Tendai Biti : The Financial Advisor Zanu PF has lacked over 3 decades

Tendai Biti  Finance Minister

When he was sworn in as Minister of Finance  Hon Biti made it clear that he was under no illusion whatsoever about the task ahead and would give as much as he takes from his detractors in the party of geriatrics-Zanu PF.

The loathed Professor Jonathan Moyo whose penchant for publicity needs no explanation to any reasonable Zimbabwean was first to denounce the appointment and predict that the Minister would perform at the dismal levels set by failed predecessors Enos Nkala and Dr Samuel Mumbengegwi.

President Mugabe Lied irks Professor Moyo

Professor Jonathan Moyo is at it again frothing his mouth with calls for the arrest of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Jameson Timba over allegations they undermined the of or alternatively they insulted the President in contravention of section 33 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act [Chapter 9:23].

Ever since his conditional readmission to Zanu PF following years in the political wilderness he was dumped in following the infamous Tsholotsho Declaration that was deemed a rebellious attempt to topple Zanu PF First Secretary Robert Mugabe,  Professor Moyo has been at pains to show that he is a true and loyal Zanu PF cadre with the capacity and intellect to revive the doomed party to its days of glory.

Unfortunately

Zanu PF Anti-sanctions campaign: President Zuma and SADC wont be fooled that easily

The Zimbabwe coalition government or is it the Zanu PF subsector of the coalition government, deserves special accolades for exceeding expectations by securing more endorsements to the anti-sanctions campaign than was initially budgeted for. Well done.

Now that the signatures are readily available we shall be excused for believing that it is only a matter of time before the “illegal EU and USA sanctions against our country and more importantly against “our visionary” component of the SADC and AU foistered government are lifted and we live happily ever after. Surely all it requires is to show the architects of the illegal sanctions regimes how many of our patriots are against foreign intervention aimed at regime change and them being self proclaimed champions of democracy, granting the majority’s wishes. Or are we attempting to cross the bridge before we get to it here?

Tsvangirai the realist is back

That MDC-T President and Zimbabwe Premier Morgan Tsvangirai has borne the bulk of the Zanu PF institutional abuse of power is common cause to many. The ordeal he has gone through as Secretary General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and MDC founding President is a matter of a harrowing public record of unbridled political vagaries and impunity  by a 21^st century State against an individual citizen exercising constitutional rights.

Tsvangirai has; lost his wife and grandson, survived several assassination attempts, and has been; arrested and charged with offences that carried the death penalty on several times, viciously assaulted while in police custody, denied freedom to travel and association, publicly ridiculed  and dispossessed of personal and organisational property under his charge. Amazingly he has triumphed all the challenges and emerged even more popular with the Zimbabwean and International publics alike.

Robert Mugabe: When eye cataracts operation manifest as poliomyelitis

Images of President Robert Mugabe being carted around in a golf cart at the recent Sadc Troika summit in Zambia must send political tremors within Zanu PF.

At a time when the party is deeply divided and its political fortunes at the lowest ebb following defeat after defeat in every election held since 2008, the rapid deterioration of the party leader’s health could not have been more untimely.

Professor Ncube vs. Professor Mutambara

The battle of Professors rages on over the control of a hopeless political faction.

After staging what apparently looked like a model democratic takeover of the leadership of the elitist and tribalist political formation that owes its place in Zimbabwe’s political landscape to Mugabe and Zanu PF’s violent electoral coup after the humiliating defeat of Mugabe by Tsvangirai in March 2008 that opened the door for then South Africa President Thabo Mbeki to implement the SADC recovery plan for Mugabe garnisheed  by the resuscitation of the MDC-M formation in disarray Professor Ncube –the defacto leader of the renegades now finds himself against the wall after his apprentice turned formation front man  Professor Arthur Mutambara has grown a thick skin and defied his mentor.

On 7-8 January 2011 Professor Ncube asserted himself as the manifest and defacto leader of the renegade faction that he wanted to move out of the looming shadow of its MDC origins.

Four misguided Professors on MDC-M leadership saga and role in Government

One would naturally be expected to benefit from reading comments from distinguished scholars especially on subjects they profess and have been academically recognised as fundis but alas not in Zimbabwe.
Political comments by Zimbabwe’s eminent political science academics must be read with extreme caution as they are not academic or scientific postulations but rather political innuendoes aimed at persuading opinions in one direction or another.

Gibson Sibanda’s death closes definition of Zimbabwe heroism debate

Premier Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC-M Vice President Gibson Sibanda

MDC-M vice President Gibson Sibanda passed away at Bulawayo’s Mater Dei hospital on Monday night, 23 August 2010. He was 66.

Immediately thereafter the MDC-M faction wrote to President Robert Mugabe recommending that the late Sibanda be considered for conferment of National Hero status

President Mugabe hit the nail on the head

Zimbabwe President Apostle Robert Gabriel Mugabe at the Johanne marange Passover after snubbing invitation to Rumbidzai's wedding to Calvin Nyarota. Rumbidzai is premier Tsvangirai's daughter.

Addressing mourners gathered at the discredited National Heroes shrine to witness the interment of his late sister Sabina Mugabe, President Robert Mugabe hit the nail on the head when he said;

“They cannot be good to us today, when they were not good to us yesterday. They detained us, jailed us, shot at us, bombed us and slaughtered us in our hundreds. We bore the brunt of their cruelties and shall never forget.”

How true except that he was pointing at a past offender he personally and voluntarily pardoned in 1980 and got our total support for the magnanimity he had shown in victory.

The British colonists did all that to us and we pardoned them when they surrendered to our demand for self rule on that momentous day of 18 April 1980 when Prince Charles lowered the Union Jack and neatly folded it before taking it back to the United Kingdom.

Simultaneously our Zimbabwe Flag was hoisted and the wind merrily blew it in all directions as if to confirm the merriment that characterised the mood of the thousands that packed into Rufaro Stadium and many more across the length and breadth of our freed nation.

Sadly none other than President Mugabe has failed us in our desire to continue reveling in the joy of our freedom from colonial rule

By: Hatirebwi Nathaniel Masikati

MDC President and Zimbabwe Premier setting milestones on how to manage under performers in government

On to numerous occasions political rabble rousers and respected opinion leaders alike have got it wrong when it comes to the political acumen in MDC-T President and Zimbabwe Premier Morgan Tsvangirai.

A common denominator in MDC-T critics that have had to eat humble pie when the MDC-T President proved them wrong is the superiority complex that underpins their assessment of the Premier’s leadership suitability.

All Tsvangirai detractors think he is not his own man and survives on charity from his so called “Kitchen Cabinet.”

All political leaders globally heavily rely on advice they get from inner circle advisers they constantly consult before taking a political stand yet none has ever had their circle of advisers ridiculed to the extent that the premier’s team has been.

Amazingly the most ridiculed advisors to the Premier appear to have defied all odds and directed him to the most advantageous political position.

Political party leadership cannot be bought by wealth

By: Hatirebwi Nathaniel Masikati

MDC-T President Morgan Tsvangirai is at present the face of the party's struggle for power and is unlikely to be unseated at congress unless he personally decides to quit as the current formation he leads only became a party under his leadership in 2006 
 

While money can exert tremendous influence on politics, the reality is that political leadership has no coloration with wealth ownership. If anything the only coloration between political leadership in so far as wealth is concerned is that politicians increase their wealth dramatically as they gain political clout and power.

In Zimbabwe there are two fundamental constituencies that wield immense power that drives politics in the MDC-T/Zanu PF divide. The MDC-T’s strength is in the Workers while Zanu PF strength is in the Miltia.

There has been speculation that some business mogul will shortly take over leadership of the MDC-T party and transform it into a successful private enterprise.

