Bennett Trial: Prosecution in panic mode

Controversial self proclaimed Zanu PF apologist Johannes Tomana is finding the going tough in the political persecution of MDC Treasurer General Roy Bennett to a point where he now is resorting to cutting corners to pre-empt the court's determination. 

In a desperate attempt to repair the catastrophic damage to the State case against MDC Treasurer General Roy Bennett caused by pseudo IT expert Mr. Perekayi Denshad Mutsetse, Attorney General (AG) Johannes Tomana who is also the lead Prosecutor in the high profile case has applied for the court’s permission to call in another IT expert to testify in the ongoing trial.

Bennett is facing insurgency, banditry and terrorism charges in the Zimbabwe High Court for offences allegedly committed in 2006.

The offences were allegedly unearthed by the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) and Central Intelligence Organisation following the arrest of Mutare arms dealer Peter Michael Hitschmann and several other MDC activists that included current Co-Home Affairs Minister Giles Mutseyekwa.

It is common cause that the ZNA and CIO investigators tortured Hitschmann into implicating Roy Bennett in the commission of the crime whereupon they scavenged for evidence and found it in the form e-mail correspondence between Bennett and Hitschmann.

The generality of Zimbabweans believe the prosecution of the MDC Treasurer General is a calculated Zanu PF political persecution strategy to dissuade not just the accused but any descendant of the colonial masters from ever attempting to indulge in politics within the country.

For how else can a case that was brought to court on the basis of Hitschmann’s confessions still be in circuit when the Key witness has disowned all his confessions and the same court has upheld that his confession was unprocedurally obtained through torture?

There have been several instances when the case was in distress and risked crumbling but the Presiding Judge has come in handy with eyebrow raising findings supporting the continuation of inquiry into the allegations.

The investigating officer admitted that he had not completed investigation of the matter with specific reference to the alleged Mozambique account of the arms dealer where it is alleged Bennett deposited payments for the arms of war he intended to use in committing the crime but the Judge did not consider the incomplete investigations detrimental to the continuation of the trial.

Then there was the incident when the presiding Judge correctly held that statements that were made by the Key State witness under duress of torture could not be relied upon to prosecute the accused but still allowed continuation of the trial on the basis of disputed e-mail correspondence between the accused and the Key State witness the court had impeached.

Even the decision to impeach the State’s Key witness was mired in controversy when the presiding Judge impeached him on alternative grounds that were never part of the State’s application for the impeachment.

Be that as it may and notwithstanding the glaring weaknesses in a case that carries the potential punishment of the death penalty the case has somehow managed to remain in circuit with the AG seeking permission to call in another expert IT witness to testify for the State in the matter.

The beleaguered Prosecution called to the witness stand TelOne Security officer Mr. Forgive Munyeki with the intention to prove that the microwave telecommunications link that was the target of a terror attack in disputed e-mail discussions between the accused and the arms dealer was in fact an existent essential service infrastructure whose sabotage would compromise national security and cost a leg and arm for the State to restore it back into operation.

The desperate attempt by the state to introduce evidence that would normally be used in justifying a sentence or in aggravation or mitigation, betrays the anxiety within the Prosecution to sensationalise the matter to attain a desired conviction.

While it is common cause that the Prosecution is in this matter to secure a conviction, there is need for the state to secure that conviction in a fair and just manner and not through erotic antics of the nature epitomized in the hasty call to the witness stand of Mr. Forgive Munyeki which the defense counsel rightly objected to.

The implication of calling evidence by Munyeki into consideration at this stage would be that the Court has been convinced beyond reasonable doubt about the accused’s involvement in the commission of the crime and convicted him.

This is so because at this stage in the trial there is a dispute over the authenticity of the e-mail evidence the case is premised on which has yet to be adjudicated on before the quantum of the damage of the crime can be considered in assessing appropriate sentence.

That is why lead defense counsel Ms Mtetwa urged the court to exclude Mr. Munyeki’s evidence from the trial citing Section 252 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act, which precludes such evidence from being heard in court.

"From the evidence led so far in the trial, nothing was placed before the court about the microwave link issue and that the State should not deal with the effect without shedding light on the cause.

"There is no evidence as to which of the alleged weapons could destroy a microwave link at Melfort.

"How can the State lead evidence of effect before leading evidence on cause. What is the link between the accused and this microwave link at Melfort? The court would not benefit from obvious speculation, surmise and irrelevant evidence. It must be excluded," objected Ms Mtetwa.

The obvious point she raised was that before the court considers the aggravation evidence that the witness intended to adduce, there was a need to first establish that the crime of sabotage of the microwave telecommunications link in Melfort was committed or about to be committed by the accused which has not been done.

The e-mail evidence the State is relying on as evidence that the crime was about to be committed is yet to be authenticated and before that has been done it would be prejudicial to the accused if the Court was to determine authenticity of the evidence linking the accused to the crime based on speculative consequences of successful commission of the crime that was never committed in the first instance.

It is clear that the motive of the prosecution in calling this witness is not to prove existence of the Melfort telecommunications microwave link which has not been disputed or even come under scrutiny in the matter so far.

What is evident is that the State realizes the extent of the damage to its case that has been inflicted first by the impeachment of Peter Michael Hitschmann its original Star witness and then by its “expert” IT witness Perekayi Denshad Mutsetse.

It is too late to resort to impeachment in respect of the later witness who clearly as exposed to be a liar and unreliable expert deserving impeachment than Hitschmann who proved consistent in his testimony even after being impeached.

The AG thus wants someone to sanitize the festering State case against the loathed MDC-T Treasurer General whom Mugabe has refused to swear in as Deputy Agriculture Minister in utter disregard of the Zimbabwe Constitutional Amendment No 19 he ascended to following the signing of the GPA that legitimized his current Presidency of the country.

And who better to do so than a Security operative from the State owned TelOne Company who for all we know must be a reliable seconded CIO operative.

Munyeki’s evidence targeted as outlined at disclosing aggravation damage that would have followed had the purported crime been committed would not leave the Court any wiser about how the accused is linked to the crime unless of course the State intends to take advantage of his presence on the witness stand to smuggle expert IT witness from his security background to sanitize the horrible evidence submitted to the Court by Mutsetse.

This is more so if regard is paid to the Presiding Judge’s comments when he ruled against the defense using the name of the AG in fake e-mails to prove that e-mail evidence can be manufactured by anyone anywhere impersonating another person where he held that the e-mails in exhibit 13 that the State is relying on are nevertheless in dispute and will remain so until proven otherwise to be authentic.

Instead of authenticating the e-mail evidence to link the accused to the crime which “expert” It witness Perekayi Denshad Mutsetse dismally failed the State Prosecution to accomplish, the Prosecution at sixes and sevens with the case is trying to move away from the obligation to prove its evidence and still use the same to show aggravation in the case that has not been established.

Attorney-General Mr. Johannes Tomana’s response to the objection leaves a lot to be desired.

It is not enough to argue that the defense’s objection is out of misunderstanding of the section of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act the defense cited as he did.

His argument that evidence that linked Bennett to the microwave link conspiracy was already before the court through the email printouts tendered as exhibits during the trial is misinformed and without merit as that evidence has already been ruled to be in dispute and must be proven first before it can instruct the Court’s determination of the allegations against Bennett.

Whatever is contained in those exhibits will only be of material consequence to the case if it is proven first that the accused was a party to their generation and transmission or receipt and only after that will there be reason for the Court to hear aggravation and mitigation evidence in the case such as that the AG is attempting to adduce at this stage by calling the evidence of Munyeki.

Contrary to his averment that;
"Exhibit 13 (emails) does speak of the conspiracy to destroy the microwave link. It is not enough for the State to just prove that there was communication between Hitschmann and Bennett in executive form.

"There is need to prove there is such a link in Melfort. This witness will prove that, indeed, we do have a microwave link at Melfort. This is one of the dilatory applications that is way off the mark. The objection should accordingly fail," the objection must be sustained because the existence of the link is neither here nor there at this stage of the matter where the Court must concern itself with who if any was intent on sabotaging it and what authentic evidence there is showing that intent.

That some disputed e-mail bearing accused’s and impeached witness’ names talks about a conspiracy to destroy the microwave link does not is before the court does make that exhibit authentic in a matter where both the accused and the impeached witness are disputing their involvement with the highly suspicious evidence that is open to manipulation by anyone as has been demonstrated to the Court by the defense when it manufactured similar evidence in the names of unsuspecting individuals not the least of them the AG.

It took the Court’s intervention to exonerate the AG’s name from being associated with the fake e-mails manufactured by the defense and there is absolutely no reason why the same court should not be called upon to intervene and equally determine authenticity of the exhibit before it before determining whether or not to put the accused on his defense on the allegations leveled against him in the disputed exhibit.

That is what fairness in judicial adjudication is all about.

