www.zimeye.org

Harare (ZimEye)- President Robert Mugabe’s  sister Bridget who collapsed in August at the burial of her sister Sabina is critically ill and admitted in the intensive care unit  (ICU) at Parirenyatwa hospital in Harare, ZimEye can reveal. 

President Mugabe and his large delegation of  state security agents and officials, are regularly seen at Parirenyatwa hospital  in the ICU, where Bridget  has been admitted for  the past four weeks now. 

“Each time the President is around,  entrances to the hospital wards are blocked and visitors are not allowed to go in or out,” said a senior Doctor at the hospital. 

He said only carefully selected specialist doctors and nurses are allowed to attend to Bridget. 

According to a close relative,  Bridget was not showing signs of recovery from the stroke which hit her at the burial of her late
sister. 

Worried….President Robert Mugabe 

“We are just hoping God will redeem her from the stroke she is suffering from. She is unable to talk let alone stand on her own,” a  relative who declined to be named told ZimEye after visiting her on Monday. 

Bridgette went into a hysterical frenzy before collapsing at the burial of her elder sister, Sabina, at Heroes’ Acre. She was ferried to the hospital by flamboyant Harare businessman Phillip Chiyangwa who is related to the Mugabe’s. 

The death of Sabina and Bridget’s illness, is reportedly taking its toll on the health of President Mugabe who is said to be now under stress as the two sisters were his emotional advisers.

www.news.radiovop.com

Zimbabwe has reduced the charges to obtain a passport to US$50 from about US$140 following a cabinet directive issued on Tuesday.

The reduction of the passport charges comes after concerns that it was prohibitive to obtain a Zimbabwean ordinary passport from the office of the Register General.

Kembo Mohadi, one of the co-Home Affairs ministers, announced the reduction of the price for a passport at a press conference on Wednesday morning.

“Cabinet gave the Registrar General’s office a directive to review the price of passports because there was an outcry within the country that the passport was expense,’ said Mohadi.

“First the RG reduced it to US$140 but there were carrying out a further exercise to reduce the price. They have had their own problems with the Ministry of Finance, through Fidelity Printers, where they were getting the booklets but however cabinet yesterday (Tuesday)
approved that we review the price of passports downwards and it was decided to give a directive that from now the Zimbabwe passport should cost nothing more than US$50,” he said.

Mohadi said it was government policy that the charges for travel documents remained affordable, adding that the prices for other documents such as Temporary Travel Documents would be determined by the administration in the RG’s office.

“But we need to find a solution on how to get the booklet printed faster in order to cope with the huge numbers that we are likely to see as a result of the reduced price,” he said.

Before Wednesday announcement the price of passport ranged from US$140 to US$330.A document which came out after two weeks cost US$140, 3-days US$253, 24-hours US$316 and US$330 for people in the diaspora.

An emergency travel document cost US$60.

www.examiner.com

September 8 is World Literacy Day. Literacy is an critical factor in the development of a nation. The role that education plays in this respect is recognized in the United Nations-sponsored eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Universal primary education is goal number 2 of the MDGs.

Literacy is a human right, a tool of personal empowerment and a means for social and human development, so says the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Educational opportunities depend on literacy. Literacy is at the heart of basic education for all, and essential for eradicating poverty, reducing child mortality, curbing population growth, achieving gender equality and ensuring sustainable development, peace and democracy.

A good quality basic education equips pupils with literacy skills for life and further learning; literate parents are more likely to send their children to school; literate people are better able to access continuing educational opportunities; and literate societies are better geared to meet pressing development.

Canada is now the global leader in higher education among young adults.

According to the US Commission on Access, Admissions and Success in Higher Education College Completion Agenda 2010 Progress Report, Canada leads the developed countries in higher education in the key demographic group of citizens who are ages 25 to 34. It is followed by the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, Japan, New Zealand, Ireland, Norway, Israel, France, Belgium and Australia. The report ranks the United States 12th in this age group, noting that this is ‘an alarming decline’.

The United States however, still performs better in other age groups. It is ranked sixth in post-secondary attainment in the world among 25- to 64-year-olds. It ranks fourth in post-secondary attainment for citizens ages 55 to 64 and where it trails the Russian Federation, Israel and Canada in this age group.