Prime Minister Tsvangirai drives George Charamba bonkers

By: Hatirebwi Nathaniel Masikati

Has Charamba finally bitten mopre than he can chew and swallow?


It has always been coming and now it has arrived. The simmering and intriguing political contest between Premier Morgan Tsvangirai and Permanent Secretary for Media Information and Publicity as well as Presidential Spokesman George Charamba aka Nathaniel Manheru has exploded.

They may hail from the same District and have grown up eating the same Majekuchenene from the Mwerari River, fishing bream and cat fish from the Nyazvidzi river and herding the same goats, cattle and donkeys together but there is certainly no love lost between them politically.

We are not interested in fruitful discussions President Zuma only the fruits.

Where are the fruits that you discussed with the feuding Zimbabwe political leaders President Zuma
South African President Jacob Zuma emerged from recent talks he held with feuding Zimbabwe coalition government subscribers to announce that he had held some very fruitful discussions with the trio of President Robert Mugabe (Zanu PF), Premier Morgan Tsvangirai (MDC-T) and 2nd Deputy Premier Professor Arthur Mutambara (MDC-M).

Sadly he had none of the fruits to show or give as samples to the expectant Nation so that they could test the quality of the fruit President Zuma says the country is about to reap for the country.

In sales if you have an agent who reports holding fruitful discussions with prospects but does not deliver their custom, there is only one course of action that must be taken to make the agent realise the worthlessness of his effort.

Threaten the agent with the sack if he does not deliver the fruits he so fondly discusses with prospective customers.

The issues President Zuma came to mediate over are to most Zimbabweans Constitutional disputes in the public domain and his discovery of them through the so called fruitful discussions does not push forward their resolution in any way.

For the record the disputed issues arise from Constitutional Amendment No19 that was passed unanimously by the very government now squabbling over implementation of the law it passed.
Among the issues are;
Assignment of Ministerial responsibilities
Appointment of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor
Appointment of the Attorney General
Appointment of Provincial Governors
Appointments of Senior National and Ambassador Incumbents
Swearing in of ministers and Deputy Ministers
National Healing and Reconciliation
Appointment of the Media, Human Rights and Electoral Commissions
Retraining and reorientation of law enforcement agencies
Review of Co-Ministering agreement of the Ministry of Home Affairs
Democratisation of the system of governance through Constitutional reforms
Removal of stringent Media controls through opening airwaves to competition
Enactment of the establishment of the Citizenship and Immigration Board
Land reform audit and rationalization and
Economic revival through reintegration of the country into the global village.

These are tacit Constitutional demands the coalition government imposed on itself that allow for no ambiguity in their interpretation other than consensus seeking in implementation strategy.

But so far what has been bogging down the coalition government is not the implementation strategy but rather a blatant and unwarranted refusal to abide by the spirit and letter of the Constitutional provisions mainly by President Mugabe aided by 2nd Deputy Premier Professor Mutambara at the highest level of the coalition government.

President Zuma disclosed as follows after meetings with the trio that;

“I am very encouraged by the spirit of cooperation displayed by the leaders and all their parties,”
“I have had fruitful discussions with all the signatories to the global political agreement (GPA), their negotiating teams, leading Zimbabwean personalities and other key stakeholders,”

We now ask him where the fruits are. Can he kindly put them on the table so that the starving Nation can share them and mitigate against the threatening political hunger gripping the ordinary Zimbabweans.

President Zuma knows that President Mugabe has failed to uphold the Constitution of
Zimbabwe by his refusal to comprehensively form the agreed coalition government.

There is nothing in CA No 19 that allows him to decide who to swear into the coalition government or not as he has done with regard to the Deputy Agriculture Minister portfolio.

All the constitution empowers him to do is for him to receive names of nominations by respective coalition parties and without question swear them into office.

The refusal by the President to swear in the MDC-T nominated and advised to him Deputy Agriculture Minister designate Roy Bennett for whatever reasons he has or has not adduced is flagrantly unconstitutional and does not need to be fruitfully discussed by a President who is the SADC appointed point man in its guarantees that led to the Constitutional Amendment that justifies the current Zimbabwe government.

By holding fruitful discussions over this Constitutional breach instead of ordering immediate compliance to make good the obvious breach of the Constitution that SADC guaranteed and continues to guarantee until the transitional government hands the reigns to a democratically elected government President Zuma scored 2 out of 10 in this regard.

There is thus nothing to praise him for at this juncture and the nation awaits the delivery of the fruits he discussed which to most of them is the unconditional swearing in of Roy Bennett as Deputy Minister of Agriculture and a public Presidential apology for failing to uphold the Constitution in this regard.

Because President Mugabe has been allowed to breach the Zimbabwe Coalition Government Constitution and escaped the rap of the guarantors in respect of his failure to complete formation of the prescribed government he has exploited the supervision laxity within the guarantor to incrementally flout the Constitution.

Recently he gazetted the assignment of Ministerial portfolio responsibilities wherein he unilaterally allocated Acts under MDC-T nominated Ministers to his Zanu PF Ministries without seeking Constitutionally mandated concurrence of his coalesce partners namely the Premier and the 2nd Deputy Premier.

This was not the first time that the President had resorted to unilateral decrees on appointments and responsibility allotment within the coalition government albeit in utter disregard of the Constitution he swore to uphold.

The dangerous precedent was set in motion by then SADC mediator in chief on Zimbabwe the disgraced former South African President Thabo Mbeki.

Following formalization of the GPA President Mbeki made the mistake of allowing President Mugabe to abdicate his first national responsibility as Head of the State under a coalition government.

The GPA is tacit and unambiguous that following his reinstatement as the legitimate President, Robert Mugabe was supposed to return the compliments of being conferred the Presidency by the GPA with the reciprocal swearing in of MDC-T President Morgan Tsvangirai as Prime Minister in accordance with Article XX clause 20.1.3 (j) as read with Article XXIV clause 24.1 and Article XXV of the GPA.

For the avoidance of doubt that this was the logical first duty expected of the President in coalition government ruled Zimbabwe the clauses are reproduced and read;
“Article XX
20.1.3(j) The President shall, pursuant to this Agreement, appoint the Prime Minister pending the enactment of the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment no.19 as agreed by the Parties;

Article XXIV
24.1 The Parties hereby agree: that the constitutional amendments which are necessary for the implementation of this agreement shall be passed by parliament and assented to by the President as Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment Act No 19. The Parties undertake to unconditionally support the enactment of the said Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment No 19;

ARTICLE XXV
COMMENCEMENT
25. This Agreement shall enter into force upon its signature by the Parties.”
Need we say more?

Because President Mbeki was in dereliction of duty he convened the GPA signing ceremony but omitted to include the swearing in of the Premier at the ceremony part of the agenda and President Mugabe gratefully exploited the omission and managed to defer the formalization of the Premier’s inclusion in government from the date the agreement was signed.

By their silence SADC Heads of State who graced the milestone event condoned Mugabe’s first direct breach of the GPA.

The grateful Zanu PF President now legitimate Zimbabwe President took full advantage of the critical omission by SADC to unilaterally gazette the allotment of Ministerial portfolios to among the subscribing parties to the new government.

When the allotment caused disputes that were expected from an exercise in which President Mugabe had negated Article XX clause 20.1.2(g) which reads;

“The President and the Prime Minister will agree on the allocation of Ministries between them for the purpose of day-to-day supervision,” the cunning Zimbabwe President exploited the time presented by the need to resolve the allotment dispute to approve the appointments of the disputed RBZ Governor, AG and Provincial Governors from among his party loyalists at the exclusion of the new partners in government.

Agreement on Ministerial allotments could not be reached when the Premier who was supposed to be consulted remained a designate because the President had not sworn him into office as required by the GPA.

