Tuesday, 26th April 2011

Howzit

Just as there was a lot of news about Zimbabwe over the weekend, today there are slim pickings, but we will trawl the 'net to see what there is...

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Mugabe hates any kind of criticism and it is illegal to insult Mugabe in Zimbabwe. Obviously, when the pro-ZANU PF police do arrest someone for insulting the President, then the Mugabe party try to get as much mileage out of the case as possible.

"An MDC official in Matabeleland North province, Oliver Chikumba, was last week arrested for insulting President Robert Mugabe after he refused to sign the ZANU PF anti-sanctions petition.

Last month, Witness Dube, the personal driver for MDC vice-president Thokozani Khupe, was also arrested in Bulawayo for refusing to sign the same ZANU PF anti-sanctions petition.

Chikumba, the former secretary for information for the main MDC in Matabeleland North Province, was dragged to Hwange Magistrate’s Court on charges of insulting Mugabe, after he refused to sign the controversial petition, which is being forced on the people throughout the country."

Let me get this right. Chikumba refuses to sign the petition that Mugabe intends to give to the United Nations and any other body he can think of, and that petition claims that it is sanctions against Zimbabwe that have caused that country's economy to take a dive, and, because he refuses to sign, he has somehow 'insulted' Mugabe?

The claim that sanctions have ruined Zimbabwe is a complete lie. The only sanctions in place in Zimbabwe are targeted travel sanctions and home in on Mugabe and his close compadres. How does preventing Mugabe from visiting London, Paris or New York affect an economic decline in Zimbabwe?

"According to the State outline, Chikumba was approached by a Mrs Mlonyeni, a ZANU PF women’s league member, outside TM Hwange Supermarket, who requested him to sign the ZANU PF anti-sanctions petition.

Chikumba refused to sign the anti-sanctions petition and is alleged to have told Mlonyeni to bring Mugabe to him first before signing.

The infuriated Mlonyeni, with the help of Darlington Nhova, suspected member of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), arrested Chikumba and dragged him to Hwange police station, where he was detained for four days before being brought to court on Friday."

I don't understand. What crime has he committed?

There is no law in Zimbabwe that compels someone to sign the sanctions petition. And for Chikumba to ask for Mugabe to be present if he wanted the signature is a perfectly normal reaction...

Why should he be forced to sign something which he doesn't want to? I thought that Mugabe heralds Zimbabwe as a free country...

Obviously not!

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And here we have ZANU PF preventing the ZCTU from holding May Day marches... no doubt they believe that the marches could lead to violence - but we are aware that the violence in Zimbabwe is begun and perpetrated by ZANU PF and its various associated arms...

"The police in Mutare and Kwekwe have banned planned marches by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), which are part of May Day commemorations.

There are reports that the police temporarily banned the marches for security reasons until further notice.

However police in Bulawayo have not yet responded to ZCTU's request for permission to hold the May Day marches."

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These trips to Singapore cost the taxpayer about US$3 million a time. How come Mugabe himself needs to travel to Singapore to collect Amazing (Dis)Grace? Is she incapable of travelling by her own on a standard commercial flight to Harare?

"President Robert Mugabe has made his fifth trip to Singapore in four months, media reports said.

Mugabe, 87, flew out of Harare on Friday last week "to collect his ailing wife", Grace, the Standard newspaper reported on Sunday.

The paper said Mugabe would return on Wednesday, before making another foreign trip to Rome, Italy, for Friday’s Food and Agriculture Organisation summit.

Grace Mugabe has not been seen in public since April 7 when she and the President flew out of Harare. A striking Air Zimbabwe flight crew was ordered back to work for the trip which the airline said was "national duty"."

Just how flying the Mugabe family to Singapore is 'national duty' I don't know. Mugabe's wife allegedly slipped in the bathroom of their mansion in Harare and dislocated a hip. Surely there is someone at the Avenues Clinic or at Parirenyatwa Hospital that can correct the damage?

What of Zimbabweans who suffer the same injury? Are they left to suffer if they can't afford to fly to Singapore or South Africa for treatment?

Flying to Singapore is an overreaction - and, I believe, a smoke screen to hide the real reason for the trip...

"Presidential spokesman George Charamba has refused to comment on the First Lady’s absence amid conflicting newspaper claims about the real reasons for her Asian trip.

Initial reports said she had fallen in the bathroom of the couple’s Borrowdale mansion and dislocated a hip, but the privately-owned Daily News has since reported she is in fact on a degree study programme with an unidentified Chinese university.

Mugabe went to Singapore in January as part of his annual holiday. He returned there in February, Charamba telling reporters at the time that it was to correct a problem with eye surgery he underwent during his holiday.

He was back in Singapore in March, Charamba said, for a review on his cataract operation. He returned spotting a new pair of glasses.

Mugabe married Grace in 1996 following the death of his first wife, Sally, in 1992. The couple have three children together - Bona, Robert Jnr and Chatunga."

I lost respect for Mugabe many years ago. And the fact that he decided to bed Grace, then a secretary, before his first wife died, is indicative of his disrespect of anything and anybody. We also are aware that Grace's husband, a soldier, was transferred to China - basically as far away as possible...

Such hypocrisy!

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In my mind, the offence committed, as far as Mugabe's ZANU PF is concerned, is that the smugglers were caught...

