Denford Magora's Zimbabwe Blog

Jabulani Sibanda (left as you look at the picture), seen here with self-styled Commander of Farm Invasions, Joseph Chinotimba, presided over a meeting in rural Zimbabwe where orders were issued to kill all MDC office bearers in the area. MDC officials have now fled the province and are being houses in safe houses in Harare, too scared to go back, after their homes were raided by gun-totting gangs the night of the meeting.

Harare, Zimbabwe, 19 November 2009

On Friday 13 November, just a few days ago, Jabulani Sibanda, the leader of War veterans in Zimbabwe, held a meeting at Chawarura Business Centre in the rural ZANU PF stronghold of Muzarabani. It was resolved at the meeting to kill all MDC officials in Mashonaland Central province.

The meeting was also attended by Chief Chiweshe as well as a District Administrator from the area, identified today as Mike Mazai (eggs).

That very night, around midnight, six men, two of them heavily armed, stormed the home of the MDC Muzarabani District Secretary Kiswell Masimbisa , but he had already fled after being warned of the ZANU PF resolution.

The gang then proceeded to the homes of the MDC vice-chairman in the area and the Organising Secretary. The MDC-T is now claiming that sources within ZANU PF, whom it can not name, have said that these acts are being carried out by ZANU PF youths who are on government payroll as ghost workers.

"They have been told to execute their orders without fearing any consequences. They must not hesitate because they are fully protected."

The impunity with which these acts are being carried out, and the reluctance by the police to intervene, make a mockery of the "Healing and Reconciliation" process launched by Mugabe and Tsvangirai a couple f months back in Harare.

There are ministers in charge of the national healing process in the offices of Mugabe, P Tsvangirai and Deputy PM Arthur Mutambara. Yet these acts continue as if nothing has changed in government.

I told you two weeks ago on this blog that Jabulani Sibanda was in the area of Chiweshe where he was telling villagers that if they thought a beating on the buttocks was bad last year, "next time, it will be a bullet to the head" for anyone supporting Morgan Tsvangirai

Ian Kay, the MDC Welfare Secretary, had written to the Minister of Youth, ZANU PF's Saviour Kasukuwere, citing these acts by Sibanda and calling on the Minister to call off the ZANU PF youths if the country was to avoid a repeat of the June election run-off.

Despite all this going on, MDC-T apologists still insist that "there is not going to be any violence in the next election. No one will fight for Mugabe anymore."

The level of delusional thinking in the opposition party has meant that it has failed to plan properly for the eventuality that is now unfolding. They thought that the swearing-in of Morgan Tsvangirai meant that "ava panyanga" - "e is now in charge".

Clearly, he is not. ZANU PF is on a coordinated campaign to prepare for the next election. An ill-prepared Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC-T will be terrorised into submission, especially in the rural areas.

Sibanda, who presided over the meeting that passed the death sentences on MDC officials in Muzarabani and Mashonaland Central, is Mugabe's hatchet man. He was used in December 2007 by Mugabe to intimidate anyone who was seeking to challenge the president for the post of ZANU PF leader at that party's congress, where Simba Makoni had intended to stand against him.

No nominations were allowed apart from Mugabe's and Sibanda menacingly stationed bleary-eyed youths, some reeking of alcohol, at the exists to the conference venue in order to intimidate delegates as Mugabe's army of women's league members sang his praises.

A violent and bruising election encounter is on the cards. Of that you can be certain.

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Didymus Mutasa, Mugabe's Minister of the Secret Police in Zimbabwe, shocked mourners at the burial of his son in Rusape day before yesterday. It was evident that his relatives and those who are his neighbours do not like the Minister at all. The burial took place at a plot owned by the Minister, although no one lives there anymore, amidst local rumour that the plot is a haven for ghosts.