Why should an accused be subjected to an enquiry into a role in a crime where his
link has not been established other than through some dubious cyber technology document open to manipulation by anyone especially where the accused is a reputable political opponent of a bureaucracy that has in the past been known to have manufactured similar such evidence against opponents using torturous methods including an impeached witness in this matter?

That, "It is the State’s case that the accused together with Hitschmann conspired to destabilise the country through, among other things, bringing down the microwave link station at Melfort,” is not the issue at this juncture in the trial but rather that the evidence the State is using in establish its prima facie case against the accused to bring down that microwave is dubious and must be authenticated before the accused can be put on his defense.

There is therefore absolutely no justification in the Court being asked to waste time listening to evidence about aggravation repercussions of the crime before the Court has been convinced that the accused and his accomplice were indeed authors and transmitters of the conspiracy document.

What would then happen in the event the Court hears this evidence and decides that indeed the damages would have been catastrophic for the nation but then the accused and his accomplice have not been proven beyond reasonable doubt to be the authors of the conspiracy before it?

Clearly the efforts by the AG would have gone to waste and valuable time and financial resources put to waste pursuing a matter in Court where the felon is still at large.

In any event it makes a mockery of the judicial system to hear evidence in aggravation and mitigation in matter where the accused is yet to be convicted.
It conveys a bad intention to convict before the accused has put up his defense which would set a dangerous precedent in criminal prosecution in the country bearing the political rumblings that have characterized this case from the onset.

It will not bolster the state case in any way other than that it will give credence to the earlier application by the defense for the Presiding Judge to recuse himself from the matter.

Misdirected Zanu PF sanctions protest march

Zanu PF youths have learned nothing from the abuse they have been subjected to by their leadership if their recent march to threaten the Premier to denounce sanctions or face dire consequences is anything to go by.

After a year of accessing affordable and plentiful goods and services that had become extinct in Zanu PF Junta ruled Zimbabwe- thanks to MDC-T’s magnanimity in accepting to join the flawed SADC mediated coalition government- the party of geriatrics renowned for its penchant for unbridled violence against citizens is at it again.

This time it has mobilised the Zimbabwe youths it has been feeding a dosage of toxic propaganda in Border Gezi torture training camps under the guise of National Service Training to march in the capital’s streets demanding that the Prime Minister of the Republic of Zimbabwe must call for the lifting of EU and US imposed sanctions against its geriatric party leadership or face unspecified dire consequences.

And they were provided with free food, transport and logistical support from the Zimbabwe Republic Police to commit their treasonous act which threatens the continued existence of the coalition government by threatening one of its key players.

Not that it is anything new that the party of the past has always harboured bad intentions for the wellbeing of the adored premier but the manner the threat was marshalled using scant State resources and that the national president found it appropriate to grace the march and address the marchers deserves nothing short of total condemnation by all well meaning Zimbabwean citizens.

For a Party that has orchestrated infinite persecutions of citizens for airing their genuine grievances against misrule by the same party’s successive governments over the past decade over trumped up treason charges against the Head of State and Government to openly be associated with a treasonous march against the sitting leader of Government is instructive of the lawlessness it represents among us.

Zanu PF has over the past three decades systematically impoverished and pauperised the entire Zimbabwe citizenry except for the few in its top echelons and their close underlings who benefited immensely from riches they looted from the country’s natural resources and victimised poor citizens including the lot it paraded in its unholy march to petition and cajole the Premier to call for the immediate lifting of sanctions imposed on Zanu PF leadership.

A year ago this month the same leaders they are marching for heartlessly winded all their wealth in Zimbabwe dollar terms to zero, zilch, nil just in case their amnesia has got the better of them.

This is the same leadership that had fooled them into believing that they were millionaires by printing fake money and availing it to the indoctrinated young citizens in unrestrained quantities after using them in vicious onslaughts against the social political and economic fabric that held the country together.

And for their efforts and religious praise singing of a rogue regime they were handsomely rewarded with valueless currency that catapulted them to paper millionaires but kept them firmly stuck in the thick glue of poverty that today instructs them to march for the uplifting of sanctions against their wealthy leadership in the vain hope that the riches will devolve down to their generality.

The reality though is that the lifting of sanctions if ever it will happen will only open a window that has been deterring them from going abroad to enjoy the loot they have siphoned from the State coffers over three decades of unaccountable management of the country.

None of their riches will devolve to the youths that are being abused to protest the sanctions to the Premier who as they have now seen has tremendous influence over the nations that imposed them.

Instead of threatening him over the sanctions issue the youths must demand an honest explanation from the old guard in Zanu PF as to why the goods and services that had disappeared a year ago have become in plentiful abundance albeit that they require immense effort to attain but nevertheless are there for the taking for all willing to work towards their attainment which was not the case under monolithic misrule by them geriatrics.

They will discover that sanctions they have been indoctrinated to believe are the source of their hardships has absolutely nothing to do with their economic malaise but rather the same old leadership using them in the sanctions wars have everything to do with their unsavoury economic plight.

Before the current war against the sanctions the same group of indoctrinated youths must ask what became of their efforts in the land redistribution war and the price wars they were used to prosecute with such success but nothing for them to show for their effort

They must ask themselves what became of their revered party’s brag about making them multi millionaires, trillionaires and quadrilionaires for them to be penniless a year after rearrangement of the government structures from monolithic Zanu PF rule to cooperative rule by the three political formations now in government.

They must critically question what became of the slogans they were led to chant in the not too distant past that “the land is the economy and the economy is the land” a decade after they successfully repossessed the land?

They must inquire into why when they are in full and direct ownership of the land the sanctions are now a detrimental economic issue when hitherto the lack of land ownership was put to them as the reason for their poverty and failed economic progression.

They must ask themselves if the wars they waged against prices were worth their effort and if they have delivered the desired outcomes of affordable goods and services to their tables.

They will discover that there is no single solution to their economic problems and a holistic approach to economic management of the country is the critical ingredient necessary for them to move out of their economic quagmire.

Lifting of sanctions will not deliver the desired economic respite they are chasing after and the Premier they accuse of stalling the lifting of the sanctions will not be in a position to deliver the economic prosperity they like all other citizens yearn for unless there is a paradigm shift in the manner their party approaches national management of the country’s resources and their distribution to citizens.

As long as the distribution process of the country’s resources is skewed on political patronage and violence is used as a tool to compel subjugation and compliance the critical economic factors that underpin individual prosperity like productivity will not support individual economic empowerment of the majority of them and they will forever remain open to political abuse as they rely on their party leadership to sustain their living.

This business of blindly taking to party sloganeering and internalising the slogans as the gospel truth is not healthy for our nation’s future leadership.

We need open minded youth capacitated by the system of governance to think wide and varied and innovate their own solutions to economic and sociological challenges they face rather than blinkered youths that pander to the whims of the old and tired leadership at the helm of political formations.

Only when we have such an enlightened youths will the future progression of our country to dizzy heights of economic prosperity be guaranteed for all and sundry
Threatening a Premier with dire consequences over an issue that will not yield a difference to their lives like the lifting of sanctions is a sign of the level of blinkered thinking that threatens the country’s future economic progression.

The country has more foreign manufactured goods retailing than those locally produced.

That is where the economic malaise of today’s youth in our country is scripted. As long as the country does not innovate production strategies that enable it to produce in excess of its citizens’ consumptive demands it is unlikely to come out of economic sanctions gripping it.

The real sanctions on the country are not those imposed on Zanu PF leadership by the US and the EU but the failure by the leadership to create a political environment that attracts and encourages investment and entrepreneurship by serious business minded people globally.

The failure to attract and stimulate such investment within the international community coupled with the encouragement the youths are getting to impound assets of investors and expropriate them for personal aggrandisement as opposed to them being encouraged to innovate Greenfield investment projects of their own is the major sanctioning scourge that Zanu PF has been promoting for decades without moving the country forward.

In many instances the party has reversed economic progress and the current threat to the Premier over sanctions that are of no consequence is a case in point.

If MDC youths had staged such an obnoxious march against the President and the premier had graced the occasion by delivering a solidarity address to the marchers we are in no doubt as to what the consequences would be not just to the marchers but also to the Premier.

The Courts would by now be clogged with cases of Treason slapped on the march organisers yet because the treasonous act was directed at the Premier it is condoned and even receives Presidential solidarity.

Bennett’s trial: Mutsetse goes Zigzag

The State's expert IT witness whose name Mutsetse means straight line went on a zigzag in court under cross examination about his expertise in the ongoing criminal political persecution of MDC Treasurer General Roy Bennet

When Justice Chinembiri Bhunu presiding over the terrorism and insurgency trial of MDC-T treasurer Roy Bennett ruled that the State could rely on highly unsafe e-mails evidence to put the accused on his defense, we opined that the ruling had hanged the AG in the open to dry.

Obviously Attorney General Johannes Tomana has limited if not nonexistent knowledge about technology behind transmission and receipt of e-mails.

