMMENT - Harare, a city of 1,606,000, has 51 homicides a year? Let's compare and contrast:
Sydney, AU: 43 (2011), population 4,627,345
Houston, TX: 198 (2011), population 2,160,821
- MrK
FIFTY-ONE people were killed in Harare during the last 10 months with most of the cases being victims of domestic violence and armed robberies. According to police statistics, 50 people were murdered in the city during the same period last year. Harare provincial police spokesperson Inspector Tadius Chibanda yesterday said some people were killed by robbers after they tried to resist.
“Most of the cases were also over domestic disputes while others were drivers of pirate taxis who were attacked and killed after resisting the criminals,” he said.
He said others were also killed and robbed while walking alone in secluded areas during the night.
Insp Chibanda said armed robbery cases were on the decrease with 118 cases recorded so far as compared to 142 cases, between January and October last year.
He said the reduction was as a result of the arrests made this year of some of the criminals who were on police’s most wanted list.
He expressed concern over an increase in cases of plain robberies in and around the city.
So far a total of 2 656 cases have been recorded as compared to 2 244 last year.
Armed robberies involve the use of firearms or weapons, while plain robberies are cases where people are robbed without the use of firearms.
“Plain robberies are on the increase as a result of people who are now shunning the use of commuter omnibuses and resorting to the use of private vehicles and end up being robbed,” Insp Chibanda said.
He said some of the victims were also waylaid while coming from nightclubs and others in secluded areas.
Insp Chibanda said they would continue carrying out crime awareness campaigns in and around the city.
He urged the people to be wary of these criminals who were using the same modus operandi to attack their victims.
“Starting from tomorrow (today), November 15, we will be conducting crime awareness campaigns in the province and other residential areas.
“We will be conducting the campaigns at shopping centres, pick-up points and various other places,” Insp Chibanda said.
He said they would also conduct an operation targeting criminals in and around the city.
Early this month, a 31-year-old taxi driver was found hanging from a tree along the Harare-Bulawayo Road in Kuwadzana, Harare.
Portifa Mutera of Dzivaresekwa was suspected to have been strangled using a cord made from strands of sack fibre before being hanged on a fig tree.
Between January and June police recorded 100 215 cases of major crimes, a 2 percent decline compared to 102 288 cases during the same period last year, with a significant reduction in murder and armed robberies.
Speaking during a pass-out parade for 542 graduates at Ntabazinduna Police Training Depot in September, Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri said during the first half of the year they recorded a 7 percent decrease in murder cases, while armed robberies went down by 31 percent.
At least 3 499 people were kidnapped and robbed by pirate taxi drivers countrywide in the first half of this year, while 284 others fell prey to armed robbers.
The situation was more critical in Harare where at least 1 200 cases of kidnap and robbery by pirate taxi drivers were recorded in the past four months alone, with most of the victims being offered lifts in and around the city.
The figures are high but reflect a 5 percent decrease compared to the same period last year when 4 108 cases were recorded.
Labels: CRIME, HARARE
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Police arrest farmer for breaking trespassers legs
By Oliver Chisenga
Fri 30 Aug. 2013, 14:01 CAT
POLICE have arrested and charged the Chikumbi farmer who allegedly drove over the legs of two subsistence farmers as punishment for trespassing on her farm.
The farmer identified as Vyness Magoye, who is remanded at Kabangwe police post, has been charged with acts intended to cause grievous harm while her light truck, Mitsubishi Canter, has been impounded as evidence.
Last Saturday, James Gumbo, 29, and Clever Mutangama, 31, of Chikumbi sustained broken bones in their lower limbs after Magoye allegedly drove over them for collecting tomato stakes in her farmland without permission.
Magoye is alleged to have ordered her farm workers to tie Gumbo and Mutangama, after which she drove over their legs as punishment even after they asked for leniency.
A check at Kabangwe police post found Gumbo and Mutangama recording their statements in the company of their relatives.
And a source at the police post revealed that Magoye, who had moved from Chikumbi to her Makeni farm, had been jointly charged with her farm worker who helped her tie the two victims.
According to the source, Magoye, who on Wednesday eluded police at her Chikumbi farm, turned up at Kabangwe police post in the company of her lawyer, a Mr Ndindi.
"The officer in-charge has been calling this lady since yesterday (Wednesday) but she kept saying she was stuck in traffic. We were told that she has moved to her other house in Makeni," said the source.
But Magoye, who denied having driven over the two farmers' legs, explained that she was fed up with people stealing things from her farm.
"Nalema (I am tired). Do you know how many people I have caught stealing on my farm? Last time they tied my cattle herder and stole my cows; I am tired of these people," said Magoye.
Labels: CLEVER MUTANGAMA, CRIME, JAMES GUMBO, UTH
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Chikumbi farmer drives over trespassers' legs
By Oliver Chisenga and Tom Chiponge
Wed 28 Aug. 2013, 14:01 CAT
COMMENT - How is this not assault? I wonder how many years in prison she is going to get for it. - MrK
TWO subsistence farmers of Chikumbi area near Kabangwe are nursing injuries in the University Teaching Hospital after a farm owner of the same area allegedly drove over their legs as punishment for trespassing on her farm.
Narrating the ordeal from their hospital beds, James Gumbo, 29, and Clever Mutangama, 31, said the farm owner, whose name they do not know, found them collecting tomato stakes at her farmland and ordered her employees to tie them, after which she drove over their legs as punishment even after they asked for leniency.
"We went to find stakes for our tomatoes at this lady's farm but after we were almost done, the owner of the farm found us and asked her farm workers to tie our hands using wires. After they beat us, we asked for leniency but she ordered that we sit down before driving over our feet. She left us in the field after we were driven over and we could not walk. We called for some people to alert our relatives, who came and picked us up. We were assisted to go to Kabangwe police post and there, the officers referred us to Matero Police Station," narrated Gumbo.
Matangama, a father of three, lamented that being a farmer, he would have difficulties sustaining his family as he would be confined.
"Siniziba nganizasebenza bwanji ndaba mendo yatyoka. Banibweza kumbuyo apa, nchinto yanga yonse yafa (I don't know how I will be working now that my legs are broken; this is a drawback, it is the end of my work)," lamented Mutangama.
And UTH public relations manager Mwenya Mulenga said the two patients who were received on Saturday had broken bones in their lower limbs.
He, however, said the duo was stable and would be discharged and return for review at a date to be advised.
Labels: CLEVER MUTANGAMA, CRIME, JAMES GUMBO, UTH
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Deported criminals terrorise Beitbridge
26/08/2012 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
OFFICIALS in Beitbridge have expressed concern over
the “haphazard deportation” of criminals from South Africa blaming the felons for fueling crime in the border town.
