Wednesday, 27th April 2011

Howzit

Foreign currency mid-rates updated.

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Mugabe had a reality check not that long ago when parliament voted (again) for the position of speaker of the house and it was won (again) by Lovemore Moyo of the MDC, and what it all came down to was that at least four of the ZANU PF MPs voted for the winning candidate. Mugabe's people have vowed to ferret out those of their number that voted for the MDC candidate.

I am not so sure that this vow has gone down very well with ZANU PF as a whole, as there is a story on the internet that MDC and ZANU PF are talking in private to come up with a non-violent, legal way to remove Mugabe.

Hmmm.

"Parliamentarians from both the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and ZANU PF are believed to be investigating the scope for legally removing President Robert Mugabe from power, including the possibility of impeaching him.

The daring moves are being contemplated in the light of the dramatic defeat of ZANU PF’s candidate in the recent speaker of parliament elections. Then, it was generally accepted that some ZANU PF MPs voted with their MDC counterparts to vote back Lovemore Moyo and to embarrass ZANU PF’s chairman, Simon Khaya-Moyo.

The Daily News learnt last night that the parliamentarians, who are fed up with Mugabe’s contested leadership of the country, were looking into the question of whether the president’s advanced age and failing health could be successfully used by the legislators "to retire Mugabe out of office".

Were that to happen, our sources claimed, Mugabe would be replaced by vice-president Joice Mujuru in the short term - as she supposedly enjoyed support from both MDC and ZANU PF MPs in parliament.

This unlikely eventuality would see the more hawkish faction in ZANU PF that is allegedly aligned to Emmerson Mnanganga being frozen out of power.

While Mugabe seemingly has the power to dissolve parliament and to circumvent any moves to impeach him under the current laws, the concerned legislators and analysts canvassed by the Daily News believe that the Global Political Agreement (GPA) has created possible legal loopholes that can be used to remove the president.

The analysts said even under the old constitutional dispensation, the president could be impeached, as long as there was a two-thirds majority supporting such a move. The Daily News has been told that the plan, which is allegedly being discussed by MPs from both factions of the MDC as well as ZANU PF, has gathered pace ever since it was reported that Mugabe’s health is deteriorating."

Mugabe will view this with concern and the ZANU PF witch hunt will begin - not only to discover who among their number voted for Lovemore Moyo, but who is talking to the MDC with a view to removing Mugabe.

And should they smoke out those that want change, it won't be just a case of chucking them out of the party. In the past 31 years, we have seen numerous outspoken members of Mugabe party meet their fate in unexplained car 'accidents', while one was found floating in a swimming pool. Mugabe has a habit of burying his critics and non-performing members of his party.

And then he seeks to pacify the families by declaring them national heroes, give the deceased a glossy State funeral, but the family is soon forgotten and fall on hard times. It is the way that Mugabe operates...

"Political analyst Ibbo Mandaza said an impeachment was possible, with or without the new constitution.

"It’s possible and it’s a question of proving that Mugabe is now incapacitated while he has also to prove that he is able to lead this country. But it can be done, especially in view of reports about his health and as long as two thirds of the MPs agree. Remember it will be a secret vote and it might turn out to be nasty for Mugabe," he said."

The constitution of Zimbabwe states: "Section(29) of the constitution of Zimbabwe makes provision for the termination of the tenure of the office of the president stating that; "The president shall cease to hold political office if a report prepared by a joint committee of the senate and house of assembly appointed by the speaker in consultation with the president of the senate upon the request of not fewer than a third of the members of the house of assembly has recommended the removal of the president on the grounds that:

(a) He has acted in willful violation of this constitution or
(b) He is incapable of performing the functions of his office by reason of physical or mental incapacity or
(c) Gross misconduct and senators and members of the house assembly sitting together have resolved by the affirmative votes of not less than two-thirds of their total number that the president should be removed from office."

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Mugabe and ZANU PF are not the only people struggling to maintain some sort of decorum within the party.

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has threatened to expel members of his party that participate in political violence.

"MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, on Monday threatened to name, shame and expel violent members of his party that have caused havoc in the run up to the party’s congress which starts on Thursday.

Addressing warring party supporters in Bulawayo yesterday, Tsvangirai declared the election of Gorden Moyo to the chairmanship of the party’s Bulawayo province was irreversible. He also ordered that remaining posts for the Bulawayo province be filled today (Tuesday) without further disruption.

"Bulawayo province is the host for our congress and it should be leading by example," said Tsvangirai."

People in Zimbabwe, who are just trying to live from one day to the next, do not want to watch the party that has the popular mandate to rule - even though Mugabe has not allowed that to happen - begin to fight amongst themselves.

