NewsHawks 31 March 2023

Price US$1 Friday 31 March 2023 NEWS Mnangagwa gives nod to dirty money deals: Doolan Story on Page 4 NEWS Gold Mafia scandal must be investigated — CCC WHAT’S Story on Page 8 INSIDE SPORT Zimbabwean sport and the numbers game…who has more and why? Story on Page 50 ALSO INSIDE MPs demand answers on Gold Mafia Corrupt govt officials in bid to save judge accused of corruption

Page 2 News NewsHawks Issue 125, 31 March 2023 OWEN GAGARE CORRUPT government officials are manoeuvring to manipulate an anticipated investigation into allegations of misconduct and corruption against High Court judge Webster Chinhamora as he is seen to be pro-government. The Judicial Services Commission (JSC) has recommended that President Emmerson Mnangagwa sets up tribunal to determine Chinamora's suitability to hold office in terms of section 187 of the constitution. The JSC has also recommended that Justice Martin Makonese of the Bulawayo High Court be brought before a tribunal. The NewsHawks understands that a rescue mission is underway for Chinamora in order to save him from the chop. Some governmnet officials, particularly from the Ministry of Justice, however want Chinamora rescued from the chop. Those behind the plot want him to be found guilty of a lesser offence and getaway with a mild reprimant, in the event that the tribunal finds him not fit to continue holding office. A senior Ministry of Justice official told The NewsHawks that corrupt government officials want to use corrupt means to rescue Chinamora from corruption allegations. "Following the recent suspension of the two judges, the JSC has recommended to Mnangagwa that he should appoint a tribunal to investigate Chinamora and Makonese to ascertain the veracity of allegations of misconduct and corruption against them," a Ministry of Justice source said. "The tribunal can either clear them if they are innocent or recommend their dismissal if found guilty. "However, there are some senior government officials who are manoeuvring to ensure that Makonese be found guilty, while Chinamora must be rescued through a slap on the wrist; a mild reprimand because he is seen as pro-system. To save him, they will compile his previous judgments favouring the system to plead his case to be spared dismissal. Imagine using corrupt means to save a judge accused of accusation. That shows corruption is deeply rooted everywhere and in all facets of society and the state, including the judiciary. This is a reflection of the current state of affairs in the country; the state of the nation." Chinamora is seen as pro-government, hence some officials feel he should be rescued from the tribunal at all costs. He has made what are seen as pro-government rulings, the latest being the one contradicting a landmark ruling by Justice Jacob Mafusire, who determined that Statutory Instrument 70 of 2015 and other legislation used by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe with support from the ministry of Finance was unconstitutional. Mafusire ordered the Central Africa Building Society (Cabs) to pay US$142 000 to local architects Penelope Douglas Stone and Richard Harold Stuart Beattie after their money was converted into local currency following the passing of SI 70 of 2015. Cabs was also ordered to pay interest at the rate of 5% per annum from 28 November 2016 — when the money was converted – to the date of payment. The ruling has far-reaching implications for many individuals, organisations and companies whose money was converted into bond notes or RTGS because of SI 70 of 2015 and other predatory legislation. Stone and Beattie own a company trading as Stone/Beattie Studio Partnership and had their savings eroded following the passing of the “illegal laws.” Their victory followed a protracted legal battle which started in 2019. In the landmark ruling, Mafusire set aside part of the law which led to conversion of the duo’s money into local currency. He also granted the order ruling that the Finance minister and the Reserve Bank had improperly interfered with the contractual rights and obligations between the couple and their banker, Cabs, in breach of the constitution. Cabs, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) and Finance minister Mthuli Ncube were cited as first, second and third respondents respectively. The judge also criticised the government over its ever-changing policies, saying the haphazard scenario needed to be explained clearly to the banking public in case they found themselves in a similar situation as the architects. "Before this court, the third respondent (Ncube) has not provided some further insights into the thought process behind the implementation of the measures above, particularly the split of people’s bank balances into Nostro FCAs and RTGS FCAs. “The modalities of the whole process of creating Nostro FCAs and RTGS FCAs and the simultaneous separation of already existing bank balances into USD and RTGS, depending on the source of the deposits, is not properly explained. “The second and third respondents allege that it was left to the individual banks to use the Know Your Customer (KYC) principles and trace the source of the deposits that had flowed into the individual customers’ accounts. But the first respondent has not explained how it actually did it. If the nameless currency was co-mingling with the genuine USD, then perhaps only the banks and the monetary authorities themselves knew. “What all this analysis boils down to is that the second and third respondents, in effecting the currency reforms aforesaid, breached one of the constitutional tenets of good governance as set out in s 3(1)(h) of the Constitution. A government must not make, let alone implement arbitrary decisions,” said the judge. In their application, Stone and Beattie sought an order that Exchange Control Directive No. R120/2018 issued by the Reserve Bank is unconstitutional and invalid as it violates section 71 of the constitution. They also argued that the conversion of their US$142 000 to RTGS142 000 was unconstitutional and invalid as it violates section 71 of the constitution and also applied for an order that Cabs should pay them US$142 000. Stone and Beattie also submitted that the Exchange Control Directive No. RT120/2018 is grossly unreasonable and ultra vires section 35(1) of the Exchange Control Regulations, SI 109 of 1996, and is invalid. The judge ruled the conversion was illegal before he also slapped the respondents with costs. However, hardly a fortnight after the ruling, Chinamora made a surprise ruling which contradicted Mafusire’s findings, leaving a local pensioner, Duncan Hugh Cocksedge, counting his losses after his US$179 000 bank balance domiciled in a Cabs account was wiped out after being wholly converted to local currency through the government’s controversial Exchange Control Directive RT120/2018. Duncan had approached the High Court seeking redress, but his application was thrown out by Chinamora. Chinamora's ruling was a stark departure from that of Mafusire who had determined that some sections relied on by Cabs were in breach of the national constitution and contractual obligations between the applicant and the first respondent. Justice Chinamora averred that it was not for the courts to change “political questions”. The judge also said the regulation of banking activities to achieve economic stability and protect the banking public were the prerogative of the executive. “Put differently, how the government makes policies aimed to achieve monetary stability and incentivise the generation of foreign exchange in the national interest is a political question, best left to the politicians. “Courts in this jurisdiction are familiar with the political questions doctrine and how to deal with a case where this arises. “No basis exists, in my view, for not deferring to the minister who made the policy decision on behalf of the Executive.” He also said Cocksedge had not shown his court that the deposit in his account was realised from offshore or foreign currency cash deposits. He added: “The applicant has not shown that the provisions of the Exchange Control Directive RT120/2018 and the Finance (No.2) Act 2019 are not laws of general application. “As a result, I do not find any merit in the applicant’s argument, and am inclined to dismiss his application.” Cocksedge’s claim was for reimbursement of his US$179 541 by Cabs. He also wanted an order nullifying the Exchange Control Directive No. R120/2018 and the court to declare the provisions of section 22 (1) (b) (d) and (e) of the Finance (No.2) Act 2019 unconstitutional in that they violate sections 71 and 56 of the constitution. At all times, he had a bank account with Cabs (first respondent) and as of 5 December 2016, the balance in his account was US$179 541.45.On 4 May 2016, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), cited as the second respondent, made a policy announcement that it was going to introduce an export incentive in the form of bond notes. Prior to that, the RBZ had issued bond coins to complement the multi-currency system. The policy statement dated 4 May 2016 said the RBZ had acquired a US$200 million foreign currency export facility to cater for the hgh demand for foreign exchange and provide an incentive facility of up to 5% on all foreign exchange receipts, including proceeds from tobacco and gold sales. Further to the policy statement, through an Extraordinary Government Gazette, the President enacted the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Amendment of the Reserve Bank Act. Conscious of loss of value on his account, Cocksedge wrote to Cabs on 6 December 2016 asking the bank to preserve his account and not to deposit any more funds. He wrote again on 2 June 2020 demanding payment of US$179 541.45 but the payment was not made. In his alternative claim, Cocksedge said the conduct of the RBZ and the Finance minister was “unlawful, grossly unreasonable and irrational”. He said the changes in law, effectively amount to unlawful and unconstitutional expropriation of value. Consequently, he submitted that these actions violated the provisions of sections 56 (1) and 71 of the constitution of Zimbabwe. Cabs did not dispute that Cocksedge had deposited US$179 541.45 before February 2023. The bank said its banking services are regulated by the RBZ, adding that it had no disputes with the latter. The bank also argued that it never made a secret or undue profit from Cocksedge’s deposit but was also affected by the changes in the economy and the monetary environment. Cabs refrained from commenting on the unlawfulness or constitutionality of the Exchange Control directive and said if the court were to find that payment was to be made to the applicant in US dollars, it should be indemnified by the RBZ and the minister. Political plot to corrupt judiciary Justice Webster Chinamora

NewsHawks News Page 3 Issue 125, 31 March 2023 OWEN GAGARE THE Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has recommended that President Emmerson Mnangagwa sets up tribunals to investigate the suitability of Justice Martin Makonese of the Bulawayo High Court and Justice Webster Chinamora of the Harare High Court to continue holding office following allegations of misconduct against the two. If the recommendation is implemented as expected, they will be the latest to face tribunals after Justices Thompson Mabhikwa, Erica Ndewere, Francis Bere and Edith Mushore, who were all fired for misconduct over the last three years. The complaint against Makonese follows an order he issued in a commercial dispute in which he allegedly had a financial interest. He made the order without an application made before him, and without the knowledge of lawyers of the two other parties in the dispute. The complaint against Chinamora was filed by Advocate Thabani Mpofu. A panel set up by the JSC to review the complaint comprising judges Anne-Marie Gowora, Alfas Chitakunye and Custom Kachambwa concluded that Chinamora has a case to answer. Mpofu filed a complaint in a case in which another attorney, Advocate Taona Nyamakura, lodged a complaint against Chinamora for alleged conflict of interest in a legal dispute between Zimbabwe’s Delta Beverages (Pvt) Ltd, Schweppes Zimbabwe Ltd and Blakey Plastics (Pty) Ltd, a South African company. Chinamora was already facing a series of accusations ranging from conflict of interest, judicial misconduct, bribery to different forms of corruption. In terms of section 187 of the constitution, a judge can only be removed from office for inability to perform the functions of his or her office, due to mental or physical incapacity; gross incompetence or gross misconduct. A judge can only be removed from office in terms of the section. Sub-section 3 stipulates: “If the Judicial Service Commission advises the President that the question of removing any judge, including the Chief Justice, from office ought to be investigated, the President must appoint a tribunal to inquire into the matter.” Sub-section 4 reads: "A tribunal appointed under this section must consist of at least three members appointed by the President, of whom– (a) at least one must be a person who — (i) has served as a judge of the Supreme Court or High Court in Zimbabwe; or (ii) holds or has held office as a judge of a court with unlimited jurisdiction in civil or criminal matters in a country whose common law is Roman-Dutch or English, and English is an officially recognised language.” The tribunal, in accordance with the constitution, must report its findings to the President and recommend whether or not the judge should be removed from office. The NewsHawks understands that Chinamora has been lobbying in government circles and within the JSC for him to stay on, while Makonese had offered to resign. Makonese handled a dispute over a coal mine in Hwange pitting a company called Philcool Investments, which was the “applicant”, and two other companies, Hwange Coal Gasification and Taiyuan Sanxing, who were the “respondents” during the hearing purportedly held on 12 October 2022. He allegedly granted the companies relief they had not sought — including ordering them to abandon pending court applications, which suppliers to use and structuring payment terms to resolve the dispute. Allegations are that no such hearing took place. Representatives of Philcool Investments tried to enforce the order, but failed. The complaint against Chinamora followed a complaint by Mpofu, representing Delta Beverages and Schweppes Zimbabwe in a legal dispute with the South African company Blakey Plastics. Justice Chinamora was the judge in the matter in which he ruled in favour of Blakey Plastics which was resisting the cancellation of its contract to supply Delta with plastic materials over five years. A letter of complaint to the JSC by Mpofu stated that after he filed an appeal at the Supreme Court against Chinamora’s judgement, Blakey Plastics approached another lawyer, Advocate Taona Nyamakura, and asked for his opinion on the matter which was now before the Supreme Court. Blakey Plastics proceeded to deliver to Nyamakura two large boxes containing documents relating to the legal battle. While Nyamakura was going through the documents, some of which related to what was an ongoing arbitration process in South Africa, he came across numerous personal papers belonging to Chinamora. The papers included a file containing the judge’s conditions of service, his original divorce order and file, original vehicle licence for a Land Rover Discovery, a lease agreement, company documents, and building plans for a residential house being constructed in Carrick Creagh, among others. Nyamukura reported the find to the Law Society of Zimbabwe and also informed Mpofu who, in turn, reported the matter to the JSC. In 14 October 2021 letter to the JSC, Mpofu said that it was “obvious to me that the court and arbitration papers that were transmitted to Advocate Nyamakura had been with or had at some stage found their way to Honourable Justice Chinamora or in the very least to someone close to him and who has an interest in the matter, explaining why they had ended up being mixed with his personal and intimate documents.” He added: “The arbitration documents were not produced and do not form part of any court record in Zimbabwe. It is highly inconceivable that this mix-up could have happened without the judge having personal contact with Blakey Investments. “There is most assuredly a relationship between justice Chinamora and Blakey Investments that needs to be investigated and explained. It is worrisome that, not just one, but numerous personal documents of the judge would be in the possession of Blakey Investments or that Blakey’s documents would be in the possession of the judge.” Justice Martin Makonese Judges Chinamora and Makonese face tribunals

Page 4 News NewsHawks Issue 125, 31 March 2023 BRENNA MATENDERE PRESIDENTIAL Envoy and Ambassador-at-Large Uebert Angel's business partner Rikki Doolan sys it is possible to bring in millions of dollars in dirty money into Zimbabwe as long as officials are bribed and President Emmerson Mnangagwa is informed it is for investment. Doolan, who is married to Angel’s niece Nicola, told undercover Al Jazeera investigative reporters posing as gangsters who wanted to launder dirty money that they may even be granted a VIP police escort once they come to Zimbabwe. He told them dirty money could be brought into the country and laundered without questions asked, especially if Mnangagwa is roped in. Speaking in the documentary’s second edition released on Thursday, Doolan, who said he preferred to refer to Mnangagwa as Number One, insisted that once he is made aware of their arrival, they would get easy passage into the country with loads of cash and get away with gold. Doolan said however meeting Mnangagwa comes with a facilitation fee of US$200 000. Before his conversation with Al Jazeera undercover reporters who postured as gangsters from China wishing to clean over US$100 million, a man whom he said was his chief security officer collected mobile phones of all the people in the room, to avoid recording and eavesdropping. A lady who posed as Ms Sin, a financial adviser to Mr Stanely, a Chinese gangster, told Doolan: “We want to be very clear. We are cash rich. It's embarrassing. This is black money. This is money which cannot be declared. And we need jurisdictions which are not that rigid.” In response, Doolan said: “I like embarrasing cash . . . That is why you need this team of people Mnangagwa and Prophet Angel whom he has scribed in his book as Number 1 and principal. “So during this conversation, we will not mention names. I don’t think we need to. Principal. You know who my principal is. We know who the number one is. Number One is the President. “As long as you grease the wheels in Africa, there is no issue. And this protection is from Number One. Now the greasing of the wheels we are going to figure that out ourselves using this team to make sure that everybody is taken care of, everybody is happy, and things move without questions being asked. “There is no way it can never happen. How can questions be asked when these people are happy? “The police, banks, customs, immigration (will not ask questions on dirty money). This is the executive power.” “Work with me on everything. And what I am going to do is make sure that through these people (Mnangagwa and Prophet Angel) it happens. That this person (Mnangagwa) knows everything… that you are bringing in this amount, you are investing in this, doing this, and he will be like ‘oh very good, okay, no problem’. Meaning that probably when you arrive at the airport on that private jet, you will have a motorcade to take you to where you need to go.” Ms Sin then asked: So it (dirty money) becomes legal?” And Doolan responded: “More than legal. It becomes protected at the highest level. So that you arrive as investors, not people trying to sneak things through the border. As soon as you arrive in that country, you are now treated as executives. And it’s a system that is secured. Everything will be done with this person’s knowledge (Mnangagwa).” At that point an Al Jazeera undercover reporter asked: “You mean Number One?” “Of course,” replied Doolan. But in response to the documentary which has been circulated on social media, Doolan said he had no intention of fuelling any dirty deals with the undercover reporters. “The documentary which has been circulated is brutally edited, to portray a false narrative. I am not a gold dealer and I have never been. So that portion is a false narrative,” he said. “These fake journalists, or businesspeople, they approached me with a now known false proposal of course of building a US$1.2 billion hotel in Victoria Falls which would have been an outstanding achievement. They are presenting this as a secret investigation yet it was not that. “Maybe they placed secret cameras in some places that would make it appear as if it was not with our knowledge. But there was a prior conversation minutes before, where we talked about them filming a few minutes of our conversation to show their bosses that this was legitimate meeting. But we now realise that their intention was to record the President of Zimbabwe, which was unfair. “The intelligence blocked them from meeting and filming the President. That is the person that they really wanted to record,” he said. Mnangagwa gives approval to corrupt money deals: Doolan Rikki Doolan

NewsHawks News Page 5 Issue 125, 31 March 2023 BERNARD MPOFU FORMER Fidelity Printers and Refiners general manager Fradreck Kunaka and the company’s head of gold operations Mehluleli Dube were allegedly paid US$30 000 and US$3 000 kickbacks apiece each month by controversial Kenyan tycoon Kamlesh Pattni to facilitate illicit transactions and gold smuggling activities, a new investigation by global television network channel Al Jazeera has revealed. The investigation, which has riled the authorities and some Zanu PF activists, reveals how syndicates have turned Western sanctions meant to target Zimbabwe’s government into an opportunity to smuggle large quantities of gold and launder hundreds of millions of dollars through a complex web of companies and bribes. Al Jazeera reporters, posing as Chinese nationals who were looking to launder large sums of money, were offered several ways to remove all stains of corruption from their dirty cash. Plattni’s Suzan General Trading which according to the documentary is at the centre of a gold smuggling and money laundering network was registered by Fidelity as a gold buying agency to buy the precious mineral in towns such as Harare, Kwekwe, Kadoma and Bulawayo. The permit authorises Suzan to acquire gold as an agent or dispose of the yellow metal to Fidelity through its buying centre. Kunaka’s signature, the documentary showed, appeared on all of Pattni’s gold trading licences. Dawood Khan, brother to South African-based Mohammed “Mo Dollars” Khan, who is accused of cleaning money for Zimbabwean business tycoon Simon Rudland revealed in the latest episode of the Al Jazeera Investigative Unit documentary that Pattni bribed Kunaka and Dube when they were still employed by Fidelity. The documentary revealed that Pattni's ledger showed monthly payments of US$30 000 to “FKUN” whom Dawood Khan said was Kunaka. Al Jazeera also claims that Kunaka's daughter received a bursary from a charity run by Pattni. “One guy that is responsible for the gold sales, his name is (Mehluleli) Dube. Dube is getting good benefits from Plattni, US$3 000 per month. He is also the signing authority for getting this licence for sale and purchase, narrated Dawood Khan during the second episode of the documentary titled Gold Mafia-Smoke and Mirrors. “Fradreck Kunaka, they write his name as FKUN. He (Plattni) paid him (Kunaka) US$30 000 . . . You know that Fraderick Kunaka comes all the time to his office at 299 Borrowdale. Every month he got US$30 000. “Fradreck Kunaka is the one signing authority. He is the main guy who has to give them a licence to buy and sell gold and any other licence related to Fidelity. US$3 000 for Dube, US$30 000 for Mr. Kunaka every month.” Platnni, the documentary shows, would operate from a gated property in the affluent suburb of Borrowdale. In Episode 2 of the docuseries, Pattni is caught on camera promising an Al Jazeera undercover reporter playing the role of a shady businessman known as “Mr Stanley.” Efforts to get comment from Kunaka were in vain as he hung up on calls. He did not respond to a WhatsApp message sent to him despite blue-ticking it, indicating he had read the questions. Another short text message sent on the same line he was hanging up calls was not replied at the time of going to print. An attempt to make follow-up regular calls was unsuccessful after it emerged that he had blocked calls from this journalist after text messages were sent to him. Dube on the other hand could not be reached for comment. Cash-strapped Zimbabwe needs hard currency because the country’s own currency has lost its value in international trade due to hyperinflation. Analysts say a commodity like gold is a good way to earn greenbacks, but international sanctions imposed on the country make it difficult for the government to export gold because of the additional scrutiny on officials in power. Fidelity executives in bribery storm Fidelity Printers and Refiners (below) former general manager Fradreck Kunaka

Page 6 News NewsHawks Issue 125, 31 March 2023 RUVIMBO MUCHENJE THE second episode of Al Jazeera’s four-part investigative documentary has laid bare the porous Robert Mugabe International Airport and how security is intentionally compromised to facilitate the smuggling of valuable minerals and cash. Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe head of security Cleopas Chidodo reveals in detail how criminal gangs can smuggle minerals and money through the airport, without repercussion – thanks to his facilitation. “Anything you need to take our of the country, that's my area,” he boasts in front of undercover journalists posing as criminals who wanted to smuggle gold. “This is my 23rd year. Twenty-three years I am at the airport, that's why I got promoted and I'm now the boss. “You need to tell me what you are carrying. It will also help in making some charges, you see. If for example you are taking money, we need to know how much you are taking. Usually for money it’s about 5% of what you are taking, but if you are taking precious minerals, gold, diamonds, the price goes up,” he adds. The undercover reporters ask Chidodo about the illegal procedure to follow when using one of their own couriers to smuggle the gold out. He unashamedly says the courier just needs to text him as soon as he arrives at the airport. “He might text me, he might say ‘arrived at the airport’. Sometimes I might be in the CCTV (room) and then I ask him, “how are you dressed?”. He might say, ‘I have got a white T-shirt’ and then I see him going to check in,” he said. Chidodo does not work alone, he has a network of airport employees and gold smugglers at play. He has a man stationed at the luggage scanner whom he instructs to wear blinkers when the bags go through the scan, for a fee of course. “I have told him how much he is going to get. If he sees something, he just pretends as if he is not seeing anything. My guy will tell me ‘the bag is here’. I will tell my guy ‘load it’ and it's loaded,” Chidodo says. After this, the gold courier walks in like a person without contraband. “And then the guy is just coming like a normal passenger. He goes in and nobody talks to him. That’s how it happens,” he said. In the event that he uses his own man to smuggle the gold, Chidodo ropes in his accomplice, Aleck Yasini. “He is very cool, he is very steady. He is a Zimbabwean, he looks very innocent,” Chidodo vouches for Yasini before these undercover journalists. Yasini also meets the undercover journalists and explains how smooth their operation is. “He will tell me when to come through and I go straight with it. Then I take it to the plane and then we carry on through the security. So him, he has got guys on the ground telling me 'you can come now' or 'not now' and I come through when he is ready,” says the excited Yasini. “There is no risk at all,” he assures his potential clients. Yasini has been Chidodo’s accomplice for the past eight years and has never encountered problems for the duration of his work. “I have done it and I have never had a problem. Never for the past eight years. Just like you are walking in the park,” he chuckles in the film. Chidodo says when he meets Yasini at the airport, they pretend to be strangers, to avoid drawing attention. “I see him, I don’t even talk to him. Maybe we might call each other then we meet in town. If he is at the airport don’t talk to him,” he said. For smaller quantities of contraband like gold in hand-held luggage, Chidodo is also ready to assist. “You come to immigration, they stamp your passport. Then I tell you come but use the machine to your right, where you remove shoes, belt what what,” he says. Just as with the bag scanner, the scanner at this point is also bribed to look aside. “You put in the machine, they don’t look at your bag because there will be an arrangement between you and me. After that, you go into the departure lounge and you sit and wait for your plane,” he says. Al Jazeera’s docuseries continues, with two more episodes to go. Robert Mugabe Airport security systems porous Robert Mugabe International Airport Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe head of security Cleopas Chidodo