South Africa has stepped up deportations of illegal immigrants in recent months but Beitbridge border post assistant regional immigration manager, Charles Gwede, said the deportees were not being vetted to fish out ex-convicts.
“South African authorities are supposed to deport ex-convicts separately, but sadly we continue to receive them under a mixed batch and that is now a major challenge," he said.
“They are supposed to be vetted first and then categorised accordingly because most of them end up engaging in criminal activities.”
Last week more than one thousand Zimbabweans through Beitbridge, bringing to about 35,000 the number of illegal immigrants sent back home since the exercise last year October when South Africa resumed removals of illegal immigrants.
“We received 1,207 deportees this week who were brought in through Beitbridge Border Post aboard buses,” Gwede said.
“We have so far handled 35,031 deportees since the exercise resumed on 7 October last year. Between 1 January and 24 August, 27 276 Zimbabweans were brought back home,” he said.
The latest batch of deportees was brought in aboard seven buses from the main Lindela Detention Centre outside Johannesburg.
On arrival in the country, the returnees are received by the immigration authorities at the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Beitbridge Reception and Support Centre where they are vetted to establish whether they are bona fide Zimbabweans.
IOM then offers the deportees overnight accommodation, medication, food and transport to proceed to their respective homes. The IOM center has capacity to accommodate 600 people at any given time.
However, some of the deportees turn down any form of assistance from the IOM and most cross back into South Africa illegally through undesignated entry points along the Limpopo River.
Gwede said several border jumpers were taking advantage of the drop in water levels in the Limpopo River to illegally cross the border through undesignated entry points.
“We are saying there is a need to intensify border patrols to reduce border jumping,” he said.
“We have realised that of late there has been a sharp increase in the number of people capitalising on the drop in water levels to cross the Limpopo River into South Africa.
“But we would like to warn people against using undesignated entry points as they risk being attacked by robbers who operate in bushy areas along the river.”
Since the deportations started, the Beitbridge immigration department has been receiving an average of 80 people on less busy days with the number increasing to more than 500 mostly on Tuesdays and Thursdays when the Lindela Detention Centre would is cleared for new arrivals.
Resumption of the removalss marked the end of an amnesty for illegal Zimbabwean immigrants staying in South Africa that ran from May 2009 to July this year.
Rights groups estimate that about a million Zimbabweans moved to South Africa over the last few years to escape a biting economic crisis back home.
Over 275,000 of them have since regularised their stay in the country but many remain undocumented.
Labels: CRIME
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Police note reduced crime on Copperbelt
By Fridah Nkonde in Ndola
Sun 01 Jan. 2012, 13:40 CAT
COPPERBELT Police Commissioner Mary Tembo says general crime levels on the province have reduced in 2011 compared to 2010. During the Copperbelt police annual ball on Friday in Ndola, Tembo also says 2011 was a challenging year for the police service due to September 20 general elections. She said
violent crimes and copper thefts had reduced."Other crimes that have recorded a drastic reduction this year are those to do with gender-based violence (GBVs). You may wish to know that the United Nation International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is sponsoring a pilot programme called Copperbelt Rapid Response to Gender-Based Violence and Child Justice. This programme has seen the successful training of 467 community crime prevention unit officers in GBV cases and crime prevention methods," she said.
And Tembo said police on the Copperbelt successfully policed the elections and the reported sporadic post election violent cases were handled with maximum professionalism.
She said the support the police service received from government was appreciated and that the appointment of female provincial commissioners was very encouraging.
"I am one of those that have benefited as the first woman provincial commissioner for Copperbelt. The 200 recently constructed housing units for our officers and supply of 27 motor vehicles would go a long way in motivating our officers," she said.
She said the police service on the Copperbelt was going to fight corruption, illegal miners, and the jerabos.
Tembo said the police was aware that illegal miners and jerabos were a dreadful cancer that required to be robustly fought.
She also stated that the police service would remain non-partisan but "will strive to perform our constitutional roles professionally."
And Copperbelt permanent secretary Christopher Mutembo said police officers had all the reasons to celebrate given the various successes they had scored in 2011.
In a speech delivered for him by Ndola district commissioner Solomon Sakala, Mutembo urged men and women in uniform to change their mindset and work culture and ensure that they supported the government of the day.
He further urged them to act in the manner that would not let members of the public lose confidence in them.
Labels: COPPERBELT PROVINCE, CRIME, POLICE
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SA denies Zimbabwe suspect 'renditions'
23/10/2011 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
SOUTH Africa’s serious crimes investigations unit, the Hawks, has denied handing over criminal suspects to Zimbabwe to die.
The Sunday Times newspaper claimed in a report that the Hawks conducted illegal "renditions" with their Zimbabwean counterparts - by arresting "suspects" and illegally sending them across the border. Three suspects later died at the hand of Zimbabwean police, the paper claimed.
But Hawks spokesman McIntosh Polela said on Sunday: "At no point did any of our members render people to Zimbabwe.”
He confirms, however, that the men named by the paper had been deported as illegal immigrants, adding: "If they do not have papers, we hand them over to immigration authorities at Beitbridge. We don't have a mandate to be checking up on everybody that is deported.”
Rendition is the illegal kidnapping and transfer of prisoner from one country to another.
The Sunday Times described the case of Zimbabwean, Witness Ndeya, 26. He was suspected of shooting a police officer before fleeing to South Africa where he was arrested and reportedly renditioned by the Hawks, and then murdered, apparently by Zimbabwean police.
A few days later, Zimbabwean police told the family that “he was killed by other police officers", according to another man who was arrested with him and later released.
Ndeya's death certificate confirmed he died at "Hippo Valley Farm" in Bulawayo on November 20, with the cause of death listed as "multiple gunshot wounds".
South African authorities insist Ndeya and his companions were "all arrested as illegal immigrants" and were "deported ".
Polela, said: "At no point did we simply hand over people to authorities without [an immigration official present], because that would constitute rendition."
The alleged incident is a contravention of the Immigration Act. It also runs contrary to a "special dispensation" by the government at the time that prevented Zimbabweans from being deported from South Africa.
Zimbabwean police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka said he "can't confirm or deny that Ndeya was arrested or killed".
The Sunday Times said it was aware of several other individuals who have also been renditioned to Zimbabwe.
Labels: CRIME, IMMIGRATION, PROPAGANDA, SOUTH AFRICA
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INVESTIGATIVE REPORT
The Rich Boys
An ultra-secretive network rules independent oil trading. Its mentor: Marc RichJULY 18, 2005
One brisk day last fall, globe-trotting oil executive Benjamin R. Pollner was leaving his luxury prewar apartment building on Manhattan's Park Avenue when detectives from Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau's office approached. They began asking him about his alleged involvement in the unfolding U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal. Pollner, a tall, lean sixtysomething who wears European-cut clothes and a world-weary visage, was taken aback, say investigators familiar with the incident.