The President then unilaterally gazetted his preferred allotment and when that did action secured SADC condonotion instead of condemnation the President was galvanized to press on and consolidate his powers that the GPA sought to curtail.

He appointed party loyalists Johannes Tomana as AG and Gideon Gono as RBZ governor against the spirit and letter of the GPA he had just put signature to adding more controversy to the dispute over Ministerial allotments.

Thabo Mbeki did not help matters when he teamed with the Angolan, Mozambican, Angolan and Swaziland Heads of state and rallied Sadc behind Mugabe’s blatant disregard of the agreement he had signed with Professor Mutambara and Morgan Tsvangirai in the presence of SADC.

Thinking he had done enough to sideline the loathed MDC-T leader who had embarrassed him by the infamous March 29 2008 Presidential election defeat that he had to militantly circumvent President Mugabe then forged an unholy alliance with Professor Mutambara and his party of MDC renegades to completely alienate MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai from the coalition government.

Mugabe and his Zanu PF offered the gullible Professor Mutambara the chance to become a defacto Premier in the proposed inclusive government if his party of renegades could snatch the Parliamentary Speakership from the MDC-T with the support of Zanu PF legislators on condition the 10 MP’s under his control would in future vote along with Zanu PF legislators thus technically restoring Parliamentary majority that Zanu PF had lost in the March elections.

When the MDC-M leader agreed to the pact President Mugabe then went to SADC and requested that the body endorsed his allotments of Ministries and allow him to convene Parliament so that he could demonstrate that he had a strong hand on power despite his electoral losses.

He made it clear that he would regain lost control in Parliament and thereafter move swiftly to implement the GPA as he would have disarmed the MDC-T leader of his negotiating power and left him in a begging position to be in government.

Unaware of his bad intentions SADC offered President the opportunity he had prayed for and decreed that the Home Affairs Ministry would be co-Ministered by Zanu PF and MDC-T nominees while the rest of the unilateral allotments of Ministries by Mugabe were upheld.

The regional political bloc that guaranteed the GPA conceded to the request by President Mugabe to convene Parliament and prove to them that he had capacity to rule the country with a minority in Parliament.

President Mugabe quickly moved to bolster his numbers in the Senate by appointing the 5 Senators he had been authorized to appoint in the GPA and 10 Provincial Governors from his party to guarantee the Party’s chances in winning the Senate Presidency and thus regaining control of the Legislature if the pact with Mutambara to wrestle the Parliament Speakership prevailed.

Professor Mutambara was easy game for Zanu PF as he and his entire party stalwarts had been humiliated at the polls by Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC contestants whom the faction had parted ways with citing leadership and strategic deficiencies of the Party president.

The unholy pact between Zanu PF and MDC renegades led by Mutambara was humiliated when Lovemore Moyo from the MDC-T won the parliamentary speakership and strengthened MDC-T’s negotiating hand in power sharing disputes. The following day President Mugabe was given a torrid time when he as harangued and heckled in Parliament by the triumphant MDC MPs when he officially opened the parliament in which his control had been diminished.

It became evident to SADC that Mugabe and his Zanu PF no longer had full charge of political power in the country.

The justification for the coalition government became imperative and in January 2008 some 4 months after the signing of the GPA Sadc intervened and ordered President Mugabe to stick to its timeline to form the government by 14 February 2008.

At that meeting Sadc also ordered that the contentious appointments that the Zanu PF leader had made should be referred to the constituted government to be dealt with in accordance with its constitution which had to be amended as agreed in the GPA.

The directive was so strongly put across to Mugabe he had no option but to comply and he grudgingly complied by swearing in the Premier on 11 February 2008 and the Cabinet Ministers on the 14th of the same month as ordered.

To show his displeasure he did not fully comply with the directive as he refused to swear in Deputy Agriculture minister nominee from the MDCT Roy Bennett but had instead ordered his arrest and detention the day before the swearing in ceremony thus creating fresh controversy for the coalition government.

The unilateral appointments President Mugabe had made were referred to the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC) which recommended the sharing of the posts in accordance with the popularity of each party based on its parliamentary representation of the province.

The irregular appointments of the AG and RBZ Governor were left to the Premier and the President to resolve as per the GPA provisions while appointments of Ambassadors were agreed would be on an as when a vacancy arose and allotted to the MDC until parity with Zanu PF postings was achieved.

While all this was going on Parliament unanimously passed Constitution Amendment No 19 as agreed in the GPA and with its passage, legally ended President Mugabe’s sole hegemony on power.

But the insolent President was at it again this time unilaterally announcing appointments of Permanent Secretaries for the new government without prior agreement with the Premier as is now constitutionally demanded of him.

The irregularity was resolved when the Premier eventually agreed to the appointments without alteration in a move that earned the Premier the tag that he was a lame duck Premier and junior partner to Zanu PF president in the government despite the GPA.

The Premier says he agreed to the appointments as they were after realizing that 70% of the appointees were pro his party and leadership and if he had demanded parity in the share he would remain with less than 50% loyalists heading the Ministries.

Be that as it may Mugabe had breached the Constitution and not the GPA and he got away with it lightly.

By refusing and or failing to implement JOMIC recommendations on the sharing of Provincial governorships he was again in breach of the Constitution.

Appointment of the constitutionally provided Electoral, Media and Human Rights Commissioners stalled after the Parliamentary Committee on rules made its recommendations to the President.

The Constitution Reform program ground to a standstill when President Mugabe and his Zanu PF party started making demands that its support for the project is conditional on MDC-T causing the lifting of EU and USA sanctions imposed on Zanu PF leadership and the winding up of foreign based radio Stations broadcasting into the country illegally.

In addition Zanu PF was demanding that the Premier and his party must dismantle parallel government structures he had set up in his office.

All these conditionalities from Zanu PF were of course unconstitutional and outrageous as they were an afterthought by the party that had come to realize how unpopular it had been rendered by the performance of the MDCs in government.

The dispute raged on and was referred to the SADC Troika after MDC-T announced a partial pull out from the coalition in October 2008 and the Troika ruled that coalition parties in Zimbabwe must enter into dialogue aimed at implementing all the agreements they entered into before the regional bloc within 30 days of the Troika meeting.

The Parties resumed stalled dialogue in December in compliance with the Troika directive but progress remained elusive resulting in the current Zuma initiative to break the impasse.

The Zuma intervention came at a time when President Mugabe had once again trashed the Constitution by revisiting agreed ministerial allotments between the coalesce partners and stripped MDC held Ministries to shells by allocating Acts under their administration to his office and or those portfolios under Zanu PF nominated Ministers.

Ambassadors from the MDC were only allowed to take up their postings last month exactly one year after they had constitutionally qualified to be posted.

The final and latest Presidential dereliction of constitutional duty has been his latest gazetting of shelf Ministries administered by MDC Ministers while the Acts that should fall under the same ministries have been allocated to Zanu PF nominated Ministers with no direct relationship with the Ministries.

Speculation has been rife that these shelf Ministries allotments featured highly among President Zuma’s fruitful discussions with coalition government principals.

The SADC appointed Mediator whose predecessor condoned the unilateral allotment of the Ministries by President Mugabe to the MDC despite intense protestations from the MDC-T now tells the Nation that in his latest visit he held fruitful discussions which speculators predict would result in the shelving of the unilateral reassignment of Acts by President Mugabe.

But for many Zimbabweans this is just not good enough and Zuma must be awarded 1 out of 10 for his efforts in this regard as things stand.

If indeed there was consensus that the stripping of powers from MDC held Ministerial portfolios by President Mugabe, holding discussions that will result in the gazetted allotments being shelved will not change the fact that legally the powers will be in Zanu PF appointed Ministers’ control.

