http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/zimbabwe/11644-zanu-pf-intensifies-violence-and-intimidation-against-mdc-t.html -

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC says ZANU PF and the security forces in Harare are intensifying a campaign of violence and intimidation against its party member, in advance of elections the former ruling party want this year.

The MDC-T MP for Kambuzuma, Willias Madzimure, said ZANU PF is in the process of creating a climate of intimidation and political violence that could prevent free and fair voting.

‘We had a rally in Kambuzuma which was disrupted by armed police on Sunday. Can you imagine the same police going to a ZANU PF rally and disrupting it for whatever reason? asked the MP. The legislator added: ‘It shows there is a hidden hand in what the security forces are doing.’

The crackdown on the MDC in Harare is increasing as the country moves closer to elections. Mugabe, 88, who has ruled since independence in 1980, wants another five-year term as president despite his candidature in ZANU PF causing a rift in the party.

The ageing leader is facing the toughest electoral challenge of his rule and in an effort to gain greater control, his militants are forcing people to support the divided party.

The militants also went on orgy of violence in Highfields where they left six MDC-T members hospitalised following the violent attack. The MDC-T said three houses were damaged in the same attack.

It named the injured as Thulani Ncube, Shadrick Ngirazi, sisters, Maud and Tsitsi Chinyerere, their two daughters, Rosie (14) and Nomatter (13).

Madzimure said despite all this provocation, his party believes in peaceful transition. He admitted though that party members were getting increasingly agitated and baying for revenge.

‘We are a peace loving party and we always urge our members not to engage in violence. I wish our colleagues from ZANU PF could do the same and urge their supporters to desist from attacking our members,’ the MP said.

Meanwhile weekend newspaper reports suggest that missing human rights activist Paul Chizuze is feared dead and Bulawayo police have since handed the matter to the Criminal Investigations Department.

Concern has been building over the fate of the human rights activist who went missing three months ago. He was last seen around 8 pm on 8th February, but what happened after this remains a mystery. There have been fears he was hijacked or abducted by parties unknown. His car, a white twin cab Nissan Hardbody (registration ACJ 3446) has also not been seen.

A Bulawayo police spokesman, Mandlenkosi Moyo told the Zimbabwe Standard that the matter of Chizuze has been transferred to the CID because it was rendered a suspected murder. – SW Radio

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/news-7901-Amnesty+in+death+penalty+petition/news.aspx -

AN INTERNATIONAL human rights group has written  to Zimbabwe’s three  main political party leaders urging them to scrap the death  penalty  from the new constitution.

Amnesty International says in a letter to Zanu PF  leader Robert  Mugabe and the two leaders of the MDC Morgan Tsvangirai and  Welshman  Ncube that the death penalty’s deterrent effect is negligible.

“The death penalty was one of the most hated  forms of punishment  during Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle which was applied by  the white  minority government against freedom fighters,” Amnesty said in the   letter signed by its Zimbabwe chapter’s executive director, Cousin  Zilala.

“One of the reasons countries retain the  death penalty is the  misplaced view that it acts as a deterrent to serious  crimes, but  studies show otherwise,” he added.

Zimbabwe’s new constitution which is being  steered by the three  parties is currently at drafting stage. A draft released  last week  shows the death penalty will be retained, but only for aggravated   murder.

Zimbabwe has 61 people who are currently on death  row. Since 1980,  78 prisoners have been executed by hanging, but there have  been no new  executions since 2003, partly blamed on the lack of a hangman.

Meanwhile, pressure is mounting on a  parliamentary committee to meet  the May target to approve a draft to be sent to  a referendum.

Paul Mangwana, who represents Zanu PF on the  committee, said the  drafting process for the new constitution had been complicated  by  splits among the three ruling coalition parties.

National Constitutional Assembly chairman  Lovemore Madhuku said: “We  are wasting time and money with this COPAC. You can  give them 100  years but nothing will come out.”

Zanu PF’s Tsholotsho North MP Jonathan Moyo said  without  intervention by the leaders of the three parties to move the process   forward, the constitution would be stalled.

