Where whither Zimbabwe with Professionals like these

Exposed pocket of resistence leader George Charamba; Secretary for Media Information and Publicity and Presidential spokesperson

Zimbabwe Image about me; by George Charamba aka Nathaniel Manheru


“I support ZANU PF and the leadership of CDE Robert Mugabe.”

“I support the taking back of our land from the settler invader. I support the struggle of any oppressed, discriminated, colonized, subjugated people against their colonisers, invaders, discriminators, and oppressors.”


“No race or people-type is better than the other, and along that same line no race or people-type deserve to be colonised, oppressed, discriminated, or subjugated.”

“I have no tolerance for Tsvangirai, who i am convinced is a low IQ, semi-literate, unkempt thug, with a gross inferiority complex when dealing with whites and an exaggerated slave mentality that makes him dance to tunes played in Number 10 Downing Street and the White House.”

“A stupid uncle tom who cant tell his right from his left but has been elevated by his european masters for being willing to play 'horse and rider' games in which Zimbabwe is the horse.”
Need we say more about the professionalism that underpins some of the people Premier Morgan Tsvangirai has evaluated to be suitable for positions of Permanent Secretaries in the coalition government?

No wonder there are so many teething problems facing the government today.

There are some square pegs in cornerstone holes upon which the government must rely to function smoothly.

MKD Leader could do without party spokesman like Denford Magora in his team

Self annointed MKD leader Dr Simba Makoni could well do without loose canons like party spokesman Denfrod Magora stirring murky waters from his checkered Zanu PF links through linking him to unfounded immoral behaviour by his in-laws

If unofficial coalition opposition Mavambo Kusile Dawn (MKD) spokesman Denford Magora has any credibility or for that matter the party he represents has any political credibility he must concede that for once he got it wrong about outstanding GPA issues bedevilling the union of convenience between Zanu PF and the MDC’s in government.

On 15 May2009 under the leader Outstanding Issues To Remain Outstanding” the MKD through its spokesman concluded that:

“Instead of hunting down people like myself who are pointing out the futility of this MDC-PF regime, MDC-T supporters would be well advised to tell their PM and their leadership to forget about the struggle for posts and instead concentrate on delivering services for the people, on formulating policies that actually work and are different to the failed ZANU PF policies.

The fight that they have set up for themselves is untenable and the more they issue deadlines and play up "outstanding issues", the more egg they wake up with on their faces every morning.

But, of course, the MDC-T are ordained by God, and Tsvangirai is a Black Jesus. They know it all. They listen to nobody.”

And judging by developments thereafter, maybe the MDC-T zealots are justified in banking their trust in Tsvangirai’s leadership than any other.

The old adage that “you can’t put a good man down,” seems to echo whenever it has been attempted to obliterate Tsvangirai’s name from the political leadership in Zimbabwe by whosoever and for whatsoever reason.
And the attempts are numerous from many who have learnt the hard way that the MDC-T leader is not in his position by accident but by deliberate political acumen on his part and his ability to rise up to occasions when the chips are down for his party.
The MKD spokesman appears to be the latest victim of the MDC-T leader’s political intuition for him to be forced to disclose- “Tsvangirai Appoints "Girlfriend" As Ambassador” on his blog that also doubles as the MKD official Website barely two months after declaring such a proposition to be, “untenable and that the more they (Tsvangirai and his MDC Party) issue deadlines and play up "outstanding issues", the more egg they wake up with on their faces every morning.”

The temptation to believe that the MKD and its spokesman have been publicly choked by an unproven political superiority complex over Tsvangirai and his MDC party is very high here and I must admit very plausible too.

Denford Magora made it clear that “Mugabe responded to Biti's ‘ultimatum’ by saying, ‘No one threatens me,’ and was ‘now determined that no resolution of the outstanding issues is reached before the threatened May 17 MDC-T National Council meeting” which had come to pass as he had predicted.
Magora explained that the outstanding issues he had predicted would remain outstanding regardless of whatever threats the MDC-T party made publicly or silently were;
“Still, the situation in Zimbabwe today is that outstanding issues have not been resolved. Governor Fagan, Gideon Gono, and Prosecutor Shylock Tomana, remain at their posts.