NewsHawks News Page 7 Issue 125, 31 March 2023 RUVIMBO MUCHENJE HARARE North MP Allan Markham has asked the government to respond to money laundering allegations raised in an Al Jazeera documentary on shady gold dealings. He called for an independent investigation into the operations of Fidelity Printers and Refiners, a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. Markham was speaking during the National Assembly’s Tuesday sitting where he requested that the relevant minister present a statement on the serious allegations raised by the documentary. In her media briefing after the Cabinet session on Tuesday, Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa steered clear of the gold scandal. The governmnet has not commented on the allegations raised, save for threats to the media issued by President Emmerson Mnangagwa's spokesperson george Charamba through his Twitter handle @Tinoedzazvimwe1. “This week the nation was treated to some media on the gold mafia. I am shocked at the silence that the government has treated this report. My concern is there are four reports that are coming out. Could we ask the minister responsible, whether it is Finance, Home Affairs or Justice, I am not sure, but could the relevant ministry give us an answer to what exactly is happening on what has been exposed,” he said. The only responses that the people of Zimbabwe got from government officials were threats of imprisonment against journalists pushing stories on the documentary from presidential spokesperson, George Charamba who operates on Twitter under the pseudonym name Tinoedza Zvimwe1. Markham recommended an inquiry into the dealings of the central bank and Fidelity Printers. “My concern is that we have been definitely silent on the issues of the corruption that have been purportedly shown on the media. For example, I would immediately recommend to the minister to call, as has been called by the public, for an audit or an independent investigation into Fidelity Printers and the RBZ. It is absolutely shocking that we have said and done nothing about it,” said Markham. The documentary shows cleric and Presidential Envoy and Ambassador-at-Large for Zimbabwe to Europe and the Americas, Eubert Angel, bragging about his proximity to President Mnangagwa and his diplomatic passport, which he can use to launder money into the country. In the video, Angel alleges that he can walk through the airport with over US$1 billion and will not be subjected to any search. He even says he can smuggle a human being, to emphasise how easily he can launder. Markham added that there should be an introspection into the works of such clerics as they have defiled the Church. “My second issue and it also embraces anyone in this country who claims to have a religion behind him with all this adultery happening in the name of pastors and the church. I believe that it is high time for this House to look at all the licences and the so-called duty-free statuses and tax-free statuses of all these so-called pastors because it is actually a business. They are not serving the people, they are serving themselves and the investments are in their own names, not in the name of the people and yet our government remains silent,” he added. He said it is shocking that implicated officials have neither resigned nor been sacked. “Those ministries involved, if they had any integrity in them, there should have been some resignation or at least an answer. The fact that they did not resign means that they must be dismissed. The fact that they have not been dismissed means they are involved or incompetent or both,” he said. The deputy speaker of the National Assembly, Tsitsi Gezi, assured Markham that the relevant minister will be asked to come to Parliament with answers to his questions. “Regarding the reports on Al Jazeera, the Parliament administration will convey the message to the responsible minister to come to the House and give you the answer. On the issue regarding pastors, I think it is prudent for you, honourable Markham, to come up with a motion so that the issues can be debated in this House,” said Gezi. MPs demand answers on Gold Mafia Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa

Page 8 News NewsHawks Issue 125, 31 March 2023 BRENNA MATENDERE THE opposition Citizens' Coalition for Change and anti-corruption lobby group Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ) have called for investigations into allegations of underworld gold trading, money laundering and abuse of diplomatic priviledges revealed in an Al Jazeera documentary titled The Gold Mafia. In the documentary, President Emmerson Mnangagwa's close associates, including his niece Henrietta Rushwaya, are recorded by Al Jazeera undercover reporters revealing that they are into serious smuggling of gold and money laundering. In separate statements, CCC and TIZ said there is a need for thorough independent forensic investigations to look into findings made by the international broadcaster. In the statement released by CCC spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere, the party said it was deeply concerned with the levels of underworld gold plunder and corruption by Mnangagwa’s men. “Although there remain two episodes to air, information and leads released so far demand the immediate establishment of an independent international forensic investigation into the shocking findings contained in the documentary . . . There is strong suggestion that political elites are deliberately setting up personal networks of businesspersons-cum-criminals that operate to undermine constitutional accountability,” she said. “It is a matter of regret that state institutions that are constitutionally mandated to investigate and bring to book those reasonably suspected of corruption, maladministration and criminal abuse of office including the Zimbabwe Republic Police and the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission neglect to investigate the issues and act as would be expected. “The documentary further raises a serious concern for Zimbabwean citizens that there is a link between the illicit gold trade and political finance intended to capture state institutions in the forthcoming elections which poses a potential threat to the constitutional imperatives and safeguards set out in the Constitution. These safeguards are designed to ensure the best interests of the citizens are served at all times by accountable officials created for that purpose and not shadowy, parallel formations,” said Mahere. TIZ also amplified calls for an investigation of the gold mafia. “Transparency International calls on the Financial Intelligence Unit, Zimbabwe Republic Police and the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate further and cause necessary reforms to end such activities in the country,” wrote the organisation in a statement. The documentary comes after the release of the 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index which revealed ongoing endemic corruption in Zimbabwe, with a score of just 23 out of 100. TIZ said it is worrying that new scandals of grand corruption and abuse of public office continue to emerge, which damages the country in the eyes of investors and development partners. “Along with the shocking findings of the documentary, these results make clear that it’s time for the government to take stronger action against corruption and money laundering. As the documentary highlights, more and more cartels work with individuals and institutions in Zimbabwe to move dirty money using anonymous trusts and shell companies in tax havens and other secretive jurisdictions,” TIZ said. “This insidious relationship facilitates organised crime and huge outflows of gold and other precious minerals. In particular, the documentary exposes incidences of alleged under invoicing and under declarations by registered gold dealers to Fidelity Printers and the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, alleging even higher losses than previously assumed. “This reduces the country’s ability to build critical infrastructure and support the needs of the population or respond to urgent challenges. “To combat this, the government of Zimbabwe should strengthen mutual legal assistance with other involved jurisdictions to facilitate the exchange of information. They must also ensure that such institutions have the capacity to manage mutual legal assistance requests,” reads the TIZ statement. The organisation expressed concern that the authorities appeared not to be conducting thorough due diligence into potential investors — including official gold traders. “The revelations are a possible source of information to bust criminal networks that are actively engaging in gold smuggling and laundering money from Zimbabwe and other selected African countries. Law enforcement, anti-corruption agencies and regulatory authorities should immediately revoke gold trade and export licenses given to the implicated individuals and corporations, pending an investigation into the allegations,” said TIZ. CCC spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere Gold Mafia scandal must be investigated — CCC

NewsHawks News Page 9 Issue 125, 31 March 2023 NATHAN GUMA CRIMINAL gangs that have been smuggling Zimbabwe’s gold have also been using South African banks as part of their money laundering and externalisation scheme, prejudicing this country of millions of dollars through illicit financial flows. This week, Al Jazeera international news channel broadcast episode 2 of a corruption-busting investigative docuseries showing how politically connected elites and international criminals have been cleaning dirty money through South African banks, and externalising it to offshore accounts in Dubai, and then using it to export gold from Zimbabwe. The gold has over the years been smuggled out of the country through a well-knit syndicate involving officials from Zimbabwe’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAAZ), a diplomat and the Zimbabwe Miners' Federation (ZMF) as has been shown in the first episode of the Al Jazeera docuseries. The racket has also included several people, all of them linked to President Emmerson Mnangagwa, including Ambassador-at-Large Uebert Angel and ZMF president Henrietta Rushwaya, among others. Findings of the news channel’s investigative unit show that criminal gangs have been legitimising money laundered through gold exports and front men, who wash the dollars through initiatives such as the Advance Payment Scheme. Using the scheme, smugglers have been externalising money undetected by South Africa’s central bank, with the transactions being declared as advance payments for imported goods by South Africa’s business community. The racket has allegedly been used by Gold Leaf Tobacco founder Simon Rudland, who has been mired in underworld gold smuggling and money laundering activities in Zimbabwe, unearthed by Al Jazeera’s investigation. Gold Leaf Tobacco, for instance, has allegedly been washing money earned through the sale of illicit cigarettes, externalising it to the UAE through PKSA, a shadowy company owned by Mohammed Khan, notorious for externalising money, according to former mafia member Dawood Khan. The money is then used to buy gold from Zimbabwe’s Fidelity Printers and Refiners, the country’s largest gold buyer. Zimbabwean gold dealer Ewan MacMillan, also implicated in the smuggling, said Rudland has a separate arrangement and bankrolls the country. Some of the gold is sold to Rudland’s company, Aulion Global Trading, in Dubai. It is from these proceeds that MacMillan says Rudland lends the government money to buy gold. “He gives Fidelity the money to buy the gold for him to export. Fidelity’s debt to him at one time is US$200 milliin, US$250 million. That is huge,” MacMillan says. Moses Nango, a South African Airways customer service agent, who says he has helped to move money, diamonds and gold out of the country, says Rudland’s couriers pick gold at Fidelity Printers and are escorted to the airport. To cover the tracks of dubious transactions from Rudland’s South African base, to his offshore company, Aulion in Dubai, PKSA has been disguising the money as loans which the company will pay back. Findings also show that PKSA has been using South Africa’s ABSA Bank, forging papers to suppose that the money will be paid back into PKSA’s bank account. Through the scheme, smugglers and financial criminals have successfully by-passed security checks by South Africa’s Reserve Bank by insinuating that transactions made to offshore accounts are payments made abroad on behalf of South African businesses. PKSA’s Mohammed Khan has been able to evade the law by opening several shoddy companies using stolen and lost identity documents. The massive transfers are then described to South Africa’s central bank — which monitors the transactions — as advance payment for goods to be imported. The goods are never imported to South Africa, creating a safe passageway for dirty money to offshore accounts, before it is cleaned by importing gold from Zimbabwe. “When the money is abroad, it is equals to advance payment, which is a particular reporting you can use to the Reserve Bank. Every transaction abroad has be reported to the Reserve Bank and you have to give them a reason why you are moving the money abroad,” said Paul Holden, a financial crime analyst. Documents obtained by Al Jazeera, including contracts, emails and ledgers, show how Khan has been using fake invoices and identities to transfer money to companies abroad, which are also owned by Rudland’s partners. Some of the companies include Vantage Leaf in Mauritius, Velmont Valley in Switzerland and Liberty Gold in the United States of America. The findings also showed that officers at South Africa’s Standard Bank, ABSA and Sasfin Bank have been on Khan’s payroll. These officers would remove evidence of dubious money transfers from PKSA, also deleting evidence from computer systems, while getting money from Khan. While gold barons exposed in the Al Jazeera investigation for smuggling, corruption and money laundering generating billions of dollars for self-aggrandisement have been using Western sanctions on Zimbabwe as a scapegoat, the country’s central bank has not been under sanctions. Some of the gold dealers, Kamlesh Pattni, Ewan MacMillan and Henrietta Rushwaya for instance, claim they were engaged in smuggling activities to help tackle sanctions and assist the government, yet Zimbabwe is not under a trade embargo and can openly sell its mineral exports, including bullion. In Zimbabwe’s case, the country has been able to trade with any other country and export whatever it produces, including gold. As a result, claims by the gold barons that they are smuggling to help the country are untrue. Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya highlighted that point when he sought to distance the central bank from the smuggling and corruption activities of the gold dealers. One gold baron claimed Mangudya is on Rudland’s speed dial. South Africa’s ABSA Bank SA banks mired in Zim Gold Mafia money laundering scam

Page 10 News NewsHawks Issue 125, 31 March 2023 NATHAN GUMA MEDIA stakeholders and ordinary people have slammed President Emmerson Mnangagwa's spokesman George Charamba for threatening journalists with imprisonment in an ominous and desperate bid to stop them from covering the gold smuggling, money laundering and corruption scandal which has deeply shaken government and the public. Last week, Al Jazeera published the first episode in its documentary series showing how politically connected elites are smuggling gold with government collusion. The second episode was broadcast this Thursday. The corruption-busting investigation has rattled the corridors of power. The explosive documentary has revealed how people close to President Emmerson Mnangagwa have been looting Zimbabwe’s gold, and laundering money, fuelling a socio-economic crisis that has plagued the country for decades. Part of the scheme includes self-styled prophet Uebert Angel and controversial miner Henrietta Rushwaya, who was arrested in 2021 for attempting to smuggle 6.7kg of gold worth US$366 000 at Robert Mugabe International Airport in 2020. This week, Charamba, using his Twitter account @Tinoedza Zvimwe1, threatened journalists who have been reporting on findings of the ground-breaking investigation with jail, which has seen media organisations red-flagging the attempts to gag journalists. In a tweet, Charamba said: “Friendly advice to all reckless journalists: Al Jazeera is not a court of law before whose claims impart privileges to defamatory utterances. It is merely some weaponised channel. “If you are reckless enough to repeat what this phony documentary defamatorily says, hoping to plead: “I heard/saw it on Al Jazeera, you will be sorry for yourself. Do not for once think there is no grit to act against reckless, defamatory and politically motivated journalism. Faceless Twitter names egging you on will not be factor when brickbats come. Be warned!” In response, media organisations condemned Charamba’s remarks. The Media Alliance of Zimbabwe (Maz), a network of nine media professional associations and support organisations united in defence of free expression, issued a statement castigating Charamba’s remarks. Members of the network include the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ), the Zimbabwe National Editors Forum (Zinef), the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa Zimbabwe), Enhancing Community Voices (ECV), Media Centre, Gender and Media Connect (GMC), Media Monitors, the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ) and the Zimbabwe Association of Community Radio Stations (Zacras). “The Media Alliance of Zimbabwe (Maz) is gravely concerned with the ominous threats issued on social media platforms against 'reckless journalists' that are said to be repeating defamatory statements following the airing of the Al Jazeera documentary on alleged gold smuggling and money laundering. Quoting the tweet, Maz said: “The same Tinoedza Zvimwe (similarly and directly warned online publication, The NewsHawks. In other Tweets, such ‘reckless journalists’ were also threatened with imprisonment. “Such dire threats have a chilling effect on freedom of expression and freedom of the media. “The threats instil fear and self-censorship among journalists, thereby compromising the citizens’ right to access to information as provided for by our Constitution of which the media plays a critical role in the advancement and enjoyment of that right,” Maz said in a statement. Maz said intimidatory statements are regressive as they back-track on progress made by the government in outlawing criminal defamation and the adoption by cabinet of the principle of co-regulation as well as the acknowledgement of the existence of internal remedies to address grievances against the media. “The media in its professional conduct, should always be mindful that in terms of Section 86 of the Constitution (limitation of rights and freedoms), media freedom should be exercised reasonably and with due regard for the rights and freedoms of other persons. “Maz emphasizes that any person aggrieved by the media should lodge their complaints with the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) or the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ) for redress." Similarly, Content Creators Network ZW, a network of seven media platforms, also condemned Charamba's threats. “As Content Creators Network ZW, we are troubled by the recent threats to the media by the Presidential Spokesperson here on Twitter. “We find the threats intimidating to the general media who would want to report on the Al Jazeera Documentary on the Gold Mafia forcing many to turn a blind eye on the alleged corruption. “We join the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe in urging those with grievances against the media to seek a remedy through the VMCZ or the Zimbabwe Media Commission,” said Content Creators Network ZW in a statement. The Zimbabwe Online Content Creators (Zocc) also condemned Charamba’s threats to the media, saying they are unwarranted and undermine media freedom. “We note with great regret and trepidation the message tweeted by the presidential deputy chief secretary, Cde. George Charamba, as he openly threatened journalists with jail term for propagating the Al Jazeera documentary message on gold smuggling in Zimbabwe. “We have already respectfully engaged Cde. George Charamba over the message to air our concern and invited him to a Twitter Spaces dialogue, to clarify his position, an invite he unfortunately turned down. “The tweet was crafted to instil fear and discourage media practitioners from propagating or discussing the findings and allegations on mass corruption, gold smuggling and money laundering in Zimbabwe. He went on to label local media outlet The NewsHawks a 'Soros Outfit! Huge mistake you were allowed to be here',” said Zocc in a statement. Zocc said Charamba’s message impinges on the rights of online content creators and practising journalists across the nation, while violating access to information by the media as provided by section 62 of the national constitution. “A free Press is a cornerstone of democracy. As a result, threats against journalists naturally become a danger to rights of citizens. That is why such threats are counterproductive and must be resisted by all. “We are however encouraged by Charamba’s willingness to engage, as he invited us to his office to discuss the matter instead of the preferred Twitter Space. As various media players we hope to honestly engage in a transparent manner and continue to practise in a professional, credible and ethical manner acceptable to media standards,” said Zocc in a statement. Media groups condemn Charamba Presidential spokesperson George Charamba

NewsHawks News Page 11 Issue 125, 31 March 2023 NATHAN GUMA CITIZENS' Coalition for Change (CCC) legislator for Dzivaresekwa, Edwin Mushoriwa, has challenged Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa to answer questions regarding threats against the media by presidential spokesperson George Charamba, saying his threats are likely to further taint Zimbabwe’s image. Charamba issued a series of threats to the media, accusing them of defaming people implicated in the blockbuster corruption investigation by Qatari news channel, Al Jazeera, which exposes how people closely linked to President Emmerson Mnangagwa are smuggling gold and laundering money. “If you are reckless enough to repeat what this phony documentary defamatorily says, hoping to plead: 'I heard/saw it on Al Jazeera', you will be sorry for yourself. Do not for once think there is no grit to act against reckless, defamatory and politically motivated journalism. Faceless Twitter names egging you on will not be factor when brickbats come. Be warned!” said Charamba through his Twitter handle @Tinoedza Zvimwe1. This week, Mushoriwa challenged Mutsvangwa to come to the National Assembly to update the House on the government’s commitment to media freedom following Charamba’s remarks which have sent shock waves amongst media practitioners. “Thank you for giving me this opportunity to raise this matter of national importance. The last few days, the Deputy Chief Secretary and presidential spokesperson Mr George Charamba issued a chilling threat to the media fraternity in respect to the exposé of the Al Jazeera gold issues. “We want the relevant minister to come before this august House and explain whether or not our own government is now no longer committed to the freedom of Press. What has happened is actually a threat of the highest magnitude and that is why the minister should come to this House and give us a statement,” Mushoriwa said. Ruling Zanu PF chief whip Pupurai Togarepi interjected, saying: “The presidential spokesperson is not in Parliament, so let us not talk about what we see on social media in this House.” However, Mushoriwa said Charamba’s threats should not be taken lightly as they are similar to those issued by former Information minister Jonathan Moyo which preceded the bombing of a local daily paper The Daily News. “Yesterday, we were waiting for the minister of Information and Publicity but unfortunately, she did not come in. Our view is that this is an important issue and a matter that shall make Zimbabwe to be painted black,” he said. Zimbabwe is listed among countries that violated Press freedom in 2022. Journalists and media outlets in Somalia, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria faced continual attacks, censorship and pressure in November, according to a fact sheet by the International Press Institute (IPI) in its Press monitoring report for November 2022. According to the report, in total 43 Press freedom threats or violations were identified in November across 16 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. According to IPI data, state actors — such as state security agents or police, were involved in a vast majority of these incidents. Civic organisations have also red-flagged the government over the Private Voluntary Organisations Bill, which has been viewed as an attempt to close the civic space. In 2022, state actors also threatened rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, according rights watchdog, Amnesty International. “Journalists were arrested under the cybercrimes law; the Private Voluntary Organisations (PVO) Amendment Bill was introduced to Parliament; and members and supporters of the Citizens' Coalition for Change (CCC), the main opposition party, were intimidated, harassed, attacked and assaulted during parliamentary and local government by-elections which took place in March,” Amnesty International said in a report. Govt must explain threats to Press Dzivaresekwa MP Edwin Mushoriwa Zanu PF chief whip Pupurai Togarepi

Page 12 News NewsHawks Issue 125, 31 March 2023 NATHAN GUMA HARARE North opposition lawmaker Allan Markham has filed a Supreme Court appeal after his request for the release of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) electronic voters' roll was blocked by the High Court. High Court Justice Never Katiyo recently blocked the release of the electronic voters' roll, citing security reasons. Critics claimed that this reflects lack of democracy in Zimbabwe as the 2023 general elections draw closer. Katiyo ruled that the voters' roll is a sensitive document which should not be dished out carelessly. Markham sued Zec after it refused to give him an electronic copy he wanted to use in scrutinising the trends in the delimitation report which was recently gazetted. Markham mounted the lawsuit last year after having written to Zec giving it an ultimatum to release the report within seven days. His letter was not responded to prompting court action. Katiyo ruled that Markham failed to justify why he needed the document, adding that he could pursue other remedies. The judge also ruled that it was in the best interests of justice if Zec remains the custodian of the document as it is prone to manipulation if it finds its way into the public domain. In his appeal, Markham wants the court to declare that Zec is obliged to provide him with the electronic voters' roll. He also wants the court to declare that the refusal and/or failure by Zec to furnish him with a copy of the national voters' roll in electronic form as requested is unlawful. He submitted that the lower court had erred in finding that his application was premature when Zec had refused to provide the voters' roll in electronic form as per his request and failed to indicate when it was going to do so. "The court a quo grossly misdirected itself in holding that the matter was prematurely before the court, when the respondent had refused to provide the voters' roll in electronic form as per the appellant's request and failed to indicate when it was going to do so. "The court a quo erred in holding that the appellant had alternative remedies to pursue in order to get the voters' roll in electronic form when the Electoral Act (Chapter 2:15) provides no such other remedies. "The court a quo erred in failing to find that the respondent's failure to provide a time period within which it was going to provide appellant with the voters' roll in electronic form amounted to a refusal to provide the voters' roll in violation of section 21 (3) of the Electoral Act Chapter 2:15. "The court a quo misinterpreted Section 21 (7) of the Electoral Act [Chapter 2:15] to be applicable, so as to allow respondent to indefinitely withhold the provision, to the appellant, of the voters' roll in electronic form," reads part of his appeal. Markham said the High Court also erred in considering the irrelevant evidence of Team Pachedu. The lawmaker approached the courts last year after Zec refused to give him an electronic version of the voters' roll. He argued that this was in contravention of the Electoral Act. Markham said the electoral commission had an obligation to release the voters' roll, adding it is his right not only as a legislator but also as a voter to have access to the roll. In his founding affidavit, Markham told the court that he had received an electronic copy of the roll prepared by the commission before the by-elections that took place in March 2022. When he analysed the copy, he realised that there were several anomalies, prompting him to write to Zec drawing its attention to the problem. The commission had then advised him that it was in the process of formatting the system and producing an updated version. Markham files Supreme Court appeal Harare North MP Allan Markham