Sane Zimbabweans know that the correct remedy for a gazetted illegality is a gazetted repeal of the unlawful assignments and not the shelving of the gazetted position which remains legally enforceable in the event of a dispute arising in the future which cannot be ruled out.

Zimbabwe diasporans are a lost cause

Exiled Zimbabweans are up in arms against the failure of the Constitutional reform outreach team co-chaired by Douglas Mwonzora (left) and Paul Mangwana (right) but are they justified in demanding the cash strapped nation to spent the funds they do not have for the sake of reaching out to the exiles?

They fled their country in droves when the Party that waged a war against settler rule in their country became deluded with the vicissitudes of power and went on a rampage against them to remain entrenched in the corridors of power.

They lost all they had worked for and started afresh in faraway lands often taking up menial jobs for which they were overqualified and would never consider performing in their beloved native country.

They waged their own war against Zanu PF oppression and made huge sacrifices to see the back of Zanu PF but the Liberation struggle hardened party refused to yield even when it lost elections.

The war of attrition between Zanu PF and Zimbabwe citizens it unwittingly displaced into the diaspora is not by any stretch of imagination anywhere near completion.

That is so because Zanu PF retains a huge chunk of power that it does not deserve and is abusing it to remain in the limelight.

The displaced Zimbabweans are often touted as the lost brains that Zimbabwe needs to turn around its ravaged economy and start on the road to socio-political and economic prosperity that was so evident in the early days of the country’s attainment of freedom from colonial rule.

But on closer analysis they may not fit the bill of lost brains after all.

When the country turned a new leaf and embarked on a flawed SADC imposed coalition governance political dispensation currently obtaining the so called mediocre brains that remained in the country crafted a roadmap to the restoration of the country’s lost political, economic and social glamour.

For the first time in the country’s history political space opened for the so called displaced brainiacs of the country to input into accelerated reconstruction of the country.

Unbridled Zanu PF political violence most had ran away from subsided dramatically and hyper inflation that had pauperized the entire nation was tamed through the adoption of multicurrency use in economic transactions.

Fuel shortages that had crippled economic mobility vanished in no time at all.

Day to day living necessities that had vanished into the dark alleys of informal racketeering are now in abundance in formal retail outlets.

Educational and Health infrastructure that had been abandoned by workers has been reclaimed and is now back on stream.

There are teething problems facing the coalition government that require the input of its brainiacs to overcome but when the Premier tried to reach out to them for help by inviting the displaced citizens to consider returning to their homeland and help in its reconstruction the response was shocking.

The so called brainiacs booed and harangued their Premier for daring reaching out to them and imploring considering returning to their homes.

So disorderly were they that the Premier left without making any headway with his appeal to them to consider returning to their homeland.

Debate that followed the Premier’s embarrassing confrontation with Zimbabwe diasporans particularly those ensconced in the UK seemed to suggest that the displaced Zimbabweans had misgivings about the language used by the Premier and the lack of tangible security improvement in the country.
For the UK exiled Zimbabweans there were too many reported incidents of lawlessness, no guarantees of jobs for them if they decided to return as requested by the Premier and no signs to show that President Mugabe’s dictatorial practices had been brought under control to a point where his powers were no longer open to abuse.

Coming from the brainiacs lost by the country the concerns were not completely misplaced but they indicated that perhaps the displaced Zimbabweans were not the lost brains the country needed at this juncture in its history.

Zimbabwe’s brainiacs of the moment appeared to be those that remained and weathered the storm of Zanu PF impunity and misrule.

They appeared the people with the nerve to confront the country’s hardships with determination and dedication to succeed otherwise they would sink with it if they did not sacrifice their energies to change their environment.

The displaced brainiacs appeared to be more comfortable to be bothered with the task of rebuilding their country in circumstances where their services were likely to be hugely underpaid for in comparison to what they were earning in foreign sanctuaries they had migrated to.

But still there are projects that they can help the so called less academically qualified and unstrategic fellow citizens that have been unfortunate enough not to have the means nor the capacities to run away from Zanu PF oppression as their diaspora counterparts did even if they wished to.

Now the diasporans are proving beyond any reasonable that they are no political brainiacs nor are they economic saviours the country yearns for despite the belief commonly held about them.

While the struggling government in their homeland is looking up to the displaced citizens to take up the challenge and reinforce it with novel ideas they have gained from other countries about workable economic strategies, transparent political governance and supportive social programs the exiled citizens are nowhere near that ideal.

The Zimbabwean exiles in their vast majority yearn to return to their country, not as entrepreneurs but rather, as workers which does not help the government of the day struggling as it are to find workable solutions for employment creation.

The current Constitution reform program and National reconciliation and healing objectives are a case in point.

The government has set itself the target of reforming the Constitution that many opponents of the former exclusive Zanu PF regimes passionately singled out as the central cause of the abuse of power by the ruling elite.

In doing so the so called less educated and unstrategic Zimbabweans still trapped in the country have been resourceful and sought external help to finance the process which has been dogged by numerous obstacles from the Zanu PF party that feels threatened by Constitutional provisions that will plug the holes it has been exploiting to retain power.

The exiled Zimbabweans have been the worst victims of Zanu PF Constitutional manipulation and are itching to have a say in the reform program but the government seems disinterested in their input especially when they are demanding that the outreach programmes be extended to foreign lands when the government had to beg funding to cover the local outreach programmes.

The government has recently made it clear that it will thus not be unduly bothered about reaching out to its exiled citizens in the Constitution reform exercise because it lacks the logistical, time and financial resources to do so.
Instead of the exiled Citizens mobilizing their resources and closing the gap that forms the grounds for their exclusion in a critical initiative they have deep interest in they are already at what they know best and that is criticizing the government for failing to cater for their inclusion in the program.

But the resources the government says are in short supply need not be a reason for their exclusion. All they require is to obtain Government approval through the Constitution Reform Steering Committee to set up a Website where they can input into the program officially and such a website will not cost the fare of a return flight for someone to travel from Harare to them to hear their views on the Constitution.

How a group of people commonly referred to as the drained brains of the country fails to come together and engage their government and set up such an easy yet efficient communication strategy to avert excuses about resources leaves one wondering whether the exiles are indeed interested brainiacs or indifferent rabble rousers.

The other issue the Zimbabwe Diasporans have always harped about is the question of the rule of law but not a single one among them has ever dared draft a motion for his her MP to move in Parliament calling upon the Government to uphold the rule of law at all times.

People are abducted tortured and murdered in cold blood by politically sponsored hooligans and State Security agents while those that plunder and pillage property belonging to others are not brought to book because of their political affiliation and yet none of the enlightened diasporans has drafted a Parliamentary motion calling upon the Commander in Chief of the Zimbabwe defence forces and his Commanders to be held to account for the excess in a single case where they are known to have exceeded their mandate – and there are many such cases to the knowledge of diasporans.

Clearly these are not brains lost by the country but useful workers that must only be considered when the time is ripe after the real brainiacs in the country have opened up employment generating projects on which they can be usefully employed.

By persistently reacting to initiatives when they appear to have passed them Zimbabwe Diasporans have proven to be a lost cause that will not benefit the country in the turnaround strategizing but could be useful as managers of ideas innovated elsewhere.

The Chiadzwa Diamonds mining stench

D

Diamonds are forever and they have caused this stampede among the impoverished Zimbabweans but it is the top Zanu PF officials that are creaming the country and that must be stopped forthwith.

The Mbada Holdings directors are refusing to appear before a Parliamentary probe team into how they secured diamond mining concessions at Chiadzwa.

It is apparent that their refusal is not out of their volition but is a Zanu PF parallel government directive aimed at flexing muscles in the coalition government and protecting the Party bigwigs that have been looting the country’s resources with impunity.

Mbada Chairman Robert Mhlanga has been asked on three different occasions to present himself and his full board of Directors before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee but has been finding excuse after excuse for not complying.