The District of Columbia ranks higher than any state in college completion among young adults, with 62.2 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds holding postsecondary degrees. Maryland ranks 12th among states, with a 38.6 percent completion rate; Virginia ranks 17th, with a 36.5 percent rate, according to the study.

Another study shows that African American young males in the United States lag far behind in high school graduation rates. Yes We Can, The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males 2010 reveals that only 47% of Black males graduate from high school.

Zimbabwe leads Africa as the country with the highest literacy rate on the continent, having overtaken Tunisia. According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) latest statistical digest, the southern African country has a 92 per cent literacy rate, up from 85 per cent. Tunisia remains at 87 per cent. Zimbabwe’s education was heavily subsidized by government in the early post-independence years, resulting in vast improvements from the colonial-era system.

September 8 was proclaimed International Literacy Day by UNESCO in1965 and was first celebrated in 1966. The day highlights the importance of literacy to individuals, communities and societies.

Despite many and varied efforts, literacy remains an elusive target: some 796 million adults lack minimum literacy skills which means that about one in six adults is still not literate; 67.4 million children are out-of-school and many more attend irregularly or drop out.
 

SW Radio Africa

The National Healing and Reconciliation Organ, set up under the coalition government, has been described as a failure by participants who attended a workshop in Bulawayo over the weekend.

One of the three Ministers in the ‘Organ,’ Sekai Holland, came in for some harsh criticism from war veterans previously in the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA). Reports say there was a heated exchange between some of the veterans and Minister Holland, who was officiating at the launch of a new non-governmental trust meant to assist victims of political violence.

The Newsday newspaper quotes ZIPRA war veterans’ association deputy chairman Buster Magwizi telling Holland; “This thing called National Healing Organ is just useless because of your incompetence. You guys in the National Healing Organ have done absolutely nothing since its formation because you are incompetent.”

On Tuesday Holland told SW Radio Africa ‘our role is advisory’. She said they were consulting various stakeholders, including traditional leaders, churches, civil society and the political parties, and this would culminate in an all-stakeholders conference next year. Holland said this conference ‘will come up with a national code of conduct which then goes to Parliament where we then get the mechanism that will create an infrastructure of peace in Zimbabwe.’

Critics say the formation of the Zimbabwe Victims of Organized Violence Trust shows the frustration with the government process. The organization is led by 54 year old Patience Nabanyama, whose husband Patrick Nabanyama was abducted in 2000 by 10 armed state operatives and never seen again. Holland however told us; ‘What those NGO’s are doing is precisely what Zimbabweans are supposed to do. The job of the Organ is to facilitate the process and arrive at a peaceful culture.’

Holland and Vice President John Nkomo are leading the National Healing Organ, following the death of its third minister Gibson Sibanda last month. While the focus has been on the alleged ‘incompetence’ of the ministers some commentators say the major issue is Mugabe’s relentless hold on power and continued protection of ZANU PF thugs who masterminded the political violence and murder.

Newsreel pressed Holland on whether the Organ was tip-toeing around confronting the real problem of continued ZANU PF impunity. She told us; ‘The GPA is a compromise agreement and we can’t work to produce what one party wants. So we have to use strategies that allow us to have common ground to build together.’

Meanwhile, as the constitutional outreach exercise has shown, ZANU PF will not hesitate to use abductions, torture and other forms of intimidation to drive their political agenda while the MDC cry foul.

www.officialwire.com

New report provides detailed analysis of the Healthcare and Medical market. In the Q410 update of BMI’s regional Business Environment Ratings (BERs), which assess 19 key markets in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region, Zimbabwe has not improved its standing, remaining last. Though some of its economic indicators are somewhat improved, the country is unlikely to push up the regional rankings, in the medium term at least. Our pessimistic view is based on a combination of unfavourable political, regulatory and other factors, including the negligible per-capita expenditure on pharmaceuticals, the crumbling public healthcare system and the prevalence of counterfeiting. Globally, Zimbabwe ranks second from bottom, ahead only of Nicaragua, out of the 83 markets surveyed in total.

