It is with profound grief and sadness to learn that RG. Mugabe, the first prime minister and indeed the first executive president of the independent Zimbabwe passed away in Singapore on Friday the 6th of September 2019 without accounting for the heinous crimes on humanity that he committed wantonly on the unarmed civilian population within the boundaries of Zimbabwe.
Clearly, some people are above human laws and are able to dodge justice in daylight until they die.
To us as MLF, this stands to confirm and assert the notion that ‘ justice delayed is justice denied’. Once again our bleeding nation has been denied justice and it looks set to continue to as long as murderers and rapists remain at the helm and manipulating the levers of power to suit their evil motives.
As if this is not enough, we are appalled by some so-called leaders and luminaries across political and cultural decide trying frantically to clean Mugabe of what he was even when he is dead and portray him as a saviour and a philanthropist. This tells of how heavy handed Mugabe was that people can even fear his remains .
To any rational and upright person, this is grossly unfair to both the dead others and the still living alike because they know very well that Robert Mugabe was a villain who only cared about himself all his time and even on his death bed.
Robert Mugabe, during his hay days, presided over genocide, multiple rapes, abductions, arbitrary arrests, torture and displacement of over a million innocent people he purportedly stood to liberate at the dawn of Africanism.
He was never true to the ideals of the struggle for independence. Mugabe is a known tribalist, supremacist and a bigot who read history upside down to placate only his protracted ego. He robbed people of their inherent rights, livelihoods and freedoms while hoodwinking the region and the world to believe that he was a Messiah.
He talked right but walked left always. Robert Mugabe was and still is an embodiment of all evil and intolerance.
Those trying to clean him today because he is gone, have no aorta of humanity in them and must be ashamed of blatant lies they are peddling on whatever media suits them and for their ulterior motives.
They are simply going against what all the inhabitants of binary Zimbabwe know only too well Robert was capable of during his era. Suffices to call them, conspirators in the failed attempt to exterminate other humans on the basis of ethnicity and political beliefs.
These are the very irresponsible and crooked adults who have shielded him from prosecution until he died. These are the very irresponsible adults and angels of doom who have the audacity to claim that Mthwakazi people whom they continue butchering at will are foreigners in Zimbabwe.
These are the very people who want to claim sole ownership of the land between Limpopo and Zambezi river as though they germinated there when history has it that they also immigrated from the Great Lakes regions.
These are very irresponsible adults who are bent on changing history to suit their circumstances because they do not have traceable history and so they wish to bloat impeccable history of other nations. Therefore, Robert Mugabe has died with countless crimes hanging over his head, a reason he would have preferred to die in office in order to escape prosecution.
If there is justice in the land of the departed, then definitely Robert still has to be tried there and punished endlessly for what he did to God’s people. The legacy Robert leaves behind, is that of hate, mistrust, dishonest, rape, theft and wanton murders.
He has left the nation worse off than it was prior to the so-called Zimbabwean independence. Robert hijacked people’s independence and freedoms and turned them into self aggretisement oblivious of the suffering that his actions subsequently caused across the country, region and the world.
Today, Zimbabwe is a laughing mess that is belittled by many progressive citizens of the globe. Zimbabwe is now a begging bowl of Africa down from being the bread basket of southern Africa – thanks to the tyrant Robert Mugabe.
As he goes, he leaves the Zimbabwean mess in the hands of another clueless murderer, his disciple and buddy in crime, Emmerson Mnangagwa. With his remaining accomplices, no peace nor prosperity is in sight for Zimbabwe because he left to them his Bible of treachery and all evil and they implement his teachings to the latter and in some cases even going beyond him.
The future is grim. The only way for his predecessors to see light of the day and put Zimbabwe on the right track, is ONLY by allowing Mthwakazi to stand alone and determine her future without hindrance or interference from them. The binary Zimbabwe has suffered immensely in the hands of tyrants who would even prefer to spend the meagre resources the country is left with to police and subdue Mthwakazi.
It is therefore mind sobering that since their godfather Mugabe failed to obliterate Mthwakazi from the face of the earth, they too must let go of Mthwakazi and work towards improving the livelihoods of their chosen people – the Shona – and let Mthwakazi pursue it’s aspirations and ideals.
The binary Zimbabwe is simply too big for the inept Emmerson and horde to manage-they need a relatively smaller area to run otherwise the country continues to nose dive in all areas that matter and to no avail.
The issue of where the tyrant Mugabe should be buried ought to be left to his accomplices but it would be prudent if he were to be put together with his other murderers at the so called Heroes Acre.
As MLF, we shall not miss him at all but will stand aggrieved that he evaded justice while he lived with the living. We are very bitter that he escaped justice by being shielded by Mnangagwa, Perence Shiri and zanupf.
We are equally concerned that his departure has set a wrong precedence which Mnangagwa and others cherish and would like to follow and evade justice for their known crimes and which they too know.
However, we do have solace in that crimes of such magnitude cannot be wished away and just vanish meaning that those who still commit same or similar crimes stand condemned too and shall never know peace even when they die.
As MLF, we say Robert Mugabe, like his surviving accomplices, is a criminal and has died as such and shall only be remembered as such. Robert and his conspirators in crime shall go into history books for all the bad and uneviable reasons.
One cannot imagine a man of his stature, who destroyed all institutions of the once prosperous country, dying in hospitals of foreign lands even when the country has qualified medical personnel to attend to him.
Currently, we even see the same trend with the surviving murderers further emptying the country’s coffers to get medical treatment abroad while the innocent perish in hospitals these criminals single handedly destroyed.
Their medical bills are paid for by the very people they seek to exterminate. They loot resources of the country and spend them abroad only to return in coffins-Zimbabwe has been reduced into graveyard by these Mugabemaniacs.
Such observations only fuel and heighten our resolve as the oppressed Mthwakazi people to want out of this man made mess called Zimbabwe which is now only a legacy of the heartless and remorseless tyrants who have no clue nor will to improve the lives of the masses.
Even Mnangagwa’s gods cannot hear the voices of the down trodden people but his only so he too shall go the Mugabe way leaving people with gaping wounds and scars that can never heal.
They undoubtedly will always leave the nation bleeding from wounds which they inflict relentlessly. The sight of them nauseates.
By A Correspondent- LEAD President Linda Masarira said there was a time when she felt like strangling the late former president Robert Mugabe for violating her human rights.
Masarira said she felt nothing about his death now and she had forgiven him after his ouster from power during the military coup in November 2017.
She said this while speaking about Mugabe’s death on the Identities Conversations, a platform for public debate and conversations.
She said:
“I don’t feel anything about the death of Mugabe. My life was so miserable during his era. I am not happy or even sad about his death because I got nothing positive to tell about him and his then government. I lived a life that I was always being followed by state security agents since becoming involved in activism in 2009.”
“I have been arrested and all the times I was beaten by police. The state has no right to assault people for demanding their rights. All these made me a bitter person to an extend that I thought to myself that if given the chance of meeting the ex-president I felt like strangling him. Later on, I managed to let go of the anger after his ouster from power, I felt relieved and I forgave him for no one is perfect.”
By A Correspondent- A Harare man has appeared in court for allegedly stealing gum tree logs.
Knowledge Zhoya, 35, pleaded not guilty when he appeared before magistrate Victoria Mashamba charged with theft.
He was granted a $150 bail and he will back in court October 3 for trial.
It is the State’s case that on August 26, Mitchel Zharara discovered that his gumtree logs were stolen from his workplace and the complainant filed a report to the police to that effect.
On September 4, Lawrence Teni who is employed by the complainant came across the accused who was pushing a pushcart with a gumtree log with the same peculiar marks as the one stolen at his workplace.
Teni then followed the accused and noted his place of residence and he went on to report the case to the complainant and the police.
Investigations were done leading to the arrest of the accused and recovery of three-meter gumtree log at Zhoya’s house.
The total value stolen was $2400 and only $100 was recovered.
By A Correspondent| The city of Harare is proposing to increase water charges from RTGs 0.80 cents per cubic meter to around RTGs 7.00.
The development, according to the city fathers aims at ensuring the provision of adequate funding for the water sector.
Said the City of Harare in a statement:
“HARARE is proposing to increase water charges from RTGs 0.80c per cubic meter to around RTGs 7.00 to allow adequate funding of the water sector.
A cubic meter is equivalent to five two-hundred litre drums.
“The cost of water treatment chemicals has increased by a factor of more than 10 since all chemicals are either 100 percent imports or have major forex components.
The cost of electricity which is the second cost driver in water treatment and conveyance has also gone up.
It has therefore become necessary to review the cost of water.
The City is currently in the process of testing other chemicals with the objective of improving efficiencies and effectiveness of the water treatment proceses as well as reducing costs”.
The current water shortages are a result of drought, inadequate water sources and the inconsistent water pricing structure against the cost of production.
Many suburbs are going without water. The city is appealing to consumers to understand the situation and embrace the impending price adjustment that will ensure viability of the water sector.
Council has engaged Government for the drilling of more boreholes and construction of new water sources.
By A Correspondent- A 39 year old teacher in Chipinge has been jailed for three years for being intimate with a Grade 6 pupil.
The primary school teacher, whose name has been withheld to protect the identity of his victim, was convicted on his own plea of guilty before Chipinge magistrate Elizabeth Hanzi.
He was sentenced to five years in prison of which two years were conditionally suspended for five years.
Asked by the magistrate why he abused the girl, he said she consented as they were in love.
“I was in love with the girl. We had agreed to engage in se_x because we were in a relationship,” he said.
Prosecutor Shamiso Ncube told the court that on an unknown date in June, the 13-year-old girl, together with her two friends aged 10 and 12, went to the teacher’s house to borrow plastic tins to water the school garden.
However, he gave them his laptop to watch movies in his cottage.
From that day the girls regularly visited the teacher at his house.
On another date, unknown to the prosecutor, the teacher proposed l0ve to the girl and she agreed and he indulged in se_x with her.
The minor divulged the incident to a friend on the way home.
The matter was only reported to the police a month later by the girl’s sister after hearing of the abuse through the grapevine, leading to the teacher’s arrest.-Newsday
By A Correspondent- Nkosinothando Roxanne Ncube dreads having a new boyfriend because she fears being killed by her ex-boyfriend Progress Lisutu.
Ncube made the shocking revelations that Lisutu, who is a soldier, does not want to part ways with her so he has resorted to calling her and threatening to kill her. It has been gathered that at first whenever the two had problems Lisutu would assault Ncube.
Ncube could not bear his assaults so she decided to dump him.
Little did she know that this would turn Lisutu into a monster as he now torments her every day by threatening to kill her if ever she moves on, or associates with any man.
Ncube finally decided to seek help from the courts so she could get a protection order against her ex-boyfriend and conduct her daily errands peacefully without the fear of being assaulted.
“We stayed together for four years but now we have separated. He calls threatening me saying he will wait for me on my way to school or church and assault or kill me. I don’t want him near me because of his threats,” said Ncube.
Western Commonage magistrate Urgent Vundla granted an interim order pending a final decision.-StateMedia
By A Correspondent- Villagers in Dande valley are calling on the government to cull the growing herd of elephants that is destroying infrastructure, crops and at times killing humans in the area.
Kanyemba, particularly in Chiramba, Mariga, Chatsato and Nyaruparu villages, is bearing the brunt of human-wildlife conflict.
Friday Nyakutepa (60) of Chapoto Village in Kanyemba said the elephants were now too many and they come to their fields and homes daily.
“We are in serious trouble with elephants. They are just too many and by 5am they will be here in our fields and homes destroying everything. We continue to call on the government to cull them because our lives are threatened,” Nyakutepa said.
“I lost my mother a month ago after she was trampled by an elephant after she came across a herd, while using a foot path. The place is now very dangerous because the elephants are too many. At times, parks and other stakeholders fail to control them due to their population, but our prayer is that they cull them,” Victor Chiwapura said.
Sandra Chapoto castigated the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) for only responding to their calls when they involve poaching activities.
“ZimParks is just useless they do not respond to our calls, but they only come here when they hear poaching reports, so may the government intervene.”
ZimParks spokesperson Tinashe Farawo confirmed that the elephant population had exceeded the area’s carrying capacity saying programmes are underway to assist communities.
“We know that elephants have exceeded their ecological carrying capacity that is why they are evading human settlement, but we always respond to people’s calls within the shortest possible time so that at least we deal with these problems,” Farawo said.
“There are programmes currently underway from Campfire to assist communities, the short-term is to scare them or kill them if they stray, but the long-term is to ensure that communities benefit from this resource, so that people can hunt and get ivory.”-Newsday
By A Correspondent- Villagers in Zvirevo Village under Chief Chireya in Gokwe were left shocked after a 32-year-old woman told Chief Chireya’s traditional court that her 40-year-old husband was in the habit of demanding anal sex from her.
Mildred Mashonga said her marriage had become unbearable due to her husband Nkululeko Chuma’s recent weird demands which started since he returned from neighbouring South Africa where he was based.
A source who was part of the proceedings said Mashonga pleaded with Chief Chireya to reprimand Chuma saying she no longer enjoyed her marriage.
“She was in tears when she asked Chief Chireya to reprimand Chuma who had made her life unbearable. She said her husband started making such weird requests when he came back from South Africa where he was based and the issue had been going on for close to a year now,” said the source.
It is also understood that Mashonga tried talking to her husband to no avail.
“She told the fully packed court that she tried talking to Chuma about the issue, but her pleas fell on deaf ears. She also tried engaging their relatives but it also proved to be a futile mission.”
Chief Chireya confirmed presiding over the issue.
“I can confirm that l dealt with the case of a man who’s being accused of demanding anal sex by his wife. The matter took us a long time as it was a first of its kind to be dealt with in this court.
“This man had been staying in South Africa for a long time now and you know people have a tendency of adopting beliefs and doings of other cultures, so l would like to believe that is where he learnt all these weird sexual acts. I warned him to desist from asking for such kind of sex from his wife and l also urged the couple to go for counselling.
“Chuma also apologised to his wife promising that he would not make such wild demands from his wife,” said Chef Chireya.-StateMedia
By A Correspondent- Former Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) chief executive Frank Chitukutuku has made his first attempt at explaining how he acquired massive wealth valued at over US$20 million following an order compelling him to do so.
Chitukutuku, who is under investigation for fraud, was in June given a 30-day ultimatum to give an account of how he acquired an array of immovable and movable assets, amid suspicion he obtained them corruptly.
Under the Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Act (2013), authorities are empowered to scrutinise individuals’ wealth for the purposes of arresting crimes such as corruption and money laundering.
Chitukutuku was ordered to submit a detailed statement to the head of Asset Forfeiture Unit within 30 days.
High Court judge Justice Erica Ndewere also ordered the freeze of Chitukutuku’s assets pending finalisation of the criminal case.
Last week, police confirmed Chitukutuku complied with the order and that his docket was now being scrutinised by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
A docket, according to the police, has since been compiled and is now at the NPA for scrutiny as investigations continue.
Through the statement submitted to the police, Chitukutuku explained how he acquired the immovable and movable assets.
National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi confirmed receipt of a statement from him.
“We can confirm that we received the statement and we are now looking into the issue. He (Chitukutuku) must wait for the due processes of the law to be followed,” he said.
Sources close to the investigations also told The Herald that Chitukutuku recently gave a detailed statement to the head of the police’s Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) within a month.
This was after the State had claimed that Chitukutuku may have acquired his property through criminal activities, hence the need to have the same frozen.
The decision was made following an ex-parte application by Prosecutor-General Mr Kumbirai Hodzi for an unexplained wealth and asset freezing order in terms of Section 37B as read with Section 37H of Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) (Amendment of the Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Act (Chapter 9:24) and Exchange Control Act) Regulations, 2018 (Statutory Instrument 246 of 2018).
Justice Ndewere ruled in favour of the State and barred any interested parties from dealing, in any way, with the property in question.
The order was issued after convincing arguments by the prosecution team led by chief law officer Mr Chris Mutangadura.
Mr Mutangadura heads the asset forfeiture unit at the NPA.
Chitukutuku is said to have acquired 10 motor vehicles between September 2013 and April last year.
These vehicles include two Mazda T35 trucks, a Hino Dutro truck, Toyota Land Cruiser, Toyota Prado, Nissan NP200, Range Rover, Hino Ranger and a Land Rover Discovery.
