Dr. Simba Makoni a confused political nonentity

Former Zanu PF Politburo member and Finance Minister now masquerading as Zimbabwe opposition MKD leader Dr Simba Makoni presented several budgets like this one that impoverished Zimbabweans but now wants to endear himself with the same people he pauperised during his heydays in politics.

How else are we supposed to describe Dr Simba Makoni’s diatribe against the MDC-T than to point out that it is a feeble attempt by a confused political nonentity aimed at gaining lost attention.

After spending 28 years in a romance with Zanu PF during which he has been in the news limelight as a Minister and Member of the party’s Politburo Dr Makoni should be the last person to chide MDC-T for neglecting people.

For all we know none other than Dr Makoni and Zanu PF are responsible for the neglect of the people he shamelessly attempts to apportion to the MDC-T.

For 28 years Dr Makoni towed the Zanu PF political line that disenfranchised voters, militarized State enterprises, reduced our currency to ashes, dehumanized us, plundered and looted anything that was considered of national value and abandoned our social and economic wellbeing.

During this time Dr Makoni did not find it proper to give a single press conference or write a single article to any publication voicing concerns about our suffering at the hands of the government he was a key member of.

But within days of the MDC-T announcing disengagement from GPA interaction with Zanu PF the same Dr Makoni found his voice to speak about our abandonment and chide the MDC-T.

One wonders how a person who did not see anything wrong in the past 28 years when he was entrenched in power suddenly sees with such alarming clarity the neglect of the people by a Party and not the government.

“If the amount of attention that is being given to who gets what post in the inclusive government was directed towards delivering jobs, economic recovery, social harmony and stability, this country would have been much further down the road to prosperity than it is now,” stated Dr Makoni recently as he lynched the MDC-T.

This statement alone exposes the confusion in the mind of the distraught MKD leader who is fighting to regain lost political relevance not just in his tumultus movement but also nationally.

Having accurately observed;
“It is clear that Zanu PF and President Robert Mugabe have never been serious about engaging the MDC-T and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, specifically, and about the concept of power-sharing in general,” it is difficult to see how Dr Makoni then got it so wrong as to come to the conclusion that it is the MDC-T that is to blame and not the intransigent Zanu PF and its leader President Mugabe.

“Zanu PF has acted in bad faith throughout the life of the inclusive government, the MDC-T itself has also acted in a manner that does not inspire confidence in their ability to rise above the problems bedeviling Zimbabwe” said Dr Makoni in his futile attempt to exonerate Zanu PF for all its failures and ultimately his personal failures in the past and in the coalition government.

He quoted the Premier recently stating that "Mugabe is genuine", “Mugabe is not the problem, but other people around him", and "Mugabe is committed to power-sharing" "Mugabe is indispensable and irreplaceable,” at a time when the MDC-T nominee for Deputy Minister of Agriculture and several MDC-T MPs and supporters were persecuted and harassed all over the country as evidenced that MDC-T was culpable for the current state of affairs in the country.

For that reason Dr Makoni then concluded that the disengagement decision was motivated by MDC-T’s failure to secure jobs for the boys and girls in its ranks as opposed to a fight for “policies that can deliver real change for Zimbabweans.”
Dr Makoni then went on to tell us what the people want.

“The people want stable and permanent jobs, economic development, repair of dilapidated infrastructure, food, functioning health and education systems and social support networks. The people want their dignity and respect back,” he said.
“In this regard, we note that since they entered the inclusive government, the MDC-T have not put forward policy initiatives aimed at pulling the country out of crisis. The modest improvements that have occurred in people's lives over the past year are the result of the default dollarization which commenced in early 2008 and was formalised by Zanu PF before the inclusive government,” he lashed at the MDC-T.

Is it any wonder why we are where we are economically as a country when a former Finance minister and respected authority on financial matters within Zanu PF like Dr Makoni makes these crass statements?

Is it not true that as Finance Minister he was pushed out by Zanu PF after arguing for devaluation of the Zimbabwe dollar in vain and never proposing the stabilizing dollarization of the economy then when there was scrap value in most organisations to salvage.

If dollarization was by default that the Zanu PF Junta of 2008 formalised what was he doing in the Finance Ministry and why was he paid?

More tellingly why did it take up to 2008 for Zanu PF to formalize dollarization of the currency when it is clear the country’s fiscal quagmire extends back to his tenure as Finance Minister?

Could it be that he was the square peg in the round hole within the Zanu PF government if dollarization was only formalized following his departure from the establishment.

Dr Makoni argues that people want stable and permanent jobs, economic development, repair of dilapidated infrastructure, food, functioning health and education systems and social support networks and they want their dignity and respect back.

We ask what has happened to these wants during his sojourn in successive Zanu PF governments he was a crucial member for people to demand them from the nascent coalition government that is only a year old.

If he and Zanu PF and Dr Makoni had not denied people these wants would there be any issue arising from them?

The height of confusion within MKD and Dr Makoni is exposed by his argument that the MDC-T must be happy that it still has no ambassadors posted, no provincial governors and resident ministers appointed and that Bennett has still not been sworn in as Deputy Minister of Agriculture because such appointments bloat the government but does not explain in what way as the positions have long been established during his reign in Zanu PF.

Clearly Dr Makoni is happy for these positions to be occupied by Zanu PF and if possible MKD activists so that they can continue frustrating MDC-T efforts at delivering real change to the people.

For how else can he explain the appropriation of the meaningful change from dollarization to a Zanu PF government that was busy printing worthless Zimdollars and is clamoring for the resuscitation of the money printing powers even as he ascribes the policy shift to the same party?

“The people expect MDC-T to champion causes such as national reconciliation and healing, in order that we never get a repeat of the violence and brutalities that have characterised recent elections.

The people expect the MDC-T to demonstrate better governance competency than Zanu PF, instead of helping implement destructive Zanu PF policies, as they have been doing since they entered the inclusive government.

The people want the MDC-T to demonstrate they can govern the country, facilitating prosperity through policies that are different from what we have come to expect from Mugabe and Zanu PF.

This is not happening,” Dr Makoni observed.

Indeed the people want all those things and much more. They want Zanu PF to reform and desist from using disguised activists like Dr Makoni to cast aspersions on the abilities within MDC to deliver real change when nightly they are at the centre of manufacturing the obstacles that are hindering the delivery of real change.

Real change is delivered by willing workers and not partisan political activists that Dr Makoni does not seem to realise are responsible for implementation bottlenecks within the coalition government.

MKD will not deliver meaningful change using MDC-T MDC-M and Zanu PF activists whose sole reason for occupying positions is to entrench their political formation in power at whatever cost.

Real change can only be delivered if the positions in government are occupied with willing professionals that uphold statutes and live by agreements, which is not the case in the coalition government.

Dr Makoni should realise that once he has identified Zanu PPF as being the insincere party in coalition government engagement he cannot justify ascribing failure to the sincere partners.

