The common thread linking politicians

Prof Arthur Mutambara accused of the same leadership traits afflicting Mugabe by top ally Job Sikhala

There is a common thread linking Robert Mugabe, Ndabaningi Sithole, Eddison Zvobgo, Edgar Tekere, Welshman Ncube, Arthur Mutambara and Job Sikhala that emerges from the whingeing by Job Sikhala from his current tussling with MDC-M leadership.

If the truth be said it is a thread that links all of us but that some of us are better at severing at material times than the disgraced former St Marys MDC legislator and Mugabe.

What causes most of us to join and actively participate in organised institutions are shared interests that the institutions set out as objects of its incorporation.

Religious objects group and bind worshippers together. They however differ on strategy to attain objects of worship and split on those considerations to become separate entities with similar objectives but different methodologies of attaining the same outcome.

The need to brand compels groups to choose names, emblems and slogans that distinguish them as unique entities yet ideologically they may not be different after all.

Ownership of the brand becomes a serious conflict point should modalities to attain set objectives at some point vary within the membership.

Job Sikhala a self confessed founder member of the MDC has become a victim of brand proprietorship to the same extent as Robert Mugabe, Ndabaningi Sithole, Edgar Tekere, Eddison Zvobgo, Welshman Ncube and Arthur Mutambara are to their organisations.

They are all fundamentalists who are prepared to do anything necessary to retain ownership of a brand name.

Ownership is a common thread that runs through us all because of economic fundamentals that demand that we can only survive at peace with our conscience if we use what we own to sustain the kind of lives we enjoy.

The struggle for ownership is at the core of all human endeavours and because it is not easy to attain ownership it is that much more difficult to relinquish ownership when changed circumstances demand us to.

Many of us are capable of smooth transition and adaptation to changed circumstances and do so without anyone noticing it but not fundamentalists.

Ownership somehow transforms us into defensive ogres that are prepared to die for a cause.

It bestows on us as loyalist a sense of subservience and a compulsion to act in defence of a concept, emblem, belief and norm in such a manner that when we do so we are in many instances unconscious of whatever is happening around that may or may not be to our advantage to explore.

When Robert Mugabe took over leadership of Zanu in Exile he became a Zanu PF fundamentalist. He assumed ownership of the Zanu PF brand name to the same extent his real name totem and clan name identifies him.

Zanu founding member the Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole was a Zanu brand convert and when Mugabe returned to contest the 1980 independence elections under the Zanu banner the two servants of a brand name clashed with each claiming exclusive ownership of the brand name.

Unlike company names, property and product rights whose ownership can be protected by registered patents and trademarks names of people and voluntary organisations are sadly left exposed to copycatting without recourse to legal protection.

The dispute over the Zanu brand ownership was taken to court and the court ruled that neither claimant had exclusive and protected right of ownership of the brand name resulting in Zanu appearing on the 1980 ballot paper twice with the one led by Mugabe adding PF to distinguish itself from that led by Sithole which later added Ndonga to the prefix.

Founding subscriber members of a brand name find it most difficult to distance themselves from a brand especially one that has succeeded in generating goodwill within communities in which it operates.

When Jonathan Moyo ruffled Eddison Zvobgo by implying that he was more Zanu PF than those of Zvobgo’s ilk the Zanu PF founder member promptly reminded him that he was a “Johnny come by lately” to the brand with absolutely no powers to eject him from the party regardless of whatever it is he was alleged to have breached.

“How can a “mafikizolo” (Johnny come by lately) decree that he can eject me from the party that I founded and he joined? I founded Zanu PF and will die Zanu PF. I own Zanu PF because the party is me and I am the party so it is not possible for anyone to eject me from the party.” He responded after the furore his mad relay athletes’ analogy had caused in the party.

Another of Zanu PF’s founding fathers Edgar Tekere was victim of numerous attempts to gag him by threats to dismiss him from the party. Like Zvobgo his response to suspensions and insults from Zanu PF insiders was that they were incompetent of taking the Zanu spirit in him from him regardless of whatever they did to abuse him because he owned the party from inception and unlike most of his detractors who joined the party he never joined it.

When it was the turn of the MDC to deal with conflicting strategies to achieve the founding objects of the party that had been severely derailed by the reversal of the party’s 2000 electoral inroads in Zanu PF domains through violence and rigging founding subscribers to the party formation split into two with one group aligning itself to leadership by Secretary General Welshman Ncube and the other remaining loyal to Founding President Morgan Tsvangirai.

The ownership of the brand name MDC generated such intense acrimony that public trading of political punches using the foulest language became the norm rather than the exception among former allies with the objective of wrestling power from Zanu PF but different thinking about the best method to do so.

Tsvangirai being a slave of the brand name as much as his new adversaries would not budge to calls and attempts to eject him from membership and leadership of the party he founded and likewise Welshman Ncube so once again two MDC parties emerged from the dispute over brand ownership.

The two entities were driven by the desire to tap into the goodwill of the MDC name at election time.

Among Ncube’s most vocal and vile supporters were Trudy Stevenson, Gift Chimanikire, Paul Themba Nyathi, Priscilla Misihairambwi a, Job Sikhala and later on David Coltart.

There was no shortage of retaliatory whiplash from Tsvangirai’s followers led by Nelson Chamisa and Tendai Biti.

National leadership problems dogged the breakaway faction led by Welshman Ncube resulting in them settling for Arthur Mutambara.

The robotics professor who is a fundamentalist of Student Political Activism took the battle for ownership of the MDC brand to seasoned Tsvangirai and made catastrophic errors when he picked on Tsvangirai for ridicule at one time claiming he was a more seasoned politician than Tsvangirai whom he labelled “a strategically incompetent political midget.”

Professor Mutambara is as much an ownership freak as the MDC founders and wanted to re-brand the breakaway faction with a name and emblem that bore his signature but met resistance from powerful stalwarts in the faction who would not hear any such nonsense about the MDC brand being soiled.

The breakaway suffered humiliating defections back to the Tsvangirai led MDC by senior officials after being humiliated in test of strength by elections and by the time the harmonised elections were held was desperate to seek shelter from its former leader who had rebuild a more formidable national political entity with a real chance of upstaging Zanu PF.

But they were greedy and wanted to reap where they had not sown resulting in the collapse of attempted coalition alliances and the faction suffering humiliating defeats to Tsvangirai wherever they felt they had the best chances of upstaging his party.

Numerous appeals had been made for the faction to disband and reunite with Tsvangirai’s main wing unconditionally but they refused alleging they were democratic and could not work under Tsvangirai who they claimed was more dictatorial than Mugabe.

Now the very problems they alleged were hallmarks of Tsvangirai’s leadership have returned to haunt Job Sikhala who was the most vocal detractor of Tsvangirai to have missed out of an accommodation in the coalition government.

The temptation is to label Sikhala a bad loser given the timing of his outbursts about leadership bankruptcy in the Mutambara led faction but Mutambara has irritated many Zimbabweans by pursuing a divisive opposition politics that he was not prepared to stand up to when it mattered most.

Mutambara chickened out of the Presidential election at the last minute and urged his backers to deliver their votes to a self confessed Zanu PF fundamentalist Dr Simba Makoni.

After his preferred candidate crashed to a humiliating defeat Mutambara was back with Tsvangirai whom he had despised as a political midget but when the runoff failed to materialise due to violence Mutambara never voiced concern about he was at it again negotiating his losers back into positions of power and influence in the coalition government that emerged from SADC mediated bargaining which saw him personally landing the prestigious deputy Premiership.

As if that was not insulting enough Mutambara selected election losers for all ministerial positions allotted to his faction and left the 10 elected MP’s on whose back he claimed leadership legitimacy to be included in the coalition government in the cold.

Because Mutambara chose to reward election rejects ahead of the electable members of his faction he created grounds for Job Sikhala to expect similar rewards and if not as happened get back at him with accusations we are now hearing.

Of course Job Sikhala will refute any accusations of sour grape politicking but he suffers the same culpability he accuses Mutambara of in this debacle.

While he claims he is free at last from the political leadership debauchery by Mutambara and his group of what he now calls Mugabe and by extension Zanu PF zealots masquerading as MDC democrats, he is far from that freedom.

That Mutambara and his faction are a Zanu PF sponsored political project is nothing new to most Zimbabweans opposed to Zanu PF. The only novelty being it coming from a senior faction leader albeit at the unfortunate time he has been targeted for party discipline.

But Sikhala is consistent in one thing. He says Both Tsvangirai and Mutambara have betrayed the founding objectives of the MDC founding document by coalescing with Mugabe and Zanu PF in government as if nothing happened to the parties at the hands of Zanu PF impunity which he was victim of for a decade.

While he maybe right in that assessment he fails the democracy test when he threatens that he will die an MDC member because he founded the party and guests invited to lead the party (by him and other founding members because of their lack of self confidence in their leadership capabilities we guess), like Mutambara have no right to whip him into line if he errs.