If he had an expected general idea or the humility to seek advice from genuine IT experts other than those in the CIO who were offered jobs on political patronage considerations he would not have called Mr. Perekayi Denshad Mutsetse to testify as an IT expert in a matter that carries the capital punishment of death should the accused be convicted.

During interviews with Mr. Mutsetse the AG would have established that Mr. Mutsetse was an IT expert impostor not worthy of his trust in a high stakes trial like the Bennett trial.

But because an ignorant AG was compelled to authenticate disputed IT evidence he unwittingly believes forms the basis of the State case against the accused he had to find an expert to testify in the matter without knowing the specifications of the type of expertise required.

It turned out that he banked his trust in an under qualified IT ignoramus Perekayi Denshad Mutsetse who has done the frivolous and vexatious State persecution case more harm than good and must have left Justice Chinembiri Bhunu aghast in confusion.

After ruling against the use of the AG’s name on fake but illustrative cross examination e-mails created by the defense to show that anyone anywhere could create e-mail communication in another person’s name –which was rather odd as the defense wanted to drive home the point that not even the AG was immune to that kind of impersonation, the streetwise defense team was not unduly daunted as it went on to produce other fake e-mails with equally devastating and embarrassing effect on the shaky state case.

If there was any doubt over the averments of the defense that e-mails were an unsafe source of evidence upon which the case must proceed, the court must by now be better informed as to why the defense holds that contention and its legitimacy.

Africom Mutare’s Mr. Perekayi Denshad Mutsetse called upon by the state to testify as a computer network expert witness made a complete fool of himself in the witness stand when he in his now questionable expertise told the court that it was not possible for one to access another person’s e-mail without a password.

Any computer technology expert worth of recognition as such would know that it is possible to hack into other computers and or view any information on another computer without a password.

There are world acclaimed cases where computer hackers have broken into sophisticated national networks of the USA’s NASA computer network and downloaded classified national security information that any person purporting expertise in computer networking should be at the very least expected to be familiar with.

Closer to home the government has legislated to pry into private communication through the Information Communication Interception Act that the CIO uses to monitor communications between unsuspecting members of the public in its generality and being a networking expert Mutsetse should have known that his assertion that e-mails cannot be accessed without a password was blatantly false and unsustainable.

Now that he has falsely declared that it’s not possible from his diminished expertise the court must weigh his credibility as an expert when he further asserted that the e-mail printouts between Hitschmann and Bennett were genuine without even having examined the source computer from which they were obtained and sent.

No wonder lead defense counsel Ms Beatrice Mtetwa had a field day with the pseudo IT expert called upon by the State to authenticate its dubious evidence against the accused.

First she produced copies of his Network Essentials attained in December 2000 from the Secretarial Skills Development Centre in Harare and another one for Microcomputer Technology (City and Guilds Certificate) attained in 2002 which were not disputed.

Then she produced damming evidence that the so called expert State witness had in fact been employed by TelOne between 1996 and 1999 as a General Hand and not as a Technician as he had claimed.

She adduced evidence of the Witness’ CV showing he had failed his “O” Levels and an organogram of Africom showing that the State’s expert witness occupied a lowly position in the organization that is not commensurate with his claim to IT expertise.

The organogram showed that the witness was not employed as a Provincial Engineer, a position that does not exist at Africom but rather as a mere Technician.

She further accused the so called expert witness of attempting to mislead the court about his level of expertise by claiming to have been certified by the University of Zimbabwe and Africa University falsely and without evidence of such certification.

On the evidence of the State expert witness that evidence of hard copy e-mail correspondence he was shown by the Police was genuine and authentic correspondence that took place between Hitschmann and Bennett the defense printed fake evidence of e-mails it had created in the witness’ name and he authenticated them as genuine.

When his mistake became apparent he could not hold his composure and threw tantrums
that earned him several cautions from the presiding Judge to remain focused and answer the questions from the defense counsel.

But the expert witness had been so torn apart that he made some startling and damaging revelations about himself.

He admitted he had absolutely no knowledge about e-mail and computer forensic examinations to establish e-mail correspondence authenticity which he believed could only be carried in South Africa and other unspecified countries.

He further categorically stated that in Zimbabwe there were no computer hackers when the entire nation knows that the CIO can legally hack into any private correspondence.

And his assertion that even though he had authenticated a fake e-mail produced by the defense he was not mistaken about the Hitschmann and Bennett correspondence authenticity because nobody could backdate e-mail correspondence became a source of huge embarrassment for the State case when the defense quickly produced another backdated e-mail for his perusal.

A distraught Mutsetse failed to dismiss evidence of his low level employment capacity within Africom pleading breach of company secrecy if he did so which is completely outrageous.

On his lowly qualifications he could only claim that in other countries which he did not specify his qualifications were equivalent to a degree.

He then changed his claim that he had worked for TelOne as a technician between 1996 and 1999 to having worked for the same company as a technician for four years on a contract basis.

If the AG had known about all these deficiencies in Mr. Mutsetse’s expertise or more appropriately if the AG was himself computer literate he would not have entrusted the State case in the hands of such an incompetent “expert”.

Simply put Mr. Mutsetse is under qualified for the task he was brought to court to clarify and his evidence has all but left the court in the dilemma of determining a crucial matter on the basis of evidence the authenticity of which is in doubt.

An IT expert who claims in court that “information technology forensics was not done here in Zimbabwe adding that maybe it existed in South Africa and other countries,” as did the witness is not worth paying attention to and worse when his claims to qualifications and experience are proven to be fallacious to the extent they were in this matter.

The trial will obviously continue but as we said it is doing the credibility of the AG serious harm he could have been sparred when it became apparent that the case was formulated on evidence extracted through torture.

Tollgates revenue must never be diverted to any other use

The Zimbabwe tollgate at the 18 km peg along the Harare/Masvingo highway

Ever since they were commissioned on 8 August 2009 Zimbabwe's tollgates have been a major source of discontent and controversy within the motoring public.

It has never been clear if the tollgates are run by the Public Service bureaucracy in the ministry of Transport and Infrastructural development or whether they are run as a quasi government operation that is autonomous from Treasury control and instructions.

At inception the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development, Nicholas Goche, disclosed that 90% of the revenues realized at tollgates would be retained by his Ministry, which would in turn forward the money to the Zimbabwe National Road Authority (ZINARA).
ZINARA would then distribute the funds among the Department of Roads, local authorities and the District Development Fund for use on road infrastructure maintenance and development.

The balance 10%, he said would be remitted to the Ministry of Finance to cover administrative costs involved in the running of the tollgates.
The Minister said government vehicles would not be exempted from paying toll fees and that residents in areas surrounding the tollgates would be given special discs.
Small vehicle road users pay US$1 to cross the toll gates, buses and lorries pay $5 whereas Motorbikes and cyclists do not pay anything.

MP’s reportedly refused to pay the fees while the collection process was reportedly very slow and frustrating for motorists with outages of stationery being reported at some sites.

The 22 sites have also been criticized for their inconvenient citing in that they have resulted in some residents in a local area being subjected to the charges.

As an example on the Harare/Masvingo highway the tollgate is situated at the 18 kilometer peg a kilometer before the Manyame River Bridge at the Skyline Hotel.

The Hotel residence and patrons as well as the Harare Golf Club residents and patrons across the bridge who have traditionally been subject to Harare Municipal rates and service charges have to pay toll fees unless they are granted special dispensation discs which would be unlikely for hotel and golf patrons.

The tollgates are now reportedly racking in close to US$2million monthly and have so far earned the government $7million confirmed revenue in the first four months of their operation.

“The major roads are earning the government US$1,7 million every month,” Transport Minister Nicholas Goche told parliament on Wednesday17 February 2010.

Transport and Infrastructure Development chief executive Frank Chitukutuku further disclosed that (ZINARA) is currently sitting on $4 million raised from the toll gates due to delays in the collection of money granted to local authorities and the department of roads.

"For the period from 18 August 2008 to 31st December 2009, the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) collected a total of US$6,746,496 on the 22 tollgate sites.

"After a 10 percent deduction for Zimra's administration fees, US$2 million was disbursed to eight provinces for the maintenance of regional, primary and a limited secondary road network."

From the figures disclosed it would appear ZIMRA is earning $170 000 per month from the 22 tollgates manned by a total of 352 employees it has assigned to the tollgate operation.

The tollgates are manned by a team of 16 people that alternate in three shifts. Since these workers draw their incomes from Treasury it would be interesting if ZIMRA could explain the expenses that justify its 10% levy on tollgate fees.

In our view this charge is excessive and unjustified unless Zimra pays its workers there from and not from taxpayer’s funds.

Tollgate revenues must be restricted to road maintenance and repairs as well as design and development of highways and link road networks and not to pay Zimra which charges the fiscus through a vote of expenditure passed by Parliament in every budget.

The dispensation on ZIMRA to levy charges on another government department encourages unwelcome fragmentation of the Public Service which will develop into parallel structures that are not accountable to the Treasury.