It is the people who exercise power that matter in the success or failure of a government and the argument that the MDC-T must achieve real change using unwilling Zanu PF activists strategically positioned in every public institution is a manifestation of the blindness in MKD leadership.

When push comes to shove Zanu PF quacks in its pants

Premier Tsvangirai at the end of his tether over Zanu PF failure to live by the GPA by persecuting Party Treasurer Roy Bennett announced disengagement from GPA sassociation with Zanu PF creating a monumental constitutional crisis in Zimbabwe.
Once again the MDC-T has taken a decisive political position that has caught many unawares just as it did when it pulled out its Presidential contestant from the sham 28 June 2008 Presidential runoff election days before the election was to be staged.

Then, as is the case now, armchair and active analysts were taken by surprise threw around doomsday theories for the MDC-T that we now know to have been miles off the mark.

Zanu PF activist Professor Jonathan Moyo then masquerading as an Independent legislator led the errand way by declaring that MDC-T had dug its own grave and would be buried in it by Zanu PF after the Presidential election results.

His flock of admirers in the party of geriatrics took the cue well and started flogging hypothesis after hypothesis on how the MDC-t burial ceremony would proceed while the octogenarian Zanu PF First Secretary and President Robert Mugabe made swift appointments to acknowledge the plaudits from his blind supporters as a show of newly found power.

Unbeknown to the cheerleaders was that behind the MDC-T President’s humble statement that hitherto the MDC Party had been thrown into political turmoil of similar magnitude and managed to weather the storm as it was going to do in the aftermath of the shambolic and fraudulent Presidential runoff election were serious repercussions awaiting the self imposed Junta regime fronted by Robert Mugabe.

In the euphoria of what later turned out to be a pyrrhic victory old Mugabe rushed to Sharm-El- Shaik in Egypt where African Heads of State were in legitimized his 6th successive term as President.

He returned home disappointed and depressed that none of his former colleagues had tacitly

Instead he was ordered to regularize his continued stay in office through negotiating power sharing with the MDC-T leader he had gone to bury at the funeral attended by all the African Heads of State to dispel any doubts about his Presidency.

With his tail firmly tucked under his legs Mugabe begged then South Africa President Thabo Mbeki to revive mediated negotiations he had dumped in preference of an election where he was humiliated into a distant second place by the MDC-T President Morgan Tsvangirai on 29 March 2008.

Protracted and humiliating negotiations before the SADC mediation team were eventually reactivated culminating in the signing of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) on 15 September 2008 wherein Mugabe conceded to sharing power with Tsvangirai.

In that agreement it now appears the octogenarian Zanu PF leader was forced to relinquish more power than he was prepared to and he made no secret of that fact when he disclosed that there were numerous compromises in the agreement that he was against and likewise the Prime Minister designate.
While Tsvangirai did not dismiss the allegations he nonetheless did not tacitly confirm his displeasure with the agreement and instead told the nation that he was convinced the agreement was the best possible and workable concession his party could extract from the negotiations and he would see to it that it was implemented.

A year after signing the agreement and just over 8 months of the entry of the MDC into the Coalition government that was agreed in the GPA, the MDC-T President has shocked the nation by announcing he and his party had resolved to disengage cooperation in government with Zanu PF.

The resolution has triggered frantic political analysis within and outside the country because of the constitutional implications it carries and likely consequences on the continued existence of the coalition government.

The Jonathan Moyo led Zanu PF cheerleaders wasted no time in condemning the MDC-T move.
Prof Moyo celebrated the opportunity for Zanu PF to consolidate power by appointing an Acting Minister of Finance. Zanu PF ceded the Finance Ministry to MDC-T control after a fervent fight to retain the ministry failed during GPA negotiations.

Charamba dismissed the MDC-T move as a non event “monkey business” grandstanding by the MDC-T without any chance of impacting negatively on the operations of the Government.

Zanu PF Legislator Jorum Gumbo regretted the MDC-T move saying it was out of sync with the MDC-T’s non interference with judicial processes pronouncements in the past.

Another Zanu PF Legislator Eohraim Masawi dismissed the move as a non event which will not cause Zanu PF sleepless nights as the MDC was in the coalition government as a temporary and stopgap measure by Zanu PF akin to a prostitution arrangement which is never intended to be a lasting union.

MKD spokesperson Denford Magora views the initiative as a self inflicted wound on the MDC-T that will land the party in elections that it will not win because of the violence that will be rolled out by Zanu PF whose leader will refuse the UN permission to monitor the election.

MDC-M spokesman Edwin Mushoriwa dismissed the move as being ill advised as it would leave Zanu PF with room to manipulate the systems in its favour such as resuscitating the Zimbabwe dollar-

NCA Chairman Dr Lovemore Madhuku dismissed the move as inconsequential arguing that Zanu PF will simply take charge of governance and leave MDC-T in limbo.

He was supported by Jupiter Punungwe concurred with Dr Madhuku and slammed the MDC-T for trying to revive its waning political fortunes through sabotage due to its lack of a sound ideological or principled foundation.

Other than the Zanu PF Conservatives Gumbo, Masawi, Moyo and Charamba the other three are pro-democracy activists with a burning desire to see Zanu PF dislodged from power but certainly not by Tsvangirai and his MDC.

The crisis gripping the country at present was triggered by the reincarceration of MDC-T Treasurer and Deputy Agriculture Minister Designate Roy “Pachedu” Bennett on terrorism and banditry allegations by a Mutare Magistrate following his indictment for trial in the High Court.

The MDC-T is incensed that the incarceration was a deliberate and vindictive act on the part of the Attorney General as there was no reason for it to revoke his bail conditions that were upheld by the Supreme Court at the time of his arrest.

Zanu PF activists sadly supported by Magora and Punungwe believe that Bennett’s case is a simple and straightforward case where the accused is alleged to have committed a crime against the government and must be tried by the courts.

They forget that before 1980 Zanu PF committed more heinous crimes than those alleged to have been committed by Bennett but when a negotiated settlement was reached that ushered the independence of the country none among them was charged with the offences.

That sadly is the spirit and letter upon which the GPA was agreed upon which only Dr Madhuku appears to have grasped and the persecution of Bennett is out of sync.

Even if Bennett had a case to answer against a regime that has been replaced through negotiations, which is not common cause, the political correctness of him being prosecuted by a successive government in which he has been nominated Deputy Minister is questionable and compromising to his colleagues who were fighting side by side with him but are now in government without facing similar allegations.

Are we to assume Bennett was planning these terrorist and banditry acts outside of the party which wants him in government.

Even if that was the case which appears highly unlikely, why is he not being sworn into his nominated position as per the GPA which has no exclusion clauses whatsoever allowing the president the discretion he claims to be exercising?

That is why it is naïve for any analyst to conclude that Roy Bennett’s case is very simple. On the contrary it is the most significant breach of the GPA in that the formation of the coalition government remains incomplete some 10 months after it was partially consummated.

