NewsHawks 12 November 2021

WHAT’S INSIDE Friday 12 November 2021 ‘NSEoWciaSl media Price
snooping a
CNBEWZ Sswoops  violation of US$1
on FML shares  citizen rights’
as new financial  WSPaOrrRiTors’ horror
group emerges Story on Page 16 show continues
as Bafana Bafana
Story on Page 3 edge closer

Story on Page 50

Chiwenga manoeuvres
to challenge Mnangagwa

Page 2 News NewsHawks

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

Chiwenga to tackle Mnangagwa

NYASHA CHINGONO l Threats, chances of palace coup rife
l G40 faction joins succession battle
IN a move that could have far-reaching political
consequences for the ruling Zanu PF and the na- President Emmerson Mnangagwa
tion, Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga is (left) allegedly reneged on a deal
contemplating challenging President Emmerson to serve one term and pave way for
Mnangagwa in the party’s elective congress next
year, as the two powerful gladiators head for battle Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga.
royale, amid a dramatic realignment of forces, deep
state sources have told The NewsHawks. Zimbabwe National Army commander Lieu- on any possibility of the military -assisted transi- working at party headquarters led by Zanu PF sec-
tenant-General Edzai Chimonyo talking about tion (military coup) being repeated. He needed to retary for administration Obert Mpofu.
This comes as Chiwenga moved this week to that. Mnangagwa in August launched his autho- know that the security services were led by men
strategically de-escalate dramatically rising polit- rised biography titled A Life of Sacrifice: Emmerson in whom he had confidence as professionals,” the He also has the support of those with security
ical temperatures between him and Mnangagwa, Mnangagwa, which book reviewers and political book says. backgrounds, including former Presidential Guard
saying his rival will be the uncontested Zanu PF analysts say exposes the widening rift between the commander retired Major-General Anselem
candidate in the 2023 elections. two. Differences between Mnangagwa and Chiwen- Sanyatwe and retired Lieutenant-General Martin
ga played out when the latter demanded that a Chedondo. Chiwenga’s marksman is retired Lieu-
It also came as Chiwenga's top business execu- The 154-page biography, which Mnangagwa state of emergency — martial law — be declared tenant-General Engelbert Rugeje who last year in
tive ally Caleb Dengu, who has said Mnangagwa described as a “brief window” into his life, was au- during the 2019 riots which had been triggered by July challenged Mnangagwa in a Zanu PF politbu-
is illegitimate and must not run in 2023, last week thored by Eddie Cross, a former opposition MDC a 150% increase in the price of fuel. ro meeting over the growing divide between him
slipped out of the country to catch a breath of fresh high-ranking official and MP. It is a hagiography and those who put him in power.
air in the Netherlands as the President's hounds for Mnangagwa which depicts Chiwenga in nega- “When it became known that a state visit to
turned the heat on him, threatening him with a tive light through its narrative. Russia was planned for the week beginning the “The factions have now crystalised and solid-
fierce backlash and financial ruin. 14th January 2019, disturbing intelligence was re- ified over the past three years. Most senior party
Cross, Mnangagwa’s biographer and new loy- ceived that disturbances were planned,” the book leaders have taken a position and now know where
Mnangagwa’s legitimacy as party leader is being alist, said the President would brook no nonsense reads. they belong, although there is big middle ground
challenged in the courts by party member Sybeth from those threatening his grip on power, a warn- among those in the middle and lower ranks, as well
Musengezi. Although Musengezi says he is acting ing to Chiwenga. Mnangagwa, who at the time of Cumulatively, this has now divided the party as foot soldiers,” a source said.
alone, his move is overwhelmingly supported by the coup had fled the country to South Africa after down the middle, leaving it regimented into two
the Chiwenga faction. his mentor-cum-tormentor Mugabe had hound- major factions led by Mnangagwa himself and “This projects Zanu PF’s clan, ethnic and iden-
ed him out, only returned after Chiwenga led the Chiwenga. tity politics, as well as factionalism based on per-
An official in the Zanu PF top 10 said: “Let the coup that sent Mugabe packing. Mugabe later de- sonalities, class or material interests that have tox-
courts deal with the matter; it’s important for us scribed Mnangagwa as his “tormentor”. The Mnangagwa group is mainly Midlands and ified and polarised Zimbabwe’s body politic since
to follow the constitution and internal processes.” Masvingo provinces-based, while the Chiwenga 1980.”
The book, which has been reported on by The one has threads cutting across different regions, al-
The defeated yet still alive Zanu PF faction — NewsHawks since launch, reveals that Chiwengwa’s though its main base has roots in the three Masho- The volatile situation is made all the more explo-
G40 — is also supporting the move. This has cre- appointment as co-deputy, together with Kembo naland provinces — Mashonaland East, Mashona- sive by the dangerous backdrop of events such as
ated a convergence of forces between the Chiwen- Mohadi (who resigned early this year after a sex land West and Harare. Other provinces constitute the June 2018 White City bombing in Bulawayo,
ga camp and the dormant, but resurrecting G40 scandal), was part of Mnangagwa’s coup-proofing the middle ground. the shooting at Rugeje’s Harare house in October
group. ploy. last year and, most recently, the mysterious burn-
Some of Mnangagwa’s key allies include July ing of Zanu PF senior official Patrick Chinamasa’s
Manoeuvres are underway by Chiwenga and Mnangagwa appointed General Philip Valerio Moyo — whose relations with the President are house. Chinamasa is a Mnangagwa loyalist.
G40 strategists to realign forces within Zanu PF Sibanda to succeed Chiwenga as commander of now touch-and-go — Owen “Mudha” Ncube,
and challenge Mnangagwa head-on next year. the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. Sibanda, according Larry Mavhima, Daniel Mckenzie Ncube, Joram Mnangagwa is cornered in a high-stakes internal
to the book, is “possibly the best soldier in southern Gumbo, Frederick Shava, Oppah Muchingu- power struggle manoeuvre over his dubious legiti-
Inside sources said after Mnangagwa reneged Africa and a man that was deeply respected in the ri-Kashiri, Paul Mavima, Amon Murwira, Monica macy as Zanu PF leader in the aftermath of a re-
on the deal with Chiwenga prior to the Novem- army”. Mutsvangwa, Ziyambi Ziyambi, Kazembe Kazem- cent High Court application by Musengezi which
ber 2017 military coup that ousted the late former be and unhappy battlers like Mutsvangwa, among reflects factional strife and his faltering grip.
president Robert Mugabe to serve only one term “Mnangagwa’s actions drew little attention, but others. Chiwenga is mainly backed by disgruntled
and allow his deputy to come in 2023, gloves are what the President was doing was closing the door former ministers in the party, including those now Repeated efforts to get comment from Zanu PF
now off within the ruling party over unresolved spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo failed.
leadership issues.

“The fallout within the party leadership is se-
rious. We are heading for battle royale between
Mnangagwa and Chiwenga next year,” a source
said.

“That is how politics within Zanu PF and state
institutions is currently shaping up. The unre-
solved leadership question can no longer be man-
aged and swept under the carpet; it has got to be
settled politically, and that means through congress
next year. There is no question of another military
coup; well, perhaps a palace coup might happen,
but not a putsch.”

The source added: “When Mnangagwa took
over, there was a clear understanding that he will
not seek re-election in 2023. However, Chiwen-
ga and others were shocked to see him telling the
world in an interview in September 2018 during
the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly in
New York that he would seek re-election in 2023.
That was never agreed.”

After that, Mnangagwa and his allies moved a
gear up and launched a campaign during the De-
cember 2018 Zanu PF conference at Mzingwane
High School in Esigodini for him to serve two
terms.

“At that time, it became clear Mnangagwa had
broken ranks and reneged on the deal,” another
source said. “That worsened internal strife and in-
fighting fuelled by the White City grenade attack
in June 2018 which most Zanu PF leaders know
was an inside job. The 1 August 2018 killings in
Harare in broad daylight and the January 2019
stayaway and bloodbath that left many dead exac-
erbated the situation.”

The political war of attrition between Mnangag-
wa and Chiwenga recently found expression in the
President’s controversial new biography as the in-
ternecine clashes over unresolved leadership issues
play out in the party ahead of its elective congress
next year.

That came as independent Norton MP Temba
Mliswa threw the cat among pigeons through a
public voice note message in which he disclosed
that Mnangagwa’s former adviser Chris Mutsvan-
gwa, leader of war veterans and a former minister,
has been plotting to remove Chiwenga.

He said Mutsvangwa was recorded by the late

NewsHawks News Page 3

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

CBZ swoops on FML as new
financial institution emerges

DUMISANI NDLELA Nssa confirmed the disposal last week, but de- vices company in Zimbabwe, saying at the time Nicoz Diamond is the country’s biggest short-
clined to reveal the identity of the buyer, saying that the project involved CBZ, FML and its prop- term insurer by balance sheet. It was acquired by
CBZ Holdings, currently trading under caution- the other party was still having “housekeeping is- erty subsidiary and ZB Financial Holdings. FML a few years ago from Zimre Holdings. It
ary, has secured a 31.22% stake in First Mutual sues to attend to”. then merged with FML’s short-term insurer, Tris-
Holdings Limited (FML), paving the way for the CBZ issued a cautionary statement earlier this tar Insurance.
creation of a US$2.5 billion financial behemoth to However, two sources familiar with the transac- year, indicating that it was considering the acqui-
rival Old Mutual Zimbabwe, a leading diversified tion — a fund manager and a stockbroker — said sition of an unidentified asset. That cautionary has CBZ Holdings and the other entity reported to
financial services group in the country for over CBZ had won the race for the shares ahead of six not yet been lifted. The financial services company, be planned to come into the merger, ZB Finan-
100 years, it has been confirmed. other bidders, after offering a premium to the pre- the biggest banking group both in terms of depos- cial Holdings, now have a common shareholding,
vailing share price and paying for a portion of the its and balance sheet, is keen to grow its insurance which includes Nssa and Tagwirei.
“Further to the cautionary statements issued on shares in foreign currency. portfolio and expand beyond the region, said the
30 May 2021, 28 July, 1 September and 5 Octo- source. FML has operations in several countries in Tagwirei last year purchased Nssa’s 37.9% stake
ber, the directors of CBZ Holdings Limited wish “The idea is to merge CBZ with FML to create the region. in ZB. Prior to that he was linked to the purchase
to advise shareholders that, following conclusions a group that will match Old Mutual pound for of over 30% equity in CBZ. After the purchase,
of negotiations, the company has now executed an pound. This has the blessings of government,” a “It wants to compete with Old Mutual. In fact, President Emmerson Mnangagwa went on to ap-
agreement for the acquisition of 31.22% share- source said. it wants to create a financial services company point Marc Holtzman, an American banker, as
holding in First Mutual Holdings from the Na- with the biggest pensions company in the coun- chairperson of CBZ.
tional Social Security Authority (Nssa),” CBZ said Old Mutual is the single largest privately-owned try. Already, CBZ Bank is bigger than Old Mu-
in the latest cautionary. institutional investor on the Zimbabwe Stock Ex- tual’s CABS, and Nicoz Diamond is bigger than Holtzman is close to Rwandan President Paul
change (ZSE) and has a huge property portfolio Old Mutual’s short-term insurance. Old Mutual Kagame, now a Mnangagwa ally, and is also Bank
“The agreement is subject to several conditions across the country. It offers a wide range of prod- remains unrivalled as the biggest life assurance and of Kigali chairperson. Mnangagwa is trying to
precedent, which if fulfilled and the transaction is ucts, including life assurance, asset management, pensions company in the country, but the merger replicate Kagame’s model in many ways. This has
successfully concluded, may have a material effect unit trusts, property development and manage- of CBZ’s life assurance unit with that of FML will raised questions in the market on whether Mnan-
on the price of the company’s securities.” ment, short-term insurance and banking services. create a competitive pensions unit that can take gagwa has an interest in the group.
Old Mutual head-on,” the source indicated.
As previously reported by The NewsHawks, the The NewsHawks reported in September plans It was the first time a sitting Zimbabwean pres-
core of the project will involve merging leading fi- by government to create the biggest financial ser- ident had directly appointed a board chairperson
nancial institutions, including CBZ Holdings, ZB to CBZ Holdings since government privatised the
Financial Holdings, First Mutual Holdings Limit- company in the late 1990s and became a minority
ed (FMHL) and First Mutual Properties (FMP). shareholder. In fact, parastatal boards are appoint-
ed by line ministers, even though that should be
The new institution — which will have a foot- sanctioned by the president.
print on local and regional markets — will involve
serious financial engineering and megabucks. It Holtzman helped CBZ reduce its banking sub-
will have five major divisions: banking, insurance, sidiary’s penalty from the United States Depart-
investment, property and agriculture. ment of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Con-
trol for violating targeted sanctions on Zimbabwe.
Investigations show that local tycoon Kudak-
washe Tagwirei, who already has an interest across The government has shares in CBZ and ZB Fi-
the merging financial institutions, together with nancial Holdings, still entangled in a protracted
a vast business portfolio which straddles mining, dispute on compensating former banker Nicholas
finance, agriculture, construction and other areas Vingirai, who lost his controlling interest in In-
— making his Sotic International conglomerate termarket Financial Holdings Limited after the
one of the biggest in the country and region, will company was merged with ZB while he was under
take a back seat in the deal as a politically exposed Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe specification in 2006.
person buffeted by allegations of corruption and
sanctions. While there are restitution agreements in place
between the government, Vingirai and ZB, they
Documents obtained from banks involved in have not yet been fully honoured. An earlier deal
the project say the new financial services institu- that gave him a sizeable chunk in ZB collapsed
tion will thrive on economies of scale and fund after haggling with other shareholders.
large-scale public, national and private sector
projects, while directly impacting on loan pricing Although Old Mutual has been in Zimbabwe
and credit growth in the market. It will also have for over 100 years, it has in recent years been
a major impact on the economic landscape, which viewed suspiciously by the government, which
is largely dominated and driven by big companies once wrongly accused it of using its shares to ma-
such as Old Mutual, Econet, Delta and Innscor. nipulate the exchange rate in the country. This
prompted a suspension of trading in Old Mutual
Nssa disposed of the shares bought by CBZ, shares, which are fungible and therefore trade on
which were part of its 66.22% shareholding in multiple bourses on which the company is listed.
FMHL. It retained 35% stock in the group, which
is now expected to merge with CBZ under an The market had used the Old Mutual share
ambitious plan to create the largest indigenously price on the ZSE as an indicator of the implied
owned financial institution. exchange rate, infuriating the government, which
then forced the shares to stop trading on the do-
mestic bourse.

Page 4 News NewsHawks

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

ON 3 September 2021, The NewsHawks ex- Bankers plan to establish
clusively published a story that government, a new financial behemoth
bankers and investors, including local busi-
ness tycoon Kudakwashe Tagwirei, are work-
ing on a plan to create the biggest financial
services institution in Zimbabwe, with an asset
base of over US$2.5 billion. Now the deal —
which will change the financial landscape of
the country — is in the process of being con-
summated. As a result, we republish the orig-
inal story below as background to the latest
development on the previous page.

BRIDGET MANANAVIRE/ ALEX MANDU

GOVERNMENT, in collaboration with local al development agenda in the private sector has a catalyst for individual, corporate and national CBZ chairperson Marc Holtzman
and international bankers, including buccaneer- been dominated and driven by a few companies, projects in the process. posing of his ZB stake). You are aware that there
ing business tycoon Kudakwashe Tagwirei, is namely Old Mutual, Econet and Innscor. These is a settlement that has been ongoing? However,
working on an ambitious project to create the entities have influence across critical sectors span- “The current capital requirements for a Tier send me your questions so that I directly respond
biggest financial services company in Zimbabwe, ning financial services, telecommunications, ag- 1 bank is US$30 million and Tier 2 building to them,” Vingirai said.
with an asset base of over US$2.5 billion, The riculture, property and mining. society US$20 million, which means that CBZ
NewsHawks can exclusively reveal. requires two licences that need US$50 million. He, however, did not respond to questions
“This type of private sector influence is not ZB also requires the same. Government as a sent to him. The ZB deal was a share swap
The core of the project will involve merging unique to Zimbabwe. However, what is unique shareholder has to inject fresh capital in both which saw Nssa getting CBZ shares then worth
leading financial institutions, including CBZ is that their agenda has not necessarily and always banks. However, if they merge, no fresh capital ZW$640 million or US$7.8 million.
Holdings, ZB Financial Holdings, First Mutu- converged with that of the government, leading is required.”
al Holdings Limited (FMHL)and First Mutual to misalignment with the country’s socio-eco- Nssa earlier this year said it was reducing its
Properties (FMP). nomic trajectory. To realign with government’s The new project will also create a bigger insur- shareholding in FMHL and creating a strategic
nation development agenda and its 2030 vision, ance portfolio. alliance around its 100%-owned subsidiary, Na-
An investigation into the project already taking we need to create a new institution which feeds tional Building Society to unlock value.
shape shows that the new institution — which into and drives that process.” “The larger insurance entity created would in-
will have a footprint on local and regional mar- crease risk retention and result in greater premi- It said it would sell 31.22% of its 66.22%
kets — will involve serious financial engineering Documents say to achieve this, a merger be- um retention by the combined entity — this will stake in FMHL and remain with 35%. The size
and megabucks. tween CBZ, ZB, FMHL and FMP is critical to increase risk cover for trade and project develop- of Nssa’s shareholding, which it held since 2012,
create a holding company specialising and in- ment. The larger entity should be able to apply violated the regulations of both the Zimbabwe
It will have five major divisions: banking, in- vesting in entrepreneurial business that forms the economies of scale to reduce their combined Stock Exchange and those of the Insurance and
surance, investment, property and agriculture. backbone of the economy. cost base and thus result in higher profits and Pensions Commission, the sector’s regulator.
dividends to shareholders. The synergies would
The merger and subsequent consolidation “The size and scale of such an institution would reduce the number of branches, combine man- That came after Nssa disposed of its sharehold-
process will be led by CBZ chairperson Marc also enable the country to increase the ability to agement teams and reduce costs of improving ing in First Capital Bank and ZB.
Holtzman, an American international banker, fund large-scale projects, for example in mining technologies for banking and insurance.”
who was appointed on 1 September 2019 to pre- and agriculture,” another document states. In the initial phases, Nssa merged NicozDi-
side over the biggest bank in the country. He will The post-consolidation strategy requires sig- amond into FMHL and disposed of its stake in
work with government and local bankers in the “Merging operations of CBZ, ZB, FML and nificant investment in technology and digital Fidelity Life and Zimre Property Investments in
financial institutions involved. FMP will achieve the scale needed to compete products and delivery. a share swap deal with Zimre Holdings Limited.
against the likes of Old Mutual in the Zimba-
Holtzman also is Bank of Kigali chairperson. bwean local market. That will enhance gross margins, for instance “The new project in Zimbabwe will be similar
Previously, he was chairperson of Meridian Cap- better market pricing or greater purchasing pow- to those found in Nigeria, South Africa, Unit-
ital HK, a private equity firm with investments “The combined total asset base, which will be er from suppliers, the documents say. ed Arab Emirates and South East Asia spanning
in natural resources, real estate, food, agriculture about US$2.5 billion, will allow the new group banking, insurance, mining, agriculture and oth-
and transportation. to be the lead institution in funding large-scale “There will also be need to sell assets or non- er sectors of the economy,” one document says.
national projects.” core divisions to enable better focus or fund
Prior to joining Meridian, he had served as growth,” it says. CBZ group marketing and corporate affairs
vice-chairperson of Barclays Capital and at ABN Further, documents say the new institution executive Matilda Nyathi did not respond to
Amro Bank in the same capacity. will have a higher single obligor limit — the The new institution aims to make inroads into questions. Similarly, FMHL group chief execu-
maximum amount a bank is allowed to lend a the unbanked segments of the market and into tive Douglas Hoto did not respond to questions
Holtzman was once appointed by former Ka- single borrower or an individual in relation to the region using FMHL’s operation in Botswa- sent to him via WhatsApp, although he read
zakhstan prime minister Karim Massimov to the the total shareholders’ fund of that bank — from na, Malawi and Mozambique. The new financial them. But CBZ has issued a cautionary, saying it
board of Kazyna, the nation’s sovereign wealth US$15 million to at least US$35 million. services institution project is already underway. was in negotiations to acquire shares in a finan-
fund. He was also chairperson and chief execu- cial institution.
tive of Kazkommertsbank, Kazakhstan’s largest “The merger is likely to increase competitive- Nssa, which manages a more than US$1 bil-
bank. ness of the industry against our regional peers, lion fund, has been selling its equities in sever- “Further to the cautionary statement issued
directly impact loan pricing and enhance credit al banks, while keeping strategic shareholdings. by the board on 30 May 2021, the directors of
His orbit in the corporate sphere began at Bar- growth. It will also combine FMHL/ZB’s high This has helped the new financial institution pro- CBZ Holdings Limited, advised shareholders
clays Capital and ABN Amro Bank where he was return on equity and low cost of funding in cess to move. that CBZ Holdings
vice-chair in both entities. He was co-founder CBZ. The resultant entity will further combine
and president of MeesPierson Euramerica which CBZ’s market-leading consumer banking busi- Nssa last year disposed of its 37.79% stake in Limited (the company) is in negotiations for
was later acquired by ABN Amro Bank. Further- ness, asset management and strong agriculture ZB Bank then worth more than ZW$755 mil- a potential transaction involving the acquisition
more, he was a senior adviser to Salomon Broth- offerings with the robust insurance and property lion (US$11.984 million) to Tagwirei who al- of shares in a complimentary business, which if
ers, an American Investment Banking firm (now portfolios of FMHL and ZB. ready had a stake in CBZ, and could also have successfully concluded may have a material effect
Salomon Inc). equity in FMHL. on the price of the companies securities, the full
“This will create a well-balanced financial ser- impact of which is currently being determined,”
The investigation shows that Tagwirei, who vices entity that can support the development of The merger plan also includes Tagwirei buy- the bank said.
already has an interest across the merging finan- Zimbabwe’s public and private sectors.” ing out ZB’s second-largest shareholder Nicholas
cial institutions, together with his vast business Vingirai, although the latter says he has not been Nssa spokesperson Tendai Mutseyekwa said:
portfolio which straddles mining, finance, agri- The documents add that the institution will be approached. “I acknowledge receipt of your email and will get
culture, construction and other areas — making back to you after checking with colleagues work-
his Sotic International conglomerate one of the “I have not had any discussions on that (dis- ing on this.”
biggest in the country and region, will take a
back seat as a politically exposed person buffeted
by allegations of corruption and sanctions.

Documents obtained from banks involved in
the project show that the new financial services
institution will thrive on economies of scale and
fund large-scale public, national and private sec-
tor projects, while directly impacting on loan
pricing and credit growth in the market.

It will also have a major impact on the eco-
nomic landscape, which is largely dominated and
driven by big companies such as Old Mutual,
Econet, Delta and Innscor.

Details show that the project is now at an ad-
vanced stage, with all the market research, con-
cept and necessary reports already done.

“Plans by government and bankers, as well as
associated businesspeople, are underway to form
a new financial services institution, which will be
the biggest in the market, by merging and con-
solidating CBZ, ZB, FMHL and its properties
subsidiary FMP,” one document says.

“The project will be driven by bankers and
government which has an interest in CBZ and
is also in the process of selling off or reducing its
interests in the relevant financial institutions held
through the National Social Security Authority
(Nssa) and other entities.

“Over the past 20 years, Zimbabwe’s nation-

NewsHawks News Page 5

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

MORRIS BISHI High Court exposes rot in
Masvingo land allocation
A HIGH Court judge has further exposed the
corrupt allocation of land by senior government the plots pending the issuance of offer letters. Valley Section 7 in Chiredzi is grossly irrational, land was unexpectedly allocated to Magwizi yet
officials in Masvingo province after handing They worked on the plots but, unfortunately, of- biased, unreasonable and unlawful. she was not on the recommendation list.
down a ruling on Wednesday dismissing an offer fer letters were later issued to other people. In his
letter issued this year to Polite Magwizi, who is a court application, Mhlanga said the minister’s He said having been provisionally allocated He has occupied the land and maintained the
secretary in the minister of State for Masvingo’s administrative decision to issue an offer letter to the same piece of land in 2017 by the district sugarcane crop since 2017, with legitimate ex-
office. the first respondent for Subdivision 98 of Hippo lands committee and having been recommended pectations that the offer letter would indeed be
to the minister for issuance of offer letter, the issued in his favour.
The land was for a sugarcane plot in Hip-
po Valley, which had already been allocated to
someone else by the Chiredzi district lands com-
mittee in 2017.

Justice Joseph Mafusire dismissed Magwizi’s
offer letter in a case which was filed by Tafadzwa
Mhlanga at tge High Court in Harare. Mhlanga,
who is a magistrate, applied for review in terms
of section 4 of the Administrative Justice Act
(Chapter 10:28) after Magwizi was issued with
an offer letter for the piece of land which he has
been maintaining since 2017.

Magwizi was the first respondent while the
minister of Lands, Water, Climate and Rural
Resettlement Anxious Masuka was the second
respondent.

“The offer letter issued in respect of Subdivi-
sion 98 Hippo Valley Section 7 by the minister
of Agriculture in favour of Magwizi be and is
hereby set aside and shall be of no force or ef-
fect. The matter be and hereby is remitted to the
minister for a proper resolution of the dispute
and all the interested parties shall be granted an
opportunity to make representations. Pending
the resolution of the matter Mhlanga be enti-
tled to usage rights of Subdivision 98 of Hippo
Valley Section 7,” part of the ruling by Justice
Mafusire reads.

Minister of State for Masvingo Ezra Chad-
zamira was in September arrested by investiga-
tors from the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Com-
mission for alleged abuse of duty and corruption
involving the allocation of sugarcane plots to his
associates in Chiredzi.

In 2017, the district lands committee iden-
tified 40 sugarcane plots which had not taken
up by the envisaged beneficiaries in 2016. The
committee then approved a schedule of 40 ben-
eficiaries to be allocated the plots. The schedule
was approved by the ministry of Lands which
instructed the beneficiaries to start working on

Telecel dragged to court over unpaid rentals
MOBILE network operator Telecel has been
dragged to court for failing to pay rentals for one to US$1 075 per month with effect from the 1 time in August 2021, Telecel made a payment It is his submission that he is legally entitled
of its branches in Harare’s Mabelreign suburb February 2014. of ZW$54 000 and indicated that the amount to the payment of the claimed amount, interest,
with arrears now at US$34 400. was for the period from June 2021 to November collection commission calculated in terms of the
“The parties enjoyed a cordial contractual re- 2021. Law Society rules and the costs of suit as agreed
The landlord, Peter Saopa, has told the High lationship until 2018. On or around June 2018, between the parties.
Court that efforts to recover the money have Telecel unilaterally ceased rental payments due to “This amount cannot be said to cover the rent-
failed, leaving him no option but to approach the Saopa without legal justification,” the aggrieved al fees as agreed between the parties in the 2014 “In addition, the plaintiff is entitled to cancel-
courts for a remedy. landlord’s lawyers wrote. addendum even if it were converted to interbank lation of the contract on account of the defen-
rate nor did it cover the previous owed amounts dant’s continued and flagrant breach. Where-
Saopa is demanding payment including inter- However, Telecel remained in occupation and which remain due and owing,” Saopa’s lawyers fore, the plaintiff prays for the payment of the
est and cost of suit. made no effort to remedy the breach of contract. said. amount of US$34 400 being unpaid rentals for
32 months in terms of a lease agreement executed
According to the summons filed early this According to Saopa, in numerous email cor- Saopa said he sent his last demand as a formal by the parties,” the summons read.
week, Telecel entered into negotiations with Sao- respondences between him and the mobile net- letter through his legal practitioners dated 21
pa with the intention of leasing the property from work operator, the company acknowledged that September 2021. However, despite these various A full hearing on the matter is pending. —
him. it owed him. demands, Telecel has failed to settle the amount.
STAFF WRITER
Court papers show that on February 1 2010, The High Court has been told that some-
the parties executed a lease agreement in which
Telecel would lease the property as a cellular tele-
communications cell site.

Parties agreed that the lease duration would be
for 15 years from 1 February 2010 to 31 January
2025.

“The defendant would lease the property as
a cellular telecommunications cell site only and
would erect a cellular communications tower and
mount a cellular antenna and microwave equip-
ment on the property on an agreed location on
the property,” part of the summons reads.

It was agreed that the rental for the property
would be US$200 per month, which amount
was to be reviewed after the first six months.

Thereafter the rental would be reviewed an-
nually in accordance with the macro-economic
conditions.

The parties further agreed that the rentals
would be paid six months in advance.

It was also agreed that in the event of default by
Telecel, Saopa was entitled to cancel the contract
and evict the company and demand damages.

On 12 February 2014, the parties executed an
addendum to the lease agreement in which the
parties agreed that the rental would be increased

Page 6 News NewsHawks

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

Entreprenuer wrestles with Econet
. . . panic button innovation triggers fight
NYASHA CHINGONO
lawyer Phillipa Philips. Ignatius Munengwa law.
HARARE-BASED businessman, innovator and Munengwa believes Phillips undermined his our matter for resolution before you, as the reg- In 2011 M-Comm Africa, through Muneng-
entrepreneur Ignatius Munengwa has reported ulator. However, at the time we had initiated the
the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory case, resulting in him withdrawing the matter High Court option. Since the matter is no longer wa, approached Econet Wireless with a propos-
Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) top executives from the High Court last year after Justice Felistas before the courts, we are again bringing the mat- al to partner the company with the provision
to the regulator’s chairperson for throwing out Chatukuta sought comments on an alteration to ter before your attention. We would like to report of panic button rapid response security services.
his complaint in which the innovator accused summons she had made on his behalf. Econet for unfair business practice and seek res- Munengwa said he continued engaging Econet
telecommunications giant Econet of stealing an olution for this matter through your office as the until June 2015, when the then chief commercial
idea he had presented to the company for a part- He told The NewsHawks that when it became regulator,” reads Munengwa’s letter to Potraz. and customer services officer of Econet, Stanley
nership. clear his lawyer was refusing to respond with- Henning, responded advising that the company
in the timeframe set by the High Court, while Potraz started investigating the complaint in would not pursue the idea.
In a letter to Potraz board chairperson Doreen also withdrawing her services at a critical time, May this year, while the Law Society of Zimba-
Sibanda dated 9 November 2021, which was also he withdrew the matter from court to pursue it bwe has been on the matter since October last In November 2015, however, Econet launched
copied to permanent secretary in the ministry of through Potraz. year. “Connected Home”, which included a Panic But-
Information Communication Technology Sam ton and Rapid Response Service, which Muneng-
Kundishora, Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Com- In an earlier meeting, Potraz officials had in- Phillips, who at one time served as a lawyer wa believes is a replica of his idea.
mision (Zacc) chairperson Loice Matanda Moyo formed him they could not intervene as long as to former president Robert Mugabe’s son-in-law
and chief secretary in the Office of the President the matter was in court, although the authority Simba Chikore, as well as a director in dodgy air- Econet confirms that Munengwa indeed ap-
Misheck Sibanda, Munegwa accused Potraz ex- offered a platform to resolve the issue. line Zimbabwe Airways, is a partner at Phillips proached the telecommunications company to
ecutives, including director-general Gift Machen- Law, a local boutique law firm specialising in im- discuss a panic button service concept or an idea
gete, of unprocedurally throwing out the case. “When I met with your executive team in migration; citizenship, compliance and corporate that they wanted to venture into.
2018, we discussed that we could always bring
“Our formally registered complaint against The telecommunications giant says M-Comm
Econet is being forcefully closed by the Potraz Africa was not in existence at that time, instead
executives when our complaint has not been ful- Munengwa represented himself as the director of
ly addressed. There are matters that need urgent Iacocca Investments.
clarification and resolution by Potraz. We seek
your urgent intervention to resolve this matter,” “Meetings were indeed held with Mr Muneng-
Munengwa said. wa in relation to his idea/concept. There was also
extensive communication and exchange of emails
He accused Econet of influencing Potraz to between the parties. At no time during these dis-
throw out the case. cussions was a contract, either oral or written, en-
tered into between the parties. The engagements
“There are too many instances where it appears were purely negotiations which never saw the
to us that Econet’s tacit influence appears to have light of day in terms of creating a binding legal
negatively affected our pursuit for justice and relationship,” Econet chief operating officer Kezi-
even Potraz’s ability to adjudicate our complaint. to Makuni wrote to Potraz on 28 July.
This behaviour by Econet, if left unchecked, can
become a national security issue. Potraz must be Econet says it had considered several ideas and,
able to hold one of their members accountable in particular, Chuango Security
to fair and honest business practices,” he added.
Technology Corporation which had developed
Potraz says it has no jurisdiction to deal with a similar home security system.
the matter.
“Being satisfied with the workings of Chuan-
“Given all this correspondence and the fact go’s home security system, we acquired non-ex-
that we have advised you of what steps you need clusive rights to use their system and, in 2014
to take to resolve the matter, it is now appropriate launched our Connected Home service which
to close our file on the matter. We therefore ad- was wholly based on Chuango’s system and Ch-
vise that it is no longer necessary for you and us uango had developed and patented the idea long
to continue exchanging correspondence over the before Mr Munengwa had attempted to accost
matter. We will therefore not respond any further, us with his idea/concept. Consequently we did
to any request from you for us to assume the role not need authority or consent from Mr Muneng-
of the courts and deal with the matter,” Machen- wa to implement our Connected Home system
gete wrote in a letter dated 27 October. nor were we bound to deal exclusively with Mr
Munengwa,” wrote Makuni.
In an earlier letter dated 20 August, Machen-
gete said the regulator was throwing out the case “Our Connected Home service is not in any
on the basis that it was an intellectual property way related to Mr Munengwa’s panic button idea.
matter. In any case, the concept of a panic button was,
at the time, not new and novel to an extent that
“Having considered the details of your com- one could claim ownership of the same. Espe-
plaint and representations made by Econet Wire- cially when such a claim is not even backed by
less (Pvt) Ltd, attached hereto for ease of reference, registered patents and/or trademarks. Further the
we advise that the case is beyond our jurisdiction business model of bundling services to the tele-
in view of the nature of the complaint, which is communication service is not new in the industry
more of an intellectual property issue and not an and Mr Munengwa’s claims of crediting himself
anti-competition issue,” Machengete said. with the concept are baseless,” he added.