Sometime in 2011, Chitukutuku reportedly acquired residential properties namely: Property measuring 4 048 square metres held under Deed of Transfer 3232/11 situated at Lot 1 of Lot 3 of Lot 56A Borrowdale Estate, Harare and another one measuring 8 853 square metres held under Deed of Transfer 3885/11 situated at Lot 3 of Subdivision C of Subdivision B of Subdivision D of Nthaba of Glen Lorne.
The State also claims Chitukutuku built or acquired a multi-million dollar thatched precast-walled house at the top of a mountain at Belmont Farm, Goromonzi, adding he also has six state-of-the-art fowl runs, five tractors, a 10-tonne UD truck, 4 x 200-litre PVC water tanks, as well as several structures at the farm.
Apart from a long list of expensive properties, Chitukutuku is also said to be the owner of two renowned companies, Farm Pride (Private) Limited situated at 49 Kent Road, Chisipite, Harare and an insurance company, Champions Insurance, which boasts of assets estimated at over US$15 million.-StateMedia
By A Correspondent- A Waterfalls man recently appeared in court on allegations of attempted murder after he assaulted his wife and stabbed his son.
Marvelous Choga, 30, was not asked to plead when he appeared before Harare magistrate Learnmore Mapiye charged with attempted murder.
He was denied bail and advised to approach the High court.
Magistrate Mapiye remanded him in custody to September 12 pending an outstanding medical report from Parirenyatwa Group of Hospital.
It is in the State’s case that on September 4 at around 2 am, Choga arrived home drunk and his wife Melisa Chikaka woke up to serve him food.
In the process of serving food, it is alleged that Choga started shouting at Chikaka saying she was no longer cooking good meals like she used to.
It is in the State’s case that Chikaka then realized that Choga was in a foul mood and left the kitchen to hide in the spare room.
The State alleges that Choga followed and dragged her to the kitchen where he started assaulting her all over the body with open hands.
He threw her against the corner angle of a kitchen unit thereby breaking her left leg.
The court heard that their son, Tatanda was awakened by the noise and tried to play a peacemaker role, in the event he was stabbed with a knife on his arm and sustained a deep cut.
Chikaka then lodged a complaint with the police leading to Choga’s arrest.
By A Correspondent- A Harare man refused to pay maintenance citing that he will only do so if the minor is staying with his sister.
Shupikai Nyamunokora told the court that he cannot give his mother-in-law Mirriam Mushozhera $425 she was claiming since she took the child from his sister who was taking care of him.
Mushozhera had cited in her maintenance papers that when the mother of the child died in 2015, she had told her to look after the child until he is grown up.
“His mother told me to look after the child and I cannot oppose what she said because she is no more.
“The child had been staying with his sister since she was staying near the school the child was attending, but now that she moved to another place, the child is now in my custody,” she said.
Nyamunokora said he cannot maintain the child because he must continue staying with his sister.
“Why did she take the child from his sister who had been taking care of him.
“I am married to another wife and I am trying very hard to fend for the family.
“I do menial jobs like digging wells, so if she wants money, I can give her $100,” he said.
Presiding magistrate Sheila Nanzombe ordered Nyamunokora to pay $100 with effect from September 30.
FORMER Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) chief executive Frank Chitukutuku has made his first attempt at explaining how he acquired massive wealth valued at over US$20 million following an order compelling him to do so.
Chitukutuku, who is under investigation for fraud, was in June given a 30-day ultimatum to give an account of how he acquired an array of immovable and movable assets, amid suspicion he obtained them corruptly.
Under the Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Act (2013), authorities are empowered to scrutinise individuals’ wealth for the purposes of arresting crimes such as corruption and money laundering.
Chitukutuku was ordered to submit a detailed statement to the head of Asset Forfeiture Unit within 30 days.
High Court judge Justice Erica Ndewere also ordered the freeze of Chitukutuku’s assets pending finalisation of the criminal case.
Last week, police confirmed Chitukutuku complied with the order and that his docket was now being scrutinised by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
A docket, according to the police, has since been compiled and is now at the NPA for scrutiny as investigations continue.
Through the statement submitted to the police, Chitukutuku explained how he acquired the immovable and movable assets.
National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi confirmed receipt of a statement from him.
“We can confirm that we received the statement and we are now looking into the issue. He (Chitukutuku) must wait for the due processes of the law to be followed,” he said.
Sources close to the investigations also told The Herald that Chitukutuku recently gave a detailed statement to the head of the police’s Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) within a month.
This was after the State had claimed that Chitukutuku may have acquired his property through criminal activities, hence the need to have the same frozen.
The decision was made following an ex-parte application by Prosecutor-General Mr Kumbirai Hodzi for an unexplained wealth and asset freezing order in terms of Section 37B as read with Section 37H of Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) (Amendment of the Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Act (Chapter 9:24) and Exchange Control Act) Regulations, 2018 (Statutory Instrument 246 of 2018).
Justice Ndewere ruled in favour of the State and barred any interested parties from dealing, in any way, with the property in question.
The order was issued after convincing arguments by the prosecution team led by chief law officer Mr Chris Mutangadura.
Mr Mutangadura heads the asset forfeiture unit at the NPA.
Chitukutuku is said to have acquired 10 motor vehicles between September 2013 and April last year.
These vehicles include two Mazda T35 trucks, a Hino Dutro truck, Toyota Land Cruiser, Toyota Prado, Nissan NP200, Range Rover, Hino Ranger and a Land Rover Discovery.
Sometime in 2011, Chitukutuku reportedly acquired residential properties namely: Property measuring 4 048 square metres held under Deed of Transfer 3232/11 situated at Lot 1 of Lot 3 of Lot 56A Borrowdale Estate, Harare and another one measuring 8 853 square metres held under Deed of Transfer 3885/11 situated at Lot 3 of Subdivision C of Subdivision B of Subdivision D of Nthaba of Glen Lorne.
The State also claims Chitukutuku built or acquired a multi-million dollar thatched precast-walled house at the top of a mountain at Belmont Farm, Goromonzi, adding he also has six state-of-the-art fowl runs, five tractors, a 10-tonne UD truck, 4 x 200-litre PVC water tanks, as well as several structures at the farm.
Apart from a long list of expensive properties, Chitukutuku is also said to be the owner of two renowned companies, Farm Pride (Private) Limited situated at 49 Kent Road, Chisipite, Harare and an insurance company, Champions Insurance, which boasts of assets estimated at over US$15 million.
According to the State, Chitukutuku acquired the properties at a time he was lawfully earning a combined $8 500 from Zinara as well as his farming activities.
MDC deputy secretary for legal affairs and Gweru urban legislator, Brian Dube, says the continued human rights violations in the country coupled with the August 2018 and January 2019 army killings, could force the United Nations to drag President Emmerson Mnangagwa to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Dube said, while it seemed Mnangagwa was taking comfort in the false belief that the ICC has no power to arrest him since Zimbabwe is not signatory of the Rome Statute, the UN can force such action to be taken through a resolution by its security council.
“Since Zimbabwe is not a member of the Rome Statute, Mnangagwa can only be dragged to the ICC through a United Nations Security Council Resolution. The violations of human rights in Zimbabwe are wide spread and systematic. They are well planned and affecting a large number of people and hence qualify and fit into the broader definition of crimes against humanity,” Dube, who is also a lawyer, said.
The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (often referred to as the International Criminal Court Statute or the Rome Statute) is the treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC).
It was adopted at a diplomatic conference in Rome, Italy on July 17, 1998 and it entered into force on July 1, 2002. As of March 2019, 122 States have signed up to the statute.
Among other things, the statute establishes the court’s functions, jurisdiction and structure.
In August last year, six people were killed by the military during protests over the delayed announcement of presidential results. When Mnangagwa announced a 150% fuel price hike in January, security forces killed 17 civilians and injured hundreds following nationwide protests, according to human rights groups.
Lately, abductions and torture of pro-democracy activists have intensified with recent cases being of Tatenda Mombeyarara and Samantha Kureya, who are currently hospitalised.
Civic society leaders and opposition MDC officials have been arrested for exercising their rights to freedom of assembly and expression as enshrined in the Constitution.
The European Union (EU) last week expressed concern over Zimbabwe’s deteriorating human rights record.
Dube indicated that at law the EU has a good standing to voice its concerns.
“The EU is legally correct to raise the red flag over human rights violations in Zimbabwe. Human rights are universal and a responsibility of all nations to protect, promote, enforce and fulfil,” he said.
Dube was born on June 25, 1980 in Mberengwa and studied law (UZ) at the University of Zimbabwe between 2000 and 2004 and did the Masters of Law in International Criminal Justice(LLM-ICJ) at the International Law Center -Open University of Tanzania (2012-2015).
He is studying towards a PhD Law with UNISA.
Dube’s legal profession spans 15 years. He worked as a public prosecutor from 2004 to 2005, before becoming a private legal practitioner.
“I also worked as a lecturer at Midlands State University from 2009 to 2018. I was regional chair and national legal advisor for National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations from 2008 to 2012,” he chronicled.
MP Dube joined the opposition MDC in 2000.
“I joined the party in 2000 as ward 33 youth secretary in Mberengwa. I became engaged with MDC on campus at UZ from 2000 to 2004; I became Midlands youth provincial secretary for legal affair from 2010 to 2014. I was elected MDC national youths spokesperson at the 2014 congress and held the post until April this year,” he said.
“In all these years I have learned servant leadership, where I understand that leadership is not about privilege, but working. I have also learned humility because, every time I have been elected or appointed to a position, it’s not because I am the best, but that people have just given me a chance to serve. I do not take lightly the trust I am given and I try my best to listen to what people expect from me and do exactly that.”
Dube refurbished dilapidated schools, sought sponsorship for self-help projects for the unemployed and is currently building a state-of-the-art college in conjunction with several partners in Gweru urban.
He also implored government to refurbish Gweru General Hospital and provide funds to buy water pumping equipment. Dube is also pushing for house ownership schemes in Gweru.
Despite some stumbling blocks in his work, he continues to persevere.
“Financial resources and an irresponsible central government have been major challenges. On finances, I have resorted to engaging various stakeholders for development such as churches, development partners, the business communities as well as partnership with the community. On (the irresponsible) central government, I have employed the tactic of exposing the key areas so that government is forced to respond. For example, on Gweru General Hospital upgrade, I had to expose the issue through a well-researched question to the minister which compelled the ministry to act and release funds.”
“This is the same tactic I used on sourcing water equipment and infrastructure. The point is that as an MP I have to expose the challenges faced by the community so that they are attended to by the respective ministry.”
As a human rights lawyer, MP Dube has learnt a lot in the course of defending the vulnerable.
“I have had critical experience that human rights violations in Zimbabwe are wide spread and systematic and require dedication and great commitment to fight in court because there is a lot of fear and bias that can cause frustration if a lawyer is not committed,” he said.
Since the July 31, 2018 elections, the MDC has lost several court cases starting with the presidential election results challenge at the Constitutional Court to the recent blanket ban on demonstrations. As a member of the opposition’s legal department, MP Dube believes the problem leading to such developments is broad-based.
“There are many instances where decisions have not come our way from the presidential petition, to ban of demonstrations. A majority of the decisions were on technicalities as courts avoided dealing with the merits of cases. Going forward, we just need to continue litigating and possibly just attend to all details to the extent possible and plug on some technicalities.
“But, by and large, our legal team has been doing exceptionally well, but has faced, in many instances, a judiciary that has tried so hard to find fault and dismiss matters. It is something that we may need to continue polishing up. Remember court litigation is a practice where you need to learn every day,” said Dube
The energetic legislator believes key reforms must now be instituted in the justice system. His stance is in line with the opposition party’s stance that there is now “command justice” in the country as MDC officials such as organising secretary Amos Chibaya and deputy chairperson Job Sikhala have constantly been arrested and denied bail.
“The problem (of the judiciary) is institutional and the way forward is institutional reform of the military, police and judiciary. Zanu PF is isolating itself by continuing human rights violations against Zimbabweans. They must reform and stop violating human rights,” Dube said.
The legislator sits in the Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, and the Women’s Affairs Portfolio Committees.
Mugabe was the first leader of independent Zimbabwe and one of Africa’s longest serving leaders [Tendai Marima/Al Jazeera]
Kutama, Zimbabwe – A group of worshippers kneels in prayer on the lawn of the late former president Robert Mugabe’s homestead in Kutama, a village southeast of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare.
The huddled semi-circle of women, some in sky-blue capes, sing hymns and say a special prayer for the 95-year-old, who died on Friday, to rest in peace as he leaves a nation divided; with some mourning a liberator and father figure, others bitter he clung to power and many bearing the scars of the brutality of his 37-year rule that ended almost two years ago.
In Kutama, a special mass was held on Sunday in honour of Mugabe, a seemingly devoted Catholic who regularly attended services at the rural parish until a few months before his death in Singapore where he had sought medical treatment.
At his family homestead, preparations are now under way for the arrival of Mugabe’s body later this week after President Emmerson Mnangagwa his successor, declared the veteran leader a national hero to be mourned until his burial.
Across Kutama, signs of Mugabe’s patronage run deep [Tendai Marima/Al Jazeera]
Born in Kutama in 1924 in what was then British-ruled Southern Rhodesia, Mugabe went on to campaign for Zimbabwe’s independence and spent a decade in prison after being arrested in 1964 by the colonial authorities for “subversive speech”.
Mugabe ruled Zimbabwe since liberation from white colonial rule in 1980 until he was overthrown in a de facto coup in 2017. One of the world’s longest serving leaders, he died at 95 with a checkered record, with many saying he was a liberator who turned oppressor.
However, his cousin, Josephine Jaricha, 72, has a different story to tell.
“He lived his life fighting for this country, he would always fight no matter how much the whites would try to silence him. I never thought he’d come out of prison, but he did and he did so much for so many people,” said Jaricha, recalling how she used to take regular train rides to visit Mugabe during his imprisonment.
“A time would come when God would take him just like he took Sabina, Bridget and Donato [Mugabe’s siblings],” she added.
“I’m thankful for what he did for us as family and in Kutama, but it’s a painful loss; he was a father to us. This country will never have another leader like him, we’ve really lost someone important.”
Jaricha remembers taking regular train rides to visit Mugabe in prison [Tendai Marima/Al Jazeera]
Some villagers had personal encounters and knew him personally; they speak of Mugabe, an oppressor feared by many, as a man who looked after his people.
Indeed, across Kutama, signs of Mugabe’s patronage run deep.
Many homes in the rural settlement have electricity and running water, an uncommon sight in Zimbabwe where, according to the World Bank, just over 40 percent of the total population of 14 million have access to electricity.
“I cried when I heard that Mugabe had died, he was a good man,” said Locardia Sande, 84, who was a former neighbour to Mugabe and a friend to his late mother, Bona.
“We were one people. Before our villages were relocated, we used to fetch water from the same well with his [first] wife, Sally and his sisters,” she added.
“There’s no person who was as nice as Robert, now we’re suffering without him,” she lamented, adding that many in Kutama were facing tough times since the end of Mugabe’s reign.
“Whenever he’d come here, we’d tell him our problems and every family would receive something like cooking oil, but now we don’t get much help, not even a packet of sugar, we’re really suffering here,” she lamented.
Jaricha said she was thankful for Mugabe’s support, but added that after a long life, her paternal relation needed to rest as his final months, mostly spent in wheelchair or in a hospital bed, were painful.
Mugabe died at 95 with a checkered record often viewed as a liberator-turned-oppressor [Tendai Marima/Al Jazeera]
Mugabe was forced to resign after a military intervention in November 2017 and was succeeded by Mnangagwa, his former ally and deputy.
After nearly four decades in power, Mugabe was accused of using political patronage to win the support of the rural majority while brutal state-backed operations were meted out against opposition parties.
Shortly after independence, at least 20,000 people in southwestern Zimbabwe were killed during Gukurahundi, a military operation launched in 1983 on the premise that the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU), a liberation movement partner, was plotting to topple Mugabe’s ZANU.
A peace accord was signed with ZAPU in 1987 ending the ethnic conflict, but the wounds were rekindled after Mnangagwa replaced Mugabe. At the time of Gukurahundi, Mnangagwa served as minister of state security.
But despite the continued crushing of opposing voices such as the Movement for Democratic Change, the country’s largest opposition party, some in Kutama are reluctant to speak ill of Mugabe.