That is what is wrong with Mugabe, Zvobgo, Tekere, Ncube, Mutambara and a host of other brand fundamentalists’.

A political party is evidence of common political beliefs held by those that subscribe to the party be they founder members of invited converts.

To claim that because one managed to hold the views and courageously sold them to unite a critical mass of subscribers he/she is immune to standing disciplinary measures when he breaches standing rules because of the status of being a founder member is absurd political autocracy.

Political ideals are commonly owned and must be exercised in groups that subscribe to self regulation by the party code of conduct. Those that do not subscribe to the code must dissociate themselves with the brand rather than create brand confusion like Mugabe, Ncube and Mutambara are known to have done with Sikhala’s unqualified support in the past.

Tomana exposes Zimbabwe judicial impotence and deserves the sack

Zanu PF compromised Zimbabwe AG Johannes Tomana

Whenever there is talk about the State detaining or refusing to abide by judicial orders against it Zimbabweans can now safely replace “the State” with Robert Mugabe, Patrick Chinamasa, Johannes Tomana and Augustine Chihuri or their official capacities namely the President, Minister of Justice, Attorney General and Police Commissioner General.

So instead of stating “In the matter of the State vs. Ghandi Mudzingwa, Christopher Dhlamini and Shadreck Manyere” the accurate description of the matter for proper citation should be “In the matter The President, Minister of Justice, Attorney General and Police Commissioner General (PCG)[State] vs. Ghandi Mudzingwa, Christopher Dhlamini and Shadreck Manyere.”

The later citation identifies the parties with the precision that is lacking in the first because the word State used in general carries different and varied meanings that include the Nation of Zimbabwe in relation to its geographic boundaries and nationals therein or the Government of Zimbabwe including all its pillars of power namely the Executive, Judiciary and Legislature as well as quasi governmental institutions such as Local Authorities, Parastatals and Commissions that exercise government power in specialised areas on behalf of the representative capacity of Government.

This ambiguity inherent in the former citation has caused other democracies to cite criminal litigation cases qualitatively as “The State prosecution Services vs. The Accused in their individual names or collectively.

The bungling in the case in which Jestina Mukoko and 15 others (collective citation) have been abducted and detained incommunicado for between 3 and 4 months before being brought to Court against a maximum stipulation that anyone arrested by the State must be brought to Court within 48 hours of the arrest has served to clarify the matter for the ordinary Zimbabweans.

It is not in dispute that the accused were abducted, detained and tortured by the State’s Central Intelligence Operatives (CIO) and by extension the State.

When however they appeared before the Court for remand hearings the State’s Police Officer’s (read Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri) swore before the Court that he had only took the accused into custody the previous day and thus had not breached the right of the accused to be brought to Court within 48 hours of their arrest.

The Court amazingly believed him and remanded the accused in custody without inquiring into the whereabouts of the accused for the past 3-4 months despite defence allegations with proof the accused were in State custody and thus were improperly before the Court for remand.

The implication of the Remand Court’s decision is that CIO’s are not the State in criminal Prosecutions and thus whatever time they unlawfully deprive a citizen of his/her freedom has no bearing in Court proceedings thereafter initiated by the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) who are, in criminal prosecution the only recognised law enforcement agency with powers to detain anyone on behalf of the State.

That is a most absurd reality Attorney General Johannes Tomana has not bothered to explain before rushing to exonerate himself of any wrong in the current debacle involving the same accused persons.

The outrageous court decision to order the detention of the accused as if they had just been arrested triggered numerous Court Applications in the Magistrates, high and Supreme Courts of Zimbabwe.

Then it was generally held that the Junta regime fronted by an unelected Robert Mugabe was the State acting in common purpose against people it believed were in the process of preparing to commit acts of terrorism ,banditry and insurgency against a “LEGITIMATE GOVERNMENT” despite that there was no defacto elected government at the time they were arrested.

After conception of the coalition government, there was intense haggling in the Executive wing of the government between the Presidency and the Premiership over the detainees fate wherein the President maintained that due process of the law must take its course for the detainees to regain their freedom while the Premiership argued that incarcerations in custody were not legal due process but political persecution of the accused because of the nature of allegations against them.

The argument was that not only were the charges against the spirit of coalition governance given that they were raised by a defunct administration but they were retributive because the government they intended to topple was no longer of illegal toppling as it was defunct but its residual elements in the coalition were after revenge which revenge agenda lacked consensus in the new order.

In any event it was argued that due process of the law could not only be satisfied if the accused were incarcerated for long periods pending trial as the same process could be satisfied if the accused were admitted to bail pending trial which eventually prevailed but not without reluctance from State Prosecution Services who seemed to be under directives to oppose bail applications of the accused from the Presidency and the PCG.

Having been admitted to bail and strictly abided by the conditions attendant to admission the accused were brought to court and indicted to trial on 4 June 2009 i.e. a month after indictment.

Prosecution services who were forced to drop spurious section 121 of the Criminal Procedures and Evidence Act (CPEA) objections to admission to bail of the accused by Executive political interventions of the Presidency and Premiership through the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC) of the ruling coalition, sought to use the opportunity presented by the indictment process to re-detain the accused to please the presidency which grudgingly consented to the initial admissions to bail.

Timely reminders to the presiding Magistrate Catherine Chimhanda and the State Prosecution Services that the bail conditions extended to the accused were not independent Court rulings per se but rather politically directed compliances by the Court that should extend into the indictment period before trial were opposed by the overzealous Prosecution Services on instructions from the Minister of Justice and The Attorney General who is the coalition government’s principal law officer.

Despite the opposition to bail extension being legal correct and impossible of legally turning down the net effect of re-detaining the activists now by the coalition government was so outrageous as it implied the MDC to which most of the detainees belong was infact endorsing that the accused had indeed attempted to overthrow the Mugabe led Junta using military means and such an admission would have been self incriminating for the MDC.

Naturally the MDC Party with an impeccable record of peaceful political indulgence vehemently protested and condemned the latest re-detentions and went on to pressure the coalition government Presidency to abide by initially agreed bail conditions for the accused or face the collapse of the coalition government.

The MDC pressure was ratcheted up by regional, continental and international condemnation of the detentions of the activists in Prisons recently exposed by a South African Television documentary and Deputy Minister of Agriculture Roy Bennett as hell holes of hunger, disease and starvation.

The activists only spent a night in detention and were released the following day following “negotiations” between the AG and Defence Attorneys for the accused that convinced Tomana to accept re-admission to bail conditions that applied to the accused activists prior to indictment procedures the previous day.

Poor Magistrate Catherine Chimhanda without any judicial independence on the matter whatsoever was humiliated when she was compelled to reschedule cases to accommodate the urgent re-hearing of the activists’ case which she had correctly said was beyond legal competence to challenge her detention order.

After less than a five minute appearance she legally and competently reversed and quashed her previous ruling and admitted the activists’ to their previous bail conditions and 2 hours later they were all released from the notorious Chikurubi Prison where the 73 year old Fidelis Chiramba alleged he was short supplied blankets and water.

Under siege and Zanu PF compromised Attorney General says he is surprised that when his office adhered to the law and exceeded Court expectations there are people who are bastardising his office for complicity in the cynical re-detention of the activists and their swift re-admission to previous bail conditions attendant to each of them.

Much like Electoral Supervisory Commission Chairman Justice Chiweshe justifying failure by his officers to count 4 million Presidential ballots and announce results over 35 days when Mugabe was trailing Tsvangirai after the 29 March election but counting a similar number of ballots and announcing the 27 June runoff election within 48 hours including installing Mugabe to the thrown when he was left a lonely contestant in the race after Tsvangirai withdrew at the last minute but his name appeared on the ballot paper.

It is exactly this kind of mischief that makes Tomana a disgusting AG.

Here is a Principal State Prosecutor who from 2000 has been protecting the notorious CIO alleged murderer of Chiminya and Mabika having the temerity to crow about swiftly detaining for 5 months, innocent MDC political activists over allegations of attempting to topple a defunct Junta regime by insurgency and banditry actions.

When they were granted bail by the Courts he did everything in his power to keep them in detention only capitulating to political pressure to admit them to bail.

The AG blames the Defence attorneys of complicating admission to bail of their clients which his office was not initially opposed to but had to oppose as a matter of principle to show that the defence lawyers were incompetent as he got the decision to detain accused endorsed by the court and having conveyed the message showed his muscle by reversing the detention order through negotiations with the same lawyers whom he had reduced to size.

Hardly the stuff one would expect from a man of such responsible status in Zimbabwe.

Why would a well meaning AG use people he genuinely believes are good candidates for admission to bail punish the same people with detention orders simply because they have incompetent representation.

Are these people worthy anything to Tomana? Is there any wonder why the nation is unanimous that he must be relieved of the AG’s post?

Because of his ego the National Media Reform conference is now in jeopardy.