The problem he faces is that the Mbada Board is a cartel of Senior Army Officers some of them still in service who have expropriated ACR mining rights by condoning off the minefields and have been siphoning and ferreting the gem to the informal market for illicit gems for personal gain.

Constitutional Amendment No 19 upon which the current government is premised did not visit the contracts of serving military personnel to seek their allegiance to the coalition government and we are all paying the price for that reckless omission.

The omission was deliberate as it was feared that any attempt to clip the powers of the Military Commanders would trigger a full scale and bloody Military coup.

The reason why President Mugabe retained the Presidency he had lost in an election to Morgan Tsvangirai was because the Military commanders had made it clear to SADC that if he was pushed out they would step in and cease power.

It may have been prudent then to leave them be while the government found each other but now it is no longer prudent to allow these self serving bloodthirsty Commanders free reign to loot and plunder as they wish simply because they have threatened a coup.

It is opportune time for the government to exploit the presence of President Mugabe at its helm to put foot down and bring the Commanders online or force them to topple Mugabe if they so wish.

The way President Mugabe has kept silent or openly supported albeit indirectly the Chiadzwa debacle suggests that somehow he may be directly involved with Mbada and likewise Mines Minister Obert Mpofu and you guessed right Gideon Gono, Solomon Mujuru and Emmerson Mnangagwa.

What with Retired Air Marshall Robert Mhlanga playing lead role in the venture when previously he was President Mugabe’s Personal Helicopter Pilot and was closely linked to the President’s late former wife Sally Mugabe.

Billy Rautenbach has been increasingly seen around the Manicaland province and we all know his Diamond escapades in the DRC as well as his close links within Zanu PF and in particular Emmerson Mnangagwa.

The other key player Canadile is fronted by the late Retired General Vitalis Zvinavashe ‘s cousin Lovemore Kurotwi.

With the support of the late General Kurotwi caused commotion in the Coal Merchants association and ended up its President taking over lucrative coal supply contracts previously held by established Coal Merchants and exposing the tobacco farmers to serious shortages due to lack of capacity to deliver adequate supplies of coal in time for the curing season.

Then there are the revelations that Obert Mpofu has packed the Boards of Mbada with his relatives and trusted employees from the Ministry of Mines.

Its stinking business at Chiadzwa and nobody seems to have the nerve to unruffle feathers of the Military involvement in the lucrative dirty diamonds trade that is benefiting a few individuals rather than the nation at large.

Mines Secretary Thankful Musukutwa has been writing letters to the Parliamentary portfolio committee investigating the Chiadzwa diamond mining operations that it was premature for him and other players to appear before the committee as the matter was before the Courts.

What Musukutwa has been conveniently turning a blind eye to is that Courts work with statutes from parliament and thus cannot have supervisory powers on Parliamentary business neither does the fact that a matter is before a Court preclude parliament to exercise its powers and independently investigate the matter with a view to regulate the causes of the matter.

The doctrine of separation of powers between the Executive, Judiciary and Parliament means neither of these central pillars of our democracy has power to stop the other exercising its right to scrutinize a matter that is topical in order for it to determine what course of action to take on the matter.

But Musukutwa is obviously under instructions from the Executive to defend the exposure of key Government and political figures behind the murky deals at Chiadzwa.

The leniency of the Parliamentary Committee suggests that it is aware of these behind the scenes pressures on the Secretary’s shoulders hence the offer for him to appear in camera if need be for it to get his confession to anomalies and illegalities going on at Chiadzwa.

It is likely Musukutwa will appear before the committee sooner rather than later or find himself behind bars. Known Board members of Grandwell trading as Mbada that Musukutwa has been barring from appearing before the Parliamentary Committee include Robert Mhlanga, Sithengisiso Mpofu, Dingiswayo Ndlovu and Crystesona Kanjoma while Canadile is represented by Alvin Ncube, Beauty Moyo, Caughan Matanhire and Lavemore Kurotwi

That will sent the correct signal to the contemptuous Minister and the Board Members of the rag tag mining outfits currently looting the Chiadzwa diamond fields dry and they will stampede to appear before the Committee to avoid similar fate.

The magic of disengagement

Professor Jonathan Moyo shamed by developments of the "dumpest" MDC-T disengagement resolution

In politics scientific prediction of consequences of an initiative are near impossible and a best mere conjecture.

Zanu PF propagandist and democracy champions who went to town about the futility of the MDC-T partial disengagement from the coalition government in October 2009 have once again been confounded by the political ingenuity that is abundant in the party.

If it was not that they have long lost any modicum of shame two decades ago they would be burying their faces in their bloodstained hands in shame as to how they could have got it so wrong about the initiative they all nonchalantly dismissed as a non event soon after the party announced its resolution to disengage.


“As Zanu PF we are not surprised by this decision. The MDC has done it several times boycotting parliament and many other important national events so we are not surprised by this.

The MDC has its own problems and wants to make these problems national problems. They are only doing this to please a white man, they have always shifted goals posts but we will not lose sleep over that as Zanu PF we will continue working for the people of Zimbabwe,” bleated Ephraim Masawi on behalf of Zanu PF at the time the MDC-T disengaged.

But ever since the Sadc Troika met in Maputo on5 November and resolved that the parties in the coalition government must address all the outstanding implementation issues from the GPA signed on 15 September 2008 as well as the issues that the Sadc resolved on 27 January 2009 in Pretoria he has gone into hibernation out of shame.

Before that meeting a self professed former ZIPRA terrorist who did not fire a single shot or kill so much as a fly but now purports to have fought and defeated Rhodesian Selous Scouts and their colonial masters had waxed lyrical abut the need for Sadc to dismiss the GPA and replace it with the Zanu PF policies that have ravaged the country into a basket case over three decades.

Among the ludicrous arguments he advanced were the central issues that inform Zanu PF not to live by the GPA the party wilfully and consciously entered into with the MDC formations on 15 September 2008 to legitimise Mugabe’s disputed claim to election to president of the country on 28 June 2008.

Falsely reputed as the most incisive political analyst and scientist in the country despite a catalogue of failed predictions about the Zimbabwe political environment over the past decade Professor Moyo laid bare his deficient analytical skills when he labelled the MDC-T partial disengagement resolve its dumbest political initiative of all-time.

In his lack of political wisdom the vocal and controversial Zanu PF MP for Tsholotsho North exposed his and Zanu PF’s political blindness on issues material to Zimbabweans that the MDC-T was and is pushing for by insisting on full implementation of the GPA.

For a politician with his chequered history it is not surprising that he got it totally wrong because he really and truly lacks credibility as a trusted and objective analyst to the extent he mesmerises with eloquence in arguing wrong concepts convincingly.

Professor Moyo and the entire Zanu PF think-tank lost it on the disengagement initiative when they blindly fooled themselves into believing that the MDC-T disengagement resolution was motivated by;
 The indictment to trial and re-detention of the party’s nominee for Deputy Minister of Agriculture one Roy Bennett whom Zanu PF believes is undeserving of the position due to his history as a former Rhodesian army man whose nomination was intended to provoke the ire of Zanu PF instead of addressing the need to revive the country’s ailing yet key economic driver the agricultural sector
 The partial disengagement resolution was at variance with provisions of Constitutional amendment No 19 upon which the coalition government is premised and
 Disengagement would not yield any results in the changed economic environment stabilised by the intervention of multi-currency usage in place of the discredited and discarded Zim-dollar whose usage had benefited the party through the days of hyperinflation when every MDC-T cough used to cause the economy to sneeze.
 Zanu PF’s acting Junta Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa had on January 29, 2009, crafted the multicurrency usage policy that had given the country immunity against hyperinflation and taken the advantage from the MDC-T’s cheap politics of any kind.