Father Fredrick Mabiri, the priest who conducted the special mass at the Kutama Parish where Mugabe worshipped on visits to his rural home, told Al Jazeera he recognised the late president’s achievements, but as a priest, it was not his place to speak on Mugabe’s vices.
“I see him as a president who was focused on uplifting the quality of life of the people, there are many things he succeeded in terms of education and health, but as a human being there are other things he was failed to do in his administration, but I cannot speak on those matters,” he said.
As the government prepares to repatriate Mugabe’s body, his birthplace is anxiously waiting to receive him with honour and dignity, in spite of the complex legacy of liberation and tyranny he bequeaths to Zimbabwe.
Locardia Sande wonders if the government will provide assistance Kutama
IOL|Johannesburg – City to City and Translux bus drivers have downed tool following the killing of their colleagues on Sunday.
Two drivers were shot in KwaZulu Natal within a few minutes of each other and the motive is unknown.
While one survived, the other died.
According to the South African Transport Allied Workers Union (Satawu) media officer Zanele Sabela, two Translux buses carrying 56 passengers were travelling to Johannesburg when they were shot at.
Sabela said one driver died immediately and the bus crashed into a barrier which brought it to a halt.
“The second driver was shot in the stomach and he managed to apply the handbrake and brought the bus to a complete stop. He was taken to hospital and is currently in ICU,”she added.
Sabela said the buses usually leave for the same destination 10 to 15 minutes apart and “this is likely why the two drivers were attacked one after the other.”
The passengers from the two buses were later transported to Park Station, Johannesburg.
Sabela said the unions were calling on authorities to leave no stone unturned in bringing the culprits to books.
She added that the drivers have embarked on a work stoppage citing safety concerns and are calling for the minister of transport and minister of police to come and address the situation.
According to Sabela, busses belonging to Eagle Liner and African People Movers (APM) were reportedly targeted at the same spot in July.
“Thankfully, the drivers were not shot at but all the buses’ windows were smashed and the two companies have since changed routes,” she said.
“We are also pleading with those who feel aggrieved to find ways to raise their concerns without sacrificing others’ lives or property. We have all seen the devastation caused in the trucking industry and across Gauteng communities in recent weeks.
“We call on all aggrieved transport stakeholders to come out from the shadow and express their concerns in a responsible manner so the can be addressed,” she added.
The buses fall under Autopax and The Star contacted Nana Zenani who asked that questions be sent via Whatsapp.
263chat|The opposition party, Movement For Democratic Change (MDC) says it will tomorrow meet to decide on whether to go ahead with the party’s 20th-anniversary celebrations slated for this Saturday, the same day the funeral service of the late former President Robert Mugabe will be held at the National Sports Stadium.
The opposition party was at the receiving end of Mugabe’s heavy-handedness with some of their key members being brutally killed, beaten and arbitrarily arrested.
The party has not come up with a clear position on whether they will attend the late former President’s burial and funeral service which is expected to bring together thousands of people from all walks of life including African head of states and other foreign dignitaries.
MDC Organising Secretary Amos Chibaya told 263Chat Monday morning that the Standing Committee will meet tomorrow to deliberate on the way forward.
“We have called a meeting as top leadership to discuss the issue but by tomorrow afternoon we would have come up with a decision on the way forward. We have so much respect for the late former President but we will see what comes out of the meeting,” Chibaya said.
The MDC celebrations came into question when government yesterday availed a funeral program for the late former president with a mass funeral service set for Saturday at the National Sports Stadium.
The MDC had booked Rufaro Stadium, a few kilometres away from the funeral venue, to commemorate their anniversary.
Nelson Chamisa and Tendai Biti, MDC’s President and Vice respectively, have, since the death of Mugabe, showered praises on the late liberation war hero with the latter saying; “I was tortured by Robert Mugabe but I’m not bitter, I’m not bitter at all, so rest in peace Robert Mugabe.”
Last week Chamisa sent a condolence message to the Mugabe family saying; “Even though I and our party, the MDC and the Zimbabwean people had great political differences with the late former President during his tenure in office and disagreed for decades, we recognise his lifetime as a nation’s founding President.”
The South African law enforcement agencies were nowhere to be found as the Johannesburg hostel dwellers held a march in “thousands” on Sunday demanding that foreign nation go back to their respective homes.
“Mugabe is dead, foreigners should go back home” – the protesters sang this as they marched along Jules Street in Johannesburg with their traditional weapons.
Since last month, South Africa has been a war zone hosting several attacks on foreign nationals whereby shops were looted in the name of ending the drug trade.
Gauteng has experienced the most of these attacks, with the province taking hits in all three major metros and at least ten dying from these events.
Two migrants were among the deceased people, President Cyril Ramaphosa confirmed in an address on Thursday. He also said that 423 people were arrested in Gauteng in response to the attacks.
Former Highlanders and Warriors striker Madinda Ndlovu is still in hospital after collapsing while at training at his club in Botswana over the weekend.
Gabone United management reports that, Madinda, is recovering and in a stable condition. The club has requested fans who have been flooding the hospital to give the coach a chance to recover.
Full Statement from the team management:
The club understands that supporters have been coming in large numbers to check on coach, Madinda Ndlovu in hospital.
The doctors have asked that we minimize the visits so that the coach gets enough time to rest. Visiting times will be restricted to family members and executive committee.
The coach is stable and we will give regular updates on the health of our beloved coach
The South African Football Association (SAFA) has released Bafana Bafana players to their clubs after Madagascar pulled out of the two sides’ scheduled friendly citing ongoing xenophobic attacks.
Bafana ought to have hosted Madagascar in a friendly on Saturday in Johannesburg but the islanders followed the foosteps of Zambia, who also cancelled a friendly with South Africa on account of violent attacks in the Rainbow Nation.
SAFA relased a statement last night confirming that the players were released to their clubs.
“The South African Football Association (SAFA) has taken a decision to release the players who had been in camp whole week to go back to their clubs after the withdrawal of Madagascar team from the friendly match against Bafana Bafana which was scheduled for Orlando Stadium on Saturday, 7 September 2019.
The decision to release the players was taken after the meeting with the players and technical staff.
SAFA has consistently and strongly condemned the xenophobic attacks and the criminal looting of foreign and South African businesses and wanton attacks on foreign nationals and South African citizens,” read the statement.
By A Correspondent- LEAD President Linda Masarira said there was a time when she felt like strangling the late former president Robert Mugabe for violating her human rights.
Masarira said she felt nothing about his death now and she had forgiven him after his ouster from power during the military coup in November 2017.
She said this while speaking about Mugabe’s death on the Identities Conversations, a platform for public debate and conversations.
She said:
“I don’t feel anything about the death of Mugabe. My life was so miserable during his era. I am not happy or even sad about his death because I got nothing positive to tell about him and his then government. I lived a life that I was always being followed by state security agents since becoming involved in activism in 2009.”
“I have been arrested and all the times I was beaten by police. The state has no right to assault people for demanding their rights. All these made me a bitter person to an extend that I thought to myself that if given the chance of meeting the ex-president I felt like strangling him. Later on, I managed to let go of the anger after his ouster from power, I felt relieved and I forgave him for no one is perfect.”
By Petina Gappah| Zimbabwe’s founding leader, Robert Gabriel Mugabe, has died. The widespread reaction to his death has revealed starkly the divided legacy he leaves behind. From one viewpoint he is Zimbabwe’s founding father, the man who led his comrades through an armed struggle for the liberation of Zimbabwe’s black majority from Rhodesian white-minority rule. His achievements in those early, heady years of independence were exemplary, with emphasis on health, education and women’s empowerment, thus opening up possibilities to many Zimbabweans, particularly the rural poor, who were shut out from Rhodesia’s opportunities.
From another viewpoint, he is the hero who became a villain, his 37-year rule characterised by massive human rights abuses, from the Gukurahundi massacres and persecution of supporters of the rival Zapu party of Joshua Nkomo just after independence, to the persecution of perceived enemies, both in the opposition and within his own party, whom he considered threats to his power. Even the land reform programme, much admired across Africa for restoring land to its rightful owners, was implemented amid chaos and violence.
This reform was meant to empower Zimbabweans, but it also isolated the country and impoverished the very people it was meant to support: swift sanctions soon followed from the west that, together with Mugabe’s own inconsistent economic policies and widespread corruption in his government, plunged the economy into an almost permanent recession for nearly two decades.
Mugabe’s legacy will continue to be contested between those who revere him and those who revile him, but what matters most now is how Zimbabwe’s new president handles that legacy. As Emmerson Mnangagwa prepares to bury his predecessor, he must also bury those aspects of the Mugabe presidency that polarised Zimbabweans, and those policies and attitudes that pauperised this once prosperous nation.
Mnangagwa has promised that his governance will bring a “new dispensation”, and has marked his era as that of the Second Republic. But if he is to avoid the fate of France’s Second Republic, in which the first citizen soon became the third emperor, Mnangagwa must bury the imperial presidency along with Mugabe.
The Gukurahundi massacres remain a sore wound that cannot be ignored. To end the violence, in 1987 Nkomo chose unity and peace over justice and entered into a political alliance with Mugabe. This political fix may have satisfied the establishment, but the wounds of Gukurahundi and other rights violations still fester. In 2018, Mnangagwa appointed a peace and reconciliation commission that before then had existed only in law, but he needs to expedite its work and to guarantee that its recommendations, however far-reaching, will be respected and that it will be transparent and free of political influence.
Burying Mugabe’s legacy also requires Mnangagwa to implement his own election promises. Zimbabwe needs constitutional reforms to make sure that future election results are not contested. Among the most urgent matters are the repeal of the laws that restrict the right to political expression and the freedom of the press. As recently as last month, Mnangagwa stated that these reforms mattered because they were demanded by the constitution and not because they were an external demand linked to sanctions.
A key feature of Mugabe’s rule was the conflation of party with government, and with state. This has meant outrages such as the selective application of the law and the abuse of food aid meant for the poor. Zimbabwe needs to adopt the principle common in advanced democracies that a president governs for his people, not just for his party. In particular, Mnangagwa has promised “zero tolerance” of corruption – but as long as some of his closest allies and top civil servants are shielded from investigation and prosecution, he will be considered no different to Mugabe.
The language of hate was a hallmark of Mugabe’s regime, along with crude propaganda. Particularly when Zimbabweans are suffering, as they have been from austerity measures, the president needs to find words of empathy and inclusiveness.
The one area in which Mnangagwa has shown a marked departure from his predecessor (and in which I was recently an external consultant on investment law policy and promotion) is in his outward-looking foreign policy. He has shown a willingness to open up Zimbabwe to all investors and to re-engage with even those nations with which Zimbabwe had disputes, both over land and over human rights. Yet without addressing corruption, human rights abuses – both past and continuing – and without engaging with compassion the millions of Zimbabweans who feel both disenfranchised and disenchanted, Mnangagwa will not succeed.
The president recently launched Vision 2030, an economic programme that aims to see Zimbabwe become an “upper-middle income economy” by 2030. Significantly, this programme will end after his own term in office, even if he runs again in 2023. If he is to succeed where Mugabe failed, Mnangagwa needs a vision that goes well beyond 2030.
The choice before him is clear: he can be Zimbabwe’s second Mugabe, with the same attitudes and policies, leading his country further down the path to isolation, internal division and economic misery. Or he can be the president who heals Zimbabwe, and puts it back on the path to prosperity and anchors it in real democracy, who guarantees the rights and freedoms of those who disagree with him, and who wins the grudging respect of even his bitterest opponents. As Mnangagwa buries Mugabe, he needs to look beyond the short-term temptations of power and instead focus on how history will remember him.
• Petina Gappah is an international lawyer and author
A plane has left Zimbabwe for Singapore carrying government officials and relatives to bring home the body of Robert Mugabe.
A plane has left Zimbabwe for Singapore carrying government officials and relatives to bring home the body of Robert Mugabe, but it was still not clear where the former leader would be buried, a family spokesman said on Monday.
Sources at the Robert Mugabe International Airport said the plane is the one which President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been using for his numerous domestic and international flights. The very expensive jet is hired from Asia on a very high daily rate.
Mugabe’s family is pushing back against the government’s plan to bury him at the National Heroes Acre monument in Harare and wants him to be interred in his home village, relatives have told Reuters.
Leo Mugabe, the late president’s nephew and family spokesman, said a charter plane left Harare for Singapore just after 9 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Monday.
Mugabe’s body was expected to arrive in Zimbabwe on Wednesday at 3 p.m. (1300 GMT), Leo Mugabe told Reuters.
But when pressed on where Mugabe would be buried, Leo Mugabe was non-committal.
“Mugabe was a chief and he will be buried in accordance with tradition. The chiefs have not told us where he will be buried, so it is not clear yet. I also don’t know,” he said.
In some parts of Zimbabwe, burials of chiefs are a secret affair and people are only told the resting place afterwards.
Mugabe died on Friday aged 95 in Singapore, where he had long received medical treatment. He had dominated Zimbabwean politics for almost four decades from independence in 1980 until he was removed by his own army in a November 2017 coup.
Revered by many as a liberator who freed his people from white minority rule, Mugabe was vilified by others for wrecking one of Africa’s most promising economies and ruthlessly crushing his opponents.
Mugabe’s resting place has been a topic of discussion since the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper reported last month that Mugabe would snub the offer of a burial at National Heroes Acre – a site reserved for the country’s heroes – because he felt bitter about the way he was removed from power.
The Zimbabwean government said in a memo sent to embassies that it planned to hold a state funeral for Mugabe in the National Sports Stadium on Saturday, with a burial ceremony on Sunday, but it did not say where the burial would be.
If Mugabe is buried in Kutama village, 85 km (50 miles) from Harare, it would be a major rebuke for his successor, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, and the ruling ZANU-PF party that Mugabe helped to found. Reuters
Farai Dziva|The Warriors face Somalia in the 2022 World Cup preliminary round second leg tie against Somalia at the National Sports Stadium tomorrow after suffering a 0-1 defeat at the hands of the small boys.
WARRIORS SQUAD
GOALKEEPERS
Elvis Chipezeze (Baroka),
Talbert Shumba (Chapungu).
DEFENDERS
Teenage Hadebe (Yeni Malatyaspor),
Macclive Phiri (Highlanders),
Peter Muduwa (Highlanders)
Alec Mudimu (CEFN Druids AFC),
Divine Lunga (Lamontville Golden Arrows),
Ian Nekati (ZPC Kariba).
Farai Dziva|Lead president Linda Masarira says she does not feel anything about Robert Mugabe’s death.
Speaking on the debate on Mugabe’s death on the Identities Conversations, an Identities Media Holdings platform for public debate and conversations, Masarira said:
“I don’t feel anything about the death of Mugabe. My life was so miserable during his era. I am not happy or even sad about his death because I got nothing positive to tell about him and his then government. I lived a life that I was always being followed by state security agents since becoming involved in activism in 2009.”
“I have been arrested and all the times I was beaten by police. The state has no right to assault people for demanding their rights. All these made me a bitter person to an extend that I thought to myself that if given the chance of meeting the ex-president I felt like strangling him. Later on, I managed to let go of the anger after his ouster from power, I felt relieved and I forgave him for no one is perfect,” said Masarira.
Farai Dziva|The Somalia men’s national soccer team arrived in Harare yesterday for their World Cup 2022 preliminary round qualifier return leg against the Warriors.
The Ocean Stars, who have a slender 1-0 advantage from the first leg in Djibouti, arrived at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe Airport yesterday afternoon ahead of their ecounter with Joey Antipas’ troops at the National Sports Stadium tomorrow.
Zimbabwe need to win the game by a two goal margin to progress to the group stages of qualifiers for the world’s greatest showpiece to be held in Qatar.
Should they (the Warriors) win 1-0, the game will go to extra time and potentially a penalty shootout.
Farai Dziva|Highlanders midfielder Denzel Khumalo was arrested and briefly detained at Bulawayo Central Police Station over the weekend after he allegedly got involved in a scuffle at a city night club.
According to Chronicle, Khumalo was in the company of his team-mate Brian Banda and a friend only named as Sitshela when the incident happened.
It’s reported that the midfielder, who was visibly drunk, stabbed two tyres of a BMW vehicle while his friend broke the windows of the car belonging to a Bosso supporter identified as Sidumisile Ntini.
Khumalo, however, denied the charges when he appeared at the station on Sunday.
When asked what happened, Banda confirmed there was an altercation but claimed that he is not aware about the damage to the car.