In an interview with The NewsHawks, Muneng- “Econet Wireless did not and could not have
wa said he is advocating for other tech entrepre- possibly benefitted from Mr Munengwa’s con-
neurs who may have lost intellectual property to cept or idea. It was a half measure which could
the telecommunications giant. have been difficult to sell to customers. Our
Connected Home service is entirely based on the
“I think I am now advocating for a matter be- Chuango system, which we believe was conceived
yond my case which is accountability of power. and developed by Chuango.”
When someone as powerful as Econet messes up
it is important for them to mess up. But when Munengwa is demanding US$870 375 as
institutions like Potraz, which is the regulator, are damages for breach of contract and misappropri-
now failing to hold their own to the point where ation of confidential information or alternatively
they are retracting information from Econet with an order directing that Econet pays M-Comm
no explanation, that is not normal. It speaks of 40% of whatever profits have been made from
a compromised regulator,” Munengwa told The the Connected Home service.
NewsHawks.
During the court process: “Munengwa aban-
“I am not going to be silenced by him doned the action and instituted yet another ac-
(Machengete). To just take the letter back and not tion in September 2017 seeking largely the same
give reasons, close the file, it is not procedural.” order although the declaration filed had been
amended. This modus operandi was to continue
Before Potraz threw out Munengwa’s com- with the complainant seemingly trying to always
plaint, the regulator had promised to look into amend his story as and when we file opposing
the issue. papers.”

“We have noted the contents of the letter, and “We strongly believe that, two years after aban-
wish to advise that we are engaging Econet to doning the High Court process, the complainant
get their side of the story, before we can make is now seeking a different audience and hoping
a determination on the same. We shall be con- for better fortune in his claim. This behaviour
stantly engaging you on the matter with the hope should not be encouraged and the Authority
of coming up with a solution to the complaint should not allow its structures and processes to be
you raised,” Potraz wrote to Munengwa in a letter abused in this manner,” Econet wrote.
dated 2 July.

Before approaching Potraz, Munengwa had
sought legal recourse at the High Court before
withdrawing, citing conflict of interest regarding

NewsHawks News Page 7

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

BRIDGET MANANAVIRE Mnangagwa’s re-engagement
propaganda hollow, falls flat
WHILE President Emmerson Mnangagwa re-
turned home last week blowing his own trum- certain countries were excluded, but The News- United States President Joe Biden of London Stephen Chan said Zimbabwe has
pet about his purported diplomatic victory at Hawks understands that Zimbabwe’s protracted Legal think-tank Veritas yesterday said al- not made enough progress to be invited to the
the United Nations climate change summit in grisly human rights record and brutal repression though President Mnangagwa signed the summit.
Glasgow, the reality that he made very little got it removed from the list of countries to be Charter on 21 March 2018 at an Africa Union
headway has immediately dawned on him. invited by Biden to the Democracy Summit. Summit, his signature alone was not sufficient “The Democracy Summit is very much to dis-
to make Zimbabwe a “state party” and as such cuss democracy and progress towards democra-
Hardly a week after Mnangagwa returned to Mnangagwa has tried everything to paint a legally bound by the Charter’s provisions. cy. Even a country like Angola has been invited
Harare, United States President Joe Biden ex- picture of a reformed government and get sanc- “Why it took so long after Parliamentary because, even though the same party is in power,
cluded him from the Democracy Summit, set to tions against individuals and companies linked approval for the Instrument of Ratification to the new president is seeking to overturn the cor-
be held virtually on 9 and 10 December, expos- to human rights abuses lifted, from hiring public be placed before President Mnangagwa for sig- rupt legacy of his predecessor,” he said.
ing Harare’s diplomatic naivety. relations firms, staging marches, and even rop- nature is a mystery. As readers of our various
ing in the church, none of that seems to have bulletins will know, Veritas has repeatedly, over “There is neither assured electoral democracy
A hundred countries have been invited for the worked. the past two-and-a-half years, called for the rat- in Zimbabwe, nor, within the same party, any
democracy summit, including Angola, Botswa- ification process to be completed,” Veritas said sense of a determination to reform itself. So Zim-
na, Cape Verde, DRC, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia It is only this week that signed the Instru- in a bulletin. babwe was not invited because it had nothing to
Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, ment of Ratification of the African Charter on World politics professor at the School of contribute. If Zimbabwe had initiated open and
Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Democracy, Elections and Governance, “the Oriental and African Studies at the University equal dialogue — and the outside world does see
South Africa and Zambia from Africa. Charter”. this as between Mnangagwa and his closest rival,
Chamisa — it would have been invited.”
Biden’s exclusion of Mnangagwa from his
democracy summit shows a huge vote-of-no- Analyst Maxwell Saungweme said the ex-
confidence in him despite Mnangagwa trying to clusion showed that the world leaders can see
portray a picture of a reformed leader. through Mnangagwa.

It is also a major blow for Mnangagwa’s re- “This means the world leaders can see through
gime which was last week claiming diplomatic the propaganda, the lack of democratic reforms
victories in Glasgow based on half-truths, de- in Zimbabwe under Mnangagwa and his tactics
ception and lies around its futile anti-sanctions of entrenching his authoritarian consolidation.
campaign and re-engagement mission. It will be amiss to have Mnangagwa at a platform
where democracy is discussed,” Saungweme said.
The summit will focus on challenges and op-
portunities facing democracies and provide a “But there is also limited value in these initia-
platform for leaders to make commitments to tives by superpowers. Validation of Mnangagwa’s
defend democracy and human rights at home rule must come from Zimbabweans. He must
and abroad. spend his time explaining his progress to Zim-
babweans and telling his story about reforms he
For the US, the Biden summit will offer an has made if any and progress realised.”
opportunity to listen, learn, and engage with a
diverse range of actors whose support and com- According to international relations expert
mitment is critical for global democratic renew- Simbarashe Mataruse relations are always work
al, the State Department says. in progress.

It also says the summit will “showcase one of “And this particular one seems to be affected
democracy’s unique strengths: the ability to ac- by increasingly frosty geopolitical relations be-
knowledge its weaknesses and imperfections and tween the US on one hand and China, Iran and
confront them openly and transparently, so that North Korea on the other. An illustration in re-
we may, as the United States constitution puts it, cent times is the Australia submarine treaty with
‘form a more perfect union’.” the US. Our re-engagement will likely bear fruit,
but we need to sharpen our strategies and avoid
“In advance of the first summit, we are con- contradictory messaging,” he said.
sulting with experts from government, multilat-
eral organisations, philanthropies, civil society,
and the private sector to solicit bold, practica-
ble ideas around three key themes: Defending
Against Authoritarianism; Addressing and Fight-
ing Corruption; Advancing Respect for Human
Rights,” the State Department said.

America has said it will not comment on why

. . . ratifies African charter on democracy

PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa this week the respect for, and the supremacy of, the consti- tionalise legitimate authority of representative it, reject and condemn unconstitutional change
signed the Instrument of Ratification of the Afri- tution and constitutional order in the political government as well as democratic change of gov- of government in any member state as a serious
can Charter on Democracy, Elections and Gov- arrangements of the state parties. ernments. threat to stability, peace, security and develop-
ernance. ment.
Members are expected to promote the hold- Mnangagwa, who rose to power on the back
Veritas, a lawyer body with an interest in le- ing of regular free and fair elections to institu- of a military coup, is now expected to prohib- At a time there have been judicial capture
gal, constitutional and parliamentary affairs, says concerns, Mnangagwa is expected to promote
although Mnangagwa signed the charter on 21 and protect the independence of the judiciary
March 2018 at an African Union (AU) summit, as well as nurture, support and consolidate good
his signature alone was not sufficient to make governance by promoting democratic culture
Zimbabwe a “state party” and as such legally and practice, building and strengthening gover-
bound by the charter’s provisions. nance institutions and inculcating political plu-
ralism and tolerance.
“The charter’s definition of ‘state party’ and
its article 47 requires the President’s signature Zimbabwe is also expected to encourage ef-
on behalf of Zimbabwe to be supplemented by fective coordination and harmonisation of gov-
ratification in accordance with Zimbabwe’s con- ernance policies among state parties, with the
stitutional procedures and the deposit of Zimba- aim of promoting regional and continental inte-
bwe’s instrument of ratification with the chair- gration; promoting state parties’ sustainable de-
person of the AU Commission,” Veritas said. velopment and human security and promote the
fight against corruption in conformity with the
“On the deposit of the Instrument of Ratifi- provisions of the AU Convention on Preventing
cation — and only then — will Zimbabwe be- and Combating Corruption adopted in Mapu-
come a full state party to the charter.” to, Mozambique, in July 2003.

The ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamen- Mnangagwa committed himself to promot-
tary Affairs is expected to engage the ministry of ing the establishment of the necessary condi-
Foreign Affairs and International Trade to have tions to foster citizen participation, transparen-
the instrument of ratification of the charter de- cy, access to information, freedom of the Press
posited with the chairperson of the AU Com- and accountability in the management of public
mission in Addis Ababa by Zimbabwe’s ambas- affairs; promoting gender balance and equality
sador to the AU. in the governance and development processes as
well as enhancing cooperation between the AU,
Parliament approved for the instrument of regional economic communities and the inter-
ratification to be placed before the President in national community on democracy, elections
2019, but Mnangagwa only signed appended his and governance.
signature this week.
The charter calls on members to promote best
Each member state who is party to the charter practice in the management of elections for pur-
is expected to adhere to the universal values and poses of political stability and good governance,
principles of democracy and respect for human among other outcomes. — STAFF WRITER.
rights as well as promote and enhance adherence
to the principle of the rule of law premised upon

Page 8 News NewsHawks

BANK OF ZI Issue 56, 12 November 2021

RESERVE MBABWE

PRESS STATEMENT

SUBMISSION OF BIDS UNDER THE FOREIGN EXCHANGE AUCTION SYSTEM

The Bank wishes to advise the public that, with immediate effect, all bids for foreign
exchange shall be submitted through bidders’ respective bankers at least four (4)
business days before the date of the auction. The bankers shall in turn submit the bids
to the Bank, the auction administrator, at least three (3) business days before the
date of the auction.

There has been a significant increase in the number of bids being submitted through
the auction system, averaging 2000 per week, and thus the change in bid submission
timelines will give banks ample time to carry out the necessary due diligence processes
and assess their customers’ bids.

Any bid submitted later than the set time frame shall be disqualified.

John P. Mangudya
Governor
9 November 2021

NewsHawks News Page 9

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

The NewsHawks reporter scoops awards

ENTERPRISING The NewsHawks multi-me- l Female journalists training beneficial
dia reporter Mary Mundeya won the Legal and
Parliamentary journalist of the year and the Sogie The NewsHawks managing editor Dumisani The NewsHawks multi-media reporter Mary Mundeya (left) receives the Legal and Parliamentary Journalist
Northern Region journalist of the year prizes at Muleya said it was encouraging the training was of the Year and the Sogie Northern Region Journalist of the Year awards at the Njama in Harare yesterday.
the National Journalism and Media Awards (Nja- already helping participants to scale investigative Below: Mundeya (fourth from left) with other journalists showcase their awards.
ma) in Harare yesterday. journalism heights.
works — social capital that is — to address various help society in which they live and work by prob-
Mundeya joined The NewsHawks — Zimba- “We are happy from the bottom of our hearts challenges in the workplace and media structures. ing and covering issues of public interest to awak-
bwe’s new leading investigative journalism centre for Mundeya and others who won awards. But we en communities on important matters.”
— in July and is a product of its female investi- are more delighted that The Centre for Public In- “Beyond their personal development and con-
gative journalism training programme run by the terest Journalism’s female investigative journalism tribution to the investigative journalism, that will — STAFF WRITER
Centre for Public Interest Journalism (CPIJ) in training programme, which we run, has quickly
Harare. made an impact over a short period of time de-
spite initial planning, funding, Covid-19 and lo-
The CPIJ Trust, whose board includes promi- gistical problems we faced,” Muleya said.
nent media experts and lawyers Raphael Khum-
alo, Beatrice Mtetwa, Professor Wallace Chuma, “Initially, the project was set to kick-start
Telda Mawarire and Douglas Coltart, owns The mid-November 2020, but due to the Covid-19
NewsHawks. pandemic, the training was rescheduled into
2021. Although, the funding was approved in the
The training programme is funded by Sweden’s last quarter of 2020, signing and pre-assessment
Fojo Institute, an independent institution at the awards were only carried out in the first quarter of
public Linnaeus University, which focuses on the current year which saw the receipt of the first
media development, working to strengthen free, tranche in March followed by the launch on 30
independent and professional journalism in the April 2021, and commencement of the training
Scandinavian country and worldwide. programme on 17 May 2021.

The training project, Strengthening the Capac- “We would like to thank the participants, our
ity of Female Journalists on Investigative Journal- funders, Fojo Institute/International Media Sup-
ism in Zimbabwe, brought together female jour- port and trainers for making things happen. Spe-
nalists from different media houses in the country cial thanks go to some of the professional trainers
specialising in various aspects of investigative jour- who did a great job, including veteran journalist
nalism — from formulation of a story hypothesis, Geoff Nyarota, Susan Makore, Happiness Zenge-
crystallising an idea, pitching, planning, budget- ni, Cordelia Masalethulini and Gagare.”
ing, timelines, sourcing, verification, choosing
narratives to writing, as well as packaging and Muleya said the training programme is con-
distribution of the content. tinuing and should eventually be institutionalised.

After the training, the participants pitched and “We haven’t finished yet. We started with a
wrote investigative stories for their media houses, group of 10 participants, now we are going to re-
including The NewsHawks. cruit yet another group of 10 trainees,” he said.

Another participant of The NewsHawks’ train- “The project is aimed at training female jour-
ing programme, who works for a state-controlled nalists in Zimbabwe on investigative journalism
media group, also won a Njama award for a story to enhance their skill set, exposure and capacity to
on foreign currency, arbitrage and arbitrary pric- pursue ethical, professional and in-depth report-
ing of goods published by her newspaper. She had ing — focusing on various subject matters in the
pitched the story idea during training. public interest.

Mundeya’s story on the Zimbabwe National “The main objective of the project, which spans
Water Authority awarding a US$4 million tender the whole value chain from training to reporting
to Helcraw Electrical boss Farai Jere despite his be- and management, is to produce a new generation
ing in court on allegations of defrauding Zesa was of female reporters who will contribute signifi-
the first runner-up for the Legal and Parliamenta- cantly to the development of investigative jour-
ry journalist of the year award. Jere was recently nalism, address gender disparities in media and
acquitted on the case. management structures in Zimbabwe.

She, however, scooped the big one after her “The programme engages and empowers young
story on the dodgy awarding of the Kunzvi Dam female journalists to train, sharpen and develop
construction tender to China Nanchang Engi- their investigative skills. This will assist them to
neering ahead of other cheaper and competitive develop their careers by building support net-
bids was adjudged the best parliamentary story.

For her story published with FeedZW, which
was about the journey to self-discovery of an in-
tersex person who was born with two sexual or-
gans (ambiguous genitalia), Mundeya scooped
the Sogie Northen Region journalist of the year
award. A delighted Mundeya, who walked away
with US$700 in prize money, says she owes her
success to hard work and the female investigate
journalism training programme which gave her a
new skill set and sharper cutting edge on how to
crystallise story ideas, pitch and investigate, as well
as write.

“I’m grateful for having been given an oppor-
tunity to be part of The NewsHawks female in-
vestigative journalism training programme which
enabled me to have a better skill set, deeper under-
standing of investigative techniques and handling
of bigger assignments,” Mundeya said.

“My news editor and one of my trainers Owen
Gagare was instrumental in making me unlock
my potential as an individual, pressuring me to
step out of my comfort zone and explore differ-
ent dimensions of story-telling from a multimedia
perspective, which I’m very keen on.”

Gagare said he was pleased that the training
programme was already bearing fruit. He said
several participants were good, but Mundeya was
outstanding.

“We launched the training at the end of April
with 10 trainees from different media houses, cov-
ering different beats,” he said. “

The fact that two of our trainees scooped Nja-
ma awards bears testimony that the programme
has been a success within a short period of time.
I think all the trainees will grow from strength to
strength, and make an impact in their areas of
interest, inspiring other female journalists in the
process.”

Page 10 News NewsHawks

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

Stories that got The NewsHawks
Digital Editor Mpofu in trouble

Bernard Mpofu

NewsHawks News Page 11

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

OWEN GAGARE What Zim leaders can learn
from FW de Klerk’s legacy
WHEN the late former Zimbabwean president
Robert Mugabe met the last apartheid South . . . it’s never too late to do the right thing
African leader Frederik Willem de Klerk, who
died of cancer-related complications at 85 yes- Last apartheid South African leader Frederik Willem de Klerk (left) with anti-apartheid champion Nelson Mandela unite to end racial segregation.
terday, in Gaborone, Botswana on 23 January
1994, he said it was unfortunate that it had way international perceptions of South Africa ities in Pretoria to change their minds about transition.
taken so long for Pretoria to change its mind on had changed in the four years since apartheid, but he praised De Klerk for the role Yet De Klerk’s dramatic moves and reforms
the system of institutionalised racial discrimi- he had played in bringing about reform and
nation. Mandela’s release from prison. change in South Africa. that ushered in the transition and eventually
That meeting partly sowed the seeds of ri- democracy cannot be ignored despite all the
Mugabe, who had gone to the Southern Af- valry between Mugabe and Mandela, later to Despite the historic role he played in South atrocities perpetrated under his watch over the
rican Development Community headquarters explode. Africa’s political transition from apartheid to years.
to deal the crisis in Lesotho at the time, said At a Press conference in the office of Masire, democracy, De Klerk was a major polarising
despite the delays in acknowledging apartheid Mugabe described his first meeting with De figure. He was a cog in PW Botha’s apartheid In Gaborone, Mugabe had also said: “It is
evils, his meeting with de Klerk and trailblazing Klerk — sitting beside him with Mandela — as machinery, took over from him in 1989 and possible to open themselves (South Africa) up
anti-apartheid champion Nelson Mandela was an “historic, happy occasion”. presided over vicious repression, including mass to the rest of the world and the rest of the world
“a historic, happy occasion”. The Zimbabwean president said it was un- detentions, torture and killings (the Boipatong to open itself up to South Africa and that is
fortunate it had taken so long for the author- massacre being the most egregious) during the what has happened now.”
Klerk, a senior member of the apartheid
cabinet seven years before when South Africa Mugabe’s message was that despite acknowl-
bombed Botswana and Zimbabwe, met the late
Botswana president Ketumile Masire and Mug-
abe in the company of his regime’s one-time
prisoner for 27 years, Mandela.

The attacks on Botswana, Zimbabwe and
Zambia in May 1986 were part of South Africa’s
“Total Strategy” conceived in the 1970s upon
PW Botha’s ascendancy as a holistic response
to rising internal and international protests and
actions against Pretoria to end apartheid.

Botha served as the last apartheid prime
minister from 1978 to 1984, and the first ex-
ecutive president from 1985 to 1989 when De
Klerk came in.

Demonstrating its military power in a bid
to assert regional hegemony and perpetuate
apartheid, South African troops and warplanes
had on 20 May attacked alleged ANC guerrilla
facilities in the capitals of Botswana, Zambia
and Zimbabwe, killing at least three people and
wounding more than a dozen.

Weeping over two dead bodies and 10 in-
jured victims at a camp outside Lusaka, Zam-
bian founding president Kenneth Kaunda
described the attack as “a dastardly, cowardly,
criminal action” that amounted to state terror-
ism.

Striking shortly after midnight, South Af-
rican commandos in one fell swoop blew up
the ANC offices in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capi-
tal, and a suburban home linked to its military
wing uMkhonto weSizwe (MK).

Five years earlier, ANC and MK representa-
tive in Zimbabwe Joe Gqabi had been killed by
apartheid agents in Harare.

Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s then prime minister
who was reluctant to offer the ANC full sup-
port, especially military backing, with his voice
shaking with emotion, told journalists in Hara-
re on that “the time has come for us to call for
more support to be given to the ANC and other
liberation movements fighting in South Africa”.

Unlike Zambia and Tanzania, Zimbabwe
had not granted anti-apartheid movements
any form of diplomatic recognition. They had
no formal offices. No guns. Only political and
moral support.

The Gaborone meeting seven years after the
Harare bombing was the first time that De
Klerk and Mandela — South Africa’s Nobel
Peace Prize duo — had jointly represented their
country’s interests abroad.

The purpose of their visit was to formalise
South Africa’s transformation from being re-
gional warmonger to regional peace-keeper;
from a bully to friendly neighbourhood super-
power, and deal with the Lesotho crisis.

South Africa acceded to the Sadc Treaty on
29 August 1994 at the heads of state and gov-
ernment summit in Gaborone.

It was at the behest of Mugabe, once a harsh
critic of the regime that De Klerk had served
as an MP for 21 years. Mugabe wanted to find
a common solution to the crisis in Lesotho,
the tiny country within South Africa's borders
whose stability was threatened by a military re-
volt.

A proposal by Mugabe suggested that a re-
gional military force, to include the South Af-
rican Defence Force, should be sent to Leso-
tho as a symbolic statement of support for the
democratically-elected government. De Klerk
and Mandela demurred; they evidently thought
such an action would be a trifle premature, for
it was decided instead to appoint a joint task
force to address the Lesotho crisis.

Mugabe should have contemplated such a
proposal offered a dramatic indication of the

Page 12 News NewsHawks

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

edged delays, De Klerk had done the right thing. and in principle he believed in apartheid, but to enable them to return from exile and suspend ly elected parliament would then adopt a final
In Mandela’s words: “It’s never too late to do strategically he was forced by events and critical the group’s decades of armed struggle. constitution. To allay minority fears, the final
junctures to dismantle and denounce it. constitution would also have to comply with 35
the right thing”. “The preparatory talks also dealt with the immutable constitutional principles.
Due to his political realism and pragmatism The end of the Cold War had also helped in escalating racial violence that presented a seri-
resolving the long-standing South African con- ous obstacle throughout the negotiations. We “On 17 June 1992, constitutional talks col-
not matched by willingness to accept moral re- flict. To be sure, Western and Soviet-bloc states addressed the problem by adopting a National lapsed over failure to reach agreement on the
sponsibility for apartheid and apologise unre- had ritually condemned apartheid and imposed Peace Accord on 14 September 1991. The ac- percentages by which the final document would
servedly, South Africans had always not given economic sanctions against the white govern- cord established a national peace secretariat, a have to be adopted — and because of escalat-
much thought to De Klerk after he left Mande- ment, although some equivocated and opposed national peace committee comprising all the ac- ing violence. It was widely suspected that ANC
la’s government. that. cord signatories, and a national peace commis- leaders were under pressure from the group’s
sion under the chairmanship of Judge Richard more radical elements about the concessions
Like Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union, It was the disappearance of the Communist Goldstone, chief justice of the Supreme Court, they were making during the negotiations.
his fellow Nobel Peace laureate, the last apart- threat and the example of brave Eastern Europe- to investigate and report on violence and intim-
heid president was more highly regarded out- ans throwing off their chains that finally allowed idation. “The walkout may have been a means to calm
side his own country than in it. De Klerk to persuade even the most hard-line down these aggressive factions so that the pro-
Afrikaner elements of his National Party to ac- “The second phase of the negotiations, the cess could move forward. I don’t believe ANC
However, some South Africans were taken cept reform. So, too, did the ANC, which af- multi-party Convention for a Democratic leaders ever truly meant to derail the process,
aback by De Klerk’s last message released after firmed its readiness, in January 1990, to engage South Africa (Codesa) talks, commenced on 21 though publicly they said they would make the
his death yesterday. the South African government in peaceful ne- December 1991, with the adoption of a decla- country ungovernable through mass action.
gotiations. ration of intent. The declaration sketched the Eventually the talks resumed without drastic
“The first thing I want to focus on is apart- broad outline of the kind of state that all the measures such as imposing martial law, thereby
heid and apartheid and me. I’m still often ac- On 11 February 1990, Mandela was released parties wanted, including: a united, democrat- demonstrating the importance of patience, even
cused by critics, that I in some way or another from prison. ic, non-racial and non-sexist political system; a under the most trying of political deadlocks.
continue to justify apartheid, or separate devel- constitution guarded over by an impartial judi-
opment as we later preferred to call it. It is true Talks began on 2 May, complicated by brutal ciary; a multi-party democracy based on pro- “On 26 September 1992, the government
that in my younger years I defended separate state repression and intramural violence among portional representation; separation of powers and the ANC opened the way to the resumption
development, as I never liked the word apart- black groups, especially the ANC and Inkatha with appropriate checks and balances; acknowl- of negotiations by adopting a ‘record of under-
heid. I did so when I was a Member of Parlia- Freedom Party (IFP) led by Mangosuthu Bu- edgement of South Africa’s diverse languages, standing’ that endorsed most of the agreements
ment, and I did so as I became a member of thelezi. De Klerk pressed on, however, and in cultures, and relations; and a Bill of Rights with that had been reached during the Codesa pro-
cabinet,” De Klerk said. June 1991 parliament repealed its requirement equality of all before the law. cess. One of the main problems we experienced
that citizens be categorised by race. was maintaining the inclusivity of the process.
“Afterwards on many occasions, I apologised “The Codesa negotiations dealt with myriad As soon as the ANC returned to the talks, the
for the pain and the indignity that apartheid The following month, the late United States thorny issues, including the creation of a me- IFP and right-wing parties walked out and did
has brought to persons, to persons of colour president George HW Bush (Snr), citing the dia and political climate to allow free participa- not return until the eve of the elections.
in South Africa. Many believed me, but others progress made, lifted American sanctions tion, the reincorporation of black homelands,
didn’t. Therefore let me today in this last mes- against South Africa. But Mandela was only re- and ensuring free and fair elections. By far the “The final phase of the negotiations consist-
sage repeat, I without qualification apologise for moved from the US terrorist and sanctions list toughest negotiations involved setting up the ed of a multi-party negotiating process, which
the pain, and the hurt, and the indignity and in 2008. new constitution. reached agreement on an interim constitution
the damage that apartheid has done to black, and the mechanisms required for free and fair
brown and Indians in south Africa. I do so not De Klerk explained how the transition “The main problem was the ANC’s insistence elections (on 27 April 1994).”
only in my capacity as the former leader of the worked. that the constitution should be drawn up by
national party, but also as an individual. Allow a duly elected national convention, while mi- The biggest takeaway from what Mandela
me in this last message to share with you the “The first, preparatory, phase followed my nority parties maintained that agreement on the and Mugabe, who ironically never apologised
fact that since the early '80s my views changed speech to parliament on 2 February 1990, constitution should precede the first elections. for his own evils, agreed on the De Klerk re-
completely; it was as if I had a conversion and during which I announced the formal end of The impasse was resolved toward the end of forms and partial midwifery role in the birth of
in my heart of hearts realised that apartheid was the apartheid system and Mandela’s release from the process by the ingenious device of adopt- South African democracy is that it is never too
wrong.” prison nine days later,” he said after the Arab ing an interim constitution under the terms of late to do the right thing.
Spring uprisings. which the first election would be held. The new-
While some people think De Klerk was genu- Zimbabwean political leaders can learn a lot
ine in his last message, others think it was a con- “This phase included three preliminary meet- from that wisdom.
tinuation of his usual approach: philosophically ings in Cape Town and Pretoria that dealt pri-
marily with granting immunity to ANC rebels

Late former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe (left) with the late former South African president Nelson Mandela

NewsHawks News Page 13

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

STEPHEN CHADENGA Zanu PF battle for Midlands
control takes new dimension
THE battle for the control of President Emmer-
son Mnangagwa’s citadel, the Midlands, pitting Midlands Provincial and Devolution minister Larry Mavima (left) and State Security minister Owen Mudha Ncube
State Security minister Owen Mudha Ncube and
incumbent Daniel Mckenzie Ncube has taken a But party insiders said Mavima, who is also factions will obviously try by all means to outwit ment involving Mavima)?” quizzed one supporter.
new dimension, amid reports that a “neutral can- Shurugwi-Zvishavane senator, was seen as the best each other.” Another supporter who is active in the Mudha
didate” has been thrown into the ring at the insti- compromise candidate as he is close to Mnangag-
gation of the Zanu PF leader. wa and also highly regarded in the province. But some party members in the Mudha Ncube Ncube group weighed in, saying there was a need
camp were however unamused by the continuous to “give people accurate information” on whom
Midlands Provincial and Devolution minister “He has the task of uniting the party and win- change in their preferred candidate line-up. they should support in the provincial elections.
Larry Mavima is now set to stand uncontested ning the hearts of both warring parties,” a senior
following Mnangagwa’s intervention. party member in the province said. “What is happening cdes (comrades)? One A key Mudha Ncube campaigner maintained
moment we are rallying behind shefu (boss) Mud- that the new team backing Mavima for the pro-
The province had become a war zone with “But what is clear is that the fight is going to ha, the next we are rallying behind Chiherenge vincial chairperson’s post was indeed the “official
youths involved in violent clashes several times. cascade to all other provincial posts, where the (Chakanyuka), now what is this (new arrange- one.”

Although Mudha Ncube’s camp initially set
the ball rolling by vigorously campaigning for the
State Security boss, last month they had to change
tactic after he (Mudha) gave the nod for his group
to push for former youth league leader Edison
Chakanyuka to contest Mckenzie Ncube.

The narrative was however changed last week
after Mudha’s campaigners announced that the
“Midlands has reached a consensus” with Mavima
now being the new candidate for the provincial
chairperson’s post.

“Attention comrades and friends, myself as
chief campaign manager Gweru district for Team
Mudha (wishes to announce) we do have some
changes to our team. This is now official,” Phi-
lemon Safalan, a key Mudha Ncube campaigner,
told faction members last week in their WhatsApp
group dubbed Endorsement of Mudha.

According to Safalan, the camp would now
garner support for Mavima to be provincial chair-
person with Chakanyuka deputising him. The
camp wants Mberengwa Zanu PF member Tsitsi
Zhou to be provincial women’s league chairper-
son, while also backing Phineas Makombe to be
the Midlands youth league leader.

Mckenzie Ncube did not respond to questions
from The NewsHawks, but members of his camp
said he had also pulled out of the race as a com-
promise.

“We are also supporting Mavima’s candida-
ture. But as to his (Mavima) deputy our choice
is incumbent provincial deputy chairman Robson
Nyathi,” a Midlands official close to Mavima said.

Provincial party spokesperson Cornelius Mu-
pereri would not comment on the factional bat-
tles in the province.

Chinamasa says daughter (10) slapped with US sanctions

LIZWE SEBATHA Zanu PF acting political commissar Patrick Chinamasa “Lo and behold she could not open a bank ac-
count with any of the South African banks. Why?
ZANU PF acting political commissar Patrick would fall victim. targeted sanctions against some of the country's She was told she was a sanctioned entity under US
Chinamasa is in pain that he struggled to pay tu- “She has never been active politically to war- top officials. law. But this was South Africa, not the US. The
ition fees for his daughter in South Africa to pur- answer was that US entities have shareholding in
sue her studies after she was placed on the targeted rant eliciting the wrath of the sole world imperial “Gamuchirai was placed under US sanctions in South African banks
United States (US) sanctions list. power, the United States of America. I suppose 2001 when she was barely 10 years old. I mean
my wife was ‘guilty’ vicariously. That granted, but 10 years old! To this day all three of us remain “To fund Gamuchirai’s education at Rhodes
The US Department of the Treasury is en- what about my daughter Gamuchirai? What had under sanctions. We are also under EU sanctions. she persuaded a friend to allow us to channel
forcing targeted financial sanctions on Zanu PF, she done to bear the ‘sins’ of her father?” That has been our badge of honour,” Chinamasa tuition & accommodation charges through the
government, security sector individuals, their added. friend’s bank account. Zimbabweans, please don’t
families and entities responsible for undemocratic Zidera was introduced by an Act of Congress be hoodwinked by Americans with their flowery
practices, human rights abuses related to political — Public Law 107-99 on 21 December 2001. “There is a sequel to her story. She wanted to talk of human rights, democracy.”
repression. study media studies at degree level. No university
The US has repeatedly said the southern Afri- was offering this degree locally then. She secured a United Nations special rapporteur Alena Dou-
Chinamasa was placed number 12, his daugh- can country must embark on genuine reforms be- place at Rhodes University in South Africa. han recently visited the country on a 10-day visit
ter Gamuchirai and wife Monica are 10th and fore Washington DC can consider removing the to probe the impact of targeted sanctions.
11th respectively on the list.
In her preliminary statement, Douhan called
The US also slapped travel restrictions on se- for the lifting of the sanctions while also empha-
lected individuals, an arms embargo and a suspen- sising the need for dialogue. The main opposition
sion of non-humanitarian government-to-gov- MDC Alliance dismissed Douhan’s report as bi-
ernment assistance. ased.

The Zanu PF government blames the targeted MDC Alliance deputy president Tendai Biti
sanctions for the country’s socio-economic prob- said the party has since written to the UN de-
lems but for Chinamasa, it is more personal as he manding an investigation into Douhan’s conduct
explained the pains of failing to pay for his daugh- because she had released the statement while she
ter's fees in neighbouring South Africa. was still engaged in meetings with the party.

“Monica is my wife, Gamuchirai is my daugh- In February, Douhan visited Venezuela to assess
ter. I can understand why Americans put me the impact of sanctions imposed by the US, Euro-
under sanctions. As minister of Justice, Legal pean Union and other countries on the country.
& Parliamentary Affairs (2000-2013), I played In her preliminary report, she said the sanctions
no small part in agitating land redistribution & “have exacerbated the economic and humanitari-
implementing the programme, as well as passing an calamities in Venezuela.”
through in Parliament relevant legislation to give
effect to the redistribution,” Chinamasa said. In November, 2020 Douhan was in Qatar,
where she also issued a preliminary statement crit-
“Because the US imposed the (Zimbabwe De- ical of the sanctions imposed on that country.
mocracy and Economic Recovery Act) Zidera
sanctions legislation to reverse the land redistribu- In December 2020, Douhan released a state-
tion, I fully understand why the US would want ment against US sanctions on the Syrian govern-
to target me under their illegal punitive sanctions ment. Her comments were welcomed by the gov-
law. For this I make no apologies. But I cannot ernment of Bashar al-Assad, while the US special
understand or comprehend why my wife Monica envoy for Syria rejected her findings.