“The multi-currency macroeconomic response to the MDC-T’s treacherous boycott of the coalition government is very loud and clear: While your boycott political antics previously caused havoc in the hyperinflationary Zim-dollar days, this time haurume in the dollarisation days!” bragged Zanu PF through the garrulous Professor Moyo.

Prof Moyo disclosed that the multi-currency usage dynamic’s hedging effects against inflation were beyond the comprehension f the MDC-T and its foreign strategists who were still playing around hyperinflation politics to cause disenchantment with Zanu PF among the populace while promoting MCDC-T’s unwarranted popularity.

As a consequence he predicted that disengagement from the coalition government would condemn MDC-T to the peril of political irrelevance which as we now know has not happened but to the contrary has strengthened the party’s grip in the coalition government.

The outrage of this kind of political reasoning within Zanu PF was premised on the fallacious belief in the party that it is people centred and will for that reason gain political momentum from economic stability brought about by multi currency fiscal policies which unbeknown to the party a largely and rightly credited to the entry of the MDC-T into government.

Rightly credited to the MDC-T entry, because the multi currency intervention only became possible when the GPA had been signed when it had been resisted by successive Zanu PF regimes for over 2 decades being labelled unworkable bookish economics by the Zanu PF party leader President Mugabe and RBZ Governor Gideon Gono.
Notwithstanding those realities on the ground Prof Moyo could not resist the temptation to credit economic stabilisation to the discredited Zanu PF.

“Put differently, what this means is that whereas Zanu PF has remained resolutely focused on people-centred policies in the context of the GPA and against the backdrop of the now irreversible multi-currency macro-economic environment, the MDC-T has remained a whimsical western proxy for regime change, which continues to see the GPA as a treacherous opportunity for getting a few posts for a few well connected individuals,” he bragged

The reality though is that the converse of what he said is true given the hard to dispute evidence that it was Zanu PF that perilously hanged the country’s economy on the worthless Zim-dollar for 2 decades arguing that it was a symbol of sovereignty worthy of retention at any cost despite its worthlessness only to capitulate when it realised that the Finance Ministry had fallen in the hands of an MDC appointee who would never countenance such ridiculous uneconomic arguments to formulate fiscal policies of his crucial Ministry.

It was therefore not surprisingly that Prof Moyo reserved his parting shot for the Finance Minister Tendai Biti he predicted at the time he was appointed would be a catastrophic failure but has proven him wrong in every facet of political economic and social management to date.

“For Minister Biti and indeed for the MDC-T itself, the price of disengagement from the government is certain to be a traumatic movement from kiya-kiya economics to sewer economics,” he closed his ill advised plea to SADC.
But back to economic stabilisation Professor Moyo conceded that the Finance Minister had held his own by maintaining the multi-currency usage fiscal policies.

“Supermarket shelves remain full with more of the same on offer as the power of the so-called mighty dollar continues to reign supreme. In other words, the economy has ignored the MDC-T boycott by treating it as non event” he admitted to which we must add thanks to Finance Minister Tendai Biti’s resistance of desperate Zanu PF attempts to reintroduce the discarded and discredited Zanu PF symbol of sovereignty the worthless Zim-dollar.

“In view of the foregoing, if the MDC-T thinks its latest boycott stunt will find political traction by precipitating a political crisis of national, regional, continental or international proportions, then it is in for a rude shock,” the Professor erred.

We all now don’t we how shell shocked Zanu PF has been ever since the 5November SADC Troika resolutions were pronounced.

The party argument that Zimbabweans were prepared to sacrifice their all in defence of their sovereignty has changed to something like;

“What the people of Zimbabwe are waiting for are jobs, economic stability, affordable education, a reliable health delivery system, food security, safe and reliable water supplies across the country, sufficient electricity, safe and reliable roads, an efficient transport system, and a reliable social welfare system after retirement,” Zanu PF apologist Reason Wafawarova writing in the party mouthpiece the Herald or more succinctly;

“Indeed, it is very instructive to note that during the GPA negotiations, and over the last eight months since the formation of the coalition government, the MDC-T’s exclusive preoccupation has been about “posts” over “policies”- Professor Moyo justifying the need for Zanu PF to retain Provincial Governorships, the position of Attorney General and that of RBZ governor it expropriated in the coalition government in contravention of the GPA as well as the need to avoid the suffering it had caused the people over 3 decades of uninterrupted misrule and impunity in defense of sovereignty.

This dramatic shift only because its wish for SADC to write off the GA failed dismally in Maputo on 5 November 2009.

Now Zanu PF argues without any rationality that Provincial Governorships are an extension of the President’s Office which are to be manned at the President’s discretion by his trusted Zanu PF cadres and not some MDC-T functionaries loved by the localities where they are established.

“For example, it is unreasonable and treacherous to expect President Mugabe to accept the dilution and subversion of his office as Head of State and Government and the Commander in Chief of the Defence Forces by allowing 60 percent of it to be given to some other political parties or offices that are not loyal to him as President. There is no precedent for such a thing anywhere in the civilised and democratic world governed by the rule of law,” bleated Prof Moyo on behalf of Zanu PF.

Little did he realise that in so saying he was reducing the office of National President to the Zanu PF presidency equivalent. For indeed if President Mugabe is truly a President of the people of Zimbabwe he should be guided by people’s preferences of they want to be led by politically and appoint the most popular people to represent his offices at Provincial level.

But because the unpopular boys and girls in Zanu PF are in search of jobs whose scarcity they have exacerbated through unbridled political impunity over three decades President Mugabe must force them to preside over the governance of unwilling provinces who prefer the leadership option offered by other political parties and the erudite and “politically astute” Professor Moyo will applaud such a move as a show of how people cantered the President of the country and his party is.

But such has been the wit behind the MDC-T disengagement initiative that self acclaimed political scientists that attempt to rubbish it end up entangling themselves in a web of political stupidity.

That is why all who have advanced the argument that MDC-T is fighting for scarce jobs for its people have not been taken seriously. The reason is because a job can’t be a job for the boys and girls only when an MDC-T adherent eyes it and not when it is offered a Zanu PF cadre trusted by the President but unpopular with the general populace in a locality.

Which argument extents to the ridiculous demands that the Premier must dismantle parallel government structures in his office whatever that means.
To show how concocted the Zanu PF demand was, is and will always be Professor Moyo tried to clarify it but only further muddled it as follows;

“During the GPA negotiations the issue of central concern to the MDC-T was Cabinet posts. Later, the focus shifted to MDC-T demands for posts for the positions of Attorney General, the Governor of the Central Bank, ambassadors and provincial governors. Since then, the MDC-T quest has been only about posts in the Prime Minister’s office with special reference to the filling of illegal positions in the party’s parallel government structures whose civil servants earn top up salaries ranging from US$700 to US$7,000.

Parenthetically, there is new and incontrovertible evidence that some but not yet all MDC-T Cabinet Ministers are earning top up salaries pegged on the Kenyan cabinet salaries reported to be around US$15,000 a month. Otherwise, and as a matter of fact, all MDC-T Cabinet Ministers and civil servants are receiving top up salaries and their evil pecuniary interest explains why MDC-T Cabinet Ministers who do not agree with the disengagement decision have nevertheless succumbed to it.”

In as much as Constitutional Amendment No 17 revived the Senate as part of our political institutions Constitutional Amendment No 19 revived the office of the Prime Minister as an institution of our political governance and in the spirit of GNU reassigned leadership of government to that office from the office of the President where I had been escalated during the days period when the post of Premier was abolished.

This is the inconvenient truth that Zanu PF has to accept that the president is no longer the Head of Government but rather the Premier.