“I wasn’t there when the said vehicle was attacked. Of course, there was an altercation between Denzel and some guy who owes him money. I restrained Denzel and we left the club.
I was surprised to hear that there was a fight and a car was damaged.”
Farai Dziva|A Bulawayo man killed his son for breaking a neighbour’s window.
The man is recovering at Mpilo hospital after attempting to commit suicide.
According to Chronicle, Joseph Phiri from Sindiza Suburb in Bulawayo struck his Form 2 pupil son Adam with an iron bar after he learnt that he had broken a neighbour’s window.
The strike turned fatal as he soon discovered his son was not breathing and he then drank a pesticide in a suicide attempt move.
” It’s senseless how he attacked and killed his child.
We are told that his son had broken a neighbour’s window pane resulting in the neighbour approaching Phiri and telling him to reprimand his son. Phiri told the neighbour that Adam had been giving him problems and vowed to fix him.
He savagely attacked his son all over his body with an iron bar, killing him in the process,”a source told the state run paper.
Farai Dziva|Controversial Zimbabwean socialite and businesswoman, Olinda Chapel has vowed she will never fall in love again.
According to an online publication, the United Kingdom based social media celebrity who dated famous Zim musician Stunner and married Tytan Nkomo last year has decided to “quit love.”
“She’s so JADED that she will never fall in love again. She can’t, she sees through everyone and their intentions. Even her “friend”
… Now she has no faith in anyone, how could she?
No one has ever been there for her like she would be and has been for them. When she stumbles, she makes it part of the dance.
That’s how she will forever sit on her throne. It’s not how she falls, it’s always the how she rises you need to worry about.
The very vague post however highlights the fact that she was all alone during the hardships of the marriage and separation. For many this is assurance that the woman has decided to call it quits with the whole dating thing and spend some time with herself and daughter,” her friend told the online publication.
Farai Dziva|Controversial war veterans leader has vowed to attend former President Robert Mugabe’s funeral.
Addressing war veterans and church leaders at a Zimbabwe Amalgamated Churches (ZACC) meeting in Bulawayo yesterday, Matemadanda, who is also the Zanu-PF National Political Commissar, said while it was not a big issue to him, the family had no right to stop him from attending the funeral.
“For as long as the family has agreed that Cde Mugabe is a national hero, they can’t stop me because Government protocol allows me to attend the funeral. They don’t know what they’re talking about.
“I will not join a fight over a dead man. Where I come from we don’t brag over the dead but we mourn them,” said Matemadanda.
He said in African culture, it was taboo to fight before a family member has been buried.
“I don’t know what the elders in Cde Mugabe’s community in Zvimba say about this. But this person whose funeral they’re refusing to let me attend forgave the people who jailed and tortured him during the liberation struggle,” said Matemadanda.
He said he was convinced that whatever he told Mugabe when they disagreed was not based on gossip or hearsay but the truth.
“For those who may not know, when I started resisting what our leader was doing, I did not just do it. We actually spoke about it. Unfortunately he’s gone and he’s not here to testify.
“I booked an appointment with him and I told him that I was not in agreement with some of the things he was doing. We spoke at length,” said Matemadanda.
“I worked under Cde Mugabe for a long time and people who are saying I should not attend his funeral don’t know when I started working with him. Although I was low in the party, I worked with Cde Mugabe at critical stages of the revolution where they didn’t come themselves to defend their own. We could not by principle allow him free rein when we knew that we had not agreed on some of the things that were now happening in the party”.
“Even when we disagreed on some issues, we never doubted his capacity, leadership qualities and his contribution to the liberation struggle and the development of the country. But when the truth has to be said, we should not bury our heads in the sand,” Matemadanda said.
He said after all has been said and done, Mugabe remains his leader together with those who served under him.
Farai Dziva|Controversial war veterans leader, Victor Matemadanda is now singing a different tune and has suddenly begun to praise former President Robert Mugabe.
Addressing war veterans and church leaders at a Zimbabwe Amalgamated Churches (ZACC) meeting in Bulawayo yesterday, Matemadanda, who is also the Zanu-PF National Political Commissar, said while it was not a big issue to him, the family had no right to stop him from attending the funeral.
“For as long as the family has agreed that Cde Mugabe is a national hero, they can’t stop me because Government protocol allows me to attend the funeral. They don’t know what they’re talking about.
“I will not join a fight over a dead man. Where I come from we don’t brag over the dead but we mourn them,” said Matemadanda.
He said in African culture, it was taboo to fight before a family member has been buried.
“I don’t know what the elders in Cde Mugabe’s community in Zvimba say about this. But this person whose funeral they’re refusing to let me attend forgave the people who jailed and tortured him during the liberation struggle,” said Matemadanda.
He said he was convinced that whatever he told Mugabe when they disagreed was not based on gossip or hearsay but the truth.
“For those who may not know, when I started resisting what our leader was doing, I did not just do it. We actually spoke about it. Unfortunately he’s gone and he’s not here to testify.
“I booked an appointment with him and I told him that I was not in agreement with some of the things he was doing. We spoke at length,” said Matemadanda.
“I worked under Cde Mugabe for a long time and people who are saying I should not attend his funeral don’t know when I started working with him. Although I was low in the party, I worked with Cde Mugabe at critical stages of the revolution where they didn’t come themselves to defend their own. We could not by principle allow him free rein when we knew that we had not agreed on some of the things that were now happening in the party”.
“Even when we disagreed on some issues, we never doubted his capacity, leadership qualities and his contribution to the liberation struggle and the development of the country. But when the truth has to be said, we should not bury our heads in the sand,” Matemadanda said.
He said after all has been said and done, Mugabe remains his leader together with those who served under him.
Farai Dziva|War veterans leader, Victor Matemadanda has claimed former President Robert Mugabe had a forgiving heart.
Matemadanda, who described Mugabe as a traitor has suddenly shifted his stance.
Addressing war veterans and church leaders at a Zimbabwe Amalgamated Churches (ZACC) meeting in Bulawayo yesterday, Matemadanda, who is also the Zanu-PF National Political Commissar, said while it was not a big issue to him, the family had no right to stop him from attending the funeral.
“For as long as the family has agreed that Cde Mugabe is a national hero, they can’t stop me because Government protocol allows me to attend the funeral. They don’t know what they’re talking about.
“I will not join a fight over a dead man. Where I come from we don’t brag over the dead but we mourn them,” said Matemadanda.
He said in African culture, it was taboo to fight before a family member has been buried.
“I don’t know what the elders in Cde Mugabe’s community in Zvimba say about this. But this person whose funeral they’re refusing to let me attend forgave the people who jailed and tortured him during the liberation struggle,” said Matemadanda.
He said he was convinced that whatever he told Mugabe when they disagreed was not based on gossip or hearsay but the truth.
“For those who may not know, when I started resisting what our leader was doing, I did not just do it. We actually spoke about it. Unfortunately he’s gone and he’s not here to testify.
“I booked an appointment with him and I told him that I was not in agreement with some of the things he was doing. We spoke at length,” said Matemadanda.
“I worked under Cde Mugabe for a long time and people who are saying I should not attend his funeral don’t know when I started working with him. Although I was low in the party, I worked with Cde Mugabe at critical stages of the revolution where they didn’t come themselves to defend their own. We could not by principle allow him free rein when we knew that we had not agreed on some of the things that were now happening in the party”.
“Even when we disagreed on some issues, we never doubted his capacity, leadership qualities and his contribution to the liberation struggle and the development of the country. But when the truth has to be said, we should not bury our heads in the sand,” Matemadanda said.
He said after all has been said and done, Mugabe remains his leader together with those who served under him.
Jane Mlambo| Respected cleric and a key player in the negotiations between the late former President Robert Mugabe and the military element led by the now vice President Constantino Chiwenga during the November 2017 coup, Father Fidelis Mukonori has urged President Emmerson Mnangagwa to compromise saying failure will be a weakness.
In an interview with the Newsday, Mukonori said leadership required compromise saying those who do not compromise are not leaders.
“To be a leader is one who agrees to sit down with the others and talk, a leader who is uncompromising is not a leader. Leadership is to compromise. Compromise is not a sign of weakness, (but) it is a sign of strength,” Mukonori told NewsDay at the weekend
By A Correspondent- Zanu PF has changed the venue for the annual conference from Seke district to Goromonzi citing budget constraints.
This year’s annual gathering will be hosted by Mashonaland East province.
Addressing a provincial co-ordinating committee (PCC) meeting held on Saturday in Marondera, party provincial chairperson Joel Biggie Matiza said:
“We presented about four budgets with the highest going for more than $30m and the party said it was too high.
This year is characterised by massive hunger following a drought as well as things like the Cyclone Idai effects, hence the party channelled funds towards that.
Even if we are to raise the money it means we were going to host the conference next year.
We are now behind time, hence we looked for an alternative venue in Goromonzi, which is less expensive because of the availability of infrastructure.
Initially, the party had chosen Murape Secondary School in Seke district but later condemned the poor infrastructure at the school, the lack of a thicket to provide cover for security details, and the overhead electricity cables that cut across the school were considered a danger to the people.
Mandedza High School, also in Seke district was chosen but logistic challenges and other factors put paid to the two choices.
“There was a need to widen the Harare-Wedza Highway from Chikwanha up to the venue to allow a smooth flow of traffic. This is costly and needs time.
We were expecting that the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration would chip in, but they have no money for such a project hence we moved to Goromonzi where we can only pitch tents.-Newsday
Writes @Kudzie Sharara: “Imagine if we could do the same in constructing hospitals, schools etc…now we are doing it for parliamentarians who for years now have not done anything meaningful. we are deriving very limited benefit from parliamentarians. Useless!”
By A Correspondent- Former First Lady Grace Mugabe reportedly asked President Emmerson Mnangagwa to visit Singapore in former President Robert Mugabe’s final days so that she will be given safety guarantees.
According to sources, when Mugabe’s health deteriorated, the former first lady wanted Mnangagwa to visit so that he would guarantee her and her children’s safety after Mugabe was gone.
Said one of a local publication’s sources:
“In one of her calls, she was crying on the phone saying he (Mugabe) could no longer talk.
The former first lady wanted ED to be in Singapore and to also guarantee her and her children’s safety after the death of the former president.
Of course, she was guaranteed of her safety but was told that it was not possible for ED to be in Singapore because he was seized with preparations for the World Economic Forum (Wef) on Africa.”
Mugabe’s close relatives revealed over the weekend that Mugabe died a bitter man. He was not only bitter because of the coup that ejected him from the high office in 2017, but also Mnangagwa’s failure to visit him in Singapore and also to apologise for the coup.
Mugabe’s nephew, Leo Mugabe, told a local publication recently that the Mugabe clan expected Mnangagwa to at least visit the late Mugabe’s Borrowdale residence.
Said Leo:
“We expected President Mnangagwa to go there (Blue Roof) and say I am sorry so that there is forgiveness, there is repentance.
What I can say is that I have no doubt that he will have been happy if Mnangagwa had gone there to apologise.
What I know also is that given the late’s (Mugabe’s) Christian background, we expected him to have said ‘I forgive them what they did’.
We were bitter as family, but we are working with the government and the party. Maybe that is how they are showing remorse.
Mugabe died on 6 September 2019 at the age of 95. He was receiving treatment at Singapore’s famous Glen Eagles Hospital for some time.-DailyNews
RESPECTED Roman Catholic Church cleric Father Fidelis Mukonori has called on President Emmerson Mnangagwa to start talks with MDC leader Nelson Chamisa, joining a growing chorus for inclusive political dialogue to save Zimbabwe’s economy from total collapse.
Father Mukonori, a Jesuit priest who was a close friend to former President Robert Mugabe who died on Friday morning in Singapore, mediated a graceful exit for the former guerrilla leader after the military grabbed power in a coup in November 2017.
“To be a leader is one who agrees to sit down with the others and talk, a leader who is uncompromising is not a leader. Leadership is to compromise. Compromise is not a sign of weakness, (but) it is a sign of strength,” Mukonori told NewsDay at the weekend.
Mukonori said the violence and abductions that have characterised Zimbabwe’s political environment, need to stop.
“God had a clash with the devil, but God never destroyed the devil, he is still there. You don’t have to destroy your enemy; you don’t have to destroy your political competitor; you don’t have to destroy your business competitor, no! You don’t have to destroy someone who does not belong to your party, no! You collect the positives that these people have, which you realise you don’t have.
“That is what leadership is about. But if you just swing with your jacket and say I am not going to talk to nobody, then nobody will not talk to you and you will never run a country if you don’t talk to nobody. We are the buddies that make Zimbabwe. You don’t go around with pride and pomposity, no; if you do that you are not a leader.”
Mukonori added that because of poverty many had lost self-worth and dignity. “If you look at a person and you say that man is failing to go to hospital because she cannot pay, she cannot buy the drugs, the drugs will be there, but she cannot buy, that husband is failing to be a successful husband because he has not been employed for the last 15 to 20 years, he is embarrassed to be a husband; he is embarrassed to be a father. You listen to that person, you give that person something to do, assist that person to do something that is what, in my view, we mean running a country,” he said.
The cleric said Zimbabwe’s current leadership lacked empathy and common sense.
“My mother used to say don’t laugh or criticise those behind you because, tomorrow it will be you. She said instead help them. She never went to school, but she had a good work ethic, better than some people today who swing with half dozen certificates and degrees and fail to run a country,” he said.
He called on citizens to also play their part in extracting the country from the jaws of collapse.
“It’s not the job of the Head of State, it is the job of you and I, he has to lead us, and we have to follow. If you lead an unleadable nation you have a problem. We have to learn to be led and to learn to be led is not a sign that we are just sheep, we are not sheep we are people.
“But when you lead an intelligent people you have to be sure you talk to people as much as possible, you listen, even to the ones you think are simple no matter how simple you think they are they have something to say, something that is reasonable, something that is sensible,” Father Mukonori said.
“You may be surprised that the people you speak least to are the people who give you the best ideas and factual issues than people who become professional speakers; professional orators whose faces want to appear on TV every day. We have a great country, but we are making ourselves a laughing stock.”
Meanwhile, The Elders, an independent group of global leaders who advocate for peace, justice and human rights met with Mnangagwa, Chamisa and opposition leaders in Harare over the weekend and said only real national dialogue was the way forward for the country.
“The Elders today called on Zimbabwe’s political leaders and all figures in authority to commit to a truly inclusive national dialogue and prioritise the economic and social needs of ordinary citizens over party politics, factionalism and self-interest,” they said in a statement yesterday.
Ireland’s first woman President, Mary Robinson, who chairs the body, lamented the sad state of affairs in the country.
“Last year, I visited Zimbabwe on the cusp of landmark elections to find people determinedly optimistic about the future. Today, that optimism has gone amid a worsening economic crisis, entrenched political polarisation and a culture of fear, paranoia and State violence.
“Yet, I have been heartened by courageous women and church leaders from across society who are meeting to nurture dialogue and re-imagine their country’s future. They offer an example that all Zimbabweans should follow,” she said in the statement.
By Cherriel Dzobo| As schools open on the 10th of September 2019, it is proving to be one of the hardest for both School Development Committees (SDCs) and parents especially with the biting economy.
A random survey done by Vemuganga Community Radio Initiative paints a sombre atmosphere of desperation by parents who are afraid that their children may not go back to school.
Most of the parents are making last minute rush to pay fees and buy uniforms and food of which the prices are becoming unaffordable everyday. Parents with children going to boarding schools are the most stressed as they are expected to ensure that their children, some of whom are candidates,are well catered to start the most crucial term on the school calendar.
Everything has become expensive from fees and transport to stationary.
There are serious worries that this environment will lead to many school dropouts.In most rural areas and in particular Chipinge and Chimanimani districts,there is still reconstruction going on as a result of the devastation caused by Cyclone Idai.Third term also experience the raining season and most parents are fearful that this will also affect their kids in those schools in Chimanimani and Chipinge.
The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education is being urged to support the school feeding schemes inorder to avert the drought induced hunger caused by Cyclone Idai.
Some of the teachers spoken to have indicated that they are aggrieved due to the paltry remuneration they are receiving as salaries.
The concerns by teachers are understandable and surely there is sympathy for these teachers and staff whose salaries are inadequate .However ,teachers are being encouraged to continue engaging with government for an amicable solution that allows our education system to remain the most admired in the region.