In 2010, unemployment and wider economic hardships will hamper the development of pharmaceutical market values. In fact, pregnant women in Zimbabwe are facing increasing maternity care fees and the public health delivery system is in an increasingly dire state, according to The Standard. Expectant mothers are required to pay the equivalent of US$50 for monthly antenatal check-ups and delivery, which is out of reach for the vast majority of the population. In the meantime, a newly-published Zimbabwe Maternal and Perinatal Mortality Study shows a maternal mortality rate of 725 deaths per 100,000 live births.

Still, despite the massive potential demand for healthcare services as well as pharmaceuticals, we forecast that the value of the pharmaceutical market in Zimbabwe will increase from just US$41mn in 2009 to US$61mn by 2014, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.1% in both local currency and US dollar terms, as Zimbabwe is now dollarised. Over our longer, ten-year forecast – through to 2019 – even though this rate of growth will increase to strong double-digit figures, the overall market value will reach just US$116mn, providing few incentives for key pharmaceutical players.

On a wider economic front, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has recently stated that Zimbabwe’s heavy debt burden can only be resolved through a write-off by the international community. The statement follows detailed discussions between the IMF and Zimbabwean authorities in March 2010. The body added that neither economic policies nor mineral wealth are sufficient to immediately resolve the country’s severe debt problem. However, in order for a write-off to occur, Zimbabwe would be required to improve relations with the international community in order to qualify for the heavily indebted poor countries scheme, which would result in debt relief after the two-year economic programme.

Nevertheless, despite the Zimbabwean government’s attempts to soothe foreign investors’ fears by making amendments to the country’s indigenisation legislation, we believe foreign investment will remain constrained by the existence of the law. Furthermore, a proposed ‘indigenisation tax’ – which would be used to fund the purchase of stakes in non-indigenous companies – will create a disincentive to invest in many companies (including drug producers), which are already struggling to remain profitable and thus also compounding existing medicine shortages.

Reuters

HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe is seeking 3.25 billion rand in an overdraft and credit facility from South Africa, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said on Wednesday, as the country battles to reverse the effects of a decade-long political and economic crisis.

A power-sharing government set up last year by bitter rivals President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has stabilised an economy ravaged by hyperinflation, which peaked at 500 billion percent in December 2008.

But the government says it needs at least $10 billion for reconstruction.

Biti told business executives in Harare that the government was looking to negotiate with South Africa’s government for financial assistance after agreeing terms for a $70 million credit line with Botswana.

The government has so far failed to attract significant funds from Western donors, who are demanding more reforms before providing aid to the unity government.

“In South Africa … there are two facilities that we are negotiating; one is a line of credit of 500 million rand, one is a revival of an old overdraft facility of 2.75 billion rand,” Biti said, adding that he would soon visit the country for discussions.

“We are also talking to private capital, the banks, and the general understanding is that now that the South African and Zimbabwean BIPPA (bilateral investment promotion and protection agreement) has been ratified by the South African parliament there should be movement and traction on that.”

The agreement, which was signed last November, protects investments from expropriation and provides the opportunity for aggrieved investors to seek redress in international courts.

Biti said the government was still struggling to raise revenues in the recovering economy, collecting an average $140 million a month, the bulk of which went on wages for public workers.

www.csmonitor.com

The US dollar is getting weaker in the current economic crisis. So why not adopt the currency of an emerging economic power – and Zimbabwe’s largest trading partner – China?

What if Zimbabwe adopts the Chinese yuan? Zimbabwean Vice President Joice Mujuru seems open to the idea, according to this article from Afrik-News:

Mujuru says this would be a “natural progression and offshoot of the Look East policy,” which has seen China emerge as the country’s biggest trading partner, absorbing most of the agricultural and mineral produce.

“I don’t see why we should not use the Chinese yuan when most of what we are producing in the country, like our tobacco and minerals, are ultimately being bought by the Chinese.”

She said China was not only a vast market but also the world’s fastest growing economy that needs to be deliberately incorporated into Zimbabwe’s production, manufacturing, and marketing matrix.

Maybe the economists among us can better parse the details of this, but from my haven’t-taken-economics-since-sophomore-year-college perspective, it is not the changing of currency that makes this a bad idea.

Some have argued that the reason Germany is doing so well is that the euro was down against the dollar for much of the early part of the year, which drove down prices and strengthened their GDP growth through trade. (The Economist has a few quibbles with this theory, mind you).