By insisting that the President is the Head of State and Government as well as Commander in Chief of the Defense Forces and Supreme Leader of Zanu PF the party and Prof Moyo in particular are actually attempting to justify the parallel government structures in the Premier’s Office by arguing that government structures devolve from structures in the President’s office which structures if there at all are well and truly the parallel structures that must be reassigned to the Premier’s office.

The absurdity of a Prime Minister duplicating government structures of the government he leads is difficult to comprehend unless the argument that the President remains Head of Government notwithstanding that his position as President was ratified when he signed a n agreement wherein he accepted the revival of the Premier’s office to head the government.

If such an argument carries the day it means the coalition government is thus nullified and both the President and the Premier are running governments and the Premier’s wing seems to be outperforming that of the President as it is paying its Ministers and workers better.

If that is the case then it was the smartest decision by the MDC-T to openly declare its dissociation with the president’s structures and thereby trigger SADC intervention as guarantors of the GPA which under such circumstances would have been a hoax agreement.

Nothing exposes Zanu PF inconsistencies in the coalition government than the attempt by Prof Moyo to hoodwink SADC into believing that the GPA has been fully implemented in terms below.

“Furthermore, SADC should take note of the fact that the other issues that the MDC T says are outstanding, such as the posts of the Attorney General, Governor of the Central Bank and provincial governors, are not mentioned anywhere in the GPA and were only raised in some SADC press statement and have since been dealt with in government as promised in that press statement.”

The same issues almost caused the failure of the signing ceremony of the GPA as MDC-T sought to have them agreed upon before putting pen to paper. The party only assigned the GPA after getting irrevocable assurances from the SADC mediator that they would be revisited and to his credit they were revisited and resolved by SADC resolutions of 27 January 2007 when due to Zanu PF intransigence they were referred to the guarantors of the GPA as formation of the government stalled over the same issues and disputed allotment of Ministerial portfolios.

It was at the same meeting that SADC authorised the first departure from the signed GPA when it resolved that the Ministry of Home Affairs will be Co ministered by a Zanu PF and MDC-T nominee meaning government Ministers were increased by one over and above the 37 parties had signed for.

The departure triggered further horse trading of Ministers of State portfolios resulting in a Government of a bloated 76 Ministers and Deputies instead of the 57 they had signed for in the GPA.

For Zanu PF and Prof Moyo to now argue that Resolutions of the SADC meeting on 27 January 2009 are not part of the GPA but a mere press statement that has since been attended o anywhere was the height of mischief and disrespect of the intelligence in SADC leadership as well as our national intelligence.

No wonder way SADC were tough on the feuding parties and prescribed deadlines on when action to resolve the disputed issues was to take place and be concluded. They were irked by the condescending attitude displayed by Prof Moyo on behalf of Zanu PF which was reverberating in the State owned media.

Such was the power of the so dubbed dumbest MDC-T political initiative to disengage from the GNU that it forced Professor Moyo and Zanu PF to expose their true colours and political intentions to sidestep the GPA and rule the country through an exclusive Zanu PF cartel disguised as the coalition government endorsed by SADC on 15 September 2008.

The folly of Zanu PF’s contention that the MDC-T disengagement was in protest to the lawful arrest, indictment and detention of Roy Bennett and its other MPs for felons became apparent when the 5 November 2009 SADC Troika summit held in its resolutions that continued refusal of his swearing into office by President Mugabe was an aberration from the GPA that required urgent resolution.

“The MDC-T decision to boycott the coalition government to protest the lawful indictment of Bennett by a court of law is a gross intimidation of the court and a scandalous interference with the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law specifically intended to make our courts part of the external US and EU project of illegal and undemocratic regime change.

In the same vein, the notion that the rule of law is what the MDC-T or its Western backers say it is, has gone too far and must now be stopped. Whenever an MDC-T person is arrested or prosecuted on whatever allegation, including cases of rape or obvious mobile phone theft, the response is always political under the self-serving claim of persecution or the so-called selective application of the law,” Prof Moyo had attempted to mislead SADC that the coalition government was upholding the rule of law through its relentless prosecution or is it persecution of MDC –T criminals in vain.

We now know what became of the cases against the alleged MDC-T mobile phone thieves and rapists when they went for trial don’t we? Yet Prof Moyo still holds them in negativity. They were acquitted of any wrongdoing.

“Of course, Bennett remains innocent until found guilty by a court of law, but he does face very serious criminal charges and the shocking evidence in support of those charges has been placed before the court for the attention of his lawyers following his indictment. That is what must now be addressed through the judiciary,” Professor Moyo declared authoritatively.

But Zanu PF had advised him to write the Bennett judgement before the courts hear his case so that they will have no reason o acquit hi even if the case against him was not proved.

Here is the “judgement” by “Justice” Professor Jonathan Moyo that should be reproduced by Justice Chinembiri Bhunu after presiding over the Ro Bennett case verbatim not withstanding his pretence that Bennett must be presumed innocent yet denied the right to take up appointment in the coalition government.

Whereupon after reading evidence of record and listening to the arguments by both the State and Defense Counsels I find that:-

“It is preposterous for anyone to say that Bennett should not have been charged or that, having been charged last February, he should not have been indicted simply because he is a white person or a former Rhodesian infantryman with the blood of freedom fighters on his hands.

Nobody is above the law, and that particularly goes for former Rhodesians who brutally massacred our freedom fighters and the innocent peasants who supported them or Zimbabwean children who were in refugee camps in Mozambique and Zambia.

The culprits must be brought to book and they will never ever be allowed to now masquerade as latter day champions of human rights. Never!

It is not okay for the very same Bennett who fought and massacred our liberation forces to be a Minister in the government of Zimbabwe 29 years after our hard-won independence. That is just not acceptable.

Although the media-connected Rhodesian network behind the MDC-T has whitewashed Bennett’s curriculum vitae to make it appear as if it starts from 2000, the year which Rhodies and their American and European backers say is when the struggle for democracy in Zimbabwe started after the start of the historic land reform programme, even fools know that Bennett was a notorious member of the Rhodesian killer machine before 1980.

Given that reclaiming our priceless land from British colonialists who brutally and illegally stole it from our ancestors was the single most important driver of our national liberation struggle, the MDC-T’s treacherous nomination of Bennett who served in the Rhodesian infantry for the post of Deputy Minister of Agriculture is morally equivalent, and therefore as insulting as, having a former Nazi infantryman serving as a deputy minister of justice in Israel today.

If Israel would not accept that under any circumstance, including that of fake reconciliation, why should Zimbabwe accept the monstrosity?

There is no amount of the abuse of press freedom that can justify the rewriting of Zimbabwe’s history. Bennett’s hands have the blood of Zimbabwe’s liberation fighters including that of Zimbabwean children who were in various refugee camps in Mozambique during the liberation struggle.”

In the premise I find the accused………?

With that judgement will end the Bennett nomination issue and what Professor Moyo describes as:-

“In the vain hope of finding a SADC solution in Maputo, Pretoria, Kinshasa, Gaborone or Luanda, Prime Minister Tsvangirai is once again behaving like a nauseating drunkard who loses his car keys on the dark side of the street only to hopelessly look for them on the side with light.”


It appears Zanu PF after loosing the same car keys in similar circumstances have chosen not only to look for them in the dark side where they were lost but send blind political drunkards like Prof Moyo to find which is the dark side of the car and then the lost keys.

Welshman Ncube and the semantics of outstanding GPA issues

Hatirebwi Nathaniel Masikati

Jomic Co-Chairman Professor Welshman Ncube obsessed with the trivia and delussional over the GPA outstanding issues.


Jomic co-chairman from the MDC-M Professor Welshman Ncube would like us to believe that there are no longer any outstanding issues concerned with the GPA.
“Everything in the GPA has been talked about at different levels and at different platforms. It therefore does not make sense for people to say there are outstanding issues in the agreement.

