Saturday, 30th May 2009

Howzit

First prize would be to rid the country of the Reserve Bank governor, Gideon Gono, but even though he would appear to want to go, Mugabe is determined that he will stay. So, initially at least, cabinet have agreed to minimise the governor's powers...

"Zimbabwe’s cabinet is said to have agreed to effect key amendments to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Act, a development that will see the RBZ being confined to its core functions.

While the battle around the status of controversial RBZ governor Gideon Gono rages on, Finance Minister Tendai Biti is reported to have convinced cabinet on the need to clip the wings of the central bank chief, whose controversial quasi-fiscal policies are widely regarded as having ruined Zimbabwe’s once buoyant economy.

President Robert Mugabe, who has declared he will not heed local or international calls for Gono to be replaced, chairs cabinet, which comprises all ministers from both ZANU PF and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) parties.

"I am pleased to advise that cabinet has agreed on fundamental amendments to the Reserve Bank Act," Biti told journalists Thursday."

But great care should be taken here. Mugabe has a habit of agreeing to one thing and then proceeding to do everything but what he agreed upon - and he is surrounded by people who are not troubled in rewording and changing agreed clauses between agreement and publication.

"It is important that we restore the legitimacy, credibility and integrity of the Reserve Bank." Biti said the RBZ reforms would ensure the bank was confined to its core business which involved the crafting of the monitory policy, supervising the banking sector and the management of the national payment systems, among other duties.

The MDC secretary-general said the envisaged amendments to the RBZ Act will also factor in recommendations by an International Monetary Fund (IMF) technical team that is in Zimbabwe to offer guidance in the banking system and central bank governance."

For the meantime, Gono appears to have won the day - with help from Mugabe - and will remain in office. And so the depths of Mugabe's fraudulent uses of the central bank for political and personal gain remain under wraps.

-o00o-

I went through training at Morris Depot in 1981. I watched the video footage - and I am happy to report that we never experienced anything remotely similar to this.

It is my understanding that recruits (at that time - things have probably changed) were protected from this sort of behaviour.

"SW Radio Africa has obtained exclusive video footage showing a number of police recruits in Zimbabwe being tortured and beaten in a series of sickening assaults by what appears to be their instructors.

In one horrifying attack, a recruit is pinned down by six officers with one stepping on his back as laughing instructors whip and kick the defenceless man. The recruit can be heard screaming while one officer shouts, 'wuraya' (kill him). Other officers are also heard shouting 'castrate him', and 'step on his throat'.

Screaming recruits are also seen being wrestled to the ground and held down while laughing officers kick and beat them with baton sticks. The footage shockingly depicts the recruits as they lie screaming on the floor of what appears to be the Morris Depot training camp in Harare.

The footage is believed to have been filmed in the last two months in Harare. A voice supposedly that of one of the instructors can also be heard bellowing out instructions to the assailants."

Whilst I have gone off the ZRP big time, I am aware that it is today an entirely different animal from the force that I joined. Yes, much of the old BSAP standards were still in existent, and rightly so - as it was certainly a police force of some reputation - but we were never manhandled by the instructors.

That is not to say that our training was easy - not at all.

"Surprisingly, it was a police officer who made the film, and others can be seen in the video using their mobile phones to capture the beatings.

Taurayi Chamboko, a police constable with the Bedfordshire Constabulary in the UK told us the officers in the footage would have faced serious charges of brutality and human rights abuses in the UK.

"In the UK it is illegal for an instructor to have physical contact with a recruit unless they are going through certain tactical drills where contact is unavoidable," PC Chamboko said. Human rights activists say police brutality is deeply entrenched in Zimbabwean life.

Dewa Mavhinga, a human rights lawyer said all Zimbabweans should condemn in the strongest possible terms the brutality being meted out on recruits, which is not only a violation of human rights, but more importantly, an outright crime in terms of the country’s laws.

"A police officer is someone in a contract of employment, so what employer has a right to brutally assault employees? The Zimbabwe government must immediately investigate this crime and arrest anyone found to have been involved in these dastardly, inhuman and degrading acts," Mavhinga said.

He added; "It’s unfortunate that in a country gripped by lawlessness such cruel beatings may even be viewed as normal. That goes to show the state to which Zimbabwe has been reduced."

I found the video footage shocking - very shocking. But when we realise the depths of depravity to which the ZRP has plumbed, then this sort of activity is commonplace. I can only think that it is the instructors attempting to give the recruits a taste of the beatings they are ment to give members of the public.

That video is here. Be warned - it isn't very nice...

-o00o-

More questionable activity by Zimbabweans in the UK.

"Zimbabwean fraudsters who conned more than £1m from banks with stolen cheques have been jailed for a total of 11 years.

The men intercepted business and personal cheque books and cards in the post and changed payee names and forged sums to be paid in.

Leeds Crown Court heard one fraudster, Effart Diza, of Knowle Terrace, Harehills, was exposed after trying to pay in a £136,000 forged cheque into a bank account set up by the men.

A jury convicted Diza of conspiracy to defraud after a trial. He was jailed for five-and-a-half years. Naison Mubaiwa, 35, of Grange Avenue, Harehills, was jailed for three and a half years after admitting conspiracy to defraud.

Paddington Muzundiwa, 25, of Manchester, was jailed for two years after admitting the same charge. All three men had failed to win asylum in the UK."

I sincerely hope that these three men are deported back to Zimbabwe upon their release.