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He snapped that he was in a hurry to make an overseas flight and refused to answer questions. Before hopping into a car that whisked him off to John F. Kennedy International airport, Morgenthau's investigators say Pollner delivered a parting shot: "I did nothing in New York or the U.S. that would be considered illegal." To them, Pollner was admitting he had done something wrong -- just not in their jurisdiction. Pollner, who runs Taurus Petroleum mainly from offices in Geneva and London, hasn't set foot in the U.S. since, investigators believe. He didn't reply to several calls and e-mails.
On the morning of Apr. 14, David Bay Chalmers Jr., 51, who owns privately held oil-trading company Bayoil U.S.A. Inc., emerged handcuffed and bleary-eyed from his high-security mansion in Houston's ritzy River Oaks neighborhood. He had just been indicted by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York for conspiracy, wire fraud, and trading with a country that supports terrorism -- Iraq -- during the U.N. program. Chalmers has pleaded not guilty.
Another trader, Patrick Maugein, nonexecutive chairman of London's SOCO International PLC oil-trading company, has been under scrutiny by the U.N. for his alleged role in a complex oil-smuggling scheme during Oil-for-Food, the U.N. program that allowed Iraq to sell oil for humanitarian purposes during a period of strict sanctions. Although many deals were legitimate, Saddam Hussein at times demanded illegal surcharges for the right to buy oil at below-market prices. Friends of Saddam's regime allegedly received sweetheart oil allocations, investigators say. Maugein denies violating sanctions or paying illegal surcharges.
LEARNING FROM EL MATADOR
What do the three men have in common, aside from their dubious deals with Iraq? They all belong to the ultrasecretive informal network of traders who dominate global independent oil trading. They don't necessarily act in concert with each other, but they often chase the same opportunities. They are the Rich Boys. All operate in the world of onetime fugitive billionaire Marc Rich, the most-wanted white-collar criminal in U.S. history until his controversial pardon on President Bill Clinton's last day in office in 2001.
Rich came to prominence in the 1970s, when he worked at Phillips Bros. (later Phibro), then the biggest trader. With veteran partner Pincus "Pinky" Green, he pioneered "combat trading" -- getting trading rights from countries in turmoil. Rich, called El Matador for his killer instinct, did the deals. Pinky, "The Admiral," arranged shipping.
Traders soon learned the art of the Rich deal: Do whatever it takes. After Rich and Green left Phibro in 1973 to form their own company, they bought a house in the South of France and "stocked it with hookers from Paris and flew in oil guys who spent a week at their expense," says a former U.S. oil executive who knows Rich. "They got the oil contracts they wanted." A former Rich partner corroborates this. Green, who retired in 1992 after heart surgery, could not be reached for comment.
Rich is notorious for trading with Iran during the hostage crisis, South Africa during apartheid, and Cuba and Libya during U.S. trade embargoes. In 1983 he fled to Switzerland after being indicted by the Justice Dept. for racketeering, trading with the enemy (Iran), dodging a $48 million corporate tax bill, and other violations that could have resulted in 300 years of jail time. Rich's companies pleaded guilty to some charges and paid about $200 million in fines, penalties, and taxes, but the case remained open until the pardon. "Rich's philosophy is that no law applies to him," says Morris "Sandy" Weinberg Jr., the former U.S. prosecutor who pursued and indicted Rich in 1983.
Over the years, Rich has mentored scores of traders. Although the 70-year-old is past his peak in the business, according to industry experts, his protégés are thriving. "You could call it the University of Marc Rich," says a Senate investigator. As Alaskan and North Sea oil production declines, new supplies increasingly come from some of the most corrupt or politically unstable places on earth, such as Equatorial Guinea and Sudan. These are the new frontiers where major U.S. oil companies fear to tread because of sanctions, embargoes, and antibribery and anti-terrorism laws. But it's where these traders, many like characters out of the James Bond flick Goldfinger, make good money, especially when oil tops $60 a barrel.
Governments and law enforcers have long been suspicious of some Rich Boys. In a six-month investigation, BusinessWeek has pieced together the first comprehensive look at their sprawling and deliberately elusive operations. Our findings:
-- Rich has spawned the most powerful informal network of independent commodities traders on earth. He did it primarily by funding spin-offs and startups around the globe for decades, and by training scores of traders who have set up their own shops. Although Rich no longer maintains stakes in most of these outfits, he has helped create a network that, in sum, is far more formidable than his own company in the 1970s and 1980s, when it was the world's premier commodities trader.
-- The Rich Boys' often controversial activities are on the rise. They buy oil from places where corruption is extensive: Some of the Rich Boys have been named in scandals in Nigeria and Venezuela. They also sell oil from pariah states to U.S. refiners.
-- Although Rich testified in writing in March, 2005, to a House committee investigating the U.N. program that he was not in any way active in the Oil-for-Food program, documents suggest that he bought Iraqi oil in 2001 from various front companies, which BusinessWeek has identified. This took place just one month after his pardon. If so, it seems that Rich may have misled Congress. The CIA, the Senate, and others have concluded that from September, 2000, until September, 2002, buyers in the Oil-for-Food oil program had to pay illegal surcharges that Saddam used in part to buy weapons, though no documents show Rich made such payments. Some investigators believe Iraqi insurgents are now using that money.
-- One company from which Rich bought crude during this period was a front for extremist Russian and Ukrainian organizations. All were pro-Saddam; one was a staunch supporter of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il. Another company was tied to a major money launderer for Saddam.
To reach these conclusions, BusinessWeek traced crucial connections from a number of official inquiries and documents. Key among these documents: shipping tables from the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES), the preeminent authority on tanker activity in the Middle East. These detail the ports, tankers, destinations, and buyers of Iraqi crude. Other insights came from a 2004 CIA report on Iraq, data from Switzerland's Federal Commercial Registry Office, and the many inquiries launched into Oil-for-Food. The Justice Dept., six congressional committees, a U.N. commission, Morgenthau's office, and several countries, including Switzerland, are all investigating the program. Extensive interviews with dozens of oil traders, government investigators, and energy experts around the globe helped form a clearer picture of how the network operates.
Rich did not respond to numerous requests for interviews. But Thomas Frutig, CEO of his major holding company, Marc Rich + Co. Holding, denied to BusinessWeek involvement in Oil-for-Food. Frutig declined to respond to other allegations, despite repeated phone and e-mail requests. Trader Clyde Meltzer, one of Rich's business partners in the 1970s who remains close to him, says: "Marc is the most upstanding guy you'll ever meet. It's untrue he ever did anything dishonest."