International donors and investors who the country is desperately trying to woe are having a re-think about coming to the country’s aid. Political temperatures which were subsiding have been ignited and ultimatums are flying around.

Surely the country deserves people with better judgement of implications of their ego satisfying indulgences.

This is what Zanu PF zealot Jonathan moyo did not see when he came out in full support of Tomana's irregular elevation to AG.

How independent is a judiciary that rubberstamps political decisions and pass them for court determinations as Catherine Chimhanda has been forced to do in this matter?

Mugabe carves in to intense pressure over re-detention of political opponents.

The incredible duo Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa (right) and compromised Attoney General Johannes Tomana cooked the humble pie for Mugabe

Arrogant Zimbabwean octogenarian Zimbabwe President has been forced to eat humble pie over the ill-conceived attempt to re-detain 16 MDC and Civil Society activists after one of his compromised Magistrate ruled in favour of their re-detention following their being formally charged over banditry and insurgency allegations against the Junta.

In a move roundly condemned throughout Zimbabwe and throughout the world, 16 detainees who were abducted by Central Intelligence Officers (CIO) between October and December 2008 and held incommunicado for months until they were released between February and March 2009 following consummation of the coalition government, were ordered back into detention by a Harare Magistrate on 5 May 2009.

Overzealous Justice Minister unelected Zanu PF Senator Patrick Chinamasa and Attorney General Johannes Tomana, a self confessed Zanu PF adherent, completely misread the political mood in the country over selective application of laws against MDC supporters when he sought to please the President by invoking a clause in the Criminal Evidence and Procedures Act requiring re-detention of anyone released on bail before being charged when charges are ultimately charged.

The barrage of criticism the aged Zimbabwe President received when news of the detention broke out surprised even the most ardent of his closed circuit supporters and advisors as some of it bordered on withdrawal of recognition of his presidency of the country regionally, continentally and internationally.

Not that Mugabe has ever cared for international reaction to his controversial presidency of the coalition government but the reality that the re-detentions had pulverised his AU and SADC armour made him act swiftly to release the 16 activists.

Chinamasa was summoned pronto to clean up the political mess he and Tomana had caused and duly complied by requesting Tomana to pretend to negotiate with defence attorneys for the immediate re-admission to bail for the 16 activists.

It did not was as the defence lawyers were already aware Tomana had burnt his fingers and was on a mission to redeem his tattered image so they simply went along with him until he conceded that the detainees be released on bail conditions already admitted prior to the re-detentions.

Magistrate Catherine Chimhanda who had a day before decreed that re-detention of the activists was not contestable was forced to humiliate herself by readmitting all the activists to the same bail conditions that prevailed before they were formally indicted for trial set to begin on 4 June 2009.

Talk about there being no political manipulation of the judiciary by the Zimbabwe political executives?

It was evident the re-detentions had broken the spine of the coalition government and moves had been invoked by the MDC-T to stage a dramatic pull out from the shaky government and leave Mugabe and Mutambara to dry with no prospect of them gaining regional, continental and international recognition and support in turning around the country’s waning economic fortunes.

For all his attempts to retain ultimate power in the coalition government the last thing Mugabe wants is a return to the political seclusion he endured between March 2008 and September 15 of the same year while negotiations for the coalition government were in progress.

He will do everything in his power to retain his legitimacy and as long as the MDC plays their cards right by grabbing those powers ascribed to the party by the 15 September agreement, Mugabe will not want to be seen to be abandoning the agreement and or more importantly, spoiling for the collapse of the coalition by SADC and the AU.

This is why it is important for the MDC Ministers to immediately take advantage of the political weakness exposed of the President and his Party by the activist’s re-detention debacle and move swiftly to resolve the outstanding issues Mugabe has been deliberately dithering on.

The illegal appointment of Provincial Governors by Mugabe does not require any further negotiations but proactive action on the part of the MDC by it announcing the names of the Governors it has assigned to the Provinces it won Parliamentary majority representation in March 2008 and instructing them to assume duties forthwith whether Mugabe swears them in or not because that is what was agreed by the negotiating parties.

The unprocedural appointments of Dr Gono as Reserve Bank Governor and Johannes Tomana as Attorney General demands that the MDC controlled Treasury refuses to pay salaries and benefits of these Ghost Senior Public Servants until their employment statuses have been ratified by the coalition government principals as per the 15 September Global political Agreement.

These are the checks and balancing powers the Premier has at his disposal but which the appointed Ministers are reluctant to apply. As long as they act with the Premier’s consent President Mugabe can’t terminate their contracts as Ministers without terminating the coalition government which he is not prepared to do as it will translate into terminating his legitimacy as the President.

The Appointment of Permanent Secretaries and Ambassadors can be equally addressed with the urgency it deserves if all their perks and salaries are formally suspended by the Treasury pending receipt of appropriate reappointment letters agreed upon by the coalition principals.

The same method can be used to ensure inclusivity at all levels of the Civil Service that the GPA applies.

Payment of Salaries and perks for all affected Heads of Government institutions whose appointments have not been ratified in writing by the Principals must be suspended forthwith until such time the incumbents can supply Treasury with proof that their appointments have been approved by the coalition government principals.

The appropriate way to do that is to give all the affected incumbents including Military Commanders written notice of the treasury’s intention to terminate payment of salaries and benefits to the individual concerned until such time Treasury receives written confirmation of their reappointment by the coalition government.
This is how power is exercised to achieve results in the shortest possible time.

Deputy Agriculture Minister Designate Roy Bennett does not need to be sworn in to start performing his duties. His appointment was formalised by the GPA agreement and swearing in if a formality that can be dispensed with if it is being abused to deny him the right to exercise his powers and perform the duties assigned to him by the coalition government and certainly not the President of Zimbabwe.

Nelson Chamisa must simply get hold of the letter by Dr Misheck Sibanda directing heads of Tel One, Zimpost, NetOne and all parastatals under ICT to report to Minister of Transport Nicholas Goche and write them letters advising them that Dr Sibanda is out of order and has no powers to make such directives and anyone who fails to submit operational reports to him as required will face disciplinary procedures for gross insubordination.

He should copy such letters to the GPA principals, the Chairmen of the Public Service and Parastatals Commissions and Dr Sibanda.

If any of the people supposed to report to him fail to comply he must commence the disciplinary action and dispense with their services.

That is how power is gained and not through requests for power and crying foul whenever power positions are threatened.

MDC Government novices must wake up to reality

Attorney General Johannes Tomana with his political ponnies Left Ghandi Mudzingwa and Right Jetina Mukoko

Events unfolding in the coalition government of Zimbabwe seem to suggest that unless something as dramatic as the MDC resolution to pull out its president Morgan Tsvangirai from the 27 June 2008 sham Presidential runoff election, Zimbabweans are poised to endure another 5 years of Mugabe mischief and misrule.

Nothing demonstrates that better than the re-detention of alleged MDC bandits and insurgents who had been... granted bail by the High and or Supreme Courts after enduring several months’ detention incommunicado only to be brought to court after SADC applied intense pressure on Mugabe to clear the detention obstacle that was inhibiting consummation of the agreed coalition government.

After signing the Global Political Agreement (GPA) on 15 September 2008 Mugabe having achieved the SADC regional and AU continental legitimacy that had failed to materialise following his “landslide” victory in the 27 June presidential runoff election Mugabe instructed his staff to neatly shelve the agreement and unsure it remained well dusted and is never brought back into his in-tray.

He had read it thoroughly and memorised it and tasked his hatchet man in Zanu PF to do a thorough job of exploiting every single loophole in the agreement to regroup the scattered party following humiliating losses in all segments of the March harmonised elections.

Basking in the glory of the safety net the congregation of SADC Heads of State had provided for his disputed Presidency of the impoverished country Mugabe assembled a massive 52 member entourage for the UN General Assembly meeting in the USA.

The GPA required of him to formalise the agreed appointment of Morgan Tsvangirai, Arthur Mutambara and Thokozani Khupe as Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Ministers respectively together with two other persons of his choice from Zanu PF as Vice Presidents as a first step in implementing the deal to form a coalition government brokered by SADC.

He left Tsvangirai, Khupe and Mutambara clutching thin air as his two nominees for Vice Presidents were already on the government payroll while the trio were not.

He also left strict instructions with then security Minister Didymus Mutasa to work out a strategy that would ensure that on his return the outstanding issue from the negotiations relating to appointments of Provincial Governors, Permanent Secretaries, Ambassadors and other Senior Civil Servants would be relegated to the periphery of implementation steps for the coalition government.

Mutasa obliged by ensuring that on his return he Mugabe found contracts of employment ready for signature in respect of Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono-contract extension by a further 5 years and Attorney General Johannes Tomana’s promotion from Deputy Attorney General .

Not only did Mutasa craft the insidious appointments to provoke anger in the MDC but he also had a strategy to coerce the MDC into positions without meaningful roles by detaining some of the party’s activists over allegations of them having been involved in recruiting and or receiving military training in neighbouring Botswana with the intention to topple the Junta regime that had staged a silent coup after the March harmonised election.