Nelson Chamisa remains Minister of Nothing-in-Particular (at least he has a cosseted Mercedes Benz ML into which he can retreat and sulk).

Permanent Secretaries (null and void) remain very much valid.

Ambassadors, First Secretaries, Provincial Governors and all the other issues that are sticking in the MDC-T's throat remain firmly lodged there tonight.”

This he declared had proven how poor the MDC-T was at agenda setting and by extension governing our country.

But as he makes the startling revelation that the MDC-T leader and Prime Minister has appointed his girlfriend called as an Ambassador hoping to disguise the humble pie he woken up covering all over his face and certainly not the Premier’s, he is forced to disclose some well guarded secrets between his party leader and the Premier.

The first point to note is that Magora has conceded that the MDC-T ultimatum on outstanding issues has been taken seriously in so far as the appointment of Ambassadors is concern notwithstanding the hostile spin that the Premier is abusing his powers by appointing his girlfriends to fill one of the posts.

No shred of evidence is provided for this libellous accusation of the Premier. The intention is to provoke the Premier into reacting to the libel with a lawsuit or an arrest of the parrot of intentional falsehoods so that he can now justify why the MDC is bereft of ideas to turnaround the economy and reliant on Zanu PF strategies to silence opponents.

But Magora should know that he will get no such reaction from the Premier and has an obligation to accuse him of anything as long as he does so factually and not with the falsehoods he has printed on his blog.

Next it is important to hear that the MKD leader has been holding secret discussions with this alleged Premier’s girlfriend now destined to become our country’s Ambassador and Dr Simba Makoni lost a golden opportunity to become our Premier through this Premier’s girlfriend having been offered the post on condition he dropped his Presidential aspirations.

Finally these disclosures are timely made on the eve that the premier is due to meet the SADC chairman over outstanding issues nagging the coalition government. One wonders why if not to embarrass the Premier that he is pushing for positions in the coalition government to parcel out to his relatives and friends Zanu PF style.

Whatever the aspersions Magora intends to cast on the PM’s morality, it does not change the admission that the Premier now has powers to determine who will be the country’s Ambassador to which country as a principal in this coalition government a position MKD and Magora has laboured to deny in all his previous submissions.

No wonder why many more people would rather be associated with the MDC-T than the MKD. The party appears better focussed on real issues bothering the people that the childish trivia coming from MKD and other political formations that sponsor it.

The only outstanding issue is how the Premier always manages to turn tables against his detractors with such ease. Not the GPA issues MKD would like us to believe will remain outstanding until it assumes power which is unlikely during the generation of any of us within the age of majority at present.

Defence Minister sowing seeds of anarchy.

Zimbabwe Service chiefs may just be getting the wrong signal from the Defence Minister bolstering their insubordinate conduct which may return to haunt the Minister sooner rather than later

Defence Minister Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa ranks as one the best trained military cadres from the Liberation Forces.

He trained at Mbeya ZIPRA camp in Zambia, Heliopolis military training school in Egypt, the Frelimo Camp at Bagamoyo Tanzania, Beijing School of ideology, Nanking Infantry training school and another school of military engineering in China.

One wonders if he understood anything he was taught about military ethos on duty, integrity, discipline and honour if his response to the question on whether or not the military commanders still hold to their expressed declaration on saluting civilian leadership without Liberation credentials is anything to go by.


First Mnangagwa should be the first to acknowledge that the Military salute is more a symbol of respectful greeting of commissioned officers by their non commissioned subordinates in the military ranks which is also extended to political leadership as the circumstances demand.

Second, with his military training background Mnangagwa must know that the words used by leaders have a significant bearing on behaviours that will be exhibited by their subordinates.