The Chinese currency is pegged low relative to the US dollar or euro right now, and holding constant the possibility of further shocks to the Zimbabwean economy – Mozambique-style food riots, droughts, a bad harvest, a more extensive ban on Zimbabwean minerals – I can see a situation where it’s not totally hare-brained for Zimbabwe to peg its currency to the Chinese yuan.

The only question I have is this: Why the yuan? Why not a currency of one of their Southern African neighbors? From their shift on Sudan, China has shown that it can be shamed, so it’s not clear if China would even go for that with a country that’s not in most of the world’s good graces.

I’m trying to engage the idea on a policy level, but I don’t see what the Chinese would gain from this that they don’t already have from a political and economic standpoint.

Mujuru must know this, too, and it is this complete lack of feasibility and ability to think clearly on policy issues that is truly scary. Nowhere is it shown that the vice president even thought to put the shoe on the other foot and think this issue through in a manner that betrays that she understands issues that affect the country’s economic future. The changing of one’s currency to another is a serious economic decision and has widespread ramifications for trade and food prices, among other things. And all Mujuru can come up with is some drivel about a “Look East policy.”

  www.zimbabwejournalists.com

Communities Point would like to take this opportunity to comment on excerpts from former British Prime Minister Antony Blair’s book “A Journey”: http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com/story.php?art_id=6863&cat=1.

Like everyone else we were shocked that he even contemplated invading Zimbabwe militarily during the tenure of his office.

Whilst we do not have the locus standii to speak for opposition forces in Zimbabwe as a pressure group that is also mainly opposed to the status quo in Zimbabwe we would like to take exception of the fact that he even thought of such an evil project.

Coming from a person who was rejected by more than 4 million of his own people during the 2005 UK Parliamentary Elections we would not be surprised if in fact Mr Blair is “Speaking for Himself” and such evil thoughts do not represent anyone not only in Zimbabwe but also in his own Labour Party and the British people who first voted against him in their millions and rejected his party in the 2010 Parliamentary Elections.

Whilst Communities Point does not rule out the possibility that continued repression and anger may turn Zimbabweans towards an inclination for an armed struggle which may turn out to be legitimate in the face of endless repression, we have never as an organisation or as individuals making up the organisation accepted military invasion by a foreign country as a way of ending the problems in Zimbabwe.

Everyone now knows that Mr Anthony Blair has a strange way of saying sorry and coming from a person who has not denied having patted President Mugabe and his government and praised him for being a unifying force in Africa regardless of the atrocities that his government had committed during Gukurahundi and which Mr Blair had full knowledge of the excerpt and the timing of its release must be seen as a joke in bad taste and not aimed at solving things in Zimbabwe http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/blair-secretly-courted-mugabe-to-boost-trade-2065557.html.

Communities Point did not support the involvement of Angolan militias in the post-2008 Elections butchering of Zimbabweans and we again oppose any military intervention by any foreign force and in support of whoever politician in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabweans are capable of freeing themselves and this is the reason why they have been able to form political parties and groups to oppose the repression in their country.

The fallacies of the Blair mindset continues to baffle many because if at all the evidence on the ground actually shows that if the former British Prime Minister ever wanted to invade Zimbabwe it was surely at the aid of President Mugabe against opposition forces. The following are the facts; (i) during the tenure of his premiership Mr Anthony Blair regarded President Robert Mugabe as a progressive leader and a unifying force in Africa; (ii) it was Mr Anthony Blair’s government that delivered “defender” trucks and anti-riot gear that is still being used in suppressing opposition in Zimbabwe and (iii) and it was Mr Blair and his government who wanted sell F-11 fighter jets [popularly known as tom-cats] to Zimbabwe. Ironically the deal was blocked not by the then President of South Africa Nelson Rolinhlanhla Mandela and his Government who argued that Zimbabwe was not safe to have such equipment as they could be used irresponsibly.

This makes it clear where Mr Anthony Blair’s sympathies were; not with the opposition, not with the people of Zimbabwe and but with the people who were repressing them.

His attempt to assume sentry is an insult on our collective consciences and intelligence. Zimbabweans do not need friends like these who claim heroics that we never saw and that are in fact detrimental to the aim of having a free, fair and just society. This pursuit predates the assumption of British premier by Mr Anthony Blair.