Harare, Zimbabwe, 19 November 2009

An extraordinary thing happened at the funeral of Didymus Mutasa's son in Rusape  yesterday. Wing Commander Mutasa, the ZANU PF senior Minister's first born son, a good man by all accounts, was buried at the family plot, where no one lives because Mutasa has abandoned it and now lives at his farm in Headlands. Mutasa's first wife is also buried at the same plot.

But the funeral was embarrassing for the Minister (he is in charge of the CIO, Zimbabwe's Secret Police), because the villagers refused to dig his son's grave, saying they did not know Mutasa.

"He does not come to our funerals, haafambidzane nevamwe saka hatimuzive (he does not socialise with others, so we do not know him)," one of the neighbours said. 

The Air Force officers who were Wing Commander Mutasa's colleagues in the Air Force of Zimbabwe had come in their sand-blue uniforms and could not dig the grave. In the end, the group that had come to give the Wing Commander his final gun salute, who were all in camouflage, started digging.

The grave was only completed by ZANU PF youths who then had to be fetched from Mutare. Mutasa's first born son, who was supposed to have been buried at 11:00a.m., ended up being buried at 2p.m. as a result of the delay.

The custom in Zimbabwe is that, in the rural areas, especially, where there are no council workers or labourers to dig graves as there are in the city graveyards, neighbours and relatives do the job, which is considered one of the most important shows of solidarity by any Zimbabwean clan.

Bezel Nyabadza, the ZANU PF Provincial Chairman in Manicaland, marred the Church service for the deceased by using the occasion to moan endlessly about the absence of people from Manicaland in the top leadership of ZANU PF.

He was specifically talking about the defeat of Mutasa by Simon Khaya Moyo for the post of ZANU PF National Chairman in the wave of elections to shift the deck chairs on the Titanic known as ZANU PF in the wake of the death of Vice-president Msika.

"Poshaikwawo here munhu wekuno kwedu kumusoro ikoko? (How can we have no one from here in the top leadership?)", asked Nyabadza at the church service.

Mutasa himself also shocked the gathered mourners by departing from the funeral, as one mourner put it, "before even a single shovelful of soil had been put into the grave". In Zimbabwean tradition, it is unheard of that a father or any such close relative would depart from the burial and the funeral before the grave of their beloved one is covered up.

In fact, the closest relatives have to stay by the graveside all through the night on the day the deceased is buried. This is a practice that goes back to ancient times and is designed to foil "witches" who are said to want to come and eat the flesh of the deceased on the day that he or she is buried.

All the villagers at the funeral were shocked that Mutasa upped and left before these traditional formalities were concluded.

The Minister conducted one of the most vicious campaigns in the Headlands area to secure a seat in parliament. I remember that, at a rally held in Rusape by Dr Simba Makoni in the run-up to the March elections, he publicly castigated Mutasa and Chinamasa, saying: "I hear you are being terrorised here by two of my relatives, one is my brother and the other is babamudiki (younger brother to a father in the traditional Zimbabwean sense)."

It is not surprising that villagers and relatives in the areas do not like Mutasa, considering what he has done to them.

That is ZANU PF for you.

The United States Department of State has launched a second Democracy Video Challenge, with winners to be spread across all continents and hemispheres. The prizes are the same as last year, including an all-expenses paid trip to Hollywood, New York and Washington D.C. The deadline for entries in January 31 2010. Let's hope we have a Zimbabwean winner this time around.

Harare, Zimbabwe, 19 November 2009

I wrote last year about the project coordinated by the US State Department called Democracy Video Challenge, in which ordinary people from all regions and continents were asked to submit a video and win an all-expense paid trip to Hollywood, Washington and New York.

The competition appears to have been such a success that the State Department and its other sponsors (including the United Nations now), have launched the second Democracy Video Challenge, in which people are being asked to make a short (no more than three minutes) video completing th sentence "Democracy is...."

The deadline for your entries for this new challenge is January 31 2010, with winner being announced in June 2010.