NewsHawks News Page 13 Issue 125, 31 March 2023 BRENNA MATENDERE COURT papers reveal how Clerk of Parliament Kennedy Mugove Chokuda bungled the infamous deal for the purchase of 173 laptops at a cost of US$3 076 each, which was way above the market price, resulting in an outcry by legislators, sparking a public outcry. Chokuda (56) was arrested by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) on Thursday over the matter together with Stanely Bhebhe (51), Parliament’s director of procurement. According to court documents outlining two counts of criminal abuse of office, Chokuda is accused of acting contrary to and inconsistent with his duties as a public officer by negotiating a price reduction of the computers with a company which had put forward its bid. He also issued an unsigned standard bidding document to selected bidders specifying the brand of laptops required. The state said Chokuda should have followed section 52 of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (Praz) which stipulates the conduct of an accounting officer in a case where the price of the lowest evaluated responsive bidder exceeds the budget. “The accounting officer, (Chokuda) should have simply cancelled the contract and re-retendered but he went on to negotiate price reduction showing favour to winning bidders and disfavor to other bidders. “By so doing, the accused person acted unlawfully,” reads part of the charge sheet. Circumstances surrounding the case as outlined in the charge sheet are that on 17 June 2022, Parliament flighted an advert inviting interested bidders to supply and deliver 173 laptops and 79 desktops at US$3 076 each with a total value of US$243 052.59 payable at the interbank rate. However, Treasury refused to release the payment, citing the unusually high prices. The prices caused an outcry from legislators and members of the public. In September 2022, Stanely Bhebhe the director of procurement originated a letter on the instructions of Chokuda to Praz asking for authority to negotiate a price reduction. Bhebhe instructed Rudo Doka, the director of external relations, to append her signature on behalf of Chokuda who was in Bulawayo for a workshop. However, in its reply, Praz advised Parliament that negotiating a price reduction is contrary to section 52 of the Procurement Act which prohibits negotiations between procuring entities and bidders. It emerged that when Chokuda and Bhebhe asked for authority from Praz for price reduction on 16 September 2022, they had already negotiated a price reduction with Noah Sakudye, the director of Mid-End Computers on 7 September 2022. An agreement was reached and price was reduced from US$243 000 to US$180 000 for supply and delivery of 79 desktops. The meeting was chaired by the chief director of finance, Bernard Zvamada. Again, the Standard Bidding Document issued to bidders had no signed declaration by accused one (Chokuda), who is the accounting officer, to the effect that the procuring entity is based on neutral and fair technical requirements violating Section 20 (2) [C] of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets (PPDPA) (General) Regulations. It is further alleged that Chokuda on page 16- 17 of the Standard Bidding Document specified the required HP laptops on Lot 1 in violation of Section 27 (2) of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets General Regulations. Both Chokuda and Bhebhe were granted ZW$100 000 bail and will appear again in court on 31 May. When the matter of the laptops broke out last year, Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ) issued a scathing statement expressing concern over the rising corruption levels in the country as noted by the Global Corruption Perception Index (CPI) for 2021, as well as its own study into Bribery in the Public Sector, the National Bribe Payers Index (NBPI) for 2021. TIZ recommended that the cancellation of the contract should not settle the matter without further scrutiny of public procurement frameworks to plug any loopholes and prevent any recurrence of the malpractices. “The Office of the Auditor-General should complement these efforts by launching a forensic audit of the Parliament of Zimbabwe in the procurement of goods and services in 2021 & 2022, given the apparent deficiencies in the procurement process.” “This forensic audit will undoubtedly establish the extent of corruption in the institution and flag out corruption risks in public procurement. The findings from the audit should be made public for accountability purposes. Evidence presented so far is suggestive of collusion between public servants, parties in the private sector and individual citizens,” read the statement. TIZ also urged Parliament to consider the laptops scandal as a form of financial misconduct in line with section 85 (1) (b) of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). Proper disciplinary procedures should therefore be followed consistent with sections 87 and 88 of the PFMA. The anti-corruption organisation said it envisaged a society in which citizens have the confidence and knowledge to hold public and private officials to account, and in which leaders have integrity and high ethical standards that are expected of the offices they hold. “Given the foregoing, it is equally imperative that the Parliament causes public disclosure of the beneficial owners of Blinart Investments P/L and Mid-End Computers Hardware P/L and ensures that they are personally blacklisted from any future Government procurement process, along with all entities that they have current and future association with. “Publishing these details will not only give the public an opportunity to know the specific individuals who are receiving personal gain from such despicable acts of corruption but also enable local businesses to remove them and their associated entities from their suppliers’ lists. The publication will also certainly act as a deterrent mechanism,” said TIZ in its statement. How Clerk of Parliament bungled costly laptops deal Clerk of Parliament Kennedy Chokuda

Page 14 News NewsHawks Issue 125, 31 March 2023 NATHAN GUMA ZIMBABWE’S power generation continues in disarray, with the country relying on imports on the back of already unsustainable debt, while the Hwange Power Station Unit 7 has failed to bring an end to load-shedding. As of Thursday this week, the country’s power stations produced a combined 983 megawatts (MW), which is higher than around 500MW produced in December when load shedding was at peak. Despite the increase, the total output is less than off-peak daily demand of 1 700MW and winter demand of 2 200MW. Some residential areas continue going for up to 18 hours without power. This week in the National Assembly, Energy minister Soda Zhemu said while Hwange's Unit 7 plant had been poised to ramp up power output, the actual generation has been depressed due to obsolete equipment in other units of the coal-fired power station. Zhemu was responding to the opposition CCC legislator for Marondera Central, Caston Matewu, who had asked what the government is doing to avail electricity, as power outages had continued despite assurances of improved supply upon the synchronisation of Hwange Power Station's Unit 7. Matewu said in his constituency electricity supplies are cut off for close to 22 hours daily. In response, Zhemu said: “I get the concern from the honourable member that the power situation has been depressed. I will give an explanation, but also to indicate that Unit 7 was finally synchronised on the 20th of March and is still undergoing commissioning tests where it shall be operating at various performing levels. “It started off at 50MW, moved to 75MW and, as we speak, it is sending out around 200 megawatts, but it shall be scaled up to 300MW with time as they continue to do their compliance tests,” Zhemu said. He admitted that obsolete equipment has been a major challenge in power generation at Hwange Thermal Power Station. “Hwange Power Station, the old units, continue to give us problems. I once said in this House that ultimately our intention would be to rehabilitate the old units with the intention of restoring the performance to the installed capacity of 920 megawatts. “As we speak today, Hwange is sending out 303 megawatts into the grid and we are also receiving electricity from Kariba. We are still at 350 megawatts. It is our hope that as we begin the month of April, water allocations are going to be reviewed by Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) so that we ramp up on our production of electricity from Kariba. “We are looking forward to the completion of the expansion project by bringing in Unit 8 which will come after April but precisely in May, according to the targets that ZPC [Zimbabwe Power Company] has on bringing that unit onto the grid,” he said. This week, Hwange alone produced 617MW, which is higher than the total produced by all power stations in December last year when the country was at the peak of load shedding. Zhemu said power supply has been worsened by increased economic activity rhetoric that has in the past been rejected by opposition legislators. “You will agree with me that there is expansion in agriculture and in the mining sector. So, the demand continues to grow but we have plans to deal with that growth that is also happening in terms of the demand side. While Zhemu said power imports are still key to ramping supply, the country has in some cases been failing to pay regional suppliers on time. “We will not reduce on the level of our imports immediately until we have sufficient power supply in the country. Unfortunately, South Africa is having their own problems which we are all aware that they have a crisis in their country. “Whenever they are having that crisis — obviously, they will not send us as per what has been contracted. So the policy, to respond to the honourable member’s question, we will continue to import until we have reached a level of self-sufficiency in the country,” he said. Earlier this month, Zambia’s power utility, Zesco Limited, gave the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) notice to cut off supplies over the non-payment of a US$10.7 million debt owed to the entity for the months of February and March 2023. Zesco managing director Victor Mapani announced at a Press conference that Zambian households and businesses would enjoy access to electricity 24 hours a day. Mapani said improvements in power generation came as a result of several initiatives, including the revamping of the Victoria Falls Power Station and upgrades at the Kafue Gorge Upper and Lower power stations, which generated an additional 170 megawatts. Other regional neighbours have equally been hamstrung, with pressure mounting on President Cyril Ramaphosa to resign over rolling power cuts which have seen the country undergo immense load shedding, further jeopardising Zimbabwe's power import prospects. During the debate, Hatcliffe MP Allan Markham quizzed Zhemu as to why the government has been failing to pay independent power producers (IPP) in United States dollars. In response, Zhemu said the government has been getting insufficient revenue. “We are all aware that we supplement our locally generated power with imports and we promulgated a policy to deal with collection of revenue in foreign currencies specifically for the purposes of paying for power imports — that money is not adequate until a time when we would have replaced the capacity that we are importing with locally generated power, just like we are doing with Units 7 and 8. “When we have fully replaced that power, the power that we are importing with what we are generating locally then we will stop importing and when we have stopped importing, obviously we will be able to pay IPPs in dollars but, as we speak, the capacity is not there. “At the moment, Zesa does not have adequate funds to pay for power imports and locally generated power,” he said. Power woes mount despite Hwange generation boost

NewsHawks News Page 15 Issue 125, 31 March 2023 MORRIS BISHI THE recent Zanu PF primary elections have re-ignited the battle for the control of Masvingo province between factions aligned to President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his deputy Constantino Chiwenga, with most candidate aligned to the ruling party strongman falling by the wayside. Mnangagwa’s faction is fronted by minister of State for Masvingo Ezra Chadzamira, while the Chiwenga faction is led by Zanu PF provincial chairperson Robson Mavhenyengwa. The primary elections we marred by several irregularities in the province as more than 30% of voters failed to locate their names on the party’s cell registers which were being managed by a shadowy group, Forever Associates Zimbabwe. All three sitting legislators in Bikita district lost to newcomers and these are Elias Musakwa, Johnson Madhuku and Josiah Sithole. In Zaka, the sitting MP for Zaka Central who is strongly linked to Chadzamira, Davison Svuure, was defeated by deputy minister of Agriculture Davison Marapira who transferred from Masvingo North to his rural home of Zaka. Marapira is a key member of the Mavhenyengwa faction. In Chiredzi, only one legislator, Roy Bhila of Chiredzi North, retained the right to represent the ruling party during the general elections, with three other sitting MPs Farai Musikavanhu (Chiredzi West), Kallisto Gwanetsa (Chiredzi South) and Denford Masiya (Chiredzi East) losing to newcomers. Musikavanhu lost to former Chiredzi Town Council chairperson Francis Moyo, who made headlines earlier this year after the results of a commission instituted by the then Government minister Saviour Kasukuwere were released implicating him of gross abuse of office. Masiya and Gwanetsa, who represent the local predominantly Shangaan community, were affected by the controversial lucerne project as locals felt that they are not doing enough to protect locals from an uncaring government. The two, both former members of the security sector, were no aligned to any faction. A Zanu PF youth provincial member told The NewsHawks the Chiwenga faction is consolidating power in Masvingo as most of its candidates managed to win the primary elections. He said the party’s cell registers were managed by FAZ throughout the country but many people failed to locate their names in the registers, creating a lot of confusion. “If you look at it, it is simple for one to see that a faction fronted by the provincial chair is the one which took many seats in Masvingo. This happened in many districts, in Guru, Bikita, Zaka, Chiredzi, Mwenezi while they shared in Masvingo and Chivi. It is something which leadership cannot openly talk about but there is a battle for control of the party between those two factions.” “Cell registers were supposed to be under the control of the party, but officers from FAZ are the ones who produced the current registers and managed the whole process, which created confusion, especially in Mwenezi, Chiredzi and Masvingo districts,” said the youth. Zanu PF Masvingo provincial spokesperson Pepukai Chiwewe said the voting process went on smoothly, but pointed out that he was no longer allowed to comment on anything regarding the outcome of the process and referred all questions to Mike Bhima, the party’s national commissar. Minister of State for Masvingo Ezra Chadzamira Zanu PF primary polls reignite factional battles Zanu PF provincial chairperson Robson Mavhenyengwa

Page 16 News NewsHawks Issue 125, 31 March 2023 BRENNA MATENDERE CHIEFS and village heads are set to receive a one-off Covid-19 allowance backdated to May 2022 which is essentially yet another vote-buying exercise by the Zanu PF government to win the support of 26 000 traditional leaders countrywide ahead of this year's general elections. The windfall payments were announced early this week by the ministry of Local Government and Public Works’ communication and advocacy director, Gabriel Masvora, in a statement. He said the payments have since been approved and will be distributed through the Salary Services Bureau. “The ministry has now approved that the village heads receive US$50 per month as the Covid-19 allowance, and it will be backdated to May last year,” Masvora said. “Village heads approached the ministry and argued that they have been playing a major role in the fight against the pandemic, hence they deserved to receive the allowances.” Masvora said the government has also approved a medical aid facility with the Premier Service Medical Aid Society (Psmas) for the traditional leaders. “Government will pay 80 percent of the cost. Chiefs will contribute US$3, sub-chiefs US$2 and village heads US$1 per month towards the medical aid facility,” he said. Recently, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who will be pitted in the presidential elections with archrival Nelson Chamisa of the Citizens’ Coalition for Change, handed over vehicles to 38 newly installed chiefs during the annual chiefs’ conference held in Bulawayo, in another vote-buying effort. In another development last week, civil servants such as teachers who play a critical role in elections as presiding officers, got a 100% Zimdollar salary increment, according to a statement from Finance ministry permanent secretary George Guvamatanga. Police, who provide security on election day, reportedly got a 400% salary hike. Guvamatanga also announced an increase in the cushioning and Covid-19 allowance from US$200 to US$250 across all sectors of civil servants, excluding the health sector. In the education sector, Guvamatanga announced a US$80 teaching allowance for every teacher, indexed to the interbank rate and paid in the local currency. There was also an increase of the cushioning and Covid-19 allowance for government pensioners from US$90 to US$100 and a promise of free primary education up to a maximum of three children at government schools for teachers as well as a funded funeral insurance framework for the rest of civil servants. As reported by The NewsHawks last week, Zanu PF has resorted to its traditional vote-buying tactics ahead of the elections. Traditional chiefs last week were pampered with all-terrain vehicles in a development that re-ignited concerns that rigging mechanisms of the next elections are already in operation. On Thursday this week, Anti-Corruption Trust of Southern Africa (ACT-SA) director Obert Chinhamo told The NewsHawks that in some areas such as Gokwe, chiefs have already begun campaigning for Zanu PF due to the trinkets from the government. “We have cases where chiefs openly chant Zanu PF slogans at rallies in Gokwe and this latest vote buying which forms part of electoral corruption that must be investigated is worrying. “When there is vote buying there is no guarantee for free and fair elections and a few months into Zimbabwe’s next plebiscite, the current developments are worrying,” he said. According to the constitution, traditional chiefs must be apolitical. Village heads are traditional leaders who perform a variety of legislative, administrative and ceremonial duties determined by tradition but they are also expected to be apolitical. However, Zanu PF has for long used them to advance sectarian politics and intimidate the opposition. A couple of weeks ago, the government parcelled out ambulances emblazoned with big portraits of Mnangagwa, which is again tantamount to vote buying. Before that, Zanu PF officials had been busy on the campaign trail dolling out more goodies, with an outstanding incident being that of an unidentified man who was caught on camera distributing cash in anticipation of votes in Zanu PF’s primary elections. There has also been distribution of chickens, fertilisers and drilling of boreholes by Zanu PF functionaries in vote-buying tactics. In the rural areas, the ruling party has of late been distributing food in a partisan way to starving villagers which manifests itself in the carrotand-stick approach where there is both inducement and coercion. Chiefs recently received new cars . Zimbabwe has approved Psmas a medical aid facility for the traditional leaders. Beware the bribes of March . . . chiefs, headmen lured through vote-buying

NewsHawks News Page 17 Issue 125, 31 March 2023 THE stage is set for a divorce battle royale between the late former president Robert Mugabe’s daughter Bona Nyepudzai Ouma and sonin-law Simbarashe Mutsahuni (Chikore) who has entered an appearance to defend following Bona's recent summons — meaning it is a contested divorce. Chikore has filed a notice of entry of appearance to defend Bona’s court action. Bona filed court papers in early March seeking an order for a decree to divorce her husband of nine years on the grounds that their marriage has irretrievably broken down with no prospect of restoration. But in papers filed at the High Court in Harare, Chikore has indicated his desire to challenge Bona’s court actions, saying: “Be pleased to take notice that on the 22nd day of March 2023 the defendant entered an appearance to defend the above action.” Bona and Simba married in 2014 at a glamorous ceremony attended by the political and business elite in Harare and outside the country. According to Bona, the parties have lost all love and affection for each other and have been living apart for a period in excess of nine months. The couple has three children aged seven, five and two. Bona is claiming custody of the children, arguing: “It is in the best interests of the minor children that the Plaintiff is given full custody of the children with the Defendant being granted access to them every alternating weekend from Saturday between 8am to Sunday 5pm agreed in advance at agreed places.” Bona and Simba are now locked in intense negotiations on property sharing, setting the stage for a dramatic and messy divorce which Bona is desperate to avoid to protect her name and family reputation. — STAFF WRITER Bona, Simba divorce battle stage set Former president Robert Mugabe’s daughter Bona (centre) and husband Simbarashe Chikore (left)

Page 18 News NewsHawks Issue 125, 31 March 2023 BRENNA MATENDERE PARLIAMENT has resolved to summon Finance minister Mthuli Ncube to explain the deepening accommodation crisis being faced by MPs which has adversely affected the operations of the third arm of government barely five months after Zanu PF legislators met President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his deputy Constantino Chiwenga at State House over the same matter. The government has since last year failed to provide accommodation for MPs who come from out of Harare after having fallen out with hotels in the capital city over non-payment of Bills. This has resulted in MPs failing to attend proceedings physically at Parliament, thereby affecting business of the august House, including debates on proposed bills. MPs have failed to contribute meaningfully on virtual platforms because of power outages and poor network connectivity. On Tuesday, Kambuzuma MP Willias Madzimure expressed his concerns over the deepening crisis and called Ncube out. “I am appealing to the minister of Finance to come to the House and speak on the problems that this House is facing, leading it to be empty. If you look at the Bills that the President said should be dealt with, it cannot be done if the MPs cannot come to this House because of some problems we are facing,” Madzimure said. “If we pass the Bill with such numbers like we have today, we are bound to be called by the Constitutional Court. We cannot force MPs to go on Zoom because of network problems. We have a number of constituencies that do not have network. “For instance, honourable Nyabani who just won, it is difficult for him to get network in his constituency, so he has to drive to and fro Mount Darwin to go on Zoom, but he will not have fuel coupons to do that. With this situation, I am appealing for Parliament to adjourn until the minister of Finance has the funds to pay for MPs’ accommodation.” Madzimure said Ncube was not prioritising key issues. “There was a better arrangement that had been suggested that if government cannot afford to pay hotels, they should look for houses to rent and they get cash for that,” Madzimure said. “It is amazing that money for buying expensive cars and food we are getting, but when it comes to our accommodation, we are facing a lot of challenges. Everyone who has served as an MP becomes a pauper as soon as they relinquish their posts. “I want the minister of Finance to come and issue a statement pertaining to when he is going to fund Parliament. If it is not possible to get money for the legislature whilst the other arms of state are getting money, ministers are going on their trips and not one is cancelled. However, Parliament is not being funded. This can only be so if we agree that we do not have parliamentary democracy in Zimbabwe. As it is, we cannot even finish one Bill. I think, Madam Speaker Ma’am, when you got in here you were also amazed by the emptiness of the House,” he said. Deputy Speaker Tsitsi Gezi concurred with Madzimure: “Your request will be forwarded to the minister of Finance so that he can come and give a statement pertaining to the accommodation for Members of Parliament,” she said. At that stage, Kuwadzana East MP Chalton Hwende rose on a point of order. “I feel that as leaders of this institution you are not taking this issue seriously because two weeks ago you gave a ruling that you were going to phone President Mnangagwa to give direction. If the minister of Finance can lie that he is going to give finances to Parliament and he has not done so up to now and Parliament cannot force the minister to honour his pledge, what about the people in the rural areas?” he asked. “The plight of MPs is that if government cannot afford to pay for their accommodation, let us go on recess until such time that the money is there. If MPs contribute on Zoom, you tell them to come into the House. Network is problematic even here in Harare. We need correct and reliable responses.” Other MPs reiterated that Ncube is not taking Parliament seriously after he failed to honour his promise to give MPs money to look for alternative accommodation so that they also take care of their aides who accompany them to Parliament from out of Harare. “It is correct that MPs should be given accommodation as they do their business,” finally ruled Gezi, promising to liaise with Speaker Jacob Mudenda so that Ncube is summoned. In October last year, disgruntled Zanu PF MPs met President Mnangagwa and Chiwenga at State House, where they complained bitterly about their incapacitation due to erratic payment of salaries, allowances and the non-provision of fuel which they said was hindering their work and hampering visibility in their constituencies. The legislators also complained bitterly over Ncube’s perceived hostility towards them. The MPs made it clear to Mnangagwa and his deputy that they had visited the two Zanu PF leaders not as a form of revolt but to tell him that they were incapacitated and financially paralysed, such that they could not effectively work for the President in their constituencies. During the meeting, the Zanu PF MPs told their two leaders that due to non-payment of salaries and allowances, they were unable to conduct projects back home in their constituencies so as to prop up the image of the party and President ahead of next year’s general elections. The NewsHawks gathered that after the meeting, Ncube was ordered to pay MPs. He acted swiftly and some legislators received their money that very day. Deputy Speaker of Parliament Tsitsi Gezi Kambuzuma MP Willias Madzimure Minister summoned over MPs accommodation crisis

NewsHawks News Page 19 Issue 125, 31 March 2023 NATHAN GUMA ZIMBABWE’S human rights record plummeted in 2022, and is expected to worsen, further plunging the country into isolation, Amnesty International has reported. While the government claims to have somewhat made strides in re-engaging with the West over the years, the efforts have been frustrated by a deteriorating human rights record. According to the latest report by the human rights organisation titled: The State of Human Rights, the Zimbabwean government has notoriously strangled freedom of association and peaceful assembly in 2022. During the period, rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly were increasingly threatened. “Journalists were arrested under the cybercrimes law; the Private Voluntary Organisation (PVO) Amendment Bill was introduced to Parliament; and members and supporters of the Citizens' Coalition for Change (CCC), the main opposition party, were intimidated, harassed, attacked and assaulted during parliamentary and local government by-elections which took place in March,” read the report. In a practical demonstration of the shrinking space for free expression, this week President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s spokesperson, George Charamba, issued a chilling warning, threatening to jail journalists reporting on the findings of an investigation by Qatari news channel Al Jazeera on the smuggling of gold by politically connected elites, sparking a public outcry. A decrease in freedom of association was also evident in February this year, when main opposition CCC president Nelson Chamisa told The NewsHawks that over 62 of his party’s rallies were either disrupted, or banned by the police, despite other political parties enjoying the same privilege. In June last year, the government also introduced the Private Voluntary Organisations (PVO) Amendment Bill in Parliament, which has been condemned as a weapon to constrict civil liberties. “Its provisions threatened the right to freedom of association and the very existence of civil society organisations and their operations. Clause 2 gives the minister discretionary and overly broad powers to designate organisations as being at 'high risk of, or vulnerable to misuse by terrorist organisations' .” The Bill, which has already sailed through the National Assembly has been met with outrage from opposition legislators, over its overtures to close the civic space, ahead of this year's general election. According to the report, the right to freedom of peaceful assembly was continuously violated and undermined as police and supporters of the ruling Zanu PF disrupted the CCC’s political rallies and violently attacked its members. On 27 February, a gang of Zanu PF youths reportedly armed with machetes, beer bottles, iron bars, spears and bricks, disrupted a CCC rally in Kwekwe and tried to stop people from attending. Mboneni Ncube, a 30-year-old CCC supporter, was stabbed to death with a spear, and at least 17 others were seriously injured in the attack. His killers continue intimidating witnesses. Amnesty International also accused the government of weaponising the law against the opposition. With over two-thirds representation in Parliament, Zanu PF has made it easy for the party to introduce legislation which suffocates the opposition. “Authorities weaponised the law to persecute CCC members and supporters by subjecting them to arbitrary arrest, unlawful detention and unfair trials. On 6 February, police arrested 10 party supporters in Mkoba, Gweru, during a roadshow to canvass for votes ahead of the by-elections. They were released without charge two days later. “On 14 June, two CCC MPs Job Sikhala and Godfrey Sithole (MP for Chitungwiza North) were arrested and charged with inciting violence at the wake of Moreblessing Ali in Nyatsime, Chitungwiza. Moreblessing Ali was a party activist who was abducted in Nyatsime on 24 May, allegedly by a Zanu PF supporter. “In June her body was found dumped in a well. The police accused Job Sikhala of inciting party supporters to violence at the wake to avenge her death, after he read out the family’s statement about the circumstances of her death. Fourteen other CCC members attending the wake were also arrested,” read the report. Sikhala has lost several freedom bids, spending over 280 days in prison. In November last year, 15 other people arrested together with Sikhala were released ahead of a visit to Harare by a Commonwealth delegation led by assistant secretary-general Professor Luis Franceschi from 12 to 18 November, which was meant to assess if the country is ready to rejoin the club. Sithole was granted ZW$300 000 bail by Harare magistrate Marevanazvo Gofa after spending 150 days in prison. “Members of civil society groups were also subjected to arbitrary arrests. On 8 February, police arrested 10 members of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network in Mbare, Harare. They were detained at Mbare Police Station for providing voter education without official clearance and later released without charge. “On 8 July, Obert Masaraure, the president of the Amalgamated Rural Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (Artuz), was arrested by ZRP officers and charged with incitement to cause public violence after publishing a tweet demanding the release of his Artuz colleague, Robson Chere. “Robson Chere had been arrested on 5 July and charged with the murder of a fellow Artuz member in 2016, a charge on which Obert Masaraure himself had previously been arrested, and for which charges against him remained outstanding." In connection with the charges related to his tweet, Masaraure was released on bail equivalent to US$107 on 4 August by the High Court in Harare after being denied bail by a magistrate’s court. The human rights watchdog also highlighted unlawful killings that occurred in 2022. “On 17 August, Tawanda Zvinowanda was killed by the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officers in custody after being arrested that morning on robbery allegations. He was arrested at his home in Chitungwiza, Mashonaland East province, by three plain-clothes Criminal Investigation Department police officers. “According to his wife’s witness account, he was brutally beaten by the three officers prior to his arrest; he was then handcuffed and thrown into the boot of a vehicle. The police officers did not inform him or his family of the reasons for his arrest. “On 20 August, Levy Musendo, a mental health patient, was killed by members of the Presidential Guard (a military unit) after he was accused of attempting to break into State House, the President’s official residence, in Harare. Levy Musendo left home in Mufakose on 19 August and when he failed to return, his family filed a missing person’s report,” read the report. Human rights record worsens in 2022 Zengeza West MP Job Sikhala has lost several freedom bids, spending over 280 days in prison.