By A Correspondent- The South African Police Service (SAPS) has revealed that at least 12 people were killed in last week’s xenophobic attacks in Pretoria, Johannesburg and other places.
Though the nationalities of the deceased have not been revealed, SAPS said that the number may be reviewed later as investigations continue.
In a tweet, South Africa’s Eye Witness Report said:
“The police have now confirmed that 12 people have died as a result of the recent outbreak of xenophobic violence. This number may be reviewed later as investigations continue.”
By A Correspondent| The Hawks yesterday reportedly arrested a Businessman believed to be Zimbabwean who owns Sam Holdings for acquiring his citizenship fraudulently.
Trends Central wrote on their Twitter that Sam was arrested yesterday morning.
Sam Mshengu according to the Citizen is believed to be under investigations that were initiated by the home affairs surrounding his citizenship status.
Other reports are suggesting that he is actually from Zimbabwe and may have allegedly obtained his South African citizenship illegally.
Sam made headlines this year at the Durban July when he went to the event with a convoy of 72 flashy cars.
Trends Central Tweeted:
Zimbabwean born businessman Sam Mshengu of Sam Holdings has been arrested by the Hawks in South Africa for allegedly acquiring his South African citizenship fraudulently.
Jane Mlambo| Zanu PF National Commissar, Victor Matemadanda, yesterday said the late Robert Mugabe’s family had no right to bar him from attending the former leader’s funeral because Government protocol allows him to.
This comes after Mugabe’s family reportedly requested that Matemadanda and Defence and War Veterans’ Affairs Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri should not attend Mugabe’s funeral.
“For as long as the family has agreed that Cde Mugabe is a national hero, they can’t stop me because Government protocol allows me to attend the funeral. They don’t know what they’re talking about.
“I will not join a fight over a dead man. Where I come from we don’t brag over the dead but we mourn them,” said Matemadanda.
Thank you Zimbabwe, residents of Glen View for continuing to vote for your party, MDC. Congratulations to Hon Vincent Tsvangirai for being elected MP for Glen View South.The electoral system still fundamentally flawed. We need urgent electoral reforms & a credible ZEC! pic.twitter.com/Pa76vkYXFf
By A Correspondent| Retired leader of Inkatha Freedom Party, Prince Buthelezi on Sunday upset his long time followers who were violently protesting in the area around Jeppestown Hostels demanding for the immediate removal of foreigners in South Africa.
The once very respected traditional and political leader of the Amazulu biased party got the crowd angry when he told them that xenophobic violence seen in the past few days is unacceptable.
In his attempt to end the violence, which has left several foreigners dead and a trail of destruction in Gauteng, Prince Buthelezi addressed the unruly crowd of hostel residents in their Hostels in Jeppestown.
Earlier, the hostel dwellers had marched along Jules Street in Malvern, demanding that foreigners go home.
Buthelezi told the crowd:
“Lives have been lost and property damaged. There has been looting, burning and violence.
“The world is watching and we are being judged. What we have seen in the past few days is unacceptable. The attacks on foreigners and their businesses are purely xenophobic – a violation of human rights and our constitution. Looting and destruction of property is a crime, full stop. Assault is always wrong.”
Citing the targeting of MTN stores in Nigeria, Nigerian leaders’ boycott of the World Economic Forum on Africa and the cancellation of a soccer match against Bafana Bafana by the Zambian Soccer Association, he warned:
“Don’t think these things have no consequences. There will be sanctions against us for what we are doing.”
His words upset most of those in the crowd, who left in protest.
The group marched away from him towards Hillbrow suburb in Johannesburg Central which houses about a million people predominately foreigners from across Africa and Asia.
The group was eventually blocked by a heavy police presence. The protesters demanded police to invite President Cyril Ramaphosa to address them within the next twenty four hours on how he is going to solve their problem with foreigners.
Sowetan|Gospel star Hlengiwe Mhlaba was involved in a serious car accident on Saturday afternoon.
The accident happened in Melmoth, northern Zululand. The singer, who is known for her powerful voice was travelling to Mpumalanga where she was booked to perform.
According to her spokesperson Nkululeko Khanye, the singer’s car rolled when she tried avoiding an oncoming car that was driving towards her.
Mhlaba sustained serious internal injuries and was admitted at a hospital in Empangeni, Kwa-Zulu-Natal, where she is under doctors supervision.
“On Saturday it was very wet when the incident happened. Hlengiwe saw a car that was driving straight towards her and tried to avoid it but lost control and the car rolled.”
“We ask the nation to continue to pray for her speedy recovery as well ,” Khanye said.
Opinion By Margaret Owen|Robert Mugabe’s first wife did a lot of good work for Zimbabwe’s women and children.
I am saddened that your obituaries for Robert Mugabe omit any reference to the work of his wonderful first wife, Sally (though they just mention her name).
She was secretary general of the Zanu-PF women’s league, founder of the Zimbabwe Child Survival Programme and a backer of the pan-Africa consortium Akina Mama wa Afrika.
She also launched the Zimbabwe Women’s Co-operative in the UK. She was a great feminist, inspiring many of us women’s rights activists and NGOs around the world, and died far too young.
How different she was from her successor, Grace. But why are her unique initiatives for Zimbabwe’s women and children omitted in all these eulogies? More gender bias? She should never be forgotten.
Margaret Owen
Director, Widows for Peace Through Democracy
By A Correspondent| Gospel star Hlengiwe Mhlaba was involved in a serious car accident on Saturday afternoon.
The accident happened in Melmoth, northern Zululand. The singer, who is known for her powerful voice was travelling to Mpumalanga where she was booked to perform.
According to her spokesperson Nkululeko Khanye, the singer’s car rolled when she tried avoiding an oncoming car that was driving towards her.
Mhlaba sustained serious internal injuries and was admitted at a hospital in Empangeni, Kwa-Zulu-Natal, where she is under doctors supervision.
“On Saturday it was very wet when the incident happened. Hlengiwe saw a car that was driving straight towards her and tried to avoid it but lost control and the car rolled.”
“We ask the nation to continue to pray for her speedy recovery as well ,” Khanye said.-Sowetan
The Zanu PF Youth League made clear their position on former President Robert Mugabe’s decision that he should not be buried at the National Heroes Acre in Harare when he died.
The youth league made their position clear and announced it to Mugabe even before he died.
Speaking to the media shortly after reports of Mugabe’s decision, the youth league deputy secretary Lewis Matutu said the ruling party would not lose sleep over Mugabe’s decision indicating that the former President had denied numerous other people who deserved the status.
“That has got nothing to do with us and Mugabe is just an individual. Perhaps in my view, it is because he understands that he barred a lot of deserving heroes to be buried at this shrine.
“Talk of comrade Chinx (Dickson Chingaira) who amongst many other war veterans deserved to be laid to rest here, are lying elsewhere. I hope that the leadership will consider and perhaps rebury that fellow comrade who was working dearly for his country,” said Matutu.
“So, it’s not an issue that the former President says he does not want to be buried here. Neither is there anyone who is willing to see him buried here against his will,” he said.
File Picture of Grace Mugabe getting married to Mugabe
The family of former Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe does not want the late liberation war hero buried at the country’s National Heroes Acre, preferring a family shrine in keeping with his last wishes.
According to a government memo sent to diplomatic missions, Mugabe’s funeral will be in Harare’s National Sports Stadium on Saturday, though it didn’t specify where the burial would be on Sunday.
Mugabe, who died aged 95 in Singapore on Friday, did not want people behind his political downfall in November 2017 playing a role at his funeral, a relative said on Sunday.
Mugabe was removed from power in a coup after he fired Emmerson Mnangagwa as vice president at the instigation of his wife, Grace, and a faction of ambitious and young politicians loyal to the late leader.
Funerals for national heroes are officiated by a sitting president, which would be Mnangagwa, who is now Zimbabwe’s leader.
A close family member told international news agency, Al Jazeera, that discussions between top government officials and the family to change Mugabe’s final resting place were under way.
The relative, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Mugabe’s relationship with his protege Mnangagwa had soured after the coup.
“He was not happy with the fact that Mnangagwa had not come to see him. He believed in dialogue and people finding each other. This did not happen. I believe this would have turned out differently if this meeting had happened,” the source said.
‘A people’s decision’
Close family members in Singapore were left with clear instructions on where he would be buried, and that was at his village of Zvimba, about 100 kilometres northwest of Harare.
“Grace can’t go against the wishes of her husband. It would be a dishonouring of his memory. As of two weeks ago, I heard expressions such as ‘principles cannot be sacrificed for political expedience’,” the relative said.
“He did not have a problem with being afforded hero status. He felt that this was a people’s decision and not his. He had a problem with who would officiate at the funeral after everything that had happened.”
An aircraft was chartered from Harare to pick up Mugabe’s body. According to the family, Vice President Kembo Mohadi is going to lead the delegation to Singapore along with selected relatives.
His nephew, Leo Mugabe, said he expected the body back in Harare on Wednesday.
A relative of the late Zimbabwean nationalist, Adam Molai, who is in Singapore with the Mugabes, told The Straits Times newspaper that Mugabe died peacefully surrounded by his family.
Grace, daughter Bona and grandchildren, and his niece, Sandra Molai, and her husband, Adam, were with him when he died.
Mugabe was conferred national hero status after his death by Mnangagwa, the highest posthumous honour in the southern African country, for his role in the liberation struggle against colonial ruler Britain and leadership after independence in 1980.
Albert Mugabe, a nephew of Mugabe, said there was a meeting at Mugabe’s rural home of Zvimba on Saturday night.
Ruling ZANU-PF party spokesman Simon Khaya Moyo would not comment on the disagreement of the burial site.
“If they are differences, we don’t get involved in such matters as a party. We stick with the statement we issued that he was a liberation icon and our leader. He led from the front,” said Moyo.
THE Deputy Minister of Defence and War Veterans’ Affairs, Victor Matemadanda, yesterday said Robert Mugabe’s family had no right to bar him from attending the former leader’s funeral because Government protocol allows him to.
This comes after Mugabe’s family reportedly requested that Matemadanda and Defence and War Veterans’ Affairs Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri should not attend Mugabe’s funeral.
Mugabe passed away in Singapore at the age of 95 on Friday last week and will be buried at the National Heroes’ Acre on Sunday.
Addressing war veterans and church leaders at a Zimbabwe Amalgamated Churches (ZACC) meeting in Bulawayo yesterday, Matemadanda, who is also the Zanu-PF National Political Commissar, said while it was not a big issue to him, the family had no right to stop him from attending the funeral.
“For as long as the family has agreed that Cde Mugabe is a national hero, they can’t stop me because Government protocol allows me to attend the funeral. They don’t know what they’re talking about.
“I will not join a fight over a dead man. Where I come from we don’t brag over the dead but we mourn them,” said Matemadanda.
He said in African culture, it was taboo to fight before a family member has been buried.
“I don’t know what the elders in Cde Mugabe’s community in Zvimba say about this. But this person whose funeral they’re refusing to let me attend forgave the people who jailed and tortured him during the liberation struggle,” said Cde Matemadanda.
He said he was convinced that whatever he told Mugabe when they disagreed was not based on gossip or hearsay but the truth.
“For those who may not know, when I started resisting what our leader was doing, I did not just do it. We actually spoke about it. Unfortunately he’s gone and he’s not here to testify.
“I booked an appointment with him and I told him that I was not in agreement with some of the things he was doing. We spoke at length,” said Matemadanda.
“I worked under Cde Mugabe for a long time and people who are saying I should not attend his funeral don’t know when I started working with him. Although I was low in the party, I worked with Cde Mugabe at critical stages of the revolution where they didn’t come themselves to defend their own. We could not by principle allow him free rein when we knew that we had not agreed on some of the things that were now happening in the party”.
“Even when we disagreed on some issues, we never doubted his capacity, leadership qualities and his contribution to the liberation struggle and the development of the country. But when the truth has to be said, we should not bury our heads in the sand,” Matemadanda said.
He said after all has been said and done, Cde Mugabe remains his leader together with those who served under him.
Matemadanda was in 2016 arrested with other war veterans on charges of undermining the authority of the then President Mugabe.
This was after he had shown solidarity with the then association’s spokesperson, Douglas Mahiya, who was facing similar charges.
In 2017, Cde Matemadanda told Mugabe to respect war veterans after the former President said that former freedom fighters were not special in the ruling Zanu-PF party.
Matemadanda said Mugabe and his wife Grace had no prerogative to “disrespect’’ other people, including the former liberation fighters and cautioned the leader not to divide people in the country through “insults.”
State Media|The body of national hero and former Zimbabwe National Army Chief of Staff, Major-General Trust Mugoba, who died last Friday, was yesterday airlifted from Commando Regiment to his farm in Featherstone ahead of burial at the National Heroes Acre on Wednesday.
Maj-Gen Mugoba had been in Ethiopia where he was serving as Chief of Staff in the office of the Commissioner for Peace and Security in Africa.
His health deteriorated when he had returned home while on leave.
He was 60.
Maj-Gen Mugoba was declared a national hero and Vice President Kembo Mohadi made the announcement at the family home in the capital on Saturday.
ZDF Senior Chaplain-General Colonel Joseph Nyakudya said from Featherstone, the body will be taken to his Wiltshire rural home today where his parents were buried.
He said Major General Chris Mupande accompanied the body to Featherstone.
“The body has today (yesterday) left Commando Regiment destined for Featherstone at his farm,” he said.
“Tomorrow morning (today) at 9am, they will leave the farm proceeding to their rural home in Wiltshire were Major-General Mugoba’s parents were buried.
“A church service will be held there and also mourners will have their lunch there.”
Col Nyakudya said today after the church service, the body will leave the Wiltshire rural home for One Commando Regiment in Harare, before a military parade is held tomorrow.
“At 2.15 pm, the body will leave Wiltshire and will be taken back to Commando Regiment mortuary.
“As for Tuesday, the body will leave Commando Funeral Parlour for Para Regiment where we are going to have a military funeral parade at 1400hrs.
“Soon after the parade, the body will lie in state at his Greendale home followed by the burial at the national shrine on Wednesday,” Col Nyakudya said.
In January 2015, Maj-Gen Mugoba was appointed Chief of Staff (General Staff) and it was during this time that he was appointed General Officer commanding a Sadc Special Forces exercise, which was held in Kariba.
In October during the same year, he led Exercise Amani Africa 2, which involved the whole African continent.
In 2017, he was seconded to the African Union headquarters as the Chief of Staff Africa Standby Force in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a post he held until the time of his death.
He is survived by his wife, Peggy, and nine children.
FC PLATINUM were not at their fluid best, but still managed to bulldoze their way back to the top of the Castle Lager Premiership football table with this scrappy win at the National Sports Stadium yesterday.
A minute of silence was observed before the match in honour of former President Robert Mugabe who died last Friday.
The Zvishavane-based miners struggled to assert themselves in this encounter which, on any other day, would have been won comprehensively by the hosts, leaving their coach Norman Mapeza in huge doubt over their ability to win the championship for a third season running.
Goals in either half by Albert Eonde and substitute Rodwell Chinyengetere ensured maximum points for FC Platinum.
They took their tally to 39 points, same as ZPC Kariba, but they have a superior goal difference.
Missing about 10 of his regular players, Mapeza was forced to throw several green horns in the deep end but despite their nervousness, they proved their mettle.
Having gone for three games without a win, FC Platinum desperately needed to win this one and Mapeza was briefly relieved but admitted his side is short on depth.
“Look, I have to be honest. For us to really push for the championship, looking at where we are, we don’t have depth.
“We don’t have depth at all, if you guys can’t see that, then well I don’t know. We have to work and see how the season progresses,” said Mapeza.
“It was about results today. We were missing about 10 of our regular players through injuries, suspensions and national team duties.
“Credit to the boys who worked so hard. “We are struggling to be honest but to be able to get three points away from home is something commendable. “We actually had three guys from our Under-19s in today’s game. I am someone who believes in these youngsters . . . ”
The hosts Herentals, in a precarious position, would have picked up a point in this match or better still a victory but they failed to put together the basics in all aspects of the game.
They were lapse in their defending, fragile in midfield and blunt in attack. With barely a quarter of an hour into the match, Eonde connected with his left foot which carried a deflection for the visitors’ opener. Innocent Benza and Blessing Majarira both came closer to level matters at the opposite end but FC Platinum goalkeeper Petros Mhari stood firm.