“They have been at it for 36 months, and gobbled  $45million but all  they have to show for it is an incomplete first draft.  Surely, one  would have to be an incurable optimist to think the principals will   remain patient and keep extending the deadline,” he said.

http://www.zimeye.org/?p=52901 -

In this instalment, we continue from where we left off in part 1. We have previously defined what we mean by a constitution and seen what it can do and not do. We also took a glimpse at the so-called Lancaster House Constitution (its actually the Zimbabwean Constitution) hammered by the founding fathers of the Zimbabwean nation!

It took three months of vigorous debate and rigorous work from some of the best legal minds and technocrats who included Walter Kamba, Eddison Zvobgo, Ibbo Mandaza and the alert commander Josiah Tongogara on the side of the Patriotic Front. Ian Smith must also have assembled quite a formidable team and the British Foreign Secretary Lord Peter Carington, a man renowned for his fairness, receptiveness to ideas and general ability chaired the sessions.

At the end, Mr Robert Mugabe, Mr Joshua Nkomo , Mr Ian Smith , Bishop Abel Muzorewa signed the agreement! It could perhaps not have been perfect but the fact that they all signed means it was a workable document! I’ll argue that Lancaster gave us, in its unamended and unadulterated form, one of the best constitutions in the world. It had tremendous checks and balances that any nation needs to keep it on an even keel. One’s excesses were kept under control.

The constitution had a Prime Minister who was head of government and a ceremonial President ( ceremonial only in the sense that he took control of State functions. He, as some people refuse to accept, wielded tremendous power and could refuse to sign some bills into law, could dissolve Parliament and call for elections and as Commander-in-Chief, could lead the nation into war). Because our first President Rev Canaan Banana was a gentle, soft-spoken unassuming man, most people who never read the Lancaster Constitution never thought he wielded so much power!

The Constitution had a bicameral Parliament, that is, one with two chambers. There were the House of Assembly with eighty elected black members of Parliament and twenty reserved seats for whites and the second Chamber was the Senate with more elderly and mature people. Thus, bills would go through the first chamber and be debated there first where heated debates were the norm and after sailing through they would go to the Senate for further debate and scrutiny.

Those which could not pass the acid test would be referred back to the House of Assembly and then the relevant Minister for the necessary changes. If the Senate was satisfied, it would be taken to the President for further scrutiny and if he was satisfied he would sign it and it became law.

If not satisfied he would refer it back to the chambers and they had to be worked on again. This meant that no bad law could be enacted and this is reflected in that some of the best laws were passed during our first seven years of independence. It must be added that the twenty reserved seats for whites were very controversial. Most people did not look at the spirit behind the inclusion of the seats but rather the letter of the law which was rather unfortunate.

There were basically three reasons for the inclusion: 1. We were building an all-inclusive modern state. 2. In any election the whites would not stand a chance since they were a small minority so they had to be protected. 3. We needed the whites since they had ninety years experience in state affairs and we had none! A simple example is that of Dennis Norman who held the Agriculture portfolio and white farmers.

The white farmers approached him since they wanted to diversify and cultivate tobacco. He told them that Zimbabwe’s staple food was maize and if they wanted to do that they had to fill up the country’s silos. In two seasons they had done that and the Minister gave them permission but instructed them to cultivate a certain quota for maize.

The constitution also had an independent judiciary led by a Chief Justice. Our first black Chief Justice was Enock Dumbutshena who made some of the most remarkable landmark decisions in the world! Another highly acrimonious part of the Lancaster Agreement was that land for resettlement must be bought on a willing buyer willing seller basis and yet most farmers were unwilling! The constitution could only be tampered with after ten years but only with the agreement of two thirds of Parliament.

By 1987, the legal expert Dr.Eddison Zvobgo had found a legal loophole and created the Executive Presidency by combining the powers of the President and those of the Prime Minister, a decision he later on regretted. The Lancaster House Constitution has been amended a record nineteen times and its now so different from the present one!

Someone once said if you sew nineteen patches on a garment you will end up with an entirely different garment. In the next instalment, we will look at the Constitution made by the Constitutional Commission and which was rejected by Zimbabweans in a referendum. Herbert Mugwagwa     (ZimEye)

http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com/story.php?art_id=7871&cat=2 -

BRITAIN is one of the most generous aid donors to Zimbabwe. Official aid alone runs to about £80 million a year. It is carefully dispersed by the Department for International Development but that’s not good enough for the masochistic Guardian.