Page 14 News NewsHawks

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

‘Councils must uphold good governance’

NHAU MANGIRAZI Zacc spokesperson John Makamure says Zacc will sign “a contract of commitment” with Karoi Town team led by Takesure Thondlanga of Thondlanga
Council, among other local authorities. and Associates challenging council.
THE Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission
(Zacc) has called for capacity building among council resolution to investigate circumstances a court judgment? We respect the rule of law,’’ Karoi Town Council was represented by Wil-
councils to curb the abuse of public funds. on how Mutikani had purchased materials fir Makamure charged. son Kambanje and Prince Mahembe of Mangwa-
the diversion of a Zimbabwe National Water Au- na and Associates.
This follows revelations that the anti-corrup- thority (Zinwa) main pipe that burst under his He further explained that Zacc officials are not
tion body has made findings on weak mecha- privately owned in October last year, depriving compromised as they had acted above board. The court granted her the application.
nisms on mostly governance issues in some local the town of water for three days. ‘‘The second respondent (Karoi town council)
authorities. ‘‘When it was agreed that she (Mujuruki) be decisions be and are hereby set aside for lack of
Mutikani is a co-director with his wife Keren- allowed to go back to work by courts, council jurisdiction. Respondent (council) to meet appli-
Zacc spokesperson John Makamure this week siya Knyurira of Champion Lodge that was built wrote that letter to send her on leave, claiming cant’s costs,’’ read part of the ruling.
told The NewsHawks that they are signing “a con- in 2010. that there is a pending case in the courts. This is Council lawyer Paul Mangwana of Mangwana
tract of commitment” with Karoi Town Coun- the same case that the Zimbabwe Republic Police and Associates charged that Mujuruki has a crim-
cil, among other local authorities, to implement Karoi housing department has been in the advised them that the same case had been inves- inal case to answer.
Zacc’s recommendations. spotlight since 2018 when Auditor-General Mil- tigated and they could not open the same case In a letter dated 12 July 2021, the lawyers
dred Chiri raised a red flag. again. She then, she approached tge courts and informed the Zimbabwe Republic Police offi-
‘‘Karoi Town Council and seven other local council lost it again and was advised not to con- cer-in-charge Karoi to probe her.
authorities shall participate in the implementa- The “re-appointment” of Mujuruki, who was tinue placing her on forced leave. I think I have ‘‘We are under instructions to lodge a criminal
tion matrices signing ceremony on the 18th of facing allegations of abuse of office, heightened managed to clarify. I will not take kindly any complainant against Sibongile H.A. Mujuruki
November 2021. There has been great coopera- the confusion at Karoi council at a time the local attempts to twist what I have said. Zacc carries as we do hereby of the following. The accused
tion from local authorities. Zacc has been able authority is determined to have her charged. out above-board systems and compliance reviews person is employed by Karoi Town Council as di-
to identify gaps that require capacity building for in order to strengthen corporate governance and rector of housing and one of her responsibilities
local authorities,’’ Makamure said in a written Zacc spokesperson John Makamure denied plug any loopholes for corruption,’’ Makamure includes allocation of stands to those eligible and
response. that the anti-corruption body failed in fulfilling said. ensuring that allocation, transfer, and disposal of
its mandate in Karoi. stands is done in a transparent manner and in a
Harare Residents Trust (HRT) director Pre- Mujuruki approached the Labour Court and procedurally correct manner.
cious Shumba said this was not enough to “curb ‘‘I sought clarification and am sure you are judge Lawrence Murasi delivered a judgment in ‘‘In 2014 and in the course and scope of her
corruption among local authorities, where public fully aware that Mujuruki is not under investi- her favour on 14 June 2021 through her legal duties, the accused signed an agreement of sale
funds are abused without recourse”. gation and was cleared by the courts to return on behalf of her sister Mercy Mujuruki who was
to work. Were you expecting Zacc to go against selling an underdeveloped stand known as Stand
‘‘Residents expect transparency and account- 8254, Chiedza which was leased from the com-
ability in the whole process of providing social plainant.
services. Everything must be done in the sun- ‘‘The accused person did not disclose this
light, not in darkness as has become the norm. transaction to her principal (Karoi Town Coun-
Local authorities must employ the right skilled cil) despite it being clear that she had a personal
personnel with the right attitude to deliver ser- interest in the matter,’’ part of the letter in our
vices without compromising their public man- possession reads.
date. Systems and procedures must be followed It further added that by signing the agreement
to the letter without fear or favour. Monitoring of sale, the accused aided her sister in contraven-
mechanisms should be enhanced, even tightened, ing the agreement between the complainant and
to ensure that no one escapes systemic scrutiny Mercy Mujuruki which prohibited the sale of tge
by the oversight structures, especially the council undeveloped stand.
committees and supervisors,’’ Shumba said in a ‘‘The complainant (Karoi Town Council)
written response. therefore firmly believes that as a public officer,
the accused engaged in conduct that is contrary
Makamure concurred that there are similar is- to or inconsistent with the duty as contemplated
sues of non-compliance in most local authorities. by Section 174 (1) (a) of Criminal Law Codifi-
cation and Reform Act, Chapter 9.23. It is on
‘‘It is true that most councils, municipalities the basis of the above facts that we are instructed
and cities are not implementing Auditor-General to lodge this complainant as there is reasonable
recommendations and have not been fully ac- belief of commission of criminal offence,’’ the
counting for devolution funds availed to them. letter reads.
Some of the councils have been passing resolu- ‘‘We kindly request your good office to inves-
tions that would benefit individuals. In some tigate the matter and arrest the accused at your
cases, management would award themselves earliest convenience. We further request that you
perks without council resolutions,’’ Makamure keep us updated on progress in the matter as we
explained. have been instructed as watching brief,’’ conclud-
ed the council lawyers.
Shumba suggested that Zacc has been failing Mujuruki was on three months forced leave
to assist in nipping corruption in the bud due starting from 12 August until 15 December
to economic challenges affecting every segment 2021.
of society.

“Zacc must employ competent and adequately
remunerated personnel so that they are not easily
tempted by the corrupt officials and councillors
in local authorities. Zacc also needs to strength-
en their capacity to prepare for trials so that we
minimise cases of arresting only to release the
suspects, ending up with no convictions. They
must therefore be thorough in their investiga-
tions so that they do not preempt their moves by
arresting before they finalise their investigations.
Lifestyle audits for Zacc investigators must be en-
forced to ensure that no Zacc investigator thrives
on corrupt practices,’’ Shumba said.

Makamure agreed that there is a need for ca-
pacity building in order to allow councils to ad-
dress issues of corporate governance.

‘‘There is need to separate the local council
roles from management,’’ Makamure concluded.

Shumba said there must be adherence to sys-
tems and procedures. This would reduce by 75%
the prevalence of corrupt practices by policymak-
ers and management in local authorities.

‘‘Most of the shortcomings being observed are
a direct result of a very weak monitoring mecha-
nism in place, and the corrupt always utilise op-
portunities,’’ Shumba said.

In September, Zacc’s four-member review and
compliance team led by Clara Nyakotyo was in
Karoi and allegedly facilitated the return of sus-
pended housing director Sibongile Mujuruki,
throwing the council into confusion as town
secretary Wellington Mutikani was suspended by
chairperson Abel Matsika two days later.

Mutikani is accused of sitting on a fact-finding
report by a panel chaired by Hurungwe district
coordinating committee head Andrew Tizora.

The committee was appointed through a

NewsHawks News Page 15

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

Harare demands road funds from Zinara

BRIDGET MANANAVIRE

HARARE City Council is mulling using funds City councils, including Harare, blame Zinara for irregular allocation of funds, which they say is contributing to poor road maintenance.
from other road and traffic revenue streams for
road rehabilitation, after poor performance in This scenario means that the city is only ac- Among other issues, the budget will focus on shocks.”
the department owing to failure by the Zimba- counting for 38% of what it produces. The gender issues as women and girls are the worst “Our capacity to collect what we bill was
bwe National Roads Administration (Zinara) to proposed budget will reduce non-revenue water affected by poor service delivery in mostly water,
disburse funds on time. through a number of interventions, namely pipe sanitation, and hygiene sectors as well as mater- largely affected by the absence of an integrated
replacement, water metering and accurate bill- nity services. resource planning system, the Covid-19 pan-
Presenting the council’s ZW$41 billion 2022 ing,” Mhetu said. demic and inadequate service delivery. With
budget this week, Finance and Development “The government of Zimbabwe has eased curtailed revenue inflows, the capital expen-
Committee chairperson Tichavona Mhetu re- “We also intend to expedite the utilisation of Covid-19 restrictions and as a city we need to diture incurred throughout the year was sup-
vealed that only 15 kilometres had been rehabili- alternative water treatment chemicals such as take that opportunity and rebuild our capacity ported predominantly by the much-appreciated
tated from a targeted 130 kilometres. chlorine dioxide, which will assist in reducing the to deliver services to the residents of Harare. inter-governmental fiscal transfer (devolution)
cost of treating water in line with the aspirations We also need to have contingency plans so that from government amounting to a provision of
A total of 297 kilometres were maintained out of the residents and stakeholders of Harare.” we are well placed to deal with potential future ZW$1.095 billion,” Mhetu said.
of a targeted 400 kilometres.

This was after the council had received only
ZW$198.9 million from Zinara out of an alloca-
tion of ZW$483 million.

This, according to Mhetu, is still inadequate,
given the capital-intensive nature of the works.

“The following are key proposals to fund the
roads programme: 1. Revenue from City Parking
2. Endowment fees 3. Billboards 4. Gravel sales
5. Harare Quarry dividend 6. Trenching fees,”
Mhetu said.

“Of the above revenues, Endowments and
City Parking are statutory funds and as at 30
September the city had received ZW$95.81 mil-
lion and ZW$62.65 million respectively to give
a total of ZW$158 million. These funds should
be ring fenced.”

“According to Section 191 of the Urban
Councils Act (29:15), council is required to have
a parking account. While the Emergency Road
Rehabilitation Programme Phase Two is taking
care of the major roads, there is urgent need for
the city to rehabilitate the roads in the residen-
tial areas, which are in a sorry state. From 2022
onwards, we expect regular updates on the utili-
sation of the aforementioned revenue streams in
the roads programme.”

Councils have for long been at loggerheads
with Zinara over irregular allocation of funds,
which they say is contributing to poor road
maintenance.

“The state of our roads remains deplorable.
The poor performance of this programme is at-
tributed to late disbursement of funds and price
variations caused by distortions in the market.
It must be acknowledged that the amount allo-
cated is inadequate to carry out intended capital
works envisaged in the budget.

“We always request for more funds from Zina-
ra, but Zinara has not responded positively.”

Meanwhile, the city has proposed to allocate
ZW$4 .489 billion of the budget towards water
sanitation and hygiene.

The city is currently producing an average of
375 mega litres of water a day against a demand
of over 1 000 mega litres.

“Unfortunately, not all the water produced is
billed as a substantial percentage is lost through
water bursts and metering issues thus non-reve-
nue water currently at 62%.

Karoi town secretary sika said. housing department that has no files, has missing
hearing postponed A Zimbabwe National Water Authority main leases and double allocation of stands that fuel
corruption.
NHAU MANGIRAZI his case be heard in-camera without any indepen- pipe burst under the lodge in October and the
dent officials attending. farming town ran dry for three days. Mutikani, who is the accounting officer, has
THE disciplinary hearing of suspended Karoi let the procurement department buy sub-stan-
Town Council secretary Wellington Mutikani His request hit a brick wall, with a special full The graft charges came a day after Mutikani dard goods while tenders are awarded to dubi-
has been deferred to next week after he requested council meeting resolving that the matter is of told a full council in last month that he was pre- ous companies, including Solutions Motors that
a postponement, The NewsHawks has established. public interest. The councillors said both parties pared to reimburse the local authority for the was awarded a tender to supply a Nissan UD
had legal teams representing them, so that there money used in diverting the water pipe. 20-tonne refuse truck in 2017 but is yet to deliv-
The under-fire Mutikani is facing charges of was no need for an in-camera session. er the vehicle.
fraud and abuse of office after he advanced him- Mutikani is accused of sitting on fact-finding
self a loan to purchase materials for the diversion ‘‘We hope he will come as indicated next week committee findings for almost a year. The com- One of our sources, a middle manager, revealed
of water pipes at his privately owned Champion Monday as we have been forced to reschedule the mittee was chaired by Hurungwe district devel- that top council officials are living on borrowed
Lodge last year. hearing,’’ another source added. opment coordinator Andrew Tizora and had offi- time due to corruption at the local authority.
cials from council engineering, audit, Zinwa and
‘‘We had been prepared to hear his side of the Council chairperson Abel Matsika was tight- other members. “It’s unfortunate we have had several audits
story on the charges he is facing but he requested lipped over the case, saying he would not com- that expose financial abuse, but no one has been
that the case be postponed for a week,’’ a source ment. Mutikani had proposed to pay back the money brought to book yet. We have an open criminal
said on condition of anonymity. through ZW$50 000 monthly installments. case of abuse of office that Mutikani as senior
‘‘For now I can’t comment on the matter as it manager must be answerable. The Auditor-Gen-
This follows another request by Mutikani for is before the hearing and it is like a court session However, all hell broke loose a day after the eral’s report has exposed how ‘mis-procurement’
where we cannot make public comments,’’ Mat- findings were presented, leading to his suspension has been the order of the day. Bond paper was
on 8 October 2021 with full benefits and with- supplied instead of larder that had been pur-
out charges. On 11 October, a full special coun- chased. Bond paper was delivered to the council,
cil meeting endorsed his suspension and he was further exposing deep-rooted corruption as no
charged two weeks later. one was ever charged for such a scandal,’’ a source
said.
The goings-on at Karoi Town Council were
exposed by Auditor-General Midred Chiri's re-
port in 2018. The local authority has a shambolic

Page 16 News NewsHawks

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

NYARADZO MUSHANYUKI ‘Social media snooping a
violation of citizen rights’
THE move by the government to ratchet up sur-
veillance of citizens through monitoring of so- Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa
cial media is draconian and infringes on freedom
of expression, the Media Institute of Southern Zimbabwe has five international gateways for demutande, Econet and Africom. tection Bill which seems to punish those who
Africa (Misa) has said. the internet traffic controlled by state-owned The government’s grip on internet use is set abuse social media, internet and communication
TelOne and Powertel and privately owned Dan- to tighten with the Cybersecurity and Data Pro- networks.
This follows an announcement by Informa-
tion minister Monica Mutsvangwa last week
that the government had set up a cyber team to
monitor what people send and receive on social
media.

The announcement also comes at a time when
the Cybersecurity and Data Protection Bill
which passed through the Senate in July 2021 is
awaiting presidential assent.

“The move by the government to set up a cy-
bersecurity team to monitor citizens on social
media amounts to invasion of privacy and to in-
still fear in the public. The citizens should be free
to express themselves both online and offline,”
Misa said.

‘‘Government intrusion in public spaces such
as social media platforms promotes self-censor-
ship, undermines due process and, above all, in-
fringes on fundamental rights and should thus
not be tolerated. It is critical to recognize that
the right to privacy is an enabling right. Where
the right to privacy is guaranteed, citizens feel
more at ease to exercise other rights such as free-
dom of expression, access to information, right
to healthcare, freedom of association and assem-
bly, among others.”

With social media proving an effective tool in
exposing rights abuses as well as corruption, the
government’s recent move is seen as an attempt
to silence freedom of expression.

Snooping on citizens and clamping down on
dissenting voices has come under the spotlight
following the latest announcement, heightening
fears of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.

‘‘For the purpose of transparency and account-
ability, the authorities need to inform the nation
on who comprises the cyber team and where it is
housed. Further, the government should explain
the legal and constitutional provisions that give
effect to such a cyber team and its functions.
Mass surveillance of citizens is a grave infringe-
ment of the right to privacy, more so when it is
unjustified and unlawful. Social media monitor-
ing is very invasive as millions of Zimbabweans
both within and outside the country use these
digital platforms to communicate, to connect
with friends and associates, express their politi-
cal, social and religious beliefs,’’ Misa said.

Misa is also concerned that the government
could increasingly be gravitating towards mass
surveillance, where indiscriminate mass surveil-
lance is not justifiable in an open and democrat-
ic society.

Misa urged the government to ensure trans-
parency and data accountability regarding data
protection and privacy.

‘‘The government should explain the legal and
constitutional provisions that give effect to such
a cyber team and its functions. Mass surveillance
of citizens is a grave infringement of the right
to privacy, more so when it is unjustified and
unlawful. For the purpose of transparency and
accountability the authorities need to inform
the nation on who comprises the cyber team
and where it is housed. This raises questions on
transparency and data accountability regarding
data protection and privacy. The government
needs to explain what tools or methods it will
use to monitor social media and what purpose
this monitoring is supposed to serve,’’ Misa add-
ed.

Misa said the government should adhere to
international standards and practices pertaining
to issues of data protection and privacy.

The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition also crit-
icised the proposed move to snoop on citizens.

“Given the government’s bad human rights
record and cases of victimisation of activists
based on their posts on social media, we reiterate
the need for a truly independent body to mon-
itor activities on social media rather than mak-
ing it the sole responsibility of the government,”
Crisis in Zimbabwe said.

The coalition called for an independent body
to monitor activities on social media rather than
making it the sole responsibility of the govern-
ment.

According to the Freedom of the Net 2021 re-
port, the government has continued to maintain
a tight grip on the internet.

NewsHawks News Page 17

Issue 56, 12 November 2021 BANK OF ZI

RESERVE MBABWE

Foreign Exchange Auction Results 09 November 2021

SMEFX65/2021 MAIN FX71/2021
Number of Bids Received : 1283 732
101
Number of Bids Disqualified : 45 631
631
Total Number of Bids Accepted : 1238 USD41,737,520.60
USD35,792,885.54
Total Number of Bids Allotted : 1238
115.0000
Total Value of Bids Accepted : USD11,081,207.54
97.1400
Amount Allotted : USD11,081,207.54 97.1400

Highest Rate Received : 115.0000

Lowest Bid Rate Received : 96.0000 99.9301
Lowest Bid Rate Allotted : 96.0000
Weighted Average Rate :

PURPOSE AMOUNT AMOUNT
ALLOTTED ALLOTTED
Raw Materials
Machinery and Equipment SME MAIN
Consumables (Incl. Spares, Tyres, Electricals, etc) AUCTION AUCTION
Services (Loans, Education, Dividends, 2,680,358.38 13,440,963.00
Disinvestments, etc)
Retail and Distribution (Incl. Food, Beverages, etc) 3,906,669.62 11,276,442.00
Fuel, Electricity and Gas 1,621,803.73 2,755,134.32
Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals 1,030,215.16 2,391,255.59
Paper and Packaging
TOTAL 1,033,587.14 2,717,413.32
31605.49 61,963.54

554,207.68 2,070,566.65

222,760.34 1,079,147.12

11,081,207.54 35,792,885.54

GRAND TOTAL AWARDED 46,874,093.08

Notes
1. Bids with overdue CD1s, outstanding Bills of Entry (BOEs) and

those with sufficient FCA balances were also disqualified.
2. Some Bids were allotted on a pro-rata basis.

RESERVE BANK OF ZIMBABWE
09 November 2021

Page 18 News NewsHawks

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

Special Covid-19

PANDEMIC coverage

Covid-19 vaccination slows down

AYESHA CHIDEMBO ernment also admitted that there was widespread Information secretary Nick Mangwana who are yet to be vaccinated present themselves
lethargy. attain our set target of achieving herd immunity for inoculation. The government would like to
DESPITE efforts by the government to ramp up by year end,” cabinet said. assure the nation that the government has pro-
vaccination, including opening up inoculation “We need to remain vigilant to ensure that we cured adequate stocks for this exercise. Sub-na-
to pregnant and breastfeeding women, as well “To this end let us all ensure that all those tion structures have been tasked to come up with
as teenagers aged between 16 and 17, vaccina- various initiatives to ramp up vaccination uptake
tion numbers have slowed down as complacency to achieve herd immunity by year end.”
creeps in.
Although Zimbabwe has done well to pur-
Zimbabwe’s ambitious target of attaining chase the much-needed vaccines from China, it
60% Covid-19 herd immunity by December is is unlikely to meet the target by December after
in doubt three months before the government’s kick-starting the vaccination programme with
set deadline to inoculate 10 million people. frontline workers, the elderly and those with
underlying health conditions following an ini-
As of Monday, 3 379 391 first doses had been tial donation of 200 000 Sinopharm vaccines by
administered and 2 654 079 people had received China
the second dose of the vaccine, making the am-
bitious target a mammoth task, amid widespread By October, Zimbabwe was among 15 Afri-
vaccine fatigue. can countries that had reached the global goal of
fully vaccinating 10% of the population against
The government aims to vaccinate 10 million Covid-19. Almost 90% of high-income coun-
citizens, representing 60% of the population, tries have met this target.
since it launched a national vaccination pro-
gramme in February this year. As part of measures to compel people to be
vaccinated, the government has used intimida-
Although vaccination numbers peaked at the tory tactics, among them threatening to ban un-
height of the third wave, statistics show that vaccinated civil servants from reporting for duty
Zimbabweans are not as enthusiastic about the and barring unvaccinated people from attending
exercise as before. church services and other social gatherings.

Information secretary Nick Mangwana ad- Several companies and parastatals have emu-
mitted that numbers slowed down drastically lated the government’s stance, forcing the Zim-
over the past month. babwe Congress of Trade Unions to take some
employers to court for allegedly violating work-
“Our vaccination rate fell last week to its ers’ rights.
lowest since July. That is probably explained
by complacency. But our vaccination strategy Vice-President President Constantino Chi-
is aligned with our economic recovery strategy. wenga, who is also Health minister, has lashed
It means our economic success is underpinned out at those launching lawsuits against manda-
by our getting a herd immunity among other tory vaccination, reminding them that civil lib-
things,” Mangwana wrote on Twitter last month. erties are not absolute.

During a cabinet briefing this week, the gov-

NewsHawks Editorial & Opinion Page 19

Issue 56, 12 November 2021 CARTOON

Mnangagwa is a Hounding journalists unacceptable
hard sell for Zim
FOR the past two months The NewsHawks quite clearly their desirability, which is not While we acknowledge the constitutional
FOR weeks on end, Zimbabweans were told that President Emmer- digital editor Bernard Mpofu, a journalist an ethical question, but a security one. Even limitations on reporting on such issues and,
son Mnangagwa’s trip to Glasgow, Scotland, would be a major break- with a good track record of professional and then, news values trump arbitrary and un- indeed, exercise our own judgement over
through of historic proportions. high-level quality reporting, has been under justified security fetters. The grounds upon what may not be desirable to report on those
pressure from anonymous elements harass- which media freedom is limited are unam- areas considering the public good first and
It would be the first time a leader from the southern African coun- ing his relatives. biguously stated in the constitution. foremost, it is not helpful to threaten media
try set foot on the United Kingdom in more than two decades. The or journalists for merely doing their job.
last time Mnangagwa’s predecessor late Robert Mugabe travelled The anonymous goons, whose identity Fourthly, in all these cases which may
to the UK, relations between the two nations were still cordial and remains a mystery, but most likely state se- be of concern to the authorities, The News- As we say, journalism is not a crime.
the long-time ruler was feted like royalty — pampered with VVIP curity agents, have been making threatening Hawks always called them to verify and seek If there are any issues arising, engage the
treatment. It has to be remembered that Mugabe, in his delusions of calls to him and his relatives over some un- comment. Sometimes we have had to hold journalists through the front door. Journal-
grandeur, viewed himself as a well-cultured aristocrat in the mould specified issues, yet certainly related to his the stories until we got comment. ists are not a threat to government or the
of British royalty. There was plenty of evidence: the Saville Row suits, journalistic work. state, absolutely not.
the affected accent, keen interest in tea and cricket, the extravagant Fifth, there is no doubt that the stories They are only a threat to those who abuse
shopping trips to London’s Harrods department store and an unusu- It turns out the stories that are at issue are of public interest and, on the balance, do power or office, betray the public trust or
al reverence for the British monarchy. are Mpofu’s news reports on a series of se- not threaten at all the security of the nation are corrupt. So when we write some of these
curity matters, ranging from the coup op- or the security forces themselves. stories we are only seeking to inform the
But if Mugabe was a closet admirer of archaic monarchies, Mnan- erations, the Covid-19 attacks on President public, hold those in powerful positions to
gagwa is hogging the limelight for a strange malady: he has a mon- Emmerson Mnangagwa’s security aides, This is an age-old question in the media account and ensure good governance. We
key on his back. The stubborn monkey’s name is “illegitimacy”. For the Mozambican conflict deployment and and even in associated journalism scholar- cannot rely on official versions of news to
decades, Mnangagwa was Mugabe’s brutal enforcer. His fingerprints Mnangagwa’s helicopter emergency land- ship. What role can the media play in gov- do that.
are found in virtually all major human rights violations since Inde- ing in Sandringham in Matsvaire village in ernance of the security sector? And what ob- Reliance on that and privileging of offi-
pendence in 1980. Gukurahundi genocide, one-party state excesses, Chegutu district, outside Norton, among stacles hinder journalists’ ability to provide cial statements, and, indeed, a lack of ex-
Murambatsvina, 2008 election massacres, 1 August 2018 atrocities, others. pertise on security issues, can undermine
January 2019 state-sponsored violence. He was part of “the system”. Hawk Eye the media’s ability to act as a watchdog.
He still is — that system is still very much alive. Besides that, there have been several To play an effective role in overseeing
emergency landing incidents involving Dumisani the security sector, journalists must have
People often remark that Mnangagwa is an unelectable politician. Mnangagwa’s helicopter, including in Ma- Muleya a degree of distance from government and
His situation is the logical outcome of the leading role he has played rondera this week. protection from intimidation and threats.
in enforcing and entrenching authoritarian rule. effective oversight of security institutions? Persistent harassment and intimidation
The type, scope and quality of Mpofu’s The role of the media in the governance of journalists in relation to their work by
There were many instances in the 2018 general election when stories have clearly unruffled feathers at the security agents or political activists is a fun-
he garnered fewer votes in certain constituencies than the winning top, not because there is anything wrong and oversight of the security sector is crit- damental violation on the rights of jour-
Zanu PF legislator. Some party supporters, after voting for the rul- that he has done, but simply due to that fact ical, yet controversial. But what is not in nalists as professionals and citizens.
ing party MP, would rather opt for the opposition when it came to that the authorities and state agents do not doubt is that media has a vital role to play in It is an affront to democracy and respect
the presidential ballot. Politics is about persuasion, shared vision and want such reporting which local journalists monitoring security institutions and helping of human rights.
consensus. It is not about brute force, coercion and intimidation. mainly stay away from. citizens make informed decisions regarding Journalists should be given the necessary
Political legitimacy is derived from the consent of the governed. their function in relation to democracy and protection that is given to all citizens, as it is
Authorities and their agents need to be governance. the responsibility of governments to protect
Mnangagwa’s legitimacy headache is not confined to domes- reminded of the basics so that they stop the lives of its citizens.
tic politics — where Zanu PF member Sybeth Musengezi is chal- such needless harassment. They must un- But then again, journalists encounter nu- Threatening journalists and arbitrarily
lenging the legality of his ascendancy. His contaminated brand has derstand the professional background and merous obstacles and challenges in report- preventing them from carrying out their
transcended to the wider international community. It was bound to context of such reportage. ing on the security sector and performing work is in direct violation of the constitu-
happen. In just four years, Mnangagwa’s regime has squandered the their watchdog function. tion.
massive outpouring of international goodwill. The tragedy of it all is The NewsHawks and its reporter Mpofu Government must lift securitisation of
that the Zanu PF government is incapable of genuine reform. The have done nothing wrong here, especially Governments often restrict access to in- the media climate to create a safe and se-
Glasgow trip underlined this point. on these cases. formation and seek to co-opt journalists, cure operating environment for journalists
while the media may risk internalising offi- to operate in, and ensure the public’s right
The jaunt was doomed from the very beginning. How does the To start with, media freedom is now a cial perspectives on perceived threats to na- to know.
leader of an impoverished country charter a luxury plane amid such fundamental right and thus protected in tional security, hence failing to do their job That is all we are asking for. Hounding of
catastrophic economic hardships? As if wasting taxpayers’ money on terms of section 161 of the Zimbabwean properly. journalists is simply unacceptable in a rea-
a luxury jet was not bad enough, he went on to assemble a bloated constitution. sonably democratic and civilised society.
entourage comprising 130 people. All of them pocketed thousands
of US dollars in a country in which children are sleeping on empty Secondly, Zimbabwe has constitutional
stomachs. As soon as he arrived in Scotland, it became increasingly and international obligations to protect its
clear Mnangagwa and his team had no game plan beyond jostling for citizens and journalists’ rights.
photo opportunities with big names.
Thirdly, the stories that Mpofu wrote are
There were no economic deals, no major bilateral agreement, no true. Even those who are harassing him are
solid confirmation of new investment, no slot on international me- not complaining about their veracity, but
dia channels — nothing tangible. The delegation failed to deliver
measurable results. Unlike South Africa which clinched a climate
change deal worth billions of dollars, the Harare crew returned emp-
ty-handed. It never rains but pours. US President Joe Biden has ex-
cluded Mnangagwa from the Summit for Democracy. The meeting
is a first-of-its-kind engagement of over 100 countries to help stop
global democratic backsliding and erosion of freedoms. This snub
comes in the wake of ludicrous claims by government spin doctors
that Mnangagwa had a meeting with Biden in Glasgow. Mnangagwa
just does not get it, does he? There are limits to posturing and grand-
standing; what ultimately shapes your governance ethos in the eyes
of the world is the gamut of your practical actions, not hollow rhet-
oric. What Mnangagwa must do is straightforward: fully implement
the national constitution, stop murdering citizens, end political re-
pression, respect human and property rights, uphold the rule of law,
tackle corruption, and work in the interests of citizens, not cartels.

Reaffirming the fundamental impor- The NewsHawks is published on different EDITORIAL STAFF: Marketing Officer: Voluntary Media
tance of freedom of expression and me- content platforms by the NewsHawks Digital Managing Editor: Dumisani Muleya Charmaine Phiri Council of Zimbabwe
dia freedom as the cornerstone of de- Media which is owned by Centre for Public Cell: +263 735666122
mocracy and as a means of upholding Interest Journalism Assistant Editor: Brezh Malaba [email protected] The NewsHawks newspaper subscribes to the
human rights and liberties in the con- No. 100 Nelson Mandela Avenue [email protected] Code of Conduct that promotes truthful, accurate,
stitution; our mission is to hold power Beverly Court, 6th floor News Editor: Owen Gagare
in its various forms and manifestations Harare, Zimbabwe Subscriptions & Distribution: fair and balanced news reporting. If we do not
to account by exposing abuse of power Digital Editor: Bernard Mpofu +263 735666122 meet these standards, register your complaint
and office, betrayals of public trust and Trustees/Directors: with the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe
corruption to ensure good governance Beatrice Mtetwa, Raphael Khumalo, Reporters: at No.: 34, Colenbrander Rd, Milton Park, Harare.
and accountability in the public inter- Professor Wallace Chuma, Teldah Mawarire, Bridget Mananavire, Nyasha Chingono, Enoch Muchinjo
est. Doug Coltart Telephone: 024-2778096 or 024-2778006,
Email: [email protected] 24Hr Complaints Line: 0772 125 659

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WhatsApp: 0772 125 658, Twitter: @vmcz

Website: www.vmcz.co.zw, Facebook: vmcz Zimbabwe

Page 20 New Perspectives NewsHawks

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

Zim to benefit the most from AfCFTA

“REAL income gains from full Zimbabwe will enjoy gains ation of BioTrade businesses and the terms of the Agreement on der biotrade principles and crite-
implementation of the African from trade in goods. The Af- further enable the emergence Trade-related Aspects of Intellec- ria, as well as targeting activities
Continental Free Trade Area (Af- CFTA protocol on trade in goods of service providers and related tual Property Rights (Trips agree- such as nature-based tourism (for
CFTA) could increase by 7% by aims to boost intra-African mer- projects. This will largely benefit ment) of the World Trade Organ- example, ecotourism) and forest-
2035, or nearly US$450 billion chandise trade through several Zimbabwe which has an attrac- isation (WTO), a viable AfCFTA ry-based carbon credit activities. 
(in 2014 prices and market ex- means. The first is the progres- tive tourism sector. Given the protocol provides clarity on a se-
change rates). But the aggregate sive elimination of tariffs and emphasis placed in the Agenda ries of issues relevant to biotrade. The AfCFTA is pivotal to Af-
numbers mask the heterogeneity non-tariff barriers (NTBs) which 2063 on growing tourism and First, it could provide guiding rica’s development strategy and
of impacts across countries and will improve trade facilitation. ecotourism, and the focus on re- principles for national intellectu- ambitions. Concerted efforts
sectors. To realise the benefits of this first versing the loss of forests, biodi- al property laws and policies, and must be made to ensure that the
aim, the protocol seeks enhanced versity and natural habitats loss, engagement in relevant interna- instruments still under negotia-
At the very high end are Côte efficiency of customs procedures, Zimbabwe however should en- tional treaties. Second, a proto- tion under the AfCFTA frame-
d’Ivoire and Zimbabwe with trade facilitation and transit. It sure that specific attention is de- col could provide minimum re- work deliver a comprehensive
income gains of 14% each", re- also aims to enhance cooperation voted to facilitating the provision, quirements on the protection of set of agreements that boosts in-
search by the World Bank shows.  on technical barriers to trade and regulation and delivery of services traditional knowledge, genetic re- tra-African trade, using the op-
sanitary and phytosanitary mea- that enable the portunity to include features and
On 5 December 2020, the Af- sures. development of policies that serve the needs of
rican Union heads of state and services, such as Econometrics all African countries. Supplying
government decided to launch The intended result is the de- ecotourism. The growing global consumer de-
trade in goods under the Af- velopment and promotion of AfCFTA pro- HawksView mand for natural, healthy, en-
CFTA agreement on 1January regional and continental value tocol on trade vironmentally friendly, just and
2021, a significant step towards chains, and enhanced socio-eco- in services pro- ethical products and services
implementing the world’s largest nomic development, diversifica- vides a sound offers a new avenue to strength-
free trade area by connecting al- tion and industrialisation across basis for capaci- Tinashe Kaduwo ening the legal and sustainable
most 1.3 billion people across 54 Africa. However, special efforts ty development production, trade and consump-
African countries. The AfCFTA are needed to liberalise trade in activities for the tion of biodiversity-based goods
agreement aims to create a single environmental goods to spear- cross-border provision of services, sources, and cultural expressions, and services. A targeted approach
market for goods and services in head efforts on improving envi- which should be pursued to max- while allowing for flexibility to under the AfCFTA could thus
order to deepen the economic ronmental conservation and sus- imise the benefits resulting from adapt domestic laws and policies foster intra-African trade in bio-
integration of Africa. The trade tainable use practices. the specific commitments negoti- in relation to developments and logical resources and derived val-
area could have a combined gross ated on trade in services.  outcomes of negotiations within ue added products and services,
domestic product of around Further gains will emanate Furthermore, the AfCFTA has the World Intellectual Property while conserving globally sig-
US$3.4 trillion, but achieving its from trade in services. Continen- an intellectual property protocol Organisation (Wipo).  nificant biodiversity, furthering
full potential depends on signifi- tal integration of markets for ser- which will provide an oppor- Another important aspect of mitigation of, and adaptation to
cant policy reforms and trade fa- vices can contribute significantly tunity to advance a continental the AfCFTA is that it offers an im- climate change, and improving
cilitation measures across African to economic activity, as services approach to intellectual proper- portant opportunity to increase livelihoods. 
signatory nations. make a sizable contribution to ty that responds to the United investment in areas relevant to
gross domestic product (GDP) Nations 2030 Agenda for Sus- legal and sustainable trade in bio- *About the writer: Tinashe
Notably, Africa is one of the growth in Africa and Zimbabwe tainable Development and the diversity/biotrade, such as those Kaduwo is a researcher and
world’s most biodiverse regions, in particular. Liberalising trade in African Union’s Agenda 2063. supporting the development of economist. He writes in his
and many African countries have services, including environmental Noting that regional preferential new and value-added biodiversi- personal capacity. Contact
a comparative advantage in the services of relevance to BioTrade, agreements are not exempt from ty-based goods and services un- [email protected] whatsapp
abundance and variety of bio- such as business and finance ser- +263773376128
logical resources. Furthermore, vices, would facilitate the cre-
the majority of the population
in Africa depends directly upon
biodiversity and ecosystem ser-
vices for their food and liveli-
hoods, whereas natural capital
accounts for between 30% and
50% of the total wealth of most
African countries. The creation of
the AfCFTA through the entry
into force of the agreement es-
tablishing the AfCFTA (AfCFTA
agreement), on 30 May 2019,
presents important opportunities
for boosting intra-African trade
and promoting development that
is environmentally, socially and
economically sustainable. The
AfCFTA is central to achieving
the continental integration en-
visioned in the Organisation for
African Unity’s Treaty Establish-
ing the African Economic Com-
munity (Abuja Treaty) and the
African Union’s Agenda 2063:
The Africa We Want (Agenda
2063). It is also expected to drive
the economic transformation
needed to foster the sustained and
inclusive growth required to help
African countries to implement
the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development (Agenda 2030)
and achieve the Sustainable De-
velopment Goals (SDGs).