Page 20 News NewsHawks Issue 125, 31 March 2023 BERNARD MPOFU ZIMBABWE debt and arrears clearance negotiations resumed this week after former Mozambican prime minister Luisa Diogo flew into Harare to lead the process, The NewsHawks has established. After several failed attempts to settle arrears with international financial institutions (IFIs) such as the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB), which all enjoy preferred creditor status, Zimbabwe, which has been struggling to access long-term concessional funding, adopted a new strategy which is led by AfDB. Zimbabwe is the only regional member country of the AfDB group under sanctions due to arrears amounting to nearly US$736 million. The regional lender estimates that as of 31 December 2022, the figure stood at US$750 million. Zimbabwe is also in arrears with the World Bank amounting to US$1.47 billion and the European Investment Bank (US$372 million) out of the US$14 billion debt. Sources familiar with the developments told The NewsHawks thematic working groups have since the last meeting been working around the clock to come up with the major talking points for this week’s engagements. “The third structured dialogue meeting on arrears started on Thursday and the former prime minister of Mozambique is already in town,” a source said. “The land sector which is chaired by the Office of the President, Swiss ambassador and the United Nations while economic working group will be led by the IMF. Deliberations made by these sectors will be discussed during the structured dialogue.” Three main pillars, namely economic reforms, governance reforms and compensation of white former commercial farmers were identified as major areas for discussion during the first high-level meeting held on 1 December. In February former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano and AfDB chief Akinwumi Adesina led a high-level meeting on Zimbabwe’s debt crisis where overarching political issues topped the agenda. Last month, President Emmerson Mnangagwa admitted during the Second Structured Dialogue Platform Meeting on the Arrears Clearance and Debt Resolution Process that Zimbabwe’s debt overhang is weighing heavily on the economy, as the country cannot borrow from multilateral institutions because of its failure to honour obligations. According to the new debt plan, Zimbabwe is exploring traditional debt relief options, especially the Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative, which provides maximum debt relief for beneficiary countries and non-HIPC initiatives. As part of re-engagement with international financial institutions and other creditors, the Zimbabwean government in March 2021 resumed making quarterly token payments to the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), the World Bank Group (US$1 million), the African Development Bank Group (US$500 000) and the European Investment Bank (US$100 000). Treasury also began making quarterly token payments amounting to US$100 000 to each of the 16 Paris Club bilateral creditors in September 2021, as a sign of its commitment to the engagement and re-engagement process with the international community. Authorities say Zimbabwe is also facing serious debt service capacity challenges – liquidity challenges, as reflected by low debt service ratios (actual debt service to revenue and exports), while at the same time accumulating arrears. Ex-Mozambican PM jets in for debt talks Former Mozambican prime minister Luisa Diogo African Development Bank

NewsHawks News Page 21 Issue 125, 31 March 2023 RUVIMBO MUCHENJE MOANS and groans reverberate throughout the two-metre wide corridor of the two-bed maternity ward at Epworth Polyclinic in Epworth, a dormitory town 15km from Harare. The distress sounds are coming from 17-yearold Joyline* who has been in labour for the past six hours. She is here for the second time in two years although she is yet to reach the legal age of marriage in Zimbabwe. Although the country has made strides by enacting laws against early marriage, the practice is still rampant, particularly in densely populated areas where there is high unemployment and most people survive below the poverty datum line. Sexual liaisons between adults and minors are rampant. Many of the adolescent girls here engage in commercial sex work. They claim that unprotected sex brings more money than safe sex. The four nurses stationed at the clinic have been watching Joyline in pain for hours and they fear she could bleed if she is not transferred to a hospital. They could not attend to her in that period because she came to the ward without latex gloves. The clinic lacks basic equipment and patients are now required to bring their own medical sundries when coming to labour, including latex gloves and clipping pins to nip the remainder of the umbilical cord on the newborn. The nurses could also not initiate the patient transfer because that can only be done if the young unemployed mother pays US$40 to be transferred to Sally Mugabe Hospital or Chitungwiza General Hospital. Joyline’s only hope lies with Chipo Mlambo, a Zimbabwean who recently relocated to the country from Canada. Mlambo conducts philanthropic work catering for adolescents and young women who cannot fend for themselves. She walks into the clinic at around 11am with a box of the required gloves and quickly goes to the teenager who is seemingly losing energy from the rigorous labour. As soon as the nurses get the gloves, they spring up from the chairs to assist the agonising teenager. Mlambo was alerted by the nurses of the predicament at 8am, but could only arrive here hours later because she passed through the pharmacy looking for the gloves as well as medication for one of the girls she assisted four months ago. The girl’s infant has terrible nappy rush and a dry cough, and has also had to alternate between home and the hospital because of recurring pneumonia. This is post-natal care that she is doing four months after assisting with a safe delivery for the adolescent mother. Mlambo believes God sent her to help these children and save their lives as well as those of their children. “This is a calling for me. God sent me to Zimbabwe to save these children and I will soldier on. Not that I do not quit every second day because of frustrations but, I am always back here doing what I love. I am passionate about this and I would do it every day,” she says with a smile. Before this intervention, Mlambo ensures that the adolescents register their pregnancies at the local clinic and provides the first clothes that the newborns would wear in what she has termed mapona (you have given birth) birth kit. But, because the adolescents are desperate for survival, they usually sell the new clothes and other components in the kit for a plate of sadza, and at times alcohol as well as drugs. Joyline got her kit when she registered her pregnancy, but some things are missing. Though disappointed, Mlambo says she does not blame the children. “Can I blame her? No. She is just a child. She had to sell them so that she can survive. I can’t blame her,” she said while sifting through the boot of her car to replace all the things missing from the kit. She adds that she would prefer having a place at the clinic where the kits can be stored so that the kits are kept safe. “I want council to give me space at this clinic so that I can put up a shed where we lock up these birth kits. The children will deliver here anyway so the nurse in charge will just get the kit out. Not to have these instances where the child is in labour and all the things in the kit are missing,” she said. Mlambo’s drive comes from her own experience of losing a mother during labour. Her mother died at Parirenyatwa Hospital while giving birth to Mlambo’s brother who is also late now. The 41-year-old was only 13-years old when the incident happened, in 1995. It is this experience that drives her passion to mitigate and ensure that a life is saved during labour. She leads an organisation called Rhonaflo Foundation, through which she does her philanthropic work. The name Rhonaflo is a combination of names, Rhoda her maternal grandmother, Nandi her daughter and Florida, her late mother. The logo also has the four people who matter to her most, Rhoda, Nandi, Florida and her late brother in the middle. She is popular on Twitter for venting it out on other women’s organisations she accuses of not doing enough to promote sexual and reproductive health rights among adolescents. Anyone who patiently watches her doing this work for just an hour will readily testify that her frustrations are justified. *Not her real name. Dire results from sexual liaisons between Zim adults and minors

Page 22 News NewsHawks Issue 125, 31 March 2023 MORRIS BISHI RESIDENTS of Chiredzi town are up in arms with the local council for exposing them to the risk of contracting cholera by failing to supply potable water. This comes at the time the residents are clashing with the local authority for demanding the payment of water bills despite taps going dry in some areas for more than five years. Chiredzi district is a cholera hospot, according to health officials, with one confirmed case and more than four suspected cases highlighting the danger. To avert the crisis, Chiredzi West MP Farai Musikavanhu has since begun using his personal resources and mobilising support from sugar producer Tongaat Hulett to bring water to the residents of the Lowveld town using water bowsers and tanks as the cholera outbreak poses a grave public health risk. United Chiredzi Residents and Ratepayers Association advocacy officer Constance Chikumbo told The NewsHawks that residents of Chiredzi are at risk of contracting cholera since the local authority is failing to provide them with clean water. She said it seems council does not have a plan to address the crisis, yet it is levying residents for a non-existent service. She added that council should stop charging huge figures when it is not supplying water to residents. “I think it’s very unfair for residents to continue paying for a service that they are not getting. If council is serious about billing water they should cut from the estimated 20 cubic to 5 cubic litres until the water situation has improved. With the current cholera outbreak, residents fear for their lives because there is no water and it seems the local authority have no plan at all,” said Chikumbo. Chiredzi Town Council does not have a water works and its bulk water is being treated by Tongaat Hullet’s Hippo Valley Estates, which is a kilometre away from town. The local authority is charged for the service, but it is always in arrears. Jonathan Shonhiwa, the Chiredzi Ratepayers and Residents Association chairperson, said Hippo Valley is pumping 10 megalitres of water daily, which is enough to supply every tap in Chiredzi daily, but no water is reaching Chiredzi, with the larger part of the town going for years without the precious liquid. He said council should not continue billing residents on the basis of estimates. In any case, most locals rely on borehole water. “The water issue is now a big problem in Chiredzi and Hippo Valley is saying it is pumping 10 megalitres a day, but to our surprise nothing amounting to 10 megalitres is coming to residents. Something is amiss since we are not aware of the destination of that water. We are now fed up with the water shortage and CTC [Chiredzi Town Council] is not coming up with solutions and long-term plans, especially when Chiredzi has been declared a hotspot for cholera. We call upon our councillors to look at the qualifications of our engineers since we are now suspecting that they are the ones who are incompetent,” said Shonhiwa. Chiredzi West MP Farai Musikavanhu said he has always urged the town council to find a solution and increase the capacity of the water works so that it can cope with the increasing demand for water since the population is growing. He said working with his partners and using personal resources he is supplying cholera hotspots in the town with 80 000 litres of water per day as a measure to reduce the risk of cholera. Acting town secretary Wesley Kauma told The NewsHawks that the water problem in Chiredzi is now a crisis which needs all stakeholders to come together and find solutions. He said the crisis is being worsened by power cuts which are reducing the pumping period and his local authority has allowed other stakeholders to supply residents with clean water through water bowsers as well as the use of boreholes to avert a bigger crisis. Cholera risk in Chiredzi as taps run dry Chiredzi West MP Farai Musikavanhu

NewsHawks News Page 23 Issue 125, 31 March 2023 Delegates attending a regional land indaba in Johannesburg

Page 24 TWO girls from occupied Kherson were taken far from home and kept for months in prison-like conditions — until journalists helped them flee. Hundreds or perhaps thousands more Ukrainian children remain in Russian hands. “They told everyone to stand up. They were going to play the Russian anthem,” recalls Masha Senchuk, a teenager in a maroon Harry Potter shirt. “Well, a few other girls and I didn’t stand up for the anthem. So they kept us there and started berating us.” The 17-year-old from the Ukrainian city of Kherson is describing what, at first, was meant to be nothing more than a vacation arranged by Russian authorities: A two-week trip from her then-occupied hometown to a Crimean resort. But what she and her best friend thought would be a sun-filled break from the dreariness of wartime life turned into a months-long ordeal after they were held against their will, pressured to take Russian citizenship, and housed in abysmal conditions under the close supervision of Russian minders. Journalists from OCCRP’s Ukrainian member center, Slidstvo.Info, got in touch with the two Ukrainian girls last fall after learning of their plight from their social media posts. Communicating in secret, they told of being kept as virtual prisoners far from home after being tricked into traveling to Crimea. They and hundreds of other Ukrainian children were pressured to abandon their native language and become Russian citizens. As the weeks dragged on, the two friends described verbal abuse and terrifying threats, all while capturing photos and videos of their spartan living conditions. The pressure seemed to grow day by day, and journalists knew that publishing the materials they had obtained could put the girls in serious danger. Finding little help from Ukrainian authorities, they decided to help Nastia and Masha escape from the Russians and return to Ukraine. On March 17, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, his commissioner for children's rights. They are accused of being personally responsible for the large-scale illegal deportation of Ukrainian children to Russian-controlled territories, a war crime under international law. The Ukrainian government says that several hundred thousand children have been forcibly taken to Russia, and that over 19,000 specific cases have been identified. Only a few hundred have made it back home, says Daria Gerasymchuk, Ukraine's Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights. “Behind each of these numbers is the fate of a rescued child,” she says. “As well as a complex operation specially designed [to bring them home].” Before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Nastia and Masha were both studying culinary arts in Kherson, a thriving port city of nearly 300,000 people. But Kherson was occupied in the early days of the war as the Russian army swept through the region, and any prospect of remaining in school quickly International InvestigativeStories Two Ukrainian Teenagers Escaped Russian Captivity International Investigative Stories NewsHawks Issue 125, 31 March 2023 Nastia Mitrofanova and Masha Senchuk, two Ukrainian girls who were held against their will in occupied territory. (Photo: Slidstvo.Info)

International Investigative Stories Page 25 disappeared. During the first months of the occupation, the Russians pulled down Ukrainian symbols, hung Russian flags, and installed a puppet administration. Some educational institutions fled the city; those that remained were seized and subjugated. After six months, however, Masha applied to study at a university in Kherson that had been taken over by the Russians. Although no classes were being held, her admission came with a perk: an offer of a free seaside holiday in Crimea. Although the girls lived just a few hours’ drive away from the peninsula, once a popular summer vacation destination for Ukrainians, they had never been there. Russia seized Crimea in 2014, when they were 7 and 8 years old. “I told Nastia that we could go together,” said Masha. “She also quickly enrolled, and we went.” Masha and Nastia say that they left without their parents’ approval, and that teachers “helped” them both with their permission documents. In Masha’s case, they accepted a document signed by her cousin, though it should have been filled out by her parents. In Nastya’s case, she says, a woman signed in place of her mother and indicated her age as 17 instead of 18, because the Crimean resort would not accept a legal adult. “We were told that we were going there for two weeks, just children going on vacation,” Nastia says. “We thought, 'Oh, great, we'll see Crimea, we'll have a rest.’” On October 8, 2022, Nastia and Masha began their journey. Along with hundreds of other children, they were taken to the Crimean resorts in over a dozen buses. The two friends ended up at a resort called Zdravnytsia in the city of Evpatoriya. That’s where their “re-education” began: Russian anthems, Russian studies, Russian rules. Still, Nastia recalls, these first days weren’t so bad. “In general, it was more or less normal,” she says, “if we had really been there for two weeks and taken back.” But as the deadline approached, the girls could see they weren’t about to be brought home. When they asked the resort director if they could return to Kherson, he said no. His justification was that the return trip was unsafe: The Russian position in the region was becoming precarious under Ukrainian fire. Then, on November 11 — over a month after Masha and Nastia arrived in Crimea — the Ukrainian army liberated their home city. The Kherson children rejoiced at the news, Nastia recalls, one girl running through the halls yelling “Kherson is free! Glory to Ukraine!” But they also realized the news meant they’d probably never go home. "The occupying state knew what it was doing," says Kateryna Rashevska, a lawyer at the Ukrainian rights organization Regional Center for Human Rights. "The girls were misled … They were informed that [their trip] was for a certain period of time, to Crimea, for vacation. In fact, these are aspects of child abduction." In late December, Masha and Nastia were suddenly transferred to a nearby Russian-occupied Ukrainian town, Henichesk, and placed in a local college. "They brought us to a dormitory and gave us the most horrible room,” Masha says. “We went in and I started crying. It was very cold.” It was at this point that Slidstvo.Info journalists found the girls through their social media posts. At reporters’ request, they filmed their bare-bones living conditions. It was the height of the freezing Ukrainian winter, but the rooms were not heated, they said, and administrators refused their requests for more blankets and electric heaters. “Nastia and I slept in the same bed to keep warm," Masha recalls. In showers shared by the entire floor there was hot water only once a day, for fifteen minutes at a time. “We were under special control there, they often checked us,” Nastia says. “The ‘ordinary children’ [local students] could go out for a walk, but when we, for example, went out, they asked us where we were going. I say, ‘To the store.’ And they say, ‘why?’” Though both girls are most comfortable speaking Syrzhik, a mix of Russian and Ukrainian, they were pressured to switch to Russian. "We were forced to write in Russian at school. I understood what they were saying, but I still wrote in Ukrainian. I don't know how to write in Russian. I thought that if I learned to write in Russian, then I would become unused to writing in Ukrainian." “We didn’t want to study in that college at all,” Masha adds. On one occasion, Nastia says, a man told her: “Let me give you a Russian book, you’ll learn little by little.” “I’m like, ‘no, thank you,’” she recalls. “‘I’m going back to Ukraine.’ Then he started saying something about naivete. They tried to convince me that if I leave, it will be to Russia or nowhere at all.” The girls say college administrators told all the Ukrainian children to apply for Russian passports, because they would have exams in the summer and could not pass without Russian documents. The Ukrainian authorities consider such treatment a sign of genocide — an attempt to wipe out an entire people and their culture. Gerasymchuk, the children’s rights official, says that when the government interviewed children who had managed to return to Ukraine, they told of being completely cut off from their families and urged to assimilate. "Almost all of the children who were taken away, the Russians immediately took away their cell phones, meaning that they did everything to prevent the child from … reuniting with their families," she says. “The Russians are forcing Ukrainian children to learn Russian language, culture, and history, to love Putin and to thank him for their salvation. By placing them under the care of Russian citizens, they are ‘nullifying’ them as much as possible and erasing their identity as part of the Ukrainian nation. They want to raise fighters who will then go against Ukraine.” Masha and Nastia’s situation grew tenser. Their treatment was getting worse: One day, they begged a journalist to “take them out by Monday.” “We were told that people from the [Russian] military commandant's office were coming on Monday," Nastia told reporters. The soldiers had been known for their aggression against children who had shouted Ukrainian patriotic slogans, she said, threatening to “sew their mouths shut with black thread.” She heard that two boys had been taken to something called “the pit.” Desperate to extricate the girls, journalists contacted several hotlines, including the Ministry of Reintegration, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, and an NGO called Save Ukraine. None would take responsibility for the removal of minors without official parental permission. Masha's mother did not want her to return to Ukraine at all, pressing her to get a Russian passport and stay in occupied territory. Her father — to whom Masha wanted to return — did not support the Russians, but was afraid she could be hurt or killed if she tried to escape. Reporters decided that the only way was to organize the girls’ escape themselves. Taking advantage of a weekend leave to visit one of their mothers, Nastia and Masha left the dormitory. But though college administrators expected them back by Monday, by then the girls were on their way home. The details of the journey cannot be revealed here, for fear that other Ukrainian children won’t be able to use the same avenues of escape. But their trip toward Ukraine first took Nastia and Masha much deeper into Russia. On a series of buses and private cars arranged by reporters, the girls traveled for four days on a roundabout journey that included multiple countries — even though their hometown was just 200 kilometers from where they started. To help them pass a number of borders and checkpoints, they concocted a story that they were going to attend a wedding in St. Petersburg. They entered a reporter on their phone as “Aunt Yuliya,” and communicated with her as if she were a relative. Reporters knew that, once the girls were missed, the Russian authorities could issue a search warrant for them. If the message reached border authorities in time, the girls could be prevented from leaving the country when the authorities checked their passports. Whenever they could, the girls updated reporters about their progress, though there was a frightening period when they went offline. The worst part, they say, was at the final Russian border checkpoint before they entered the European Union. “We were outside for five hours, there were many checks of our documents. It was snowing heavily and it was very cold," Nastia recalls. They were especially worried about Masha, who could be refused passage because she was underage. “I went up first, Nastia stood behind me," Masha says. “I gave the border guard my documents. He called somewhere and asked if I could pass. They said yes, he stamped the documents and gave them back.” Finally, the girls were back in Kyiv after 11 months under Russian occupation. They marveled at hearing Ukrainian spoken on the streets and seeing prices in stores in hryvnias instead of rubles. Nastya remained in Ukraine’s capital, while journalists brought Masha, the younger girl, back to her father Vitaliy, who now lives in a small city in central Ukraine. "I didn’t know that Masha had left,” Vitaliy said, “If I had known, I wouldn’t have let her go." He also said that he had spoken by phone with one of his daughter’s teachers at the college in Henichesk. The teacher complained that Masha had abandoned her studies. “I tell her: ‘She studies in Kherson. She studied and is still studying,’” Vitaliy remembers. “She says, ‘let's not get into politics.’” “They kill our children, pregnant women, and say: ‘Let’s not talk about politics.’” — Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. NewsHawks Issue 125, 31 March 2023 Masha tries to keep warm in her cold dormitory in a photo the girls sent to reporters. (Photo: Slidstvo.Info)