Things have certainly not got better at the Guardian since Murambatsvina seven years ago – hailed by the newspaper at the time as a visionary approach to urban planning!

Strangely, it is an event the Guardian has never re-examined, although it is widely accepted that it destroyed the homes and livelihoods of many hundreds of thousands of people.

So the Vigil was not surprised to find the Guardian publishing the latest addled article on Zimbabwe by Alex Duval Smith. She appears to have lost her foothold in the Guardian’s competitor The Independent ( independent of everyone except its Russian oligarch owner who can afford to give it away). Ms Smith’s incoherent article has everything that would endear it to the Guardian: anti-British, ‘victimist’ and off-the-wall irrational (see: Aid to Zimbabwe must take account of resettled farmers on contested land – http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/may/04/aid-zimbabwe-resettled-farmers-contested-land).

Ms Smith appears to argue that Britain should stop funding Zimbabwe’s education, health and social welfare, not to mention the food aid programme which is helping to keep many Zimbabweans alive, and instead hand the money over to unsuccessful farmers settled on land violently seized from their former owners. The Vigil wonders why Ms Smith does not propose that some of the estimated $2 billion a year from the state-owned Marange mines is not used for this purpose. After all common sense suggests there must be a lot of money sloshing around since only $19 million appears so far to have been sent to Finance Minister Biti whose ‘pie in the sky’ budget talked of $600 million of diamond revenue this year.

But we agree with Ms Smith that Britain’s aid to Zimbabwe should be reassessed. We are not suggesting that the money should go to Mugabe, however, but that some of it should help fund the fight for democracy as proposed by the Treasurer General of the MDC Roy Bennett. The Vigil doubts that the Guardian will be interested in this proposal. But we recommend that the newspaper looks at a new article by Dale Dore if they want a more rounded understanding of the farming crisis in Zimbabwe (see: http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/may5_2012.html#Z30 – The Nationalist Narrative and Land Policy in Zimbabwe).

Other points

·        The Zimbabwe Action Forum had a productive meeting after the Vigil at which it was agreed that if the Zimbabwean diaspora is to organize an effective campaign for change it is necessary for all groups – political or other – to work together to put Zimbabwe first. Those attending would think about strategies and spread the word to others to attend the next Forum. Some of those attending would start work on a diaspora database which could be a useful tool in the fight for the diaspora vote. The meeting was attended by: Nelissa Benza, Sandra Chidemo, Ellen Gonyora, Bernard Hukwa, Jonathan Kariwoh, Fungayi Mabhunu. Thelma Majola, Georgina Makaza, Jaison Mawere, Siphelo Moswa, Beauty Musewe, Edward Mutamiswa, Sihle Sibanda, Ephraim Tapa, Crimson Tazvinzwa and Rose Benton.

·        Some Vigil supporters went to hear a talk by Swazi trade unionist Vincent Dlamini who visited the Vigil last week. They were shocked to hear that some Swazi women were reduced to eating cow dung.

·        Around 30 people have taken up the Globe Theatre’s offer of free tickets to see the Shona production of ‘Two Gentlemen of Verona’ on Wednesday afternoon.

·        A large group of Hartlepool Smurfs (supporters of Hartlepool United) in their blue and white costumes joined the Vigil today. They were down for a match against Charlton Athletic. Unfortunately they lost – our commiserations.

·        Thanks to Vigil regular Louisa Musaerenge who stepped in to look after the front table in the absence of Vigil management team member Lady Shuga (Josephine Zhuga).

http://www.voanews.com/zimbabwe/news/Zimbabwe-EU-Re-engagement-Talks-to-Resume-150464265.html -

The ZANU-PF party of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe insisted on Monday it will not allow European Union observers to monitor the country’s next vote, as a government delegation readied to resume stalled dialogue with the EU latter this week.

The delegation leaves Harare for Brussels Tuesday hoping the dialogue will lead to the normalization of bilateral relations between Zimbabwe and the European Union.

The EU slapped President Mugabe and some senior ZANU-PF officials and companies with sanctions following the disputed 2002 elections. Some have since been removed from the list.

Observers say the threats by Mugabe’s party were meant to put pressure on the Europeans ahead of Thursday’s talks. For relations to be restored, ZANU-PF insists on the lifting of the travel and financial measures, but the EU wants comprehensive reforms first.