"Mines and Mining Development minister Obert Mpofu on Monday said those involved in the illegal smuggling of Zimbabwean diamonds that have been found and confiscated by Indian authorities, would face the wrath of the law.

India’s directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) recently arrested two people for allegedly smuggling a 48663 carat (9,72kg) consignment of rough diamonds from Zimbabwe valued at about $2 million.

According to reports from India, the pair was arrested trying to sell the diamonds in Surat. The two who were said to have arrived in the country from Kenya, were arrested after they failed to produce the mandatory Kimberley Process (KP) certificate for the diamonds.

Although he said he was not aware of the arrest, Mpofu said: "All diamonds extracted from the country are supposed to be accompanied by a KP certificate. If they did not have the certificate then it means they are criminals and should face the full wrath of the law."

Asked if the Zimbabwean government would make a follow up to bring the diamonds back to the country, Mpofu said, "That depends on the Indian government and their laws."

Mpofu believes that the diamonds in Zimbabwe belong to ZANU PF, not the country - and hangs on to the idea that the 'export' of these stones is covered by the Kimberley Process - when the KP representative is a bull in a china shop. He will bow and scrape to Mugabe's wants and needs, and therefore, the movement of the stones around the world is flawed.

And then, of course, there is the missing US$300 millionplus that Mpofu says was transferred to the finance ministry, but there is no sign of that money.

How has the loss of such a huge amount of money fallen off the front page of the news? And replaced by Mpofu's threats against people who, although he will never admit it, do the master's bidding?

"We have been working tirelessly to curb cases of illegal smuggling of minerals including diamonds in the country and those caught on the wrong side of the law will face the music.

"Those that will be found to be aiding the smugglers of those diamonds from the country will not escape the law," he said."

Does that mean there exists something as obtuse as 'legal' smuggling?

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ZANU PF will push the boundaries, and beyond.

And, if their actions cause untold damage to the economy and councils around the country, no matter...

"Harare mayor Muchadeyi Masunda has claimed that the city council is losing revenue at properties which have either been used or occupied by ZANU PF supporters whom he accuses of refusing to pay the municipality.

Masunda said ZANU PF is using Carter House in Mbare without paying council its dues.

The Harare mayor told the Daily News that Carter House is council property reserved for travellers either in transit or stranded.

Carter House as far as I know about it, is a transit place and no one should own that building because it is supposed to serve as a hotel to people who would have failed to proceed to where they should," said Masunda."

So ZANU PF fails to foot the bill, and are not concerned with the consequences. And, if the council takes the appropriate legal action, then ZANU PF will react angrily and label the MDC councils as being against the ability to work together with their party.

And they will see nothing wrong with not paying the rent...

"He also bemoaned the non compliance with their by laws which could have seen ZANU PF paying for the holding of the anti-sanctions rally near the Magistrates Court.

They were supposed to have paid at least US$1000 for the anti-sanction campaign but up to this day they have not paid anything to the city.

If Joyce Meyer paid almost US$4500 for her church service why should they not pay? The City of Harare is home to all political parties and no-one has monopoly to control of any resource within the city," said Masunda."

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The world should stand ashamed of itself. While Mugabe exercises all manner of violence upon his own people, cheats the population out of their popular mandate given to the MDC in 2008, and the free world makes infrequent statements against Mugabe's rule, the Zimbabwean ambassador to London has been invited to attend the Royal Wedding on Friday...

"Sitting in the front rows, well ahead of the pop stars, sporting heroes and celebrities, will be figureheads from some of the world's most controversial regimes. While Colonel Gaddafi's representative has been officially uninvited (but only after the attacks began on citizens in Libya), diplomatic niceties dictate that the representatives of other unsavoury members of the London diplomatic corps, including those of North Korea and Iran, will be welcome.

Despite Zimbabwe having withdrawn from the Commonwealth in 2003 and Robert Mugabe being subject to a travel ban and sanctions, Zimbabwe's ambassador to London, Gabriel Machinga, remains on the guest list because the two countries retain "normal" relations. St James's Palace said that all heads of mission in London have been invited as a matter of course. Diplomats and heads of state are invited by the Queen rather than the royal couple, the Palace said. A recent report for the US Congress found that, while state-sponsored abuses were at a lower level than in 2008, Zimbabwe security forces continue to beat and torture opponents of Mr Mugabe's ZANU PF."

Not long after Zimbabwean independence in 1980, Mugabe was regarded as the 'darling of the West', but as the years have ticked by, his ratings have plumeted to the lowest of the low. He is no longer the liberator, no longer the freedom fighter. He is, in a word, an ogre.

A dictator that has no regard for the population, an oppressor that will stop at nothing to further his own wants and desires.

And now he has his representative sitting in the front row of the church to witness the wedding.

What is wrong with the free world that it will entertain the people from within a dictators' camp? Mugabe is a killer - plain and simple.

His representative has no place in the country, let alone a church.

"The presence of Prince Mohamed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia and Princess Fadwa bint Khalid bin Abdullah bin Abdulrahman is also likely to draw protests. Bahraini human rights protesters are staging weekly demos outside the Saudi embassy in London against the country's deployment of troops to help quash the democracy protests there. Last month Amnesty International highlighted the case of Mohammad Salih al-Bajadi, a 30-year-old Saudi businessman who co-founded a human rights organisation, who was arrested and held incommunicado after attending a protest."

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Take care.

'debvhu