The prizes remain the same as last year, with prizes for each of the following regions: Western Hemisphere, Europe, Middle East/North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, South & Central Asia, East Asia/Pacific and one anonymous winner. Anonymous entrants to the competition, though welcome, can not win the Grand Prize.

I hope some of my readers who entered last year do so again, maybe we will have a Zimbabwean winner this time around.

Happy hunting.

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Harare, Zimbabwe, 19 November 2009

A Chinese/Angolan joint venture company has signed a largely mineral and precious stone deal with the Zimbabwe government worth US$8 billion.

The US$8 billion comprises of five separate "strategic cooperation Agreements", according to the Zimbabwe government. The joint venture company, called Sonangol, will invest in gold and platinum refining, oil and gas exploration, fuel procurement and distribution, and housing development.

It has also been announced that a "significant" amount of the US$8 billion is already in the hands of Zimbabwean banks.

China Sonangol chairman, Manuel Vicente, says "Zimbabwe is a land of opportunities with great potential."

Gideon Gono, who attended the signing ceremony (which largely excluded all MDC Ministers in Government), together with Mugabe's Chief Secretary, Misheck Sibanda, was giddy with excitement:

"This deal represents the most significant inward investment inflow in Zimbabwe. This comes at a time when the country is being ridiculed left, right and centre.

"The various banking and financial institutions that are handling this deal can’t believe the huge inflows that have come in already," said Gono, the Governor of Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank and one of the most reviled figures in Zimbabwe.

There have been fears that the involvement of the Chinese in African economies is exploitative. The fact that the MDC has been excluded from this huge deal, even though they are part of the current coalition, also raises fears about the details of the arrangement.

Who are the local partners? Are any government ministers amongst the local partners? What exactly are the Chinese and Angolans being given in return for this US$8 billion. Transparency is wanting on this deal and it needs to be examined to ensure that there are no hidden bombs in it. The problem is that there appears to be no one involved on the oversight side.

There are other disturbing questions:

Why is the Chief Secretary to the Cabinet presiding over the signing ceremony? Have the Ministers of Trade, International Cooperation and Finance died? It is certainly very irregular and let us hope that those who are in parliament will start asking pertinent questions very soon in order to get the bottom of this.

The investment is welcome, make no doubt about it. And even the boast by Mugabe's Chief Secretary that this is a direct result of Mugabe's "Look East" Policy is fair comment, but the deal must be put out in the open in detail so that Zimbabweans can satisfy themselves that we have not sold our entire family jewels for this US$8 billion and to also ensure that there are no cabinet Ministers and ZANU PF people improperly benefiting from this.

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Harare, Zimbabwe, 19 November 2009

I was rather surprised that even our most senior businesspeople in Zimbabwe are unaware of the details contained in the revision of the Reserve Bank Act, which Mugabe's ZANU PF has now said will never see the light of day.

Why so much noise, and what exactly is Tendai Biti trying to do with this amendment that has got ZANU PF knickers in a twist? Is it true what the party is saying, that the Act revision is targeted at an individual?

Here's the detail, then.

The focus of the amendments is on Section 6 of the RBZ Act, which will be amended to say that the Bank should only focus on Monetary Policy activities. The bank will be restricted to "regulating Zimbabwe's monetary system, achieving and maintaining stability of the Zimbabwe dollar, fostering liquidity, solvency and the proper functioning of Zimbabwe's financial system, supervising banking institutions, acting as banker and financial advisor to the State."

The part that currently gives Gono the power to "represent the interests of Zimbabwe in international or intergovernmental meetings, multilateral agencies and other organisations" has been curtailed and this will now only apply "in matters concerning monetary policy." 

It means Gono will now no longer be able to give directives to the IMF and World Bank regarding money disbursed to Zimbabwe, as he did earlier this year, before Biti stepped in and told Gono it was not his job to do this. The IMF agreed with Biti and wrote to Gono telling him they would only accept instructions from the Minister of Finance.

Section 7, which currently allows the Reserve Bank to open credits and issue guarantees will be removed.