That will ultimately result in salary distortions within the Public service as the revenue collecting ministries will demand a share of the revenue to use on benefits for its departmental workers that non revenue collecting ministries cannot afford.
The bureaucracy in distribution of toll revenues is not justified at all as it only encourages handling leakages.

Zimra should simply collect and Bank revenues in the Exchequer Account and then charge its expenses to the same account.

Slush funds for government departments have been known to have been abused by the departments running parallel structures and indulging in corrupt dissent against government directives.

Already funds from tollgates appear to have been abused in Mashonaland West and Matabeleland South Provinces and its going taxpayers’ money to unearth what happened and restitution will not be possible.

There is nothing special let alone urgent about road maintenance and repairs to justify the department’s autonomy in accounting for toll fees.

If anything there is need for greater multi disciplinary team involvement in roads infrastructure design, development and maintenance to justify closer central government supervision of the allotments it makes to local authorities from toll fees.

Professor Mutambara a nauseating political nonentity the country could do without

Cursed and unpopular MDC faction leader and 2nd Deputy Premier Professor Arthur Remove Sanctions Mutambara singing out of tune with the rest of the nation on the need to lift or retain sanctions imposed on deviant Zanu PF leaders by the EU and US.




The terrible political curse on Professor Mutambara’s back has refused to loosen its grip on him.

As each day passes and he is paraded to the nation as a political leader he has managed to do more harm to himself and his group of tibalistic renegades.
Evidence of the political curse cast on him first emerged when disingenuously accepted to front an elitist grouping of Matabeleland based political malcontents who had found refuge in the MDC.

After misreading the national mood in relation to the need to dilute and dismantle Zanu PF political dominance he went on to take a swipe at Morgan Tsvangirai the adored leader of the MDC calling him an unstrategic political midget not worthy of his support.

That was before he realised the extent of the grassroots support the Zimbabwe Premier commands which only became evident to him a few weeks before the March 2008 harmonised elections.

Even then he did not believe that the MDC leader he was totally convinced to be an ignoramus was capable of standing on his own and he attempted to forge an electoral alliance with him wherein he hoped to secure no less than 30% of the Parliamentary seats the MDC would garner in Masvingo, Manicaland and the four Mashonaland provinces and 70% of the party’s seats in the Midlands and the three Matabeleland Provinces.

Tsvangirai saw through the absurdity of Professor Mutambara’s demands and declined the overtures and went into the election as his own man and walloped all who stood against him and his party causing alarm and despondency in Mutambara’s renegade faction of the MDC as well as tremors in Zanu PF and humility in MKD.

Professor Mutambara who had out of panic rallied his insignificant support behind Dr Makoni’s Zanu PF sponsored MKD was left tongue tied by the extent of Tsvangirai and his Party’s success in the election he was convinced they would gain nothing from.

When the Zimbabwe military establishment’s interfered with the democratic processes of choosing political leadership a humbled, confused and desperate Mutambara declared his support for the same Tsvangirai he had previously labelled a political midget.

The support was cynical in that he had realised that founding MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was the President elect of the country and political salvation of his walloped faction of renegades hinged on the faction being accommodated by the “unstrategic political midget” the arrogant Professor falsely claims he taught politics.

There was to be hue and cry throughout the country when the Military intervention turned violent electoral bloodbath and scuttled the illegal Presidential runoff election resulting in the illegal coronation of Zanu PF leader as Junta President of the country.

When the junta met with stiff international opposition and total rejection Mutambara’s renegade faction Secretary General Professor Welshman Ncube used his tribal connections with the South African leadership and persuaded disgraced former South African President Thabo (Quite Diplomacy) Mbeki to revive the fledgling fortunes of the faction of MDC renegades.

He pleaded with the South Africa President for the faction to remain party to any SADC mediation efforts in the Zimbabwe political crisis and when that was granted Professor Mutambara who had a week earlier relieved Gabriel Chaibva of the spokesmanship role for the renegades for embarrassing the faction by attending Mugabe’s illegal and highly opposed coronation committed an even worse endorsement of Mugabe’s Presidency claim by leading his Party negotiators into a State House meeting with Mugabe.

Attempts to apportion blame for the gaffe to the deviancy of Morgan Tsvangirai did not wash and infuriated the nation instead of buying its sympathy.

The so called unstrategic political midget had read the national mood and decided to boycott the meeting with President Mbeki and the Zanu PF leader Robert Mugabe at State House where he had unilaterally and undemocratically ensconced himself.

How the self proclaimed political strategist that Mutambara claims to be had failed to see the negative political consequences of visiting the disputed President’s den and symbol of power – State House- left most of his scant supporters devastated and embarrassed.

They abandoned him in droves.

During the Sadc mediation talks debate raged on as to the justification of Mutambara’s faction involvement in negotiating a Presidential election impasse the faction had not contested with many commentators and observers agreeing it was an unjustified insult for the Zimbabwe electorate that had not only rejected the faction but had also rejected the Parliamentary bids of all the faction’s lead negotiators.

It was then argued and rightly that the inclusion of electoral rejects in determining the political course of the country provided the losers an opportunity to thumb their noses at the electorate and remain unaccountable to the people as their political life did not hinge on people support but rather SADC discretion.

The fears of the nation were confirmed when the talks concluded with an announcement that Professor Mutambara had been appointed 2nd Deputy Premier in the coalition Government to be formed between MDC-T, MDC-M and Zanu PF.

Despite his low rank in the government packing order the nation was forced to accept him as one of the three coalition government Principals.

The nation grumbled and moaned about the clearly disproportionate recognition of a faction leader who had lost a bid to become a Member of Parliament for the Zengeza East constituency garnering a paltry 1,322 votes.

The constituency was won by the candidate fielded by the MDC led by the so called unstrategic political midget Morgan Tsvangirai with 7,570 votes, followed by the ZANU-PF candidate, who won 3,042 votes and then Professor Mutambara with his paltry1, 322 votes.

Politicians with this level of poor support do not normally make it to Parliament let alone become Deputy Premiers and Government Principals but Thabo Mbeki and Mugabe connived to force Tsvangirai to accept this scandal and foist Mutambara against the will of the majority of our populace.

When the Prime Minister was holding back on signing the agreement to form the coalition government before the issues around Ministerial and Provincial Governorship allotments were agreed upon to his satisfaction, Professor Mutambara almost went berserk castigating Tsvangirai for insisting on trivia and declaring that the trivia would be addressed by the government once it was formed.

When the dispute was referred to SADC and a ruling made for the co-Ministering of the Home Affairs Ministry professor Mutambara endorsed the ruling as fair isolating Tsvangirai whom he accused of wanting to use the Ministry for retribution against Zanu PF.

An attempt to forge a dual entente with Zanu PF and snatch the Parliament Speakership and ultimately control of Parliament leading to the restoration of Zanu PF political supremacy boomeranged when the Zanu PF/ MDC-M candidate Paul Themba Nyathi lost the election to MDC-T’s Lovemore Moyo.

But the damage Professor Mutambara’s political over-ambitions had caused was immense and is fundamentally the basis upon which the outstanding Constitutional Amendment No 19 issues are premised.

In the haste to secure Parliament and the Senate for a Zanu PF/MDC-M coalition government Mugabe unprocedurally appointed 10 exclusively Zanu PF Provincial Governors to shore up his party’s numbers in the Senate to be assured of securing the Senate Presidency.

And with Professor Mutambara assuring him the backing of his faction if Zanu PF supported his faction’s fielding for Parliament Speaker President Mugabe had it sealed that he was at the verge of forming a minority coalition government at the expense of political nemesis Morgan Tsvangirai.

The defeat of the MDC-M Parliamentary Speakership candidate was a major setback that but preparatory appointments of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)Governor Gideon Gono and Attorney General (AG) Johannes Tomana in the realm of Unconstitutional appointments in the coalition government by President Mugabe and in like manner the appointment of the ten Provincial Governors.

The haste to form the coalition government was because of Professor Mutambara’s impatience and political naivety in supporting Mugabe’s strategic moves for reviving his scattered party.

While Mugabe has been intransigent in implementing coalition government constitutional provisions to the letter Professor Mutambara has not helped matters by his blind support for Mugabe’s initiatives and delaying tactics.

He and his party of renegades have been a major catalyst of the inconsistencies dogging the implementation of the coalition agreement commonly referred to as the Global Political Agreement (GPA) instead of its legalistic manifestation in CA No19.

It is no wonder there have been ongoing renegotiations of the GPA which are yielding nothing because they are a ruse by Zanu PF to delay implementation of CA No19.

Whatever the negotiators are talking about in their unwarranted revisit of the GPA will not be possible of implementation unless it is tabled before Parliament and Legislated as a Constitutional amendment.

We all know how long it took Mugabe to swear in the Premier and his Deputies arguing that he had no Constitutional powers to do so before passage of CA No 19 and we are all too familiar with the reasons why in gazetting CA No 19 Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa conveniently omitted to annex the GPA as a Constitutional Schedule that Parliament had passed.