In addition to that Professor Jonathan Moyo had been instructed to ensure the MDC had a handful of worries by filing a petition in the High Court against the election of Lovemore Moyo as Speaker of Parliament.

Tsvangirai himself had been slapped a travel ban by the Junta after it instructed Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede not to renew his used up passport unless he agreed to form the coalition government as a none executive Premier.

The return of Mugabe coincided with the first abductions of MDC and Civil Society Activists as well as the Appointment of Dr Gono and Johannes Tomana and Joice Mujuru and Joseph Msika as RBZ Governor, AG and VP’s respectively.

Mugabe, who by now was working with the patched up Lancaster House Constitution as his bible, and not the GPA, simply refused to swear in the Premier and his deputies arguing that there was no Constitutional provision allowing him to do so.

This was at a critical time when negotiations on allotment of ministries were in progress and Zanu PF wanted all Ministries that would enable it to continue with unchecked impunity if need be.

When the plans failed to coerce the MDC leader agree to the Zanu PF demands and the matter was referred to SADC for mediation, the dossier on Insurgency and Banditry Mutasa and Chinamasa were working on was tabled before SADC as justification for ZANU PF demanding charge of all security related Ministries as well as the Finance portfolio.

Mugabe piled on the pressure by gazetting Ministerial allotments in accordance with Zanu PF demands at a time he was being accused of have unilaterally appointed Gono, Tomana and Provincial Governors from Zanu PF loyalists in contravention of the spirit and letter of the GPA resulting in the dispute being escalated to SADC mediation.

Instead of SADC pushing Mugabe to abide by the terms of the GPA and swear in the Premier and his deputies they were forced to address the Ministry allotment dispute and aided Mugabe‘s breaches to the GPA by approving co-ministering of the Home Affairs.

By ruling in favour of co-ministering of the Home Affairs portfolio SADC as guarantors of the GPA set a dangerous precedent that the 15 September agreement was open to renegotiation and panel beating and thus not binding. The act alone increased Ministers from the 31 agreed upon on 15 September to 33.

If was after that eyebrow raising SADC resolution that Mugabe bragged that even though his Zanu PF party had lost elections it was still in the driving seat of power.

Mugabe had found and exploited a weakness in the MDC fallback position in the GPA guarantor and ruthlessly exploited it leaving the MDC exposed and in doubt of the relevance and impartiality of the guarantor.

The message was clear and loud to the MDC that SADC were not interested in the Party exercising its electoral victory mandate but rather in Mugabe retaining political credibility.
Feeble MDC threats of premature termination of the agreement if its activists were not released unconditionally or brought to court and charged were seen for what they were by the seasoned octogenarian Zanu PF leader.

He simply ordered Mutasa to bring the activists to Court and promised to deal with other outstanding and or complaints by the MDC if the party joined him in government without making unreasonable demands for power they did not wield.

The MDC leader who refused to return home after that decision by SADC and was holed up in Botswana claiming he would not return home because his travel documents had expired was promptly issued a passport and by 11 February had been sworn in as Premier together with his two Deputies.

Two days later Cabinet was sworn in but Mugabe who never misses political opportunities had drafted in an extra six Ministers to his Party’s allotment of 15 in the GPA causing commotion at the swearing in ceremony that was only averted when it was agreed to defer swearing in of the Ministers of State to a later date than that reserved for Cabinet Ministers.

He had got his way once again expanding Ministers from 33 to 51 including Provincial Governorships he had already rewarded loosing party loyalists with.

As if that was not enough a breach of the GPA he ordered the arrest of Roy Bennet who had been persuaded to return from exile in South Africa to take up appointment as Deputy Minister of Agriculture and urged his party loyalists to occupy Commercial farms that had survived the invasions that started in 2000.

The whole strategy was and still is to defer resolution of outstanding key appointments that could result in certain impunity operations by his loyalists suffering and reduce his party reorganisation through government structures that he has been abusing ever since he took over leadership of the country in 1980.

Now certain that the MDC has a mountain to climb if it has any thoughts of quitting the coalition Mugabe has revoked the temporary reprieve he had strategically extended to MDC activists and they are all back behind the bars despite that they had been granted bail after the coalition government was consummated.

The reason is to use the detainees as bargaining chips for concessions on the Senior government appointments still in dispute.

But Mugabe may have chewed more than he can swallow this time around because the decision to re-detain the activists has not gone down well with the coalition partners and Civil Society.

Media practitioners have threatened a boycott of the Media reform strategic review retreat pencilled in for this weekend in Kariba while the MDC has announced it is considering convening an emergency meeting of its powerful National Council to deliberate ramifications of Zanu PF procrastinations and deliberate breaches of the GPA.

It could be the trigger of the collapse of the coalition given the lien that issues in contest may be referred to SADC which will not be expected to yield anything positive other than to comply with terms of the GPA when a party considers a pullout.

Instead of referring the matter to SADC the MDC will achieve much more if they take drastic action similar to the presidential runoff withdrawal of its candidate.

Roy Bennett Must simply report for duty at the ministry of Agriculture and take occupancy of the Deputy minister’s office that is currently vacant and if Mugabe sends his hoodlums to eject him that will reflect badly within SADC and the AU.

Bennett’s appointment was finalised when Constitutional Amendment No 19 became law and any attempt to bar him from executing duties he was appointed by the MDC to perform in the coalition government by anyone is illegal.

This is the executive power Tsvangirai wields but is reluctant to put in practice. Mugabe is utilising his powers in Section 31 of the Lancaster House Constitution without fear albeit illegally as the powers have been restricted by CA NO19.

Information Communication Technology Minister must simply issue directives to Heads of Departments under his Ministry to report all facets of its operations to him as he desires or face disciplinary action if they fail to heed the directive.

Home Affairs Minister Giles Mutsekwa must simply order the arrest of farm invaders wherever they are reported to have invaded and detain them until the Attorney General agrees to bring them to Court to explain their conduct.

This business of wanting to verify the legitimacy or otherwise of a person moving into another’s property which has not been purchased by the State is not the best way of demonstrating power bestowed on his position.

How does a person holding title deeds get arrested and the one with a letter of occupation get away with invading titled property?

When Zanu PF releases the arrested invaders clandestinely the MDC minister must also order clandestine release of the activists from his party in detention.

The ministry of Finance must simply stop payments of Provincial Governors, Tomana and Gono’s salaries and withdraw the perks at their disposal until such time their appointments are regularised.

The same treatment should be extended to the Permanent Secretaries and Ambassadors as well as any appointments the GPA stipulates must be by prior negotiation and agreement between the Presidency and the Premiership.

This business of crying while signing cheques to reward ghost workers must stop.

Where there is agreement that the position must be held by a person mutually appointed by the President and Premier, such person must not be paid if either the president or the Premier disputes the appointment.

Mugabe does not sign salary cheques. It is the treasury and the Public service Commission all under MDC Ministerial supervision that is perpetuating illegal contracts in the Public service.

They must refuse to sign cheques payable to these illegal recipients and let Mugabe sign them if he so wishes.

Until such time MDC Ministers learn to exercise their powers as enshrined in legislation and regulations Mugabe will continue to exploit their ignorance and sooner rather than later they will be villains in the eyes of people that have banked faith in their leadership.

Nothing would please Mugabe and Zanu PF better than that.

Magora’s imaginary Zanu PF whimsical laughter in corridors of power turning to misery

Zimbabwe Premier Morgan Tsvangirai ensuring GPA agreements are honoured by Coalition principals

At the start of the month Mavambo Kusile Dawn (MKD) spokesman Denford Magora whose Zimbabwe Blogspot claims pole position in Zimbabwe and is rated in the top 100000 worldwide readership proudly published the scoop that President Mugabe had disembowelled the Information Communication Technology Minister Nelson Chamisa’s by reconfiguring the Ministry and parcelling it out to his confidante Nicholas Goche in a new Ministry christened Transport Communication and Infrastructure development leaving the MDC appointed Minister a shell Ministry responsible for communications hardware and software only.

The clearly ecstatic MKD spokesman went further to allude to numerous other scoops he had broken claiming the MDC-T was nowhere near Executive Power levers in the coalition government and was there simply to nursemaid Mugabe and Zanu PF’s who is doing all in his power to cut Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to size at every turn possible..
With explosive disclosures like these how can the blog not catapult to poll position in readership in Zimbabwe which is anxious to see the Global Political Agreement (GPA) implementation proceed without the numerous glitches dogging the process.

Alarmists like Magora who breakout sensationalised variances to the GPA that suggest that the most popular leader in Zimbabwe at present is being used as swipe cloth to clean the Zanu PF mess without any real power devolving to him are bound to attract the attention of the multitudes that have banked trust in the Premier.