Page 26 International Investigative Stories IN a further ratcheting up of pressure on America’s largest museum, prosecutors have seized yet another batch of important relics from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. According to newly obtained judicial records, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has obtained at least four warrants so far this year to seize from the museum at least 18 allegedly stolen antiquities originally from Turkey and India. The majority of the recently seized pieces are linked to Subhash Kapoor, a notorious antiquities smuggler convicted of large-scale trafficking by an Indian court. The recent confiscations of Kapoor-linked pieces came just days after the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Finance Uncovered and other media partners released an investigation that examined the museum’s ties to Kapoor and other dealers convicted or indicted of antiquities crimes. The investigation highlighted a piece brokered via Kapoor called the Celestial Dancer, which was among the works subsequently seized by Manhattan prosecutors last week. The new seizures extend a period of unprecedented law enforcement scrutiny of items in the Met’s collection. Last year, ICIJ reported that Manhattan prosecutors had obtained an increasing number of warrants to seize ancient works from the Met — with six seizures taking place in 2021 and 2022 alone. Now court-ordered seizures from the museum that cite statutes such as “criminal possession of stolen property” are appearing almost routinely. Prosecutors are not investigating the Met itself, but prominent pieces of its collection have been swept up in investigations primarily focused on specific traffickers. “The pace is picking up,” said Matthew Bogdanos, head of the Manhattan DA’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit, of his office’s art seizures last year. “Expect it to pick up more.” On Thursday, after receiving questions from ICIJ about the seizure of the relics linked to Kapoor and other dealers, the Met sent out a press release stating that it was returning more than a dozen pieces to India. It said the Met had contacted authorities in 2015 about its Kapoor-linked items and that, through a “cooperative partnership” with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, “the museum received new information from the Manhattan DA’s office about 15 works of art that made it clear that the works should be transferred, resulting in the constructive resolution.” “The Museum is actively reviewing the history of antiquities from suspect dealers,” the press release stated. “The Museum values highly its long-standing relationships with the government of India, and is pleased to resolve this matter.” ICIJ began reporting on the Met’s collection in 2021, with a look at the museum’s Asian collection that included Cambodian antiquities that passed through the hands of Douglas Latchford, an indicted art trafficker believed to have played a key role in the mass pillaging of Cambodia’s cultural heritage. ICIJ subsequently reported that the Met was in talks with federal prosecutors about Cambodian pieces with dubious origins. Critics say the Met’s repatriation policy is often unreasonable, forcing countries that make a claim on a relic to provide incontrovertible proof that it was stolen or illegally exported. ICIJ’s latest investigation into the Met’s collection, released last week, found that at least 1,109 pieces previously owned by people who had been either indicted or convicted of antiquities crimes; 309 of them are on display. Fewer than half of the 1,109 relics have records describing how they left the country of origin, even those that come from places that have had strict export laws for decades. Many were removed after international guidelines were already put into place to restrict the movement of antiquities across national borders, according to museum records. More than 150 additional items in the Met’s antiquities collection passed through ownership of nearly a dozen more people or galleries from whom prosecutors seized stolen ancient works. ICIJ’s investigation cited former Met director Thomas Hoving’s own writing on how his decade of aggressive acquisition at the museum drew upon an array of illicit sourcing. Being an accomplice to art smugglers, he wrote, was a necessary role for a Met director. He said he had approved the purchase of a large batch of Indian and Cambodian antiquities that he suspected had been smuggled. The four most recent search warrants for Met items were signed between February 1 and March 22 of this year. Of the 18 pieces the warrants describe, two were on loan to the museum. The largest single piece the documents describe is a monumental bronze statue of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus on loan to the museum from a private collection. A search warrant lists the value of the piece at $25 million. This year’s seizures have also included a bronze head of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus – valued at over $1 million. The piece is still featured in the Met’s online catalog, where its origin history includes no explanation of how the piece came to be exported to the United States. The most recent search warrant called for the seizure of 15 pieces at the Met tied to Subhash Kapoor. Earlier that week, ICIJ reported that the Met’s collection contains 85 pieces once owned by Kapoor or his gallery. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has described Kapoor as “one of the most prolific commodities smugglers in the world.” He was arrested in Germany in 2011 and convicted in India this year of trafficking what prosecutors said amounts to more than $100 million in antiquities. Among the Met’s high-profile antiquities from India, Celestial Dancer was acquired in a deal involving Art of the Past, Kapoor’s Manhattan gallery at the time. In 2013, two years after Kapoor’s arrest, the gallery’s manager pleaded guilty to selling stolen Asian works. Yet in 2015, as Kapoor awaited trial on smuggling charges in India, the Met accepted the piece as a donation from wealthy collectors who had purchased it from his gallery. Several of the Kapoor-linked pieces seized last week originated in the turbulent Kashmir region that has seen heavy cultural looting in recent decades. An ICIJ and Finance Uncovered analysis of 94 Kashmiri relics in the Met’s collection shows that, as of last week, none of them have detailed provenance explaining how they left Kashmir. “The Met’s collection of Kashmiri artifacts are essentially blood antiquities,” said Vijay Kumar, the India Pride Project founder, who has published articles about the poorly provenanced Indian items in the Met’s collection. “By buying these items, the museum was encouraging looting and smuggling from a known conflict zone.” — International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Prosecutors eye seizures of old art at the Met People congregate at the entrance to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Celestial dancer (Devata), an 11th century sculpture from India. Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NewsHawks Issue 125, 31 March 2023

Page 27 The NewsHawks is published on different content platforms by the NewsHawks Digital Media which is owned by Centre for Public Interest Journalism No. 100 Nelson Mandela Avenue Beverly Court, 6th floor Harare, Zimbabwe Trustees/Directors: Beatrice Mtetwa, Raphael Khumalo, Professor Wallace Chuma, Teldah Mawarire, Doug Coltart EDITORIAL STAFF: Managing Editor: Dumisani Muleya Assistant Editor: Brezh Malaba News Editor: Owen Gagare Digital Editor: Bernard Mpofu Reporters: Brenna Matendere, Ruvimbo Muchenje, Enock Muchinjo, Jonathan Mbiriyamveka, Nathan Guma Email: [email protected] Marketing Officer: Charmaine Phiri Cell: +263 735666122 [email protected] [email protected] Subscriptions & Distribution: +263 735666122 Reaffirming the fundamental importance of freedom of expression and media freedom as the cornerstone of democracy and as a means of upholding human rights and liberties in the constitution; our mission is to hold power in its various forms and manifestations to account by exposing abuse of power and office, betrayals of public trust and corruption to ensure good governance and accountability in the public interest. CARTOON Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe The NewsHawks newspaper subscribes to the Code of Conduct that promotes truthful, accurate, fair and balanced news reporting. If we do not meet these standards, register your complaint with the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe at No.: 34, Colenbrander Rd, Milton Park, Harare. Telephone: 024-2778096 or 024-2778006, 24Hr Complaints Line: 0772 125 659 Email: [email protected] or [email protected] WhatsApp: 0772 125 658, Twitter: @vmcz Website: www.vmcz.co.zw, Facebook: vmcz Zimbabwe Gold mafia must be investigated Dumisani Muleya Hawk Eye Editorial & Opinion Why would I fire Cde Ambassador Angel? He is still my loyal envoy. He is still at large! NewsHawks Issue 125, 31 March 2023 MEDIA organisations have condemned attempts to gag the media by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s spokesperson George Charamba, who this week threatened to jail journalists for reporting on Al Jazeera’s gold smuggling and money laundering investigation. Charamba's most vicious invective was directed at The NewsHawks — which is hardly surprising, considering the important role we play as Zimbabwe's leading digital investigative journalism and breaking news platform. For a long time, the clueless propagandists and apologists of misrule have sought to falsely portray independent media as enemies of Zimbabwe. The reality, of course, is that the real enemies of progress are those who abuse their proximity to Zanu PF to loot public resources with impunity. The NewsHawks is an independent, open, fair and objective publication. We hold no brief for anyone. Our only obligation is to the truth and our loyalty is to the readers. This does not necessarily mean we are clueless and neutral on important matters of the day. Far from it. We do not shy away from robust debate. The most enlightened societies are driven by ideas and fresh insights, rather than dogma and misguided ideologies. Journalism has changed — and we must change with it. Democracy demands it. The NewsHawks is barely three years old, meaning we are, in many respects, still a media start-up. In that connection, we find it utterly amusing that the likes of Charamba, who never waste an opportunity to gratuitously badmouth The NewsHawks, are the same elements who are always throwing brickbats at us. If we are journalistic midgets as you claim, why do you spend the entire day nitpicking on our news articles? Do you see how ridiculous you have become? Our journalists have solid professional track records. We are not easily cowed. Free expression and media freedom are guaranteed by section 61 of the Zimbabwean constitution. Even under international law, governments have an obligation to ensure the full enjoyment of these rights. Any attempt by the authorities to criminalise journalism has a chilling effect on free expression and Press freedom. It is tragic that a bombastic civil servant, who draws a salary from long-suffering taxpayers, thinks he holds the title deeds to the republic. He has failed to learn from history. Charamba’s former bosses — Canaan Sodindo Banana and Robert Gabriel Mugabe — were once at the pinnacle of power in this country. But what happened to them? What is their legacy, all things considered? Of all people, Charamba should know that change is the only constant in life; one moment you are the cock of the walk — and the next moment you are nothing but a feather duster. Power is fleeting and people are fickle. Nothing lasts forever. There is something tragic about Zanu PF leaders’ assumption that they can practise primitive Stone Age politics in a 21st century global community and get away with murder. Right now, government officials are doggedly hyping up the Private Voluntary Organisations Bill, currently awaiting presidential assent. This Orwellian law will drag Zimbabwe 30 years backwards. It will spook the donor community, hampering the flow of badly needed resources to the most vulnerable members of society. A lot of the medicines in Mnangagwa’s crumbling public hospitals are from foreign donors. Orphans, widows and the desperately poor are looked after by foreigners. There are countless community nutrition gardens, income-generating projects, household resilience schemes and education programmes funded by donors. It is satanic that some political elites who benefitted from an education funded by Western donors are now at the forefront of denying fellow Zimbabweans those same opportunities. How cruel are these chaps? All these poverty-stricken citizens — whose only “crime” is to receive assistance from foreign donors — could soon find themselves stranded, thanks to the whim of brutal, uncaring and unaccountable politicians. And yet it is this same government that has looted, plundered and vandalised the economy, reducing citizens to crying paupers. As we have written in these pages before, every self-respecting Zimbabwean can see the grotesque irony of a government that brings out the begging bowl and tells foreigners that Zimbabwe is "open for business" — and yet barely a week later the same Zanu PF cabal is enacting laws criminalising interaction between Zimbabweans and foreigners. And there is really no justification for attempting to muzzle the media. Throughout history, authoritarian kleptocrats who have sought to silence journalists have eventually come to grief. Journalism is not a crime. Zimbabwe not your tuckshop

Page 26 NewsHawks Issue 76, 15 April 2022 Business MATTERS NewsHawks CURRENCIES LAST CHANGE %CHANGE USD/JPY 109.29 +0.38 +0.35 GBP/USD 1.38 -0.014 -0.997 USD/CAD 1.229 +0.001 +0.07 USD/CHF 0.913 +0.005 +0.53 AUD/USD 0.771 -0.006 -0.76 COMMODITIES LAST CHANGE %CHANGE *OIL 63.47 -1.54 -2.37 *GOLD 1,769.5 +1.2 +0.068 *SILVER 25.94 -0.145 -0.56 *PLATINUM 1,201.6 +4 +0.33 MARKETS *COPPER 4.458 -0.029 -0.65 Employment — Wholesale and retail trade sector overtakes agric PRISCA TSHUMA THE wholesale and retail trade sector is now Zimbabwe’s major employing industry, beating the agricultural sector, which for a long time was the largest employer in the economy. The wholesale sector employs 26.9% of the employed population and was the largest contributor to gross domestic product (GDP). The sector’s contribution to GDP went up to 23.6% in 2021 from 20.9% in 2020. According to the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency, agriculture is no longer the biggest employer, it accounts for 19.30% employment. Speaking to The NewsHawks, economist Prosper Chitambara said the structural changes in the economy like de-industrialisation weakened the agricultural and manufacturing sectors. “We have also seen challenges in the agricultural sector, there has been ranging changes that have taken place within our economy which have resulted in trade, a wholesale and retail trade, as well as sale and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles actually dominating in terms of contributing to employment. “The economy is now largely dominated by buying and selling, which is what trade is all about. I think we need to support our agricultural sector, especially because that is also important for revamping the manufacturing sector,” Chitambara said. Meanwhile, the manufacturing sector, which should be the driving force in economic transformation towards Zimbabwe’s national vision of attaining an upper middle-income economy by 2030, lagged behind, only accounting for 8% of total employment. From the 2021 economic data published by ZimStat, the GDP contribution from agriculture dropped to about 8.8% for 2021, while the manufacturing sector accounted for 12.4% in GDP. In their Business Insights publication, the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) said the trend showed that the wholesale and retail sectors were growing largely through imported rather than locally manufactured products. The CZI added that high proportion of low-income earners suppressed demand as consumer spending mainly depended on disposable income. Depressed salaries result in low disposable income, which leads to low demand for goods and services. Sales volumes of OK Zimbabwe decreased by 11.33% for the third quarter (October-December) and 9.37% for the nine months to December 2022 compared to the prior year driven by declining consumer spending power. In the last three months of 2022, 23% of the employed population in Zimbabwe were earning less than ZWL$20 000 of the employed population earned more than ZWL$150 000 (USD165); converted to US dollars using the parallel market rate (ZWL$910: US$1) of December 2022. “This level of depressed salaries adversely affects consumers’ purchasing power, which in turn affects sales. To boost demand and spur economic growth, salaries should reasonably increase,” the CZI said. As a result, the CZI said diaspora remittances are driving demand, as salaries remain subdued for the majority of the population. Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency says agriculture accounts for 19.30% employment.

NewsHawks Companies & Markets Page 29 Issue 125, 31 March 2023 PRISCA TSHUMA THE introduction of US dollar payments for electricity supplies has continued to worsen the ease of doing business and it is promoting dollarisation, which has more disadvantages to industry than advantages, says the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI). Last year in July, the government introduced Statutory Instrument (SI) 131 of 2022, which provided that exporters and partial exporters paid for electricity and related services exclusively in foreign currency. This was renewed in January 2023, through the introduction of SI 9 of 2023 so that SI 131 of 2022 continued to have effect for a period of six months, that is from January 2023 up to June 2023. In its Business Environment Insights report, the CZI said since the introduction of SI 131 of 2022, there was an uproar in industry that the move added pressure on the much-needed US dollars in the formal market. While the economy is largely dollarised, the formal business US dollar sales are still low due to the limitations of SI 118A of 2022 which prohibited businesses from selling exclusively in foreign currency. “The formal sector is required to sell in both local currency and foreign currency and the pricing must be with reference to the interbank exchange rate with a margin of not more than 10%. “Due to imperfect exchange rate market reflected by a high exchange rate premium, most of the USD goes to the informal market when the premium is huge,” reported the CZI. The economy of Zimbabwe is heading towards full dollarisation, with most businesses in the informal sector already transacting in US dollars. However, companies operating in the formal sector are struggling to raise the foreign currency needed as they are still transacting in Zimbabwe dollars as the main currency. As a result, some of the blue chip companies listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange have moved to the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange to access the greenback. The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) has a huge demand shortfall, which has been managed through power cuts. The country has been reeling under massive power cuts despite an increase in water levels at Lake Kariba and recent efforts to ramp up electricity generation at Hwange Thermal Power Station’s Unit 7. The state-owned Zesa pays for power imports in US dollars, hence the need to access foreign currency. However, the CZI condemned Zesa for passing the liability for raising this foreign currency on to business. “Rather, Zesa should be able to purchase foreign currency from the auction or WBWS [willing buyer, willing seller] like every other importer, rather than getting the prerogative of charging in only one currency in a dual currency environment, where businesses earn a portion in ZWL$,” said the CZI. In spite of businesses being forced to pay for the electricity in US dollars, the power shortages in the country hampered the performance of companies last year. “The industry is already experiencing induced costs due to power cuts resulting in damage of machines and increased production costs due to usage of alternative energy,” the CZI lamented. The worsening power cuts affected the production in the business environment which, in turn, affected sales and revenue of the companies. PRISCA TSHUMA BUILDING and construction materials producer Turnall Holdings Limited has embarked on a major capital expenditure (capex) programme to increase group revenue and profitability after incurring a loss in the financial year ended 31 December 2022. The capex programme is aimed at restoring fibre cement production in Harare and introducing production of glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) pipes in order to take advantage of the fast growing local and regional market. In a statement accompanying the financial year results, chairperson of the group Grenville Hampshire said production of inverted box rib (IBR) sheeting would be expanded and the roof tile line would be refurbished. The group also made a significant investment in the Bulawayo plant aimed at production of New Tech fibre cement sheeting mainly for the export market. “The board and management are confident that these investments will deliver substantial benefits including increased revenue and profitability, an increase in exports and a sustainable improvement in quality and production efficiency,” he said. In the year ended 31 December 2022, Turnall Holdings incurred an operating loss of ZW$630.7 million in inflation-adjusted terms in the current year, which was a 145% reduction compared to the prior year. This was due to the sharp increase in operating expenses and restrained growth of the gross profit in 2022. “The margins were under pressure due to official and alternative market exchange rate disparities whose negative impact on the cost of doing business could not always be sustainably recouped through selling price adjustments,” said the chairman. The gross profit for the year was 31% compared to 41% achieved last year. In addition, the group recorded a loss on net monetary position of ZW$3.1 billion as compared to a gain of ZW$308 million in the same period last year due to a 244% increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), consequently the group made a loss before taxation of ZW$3.7 billion. Nevertheless, group revenue grew by 16% from ZW$7.25 billion to ZW$8.4 billion in spite of a 29% reduction in sales volumes. Hampshire said the group spent ZW$622.5 million on capex in 2022 compared to ZW$602 million in 2021 to improve production efficiency, without borrowings. “The company continued to invest in working capital in order to preserve value in this hyperinflationary environment. All capital requirement were funded from internally generated resources,” he said. In 2022, the business operational environment was characterised by foreign currency shortages, a rapidly depreciating local currency and runaway inflation, which soared to 243.8 percent by December 2022 from 60.74 percent in December 2021. Borrowing costs were prohibitive, particularly in local currency as the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe hiked interest rates to 215% per annum to curb inflation. Consequently, businesses had to look for alternative sources of funding to continue operations, with largely no credit terms being offered on local currency purchases by suppliers. Turnall rolls out capex programme US dollar electricity bills pile pressure on companies

Page 30 Companies & Markets NewsHawks Issue 125, 31 March 2023 PRISCA TSHUMA RAINBOW Tourism Group (RTG) recorded 131% revenue growth to ZW$24.5 billion in the year 2022, up from the ZW$10.6bn attained in 2021, confirming the rebound of the tourism industry. In 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic was rampant, the tourism industry was the worst affected sector both in the local and global economy because travelling was banned as a way of containing the pandemic. The RTG’s financial results show that the company is on a growth trajectory, with all key performance indices registering growth above pre-Covid-19 levels. Occupancy was at 51% as it grew by 65% from 31% recorded in the prior year. “Our revenues and occupancies are now performing above pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels. The group has recorded a sustained recovery of international tourists in 2022 and the trend is projected to accelerate going forward,” said group chairperson Douglas Hoto. According to the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA), arrivals in the first nine months of 2022 grew by 165% to 694 000 from 261 000 in 2022, with the tourist arrivals from overseas markets increasing more than threefold in the period under review. Commenting on the financial results, RTG chief executive Tendai Madziwanyika said the Victoria Falls region achieved the second-highest room occupancy growth for the group. He attributed the performance to the renewed interest from international tourists since the removal of Covid-19 restrictions internationally. Hoto said that the group recorded sustained recovery of international tourists in 2022 and projected that the trend would accelerate going forward. According to the latest United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Tourism Barometer of January 2023, international tourism was stronger in 2022, backed by large pent-up demand and the lifting or relaxation of travel restrictions in many countries. The report states that over 900 million tourists travelled internationally in 2022, a 100% surge on 2021 numbers, although still 37% lower than in 2019. International tourism recovered to 63% of pre-pandemic levels. The group’s profit from operations in inflation-adjusted terms was ZW$2.3bn in 2022 from ZW$903 million in 2021, which represented a 154% growth, while gross margins for the period under review closed at 72% from 70% posted in 2021. “The improvement in gross profit margins is attributable to cost reduction measures that were put in place to mitigate the effects of increasing prices in the market,” said Hoto. He said this performance was despite the uncertainty and volatility that characterised Zimbabwe's economic landscape last year. The country was in the grip of economic crisis with surging inflation, high interest rates and a rapidly depreciating local currency. All this made the business-operating environment difficult to navigate for most companies. The RTG declared a total dividend to shareholders for the year of ZW$880m (equivalent to US$1.5m), of which US$500 000 is in foreign currency. Hoto said his board would focus on building a sustainable balance sheet with manageable levels of debt. He added that the RTG would focus on technology and digitalisation through the activation and expansion of the Gateway Stream mobile application to increase shareholder value. PRISCA TSHUMA HOSPITALITY company Rainbow Tourism Group has installed a 300 kilovolt-ampere (kVA) solar plant worth US$500 000 at the Kadoma Hotel and Conference Centre, significantly reducing the hotel’s energy bill. Company chairperson Douglas Hoto in a statement accompanying the group’s 2022 financial results said the rollout of the energy sustainability project was underpinned by a desire to meet the business profitability ambition while safeguarding, preserving and protecting the economy, environment and society. “This solar system comprises a 100kVbattery system to provide energy during times of power cuts as well as a 200kVA grid tie system directly feeding into the national grid,” he said. RTG is feeding energy into the national grid through the net metering system, launched in 2020, which allows people who produce private renewable energy to transfer their excess generation to the national grid in return for electricity credits they can use when they do not have sufficient renewable supply. This was introduced to reduce Zimbabwe's need to import electricity as it lacks foreign exchange. The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority would pay for the electricity supplied in the form of discounts on future bills. RTG chief executive Tendai Madziwanyika said the group’s sustainability practices were based on the notion of being a responsible company that creates value through excellence and sustainable business practices. “Our sustainability approach helps us to ‘Green our Hotels’ by enabling us to identify risks and opportunities passed by climate change, electricity, water, waste and our own staff and taking relevant action to reduce our impact on the environment,” said Madziwanyika. The country has been experiencing massive power cuts since last year when Zimbabwe depleted its water allocation at Lake Kariba. This has also been attributed to the obsolete equipment used to generate the electricity. Power cuts affected the productivity of most businesses which, in turn, had an adverse impact on the overall financial year performance. According to the United Nations, affordable and clean energy is goal 7 in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, since energy is a major contributor to climate change, accounting for 73% of human-caused greenhouse gases. Going forward, Hoto said that the board would focus on building a sustainable balance sheet with manageable levels of debt remaining a primary material matter for RTG. To increase the value for shareholders, the RTG board is considering expanding the company’s portfolio in carefully selected areas around Zimbabwe; and expanding business reach in the tourism value chain through investment in the tour operations and Heritage Expeditions Africa. RTG’s Kadoma Hotel goes solar RTG chief executive Tendai Madziwanyika ...as group records 131% revenue growth