Third Mnangagwa is reasonably expected to know that the Zimbabwean military is drawn from Zimbabwean societies and cannot be seriously expected to act out of the confines societal norms and values and the body of law that applies to all other civilians by the mere act of being members of the security forces.

Fourth in his position as a Minister, Mnangagwa should be familiar with the behaviour concept that in organized enterprise, subordinates tend to exhibit behaviour that they perceive or know to be tolerated by their command superiors.

This knowledge should have guided the Minister in his answer to a very pertinent question that sought to direct him to the sources of the past anarchy that has forced the coalition government to commit the nation to an expensive and structured national reconciliation and healing programme of action that would otherwise not be necessary if sources of impunity are proactively managed with tact.

In the military like in any other structured institution words are used to convey orders and commands and must not just be uttered recklessly but also followed up with decisive action on the part of the leaders to compel subordinates to behave as ordered.

Subordinates will continue to exhibit behaviours that may be out of sync with sociological circumstances unless their leaders take the bold steps to point out the vices associated with the behaviours.

That is how all managers set performance boundaries for subordinates and moderate behaviours.

For the defence Minister to stand in the August house that Parliament is or at least must be and pronounce that his professional subordinates have no obligation to salute anyone outside their command structure was most irresponsible and dishonourable of the Minister.

By further falsifying the explanation of why it was not insubordinate conduct for military chiefs to refuse to salute any other civilian leader than the President on account they are only constitutionally bound to pay such homage by the pledge of loyalty to him they swear to on being appointed, the Minister deliberately sowed seeds of anarchy and dissent within the military that will one day return to haunt civilian leadership of the country out of office.

As the president is the Head of State, the government manages the affairs of the State for and on his behalf as the custodian of the seal of the country. Any homage and pledge of loyalty that is undertaken to the President by the Military command on being commissioned as officers is homage and loyalty to the State and the powers bestowed in the Presidency to form the government and allow it to manage the country’s affairs.

The oaths and or affirmations that Commissioned officers make before the President and or his appointed representative are more than just homage to the President but to that office as the highest administrative office of the country that embodies the nation.

The salute and pledge of loyalty thus goes beyond the incumbent President and is a show of respect of the national head and his government as well as the people of Zimbabwe who democratically chose to be led by the President.

The mischief of the defence Minister in attempting to remove this morality behind the military salute and centralising it in the Presidency is a dangerous and sinister attempt to set the military leadership on a collision path with government which is only understandable in circumstances where the President is self imposed and does not act on behalf of the nation.

For if he acts on behalf of the nation he would be the first one to be offended that his chief advisors in government are of no consequence to the military leaders and unworthy of being greeted with the same respect he is by the forces.

Tracing the origins of the military salute will show that it is nothing more than a symbol of greeting, of mutual respect, trust and confidence initiated by the junior in rank, with no loss of dignity on either side.

It is simply a sign of loyalty and respect to the Service of which a member forms part and the general tone and spirit of the Service is indicated by the manner in which airmen/airwomen offer the salute and officers return it.

To thus advocate that the military commanders have no obligation to salute the premier or any other Senior government officer in office at the pleasure of the Commander in Chief of the same military is a cynical attempt to cause conflict between the service chiefs and the government they are established to service.

Maybe the Defence Minister may want to revisit this matter and see how his explanation ties in with ethical customs that underpin the way we show respect to each other in our various customs when we greet each other if the Military commanders are encouraged to respect only the Head of State and no other.

The greeting can never be made a mandatory constitutional obligation alright but in military institutions where it forms the integral component of the means with which to show respect for seniors it becomes dangerous if the combatants are taught to believe that their respect for civilian leaders starts and ends with the President.

Mahlangu arrest exemplifies judicial persecution taking place in Zimbabwe

Paying the political price for humiliating Zanu PF in the March elections Deputy Minister Thamsanga Mahlangu is dlanguishing in detention over alegations of stealing a mobile phone valued at less than US$35.00 simply because it belongs to Zanu PF's Comander of Farm invasions Joseph Chinotimba

Self confessed Zanu PF Attorney General Johannes Tomana must be relishing every moment in his office if the flexing of muscle he has shown and continues to show the MDC-T is anything to go by.