Herentals took total control of the match on resumption and should have scored at least twice had they been clinical in front of goal.
But it was the guests who stretched their advantage with 20 minutes on the clock after Rodwell Chinyengetere rose firmly to plant home a header off a corner past Frank Kuchineyi, in goals for Herentals.
Herentals coach Kumbirai Mutiwekuziva was left a disappointed lot after seeing his charges lose their second game on the trot.State media
The Director-General of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) on Sunday revealed a dramatic confrontation he had with former President Robert Mugabe after the latter said he would vote for Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Nelson Chamisa in elections last year.
Isaac Moyo’s admission that he confronted Mugabe, who died last Friday, over his voting choice lays bare the CIO’s meddling in the country’s politics to keep Zanu-PF in power.
Mugabe made the dramatic announcement on the eve of elections in July last year, although the man who seized power from him months earlier – Emmerson Mnangagwa – went on to claim a controversial narrow victory. Mnangagwa, who came to power after the military staged a coup, had coveted Mugabe’s endorsement, which never came.
“The two women (Joice Mujuru and Thokozani Khupe) don’t seem to offer very much. So what is there? I think it’s just Chamisa,” Mugabe said at a July 30 news conference held at his sprawling residence in Harare.
He added: “I must say very clearly, I cannot vote for those who have tormented me. No. I can’t!”
Moyo, perhaps seeking to re-write history, claims that in the end Mugabe’s widow, Grace, told him that the former president had in fact voted for Zanu-PF. Mnangagwa’s intelligence chief says he “enjoyed” hearing that.
Moyo says he had been assigned by Mnangagwa to be the “link-man” between him and Mugabe.
“Of course here and there, there were also moments we had our tensions. I remember when I first went to see him after his press conference, where he announced he was going to vote for Chamisa. We really had an exchange that day, but what then emerged was that he said despite having threatened to vote for Chamisa, he actually did not vote for Chamisa,” Moyo told the Sunday Mail.
“I was told how on the eve of the elections he had agonised, he could not sleep. According to the former First Lady, he had woken up around 2AM and he said he could not sleep and the idea that he would go and vote for Chamisa was rebuffed, he could not do that.
“And the former First Lady said she then encouraged him to follow his real wishes and to vote for comrades he has always been with and not to worry about the small matters between them, and so the former First Lady, with the concurrence of Cde Mugabe himself, said he had not voted for MDC, but he had voted correctly. I found that fun and I enjoyed the story.”
Under section 208 of Zimbabwe constitution, members of the security services are barred from “acting in a partisan manner” or “furthering the interests of any political party or cause.”
The MDC has long complained of the conflation between state and party. The professionalisation of the civil service is one of the outstanding governance reforms demanded by the party.- State Media
President Mnangagwa has expressed surprise that some members of former President Robert Mugabe’s family are not in the country allegedly fearing persecution and were worried about being barred from attending the funeral of the veteran nationalist who passed away on Friday morning, State Media heard yesterday.
Patrick Zhuwao, Mugabe’s nephew, is reportedly in “exile” fearing for his life.
This emerged at the weekend as the Mugabe family engaged President Mnangagwa on logistics to give the former President his final rest.
The family appointed Mr Leo Mugabe as its sole spokesperson.
Deputy Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Mr George Charamba, who is also the Presidential spokesperson,revealed that on Friday the Mugabe family and Zvimba chieftainship connected with the President through Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi and Phillip Chiyangwa at State House during which meetingthey expressed gratitude for the support which the President, in his personal capacity as well as Government, extended to the former President and his family.
The former Head of State, who died at the age of 95 at a Singaporean hospital, had been unwell for a long time.
The emissaries requested that the President extends the same assistance to the family to get more members of both the Mugabe and Marufu families to travel to Singapore both to share in the grief with the former First Lady and assist with the overall arrangement of the repatriation of the body of the late Mugabe.
Mr Charamba said the family wanted assurance from the President that family members who had either left the country on their own or had gone into self-exile could attend the funeral without any arrest.
In response, President Mnangagwa acceded to all the requests by the family.
Said Mr Charamba: ‘‘The President immediately gave instructions to the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Mr Misheck Sibanda to ensure that the delegation comprising both the Mugabe and Marufu and party officials and Government representatives depart for Singapore today to support the former First Lady and that a chartered plane must be secured to take them to and from Singapore.
‘‘Secondly, President Mnangangwa expressed surprise that there were some members of the Mugabe family who had left the country without any indication that they were facing any charges. In any event, if this had been made clear to the President, the Mugabe family would be protected against undue victimisation.
“In particular the President could not understand why Patrick Zhuwao had left the country except, possibly, in solidarity with his colleagues, one of whom had in fact been in and out of the country,’’ he said, in apparent reference to another “G40” kingpin Saviour Kasukuwere.
Mr Charamba explained thatin respect to travel documents of Mugabe family members who are currently undergoing trail in the courts, the President instructed the Minister of Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Ziyambi Ziyambi together with the courts to look into the matter, stressing that travel documents were not held by the Government but by the courts.
Vice President Kembo Mohadi, has been tasked to lead a ZANU PF delegation of predominantly G40 faction members to join members of the Mugabe family and the family of the former First Lady — the Marufus to facilitate the repatriation of the national hero’s body from Singapore where he died last Friday.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa who is reportedly in the list of people Mugabe ordered not to have a part in his burial cleared Mohadi to lead the delegation.
Deputy Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, who is also the Presidential spokesperson, Mr George Charamba, said on Friday morning President Mnangagwa and his Government assigned Vice President Mohadi to lead the delegation.
“The President gave instructions to the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Dr Misheck Sibanda, to ensure that the delegation comprising both the Mugabe and Marufu families; party officials and Government representatives departs for Singapore today to support the former First Lady and that a chartered plane be secured to take them to and from Singapore.
“The delegation comprises of the Mugabe and Marufu family, from the party there is Zanu-PF Secretary for the Women’s League, Cde Mabel Chinomona; and Politburo members Cde Edna Madzongwe, Cde Sydney Sekeramayi and also a representative from the Youth League and the whole delegation is led by Vice President Kembo Mohadi.’’
The senior ZANU PF members are known members of the G40 faction that supported Mugabe through the fierce factional fights within the party in the run up to the coup against Mugabe in November 2017. Sekeramayi was actually Mugabe’s preferred successor over Mnangagwa.
The delegation leaves today and is expected back in Zimbabwe on Wednesday.
BY DR MASIMBA MAVAZA| Flags in Zimbabwe are flying at half mast, each giving a sorrowful wave in the winds of September. The rhythm of the wind sings to a sad tune which says goodbye our hero. Goodby. Robert Gabriel Karigamombe Mugabe. A very dark cloud has enveloped the nation and yes we are all in mourning. The social media is awash with the news that President Mugabe refused to be buried at the National Heroes Acre.
The Gushungo family conveyed their message to the government. If there is any time when the family’s wishes would be disregarded it is when the hero of Mugabe’s nature dies. Mugabe is a national hero; his heroics suppress his faults. He was not only a member of ZANU PF. He was ZANU PF itself. Mugabe was larger than the party. Love him or hate him Mugabe won the hearts of both friends and enemies alike.
Burying him at heroes acre cannot be decided by his relatives. There is no person who is supposed to be buried at heroes acre more than Mugabe.
Some political prostitutes who are quick to insult the president in order to gain positions are idiots and shameless bootlickers. While some family members who have scores to settle or those who have political reasons to offer dissenting voices try to make the burial place an issue, the reasons they are giving are that Mugabe did not want Mnangagwa to gain political milage by officiating at Mugabe’s funeral. These are seriously embarrassing. The burial of Mugabe is not a rally so there are no political gains to be won in officiating at his burial.
People should understand the presidency.
The president, in government, is the officer in whom the chief executive power of a nation is vested. The president of a Republic is the chief of state, but his actual power varies from country to country; in Zimbabwe the presidential office is charged with great powers and
responsibilities, but the office is relatively weak and largely ceremonial in Europe and in many countries where the prime minister, or premier,
functions as the chief executive officer.
Much of the time these chief executives function in a democratic tradition as duly elected public officials. Throughout much of the 20th century, however, some elected presidents—under the pretense of emergency—continued in office beyond their constitutionalterms. In other cases, military officers seized control of a government and afterward sought legitimacy by assuming the office of president. Still other presidents were virtual puppets of the armed forces or of powerful economic interests that put them in office.
Zimbabwe endowed the office of president with immutable executive powers, including the power to dissolve the national legislature and call national referenda. The elected president becomes a national property.
This means the president among being a human being is the property of the state. He is the face of the country and indeed his person is solely the person of the state.
When the president leaves office his welfare remains the responsibility of the state. He can not decide his fate. Mugabe’s burial place is therefore decided by the politburo.
While Mugabe was believed to have led a faction no amount of rebelling would strip the honour bestowed on Mugabe by the nation.
There are some organs of the party which had denigrated the person of Mugabe and his office. Most of these people were in dippers when Mugabe was in the trenches. Mugabe had taken decisions which made him unpopular but which enriched the people. The land reform programme needed a brave leader to issue a brave nod to the land issue. It is this decision which made Mugabe a hated person by the west.
Issues like Gukurahundi did not pity Mugabe against the rest. Actually Mugabe emerged stronger and consolidated his grip on ZANU PF after the Dissident error.
Now coming to the message purportedly said by Mugabe the nation must not lose sleep. There is no official message to President Mnangagwa it is entirely based on a rumour.
The government can not start reacting to rumours.
Matemadanda was wrong to say Mugabe has a choice. For the place of burial there is a place for heroes and there are some heroes are not allowed to have a choice. Robert Mugabe appears to be a president in rebellion against his former office. A former president, we have come to expect, hastens to the scene of a natural disaster to comfort the afflicted. He is expected to further national issues not personal vendetta. We have come to expect that when the national fabric rends, the former president will administer needle and thread, or at least reach for the sewing box of unity. We expect former presidents to be deal makers. Even when the opposition has calcified, they are supposed to drink and dine with the other side and find a bipartisan solution.
With Robert Mugabe we expected that his decades in the real national business would make him an especially able negotiator, he hasn’t much bothered to trade horses with the new leadership. To his critics, Mugabe’s detours from the expectations of his office prove he is unfit to inhabit it. Or they demonstrate his hypocrisy: The man who now ignores the traditional responsibilities of the job was once perhaps the nation’s foremost presidential scold, regularly criticizing his predecessors when they have not said anything.
It must be noted that Mugabe did not enjoy much peace after the coup or whatever it is called. He was isolated with very few people allowed to see him. He withdrew from the public and most of his time he was in hospital. No reasonable person would expect Mugabe to have taken a charitable work in sync with his office of the former president. His health did not allow him to venture in the public and interpreting that as departure from the party is foolish and cheap political gimmick by the clueless few.
Yes Mugabe was still angry with ED but his anger was never be above national pride and interest. Mugabe is a national pride and must be buried at the shrine.
We might say what we want to say but Mugabe remains a property of the state and he can not choose where he wants to be buried.
There are some vindictive people in ED’s government who would want to see the total humiliation of Mugabe even after death. They have not understood ED when he said Mugabe was his icon. Indeed Mugabe is iconic but his position prohibits him from making sweeping statements about our hero himself. He does not belong to Grace or Gushungos anymore. He is a national property.
Heroes acre will lose its weight without Mugabe. It will become a white elephant if it is not serving its purpose.
Without any futther negotiations Mugabe must be buried at the heroes acre.
Maybe Grace does not want to see Mugabe’s grave near Sally. This madness must stop. Our hero to the heroes acre.
Mugabe was part of Zimbabwe and he should be buried at a place where his contributions to the state is recognised. The word Zimbabwe can never be in a paragraph without Roberty Gabriel Mugabe. Baba Bona
President Mnangagwa has expressed surprise that some members of former President Robert Mugabe’s family are not in the country allegedly fearing persecution and were worried about being barred from attending the funeral of the veteran nationalist who passed away on Friday morning.
Patrick Zhuwao, Mugabe’s nephew, is reportedly in “exile” fearing for his life.
This emerged at the weekend as the Mugabe family engaged President Mnangagwa on logistics to give the former President his final rest. The family appointed Mr Leo Mugabe as its sole spokesperson.
Deputy Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Mr George Charamba, who is also the Presidential spokesperson, revealed that on Friday the Mugabe family and Zvimba chieftainship connected with the President through Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi and Phillip Chiyangwa at State House during which meeting they expressed gratitude for the support which the President, in his personal capacity as well as Government, extended to the former President and his family.
The former Head of State, who died at the age of 95 at a Singaporean hospital, had been unwell for a long time.
The emissaries requested that the President extends the same assistance to the family to get more members of both the Mugabe and Marufu families to travel to Singapore both to share in the grief with the former First Lady and assist with the overall arrangement of the repatriation of the body of the late Mugabe.
Mr Charamba said the family wanted assurance from the President that family members who had either left the country on their own or had gone into self-exile could attend the funeral without any arrest.
In response, President Mnangagwa acceded to all the requests by the family.
Said Mr Charamba: ‘‘The President immediately gave instructions to the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Mr Misheck Sibanda to ensure that the delegation comprising both the Mugabe and Marufu and party officials and Government representatives depart for Singapore today to support the former First Lady and that a chartered plane must be secured to take them to and from Singapore.
‘‘Secondly, President Mnangangwa expressed surprise that there were some members of the Mugabe family who had left the country without any indication that they were facing any charges. In any event, if this had been made clear to the President, the Mugabe family would be protected against undue victimisation.
“In particular the President could not understand why Patrick Zhuwao had left the country except, possibly, in solidarity with his colleagues, one of whom had in fact been in and out of the country,’’ he said, in apparent reference to another “G40” kingpin Saviour Kasukuwere.State media
By Own Correspondent| Why has this Zim government rushed to block foreign leaders from attending Robert Mugabe’s burial? By midnight last night the Mugabe family was supposed to have revealed Bob’s burial place.
As the burial place of the late Head Of State Robert Mugabe was still to be decided Sunday evening, government has moved to bar foreign leaders from attending his burial next Sunday.
The foreign affairs ministry literally said, we will be busy after the National Sports stadium function on Saturday. Their announcement is in the official notice below.
This comes as President Robert Mugabe’s nephew, Leo told ZimEye in an interview the decision on the burial place was still to be decided as late as Sunday night.
He said the chiefs are the ones who will pass the decision. ALSO WATCH THE INTERVIEW BELOW –
VIDEO LOADING BELOW. ..
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of the Republic of Zimbabwe presents its compliments to all Diplomatic Missions accredited to Zimbabwe and has the honour to convey the following arrangements for the funeral of the late former President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Cde Robert Gabriel Mugabe:
1. The State Funeral Service will be held on Saturday 14 September 2019, in the morning at the National Sports Stadium in Harare. The times will be advised.
2. Heads of State/Government wishing to attend the Ceremony are advised to arrive in Harare on Friday 13 September 2019. 3. Heads of State/Government are expected to depart Immediately after the ceremony taking into consideration that Government au-thorities will be fully occupied with preparations for the burial ser-vice/ceremony reserved for Sunday 15 September 2019. 4. The full programme for the funeral service will be made available in due course. 5. The Government has block booked accommodation for 1+2 per delegation.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of the Republic of Zimbabwe avails itself of this opportunity to renew to all Diplomatic Missions accredited to the Republic of Zimbabwe the assurances of its. highest consideration.
Vice President Dr Constantino Chiwenga yesterday described Robert Mugabe as an “iconic leader of African emancipation”, who empowered the nation through the land reform programme “at the risk of his own life and position”.
In a condolence message to President Mnangagwa, Mugabe’s family and the people of Zimbabwe, VP Chiwenga, who is presently receiving treatment in China, said the former founding President prosecuted the liberation struggle with distinction after taking over the reins of the party in 1977.
“It is with a deep sense of sorrow and shock that I learnt of the untimely passing on of Zimbabwe’s founding father and former President Cde RG Mugabe, on 6 September 2019.
“Cde Mugabe was the liberator of Zimbabwe, who upon taking the reins of leadership of Zanu in 1977, led the prosecution of the liberation struggle with distinction until the attainment of national independence in 1980,” he said.
“He will remain our founding father and iconic leader of African emancipation.”
He applauded Mugabe for leading Zimbabwe to become the country with one of the highest literacy rates in Africa, as well as law-abiding people, who respect the Constitution and electoral processes.