The assumption that amnesty was not discussed during GPA negotiations is not only mischievous but also politically devious. Amnesty was central in these negotiations to the extent that Tsvangirai was published in the New York Times acknowledging that if amnesty was what it would take to give Mugabe confidence to step down then so be it.
Tendai Biti, Eric Matinenga, Nelson Chamisa, Morgan Tsvangirai to name but a few were all facing similar allegations but in the case of Biti the State withdrew charges while Tsvangirai was never arraigned to the courts.

That was because if that had not happened, the coalition government would not have materialized.

Bennett is simply a victim of political persecution because of his race and Zanu PF is at the centre of this racial persecution not the State because the State is clearly at variance over his continued detention and persecution as evident from the disengagement resolution announced by the Premier.

The reasons why MDC-M are against the disengagement initiative are similar to the reasons why they broke away in 2005 over Senate Elections.

Unfortunately they have not learned anything from the error of trying to defend positions without grassroots support.

Here is a party that signed an agreement which it is failing to enforce claiming that it can defend gains from that agreement.

Surely the first gain in any agreement is in its total implementation. If that cannot be achieved then there is no purpose in entering into another round of negotiations as they will only result in the party failing to realise the gains practically losing those unrealized gains in perpetuity by variation of the initial agreement.

The thinking behind condemnation of the disengagement initiative is flawed in that it assumes that Robert Mugabe has been legitimized for a full term as Zimbabwe’s President.

Far from it. Mugabe is only the legitimate President of the coalition government and if there is a disengagement notice which he does not act quickly to diffuse his legitimacy will come into question.

That is what Constitutional Amendment No 19 Provided for. It was a temporary amendment to diffuse an explosive political climate that was never intended to replace the Constitution sine die.

Those in Zanu PF that have advanced amnesia need to be reminded that the MDC-T is the majority party in Parliament and cannot be excluded from any popular government of the country without creating political chaos.

Zanu PF can disengage from government anytime because they lost the mandate to govern by consent ages ago and are imposing themselves using military force against an unwilling electorate.

The other imperative to note is that MDC-T have improved their popularity rating by stabilizing the economy and bringing some sanity in schools and hospitals.

Only those living outside the country think the contented electorate will opt for Zanu PF ahead of the MDC when the swansong is we will never allow a government to take us back to December 1998 and that government is the Zanu PF Government.

The crux of the matter is that there is an agreement that has not been fully implemented and MDC-T a party to the agreement wants to enforce its rights therein.

If by claiming its rights and taking action to enforce them the MDC-T is violating the agreement, then let the matter be escalated to the guarantours of the GPA.

If Zanu PF is aggrieved that the MDC-T is not living by the spirit and letter of the GPA they are free to take up those concerns to the gurantours.

The MDC_T cannot be held hostage to an agreement that is not being fully implemented because Zanu PF and Mugabe want to show the nation who is in charge.

The only people that are in charge are those that are making a positive difference to ordinary people’s quality of life and Zanu PF is not among those.

Well-done MDC-T and Professor Mutambara on stance against GPA impunity and political tomfoolery

Love him or loathe him Professor Arthur Guseni Oliver Mutambara the fortuitous Zimbabwe Deputy Prime Minister is adding colour and fanfare to the coalition government.

The Professor who must rank the luckiest political opportunist in the world was bound to be the political clown in the coalition government given his entry route to political prominence and he has not failed in that regard.

In 2005 Mutambara returned to the Zimbabwe political arena in controversial circumstances where he was to lead a faction of MDC malcontents within the party’s National Executive Council who had broken away from the Party over participation in Senate elections.

He said of his invitation to lead the Tribal faction of deviants that he was the Anti-Senate Elections leader of the Pro-Senate Elections faction of the MDC and he would rebrand the faction by renaming it and cleansing it of its bad reputation as a puppet of the West lacking leadership strategy and direction.

That set the stage for Mutambara becoming the Mukadota politician that he has turned out to be.

And boy do they love him in the MDC-t for the lighter moments he brings to the serious s and tense political environment that pervades the coalition government.


There appears to be consensus that in his own ways Professor Mutambara and his grouping of renegades is a useful political clown to have around when things get tough.

He has raffled a few feathers in Zanu PF at unexpected moments as insiders within MDC-T will bear testimony.

There was the incident in Kampala Uganda when he lapsed into his favourite rebranding subject and took a dig at African Heads of State for failing to establish internationally reputed political brands that earned him rebukes from Presidents Yoweri Museveni and Jakaya Kikwete.

He reportedly took the stage by storm and roared and thundered;

“The problem with African politics is the lack of internationally recognized brands.
What is your brand Museveni? What is your brand Kikwete? What is your brand Mugabe” he allegedly asked. “Africa must strive to establish political brands that are endorsed by the Western democracies and not by the Africans” he thundered in those exact words or something to that effect.

The Sentinel is advised that when Mutambara took to the podium Mugabe was too tired to remain in attendance and was on his way to bed but had to turn back when operatives rushed to hint him of the drama that was unfolding in the auditorium from his erudite deputy premier.

He entered just in time to hear the deputy premier castigate the African statesman much to the chagrin of Museveni and Kikwete.

Mugabe was not amused but could do nothing about it. After the speech Professor
Mutambara allegedly took his seat in the Zimbabwean delegation, rolled his eyes in the peculiar way he always does, wiped sweat drops forming on his forehead with an open palm and asked;

“How did that go?”

Needless to say he had read the body language in Mugabe’s eyes to know he had not been well received and the feedback was immediate from Museveni and Kikwete who told the Deputy Premier in their response that he still had a lot to learn about African politics if his views were anything to judge him by.

There is a widely held belief within MDC-T that the Zimbabwe deputy Premier sometimes lapses into the world of the bizarre and says things unintentionally landing himself in trouble.

Although he meant no malice on senior African statesman when he asked about their legacies he nonetheless raffled feathers when he implied that the West are better judges of what constitute democracy and good governance in Africa.

Far from it all the Deputy Premier was saying is that self praise has no recommendation and the African leadership bravado about practicing democratic governance is hollow unless the international community endorses that to be indeed the case.

But the real reason why he was not received well was because he sounded most disrespectful by naming the leaders he singled out as examples to drive home his branding obsession by their surnames and without reference to their esteemed titles which they cherish so much.

You only have to see how long and loaded some of their titles are to appreciate how offensive it is for a political novice like Mutambara to ignore them in a formal meeting of African Heads of State.

In many African customs calling elders or seniors at work by their surnames without the honorific prefix is a great insult.

Whichever way they took it Mutambara had once again pointed to a truism many an African leader would rather it not be said in public.

Then there was the incident in Nyanga where government had retreated to review its operations and redefine its objectives.