The party’s parliamentary whip Joram Gumbo told VOA the EU would not be accredited for general elections that Mr. Mugabe has demanded this year.

Gumbo accused the bloc of being biased against his party. But he said if the talks resolved the Harare-EU standoff, ZANU-PF would reconsider its position.

University of Zimbabwe lecturer John Makumbe said ZANU-PF’s ban on EU observers was ill advised.

The Harare delegation will be led by Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, Energy Minister Elton Mangoma and Regional Integration Minister Priscilla   Misihairambwi-Mushonga.

http://www.voanews.com/zimbabwe/news/z-150481965.html -

Zimbabwe’s panel leading the writing of a new constitution met Monday with civic groups in Bulawayo to clarify a number of issues it says have been grossly misrepresented by hardliners in President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party.

The parliamentary committee, widely known as Copac, also unveiled its official draft charter, different from other documents previously leaked to the state media, supposedly by ZANU-PF politicians trying to frustrate the constitutional effort.

Committee co-chairman Douglas Mwonzora unpacked the draft amid lingering skepticism, especially over the issue of devolution of power.

“A lot of misinformation has being peddled by elements in ZANU-PF about the draft,” Mwonzora said. “We saw it important, therefore, to engage the civic groups and set the record straight.”

Groups at the meeting included the Bulawayo Agenda, Matabeleland Constitutional Reform Agenda, NANGO and the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, all supportive of devolution.

The constitution committee provided the unity government partners with the draft charter last week, and is now awaiting their feedback before finalizing the document that will be taken to a national referendum for approval.

But consensus on the new constitution remains a long shot as ZANU-PF and the MDC remain divided over a number of contentious issues, among them, dual citizenship.

Mwonzora told VOA his committee was now awaiting feedback from the unity partners so it can finalize the charter, which when approved, will replace the heavily-flawed founding constitution that gives unchecked power to the president.

“They are delaying us,” he said. “We want to finish this process and go for elections that ZANU-PF has been demanding. There is no need to delay the process any further.”

Bulawayo Agenda programs manager Busani Ncube said the civic groups are now examining the draft, adding they will convene a meeting later this week to share their observations.

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/local/35179-un-rights-chief-to-visit-marange-diamond-fields.html -

THE United Nations Human Rights Commissioner, Navi Pillay, is set to visit Zimbabwe on May 20 at the invitation of the government, her office said on Friday. According to her spokesperson, Rupert Colville, the visit is the first ever mission by a UN Human Rights chief to Zimbabwe.

“During the five-day mission, Pillay is due to meet President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the ministers of Foreign Affairs, Justice and Legal Affairs and other ministers, as well as the Chief Justice, the Speaker of Parliament, President of the Senate and Thematic Committee of Human Rights,” Colville said.

Pillay will also meet with the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) and members of civil society in the country. The spokesperson said Pillay is considering a number of field visits within and outside Harare, including the Marange diamond fields.

“During these visits, she will also meet local communities and civil society members in the area to listen to their experiences and views,” Colville said.
Civil society organisations allege human rights violations in the diamond-rich area adding hundreds lost their lives when government moved in to drive away illegal miners six years ago.

Government says the allegations are baseless. Pillay’s meeting with members of the ZHRC would jolt government into making sure the body is operationalised two years after the swearing in of commissioners.

ZHRC’s mandate include promotion of human rights awareness and development, monitoring and assessing human rights observance and investigating alleged violations of human rights.

ZHRC also assists the minister of Justice to prepare reports on Zimbabwe’s compliance with international human rights agreements to which Zimbabwe is a party.
Zimbabwe has over the years witnessed human rights violations and there are fears it will increase as the country heads for elections which President Robert Mugabe wants this year.

Prior to her mission in Zimbabwe, Pillay will visit South Sudan from May 8 to 12. Topics to be discussed will include concerns about the protection of civilians amid the hostilities that have flared up along the border with Sudan, as well as a range of other human rights issues, her office said.