“Which means that Nelson Chamisa is now a minister in charge of shops that sell cellphones, phone shops and computer shops. Even the matter of the Internet has now been taken out of his hands. Mugabe was never going to allow the instruments of eavesdropping, wiretapping and spying fall into the hands of the MDC. They are a junior partner and had to be put in place,” Magora disclosed with the authority of a president.

After warning him to take it easy and report his scoops factually rather than the fiction that portrayed him as the know-all about the MDC-T goings on when he knew nothing about inside workings in the party Magora turned onto Zanu PF and in unbelievable fashion tried to sanitise his alarmist statements by claiming he had unearthed new evidence showing the Premier and his party had outflanked Mugabe and refused to be trapped by the octogenarian leaders procrastinations on the Reserve Bank Governor’s unprocedural re-appointment for a second term.

In the warning I made it clear all outstanding issues at variance with the GPA litter and spirit were still very much up for discussion and resolution by the principals and were scheduled to be resolved by the end of April at the latest.

In the event that materialised I reminded Magora that i would not miss the opportunity to rub it in him for his misguided ecstasy.

At the centre of his ecstasy was the fact that MDC-T and in particular Premier Tsvangirai had been silenced over complaints about unprocedural appointments of Provincial Governors, Reserve bank Governor, Attorney General, Permanent Secretaries, swearing in of Roy Bennett, and now the stripping of the ICT responsibilities from MDC-T’s Chamisa in favour of Zanu PF’s Nicholas Goche at Transport and Infrastructure Development.

No sooner had he admitted lying than he was at it again claiming MDC was playing second fiddle to Zanu PF and had only one use for Mugabe that is to get sanctions imposed on Zanu PF leadership lifted.

The vocal MKD spokesperson is not amused that several MDC functionaries masquerading as online news sites quote him in a manner he believes is tantamount to plagiarism of his scoops and has threatened to be nasty with the publications and bloggers who as he put it are “online thieves of his intellectual property.”

But as a prospective political party spokesman whose blog acts as the MKD website he has to learn that whatever he says regardless of whether it is said in his individual capacity or on behalf of the movement he belongs to attracts analysis and citation by any sell respecting analyst of the political events unfolding in the country. His comments cannot be divorced from MKD politicking against other parties he writes scoops about which scoops are their intellectual property as well.

But back to the real deal in his recent instalment Magora bragged that he has no time for these online thieves “(a group of only twenty or so blinkered Tsvangirai fanatics)” as he calls them.

Theirs is according to Magora “a forlorn and lonely battle to salvage the reputation of the Prime Minister and his MDC who are now so firmly in the pocket of Robert Mugabe that they are now the dictator’s currency, with which he pays to get out of the isolation the world had imposed upon him.”

With such provocation I will excuse whoever Magora has in mind in this attack if they quote him verbatim as I have done to get back at him.

There is no sacred cow in politics that can distort facts with loaded and inaccurate personal and group political beliefs and thought and expect to be left to carry out such demoniac work on political opponents’ unopposed while he paints his movement as the saintly saviour for Zimbabwean political dilemmas.

In the same instalment Magora claims he has only authorised reproduction of his articles by the Zimbabwe Mail and on an ad hoc basis by TalkZimbabwe.

“I myself never read any of the online stuff, except for SW Radio, Nehanda Radio, VOP, the Zimbabwe Mail, the Zimbabwe Times, the Zimbabwe Metro and the recently added Mukoma .com plus foreign publications,” Magora lied.

Unless the listed are the 20 or so online thieves reproducing his works without permission we can safely conclude that he must have read them elsewhere.

But since he saluted the professionalism at SW Radio it is evident he has no qualms about that publication thus leaving the others he said he reads if that can be believed.
But the real story is Magora must be shell shocked with confirmation coming from SW Radio that the issues he said were water under the bridge after Mugabe unilaterally disposed of them have been negotiated and produced the following results;

The Provincial governors will be allotted 5:4:1to MDC-T yes the impotent and junior partner in the coalition government MDC-T, Zanu PF and MDC-M respectively.

Roy Bennett will be sworn in as Deputy Minister of Agriculture subject to him being cleared of banditry charges hanging over his head subject to agreement by the principals.

Nelson Chamisa will retain charge of the Ministry of Information Communication Technology in its original format except that the snooping and eavesdropping function will be assigned to Nicholas Goche subject to approval of the principals.

Only 13 of the current 34 Permanent Secretaries Dr Misheck Sibanda had announced Mugabe had unilaterally appointed to head Ministries will be assured of their jobs and the rest will have to wait ongoing deliberations between the principals.

Appointment of Ambassadors and the sharing of the 25 remaining Permanent secretaries together with the thorny issue of continued farm invasions will be dealt with on Monday or Tuesday4-5 May 2009 to dispose of the contentious issues that were amusing the misinformed MKD spokesman.

These are the reports emanating from his reputed professionals at SW Radio and they seem at variance with what his so called scoops were telling us.

Just wondering how the blog that thrives on lies will react to these emerging revelations.

We are sure Magora will be professional enough to admit his scoops were speculative as opposed to being factual in content.

RBZ fiasco replay of FML saga Dr Gono will lose

Centre Dr Gono cursed to suffer the same fate that befell FML's Norman Sachikonye Right and Douglas Hoto for abuse of power at the central bank

History has a tendency of repeating itself. The setting may be different but there is a striking resemblance of events unfolding at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to events at insurance giant First Mutual Life (FML) in 1998.

On 10 November 1998 the nation woke up to a front page splash by the Herald revealing juicy news of fiduciary impropriety that had taken place at FML that involved policy holder investments in Econet Wireless and Kumusha farm in Shamva.

The story was packed with incidences of the FML management involvement in improper investment of policyholder funds and receiving kickbacks for their corrupt activities at the same time the organisation had fired scores of employees who had gone on strike over refusal by the organisation’s management to allow them to form a Managerial Workers Committee (MWC) and grand them reasonable cost of living adjustments of salaries preferring rather to embark on a restructuring exercise that was intended to silence leadership of the MWC.

FML had allegedly invested policyholder funds amounting to a then staggering ZW$125 million in Pre-listing private placement arrangements with Econet Wireless broken down into ZW$90 million for preferential debentures and ZW$30 million for Econet shares.

The dismissed employees blew the whistle on the company and went further to cause the company’s management a host of other problems not least of them at the 1999 Annual General Meeting when armed with proxies from sympathetic policyholders they forced deferment of a resolutions reappointing directors and their remuneration only for the board to survive because government failed to act in favour of the employees who had clearly established a case for its removal.

The Mawere Commission appointed by the State to investigate FML unearthed numerous cases of fiduciary impropriety and outright theft in the Society.

Among the victims of the investigation were Board Members, Fund Managers and Corporate Executives Richard Chitumba, Neil Teneiuoth, Nicholas Goche Jr and Antony Light (Fund Managers forced to resign over unprocedural investments and receiving of bribes. Antony Light is still being hunted by the Police for the crimes.

This was to be followed by Phil Thompson (Chairman; disqualified not policy holder) Elias Ngugama (Vice Chairman; resigned in protest to worker grievance mishandling) Phil Jumbe (Chairman; resigned in protest to mishandling of corporate governance) William Nyemba: resigned due to conflict of interests over Trust Bank/FML dealings, Nigel Chanakira (Board member; resigned due to FML/Kingdom Bank and Econet Wireless conflict of interests.

Next to go were John Smith ( Actuary and deputy CEO; denied work permit after dismissed employees protested extension that was working against Douglas Hoto’s prospects) Don Edgerton (CEO retired to pave way for demutualisation) Nigel Hodder (Corporate Secretary forced to resign due to demutualisation)
FML was then demutualised with Norman Sachikonye at its helm as CEO.

The company was to be suspended from trading on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange over the dramatic collapse of its Asset management subsidiary the dismissed employees had long fingered was the conduit of management malfeasance with investor funds.

This was to trigger Norman Sachikonye (CEO’s ; forced to resignation over demutualisation disputes and collapse of FML Asset Management Company) Douglas Hoto (CEO; forced to resign over demutualisation shares expropriated by senior management) Theodore Moyo (Human Resources Manager forced to resign after FML control was wrestled from management owned shelf company Capital Alliance by Renaissance Asset Management fronting Strive Masiyiwa) Shireen Ormashar Legal Advisor (forced to resign by Renaissance hostile takeover) Godfrey Jowah (Head of Asset Management; forced to resign by hostile renaissance asset management takeover) Jacqueline Sibanda (Public Relations Manager) together with David Murangari, Long, MD Frudd (Board Chairman and members; forced to resign by Renaissance Asset Management.

These men and women executives were all victims of an ill advised vindictive agenda against innocent employees and junior managers that went awry when the junior staff refused to be dismissed without a fight.

Sadly due to poor financial resources and lack of support from the State of the 17 employees and Assistant Managers FML dismissed in 1998 only one has managed to successfully defend his case through the Courts.

In 1998 alone FML spent a staggering ZW$18 in Public relations advertisements and Legal costs concerned with its pursuit for the employees dismissal and to gain policyholder and investor confidence in the institution to no avail.

