(HERALD ZW) President slams MDC-T
September 18, 2013
Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter—
PRESIDENT Mugabe yesterday said MDC-T dug its own grave after it came up with policies that created suffering among people by denying them agricultural inputs and did not improve their lives. He castigated MDC-T for failing to discern that their defeat was inevitable saying despite having educated people in their midst, they failed to come up with people-centred policies.
President Mugabe said this yesterday while addressing guests during a luncheon hosted by the ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing.
Zimbabwe, said President Mugabe, secured US$500 million from the International Monetary Fund but former Finance Minister Tendai Biti failed to revive industry so that the firms could ward off the effects of illegal sanctions imposed by the Americans and their Western allies.
“Surely they should have known even three years ago that with policies that deny people inputs in agriculture, you are denying even the sustenance of companies and there is greater unemployment growing all the time,” said President Mugabe.
“We thought it was going to be injected into industry and sustain them so that they are more resilient and resistant to sanctions.
“If you have policies that are negative against your people, well, you are building up resounding punishment. The people are punitive in their own way.”
He said Mr Biti could not even agree to fund the Grain Marketing Board to enable it to pay farmers for grain delivered.
President Mugabe said he sympathised with urban people who bore the brunt of facing several financial obligations like rentals, utility bills yet they were earning low salaries.
He said mobile service providers like Econet should also allow broad participation for other players as what Telecel did by roping in indigenous players.
Telecel, he said, had included other local players, like war veterans, women groups and Affirmative Action Group among others to have stake.
President Mugabe however said businessman, Mr James Makamba cunningly, asked some of these minority shareholders to sell their equity, a development that saw him increasing his equity in Telecel.
He chided losing Zanu-PF candidate for Chinhoyi in the July 31 election, Cde Phililip Chiyangwa for being pompous, saying that could be one reason that contributed to his loss at the hands of the MDC-T.
“Ngaagare pasi. Timuratidze kuti aiwa kana uchienda kuvanhu hauvhaire kuti ndine zvakati. Be down (to earth) Mari handiyo inoshanda all the time,” said President Mugabe.
“Handisati ndamuwona kuti ndimuseke kuti nhai Gushungo, in all Mashonaland West Province Gushungo ndivo vakati mbombombo. Zvino ndakanzwa VaChombo vachiti zuva iroro, vakarara nebhutsu,” the President said to laughter from guests.
Speaking at the same occasion, Minister Chombo said they would hold a capacity building workshop for newly elected councillors to enhance service delivery.
Labels: PARLIAMENT (ZIMBABWE), ROBERT MUGABE
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(HERALD ZW) President slams MDC-T
September 18, 2013
Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter—
PRESIDENT Mugabe yesterday said MDC-T dug its own grave after it came up with policies that created suffering among people by denying them agricultural inputs and did not improve their lives. He castigated MDC-T for failing to discern that their defeat was inevitable saying despite having educated people in their midst, they failed to come up with people-centred policies.
President Mugabe said this yesterday while addressing guests during a luncheon hosted by the ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing.
Zimbabwe, said President Mugabe, secured US$500 million from the International Monetary Fund but former Finance Minister Tendai Biti failed to revive industry so that the firms could ward off the effects of illegal sanctions imposed by the Americans and their Western allies.
“Surely they should have known even three years ago that with policies that deny people inputs in agriculture, you are denying even the sustenance of companies and there is greater unemployment growing all the time,” said President Mugabe.
“We thought it was going to be injected into industry and sustain them so that they are more resilient and resistant to sanctions.
“If you have policies that are negative against your people, well, you are building up resounding punishment. The people are punitive in their own way.”
He said Mr Biti could not even agree to fund the Grain Marketing Board to enable it to pay farmers for grain delivered.
President Mugabe said he sympathised with urban people who bore the brunt of facing several financial obligations like rentals, utility bills yet they were earning low salaries.
He said mobile service providers like Econet should also allow broad participation for other players as what Telecel did by roping in indigenous players.
Telecel, he said, had included other local players, like war veterans, women groups and Affirmative Action Group among others to have stake.
President Mugabe however said businessman, Mr James Makamba cunningly, asked some of these minority shareholders to sell their equity, a development that saw him increasing his equity in Telecel.
He chided losing Zanu-PF candidate for Chinhoyi in the July 31 election, Cde Phililip Chiyangwa for being pompous, saying that could be one reason that contributed to his loss at the hands of the MDC-T.
“Ngaagare pasi. Timuratidze kuti aiwa kana uchienda kuvanhu hauvhaire kuti ndine zvakati. Be down (to earth) Mari handiyo inoshanda all the time,” said President Mugabe.
“Handisati ndamuwona kuti ndimuseke kuti nhai Gushungo, in all Mashonaland West Province Gushungo ndivo vakati mbombombo. Zvino ndakanzwa VaChombo vachiti zuva iroro, vakarara nebhutsu,” the President said to laughter from guests.