The AfCFTA aims to reduce
tariffs among members and cov-
ers policy areas such as trade facil-
itation and services, as well as reg-
ulatory measures such as sanitary
standards and technical barriers
to trade. Full implementation of
the AfCFTA would see Zimba-
bwe enjoying a 12% real income
gain from the policy reforms. 

Business

MATTERSNewsHawks

MARKETS CURRENCIES LAST CHANGE %CHANGE COMMODITIES LAST CHANGE %CHANGE
EUR/USD 1.168 +0.001 +0.05 -1.402
USD/JPY 109.75 +0.03 +0.03 *OIL 62.61 -0.89 +0.123
GBP/USD 1.362 -0.002 -0.154 -0.39
USD/CAD 1.29 +0.007 +0.55 *GOLD 1,785.3 +2.2 +0.44
AUD/USD 0.713 -0.001 -0.098 +1.14
*SILVER 23.14 -0.09

*PLATINUM 975.5 +4.3

*COPPER 4.087 +0.046

DUMISANI NYONI Chiadzwa delays irk Vast
Resources shareholders
SHAREHOLDERS of diversified minerals min-
er Vast Resources are unsettled by delays in the Vast Resources says it remains hopeful of a positive outcome.
finalisation of the company’s Chiadzwa diamond
project, saying the the lethargic pace in rolling out US$8.3 million recorded in the previous compa- tion in the market that has been eroded, asking mental potential value of the asset which should
the venture is detrimental to the business. rable period. how the company can look to attract institutional become more evident to the market as the asset
investors when retail investors are panicked, and progresses towards production capacity.”
The London Stock Exchange Alternative In- Cash balances at the end of the period stood at volume and the price are at an all-time low.
vestment Market-listed mining company, which US$1.385 million. “The additional pipeline interests within Vast’s
has operations in Zimbabwe and Romania, an- “We intend to demonstrate a continued con- portfolio, particularly Manaila, which the compa-
nounced in September 2019 that it had signed Shareholders also wanted to know whether sistent improvement in our production profile at ny believes could be brought back into production
a joint venture (JV) agreement with Chiadzwa Vast was being set up to be taken over privately Baita Plai and rationalise the financing structures with modest capital outlay, are not recognised in
Mineral Resources, a company designated to rep- by another company or any Vast employees. They in place to support long-term share price perfor- today’s share price today.”
resent the Chiadzwa community interests in the said the actions of the board and the share price mance. Baita Plai is an exceptional asset and whilst
concession. decline has prompted some shareholders to ques- it has taken longer to move into profitability than To address these allegations, Vast said it has in-
tion whether this is the ultimate aim. originally conceived, the company has overcome stituted an enquiry into a breach of confidential
This resulted in the formation of Katanga Min- challenges, as outlined in the recent RNS, and has information by an external counterparty that was
ing (Pvt) Ltd. In response, Vast said that was not the case, translated limited capital expenditure (by usual under strict confidentiality agreements with the
adding the board, management team and advi- mining industry standards), into enormous po- company.
A further JV agreement between Katanga and sory teams were all unified in their objective to tential value,” Vast said.
the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company continue to advance the company’s operations “The internal enquiry remains ongoing, and
(ZCDC), a government entity, is set to be official- and communicate this to the market to achieve “The fact that the value is not reflected in the the counterparty has been notified of his breach
ly signed. the appropriate value uplift on the equity market. share price today, does not take away the funda- by the company’s lawyers. The result of the en-
quiry will be announced when available,” it said.
However, since a JV was signed in Septem- They also raised concern about Vast’s reputa-
ber 2019, nothing concrete has been achieved,
prompting shareholders to question the deal.

“What is causing the delay in Zimbabwe?
Shareholders were advised that the company
was simply awaiting a signature, but this does
not seem to be the case. At what point does Vast
concede defeat on this? At what point does Vast’s
business in Zimbabwe have too much of a detri-
mental impact on the business as a whole — such
as the inability to get finance?” some of the ques-
tions submitted by shareholders to the company
in recent weeks read.

“Further, regarding Zimbabwe, and settlement
of historical claims, can you confirm that this
would be in Vast’s favour and, if so, are the sums
involved something that would change the com-
pany’s ability to refinance? Does the board expect
a conclusion within a year?”

In responses published on the company’s web-
site, Vast said: “Due to the various political and
legal sensitivities, the board cannot publicly com-
ment on this; however every action taken by the
company has been documented and verified to
the full satisfaction of the various regulatory bod-
ies involved.”

“Although the continued delays are unques-
tionably frustrating, the company, as per various
announcements, remains hopeful of a positive
outcome and believes the continued tenacity of
the Vast team will ultimately reward sharehold-
ers.”

“The settlement is mutually beneficial to all
parties involved and the board are in constant di-
alogue with the relevant authorities, but cannot
disclose at this point the status.”

“The company is hopeful of a conclusion, but
is not in control of timing or the outcome and it
is premature to speculate as to what that might
be,” it said.

In its financial results for the 12-month period
ended 30 April 2021, Vast also lamented delays in
the finalisation of the JV agreement but remained
confident that it would be concluded.

In the period under review, the group report-
ed a 3.7% increase in other administrative and
overhead expenses to US$4.2 million compared
to US$4.1 million recorded in the prior period.

Foreign exchange gains of US$2.6 million were
recorded for the review period compared to losses
of US$2 million reported in the previous financial
year. Included within the US$2 million of foreign
exchange losses last year is US$0.640 million in
respect of the company’s operations in Zimbabwe.

The company recorded a 7.1% decrease in loss-
es after taxation to US$7.7 million compared to

Page 22 Companies & Markets NewsHawks

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

DUMISANI NYONI ‘US$12bn mining economy
unattainable without policy’
ZIMBABWE, which seeks to achieve the US$12
billion mining economy by 2023, is still operating gold including measures to curb criminality and among other issues. While NDS 1 alludes to the government’s renewed interests to join EITI as
without a mining development policy, a situation illicit gold trade,” it said. importance of transparency and accountability as expressed in the 2019 and 2020 national budget
that has created a lot of policy and legal reversals a prerequisite for achieving both the US$12 bil- statements.
as well as inconsistencies in the sector, The News- The need for a gemstone policy framework is lion mining economy and the target to turn the
Hawks has learnt. evident, Zela said. country into a middle-income country by 2030, Zela said the amendment to the Mines Act
Zela noted that the 2022 national budget strategy which provides opportunities for the country to
In its 2022 budget submission, the Zimbabwe In its recent IFFs study in the gemstone sector, does not mention the need to adopt a comprehen- strengthen transparency and accountability in the
Environmental Law Association, (Zela) said while Zela pointed that citizens, local authorities and sive policy framework to address the opacity in the mining sector is yet to be finalised. During the
the National Development Strategy (NDS) 1 and the central government were not optimising ben- mining sector. Mid-Term Budget Review presented in July, Fi-
the US$12 billion mining economy seek to turn efiting from the gemstone value chain due to lack nance minister Mthuli Ncube indicated that the
around the fortunes of the country on the back of of clarity on policy and legislation on the produc- Zimbabwe has not adopted EITI despite the Bill was being discussed at cabinet level.
mining, Zimbabwe is operating without a mining tion, trade beneficiation, model of partnerships,
development policy.

“Due to the absence of a mining development
policy in Zimbabwe, there is no clear overarching
mining policy direction on exploration, produc-
tion, beneficiation, marketing and transparency
and accountability of mineral revenue,” the organ-
isation said.

“This has often created lots of policy and legal
reversals and inconsistencies.”

Zela said a case in point is the Indigenisation
and Economic Empowerment policy which has
been subjected to several amendments since 2008
when it was launched.

It said the government, over the years, has been
making efforts to develop a mining policy, but
these efforts have not yet led to a final policy being
adopted and implemented.

“Finalisation and ensuring that transparency
and accountability aspects are incorporated into
the policy in line with the constitution of Zimba-
bwe and international best practices like the Ex-
tractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)
will assist in defining government’s overall inten-
tion, direction and measures that need to address
cross-cutting issues including illicit financial flows
(IFFs), shareholding arrangements and commu-
nity benefit sharing,” the environmental lawyers
said.

“By finalising the mining policy and imple-
menting it, the government will also be providing
the basis of amending laws regulating mining in
Zimbabwe.”

Apart from the mining policy, Zela said there is
a need for the government to develop policies for
unique mineral value chains like gold and gem-
stones.

“In the gold sector, there is no clarity with re-
gards to the government’s policy direction on who
should invest in the gold value chain, models of
partnerships within the sector, accountability of

Act on salaries to avert rising poverty, employers urged

LABOUR experts have bemoaned the appallingly Most employees in Zimbabwe are earning below the current ZW$42 708 Total Consumption Poverty key economic players,” he said.
low salaries which have continued to lag behind Line for a family of six. Economist Tawanda Prazeni bemoaned the
the cost of living amid concerns that working
poverty forcing individuals to maintain regular Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe on money supply and improve the efficiency of fact that most employees are earning below the
employment but remaining in relative poverty (Ledriz) senior researcher Prosper Chitambara the foreign exchange auction system in the short current Total Consumption Poverty Line for a
due to low levels of pay continues to rise . blamed faulty economic fundamentals for the to medium term,” he said. family of six pegged at ZW$42 708.
current demise.
Civil servants like teachers and nurses are earn- Chitambara observed that while the economy “With the Zimbabwe dollar tumbling down,
ing around ZW$30 000 net salaries, a peg which “The major challenge prompting the wide gap has been recording positives, the good figures of- the gap continues to widen. Most middle and
is being relied upon by most employers in paying between salaries and the cost of living is chronic ten shared by the government do not always re- lower level civil servants have their salaries pegged
other professionals in the private sector. hyperinflation and, as a result, salaries have con- flect the lived realities. far below this level hence most of them are lan-
tinuously lagged behind, pushing the country guishing in abject poverty. Pensioners and other
Zimbabwe Banks and Allied Workers’ Union into high levels of poverty. “The current challenge of the dual economy we fixed-income earners bear the brunt. Everything
assistant secretary-general Shepherd Ngandu said have, bordered between the formal and informal in the economy is indexed on the US dollar and if
the situation for employers in their sector re- “So going forward, the only way to address economy, also presents a huge problem of imple- it appreciates in value as compared to the Zimba-
mained “tough”. these problems sustainably is to maintain the grip menting policies which sideline the majority of bwr dollar, then the nation sneezes,” he said.

“The minimum wage is still at ZW$26 000, He stressed that for the plight of workers to
although some employers are paying a cushion improve, the economy needs to be functional by
allowance of up to 150% of the wage. However, revamping the productive sector and resultantly
the challenge is that when one retires from service, foreign currency receipts, which will lead to an
pensions will not be paid based on allowances,” improvement in the remuneration of the workers.
he said.
“The unbacked increases in salaries we witness
Food Federation and Allied Workers’ Union trigger inflationary pressures, hence the purchas-
of Zimbabwe (FFAWUZ) official Gift Maoneka ing power of their salaries dissipates over a short
confirmed that the sector’s minimum wage is cur- period of time,” Prazeni added.
rently at a paltry ZW$28 000. The situation is
much worse for low-level employees like security Yona Menon, an analyst at Ethos Capital Part-
guards, who, according to the Zimbabwe Securi- ners, blamed hyperinflation, but warned that US
ty Guards Union, received a salary increment of dollar salaries may not be a lasting solution.
around ZW$13 500.
“It is said that inflation is a tax on the poor.
The informal sector, which employs the ma- There’s always a delayed response from salaries to
jority of workers, is not spared either, following rises in the cost of living and, until the inflation
a recent publication by the International labour outlook stabilises, consumers are stuck in a cycle
Organisation’s (ILO) of findings contained in the that will keep their purchasing power depressed.
Labour Market Diagnostic Analysis, which estab-
lished that most businesses in the sector are gener- “However, going towards the payment of US
ating a profit of US$10.41 per week. dollar salaries has limits in terms of how much
benefit can be derived from it if the majority of
In an analysis, the Labour and Economic the salary is in Zimbabwe dollars,” he added.

— STAFF WRITER.

NewsHawks Companies & Markets Page 23

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

CZI bemoans industry’s choking debt

THE Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries Debt accrual has had considerable impact on industrial productivity in Zimbabwe.
(CZI) has condemned the continued accrual of
debt which is choking industry, amid calls for need to create capacity to resolve historical debt Commenting on the research findings, econo- growth is not possible in the foreseeable future
the authorities to opt for inclusive and sustain- and seek national cohesion on new debt. mist Prosper Chitambara said high government and this can be achieved through taking advan-
able debt. debts have the effect of crowding out private sec- tage of abundant mineral resource revenues to
“Government must borrow to expand eco- tor industry players, as their capacity to borrow address the crisis.
A research paper prepared by CZI chief econ- nomic capacity, to produce enabling infrastruc- offshore is limited.
omist Cornelius Dube titled Public Debt and ture and technological depth while enhancing “The strategy can also include mineral bene-
Industrialisation shows that debt levels have had standards of living, health and education,” the “The government needs to urgently address ficiation to maximise the benefits,” Chitambara
a considerable impact on industrial productivity paper recommended. the country’s debt situation because meaningful added. — STAFF WRITER.
at different intervals since 1980.

“From around 1980, Zimbabwe’s external
debt stocks up to 1984 ranged between 20%
and 40%. During the similar period, manu-
facturing value-added goods as a percentage of
GDP ranged between 120% to 98%,” the re-
search found.

The industry lobby group observed that be-
tween 1985 and 1990, when external debt de-
clined from 40% to 35%, the manufacture of
value-added products as a percentage of GDP
went up from 98% to 120%.

However, since the 1990s to date, when exter-
nal debt stocks continued to rise, manufacturing
levels went down significantly from a high of
143% to the current margins of 38%.

“Debts have affected gross capital formations
from a high of 160% against GDP between the
periods 1980 to 1999 and from 2000 up to
2009 when debt rose sharply to capital forma-
tion levels ranging between 7% and 43%,” the
study found.

Interestingly, from 2009 when debt declined
from a high of 142%, gross capital formation
rose from 5% to 80% and, as debt continued
to decrease up to 2014, gross capital formation
hit 120%.

“Sustainable debt should create its own re-
payment capacity. This can be achieved by bor-
rowing only for expansion creation objectives
and emergency response capacity. There is also a

Page 24 Companies & Markets NewsHawks

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

Public relations strategic planning:
What should communicators be doing?

IF you are not reviewing your commu- the company. long after you have left the organisation. best thing to do. We are there to guide
nication strategy or planning one before But that was not ideal. Any communi- The kind that makes your former employ- the process professionally and help you
2022, then you are lining up to be fired. cator can admit that smoke and mirrors ers regret why they let you go. A strategy draw up an executable document.
have an incredibly short shelf life. A crisis leaves your aura. It is the template that
Sorry to be so blunt, but you should that could strip the organisation of any your successor should adopt easily. While you are pondering over what
know that you are setting yourself up for semblance of However, form your communication strategy will
failure next year. With an approach best dignity can ex- we might not be, share your thoughts and ideas with
described as hit and miss, or at worst, a pose one. all be great your colleagues. That is the beginning of
host of fire-fighting tactics, it is a miracle It is the real Corporate strategists, and a great collaborative journey. In the end,
you are to remain hired. value that you as one sage as they say, the proof of the pudding is
bring to the Communications once said, nev- always in eating it.
It is that or you are being allowed to table (and the er say you do
tread water before ultimately drowning jargon) that not know. Tell *About the writer: Lenox Lizwi Mh-
for lack of impact on the bottom line. will make you them to wait, langa is the managing consultant at
The C-suite (the executives) will not take sound you be- LENOX L. MHLANGA and run like Sunshine Corporate Communications,
you seriously, which happens to be the a boutique agency that specialises in
greatest weakness of those in the public long. With no hell to find an reputation and brand management. He
relations (PR) profession. pretence, you expert. Hiring also lecturers part time in the post-grad-
possess the knowledge that your col- consultants or an agency, depending on uate diploma in public relations and
As people prepare for the end-of-year leagues need to make informed decisions. your budget, to facilitate your strategic corporate reputation with MAZ/Bindu-
break, the last thing that you should do, Impact that leaves a legacy that lingers communication sessions could be the ra University of Science Education.
and your corporate life depends on it, is
to review your strategy. The New Year is
not as far as you may think.

A strategy saves you the blushes at plan-
ning meetings, as well as going a long way
in justifying why your post remains rele-
vant and you on the company pay sheet.

And it is not as if it is rocket science.
You must have heard the adage, failing to
plan is planning to fail. It does not get
simpler than that. If you can list stuff,
then you can plan!

All those great ideas that are floating
around in your head are of no use to any-
one until you put them on paper or on
the screen. One then gives them shape
and form through a scientific process that
will ensure they are executable to produce
results.

Yes, results, the perennial curse of a
PR practitioner who is under pressure to
prove his worth within the organisation. I
should admit that I am among those who
used to moan that it was difficult to mea-
sure intangibles. How could one measure
perception or emotions?

Well, the world has progressed since
then. Data is no longer the mathematical
conundrum that they trumped it up to
be. It has become the form and substance
of measurement and evaluation or M&E,
and there are many online applications
that can do the job for you.

When you wave a fist full of figures
and presenting those colourful graphs at
an executive meeting, it earns you kudos.
Even when they seem to make no sense
at all. The trick, if one may call it that,
is to sound strategic and resourceful for
the team.

Now, back to why you exist as a com-
munication practitioner. It is because you
are being more than useful to the organi-
sation. You are the glue that holds an en-
tity together because, by nature, organi-
sations communicate in a kind of Morse
code that requires deciphering and shar-
ing with all stakeholders.

Having a strategy is telling your col-
leagues that they do not employ you to
be the fire brigade. Placing a strategy on
the table is telling them that not only are
you proactive, you can be productive and
are indispensable. And they can hold you
accountable for your actions as well!

In my early years in the profession, I
rendered myself rudderless by the lack
of a strategy. To avoid being sued by my
former employers for theft by false pre-
tences, I pulled off some spectacular PR
stunts by duplicating successful strate-
gies. Good enough to prove my worth in

NewsHawks Stock Taking Page 25

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

Price Sheet A MEMBER OF FINSEC & THE ZIMBABWE STOCK EXCHANGE

Thursday, 11 November 2021

Company Sector Bloomberg Previous Last VWAP (cents) Total Total Price Price YTD Market
Traded Traded Change Change (%) Cap
AFDIS Consumer Goods Ticker Price (cents) Traded Volume Value ($) (cents) ($m)
African Sun Consumer Services (%)
ART Price -
Ariston Industrials 9,500
Axia Consumer Services AFDIS: ZH 11050.00 - 11050.00 - - - 360.42 13,204.14
BNC ASUN: ZH 1050.07 1050.00 1051.26 500 99,870 1.19 0.11 518.39 14,969.22
BAT Consumer Goods ARTD: ZH 1013.75 1155.00 1154.00 78,700 5,770 140.25 13.83 141.77
CAFCA Basic Materials 368.61 360.00 350.74 205,200 276,029 -17.87 -4.85 161.75 5,042.72
Cassava ARISTON: ZH 4000.00 4000.00 4004.87 10,900 8,218,000 4.87 0.12 337.21 5,707.93
CBZ Consumer Goods AXIA: ZH 500.42 500.00 499.27 54,420 -1.15 -0.23 31.39 22,112.90
CFI Industrials BIND: ZH 274000.00 274000.00 - 398.18 6,354.37
Dairibord 17000.00 - 17000.00 - - - - 89.10 56,535.84
Delta Technology BAT: ZH 5009.59 - 5031.09 312,200 - - - 674.01 1,484.97
Econet Banking CAFCA: ZH 9513.98 5025.00 10000.00 15,800 15,707,070 21.50 0.43 17.01 130,334.27
Edgars 7105.00 10000.00 7105.00 - 1,580,000 486.02 5.11 9942.40 52,266.15
FBC Industrials CSZL: ZH 4995.00 - 4995.00 - - - - 281.30 7,534.20
Fidelity Consumer Goods CBZ: ZH 17797.76 - 19204.22 751,200 - - - 744.11 17,882.14
First Capital Consumer Goods CFI:ZH 8503.66 19210.00 8545.47 565,100 144,262,100 1406.46 7.90 804.28 250,456.75
FML Telecommunications 8550.00 1,000 48,290,440 41.81 0.49 348.33 221,376.97
FMP Consumer Services DZL: ZH - 5,380 38.00 7.60 113.14 3,250.85
GBH DLTA: ZH - - - - 319.51 21,502.40
Getbucks Banking ECO: ZH 10,836,800 - - - 186.25
Hippo Financial Services - 34,121,730 -2.40 -0.76 119.10 871.39
Innscor EDGR: ZH 500.00 550.00 538.00 6,000 - - - 193.44 6,800.61
Lafarge Banking FBC: ZH 3200.00 - 3200.00 16,800 57,044 0.72 0.08 733.33 15,877.43
Mash Financial Services FIDL: ZH 800.00 - 800.00 - 33,600 - - 5900.00 11,771.53
Masimba FCA: ZH 317.27 314.87 2,300 - - - 288.80 1,073.18
Medtech Real Estate 2300.60 315.00 2300.60 219,200 804,825 -7.55 -0.02 428.80 8,723.39
Meikles Industrials FMHL: ZH 950.01 - 950.73 - 42,921,870 302.06 1.57 900.00 67,542.51
Nampak FMP: ZH 200.00 200.00 600 - - - 350.72 111,588.36
NatFoods Financial Services GBH: ZH 750.00 950.00 750.00 - 2,515 8.20 2.00 346.43 7,680.00
NTS Consumer Goods 34999.94 200.00 34992.39 252,200 - - - 138.86 7,792.68
NMBZ GBFS: ZH 19279.09 19581.15 7,000 47,590 2.91 18.23 1028.98 12,082.69
OK Zim Industrials HIPO: ZH 9600.00 - 9600.00 105,000 1,739,000 894.51 3.74 389.35
Proplastics Industrials 410.97 35000.00 419.17 17,500 1,172,790 1.94 0.17 3019.80 573.60
RTG Real Estate INN: ZH 5000.00 19600.00 5000.00 - 32,812,500 - - 2085.79 62,764.51
RioZim Industrials LACZ: ZH 2,300 - - - 206.48
SeedCo Healthcare MASH: ZH 15.96 - 18.87 99,500 28,200 -173.91 -12.42 214.59 8,440.14
Simbisa Industrials MSHL: ZH 23948.35 415.00 24842.86 400 2,817,155 24.39 0.87 248.44 128,250.20
Star Africa Industrials MMDZ: ZH 1115.00 1116.94 142,100 12,000 - - 150.40
Truworths Consumer Goods MEIK: ZH 187500.00 - 187500.00 600 682,283 -7.00 -1.44 151.92 1,523.23
TSL Industrials NPKZ: ZH 19.00 56,700 22,600 -313.33 -7.68 434.94 4,955.51
Turnall 600.00 24500.00 600.00 389,500 6,976,100 207.70 1.72 714.21 36,407.37
Unifreight Banking NTFD: ZH 1400.00 1200.00 1226.09 35,400 38,112,730 54.61 0.56 391.59 7,558.07
Willdale Consumer Services NTS: ZH 187500.00 - 46,987 0.92 0.70 713.56 11,981.87
ZB NMB: ZH 1,000 - - - 284.93 4,596.45
Zeco Industrials - 800 66,400 -1660.00 -20.00 437.63 30,414.65
Zimpapers Consumer Services 1200.00 - 4,000 -91.21 -15.43 18717.20 55,010.01
Zimplow 1,600 - - - 942.38 6,258.33
ZHL Basic Materials OKZ: ZH 2806.92 2840.00 2831.31 - 5,337 12.83 4.00 225.00
TOTAL Consumer Goods PROL: ZH 3000.00 3000.00 3000.00 - - - - 1100.00 921.76
Consumer Goods 487.14 559.00 480.14 2,000 - - - 225.00 23,711.60
Consumer Goods RTG: ZH 4080.00 4100.00 3766.67 1,000 6,370 -1.50 -0.47 402.00
Consumer Services RIOZ: ZH 12095.83 12400.00 12303.53 95,900 25,100 83.33 3.43 21.00 2,465.20
Consumer Goods SEED: ZH 9730.43 10000.00 9785.04 14,242,300 363,760 -18.49 -4.65 3,726.60
381,381,565 5,930.70
Industrials SIM: ZH 13,664.87
Industrials
Industrials SACL: ZH 131.81 130.00 132.73 1.11
TRUW: ZH 240.00 - 240.00 1,834.56
Banking 8300.00 6640.00 8,648.97
Industrials TSL: ZH 591.21 6640.00 500.00 6,896.69
Consumer Services TURN: ZH 3500.00 500.00 3500.00 1,508,355.60
Industrials UNIF: ZH 320.73 333.56
Financial Services WILD: ZH 7800.00 - 7800.00
ZBFH: ZH 330.00
ZECO: ZH 0.24 0.24
320.00 - 318.50
ZIMP: ZH 2426.67 - 2510.00
ZIMPLOW: ZH 397.80 310.00 379.31
2600.00
ZHL: ZH 375.00

ETFs OMTT.zw 472.57 475.00 475.24 210,554 1,000,643 2.67 0.56 374.20 380.19
Old Mutual ZSE Top 10 ETF

FINSEC Financial Services OMZIL 7100.00 - 7100.00 - -- - 167.92 5,893.83
Old Mutual Zimbabwe

VFEX (US cents) US$m

Padenga Consumer Goods PHL:VX 19.58 - 19.58 - -- - -45.61 106.04

SeedCo International Consumer Goods SCIL:VX 28.00 - 28.00 - -- - 55.56 106.81

Index Close Change (%) Open YTD % Top 5 Risers Price Change % YTD %
ZSE All Share 12,451.76 +1.45 12,273.97 +373.56 Medtech 18.87c +2.91c +18.23 +138.86
Top 10 8,125.83 +2.57 +391.14 ART +13.83 +141.77
Top 15 8,887.99 +2.39 7,921.91 +356.25 Delta 1154.00c +140.25c +7.90 +744.11
Small Cap +0.51 8,680.74 +3139.00 Edgars 19204.22c +1406.46c +7.60 +348.33
Medium Cap 384,669.56 -1.58 382,700.17 +289.31 CBZ +5.11 +17.01
21,662.66 22,010.95 538.00c +38.00c
10000.00c +486.02c

Top 5 Fallers Price Change % YTD %
TSL 6640.00c -1660.00c -20.00 +284.93
Turnall -15.43 +437.63
NMBZ 500.00c -91.21c -12.42 +206.48
RioZim 1226.09c -173.91c -7.68 +151.92
Ariston 3766.67c -313.33c -4.85 +161.75

350.74c -17.87c

SALES & TRADING: Davide Muchengi: [email protected] | Lungani Nyamazana: [email protected] | Tatenda Jasi: [email protected]

RESEARCH: Batanai Matsika: [email protected] | Precious Chagwedera: [email protected] | Tafara Mtutu: [email protected]

Tel: (+263) 08677008101-2 | Email: [email protected] | Address: 1st Floor, Block D, Smatsatsa Office Park, Borrowdale, Harare

MORGAN & COMPANY has issued this document for distribution to its clients. It may not be reproduced or further distributed in whole or in part for any purpose. This document is not and should not be construed as
an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to purchase or subscribe to any investment. MORGAN & COMPANY has based this document on information obtained from sources it believes to be reliable but which it

has not independently verified; MORGAN & COMPANY makes no guarantee, representation or warranty and accepts no responsibility or liability as to the accuracy or completeness of its content.

Page 26 Companies & Markets NewsHawks

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

NewsHawks Cancer Awareness Page 27

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

Stanbic Bank donates US$20 000 to fight cancer
STANBIC Bank has donated US$20 000 to the thought-out CSI initiatives in the areas of need the lives of many cancer patients.
Cancer Association of Zimbabwe (CAZ) for pur- such as health, education and the environment. “The organisation is forever indebted to Stanbic
chase of chemotherapy drugs as part of its annual
contribution to the fight against cancer in Zimba- CAZ board chairperson Eugene Mlambo ap- Bank for the support it renders to CAZ on behalf of
bwe. plauded Stanbic Bank, saying the financial services cancer patients in Zimbabwe. We doubly appreciate
institution’s support would go a long way in saving this donation,” he said.
The drugs are meant for the less privileged cancer
patients.

Speaking during the handover ceremony, Stan-
bic Bank non-executive board member Simbarashe
Mhuriro said the financial institution was aware
that cancer is now a public health concern hence its
commitment to fight against the disease.

“Today’s donation marks eight years since Stanbic
Bank started this relationship with CAZ in which
the leading financial services institution puts its
shoulder to the wheel in the fight against cancer. We
cherish our relationship with CAZ, which is being
cemented each year on the realisation that cancer is
fast emerging as a major public health concern in
Zimbabwe,” said Mhuriro.

He said the donation was part of Stanbic’s flag-
ship corporate social investment (CSI) health-relat-
ed initiative which seeks to help, support and fa-
cilitate the growth and sustainable development of
public health services in Zimbabwe called USIZO-
RUYAMURO.

The initiative kicked off in 2019 when Stanbic fa-
cilitated the reopening of Tariro Hostel, a halfway
house for cancer patients run by CAZ.

Tariro Hostel provides rent-free accommodation
for cancer patients who do not stay in Harare when
they come for their chemotherapy and radio thera-
py treatments at Parirenyatwa Hospital and Harare
Central Hospital.

The hostel had been lying idle since 2007 and
Stanbic Bank refurbished it in 2019 in addition to
purchasing bed linen and other utilities.

Mhuriro also said the donation by Stanbic Bank
is part of its commitment to plough back into the
community in which it operates through well-

Stanbic Bank non-executive board member Simbarashe Mhuriro
(right) hands over the US$20 000 cheque to CAZ chairperson
Eugene Mlambo (left) at the ceremony yesterday.

