COMMENT - More corruption and graft from the stooge party, the MDC.
MDC-T's Mhashu admits incest, says 'lonely'
27/10/2012 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
MDC-T legislator and former National Housing Minister, Fidelis Mhashu, has admitted engaging in incest with two of his nieces and blamed the incidents on "loneliness" after his wife relocated to the United Kingdom in 2003.
Mhashu, 70, who fathered four children with the sisters, one of whom died in 2007, told The Sunday Mail: “I was lonely when my wife and children left the country for the UK. I then requested for assistance from my nieces at family level, but, unfortunately we ended up falling in love. It is not true that I raped them.”
The Chitungwiza North MP has since been fined 15 heard of cattle by Chief Chivero of Mhondoro for the offences but said he would appeal the ruling.
“We attended the court hearing on the 14th of this month and after the ruling I indicated that I wanted to appeal because where on earth can I pay such ridiculous amounts,” he said.
The surviving sister has however accused Mhashu of neglecting her and their two children.
She said: “I have two surviving children with this man. The other one is only seven weeks old and, unfortunately, I cannot breastfeed the child.
“We have no food and I am now relying on hand-outs from neighbours for survival.”
Mhashu however, denied the allegations and dismissed the woman as a “gold digger" keen on destroying his political career.
“These people are gold diggers what they want is money. The late sister was a widow with four children when we started cohabiting. Our union produced one child who died seven days after the mother,” he said.
“I then began living with the younger sister and we were blessed with three children. Unfortunately we lost one. (The family wants me to pay lobola but) if I pay lobola I will be committing a crime because I am legally married.
“What we were doing was just cohabiting. I still love her; it’s only that she is being used by my enemies to destroy my career.”
The women’s brother said the relationships started after Mhashu sought refuge with their family back in 2004 when he fled political violence in Chitungwiza.
“He came with nothing, but, as an uncle, we had to accommodate him. Within a few months we discovered that he was having an incestuous relationship with my older sister,” the brother said.
“We tried to talk to both of them, but all our advice fell on deaf ears. He would always say ‘let’s deal with this privately because if the public gets to know it, that will be the end of my political career’.
“He initially promised to marry my late sister so as to avoid public embarrassment, but later changed his mind.”
Labels: COURTS, FIDELIS MHASHU, MDC CORRUPTION
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Coltart in tender scandal
Wednesday, 21 March 2012 00:00
Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter
PARLIAMENT yesterday took Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart to task for awarding a textbooks supply tender to an international firm leaving out Zimbabwean companies. Legislators said the decision will subject all primary school pupils to one school of thought for the next five years, the lifespan of the textbooks.
The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Education and Sports, chaired by Gokwe MP, Cde Dorothy Mangami (Zanu-PF), said there were several issues that raised eyebrows in the manner in which the minister handled the tender. The textbooks were being funded by the Unicef under the Education Transition Fund.
Chitungwiza North MP Mr Fidelis Mhashu (MDC-T) said the tender bordered on “corruption as Longman Zimbabwe was merely used as a front for Longman International” (United Kingdom) ahead of local firms like Zimbabwe Publishing House, Mambo Press and College Press among others.
The committee said this while presenting a report in the House of Assembly. In its report, the committee noted that several stakeholders, including ministry officials dropped out of the meetings as they felt the process was not being handled transparently.
This saw Minister Coltart chairing the meetings himself.
It was noted that various agreed procedures were violated and these include, achieving least cost, promotion of local industry, equitable distribution of work between publishers and printers and ensure that there was no monopoly.
An advert for the tender was flighted just before Christmas in 2009 inviting printers to submit bids, a situation that saw other stakeholders like publishers not applying since they thought it was for printers.
Upon inquiry, publishers were asked to apply and were given less than 13 days.
“Tenders were publicly opened on January 18 2010 and only the content of the first two tenders were announced. The opening requirement to read out all tenders was bypassed. The details of the tender, which should have been read out at tender opening on 18 January were released after two months,” said Cde Mangami while presenting the report.