NewsHawks Companies & Markets Page 31 Issue 125, 31 March 2023 WESTPROP HOLDINGS will list on the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange in April after making a successful migration from being a private to a public listed company. Addressing the media and business executives this week, WestProp chief executive officer Kenneth Sharpe urged members of the public and pension funds to become stakeholders by buying shares in the company. "It is with honour and respect that I speak to you today on this defining historic moment, the pinnacle of our history at WestProp. Join us in our journey of buying shares and take up a stake in the company and join in our journey of a billion bricks," said Sharpe. WestProp’s shares are ranging from US$50 to US$100 000, with a minimum return of 7.5 percent per annum. The company’s IPO [initial public offering] is to raise US$30 million in capital to accelerate the development of the company’s existing projects such as Pokugara Residential Estate, Millennium Heights, Pomona City, The Mall of Zimbabwe, Millennium Heights Office Park, and the Hills Golf Estate. Sharpe projects that WestProp will pioneer world-class, vertically integrated, premium lifestyle communities in Zimbabwe by 2050. Kenneth Sharpe (left) and WestProp board chairman Michael Louis. — Pictures: Aaron Ufumeli WestProp to list on VFEX

Page 32 Companies & Markets NewsHawks Issue 125, 31 March 2023 BERNARD MPOFU MORE than 300 pension funds folded last year while nearly half of the active registered ones are currently inactive as companies struggle to meet their obligations due to economic headwinds, a new report by the country’s insurance regulator has shown. Treasury cut Zimbabwe’s growth target to 4% from an initial prediction of 4.6% due to domestic and external factors such as rising inflation and the impact of Russia’s war on Ukraine. The yearon-year inflation rate slowed down to 243.7% in December 2022, from 280.4% recorded in September 2022. This year, Zimbabwe is seen registering Gross Domestic Product growth of 3.8% compared to an earlier projection of 5% projected in the county’s economic blueprint. According to the Insurance and Pension Commission (Ipec)'s 2022 fourth quarter report, a total of 313 funds were under dissolution by the end of the year. The poor performance of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, one of the most preferred investment options for pension funds, also had a negative impact on pension funds' balance sheets. “There were 981 registered occupational pension funds as at 31 December 2022 compared to 985 funds as at 31 December 2021,” reads the Ipec report. “The decrease was due to a transfer of self-administered funds to participating employers of already existing umbrella funds as well as dissolutions of other funds. Of these 981 funds, 504 were active, accounting for 51% of the industry's funds. “The remaining 477 funds were inactive as they were either paid up or undergoing dissolution. In addition, 41 pension funds were defined benefit schemes whilst the remainder were defined contribution schemes.” The report further shows that only 14 of the 981 registered funds conduct their own in-house fund administration business. The remainder, which are insured and self-administered funds, outsource the services to fund administrators. As at 31 December 2022, foreign currency-denominated assets amounted to US$193.31 million constituting 11.73% of industry assets. The holding of foreign currency-denominated assets helps in cushioning the assets from being eroded by inflation in the current hyperinflationary environment. Over 300 pension funds collapse Treasury cut Zimbabwe’s growth target to 4% due to domestic and external factors such as the impact of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

NewsHawks Page 33 Issue 125, 31 March 2023 Stock Taking Company Sector Bloomberg Ticker Previous Price (cents) Last Traded Price VWAP (cents) Total Traded Volume Total Traded Value ($) Price Change (cents) Price Change (%) YTD (%) Market Cap ($m) AFDIS Consumer Goods AFDIS: ZH 30004.86 30000.00 30000.00 21,000 6,300,000 -4.86 -0.02 13.90 35,848.36 African Sun Consumer Services ASUN: ZH 8299.44 8200.00 8207.02 1,211,700 99,444,480 -92.42 -1.11 233.65 121,291.67 ART Industrials ARTD: ZH 2900.00 2900.00 2900.00 400 11,600 - - 107.14 12,672.34 Ariston Consumer Services ARISTON: ZH 1040.00 1040.00 1040.00 1,200 12,480 - - 156.54 16,924.91 BAT Consumer Goods BAT: ZH 327935.41 - 327935.41 - - - - 17.16 67,664.61 Bridgefort Capital Industrials BFCA: ZH 920.53 - 920.53 - - - - 15.07 110.46 Bridgefort Class B Financial Services BFCB: ZH 2930.00 - 2930.00 - - - - 12.69 39.32 CAFCA Industrials CAFCA: ZH 37977.75 - 37977.75 - - - - 89.79 3,317.40 CBZ Banking CBZ: ZH 18205.88 19100.00 19100.00 100 19,100 894.12 4.91 41.48 99,828.34 CFI Industrials CFI:ZH 58880.00 - 58880.00 - - - - 43.02 62,436.87 Dairibord Consumer Goods DZL: ZH 9800.00 - 9800.00 - - - - 180.00 35,084.08 Delta Consumer Goods DLTA: ZH 81651.93 83045.00 83055.17 677,900 563,031,000 1403.24 1.72 130.85 1,084,575.61 Ecocash Technology EHZL: ZH 7000.35 7000.00 7000.00 35,300 2,471,000 -0.35 -0.00 74.65 181,340.41 Econet Telecommunications ECO: ZH 24712.78 25500.00 26741.91 172,800 46,210,020 2029.13 8.21 177.76 692,769.72 Edgars Consumer Services EDGR: ZH 2300.00 2600.00 2600.00 100 2,600 300.00 13.04 173.68 15,710.44 FBC Banking FBC: ZH 9846.55 - 9846.55 - - - - 58.82 66,163.89 Fidelity Financial Services FIDL: ZH 3000.00 - 3000.00 - - - - 25.00 3,267.70 First Capital Banking FCA: ZH 3380.81 3200.00 3195.82 6,100 194,945 -184.99 -5.47 102.91 69,026.99 FML Financial Services FMHL: ZH 2000.00 - 2000.00 - - - - -21.88 13,802.86 FMP Real Estate FMP: ZH 1640.00 1640.00 1632.35 6,800 111,000 -7.65 -0.47 36.03 20,211.06 GBH Industrials GBH: ZH 200.00 200.00 200.00 1,900 3,800 - - 11.52 1,073.18 Getbucks Financial Services GBFS: ZH 2300.00 - 2300.00 - - - - 5.50 26,751.72 Hippo Consumer Goods HIPO: ZH 62550.00 62550.00 62588.70 46,300 28,978,570 38.70 0.06 242.77 120,809.06 Mash Real Estate MASH: ZH 1500.00 - 1500.00 - - - - 62.20 25,313.76 Masimba Industrials MSHL: ZH 14200.00 - 14200.00 - - - - 77.60 34,314.83 Meikles Industrials MEIK: ZH 32500.00 32500.00 32500.00 4,700 1,527,500 - - 190.18 83,248.99 Nampak Industrials NPKZ: ZH 3021.50 3025.00 3025.00 200 6,050 3.50 0.12 235.74 22,858.36 NTS Industrials NTS: ZH 1400.00 - 1400.00 - - - - 37.25 3,554.21 NMBZ Banking NMB: ZH 5300.00 - 5300.00 - - - - 40.71 21,421.10 OK Zim Consumer Services OKZ: ZH 6699.80 6695.00 6695.06 171,700 11,495,410 -4.74 -0.07 107.15 86,788.85 Proplastics Industrials PROL: ZH 9500.00 - 9500.00 - - - - 187.88 23,933.88 RTG Consumer Services RTG: ZH 1350.00 1350.00 1350.00 11,200 151,200 - - 52.20 33,689.19 RioZim Basic Materials RIOZ: ZH 20531.15 - 20531.15 - - - - 46.55 25,054.05 SeedCo Consumer Goods SEED: ZH 23000.00 21500.00 21739.82 342,800 74,524,100 -1260.18 -5.48 191.73 54,213.39 Star Africa Consumer Goods SACL: ZH 152.52 150.00 151.84 34,700 52,688 -0.68 -0.45 -28.31 7,159.38 Tanganda Consumer Goods TANG: ZH 31500.00 - 31500.00 - - - - 252.48 82,235.35 Truworths Consumer Services TRUW: ZH 246.43 - 246.43 - - - - -10.39 946.46 TSL Consumer Goods TSL: ZH 10000.00 - 10000.00 - - - - 127.25 35,807.70 Turnall Industrials TURN: ZH 700.69 - 700.69 - - - - 77.50 3,454.68 Unifreight Industrials UNIF: ZH 7000.00 - 7000.00 - - - - 35.53 7,453.20 Willdale Industrials WILD: ZH 365.00 390.00 390.86 14,000 54,720 25.86 7.08 117.14 6,949.50 ZB Banking ZBFH: ZH 10000.00 - 10000.00 - - - - -11.47 17,519.06 Zeco Industrials ZECO: ZH 3.31 - 3.31 - - - - 0.00 15.34 Zimpapers Consumer Services ZIMP: ZH 600.00 - 600.00 - - - - 148.66 3,456.00 Zimplow Industrials ZIMPLOW: ZH 3650.00 3650.00 3650.00 200 7,300 - - 114.71 12,577.19 ZHL Financial Services ZHL: ZH 1200.00 1200.00 1200.00 14,200 170,400 - - 128.57 21,818.63 TOTAL 2,775,300 834,779,963 3,364,504.10 ETFs Cass Saddle Agriculture ETF CSAG.zw 210.00 210.00 210.00 11,690 24,549 - - 16.67 76.02 Datvest Modified Consumer Staples ETF DMCS.zw 186.00 186.00 186.00 6,050 11,253 - - 19.23 131.20 Morgan&Co Made in Zimbabwe ETF MIZ.zw 192.00 200.00 200.48 4,450 8,922 8.48 4.42 76.25 4,793.49 Morgan&Co Multi-Sector ETF MCMS.zw 3095.00 3200.00 2964.25 9,300 275,675 -130.75 -4.22 28.88 3,814.19 Old Mutual ZSE Top 10 ETF OMTT.zw 1000.75 1000.00 1000.00 1,046,864 10,468,640 -0.75 -0.07 55.28 1,436.25 FINSEC Old Mutual Zimbabwe Financial Services OMZIL 17400.00 - 17400.00 - - - - 33.85 14,444.04 VFEX (US cents) US$m Axia Consumer Goods AXIA: VX 11.50 11.00 11.00 450 50 -0.50 -4.35 -25.42 61.04 BNC Mining BIND:VX 1.98 - 1.98 - - - - -13.91 25.20 Caledonia Mining CMCL:VX 1560.00 - 1560.00 - - - - 20.00 9.67 Innscor Industrials INN: VX 65.04 - 65.04 - - - - -29.43 370.65 NatFoods Consumer Goods NTFD:VX 181.00 - 181.00 - - - - 1.32 123.80 Nedbank Financial Services NED:VX 1090.00 1090.00 1090.00 16 174 - - -5.22 1.76 Padenga Consumer Goods PHL:VX 18.10 - 18.10 - - - - -21.03 98.03 SeedCo International Consumer Goods SCIL:VX 26.15 26.00 26.06 155 40 -0.09 -0.34 -12.99 63.13 Simbisa Brands Consumer Goods SIM: VX 42.28 - 42.28 - - - - 15.52 237.69 TOTAL 621 264 990.97 REITs Tigere REIT TIG.zw 5005.00 5062.00 5062.00 2,882 145,887 0.57 1.14 23.52 64,425.73 Index Close Change (%) Open YTD % Top 5 Risers Price Change % YTD % ZSE All Share 38,568.48 +1.60 37,962.05 +97.85 Edgars 2600.00c +300.00c +13.04 +173.68 Top 10 23,081.98 +2.39 22,543.87 +87.49 Econet 26741.91c +2029.13c +8.21 +177.76 Top 15 27,012.64 +2.15 26,443.14 +101.04 Willdale 390.86c +25.86c +7.08 +117.14 Small Cap 697,921.97 - 697,921.97 +54.39 CBZ 19100.00c +894.12c +4.91 +41.48 Medium Cap 75,307.75 -0.55 75,726.76 +105.52 Delta 83055.17c +1403.24c +1.72 +130.85 Top 5 Fallers Price Change % YTD % SeedCo 21739.82c -1260.18c -5.48 +191.73 First Capital 3195.82c -184.99c -5.47 +102.91 African Sun 8207.02c -92.42c -1.11 +233.65 FMP 1632.35c -7.65c -0.47 +36.03 Star Africa 151.84c -0.68c -0.45 -28.31 Friday, 31 March 2023 A MEMBER OF FINSEC & THE ZIMBABWE STOCK EXCHANGE Price Sheet 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. Tel: (+263) 08677008101-2 | Email: [email protected] | Address: 14165 Sauer Road, Gunhill, Harare Tafara Mtutu: [email protected] | Gabriel Manjonjo: [email protected] SALES & TRADING: Davide Muchengi: [email protected] | Lungani Nyamazana: [email protected] | Precious Chagwedera: [email protected] RESEARCH:

Page 34 News Analysis BERNARD MPOFU WHEN the then Tanzanian President John Magufuli urged the east Africa nation’s women to “set your ovaries free” and bear more children, many thought he had lost his marbles while feminists warned that this would instead worsen inequality and poverty. “When you have a big population you build the economy. That’s why China’s economy is so huge,” he said in 2019, citing India and Nigeria as other examples of countries that gained from a demographic dividend. He was addressing a gathering in his home town of Chato. “I know that those who like to block ovaries will complain about my remarks. Set your ovaries free, let them block theirs.” Since taking office in 2015, Magufuli launched an industrialisation campaign that helped buoy economic growth, which averaged 6-7% annually. He said a higher birth rate would achieve faster progress. The Tanzanian leader did not live long enough to see his dream come true. He died in 2021 due to heart complications. While Maguguli’s remarks stirred debate on equally important issues such as gender equality, the late leader raised pertinent issues relating to the concept of mercantilism in international political economy. The term mercantilism was coined by Victor de Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau in 1763 and popularised by Adam Smith in 1776. Mercantilism is an economic and political doctrine developed in western European in which statesmen, policymakers and merchants seek to increase wealth through state action. Mercantilism is hinged on key factors such as favourable balance of trade, a large population (and a large army to protect political and economic interests) and protectionism. Critics say inward-looking policies such as protectionism may harm Zimbabwe’s economy at a time Africa is setting up the largest free trade area. One of the most crucial parameters for the attainment of growth and stability in the economy is through enhancement of export performance of a country. The concept of "Mercantilism", laid emphasis on the relevance of exports and expressed that maximisation of net exports is the best route towards prosperity of a nation. Experts say neo-mercantilist policies largely helped most Brics countries like China in their national development and global expansion. But with a population of just over 15 million, Zimbabwe still has some catching up to do when comparing with the numerical supremacy of powerhouses like China which has over a billion people. Brazil has a population of over 216 million while Russia and India are home to 146 million and 1.4 billion respectively. While South Africa’s population is four times larger than Zimbabwe, both southern African nations have populations well under 100 million, making Pretoria a less influential player of the Brics. South Africa took over the Brics chairmanship from China and will host the group’s annual summit this year — with President Cyril Ramaphosa promising more African countries will be invited to attend. “We want to use this opportunity to advance the interests of our continent, and we will therefore through the Brics summit be having an outreach process or moment, where we will invite other African countries to come and be part of the Brics because we do want Brics in whatever Brics does to focus on helping to develop our continent," Ramaphosa was quoted by local media in January. Apart from having a small population, Zimbabwe’s exports remain small and less when compared to regional peers. According to the World Bank, in the early 2000s Zimbabwe used to introduce 600 new products in the export basket. The rate of discovery (exports of previously un-exported products), however, has been declining and in 2019 it dropped to just five. Immediately, Zimbabwe’s quest to transition into an upper middle-income economy by 2030 was brought into sharp focus and questions were asked as to how feasible this ambitious project is without a robust export-driven development plan. Brics is an acronym referring to the developing countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, which are identified as rising economic powers. Other countries that have expressed interest in joining include Argentina, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Egypt, Bahrain and Indonesia, along with two nations from East Africa and one from West Africa. Zimbabwe, which endured two decades of Western isolation, is now looking elsewhere to stimulate economic growth. The southern African country is upping its dependence on Brics countries as a source of much-needed financial support after concessional funding from traditional international financial institutions (IFIs) dried up due to non-payment of arrears. Alexander Rusero, an international relations and journalism lecturer at the Mutare-based Africa University, said Zimbabwe’s signalling of cementing relations with the Brics is meant to counterbalance years of Western isolation. “I think Harare has always considered South-South cooperation as high-ranking in terms of its priorities. But more importantly what is happening has to be understood in the context of dispersal of dependence,” Rusero said. “Dispersal of dependence is a viable strategy in the 21st century where the world has constantly reviewed the extent at which it is unpredictable. Your erstwhile sponsor, your erstwhile funder, your erstwhile supporter could turn to be your fierce critic, your fierce enemy so to speak. I think Zimbabwe has learnt a lot from the hostile relationship that characterised its diplomatic interactions with the Western international community consisting of the United States, United Kingdom and the entire allies following the land reform which did not augur well with the erstwhile coloniser and the entire Western international community. Zimbabwe has actually suffered in terms of  navigating and wobbling out of the mess that it found itself in post-2000.” As Brics countries consolidate their position on the global stage, news bulletins are giving more and more coverage to matters like the so-called “trade wars” between the United States and China. These are, indeed, increasingly defining relations between the two largest economies in the world and could well underpin a multi-dimensional rivalry that could be a central feature of international relations for many years to come. Stephen Chan, a professor of international politics at the University of London, however told The NewsHawks that Zimbabwe’s high-risk profile may not make it a good recipient for Brics funding. “Even the Brics funds and banks have fiscal safeguards against lending to highrisk clients,” Chan said. “There has got to be some credible plan for service and repayment. Zimbabwe has gotten used to the idea that there is 'something for nothing' but has mismanaged its affairs sufficiently so that it has twice now had the world's highest sustained inflation. Even the most politically sympathetic institution will be wary about being economically sympathetic beyond a certain point. “Zimbabwe has nothing to offer the Brics group. Even South Africa is there only as a courtesy, its economy being dwarfed by those of Brazil, Russia, India and China. For genuine South-South cooperation to work you have to have something reliable and valuable to trade. Zimbabwe keeps hoping for value from e.g. lithium, but its reliability record is very low and lithium production is still in its early phases with much catch-up required in the production and export infrastructure.” Zimbabwe’s Government of National Unity (GNU) which came into effect from 2009 to 2013, Rusero said, slightly came to the rescue of Zimbabwe in terms of the economic quagmire and the economic mess such that even in the post-GNU scenario there has been some modicum of leverage which Zimbabwe attained which is still there. “Zimbabwe has now decided to assert its urgency in as much as international economic relations are concerned by expressing interest in becoming a member of the Brics,” he said. “I think it is viable, I think it is also coming from the fact that Zimbabwe can actually then use the leverage of its abundant natural resources because obviously one would question where Zimbabwe would get the sufficient monies, the sufficient deposits that are required for starters to become a member. I think it has already indulged in some cost and benefit analysis. But what is more important is that whatever relations that Zimbabwe is seeking to make should have direct dividends trickling down to the people as opposed to being an instrument of the Zanu PF-led government preservation and perpetual stay in power.” South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa whose country took over the Brics chairmanship from China and will host the group’s annual summit this year promised more African countries will be invited to attend. Brics has a lot to offer, but what will Zim offer Brics? NewsHawks Issue 125, 31 March 2023