Page 28 News Analysis NewsHawks

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

President Mnangagwa's legitimacy
challenge cannot be downplayed

NYASHA CHINGONO

THE legal challenge on Presi- Zanu PF leader and Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
dent Emmerson Mnangagwa’s
legitimacy filed by Zanu PF judiciary is between a rock and constitutional court where the dred Masunungure said the case tion of forces in the party and
member Syberth Musengezi will a hard place.  top judge showed partisan be- is a sign of deep-seated political the regime generally, I think ED
be a litmus test of the country’s haviour thwarting the MDC Al- controversies within Zanu PF will cruise to the 2023 elections
judiciary which has often been The court challenge against liance's case.  that arise from the 2017 coup.  without a major overt challenge
accused of being captured by the Mnangagwa’s ascendancy by but the real test will be whether
executive arm of government, Musengezi has echoes of the Although the High Court has "The case has multiple di- he will overcome the almost in-
analysts have said.  messy MDC-T infighting that often exhibited a semblance of mensions but the political by far evitable (bhora musango) chal-
erupted following the death of judicial independence, the Con- trumps any constitutional/legal lenges that will be unleashed
Four years after taking power founding leader Morgan Tsvan- stitutional Court has been ac- aspects. In other words, though against him. So, getting to 2023
in a military coup that toppled girai in February 2018.  cused of colluding with author- the case may have constitutional is one thing but surviving the
veteran leader Robert Mugabe, ities.  ramifications, these are subordi- electoral test will be a related
Mnangagwa is facing a fresh Mnangagwa’s dramatic and nated to the political," Masun- but distinct challenge," posits
challenge on his leadership of controversial rise to power Analysts say while the spot- ungure said.  Masunungure. 
Zanu PF amid infighting and a is thus now entangled in the light is on the judiciary to do the
bid by party bigwigs to revisit MDC-T precedent. Courts usu- needful and judge on the mer- "The case is an extension of Mandaza maintains the
the November 2017 process that ally work through precedents. its of the case, Malaba, who ne- the internal contradictions in Musengezi case will further di-
elevated him to the helm of the cessitated the mutilation of the the ruling regime that are man- vide Zanu PF and is likely to
former revolutionary party.  Precedent refers to a court constitution, is unlikely to judge ifesting themselves as factional widen cracks on Mnangagwa's
judgment that is considered as against his appointing authority.  struggles by political gladiators legitimacy. 
Musengezi's challenge comes authority for deciding subse- in the party," Masunungure
at a time Zanu PF is rocked by quent cases involving identical The judiciary also has a chance added.  "It is taking place at a time
infighting in Mnangagwa's po- or similar facts, or similar legal to redeem itself and show impar- Zanu PF is sharply divided, al-
litical citadels, tge Midlands and issues. The similarities between tiality.  He also cast doubt over the most fatal. Many in Mnangag-
Masvingo. Party bigwigs have the Zanu PF and the MDC-T possibility of a rule against wa’s camp are already worried.
also questioned his ascendancy cases are close. Mandaza says the Musengezi Mnangagwa, considering the re- It is less about who will benefit
to power, calling it unprocedur- case is purely constitutional.  cord of the judiciary.  but constitutionalism will bene-
al.  Perceiving he may need ju- fit along with those who were in
dicial backing in the future, "It is essentially constitution- "It is farfetched to imagine the party at the 2014 conference
With a precedent set on the Mnangagwa controversially ex- al. One might ask: Why now? that ED will be deemed illegit- like Jonathan Moyo and Saviour
MDC case last year when the tended Chief Justice Luke Mala- This is not a case of where there imate by the bench; to me, that Kasukuwere, among others. Em-
court ruled that MDC Alliance ba's contract beyond the 70 year is a time limit. Constitutional is- prospect lies in the realm of the merson will lose," Mandaza said. 
president Nelson Chamisa had age limit.  sues are timeless," he said.  unthinkable," he said, adding
fraudulently ascended to party that Mnangagwa is likely to fend "By the end of the case, Mnan-
leadership without going to con- Malaba was instrumental "It is game on, the precedent off opposing forces considerably gagwa will be sufficiently bruised
gress, the spotlight is now on the in Mnangagwa's controversial of the MDC case has been set ahead of 2023.  on the eve of an election." 
judiciary whose reputation is in presidential victory in 2018 and it is something the judges
tatters following several partisan which had to be settled by the cannot ignore," he added.  "Given the current configura-
judgements. 
However, political analyst El-
"It is a test of the judiciary
which is already compromised.
How they will handle the case
will be important," political an-
alyst Ibbo Mandaza said. 

Mnangagwa's claims of im-
munity are also in question as
lawyers say the President is mak-
ing a strawman's argument. 

A strawman is a fallacious ar-
gument that distorts an oppos-
ing position in order to make it
easier to attack them.

Besides, Mnangagwa is being
dragged before the courts in his
personal capacity for being the
illegal leader of Zanu PF.

Musengezi is seeking a declara-
tur against Mnangagwa that the
special session of the Zanu PF
central committee meeting after
the coup at party headquarters
in Harare from 10am to 4pm
was ultra vires the party consti-
tution, unlawful and thus null
and void ab initio (having no le-
gal effect from inception).

This presents several challeng-
es for the judiciary that include
setting aside Mnangagwa's pres-
idency and sanctioning a fresh
congress for the party or reset
Zanu PF to its 2014 structures,
which would leave the 79-year-
old powerless. 

After a precedent was set by
the MDC case which was widely
viewed as induced by Zanu PF
to weaken the opposition, the

NewsHawks The Big Debate Page 29

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

DR MIKE CHIPERE Zimbabweans should draft a 
charter to guide their destiny
IN this paper I invite Zimbabwe’s
silent majority or people who are 7. Monthly bedroom tax must lic listed companies and other babwean, but the charter can only yet a chosen few live in 50-bedroom
not enjoying the fruits of political be charged on all rooms in a corporations with an annual become a people’s charter if all Zim- mansions with bulletproof windows,
independence to participate in draft- house exceeding 15 rooms, turnover that exceeds US$1 babweans participate in its construc- you are not free. If you cannot af-
ing the Zimbabwe People’s Charter unless the property is reg- million must be banned;  tion via WhatsApp or online (If the ford education while politicians send
which, as I shall explain in detail, is istered and operating as a 14. Traditional leadership, that is website is not working, it means it their children to overseas universi-
the answer to the Zimbabwe prob- business with auditable tax chiefs and headman, must be has been hacked as it always has been ties, you are not free. If your local
lem.  returns;  subject to elections every 10 but it will be fixed again and again). hospital has become a place where
But what is the Zimbabwe prob- years; In addition to participation, this ini- sick people go to die while political
lem?  8. All beneficiaries of the War 15. All university degrees awarded tiative will require substantial finan- leaders hire private jets to visit their
It is greed for money, wealth and Victims Compensation Fund by cial and material support from those doctors overseas at the expense of
power. This problem applies to the must be re-assessed by an 16. unregistered foreign and local who are able to. taxpayers, you are not free. If you are
period spanning the onset of colo- independent organisation. universities and honorary de- drinking water that smells of sewage,
nisation in the early 1890s to date. Funds inappropriately dis- grees awarded by Zimbabwe- After a few months, all contri- you are not free. If you go to bed
In saying this, I am not rejecting the bursed must be repaid in US an universities after year 2000 butions will be evaluated manually hungry or wondering where your
external dynamics of the Zimbabwe dollars or equivalent in both must be respectively invalidat- and through qualitative data analy- next meal is going to come from, you
problem but choose to pay attention movable and immovable ed and withdrawn;  sis software, and consolidated into a are not free. If you risk being jailed
on aspects that are within the control property. 17. The Chihambakwe commis- maximum of 20 concrete, actionable or being shot in the back for protest-
of rulers of this country and those sion Gukurahundi report and demands, which will then be taken to ing, you are not free. If you live in
who hope to lead it in future. 9. All property lost through the the Entumbane report written our political leaders represented by fear of being abducted and sexually
indigenisation policies or by Justice Dumbutshena must Zanu PF and MDC.  assaulted by people who are paid to
Some have argued that the Zim- other means other than a fair be publicised in order to allow protect you, you are not free.
babwe problem is colonialism, white market exchange must be re- victims to decide appropriate Some will rightly argue that this
settler neo-colonialism, nationalist turned to its original owners reparation;  would be pointless because the 63 It is now over 21 years since Gib-
authoritarianism, corruption, and so by those who either stole it or 18. A conditional grant must be years’ combined experience of Zanu son Sibanda uttered the immortal
on. But in my humble view, these are benefited by other means;  paid to the elderly (over 65 PF and MDC as political leaders is words: “For how long shall we wait
mere instruments and outcomes of years); orphans, unemployed what destroyed this nation. for the biblical Moses to deliver
greed for money, wealth and power.  10. 99% income tax must be disabled and all inhabitants us?” Zimbabweans are still waiting,
charged on a fraction of sal- of Region Five regardless of Firstly, I would agree that our even though it is as clear as daylight
It is not accidental that the Zim- aries or wages that exceed citizenship five years after the country, which was once a breadbas- that the country does not have a lat-
babwean political elites from Zanu US$60 000 per annum back- 2023 general election; ket of southern Africa, did not be- ter-day Moses. 
PF and opposition are just as wealthy dated to 2009. US$60 000 19.  Zimbabwe insurance compa- come a basket case by accident, but
as the white Rhodesians were.  is 10 times more than the nies must be compelled to pay under the 41-year rule of Zanu PF This charter offers the silent ma-
amount required to support a out the US$4 billion which and over 22 years of the MDC as an jority an opportunity to become
Similarly, the level of corruption family of five; Constitutional they owe but refused to pay alternative government. their own Moses by taking matters
and nepotism in the Zanu PF gov- amendment must follow con- pensioners;  into their own hands writing the fu-
ernment is no different to that of op- stitutional enactment proce- 20. No one should participate in Secondly, I would also argue that ture of Zimbabwe. As it stands, it is
position-run urban councils.  dures;  the 2023 election unless two if we demonstrate unity by success- very unlikely that anyone from both
conditions are met: (1) Com- fully delivering the proposed charter, Zanu PF and the opposition could
A poorly defined problem cannot 11. All (past and present) dona- pulsory voting by all Zimba- it means that in the event that Zanu revive this nation. The Zimbabwe
be resolved and that is possibly the tions or payments made to bweans over the age of 18 (2) PF and MDC fail to convince us that opposition have spiritualised the
reason why past and present political churches, faith groups and Displaced Zimbabweans in they are capable of implementing the Zimbabwe problem and, in the pro-
crises in Zimbabwe have never been traditional healers must be re- the diaspora must be allowed charter, we can quite easily become cess, reduced it to an issue that they
adequately resolved.  fundable when demanded by to vote where they are. the new politics that this nation re- can resolve through prayer on the
donor/payer at any time;  The Zimbabwe Charter draft quires.  mountains. Furthermore, they have
Before I proceed, it is important which I shared in this paper is based dismally failed to raise the national
that I introduce myself because the 12. Compulsory employment of on my own ideas as a concerned Zim- Before I conclude, I want us to be debate beyond liberalism and knee-
Zimbabwe political authorities have all skilled and qualified dis- clear that the silent majority are peo- jerk protest politics in which they
a long history of branding peo- abled people by all Zimbabwe ple who never gained freedom from loudly chastise Zanu PF, a party with
ple who hold ideas that differ from Stock Exchange-listed com- the Zimbabwe 1980 political inde- a long history of violence and corrup-
theirs to be enemies of the state who panies in proportion to their pendence.   tion, to expand the democratic space
are sponsored by the west. market capitalisation;  and simply stop it from being violent! 
If you are unemployed, you are not
My name is Dr Mike Chipere, I 13. Multiple directorship of pub- free. If you do not have a house, and Lastly and importantly, they invit-
am just an ordinary unemployed ed sanctions on Zimbabwe partly on
Zimbabwean who does not need to the basis that Zanu PF violated prop-
be reminded by the West, that we are erty rights of a few white Zimbabwe-
being subjected to inhuman living ans. In the process, they undermined
conditions by the very same people historical grievances in which the
who claim to have brought us liber- property rights of millions of fellow
ation.  black people were violated through
land expropriations, forced labour,
Here is the 20-item draft charter cheap labour etc. Furthermore, they
which is not only an answer to the even failed to use the global plat-
Zimbabwe problem, but hopefully a form to highlight the genocide in
tool for us to reclaim our nationhood. Matabeleland. Their inability to see
themselves in all the above struggles
1. All Zimbabwe national army should worry all those who believe
personnel above the age of 60 their actions were in the best interest
years must be retired with im- of the nation. For a country without
mediate effect and not to be an anchor or higher level of common
replaced until the size of the belonging, our Moses should be an
army is 50 % of what it was in idea or a cause that we can all con-
November 2017;  verge on as a nation, not a messiah
with neither message nor plan. 
2. All A2 farm owners must be
resident at their farms and By virtue of participation in the
must not to be in full-time construction of the Zimbabwe Char-
employment elsewhere;  ter, the silent majority shall bring
forth a second political independence
3. The country must debate and for our nation, for we are not free. 
set A2 farm sizes to ±150 hect-
ares in agro-ecological regions *About the writer: Chipere was
1-3, the first 150 hectares sur- a research fellow at the University
rounding a farmhouse must of Pretoria's Human Economy Re-
be offered to the owner before search Programme where he is part
the land redistribution; of the money and technology study
group. His main research interests
4. All A2 farms that have not are in economic democracy, the fu-
been utilised to full capacity ture of money, and its convergence
in the last 10 years must be with information communication
immediately reallocated but technology in developing countries.
with preference given to peo-
ple with traceable previous
commercial farming experi-
ence regardless of their race;

5. No-one should own residen-
tial municipal land exceeding
20 hectares;

6. 99% annual taxation must be
charged on the market value
of all valuable domestic mov-
able and immovable property
that exceeds four municipal
houses and cars;

Page 30 The Big Debate NewsHawks

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

TAFADZWA UFUMELI “We cannot co-exist”: Locals
decry new coal project in Zim
AT the sight of an approaching vehi-
cle, Janet Shoko and her family of five AS delegates discussed the future global impact of coal use at COP26, villagers in
anxiously gather at the centre of their Dinde, Zimbabwe, feared immediate displacement and environment degradation.
homestead. This has become a reflex
action for them since last year when Cows roam inside the Hwange Colliery Company. Credit: Tafadzwa Ufumeli.
they were told of a new coal project
near their village of Dinde. Their eyes not even connected to the grid, our the urgent need to transition away Policy, launched last year, found the green jobs for young people, who are
transfixed on the pathway ahead, they road network is a mess, and we end up from dirty fossil fuels, of which coal is country has vast amounts of clean en- 60% of our population.”
cross their fingers hoping this is not drinking contaminated water.” among the most polluting. Yet under ergy potential through solar, hydro,
the moment they are served an evic- its Vision 2030, Zimbabwe aims to biomass, geothermal and wind. For now, however, coal exploration
tion notice ordering them to leave “A lot of people will be moved along develop a $1 billion  coal mining in- around Dinde continues despite Zim-
their family home for generations. with their belongings without clear ex- dustry as part of an ambition to build According to climate activist Eliz- babwe’s climate pledges. Resistance
planation or compensation,” he adds. a $12 billion mining economy. abeth Gulugulu, Zimbabwe ought from villagers may continue, though
“We have lived in this area since the “How can this be a fair investment?” to focus on finding projects that can some are beginning to feel powerless,
1980s and for us it feels so unfair that Part of the government’s plan for increase energy generation through re- locally and globally.
we are being pushed out to make way Beifa Investments and officials from coal is to help increase national gen- newable sources while also benefiting
for this so-called development,” says the Zimbabwean government did not eration capacity from 2,300MW to local populations and keeping green- “We are useless in [leaders’ and in-
Shoko. respond to requests for comment. 6,000MW by 2025. This may be house gas emissions low. vestors’] presence so we will just watch
Coal vs. climate necessary to reduce Zimbabwe’s huge them and hope they make the right
The Dinde community, made up Outside of Dinde, many others are energy shortages, but activists and “The country needs investors that decisions,” says Shoko.
of around 700 households in Zimba- concerned about the new coal proj- scientists argue that turning to coal is put sustainability at the core of all
bwe’s Matabeleland North province, ect in relation to the climate crisis. not only environmentally damaging projects,” she says. “By doing so, we — African Arguments.
were told in late-2020 that the Chi- As world leaders gather in Glasgow in this pursuit but unnecessary. Zim- will be killing two birds with one
nese mining firm Beifa Investments for COP26, high on the agenda is babwe’s  National Renewable Energy stone, which is providing energy as *About the writer: Tafadzwa Ufu-
was beginning coal exploration in the a basic human right and unlocking meli is a visual journalist based in
area. Afraid at what it means for the Harare.
region, villagers have protested the
project but with little success. Earlier
this year, Never Tshuma, vice-chair of
Dinde Residents Association, was  ar-
rested  for allegedly inciting the com-
munity against Beifa Investments.
Shortly after, Richard Moyo, Minis-
ter of State for Matabeleland North
Affairs, warned that the government
will not tolerate any resistance to the
project.

One of the Dinde community’s
main concerns is that the extraction
of coal would lead to environmen-
tal devastation in the area. They have
reason to be alarmed. An hour or two
away, mining activities have reported-
ly polluted the Deka River, killing fish
and livestock. There have also been re-
ports of coal dust covering the town of
Hwange, allegedly ruining vegetation
and leading to widespread breathing
difficulties among residents.

“The nature of our settlement and
coal mining cannot co-exist because
our livestock will suffer from the ef-
fects,” says Shoko. “The moment they
start mining, our displacement is inev-
itable. We cannot wait until we start
to experience the damaging effects of
mining as is happening in Deka.”

The other source of the Dinde vil-
lagers’ opposition to the project is that
they believe they will be forced off the
land they have lived on for generations
and receive none of the benefits of the
development.

“We do not get anything from these
investments,” says Barnabas Dube, a
representative of the Dinde villagers’
association. “[Investors and politi-
cians] are the ones who get the coal
and benefit from the profits. We are

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NewsHawks The Big Debate Page 31

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

ELLEN FUNGISAI CHIPANGO Global energy targets don’t deal with
people’s real problems in Zimbabwe
THIRTY years ago, ending energy
poverty was not among the world’s Even if additional energy production capacity was added to the national grid through renewables, questions remain about whether access will be equitable and affordable.
development goals.
Lou Bopp/ GettyImages
Neither the 1992  Rio Declara-
tion on Environment and Develop- This is politically convenient because policies are of little relevance to the and perverted by capital. Global  fi- nature to forms that can be used by
ment  nor the  Millennium Develop- a technocentric approach hides and energy poor. Increased production of nance to developing countries in sup- humans.
ment Goals 2000-2015  placed it on contradicts the challenges that affect renewable energy, thanks to  techno- port of clean and renewable energy
the agenda. households. Consequently, the ener- logical  advancement, doesn’t change had risen to US$21.3 billion in 2017. This is a serious oversight because
gy poor would then pin their hope on anything about distribution. For ex- But these investments don’t always renewable energy has its downside.
That has since changed. Goal sev- technology to solve their problems. ample, even if additional energy pro- aim to ensure universal energy access;
en  of the sustainable development A flawed approach duction capacity was  added  to the they aim for high returns over short First, it may conflict with  oth-
goals (SDGs) is “universal access to Drawing on the experiences of par- national grid through renewables, time frames. er aspects of protecting environmen-
affordable, reliable, sustainable and ticipants in my study, it emerged that questions remain about whether ac- What is the real problem? tal health, a phenomenon known
modern energy services” by 2030. the application of SDG 7 on energy cess to it will be equitable and afford- The problem is a crisis of overproduc- as green-green dilemma. Second, it
But the strategy for tackling ener- to Zimbabwe is flawed in three main able. tion  in the developed world, where can create  problems  such as the en-
gy poverty favours growth of energy ways. some markets have become saturated. vironmental hazard that solar panels
generation. In addition, access and afford- This technologically advantaged class and solar lanterns pose as e-waste in
First, its emphasis on efficiency ability depend on the effectiveness is impelled to move to locations where dumpsites.
That is, increase in renewable share and growth of energy generation is an of the power utility, the Zimbabwe costs are lower and profits higher.
and improvement in energy efficiency over-simplification. Growth doesn’t Electricity Supply Authority. Regret- Going forward
– a line of reasoning which positions equalise development or access to en- tably, issues of corruption, rent-seek- There’s evidence that the develop- Chasing technological efficiency,
energy poverty as a problem of pro- ergy by the poor. Yet the quantity of ing and brain drain at the power util- ing world has  outspent  richer coun- without addressing ever-increasing
duction. energy used by economies continues ity haven’t helped matters. tries on renewable energy investment. energy consumption, is missing the
to increase. forest for the trees. Rather, energy ef-
In other words, the thinking is Pinning hope on “modern” energy The system of  global  capital- ficiency must be dealt with along with
that if more energy is produced, more Zimbabwe’s national renewable en- as the solution for Zimbabwe is overly ism  misrepresents political issues as problems of inequality and inequity.
people will have access to sustainable ergy  policy  is instructive. It address- simplistic. Other factors play a bigger technological ones. For instance, it
modern energy services and products. es climate change concerns and the role in shifting consumption patterns. equates sustainable energy with re- Currently, SDG 7 as a global agen-
country’s commitment to the world These include electricity connections newable energy, as implied by SDG da for energy development is tin-
Using Zimbabwe as a case study, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. and household priorities: profound- 7. Efficiency that’s highlighted by kering on the periphery. Should the
I sought to understand whether this But it also aims to help turn the ly  political and social factors. SDG7 targets and indicators appears to be world continue with business as usu-
was so. Would an increase in energy country into an upper middle income fails to fully recognise the sensitivity exclusively concerned with the effi- al, neither conventional nor renew-
generation address energy poverty in economy. It assumes that econom- of context. ciency of energy appliances. It ignores able energy will challenge capitalism.
the country? My study found that the ic  growth  will support technological the efficiency of means of energy con-
solution doesn’t lie in the number of innovations that solve energy poverty. Third, at a global level, it seems the version,  which is  the transformation *About the writer: Ellen Fungisai
accessible commodities (kilowatts of problem isn’t about production and of energy from forms provided by Chipango is a post-doctoral research
electricity) and what people can do Second, growth oriented national generation of energy, but of inequal- fellow at the University of Johannes-
with them. ity. Any technology can be co-opted burg in South Africa.

In fact, I found that continuous
growth of energy production and
consumption, even from low carbon
energy sources, could create more
problems than solutions. At the heart
of the problem is that SDG 7 operates
in an environment where the idea of
development is pinned on econom-
ic growth, capital accumulation and
increased consumption of goods and
services.
Flaws in the energy goal
My analysis was informed by a series
of interviews with participants in
the Zingondi Resettlement Area in
Manicaland province of Zimbabwe.
I also interviewed key informants
such as power utility employees, en-
ergy ministry officials and reviewed
related policies. Interviewing these
participants was important because
policy-making often fails to integrate
social development, user perspectives
and existing institutional structures.
The focus tends to be on technical
and financial factors alone.

Asked what the government’s plans
were in dealing with energy pover-
ty, interviews with the policy elite
(government officials) revealed that
technology and efficiency would turn
the tide. Hence, the country’s focus
on increasing  energy projects.

While compelling, for two reasons,
this is akin to the ostrich approach
– a refusal to face reality or recog-
nise the truth. First, more often than
not, renewable plants are installed for
reasons other than demand growth,
such as international and national
clean power targets. Second, when
politicians fail to  deliver, they turn
to technology as a solution or excuse.

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Page 32 The Big Debate NewsHawks

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

Don’t fall for COP26’s empty rhetoric

MOHAMED ADOW

AS government delegations from UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, US President Joe Biden and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the COP26 World Leaders Summit. Credit: Karwai Tang/ UK Government.
across the globe gathered in
Glasgow for the COP26 United Broken promises In 2009, world leaders in Co- Sadly, the past year and a half higher, things get exponentially
Nations Climate Change confer- The highest polluting govern- penhagen promised to channel has only deepened this sense of worse. After decades of inaction,
ence, the entire world waited, ex- ments want to be able to tell the US$100 billion to less wealthy distrust and this divide. We are though, we are at the stage that
pecting serious, comprehensive world that they get it, that they countries by 2020 to help them living through an unprecedented limiting the temperature rise to
and urgent action to combat an hear the message young people adapt to climate change. That is global pandemic against which 1.5C would be a huge relief.
existential crisis facing humani- are sending and that they recog- a tiny sum compared to what is our best weapon is the Covid-19
ty. Instead, the United Kingdom, nise we’re in a climate emergency actually needed, but even this vaccine. Yet even though it If you are looking to COP26
the host nation, has been engag- that requires large-scale trans- is  yet to be delivered. And now would ultimately be in rich to deliver this, however, you
ing in what you could call "Gov- formative change. But their ac- they are talking of mobilising countries’ own interests to allow would be dangerously mistaken.
ernment by Press Conference". tions prove that they do not. For trillions. How can we swallow poorer countries to manufacture Powerful and wealthy govern-
them, it is PR and it is crucial we new promises when we’re faced and distribute the vaccine and ments are incapable or unwilling
Instead of working towards do not fall for it. with the emptiness of old ones? so reduce the likelihood of new to do what is necessary.
the necessary actions we need variants emerging and spreading,
to address the climate crisis, we Those of us from regions of In Africa today, about half a they refuse to release the patents. This puts the responsibility
have been treated to a public re- the world that contributed to the billion people do not have reli- For all the rhetoric of following back on people across the world
lations (PR) show. We have been lowest greenhouse gas emissions able access to electricity. We need the science and global solidarity, force their hand.  We need to
offered one announcement after yet are feeling the worst impacts to build our energy capacity and still just a tiny fraction of Africa’s mobilise at all levels globally.
the next, each designed to cap- of the climate crisis have learnt can do so in a way that does not populations have been able to We need to get to the streets,
ture headlines and reassure us this lesson the hard way. Over add to the climate crisis. It just get the jab. petition our representatives,
that our leaders are doing what many years, we’ve been promised requires clean technology and The people must act and make our priorities known
is needed. Yet a closer look re- funds for adaptation to survive finances, and yet rich countries The main objective at COP26 through what and where we buy.
veals they all disguise a central extreme weather events. are not providing them. And so, is to keep global heating to We need a global movement to
hypocrisy or are riddled with we have a situation in which a 1.5C. Let’s be clear: this is not discuss, debate and demand the
loopholes. We have greeted with excite- group of vulnerable countries are a safe and stable level. We are people-centred change we need
ment repeated high-level pledges eager to do their part in solving already at 1.1C and are facing to survive, not more PR.
Take the declaration that over to mobilise resources to support a problem they did not cause. an unprecedented frequency of
40 countries have come togeth- us in dealing with irreversible Meanwhile, the rich pollut- extreme weather events and cli- — African Arguments.
er and committed to phase out loss and damage caused by cli- ing countries that did cause the mate instability. Every increment *About the writer: Mohamed
coal. This is a great thing, right? mate breakdown. And yet, we problem are denying them even Adow is the director of the ener-
If we’re going to limit global have seen hardly any progress. this opportunity. gy and climate think-tank Pow-
heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius, er Shift Africa.
we will absolutely need to stop
coal, as well as oil and gas. Yet
the UK – the first country to
benefit from fossil fuel powered
industrialisation – is itself open-
ing a new coal mine.

Or take the  announce-
ment  that several countries will
end overseas fossil fuel financ-
ing. What could be more urgent
and important? The instinct on
hearing such news is of course to
celebrate. But delve into the de-
tail, and you see that these same
countries will continue to sub-
sidise fossil fuel production in
their own countries.

Or, finally, take the pledge by
over 100 countries to cut meth-
ane,  the most potent of the
greenhouse gases, by 30% by
2030. Again, one desperate-
ly wants to see this as a victory,
but one third of anthropogenic
methane emissions are caused by
fossil fuel production. How can
you commit to cutting methane
meaningfully without commit-
ting to cutting oil and gas? It
does not add up.

Scientists calculate that emis-
sions need to  fall by 45% by
2030  if we are going to keep
global heating to 1.5C. But
even after all these announce-
ments emissions are still set to
increase 13.7% by 2030.

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NewsHawks The Big Debate Page 33

Issue 56, 12 November 2021 Private investment good news
for Zim’s conservation efforts
ANGUS BEGG Private investment into Victoria Falls and Hwange National Park
not only has a positive spinoff for the people living there, but the
"I HAVE personally seen poaching establishment of safari camps is also a huge deterrent to poachers.
reduce to almost zero [because of ]
the creation of a camp nearby,” says flict (HWC).
Machaba Safaris managing director One of the results has been the
Alistair Rankin. “However, the camp
needs to have guests and be opera- “chilli guns”, aimed at dissuading
tional.” marauding elephants from invading
villagers’ crops, and thereby hopefully
Machaba has established a foot- reducing the real issue that is HWC.
print in the northern reaches of Zim-
babwe’s 14 000km² Hwange National suitable farming country. construction. Its other luxury camp, What at first glance appears to be Water, elephants and fish
Park over the past four years, renovat- That investment of over US$6.6 deeper into the concession and re- just a wildlife rehabilitation centre One elephant in particular is an “is-
ing an existing lodge and building lated to an elephant experience, cost turns out to be one of only two Wild- sue” on Tsowa Safari Island, a luxury
two camps, relatively far apart. Its one million adds greatly to a presence on US$3.5 million about seven years life Disease and Forensics Laborato- camp, one hour up the Zambezi Riv-
camp in far-western Hwange, on the the ground in the northern section of ago. International residents can stay ries in southern Africa (the other one er between Zimbabwe and Zambia.
Deka floodplains near the Botswana the park, where NGOs such as Bhe- at the latter Elephant Camp for be- is outside Pretoria). Co-owner Duncan Elliott points out
border, is probably the most remote jane Trust also support ZimParks' tween US$530 and US$660 a night. his collar when we see him in the wa-
camp in Hwange, and is described in boots-on-the-ground anti-poaching The main aim of the laboratory is ter, saying his movements are moni-
Machaba’s literature as being “in the efforts. “Zimbabwe may seem dysfunc- to screen for disease prevalence, to tored because he sometimes “gets too
wildest area in southern Africa”. tional from the outside, but there is determine which diseases are circulat- friendly”.
Given Hwange’s vast size, Zim- investment and spend in various sec- ing in different species and to prevent
In Hwange, Zimbabwe’s largest Parks also receives support in the tors. the transmission of those diseases at a Majority owned by South African
national park, supporting its famed central east, eastern and southeastern species level. A case in point, connect- firm Isibindi Africa Lodges, with
lion prides and estimated 40 000 ele- sections of the park in the shape of “We have 60% American clien- ed to disease surveillance and wildlife Zimbabweans Elliott, a veteran lodge
phants, deterrents such as Zimbabwe three private organisations: the Con- tele,” says White. Asked whether such forensics, was the mass killing of vul- builder, and Lucia Muvingi each
National Parks and Wildlife Manage- servation & Wildlife Fund, the Scor- investment suggests faith in Zimba- tures in Botswana earlier this year, owning a portion of the remaining
ment Authority (ZimParks) ranger pion Anti-Poaching Unit (Wilderness bwe’s future, this Victoria Falls local when the carcasses were brought to split, the iconic lodge cost US$720
patrols and the presence of lodges are Safaris) and the Cobras Community is unequivocal in his response. the trust’s laboratory to determine the 000 to build.
vital to protecting this prime area of Wildlife Protection Unit (Imvelo Sa- cause of death.
biodiversity. fari Lodges). These substantial efforts “One hundred percent Zimbabwe Isibindi owner Brett Gehren, who
are made possible by investment in is going from strength to strength.” Dawson says recent trends in spent his 21st birthday camped in the
Rankin says there were no guests the lodge and safari business. poaching have made poisoning a ma- park across the water from the island,
at their lodge and two camps during Bright future An American group arrives while jor problem for wildlife authorities. says Isibindi is investing in the “Vic
the Covid-19 lockdown, bringing Three hours from Hwange’s Rob- we are chatting. White explains that She says the VFWT is in the process Falls tourism hub … [and] people on
to mind archive images from South ins Camp, in Victoria Falls National Global Sojourns Giving Circle is a of training Parks and Wildlife Man- the ground who are great and need
Africa’s Kruger National Park, reveal- Park, established Zimbabwean tour US-based organisation that operates agement Authority staff in recognis- support”. Gehren says he sees noth-
ing wildlife roaming roads devoid of operator Wild Horizons (WH) also a mentorship programme in Zimba- ing disease and poisoning incidents ing but potential.
cars. The ironic flipside to that idyl- sees a bright future for Zimbabwean bwe. and how to respond to each situation.
lic-seeming natural state in Hwange, and regional tourism, and has leased “It’s a wilderness island on the
however, given the complete absence a portion of the park as a private con- “We hosted a group of mentors at She continues that the trust Zambezi, with Zambezi Nation-
of tourists and most staff, was a rise cession. In a country that most out- the lodge so that they could experi- opened a Community Animal Health al Park across the water, and within
in poaching, a fact confirmed by siders think has collapsed in a pique ence every facet of lodge life, with and Welfare Centre in 2016 in the a one-hour drive of Vic Falls. Also
Rankin. of subcontinental financial misery a view to taking this back to their neighbouring rural community, built within striking distance of Chobe
and political depression, WH has groups that they mentor, giving them and equipped for surgical cases that [National Park in Botswana].”
Thanks to investment in the park’s splashed out the US dollars in an in- an insight into opportunities within can be used daily, with operations
tourism infrastructure, with his com- vestment that is significant on many tourism in the future." outsourced to Veterinarians for Ani- The mere presence of the lodge
pany having built three lodges across levels. Science, care and rehabilitation mal Welfare Zimbabwe. on Tsowa Safari Island underlines
northern Hwange, and another in the One aspect the mentors experience Alistair Rankin’s comments about
busier south-central area, there are Seated on a designer shwe-shwe is the Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust “We needed to provide access to Hwange and, quite frankly, any sen-
further deterrents to poachers travers- fabric couch in the lounge of the com- (VFWT). Founded initially as the the larger rural community to have sitive conservation area in close prox-
ing these regions. pany’s brand-new lodge in the park, Wild Horizons Wildlife Trust in a facility to help with their domestic imity to large, mostly impoverished
The safari deterrent marketing manager Shane White says 2008, CEO Jessica Dawson says its animals and livestock.” and rural communities.
“Safari camps are a huge deterrent to WH spent US$2.5 million on its name was changed later to make it
poachers, as the vehicles and activities more inclusive of the surrounding In the same year, the trust set up Gehren says he is aware of the con-
are fairly widespread, and there is no Victoria Falls area. the Community Guardians Pro- servation challenges they have dived
pattern to them (activities), such as gramme for Human Wildlife Con- into with their investment, and that
patrols and the like,” says Rankin. He the fish population on the Zambian
says poachers, especially subsistence side of the river has been negatively
and small-scale operators, “can’t run affected.
the risk of being spotted or heard”, re-
sulting in their preference to operate “Our presence and anti-poaching
in quieter areas, far from keen eyes. effort has already helped limit the
illegal fishing from Zambia. We are
It is a scene far removed from catching great tiger fish and recently
South Africa’s 19 000km² Kruger Na- nembwe [bream].”
tional Park. In that reserve, poachers
targeting mostly rhino run sophis- Isibindi has significant social in-
ticated military operations, posing vestment programmes in KwaZu-
a high-powered, aerial and modern lu-Natal, where it is based, but in
automatic rifle threat to often ill- keeping with the “leaner times” and
equipped ranger patrols. “leaner operations” mentioned by
most players in the tourism industry,
Hwange’s rhino populations were the company says it is focusing on
almost wiped out in the 1980s and conservation efforts for now in Zim-
1990s during the “Rhino War” days. babwe.
While ZimParks rangers carrying
Soviet-era AK-47s continue their pa- Whether feet on the ground or
trols, bolstered by support from the bums in boats, at a time when the
private sector, if there are any rhinos world, with access to news reports
left no one is telling, and rightly so. and devices, should be thinking se-
riously about sustainability and sur-
Hence the value, intended or oth- vival beyond that of the individual,
erwise, of such operators taking the a sharp focus on the wellbeing of the
financial plunge and investing in Af- planet’s biodiversity is what is needed.
rica’s parks. It is not just creating jobs
and careers, like that of Machaba’s In Matabeleland North, where
young James Banda – whose father these and other iconic tourist and
was a guide and an ornithologist for natural attractions are found, the
ZimParks in Hwange – it is guarding tourism industry is clearly leading
Zimbabwe’s biodiversity and the nat- the way through investment, in not
ural web of life. just ticking, but colouring in the nec-
essary boxes of conservation, careers
Rankin, whose company also oper- and social concerns.
ates in Botswana, says they invested
heavily in their three northern camps — Daily Maverick.
alone: US$3 million in the revamp
of the historic Robins Camp, an-
other US$3 million on Verney’s and
US$1.5 million on Deteema Springs.