Now Professor Mutambara has taken to the issue sanctions that are dear to Zanu PF like fish to water.

He claims that anything done to National leaders in the form of sanctions has a cascading effect on the generality of the populace because the State leadership is the gateway to international cooperation and or non cooperation.

But we all know that Professor Mutambara and his political formation is the least representative of parties in the coalition government.

The MDC-T which is the most popular of the three coalition partners has argued for phased relaxation of sanctions in tandem with progress in the implementation of agreed objectives of the coalition while Zanu PF the next wants sanctions removed unconditionally because its senior leadership is the most restricted by them.

The nation knows why the sanctions against Zanu PF leadership were imposed and is not convinced that Zanu PF has been tamed by the coalition government to deserve unconditional relief from the only tool that hurts it if it becomes wayward.

In effect most people believe Professor Mutambara’s presence in the Government is more a sanction to their match to freedom than the isolation of Zanu PF leaders from travelling to EU nations can ever be.

For the majority the reason why foreign direct investment into Zimbabwe is coming in trickles is because Professor Mutambara is not addressing the real issues that are scaring investors like the retention of Gideon Gono as RBZ Governor, the gazetting of Empowerment and Indigenisation laws that threaten foreign investment and the continued impunity in the never ending land reforms.

Most Zimbabweans feel the selective application of laws and the government hegemony on media as well as the negative publicity the government courts internationally through corruption and muzzling of private entrepreneurships like the Chiadzwa Diamonds debacle, the Public Servants strike the hate speech and rubble rousing in public media as well as public political statements vowing defiance of Constitutional provisions like the GPA are the issues that need addressing for them to realize improved quality of life and not the lifting of sanctions against some political leader to enable them to gallivant the globe at taxpayers’ expense.

But since Professor Mutambara represents the Minority it is understandable that he speaks on behalf of that minority but he needs to be reminded that the majority of us are not with him on the sanctions and their effect on us.

Professor Mutambara must also be under no illusion that his being a Professor entitles him to formulate our needs and wants and prescribe solutions for us.

We dare him reveal a single letter, e-mail or some such other documentary evidence from the ordinary populace that has been sent to him to represent us in calling for the lifting of sanctions and making it a priority national issue.

Professor Mutambara represents no one in this government and is a nauseating beneficiary of a flawed political system that he is fighting to prolong.

If he is with the people why does he not articulate about the true desires of people in the country like the dismissal of Gono and Tomana as well as the restitution of property looted during violent elections.

More importantly could the professor do us all a favour and stop the monkey business by his negotiators which have stalled negotiation progress on several occassions.

We will not forget to remind voters where his faction's priorities lie next time he and his cahoots seek our votes to retain political office. It will be a damning dossier the faction would not like people to be reminded of when choosing legislators.

Extension of Sanctions: President Mugabe’s just reward for failing to uphold the Constitution.

Disgusted Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe will lead his geariatrics in another year of struggle to unshackle the EU sanctions but all will be in vain unless he implements Constitutional agreements he signed with MDC frmations on 15 September 2008 that he has reneged on.

The EU has poured icy cold water on Zanu PF attempts to have sanctions first imposed against the vile Zimbabwe political party in 2002.

President Mugabe is seething with anger at the latest development. But it is him who is failing to uphold the Laws of the country and allowing his Party loyalists to indulge in impunity who deserves the punishment of sanctions because he remains defiant in his crusade against wishes of the majority of Zimbabweans.

He is the President by default and he speaks only for those that imposed him on us after we clearly voted against his continued tenure in the highest office in our country.

Of the 243 odd Zanu PF leaders and State owned companies slapped with travel banishments and trade embargoes only 6 individuals out of the original list 203 together with 8 State-owned companies and Parastatals and 1 Zanu PF closely associated individually owned company out of the original 40 were for technical reasons removed from the list.

The 6 individuals that have been relieved of the travel ban to EU countries include 4 (Richard Hove, Thomsen Jangara, Joseph Msika and Vitalis Zwinavashe) deceased Zanu PF zealots and fallout former Politburo member Dumiso Dabengwa and Thamer Al-Shanfari who is now exiled from Zimbabwe and has ceased operations of the Oryx-International operation that has also been exonerated together with State owned Industrial Development Corporation of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company, ZIMRE Holdings, ZIMRE Reinsurance Company, ZB Financial Holdings, ZB Holdings, Scotfin and Intermarket Holdings.

New Zanu PF National spokesman Rugare Gumbo could not hide his party’s exasperation with the extension of the sanctions regime against the bulk of his party stalwarts.
"We are not worried by their extension. It's a continuation of the struggle, just like the liberation struggle. We are our own liberators. Why should we worry?" he consoled himself and the party.

Well that the party's Supreme Leader and most of his geriatric followers are at variance and not amused with this development is one thing for certain.

Not after all the efforts it had channeled into highlighting its discomfort with the sanctions regime of late.

The Zanu PF National Congress had resolved in December 2009 that its representatives in the tripartite negotiations within the coalition not to abide by Constitutional amendment No 19 in implementing the founding document of the coalition government unless the sanctions have been lifted.

In its words the Zanu PF National Congress resolved that it had instructed its First Secretary and Lead Negotiators not to concede any further powers agreed to be shared with coalesce partners on 15 September 2008 unless the partners caused the lifting of sanctions against Zanu PF party leadership by the EU and US and their partners and associates.

Now that the EU has officially pronounced the opposite of what the Zanu PF Congress decreed which was later upheld by the party’s Politburo in the first week of February 2010 and much closer to the 16 February review date for impact which has all come to naught, we expect Zanu PF to live by its threat and declare a deadlock on implementation of CA No19.

Zanu PF turncoat Professor Jonathan Moyo whose penchant for opportunism needs no reminder to anyone has been yapping from the dungeons of political obscurity he was dumped following the futile attempt to regain lost political marbles in the Zanu PF Politburo does not know how to deal with the shame of rejection he recently suffered.

He accuses the Premier of promoting lawlessness by dissociating himself from the vindictive and value diminishing empowerment and Indigenisation regulations recently promulgated by Minister Kasukuwere in order to find a shoulder on which to shed his tears.

By attacking the Premier he hopes to curry favour with “comrades” in Zanu PF who have unequivocally made it known to him that he is not worthy their trust and that of the Party Presidium when he was omitted from the Politburo that he targeted for revival of his waning political fortunes.

We expect to hear what he has to say about being an active participant in a Party Congress that passes resolutions encouraging its members to breach the Constitution and in particular CA No19 and how he rates the level of encouragement to lawlessness coming from the Premier if any at all to that emanating from the entire Zanu PF Congress and its Politburo which includes the National President and his two deputies.

The reason for the entire party of geriatrics declaring resolutions that infringe the Constitution of the country is because of the party’s heart ache over travel restrictions and impounded senior party officials loot that is stashed in EU countries which the Party wants us to believe are sanctions against Zimbabwe.

Any pretence from Zanu PF National spokesman Rugare Gumbo that the party is not perturbed by the extensions of restrictions imposed on its senior leadership flies in the face of his lamentations that the measures were MDC induced.

If they were not a party bother why waste so much effort and sacrifice national cohesion on lifting of insignificant measures?

Why did Zanu PF Mwenezi East MP Kudakwashe Bhasikiti find it proper to introduce his ill advised Sanctions motion in Parliament two weeks before the EU review of the said sanctions if they are not a bother for the party?

Why has the Herald been singing the discordant sanctions removal song and denigrating the MDC-T leadership over an issue that does not worry Zanu PF?

We ask these questions because we sense hidden dishonesty and hurt within the party statement saying there is no worry in its ranks about the extension of the sanctions after all it has done and is doing to keep the sanctions protest agenda at the apex of national issues when most people believe it is trivia.

Are we to believe that the spat between Parliament Speaker Hon Lovemore Moyo and Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma that the Herald devoted acres of space following the abortive Bhasikiti sanctions motion was all out of an irrelevant irritation for Zanu PF given the extent the paper that is more reliable as Zanu PF mouthpiece than as a national media house, went to denigrate the Speaker.

We think not because we know Zanu PF is seething with anger at the extension of the sanctions and we know that in that state the party is palpable and usually shoots itself in the foot in trying to showcase its false sense of independence and ability to defy international pressure to do anything right or wrong it does not matter.

We have a simple solution to Zanu PF sanction woes. Abide by CA No 19 and the sanctions will ease off your backs.

Alternatively you can now cry, squirm and scream and lash out at perceived MDC initiators of the “vile and illegal” sanctions and in turn invite further tightening of the sanctions if not incremental measures to be considered
Motions from blind party followers like Kudakwashe Bhasikiti (Zanu-PF, Mwenezi East) even if passed by the Zimbabwe Parliament will not be enforceable on the US and EU members and their associates such that they will cause the relaxation of the sanctions regime.