NewsHawks Reframing Issues Page 35 Issue 125, 31 March 2023 BERNARD CHIGUVARE MANY South Africans wonder why so many of us Zimbabweans came to be settled in their country, and wonder why we do not simply return to our homeland. This is my story — about my rural homestead in  Zimbabwe  that I felt forced to leave. I would like to go back and spend the rest of my life there, but it is not that simple. From the early 1960s, I lived in Buhera district in Manicaland province. I have a deep bond with this place, even though the soil is today very poor for farming. In 1987 I got married. My uncle allocated me three hectares to build a family homestead. I was earning a salary that allowed me to immediately build a three-bedroomed house and also a small rondavel. Although my wish was to build a better home, I had limited resources. We used to grow groundnuts and maize for our own consumption. Then, in about 1998, I became employed by the Zimbabwean Public Service Commission under the department of Home Affairs, and I relocated my family to Harare, because I was working there. Later, I was transferred to Masvingo district. During these years I used to employ someone to look after my home and the animals. I made sure that every holiday our family returned to our rural home. But it soon became apparent that if I did not make a plan by the end of 2006, my children would have to drop out of school. I sought advice from a friend, a teacher, who used to buy shoes from Bata Shoe Company in Zimbabwe to sell in South Africa. I tried to join him but it did not work out for me. By 2007, I had noticed that a number of my friends had left for South Africa. My wife also went to Cape Town and was selling various things such as brooms. I asked myself, “Should I, too, leave Zimbabwe for South Africa?” I had worked for nine years at the department. What work could I look for in South Africa? I simply did not know. My salary had become worthless, so I left my job. In March 2007 I went to South Africa. But always at the back of my mind was my rural and true home, where I wished to retire one day. I love the place — the environment and its biodiversity. There is enough space for gardening and a bit of crop farming. I used to keep 10 head of cattle, but three were stolen and the others I had to sell. By 2010 my home had been completely vandalised. I have no idea who did it, but they not only stole everything – our clothes, the three-piece lounge suite, the kitchen utensils — they also made off with the window frames, the panes and the doors. It was distressing, but I had to remain steadfast, concentrating on the education of my children. I eventually found someone to look after the place again, but when he visited his family during the Christmas holiday, he never returned. I have been told he was seeking work at a mine about 60km east of my home. No one was staying at the house. In November last year, I returned to find that the roofs of the rondavel and the house had caved in. But I have started to renovate the place and I plan to extend it. In 2009, the South African government introduced the Dispensation of Zimbabwean Permit, which became the Zimbabwean Special Permit (ZSP) in 2014 and the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP) in 2017. Then it was announced that the ZEP would expire in June this year. For all these years I could manage to support my family by working legally in South Africa. If the ZEP ends, I will have to return to Zimbabwe and live at my rural home. I love my home and wish to stay there, but right now I am not sure how I will manage it financially. — GroundUp. ‘I left Zimbabwe for SA. I want to go back but it’s difficult’ The family homestead in Buhera District in Manicaland Province, eastern Zimbabwe. Photo: Bernard Chiguvare Where is the Global South’s rescue brigade? VERA SONGWE While US regulators rush to protect the depositors of failed domestic banks, many others around the world have been left to deal with the effects of the US Federal Reserve’s interest-rate hikes on their own. As in past systemic crises, this one is revealing major flaws in the international financial system. OVER the last few months, a G7 economy (the United Kingdom), a midsize US bank (Silicon Valley Bank), a small African economy (Ghana), a lower-middle-income South Asian economy (Pakistan), and the fastest-growing global services sector (technology) have all faced short-term cash constraints. Monetary-policy tightening in the United States — where the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 475 basis points in the space of a year — has produced knock-on effects around the world. But the stark disparities in how these effects are being treated speak volumes about current global financial arrangements. The decade of low interest rates prior to 2022 led many countries and businesses to amass debt in the interest of boosting economic growth and creating jobs. But no bonanza lasts forever, and this one came to a halt when inflation began rising in the US. Now, interest-rate hikes in the US and Europe are causing severe credit distress in developing countries. Many currencies have  depreciated  against the dollar by over 30%, as investors have withdrawn from emerging and frontier markets in a flight to safety. Emerging-market economies’ debt-servicing costs have increased by more than US$1 trillion in less than a year. Reserves as a share of imports have  dropped, and  inflation  in Africa has risen to over  14%  in the low-income countries in 2022. Worse, the rate hikes are compounding a pre-existing “polycrisis” that also includes Covid-19, climate change, violent conflict, and higher costs of living (owing to the war in Ukraine and other factors). In developed and developing economies alike, the technology sector had remained an oasis of robust growth, helping to provide resilience during the pandemic. Start-ups have multiplied, and most have been funded by affordable resources. But now, SVB’s collapse is hitting this sector globally, and Africa is not exempt. But while US regulators rush to protect domestic depositors, startups and many others have not received such assistance. For the past three years, emerging-market economies have been calling for swift action to address debt distress and contain the pandemic’s economic fallout. But these pleas have received little attention. Once again, Africa and the rest of the developing world are left to stand by and watch as the Bank of England and the Fed take swift action to contain the domestic effects of their own policies. As always, pressures imposed on emerging-market economies by exogenous decisions are seen not as liquidity events but as insolvency issues born of those countries’ poor macroeconomic fundamentals. And, as always, the prescribed treatment will involve a protracted visit from the doctor — the International Monetary Fund — rather than a quick liquidity injection. We already know from history that this unequal treatment will have huge consequences for development and financial stability across the Global South. This latest episode offers several lessons for African countries and emerging and developing economies more generally. First, since a liquidity crisis can come on suddenly, and with serious consequences for the real economy, we must provide the appropriate remedies, which requires distinguishing between liquidity problems and genuine solvency issues and creating the appropriate instruments. Second, when treated immediately and with the right remedy, confidence can be restored quickly, allowing growth to recover. To provide today’s global economy with sufficient liquidity to prevent another escalating crisis, the G7 and other major IMF shareholders should consider a new issuance of special drawing rights (SDRs, the Fund’s reserve asset) to serve this liquidity purpose. Third, like everyone else, emerging-market economies need support to build the financial infrastructure required to address rapidly escalating liquidity problems in the future. Among other things, this means deepening capital markets and strengthening financial-sector regulation. As the Basel Committee meets to consider revisions to the prevailing macroprudential bank regulations, it should pay more attention to the contagion effects of developed-market crises on emerging and frontier economies. Fourth, as the Fed and the European Central Bank contemplate the pace and magnitude of future interest-rate hikes, they must recognize how their policies affect frontier economies both directly and indirectly. There is a clear need for coordination beyond just the G20 countries and their central banks. Finally, as the international financial system becomes more deeply integrated, we must develop truly inclusive tools to protect all economies. Innovations to preserve financial stability will need to be extended to Africa and other emerging markets. The ECB’s  programme  of buying bonds from Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Greece to keep capital costs in check represents one such innovation. And now, the Fed has stepped in to help make all SVB depositors whole. It is possible to slow some parts of the global economy through policy tightening while still protecting growth in other parts. But this will require a clearly articulated shared objective. In each case, eliminating the vast disparities in how we respond to systemic crises will require new and deeper forms of coordination between the IMF, central banks, finance ministries, and the international donor community. There is no better time than now to start exploring our options. — Project Syndicate. *About the writer: Vera Songwe, chair of the Liquidity and Sustainability Facility, is a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Page 36 Reframing Issues NewsHawks Issue 125, 31 March 2023 JONATHAN BELOFF RWANDA'S ministry of Justice recently announced the  pardon and release  of Paul Rusesabagina from jail. Rusesabagina was involved in events portrayed in the 2004 Hollywood film Hotel Rwanda. In September 2021, Rusesabagina was sentenced to 25 years in jail over his ties to groups opposed to Rwandan president Paul Kagame. His release followed intense diplomatic talks between Washington and Kigali, and was negotiated by Qatar. While Rusesabagina’s release may be celebrated by his supporters in the West, it is a bit more complicated within and for Rwanda. His pardon needs to be understood within the greater context of  Rwandan foreign policy, whose primary objectives are state security, reduction of foreign aid reliance and economic diplomacy. Rusesabagina’s arrest illustrated the Rwandan government’s determination to neutralise threats it sees to its national security. His subsequent release provides important narrating elements for both domestic and foreign audiences. In his official request for pardon from Kagame, Rusesabagina admitted  to working with anti-Rwanda groups and took responsibility for their actions. This legitimises Kigali’s move to arrest him. It also provides the government with ammunition to combat future criticisms of  human rights abuses over the arrest. But perhaps more importantly, Rusesabagina’s release portrays Kagame as a pragmatist on the international stage — one willing to negotiate once a security threat is neutralised. The pardon also helps restore the close ties Rwanda and the US have historically enjoyed. Senior US political leaders, including secretary of state Antony Blinken, had censured Rwanda over the arrest. Domestically, the government has said Rusesabagina’s release fits within its truth and reconciliation process following the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. Who is Rusesabagina? In Hotel Rwanda, Rusesabagina (played by Don Cheadle) is depicted as being the primary person to save the lives of 1 268 people hiding inside Hotel Des Mille Collines during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. Over the course of  100 days, more than 800 000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed. However, the Hollywood narrative has been challenged by genocide survivors who say it misrepresented facts. Instead, they say, Rusesabagina ran the hotel as a personal profit-making venture. Kigali Rusesabagina left Rwanda in 1996, Rwanda: Paul Rusesabagina’s release and apology — A master stroke by Kagame and eventually became a US resident and Belgian citizen. Following the film’s release, he received several humanitarian awards, including the US Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005. He used his newfound platform to promote his political ambitions and ideology. The Rwandan government  accused Rusesabagina  of terrorism over his funding of the Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change, which has the National Liberation Front and PDR-Ihumure military wings. These groups have called for a change of government in Rwanda and a return to ethnic divisions. Kigali  viewed this as harmful to the country’s post-genocide social development under the Ndi Umunyarwanda (I am Rwandan) ideology. Rusesabagina  aired a call for armed resistance against Kagame, and soon after, National Liberation Front militants attacked Rwanda. In June and December 2018, the group carried out two attacks in southwestern Rwanda. Nine civilians died. Moving forward, I know you will focus on securing a peaceful future for all Rwandans. He also said he wouldn’t dive into Rwandan politics again, and would instead “spend the remainder of my days in the United States in quiet reflection”. The pardon can be interpreted as effectively silencing Rusesabagina. Rwanda’s Minister of Justice said Rusesabagina would still have to pay reparations to victims of the 2018 attacks. The courts awarded them 412 million Rwandan francs (US$374 000). Who wins? Rusesabagina’s release is still shrouded in mystery, with few details released. So far, the Rwandan government has said the Qatari government negotiated his release, not the US. Despite Kigali  denying US pressure, the release does benefit the Rwanda-US relationship. Washington can say, whether officially or informally, it helped free a US resident and took a hard stance against its African ally. For Rwanda, it illustrates the government’s willingness  to constructively engage with its most important global ally. Rusesabagina’s release eases tensions with US political leaders, including Blinken, who privately discussed Rusesabagina’s release with Kagame during an August 2022 visit to Rwanda. The pardon also effectively removes a lightning rod that US politicians and activists have used to criticise Rwanda’s human rights record. It also benefits the Rwandan government at home. Forgiveness is a central tenet of the country’s “gacaca” judicial system. This traditional form of justice pursued reconciliation outcomes rather than punishment after the genocide. It was used to try  one million suspects. Rusesabagina’s pardon reinforces the importance of forgiveness for those who confess their crimes. Finally, by publicly disclosing Rusesabagina’s pardon request, the government has illustrated to both Rwandans and foreign nations how even harsh critics can change tune and support Kagame. This helps reinforce the government’s narrative that Kagame is the best leader for national development. — The Conversation. *About the writer: Jonathan Beloff is a post-doctoral research associate at King's College London in Britain. Two years ago, Paul Rusesabagina was sentenced to 25 years in prison on terrorism charges. Paul Rusesabagina

Reframing Issues Page 37 EMMA SHORTIS EVENTS often seem inevitable in hindsight. The indictment of former United States president Donald Trump on criminal charges has been a possibility since the start of his presidency — arguably, since close to the beginning of his career in New York real estate. But until now, the potential consequences of such a cataclysmic development in American politics have been purely theoretical. This week, after much build-up in the media, The New York Times reported that a Manhattan grand jury has voted to indict Trump and the Manhattan district attorney will now likely attempt to negotiate Trump’s surrender. The indictment stems from a criminal investigation by the district attorney’s office into  “hush money” payments made to the adult film star Stormy Daniels (through Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen), and whether they contravened electoral laws. Trump also faces a swathe of other criminal investigations and civil suits, some of which may also result in state or federal charges. As he pursues another run for the presidency, Trump could simultaneously be dealing with multiple criminal cases and all the court appearances and frenzied media attention that will come with that. These investigations and possible charges won’t prevent Trump from running, or even serving as president again (though, as with everything in the US legal system,  it’s complicated). But what will the political fallout be — will his indictment hurt Trump, or help him? And what does it mean for American democracy? Can Trump survive multiple investigations at once? There are almost too many hypotheticals and “what ifs” to count. Even the immediate fallout of Trump’s indictment isn’t clear. It is certainly plausible Trump will manage to derive political benefit from the media spectacle — he has a long history of successfully weaponising investigations into his dealings as “witch hunts”, effectively tapping into conservatives’ obsession with “government overreach”. It’s equally possible multiple investigations and charges will eventually hurt Trump, forcing him off the campaign trail and into situations out of his control, where he doesn’t perform so well. This could go as badly for him as the few hostile media interviews he did as president and open the door for a successful challenge by another aspiring candidate. Democrats and others opposed to Trump and the movement he heads are also divided on the fallout and risks. Some  legal experts and political pundits  have expressed concern about the particular case that led to Trump’s indictment. When then-FBI director James Comey sent a letter to Congress on the eve of the 2016 election about the private email server presidential candidate Hillary Clinton used as secretary of state, it led to a great deal of soul-searching about the impact of perceptions — valid or otherwise — of politically motivated “interference” in the electoral process. The longstanding reluctance of federal agencies to engage in such “interference”, alongside the established consensus that a president should not be charged while in office, survived until almost the very end of the Trump administration. The so-called “Russia investigation”, led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, declined to recommend specific charges against Trump, despite there being ample evidence he had allegedly obstructed justice. The basis for this decision: Mueller said Justice Department policy  prevented him from charging a sitting president with a crime. But between the release of Mueller’s report and  Trump’s incitement  of an insurrection of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, attitudes to charging a president or former president appear to have changed dramatically. Trump’s indictment this week makes that abundantly clear. The shared understanding that has, until now, protected Trump (and predecessors like Richard Nixon), has been turned on its head. Now, there’s a belief among many Democrats and a few anti-Trump Republicans that not pursuing these investigations to their logical ends — that is, an arrest, trial and potential imprisonment — presents a much greater threat to the integrity of American democracy and democratic institutions than the risk of appearing to “interfere”. This logic argues that, particularly when American democracy is in crisis, even presidents and former presidents cannot be seen to be above the law. If this perception was widespread, how many Americans would completely lose faith in a political system they already don’t trust entirely? Even more importantly, how would the perpetrators of crimes — and their supporters — respond if they believed they could break the law without consequences? If,  as many experts have argued, January 6 was a test run, what are the consequences of no consequences? A dangerous and unstable time We can be fairly certain of the answer to that question. Trump’s reaction to his pending indictment two weeks ago was eerily reminiscent of his incitement of the riot on the Capitol: “Protest, take our nation back!” The potential for further violence — which is a feature, not a bug, of American politics – is very real. While the logic behind the criminal pursuit of the ex-president is entirely sound — and necessary to the ongoing integrity of American democratic institutions — that does not necessarily mean the survival of those institutions is assured as they are forced to respond to ongoing attacks. Trump’s indictment, and the frenzy it has already created, demonstrate just what a dangerous and unstable time this is for American democracy. The road is probably about to get even rockier. In a  1977 interview, Nixon said in response to a question about why he had authorised illegal actions against anti-Vietnam war protesters. Well, when the president does it […] that means that it is not illegal. Almost half a century later, we are as close as we have ever been to finding out if he was right – and if American democracy can survive the answer. — The Conversation. *About the writer: Emma Shortis us a lecturer at RMIT University in Australia. Former United States president Donald Trump. What does Trump’s indictment mean for his political future – and the strength of US democracy? NewsHawks Issue 125, 31 March 2023

Page 38 Reframing Issues NewsHawks Issue 125, 31 March 2023 TOM NYIRENDA/ ALIMUDDIN ZUMLA/ FRANCINE NTOUMA WORLD TB Day on 24 March commemorated the day in 1882 when  Professor Robert Koch  announced in Berlin that he had discovered the microbial cause of tuberculosis (TB),  Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Effective treatment for TB has been available since  1952. But it continues to be the world’s top cause of death from a single infectious disease. In 1993, TB was declared a global public emergency of international concern and still is 30 years on. The focus at that time was on adult TB. At the time childhood TB was not thought to be important. Accurate evidence of the scale of the problem wasn’t available. Over the ensuing decade, thousands of African children died of TB and TB/HIV co-infection every year. It took visionary leadership from African scientists and pathologists to conduct a large,  landmark autopsy study in 2002 on 164 children who had died of respiratory illness in Lusaka, Zambia. The study found that 25% of deaths were due to TB. It was only then that the World Health Organisation (WHO) recognised that TB in children was a neglected disease. Diagnosing TB in children is difficult for a number of reasons. The most vulnerable children present with non-specific symptoms. Chest x-rays are the textbook way to diagnose TB. But these are not always available in rural settings. There have been numerous studies evaluating new tests and algorithms. But the ideal test for childhood TB has not yet been found because the test must be easy to use at points of healthcare, affordable, with simple non-invasive sample collection. TB vaccination:  The age-old Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine remains the only licensed vaccine. It only provides some protection in early childhood. But it is not effective in preventing active disease in older children and adults. In many developing countries BCG vaccination for children after birth is mandatory. But vaccine coverage varies across countries. For national TB control programmes to work there must ensure high vaccination coverage. New vaccine development for TB has not been a priority. There are 16 candidate vaccines that have reached proof of concept stage based on recent efforts. But more investment for facilitating their evaluation in clinical trials is required. Funding to meet global targets:  Adequate funding is required to fight childhood TB. The global targets set in 2018 aimed to treat 40 million people with TB disease between 2018–2022. This target included 3.5 million children with drug sensitive TB and 115 000 children with drug-resistant TB. But progress in many areas of TB control have stalled – or been reversed. This has mainly been due to the Covid-19. This calls for renewed efforts to funding TB control adequately again. In addition, US$1.3bn per year was needed to achieve these targets . US$2bn would go to TB research annually within the same five year period of 2018–2022. An assessment of the shortfall is urgently required as total investments into TB control globally fell from US$6 billion in 2019 US$5.4 billion in 2021, which is less than half what is needed annually. Clinical practice and community prevention: Health workers in parts of the world including countries in Africa have limited knowledge and practice in managing childhood TB. Contact screening and family-centred approaches are an important part of reducing the burden of TB in childhood. It’s essential to improve understanding of childhood TB from training institutions and clinics — all the way down to the community. Use of new technologies in testing and diagnosing childhood TB: Most children with TB present with negative results on microscopy of their respiratory fluids while radiographs are unreliable as they rarely definitive.  GeneXpert  is currently the most widely used tool for diagnostic accuracy of TB. But affordability and maintenance mean that it’s not practical to roll it out in settings that have few resources. The best option in our view is metagenomic next-generation sequencing. This enables broad identification of pathogens and antimicrobial resistant genes directly from clinical samples within 24 hours. But these technologies are not readily available in low-middle income countries where the TB burden is the highest. Some children with respiratory symptoms may have mixed infections. Accurate diagnosis of multiple infections in a child will lead to proper management of the sick child with respiratory symptoms and reduction in mortality due to untreated infections including TB. Next steps To efficiently fight childhood TB, programmes must ensure the following: • good coverage of BCG vaccine • new, more effective TB vaccines need to be developed as well as enhancement of BCG • good clinical training and practice for managing patients • deployment of highly sensitive diagnostic methods • efficient community prevention programmes including contact tracing, and • proper treatment of diagnosed children. Funders and donors should provide enough resources to enable global targets to be met. And enough money is required to mitigate the impact of emergencies such as the Covid-19 pandemic and economic downturns. — The Conversation. *About the writers: Tom Nyirenda is extraordinary senior lecturer in the Department of Global Health at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Alimuddin Zumla is professor of infectious diseases and international health at University College London in Britain. Francine Ntoumi is research group leader at the Institute for Tropical Medicine at the University of Tübingen in Germany. In many developing countries TB vaccination for children after birth is mandatory. Paul Kane/Getty Images TB in children isn’t being controlled

NewsHawks Reframing Issues Page 39 Issue 125, 31 March 2023 of the pandemic, Zambia became the first African country to default on its sovereign debt —  though the global crisis was not to blame. Reckless borrowing and profligate corruption had gutted the economy. When my predecessor took power, debt stood at 32% of gross domestic product. By the time he left, it had ballooned to 120%. Before the election, food inflation  had topped 30% while  annual inflation stood at 25%; more than 40% of adults could afford only one meal a day. Panicked because the people would not take such deprivation any longer, the former president went into pork barrel overdrive, exacerbating the debt crisis. After the election, there was initial progress to restructure Zambia’s debt and return to the path of stability. Talks have since dragged on. The International Monetary Fund says the impasse poses a threat to the economy. I would argue it is also a threat to our democracy. Zambia has undertaken reforms in anti-corruption, transparency, and management of public funds. These difficult and potentially unZambia’s President: You cannot eat democracy HAKAINDE HICHILEMA I KNOW the rough edges of an imperfect democracy. Until 2021, much of my adult life was spent in opposition in Zambia. Charges of treason and 15 stints in jail came with the role. But as the 2023 Summit for Democracy begins in Washington DC — co-hosted by my nation along with the United States, South Korea, Costa Rica and the Netherlands — two questions are paramount in the global search to protect and rejuvenate the democratic process. First, what measures can countries around the world take to improve democracy within our own borders? And second, how can we collectively create the international conditions in which democracies will flourish? The former requires introspection. In Zambia, a national conversation has begun about our democracy. One-party rule came to an end in the early 1990s and we are still a young democracy forging our path. With an average age of 18, our citizens are also young. Few remember the struggle for a multiparty system. It is important my generation hear what democracy means to them. My two predecessors took an authoritarian turn. As mismanagement destabilised society, rights were suppressed to retain control. Across the nation dissent was quashed and protests dispersed. To overcome rigging in the 2021 election, the people had to turn out in numbers beyond the simple majority required to oust the incumbent. Since then, my government has returned our democracy to health, shoring up the civil liberties the people demanded: the right of assembly, an end to defamation laws that challenged free speech, and removing the death penalty. But you cannot eat democracy. Human rights may sustain the spirit, but not the body. Particularly in young democracies like mine, governments must deliver economically if they are to retain the people’s consent. When multiple administrations fail to do so, disillusionment can grow not just with them but with the process itself. Few will subsequently fight when it’s on the line. I came to office with no illusions about the hurdles my country faced. In late 2020, at the height Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema popular measures are required to restore credibility. But if citizens do not see democracy improving their lot — if no economic relief follows — the system will feel the strain. Of course, debt restructuring is complex. In Zambia’s case, it includes a variety of creditors —  from multilateral institutions and countries to private lenders and asset managers. Mid-pandemic, as the credit crunch took hold and the cost of borrowing rocketed, the Group of 20 established the Common Framework to deal with such complexities. It lays down a set of principles around which debt-distressed nations and creditors can come together to negotiate restructuring. But despite the reforms Zambia has undertaken, the format is proving cumbersome and bureaucratic. The resulting delays are putting pressure on the local currency, prices are once again creeping up, and much-needed international investment is blocked. Perversely, the debt run up by an autocratically disposed predecessor are stymying a democratic government’s provision of economic security for its citizens. This system does little to strengthen democracies. This is not a gripe about my country’s troubles. We are only the first in a long queue of nations in a looming crisis. According to the United Nations Development Programme, 54 countries are facing severe debt stress; and 25 of them are in Africa. More will enter the G20 Common Framework. A swift and comprehensive mechanism is required to replace today’s ad hoc, slow and messy process. Without reprieve, many democracies will face existential pressure from the people. There is a danger that widespread dislocation and instability will follow. Then the questions will begin: What has democracy done for me? Why this chaos? Do we need to turn to a firm, steady but autocratic hand? These are the dangerous prologues to  democratic unravelling. We cannot simply parrot lines about how democracy is good for citizens. It must be felt. Democracy is delicate. We cannot let debt damage it in the tumult. — Bloomberg. *About the writer: Hakainde Hichilema is the President of Zambia.