The original Hwange National
Park was born at Robins Camp by
Herbert Robins, in the 1920s, who,
after lions repeatedly predated on his
cattle and goats, realised it was not

Page 34 Reframing Issues NewsHawks

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

Proposed NGO law poses threats to civic space

WHEN many people get involved in Chapter 2 (8) (1) of the Constitution fourteen and each of the members of anything done by the provisional trust- ter on Human and Peoples Rights, and
socio-economic and political matters whose purpose is to “guide the State the governing body of that organisation ee in good faith pursuant to this section the International Covenant on Civil
that affect them, many common prob- and all institutions and agencies of or institution shall be liable to the same before the date of such refusal. and Political Rights. Civil and political
lems affecting humanity can be easily government at every level in formulat- offence and penalty and additionally or rights are also enshrined in the Uni-
solved. ing and implementing laws and policy alternatively to the fine, shall be liable to The trustee shall exercise all the func- versal Declaration of Human Rights
decisions that will lead to the establish- imprisonment for a period not exceed- tions of the executive committee of the and constitute a core objective of the
Without broadbased people involve- ment, enhancement and promotion of ing 10 years. organisation and any provisional or fi- establishment of the African Union in
ment in social, economic, civil and a sustainable, just, free and democratic Registration nal trustee who is not in full time em- terms of the AU Constitutive Act. The
political affairs that affect them, there society in which people enjoy prosper- Under the PVO Amendment Bill, ployment of the State, shall be entitled Vienna Convention also settled the is-
cannot be accountable governance. ous, happy and fulfilling lives." private voluntary organisations will be to be paid from the funds of the organ- sue that all human rights are universal,
Without accountable governance, con- PVO Amendment Bill 2021 subject to a risk assessment at intervals isation, for so long as he or she holds inherent, interrelated, interdependent
ditions that allow for impunity and for The government of Zimbabwe (GoZ) of not less than once in five years. The office as such, a monthly salary at such and mutually reinforcing. This means
abuse of power, corruption and patron- has now gazetted the Private Volun- Minister shall require, on the basis of rate as the minister may determine. Any that it is difficult to enforce and pro-
age exist. Society cannot prosper. It is tary Organisations (Amendment) Bill, such a risk assessment, or in the case of person who makes any false representa- tect economic, social and cultural rights
therefore critical that large sections of 2021. an institution requiring to be registered tion to, or otherwise wilfully hinders or without effective enforcement and pro-
society remain interested and engaged as a private voluntary organisation, the obstructs a trustee in the exercise of his tection of civil and political rights. The
in civic, political and economic affairs The Bill which was approved by the organization or the institution to un- or her functions; or falsely holds himself thrust of preventing NGOs and human
of their society if public officials are Zimbabwe Cabinet in August/Septem- dertake specified measures to mitigate or herself out to be a trustee; or shall be rights defenders from enforcing and
to be made accountable. Prodemoc- ber 2021 is cited as the Private Volun- the identified risk or vulnerability with- guilty of an offence and liable to a fine protecting civil and political rights pro-
racy activists, human rights defenders tary Organisations (Amendment) Bill, in a specified time. The Minister may not exceeding level seven or to impris- posed in the amendment bill pauses a
(HRDs), land, environment and in- 2021. prescribe such special measures and onment for a period not exceeding one threat of incalculable proportion to en-
digenous defenders need an open civic requirements as being applicable to the year or to both such fine and such im- joyment of all rights civil and political,
space if they are to effectively protect The GoZ has given two reasons why designated private voluntary organisa- prisonment. as well as social, economic, cultural and
the rights of others. it felt compelled to propose such a Bill tions for the purpose of eliminating or Analysis of PVO Amendment Bill environmental in Zimbabwe.
for promulgation into law by Parlia- minimising the risk of abuse. The concern here is that provisional
In an environment of closure or ment, namely requirements to comply trustees can be misused to disrupt or in- The PVO Amendment Bill poses a
constriction of civic space, not only do with the Financial Action Task Force The Bill gives the Minister authority filtrate organisations that the state dis- significant risk to civic space in Zim-
threats against HRDs, civil society and (FATF) recommendations and the need that he may, through regulations, des- likes to gain access to information and babwe. It gives too much power to the
NGOs increase, but their effectiveness to prohibit NGOs from involvement in ignated by name, type, class, or char- stifle operations such that by the time Executive to control and interfere with
is severely compromised. politics. acteristics, require any legal person, the court makes its decision whether the work of NGOs. It increases the
legal arrangement, body or association or not to appoint a trustee, the infor- surveillance and monitoring of NGOs
Sustained constricting of civic space The Bill amends the Private Vol- of persons, or institution, which the mation or outcome sought has already and HRDs. It potentially criminalises
takes away the benefits of and ultimate- untary Organisations Act [Chapter Minister deems to be at high risk of been achieved. NGO work and human rights defend-
ly kills democratic development. 17:05]. The amendments were made or vulnerable to misuse for purposes Suspension of executive committee of ing. It creates potential arbitrariness in
ostensibly to comply with the Financial of funding terrorism, terrorist organi- an NGO the application of the law.
Southern Defenders has been con- Action Task Force (FATF) recommen- zations or terrorist causes, require such Power of Registrar to issue civil pen-
cerned at the democratic regression and dations made to Zimbabwe in order legal person, legal arrangement, body alty orders It creates real dangers of expropria-
authoritarian consolidation in Zimba- to develop policies to combat money or association of persons, or institu- Where default is made in complying tion of NGOs funds and assets without
bwe. laundering seeing that Zimbabwe is a tion to register as a private voluntary with any provision of the Amendment due process and compensation. It might
member. More specifically, the PVO organisation in terms of this Act; and Bill or of regulations or orders made also be used to disrupt the work in sup-
Civic space both online and offline is Amendment Bill seeks to comply with may prescribe such additional or special for which a civil penalty is specified in port of democracy, governance, human
shrinking as it is shifting. The removal FATF recommendations under tech- requirements, obligations or measures, the Bill, the registrar may serve upon rights and the rule of law. Chapter 4
of long-term dictator president Robert nical compliance raised under Zimba- not inconsistent with this Act, that shall the defaulter a civil penalty order. It is Part 5 of the Constitution provides that
Mugabe in a popular coup in Novem- bwe’s Mutual Evaluation Report which apply in respect of such legal person, le- important to note that every officer of fundamental rights and freedoms set
ber 2017 gave the people of Zimbabwe saw Zimbabwe placed under a moni- gal arrangement, body or association of a corporate defaulter mentioned in the out in the constitution of Zimbabwe
hope that at last democracy would toring programme in October 2018 by persons, or institution, in order to mit- civil penalty order by name or by office, may be limited only in terms of a law
flourish in Zimbabwe. Part of the evi- the FATF in order to ensure that the igate against such risk or vulnerability. is deemed to be in default and any one of general application and to the extent
dence of this new hope in democracy country aligns its laws on private volun- of them can, on the basis of joint and that the limitation is fair, reasonable,
was exemplified by the increased num- tary organisations to recommendation The concern from a civic society several liability, be made by the desig- necessary and justifiable in a democrat-
ber of voters, political parties, and pres- 8 which provides that private voluntary point of view is that such "additional" nated officer to pay the civil penalty in ic society based on openness, justice,
idential candidates. organisations can be abused by money or "special" requirements may be used the event that the defaulter does not human dignity, equality and freedom.
launderers and terrorist financiers and to stifle the operations of some NGOs pay. The PVO Amendment Bill is there-
The first post-Mugabe election turn- that as such, there is need to have clear and that they are seemingly retroactive- fore far from being consistent with the
out was 75%. However, since then the laws that set out a framework to prevent ly applicable. Upon the expiry of the ninety-day letter and spirit of the Constitution of
ground has rapidly changed starting any potential abuse in key sectors. The period within which any civil penalty Zimbabwe of 2013 that it must comply
with the deployment of soldiers to kill memorandum also states that the pro- The Bill allows the minister to make order of any category must be paid or with.
unarmed civilians with impunity on 1 visions in the PVO Amendment Bill application to the High Court to ap- complied with, the defaulter shall be
August 2018. Significant human rights have been added as a way to ensure that point one or more persons as trustees to guilty of an offence and liable to a fine The over broadness and vagueness
violations and attacks on civic space private voluntary organisations do not run the affairs of an organisation for a not exceeding level six or to imprison- in the phrase “political involvement” is
have been reported. Southern Defend- undertake political lobbying. period not exceeding sixty days pending ment for a period not exceeding one a breach of the principle of legality in
ers is therefore monitoring the develop- the election of members of a new execu- year or to both (in the case of a corpo- law making, in that it makes it diffi-
ments around civic space in Zimbabwe The Bill also prohibits PVOs from tive committee in instances where all or rate defaulter, every one of its officers is cult if not impossible for CSO leaders,
and documenting these with a view to political involvement or from under- some of the members of the executive liable to the penalty of imprisonment, human rights defenders, NGOs and
contributing to the defence and pro- taking any political lobbying whatsoev- committee of a registered private volun- and to the fine if the corporate defaulter pro-democracy activists to know how
tection of civic space as the oxygen and er on behalf of any individual, organisa- tary organisation have been barred from fails to pay it). to regulate their behaviour to avoid fall-
water needed to sustain human rights tion or political party and it will impose exercising all or any of their functions in ing fowl with the law. Worded this way
defending as well as effective participa- penalties for those PVOs that violate running the affairs of the organisation. Such civil penalties are likely to be the proposed amendment bill poten-
tion by people of Zimbabwe in matters the Act in the form of a fine of level applied selectively by the registrar to tially criminalises civil society activism,
that affect them. twelve or to imprisonment for a period Such a scenario is envisioned where target disliked NGOs in order to frus- human rights defending and creates a
not exceeding one year, or both such the organisation has ceased to operate trate their work and target their officers. minefield for NGOs. The principle of
Southern Defenders accepts the defi- fine and such imprisonment. in furtherance of the objects specified This results in potential criminalisation legality requires that the law is clearly
nition by of Bossuyt, J. and Ronceray, in its constitution; or the maladminis- of NGO work. articulated and known in advance and
M. (2020) that defines civic space is as The Bill Amends the definition of tration of the organisation is adversely not applied retroactively. Once this pro-
the public arena in which citizens can “private voluntary organisation” with a affecting the activities of the organisa- The concern here is that the pro- posed amendment is promulgated it is
freely intervene and organise themselves much wider definition which encom- tion; or the organization is involved in vision in the proposed Amendment likely to be applied to proscribe work
with a view to defending their interests, passes some categories of organizations any illegal activities; or it is necessary or Bill of prohibition from “political in- that civil society leaders, human rights
values, and identities; to claim their that the current PVO Act is not appli- desirable to do so in the public interest. volvement” for PVOs is overly broad defenders, pro-democracy activists and
rights; to influence public policy mak- cable to such as trusts and universitas. The Bill also allows the Minister to ap- and vague to have a potential of being NGOs have done legally for years with-
ing or calling power holders to account. This means that these organisations will point one or more provisional trustees misused to target for persecution CSO out an issue, which breaches the prin-
now be subject to re-registration and who shall exercise all the powers of the leaders, prodemocracy activists, hu- ciple against retroactivity in application
Southern Defenders has noted that to broad control and regulationby the substantive trustee until the provisional man rights defenders and NGOs that of the law. At the interpretation level,
the Zimbabwe Cabinet has approved a board and the Minister. trustee’s appointment is confirmed by may be involved in promoting and the phrase “political involvement” is
PVO Amendment Bill which has now the High Court or some other person protecting civil and political rights that open to abuse and arbitrariness on the
been gazetted as a step towards promul- Under the amendment Bill, registra- is appointed with the leave of the Court are protected under the Zimbabwean part of the minister and authorities with
gation into law. tion of an organisation will no longer as a substantive trustee and If the High constitution and major international the power to enforce the Act, and in-
be free and there are harsh penalties for Court refuses an application to appoint instruments that Zimbabwe has signed terpret the behaviour of human rights
Southern Defenders has done a rapid noncompliance with the new Bill read- or confirm the appointment of one or and ratified such as the African Char- defenders, democracy activists and
analysis of the proposed PVO Amend- ing that a designated institution that more trustees, the refusal of the appli- NGOs. The proposed law as worded
ment Bill to assess and evaluate whether fails to register as a private voluntary or- cation shall not affect the validity of is therefore likely to be abused to vio-
these proposed law would constrict or ganisation shall be guilty of an offence
expand civic space, enhance or stifle and liable to a fine not exceeding level
the vital independent workings of Civil
Society in the country and whether it
complies with the letter and spirit of
the Zimbabwe constitution including

NewsHawks Reframing Issues Page 35

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

late human rights and undermine the objectives and general principles, states NGO legislative framework under the or impede enjoyment of fundamental 10. The GoZ is encouraged to com-
enjoyment of fundamental rights and that measures adopted by countries to guise of trying to combat money laun- rights and freedoms enshrined in the ply with Chapter 11 of the Constitu-
freedoms in Zimbabwe. In practice the protect the NPO sector from terrorist dering and financing of terrorism. Fur- constitution. tion which stipulates that any proposed
law will amount to a claw back clause abuse should not disrupt or discour- ther the fact that the FIU can instruct legislation meant to address security
on enjoyment of fundamental rights age legitimate charitable activities. The banks in Zimbabwe that individuals 5. Any proposed NGO law must risks for example the use of NGOs for
guaranteed in the constitution of Zim- interpretive note also states that “such and entities involved in alleged money move towards the selfregulation of the money laundering or facilitation of
babwe in a way that is not reasonably measures should promote transparen- laundering need to be banned from NGOs and therefore any NGO Board terrorist activities in the country must
necessary in a democratic society. cy and engender greater confidence in banking “for a period of two years with which is established must have the be pursued with utmost respect for the
NGO legislative framework the sector, across the donor community immediate effect” means that the gov- majority membership elected by the fundamental rights and freedoms and
The current three distinct legal regimes and with the general public, that chari- ernment already has enough powers to NGOs themselves. the democratic values and principles
under which NGOs come into exis- table funds and services reach intended combat money laundering without the enshrined in the Constitution and this
tence in Zimbabwe namely, as a Private legitimate beneficiaries”. need to create additional legislation tar- 6. Any proposed NGO law must should be kept in mind and adhered to
Voluntary Association under the Pri- geting NGOs. not amount to criminalising the work in any proposed legislation.
vate Voluntary Organisations (PVO) The current NGO legislation cou- of NGOs or HRDs and the GoZ is
Act [Chapter 17:05 ], or as a Trust in pled with the existing regime of crim- The proposed PVO Amendment discouraged from imposing harsh pen- 11. As changing the legal framework
terms of a trust deed registered un- inal and banking laws seem to be ad- Bill seems therefore to be for sinister alties including jail-time of up to 10 through which NGOs register and
der the Deeds Registries Act [Chapter equate to deal with any possible cases purposes and will pose a significant years for NGO Registration framework operate has a big impact on ordinary
20:05] or as universitas under common of money laundering and financing of threat to civic space and be used to per- related perceived offences. people as the ultimate beneficiaries of
law usually done in terms of a members terrorism that there is no need to over- secute targets. It must therefore be re- the NGOs work, the GoZ (includ-
constitution as a voluntary association haul the NGO legislative framework as sisted with all means necessary. 7.Whilst upholding the FATF rec- ing PDCs) is encouraged to genuinely
have stood the test of time and served proposed by the government of Zimba- Recommendations ommendations may be prudent, the engage with the people as required in
the country very well. Currently the bwe. The provisions of the PVO Act ap- implementation of FATF recommen- terms of Chapter 14 when making de-
country has a reasonable number of pear to put the State in a strong position 1. The Government of Zimbabwe dations should be executed in a man- cisions that affect them before putting
NGOs working in different sectors to monitor and access any information (GoZ) is encouraged to withdraw the ner that takes into account FATF rec- into operation any significant policy or
ranging from human rights groups, de- regarding PVOs in the country without PVO Amendment Bill and initiate an ommendation 8, which states that “as administrative directives that negatively
velopment organisations, humanitarian the need for additional intrusive legis- extensive consultation process with civil a matter of principle, complying with affect civic space, effective participation
organisations, environment protection lation. society as outlined in Chapter 14 of the FATF Recommendations should not and engagement of communities and
organisations, social movements or Constitution if it wishes to change the contravene a country’s obligations un- the work of HRDs.
mass based movements such as church- Further the GoZ has also not yet legal framework through which NGOs der the Charter of the United Nations
es, labour and students movements. done a proper national risk assessment come into existence in Zimbabwe and international human rights law to 12. Civil society in Zimbabwe must
There is really no gap in legislation in for money laundering and financing promote universal respect for, and ob- come together to reflect on these new
terms of how these entities can legally of terrorism in order to appreciate the . servance of fundamental human rights threats to civic space and HRDs in
exist and operate. threats factors and any legislative gaps 2. The GoZ is encouraged not to pass and freedoms, such as freedom of ex- Zimbabwe and collectively engage the
needing law reform. This is not unique any new law governing the legal frame- pression, religion or belief and freedom GoZ, the regional and international
All critical stakeholders, government, to Zimbabwe alone but is the case with work through which NGOs come into of peaceful assembly and of association” community with a view to coming up
donors, target groups and beneficiaries most countries in East and southern existence in Zimbabwe and apply it ret- with an agreement on the way forward.
are capable of understanding this legal Africa. It is instructive that the Reserve rospectively to affect the rights of civil 8. The GoZ is encouraged to look to
framework that they have used for de- Bank of Zimbabwe issued a Press state- society groups and NGOs that already fulfil the FATF recommendations by 13. Civil society in Zimbabwe via
cades. The country has no problem of ment 29 September 2021 about the legally and validly exist in terms of the utilising the current NGO legislation the National Association of Non-Gov-
terrorism. There is also no history that phenomenon of money laundering in current laws of the land. such as Section 9 (4) and section 20 (1) ernmental Organisations (Nango) is
the NGOs in Zimbabwe have been in- Zimbabwe giving a list of the most no- 3. Any proposed new legislation gov- (a) of the PVO Act which already en- advised to withdraw their proposal in
volved in any way in money laundering torious people and entities on money erning the registration and operations ables the government to access informa- the form of the Nango Shadow Bill as
or financing of terrorism in a way that laundering. The operative portion of of NGOs must exempt organisations tion for such purposes. In other words, it plays into the hands of an autocratic
warrants significant concern to over- the notice read as follows: that are already registered under exist- no new law is needed to comply with approach to regulating the NGO sector
haul the legal registration and operat- ing valid legal regimes from reregister- FATF requirements but merely more and allows the FATF recommendations
ing framework. In other words, there is “The Financial Intelligence Unit ing. rigorous implementation of the existing to be used as a pretext to clamp down
nothing broken in order to fix. (FIU) has identified individuals list- 4. The GoZ is particularly requested laws including existing legislation on and criminalise Civil society, the NGO
TATF standards ed hereunder who are abusing mobile to note that the Constitution of Zim- financial intelligence to combat money sector and HRDs
The objective of Recommendation 8 “is telecommunications services and oth- babwe is the supreme law of Zimbabwe laundering and financing of terrorism
to ensure that NPOs are not misused by er social media platforms to promote and any proposed law, practice, cus- as well as existing criminal laws of the 14. Civil society and HRDs are en-
terrorist organisations to pose as legiti- and facilitate illegal foreign exchange tom or conduct needs to be consistent land. couraged to be guided by the consti-
mate entities; to exploit legitimate en- transactions and money laundering ac- with the Constitution. In particular the tution of Zimbabwe 2013 as well as
tities as conduits for terrorist financing, tivities. The FIU has instructed banks, GoZ’s attention is drawn to the fact 9. The GoZ needs to carry out and the UN Declaration on the Right and
including for the purpose of escaping mobile money operators and other fi- that the Supremacy clause of the con- conclude a proper National Risk Assess- Responsibility of Individuals, Groups
asset freezing measures; or to conceal nancial service providers to identify and stitution is binding on every person, ment for money laundering and financ- and Organs of Society to Promote and
or obscure the clandestine diversion of freeze any accounts operated by these natural or juristic, including the State ing of terrorism before changing NGO Protect Universally Recognised Human
funds intended for legitimate purposes, individuals and, further, to bar them and all executive, legislative and judicial legislation and until this is done, the Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
but diverted for terrorist purposes”. It from accessing financial services for a institutions and agencies of government GoZ cannot formulate and implement (UN Declaration on HRDS.
is important to note that the interpre- period of two years, with immediate at every level, and is required to be ful- risk-based national AML/CTF strate-
tive note to recommendation 8, in its effect.” filled by them. Any proposed NGO law gies targeting NGOs and civil society — Southern Africa Human Rights
must therefore not constrict civic space organisations. Defenders Network.
Interestingly, no single NGO or civil
society activists is on this list of money
launderers and yet the government is
scrambling legislation to overhaul the

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Page 36 Reframing Issues NewsHawks

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

South Africa’s liberation war
veterans are angry: Here’s why
LINDY HEINECKEN

THE late 1950s was an era of grow- Umkhonto we Sizwe army veterans stand to attention during the 75th birthday celebrations of the governing ANC in 2017. EFE-EPA/Cornell Turiki
ing resistance to the apartheid’s
state’s application of discriminato- warned that military veterans Military veterans complained country, the  Department of Mil- and a deputy minister hostage. They
ry laws in South Africa. The resis- would  use their skills to cause in- that the payments were inadequate. itary Veterans  was created. It was demanded government jobs, R4.2
tance, led by the African National stability  if their needs weren’t ad- Many have  remained destitute  due placed under the Department of million (US$285 000) compen-
Congress (ANC) and Pan African- dressed. Lephophotho Mashike, to poor education, lack of market- Defence, with the remit of manag- sation each, land for housing, and
ist Congress (PAC), was met with who has researched the subject ex- able skills, health problems and in- ing veterans’ affairs. free education for their dependants.
harsh state suppression. tensively called them a  ‘a ticking ability to reintegrate into society.
time bomb’. In 2011 the  Military Veterans The group, calling itself the Lib-
The massacre in 1960 of 69 black A 2006 report titled “Only Useful Act  was promulgated. It obliged eration Struggle War Veterans, is
people protesting against being Demobilisation and compensa- Until Democracy” found that 73% the state to provide military veter- made up of former members of
forced to carry identity documents tion of the military veterans believed ans access to healthcare, subsidised Umkhonto we Sizwe, APLA and
that restricted their movement, was The end of the armed hostilities that South Africa’s post-apartheid public transport, education, skills the Azanian National Liberation
a turning point for both the ANC following the end of apartheid in leaders had forgotten them. Over and job training as well as burial Army (Azanla) allied to the Black
and PAC. It precipitated their move 1994 meant the establishment of 84% believed that their compen- support. This was  subject to meet- Consciousness Movement. This
away from passive non-violent resis- a new united military – the  South sation was not  adequate, felt ne- ing a needs test. Azanian National Liberation Army
tance towards the armed struggle. African National Defence Force. glected and abandoned by the ANC was not officially disbanded during
The former guerrillas and armies of government. This raised the legitimate expec- the negotiations to end apartheid
In 1961, the ANC formed the former nominally independent tations of military veterans that as the Black Consciousness Move-
its armed wing,  Umkhonto we states of Venda, Bophuthatswana, And a  study I conducted in they would now finally receive the ment boycotted the talks. They were
Sizwe  (MK) (Spear of the nation). Ciskei and Transkei, were either in- 2012  with researcher Henrietta benefits. But discontent remained – therefore latecomers to the com-
And the PAC  formed the Azanian tegrated into the new defence force Bwalya found that military veterans and even grew – as the Department pensation process.
People’s Liberation Army (Apla). or demobilised. were frustrated by slow payments. of Military Veterans proved un-
The aim was to violently challenge They were living in abject poverty, able to roll out the benefits or even What needs to be done
white minority rule. Both embarked When the integration process felt used, neglected and marginal- spend its allocated budget. Military veterans constitute a small
on campaigns of armed resistance was finalised in 2001, 44 143 ised in the new political dispensa- but vocal constituency in the ANC
against the state, including acts of names appeared on the collective tion. This has been largely attributed and form a powerful political
sabotage and guerrilla warfare. Non-Statutory Force Certified Per- to the lack of capacity and poor bloc  that’s been closely aligned to
sonnel Register. Of these, 15 805 In 2007 they finally seemed to administration in the department. Zuma.
The most spectacular symbolic were integrated into the South Afri- have attracted the earnest attention This was  reflected in the delibera-
attacks on the apartheid state were can National Defence Force, 9 771 they had been seeking. This was at tions  of Parliament’s Select Com- It’s neither sensible nor desirable
the rocket attack on the fuels com- demobilised and 13 117 neither in- the ANC’s National Conference in mittee on Security and Justice, in that the maladministration that’s
pany, Sasol’s coal-to-oil refinery tegrated or demobilised. Polokwane at which Jacob Zuma March 2021. affected their lives is allowed to
in Sasolburg; the Koeberg nucle- was elected President of the ANC. continue, as a recent  report by the
ar power station in 1982; and the Those who were demobilised The department has consistent- public protector pointed out.
South African Defence Force head- weren’t considered fit to serve in The conference pledged to pro- ly under-performed in terms of
quarters in Pretoria in 1983. the new integrated army due to ill- vide veterans with extensive welfare meeting the needs of veterans. It’s — The Conversation.
health or age. Each  received a gra- support, adopting a resolution that plagued by mismanagement and
As state repression increased, es- tuity based on their years of service. committed the ANC to taking di- corruption, including wasteful,  ir- *About the writer: Lindy
pecially after the  Soweto uprisings They could choose to either receive rect interest in the welfare and rein- regular and fruitless expenditure. Heinecken is chair of the depart-
of 1976 of schoolchildren   many a lump sum, or  monthly pension tegration of its former soldiers into ment of sociology and social an-
young black South Africans flocked pay-out. civilian life. Discontent among military vet- thropology at Stellenbosch Uni-
to join the liberation movements erans took on an extreme turn in versity in South Africa.
and their armed wings in exile. Two years later, and after Zuma October. A group of them alleged-
had become the president of the ly  held   two government ministers
It is estimated that the member-
ship of the ANC and PAC’s military
wings in the 1990s stood at between
8000 and 10 000 members. These
numbers swelled during the tran-
sition to democracy to 23 000 by
1994, and later to 33 000 members.

This last-minute spike raised eye-
brows at the time, and in fact can
be blamed in part for the unhap-
piness ensued. The numbers went
up because it was felt necessary to
boost the relatively small number of
liberation fighters, compared to the
apartheid-era South African De-
fence Force which had a total of 67
5000 active duty force and 360 000
in the citizen forces in 1993.

But the large signups were con-
troversial, and created tensions that
have simmered down the decades.

On top of this, the dismantling
of these armed forces and that of
the apartheid state was, in retro-
spect, managed badly. The result is
that it left in its wake thousands of
angry veterans who felt betrayed. In
recent years they have come out vo-
ciferously against the ruling ANC.
Most recently  53 veterans were
charged with taking government
ministers hostage  in an attempt to
get the government to fulfil promis-
es they claim were broken.

For decades sociologists have

NewsHawks Reframing Issues Page 37

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

ANC dips below 50%, opposition
parties fail to pick up the slack

KEITH GOTTSCHALK tors to bring the corrupt to trial. party that “gets things done” and is that there are likely to be hung executives of the parties concerned.
But the voters clearly want to first reality. For example, the DA, which councils. Even prior to the most Written treaties are not infallible
SOUTH Africa’s 2021 local gov- has run Cape Town since 2006, has recent poll Oudtshoorn had a year – the DA and United Democrat-
ernment elections were momen- see the results of this before voting failed in a number of areas. One of without any functioning council. ic Movement had that in Nelson
tous. They mark the first time that for the ANC again. these is in controlling pollution. Mandela Bay since the previous lo-
the now ruling party and erstwhile There were some other develop- cal election in 2016 – but will cer-
liberation movement, the African Overall, South Africa will from Cape Town’s well-heeled lake- ments worth noting. tainly minimise breakups.
National Congress (ANC), slipped now on share the situation of other front property owners around the
below the 50% milestone  of the countries with proportional repre- Rietvlei-Milnerton Lagoon, Zee- • Signs of a backlash against Such contracts need to specify
vote. sentation electoral systems – coali- koeivlei and Zandvlei dare not dip statutory  affirmative ac- dispute resolution mechanisms, in
tions galore – unlike two party sys- a toe into those lakes due to sew- tion favouring Africans were addition to actual policy compro-
Overall, the parties retained their tems such as the UK and US. age contamination. Businesses and prominent during election- mises.
positions relative to one another. The fate of the Democratic Alli- lodges that focus on water sports are eering by the new Patriotic
The largest was the ANC; in second ance shuttered. Alliance and the Cape Co- Right now, the national execu-
place the official opposition the Why did the Democratic Alliance loured Congress parties. tives of both the ANC and DA will
Democratic Alliance (DA) followed (DA) get a lower vote? The DA’s Cape Town metro gov- be debating tough judgement calls.
by the Economic Freedom Fighters ernment has failed over the years • The good showing by Ac- If they form municipal coalitions
(EFF), the Inkatha Freedom Party One reason is that the  Freedom to launch the needed  doubling of tionSA, with its campaign with each other, will this alienate
(IFP) and the Freedom Front Plus Front Plus, a conservative, Afrikan- sewage treatment plants. Instead, for  tough law enforce- voters to whom each marketed their
(FF+). er party, is winning over Afrikaner it took the illiberal step of sudden- ment  against the African party as a bulwark against the other?
voters from the DA. It might also ly demanding that ratepayers who diaspora, showed, disturb-
The results raise the real possibil- be that  ActionSA, the new party asked for the E. coli measurements ingly, that xenophobia is a Also, in five years’ time, can each
ity that the ANC could be looking of  Herman Mashaba  (the former be denied them unless they  signed vote-catcher. persuade their followers that suc-
at another defeat in the 2024 gen- Free Market Foundation chair, and a non-disclosure contract. E. coli in cesses were only due to them, and
eral elections. This is despite the former DA mayor of Johannes- water can cause severe illness. • The Inkatha Freedom Par- failures due only to their coalition
fact that opposition parties usually burg), vacuumed up many of the ty demonstrated that it will partners? These hard choices will be
do best in municipal elections and DA’s black voters in Soweto, the The DA will, however, be cele- survive following the passing paramount in Johannesburg, Tsh-
the ANC does best during general country’s largest black urban area. brating that it has retained control of the baton by its founder wane and Nelson Mandela Bay.
elections. of the Midvaal municipality in and longtime leader  Man-
Then, there are various mixed Gauteng province and the Kouga gosuthu Buthelezi. Intrigu- Looking more broadly at the
The poll pointed to a steep de- messages. For example, during the municipality in Eastern Cape prov- ingly, its core votes are in the way in which the election was run,
cline in voter interest. It was the 2019 election, DA activists were ince, and won the Umngeni munic- borders of the former Zulu there were clear signs that cutting
lowest percentage poll ever in South canvassing voters with the argu- ipality in KwaZulu-Natal. These are kingdom as they stood at the the budget of the electoral com-
Africa’s democratic epoch. This in- ment that “if you vote for the ANC its beach-heads outside the Western start of  King Shaka’s reign. mission by R118 million was a false
dicates that some citizens feel alien- they will form a coalition with the Cape province. Districts he later conquered, economy. Elections are priceless in
ated from the political elite regard- EFF”. such as Tongaland and chief- democracies. More thorough train-
less of party, and sceptical of the Another feature of the election doms south of the  Tuge- ing, and hiring ethical and experi-
ability of any incoming municipal Yet, the DA itself was simultane- was that local parties in some re- la River, now mostly vote enced election veterans, will be in-
government to deliver. ously in effective coalitions with the gions sustained a resilient presence ANC. dispensable to the legitimacy of the
EFF — the self-styled “radical and over decades against the big nation- coming 2024 general election.
It is ironic that ANC supporters militant” party whose revolutionary al parties. An example was the Ad- What now?
punished Cyril Ramaphosa given views the DA is diametrically op- visieskantoor (Advice Office) in the The more splintered outcome of the — The Conversation.
that he’s the ANC leader who has posed to — in Johannesburg and ostrich ranching and tourist town poll means that there are likely to *About the writer: Keith
done most to purge kleptocrats Tshwane metropoles. of Oudtshoorn. be many more coalitions that will Gottschalk is a political scientist
from the party and the government, need to be formed. But these will at the University of the Western
and appoint new, ethical prosecu- Another is the gap between the One consequence of the show- only last if enforced by the national Cape in South Africa.
DA’s election slogan that it’s the ing by smaller parties at local level