For the first time in the History of the Zanu PF party Professor Mutambara made them walk out in protest. Something akin to making a Zanu PF boycott of proceedings because they were in such a weakened position they could not defend themselves other than through a walkout.

Professor Mutambara had reminded the party not to make unreasonable demands on how government should operate as they had years of uninterrupted power to implement those ideas but failed dismally to the extent that they had to rely on stealing recent elections to remain politically relevant.

The rebuke was apt and stinging and took Zanu PF ministers by surprise leading
Patrick Chinamasa to call a boycott of proceedings through the infamous yet shameful walkout for which he later profoundly apologised to the Premier.
At the time he led the walkout Chinamasa stated;

"The meetings were going on very well until this morning when Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara made some very provocative statements that the parliamentary and presidential elections of last year were all fraudulent, null and void,"

"We, members from the ZANU-PF side, walked out in protest at the reckless and irresponsible utterances by Professor Mutambara because they are intended at undermining the legitimacy of a party in the inclusive government,"

None of the permanent secretaries in attendance followed suit and the embarrassed Chinamasa and Webster Shamu had to eat humble pie when they had to apologise to the Premier for their ill advised and cowardly response.

But instead of disclosing that embarrassing episode to the nation Chinamasa sought to mislead the nation into believing that Professor Mutambara had apologised to Zanu PF for having caused the walkout which he never did.

In fact the Premier accepted Chinamasa’s apology and reminded him of the serious responsibility he carries in ensuring that the coalition government succeeds as a leader of Zanu PF.

He reminded Chinamasa that Mutambara was in government at the behest of Zanu PF and if they now have a problem with their project to neutralize MDC-T dominance they should not vent it in government fora but in the political arena.

Whichever way Professor Mutambara behaves it always seems to benefit and strengthen MDC-T’s hand in the coalition government and they love him for that.

As the adage goes in Shona “Anebenzi nderake kudzana kwaro anopururudza “in the MDC they applaud Mutambara’s political tomfoolery which is now being landed weight by Professor Moyo’s attempts to rejoin Zanu PF.

That is why when Professor Mutambara comes out strongly condemning Zanu PF intransigence in implementing the GPA we must support him and urge him to come good on his promise to mediate between Gushungo and Save.

More importantly we urge him to make it clear that he and his party take exception to being compromised by unilateralism in Zanu PF.

It is obvious that the decision by State Prosecution Services to commit Roy Bennet to custody following indictment compromised the entire government including Deputy PM Mutambara.

Deputy Agriculture Minister Roy Bennett’s bail was granted by the High Court and upheld by the Supreme Court at the time he was arrested.

This was after the Attorney General had refused to abide by the Mutare Magistrate Court to grant Bennett bail through invocation of section 121 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act (CPEA).

The AG having indicted Mr Bennett for trial in the same High Court that had granted the accused bail had no basis upon which to incarcerate Bennett with the sole intention of igniting a legal process similar to the one that had been resolved by the Supreme Court at the time of the accused’s arrest.

It is sad that in all this legal gerrymandering the AG is using taxpayers’ funds for a vindictive Zanu PF political agenda which has nothing to benefit the taxpayers outside that party.

The unanimous decision by the MDC-T National Council to boycott government structures that Zanu PF is abusing to soil the good standing of the party must be commended and fully supported.

In politics it is the most bizarre and irrational decisions that change thinking and directions of the State.

If Mugabe does not address the GPA concerns at the centre of the boycott he will be forced into violence or alternatively he will find that his party will have nothing to offer the country.

Most people will go with the MDC-T led wing in Government and that is a frightening prospect for Zanu PF’s future relevance.

Meanwhile those that have been selling the idea that the MDC-T is in the throes of another split or about to ditch its leader Premier Morgan Tsvangirai must take note of the unity and cohesion within the party that the resolution has sent.

Most of the alleged sources of such malicious stories are frequent visitors to the Premier’s residence seeking job positions in the bureaucracy by night.

Some from within the party ranks have broken down to tears in their pleadings for jobs from the Premier. Many others from outside MDC structures have made nightly visits to the Premier to pay homage and seek jobs.

Army Generals that are threatening MP’s with loaded pistols are not any exception to these nightly visits.

The more subtle are those campaigning against the constitutional reform process who are using the platform to gain political recognition as opposed to spearheading a principled stand against the process.

It is remote that these same persons could successfully stage a palace coup in the MDC-T when their very existence and repute is in the Premier’s sphere of influence.

So it is with the Deputy PM who realizes that his political wellbeing is better served with Tsvangirai on his side and does not hide the fact when an opportunity arises.

Shoddy service a Zanu PF misrule legacy

Municipal workers dig trenches like these to replace rotten water pipework neglected by Zanu PF for decades but pose a danger to motorists and pedestrians alike by not barricading or signposting the works areas and leaving the trenches open for weeks. That is how tatty Zimbabwe service providers have become.

The culture of entitlement and impunity that became entrenched in Zimbabweans over decades of being subjected to Zanu PF misrule is turning out to be a serious threat to ethical business practice that will cost the country heavily as it struggles to move out of the economic stabilization phase to economic growth.

There has developed over the years a pervasive unhealthy culture that the service provider and not the customer is the king.

The culture stems from the days when shortages were the order of the day and black racketeering was the accepted norm of doing business.

The service provider was placed in an advantageous position to profiteer and middlemen that sourced scarce commodities made a killing out of adding little if any value to a service or product.

Here are a few classical examples that I have experienced recently.


My vehicle windscreen had been smashed in one corner by a falling object and required replacement,

I had entrusted a close confidante to source quotations of how much it would cost to get the repairs done and was quoted a whopping $250.00.

On arrival I went to PG Auto glass in the Graniteside industrial are and was quoted $130.00 for the supply and fix job – a variance of $120.00 from what I would have forked out to my confidante had I accepted his quotation.

This translates into an entitlement mark up of 90.31% that would have accrued to my confidante for the trust I had placed in him to arrange for the repairs.

On driving the vehicle to the repair workshop I discovered that repairs would not be undertaken unless I had paid cash up front as per the quotation and since I had not carried enough cash I decided to drive off and return the following day for repairs to be done.

At that point the technician who was supposed to fit the new windscreen on my car came closer and advised me that the reason was that the replacement windscreens are never kept in stock but are sourced from the main dealers from the cash that customers pay for the quotations.

This amused me and I asked where they sourced the windscreens and at what cost to which the technician refused to disclose unless I guaranteed that he would have the fitting job after work for $80.00.

I agreed and he gave me a runner to go and buy the windscreen and requisite adhesive.
We drove to the Zimbabwe Glass Warehouse some 3kilometers away from the PG Auto glass workshop where I was told to wait a moment while my escort sourced the windscreen.

The waiting was prolonged as my escort approached several dealers and or workers to get the cheapest price as the lowest price of $55.00 he had been charged would have meant a balance of $25.00 for the adhesive and fitting job which requires at least two people to complete.