The former Assistant manager is currently engaged in a crucial fight to be paid salary and benefits as well as damages awarded to him by the Labour Court in 2004 and approved by the Supreme Court.

The quantification process in the matter Jackson Muzivi vs First Mutual life case No 2LC/H/217/99 shows that the former FML Assistant Manager is battling to recover back pay awarded to him for the period 1September 1998 to 30 April 2004 when due the Court ordered his reinstatement without loss of salary and benefits.

Among the more critical benefits awarded to Muzivi but still to be quantified are a motor vehicle, house to replace the one FML illegally sold when it terminated his contract illegally, two years salaries as damages and nearly 10000 FML shares.

Similar events are unfolding at the RBZ. Governor Gono is engaged in a lethal fight for continuation as the Governor of the Central Bank with the new minister of Finance Tendai Biti.

At the centre of the dispute is the quasi fiscal activities the Central bank governor embarked on during his first term in office which the Minister with concurrence from National and International financial experts allege contributed to the dramatic collapse of the country’s economy.

Gono has secured backing from his Principal Robert Mugabe who appointed him for a further 5 year term after his initial term expired in September 2008 notwithstanding that his appointment had not been approved by Coalition Partners in the new order in charge of the country.

The appointment has become a political watershed for the coalition government principals threatening the very existence of the coalition.

Gono has been forced out of quasi fiscal engagements by the political reality obtaining in the country but is trying to find ways to remain politically prominent by trying to use residues from quasi fiscal activities of the central bank to curry favours with influential governmental and political players.

The public relations offensive he has mounted of purchasing scores of pages of advertisement space in State Controlled media supplements is no different from the campaign FML mounted when it was exposed by the disgruntled workers it had fired costing it ZW$18 million in the first year in 1998.

Sadly the central Governor like FML is using other people’s money to defend the indefensible.

The money Gono is using in the advertisements to explain his misdeeds can be better utilised on employee salaries at the central bank where worker morale has hit rock bottom over unpaid salaries for nearly three months.

Instead the Governor is working on a restructuring exercise poised to lay off thousands of workers and repossessing car benefits that would automatically form part of the employee’s severance packages ahead of the retrenchment exercise being formalised at the central bank.

The repossessed cars have been unprocedurally offered for the free use of newly elected legislators creating political discord in Parliament and government.

While the dispute over the car lending by the bank to legislator rages on the Governor has now offered winter wheat farmers fertiliser to offset amounts he raided from them and used to finance Zanu PF political campaigns.

The source of the fertiliser on offer from the RBZ governor remains undisclosed and appears to be stocks imported from SADC donations for the past summer agricultural season that were strategically withheld for purposes of political initiatives hinged on land and agricultural support themes of Zanu PF.

FML used similar diversionary tactics to mislead and pacify restless policyholders with offers of 3000 free shares on demutualisation and got the support they yearned.

Immediately thereafter the management team that crafted the demutualisation initiative fell victim of the project they had crafted to benefit themselves with 25% ownership of the company without paying a cent for such a substantial stake.

Most of the greedy senior managers were forced out of the organisation and lost the shares to Renaissance Asset Management a subsidiary of the company they had contracted to manage the demutualisation process.

In a case reminiscent of the greedy dog tail that barked at its reflection from water under the bridge it was crossing thereby losing the borne it was biting the senior managers of FML not only lost lucrative jobs but also the shares they had clandestinely parcelled each other.

FML is today a pale shadow of the insurance giant it had grown to be in 1998. New major shareholders have stripped its assets and transferred them to Afre. The company’s reputation is in tatters and several rebranding exercises have failed to restore its past glamour which saw it build the most trendy headquarters and business parks throughout the country.

Most experienced managers have left the company in disgrace and its service levels have been negatively affected.

No matter how long Gideon Gono holds onto his job against the wishes of the taxpayers he will eventually face an inglorious exit from the organisation.

Not many will shed a tear for him.

Zuma dispatched Rev Chikane for crucial Coalition Government talks

Rev Frank Chikane

South African National Congress chairman and thus uncontestable President designate Jacob Zuma, allegedly despatched Rev Frank Chikane of the SADC mediation team headed by former president Thabo Mbeki to ensure the Harare dialogue between coalition government principals does not implode and give him a baptism of fire as soon as he is sworn in as the President.

And President Mugabe whose leadership credentials the next South African leader respects without equivocation but whose intolerance and superiority complex Zuma abhors to the extreme could not prevent the impromptu visit.

Despite requesting Premier Tsvangirai to allay any fears of a deadlock on issues threatening the coalition union now in charge of Zimbabwe by SADC and AU imposition Jacob Zuma could not be persuaded to leave anything concerning Zimbabwe to chance and promptly despatched his trusted emissary.

The lame excuse that Reverend Chikane was in the country on private business that coincided with the crucial meeting of coalition government principals was meant for the gullible followers of the politics unfolding in the country which events on the ground do not support.

Zuma is reputed for brooking no nonsense from anyone in politics friend or foe it matters not. He is so liberated he is not afraid to call a spade a spade and prevaricate depending on prevailing circumstances and how they will impact on his position.

The unfortunate part for Zimbabwe’s rigid president is that Zuma has an ear for advice from reputed Mugabe critic and ANC Secretary General Gwede Mentashe who at one instance Mugabe slapped with a prohibited immigrant order and bundled back in a flight to South Africa after he attempted to lead a fact finding mission of the powerful Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (COSATU) after Mugabe had instituted a brutal repression initiative against Zimbabwe congress of trade Unions (ZCTU) leadership in Zimbabwe in 2006.

The Zimbabwe top six meeting to address the outstanding and new threats to the Coalition Government in the country that President in waiting Zuma had so much input in coercing and will not take kindly to its being forced to fail commenced at 14.00 hours and was scheduled to deliberate on threats that include;
1. Unexplained delayed in swearing in of MDC-T nominee for Deputy Minister of Agriculture Roy Bennett.
2. The stagnant reconfiguration of provincial Governors allotment between coalition Parties
3. The disputed appointment of Reserve bank Governor Gideon Gono and Attorney General Johannes Tomana both of which were done by president Mugabe from his Zanu PF stable without consultation and consensus between the coalition principals.
4. The sporadic upsurge of violence and disruptions on commercial farms
5. The stalled lifting of travel sanctions after the formation of the coalition government
6. The disputed unilateral appointment of permanent Secretaries by President Mugabe
7. The contested reconfiguration of the ICT and Transport and Infrastructure ministries by President Mugabe that reduced the ICT ministry to a shell and overloaded the Transport and Infrastructure Development Ministry with communication responsibilities removed from ICT.
8. Continued persecution of MDC-T and Civic Society Activists by the Attorney General
9. The muted silence on Ambassadorial appointments, and the
10. Squabbling in the Finance Ministry between the Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono and Finance Minister Tendai Biti that has now been expanded to cover beneficiaries of the Central Bank’s quasi-fiscal initiatives and Legislators’ vehicle procurement scheme.

The Global Political Agreement implementation stage exceptions are threatening the coalition government’s continued existence and are wasting too much of the government’s limited time resources that could be well spent in turning around the country’s battered economy.

Zuma wants to start his term as president of South Africa with these distracting issues in neighbourly Zimbabwe clearly defined in his mind to allow him adequate time to plan for their disposal and leave him ample time to focus on critical South African concerns not least of them the 2010 FIFA World Cup preparations.

He does not want a situation to arise where he will be pressured to announce a dramatic policy shift on foreign relations with Zimbabwe as such a development could create divisions within the ANC that has just been galvanised by the electoral victory recently scored.

There is a lasting bond between Zanu PF and the ANC that is premised on the Liberation struggle history shared by the two parties in their respective countries.

Although President Mugabe was more comfortable with the PAC wing of the South African liberation movements he nonetheless cultivated strong links with ANC leadership and gave the liberation struggle great momentum by hosting its leaders who were in foreign refuge much closer to the South African border.

Whereas Mugabe is pedantic and rigid in pursuing realisation of his beliefs right or wrong, the next South African president is reputed as firm and ruthless in pursuing his objectives but also attentive and accommodative of dissenting views which he exploits at very short notice and makes his own surprising many of his opponents.

He is simply unpredictable.

Views that his ascendancy to power could spell disaster for Mugabe and Zanu PF are ill premised.

Zuma will take some convincing by the MDC to advance its cause. The only advantage the MC can exploit is its close ties with the COSATU which is a key constituency in the ANC whose views about Mugabe and Zanu PF misrule were being drowned by academics fencing former president Thabo Mbeki.

Zuma will still have these advisors around him but will certainly increase attention paid to the labour advisors from COSATU.

Mugabe will have to learn to content with being in the company of a powerful political broker with academic qualifications that are even more inferior to those held by his ignoramus Premier. Jacob Zuma only attended school up to standard 3 (now called grade 5) and did not receive any formal schooling after primary level education.