Rich's trading in 2001 sheds a harsh new light on his pardon, which is limited to his 1983 indictment. To revoke it would require a constitutional amendment. Even so, it's possible authorities could levy new criminal charges against Rich, who is worth up to $8 billion by some estimates, for activities not included in the pardon. A federal grand jury in New York is apparently still investigating whether any of the money Rich and other traders allegedly funneled to Saddam was used to fund terrorism. The U.S. Attorney's office declined to comment. In 2001, New York State sued Rich for tax evasion, seeking $137 million they say he owes. But given Rich's clout -- he is a major philanthropist, one of Switzerland's largest taxpayers, and extremely well connected -- he'll likely continue to enjoy the good life abroad.
MAVERICKS IN THE MIDDLE
Like Marc Rich + Co. holding, most of the Rich Boys have offices in the tiny Swiss canton of Zug, with its quaint stores, Gothic architecture, and low tax rates. These maverick middlemen typically don't own or operate oil refineries or wells. Instead, they buy oil from producers, line up buyers to refine it, and charter tankers to ship it. Oil trading is often nebulous and opaque. Title to a tanker's oil, for example, may change a dozen times before the ship reaches port.
Some of the Rich Boys, like Pollner and Chalmers, have never worked for Rich. They've merely done business with him or have connections to him through other traders. Typically, Rich has bankrolled or owned stakes in the traders' companies, or sold them to close associates. Among the mightiest is commodities giant Glencore International, based in a suburb of Zug, which boasts annual turnover of $72 billion, according to its financial disclosures, making it one of the world's largest private companies. Glencore owns scores of other commodities companies from Spain to Australia. Rich sold the firm to its management in 1994, and the company says it now has no connection with Rich. It is run by former Rich lieutenants Ivan Glasenberg and Willy Strothotte, according to its Web site.
Companies run by the Rich Boys span the globe. Consider Netherlands-based Trafigura Group, one of the world's top trading companies. According to industry experts and investigators, it was founded in 1993 by former Rich traders with money from Rich. Experts say he invested in companies like Trafigura to expand his empire, though most contend he no longer has a stake in them. Zug-based Masefield Group was also founded by former Rich traders. In Moscow, there's Milio International Ltd., formed by Rich traders in 1997. Rich's flight to Switzerland in 1983 didn't stop him from financing companies in the U.S., among them Novarco, a White Plains (N.Y.) commodities-trading business he established in 1997. He sold its oil contracts in 2002 to Richmond (Va.)-based Dominion Resources Inc. (D ), according to company reports.
Many of the Rich Boys' tactics may be hyperaggressive, but they're perfectly legal. One way they do business: exploiting opportunity in Eastern European or Third World countries in dire need of funding. Rich taught his disciples -- called Lehrlings, German for apprentices -- to lend cash-strapped companies money and get the right to buy their commodities, industry experts say. Last year, for example, Glencore loaned $40 million to Peru's second-largest zinc miner, Volcan Compañia Minera. Volcan agreed to sell zinc and other minerals to Glencore from 2004 to 2010.
At times, some Rich boys apparently use front companies -- opaque holding entities -- to disguise deals. According to Senate documents, they have set up fronts with innocuous names such as Rescor Inc. or Plasco Shipping. Based in tax havens with strong banking secrecy such as Panama, Liechtenstein, and Gibraltar, they come and go like flickering harbor lights once a deal is done.
David Chalmers found such companies useful in trading Iraqi crude during sanctions, according to the Senate subcommittee on permanent investigations. It alleged he routinely used a company called Italtech to do business in Iraq. The submarine-engine outfit was started in the late '80s by Chilean-Italian arms dealer Augusto Giangrandi, who headed the Bermuda subsidiary of Chalmers' Bayoil. Italtech opportunistically morphed into an oil trader in 1999. Chalmers' lawyer, Bart Dalton, says Italtech "was not a front company."
Ben Pollner, law enforcement officials believe, was behind Fenar Petroleum and Alcon Petroleum, registered in Liechtenstein in 1999, according to corporate registry documents. They were among the largest oil purchasers during Oil-for-Food, together exporting $2.47 billion worth of crude, according to a report by the U.N. Independent Inquiry Committee, chaired by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul A. Volcker. Investigators allege they paid tens of millions in illegal surcharges. The companies sold almost exclusively to Pollner's company, Taurus, MEES shows. "We've interviewed more than a dozen traders who claim [that although] Pollner was working on his own deals, he was often acting on behalf of Rich, too," says a senior prosecutor investigating possible Oil-for-Food violations.
THRIVING IN TROUBLE SPOTS
One reason the rich boys are so busy these days is because they thrive in a world of high oil prices and scarce reserves. Big U.S. oil companies are desperate for crude yet don't want to dirty their hands getting it from global trouble spots. Says a former partner of Rich's, who requested anonymity because he routinely trades with Big Oil: "Majors don't want to touch the oil, yet they want to buy it. If you think Pablo Escobar [the Colombian drug king] was guilty, weren't people who used cocaine, too?" In fact, half the crude on which Oil-for-Food surcharges were paid ultimately ended up with U.S. majors, according to the Senate. Says Richard Perkins, former director of worldwide oil trading at Chevron Corp.: "The majors are the bread and butter" of traders like the Rich Boys.
U.S. companies are forbidden from bribing officials. If they do, it can prove damaging. The Securities & Exchange Commission, for example, is probing Marathon Oil (MRO ), ExxonMobil (XOM ), Amerada Hess (AHC ), Chevron (CVX ), and others for allegedly bribing President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea and his relatives for oil rights. The companies say they're cooperating with the SEC and that they acted lawfully.
Oil majors are also under pressure to shun pariah states. For instance, there are tight limits on deals with war-torn Sudan because it backs terrorism and engages in genocide. But companies set up by the Rich Boys, including Trafigura and Glencore, are among those buying crude there, trade reports say. China is a big customer for the Rich Boys there and elsewhere. Still, says Hal C. Eren, principal attorney at Washington's Eren Law Firm and a former U.S. Treasury Dept. official, tighter controls have "created a situation that's definitely helping independent traders."
Because the Rich Boys operate in such secrecy, one of the few ways to see how they work is when they get busted or investigated. For example, in Nigeria last year, Petrodel, a firm run by former top Rich trader Michael Prest, Glencore, Trafigura, and several other firms, were accused by Nigeria's state oil company of inflating shipping costs by doctoring documents. The Nigerians demanded repayments of more than $100 million. Trafigura denies the allegations and says that all past problems have been resolved. A Glencore spokesman "vigorously disputes" the charges. Petrodel officials and Prest could not be reached for comment.