Page 38 Orbituary NewsHawks

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

NOAH MANYIKA Ambassador Manyika an
extraordinary diplomat
AMBASSADOR Kennedy Grant
Dick Chivanda Manyika took his last The late ambassador Kennedy Grant Dick Chivanda Manyika. plant in Seattle, United States, to take
breath on 5 November 2021 at the delivery of the B737, and the board
ripe old age of 99. His was not just an working conditions for African teach- Manyika served for over four decades he and many others like him were the worked hard to ensure the viability of
extraordinary life, but a life of extraor- ers and lobbied for more educational in various lay leadership capacities ideal representatives of all the people Affretair, which played a critical role in
dinary service. opportunities for Africans before In- in the Wesleyan Methodist Church, of Zimbabwe in foreign lands, and the supporting the horticultural industry
dependence. Describing Manyika’s established by the British Methodist best advocates for the new nation’s best in Zimbabwe.
There is no greater gift any parent service, Aaron Mabeza, the provincial Church in 1891. He was among the interests in international fora. Diplomatic mission
can give a child and future generations chairperson of Rata for the Midlands, top lay leaders who fought for and In 1989, Manyika was appointed
than the legacy of a life fully and well wrote in 1973: steered the local church to indigenous In 1982, he was appointed Zimba- principal observer of the implemen-
lived in the selfless service of God, autonomy from the British Methodist bwe’s first Ambassador to Yugoslavia, tation of United Nations Resolution
family and country. “Your oncoming departure from Church in 1977. a country which had supported the 435 which led to the independence of
the Midlands province next year 1974 liberation struggle in Zimbabwe and Namibia. A critical part of his assign-
A prominent reviewer of “Beyond to Mashonaland East province leaves The push for indigenisation of the whose leaders had played a critical role ment was ensuring that the playing
My Dreams”, Manyika’s memoir, re- an irrecoverable leadership gap on the church mirrored the countrywide in the shaping of European and World field was level for all political parties
marks that his is a story not many of social, educational and the Rata pro- desires of Africans to run their own history in the 20th century. in light of the pro-South Africa (and
his agemates and luminaries like Al- fessional development in the Midlands affairs. On 31 August 1981, he was anti-Swapo) biases of the UN special
bert Luthuli, James Aggrey, Kenneth province in general, and in Lower elected lay president to deputise Rev- During his term of office in Yugo- representatives overseeing the process.
Kaunda and Julius Nyerere could nar- Gwelo district in particular. Mr Man- erend Ndlela, the founding bishop slavia, he was involved in negotiations
rate, and that while one gets a sense yika, let me truly confess to you that of the autonomous church. Manyika that led to: Manyika was personally com-
of some of his remarkable talents from as Midlands leaders, we completely was to forgo the appointment as he mended by founding President Sam
the book, Ambassador Manyika char- failed to penetrate Lower Gwelo dis- was invited on the same day by the 1. Construction of The Sheraton Nujoma for playing a critical role in
acteristically “underplayed his capacity trict effectively on Rata and sports ministry of Foreign Affairs to train as Hotel (now Rainbow Hotel and ensuring the success of independent
to weld people into a formidable force issues for years because of the church a diplomat. He would be re-elected to Towers in Harare) by Energo-Project Namibia’s first elections and creating
for the common good, be it family or denominational differences there. You the same position upon his retirement Company; an important foundation for demo-
friends or for a cause.” surprisingly changed the situation from the diplomatic service in 1991, cratic elections in the future.
A witness and shaper of history shortly after your arrival in the district and again in 1996. 2. Construction of Zanu PF head-
Manyika belonged to that vanishing in 1965. You have been chairman of quarters. During his stay in Namibia, Man-
generation that not only witnessed re- the sports committee and Rata for the Extraordinary diplomat (Yugo- yika convinced the government of
markable events in national and world nine years you have been here. You slavia: 1982-1987) Manyika’s life 3. Road construction in Mani- Zimbabwe to purchase property for
history, but selflessly gave their lives brought together teachers, parents, prepared him for the critical role he caland by a Yugoslav company. the diplomatic mission that would be
to shape them. Born four years after chiefs and various local leaders irre- would play as one of Zimbabwe’s top set up after Namibia’s independence to
the end of the First World War (and spective of their denominations. You diplomats in the first 15 years of our 4. Construction of Technical School avoid exorbitant rentals and fought for
a young man of 17 at the start of the have organised professional seminars country’s young life. in Mutare. that to be the standard practice. After
Second World War), he would gradu- in a way that has surprised our Rata the independence of Namibia, he was
ate as a teacher from Hope Fountain national president, Mr I. Gapara, who A truly free Zimbabwean and man 5. Material Support for the Zim- requested to stay on as Zimbabwe’s
in 1947 under the famed trainer Ten- is a first-class organiser himself. Please of the people who was fluent in Nde- babwean and Mozambican military high commissioner until 1990.
nyson Hlabangana, and later return to allow me the privilege as Rata provin- bele, Shona and Nyanja and hated campaign against South African-spon- Elections in South Africa and Mo-
the teacher-training institute as a critic cial chairman to thank you on behalf tribalism, a life-long learner who thor- sored Renamo insurgents in Mozam- zambique
teacher to tutor future teachers, in- of all teachers, pupils who benefitted, oughly understood the history of our bique. In early April 1994, Manyika was se-
cluding a young Robert Mugabe who and to wish you God's care during country and the potential of its peo- Air Zimbabwe and Affretair board lected by the government to be a UN
would, 31 years later, become the first your stay in the new area.” ple, a devout Christian, fearless and (1987-1994) observer to the South African elections,
prime minister and later president of Church leadership non-partisan patriot who abhorred in- It was during Manyika’s tenure on the giving him the opportunity to be an
an independent Zimbabwe. justice, racism and corruption, an ex- Air Zimbabwe board that the airline eyewitness to history, and to again to
Teaching career and political activ- perienced and accomplished educator, purchased a Boeing 737 (Matojeni), a ensure that the playing-field was level
ism administrator and leader of people, Boeing 727 and one Boeing 767, the for all during this historic plebiscite.
After Hope Fountain, Manyika last significant purchases to ensure its He would reprise that role in Novem-
would, assisted by his wife Rahab, go viability and competitiveness. Man- ber 1994 when he was assigned to be
on to a three-decade award-winning yika personally travelled to the Boeing a UN Observer to the Mozambican
teaching career (1947-1981) includ- elections that were meant to end a civil
ing winning the prestigious Secretary’s war in that country.
Bell twice. Banished from teaching Congo conflict
in urban schools for organising pro- In 2000, Manyika was appointed
tests against poor working and living special envoy of the allied countries
conditions for African workers in the during the Democratic Republic of
mining town of Selukwe (Shurugwi) Congo (DRC) conflict to coordinate
in 1964, he would build the neglect- communication between the govern-
ed and dying rural schools assigned by ments and presidents of the respective
the Rhodesian government (including allied countries with the Southern
Chivizhe and Chakadini in Mashona- African Development Community
land East, Vungu Council School and (Sadc) allied force headquarters in
Munyati in the Midlands) as punish- Kinshasa.
ment into high-performing institu-
tions, only to be expelled to neutralise His office liaised with the political
his influence. committee as well as with the joint
military commission established un-
Like his contemporaries and peers der the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement
who included Joshua Nkomo, Mug- and kept Sadc allied countries fully
abe, Ndabaningi Sithole, Leopold updated on the developments in the
Takawira and others who taught under DRC through regular reports.
him, including Nathan Shamuyarira
and Josiah Hungwe, or his students It represented Sadc allied countries
like Edson Zvobgo, Manyika had sim- at meetings on the Congo and also
ply seen and experienced too much to pursued diplomatic initiatives and
just be a teacher, including “the forced missions as designated and mandated
eviction of the indigenous people by the ministers of foreign affairs of
from their land, and forced livestock the Sadc allies.Ambassador Manyika
de-stocking which were all an exten- will be laid to rest at Mtapa Cemetery
sion of the process of dispossession set in Gweru beside his late wife Rahab
in motion by Cecil John Rhodes and on 13 November 2021. A church ser-
company in 1889.” vice will be held at the Living Word
Church in the Midlands capital before
The suspicions of the Rhodesian burial.
government were therefore not with-
out cause, as Manyika was also a *About the writer: Dr Noah Man-
founding member of Zanu in 1963 yika is a Fulbright Scholar and lead-
assigned to canvass for support in the er of the opposition Build Alliance
Gweru East area. He established over Zimbabwe.
30 branches in Gweru East, includ-
ing in Nhema, Mazibisa, Sibolise and
Shurugwi. His team also convinced
Chief Banga and 25 of his kraal heads
to join the party.
Rata leadership
Manyika was a leading member of the
Rhodesian African Teachers' Associa-
tion (Rata), which pressed for better

NewsHawks Orbituary Page 39

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

Ibbo Chivanda Manyika an lo district effectively on Rata and
Mandaza unsung Zimbabwe hero sports issues for years because of the
church denominational differences
THE accomplished educationist Not surprisingly, therefore, Man- Gabriel Mugabe. But for most of stop over occasionally to visit him there. You surprisingly changed the
and patriot is another of Zimba- yika selflessly dedicates his book “to his three decades (1947-1981) of on my way to and from Bulawayo, situation shortly after your arrival
bwe’s unsung heroes. those men and women, young and an award-winning teaching career, and in which city he is to be buried in the district in 1965. You have
old, who dedicated their lives to Manyika spent these years mainly this Saturday, next to his lifelong been chairman of the sports com-
Ambassador “KGDC” Manyika freeing our country from colonial- in the Midlands, as a leading mem- wife and colleague, Rahab. mittee and Rata for the nine years
(pictured), who passed away on ism so that we could all live equally ber of Rata which fought for bet- you have been here. You brought to-
5 Nov 2021, a few months before according to God’s design.” ter working conditions for African Indeed, such was the profound gether teachers, parents, chiefs and
his centenary, is among, if not the teachers, while campaigning for acknowledgement of the teacher various local leaders irrespective of
last, in that generation that lay the Manyika’s life is an epitome of the more educational opportunities for and civic leader that Manyika had their denominations… Please allow
foundations of both education and accomplished Zimbabwean patriot Africans before Independence. been in the Midlands and indeed me the privilege as provincial Rata
nationalist politics in Zimbabwe. — the definition of the genuine and in the country, that Aaron Mabeza, chairman to thank you on behalf of
true nationalist. Born in Nenguwo, So, even though he was banished the provincial chairperson of Rata all teachers, pupils who benefitted,
As his son, Noah Manyika, who a district of Chihota, near Maron- from teaching in urban schools for in the province, wrote in 1973 what and to wish you God’s care during
broke the sad news on that day said dera, in so-called “Mashonaland organising protests against poor might now be an apt eulogy of the your stay in the new area.”
of his father, “His was not just an East” (sad that post-independence working and living conditions for man we are about to lay to rest:
extraordinary life, but a life of ex- Zimbabwe to this day uses such co- African workers in the mining town It is on record that Manyika was
traordinary service… a legacy of life lonial and “tribal” nomenclature), of Selukwe (Shurugwi) in 1964, “Your oncoming departure from an accomplished diplomat, having
fully and well lived in the selfless Manyika was educated at Hope and would be assigned to revive the Midlands province next year served in that capacity in the for-
service of God, family and coun- Fountain Mission in so-called “Ma- dying rural schools in various prov- 1974 to Mashonaland East prov- mer Yugoslavia (1982-1987), on
try”. tabeleland North” where he grad- inces, including  so-called “Mash- ince leaves an irrecoverable leader- assignments as high commissioner
uated in 1947 under the tutorship onaland West” where, incidentally, ship gap on the social, educational in Namibia (1990), as UN observ-
I was fortunate to have been af- of the legendary but also unsung the Manyika family (his parents) and the RATA professional devel- er in South African and Mozambi-
forded by Noah the old man’s au- (if  not also forgotten) hero, Ten- had since purchased a farm in the opment in the Midlands province can elections (1994), and as special
tobiography, “Beyond My Dreams”, nyson Hlabangana; and where he “Native Purchase Area” of Msen- in general and in the Lower Gwelo envoy of the allied countries in
to discover that among his agemates returned later to the teacher-train- gezi, Manyika remained largely a district in particular. Mr Manyika the Democratic Republic of Con-
and luminaries were those like of ing institute at the mission, to tu- “Midlander”  for most of his life, in , let me truly confess to you that go conflict. He was also a devout
Albert Luthuli, James Aggrey, Ken- tor future teachers such as Robert Gweru specifically, where I would as Midlands leaders, we complete- Christian, as member and leader in
neth Kaunda and Julius Nyerere; ly failed to penetrate Lower Gwe- the Wesleyan Methodist Church.
his contemporaries and peers were
the likes of Joshua Nkomo, Robert But I would like to remember
Mugabe, Ndabaningi Sithole, Leo- Manyika most as representative of
pold Takawira and others. Those that group of selfless nationalists
who taught under him included that were born out of the colonial
Nathan Shamuyarira and Josiah experiences against which they
Hungwe and among his students fought and developed thereby a
was Eddison Zvobgo. genuine Zimbabwe patriotism. One
in which ethnic or geographic ori-
Therefore, like most of his con- gins were secondary to the national
temporaries that became prominent effort; and largely immune to the
nationalist leaders at independence ethnic and tribal politics — most
in Zimbabwe, Manyika’s political of which were a product of interne-
consciousness grew pari passu the cine nationalist politics of the day,
reality of colonialist domination particularly in exile where ethnici-
and oppression, the very brutal ex- ty was manufactured big time, and
periences that included “the forced perfected during the post-indepen-
eviction of the indigenous people dence period -- that today charac-
from their land, and forced live- terises Zimbabwe in general. 
stock de-stocking which were all an
extension of the process of dispos- So can you imagine what might
session set in motion by Cecil John have been Manyika’s (political) fate
Rhodes and company in 1889” (to had he joined formal politics in a
quote from his autobiography). And country in which provinces are no
although his political life was large- longer simply geographical loca-
ly confined to those of the Rhode- tions but denote (political) eth-
sian African Teachers Association nic identity? Would he have been
(Rata), itself one of the resource allowed to call the Midlands his
bases and crucible of the formal home or sent back to Nenguwo
nationalist movement, Manyika in “Mashonaland East”, Msengezi
was a founding member of Zanu in “Mashonaland West”, with no
in 1963 and was responsible for the prospects of being laid to rest in his
mobilisation of members and estab- home town of Gweru?
lishment of the party’s branches in
Gweru East, including in Nhema, Well, in case Zimbabweans had
Mazibisa, Sibolise and Shurugwi. forgotten, was Simon Muzenda not
unceremoniously bundled out of
No doubt a reflection of such the Midlands in the mid-1980s, as
a deep political background and a “foreigner” in a province in which
a Manyika family so devoted to he had lived and worked for most of
the struggle for independence, his his life before going into exile? 
younger brother Robson Manyika
became one of the leading Zpra/ Accordingly, full honours to our
Zanla combatants in the liberation old man, Ambassador “KGDC”
struggle, from the 1960s onwards. Manyika, a true patriot, our hero.

*About the writer: Mandaza
is a Zimbabwean academic and
publisher. He convenes the Sapes
Trust dialogue series.

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Page 40 Africa News NewsHawks

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

PETER BEAUMONT South Africa's last white president, FW de Klerk.

SOUTH Africa’s last white president, FW de Klerk issues posthumous
FW de Klerk, who with Nelson Man- apology for pain of apartheid
dela oversaw the end of apartheid, has
died in Cape Town aged 85, with his ation movement amid severe pressure The turning point came on 2 Feb- in 2012. justice.
office issuing a pre-recorded posthu- to the contrary from many in his po- ruary 1990, five months after his elec- The relationship between De Klerk That was underlined last year in a
mous video apology for the country’s litical constituency.” tion, when in a speech to parliament
discriminatory system of white mi- De Klerk announced that Mandela, and Mandela, as the former admitted controversy over a television interview,
nority rule. Mandela’s own foundation said in the imprisoned leader of the African during his Nobel peace prize accep- in which he was seen to be quibbling
a separate statement that De Klerk National Congress (ANC), would be tance speech, could be fractious and about whether the crimes of apartheid
“I, without qualification, apologise would “for ever be linked to Nelson released from jail, where he had been was marked by bitter disagreements. should be seen as “crimes against hu-
for the pain and the hurt and the in- Mandela in the annals of South Afri- for 27 years. The announcement elec- Mandela accused De Klerk of allow- manity”. He later expressed his regret
dignity and the damage that apartheid can history”. trified a country that for decades had ing the killings of black South Africans for “the confusion, anger, and hurt”
has done to black, brown and Indians been scorned and placed under sanc- during the political transition, while his remarks might have caused.
in  South Africa,” a gaunt De Klerk “De Klerk’s legacy is a big one. It is tions by much of the world for its bru- De Klerk said Mandela could be ex-
said in the recording. also an uneven one, something South tal system of racial discrimination. tremely stubborn and unreasonable. The FW de Klerk Foundation had
Africans are called to reckon with in announced in June that he had been
He added his concern, however, this moment,” the Mandela Founda- The speech marked the official end While some white South African’s diagnosed with a cancer that affects
over South Africa’s future, saying: “I’m tion said of his death. of segregation policies and the start of accused De Klerk of “giving the coun- the lining of the lungs.
deeply concerned about the under- the negotiations that led to a constitu- try away”, many black South Africans
mining of many aspects of the consti- A lawyer whose political inclina- tional democracy with equal rights for continued to view him with suspicion His death, perhaps inevitably, has
tution, which we perceive almost day tions were conservative, De Klerk was all South Africans. and his  legacy would remain con- been greeted with mixed responses.
to day.” born in Johannesburg into an influen- tested throughout his life, not least Julius Malema, the leader of the left-
tial Afrikaner family. He went on to Nine days later, in a historic mo- over accusations of involvement in ist Economic Freedom Fighters party,
De Klerk’s death was announced serve in the white-minority govern- ment that would reverberate around state-sponsored atrocities committed who had accused him of being “a mur-
by his foundation earlier on Thursday. ment of  PW Botha  as an MP in the the globe, Mandela walked free from on his watch, claims he always denied. derer” during a visit to the country’s
“Former president FW de Klerk died National party. Victor Verster prison, although De parliament last year, tweeted: “Thank
peacefully at his home in Fresnaye ear- Klerk continued to head South Afri- “If we had not changed in the man- you God,” followed by five dancing
lier this morning following his struggle While many white South Africans ca’s white-minority government until ner we did,” De Klerk said in an inter- emojis. Malema castigated media re-
against mesothelioma cancer,” the FW and senior anti-apartheid figures — 1994, when Mandela’s ANC swept to view with the Observer 11 years ago, ports that said De Klerk was a former
de Klerk Foundation said in a state- including Archbishop Desmond Tutu power in national elections. “South Africa would be completely president of South Africa. “He is a for-
ment. — believed he would continue with isolated. The majority of people in the mer apartheid president,” said Male-
Botha’s racist policies when in power, De Klerk was conscious of the risks world would be intent on overthrow- ma in a tweet. Others on social media
De Klerk, who jointly won the De Klerk, concerned about growing involved. “There is an element of un- ing the government. Our economy said De Klerk should not be accorded
Nobel peace prize  with Mandela, racial violence, including ethnic vio- certainty, obviously, with regard to ev- would be nonexistent – we would not a state burial.
leaves behind a complicated legacy in lence between Xhosa and Zulus en- erything which lies in the future,” he be exporting a single case of wine and
a country still scarred by the conse- couraged by the state, began moving told reporters the day after his speech, South African planes would not be The former opposition Democrat-
quences of the brutal institutionalised against the apartheid system. and violence would continue through- allowed to land anywhere. Internally, ic Alliance party leader Tony Leon
system of white-minority rule that he out the transition period. we would have the equivalent of civil tweeted: “Farewell FW de Klerk. Like
helped usher out. Responding to the announcement war.” Mikhail Gorbachev, he reformed the
of De Klerk’s death, the Desmond After the end of white-minority system he inherited in 1990. And if he
As well as ending apartheid, De Tutu Foundation said “the former rule, he served as deputy president un- De Klerk’s judgment on apartheid, had not relinquished power in 1994,
Klerk, who as a minister had helped president occupied an historic but dif- til 1996. too, was softer than many subsequent- likely SA would be Syria or Venezuela
uphold white-minority rule, also ficult space in South Africa”. ly would have liked, with many inside today.”
helped dismantle South Africa’s nucle- In later life, De Klerk was overshad- the country seeing him as a symbol
ar weapons programme. After becoming president in 1989, owed by the towering figure of Man- of the failure of white South Africa De Klerk is survived by his wife, El-
he allowed anti-apartheid protests, dela. “Sometimes, Mr De Klerk does to acknowledge the full horrors of the ita, two children, Susan and Jan, and
South Africa’s president, Cyril Ra- removed restrictions on some banned not get the credit that he deserves,” system and to bring perpetrators to several grandchildren.
maphosa, said he and the government political parties and — like his prede- Tutu told David Frost in an interview
were saddened, adding that De Klerk cessor — met secretly with Mandela. —The Guardian.
had played a “key role in ushering in
democracy” in the country. Ramapho-
sa said: “He took the courageous deci-
sion [as president] to unban political
parties, release political prisoners and
enter into negotiations with the liber-

NewsHawks World News Page 41

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

China's Xi Jinping cements his
status with historic resolution
THE Chinese Communist Party similar opportunities," said Chong.
(CCP) has passed a "historical resolu- resolution that puts himself at the cen- power," he said. Chinese President Xi Jinping. "There is certainly a lot of emphasis
tion", cementing Xi Jinping's status in tre of the grand narrative of the party Chong Ja Ian from the National "[Former leaders] Hu Jintao and Ji-
political history. and modern China, Mr Xi is demon- ang Zemin never had as much consol- on Mr Xi as a person at present. The
strating his power. But the document University of Singapore said the latest idated authority as Mr Xi. However, it degree to which it becomes more for-
The document, a summary of the is also a tool to help him retain this move set Xi apart from other previous is unclear whether they had the incli- mally institutionalised is what many
party's 100-year history, addresses its Chinese leaders. nation to do so even if presented with are watching out for at the moment."
key achievements and future direc-
tions. It is only the third of its kind Both Deng and Mao, who passed
since the founding of the party -- the previous resolutions, used it as a way
first was passed by Mao Zedong in to break with the past.
1945 and the second by Deng Xiaop-
ing in 1981. The first resolution, adopted at a
party plenum in 1945, helped Mao
It was passed on Thursday at the consolidate his leadership so that he
sixth plenary session, one of China's had full authority when he declared
most important political meetings. the creation of the People's Republic
of China in 1949.
As only the third Chinese leader
to have issued such a resolution, the When Deng took over as leader in
move aims to establish Xi as an equal 1978, he initiated the second resolu-
to party founder Mao and his succes- tion in 1981 where he criticised Mao's
sor Deng. "errors" during the Cultural Revolu-
tion from 1966 to 1976, which led to
Some observers see the resolution as millions of deaths. Deng also set the
Xi's latest attempt to turn back decades foundations for China's economic re-
of decentralisation by Chinese leaders forms.
that began under Deng and continued
through other leaders like Jiang Zemin Unlike the former resolutions, how-
-- a sign that China might be moving ever, Xi is looking instead to empha-
back to a so-called cult of personality. size continuity with his resolution,
said Ni.
The four-day closed door session
gathered more than 370 full and al- After all, Xi's report comes at a time
ternate members of the party's 19th when China has become a global pow-
central committee -- the country's top er -- something scarcely imaginable
leadership. just a few decades ago.

It was the last major meeting of par- "The country stands at a point
ty leaders ahead of the national con- where it can now look back at signif-
gress next year, where Xi is expected to icant growth in its economy, military,
seek a historic third term as president. and recognition of its status as a ma-
In 2018, China scrapped the two-term jor power, with the CCP as well as its
limit on the presidency, effectively al- leadership deeply entrenched with no
lowing him to remain in power for life. opposition domestically," said Chong.
Why is the resolution significant?
Essentially, it cements Xi's hold on "In some ways, the CCP with Mr
power, experts told the BBC. Xi at its helm has reached a pinnacle
of achievement for the party and for
"He is trying to cast himself as the China."
hero in the epic of China's national
journey," said Adam Ni, editor of Chi- Still, politics can be surprising, ex-
na Neican, a newsletter on Chinese perts said, and despite all the evidence
current affairs. of Xi retaining leadership for the fore-
seeable future, anything can happen.
"By pushing through a historical
"China's elite politics is opaque, so
there is much we don't know," said Ni.
—BBC.

Belarus threatens to cut gas deliveries to EU

BELARUSIAN President Alexander ists from entering the border zone. ko has enabled thousands of people to been 468 illegal attempts to cross bombers capable of carrying nuclear
Lukashenko has threatened to cut de- As punishment for Belarus’ ac- travel through Minsk and to the EU the border on Wednesday and that weapons. But we have no other op-
liveries of gas to Europe via a major borders as revenge for the sanctions people had attempted to cut through tion. We have to see what they are
pipeline as he promised to retaliate tions, the EU is expected to sanction against him. Belavia, the Belarusian razor-wire or use logs to batter down doing beyond the borders.”
against any new European Union up to 30 Belarusian individuals and state airline, has strongly denied it is border fencing in some places.
sanctions imposed in response to the entities, possibly including the na- involved in any trafficking of vulnera- Lukashenko also claimed that
crisis at the Poland-Belarus border. tional air carrier Belavia. Belarus’s ble people to the border with the EU. Other countries bordering Belar- there had been attempts to smuggle
neighbours have said they may be us have warned that the border crisis weapons from east Ukraine to those
Backed by the Kremlin, Lukashen- forced to shut their borders. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko could lead to a new military conflict. on the border in an attempt to “pro-
ko has struck a defiant note after in- Videos posted to social media indi- In a joint statement on Thursday, the voke our border guards into a conflict
citing a migrant crisis at the border, “We heat  Europe, and they are defence ministers of Estonia, Lithu- with theirs”. He did not provide any
where thousands of people, mainly still threatening us that they’ll shut cate that the flow of migrants through ania and Latvia called the situation evidence for the claim, which he said
from Middle Eastern countries,  are the borders,” said Lukashenko in an Minsk has not slowed and that hun- “the most complex security crisis for he had discussed with Russian Presi-
camped out as temperatures plunge emergency meeting with his top min- dreds more people may be arriving at our region, Nato and the  European dent Vladimir Putin.
below freezing. isters on Thursday. “And what if we the border every day. Union in many years”.
cut off [the transit of ] natural gas to Ukraine’s interior ministry on
Meanwhile, thousands marched them? So I would recommend that Poland reported that there had Belarus’ use of migrants could lead Thursday announced that it was plan-
through the streets of Warsaw to the leadership of Poland, Lithuanian to “provocations and serious inci- ning to deploy an additional 8 500
mark Poland’s Independence Day, and other brainless people to think dents that could also spill over into troops and police officers, as well as
including far-right groups calling for before they speak.” military domain,” the statement said. 15 helicopters, to prevent attempts by
the government to prevent migrants people to cross the border. Although
from entering the country illegally. The threat to cut off deliveries In a show of support for Lukashen- not part of the EU, the country has
The city government had banned the along the Yamal-Europe pipeline ko, Moscow has dispatched nucle- said it is also concerned at being
march but those orders were over- from Russia is an attempt to pile ad- ar-capable bombers for the past two drawn into the crisis.
turned by the national government, ditional pressure on Europe, where days to patrol the skies over western
which is dominated by the conserva- gas prices spiked last month due to Belarus. The Russian defence minis- European officials said that they
tive Law and Justice party. an international energy crisis. try has called the patrols, which in- expected the crisis to worsen. The
cluded imitation bombing runs by a German foreign minister, Heiko
Polish authorities have taken a Yet it appears unlikely that EU pair of Tupolev Tu-160 heavy strate- Maas, said that the picture from the
hard-line stance on the crisis, institut- members will back down from a new gic bombers on Thursday, a training border camps between Belarus and
ing a state of emergency in the border round of sanctions against Lukashen- exercise of the countries’ joint air de- Poland were “terrible”. “Lukashenko
region that allows police to ignore ko, who has already been targeted for fence systems. is responsible for this suffering. He
asylum requests and summarily expel a brutal crackdown on his country’s abuses people to put the EU under
migrants. It also prevents non-gov- opposition and the grounding of a “Let them squeak and shout,” pressure.”
ernmental organisations and journal- Ryanair flight in May. Lukashenko told his top officials
in bellicose remarks. “Yes, these are — The Guardian.
EU members say that Lukashen-

Porsche just got angrier Being a Fashion Model

&Life Style

STYLE TRAVEL BOOKS ARTS MOTORING

Page 42 Issue 56, 12 November 2021

Venenziya Feli Dembo

JONATHAN MBIRIAYAMVEKA ‘Venenziya kura mwanangu...’, her
father sang. She has grown up! 
FOR more mature folk, Venenziya
was someone we all knew, from a her microphone to the mouth. her presence felt in more ways than The NewsHawks caught up with tually assist each in other musically.
song.  Eyes of the audience remained one. She knew she had one chance to Venenziya on the red carpet and I don’t see anywhere they will clash,”
impress the crowd, especially consid- asked her if this was her entrance Guni said.
"Venenziya kura mwanangu", a glued to the stage until she started ering that she was sharing the stage into the music scene.
loving father would say in the all- singing a medley of songs from her with the likes of Winky D, who was Apparently, she is working on her
time classic, adressing his daughter, late father, a rich discography of hits. the second-last act of the night. “Well, I am based in South Africa EP which is expected to drop early
literally meaning that "grow up well, where I work as a full-time accoun- next year comprising seven songs.
my daughter."  "Hello! I am Venenziya Feli Dem- But she effortlessly delivered a tant. Music is something I do for the
bo!" she introduced herself, to thun- flawless performances with one song love of it,” she said, adding: “I do Her performance at the ZB Fi-
So we were introduced to Venen- dering applause from the receptive morphing into another while keep- consider myself as a cover artiste. nancial Holdings event has some-
ziya in that song, and we knew her.  crowd.  ing the guests on the dance floor. what energised her vibe and she was
Well, even as a cover artiste elated to be picked as one of the en-
But what many of us did not Although she came long after the The medley featured some of Venenziya did put up quite a show tertainers. Leonard Dembo was born
know, however, was that Venenziya internationally acclaimed Mokoom- the crowd’s favourite chart toppers, deserving of the daughter of a leg- on 29 December 1959 and died on 9
actually exists in real life, and that ba had warmed up with the state ranging from Sharai, Shamwari Yan- endary Zimbabwean musician. April 1996. He is buried at his rural
her father was in fact the singer who with some riveting performance, gu Warova, Nzungu Ndamenya to home in Chirumanzu.
dedicated the song to her!  Venenziya did not disappoint at all.  Venenziya, a track named after her. Explaining how she started out,
her manager and publicist, Tafadzwa His tombstone was unveiled a
Leonard Dembo, one of Zimba- The night was still young and en- Her performance climaxed with Guni confirmed Venenziya was there fortnight ago attended by relatives
bwe's greatest artistes of all time, ergy was high among the guests at- the hit Chitekete which was an an- to keep her father’s legacy alive. and friends including Venenziya,
died in 1995, leaving behind chil- tending the ZB Financial Holdings them at the Miss World Beauty pag- who came all the way from South
dren who also had an interest in 70th anniversary party and ready to eant finals where Zimbabwe’s own “For starters, she wanted to do Africa.
music. Tendai and Morgan Dembo, shack it off after a sumptuous meal. Angeline Musasiwa finished third. renditions as a way of keeping the
his sons, have been the first to trace brand or rather the legacy alive and While it is debatable if Dembo
their legendary father's footsteps.  Backed by the popular group Sha- It has been 31 years since Chite- she is not in any way competing was the greatest of all time, certain-
bach The Band, it was her debut per- kete topped the charts, but Venenzi- with her two siblings (Tendai and ly most music lovers agree on one
Now, a daughter, Venenziya, is formance ever since she entered the ya made it her own and gave it a new Morgan). thing, that he was a hugely talented
also proving to be a chip off the old music scene. lease on life. singer and songwriter.
block.  “The family is united and they ac-
The 31-year-old songstress made
Until last weekend, not a single
person had seen her live on stage.