Members of the ZHRC

ZHRC is chaired by Professor Reginald Austin and has Dr Ellen Sithole, Dr Joseph Kurebwa, Jacob Mudenda, Japhet-Ndabeni Ncube, Sheila Matindike, Elasto Mugwadi, Ona Jirira and Norma Niseni.

http://www.thenewage.co.za/50086-1007-53-Barbaric_border_activity_during_the_hell_run -

In her haunted mind, she still hears their voices as they walked away shouting to others in the bushes: “I’m done, your turn!” while she lay in the dirt bleeding from numerous knife wounds as they raped her one-by-one.

A young Zimbabwean woman hoping for a better life in South Africa this week relived a horrific ordeal as she told The New Age how she had despaired for her life when she was gang raped and repeatedly stabbed by the feared guma guma as she was illegally trying to cross the Limpopo River into South Africa.

The guma guma (“hustlers”) are the ruthless marauding gangs who ambush illegal immigrants on the Zimbabwe-South Africa border, rob them of all their earthly possessions and routinely rape and murder their victims.

*Phathushedzo Vomo’s stab wounds have healed and although the psychological scars are still haunting her, she has decided to go public and tell the world about the horrors so many young women face doing the “hell run” to freedom from Zimbabwe.

“I do this in the hope that it may help that others be saved from the hell I went through,” Vomo told The New Age in a halting voice affected by a speech impediment brought on as a result of the brutal attack. One of the stab wounds in her neck damaged her spinal cord. She also experiences numbness in one of her thighs.

Vomo travelled together with three other women and 17 men in a double-cab bakkie from her home town (name withheld) in Zimbabwe to the Beit Bridge border post where they had to get off, walk through the bushes and wade through the river to South Africa while the driver went through immigration formalities before waiting for them on the South African side. As the group walked through the bushes after crossing the Limpopo River in the dead of night, a gang of 20 men ambushed them and demanded money. Vomo resisted their demands to search her bra and panties and one of them stabbed her in the arm and carried on repeatedly as he forced her down.

The guma guma were armed with knives, pangas and axes and told her she was cheeky. “Everybody in our group was watching as they raped me,” Vomo said. “I don’t know how many did, but all I remember are the voices as they got up, walked away and told the next one: ‘I’m done, your turn!” or ‘Come finish here’.”

They left her naked and broken on the ground crying for help as the gang disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared.

Her travelling companions – including her brother-in-law – picked her up and carried her to safety. Along the way she fainted and she hardly remembers anything of the trip to Gauteng as her companions tried to make the ride as comfortable as possible for her while trying to stop the bleeding.

Vomo said she cannot remember to which hospital she was taken, but when the nurses saw the sorry state she was in, she was immediately rushed into theatre.

She went back to Zimbabwe recently to fetch her birth certificate and had to go through the same “hell run” facing the guma guma in a full river. However, this time they were stopped in the middle of the river while the water was flowing quite strongly.

The guma guma ordered the impisi (the guides facilitating the illegal immigrants walk through to South Africa) to bring enough money to secure the safe passage of the group. “We were so scared because we not only feared the guma guma but also a crocodile attack,” Vomo said.

Another Zimbabwean woman told The New Age that, sometimes, petrified women tell the guma guma they are HIV positive hoping they would not be raped.

Out of spite they rape her and also rape all the other women in the group so as to also infect them if she was telling the truth.

“I am now only starting to make peace with the hell I have gone through and prefer not to talk about it ever again,” said Vomo.

“I have only spoken to you about it so that the story gets out, so it could make a difference for other women,” she added.

http://www.newsday.co.zw/article/2012-05-07-zimbabweans-should-thank-zuma–mdct/ -

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/news-7899-High+court+judge+Karwi+dies/news.aspx -

HIGH Court Judge, Justice Tadius Karwi, died in Harare over the weekend after suffering a  cardiac arrest.

Karwi, who was 57, passed away at West    End Hospital  on Saturday morning.

Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku expressed his sadness at his  passing,  saying the entire Judicial Service Commission was in mourning.

Karwi did his primary and secondary education in Zimbabwe before  proceeding to the  University of Nairobi, Kenya, where he studied for  and obtained a Bachelor  of Laws Degree in 1981.

After returning to Zimbabwe  he worked in the Attorney General’s  Office from 1981 to 1989 before joining  ZESA as corporate secretary and  legal advisor.

He was appointed Judge of the High Court in April 2002, a position he held  until his death.

Karwi is survived by his wife and five children.