I lost my patience with him and entered the warehouse where I was told they only sell to dealers with VAT registration certificates which my escort and I did not have.

Undaunted I asked further and discovered that staff working for the Zimbabwe Glass Warehouse could equally purchase the windscreen for a fee and these were what my escort was targeting but their charges for the corrupt service had been raised from the usual $5.00 to $10.00 per purchase thus increasing the actual cost from the usual $50.00 to the $55.00 that my escort was having problems with.

Having secured the information I wanted I then pressured my escort to finalise the purchase protesting the time it was taking, He attempted to negotiate the price up to $90.00 to cover the unexpected underhand charge and make his own $5.00 profit to which I refused to accede and demanded that we go back to PG so he could appraise his principal -the technician-as to why he had failed to purchase the screen.

We did and the contract was cancelled when we could not agree on the price increase to $90.00 as I was now aware that this involved an extra $40.00 on the cost price of the screen and should the fitting not meet my expectations I had no recourse to recovery action against the technician that I would have if he fitted the screen under PG Auto Glass.

I had also discovered that the screen that was being sold to staff at cost of $50.00 was sold to VAT registered dealers for $80.00 and adding VAT to that would retail at $92.00 plus costs of adhesives estimated at $8.00 meaning PG was charging 30% for labour in their quoted price.

For me therefore paying $130.00 to PG was preferable than paying $90.00 to the PG technician to work on my car privately as his mark up of $40.00 was in real terms $10.00 more than the PG markup of $30.00 yet Pg adds value by employing the technician and paying Vat which the technician did not do in his private capacity.

The following day I drove my car into PG and it was fitted to my satisfaction.
Then I had the problem with water charges from the city Council which needed to be sorted out.

The water meter had not been working so I was being charged for an estimated 40 cubic meters per month notwithstanding that there are only two of my children living on the property.

Water meters are Council property but these days they no longer supply or replace them although they continue to charge for them in the water bill.

I had to source my own meter from a hardware shop in town who kindly advised me to take it to the Local Municipal area offices for calibration before I could get it fitted.

I drove to the Waterfalls Municipal offices where unfortunately I was told I had been wrongly directed by the retailer as I was supposed to take the meter to the Bishop Gaul Municipal Offices in Workington for calibration.

It was nearing 16.30 an I decided it was time wasting visiting the Bishop Gaul offices so close to the end of the normal working day because of experiences I had when I visited the organisation’s Rowan martin Offices the previous week to pay for the water and rates.

The estimated water bill of $85.00 turned up to be more than the average $30.00 that low density residence were advised to pay so I pulled out my cheque book to settle the bill.

“We do not accept foreign account cheques here and in any event we are about to close,” I was politely dismissed by the cashier.

Fortunately the supervisor was on the next service counter so I sought his intervention as I could not understand why in the multi currency financial order a Municipality would refuse to accept a cheque from a foreign account whose currency was in daily use in the country.

The supervisor explained that they did not accept cheques because they had not received deposit slips from their foreign currency transaction banker Kingdom bank.

I promptly asked for the account number so that I could go and do the transaction in the banking hall the following day if the deposit slip was really the issue and was given the account details.

The following day I was at the bank and deposited the cheque and suffered an additional $5.00 bank charge for the favour of accepting my deposit which charges should really be levied against the Account holder and not its clients if at all the charge is justified.

But then this is Zimbabwe where the supplier calls the shots and not the customers.

I was supposed to then take a copy of the deposit slip to the Municipality as evidence that I had indeed cleared the account but I did not and will not do that until they come to turn off supplies where I will show them the copy as evidence that I had paid the account.

Back to the water meter so it was that I was at the Bishop Gaul Offices with the meter to have it calibrated so I could take it back and fit it.

To my surprise I was asked if I had already been to the Zinwa Offices at the corner of Second Street and Speke Avenue to have the meter recorded and issued with a calibration certificate which the Waterfalls Area Office made no mention of the previous day.

Obviously I had not done that and was promptly advised to do so if I wanted the Municipality to have anything to do with my gadget.

It was too late for me to go there and come back in time for them to calibrate the meter and in any event I had not carried the purchase receipt which was required in the registration process at Zinwa.

As if that was not enough burden passed onto the customer, the calibration would not be done instantly while you wait but you had to leave the meter behind and collect after 3 hours.

I negotiated to leave the meter behind while they did the calibration and asked if I could given the receipt to take to ZINWA the following day together with the proof of purchase of the meter numbered in the Bishop Gaul Street Offices receipt.

The next day I paid the Zinwa Offices a visit equipped with the two documents and was given the calibration clearance certificate to take back to Bishop Gaul offices and redeem my calibrated meter which I grudgingly obliged to.

Before leaving Zinwa I took the certifying officer and her engineer to task as to the logic of having offices whose work is complimentary situated 3 kilometers apart and was given some lame excuse about the shortage of appropriately qualified Zinwa staff to Station at Bishop Gaul and the Speke avenue offices and the need to minimize fraudulent activities in the registration of the meters in the calibration offices.

I asked why the burden had to be placed with the consumer to commute between the two offices and not the Local Authority that is so diligent in trying to protect its consumers against fraudsters and did not get a satisfactory answer.

But the obvious answer is that the Municipality is expropriating consumers’ meters by registering them as its assets and exploiting them to run its administrative errands because it is a monopoly in the supply of water and if the customer does not oblige they will be charged exorbitantly for estimated water consumption that they hardly ever receive and consume.

Equipped with the calibration certificate I headed for the Bishop Gaul offices to collect the meter and finally fit it but there were more surprises in store for me.

I was given the now green painted meter alright and told it to take it to my local area office to have it fitted.

I went straight to the waterfalls Area office where to my surprise I was referred to another Waterworks department which is some 5 kilometers away from the Area Office.

I had had enough and lost it completely. Here I was at my area office which had failed me in the first instance by not replacing the broken meter and thereafter overcharging me for water that was ever a trickle and when I bought them the meter they did not advise me properly when they sent me to Bishop Gaul offices instead of the Zinwa offices first.

After doing all the work they are supposed to and for which I pay for in rates and water charges they were contend to send me anywhere and everywhere instead of them servicing me as their customer.

I told the cashier I had had enough of their inefficient service and would not go anywhere else other than the Area offices where I was from advice I had been given at Bishop Gaul Offices and if the plumbers were located elsewhere it was up to the office to let them attend to the job at my residence.

“We have no means to contact them as they have the only vehicle for the district and their landline is down,” they informed me.

It only added to my fury and I threatened the supervisor who was making this lame execuse with the sack as I was going to take the meter to Townhouse and leave it there if he was not willing to perform his duties.

It is only then I learned the plumbers had a business mobile which the area office was prohibited to phone from the landline and they had run out of credit in their mobile.

I offered them mine and was soon talking to the Plumber who insisted I had to drop the meter at his workshop.