Whatever he is getting as reward for his hostility towards anything MDC-T must be monumental otherwise he would by now have put brakes on the disingenuous onslaught against MDC-T members.

After all he is the first one to claim right to freedom of association and political affiliation to his beloved Zanu PF party that his onslaught against MDC-T members seems to suggest does not extent to association and affiliation with any other party than Zanu PF for all Zimbabweans who cherish their liberty from arbitrary incarceration
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In 2004 my then trendy Nokia 3310 was stolen by a Worker at the casino in the Harare show grounds.

I realised the deprivation immediately and sent word to management and casino security and some friends who used their phones to try and track the phone as there was no chance it had been taken out by the thief in the short space of time that had elapsed between my last use of the phone and its disappearance.

Each time we phoned the phone rang once and was cut off indicating it was within the premises of the casino and the thief was not conversant with how it was turned on and off otherwise he/she would have long switched the device off to avoid detection.

Be that as it may I drove home feeling really down and deprived from the loss of my handy gadget.

Like Chinotimba this phone was my office and deprivation caused me a lot of business hardships and losses as a sole proprietor who was still setting up my venture and trying hard to impress the few customers who had entrusted me with their business. The following morning I was the first guest at the nearby Police Station to report my lost phone equipped with the Pay as you go certificate and all the documentation I had for the phone and line.

The helpful officer assigned the case advised me to go to my network operator and report the theft and tipped me that since the phone was on a pay as you go platform

I should specifically request that the line be left operational even though it was in my control.

I was really hurt because I had substantially topped up the airtime for the phone and knew that if the line was left open the thief would use-up the credit somehow or would just dispose of the sim card and the credit.

After some counselling and reassurances from the officer that it was in my best interest to lose the credit in order to recover the trendy and expensive handset that the 3310 was then, I decided to cooperate.

After signing an indemnity form against the operator the line was left operational and somehow the thief discovered he was sitting on thousands worth of credit in the phone he could use to phone whoever he wanted.

Numerous calls were made from the stolen phone to a landline somewhere in Glen Norah by the unsuspecting thief unaware that calls on that line were under surveillance.

After two weeks the Investigating Officer requested me to go and request for a printout of the account related to the line and suing the fixed line numbers we managed to establish their owners and locations.

I phoned each and every mobile number that had been contacted by the thief in the two weeks he had the liberty of using my phone without my express or implied consent and number pretending that I had missed calls from them on the stolen number that I was returning and asking for their names and whereabouts as well as the purpose they had called me.

Some were hostile while others were cooperative. A breakthrough was made when one of the numbers was answered by a teenager who disclosed that the number I had given him was similar to the one his uncle was using to phone the lady in Glen Norah a few moments before.

I rushed to the police station with the breaking news but the investigating officer told me to chill. He had no transport to take us to Glen Norah neither did he believe the lead was the breakthrough we needed because the calls were concentrated in the Glen Norah area.

I offered to drive him but he said he was not insured should anything untoward happen while in my car.

I was so disappointed I left the Police station in a huff with mutterings to the effect that the officer had somehow been bribed out of the investigation and I was not wrong.

The following day I returned to see the Officer Commanding and requested that i be assigned a different Investigating Officer to accompany me to the lead’s home to track down the thief.

Fortunately the OC knew me well from my association with the neighbourhood watch which had helped them crack several cases of housebreaking and theft in the area and he dutifully obliged.

We drove in my car to Glen Norah and the youngster gave us the address his uncle had phoned and his usual place of residence.

We visited the place and a few questions emerged the name of the thief and his girlfriend as well as the fact that they had just left the place for a fling at the aunt’s residence nearby.

We followed the lead and minutes later we were face to face with the thief’s hostile aunt. It was difficult to break her down as she made every possible attempt to conceal the whereabouts of her thieving son.