Some Rich Boys also have their hand in oil-rich Venezuela, whose leftist leader, President Hugo Chávez, is at odds with the Bush Administration. After an oil workers' strike in 2003, Glencore and two U.S. traders allegedly paid kickbacks to secure deals with oil monopoly Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), according to The Wall Street Journal. PDVSA denied accepting bribes and Glencore denied making any illegal payments.
THE SADDAM CONNECTION
Some of the most compelling details to emerge from Oil-for-Food probes revolve around Rich himself. BusinessWeek has pieced together information suggesting that, despite his denials, Rich did buy Iraqi crude from several questionable companies during the program. His name appears in shipping records compiled by MEES. These show he bought from four separate companies, starting in February, 2001: Onako Oil Co., a subsidiary of Alfa Group, one of Russia's largest conglomerates; an Egyptian company called International Company for Petroleum & Industrial Services (or INCOME, for short); and a Swiss company, Zerich, with ties to some extremist groups. The fourth, EOTC, remains a mystery. Hesham Sheta, vice-chairman of INCOME's parent company in Cairo, Egypt, International Group for Investments, confirmed that "Marc Rich has been INCOME's 'agent' [oil trader] since 1990" and that Rich bought Iraqi crude from INCOME in 2001. Zerich has since been liquidated. Alfa denies paying surcharges.
Rich tells a different story. In March he acknowledged his company was on the U.N.'s list of "approved" crude buyers but insisted in written answers to House International Relations Committee questions that "nothing ever came of it." A committee spokesman remarked at the time: "We believe [Rich] knows more than he wishes to acknowledge." Marc Rich + Co.'s Frutig reiterated an earlier press statement: "Marc Rich Holdings reject all the allegations relating to its involvement in the U.N.'s Oil-for-Food program in Iraq."
Even with the new information, it may be difficult for the authorities to prove that Rich did anything illegal. At the time, Saddam offered oil at cut-rate prices to his supporters, who would then sell it for a huge profit on the market. For two years leading up to September, 2002, the dictator demanded surcharges of up to 50 cents a barrel that he deposited in secret bank accounts, according to the CIA, the Volcker committee, and Senate documents.
While Rich's company bought crude from companies acting on behalf of those with allocations, no documents show he paid illegal surcharges. However, allocation holders would typically "pass on the cost of that surcharge," according to a recent Senate report. "[Buyers] were informed of the required surcharges, and either paid them directly or reimbursed the allocation holder." Hesham denies that INCOME paid illegal surcharges.
Saddam banked about $10 billion from oil surcharges and smuggling, says the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Initially it enabled him to live large, buying fleets of Mercedes and the finest wine, according to the CIA. But when pressure from the Bush Administration mounted in 2001, Saddam earmarked the money for a war chest that "is likely funding the current insurgents," says John Fawcett, an independent investigator tracking Iraqi funds who recently testified to the House Committee on Energy & Commerce.
Some Rich Boys were heavy hitters in Oil-for-Food. In February, 2001, for example, the U.N. Security Council reported that Glencore bought 1 million barrels of Iraqi crude destined for the U.S. The oil was diverted to Croatia, where it was sold for a $3 million premium, that went into a secret bank account. Glencore was caught by U.N. overseers, and later agreed to refund the money to the U.N. A Glencore spokeswoman says the oil was shipped to Croatia for storage and later shipment to the U.S. A CIA report alleges that Glencore paid more than $3.2 million in surcharges to Iraq, something it denies.
The numerous investigations into the U.N. program paint a complex picture of how Rich Boys allegedly work. In September, 2001, U.S. and U.N. authorities were tipped off by a Greek shipping captain, who feared his tanker chartered by Trafigura was involved in sanctions busting. Trafigura, run by former Rich traders Claude Dauphin and Eric de Turckheim, bought Iraqi oil from a Bermuda company called Ibex Energy, according to a U.N. report. Ibex was owned by another former Rich trader, Jean-Paul Cayré. SOCO's Patrick Maugein, once a top Rich trader, was close to former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz. The CIA alleges Maugein received oil allocations that he sold through Trafigura. Maugein denies paying illegal surcharges. Maugein says he knows one of Trafigura's founders. Investigators allege he had a contract with or a stake in Trafigura, something both the company and Maugein deny. Maugein and Trafigura also deny having commercial ties to Ibex.
DEALS WITH EXTREMISTS
Rich and those like him are so successful because they'll do business with virtually anyone if there are big bucks to be made. Both Rich and Pollner's Taurus Petroleum bought Iraqi crude in 2001 through the now-defunct Zerich, according to MEES shipping records. Zerich was a front for various groups that received oil allocations, a CIA report says.
Some of them, BusinessWeek has learned, are extremists, including Ukranian and Russian outfits that strongly supported Saddam -- as well as North Korean strongman Kim Jong Il. One, Russia's Peace & Unity Party, threw a birthday bash in Moscow in January, 2004, in honor of Kim. At it, Peace & Unity Chairwoman Sazhi Zaindinova Umalatova called Kim "an all-powerful treasured sword...when the imperialists are getting more undisguised in their military ambition," according to North Korea's news agency. Zerich also acted for the Ukraine Communist Party and the Ukraine Socialist Party. In all, Zerich bought $422 million worth of oil from Iraq, according to the Volcker committee.
In the early 1990s after the Soviet Union collapsed, Rich quickly became the most powerful trader there. He was "a coach and sort of a godfather for several of the oligarchs," says Vladimir L. Kvint, a professor at American University's Kogod School of Business. Pollner worked for Chalmers at Bayoil then, and all of them sold Russian crude that they got through the oligarchs.
Rich has long had ties to Mikhail Fridman and his mammoth Alfa Group, says Kvint. In 2001, Rich nearly sold his company to an Alfa division: Zug-based Crown Resources Corp. (now called ERC Trading). During the U.N. program both Rich and Chalmers bought oil from Alfa units, according to MEES: Onako and Tyumen Oil Co., respectively. The CIA report alleges that Alfa paid illegal surcharges to Saddam during Oil-for-Food, which Alfa denies.
Rich is legendary for cultivating people in high places. Traders say he could reach practically any diplomat, oil minister, or dictator in an instant with a phone that some joked seemed surgically attached to his ear. Two of his key Mideast connections were the powerful Bakhtiar brothers, Esfandiar and Bahman. The Bakhtiars -- whose father, investigators believe, headed the Shah of Iran's secret police -- fled to Iraq after the Shah's ouster. Thanks to family ties, Saddam treated them like "adopted sons," says Jules B. Kroll, founder of Kroll Inc., hired by Kuwait to investigate Saddam's finances in 1991.