Mugabe, he added, was a selfless leader, who put the national interest ahead of his own.
“He leaves behind a legacy of a country with respect for constitutionalism, whereupon elections are held as prescribed in the Constitution and the highest literacy rate in Africa.
“At the risk of his own life and position, Cde Mugabe courageously empowered the nation, through the land reform programme. . .
“As I extend my condolences from China, my heartfelt sympathises are with his beloved family, His Excellency the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Cde E.D Mnangagwa and the nation at large. May his dear soul rest in eternal peace,” said VP Chiwenga.State media
FADZAI MAHERE
When things were good in Zimbabwe, Malawians, Mozambicans, Zambians and many others came here to settle and find work. They weren’t “stealing our jobs.” They were being productive and making a living.
We did not loot or burn shops where they set them up.
We did not hate them for working on our glorious farms.
We did not stop them from taking advantage of affordable and sometimes free public health and education. Education was for “all” regardless of where one originated from.
We coexisted peacefully in the townships. Neighbour meant neighbour.
We sometimes adapted our language to include our brothers and sisters from across the river, borrowed words and created hybrid communication to include our guests, now family, from afar.
We valued hard work. So when they worked hard, we worked hard too. Hard work by anyone is a badge of honour. The sky is big enough for all birds to fly.
We did not blame them for crime. An educated person knows that crime knows no nationality.
When Zimbabwe fought for liberation, it benefited all blacks, including those who had migrated here.
We did not blame foreigners for “taking our men or our women.” Mugabe married a Ghanaian and it was the most normal thing. Amai Sally is what we called her. We never sent her home. We buried her here. She was one of us because borders are artificial.
We joined hands with South Africa when they were fighting apartheid. We harbored their freedom fighters. We made noise on their behalf on the international stage. Their cause was our cause. Because that’s what black Africans do – they unite against injustice. We don’t impose it on ourselves.
We named our roads after Nkrumah, Mandela and Machel. These are our fathers. We don’t see them as foreigners.
In the circle of life, sometimes you’re an ant facing an elephant, vulnerable and desperate. Sometimes, the elephant dies and is eaten by the ant.
Africa has had a long history of injustice.
We are fighting global battles on many economic and social fronts. Being black in a world of prejudice is not and has never been easy.
Some countries are ahead. Some are behind. Nothing is fixed.
Like Zimbabwe did all those years ago, let’s learn to include fellow Africans in our prosperity.
The return fixture for the 2022 World Cup, preliminary round qualifier between Zimbabwe and Somalia is on Tuesday at National Sports Stadium in Harare.
The venue for this encounter was initially set for Barbourfields Stadium in Bulawayo but due some fixture changes it was moved to the capital city.
Kick-off time is in the afternoon at 3 pm.
The cheapest ticket has been pegged at $5 while Bay 15 to 18 is going for $10 and the VIP for $20.Ticket purchasing can be done online at ClicknPay.africa.
Meanwhile, the Warriors are trailing 1-0 in the encounter and will need to overturn the deficit without conceding a goal to reach the group stage of the qualifiers.Soccer24
Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube has called for patience among citizens, adding that reforms initiated by Government since late last year were beginning to show signs of economic transformation.
He said it normally takes up to 18 months for economic recovery to become visible where austerity measures have been implemented.
Prof Ncube said this in an interview with SABC News last week on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa in Cape Town, which ended on Friday.
With budget deficits now a thing of the past following the economic reforms being implemented under the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP), Prof Ncube believes the economy has started to turn for the better.
The TSP is a short-term economic blueprint that runs from October 2018 to December 2020. “But then, the response of the economy (to reforms) usually takes longer,” said Prof Ncube.
“There is often an 18-month lag in terms of economic response to certain economic policy. So, citizens should be patient; we are on a reform agenda, the economy is in transition (and) we will get there.”
Prof Ncube said the bulk of challenges confronting Zimbabwe were essentially monetary issues, resulting in high inflation and shortages of some basics such as fuel.
“So, the monetary issue is being reformed to deal with those challenges that pertain to currency and fuel challenges in terms of supply,” he said.
Already, the currency issue has been partly resolved through the introduction of a single currency for domestic transactions, effectively removing multiple currencies that had been in use since 2009.
Multiple currencies had exposed the country to unintended consequences, with some traders demanding foreign currency only, which many citizens didn’t have.
Experts say the introduction of a single domestic currency will enable the country to save foreign currency to import essentials such as fuel, power and industrial inputs, while also building reserves to support the local unit. Despite the economic challenges occasioned by the economic reforms, Prof Ncube said foreign investor interest remained high, especially in the mining sector.
He expressed hope the sector, together with tobacco, will underpin the country’s economic growth and recovery, at least in the short-to-medium term.
Prof Ncube said Zimbabwe had at least 40 of the most valuable minerals in the world, including gold, diamonds, platinum, chrome and nickel.
He added that in line with the theme of the WEF Africa 2019, which was “Inclusive Growth and Shared Futures in the Fourth Industrial Revolution”, Government would work hard to support ICT initiatives in the country, particularly to support job creation among youths.
Prof Ncube was part of Emmerson Mnangagwa’s strong delegation to WEF for Africa 2019, which included ministers Dr Sibusiso Moyo (Foreign Affairs and International Trade), Engineer Joel Biggie Matiza (Transport and Infrastructural Development), Advocate Fortune Chasi (Energy and Power Development) and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr John Mangudya.
Mnangagwa has already been invited to next year’s WEF in Davos, Switzerland, after he impressed its founder and executive chairman Professor Klaus Schwab with the amount of progress Harare has posted on reforms.
After a meeting with President Mnangagwa, Prof Schwab said the fact that Zimbabwe was now posting a budget surplus since January 2019, was an important piece of news that investors should hear.- state media
A ZIMBABWEAN CARER left a vulnerable pensioner was left £2,649 poorer after taking advantage of the elderly man, 74.
The victim was left devastated and depressed after the live-in carer treated himself to an iPhone 10 after stealing his bank cards.
Zvikomborero Tapfumaneyi, 25, admitted stealing bank cards from a 74-year-old man he was caring for, before using said cards for £2649.59 worth of fraudulent transactions.
A district judge at Reading Magistrates’ Court heard that the victim was left ‘devastated and depressed’ after being betrayed by his carer, who was originally from Zimbabwe but lived with the victim in Wokingham.
“The defendant was insured to drive his mobility vehicle, and would walk the defendant to the cash point when he needed to withdraw money.
“At 8.30am on Wednesday June 6 the victim was awoken by his carer who told him he had been made aware of an urgent family issue in Zimbabwe.
“He left and took all of his stuff.
“Later that afternoon, the defendant received a call from the fraud team at Barclays Bank, who informed him that there had been a series of transactions on his card.
“Those transactions included the iPhone, the food and the cash, as well as roughly £6,000/£7,000 worth of declined transactions.”
The victim’s statement was read to the court in parts.
The statement read: “I feel completely and utterly devastated by these events.
“I feel very stressed and depressed, I did not give him the authority to use the cards.”
Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu has revealed club legend Lionel Messi is free to leave the club at the end of the season.
The Argentine signed a four-year deal in 2017 and will enter into his final year in June 2020.
Speaking to the club’s media, Bartomeu, however, says if Messi decides to leave, they will not be worried as it has been the same case with other club legends in the past.
He said: “Leo Messi has a contract through to the 2020-21 season, but the player is able to leave Barca before the final season.
“It’s the same case as with the final contracts that Xavi, (Carles) Puyol and (Andres) Iniesta had. They are players who deserve that liberty, and we shouldn’t worry, as they are very committed to Barca.
“We want Messi to play for Barca through to 2021 and beyond. We are very calm.”
Messi, 32, has been at Barcelona since 2001 and is the club’s record goalscorer.Soccer 24
The former Environment, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Prisca Mupfumira last Friday made a fresh bail application at the Harare Magistrates’ Courts following the expiry of her 21-day detention period.
Mupfumira was issued with a certificate of detention on July 27 and could not apply for bail before the lapse of the 21 days.
She also made another application challenging her arrest on the basis that the police officers who arrested her were seconded to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) and, therefore, did not have arresting powers.
She argued that her arrest was null and void. Said Mupfumira’s lawyer, Mr Charles Chinyama: “Members of the armed forces should not be involved in civilian organisations.”
Harare magistrate Mr Elijah Makomo remanded Mupfumira to today for ruling on the applications.
Mupfumira is facing seven counts of criminal abuse of office involving US$95 million when she was Labour and Social Welfare Minister.
Her recent application for bail at the Supreme Court hit a brick wall after Justice Anne-Marie Gowora ruled that her grounds of appeal lacked merit.
Justice Gowora also criticised the decision by High Court judge Justice Erica Ndewere to set aside the certificate of detention issued by the Prosecutor-General.
Mr Chinyama told the magistrates’ court that he wrote a letter to the Supreme Court judge seeking clarification on whether the reinstatement of the certificate runs from when it was stopped by the High Court.
In her bail application, Mupfumira submitted that she should be granted bail as former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare Ngoni Masoka, who is facing similar charges, is out on bail.
Prosecutor Michael Reza opposed bail saying Mupfumira lied to police officers who were trying to arrest her.
“She told the police officers that she was at Parliament and when they got there she was not present. She later told the police that she had got home,” Mr Reza said.
He said Mupfumira’s behaviour was evidence that she was trying to evade lawful arrest.- state media
The former Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) chief executive Frank Chitukutuku has made his first attempt at explaining how he acquired massive wealth valued at over US$20 million following an order compelling him to do so.
Chitukutuku, who is under investigation for fraud, was in June given a 30-day ultimatum to give an account of how he acquired an array of immovable and movable assets, amid suspicion he obtained them corruptly.
Under the Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Act (2013), authorities are empowered to scrutinise individuals’ wealth for the purposes of arresting crimes such as corruption and money laundering.
Chitukutuku was ordered to submit a detailed statement to the head of Asset Forfeiture Unit within 30 days.
High Court judge Justice Erica Ndewere also ordered the freeze of Chitukutuku’s assets pending finalisation of the criminal case.
Last week, police confirmed Chitukutuku complied with the order and that his docket was now being scrutinised by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
A docket, according to the police, has since been compiled and is now at the NPA for scrutiny as investigations continue.
Through the statement submitted to the police, Chitukutuku explained how he acquired the immovable and movable assets.
National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi confirmed receipt of a statement from him.
“We can confirm that we received the statement and we are now looking into the issue. He (Chitukutuku) must wait for the due processes of the law to be followed,” he said.
Sources close to the investigations also told The Herald that Chitukutuku recently gave a detailed statement to the head of the police’s Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) within a month.
This was after the State had claimed that Chitukutuku may have acquired his property through criminal activities, hence the need to have the same frozen.
The decision was made following an ex-parte application by Prosecutor-General Mr Kumbirai Hodzi for an unexplained wealth and asset freezing order in terms of Section 37B as read with Section 37H of Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) (Amendment of the Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Act (Chapter 9:24) and Exchange Control Act) Regulations, 2018 (Statutory Instrument 246 of 2018).
Justice Ndewere ruled in favour of the State and barred any interested parties from dealing, in any way, with the property in question.
The order was issued after convincing arguments by the prosecution team led by chief law officer Mr Chris Mutangadura.
Mr Mutangadura heads the asset forfeiture unit at the NPA.
Chitukutuku is said to have acquired 10 motor vehicles between September 2013 and April last year.
These vehicles include two Mazda T35 trucks, a Hino Dutro truck, Toyota Land Cruiser, Toyota Prado, Nissan NP200, Range Rover, Hino Ranger and a Land Rover Discovery.
Sometime in 2011, Chitukutuku reportedly acquired residential properties namely: Property measuring 4 048 square metres held under Deed of Transfer 3232/11 situated at Lot 1 of Lot 3 of Lot 56A Borrowdale Estate, Harare and another one measuring 8 853 square metres held under Deed of Transfer 3885/11 situated at Lot 3 of Subdivision C of Subdivision B of Subdivision D of Nthaba of Glen Lorne.
The State also claims Chitukutuku built or acquired a multi-million dollar thatched precast-walled house at the top of a mountain at Belmont Farm, Goromonzi, adding he also has six state-of-the-art fowl runs, five tractors, a 10-tonne UD truck, 4 x 200-litre PVC water tanks, as well as several structures at the farm.
Apart from a long list of expensive properties, Chitukutuku is also said to be the owner of two renowned companies, Farm Pride (Private) Limited situated at 49 Kent Road, Chisipite, Harare and an insurance company, Champions Insurance, which boasts of assets estimated at over US$15 million.
According to the State, Chitukutuku acquired the properties at a time he was lawfully earning a combined $8 500 from Zinara as well as his farming activities. – Herald
Farai Dziva|The main opposition party in Zimbabwe, MDC has accused Zanu PF of attempting to “rig Robert Mugabe’s vote in last year’s presidential plebiscite.
The opposition party has also accused Emmerson Mnangagwa of “seizing” Mugabe’s funeral programme.
The Director-General in the President’s Office, Isaac Moyo, claimed Mugabe could not sleep the night he held a press conference endorsing Chamisa.
“Of course, here and there, there were also moments we had our tensions.
I remember when I first went to see him after his Press conference, where he announced he was going to vote for Chamisa.
We really had an exchange that day, but what then emerged was that he said despite having threatened to vote for Chamisa, he actually did not vote for Chamisa and I was told on how on the eve of the elections, he had agonised, he could not sleep.
According to the former First Lady, he had woken up around 2 am somewhere and he said he could not sleep and the idea that he would go and vote for Chamisa was rebuffed, he could not do that.
And the former First Lady said she then encouraged him to follow his real wishes and to vote for comrades he has always been with and not to worry about the small matters between them, and so the former First Lady, with the concurrence of Cde Mugabe himself, said he had not voted for MDC, but he had voted correctly, I found that funny and I enjoyed the story,” claimed Moyo.
Responding to Moyo’s remarks MDC Secretary General Chalton Hwende said :
Some people have no shame this attempt to rig Mugabe’s vote is ludicrous.
Mugabe told the whole world that he was going to Vote for @nelsonchamisa.
Gvt must allow RG’s family to mourn and bury him in peace.”
“Now they start again! What we will here next time is that RGM never said anything about the HEROES ACRE burial – I guess RGM’s vote was changed, they followed it in the ballot box – they rigged his vote,”said Nkululeko Sibanda, the MDC Presidential spokesperson.
Farai Dziva|The main opposition party in Zimbabwe, MDC has accused Zanu PF of attempting to “rig Robert Mugabe’s vote in last year’s presidential plebiscite.
The opposition party has also accused Emmerson Mnangagwa of “seizing” Mugabe’s funeral programme.
The Director-General in the President’s Office, Isaac Moyo, claimed Mugabe could not sleep the night he held a press conference endorsing Chamisa.
“Of course, here and there, there were also moments we had our tensions.
I remember when I first went to see him after his Press conference, where he announced he was going to vote for Chamisa.
We really had an exchange that day, but what then emerged was that he said despite having threatened to vote for Chamisa, he actually did not vote for Chamisa and I was told on how on the eve of the elections, he had agonised, he could not sleep.
According to the former First Lady, he had woken up around 2 am somewhere and he said he could not sleep and the idea that he would go and vote for Chamisa was rebuffed, he could not do that.
And the former First Lady said she then encouraged him to follow his real wishes and to vote for comrades he has always been with and not to worry about the small matters between them, and so the former First Lady, with the concurrence of Cde Mugabe himself, said he had not voted for MDC, but he had voted correctly, I found that funny and I enjoyed the story,” claimed Moyo.
Responding to Moyo’s remarks MDC Secretary General Chalton Hwende said :
Some people have no shame this attempt to rig Mugabe’s vote is ludicrous.
Mugabe told the whole world that he was going to Vote for @nelsonchamisa.
Gvt must allow RG’s family to mourn and bury him in peace.”
“Now they start again! What we will here next time is that RGM never said anything about the HEROES ACRE burial – I guess RGM’s vote was changed, they followed it in the ballot box – they rigged his vote,”said Nkululeko Sibanda, the MDC Presidential spokesperson.
Farai Dziva|Former Vice President Joice Mujuru has described Robert Mugabe as ” her mentor and father of many.”
Mujuru posted the remarks on her Facebook page.