Speaking at the same occasion, Minister Chombo said they would hold a capacity building workshop for newly elected councillors to enhance service delivery.
Labels: PARLIAMENT (ZIMBABWE), ROBERT MUGABE
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(NEWZIMBABWE) MDC-T MPs to boycott parliament opening
26/08/2013 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
THE MDC-T says its MPs will boycott next Tuesday’s official opening of the seventh parliament, and the party will direct its MPs to abstain from voting for Speaker and Senate President.
Morgan Tsvangirai’s party initially considered asking all its MPs not to take up their posts in parliament, claiming elections had been rigged by President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party.
But the plan was abandoned over fears of a rebellion, and now the party says its newly-elected lawmakers will not be in the chamber when President Mugabe officially opens parliament.
At a recent Zanu PF politburo meeting, Mugabe asked his party to nominate Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission chairman Jacob Mudenda as Speaker of the House of Assembly. The party also resolved to retain Edna Madzongwe as Senate President.
MDC-T spokesman Douglas Mwonzora said: “I don’t think the MDC-T will be able to provide a candidate for the Speaker position as technically we do not have the numbers to win against Zanu PF.
“We will also not support any Zanu PF candidate for the position and what it simply means is that we are not going to vote.
“Attending the official opening ceremony and listening to the speech is tantamount to legitimising the manner Mugabe was elected, yet we know the election was stolen.”
The seventh Parliament will have 270 MPs – including 70 from the MDC-T – and 80 Senators.
The Constitutional Court has dismissed the MDC-T's claims of election fraud, ruling that President Mugabe and his Zanu PF party won the July 31 election freely and fairly.
Labels: MDC, PARLIAMENT (ZIMBABWE)
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Zanu PF theatens to dissolve parliament
18/12/2011 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe could be forced to dissolve parliament in order to trigger new elections, Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa has said. Mugabe has demanded that new elections must be conducted early next year to replace the coalition government.
His Zanu PF party accuses Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC-T of stalling the constitutional reform process in order to delay the elections.
Over the weekend, Tendai Biti -- the MDC-T secretary general and Finance Minister -- insisted that his party would not participate in new elections without a new voters’ roll and security sector reforms.
“Our members are going to go for elections after the completion of the constitution-making process, the referendum, drafting of a new voters’ roll, media reforms, completion of legislative reform, the conclusion of outstanding issues at the dialogue table on security sector realignment and staffing of ZEC,” Biti told reporters after a meeting of the MDC-T’s national council.
“And also after the compliance by Zimbabwe on the SADC electoral guidelines on free and fair elections and putting in place of mechanisms to ensure that violence will not be a factor in the said election that is what the roadmap suggests.”
But Chinamasa said Mugabe could decree the dissolution of parliament to force the election.
“It is very possible for the President to call for elections and there is no provision that prevents him from doing that but it is our desire as Zanu-PF to see the constitution-making process concluded so that we hold elections under a new constitution,” Chinamasa told the Sunday News.
“We won’t entertain any stalling of the process, as a party we are committed and we urge the MDC parties to do the same.’’
Chinamasa claimed the MDC-T was trying to delay the elections by stalling the constitutional reform process but insisted that Zanu PF would not held to ransom by its rivals.
“The MDC is always insisting on reforms before the elections but it’s not clear who should reform what? We cannot be held at ransom by the MDC-T which is employing every dirty delaying tactic in the book to avoid elections,” he said.
“Zanu-PF is always ready for elections and it should not be made to wait longer to get back into power by parties that know that the next elections will be the end of them.’’
Political analysts say Mugabe's allies are pressing for early elections, which are only due in 2013 when Mugabe would be 89, fearing he may not cope with the pressure of campaigning, and also to take advantage of what they see as a weakening opposition.
A June 2008 U.S. diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks claimed Mugabe had prostate cancer that had spread to other organs. He was apparently urged by his physician to step down in 2008 but has stayed in the job.
"I think it's fair to say that Mugabe might be seeing some opportunities in taking on Tsvangirai sooner rather than later, with minimum democratic reforms, and increasing questions over Tsvangirai and the MDC's capacity," NCA chairman, Lovemore Madhuku said in a recent interview with Reuters.
Labels: PARLIAMENT (ZIMBABWE), PATRICK CHINAMASA, ROBERT MUGABE, ZANU-PF
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Tsvangirai, Tembo to 'clear the air'
Butt of jokes ... President Robert Mugabe and VP Mujuru join in the fun
25/11/2011 00:00:00
by Veneranda Langa I NewsDay
PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai walked into parliament to raucous scenes and cheering by Zanu PF MPs shouting “son-in-law” as his marriage saga continued to titillate the nation.