Mugabe has never hidden his admiration for academics as he deliberately appointed to his successive Cabinets an impressive lineup of Doctors and Professors in all fields of academic excellence.

They however failed to deliver as they were detached from the generality in the population they worked and there were broken links between what government leaders wanted in life and what the generality people aspired for.

Unless Mugabe and his elitists learn how to connect with grassroots which Zuma is perfectly comfortable with, he will be in trouble in dealings with a Jacob Zuma led South Africa.

Any hint that he despises the new South African President either directly or indirectly by labeling Tsvangirai an ignoramus as he has done in the past will trigger South African reactions that Mugabe and Zanu PF will not be able to contain.

The intermarriage relationship between Professor Welshman Ncube and Jacob Zuma seen as a crucial factor in Zimbabwe/South Africa political relations will not have much significance and may actually work in favour of Mugabe and Zanu PF.

Professor Ncube does not have the political clout and acumen he is credited with in the public domain. He commands no following detrimental to political configurations in Zimbabwe and is more detached from the grassroots than Mugabe.

Sure the South African President may go along with Professor Ncube’s MDC faction for a while but that will not change political configurations in Zimbabwe in any significant way other than that Professor Ncube will be guaranteed a visible political role whichever way he decides to go politically.

What is evident is that Jacob Zuma is aware of the political dynamics in Zimbabwe and will use that knowledge to deal decisively with the outstanding Zimbabwe issues.

That is why despite the claim that Reverend Chikane was on a private business mission to the country he was granted meetings with top MDC and Zanu PF leaders to inform them of what is likely to happen if the issues remain unresolved and the new South African President is required to intervene.

Zanu PF media double standards

Information and Publicity Secretary George Charamba and Attorney General Johannes Tomana unashamed to give interviews to media houses they banished into exile.

When it comes to media paranoia Zanu PF is probably unmatched by any other organised political entity other than those in China and the Democratic Republic of Korea.

Since coming to power President Mugabe has banished foreign based reporters from reporting from the country that includes the BBC, ABC, CNN and many others too numerous to enumerate.

Within the country the former ruling party has waged a relentless and vicious fight with media personnel and media houses outside its sphere of editorial control.

Joy TV, The Daily News, The Daily Mirror, SW Radio Africa, VOA News to mention but a few prominent local media houses the Zanu PF regime has banished from its airwaves have all attempted to infiltrate Zimbabwe airwaves and dilute State propaganda churned through the State controlled Zimpapers and Zimbabwe Broadcasting holdings media house and fallen prey of the vicious campaign against their existence by the Zanu PF mismanaged State.

Scores of qualified Zimbabwean Journalists have been arrested and charged under the notorious AIPPA legislation crafted by former Information and Publicity Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo who now ranks among the most loathed Zimbabwean politicians of all time along with President Mugabe, Professor Welshman Ncube, Professor Arthur Mutambara and lately Dr Simba Makoni.

Many have sought and secured refuge throughout the diaspora to escape the relentless persecution from successive Zanu PF regimes since 1980.

Zanu PF intolerance of media that allows airing of multiplicity of political social and economic reviews that are at variance with its own views degenerated into paranoia as it attracted more and more dissention from Zimbabweans negatively affected by the economic malaise caused by a combination of corrupt governance, misguided military and political arrogance and disrespect of national and international covenants on human rights and good governance.

By the time negotiations were undertaken to mitigate the vacuum caused by a failed electoral process the media double standards by Zanu PF had sunk so low that they were considered important enough to warrant special attention in clauses to the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that yielded the current coalition government now at the helm of the country’s management.

Although it was agreed between the parties in the GPA that government should free the media industry to free competition and encourage exiled media houses to return to the country through setting up a media friendly environment that encourages freedom of expression in the country, it is taking longer than expected by the restive population in the country and abroad.

While the venom that was being spewed by the monopolistic State owned and controlled media has been drastically toned down the monopoly still remains intact and the institutional framework to spearhead implementation of the desired competitive environment remains elusive and is generating intense and worrisome conflict.

Meanwhile the media houses that Zanu PF zealots once so hated as to bomb and banish into exile have become the most useful defence tools at the disposal of the truant Zanu PF leaders now under the microscope over past political and leadership misconduct.

Under fire Reserve Bank Governor Dr Gideon Gono is not just relying on State controlled media to promote his cause in the struggle to retain a position he said he did not need in August 2008 and would only keep for no longer than a minute if his principal was not happy.

Having splashed millions in bribes to State media scribes and buying up media houses weakened by the relentless State onslaught privately owned media houses, to project him favourably as a side project of the quasi-fiscal approach to economic management that allowed him to create parallel government structures at the Central bank’s establishment, your Governor also planted substantial amounts in online publications.

New Zimbabwe .com and Talkzimbawe.com websites received substantial working capital from the governor whose source of income is so vast he afforded to work at the central bank for nearly two years without drawing a single cent of his hefty salary from the institution.

It turns out he was helping himself to institutional and individual forex deposits in Banks he raided and doled out like confetti to anyone who was willing to sing Gono psalms.

The only local privately owned stable that survived the State repression was the Trevor Ncube weeklies the Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard.

The reason for survival was a combination of the owner being largely resident in neighbouring South Africa and yes you guessed right your Governor dishing out BACCOSI forex loans to the media house and later following the loaned funds through the backdoor as dividends on “his invested loans.”

Now that your Governor as Gono prefers to call himself is in deep mud it is payback time from those that are in the information and publicity sector whom he lavishly sponsored when his stars at the central bank were shinning.

Pity his chief beneficiary was kicked out of Al-Jazeera foreign correspondence team in Zimbabwe after filing biased reports in favour of Mugabe during the vicious runoff campaign and was replaced by the more sober Haru Mutasa and at Talkzimbabwe the editor in Chief jumped off the ship after he was exposed for biased reportage that qualified him for travel sanctions from the UK government where he was spewing propaganda from.

But still there are strategic implants at The Independent, The Herald, The Chronicle, The Manica Post and the Financial Gazette he owns to do his bidding against all odds.

Then there is Zanu PF Chief Whip Joram Gumbo who is a fixed correspondent at the banished VOA News Studio 7 radio News broadcast at 19.00 hrs GMT.

He is not even ashamed that it was his party that exiled the radio station to the USA that he is now exploiting to explain ZANU PF political mischief to the world.

And former Information and Publicity Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo who masterminded the demise of the popular Daily News publication and the banishment of its editor in Chief Geoff Nyarota as well as The Zimbabwean Editor in Chief Wilf Mbanga has been distributing numerous articles for publication in the online media whose owners are frightened stiff at the prospect of returning to Zimbabwe before the AIPPA and POSA legislation he proudly spearheaded legislation of are repealed or amended.

Now that MDC and Zanu PF are in a coalition Government that is overlooking his reputed talent in the communication and media field he has found solace in drowning his sorrows by publishing unedited drivel against the coalition government and instituting legal proceedings against anyone who appears to be gaining political mileage from the coalition.

Sadly he has very few believers if any at all but he is widely read as people do not want to miss reading into his agony and political loneliness.

The irony of it all is that Professor Moyo does not realise that private media offering him acres of space to expose his lack of principle have long concluded that he is a harmless demagogue with little if anything constructive to offer the nation.

The question is why do the Zanu PF architects fail to see the irony between banishing media experts to hostile countries and then following them up to react to damaging reports they are now publishing without fear of repression from the security functionaries in Zimbabwe?

Take for instance the interview Attorney General gave to VOA News recently wherein he boasted he had instructed prosecutors country wide to prosecute and evict White Commercial Farmers refusing to vacate farms they not only bought but have a SADC Court order in their favour to retain and farm on without hindrance from anyone including the arrogant Attorney General and his prosecutors.

It automatically placed him in the same ignorance bracket with Bright Matonga, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, Jonathan Moyo, George Charamba, Patrick Chinamasa, Didymus Mutasa and yes Tofataona Mahoso.

Let not the academic certificates they hold fool anyone, Joseph Chinotimba’s interview on the same station made more sense than what these deluded Zanu PF academics said given similar opportunities to explain themselves and their party agenda for the country.

But it is George Charamba’s interview with Violet Gonda that wins the trophy for Zanu PF media double standards in Zimbabwe.

It will take some doing to beat in the future.

A little bit of honesty won’t harm you Professor Ncube

JOMIC co-chairman Professor Welshman Ncube has lost his bearings a long time ago

When the MDC-M reincarnated from the graveyard of the 2008 harmonised elections also runs to become a critical factor in shaping our country’s misgivings I wrote expressing misgivings at Thabo Mbeki’s decision to invite electoral rejects from the faction to determine the fate of the vote of the electorate that had rejected the same people.

Then I argued as I still do now, that it rendered electoral democracy a meaningless concept and empowered the rejects to thumb their noses at a hapless electorate confused why their hard won one man one vote is no longer a means for them to exercise power to determine their destinies.