I spend a lot of my time explaining that those that are voted into positions by the public are public servants and therefore serve the people. They are not elevated persons or people to whom the masses must then bow.

It is unforgivable that elected people should believe that they are untouchable and above the law. If anything, the actions of the elected persons is in the public eye and should remain under scrutiny at all times.

A party fighting within itself loses the respect and support of the people.

"However, I am disappointed that Bulawayo is the most confused, undisciplined and disrespectful province."

The Bulawayo province last Friday failed for the third time to conclude its provincial elections after violence broke out among supporters of two factions, one led by Moyo and another by deposed chairman, Matson Hlalo.

Tsvangirai said he was compiling names of all people who disrupted party activities and caused violence in all provinces. He said he would name and shame them and congress would have to pass a resolution on whether they should be suspended, banished from the party or punished in other ways."

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Okay, so the firmgrab is obviously about to get underway. And I don;t see it being much different from the landgrab.

Companies will be taken over using force and violence and people will lose their lives - either as a direct result of the enforced takeovers or by the resulting standard of life of those disenfranchised by the ZANU PF party...

"Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe is standing firm with plans to take over foreign-owned companies who refuse to transfer majority shareholding to local black Zimbabweans.

The president said foreign mining companies had until May 9 to submit plans for a share transfer. Under the Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Act, which became law in March 2010, foreign-owned firms must achieve at least 51 percent black ownership within five years.

"We are not afraid to declare our program publicly," Mugabe said. "We are saying, 'Britain and America, this is our country and we have a right over its resources and we are taking control now'."

Mugabe is attempting to excuse the violence and theft that is to come.

He has failed to explain just how the agricultural sector is supposed to feed the country now that the prime farm lands are in the hands of senior ZANU PF party officials. So how is the country going to provide services or manufacture or process anything if he gives the companies to people who know nothing about commerce and industry?

I reckon that if Mugabe goes ahead with the seizure of foreign and white-owned companies, then Zimbabwe will grind to a halt within months. It will not even be able to sustain the low standard of life that is currently present in that landlocked country.

"Mugabe - who seized and distributed white-owned commercial farms to landless blacks under the banner of correcting colonial injustices a decade ago - said it was futile to appease "imperialist" Western powers, citing the case of Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi, a political ally.

"Look at what they are doing to Gaddafi. He tried to appease them by giving them access to [oil] resources… but they have turned on him," he said."

The world attempted to appease Mugabe by giving him access to power - and look what he has done to the once beautiful country of Zimbabwe.

"The president’s plan was dismissed by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai who called it "looting and plunder" by a greedy elite. Tsvangirai and Mugabe currently lead the country under a power-sharing arrangement.

On April 18, the two leaders delivered sharply different messages as the country marked 31 years of independence from Britain. Mugabe, 87, asked for an end to the power-sharing deal and for elections to be held this year.

Tsvangarai, who did not get to address the Independence Day crowds at Harare’s giant National Sports Stadium, wrote instead: "There are some among us who are determined to take this country back to the dark years of repression, violence and intimidation…"

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The cross-party negotiations, not ongoing for well over two years without much hope of coming to any real agreement, has stalled again, this time on the make-up of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. The ZEC needs to be autonomous and free from any interference by any party or politician.

In Zimbabwe, the ZEC has always been put together using ZANU PF bodies, meaning that any decision by the ZEC is bias.

Just as the Registrar-General, the office that holds the voters' roll, is occupied by pro-Mugabe Tobaiwa Mudede.

"The Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) is a critical organ in the running of credible elections in this country. It, therefore, goes without saying that parties contesting in any election have to be happy with the composition of the commission and its staffing.

Reality on the ground, however, is that ZANU PF and the two MDC factions have clashed over the staffing of ZEC and, according to a report in the NewsDay on Tuesday, the disagreement has been recorded as such in the draft election roadmap that now awaits consideration by principals to the GPA before going to SADC.

The MDC-T demands that the new ZEC, headed by High Court judge, Justice Simpson Mutambanengwe, must be allowed to recruit its staff afresh because the reason the previous commission was disbanded was that it was heavily compromised.

The complaint is that the existing ZEC secretariat is composed of either serving or retired members of the security forces, the CIO, and police personnel. The MDC wants fresh, transparent and non-partisan recruitment which ZANU PF, for reasons clearly curious but obviously best known to itself, vehemently resists.

"There should be no change of ZEC staff," the ZANU PF negotiators argue, according to a copy of the draft roadmap that we laid our hands on this week. "Determination of the suitability is the responsibility of the commission"."

Sometimes I don't know whether ZANU PF put up a fight for something like this just to gain time. They are aware that the clock is ticking, and by wasting more time, they know that more and more of the country's resources are disappearing out of the back door and entering the private purses of the well-connecting political personalities.