They are an absolute waste of scarce financial resources and valuable time that could be used to map out strategies of democratizing the country and endearing it to the global village thus making the sanctions route an irrelevant means of making the country conform to internationally expected norms of good governance.

The extent that the EU extension of the sanctions has defied what the Herald defines as widespread discredit of the sanctions by Sadc, the Pan African Parliament, the Non-Aligned Movement, Comesa and most recently the African Union passed its second such summit resolutions, it is instructive that Zanu PF explores other means of trying to unshackle its leadership from the sanctions bondage than resolutions from political blocks that have not imposed restrictions on the party.

These lamentations will not help persuade the lifting of sanctions neither will deliberate refusal to implement agreed Constitutional amendments strengthen Zanu PF’s hand in forcing the lifting of sanctions.

If anything it will weaken the party further as most people will realize that they are held at ransom by individuals wanting relief from sanctions that they invited upon themselves.

In any event failure to share power with coalesce partners will not in any way impact negatively on sanction imposers but rather will prolong the suffering of the very Zimbabweans Zanu PF says it is fighting to liberate from the sanctions which is a shameless lie.

Premier Tsvangirai will lose more credibility from championing the lifting of restrictions against the vicious Zanu PF leadership than he would lose from any vilification or denigration that will be printed in the Herald and Broadcast on National Electronic Broadcasting media.

His political maturity and wisdom will tell him that he is better off vilified by Zanu PF than by his grassroots supporters who would want restitution for losses they incurred at the hands of Zanu PF (real sanctions for them) than seeing their oppressors being rewarded with lifting of restrictions before they have repaired the damage they caused the nation.


Premier Tsvangirai has demonstrated that he can persuade the EU and US axis  to relax measures against Zanu PF geriatrics by securing the relaxation of measures imposed against State owned companies. 


It is now up to Mugabe and his blind followers to bank their trust in him and implement those provisions of CA No 19 still in dispute fully and the Premier will unshackle the sanctions burden for them.

Civil servants’ strike exposes Zanu PF weaknesses

RBZ Governor Gideon Gono: The Bush Economist who impoverished the national working class is the one Civil servants must confront head on with demands for pay increments as he knows where the national wealth was stashed by Zanu PF and not the Premier as demanded by the striking Civil Servants. Investor confidence is low because foreign investors mistrust Gono and are holding back their cash meanwhile Gono is living pretty on much more than the US $7000 falsely claimed to be paid to staff in the Premier's office

“THE Public Service Commission has declared the ongoing civil servants’ strike illegal and ordered all State employees to report for duty or face the legal consequences,” reported the Herald a few days ago.

The illegality of the strike was declared by none other than staunch Zanu PF apologist and PSC chairman Dr Mariyawanda Nzuwah.

But the Herald went on to disclose that “Dr Nzuwah’s statement came as unionists described Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s remarks that civil servants should not complain about the salaries they are getting as "irresponsible" and the utterances of a "heartless politician".

We now have it on record that the utterances against the Premier were by Zanu PF aligned unionists in the Zimbabwe Federation of Trade Unions (ZFTU) and Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (TUZ)chief executive officer Manuel Nyawo.

Nyawo in particular accused Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of running a parallel government whose workers are alleged to be earning a hefty $7 000 compared to low wages of between $122 and $236 being offered by government to other civil servants.

“PM Tsvangirai should redirect money being spent on parallel government staff to genuine civil servants. The Prime Minister should divert money running the alleged parallel government to treasury as he was creating divisions among civil servants.” bleated Nyawo.

For the first time the TUZ has closed ranks with the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe to mount a united challenge to the government over “poor salaries” paid to teachers.

Hitherto and during the monolithic government of the country by the Zanu PF party and its Junta alliance, the TUZ was reputed for opposing any collective job action by the Teachers and teaming up with Zanu PF youth militia to not only beat up striking teachers but also flog them to the PSC to ensure they were dismissed from Public service as their motives in striking were political and in support of the MDC regime change agenda.

The same teachers he was dissuading from participating in collective job action against the government were earning no more than 50 US cents per month denominated in trillions of worthless Zimbabwe currency expressly printed by the Reserve Bank under the stewardship of bush economist Dr Gideon Gono.

The trillions of Zimbabwe currency they were being paid could not be drawn from their accounts in cash and worse when one managed to lay hands on them there was nothing in retail shops that they could buy forcing them to resort to a thriving black market run by connected Zanu PF zealots like Nyawo.

Now that the same teachers are earning no less than US$150.00 per month and can walk into any retail outlet and complete a monthly shopping errand in one place and still remain with some cash for transport, municipal services and energy bills for those working in urban centres as well as save for periodic payments such as school fees and provisions, Nyawo urges them to strike for even more.

He rallied striking Civil servants to press on with their strike action around a familiar and dishonest accusation that the Premier was running parallel government structures in his office that must be dismantled as they were benefiting incumbents of positions therein to the tune of US$7000 per month when all other Civil Servants were receiving a paltry US$122 to US$ 236 for the same month’s work.

Nyawo did not produce a shred of evidence to back his accusations against the Premier nor did he explain which government the Premier’s office was running parallel structures to as for all we know there is one government in the country led by the same Premier whom Nyawo is up in arms against.

The Office tasked with looking after the affairs of the Civil servants Nyawo claims to be leading in strike action is the PSC chaired by Nzuwah and not Premier Tsvangirai.

If government is failing to pay its employees adequately the blame must lie squarely on Nzuwah’s shoulders and he must secure adequate funds for them from Cabinet and not the Premier or President’s Office.

If he is failing to deliver that then we must advise Nyawo and those who believe in his cause to call for the resignation of Nzuwah and his replacement by someone capable of sourcing adequate funds for their satisfactory remuneration if there is ever such a thing.

But Nzuwah has already made his position clear leaving Nyawo and those of his ilk quacking in their pants and seeking out the Premier for a weakling they can vent their anger on because of his tolerance and soft heart for workers.

Dr Nzuwah said: "In terms of the law, and by their admission, there is no deadlock between the employer and the public service employees.

"Accordingly, any strike or industrial action by civil servants is premature and illegal in terms of the law.

"In light of the foregoing, the Public Service Commission notifies members of the public service who are not reporting for duty that they are doing so in violation of the standing regulations and statutes.

"Any member of the public service who does not report for duty should be prepared to face the consequences of his or her actions."

That is what Nyawo and friends must confront and not the foolish politicking about parallel government structures in the Premier’s office that he has no shred of evidence exist.

Even if the Premier was paying his office staff the exorbitant amounts claimed by Nyawo which is highly unlikely, if he were to disband his entire staff that does not exceed 100 employees and all the money is given to Gideon Gono how much percentage wise will it benefit the entire Public Service for salary increment purposes?

That is the problem TUZ members must ask their leader to clarify before joining him in a fallacious job action that will yield nothing for them.
All along the TUZ has collaborated with the Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association, Pubic Service Association the ZFTU and Zanu PF youth militia in supporting government’s onslaught against Civil Servants incomes and is more to blame for the current poor levels of remuneration obtaining for Public servants than the Premier and his so called parallel government structures if its membership needs our honest assessment of their grievances.

Attacking the Premier for the decadence in government is ill advised and ill not improve the plight of public servants by an iota.

What is needed is an understanding that is obviously lacking and has always been lacking in these Zanunised unions that supporting unaccountable governments will have negative consequences for them and the sooner they come to terms with what the coalition government is trying to achieve and is being frustrated from achieving the better.

Their best shot at improving their incomes lies more in them closing their political divisions and becoming focused on delivering services to the nation that encourage foreign direct investment and not crafting legislation that dissuades same as is evident from the Indigenisation and Empowerment rules that were recently gazetted by the government.

As Raymond Majongwe of PTUZ succinctly put it;

"Some of our comrades are bringing in unnecessary accusations against personalities in government.

"It would be a tragedy to continue blaming people whom we know are not ultimately responsible. There has been accusations on the Prime Minister for allegedly running a parallel government whose workers are paid handsomely. Some of the ascensions have not been substantiated at all,"

And we may add that there is absolutely no reason why the Premier’s office or any other for that matter must be paying its staff as all Civil Servants must draw income from the Treasury via the Salary Service Bureau.

All the staff required by the Premier must be assimilated in the PSC establishment and put on the government payroll but if the PSC cannot perform such a small and straightforward staffing matter as creating a new establishment for the premier’s office a year after the Department was constitutionally Approved then let the blame fall on the PSC for failing to staff the office and the Premier must be congratulated for staffing his office and paying them without resorting to taxpayer funds from the treasury.

Without the staff the Premier would not be able to function and that is not desirable for anyone other than his political foes.

Saviour Kasukuwere a slow learner

Minister Kasukuwere a a dangerous slow learner wallowing in past Zanu PF glory

Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere is a slow leaner or more derisively a retard.

The joy he reportedly derives from spiting Premier Minister Morgan Tsvangirai over the gazetting of the controversial Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment (General) Regulations (IEER), shortly after the Indigenisation and Empowerment Act was signed off by President Mugabe is a case in point.