I reminded him that his job was to serve customers and not the other way round and told him that I was leaving the meter with the supervisor at the area office and expect it to be fitted before the close of business the same day failure of which I was going to come and collect the meter and take it to the Director of Works’ Office and narrate my ordeal at the hands of the service providers in his frontline offices.

I terminated the conversation and drove off leaving the meter there with the supervisor cashier. Within 30 minutes the Plumber was on the line seeking directions to my residence claiming he had collected the meter and wanted to fit it which I gladly gave to him and he was there within ten minutes.

The meter was finally fitted much to my relief. The plumber attempted to squeeze a bribe from me to attend to a leak on the stop valve after the meter but I gave him an eye that told him he was treading on dangerous territory and he fixed the leak with thread tape that I provided when he complained he had not brought his full tools because of the ultimatum I had given him.

That is the sad service culture Zanu PF misrule has bequeathed the country.

The banks in Zimbabwe accept payments from foreign account holders and transfers from those accounts through MONEYGRAM. Western Union and or Telegraphic bank to Bank transfers.

They until last week refuse to dispense cash to such account holders citing the effects of forex transactions restrictions they were operating under Gideon Gono’s tenure as the Zanu PF economic turnaround point man.

While giving these excuses they were already accepting the same cards to be swiped at their point of sale terminals in supermarkets but refusing the outlets permission to even allow limited cash back facilities as is the case where point of sale terminals are in use globally.

Under these circumstances and needing substantial cash to pay contractors I had engaged to renovate the house I made arrangements to be sent the money via Western Union.

I went to collect the cash from the Standard Bank Africa Union Square Western Union Officers where the woman officer at the reception counter would not allow me to fill the collection form on a disused counter in the hall but outside the banking hall.

After complying and submitting my claim form to her she would not allow me to stand in the banking hall waiting for my turn ordering me to sit on the hard benches provided for waiting customers.

When my turn to be served finally came around the cahier dispensed the notes and retained 55 cents without so much mentioning that she had done so and her reasons for doing that.

I would have not bothered but the control freak at the reception had started my adrenalin running long before I got served so I questioned the shortage whereupon the cashier explained that she had no coins and they routinely left any coins unpaid for that reason.

I quickly counted that there were about 10 people served ahead of me in a space of one hour and at that rate the facility was capable of serving 80 people in the 8 hours they worked and if each was to be docked 50cents the cashiers will have $40.00 in unclaimed funds which they could share between themselves and resolved I was not going to be swindled like that.

I offered the cashier 35 pence and requested that she give me a dollar but she refused and said she was not authorized to accept the coins by her management.

I was livid and went to the manager’s office to demand my 50 cents. The duty manager was at first surprised to see a customer making such a frivolous demand but when she realised how angry and serious I was she struck a conciliatory note and explained that the matter could have been resolved by the cashier accepting the pence I had tendered.

She asked me to return to the counter and wait for her. When I arrived the control freak receptionist would not allow me to stand in the hall to which I told her to go to hell as it was not an offence anywhere in the country to wait for a service while standing.

The waiting customers she had rudely instructed to sit down before me were automatically turned on my side as they felt the offensive receptionist had met her match.

She would have none of that and went to call a security guard to ensure that I was seated or removed from the banking hall.

A dreadful miscalculation as she later realised when I told the security guard of and as I was giving the guard the lecture of his rights and mine the manager arrived and told him and the receptionist to leave me alone as I was under her care.

I was told to go back to the same cashier who had served me and declined as she was serving another customer much to the surprise of the manager who had to wait until she was through with that customer.

She was promptly instructed to accept the pence I had tendered and pay me out a dollar which I gratefully accepted and left with an air of triumph.

It was a victory worth celebrating after the banks had seemed impervious to my other suggestions as to how they could overcome the setback of severed relations with VISA.

These examples of the service culture prevailing in Zimbabwe serve to highlight the problem that is faced in doing business in the country and the gap between international customer expectations and the local customer expectations that have to be harmonized.

Fortunately consumer resistance to the culture is increasing and customers are beginning to demand value for money through demonstrations such as the one against the City Council over charges for no services staged recently.

The unfortunate part of it is that Zanu PF will cease the opportunity to turn the demonstrations into mayhem to further the resistance agenda against the coalition government but the government will have none other than itself to blame if the situation goes out of hand.

Zesa no longer replaces stolen armoured electricity supply cables and electricity meters while Municipalities no longer replace broken water meters they use to bill customers and demand that customers supply their own hardware which they will fit.

In the case of Zesa they demand that customers provide them with pickup transportation if they want the faults to their premises attended to timeously.

They are extorting residences’ property and recording them as their assets and further charging for them for utilities they have fully paid for.
That must be stopped and wherever customers have supplied hardware the Councils and

ZESA are not in a position to supply they must be credited back the costs on their bills if the Parastatals are to legally claim the hardware as their assets.
The service culture in public institutions has a contagious effect on service culture in private enterprises

Premier’s occupation of Official Residence- Minister Mhashu off tangent

Premier Morgan Tsvangirai in his Strathaven residence visitors'lounge receiving the Diplomats trainer and his trainee. Premier Tsvangirai is not unduly concerned with moving into the Official Residence but Zimbabweanas are perfectly entitled to question the motive behind President Mugabe retaining control of both State House and the Premier's residence

In the Hierarchy of Needs motivation theory Abraham Maslow ranked human needs that impel people to act towards their achievement in a rank order that starts with basic survival needs and culminates in self actualization needs at the upper end.

Whereas Maslow was concerned with trying to explain what it is that drove (motivates) people to spend the effort they do to attain objectives within the work and social environment his findings apply with equal force to reasons why the coalition government has come under the microscope for its failure to deliver accommodation to new ministers in the coalition government.

In the past the government was never subjected to that scrutiny because President Mugabe simply recycled the same tired and underperforming Ministers each time his party stole elections and formed the government.

In the Needs theory Maslow identified that the basic needs that causes people to act involves the need to survive which requires such basics as food, water, shelter or accommodation and clothing or warmth.

Maslow found in his investigation that unless these lower needs have been satisfied people will have no other reason to work than to see to their satisfaction while those that achieved satisfaction of these basic needs replaced them with the next group which he classified safety and security needs.

Basic needs are environmentally prescribed and thus situational and in many instances actualization needs which are supposed to be the highest level needs transform into basic needs for people in different circumstances.

The official residences and certain perks extended to top politicians, civil servants and business executives are in every sense actualization rewards that are provided to rub the ego of the recipients and give weight to their esteemed statuses.

In many instances recipients of the perks own all or most of the things that are extended to them by their occupations.

They accept the perks for purposes of showing off their status rather than out of basic need for same.

However there are instances when acceptance of the perks is out of necessity even where the beneficiary owns similar provisions in his own right.