The Bakhtiar link helped Rich forge links with the Iraqi dictator, says the Kroll report. Kroll says it obtained faxes between Rich and the Bakhtiars describing Rich's intent to trade Iraqi crude through the brothers. Over two decades, Rich traded allegedly through two companies linked with the Bakhtiars: Jaraco and Dynatrade (now owned by INCOME's parent, IGI). The Bakhtiars set up Jaraco in Geneva in 1981. In 2004, the U.S. Treasury identified Jaraco as a major money-laundering conduit for Saddam's billions. Hesham Sheta says, "[One of the] Bakhtiars still acts as a consultant" to IGI, which in turn owns INCOME, from which Rich bought Iraqi crude during Oil-for-Food.
Rich, along with Pollner and Bayoil's Chalmers, were "very trusted by the Iraqi Oil Ministry," says Axel Busch, chief correspondent for industry newsletter Energy Intelligence. A street-smart Staten Island boy, "Pollner is considered a brilliant trader," says Busch. Cultivating relations with small refineries, particularly in the U.S., enabled him to handle big quantities of Iraqi oil by breaking it into smaller cargoes, say industry experts. Pollner, they say, began trading with Iraq before the 1991 Persian Gulf War and continued after a U.N. embargo.
For his part, Chalmers had loaned money to Iraq since the 1980s and received repayment in oil, according to industry experts. The scion of a wealthy Houston oil family, Chalmers, a tight-lipped trader and tennis ace with a taste for fancy cigars, was used to rubbing shoulders with the elite. But he never worked for Rich. Indeed, his lawyer Dalton says they were always "competitors" and "didn't act together in Oil-for-Food." Still, trade reports and CIA documents show they often did deals with the same people in the same places. Chalmers' deep pockets apparently appealed to Iraq's Oil Ministry. After the U.S. lifted its embargo in May, 2003, the ministry said it would sell only to major refiners, but it still allowed two traders to get supplies -- Bayoil and Taurus.
"EERIE" EXISTENCE
These days rich has opulent digs in several countries. He owns a palatial Moorish villa on Spain's ritzy Costa del Sol and a ski chalet in Saint Moritz, Switzerland. His powerful pals have included opera star Placido Domingo and former hedge-fund guru Michael Steinhardt, who, in a letter backing the pardon, called Rich "my friend...who has been punished enough." Former traders say Rich spends most of his time at Villa Rosa, his compound on Switzerland's glistening Lake Lucerne, surrounded by Picassos, van Goghs, and Mirós.
Rich still keeps offices in Zug. "It's eerie," says a financial executive who recently paid a call. "You go up in an elevator and step into a vestibule where you're asked over an intercom if you have an appointment and whom you're there to see. If you're on the list, a security guard opens a door to another room. There you see a receptionist who scrutinizes you. Then you're escorted into another elevator that takes you to a different floor."
Rich has slowed down since his pardon. He sold Marc Rich Investments in 2003 but still runs Marc Rich + Co. Holding, which has a trading operation and a real estate arm. U.S. authorities -- the Justice Dept., in particular -- are on Rich's case. As for some of the Rich Boys, it's possible that the U.N. or even the Swiss government, which is conducting its own investigation into Oil-for-Food, may act if they can prove wrongdoing.
Maybe Rich will once again elude his pursuers. He is fast becoming a mythic persona: Word is a TV series based on his life may be in the works. And the Rich Boys -- his legacy -- rule.
Labels: CRIME, IRAQ, NEOLIBERALISM, OIL
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Three S.Africans involved in Zim bank robbery
PANA/TZG reporters
Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:22:00 +0000
THREE of the six men who robbed a Zimbabwean bank of US$270,000 last week were South Africans, it has now emerged.
The robbers pounced on a Standard Bank branch in the small farming town of Chegutu last Tuesday, robbing it of the money, and shooting one bank employee.
It was the biggest bank heist in the country's history, and eyewitnesses said the men spoke a foreign language.
The Herald newspaper reported three of the robbers had been identified as South Africans, and the other three Zimbabweans, one of whom lives in South Africa.
Two Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe employees are amongst the robbers.
It said the South Africans were invited to Zimbabwe for a holiday by the Zimbabwean who lives in that country.
So far, police have arrested four suspects in the robbery, and recovered more than US$50,000 of the stolen money and one of the getaway cars used.
Labels: CRIME, ROBBERS, SOUTH AFRICA, ZIMBABWE
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Malawian, 22 imprisoned 15 years in Zambia for ‘touching breasts’
By Nyasa Times
Published: October 11, 2009
A 22-year-old Malawian national will serve a prison sentence of 15 years in Zambia after High Court jailed him for indecent assault. According to The Post newspaper of Zambia, the Malawian is Yandikani Sunthika who committed the offence on February 18, 2008 in Nabvutika Compound. The Malawian was prosecuted in the Magistrate court but was sentenced at Lusaka High Court.
The paper reported that the victim testified in court that the Malawian boy forced his way into her bedroom and started touching her breasts. The victim said Sunthika wanted to remove her underwear but she stopped him by stepping on him after a struggle.
She said Sunthika was later apprehended by her parents.
Judge Evans Hamaundu jailed Malawian to 15 years imprisonment with hard labour.
Labels: CRIME
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White farmer axe murder not politically motivated: CFU
VOA/TZG reporters
Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:43:00 +0000
THE head of Zimbabwe's Commercial Farmers Union said Wednesday that there was probably no political motive in the axe murder Friday of white commercial farmer Bob Vaughn-Evans.
Vaughn-Evans was the director of the dominantly white organization, who was attacked at his home in Gweru with his wife.
Vaughan-Evans's wife Jean was reported to be in serious condition at Gweru Hospital. It was the third attack on the couple and an earlier assault left her wheelchair-bound.
Commercial Farmers' Union President Trevor Gifford told VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that preliminary investigations suggest the couple was attacked by criminals who have attacked and robbed vulnerable residents in the Gweru area.
Vaughan-Evans, a well-known agriculturalist and conservationist, represented the farmers union in Midlands province, of which Gweru is the capital.
VOA/TZG
Labels: CFU, CRIME, WHITE FARMERS
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Clashes kill 24 people in central Kenya - police
Written by Reuters
Tuesday, April 21, 2009 11:49:49 PM
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Clashes between residents and members of an outlawed criminal gang erupted in central Kenya overnight, killing 24 people, police said on Tuesday. The Mungiki gang, notorious for beheading and mutilating victims, is Kenya's version of the mafia and is involved in extortion and racketeering rings, protection fees, kidnapping and murder, police say.
"So far investigators have confirmed that 24 people have been killed and three have been seriously injured," the police said in a statement.