The tender was eventually awarded to a publisher and not a printer without explanation.
If ranking of unit price per page was applied, Longman would have won the right to supply only English and Shona textbooks while price per page would have seen Longman being awarded English, half of Maths and Shona while ZPH would have been awarded half of Maths, Science and Ndebele.
“Final tender adjudication results were never released as one would expect in accordance with the Statutory Instrument No 171 of 2002 which requires unsuccessful tenders to be advised of the name of the successful tenderer and the amount of his tender by the Board.
“Tender results were communicated to Longman Zimbabwe only through a contract signing ceremony without announcing results to tenders in writing,” said Cde Mangami.
“The failure by the minister to announce the winner of the tender was a clear sign that the tender procedure was not well followed and observed,” said Cde Mangami.
Contributing to the debate, Mr Mhashu said one challenge with providing school pupils with one school of thought is that it leads to conditioning and indoctrination.
“This will kill innovation and creativity, it retards learning. There was blatant, deliberate violation of the tender process. In this case Longman Zimbabwe was a front for Longman International UK and they have their printing firm in South Africa where they would bring the material duty free, that is corruption,” said Mr Mhashu.
He said awarding Longman the tender violated the indigenous laws of the country since the local publishing arm was merely a front of its parent firm in London.
As a result of this, said Mr Mhashu, primary school pupils will be subjected to routing and monotonous learning material as opposed to variety material.
Labels: BOOKS, DAVID COLTART, FIDELIS MHASHU, MDC CORRUPTION
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Axed MDC minister to join Mavambo Party
Posted: Friday, July 9, 2010 4:42 am
RECENTLY axed Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) minister Fidelis Mhashu is not taking his sacking lightly and is mulling joining the Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn party led by former finance minister Dr Simba Makoni.
Mr Mhashu was fired from cabinet by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is a move that is meant to cull all his opponents in the embattled former opposition party. He was the Minister of National Housing and Social Amenities.
Sources say Mr Mhashu -- who is now a mere executive member for the Chitungwiza constituency -- has held at least two meetings with Dr Makoni.
Other MDC-T House of Assembly Members for Chitungwiza South and St Mary’s, Mr Misheck Shoko and Marvellous Khumalo respectively, are also said to have met Dr Makoni at Imire Game Park near Marondera.
They are said to have held "extensive consultations" aimed at joining the party. The three key MDC-T members will join Dr Makoni's party if they are not elected in this weekend's provincial elections.
MDC-T is scheduled to hold elections for a new executive in Chitungwiza this weekend.
Dr Makoni denied that such meetings ever took place.
Ten other members of the Chitungwiza provincial executive who were suspended earlier this year by the prime minister are also said to be considering their options before this weekend's elections which might see them booted out for good.
Meanwhile, a group of MDC-T supporters who want Mr Tsvangirai retained as party leader after his mandatory two terms expire next year, are alleged to have started a vilification campaign against Mr Mhashu.
Mr Mhashu is a close ally of MDC-T Secretary General and Finance Minister Tendai Biti, who is widely tipped as likely to take over from Mr Tsvangirai as party leader.
The MDC-T party is expected to hold its Congress next year and party leader Mr Tsvangirai is expected to step down after his two terms.
MDC-T said the vilification campaign had been sanctioned by senior MDC-T leaders who wanted to "put the final nail on Mhashu’s coffin and ensure he becomes totally irrelevant".
The flyers bore the MDC-T logo and accused Mr Mhashu of gross corruption and neglecting his constituency since he was elected into office as House of Assembly Member for Chitungwiza North 10 years ago.
They also carried allegations of a criminal nature, claiming the ex-minister was an incestuous rapist.
Labels: FIDELIS MHASHU, MAVAMBO KUSILE DAWN, MDC, SIMBA MAKONI
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COMMENT - The corporate lobby (Tsvangirai) and the white farmers lobby (Biti/Cross/Bennett) are at odds within the MDC? Who would have thought it? Of course the trade union/people's lobby was sidelined almost as soon as the MDC was founded.