This means Gono will no longer be able to negotiate for loans for the State with banking institutions such as Afreximbank, which he recently did and then boasted saying he had done all the work and all he wanted was now for Biti to ratify the obligation.

The RBZ powers to "grant loans and advances" will also be strictly limited to "intraday and overnight liquidity support for the RTGS (Electronic Transfer system) and only when surplus funds are available."

It means that Gono will no longer be able to give loans to State companies such as NetOne and Air Zimbabwe and others who have been running their companies into the ground and relying on the RBZ to give them money to pay salaries and even buy stationery!!

Section 7 (1) (h) currently provides for the RB to buy, sell or deal in precious metals and hold in safe custody for other persons gold, securities "or other".  (Remember those buckets of diamonds in the Reserve Bank vaults?)

This will now be limited strictly to  :what is required to fulfill international obligations." It means gold companies will now keep their own gold and the Reserve Bank will never have recourse to other people's wealth to finance the lives and lifestyles of Mugabe cronies.

Another sections (7.1.n) currently allows the Bank to borrow "principal and not agent of the State." This will now be amended so that the "Central Bank can only borrow as agent of the State, thus making it possible for such borrowings to be regulated by the State Loans and Guarantees Act."

Tendai Biti told parliament this will "ensure that debt contracted is reflected as a true Government debt and not RBZ debt, thereby eliminating distortions on the bank's balance sheet as is the position now."

In addition to the above, the current Section 8 of the Bill will be amended to make it illegal for Gono to accept "instructions to engage in non-core functions" of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

A new Monetary Policy Committee will also be put in place.

It is all these measures that ZANU PF is saying are not acceptable, only because it means that they will no longer be able to abuse the RBZ by getting money from it or using it to fund their lifestyles. 

Buckets of diamonds whose origins are murky will no longer be legally kept at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. Gono will only be in charge of our currency when it comes back, and of the banking institutions in the country.

The ZANU PF militia seen here beating up opposition supporters in June last year are part of the 16 000 people Mugabe's party has put on government payroll. The men and women being beaten had paid their taxes in order to pay the salaries of these men. Isn't it ironic (with apologies to Sheryl Crow).

Harare, Zimbabwe, 19 November 2009

After the revelations yesterday about the refusal by the Public Service Commission of Zimbabwe to hand over their schedule of the civil service to World Bank Consultants, the MDC-T Minister in charge of the Public Service held a press conference where he effectively backtracked on his earlier demands. The World Bank will not be conducting the audit, after all.

The Minister, Eliphas Mukonoweshuro, had written to Mariyawanda Nzuwa, the Chairman of the PSC, bemoaning the fact that he was refusing to comply with requests from the World Bank consultants hired by Tsvangirai to do the civil service audit.

"Such an approach by the PSC (the refusal to hand over information) is guaranteed to lead to serious and costly contractual infringements with consultants who are already on the station but spending days on end waiting for vital data that is being deliberately withheld for no cogent reason," Mukonoweshuro said in his letter to the PSC Chairman last month.

It also emerges now that the audit will cost US$4 million, but this is money that is put up by the World Bank, who are being refused access to the information they need. As I explained yesterday, the Public Service Commission had even reported the World Bank consultants to the Attorney-General, who backed the PSC and said they could only comply with the World Bank Consultants' requests if they were ordered to do this by Cabinet.

Of course, Cabinet, tightly controlled and chaired by Mugabe and Mugabe alone, was never going to agree to such a thing.

Yesterday, Mukonoweshuro told the media: "The World Bank never asked for the names of civil servants. Any such suggestion is total mischief and malicious.

But ZANU PF has now found another issue on which to distract attention from its failure to fully comply with the Global Political Agreement.They claim that Professor John Makumbe, a well-known MDC-T sympathiser, has been hired as the chief consultant and that this is unacceptable. Jonathan Moyo, very prone to suing people, has already said the matter should of Makumbe's appointment should be taken to court.