Police added that the clashes started when Mungiki members tried to force people from Kirinyaga district out of Karatina, a town in the Nyeri West district of tea- and coffee-producing central Kenya, some 100 km (62 miles) from the capital Nairobi.
Police arrested 37 people and recovered axes, machetes and other weapons.
The Mungiki is drawn from the Kikuyu, Kenya's largest ethnic group and has links to politicians and powerful Kikuyu families. Two years ago, police allegedly killed hundreds of its members in a crackdown in Kenya's capital.
The gang's size is unknown but it claims thousands of members, predominantly unemployed youths, some of whose communities were destroyed in tribal clashes in the 1990s.
Labels: CRIME, KENYA
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Organised criminals are a threat to democracy
By Editor
Tuesday April 22, 2008 [04:00]
Organised crime has become one of the most flourishing economic activities, run by professionals who have taken on board all the rules of modern management. We saw it here in Zambia with Access Financial Services Limited. Organised crime invests in legitimate businesses not only to launder dirty money but also to make capital for their illegal activities. And preferred endeavours for this are luxury real estate, the vacation industry, public services and banking and even the media as we saw with Nizam’s weekly newspaper and radio station.
In some cases, organised crime has become the creditor of the state and it exerts, because of its actions on the markets, an influence over the macro-economic politics of the government.
It should not be difficult to understand and appreciate why Inspector General of Police, Ephraim Mateyo says “criminals must not be allowed to rule as the increasing worldwide power and influence of organised criminals is a threat to democracy and the economy… the activities of organised criminal groups undermine societal values leading to increased crime rates and raised social expenditures... increased worldwide criminal activities and the growing power and influence of organised criminal groups are a significant threat to democratic institutions and the free market systems”.
Clearly, organised crime in Africa is a development issue. We cannot bear the costs of organised crime, which impede development and minimise the ability of our governments to reduce poverty. Effectively addressing the issue of organised crime in our countries has become a development imperative.
And in our situations, when we talk about organised crime, we are not necessarily talking about criminals moving with guns, holding up people at gunpoint. We are talking about organised white-collar crime.
In short, we are talking about corruption. And here in Zambia, no one can disagree with the fact that organised crime manifested its worst forms in the cases of plunder that were pursued in the London High Court as civil cases and that are currently in our courts of law as criminal matters.
The organised crime involved in these cases clearly demonstrate that organised crime is just one form of corruption or is a part of corruption.
And talking about the increasing power and influence of organised crime as a threat to democracy and the economy, we journalists constantly wring our hands over the growing criminalisation of our politics, and call on our politicians and their political parties to adopt better candidates for party positions and for local government and parliamentary seats and indeed for the Republican presidency.
Such moral lecturing is vacuous. Criminals are not entering politics because of some inexplicable moral lapse by those who choose candidates for our political parties, but because they have huge incentives to get in.
To get them out, we must change the incentive system. Many of our laws need changing, but one single change can have a huge impact. Let the law provide that criminal cases against our politicians will be heard before all others on a day-by-day basis to ensure a quick verdict.
In one stroke, that will create a huge disincentive for criminals to contest elections. Many will resign from politics to escape the consequences.
Today, criminals join politics to gain influence and ensure that their criminal businesses continue unaffected and cases against them are dropped or not proceeded with. The law disqualifies convicted criminals from fighting elections.
But this does not keep criminals out of politics because legal delays, often abetted by political pressures, make convictions of resourceful crooks rather rare. Criminals threaten witnesses with death, and the feeble state cannot protect them. So we need a radical change.
Organised crime and corrupt practices span a wide spectrum, ranging from petty theft of public funds or corruption whereby bribes are required before normal bureaucratic procedures are accomplished, to large-scale corruption whereby considerable sums of money are stolen from public coffers or are paid in return for preferential treatment or access.
And it’s clear that corruption is worse in situations where institutions, such as the legislature and the judiciary are weak, where the rule of law and adherence to formal rules are not rigorously observed, where political patronage is standard practice, where the independence and professionalism of the public sector has been eroded and where civil society lacks the means to bring public pressure to bear.
Once corruption becomes entrenched, its negative effects multiply. It induces cynicism, because people begin to regard it as the norm. It undermines social values because people find it easier to engage in corruption, in crime than to seek legitimate employment or business.
It erodes governmental legitimacy because it hampers the effective delivery of public goods and services. It limits economic growth because it reduces the amount of public resources, discourages private investment and saving and impedes the efficient use of government revenue.
Therefore, strategies to limit corruption have to be realistic and achievable. In other words, policies intended to address corruption have to be consistently implemented over the long-term. Corruption is essentially a governance issue.
Increased governmental accountability and transparency, enhanced public participation in decision making, strengthened public sector and civil society institutions and greater adherence to the rule of law will not only improve governance but will help counter corruption.
Free and open competition is ultimately the greatest weapon against corrupt practices – whether political, economic or bureaucratic.
The police, the Anti-Corruption Commission, the Drug Enforcement Commission and other agencies can be extremely effective in fighting corruption and other forms of organised crime, but only provided that they have sufficient independence, authority and resources to function efficiently, effectively and in an orderly manner.
Government actions alone will not be effective. A broad coalition against corruption, encompassing government and the public, is necessary. In this, organisations and society, the press and the business sector all have a crucial role to play. Public opinion has to be supportive to anti-corruption efforts and public opinion is the major force in creating an environment in which corruption is not accepted or condoned.
Public education as to the detrimental effects of corruption is important in creating public awareness and an active public response in support of anti-corruption measures. For this, free and professional press and accessible channels of information, are crucial.
While the ultimate responsibility of combating corruption lies with our individual countries, there is a role for both regional cooperation and international support. And for this reason, the initiatives and efforts being made under the Southern African Police Chiefs Cooperation deserve credit and support.
Many corrupt practices are localised or confined within the boundaries of our individual countries. Many more, however, are not. International business transactions have long been recognised as fertile ground for corruption.
And we have seen this in our Zamtrop plunder cases. Much of the money gained as a result of corrupt practices is kept in safe havens outside our countries. Some parties to corrupt activities may be based in neighbouring countries and those accused of corruption often simply move to other countries to avoid prosecution.
Here we have our own examples of this – Xavier Chungu, Paul Steele, Attan Shansonga and until recently Moses Katumbi. Regional cooperation and development of regionally agreed legal mechanism to address these problems would be useful, while international efforts to stop large-scale corruption in business transactions are essential.
A nation that condones corruption will often be besieged with a lot of economic, political and social vices. Corruption is the perversion of integrity.
And as Inspector General Mateyo has correctly concluded, criminals will continue to threaten our democratic and economic interests if we don’t stand up to challenge them with all the means at our disposal.