MDC-T leadership divided over inclusive Govt
Philip Murombedzi
Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:09:00 +0000
THE top leadership of the Movement for Democratic Change party led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is divided over whether to remain in the inclusive Government with President Mugabe and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, the Zimbabwe Guardian has learnt.
It has emerged that there are now
two camps within that party; one led by
PM Tsvangirai and another led by
Finance Minister Tendai Biti.
PM Tsvangirai’s camp, which includes Elton Mangoma and Fidelis Mhashu the ministers of economic planning and investment promotion, and national housing and social amenities respectively, is at loggerheads with the Biti camp which includes the likes of ICT Minister Nelson Chamisa, treasurer and financier Roy Bennett and policy co-ordinator Eddie Cross.
The Tsvangirai camp is under pressure to withdraw from the inclusive Government over what the Biti camp calls “outstanding issues” in the implementation of the Global Political Agreement of Sept 15 2008 which paved the way for the formation of the inclusive Government.
Chamisa said his party last week wrote to the regional Sadc group urging the body to promptly deal with the outstanding matters; although PM Tsvangirai indicated in July that there was no longer any need for Sadc to get involved.
"We have advised SADC to expeditiously deal with the outstanding issues of the GPA," said Chamisa. "It was an appeal to Sadc."
Biti is said to have pressured PM Tsvangirai to engage Sadc at the last summit in the Democratic Republic of Congo to resolve the "outstanding issues". That strategy failed to work.
It is understood that Biti wants to present Bennett as an “outstanding issue” as he is the chief fundraiser for the party and has extensive donor contacts. Biti and Chamisa are reportedly frustrated by their inability to take effective power from President Mugabe.
Chamisa who doubles as ICT Minister and MDC-T spokesperson once remarked, “We are sharing power to grab it’. The parallel government was their way of trying to grab power. Chamisa and Biti are reportedly frustrated by the fact that President Mugabe still wields a lot of executive power as Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces.
The other outstanding issues cited by Biti’s camp include, among others, the appointment of Attorney General Johannes Tomana and Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono which they are saying should be reversed; although the GPA is silent on these appointments.
PM Tsvangirai’s camp, however, says the inclusive Government is functional and working. The prime minister told western nations that he had a working relationship with President Mugabe.
PM Tsvangirai is said to have been pushed by Biti's camp to conduct a "Take the GPA to the People" move. Chamisa said the party had already lined rallies across the country to consult its stakeholders on the wisdom of remaining in the inclusive Government.
Although Chamisa pledged that the party would seriously consider the outcome of the people's views in the consultations as they were the real owners of the agreement, analysts say this strategy is a political campaign strategy gearing. up for the next election, which President Mugabe said will be conducted as early as 2010.
Minister Fidelis Mhashu, recently said there was unity of purpose in the inclusive Government.
"The people should be together for the good of the nation. Let us love, respect, unite and work together for the development of our country," he said.
Speaking at a prize-giving ceremony at Rukuma Primary School in Mhondoro last week, Minister Mhashu urged teachers to be patient while Government sorted out the issue of salaries.
"Please bear with Government as we believe things will improve and salaries for the civil servants will be increased as the economy shapes up," he said.
Recently, MDC treasurer general and financier Roy Bennett told a radio station that the inclusive Government was not working and that the MDC-T had no power in government.
His statement is in direct contrast to Minister Mhashu’s recent statement and PM Tsvangirai who have indicated that the MDC-T party will not pull out of the inclusive Government.
A UK based MDC-T official who spoke to this reporter on condition of anonymity said the party had lost direction and divisions in the high ranks threatened another split in the party.
He added that the Diaspora had been completely left out of discussions about the future of the party.
“We have waited for the party to communicate with us regarding the future but we never heard anything.
“We are not even sure what is going on in Harare. It seems like the MDC-T party has been reduced to a pressure group rather than a party that is looking to get into power at some point,” said the official.
Labels: FIDELIS MHASHU, MDC, NATIONAL UNITY GOVERNMENT
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