Tsvangirai, who skipped the Prime Minister’s Question Time on Wednesday, was in the House on Thursday for the 2012 National Budget presentation. As soon as he stepped into the House of Assembly to take his seat, Zanu PF MPs seized their moment. “Our son in law has come,” they shouted.
Tsvangirai at first appeared shocked and disoriented, but quickly composed himself and bowed facing the Zanu PF side as if in acknowledgement of the “respect”.
He took his seat amid the hubbub, conferred with Information Technology Minister Nelson Chamisa and was soon laughing his lungs out himself.
But if Tsvangirai’s entrance had been noisily greeted, the House went into meltdown when Goromonzi West legislator Biata Beatrice Nyamupinga walked in. Nyamupinga is sister to Locadia Karimatsenga Tembo, the woman Tsvangirai reportedly paid lobola for on Monday.
Table-thumping and waving their order papers, MPs - including some from the MDC - shouted almost in unison: “Welcome sister-in-law!” For a while, the House was a total din.
An unfazed Nyamupinga proceeded directly towards Tsvangirai and, in typical African culture, partially knelt before him and greeted the Prime Minister amid more cheers, laughter and rapturous applause from legislators in the House.
Tsvangirai’s aides have been batting away suggestions that he married Tembo at a private traditional ceremony in Mazowe on Monday, suggesting in fact that he had simply paid "damages" – an admission that the 39-year-old businesswoman is pregnant with his twins.
His spokesman Luke Tamborinyoka was quoted on SW Radio Africa on Thursday saying the Prime Minister would make a statement within days to clear up the “confusion”.
The statement cannot come any sooner for Tembo’s family, who accuse Tsvangirai of "dragging our name in the mud" by denying that he had paid lobola for their daughter, a wealthy commodity broker who made her fortune supplying goods to Makro and Jaggers wholesalers.
Tembo’s uncle Simon Karimatsenga said: "Everything was done according to tradition and I, as the head of the family, can testify that Tsvangirai indeed paid lobola for my niece.
"I never heard that Tsvangirai was paying the money and the cattle for other things except for lobola."
The Herald newspaper reported on Friday that a delegation from Tembo’s family had met the Prime Minister and aides on Thursday, at the end of which “Tsvangirai promised that his wife and himself will soon clear the air.”
Tsvangirai, whose wife, Susan, died in March 2009 in a car crash, reportedly has another child with a 23-year-old Bulawayo woman.
Loreta Nyathi threatened to sue Tsvangirai for maintenance before aides moved in and provided accommodation for her and her now nine-month-old baby son named Ethan.
Feminist and former Zimbabwe Union of Democrats (ZUD) leader Margaret Dongo has laid into Tsvangirai, demanding that he “stops dropping his pants”.
"For a Prime Minister who wants to be a President of this country tomorrow, he cannot just go around dropping his pants everywhere," Dongo blasted.
"As a country, we cannot have a leader who has loose morals like what Tsvangirai is exhibiting... As a feminist, I am very angry about the way he doesn't respect women.”
Labels: MDC, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, PARLIAMENT (ZIMBABWE)
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Zan-PF says MDC-T MPs ‘ignorant’
Posted by By Our reporter at 16 November, at 13 : 51 PM
Zanu-PF legislators have accused their fellow lawmakers from the MDC-T of bias and lacking facts when debating issues. The two camps clashed in the Senate when they were debating a motion to institute an investigation into the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation’s operations.
Zanu-PF Senator for Chimanimani, Monica Mutsvangwa and Uzumba Maramba-Pfungwe Senator, Oriah Kabayanjiri castigated their MDC-T counterparts of lacking facts when debating issues.
The Senators said this while responding to a motion by MDC-T Senator, Morgan Komichi aimed at putting in place a team to investigate ZBC operations, saying legislators should instead call for peace and the shutting of pirate radio stations which broadcast hate speech time to time.
However, MDC-T Senators defended the motion, arguing that ZBC was playing partisan broadcasting in favour of Zanu-PF, hence the need for parliament to investigate the programming.
The motion comes against a background where some private pirate radio stations continue to illegally infiltrate the country’s air waves propagating hate speech despite a provision for the banning of such stations.
It also comes at a time when government through the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe is making efforts to free the airwaves by engaging private players for licencing.
Labels: MDC, MEDIA, PARLIAMENT (ZIMBABWE), ZANU-PF
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Mujuru’s death dominates Parly debate
Wednesday, 12 October 2011 00:00
Herald Reporter
Retired General Solomon Mujuru's death dominated debate in the House of Assembly with MDC-T legislators calling for the hiring of private investigators to ascertain circumstances surrounding the death.