People need to understand the terminology. The fact that there are disagreements or that the other part maybe slow in the implementation does not make an issue outstanding.

What remains of the GPA is the full implementation and Jomic is there to deal with all the problematic areas of the agreement which is exactly what we are doing,” he reportedly told one pro Zanu PF website recently.

Prof Ncube may not now it but he has a very bad reputation as an arrogant and holier than thou political tribalist with very limited constituent support let alone national support.

That is why he was resoundingly defeated by MDC-T vice President now Deputy Premier Thokozani Khupe in the March 2008 elections.

He is reported to have specifically demanded to contest Khupe specifically to show MDC-T President and current Premier Morgan Tsvangirai that he had remained with the chuff of the Matabeleland following the 12 October 2005 split of the Party that he masterminded.

He was humiliated and has never forgiven MDC-T for that.

That is why he is going at a tangent by alleging there are no GPA outstanding issues but rather disagreements emanating from the GPA that remain to be sorted out.

The GPA was signed and sealed on 15 September 2008 and thus became the benchmark upon which the formation of the inclusive government and its achievements or failures will be measured and evaluated.

When reference is made to outstanding GPA issues it is in respect of the clauses in the agreement that have still to be implemented.

Professor Ncube must surely understand that there is no difference between what he calls “disagreements or that the other part maybe slow in the implementation” and what the entire nation regards as outstanding issues from the GPA.

It is sad when a person occupying such a senior position in Jomic as does Prof Ncube resorts to lecturing the nation on trivia of semantics instead of dealing with the real issues that Jomic was established to monitor.

The GPA is a signed political agreement between Zanu PF, MDC-T and MDC political Parties wherein they agreed to form a coalition government in place of the one that could not be formed following the March 2008 elections due to interventions that have been dealt with sufficiently enough to make them common cause and thus not form the basis of this piece.

In agreeing to form the coalition government the GPA subscribers made certain specific undertakings to the nation on what the coalition government was to do in order to restore the supremacy of the electorate in determining who should or should not be in government.

It is no exaggeration to say that the GPA was breached on the very date it was signed when President Mugabe deliberately failed and or refused swear in the Premier and his deputies there and then to formalise the start of the formation of the coalition government.

Because of that refusal or failure, action to form the coalition government was stalled until 11 February 2009 and this only because SADC had decreed a timeline for the subscribers to follow if they expected its support.

Outstanding issue the unilateral appointment of Dr Gono
Even then the formation process was not completed and remains incomplete to date with the Deputy Minister of Agriculture nominee still to be sworn into office and the Provincial governors and positions of Reserve Bank Governor and Attorney General still to be filled by the coalition government as agreed in the GPA and at the subsequent SADC summit on 26-27 January 2009.

Professor Welshman Ncube says there are disputes over these issues in the formation of the coalition government that Jomic is dealing with but that does not make them outstanding GPA issues which does not make sense.

For the ordinary Zimbabwean whose vote counted for nothing in the formation of the current government the question is was there agreement between MDC-T, MDC and Zanu PF to form a coalition government in which each party would nominate a certain number of Ministers and Deputies for appointment as such by the President and if so was that done to the letter of the agreement or as alternatively renegotiated and agreed upon by the GPA subscribers?

Obviously if the answer is yes then the issue has been resolved but if the answer is to the contrary then the issue remains outstanding. It is that simple really but Prof Ncube wants us to believe that if any of the issues has not been implemented because of a later day dispute among the GPA subscribers then that issue is not outstanding but as he puts it issues of “disagreements or that the other part maybe slow in the implementation,” whatever that means.

Going by Professor Ncube’s warped reasoning an issue becomes outstanding in the GPA if it has not been included in the agreement but not if it has been included but never implemented which is outrageous.

The GPA was not signed to be archived but to guide the implementation process of the coalition government formation and its resolution of issues that failed the formation of a government following the March 2008 elections.

In that respect therefore there are several issues that remain for the subscribers to the GPA to attend to and ensure they have been implemented as agreed by the parties.

In the GPA it was agreed that parties would form a coalition government that would work towards achieving economic stabilization and turnaround, national healing and reconciliation, the democratization of the country’s political processes and facilitation of humanitarian aid and access thereof.

To achieve these broad objectives the coalition government agreed to take certain specific actions which actions have been in some instances varied and or neglected altogether making them outstanding from the GPA.

We have in mind the swearing in of Ministers and their deputies that was agreed to be completed by 13 February 2009 but is yet to be completed.

The review of appointments of Provincial Governors, the Reserve Bank Governor, the Attorney General and other Senior Government officers such as Ambassadors by the coalition government which is yet to be realised.

Chief Persecutor Johaness Tomana Zanu PF AG
The cessation of politically motivated hostilities, land invasions, selective application of laws, retraining of law enforcement agencies and restoration of political freedoms including the freeing of airwaves, appointment of the Parliamentary Standing Rules and orders Committee, the Electoral, the Anticorruption, the Media Commission and the Human Rights commissions.

Surely Professor Ncube would be in the know of what has happened to these agreements and why some have yet to be realised.

In addition to that we ask Prof Ncube what has happened to the National healing and reconciliation process and who has been healed or reconciled by it?

Why is the State media still preaching hate against the MDC-T and why are only MDC-T activists and MP’s being arrested, prosecuted and acquitted of the charges if the charges are substantive?

Why is the Constitution making process behind the agreed schedule and what is Jomic doing to ensure this extremely important issue does not lapse into the category of outstanding issues?
Brigadier Mujaji leading later day farm invasions and evictions despite the signing of the GPA

Why are farmers being evicted from their farms and sentenced to prison terms for refusing to vacate their premises?

Why is the MDC-T being asked to cause the lifting of targeted sanctions when it was a tripartite agreement to work towards the upliftment of those measures and to what extent has the other parties complied with the reasons that caused the imposition of the sanctions other than mere grandstanding and verbal condemnation of the measures?

We must also ask Professor Ncube why the so called pirate radio stations are the responsibility of the MDC-T alone to shut down when Zanu PF and MDC-M are using the same stations in equal measure by granting them interviews to spread their messages while the MDC-T is not allowed space in National broadcasting media to air its views at the same level as Zanu PF is if at all.

We do not expect Prof Ncube to compel respect for the Premier but he must be honest when it comes to the disrespect he has been accorded by the Zanu PF MPs, the Military Commanders and the President. What is Jomic’s position with regard to the behaviour of the military chiefs in refusing to salute and even meet with the Premier in the National Security Council?

And more what has the Jomic co-chairman to say about the statements from Didymus Mutasa, Bright Matonga, and Ephraim Masawi and Webster Shamu alleging that the Premier and his party a harlots in the Zanu PF government that is mistakenly referred to as the government of national unity?

As co-chairman of the body tasked to monitor compliance with the spirit and letter of the GPA during implementation what is Prof Ncube’s take on these inconsistencies. Are they disputed issues or outstanding compliance issues?

There must be some rational explanation for all these inconsistencies with what was agreed that Prof Ncube as the Jomic co-chair must give to the nation other than that they are simply in dispute among the subscribers.

Why should they be in dispute at implementation when they were not in dispute at the negotiation table and were agreed upon and signed for by all subscribers?

Now we hear that the MDC-T is being accused of setting up parallel government structures in the Premier’s office with workers therein being paid more than any other Civil Servant yet their salaries must be coming from the Salary Service Bureau that pays all Civil Servants.

Who is authorizing the higher pay rates for these Civil Servants in the Premier’s Office and by what authority is he doing that?

Professor Ncube must know that Jomic is there to deal with deviations from the GPA and the fact that there is disagreement with what the parties agreed is an indicator of what is outstanding or not.