How is it acceptable, in any country anywhere on the glober, that the electoral body is subservient to any party taking part in an election? The election, therefore, cannot be a true reflection of the wants of the people...

"Unless ZEC cleanses itself of this blemish, contesting parties will remain dissatisfied and suspicious of the commission and everything it stands for. Zimbabweans, too, will not have confidence in it as an institution that can deliver a free and fair election.

The MDC-T is on record saying: "The MDC calls on ZEC to cleanse itself of the ZANU PF mess, reassert its credibility and perform its constitutional functions in line with expected universal norms and standards in the conduct of elections. (President Robert) Mugabe invariably manipulates the elections through ZEC and the military, in broad daylight."

Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa responded on behalf of his party, ZANU PF: "Labour laws do not allow any employee to be engaged by two companies or organisations at the same time and be double-salaried."

So why then are the police, who supposedly 'serve and protect' engaged in pro-Mugabe work?

"What is interesting though is that chairman of the new commission, Justice Mutambanengwe, has conceded there is a lot of cleaning that is needed to be done, at least where the voters’ roll is concerned. Zimbabweans cannot afford another disputed election.

It will not help anyone for a certain party to resist what others see as clearing the way to a free and fair election by fresh recruitment in the crucial body presiding over elections. If ZANU PF has nothing to hide, it must not be seen to be obstructing what others see as the way to a clean vote.

What does ZANU PF have to lose if fresh recruitment of staff is undertaken at ZEC?"

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You have to laugh - because if you don't, you will cry...

"At least 10 MDC delegates to the MDC Third National Congress have been arrested in the last two days in Kariba, Mashonaland West province on allegations of holding an illegal meeting.

The 10, who include the MDC’s Mashonaland West Secretary, Greenwich Ndanga, were arrested on Monday and today in the resort town and are being held at Kariba Police Station. The arrests are a clear sign that the police and ZANU PF are trying to disturb this week’s MDC Congress that will be held at Barborfields Stadium from 28 to 30 May. The Congress is being held under the theme: "The MDC Third National Congress - United, Winning - The People’s Covenant to Real Change"."

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Of all the people in Zimbabwe, the one that no one wants to hear talk about violence, it is the Commissioner-General of the Zimbabwe Republic Police. This is the man who is openly pro-Mugabe (although this is in contravention of provisions in the Police Act within the Constitution of Zimbabwe which states that serving police officers should be apolitical) who now attempts to take the moral high ground by warning the media about publishing articles that promote the idea of violence...

"Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri has warned the media against publishing articles that incite violence and anarchy in the country.

He urged Zimbabweans across the political divide to remain united and maintain peace saying those found on the wrong side of the law would be arrested.

"Some media houses publish articles inciting violence and anarchy which is not good. "And if there was going to be anarchy and war, we would want to see how you are going to report it," he said, citing an example of how people suffered and were killed during the country's liberation struggle.

He was addressing police officers and recruits who recently returned on educational tours in Mozambique and Zambia."

And this is the man that leads a police force that thinks nothing of tear gassing a church, or beating women and children in public. A police force that thinks nothing of arresting and incarcerating mean and women on trumped up charges, holding them incommunicado and without water or food and then defying court orders to produce them in court.

I find the reference to the liberation struggle to be somewhat dated, but the threat is there.

Chihuri believes that if ZANU PF are not the choice of the people in any election then the country will slip once again into a bush war...

"The officers visited shrines where freedom fighters killed by the Rhodesian Forces during the liberation struggle were buried in the two countries. Comm-Gen Chihuri said it was sad to note that 31 years since the country was freed from colonial bondage some journalists were still reporting negatively.

"Somebody writes that, '31 years of hell'," said Comm-Gen Chihuri in apparent reference to article published in the Daily News on Independence.

"Have you been in hell and know what it is?

"The sad memories (of the liberation struggle) are still fresh in our minds and we should never forget that gallant sons and daughters of this country lost their lives," he said."

Have Zimbabweans been to hell? Yes, they have. They live there! What a stupid question!

"On violence, Comm-Gen Chihuri said President Mugabe, who is the Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, had given enough warning against violence hence everyone must take heed.

"There are floating criminal brains that incite and perpetrate violence.

"In whatever forms or name, chaos, anarchy and commotion is not what they (freedom fighters) died for? Division and destabilisation of our nation is never part of the equation," he said."

Given that the average life span of a person in Zimbabwe is in the 30s, the liberation struggle is a generation ago. Surely it is time to forget about the bush war of the 1970s? Why does it have to be brought up at every and any excuse by Mugabe and his brigands? Is it the only thing that they have to boast about?

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Take care.

'debvhu