My escorting officer then threw all caution to the wind and read the thief’s aunt her rigts and produced his police identity card and asked her to join us in the drive to the police station.

She obliged and it was while on the way that she realised the gravity of the matter and decided to spill the beans but by then the thief had made good his escape.

We however established he had a rendezvous with a potential buyer for the phone at the casino that evening and we decided to set a trap.

I went to the Casino together with the officer and as he arrived- he was unmistakeable from the description we had obtained from his aunt and the help of other casino workers we had interviewed in advance so I approached him as the potential buyer’s emissary.

He was suspicious but I was too convincing and had the cash right there and then. Bingo he produced the phone and as he counted the money my Police escort came on the scene and announced we were both under arrest for dealing in stolen mobile phones.

I faked a good escape and he did likewise in the other direction but was pursued by the officer and apprehended .I returned to the scene and reclaimed my money back from the handcuffed thief and the story was narrated to him that i was infact the owner of the phone he was trying to sell.

At the Police station the thief admitted theft and was fined cautioned and released without even being taken to court. He was not even ordered to reimburse me the credit he had used up nor was i allowed to claim the restitution for deprivation of my lovely Phone.

Now Deputy Minister Thamsanga Mhlangu has been in custody for the entire week over allegations of stealing Joseph Chinotimba’s not so trendy Nokia 2610 and there are claims he has been tracked down through the similar system I used to recover my stolen Nokia 3310 and line way back in 2004.

There are many similarities between the allegations levelled against the deputy Minister and those I personally witnessed when my phone was stolen.

The immediate discovery of deprivation, the appeal for return of the phone, the tracking and the arrest through girlfriends are all similar as well as the admission of possession except that the deputy Minister denies theft and alleges he got the phone from someone else and had no idea who the owner was and did not intent to deprive the owner as he has already handed the phone to Minister Kasukuwere.

The irony of the matter is on how the two cases are now being treated at judicial resolution level.

Whereas the thief who stole my phone never stepped a foot in the police cells and was given the option to pay a police fine despite admitting theft and his intention to permanently deprive me of my phone, deputy minister Mhlangu has been locked up for the entire week and when eventually he was granted bail on his appearance in court the AG has invoked the notorious section 121 of the Criminal evidence and procedures act to deny him freedom by at least another 7 working days while an appeal against the granting of bail is being crafted.

There is no doubt in my mind the AG’s appeal will be filed just before the close of business on Wednesday 5 July 2009 to ensure the deputy minister is detained for the longest possible period permitted by the law.

Meanwhile Masvingo Zanu PF political commissar facing serious allegations of swindling thousands of dollars of Chiredzi sugar cane farmers payments was released from police cells within 48 hours of incarceration and without the AG opposing his release through section 121 of the CEPA.

At least 14 of the MDC-T’s 150legislators are burdened with one or another legal
accusation demanding court appearance or which has resulted in some conviction and sentence by the lower courts.

Of the 14 one has been exonerated of all charges .

Zanu PF only has 4 of its 145 Legislators and a bevy of corrupt bureaucrats under probe. These are the shocking realities of judicial practice in our country.
Why legislators from one single political party are so criminally inclined baffles the mind when the same party has thousands of maimed, abused and or illegally deprived complainants whose abusers are known but never questioned to establish veracity of the party’s claims of victimisation.

And why would one cell phone thief be let off with a paltry Police fine and another be detained , sent to court and have to fight an appeal to be admitted to bail if other than that the law enforcers have a hidden agenda against the later thief.

This is not to say that high ranking thieves must not be prosecuted but merely to seek deeper insight into whether the arrest of MDC-T Mps and their incarceration at the behest of an AG who openly declares allegiance to a competing political party is not politically motivated as opposed to being judicially premised.

Tomana and his team of prosecutors are persecuting Zanu PF opponents and or political competitors and the offences for which so much scarce financial resources are being waste do not add value to jurisprudence in the country neither do they assist in healing the bleeding nation.

They must be stopped forthwith or at the very least they must be dealt with discretionary by the arresting details.