Oozing cool confidence and the
stamina like fish fresh out of the
water, and almost like a model, she
glided barefooted towards the stage
in her pitch long lace dress holding

NewsHawks State of the culture Page 43

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

Addy Byo Arts Awards ceremony Dick Print by John Mabuyane
Kudita sets cultural capital abuzz Indodakazi/Mwanasikana by YADS
Outstanding Comedian
THIS past week Bulawayo, the self- City of Bulawayo. *Zwe Hlabangana
styled culture capital (I dare say with Q The Boss
good reason) was abuzz with the Bu- Gqom Act Amaqaqa Thobekile Nxumalo Chik Aljoy
lawayo Arts Awards. *Mawiza Great Stars Blessing Stokie Outstanding Poet
DJ Cooperman Outstanding Tshibilika/Rhumba Nontokozo Maseko *Desire Moyo
The awards are five years old and Mzoe 7 Act Outstanding Male Dancer Rachel Voko
what an experience it has been since DJ Zandimaz *Insimbi Zezhwane *Hebson Ncube Delah Dube
the journey began under the stew- Outstanding Male Artiste of the Martin and Ndolwane Super Sounds Emmanuel Dove Sox The Poet
ardship of Reason Sibanda ( who Year Madlela Sikhobokhobo Musawenkosi Sawu Outstanding Literary Work – Fic-
went on to helm the Zimbabwe *Msizkay Outstanding Music Producer Michaelle Ndlovu tion
Music Awards), Nkululeko Nkala, Ma9ine *Nash Outstanding Arts Journalist *All Come To Dust by Bryony
Raisedon Baya and Simon Mamba- Xmile Murphy Cubic *Mthabisi Tshuma – The Chronicle Rheam
zo Phiri.  There were naysayers and Madlela Nite Freak Sharon Sibindi – Newsday Where Were You By Erica Gwetai
the corporate world did not initial- Vusa Mkhaya Outstanding Music Video Sithokozile Sibanda – Ilanga Novoric & Suri By Nathaniel Mpofu
ly bite except for a few critical ones Outstanding Female Artiste of the *"Induku Enhle" – X Mile Langelihle Mabhena – B Metro Malberry Dreams Violette Kee-Tui
such as United Refineries (which Year "Wongo" – Mamozi Outstanding Arts Photographer Outstanding Literary Work –
has been the title sponsor all these *Vuyo Brown "Buyisa" - DJ Yugoe ft. Babongile *Sadee LensWorks Non-Fiction
years). Others have since signed on. Mai Mwamuka "Mjolo the Pandemic" – Mzoe 7 Veins Media *Our Food, Our Heritage, Our Cul-
In the media, yours truly with the Awa "Thandy Dlana" – Butterfly Puzzle Moments ture by Makhosi Mahlangu
full backing of my editor Dumisani Sandra Ndebele Outstanding Radio DJ Outstanding Online Media Lupane by Obert Dube
Muleya took out a full page to do DJ Zandimaz *Nomalanga Nyathi – ZIFM *Ekasi Magazine Spell of My Pigment by Thabitha
our bit in my column at my former Outstanding Alternative Music Miss Tee – Khulumani FM Fokus Magazine Williams and Tapiwanashe Pama-
client’s paper. It is gratifying to see *Thandy Dlana CDE Phil – Khulumani FM Ingudukazi Magazine chete
a city that does not have much else Xmile Khekhe – Skyz Metro Outstanding Theatre Actress Outstanding Ndebele Literary
by way of industries celebrating its Ma9ine Outstanding Club DJ *Musawenkosi Sibanda Work
cultural product. The hope is that we Mahlaba *DJ Mzoe Nomvelo Bhehane *Ngubani Owabulalala uDube by
will export this content to the world. Fab G Mshanakagogo DJ Prince Eskhosini Rejoice Zivengwa Mihla Sitsha
The hope remains that someday we Kyla Black DJ Crazy De Outstanding Theatre Actor Icala Labokhokho by Zibusiso Ma-
will help catalyse tourists to the city Outstanding Gospel Artiste/Act Outstanding Dance Ensemble *Cadrick Msongelwa bonisa
through the existence of a vibrant *Mai Mwamuka *Geek Twins Mzingaye Ngwabi Lakanye Wangenza by Mthokozisi
cultural life in the manner of, say, a Pauline Njini Ezimnyama Dance Ensemble John Mabuyane Dube
Las Vegas or even Hollywood. The One Spirit Choir Khaya Arts Outstanding Theatre Production Outstanding Fashion Designer/
talent is clearly available. Amanda Grace Outstanding Female Dancer *Bhalagwe Is Burning by Victory Si- House
Outstanding Imbube/Acapella *Dorcas Ngwenya yanqoba *A Tribe Called Zimbabwe
There were several  notable win- Group/Act Bakhari
ners and standout moments. I was *Focus Accapella Kingsville Clothing
particularly impressed by Awa's win. Sozinio
Born Awakhiwe Sibanda, the Aus- Outstanding Model
trian-based rapper took the thunder *Ben Chest
from a formidable line-up of nom- Ayanda Candice
inees such as Mlu Jay, Luminous Celine Sialumba
(whose performance at the awards Melusi Clemence Mlauzi
is one of the true standout moments Outstanding Ambassador (world-
of the evening). Mai Mwamuka won wide)
two awards in the Outstanding Gos- *Vusa Mkhaya
pel Artistes category and the People’s Ernest Phosa Ndlovu
Choice Award which stunningly Oliver Keith
included a house in Cowdray Park Outstanding TV Production/Pro-
suburb as a prize. So that was really gramme
something. Persoanlly, I was rooting *Mjolo FM – Byo Memes
for Sandra Sibanda as the best new The Wave – AfriArt
comer and she snagged it. I do have Outstanding Short Film
an upcoming interview which I did *Figure It Out – Nkosilesisa Ncube
with her a few months ago. The fol- Family Secret – Zizo Motion Pic-
lowing is the list of winners: tures
18 Months Later – Heart FX Studios
Outstanding Hip-Hop Artiste/Act Day 44 – Mgcini Nyoni
*Awa
Mlue Jay Outstanding Film/TV Actress
Msizkay *Lee Mchoney – Wadiwa Wepamoyo
MUSE Charmaine Mudawu – Figure In Out
Rockie Doub Lady Tshawe – Day 44
Luminous Outstanding Film/TV Actor
*Leroy Mthulisi Ndlovu – Figure it
Newcomer of the Year (all genres) Out
*Sandra Sibanda Braydan Danny Moyo – 18 Months
Lemoniq Later
Chuchu Rowamello Ngwenya – Family Secret
Mamozi People’s Choice Award
Babongile Sibanda *Mai Mwamuka
Life Achievement Award
Outstanding Song of the Year *Herbert Chitambo known as Ebba
*"For Me" – DJ Zandimaz Chitambo 
"Ngekebang'mele" – Awa
"Masiyephambili" – Vusa Mkhaya
& Various Byo Artistes
"Umona" – Madlela ft. Mcheznana,
Blue rose & Siza Mdlongwa
"Fab G" – Nomvula
"Imbemba" – Insimbi Zezhwan
"Hinde" – Nite Freak

Outstanding Kwaito/House/

Page 44 Book Review NewsHawks

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

Excavating the role of Africans in
the creation of the modern world

IN early September 2021, a statue of pletely skips this era. This was one of subsequently the European, diet; and How much of this was foreordained? complexity involved. But a couple of
Robert E Lee, who fought on the losing my primary motivations in writing this gave English workers, and subsequently How much of it is fated to be semi-per- things stand out to me. 
confederate side of the American Civil book. I make the argument that the other European workers, the caloric ba- manent or much longer lasting? 
War, was taken down in Richmond, primary impetus behind the creation sis to increase their productivity. There One of them is that Africa in the late
Virginia, the former capital of the con- of the modern world, as we understand were new crops in great quantities, like Because questions like these were Middle Ages — and, indeed, in the ear-
federacy. Lee had good company. Two it — and for Europe’s separation, polit- coffee and cocoa, a bit later tea, together in the air everywhere I went in Asia, it ly modern era — was in the process of
months earlier, in São Paulo, protesters ically and economically speaking, from with sugar, which is the most important helped to jar me, or jostle some of the quite advanced state formation in some
set fire to the statue of Borba Gato, a other previously more powerful parts economic product of this entire era.  big picture questions I had about the At- places. Kingdoms in present-day Gha-
17th century Portuguese “fortune hunt- of the world — was not the complex of lantic world that that were partly an out- na, Nigeria — what is commonly called
er”, who enslaved indigenous Brazilians. Judeo-Christian ideas nor the Protestant They utterly transformed the civic growth of my personal experience, and Sudanic Africa — were among them.
A statue of Belgium’s King Leopold II in work ethic, or even the scientific meth- culture, through the creation of the cof- got me to think on a longer timescale, in The other big example is Kongo, spelled
Antwerp had a similar fate. From Co- od.  fee shop, which is another outgrowth historical terms, about how it happened with a K, and there are others. 
lombia to New Zealand, South Africa to of African slave labour. Africans grew that the West rose the way it did. 
France, statues, busts, plaques and other I don’t say that because I don’t think the coffee. Africans grew the sugar that The speculative counterfactual an-
memorials tied to the history of enslave- there was nothing at all to these things. made the coffee palatable. Suddenly When I scratched around the story swer to your question that seems most
ment and colonisation have been pulled But that’s all we heard for the past 500 then, newspapers thrived in the coffee of Africa’s role in this, I saw that having persuasive to me is that if Africa had
down.  years, to such a degree that it smothers shop, because for the first time you had Africa or Africans at its disposal turns not had the accidental history of the
out everything else; so much so, that a captive audience of people who, in- out to have been the primary reason 15th and 16th century, whereby the
In Born in Blackness, Howard French, we have lost sight of what is hiding in stead of being drunk in a tavern, are sit- why Europe, and subsequently what we Portuguese and, subsequently, other Eu-
career foreign correspondent and for- plain sight: that it was the expropriation ting around drinking stimulants, and a call the West, came to be ascendant over ropean powers, begin to engage south
mer New York Times bureau chief in the of billions and billions of man hours of culture of discussion of the affairs of the the East. The East didn’t have an entire of the Sahara — first to trade for large
Americas, Africa and Asia scrutinises the African labour, and the seizure and ex- day based on published information, continent whose resources, both natural quantities of gold, and then seduced Af-
received history of “the West”. He fills in propriation of millions of square miles known as the newspaper, takes root for and human, it could train to its own rican powers into the trade in slaves; if
crucial gaps and pulls down the assump- of territory, in the so-called New World, the very first time. purposes. It only had its own resources those things had not happened, Africa
tions, narratives, and myths that exclude that gave Europeans the wherewithal and its own labour.  as a continent, especially the Atlantic
Africans and Africa from the formation that forms the very basis of the creation How did you embark on this book part of the continent, would have been
of the modern world. Anakwa Dwame- of the West  —  by which I mean the in the first place? I say that if Europe had not had the afforded much more time and space to
na spoke to French about this and other condominium between Europe and the benefit of [Africa’s] natural resources, advance or to continue this process of
themes from his book. New World. It’s really a combination of factors. and then subsequent centuries of Afri- state formation. 
The first is the remarkable personal can labour, Europe would have been a
This book challenges the common The creation of this West would have coincidence that I have worked in pro- marginal player in world history in the In the book I also make a very de-
narrative of the historical relationship been utterly impossible, unthinkable, longed ways in so many parts of the era that’s under discussion. I don’t mean tailed argument about the demographic
between Europe and Africa, particu- without the expert expropriation of world that serve as the backdrop for this to say by this, however, that Europeans effects of the slave trade. Here, I’m mak-
larly the idea that European nations these billions and billions of man hours history. So I would have to have been a had no talents or no qualities, or that ing a political argument that if Africa
were presumptively somehow always of labour. I go into some degree of de- pretty insensitive person not to have be- they wouldn’t have had their own fair had been afforded more space and time
superior to their African counter- tail about not just the crude creation of gun to try to stitch together a big picture share of achievements. in that critical era, then African states
parts — whether in wealth, scientific wealth and power in Europe’s ascent, of these things. would have continued on their develop-
knowledge, state power or technolo- but also the effects of all of this on Euro- Without this drain of natural re- ment and probably would have emerged
gy. I was struck by a point you make, pean society and culture; and on English I also spent more than a decade work- sources and labour, what level of de- much larger and more extensive — geo-
that the high demand for guns from first, and, subsequently, British society ing in East Asia, and one of the mostly velopment would you imagine the graphically speaking — as well as more
the African states, for instance, actu- and culture.  silent, but ever-present sentiments or African continent could have been populous and, therefore, more powerful
ally fuelled and, ultimately, led to Eu- ideas that runs through societies there capable of? and more capable of resisting or holding
rope’s mastery of the technology. Especially, in the period before the has to do with Asia’s relationship to the their ground, vis-à-vis European pow-
Industrial Revolution, in which I say, West. Why is it that the West became as- All right, so this is a question that ers. If the contact had come later, one
Most of what we are taught about for example, the effects of all of the cendant at the time that it did? Especial- fascinates me, and that I first began to can imagine a scenario whereby maybe
African history — and, indeed, about newly abundant and cheap calories de- ly given that East Asia’s civilisations are explore in my very first book, A Conti- gun technology would have spread in
the history of the modern era, and the rived from African labour in the New older and had long been richer. What nent for the Taking. We can’t really say Africa. Buying guns from other places,
history of the Atlantic world — com- World revolutionised the English, and brought that about? What was innate anything with certainty with big picture but maybe, also, the development of
to Western versus Eastern civilisation? counterfactuals about how things would
have worked out. There’s just too much

NewsHawks Book Review Page 45

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

guns made in Africa, because there were I discovered the correspondence be- and what it means to fight a war.  chains.  times found it attractive to disclaim or
quite exquisite metal-working capabili- tween the king of Kongo, and the king So the French didn’t really know Cotton became, in a shockingly brief express a disdain for members of the Af-
ties on the continent. of Portugal; in it, the king of Kongo is rican diaspora, especially African Amer-
more or less imploring the king of Por- what they were getting into in that period of time, the world’s most import- icans. Yes, they can consume some of
You express surprise, on arrival at tugal to suspend the slave trade. He’s sense. When the Haitian Revolution ant commodity, and the only commod- the culture here and there at the margin.
important historical sites — wheth- saying to the king of Portugal: I thought came together, those capacities and ex- ity that other countries were basically But there’s this petty chauvinism that
er in Ghana, or Barbados or the Ca- we were brothers. But now, what’s hap- periences were a resource for people like desperate to buy from the US. one still comes across: where Africans
nary Islands — at how little locals are pening is by the avarice of your people, Toussaint L’Ouverture, who was able to talk about African Americans and peo-
aware of their own histories. What did you’re destroying my kingdom. And the lead these black armies to extraordinary It was the largest export of the US, ple in other parts of the African diaspora
this suggest to you about our current king of Portugal replies, listen, that’s too and history-making political victories incomparably greater than any other as inferior or fundamentally different
understanding of the world we live in? bad. I’m terribly sorry. But people are against a series of white armies. product from the beginning of the 19th from them, or irrelevant to their lives.
the only thing that you have that we val- century until the Civil War. 
I talked about going to places like ue, and we wish to purchase them. Any other themes or regions we ha- I say this is a self-inflicted wound, be-
Barbados — which was the first place ven’t touched on that you would like That cotton, which was essential to cause it is so tragic. The greatest resource
that Britain or, at the time England, ini- But when I got to work on this book, to share a bit more about? England, and its Industrial Revolution, that Africans and Africans in the dias-
tiated its plantation complex, and where and dove into the archives, I discovered was produced by the descendants of pora have is each other. Understanding
extraordinary wealth starts to be pro- a much thicker history even than I had I guess there’s one thing that we ha- people brought from Africa in chains, their history, which is a common histo-
duced from the fruits of African labour suspected back then. The Portuguese ar- ven’t really talked about, and that is the enslaved peoples, and so cotton in this ry, is the way to grasp that and to res-
— and being stunned by the absence rived in Kongo just a few years after they history of the US itself. We don’t learn era replaces sugar and is the most im- titch the world back together with more
of monuments in what is now and has arrived in Elmina. When the Portuguese about how the Haitian Revolution ut- portant factor in the driving of this as- coherence; a world where we take on a
been, for some time, an independent come ashore, it becomes clear to the terly changed the course of American cension of the West and the rise of the deeper understanding of the profound
country, with a government run by peo- Kongolese that the Portuguese have as history. It made Napoleon, who had US as an economic power, as well as the ways in which our histories have always
ple who are descendants of Africans.  a Christian religious symbol, the cross. ambitions on many fronts, desperate to deepening of the Industrial Revolution been intertwined. 
Well, by extraordinary coincidence, it liquidate his enormous position in con- in Great Britain.
This created a shock of awareness in appears that the cross was already one tinental America. He sold the territory We share responsibility for the cre-
me. I’m American, and I’m deeply fa- of the most important religious symbols that comprises the Louisiana Purchase You argue for a reappraisal of the ation of everything you can point to in
miliar with the lack of that very thing in in the Kongolese religion at the time. for a pittance, to the US, and essentially African’s role in the creation of moder- the world. And that is our product as
my own society. I also found that when I So on this basis, the Kongolese are in- created a nearly continental-size country nity. What do you hope to see come much as it is of a Judeo-Christian thing,
went to Brazil, home to the largest black trigued enough to be seduced into an called the US.  out of engagement with this work? or a scientific method thing, or a Protes-
population of any society outside Africa.  initiation into Christianity.  tant work ethic thing, or any other thing
Americans talk of the expansion to a I think that we have an opportunity that you can point to.
I go to Ghana, which played such a A church is built very quickly there. continental-size country in terms of the now to overcome something inflicted
foundational role in the creation of the The Portuguese take a few Kongolese pluck and the courage and willingness on us, but also something that involves For our own good, we need to come
world — the world that is at the heart back to Europe, and train them in Por- to conquer “the untamed West”. But a degree of self-infliction, through to that realisation and begin to work
of my book — and a society that, in the tuguese. And then they visit the Kongo- this all begins with Haiti. short-sightedness and sometimes petty across the ocean and build and restore
past 70 years, has played a foundational lese capital, M’banza Kongo. Political chauvinism. African Americans, for a those bridges.
role in the creation of the modern pol- relations are established. All the Kongo- Once this happens, the Mississippi very long time, have been disinclined
itics of independence for Africa. But, lese royalty begin to learn Portuguese, River Valley becomes a site of econom- to be deeply interested in Africa. In a That is vital to reclaiming or restoring
even in Ghana, there is very little aware- become fluent in the language and lit- ic exploitation on a very large scale by previous era, we were actually actively our proper place in each of these scat-
ness of the true nature of the beginnings erature, and use the language as a means white people. encouraged to be disinterested in Africa tered parts of the Atlantic world in the
of this world; very little public effort at of mastering Christianity and in gov- and, furthermore, to be ashamed of Af- bigger, broader world.
remembrance, and of celebration and ernment. The Kongolese king sends all These territories became the focus rica; to seek to distance ourselves from
exploration of this history.  kinds of envoys, including his children of cotton cultivation. And cotton cul- Africa.  This is an edited version of an arti-
and the children of other nobles, to go tivation, like sugar cultivation, was cle first published by Africa is a Coun-
This created a pain, and urgency, as to school in Europe.  performed by black people, the descen- By the same token, Africans have, try.
a person of African descent, to speed dants of people brought from Africa in through some strange process, some-
up this excavation and to become more Kongolese priests begin to be or-
active in the digging up of this history; dained by the Catholic Church, and
to become more willing to probe deeply by the Vatican itself. There are bishops
into the past, or the beginnings of the serving as representatives in the Vatican.
modern age, and to cast off the very pat They acquire an understanding of the
explanations we have about how we ar- statecraft of Portugal, and of other Eu-
rived at this moment. Erasure is mostly ropean countries. There’s no question
not an active, or certainly not a violent whether the Portuguese could conquer
thing. It’s mostly a subliminal thing.  these people. The Portuguese had no
ability to project force in anything like
African Americans have for centu- the numbers that would have been re-
ries been taught versions of history that quired to conquer anybody.
write their ancestors out of the picture.
Through a series of images and arche- Reading this section, I couldn’t
types that are present in literature, and help but think about how a number
advertising, and entertainment, and one of enslaved people came directly to
thing after another, we have been sub- the New World with firsthand expe-
liminally induced to devalue ourselves, rience in confronting European pow-
or our ancestors and their role in build- ers. You talk a bit about this too in the
ing the world that we all live in. So this section on the Haitian Revolution.
notion that our ancestors might have
played a really important role in build- This is another one of these pow-
ing the modern world is something that erful coincidences that make history
is building momentum.  so fascinating. The eventual success of
the Haitian Revolution was probably,
WEB du Bois helped to start this re- in part helped, by the fact that many
flection off a century ago, but we’re only of the Africans who were imported to
just now achieving some momentum; Haiti, as enslaved peoples, in the 18th
century came from areas in Africa that
we’re excavating our way out of this had advanced states involved in very
deep hole, where we, as people of color, complicated warfare. 
allow ourselves to be invested in under-
standing these stories and to reassess our As the commonly received story of
own central role in the building of the slavery in the West would have it, Af-
world.  ricans had few qualities, except their
being able to work in hot conditions
The time has come to finally bring bending over cropland, producing
those stories to a broader public and commodities for Europe. But these Af-
force a reckoning in terms of under- ricans — who came from nearby part
standing that the modern world was not of what is now Angola, and from places
built just by Europeans — based on the like Benin and Nigeria, and in Ghana,
most positive kinds of European values for example — all had experiences of-
that we are all taught to celebrate — and ten directly of having been subjects of
to respect that a lot more was involved. pretty advanced states. So they had an
awareness of not just what it meant to
Let’s talk about Kongo with a K, be free as an individual, but to be part
which you spend quite some time on. of a polity that was independent and
It completely blew my mind, as a pre- self-governed. 
colonial state that had longstanding,
equal diplomatic relations with Eu- On top of that, they had an experi-
rope and the Vatican until being un- ence in many of these examples, espe-
done by internal wars of succession. cially the ones I’ve just cited of Kongo,
Angola, Benin, and Nigeria, places in
I first encountered this as a foreign Dahomey, for example, and in Ghana,
correspondent working for  The New of intense and highly organised warfare.
York Times, covering the Mobutu pe- They already had really complicated
riod in then Zaire [after Mobutu was ideas about how the world is made up,
overthrown in 1997, a new government what it means to be a free person, and
changed the name of the country to the what it means to have your own polity
Democratic Republic of the Congo].
And the story of this kingdom has been
with me ever since in a haunting, per-
sistent way. 

Page 46 Life & Style NewsHawks

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

Poet: Temba Munsaka Title: Away from the Gourd Title: Precious Rain
Title: The Hermit POET: Ngugi Wamkirii Poet: Herbert Chiweshe (jindadzi)

By the confluence of the two great rivers, Soft sounds, The anxious farmer
Stood an Abbey, As in the alleys of heaven, Looks up at the skies
Its monolithic structure towered above the Drill through my sinews. Looks at withered crops
squib environs. The plop-plombing enigmatic sounds, There is turmoil
The stone walls gave it a rustic appearance Of the gourd's magical poetry, In his troubled mind
like the Khami Ruins. Are but distant. Sojourning the silent valleys, Where is the rain?
There was a recluse that dwelt at the Hermit- Away from the gourd, I felt an important part of The skies are so plain!
age in the hermitary! me was missing. Marooned in the dark sands, Where is the fertile cloud?
His hermitary was by the plains in the kingdom Of Mat South, Sweating on the fringes of hefty What happened to the auspicious bird?
of the Tonga people. loneliness, Cut away from my very lifeline, Haya, Is this not its name?
His name was the Demented Scribe, Away from the gourd. How I wished the fairies When last was its tentative cry heard?
A descendant of great piety, of the gourd, Would fly-by, This dry spell,
and poetic romanticism. And make me drink a few tots from the keg, Reminiscent of the spell
He was a recluse, Or at least suckle at her succulent breasts. Of January yesteryear,
sequestered from converse. Caged in the mesh of loneliness, Will torment many souls
He was a spirit Man; Breathing in the quire of daft existence, Who, year upon year,
always chanting. I felt the cold, Away from the gourd. Embrace the perennial risk,
Some called him anchorite, No feeling transcends a disconnection, Of the uncertainty
yet romantics called him the poet, Not volunteered or willed, Of season and rain.
In religious circles, he was called the teacher, But fated, The beautiful chimes of sad and Who shall give rein?
Literature enthusiasts called him the scholar, sweet eulogies, The sunshine I found pleasure To the skies?
his foes called him the demented scribe, in, Basking and drinking, And give command, to the reluctant rain
politicians called him the hermit, Under the fiery shadows of the Aries Rages, clouds,
but my people called him the eremite! The Demented Scribes and the lethal venom To release the precious, reviving and revit-
His abode was in the Abbey, of the Mamba. Possibly I am a prodigal son, alising
by the place and time where Azambezia met Marooned like a disarmed combatant, Long-awaited rains?
its tributary, Sengwa, Feeling lost, Away from the Gourd.
A great spiritual union of the white and muddy Tracing my footprints back, ***********************************************
waters!; It was said that he was celibate; The blueprint lost not,
like his forefathers before him, The signature quite clear, Title: This Poem
all of them; the great gatekeepers, No more shall I be, Away from the Gourd Poet: Tafadzwa Chiwanza.
that he had never tasted the sweet nectary’s of
a blooming woman, *********************************************** This poem is like chewing an unpeeled
that he had never seen a damsel without orange.
apparels,; I cried when my ears heard such Title: Our nature It runs havoc on the tongue like a dosage
melancholic news; There was no heaven for Poet: Rutendo Chikande from a mad doctor:
those that denied nature its recompense! Tastes like soil when the rains are shy to
I eavesdropped on my sisters gossiping, The earth turns into the sky of night come down.
they spoke of him as if he was the only man in Lamps like stars in lustrous into glow twinkle Tastes like drought!
the kingdom, that he was a ruddy, rugged and bright; Homes are brides in splashes of light Rawness! Rawness! Rawness!
handsome imam, Children lit up crackers in mighty heart The poem is spread like virgin legs before
Their voices were excited whispers as if he A rocket springs from ground to sky us, With its warm thighs directing us to a
was a god, damsels frolicked over his religious Soars high in eagles flight to Zimbabwe Religious ending.
romanticism, perhaps for more! They roar and sing on their lips Religious freedom!
But to be honest, Hidden somewhere for his golden eve Many a writers have tried to write this
I cared less for a hermit! The banana trees on every doorstep poem, they dressed it in bomber jackets,
Adapted from, “Disjointed Rhythm: Reflections Girl with flowers ready to greet sweaters and boots and face masks,
of a Demented Scribe” Pulsing hearts of love on every guest shades, and condoms,
Through clouds of smoke lasts fear and everything that keeps the poem-
Sound breaks our peaceful slumber from sounding like this one here!
We don't spend our money for the poor
We must learn our ignorance next year
Goddess of wealth blink from heaven
Glides down to earth with divine bliss
Light is life brightening their clouded sails

NewsHawks People & Places Page 47

Issue 56, 12 November 2021

Nissan Zim unveils Navara bakkie

THE 2021 Nissan Navara has made a huge splash on the Zimbabwean motoring scene posing fierce com-
petition in the 1-tonne market. The all new Nissan Navara build on the solid base of the Nissan NP300
and NP200 bakkies and has been designed, for Africa by Africa with its sophisticated and technologically
advanced features that provide for quality and comfort for discerning customers.

Like the tag line suggests, #NissanNextExperience, the new Nissan Navara is built for more, the load
box is enhanced while the interior is all the more stunning with detailed features such as the digital display
on the dashboard and also the new LED lights in the front. The unmistakable grill also gives the car that
rugged but well defined outlook. As always the launch in Zimbabwe was more special as car enthusiasts and
the media took a ride to Nyanga at the Troutbeck Resort just to put the new baby to test. The new Nissan
Navara has a rugged and bold design — as the Navara is known to have while maintaining the fundamental
ask of their customers for versatility, quality and durability.

Property
NewsHawks

Issue 56, 12 November 2021 PROPERTY INTERIORS ARCHITECTURE GARDENING Page 48

The home of prime property: [email protected]

Boon for vendors, informal traders

A major development is taking place at the intersection of Kirkman Road and Harare Drive in Hara-
re. The building slowly taking shape is for vendors and informal traders. — Pictures: Aaron Ufumeli

NewsHawks Sport Page 49

Issue 56, 12 November 2021 Sables face challenge of
the ‘unknown’ in Brazil
ENOCK MUCHINJO
known for their rugby – as simply a The winner of Sunday’s match at the scrumhalf. Brazil's national rugby team.
ZIMBABWE will on Sunday ven- result of a complex ranking system.  the Stellenbosch Academy of Sport “The camp has gone very well, ZIM SQUAD
ture into completely new territory, will play in the final against the win- Forwards: Tyran Fagan, Deanne
with a historic first international Zimbabwe’s coach, Brendan Daw- ner of the other tie between Namibia you know, we’ve been hosted well Makoni, Royal Mwale, George
rugby match against unheralded son, knows this, and what to expect and Kenya. here in Stellenbosch and the guys Saungweme, Tapiwa Tsomondo, Jor-
Brazil, who have a giant South Af- on Sunday.  are looking to put on a very good dan Coombes, Sean Beevor, Biselele
rican-born loose-forward in their Zimbabwe warmed up against performance this weekend against Tshamala, Cleopas Kundiona, God-
ranks. “Brazil are ranked 27th in the South African side Cheetahs last the Brazilians. frey Muzanargwo, Aiden Burnett,
world and we’re ranked 34th, so weekend. Prop Lawrence Cleminson Tonderai Chiwambutsa, Charles
The match, in Stellenbosch near yeah. It’s going to be a big contest,” sustained a hamstring injury and has “Obviously the first time we will Gamhiwa, Bornwell Gwinji, God-
Cape Town, will be a return to Dawson said. been replaced in the squad by fellow be playing them, but we are very win Mangenje, Victor Mupunga.
these parts for 24-year-old Devon front-rower Bornwell Gwinji. excited and looking forward to the
Muller, a former Natal youth star “But the guys are confident, the challenge ahead. We just want to Backs: Hilton Mudariki (cap-
who will be making his Test debut guys are positive that they can go Sables captain Hilton Mudariki is continue to thank all our supporters tain), Dudlee White-Sharpley, Keith
in his country of birth, having lived and put a correct performance and however confident of the experimen- back home. We miss you, we wish Chiwara, Takudzwa Chieza, Darrel
in Brazil for the past five years and make it right, make sure they take tal side. you were in the stands supporting Makwasha, Takudzwa Kumadiro,
qualifies on ancestry.  the game to the Brazilians and beat us, but we know that you’re support- Riaan O’Neill, Brandon Mudzek-
them. We are confident in our struc- “Everyone is pushing for a posi- ing us from far. We feel the love and enyedzi, Shingi Katsvere, Martin
Just like Zimbabwe, Brazil will tures, in our approach, so hopefully tion and trying to make the coach’s continue supporting the Sables.” Mangongo, Tapiwa Mafura.  
be playing without their strongest the outcome will be good.” job tough in terms of selection,” said
squad in this World Rugby-sanc-
tioned four match tournament
which also involves Namibia and
Kenya.

A notable absentee for Os Tupis,
as Brazil’s rugby team is nicknamed,
is star flyhalf Josh Reeves. Another
of the South Americans’ naturalised
players, Reeves hails from Christ-
church, New Zealand, and has lived
in Sâo Paulo for a sustained period
before earning eligibility for Brazil.
In November 2019, Reeves played
for Brazil against a touring Barbar-
ians side that included Springbok
legend Tendai “Beast” Mtawarira.

So, rugby in Brazil might be only
a growing sport, but it is a fast-grow-
ing one.

Although the Brazilians are huge-
ly competitive in the Americas re-
gion in recent times, they have not
yet qualified for the sport’s biggest
stage, the World Cup.

They are however very serious
about their rugby and their national
side is slowing getting international
recognition.

Os Tupis are ranked 27 in the
world, seven places above Zimba-
bwe, who have a much richer heri-
tage in the sport and are two-time
World Cup participants.  

But the peculiarity of rankings
stems from such factors as the qual-
ity of regional or continental oppo-
sition teams, and the amount of Test
matches countries play per year.

All the same, having considered
all factors mentioned above, one
cannot merely dismiss Brazil’s world
ranking – ahead of countries better

MAKING his first-class debut for Dealing with a sensitive friends with Rafiq in the past, and that
Mashonaland in 2000, a gifted bowl- subject for a better world it was all just friendly banter. He says in
ing all-rounder – who never got to play the friendly exchanges, Rafiq also called
international cricket for Zimbabwe – the captain, a senior white player who the trauma it causes is great. Under it is out of sheer naivety on the part of him a “Zimbo from Zimbabwe”. This
experienced an incident that left him was a Zimbabwe international, deliv- whatever circumstances, the comments the offender, who in some instances has all been rejected by the ECB. As a
feeling dehumanised and hurt.  ered a pep talk that left the young new- made by that cap- consider their result, Yorkshire have been suspended
comer broken. The verbatim, which he tain were extremely actions to be and their Headingly ground at Leeds
Transformation was a hot topic in remembered well, was: “Let’s go and unacceptable and harmless.  closed for internationals such as Tests.
Zimbabwean cricket those days, and give it our best, boys. There are people despicable.    For in- Sponsors have been lost and the cost to
silent quotas had been introduced at who aren’t supposed to be here, they In the wake of HawkZone stance, Gary Yorkshire is put at US$140 million. It
both provincial and national team know themselves. But when we go out the Black Lives Ballance, the could mean the end, or certainly the
levels, to embody the demography of in the middle, let’s just perform.” Matter movement, Zimbabwe- long-time disappearance of a great Brit-
the country. Of course, where there is and revelations an-born for- ish sporting institution.
change inevitably there will be some Not one to grumble easily or wave of past racist in- Enock mer England
resistance. So instead of picking more the race card at will – but that moment cidents in sport batsman, The whole business and its back-
players of colour to spread the game, as was a harsh reality of life for a young across the globe, Muchinjo who has been ground is astonishing. Calling some-
the intention was, selectors stuck to the player who had played in a multi-racial body a "Zimbo" is so inoffensive and
mandatory two to three black players to school team, was comfortable around Zimbabweans will in the eye of should be laughable, depending on
defuse political pressure. everybody in that group and made also have stories to a storm after the attitude of whoever said it. Calling
friendships to last a lifetime across the tell, not to reopen admitting to somebody a “Rhodie" likewise. That is
So on this particularly day, three racial divide. In cricket, the margin be- old wounds, but to reconcile with the racial slurs against ex-Yorkshire team- actually a badge of pride among veter-
black players had been picked for tween winning and losing is very small.  past for the sake of the future. mate, Azeem Rafiq. He called him a ans in that community. 
Mashonaland, two of them rookies One bad selection, a weak link in the Racism is not a nice subject, but one “P***”, which is a racially offensive
who probably were not ready for the chain, can cost the whole team dearly. that cannot be swept under the carpet. term in Britain. The sensitivity of race is massive and
big setup, and owed their selection to But the sensitivity of race is huge and Forms of racism differ, and a lot of Ballance claims he has been good frightening in many ways, destroying
forceful administrators who had decid- many innocent and harmless inter-ra-
ed to go for broke to counter the sys- cial interactions.  The fact is that racial-
tematic resistance.  ism is on the rise because of a reverse
reaction developing.
Tension in the changing room was
high before the match, this former If openly speaking about it helps
player told me, and as the team hud- eradicate this despicable scourge, I am
dled together before taking to the field, all for it. 

Sports Cara wins Fan
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South Africa's scorer Teboho Mokena battles for possession with Zimbabwe star midfielder Marvelous Nakamba on Thursday evening.

ENOCK MUCHINJO of contention for a place at the World historic first World Cup appearance, hunt for a place in Qatar.  Earlier in Broos, have moved three points clear
Cup, a fixture against rivals South Af- interest at home was widespread, that the day, Ethiopia, no-hoppers just like of Ghana with one round of match re-
ZIMBABWE’S disastrous World Cup rica, who are still in with a chance and ALnaStexlOeta-dstIoNtohreSnWIeDiagrhErbioorus rcsoFauinnlddadtnhisrcrouewptMstphaiennir-istyhZwuimgiebpafaebvwsoeuo,ruihntanG$d3reo.du2pBSGoilulatifhotenrAhdfroielcdapinogasitomrasZinifmiunbgnaidbnwsthe ehqoustalEZiftihiemiros.p'sialoanteSsutndlaaynd
qualification campaign has gone from battling against Ghana, was billed as a c
bad to worse with a fourth consecutive
defeat after neighbours South Africa bragging-rights contest for two cousin ners in their work as Bafana bid to re- Ghana to a one-all draw at Orlando whilst Bafana Bafana take on the Gha-
won 1-0 in Johannesburg on Thursday countries that prior to this tie at the turn to the World Cup for the first time Stadium in Johannesburg, following a naians away, in matches that will decide
evening to enhance their chances of FNB Stadium in Johannesburg, share since hosting this grand event in 2010. ban on the East African country’s sta- who goes through to the World Cup
sailing through to the tournament in the spoils in head-to-head statistics. Midfielder Teboho Mokoena’s well- dia, which like Zimbabwe’s, has been qualifiers play-offs from this pool, be-
Qatar next year. The pride at stake in this fixture is placed header on 26 minutes, from deemed substandard by authorities. tween the 2010 World Cup hosts and
high, and even after Zimbabwe’s elim- Keagan Dolly’s pin-point cross, settled With the win over Zimbabwe, Bafa- the Black Stars, one of Africa’s foremost
With the Zimbabweans already out ination for what would have been a the contest and put Bafana Bafana in na, now under Belgian coach Hugo national teams.  

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