When in 1980 President Mugabe announced the reconciliation policies that his government would pursue, he averted the catastrophe of retributive violence and an exodus of skills that manned the public service and private sector institutions with a magnificent pay-back to his leadership and the populace at large.

The economy grew faster than any other in Africa as productivity soared and national unity and consensus gelled resulting in improved quality of life for the hitherto disadvantaged Black majority of the populace without dispossessing the privileged White minorities of their extravagant lifestyles.

Minister Kasukuwere may have been too young to understand why Mugabe’s popularity was so instantaneous and how he managed to get the entire nation behind his Party and how that support enabled him to enjoy the best times of his leadership of the country.

Then as Premier Mugabe not only managed to capture national imagination and promised a country flowing of milk and honey for its entire populace but he lived his word by restraining his retributive inner self and that of his top aides and thereby confounded his detractors at the same time he retained the faith of his grassroots support.

When he turned against Ian Smith after the first elections under his rule and went after UANC leader Bishop Abel Muzorewa via the retrogressive PERM initiative to eliminate political competition the skeptics ent on the offensive and started demonizing Mugabe for what he truly has lived up to be – An intolerant and ruthless political dictator.

Still the critical mass he had pulled onto his side among the populace defended him vigorously notwithstanding the obvious start of departure from the enunciated reconciliation policies he had lived with throughout his first term of office.

When towards the end of his first decade in power Premier Mugabe, as he then was, publicly and unambiguously revoked the reconciliation policies by decimating PF ZAPU and declaring the One Party State dogma in place of national reconciliation he courted unforgiving hatred and instilled fear and mistrust from and in the people of Matabeleland and the Midlands most of whom were at the receiving end of the ruthlessness with which Zanu PF was gunning for monolithic political supremacy.

Minister Kasukuwere who by this time was in his late teens and an overzealous Johnny-come-by-lately defender of Zanu PF and member of the secretive and notorious CIO jovially participated in the vicious campaigns and tasted the virtues of bloody riches that has formulated his adult conduct.

He learned nothing from the vicious murders other than that survival hinges on impunity and suppression and is living by that early experience in his stewardship of a critical government function.

The violence he participated in had as had happened in 1980 re-asserted Zanu PF political supremacy as it swallowed PF ZAPU leaving political opponents of the party in total disarray as they hoped from insignificant opposition political formations such as ZUM ZUD and Forum party in a vain search for counterstrategies to halt the Zanu PF juggernaut that was moving uncontrollably towards a crash landing for the country while Zanu PF zealots cheered on.

The formation of the more formidable MDC opposition from the ashes of the disjointed opposition formations re-captured the imagination of a populace under siege and the protest vote in the 2000 Constitutional referendum galvanized the new party and propelled it to dizzy heights hitherto never witnessed when it narrowly failed to topple Zanu PF because of systematic vote rigging that was to form the hallmark of Zanu PF political survival in every election thereafter.

By now Minister Kasukuwere had become so blinded and indoctrinated by Zanu PF that he could not see life outside the party and thus he learned nothing from the 2000 landmark electoral results.

If anything he became resolute that survival hinged on violent and or treacherous conquest. Impunity became the foundation of his survival instincts notwithstanding negative consequences that befell his victims.

When after the Zanu PF 2000 elections Houdini Act it unleashed an orgy of violence in the name of correcting Land distribution distortions of our Colonial past Kasukuwere was there at the forefront of dispossessing titled land owners in a haphazard and vicious revolution that disrupted a highly organised and efficient Agricultural sector and reduced it to disorganized and redundant sector with disastrous consequences on food security for the nation that had been used to surpluses.

The poverty the unplanned Land Invasions induced on the larger populace was inconsequential to Minister Kasukuwere who in the melee gained immensely from the spoils of the chaos on the farms.

He not only expropriated land but being closely linked to the top of government he secured lucrative business pickings from shortages that ensued to built a vast empire in the oil and petroleum industry that suffered from shortages of foreign earnings as a result of critical agricultural productivity collapse.

The collapse of the economy opened doors for the connected Minister who had unlimited access to scarce trickles of foreign earnings at preferential sub economic exchange rates that were later to be perfected into Forex-for-printed-valueless Zimbabwe currency that was not worth the paper it was printed on.

Using this method, loathed Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono, and reduced all life savers who had banked in liquid securities to paupers while he transferred their savings to privileged Zanu PF zealots like Kasukuwere in stable hard currencies for a song.

By this time Minister Kasukuwere had matured enough to enjoy his cheap pickings silently and stable enough to distance himself from Phillip Chiyangwa who had introduced him to vociferous Indigenisation Empowerment by impunity.

That Zanu PF was too weak and tired to win elections was evident to all in the party not least of them Party leader Robert Mugabe who after facing stiff resistance to the intention he held to defer Presidential elections to 2010 and harmonize them with Parliamentary and Local Authority elections to ensure he would not fight a losing battle alone he dissolved a Parliament in the third year of its term and ordered fresh elections harmonised to his Constitutionally mandatory 2008 term renewal.

The obvious reason for that stroke of political ingenuity failure by the unpopular Zanu PF President was to ensure his disenchanted supporters would rally behind him and the Party to retain Government positions that had guaranteed a life of extravagance and splendor in a country where the rest of the populace was writhing in abject poverty.

Unfortunately it did not work as planned and for the first ever time in its history Zanu PF lost Local Authority and Parliamentary elections to the opposition and worse its leader was soundly defeated in the Presidential elections of March 2008.

Only the ruthless and vicious intervention of a Zanu PF compromised Military
Command averted the imminent dislodgement of the party from government and all hell broke loose as the Military fought the unarmed civilian populace to retain the defeated dictator in power.

During campaigning for the Presidency, Commander of the Defence Forces’ wife Jocelyn Chiwenga-herself a retard of the worst order had displayed the same symptoms of disdain towards Premier Tsvangirai in a Price Wars chance altercation at Makro.

She charged at the Premier seeking to taste his manhood but was left stranded and livid when the decorous Premier who was sure to win the election simply turned his back on her only to hit back by defeating the candidate the General’s wife was rooting for.

But the important lesson appears to have been missed by slow learner Minister Kasukuwere who gazetted controversial Indigenization and Empowerment regulations without consulting the Premier tasked with formulating and implementing the government in which he is a Minister.

The defiant act by the Minister, who is at the center of controversy in the role he played in irregularly recruiting Border Gezi graduates as Youth Officers in his Ministry without seeking approval for the establishment of the positions appears to have been motivated by an obnoxious directive sent to Ministers by Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Dr Misheck Sibanda.

The circular purportedly ordered Ministers to sidestep the Premier and report to the President via the Vice Presidents in contravention of Constitution Amendment No 19.

It now turns out that the directive was set aside by the coalition government principals on account of its unconstitutionality and yet Kasukuwere hand pounced on it to promulgate regulations that are not supported by the Premier overally responsible for formulating and implementing such regulations.

Now that the basis upon which the regulations were gazette has been annulled the next obvious thing should be the Minister apologizing to the Premier and taking appropriate steps to regularize the regulations whose operation the Premier has Constitutional powers to veto.

But no the slow learning Minister remains adamant he has followed procedures and will push through implementation of the regulations with or without the Premier’s support.

Obviously Minister Kasukuwere believes he can use the compromised AG’s office to implement the regulations oblivious of the backlash of political sanctions attendant in taking that misguided route from the coalition government partners opposed to the impunity inherent in the regulations.

The obvious blemish and spite to the goodwill that the coalition government is desperately clamouring for is to the daft and tactless Minister nigh.
He will only learn the ramifications when he is fatally hurt as happened to the Minister who steered the controversial Act through fast track methods to beat elections deadline Paul Mangwana who was dropped from Cabinet after outliving his usefulness to Zanu PF following the party’s defeat at the March 2008 harmonised elections.

The same fate awaits Kasukuwere but before that he will have to overcome vigorous opposition to his ill advised regulations not just from the Premier he despises but the business community he intends to dispossess of their investment and the backlash of discontent with Zanu PF as jobs in the expropriated companies are lost in like manner to the backlash Zanu PF suffered from farm workers it deprived of jobs and places of residence during the chaotic land reforms.

For his part the Premier must simply refuse the implementation of the rules in the Council of ministers and continue to oppose them at Cabinet level until such time they are made compliant with the national desire to revive the economy through attracting foreign direct investment.

No sane foreign investor other than a charitable organization would opt to invest in a country where indigenous people will claim rights to 51% of his capital injection when in the region other countries are offering tax relief incentives to attract such investors regardless of how poor the neighbourly countries may be natural resources wise.

As for Minister Kasukuwere’s failure to learn from past mistakes all we can do is remind him that the people of Zimbabwe will have their day to pass judgement on him and his party in elections looming as the coalition teeters on collapse.

It will not be a pleasing verdict for his efforts we can assure him of that.