When I read of the various crimes committed by Zimbabweans the world over, I feel nothing but revulsion. These three men left Zimbabwe to claim political asylum in the UK. This, they failed to secure - but it didn't stop them from cooking up this fraud... and now they will spend years living off the taxpayer in UK prisons before being returned (hopefully) to Zimbabwe.

By the time they get released/deported, one would hope that the problems in Zimbabwe would have been resolved, and that their return is noted and their subsequent activity in Zimbabwe is monitored.

"Jailing the three men, Judge Kerry Macgill said: "This was by anyone's standards a large scale and sophisticated conspiracy. This was fraud on a grand scale."

A fourth man, Charles Kanyimo, 35, of Wakefield, was previously jailed for three years after he pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to defraud.

The arrests were made as part of an operation that saw warrants executed at 30 addresses in West Yorkshire and around the country."

-o00o-

More illegal activity - this time in Zimbabwe...

"A suspected mbanje dealer ferrying more than half a tonne of the drug was shot dead while three of his four accomplices escaped on Sunday morning after a shootout with police near Mutoko along the Harare-Nyamapanda Highway.

The drug dealers were involved in a high-speed chase with police for about 25 kilometres before exchanging gunshots along the highway.

Police arrested one of the suspects - Obert Tegu (28) of Mutare - and recovered 505,3kg of mbanje with a street value of more than US$500 000, which was in the suspects' Nissan hardbody truck.

The dead man has been identified as Mangezi Bekini (33), who had no further particulars."

For the unenlightened, "mbanje" is marijuana...

"Police believe the mbanje could have been smuggled from Mozambique's Gozi area, situated between Mozambique, Mudzi and Nyanga.

Chief Supt Mwatsikesimbe said on Saturday police were tipped off that the suspects were smuggling mbanje into Zimbabwe.

Police were also supplied with a sketch map of the roads the suspects planned to use in the Makosa area of Mudzi before getting into the Harare-Nyamapanda Road at East Hunyani.

Police laid an ambush for the gang along a road in East Hunyani at around 2am on Sunday and spotted the suspects' vehicle heading towards Mutoko.

Police waved down the suspects but the gang sped off, forcing the police who were driving an Isuzu double cab truck to give chase for about 25 kilometres.

Chief Supt Mwatsikesimbe said the suspects thwarted police attempts to block the drug dealers' car.

Realising the police would not give up, one of the suspects - believed to have been armed with a pistol - fired shots towards the police vehicle.

The police fired back and Tegu jumped out of the moving vehicle and was subsequently arrested.

The other suspects dumped the vehicle before fleeing into a nearby bush. Police continued to shoot, hitting Bekini in the thigh."

At last! Some real police work!

It makes a change, doesn't it?

-o00o-

You will recall the armed forces threatening to go to war with the Zimbabwean people if Gideon Gono is forced out of office.

Now the war veterans have joined with the armed forces...

"The Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans' Association has thrown its weight behind Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr Gideon Gono, saying the central bank chief had done nothing wrong to warrant the vilification he is getting from some quarters.

In a statement, ZNLWVA deputy chairperson Cde Joseph Chinotimba lashed out at some people in the inclusive Government calling for the ouster of Dr Gono, saying they were doing so for personal gain and to please outsiders. War vets are the latest group to lend their support to Dr Gono after President Mugabe on Monday said the central bank chief was not going anywhere, putting an end on speculation on his fate.

Politicians and service chiefs have also said calls to oust Dr Gono were misplaced.

"Indeed, we support and give praise to the words echoed by our wise leader and Head of State Cde R.G. Mugabe at the funeral of the RBZ Governor's brother that Dr Gono will stay put in his job because he did not do anything worth the vilification which he is currently going through," said Cde Chinotimba.

"Without mincing words, as war veterans, we throw our full weight behind the RBZ Governor and we take pride in the fantastic job he did at a time the country was reeling under the Western-imposed illegal sanctions."

As usual, we see blind loyalty to Mugabe - and this, within itself, is hugely shortsighted. The war veterans receive a mere pittance by way of a pension from the State (I am not convinced that they should receive any pension - and if they do, it should be from ZANU PF), and for this reason, they are prepared to go back to the bush.

They know which side of the bread is buttered...

"Cde Chinotimba said it was important to realise that the spirit of reconciliation did not start with the current inclusive Government as the then Prime Minister Mugabe formed an inclusive Government with PF ZAPU and Ian Smith's Rhodesian Front at independence in 1980.

"As fresh from the bush as we were, war veterans did not call for the removal of anyone from office. Despite having fought and defeated our former oppressors, top civil service posts continued to be occupied by whites," said Cde Chinotimba.

Freedom fighters did not call for higher posts notwithstanding that they wanted them, because they realised that the important goal of the struggle was to bring freedom for the generality of the people, he said.

It is the view of freedom fighters, he said, that if the current "cancer" of calling for heads of senior Government officials is allowed to go on, service chiefs and their superiors might be the next targets."

The problem, Mr Chinotimba, is not who holds the senior offices, but what they do whilst in office - and Gono has crossed the line...

"In view of the above, it is very amazing to see that some of those in the inclusive Government are targeting individuals for their own personal gains and to please those who are outside. Why are we preaching the gospel of national healing yet we are not demonstrating it practically?" he asked."

What "national healing"?

-o00o-

Take care.

'debvhu