I further advanced that Zimbabweans will hold SADC and Thabo Mbeki in particular accountable for negative outcomes likely to come out of the flawed process he had instituted in Zimbabwe unless the outcomes of the mediation process met or exceeded national expectations.
The minimum national expectation was and still is that Zanu PF political hegemony and impunity had to be ended forthwith and the restoration of the impartial rule of law that upholds fundamental Human Rights enshrined in our laws and respected individual property rights would be vigorously pursued and applied by the government that would be agreed upon in tandem with the people’s wishes as epitomised by the March electoral outcomes.

The outcome of mediated political settlement is now in place and the verdict is unanimous that it falls way short of ordinary electorate expectations at the same time it is an improvement on the political status quo that preceded the settlement.
President Mugabe, Premier Tsvangirai and Deputy Premier Tsvangirai are unanimous that they appended their signatures on a flawed political settlement but are still committed to panel beat it and make it workable.

The general populace concurs and has been patient with the government as it struggles to find its feet in the pitfall infested political environment the government is operating.

Saddled with a bankrupted fiscus, dilapidated economic and social infrastructure, a human resource that has lost the work ethic, a discontented and militarised industrial and public service, a pervasive terminally corrupt system of doing business, a sceptical international community and economically handicapped sympathetic and empathetic SADC neighbourhood, the government is struggling to meet heightened expectations in the country.

Numerous breaches of implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) have not worked in favour of the noble cause of the coalition government principals to transform imperfections in the agreement into benefits for the Nation.

The 10 Provincial Governors appointed by President Mugabe from his Zanu PF Party to boost his chances of winning the Senate Presidential elections which were delicately poised after his party had “won” equal seats to those won by his opponents in Senatorial elections remain defacto in office despite the matter having been deferred to JOMIC for finalisation as a precondition for consummation of the coalition government on 13 February 2008.

JOMIC is yet to disclose its resolution on the matter to the Nation.

Cabinet initially agreed to be limited to 31 Ministries and 10 Provincial Governorships has been dramatically expanded to 38 Ministers and 10 Provincial Governors without explanation from the internal implementation watchdog of the GPA Joint Implementation Committee (JOMIC) that has three month to month rotational co-chairmen.

The initially agreed 15 Deputy Ministerial positions have suddenly increased to 19 again without explanation from JOMIC.

A Deputy Minister nominee from the MDC-T party remains the only party nominee to have been refused and or deferred swearing in by President Mugabe without explanation from JOMIC.

The agreed land audit to address suspected multiple farm ownerships by a few elite beneficiaries and stop commercial farming disruptions and reversal of the land reforms that had taken place prior to the signing of the GPA is yet to commence.

Meanwhile there are sporadic eruptions of commercial farm invasions by people claiming to have been allocated the farms some 2 to 4 years before the GPA was signed but had not taken occupation for one reason and another and no action has been taken by JOMIC to ensure these disruptions, justified or not, are stopped pending findings of the agreed land audit.

Political and Civic activists who were abducted and detained incommunicado for months after the signing of the GPA on allegations of committing acts of banditry and or recruitment of bandits are still being prosecuted notwithstanding cessation of political hostilities implied in Article VII of the GPA to allow for National healing and JOMIC has not ruled on the legality or otherwise of such persecutions.

President Mugabe has unilaterally renewed and extended the employment contract of discredited Reserve Bank Governor Dr Gideon Gono and promoted self confessed Zanu PF member Johannes Tomana to the vacant position of Attorney general that has been vacant for over two years.

JOMIC has not commented on the legality or otherwise of such actions by a party to the GPA which clearly stipulates that appointments in this category must be made after consultations have taken place between the coalition government principals.

In tandem with that development the President has unilaterally announced the appointment and reassignment of Permanent Secretaries to head the coalition Ministries all of them with links to Zanu PF and the Premier has in all instances denied ever being consulted on the appointments yet JOMIC has not moved in to make peace and define the power limitations on principals of the coalition government in regard to appointments of Senior Civil Servants.

Three months after the consummation of the coalition government not a single one of its Ambassadors has been recalled for debriefing on the new order at the country’s affairs to find out their suitability in representing the new government and its image given their past association with a discredited regime. JOMIC has not moved in to force principals to cascade inclusivity to these levels of governance in compliance with the GPA provisions.

The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development has been unilaterally reconfigured by President Mugabe to become the Ministry of Transport Communication and Infrastructure Development.

The GPA has agreed upon a Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development, a Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity and a Ministry Information Communication Technology.

It was tacitly agreed to share these Ministries between the MDC and Zanu PF in the coalition government with the first and second being headed by Ministers nominated by Zanu PF and the third by an MDC-T Minister.

It is this third Ministry’s Communications responsibility that President Mugabe raided and reassigned to a Minister nominated by his party without explanation.

JOMIC has not found it proper to comment on the legality or otherwise of the Presidential move to reconfigure Ministries outside of agreed parameters in the GPA.

The reasoning appears to be that government business must be dealt with in government offices and the public need not be informed of what is going on in those offices.

But those offices are public offices and the GPA is a political settlement that supplanted electoral settlements. Whenever there are variations to the original agreement they should be made transparently and officially available to the general populace and there is no institution better placed and officially mandated to do so than JOMIC.

Instead we have a JOMIC co-chairmen abdicating this responsibility and informing us that sanctions must be lifted as a precondition to the government delivering on its mandate.

“Absolutely. As an inclusive government we are unequivocal and we agreed to it in the Global Agreement that the sanctions will be lifted as soon as an inclusive government is in place. It is in place and in our view yes, there are issues, there are issues on human rights, there are issues on governance but you will not help the inclusive government address those issues, work together with speed to correct those anomalies, to have a greater respect for human rights, get greater respect for the rule of law, to be effective in stopping farm invasions, a government which has no resources to actually get the police to move around.

A government with no resources to monitor the Ministry of Lands, to monitor what is happening, is unable at the end of the day to deliver on the promises of the GPA. Which is why we are saying yes these things are there but let us work together - with the international community assisting us to address them. Without that assistance it will be that much more difficult to address those issues,”JOMIC co-chairmen Ncube declared the institution’s conviction that sanctions lifting was a precondition to government with the issues.

But it is the same government without resources that has police officers and Lands officers leading hooligans invading commercial farms throughout the country and abducting and driving their abductees to every nook and cradle of the country in torture missions that says it has no resources to stop the malpractices reported countrywide.

It is the same government that has issued each of the 48 Ministers brand new top of the range Mercedes Benz vehicles costing approximately US$78000 each enough to buy 4 top of the range Nissan Note vehicles at US$17000 each.

Imagine what the government could have done with savings of 75% on Ministerial cars. It could have secured the brand new cars for the MP’s and still remained with enough change to buy at least a truck for each district Police Station.

So Professor Moyo a little self introspection will help you become a bit honest with yourself and the electorate you have imposed yourself to serve.

You asked how on earth you can; “restore the rule of law when you need the police to restore the rule of law and they’ve no capacity to go to the farms to see what is happening?

How do you restore the rule of law if the Minister of Lands is unable to get to the farms to determine what is happening?” and further went on to say that, “I absolutely agree with you that if there are farm invasions then they must stop. But I do not think, I do not think that it is right for those who it is within their power to assist us to ask us to do things which if we have no assistance we cannot do. It is pretty much like a sponsor in a soccer match saying I want you to go and play; I want you to be in the top of your log before I sponsor you.

So you have a team without a uniform, without soccer boots, who have no capacity to train and say they must first win the soccer league before you can sponsor them. It just does not make sense.”

Surely you cannot have been trapped in power to this extent.

The responsibility for law and order and the safety and security of the Nation is a function the State cannot outsource to anyone let alone foreign sponsors.

While we agree with you that you may have inherited a culture of impunity from your predecessors we cannot exonerate you for failing to stop the culture without lumping you with those you accuse of having nurtured the culture.

The reason why people voted as they did in March 2008 was because they had become fed up of lame excuses of the nature you are now regurgitating without shame.

Did you get on board to stop the impunity using donor funds or available resources? Is the impunity externally sponsored or is it internally motivated?

We are convinced that the problems are internally motivated and sponsored by people you know and are afraid to confront and chide.

Personally I believe that the reason why you imposed yourself in Government was to open doors for foreign aid to flow to your control and share in the gravy train.

Stop the impunity, restore human rights and dignity, tolerate opposing views and uphold democratic principles of governance that have zero tolerance on corruption and is totally committed to upholding individual property rights and you will not spend a cent more than you are spending in programmes to consolidate power through borrowed funds that are not forthcoming anywhere.

Those we elected know why we elected them and it was certainly not to have sanctions lifted but rather to restore our equality and dignity before the law.

Those like you who feel they can only deliver that if they are sponsored with lavish donations from whoever have no place in our leadership.

There is no difference between what you are now doing and what Dr Gono did to our currency and fiscus.