Labels: CRIME
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Crime has to be fought
By The Editor
Tuesday September 25, 2007 [04:00]
We truly need a morally upright nation for meaningful development to take place. And no one can disagree with home affairs minister Lt Gen Ronnie Shikapwasha on this observation. But this won’t come by itself; we have to work for it; we have to nurture it. We must always search for ways that are based on very high levels of morality to solve our problems rather than on ways that are expedient but with no moral basis, because before we even realise it, they corrupt us and contaminate us and our conscience.
And as we have stated before, virtue must be nourished but vice springs up spontaneously like weeds and grows by itself. We must bear that in mind. If we do otherwise, while nourishing virtue we are simultaneously paving way for vice.
There is no way crime in Matero will go away by itself. There is no way it will get down to zero without us doing anything about it other than just waiting for the power of God to deal with it. After all, we are constantly being reminded that God helps those who help themselves. If one doesn’t get down to the field to cultivate and plant seeds, no matter how he or she prays, there will be no crop to harvest. You reap where you sow.
Crime in Matero and other parts of our country has to be fought. And that’s why we have a retired general as our Minister of Home Affairs - to help us combat crime. Otherwise, all that we would need is a pastor at that ministry, and another one as Inspector General of Police. But we know things don’t work that way. Even the power of prayer doesn’t work that way.
Unless we critically grasp this fact, we will never understand how to solve our problems. An understanding of this dialectic and this sort of sub-determination will persuade us that a mechanistic view of social changes is no good.
Even a criminal in Matero is a man and any man wants to explain the reality around him. How can he? One might ask. What reasons can he find? How does his dulled brain conceive his wretched lot?
Normally, he will try to size up his situation. He will look for causes, the reasons for his condition, in things higher and more powerful than man. One such thing is God, whom he sees as the maker, the cause of his condition. Ah, but if God is responsible, man can do nothing.
Many Christians today, thanks be to God, are vigorously reacting against that attitude. But as children, we knew many priests or preachers who went out to the people, especially the poor, saying: “Be patient. This is God’s will. And anyway, it will earn you Heaven.”
Yet the truth of the matter is that we have to earn our heaven here and now, we ourselves. We have to build our heaven, to fashion it during our lifetime, right now. Salvation is something to achieve, not just to hope for. This latter thought of theology is such a passive one that we cannot stomach it.
How can we make God responsible for this calamity, for the crimes going on in Matero and in other parts of our country? As if absolute love would abandon man to constant victimisation and total destitution.
Whenever men make God responsible for intolerable situations, for crimes, then the dominating structures help to popularise that myth. If God is not the cause, they whisper, then destiny must be. Human reasoning at this level easily becomes fatalistic; it sits back and sighs: “Nothing can be done about it.” Sometimes another scapegoat is found, and it too is a myth spread by the dominating structure: the helplessness of the oppressed and the marginalised.
The dominated mind looks inward and decides that it’s totally unable to cope with its misery; it concludes that it is impotent.
For the critical mind, though, for the mind that conscientises itself, beyond this situation, there’s the future, what we must do, the thing we must create, the historical futurity we have to bring into being; and to do that, we must first change whatever it is that prevents the humanisation of our fellow humans.
The process of conscientisation leaves one with arms folded. It makes some unfold their arms. It leaves others with a guilty feeling, because conscientisation shows us that God wants us to act.
As we conscientise ourselves, we realise that our brothers who don’t eat, who don’t laugh, who don’t sing, who don’t love, the crushed and despised, are suffering all this because of some reality that is causing it.
It is very important for us to realise that peace in a community cannot be purchased, it is not for sale; it has to be lived. And we can’t live our peace without commitment to humans, and our commitment to them can’t exist without the final transformation of the structures that are dehuminising, that are turning them into animals, robbing and killing one another. There’s only one way to remove crime from our neighbourhoods: working shoulder-to-shoulder with our fellow human beings.
Each of us has to give witness, and conscientisation is a summons to do that: to be new each day. Hence it is peace, and it enables us to understand others.
Crime has to be fought; it won’t go away by itself. Even God demonstrated this in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Crime has to be fought tenaciously.
Labels: CRIME, RONNIE SHIKAPWASHA
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Ronnie prays against crime
By Masuzyo Chakwe
Tuesday September 25, 2007 [04:00]
THE crime rate in Lusaka's Matero township will get down to zero by the power of God, home affairs minister Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha has said. And Matero member of parliament Faustina Sinyangwe has said the level of crime in Matero is still very high. Launching the month-long "Love Matero Outreach" on Sunday, Lt Gen Shikapwasha said the Church in Zambia should rise and take responsibility of the primary mandate to preach the Gospel. He said the actualisation of Zambia as a Christian nation would only occur when citizens and residents turned to God.
"Let us all be in prayer for this outreach that starts on September, 24, 2007 (yesterday) to October, 31, 2007. We trust that the crime rate in Matero shall get down to zero by the power of God as the gospel shall be preached," he said.
Lt Gen Shikapwasha said there was need to have a morally upright nation for meaningful development to take place. And in an interview, Sinyangwe said there were not enough police officers to go round Matero resulting in escalation of crime. She advised people to stay in-doors in the evening to avoid being attacked.
"I had a meeting on Saturday with the community leaders and we came up with neighbourhood watch associations and we have asked the police to attach one officer in each neighbourhood watch," Sinyangwe said.
"I think it is the high levels of unemployment that is contributing to crime because ever since the vendors were removed from the streets, crime has increased and people have been doing all sorts of things, maybe in protest. I don't know."
Sinyangwe said there was need for a lot of sensitisation because the people who were involved in crime lived within Matero.
"I was told that the criminals now use Shake Shake (opaque beer) packs and people would think they are drinking but they put stones in there which they use to attack people," said Sinyangwe.
Armed robbers at the weekend went on rampage and broke into a block of flats in Matero township after cutting electricity cables before breaking doors with big stones to gain entry and stole household goods worth millions of kwacha.
Eyewitnesses and sources said the robbers who were armed with iron bars and guns held the residents hostage for over 30 minutes and threatened to shoot any person who attempted to raise alarm.
Residents in the area pleaded with Inspector General of Police Ephraim Mateyo to seriously consider reinforcing the police patrols as what happened at the weekend had occurred before.
Mateyo warned that police officers would do everything within their means to ensure that criminals did not take control of any township.
Meanwhile, Matero Family of Ministries chairperson Bishop David Banda said there was a growing realisation amongst preachers and Christians that shaping of morals in the country lied on the shoulders of the Church.
"Though as the Church we have been misunderstood many times," he said.
He also appealed to the government and all stakeholders to find an amicable solution to the impasse on the constitution-making process.
Labels: CRIME, RONNIE SHIKAPWASHA
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