Even in post independent Zimbabwe the repression by President Mugabe has always been there and led by political parties such as ZAPU, UANC and ZANU Ndonga which all had opposed the Unilateral Declaration of Independence by Ian Smith and his racist regime.

The emergence of other opposition political parties in the 1990s was led by Edgar Tekere a veteran of the liberation struggle, Washington Sansole another veteran and Margaret Dongo, an ex-combatant and all these predated the ascendancy to power of Mr Blair. Contrary to what other sections of our society would want to believe no role has ever been played by Mr Blair in shaping the Zimbabwe opposition as it has always been there.

Those political parties that emerged after his ascendancy to power were a mindset in continuum and represent the Zimbabwean culture of opposing what is not right. Opposition is not a novel project to Zimbabwe that was manufactured in Blair’s Britain and exported to the country via willing vectors as what ZANU PF says.

It is a present phenomenon in Zimbabwe which even predates our own colonisation.
In concluding we again reiterate that Mr Blair’s views should not be taken to mean the views of Zimbabwean opposition but an element of his own waywardness which has already been rejected by his own people in the United Kingdom.

To Mr Blair himself we encourage him to reflect and not to pull the Zimbabwe opposition into the murky waters that his “reputation” has sunk.

Instead he should find a legitimate way of opposing to his own people for the lying to them on the premise for which he was invading Iraq and to Iraqis for the untold chaos he caused to their country.

www.newsday.co.zw

The $3,5 million deal between the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) and Turnall Holdings Ltd for the supply of pipes to construct the Mtshabezi-Umzingwane pipeline has fallen through after the former insisted that only locally produced asbestos be used in the manufacture of the pipes.

Zimbabwe has stopped production of asbestos because Shabanie-Mashaba Mines are tottering on the brink of collapse due to administrative and financial difficulties.

The development is likely to cause a long delay in the project, seen as the panacea to Bulawayo’s perennial water problems.

On July 5, Turnall wrote to Zinwa requesting that they be allowed to import chrysotile fibre from chrysotile asbestos-producing countries.

“This was after failing to secure fibre supplies from the local mines in order to guarantee delivery performance,” correspondence from Turnall read.

Zinwa however declined, “without even subjecting the fibre to tests as proposed earlier”, and that was the end of the deal. Turnall immediately returned the $1 561 923,33 that Zinwa had paid as deposit.

Minister of Water Resources Development and Management Samuel Sipepa Nkomo confirmed the botched deal and that Bulawayo was being forced to ration water because of the low levels of water in its dams.

He said Mtshabezi Dam has a capacity of 52 million cubic metres and is currently at 100% full – a situation which could have seen the city’s water woes permanently solved.

“The project was expected to be completed within 22 months based on the manufacture and installation of AC pipes,” Sipepa Nkomo said Wednesday.

“In Zimbabwe, AC pipes are manufactured and supplied by Turnall Asbestos from asbestos fibre which is mined at Shabanie-Mashava Mines.

Government paid Turnall Asbestos $1,56 million for the initial manufacture of the asbestos pipes.

However, the mines are at present flooded and no asbestos fibre can be mined out of them.

There being no alternative local sources of the same quality asbestos fibre, Turnall Asbestos returned the money it had been advanced by government,” he said.

He said Zinwa was now considering other alternatives and it appeared designs would be in steel which could be imported or produced locally.

The collapse of Shabanie-Mashaba Mines has meant that Zimbabwe has to import asbestos which was one of its biggest exports.

Owner of the mines, self-exiled businessman Mutumwa Mawere, is fighting to take back the mines which he says would never have collapsed had government not seized them from him.

The collapse sounded the death knell to the once thriving towns of Mashava and Zvishavane where residents who depended on the mines have been rendered jobless and their settlements turned into ghost towns.

The Shabanie-Mashava fiasco has now gone further to delay a crucial project which would have seen the country’s second largest city with adequate water supplies within 22 months.

The deadline may nonetheless have been achieved had Zinwa agreed to the importation of required chrysotile asbestos since it would have been of the same quality as the local product, according to the pipe makers, Turnall.