Also, instead of concentrating on the 16 000 ghost workers that ZANU PF has smuggled onto government payroll, the party now says the Civil Service Audit concentrate on exposing the "parallel government set up by the Prime Minister in his office."

The upshot of the MDC-T backtracking is that they now say the audit is no longer being carried out by the World Bank. Instead, Mukonoweshuro (the name means "Male Rabbit") has now said a local company CGI Consultancy, will carry out the exercise.

Being locals, it is, of course, easy for ZANU PF to bring pressure to bear on them and ensure that the audit does nothing but skim the surface. It will probably go the way of all the other audits carried so far, including the three land audits whose reports are gathering dust in the shelf behind Mugabe's green high-back chair at State House!

This is an example of the homes in Westgate, Harare. It turns out now that some of the homes, which were earmarked for Zimbabwean investors from the Diaspora, have been forcibly moved into by uniformed forces people. The Reserve Bank, which instigate the project, is reluctant to talk. The Bank that was in charge of the project has gone bust, a victim of the crackdown some time back by Gideon Gono, which saw several banks lose their licences. The two companies who are subsidiaries of the bust bank are also reluctant to say anything on the matter, but we witnesses first hand this reality, with one of the uniformed men openly boasting that he had simply taken over the finished home.

Harare, Zimbabwe, 19 November 2009

Some of the houses in the Westgate area that were built for Zimbabweans in the diaspora have been forcibly taken over by various senior army officers.

Most of the houses are in the relatively affluent suburb of Westgate in Harare. These homes were built during the heydays of Gideon Gono, when he was seeking to tap into the money from Zimbabweans abroad. 

The Westgate homes were built through a facility administered by the now defunct Time Bank, costing thousands of US Dollars each. Zimbabwean citizens living abroad were supposed to channel their money through the banks,, either as lump sum payments or in the form of some sort of mortgage arrangement.

Now some of them appear to have lost out. There are high-ranking officials who have simply moved in and it appears the Reserve Bank can not do anything about it.

There are two companies still operating that are linked to Time Bank and to the Westgate project, but when I contacted one of the representatives, they were evasive about the presence of army people in the diaspora homes, saying the homes were a Time Bank project and that they would not know about any soldiers or anyone else having moved into those houses.

Asked whether they were still collecting money for mortgage payments from the Diaspora Zimbabweans, the representative said Time Bank no longer existed and he did not know what the new arrangement was!!

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the instigator of the project, refused to say anything about it, saying anyone interested in information about the project would have to speak to the two companies "who are on the ground."

We are aware of at least seven homes from the area that have been taken over by senior uniformed people and one of them boasted that he had simply moved in "zve ganyavhu" - meaning "forcibly".

It would be interesting to hear from those who participated in this particular scheme whether they have their homes now or whether there are any who have failed to take possession of them. It could well be that the homes taken by these people had not yet been allocated to any of the beneficiaries

Zimbabweans shown this morning walking with their belongings and gathered at a Community Center in Der Doorns shantytown in the Western Cape Province of South Africa after South Africans turned on them and demolished 600 of their homes. This xenophobic attack has now seen 2000 people, by some reports, gathered at a hall near the local police station.

Harare, Zimbabwe, 17 November 2009

Police in the Cape Province had to fire bullets to disperse a crowd that had started demolishing shacks rented by Zimbabweans in Der Doorns, which is South Africa's Western Cape Province.

The residents were protesting that Zimbabweans in the area accept lower pay and are, therefore, depriving South Africans of jobs.

But other sources say that the flare-up in the violence was prompted the previous night when a fight involving Zimbabweans and South Africans broke out at a shebeen (informal drinking place). The Times of South Africa reports that a police spokesman confirmed this, saying 68 Zimbabweans had been sleeping in storerooms next to the local police station through the weekend after that fight, which took place on Friday night. They were running scared after locals started threatening action against the foreigners who had been involved in the fight.