However,
Zanu-PF MPs said it was important for legislators to respect Gen Mujuru by debating the motion sincerely without cheap politicking. Mwenezi East MP Cde Kudakwashe Bhasikiti (Zanu-PF) moved the motion. MDC-T legislators said
they had lost faith in the State security agencies conducting the investigations. They accused Zanu-PF of having a hand in General Mujuru's death.
"As far as we are concerned Gen Mujuru was a trained soldier who could not die from a candle unless if you tell us that the candle had been bewitched," Masvingo Central legislator (MDC-T) Mr Jeffryson Chitando said.
"We should have looked for foreign investigators maybe from China, Russia or any other country. We want independent investigators."
Mr Tachiona Mharadza of Masvingo West (MDC-T) said:
"The enquiry into the circumstances surrounding Cde Mujuru's death won't work because we have so many people who were murdered but up to now we don't know the outcome from the enquiries."
He said: "Gen Mujuru was a unifier who did not choose whether one was from this or that party. We want a private investigator who will be able to tell us what happened because we had people tampering with the evidence at the scene before investigations had been conducted."
Buhera North legislator Cde William Mutomba (Zanu-PF), however, called for unity of purpose among parliamentarians. He said there was need for MPs to learn from Gen Mujuru who treated people with dignity.
"It doesn't matter whether one is from Zanu-PF or MDC, all we should do is to respect Cde Mujuru by debating the motion in a proper manner."
He urged parliamentarians to emulate Gen Mujuru and create employment for people in their constituencies. Cde Mutomba said he was humbled by the presence of all political parties at the burial of General Mujuru. He said that unity of purpose should be expressed even in Parliament.
Zvishavane MP, Cde Obert Matshalaga added: "Cde Mujuru was a selfless cadre who spent most of his youth dedicating his life to liberate this country. We should respect him by debating this motion properly."
Labels: JOICE MUJURU, PARLIAMENT (ZIMBABWE)
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Parly quizzes State over Zisco ore sale
Friday, 15 July 2011 02:00
Parliament on Wednesday questioned the alleged sale of 80 percent of stockpiled Zisco iron ore to Essar Africa Holdings, as part of the takeover deal.
The iron ore stockpiles are believed to weigh more than 20 million tonnes.
In February, the Government sold its controlling stake in Zisco to the Indian conglomerate.
Under the takeover deal, Essar pledged to pay the whopping US$750 million required to recapitalise Zisco. The conglomerate also undertook to settle Zisco's huge debt overhang, estimated at US$240 million.
Industry and Commerce Deputy Minister Mike Bimha could neither confirm nor deny that the Government had parcelled out substantial iron ore reserves to the Indian steelmaker.
"The intricacies on whether Government sold reserves to Essar are areas subject to discussion with various ministries which include the Ministry of Mines," he said.
"The whole sense of Government selling shares to Essar was on the premise that Essar wanted to take over Zisco's US$240 million debt. Our principals saw no reason to stop the deal," he said.
Kwekwe Central Member of the House of Assembly Mr Blessing Chebundo had sought clarification on the issue.
Essar has said it plans to construct a slurry pipeline from Zimbabwe to the Mozambican port of Beira, to facilitate the smooth exportation of ore from Zisco.
Mozambique has already approved Essar's plans to build the pipeline. Essar would be able to export 20 million tonnes of iron ore annually.
Similarly, the Indian firm would export the same amount of coal from Zimbabwe to Mozambique every year.
The company has vibrant steel works in Canada, the USA, India and Indonesia. It plans to ramp up steel production at Zisco to 2,5 million tonnes over the next three years.
Essar has not started work at the Zisco plant as it is asking Government for guarantees of consistent power and water supplies, in addition to tax concessions.
Before its collapse in 2000, Zisco was the largest integrated steel- works in Africa, with capacity to produce one million tonnes every year.
The revival of Zisco is expected to create jobs and boost Zimbabwe's export earnings.
- New Ziana.
Labels: ESSAR AFRICA HOLDINGS, IRON, PARLIAMENT (ZIMBABWE), ZISCO
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Parliament ready to decentralise sittings
Herald Reporter
PARLIAMENT is ready to convene sittings in provincial centres across Zimbabwe after securing the necessary logistical support. The idea of having parliamentary debates outside of Harare is part of Government’s strategies to bring the legislature closer to the people.
House of Assembly Speaker Mr Lovemore Moyo yesterday said: "We want to take some parliamentary debates to the provinces. Everything is now in place and only the itinerary remains. We want to demystify Parliament.
"People should be able to identify themselves with the institution. All these plans are part of parliamentary reforms that started way back in 1996."
A senior parliamentary official said they would have to write to the Presidency as a procedural requirement before rolling out the programme. Parliament has completed digitalisation as part of its efforts to modernise the institution.
The commissioning of the new equipment is likely to take place in three weeks’ time.
Labels: LOVEMORE MOYO, PARLIAMENT (ZIMBABWE)
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