Meanwhile, Nkomo said the contractor who had been engaged to work on the pipeline would have to work on the pump houses and reservoirs along the pipeline.

www.thezimbabwemail.com

Harare — Operations at Chitungwiza Municipality ground to a halt last week Thursday as Zanu PF thugs linked to Retired General Mujuru went about beating council employees accusing them to be loyalists of Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa as rivalry between the two factions escalates.

The violence which occurred at Chitungwiza Head Offices has left many of the town council’s top executives including the town clerk Godfrey Tanyanyiwa and departmental heads nursing life threatening injuries.

The incident has stunned Chitungwiza residents and it has sent shock waves in the coalition government.　

An eye witness account told The Zimbabwe Mail reporter of an aggressive group of gunmen waving AK rifles and pistols arriving at the City offices at around ten in the morning and they started beating up the Municipal guards manning the gates.

Sensing danger, the guards immediately called the police for reinforcement.

Truck loads of police details from Makoni and St Marys Police stations arrived to stop the mayhem, but they were overpowered and beaten up and disarmed of their weapons. 　

The gunmen appeared to be well trained military personnel.

The gunmen are believed to be a rebel group in the war veterans association which was backed by members of the armed forces from the Zimbabwe National Army’s 2 Brigade barracks in Cranbone.

They fired a number of shots in the air before rounding off council employees and asked them to sit on the floor.

The town clerk and the director of finance were dressed down in front of their junior officers and accused of pillaging council assets for the benefit of Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo and they were also accused of using council cash resources to fund political activities.

When the town clerk tried to deny the accusations, he was asked to lie down and he was savagely beaten with sticks, and gun bats.

The finance director was asked to join him and he received much more battering, with kicks and all sorts of beatings. His bleeding eyes toggled, and his tong rolled out like a man on fits.

At that time, the women screamed thinking that the man was dying but that only made it worse for them as the men began to beat up everyone randomly using sticks, kicking and fists.

It is reported that the men were shouting obscenities about President Robert Mugabe’s manhood and his wife the First Lady Grace Mugabe and they declared that Mr Mngangagwa would never rule the country.

Police officers were also forced to sit down with council employees and some were not spared the bashing which took more than an hour without members of the public noticing what was happening inside the offices.

Work resumed on Monday amid heavy armed Military police presence with reports that the men have vowed to force out council employees loyal to Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa.

This week, a large number of the council employees at the Town House tendered their resignations in fear of their lives.

The powerless MDC dominated Council has since convened a meeting to establish a report of what happened but all the employees, including the town clerk are not forthcoming to give an account of what happened in fear of their lives.

The state media has conceded that the attacks were politically motivated but it did not refer to the involvement of Zanu PF bitter rivals loyal to Retired General Solomon Mujuru and Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa in the race to succeed President Robert Mugabe.

When our reporter visited the Town Head Office, heavily armed military police officers are manning the main entrance to the and they are ordering members of the public to disperse as soon as they had concluded their business.

On Monday, Mr Tanyanyiwa said he was still nursing some injuries. He said members of his management team were also consulting their doctors to determine the severity of their injuries.

The state media spin is saying the town clerk and directors were severely beaten up by a mob comprising members of an apostolic sect and suspected hired hooligans during a management meeting at their offices, a claim that has been dismissed by the victims’ account given to The Zimbabwe Mail.

Before the men left they warned their victims that they would be back and members of the police were warned not to peddle in Zanu PF politics.

Other officials attacked included the director of health services Dr Mike Simoyi, chamber secretary Ms Omega Mugumbate and finance director Mr J. Manyepa. After the attack the mob then moved around the council buildings smashing windows and shouting out names of other officials targeted for attack. No arrests had been made at the time of writing.

Meanwhile, sources have told The Zimbabwe Mail that the incident has sparked alarm in the country’s security services and yesterday it was the subject of intense debate in the weekly coalition government cabinet meeting on Tuesday and there are reports of open clashes between Vice President Joyce Mujuru and her long time rival Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangwa.

President Mugabe is said to be trying to take the matter out of the cabinet discussions claiming “sensitive and classified nature” of the case and he has tasked Security Minister Sidney Sekeramayi and Didymus Mutasa to investigate and report to him, but the MDC is adamant that it is a council matter which they are entitled to have access.

The incident has unravelled the intense infighting and rivalry in Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF and the level of threat to national security.