Tensions have been simmering since then.

When Zimbabweans working in South African farms tried to board the trucks that ferry them to work each morning today, they were prevented by a mob that soon turned against the properties rented by the Zimbabwean farm workers in the township.

The locals now have a grievance that goes beyond the fight and look upon Zimbabweans as taking local jobs. They wanted them out of the area.

One thousand Zimbabwe (some reports say they now number 2000) have since taken refuge at the local hall next to the police station in the De Doorns area.

The police say that this happens every year. This being a farming area, the jobs are seasonal and tensions always rise at the end of the year as the season kicks into full gear and seasonal workers are hired. Local farmers consider Zimbabweans generally harder-working than South Africans and prefer to hire them over the locals.

The locals do not think this fair and it becomes an even more explosive situation when drink and brawls are thrown into the mix.

The Zimbabweans are likely to be sent back home, probably with nothing, since they would not dare go back to their shanties to pick up their belongings.

Zimbabwe's unemployment levels are still hovering around 90%, with businesses failing to increase capacity enough to absorb some of the jobless. Those surviving in the country are resorting to the informal sector, but even this is now proving hazardous in Zimbabwe.

Last week, the MDC-Tsvangirai-controlled Harare City Council sent in Municipal police to chase away vendors in the informal sector in the poor township of Mbare. One vendor, whose wife is nine-months pregnant, was killed by the Municipal Police.

Under the circumstances, Zimbabweans will continue to risk their lives crossing into South Africa and fleeing to other countries in search of greener pastures.

All the while, the MDC says the country is now stable, the economy is improving, shops are full and Zimbabweans must come back home where they can live the life of Riley!!

Harare, Zimbabwe, 15 November 2009

Local Government Minister and Mugabe homeboy, Ignatious Chombo, has told chiefs meeting in Mutare that ZANU PF is fighting the MDC-T Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti, to be allowed to buy them 271 brand new luxury vehicles.

Even headmen are being bought. The chiefs will get twin-cabs and the headmen will get single-cab trucks.

"Tendai Biti is resisting, but we are fighting on your behalf," Chombo told the gathering. He is the one in charge of chiefs all over Zimbabwe and uses the power he has over them to remove those seen as sympathetic to opposition parties in Zimbabwe.

Speaking at the same conference, Joice Mujuru, who has just been confirmed as a vice-presidential candidate by ZANU PF for the next elections, said that chiefs were a part of ZANU PF. She claimed that the MDC represented those who did not want land returned to black people while ZANU PF was fighting in the same corner as the chiefs. The relationship, she says, goes back to the beginning of the 1970s liberation war, in which land was a chief grievance.

For outsiders and even urbanite Zimbabweans of the new generation, now so vocal on the internet and elsewhere, it is difficult go understand the crucial role played by chiefs in the normal lives of rural Zimbabweans.

Chiefs can effectively ostracise anyone in their domain. They are the first port of call for the disputes that flare up repeatedly amongst villagers, from domestic strife to gardens that are destroyed by a neighbours cattle.

The chiefs still command a lot of power in the petty frustrations of villagers and can make life very uncomfortable for these citizens.

As a result of this residual power they still hold (the power is respected as long as they two the ZANU PF party line), Mugabe has been able to maintain a grip on the rural areas. In the June election run-off, for instance, some chiefs were told that they had to line up with their subjects in order to vote. This was a way to intimidate villagers, who were told that it would be easy to see which group had voted for whom and if, in their group were found some Tsvangirai votes, then there would be hell to pay.

It is an indication of just how intent Mugabe is on maintaining his stranglehold on rural votes that he is now promising to spend millions of dollars on vehicles for the chiefs. 

By telling them that it is Tendai Biti and the MDC-T who are against the purchase of their vehicles, ZANU PF is effectively ensuring that there is no chief left who will be seen to be supporting the Prime Minister's party.