In the case of government Ministers that reside outside the capital where they are required to take up office on appointment as such, there can be no doubt that the need for accommodation in the capital becomes imperative notwithstanding them owning their own accommodation elsewhere than in the capital.

For such Ministers the housing perk ceases to be a status symbol but a basic need.

In the case of the many Ministers in the current government that own their own house/s in Harare including the Prime Minister, there is no justification whatsoever for them to be extended a Ministerial House or to be leased a government owned house other than for purpose of stoking their egos.

But in Zimbabwe where previous governments have invested so much of the taxpayer’s money in purchasing and or building mansions for top government workers and Ministers the occupants of such posts should be allocated the Houses rather than let them to undeserving partisan political apologists or maintain them while they remain unoccupied.

In many instances the occupants are charged sub-economic rentals for the properties and maintenance costs far exceed the annual rentals and are borne by taxpayers.

That is why leases of the Houses to Ministers and other public servants on fixed performance contracts must be renewed annually and terminated as soon as the employment contract between the lessee and the State terminates.

The National Housing and Social Amenities Ministry must have an Estates department that has records of all properties owned by the State and who occupies them and on what terms.

It is embarrassing for Minister Mhashu to tell the Nation that his ministry is conducting an audit of who occupies which government property and the terms of such occupation some seven months after he took over the reigns over the Ministry.

Such records should be at his Permanent Secretary’s fingertips and readily available for him to peruse as and when he deems necessary to ensure compliance with leasing conditions for the properties.

We have no doubt that Minister Mhashu was not forthright in his disclosure that he is carrying out an audit for the properties over the past seven months and is yet to establish who occupies which property.

Even more disturbing was his assertion that the State is exploring means to allocate the Premier a Stand and build him a personal house that will be his for keeps when
his term as Premier expires.

Who will pay for the cost of constructing the House minister Mhashu and have they been consulted and agreed to such extravagance and dangerous precedent?

The Premier’s residence has been part of the establishment for decades and remains unoccupied because the Minister has not recalled the property from the former lessee who should be moved to State House which is the Official residence of Presidents.

It is an insult for Mhashu to tell the nation that he will abdicate responsibility of relocating the President and Premier into their official residences preferring rather to burden the State with the construction of a personal property for the Premier who already owns other houses in a country where millions live in plastic shacks.

In the UK the Labour Party lost millions of supporters when its Ministers and MP’s abused the housing perks extended to them and there have been swift moves to redress the leakages with most abusers being asked to pay back the excesses they had benefited.

Minister Mhashu must know that being a president or Premier does not entitle one to a State built house after he leaves the service of the government as most of these top officials will receive a taxpayer funded Pension to live on in retirement.

The reason why the issue about the Premier’s residence is under scrutiny is not because the Premier has demanded to be relocated into the official residence but because Zimbabweans are aware that there is a State residence reserved for the Premier’s use whose upkeep they are paying for but the legally entitled occupant is not in residence for unexplained reasons.

These are the reasons Minister Mhashu must be giving to the nation and explaining why they cannot be overcome.

The Zimbabwe Premier Morgan Tsvangirai I know will never sink so low as to make an issue of the Official residence as he is motivated by greed and the desire to show off but rather is concerned with improving the quality of life of the Zimbabweans who are not as privileged as he is and do not own their own houses.

This is not to say that Minister Mhashu must not make arrangements for the Premier to occupy the official residence Zimbabweans paid to accommodate their Premiers in the esteem they hold the office and likewise the President.

Should the Premier decline to take up residence there at who knows he may even offer that it be used to accommodate the Ministers who are gobbling thousands in monthly rentals to Hotels at a time the government is struggling to pay decent wages and salaries to devoted professionals and labourers in its employ.

It is not morally right for President Mugabe to Hold onto Dzimbabwe House the Premier’s official Residence when he is no longer the Premier.

The fact that he prefers to live in his private residence in Borrowdale does not disqualify President Mugabe to occupancy of State House which as far as the Nation is concerned is at his disposal.

The fact that he decided to retain occupancy of Dzimbabwe House when his government abolished the Premiership in 1988 does not entitle him to retain occupancy or control of the same property after the signing of the GPA neither should he have a say in who is allocated use of the property given that it has always been the Premier’s official residence from the date it was built.

The extravagance of the State beggars belief when it accommodates out of Harare ministers in expensive hotels for prolonged periods when there are several houses built by taxpayers for the All Africa Games that must be made available for these top ranking officials when needed.

Deposed Ethiopian Mengistu Haile Mariam flew straight into one such houses and is living there free of charge yet our Ministers are confined to one room in a hotel for over six months at astronomical rentals that the country can ill afford.

Other than those houses there are other properties occupied by non Civil servants like Stalin Mau Mau and many others allocated to former Ministers and senior civil servants who have left government service and or are deceased and are being sublet to private individuals at exorbitant rentals way in excess of what the undeserving beneficiaries are paying to the State.

Minister Mhashu must buck up his ideas and start acting for the taxpayers or do us a favour and resign if he can’t assert his authority and stop the financial bleeding suffered by the government as a consequence of his incompetence.
All Ministers that own personal properties in Harare must not be extended government houses or the hefty accommodation allowances they draw from a bankrupt fiscus each month.

The State House that was allocated to the late Dr Nkomo and other houses occupied by undeserving former Ministers and Civil Servants must be repossessed by giving occupants three months notice of termination of the leases that have not been renewed for decades.

It does not make sense to pay a hotel US$300.00 per day for one occupant when a Doctor has to work for 30 days to earn the same if not a lesser amount.
I have been privileged to visit the Premier on several occasions and he does not prioritise his relocation to State accommodation but the nation is entitled to question why he is not being seen to be utilizing facilities they have provided for his office and continue to maintain while they are lying unoccupied.

That is the irritation Mhashu must address and not gallivanting and officiating at Schools prize giving ceremonies that must be left for David Coltart to sort out.

Freed at last Jestina Mukoko as Prosecution case goes in smoke

All this harassment came to nothing on Monday28 September 2009 for ZPP Director Jestina Mukoko seen here being dragged to Court in January 2009

The Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe has dealt a fatal blow to the political mischief of the Minister of Justice Patrick Chinamasa in collusion with Co-Minister of Home Affairs Kembo Mohadi, Police commissioner General Augustine Chihuri and Attorney General Jahannes Tomana.

The remnants of Zanu PF resistance to the coalition government initiative connived with Zanu PF stalwarts including its Supreme Leader, First Secretary, Head of State and “Government”, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces “His Excellency” “Comrade” Robert Gabriel Mugabe to roll out a ruthless purge of MDC-T and Civic Society activists through a judicial persecution initiative that ended in dismay on Monday 28 September 2009.

The ruthless Zanu PF merchants of oppression had between October and 23 December 2008rounded up scores of MDC and Civic Society activists in raids mounted during unsocial hours by a crack team of Law and Order Police and Central Intelligence Officers under the command of the trusted Superintendent Makendenge.