“My mentor, a father to many, founder of the republic, a pan africanist, a champion of black empowerment, an icon of the liberation struggle. Rest in Power Cde Robert Gabriel Mugabe.
My deepest condolences to Amai Mugabe and family. We have lost an icon. A true son of the soil,” wrote Mujuru.
As the burial place of the late Head Of State Robert Mugabe was still to be decided Sunday evening, government has moved to bar foreign leaders from attending his burial next Sunday.
The foreign affairs ministry literally said, we will be busy after the National Sports stadium function on Saturday. Their announcement is in the official notice below.
This comes as President Robert Mugabe’s nephew, Leo told ZimEye in an interview the decision on the burial place was still to be decided as late as Sunday night.
He said the chiefs are the ones who will pass the decision. ALSO WATCH THE INTERVIEW BELOW –
VIDEO LOADING BELOW. ..
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of the Republic of Zimbabwe presents its compliments to all Diplomatic Missions accredited to Zimbabwe and has the honour to convey the following arrangements for the funeral of the late former President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Cde Robert Gabriel Mugabe:
1. The State Funeral Service will be held on Saturday 14 September 2019, in the morning at the National Sports Stadium in Harare. The times will be advised.
2. Heads of State/Government wishing to attend the Ceremony are advised to arrive in Harare on Friday 13 September 2019. 3. Heads of State/Government are expected to depart Immediately after the ceremony taking into consideration that Government au-thorities will be fully occupied with preparations for the burial ser-vice/ceremony reserved for Sunday 15 September 2019. 4. The full programme for the funeral service will be made available in due course. 5. The Government has block booked accommodation for 1+2 per delegation.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of the Republic of Zimbabwe avails itself of this opportunity to renew to all Diplomatic Missions accredited to the Republic of Zimbabwe the assurances of its. highest consideration.
Standard|The fallacy of the hero-turned-villain narrative of Robert Mugabe is the greatest trick this devil ever played.
The closest I have to feeling anything is quiet, seething rage.
Rage that this man who killed thousands and destroyed so many livelihoods has died without facing justice for the atrocities. I am not religious, but want now more than anything to
hang tightly to the promise of purgatory — the halfway house and hell’s holding cell.
He escaped justice in this life, I pray it is waiting for him in the next. I hope he is “under arrest” right now and will be denied bail just as he arrested and denied the thousands he persecuted in his four decades in power.
Many say they are conflicted about Mugabe, whom they call a pan-Africanist, father of the Zimbabwean nation and a hero-turned-villain. I personally do not suffer from this conflict.
Credited by some for his gallant role in leading Zanu in the last very short leg of the liberation struggle from 1975 to 1979 — only four years — he gets far more credit than he
deserves.
The gallantry and heroism, according to his closest comrades, is manufactured.
His recruiter into the liberation struggle and companion on the surreptitious journey to Mozambique, Edgar Tekere, former secretary-general of Zanu PF, spoke in his book, of a reluctant, scared and unwilling participant of the struggle into which he was foisted because he, with his multiple academic degrees, spoke and wrote well compared to the other
guerillas.
Much like his cousin and nationalist James Chikerema who spoke of the narcissistic and self-absorbed young bookish boy who threw tantrums and abandoned other boys when they herded
cattle. Revelations that would help illuminate the man’s behaviour in later years.
He wanted everything done his way. He never tolerated dissent during the liberation struggle and after. He stoked controversy on his role in the death of Josiah Tongogara, the Zanla
commander, in 1979 in order to ostensibly consolidate his control over Zanu PF. Tongogara preferred a united front under Joshua Nkomo.
After independence having decided Zimbabwe would be a one-party state, he demanded and required full compliance and loyalty. When his comrades questioned it, they were sidelined.
He brutalised Nkomo and his party for resisting the one-party state. He coveted and desired absolute power. Always wary and spiteful of contenders to power in Zanu PF.
He expelled erstwhile right-hand comrades like Tekere, Eddison Zvobgo, Dzikamai Mavhaire, Margaret Dongo, Enos Nkala, Solomon Mujuru, Didymus Mutasa, and Emmerson Mnangagwa. He toyed
with them by bringing some of them back when he felt they had learnt their lesson.
The lesson being there is only one leader. And his name is Mugabe. He maintained a divide- and-rule system built around fear and suspicion. His comrades both feared him and mistrusted
each other and could never muster a revolt against him.
Attempts to do so were sure to be fatal with many dying under suspicious circumstances — usually car accidents, alleged poisoning or other undisclosed sudden illness — methods which his
comrades readily used against each other.
To ensure his comrades toed the line, he built a zero-sum, kill or be killed, do-or-die party system in which you were either in or out and once out one either fled into exile or were
stripped of everything the party had allowed them to accumulate.
Gukurahundi
He was aloof and cold. Vengeful and unforgiving. In 1980, fearful of Nkomo, his party and better trained guerillas, he spent considerable resources to build his own army militia
answerable to him and ready to do his political and ethnic bloodletting.
The Gukurahundi or 5th Brigade was a private army with instructions to kill, rape, torture and plunder Nkomo and his supporters into submission. He did not stop until 20 000 people were
dead. He would never have stopped had Nkomo not capitulated and sworn allegiance to his authority. Only total submission and subjugation assuaged Mugabe.
There is nothing in his record that shows benevolence or democratic credentials. He never sought to build a nation, but stoked and amplified tribal differences advantaging his Zezuru
clansmen and entrenching a sense of exclusion and marginalisation amongst other clans.
In the 1980s he spoke of destroying opposition Zapu and he kept his promise through Gukurahundi, killing thousands of its largely Ndebele supporters. He left a country more ethnically
divided than it was when the liberation struggle began. He politicised ethnicity, conveniently labelling the multi-ethnic Zapu as a Ndebele party as a pretext to destroy it.
His demagoguery left Zimbabwe collectively carrying his individual guilt and responsibility and a real sense of exclusion and grievance. He pretended to manage inclusion by appointing
“yes men” from different ethnic groups with little intention or desire at deepening inclusion.
In 1990, he warned supporters of the Zimbabwe Unity Movement (ZUM), led by his erstwhile comrade Tekere, that one way to die was to vote for ZUM. The result was an unleashing of
violence which culminated in the shooting of Patrick Kombayi by officers of his Central Intelligence Organisation.
He would later give the two officers amnesty after they were convicted for attempted murder. He readily gave all his comrades amnesties whenever they transgressed — including committing serious crimes like murder and corruption, a clear indication of his disdain for rule of law.
He berated judges who made decisions he did not like and unleashed his militia to intimidate the Chief Justice in his office to force him to resign.
In the 2000s he unleashed Zanu PF militia against MDC’s Morgan Tsvangirai, killing hundreds. Simultaneously, sensing that he was running out of cards he turned on white commercial
farmers who had supported him earlier when they showed disloyalty and support for the MDC.
A mastermind — in one master stroke — he struck at both the white farmers and the MDC and claimed the ultimate prize of winning back votes by giving back the land and decimating the
opposition whilst claiming the high anti-colonial moral high ground in Africa and elsewhere because no sane Zimbabweans could question the need to redress the land problem which had
been the basis for the armed struggle. But he kept the best farms for himself, his cronies in Zanu PF and the military who went on a looting spree, grabbing multiple farms for
themselves and their families.
Always a political opportunist, realising that the opposition drew its support from urban centres, in 2005, he unleashed his wrath on the urban population, destroying homes in an
operation known as Operation Murambatsvina (Reject Dirt) that the UN characterised as approximating crimes against humanity.
At the end of the day, his arrogance and hard-heartedness meant that even his comrades were afraid to contradict and challenge him. It also meant that he surrounded himself with like-
minded violence mongers who readily did his bidding and personally benefited from it.
He was unforgiving and willing to falsely rewrite the nationalist struggle for independence so that only he was the pre-eminent and leading nationalist — despite having only taken
charge of Zanu PF in 1977, two years before the ceasefire.
He always placed his contribution above and beyond far worthier forebears like Nkomo, Ndabaningi Sithole, Lookout Masuku, George Silundika, Herbert Chitepo, Leopold Takawira, and Jason
Ziyaphapha Moyo.
He appropriated the National Heroes Acre as a private cemetery only for people he approved, excluding Masuku, Sithole, Chinx Chingaira and others.
In the end, as his relentless pursuit for them intensified, his comrades overcame their fear and deposed him. That they had to use the army demonstrated the entrenchment and
instrumentalisation of violence to retain and obtain political power.
None of the touted democratic process in Zanu PF would work to remove him. To remove him, his comrades would need to violate their party and national constitution and depose him via a
coup. This was the legacy he left, 40 years into his rule.
Compared to other liberation movements in the region which saw many successive, democratic and party-sanctioned changes of presidential power, he bestrode Zanu and Zimbabwe like a
colossus expecting to concede power to the only thing that did not fear him — death.
In 2001, when coming from Johannesburg on landing at Harare International Airport, now named after him, he declared that the white people in Zimbabwe and those in MDC should go back to
England or be imprisoned. He singled out Roy Bennett and David Coltart, whom he had personally telegrammed to come back in 1980.
Separately, he was unleashing violence against the new MDC and selectively distributing food aid when hundreds of thousands faced hunger in the middle of one of the worst droughts the
country has faced.
I felt compelled to act against what was clearly an intensification of systematic attacks against innocent civilians and the opposition. I decided to write him a letter from East Timor
— where I was working in the Tribunal that was dealing with crimes against humanity — to register my concerns and to “reprimand” him.
Expectedly, I never received a response but more importantly, the MDC white politicians were spared arrest. A few months later, to my shock, I received information that there were
discussions between the MDC and one of the former Rhodesian colonels, Lionel Dyke, implicated in Gukurahundi — on giving Mugabe amnesty for the most egregious of his crimes.
I tried unsuccessfully to find any of the implicated colleagues in these secret talks — which were presumably planned for South Africa — to get the real story. None was available.
Besides witnessing and being affected by Gukurahundi directly as a child, as a law student, I had been a junior researcher and volunteer at the Bulawayo Legal Projects Centre, which had
produced the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, Breaking the Silence Report on the atrocities.
I had met many of the victims who streamed in to tell their stories. I was upset that there could be a discussion of amnesty without hearing the victims. I was left with only one option: To write.
I called Iden Wetherell at Zimbabwe Independent and asked whether he would publish a piece the following Friday. It was Wednesday and he said he had already completed his layout and
I was too late.
I implored him that this was of national importance and could not wait until the following week. It would be too late. Iden — who many may not know is not just former Zipra cadre,
but a holder of a doctorate from before one could purchase them — gave me a lifeline: “You can send it now. Just email it.”
But I had not written it. I was going to write it at night. He could not promise, but asked me to send it. I did not sleep that night and sent to Iden a piece entitled: “Amnesty for
Mugabe for Gukurahundi out of the question.”
I then crossed my fingers and held my breath. On Friday, I was delighted to see that Iden had published it on his front page. He had apparently “agreed” on its national importance. In my piece, I berated anyone, including MDC leaders, for arrogantly thinking they could have a mandate to negotiate an amnesty for Mugabe for Gukurahundi without a mandate from the victims.
What followed was even more interesting. At a rally the next day, Tsvangirai distanced himself from amnesty talks and said the MDC would pursue justice. I felt vindicated for the sleepless night.
More would follow. A few weeks later, at Heroes Acre where my mother goes every year on Heroes Day (for my father), she reported that Mugabe had spoken to her at my father’s grave and asked: “MaSibanda,how are you and the children?”She had responded that we were all fine. “How is your son?” he had further asked. “But I have many sons, Mr. President” she had replied: “Ngitsho uSipho, unjani uSipho?” he interjected.
She was puzzled but replied that I was fine. “Is he still in East Timor? “Yes he is, Sir,” she replied. “Oh, okay. That’s good! Tell him we are proud of him and he must keep up the good work,” he said as he walked away.
The Zapu comrades in the presidency had then cornered my mother and said:“Please tell our son Sipho to call us. We know he may be unhappy about some things, but there is no need to write to newspapers when we are here”.
My mother called to say I should not come back home because there was something in the way Mugabe had asked after me. I laughed her concerns off and a few months later I was on a flight back home on leave.
I would continue to write critiquing him, at times using pseudonyms when I worried about exposing relatives and loved ones. I knew Mugabe’s wrath from when I was a 10-year-old boy. My father, Sidney Malunga — as Zapu spokesman who exposed his atrocities — got the worst of Mugabe’s brutality.
Starting barely a few months into independence in 1980, countless night-time raids at home and arrests, detentions incommunicado, torture, sham trials, acquittals followed by further unlawful detentions for years on end.
So we “lived” with Mugabe in our house.
He was a constant feature. My father ranting about him or his party. My older brother Busi (20) and cousin Ronald (17) arrested and detained at Brady Barracks in lieu of my father.
His intelligence goons intimidated and turned our house upside down, the sweeteners he would offer my father — an ambassadorial post here or there —which he would dismiss saying that he was not for sale.
The continuous consciousness of an ever-present and ever-looming danger. That is what Mugabe represented to me from an early age. This would not change in my adulthood as I became a critic of his misrule and advocate for him to face justice for his heinous crimes. It has not changed now.
Much will be said by others about his misrule and economic destruction of the country and its people’s livelihoods that there is little point in repeating.
More about how he allowed, facilitated and encouraged corruption by his comrades, rewarding and never punishing it. He revelled in false positive acclaim that he was corruption-free, but was just surrounded by thieves.
But which honest person only surrounds himself with only corrupt people and worse still promotes them? There is no doubt in my mind that he too was corrupt.
Willowvale Motor Scandal, to War Victims Compensation corruption scandals and many others, he was clearly the head of a corrupt system not the victim of dishonest company.
This would become even more apparent when his wife looted the national housing scheme to build a private mansion which she would later sell for a huge profit, when he leveraged state resources for his farming businesses, when he forced the army and police to buy his produce, when he and his wife grabbed multiple farms.
He selectively and conveniently peddled pan-African credentials to shore up support for his disastrous economic and political policies. Whilst killing and beating his own African citizens, stealing elections, starving opposition supporters and plundering public resources, he railed against imperialist forces blaming them for all his failures because of travel and others sanctions they imposed on him personally and his lieutenants.
He left nothing to show for ruling a country for almost 40 years except decay. His touted legacy of significant investments in education manifest in a collapsed education system in which in some rural children still learn under trees, teachers earn $25 and learners can barely afford fees.
In a twist of irony, he may have invested in his political longevity as educated Zimbabweans fled the country in thousands to seek opportunities all over the world. They would remit money and food home to relatives when the economy and living conditions tanked and hyper inflation set in – effectively saving his bacon.
That he died in a Singapore hospital where he battled illness for over half a year is testament of his catastrophic and shameful failure not just to build a viable health system but to simply maintain what he inherited from the Rhodesians.
Worst of all, even though he was deposed in 2017, he bequeathed to the country a monstrous political system run by a small political, predatory and corrupt elite comprised of his cronies with greater interest in advancing personal and not public interest.
In that sense, he never left even in death.
His legacy of stolen elections and violence continues to determine the primary basis of political engagement as shown by the army shootings if August 2018, and the heavy handed security response to protests in January and August 2019.
When a person dies, the task of encapsulating and narrating their life becomes critical.
There are always multi- dimensional narratives about any person – and especially a larger than life figure like Mugabe. In African custom the saying goes that “a dead person becomes a good person” akin to “never speak I’ll of the dead.”
But facts are stubborn. Mugabe brooked no resistance from anyone – inside his own movement and outside. He readily eliminated every one of his enemies – inside and outside his movement going back to the liberation struggle.
He mastered, deployed and instrumentalised violence, demagoguery and hate for political ends. For the most part it worked well for him until it was used against him. Having drawn and tasted blood of 20,000 Ndebeles in the 1980s, he considered the death of a few MDC supporters in 2008, child’s play, boasting that, of the multiple academic degrees he held, he coveted most his degree in violence.
Mugabe never changed. He never turned from hero to villain. He was always a villain. The greatest trick this devil ever played was to persuade people that he did not exist.
But fortunately death is an equal opportunity arbiter. The only time abusers experience the same and equal treatment as their victims.
The main regret is that he died without facing justice for his atrocities which would have helped his victims find closure.
The only silver lining is this dark cloud is that some of his accomplices are still alive to account for their atrocities and for destroying the hopes, dreams and livelihoods of millions Zimbabweans.- Africa Report
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