Chombo’s double speak

Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo is fed up with incompetencies of Councillors 12 months in their jobs but nurtured the same if not worse incompetencies for 4 years because they were being exihibited by Zanu PF turncoat Commissioner Sekesai Makwavarara and her team

The Minister of Local Government Ignatius Chombo is seething with rage at the failure by local authorities to adhere to rules and regulations in executing their functions.

This comes to most of us as a welcome surprise except that we have no reason to believe the Minister’s rage is because there is maladministration in local authorities to any greater extent than has been the case over the lengthy 10 year tenure he has been at the helm of the Ministry.

Since taking over the Ministry in 2000 Ignatius Chombo has presided over the fastest decline in Local Authority performance in the country’s history.

When he took over at the Ministry Zanu PF had lost Harare Mayoral elections to the MDC and he was appointed with the brief to ensure the MDC would not get any political mileage from its control of the capital city and other urban areas.

He did not disappoint as he moved swiftly to seduce Sekesai Makwavarara the then Deputy Mayor under the efficient Elias Mudzuri who had in a space of six months of his election as Mayor of Harare not only managed to reverse the rot that had gripped the capital but had resurfaced and sealed all the potholes and craters that had been tolerated by the Mayorship of Solomon Tavengwa.

Ignatius Chombo did not only reward Elias Mudzuri’s efficiency with the boot but he also appointed Sekesai Makwavarara Acting Mayor of the capital city and all hell broke loose as service delivery in every facet of the local authority plummeted to mediocrity and in many cases extinction.

Water taps dried out, elephant grass grew along road verges and open areas obstructing motorist views. traffic lights at busy intersections stopped working, unplanned settlement shacks sprang up anywhere where there was space, refuse collection ceased and piles started to mount in alleys and in front of commercial properties and residences, municipal beer gardens started throwing a stench that passersby could not bear, council schools started dilapidating not to mention school furniture and teaching materials, health centers were not spared either as cleaning services stopped and medicines ran out.

And much more happened as street lights went off one by one until all streets were left in darkness as bulbs were not replaced, public toilets cleaning was abandoned while sewer blockages went unattended for ages likewise burst water pipes.
Dr Ignatius Chombo stood by her imposed Lady Mayor Makwavarara when everybody was crying foul at the deterioration in service delivery.

For a Minister like Chombo who has properties in the country that far outstrip what would be considered commensurate with the income that goes with the income of Ministers to accuse Councillors with nothing of corruption leaves a sour taste in the mouths of the citizenry at large.

It was only when Zanu PF bigwigs started baying for her head that Chombo was forced to abandon any thoughts of renewing her leadership of the Harare Commission that was appointed in the aftermath of the vindictive dismissal of Mudzuri by Chombo.

From 2004 to 2008 when Makwavarara was at the helm Chombo did not utter a single word about the inefficiency of the Harare City Council because it was him who had appointed the incompetent Commission in place of an accountable elected Council.

The direct involvement of Chombo in Local Authorities management was not limited to Harare but pervasive in all cities that had elected MDC Councils and the fate that befell Mudzuri also met the Mutare Masvingo and Gweru Mayors.

Any Minister who tolerated and defended the incompetence levels displayed Makwavarara and her Zanu PF imposed Commission for 4 years cannot be taken seriously when he complains about competency levels in local Authorities that have just had a year in office and are battling to come to terms with the effects of years of uninterrupted Zanu PF mismanagement.

Indeed there are numerous issues that need to be addressed before Local Authorities can be accepted as operating at levels that justify them levying rates and fees from the residence.

The extent of the rot is bad but nowhere near what it had degenerated into during the tenure of Zanu PF councilors.

We are tempted to believe that for Ignatius Chombo any significant improvement in service delivery is not worthy acknowledgement if the Counillors are from any other party than Zanu PF.

Are we to believe that the rural Councils under Zanu PF control are performing miracles in their areas that all have bad gravel road networks, no public conveniences at service centres, restricted clean water supplies from taps and are generally filthy and dusty?

The problem with Chombo is he does not want to see service improvement in all his accusations about Local Authority inefficiencies but rather he wants to create grounds for suspension and dismissal of the elected and accountable Councils to replace them with Zanu PF loyalists that would be accountable to none other than him for political expediency.

Zanu PF MP Bhasikiti opens can of worms with sanctions motion

Controversial Zanu PF Mwenezi East MP whose sanctions motion has injected some life into the docile coalition Parliament that was content with sidelines bargaining before introducing lively debate on motions in Parliament for fear of rocking the fragile coalition government.

Zanu PF’s Mwenezi East MP Kudakwashe Bhasikiti deserves congratulations for opening a Pandora’s Box with his sanctions motion in Parliament.

The reason why Zanu PF organs believe they have concessions to give away to coalition government partners has been because the partners have failed to dictate the pace of Parliamentary debates by resorting to private party to party negotiations to achieve consensus before tabling motions that they were elected to represent in the august house.

But thanks to the Zanu PF hotheaded thuggish MP with a repute for violence all that...came to an end on Wednesday 3 February 2010 when he introduced a motion compelling the Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his Deputy Arthur Mutambara to cause the US and EU to lift sanctions imposed against the Zanu PF regime that preceded the coalition government.

Suddenly Parliament which has been docile and passing motions unopposed erupted into life albeit in a manner unbefitting of behavior expected of members of the august house that Parliament is and must always be.

Stung by the undiluted manner the motion was brought to the House without prior inter party bargaining to gain support before its tabling as had become the norm, MDC-T MP’s tried in vain to stop the motion on frivolous grounds that the motion had ulterior motives to tarnish the image of the Premier and his Deputy who as co-principals of the coalition government must not be subjects of motions in parliament as there was the GPA forum in which issues pertaining to the trio were supposed to be resolved.

That was most disingenuous coming as it did from the MDC-T which has the most trust of ordinary Zimbabweans in matters relating democratic governance which Parliament is the highest institution.

Now we hear what we have always yearned to hear from the MDC-T that it will table the National Healing and Reconciliation motion in Parliament in retaliation to Bhasikiti’s sanctions motion.

We now hear that the MDC-T National Healing and Reconciliation motion has been gathering dust in the party archives after MDC-T legislator and Parliamentary Chief Whip Innocent Gonese was dissuaded from tabling it by Zanu PF Chief Whip Joram Gumbo.

The motion, we hear, petitions President Mugabe to instruct the Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri and Attorney General to arrest and prosecute named electoral violence messengers roaming the streets after murdering nearly 500 MDC-T supporters in the run up to the sham July 27 2008 Presidential runoff election.
This bodes well for a Parliament that had become so docile and irrelevant in articulating concerns of the electorate.

The MDC-T must realize that Zanu PF MP’s represent a constituency that has no obligation whatsoever to spare criticism of the Premier and his Deputies on matters that are of concern to the Zanu PF constituents.

In like manner MDC-T MP’s have no business defending the public image of a Zanu PF appointed Head of State in dereliction of duty simply because he is the Head of State and a co-Principal of the GNU.

If anything the MDC-T must capitalize on its numerical superiority in Parliament to take charge of the GPA which it has passed as Constitution Amendment No 19 (CA No 19) and table motions that hold the executive accountable for their signatures that converted the GPA into law.

We have in mind here motions to compel the President to dutifully convene the National Security Council meetings once every month as per CA No 19 Provisions.

How about a motion for the President to adhere to the spirit and letter of Constitutional Amendment No 19 and reverse the unprocedural appointments he effected after signing the GPA without consulting the other Principals stipulated in CA No 19.

Yet another motion the MDC-T must table forthwith is that compelling the President and Premier to institute the agreed Land Audit in CA19 and ensure the one man one farm concept is strictly enforced in land redistribution.

These are some of the issues the populace at large has been waiting to see addressed by Parliament but to their dismay are being left in the hands of the unelected inter party negotiating teams which are not making any headway in resolving the critical issues.

Instead there is much heckling about sanctions which no one other that disadvantaged Zanu PF bigwigs are interested in seeing lifted.

If such motions are tabled in parliament and defeated because of Zanu PF opposition the electorate will know what to do with those they elect to Parliament and then refuse to address their legitimate concerns in preference to defending their privileged positions.

It is all very well to resort to SADC mediation over GPA implementation omissions but if such approaches are made with supporting evidence that the Principals have ignored Parliamentary resolutions passed in motions the likelihood of SADC stepping in and compelling adherence is higher than when disputes are referred with no evidence of Legislative attempts to get the Executive to comply.

Bhasikiti may not have anticipated it but herein lies the best chance for the MDC-T to show the nation who is acting for the people or against them in the implementation of the GPA that the party can ill afford to miss.

Zanu PF propaganda will find it hard to report that MPs representing the party have voted against motions demanding prosecution of the people who killed opponents during the Presidential runoff and looted property from opponents.

If Zanu PF supports the motions it will lose the trust of the people it has relied upon to violently rig elections and either way the MDC-T will emerge stronger than it has ever been.