The abducted were held incommunicado in various prisons and detention centres where they claim they were tortured and subjected to torture, inhuman and degrading treatment including being denied food, water, blankets and being threatened with death unless they admitted to involvement in banditry and insurgence training.

Following his humiliating defeat in the March Presidential elections at the hands of MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai which he conceded to but refused to vacate office Robert Mugabe fronted a Military Junta that was vilified globally after he staged a bloody runoff Presidential election he ended the sole contestant having haunted his opponent out of the race by denying him campaigning space and butchering opponent’s supporters.

The failure to gain international legitimacy forced Mugabe and his Zanu PF party to seek Sadc mediation in talks with Morgan Tsvangirai and his victorious MDC party.

Having agreed to form the coalition government with Tsvangirai and Mutambara, problems had emerged with power sharing quotas.

Zanu PF wanted to expropriate all the critical Ministries for its Ministerial contingent and relegate the two MDC’s to manage the less critical ones.
The MDC-T would have none of that triggering the Zanu PF ire which saw the persecution of its supporters.

At least 41 perceived or real MDC-T supporters were abducted in a flexing of muscle by Mugabe to coerce MDC-T to accept to his unilateral allotment of Ministries and other appointments like Provincial Governors, Attorney General, Permanent secretaries and RBZ Governor.

Incensed the MDC-T responded by threatening a pullout from the GPA unless all its supporters that were missing and believed to be in the custody of State security agents were either released unconditionally or brought to Court before I January 2009and charged with the offences they were allegedly being detained for in accordance with the laws.

Most were brought to Court and granted bail but remained in detention for a further fortnight because the compromised Attorney General had invoked Section 23 of the Criminal Evidence and Procedures Act.

Seven others namely Gwenzi Kahiya, Lovemore Machokoto, Charles Muza, Ephraim Mabeka, Edmore Vangirayi, Peter Munyanyi, and Graham Matehwa remain unaccounted for to date.

The vindictive action by the AG in opposing the granting of bail to the accused was widely condemned by the MDC-T and many political commentators.

The detention officers meanwhile used all means possible to extract confessions from the detainees and produced a voluminous dossier supported by video footage of the detainees.

Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Media and Information and Publicity Secretary who doubles as Presidential spokesman George Charamba made some feeble noises based on the dossier of the so called confessions to banditry.

They alleged that the MDC-T leader and Prime Minister Designate Morgan Tsvangirai had set up Jonas Savimbi style training camps for insurgents in Botswana which he intends to unleash to force regime change illegally.

On that basis Zanu PF demanded that it preside over all Security Ministries including co-Ministering the disputed Home Affairs Ministry.

The dossier was submitted to Sadc after President Mugabe had reiterated the allegations at the SADC meeting in Swaziland and Sadc in turn appointed a team of investigators to verify the authenticity of Zanu PF claims of the existence of

Insurgent Training Camps in Botswana.
After reviewing the evidence South Africa President Jacob Zuma dismissed Zanu PF allegations against Botswana and the MDC-T leader as baseless.

The investigation team put together by Sadc to look into the allegations drew a blank but still the AG’s Office would not concede defeat.

The detainees were indicted to trial based on the same evidence that had already been dismissed as baseless and concocted by Sadc and the MDC-T respectively.

Trials would not take off as groups of the accused persons took turns to plead Constitutional rights infringements in the manner in which they had been arrested, detained and brought to Court.

Each group of accused in turn applied to the Constitutional Court to rule on the legality of the manner and conduct of the arresting details’ in upholding accused people’s constitutional rights in these cases.

The first of the applications to be determined involved the prominent former ZBC news anchor Jestina Mukoko who had graduated into the Zimbabwe Peace Project Director – a Human Rights watch group that had been targeted for its sterling efforts at exposing political excesses of the Junta.

In that matter where she is jointly charged with Concilia Chinanzvavana and 7 others of recruiting insurgents for the purpose of dethroning the Junta regime, the decision has gone against the State and she has been permanently set free by the highest court in the land.

While the court decision was to free only Jestina Mukoko, the precedents in her case can now be exploited by the others whose matters are still pending adjudication before the same Court.

This is a frightening prospect for the prosecution because already it has been forced to admit procedural violations in the manner one in a group of abductees has been treated during the arrest and appearance in court process.

Given that the same procedures were employed in the arrest and detention of Mukoko’s co-accused and or other political activists facing similar and or related accusations the chances of the State securing convictions have been severely dented if not completely diminished.

For many neutrals the allegations leveled against all the accused persons who were detained between September and December 2008 were politically inspired and without substance.

It would come as a major surprise if the Constitutional court was to arrive at a different decision than that it established in the matter involving Mukoko.

This is not to say that the Constitutional Court has completely tied its hands on the Mukoko decision because the State still has a chance to make a compelling case for each of the remaining accused and if it does it may well secure the right to put those accused people on their defenses.

The problem for Johannes Tomana and his prosecution team is however near insurmountable for to do so he must find a way to show the court that the accused were not abducted, held incommunicado, tortured to confess, denied basic freedoms to legal representation and in excess of prescribed limits without being brought to court and generally treated inhumanely all of which have been established in Mukoko’s case.

The same officers who botched Mukoko’s arrest and detention were involved in all the other cases and it is hard to believe they used different methodologies than those they applied in Mukoko’s case.

But undaunted Attorney General Johannes Tomana is putting a brave face against these odds and has vowed to proceed with prosecutions of the remaining accused while abiding by the Court’s ruling in respect of Mukoko.

The fact of the matter is the AG is in a quandary over the cases he should have boldly refused to entertain and avoided the embarrassment now engulfing his office and more importantly saved the nation the wasted resources channeled in persecuting
Zanu PF political opponents.

From a legal point of view the Constitutional Court determination can only be set aside by a Presidential decree which Mugabe has no stomach to pronounce.

Meanwhile the prospect of failure to secure convictions in remnant cases and attendant embarrassment to his office looms large yet to withdraw the matters at this late stage would be unthinkable given his refusal to listen to conventional wisdom against proceeding to prosecution with the flawed cases.

At this level of professionalism the only commendable and honourable redemption is for the AG to withdraw the cases and concurrently resign from his disputed post and apologise to the nation for his unprofessional conduct which was inspired by his self confessed association with Zanu PF.

Not that there is anyone who expects that kind of honourable conduct to come from a Zanu PF apologist like Tomana but the long term effects of Mukoko’s permanent stay of prosecution in a matter that was highly politicized from the onset are yet to be felt by Tomana.

Should he decide to hang in there against national negative sentiment over his suitability as the AG, he must prepare for the repercussions that will follow the demise of those that are using him to score cheap political points against opponents.
The brave victims of his ill advised vindictiveness will have their day over him in future and he will not love any of the actions that will be taken against him and his handlers in Zanu PF.