Page 40 Reframing Issues NewsHawks Issue 125, 31 March 2023 WANGUI KIMARI/ZOLTÁN GLÜCK A WORLD without the police is inconceivable to many people. The police are viewed as part of modern society’s foundation, ensuring democracy and keeping people safe. In practice, however, police around the world sometimes repress  social movements, stifle  democracy, and exacerbate social and racial injustice. Across the African continent, they often use force to prop up repressive regimes. And in Kenya in particular,  extortion  and  extrajudicial killings by the police are rampant. Kenya is unusual for its extensive attempts to reform the police. Reform efforts began in earnest in 2008, when the police were found to be complicit in post-election violence. And yet, after 15 years and billions of shillings spent, the police reform project has largely failed. The Kenyan police remain repressive, unaccountable and effectively unreformable. Many citizens complain about how the police treat them like ATMs — a source of cash. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the police  killed tens of Kenyans  while enforcing curfew measures. Given such failures, we posed the question: are the Kenya police obsolete? We’ve conducted hundreds of interviews, discussion groups and over a decade of ethnographic research into how  counter-terrorist policing  and  securitisation  have shaped  Nairobi. And in turn, how local residents respond to police violence and build their own practices of care, mutual aid and security. We have come to the conclusion that the police make most people feel less safe. Many residents told us they don’t depend on the police for their safety: they keep each other safe. Given the impasse of police reform — and citizen responses to this — there is a strong argument to be made for the abolition of the Kenyan police altogether. Policing at an impasse Modern police institutions made their first appearances on the African continent as part of colonisation and the expansion of European capitalist interests. In Kenya, the roots of policing lie in early colonial “conquest”. The Imperial British East African Company developed security forces to protect its expanding economic interests in the 1890s, and the  Kenya-Uganda Railroad  developed its own police force in 1902. After Kenya’s independence in 1963, the police were “Africanised” but retained much of their  colonial character. Under  Daniel arap Moi’s authoritarian regime  (1978-2002), the police continued to play a key role in repressing dissent. There have been calls to reform the Kenyan police for decades. But the  2007-08 post-election violence, in which police were complicit in widespread ethnic violence, accelerated attempts at reform. Over the past 15 years, police reform has been enshrined in the 2010 constitution and actualised in numerous acts of parliament. It’s been supported internationally with  funding and technical expertise from the UN, the US and the EU, among others. It prompted the  reorganisation of the police service  and the establishment of civil oversight mechanisms. Yet, despite all of these efforts, the Kenyan police  remain corrupt, violent and unaccountable. Civilian oversight over the police has proved ineffectual. The Independent Policing Oversight Agency has managed to bring only 12 cases of police violence to conviction out of more than 20,000 complaints received between 2012 and 2021. That is only one out of every 1 667 complaints. The under-resourced agency simply can’t grapple with the immense volume of reported police abuses. The case for abolition Police reform has failed. Is it time to consider abolition? Abolition is not about simply tearing things down, but rather asking what should exist in place of outdated and violent systems that no longer serve people. Abolition is a  creative  and  constructive project  with deep philosophical roots. So why abolish the Kenya police? • The police are functionally obsolete for most Kenyans. In many low-income neighbourhoods, our research shows that people avoid calling the police to respond to crises or crimes. For many, experience shows that the police can make matters worse. • The police often exacerbate insecurity, violence and  corruption. To provide for their own safety, residents increasingly organise themselves into networks  of friends, family and neighbours for basic safety. For instance, women in Mathare, Nairobi,  organise their own security practices, which include conflict resolution, de-escalation of violence and support for survivors. • In more affluent neighbourhoods, residents increasingly rely on private companies to provide  security in their compounds. Police are seen as one among  many security services  available for hire. In our research, the few positive experiences with the Kenyan police were reported (predominantly) by such affluent residents. • The remaining function of the police is “enforcing order” and protecting the state against society. Officers uphold and protect a rarefied governing class and political elite against the population. Police abolition, therefore, would mean dismantling ineffective and repressive institutions and replacing them with  systems of actual safety, systems that enable society to thrive. What should replace the police? When confronted with the idea of “abolition” for the first time, many people often respond: “but who will keep us safe?” In Nairobi, the answer is to be found in existing social practices. The problem is that there’s a lack of resources to support alternatives to punitive security. We call for defunding the police and investing these resources in such alternatives. 1. Invest in communities. When we ask about local security problems, residents often answer that the lack of schools, food, land, quality housing, water, electricity, toilets, healthcare and safe places for kids to play are what cause “insecurity”. Reinvestment in community means funding such social infrastructure to allow people to thrive. This reduces  crime and violence. 2. Invest in alternative safety mechanisms.  This means strengthening dispute-resolution mechanisms that help resolve conflicts without violence. The government needs to support existing  social justice centres,  networks  and movements fighting for change. When these forms of social reinvestment are pursued, the need for the police is greatly diminished. — The Conversation. *About the writers: Wangui Kimari is an anthropologist at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Zoltán Glück is assistant professor of anthropology at American University in the United States. Police officers pursue Azimio protesters in Kisumu. Kenya’s police are violent, unaccountable and make most citizens feel less safe

NewsHawks Reframing Issues Page 41 Issue 125, 31 March 2023 SISHUWA SISHUWA THE vice-president of the US, Kamala Harris, is this week visiting Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia, which will host the second Summit for Democracy. Here are some of the key issues arising from her visit:  Africa’s lack of a unified strategy for dealing with major powers  Despite  official claims  to the contrary, Harris is visiting Africa to counter what the United States considers the growing illiberal influences of China and Russia on the continent, and to secure America’s economic interests, especially in the extractive sector. The US — like China, the EU and Russia — knows precisely what it wants from Africa. In contrast, the continent lacks a unified strategy for managing its relationship with these major powers or power blocs. There are three main reasons that help to explain this. The first is the lack of a continental agency. Despite the existence of the 55-member African Union, Africa continues to struggle to reach common positions on major issues. Ordinarily, before Harris’s arrival, the leaders of Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia should have canvassed the views of their counterparts within their respective regions or across Africa to develop a unified voice on key issues that affect them or indeed the continent. It is highly unlikely that presidents Nana Akufo-Addo, Samia Hassan and Hakainde Hichilema consulted their regional colleagues before Harris’s arrival. The trio is more likely to be quietly boasting that the US vice-president is visiting their countries, not their neighbours. The result is a situation where major powers find it easy to pit African countries against each other, even on issues where a common position might yield better results. In other words, AU member states prefer to advance individual foreign policy objectives and prioritise bilateral relations with China, Russia, the EU and US rather than presenting a collective position against any of these powers. Even platforms such as the US-Africa and Sino-Africa summits do not often feature continental positions. Instead, they primarily serve the interests of major powers, especially when it comes to extracting resources from the continent. The second reason behind the lack of a unified strategy is the absence of a pan-African leadership that is both visionary and competent. This is not the first time that rival superpowers have been out to draw African countries to their US Vice President Kamala Harris camps. Similar manoeuvres were witnessed during the Cold War. The key difference this time is the non-existence of bodies like the Non-Aligned Movement, which served as an effective counter to the East-West divide, and pan-Africanist leaders in the mould of Julius Nyerere, Kenneth Kaunda and Kwame Nkrumah, who could help create a similar organisation or come together on common issues. Such leadership last existed on the continent in the early 2000s, represented most notably by Thabo Mbeki, Olusegun Obasanjo and Meles Zenawi, who attempted to develop an Africa-centred foreign policy. Today, Africa is saturated with presidents who position themselves to be flattered by Western powers or China and crave the attention and endorsement of the very powers that benefit from the continued disunity and exploitation of the continent. It is hardly possible to look across the continent today without being struck by the calamity of the absence of a single African leader who is a dedicated pan-Africanist. The third reason is that individual African countries are heavily dependent on the US, China, the EU and even Russia in relation to aid, trade and external investment. This explains why they find it easier to compete rather than unite and present a shared position on these key issues, much in the same way that these major powers engage the continent. African countries conduct more trade with China and the EU than with one another and have shown greater willingness to offer huge incentives to Chinese and Western investors than local businesses. In addition, several countries, endowed with treasured minerals such as platinum, gold, copper, cobalt and diamonds, fail to effectively manage their natural wealth and end up with begging bowls before the same forces. It is impossible to cultivate unity in these conditions. Would Harris’s visit benefit Zambia and its relationship with the US? It is important to recognise that Harris is not  travelling to Zambia on a state visit but to attend a gathering on democracy in Africa. I do not know how much of this visit is reserved for Zambia, so I have very few expectations. More generally, however, several Zambians expect Harris’s visit will result in increased US support for anti-corruption reform, the strengthening of democratic institutions and the promotion of accountable governance. The US has historically supported Zambia in areas such as healthcare delivery  but many in Lusaka are hoping there will be a commitment to financing new areas of support, such as infrastructure development. If you asked an average Zambian what the US has done for the country, they would struggle to point to anything. But the same person will quickly note that China has in recent years built a top-class international conference centre, a major public hospital and a national stadium — all constructed at no financial cost to Zambia. There are credible reports that a new mine, linked to some prominent Americans including political elites, is about to be opened in the country, and one wonders if this would signal the start of the US’s involvement in non-traditional sectors. America’s attempt to win back friends on the continent may fail in the absence of tangible benefits such as visible project financing. African countries have woken up to the reality that they can no longer be courted through mere political rhetoric or symbolism. When African leaders attended the last US-Africa Summit, US President Joe Biden announced that there was US$55 billion available for immediate investment in Africa. Many are now asking, “Where is the money?” If Harris comes empty handed, Zambia may not be swayed by her childhood ties to the country. It is also hoped that Harris will encourage President Hichilema to accelerate the passage of a law on access to information. Its absence hurts the fight against corruption As US vice-president Harris arrives in Zambia, here is what lies ahead Africa News

Page 42 Africa News NewsHawks Issue 125, 31 March 2023 and risks making the campaign appear a witch-hunt against former officials. Hichilema himself has refused to publish the value of his assets, despite being elected on a platform of accountability and transparency. The failure to release his net worth is especially concerning given his extensive business interests and it makes it difficult to work out to what extent his economic policies are benefiting companies in which he has a stake. Zambians are hoping that Harris will encourage Hichilema,  who appears to pay more attention to Western voices than to those who elected him, to both see the value of releasing his asset declarations and enacting the law. Debt remains Zambia’s foremost immediate challenge. It is adversely affecting Hichilema’s capacity to fulfil his election promises. Beyond providing support for debt relief through the Creditor Committee for Zambia under the Common Framework for Debt Treatments, the US cannot do more because the leverage largely lies with China — though Eurobond holders also have a huge say. However,  Harris can do something constructive by encouraging Hichilema to speak directly to the Chinese — who have abandoned the “zero Covid” policy which might have previously prevented the Zambian president from travelling to Beijing for official talks — as opposed to publicly portraying them  as being unreasonable with their demands. She can also pledge to talk to the Eurobond holders, who have been an important stumbling block to successful negotiations for debt restructuring, although the US has opportunistically painted China as the only drawback. How does Zambia see its relationship with the US, particularly in the light of its historic relations with China and increasing attempts by Russia to expand influence on the continent? Zambia sees the US in the same way it sees China and Russia — as a friend. I do not think Zambia’s relationship with one country or power bloc should be assessed on the strength or weakness of its relationship with another. The country needs the support of everyone to develop – the US, China, Russia, the UK and other countries. None of these can meet Zambia’s aspirations or needs on their own. So, when the country turns to China, Russia or the US for support, this should not be seen as snubbing one major power bloc or the other but as part of a wider effort to lift the living standards of its people. It is important for global powers to recognise that it is both counterproductive and unsustainable to lock the country into a dependency path with one major power bloc. Zambia should never be placed in a position where the neglect, or indeed renunciation, of ties with one country becomes a prerequisite for securing friendship with another. The US has a role to play in Zambia, as do other countries, including China and Russia. Does Harris’s visit point to the revival of Zambia’s democracy?   Zambia’s democracy has improved markedly under Hichilema, although his delivery of institutional reform has been sporadic. The December 2022 repeal  of the colonial-era death penalty and another law that criminalised insults to the president are significant moves that underscore his administration’s commitment to promoting human rights and advancing democracy. However, repressive laws that restrict rights to assembly and free speech, and which outlaw homosexuality, remain on the statutes. On the latter, Hichilema has publicly stated that homosexuality is a choice  not a sexual orientation, a view that is at best ignorant — and rooted in colonial beliefs of sexuality, as these are, of course, the origin of Zambia’s laws on this topic. Why would anyone “choose” to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender in a society where they will probably be subject to state persecution and severe social stigma?  The lurking issue of LGBTQ rights Zambia’s political opposition has warned Harris not to raise the issue of the rights of sexual minorities during her visit. This is a sensitive subject that divides opinion in Zambia, one whose cause has not been helped by the West’s patronising attitude when discussing the matter with African leaders. In recent years, Western governments have been seeking to change the anti-LGBTQ laws in Africa by  attaching aid and budgetary support  to a country’s willingness to decriminalise such laws. In my view, this approach will not only fail to yield the desired results but is actually counterproductive. This is because it has overtones of imperial design. What is needed is to encourage each country to have difficult conversations on sexuality so that whatever consensus emerges out of internal discussions and contradictions is owned as a product of local, rather than external, dynamics. After all, it is not just Africans who are homophobic. There are many people, even in so-called advanced Western societies, today who still retain prideful bigotry and prejudices against sexual minorities. Attitudes take time to shift but they do shift. And I am glad that, in the case of Zambia, people occasionally find the time to talk about the issue of homosexuality. This conversation, notwithstanding the homophonic language in which it is often conducted, is necessary for the evolution of social attitudes. It would get people to ask themselves difficult questions, such as, “What harm do I, as a third party, suffer as a result of private, consensual sex or a relationship between two adults of the same sex?” Or, “How does the sexual orientation of another person adversely affect me as an individual?” I believe that it is only through many conversations that we can reconsider our positions, challenge our assumptions, question our convictions and come to appreciate our own ignorance. Changing entrenched social attitudes would also require effective leadership at the highest level but I do not see this happening under Hichilema in Zambia’s case. His minister of justice recently claimed that the administration cannot change the anti-homosexuality law in the absence of public submissions or protests. This reasoning is simply ridiculous. Governments repeal, amend, and introduce new laws all the time without submissions or public protests. Hichilema recently presided over the repeal of the death penalty, yet this was a change opposed by most Zambians. The most recent public survey on the subject found that  nine out of the country’s 10 provinces favoured retaining capital punishment. But the government showed unusual boldness in repealing the law. That is leadership. It is most irresponsible to uphold an unjust law that fosters discrimination. Not long ago, people of different colour were legally discriminated against, for they were seen as less human. Today, they are accepted as human as anybody else. Not long ago, people of different sex were legally discriminated against, for they were seen as less human. Today, they are accepted as human as anybody else. Now we have people of different sexual orientation being legally discriminated against, for they are seen as less human. Among their oppressors today are those who only yesterday were at the receiving end of discrimination based on their colour and sex — namely, the black person and the woman. As former president Mbeki once  noted, we dehumanise ourselves the moment we start seeing other people as less human. The paradox of it all is that the anti-homosexuality law in many British ex-colonies, one that many people today justify in the name of the law or religion, is partly a chronological accident. In Zambia, for instance, the law that criminalises homosexuality was enacted in November 1931 as part of the colonial state’s general tendency to adopt legislation from the UK. In Britain itself, homosexuality was decriminalised in 1967. Had decolonisation occurred slightly later, I suspect similar laws may have been passed in the British Empire as well, and new governments would have simply adopted them without much consideration, as other colonial-era laws were adopted. Instead of repealing the anti-homosexuality law after achieving independence in 1964, successive Zambian governments have preserved it on the statutes in the name of religion or culture, effectively pandering to a deeply conservative population that falsely believes that homosexuality is a Western imposition. We Africans have more reason to reject Christianity than homosexuality, for the latter existed even in pre-colonial societies, long before the arrival of European missionaries or Western religion on the continent. Homophobia, like Christianity, is a colonial-era import now masquerading as an indigenous tradition. — Mail & Guardian. *About the writer: Sishuwa Sishuwa is a Zambian historian and senior lecturer in history at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. MIRIAM MUTEBI What you need to know: In sub-Saharan Africa, non-comminicable diseases (NCDs) are now responsible for roughly 37% of deaths – up from 24% in 2000. Cancer is one of the top three diseases driving this increase, accounting for more than a half-million deaths in 2020. And this number is expected to double by 2030 if the current status quo is maintained. NCDs, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity, kill 41 million people per year, with 77% of these deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In sub-Saharan Africa, NCDs are now responsible for roughly 37% of deaths – up from 24% in 2000. Cancer is one of the top three diseases driving this increase, accounting for more than a half-million deaths in 2020. And this number is expected to double by 2030 if the current status quo is maintained. As with other NCDs, many cases of cancer could be prevented by addressing behavioural risk factors, such as tobacco and alcohol use and obesity, which contribute to more than 40% of all cancer deaths worldwide. Many common cancers, such as colorectal, breast, prostate, and cervical cancer, can now be treated successfully if detected early. But they remain among the deadliest in Africa, because patients there are typically diagnosed too late with advanced disease and frequently do not complete their care. There are multiple reasons for this, including a combination of financial (out-of-pocket), health-system, and sociocultural barriers, as well as chronic underfunding that impedes the ability of African public-health agencies to provide timely, value-based quality care. Many African countries also lack the resources, infrastructure, and workforce needed to implement effective vaccination and population screening programmes. And, despite improvements over the last few years, many countries do not have access to safe, timely diagnostic and treatment services.  Consequently, cancer survival rates in LMICs are abysmally low compared to high-income countries (HICs). A recent Lancet Oncology Commission report on cancer in sub-Saharan Africa that I co-authored emphasises the need for African governments to invest in local data collection and research to support and develop resource-efficient cancer detection and treatment programmes tailored to their countries’ specific needs and funding requirements. We also recommend that governments start to think of innovative ways to expand universal health-care coverage to include cancer services such as early diagnosis, targeted treatments, and supportive care. Kenya, Nigeria, and other countries are already moving ahead with initiatives to expand access. By mobilising international support and engaging local stakeholders, these countries could invest in prevention and early detection strategies, including mobile screening units, community outreach programmes, self-examination kits, in vitro diagnostics, and telehealth, thus improving prevention and early detection. But diagnosis is not enough. “System preparedness” is essential, and the infrastructure and skilled workforce to provide treatment for detected cancers must be expanded in tandem with any early diagnosis. Moreover, to ensure equal access to health services, African countries should train primary-care physicians to identify early signs of cancer and facilitate timely referrals. A patient in sub-Saharan Africa sees 4-6 healthcare providers, on average, before a cancer diagnosis is made. Governments should also integrate resources meant for Covid-19, HIV abd Aids, and other infectious diseases toward comprehensive strategies. While integrated clinics capable of treating both infectious diseases and NCDs would be ideal, policymakers must be pragmatic and consider the shortage of health-care personnel, particularly in densely populated areas, and develop models and innovations that can help bridge some of these access barriers. — Project Syndicate. *About the writer: Dr Miriam Mutebi is a breast surgical oncologist and assistant professor of Surgery at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Kenya. Winning the cancer war in sub-Saharan Africa

NewsHawks Page 43 Issue 125, 31 March 2023 World News DANNY BRADLOW DEVELOPMENT projects can have profound impacts on their societies. There are many benefits that flow from building new roads and power plants, and from modernising agricultural practices. But they can also have permanent negative consequences. For example, communities may be involuntarily relocated to make way for roads or power plants. These projects can change the way natural resources are used in a particular area, making it difficult or impossible for communities to continue their traditional agricultural practices. The job opportunities that they create can challenge traditional values and ways of living. Historically, many of these projects have been owned or sponsored by governments, eager to bring the benefits of modernisation to their citizens. They have often been funded by multilateral institutions like the World Bank, which was established  in 1944 to fund the reconstruction and development of its member states. These institutions were not unaware of the environmental and social impacts of the projects they funded. However, they maintained that each state had to decide for itself how it wished to manage these impacts. They would argue that they were merely the funders, and so should defer to the government on how to manage them. It would be an affront to the state’s sovereignty for them to interfere with the government’s decisions on these aspects of the project. The World Bank’s confidence in its ability to avoid responsibility for its project related decisions and actions was bolstered by the fact that it was immune from being sued in any national court. The result was that the bank supported some projects that were environmentally and socially damaging. As a result, during the 1980s the World Bank was  the target of sustained protests by affected communities and their allies around the world. To its credit, 30 years ago the bank, following an international campaign in which this author participated, recognised that its position was untenable. In  1993 it established  the world’s first citizen driven independent accountability mechanism, the World Bank Inspection Panel. This article argues that the panel’s 30th anniversary is a moment to celebrate its accomplishments. The panel has significant limitations. Nevertheless, its impact on development and the international development financing institutions has been profound. Accomplishments The three-member panel is independent of the World Bank’s management. It receives and investigates complaints from communities who allege that they have been harmed or threatened with harm because of the World Bank’s failure to comply with its own policies and procedures in funding a particular project. In other words, the panel’s focus is exclusively on the conduct and decisions of the Bank’s staff and management. It sends its findings to the bank’s board. In cases of noncompliance, the bank’s management is expected to submit an action plan to the board that explains how it will correct the noncompliance and its consequences. Both the report and the action plan are made public. Since it was established, the panel’s investigations have resulted in some relief for affected communities. For example, 70 000 people, previously ignored by the World Bank, received compensation for their losses  in a bridge project in Bangladesh. In the  Democratic Republic of Congo, a forestry project was revised to provide greater protection to indigenous communities who had not been adequately consulted about the project. The panel has also succeeded in establishing the principle that international financial organisations must be accountable for their own actions to the communities whose lives are affected by the projects and policies they finance. Since its establishment, over 25 multilateral and national development banks and institutions have established their own independent accountability mechanisms. In total, these mechanisms have received 1,634 complaints, of which about 330 have been from 27 countries in Africa. Forty-five of the African cases have resulted in findings on compliance or noncompliance. All findings of noncompliance have led to management action plans intended to correct the noncompliance. The reports of these mechanisms are used both by their own institutions to improve their performance in development projects and to reduce the risk that they repeat old mistakes. They can also help ensure that they are held accountable when they do repeat these mistakes. Many of these mechanisms now offer dispute resolution services in addition to compliance reviews. Many of them now also publish reports documenting the lessons they have learned about specific aspects of development projects. It is important to note that many of the issues that arise in these cases also arise in private sector projects. This means that the reports provide guidance and help develop good practice standards for all development projects. They are also used to develop best practice in regard to the human rights and environmental responsibilities of business. Challenges To be sure, independent accountability mechanisms face significant challenges. The first is that bringing cases to the mechanisms is not simple. Many of the successful cases have required communities to obtain the assistance of technical experts. This means that the cases that are brought come from communities that have access to sophisticated NGOs and advisers rather than because they are the most urgent cases. Second, they cannot make binding decisions or determine that the communities should be given a remedy. There have been cases in which those who have been harmed by the action of the banks have been compensated. But this is not the norm. In fact, there is only one case in Africa in which a panel investigation led to victims receiving monetary compensation. The panel’s report in a case in Uganda resulted in the World Bank developing a new policy on gender-based violence and establishing a trust fund to compensate, and support the girls and women who were the victims of this violence. Designing and funding remedies that can be used in all similarly situated cases is politically and technically complicated. But it is not acceptable that those who have been harmed by the Bank’s own failures do not receive an effective remedy that compensates them for their loss. Third, the bravery required to bring complaints to these mechanisms must be noted. They require the complainants to go to an international forum in opposition to their own governments or powerful interests in their own countries who support the projects the banks are funding. It is therefore inevitable that in some cases, the supporters of the project will retaliate against the complainants. This suggests that the mechanisms and the banks have a responsibility to take action to protect the complainants. To their credit, the banks and the mechanisms have foreseen this problem and do allow for confidential complaints. But the procedures that seek to protect the complainants from reprisals have not always been fully effective. It is now standard practice for multilateral financing institutions like the World Bank to have an independent citizen driven accountability mechanism that focuses exclusively on the responsibilities of the institution. The only exception to this general rule is the International Monetary Fund. The mechanisms have also demonstrated that they can evolve and adapt to new challenges. While their limitations have also become clear, we should celebrate the Inspection Panel’s 30th anniversary. — The Conversation. *About the writer: Danny Bradlow is SARCHI Professor of international development law and African economic relations at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. The World Bank used to cause untold harm - but 30 years ago it started reforming. What went right World Bank headquarters in Washington DC.

Page 44 World News SASCHA-DOMINIK BACHMANN THE International Criminal Court (ICC)  has issued an international arrest warrant  for Russian President Vladimir Putin for alleged war crimes regarding the unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia. Such acts are war crimes under two articles of the  Rome Statute, which established the court. ICC arrest warrants against sitting heads of state are rare. Putin faces arrest if he sets foot in any of the 123 signatory states to the statute. Of these, 33 are African states. The issue could come to a head in August when South Africa is set to host the 15th summit of the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (Brics) bloc in Durban. As the head of state of a member state Putin has been invited to attend. But as a member of the court, South Africa is obliged under Article 86 of the ICC statute and domestic law to cooperate fully by arresting the Russian President. This is not the first time the country has faced such a dilemma. In 2015 Sudanese president Omar Al Bashir visited the country to attend a summit of African Union heads of state. In terms of South Africa’s ICC obligations, it was obliged to arrest Al Bashir, who had been indicted for violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law in Sudan’s Darfur region. The government, then under the presidency of Jacob Zuma, refused to arrest him, citing immunity from prosecution for sitting heads of state under international law. The arrest warrant for Putin has put President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government between a rock and a hard place. Complying with its domestic and international obligations by executing the arrest warrant would alienate Russia. This would have bilateral consequences – the country is still considered a friend by the ruling African National Congress based on the Soviet Union’s support during the struggle against apartheid – as well as ramifications within the Brics given Moscow’s strong ties with Beijing. It is not unreasonable to argue that Ramaphosa’s government would want to tread carefully to avoid any such tensions. On the other hand, welcoming Putin, thus underscoring South Africa’s independent foreign policy, would see the country lose international credibility. One likely effect is that South Africa might lose preferential trade terms. For example, it could jeopardise its treatment of exports to the US under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa). Agoa has been used recently as a punishing tool against Ethiopia, Gambia and Mali for “unconstitutional change in governments” and “gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.” Importantly, its trade with the US far exceeds that with Russia. The dilemma When the Zuma administration refused to arrest Al Bashir, it landed the government in judicial hot waters. South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal found that it had violated both international and domestic law. Following the ruling of the Supreme Court of Appeal, Zuma’s government notified the United Nations Secretary General of its intention to withdraw from the Rome Statue. This ill advised move was challenged in the High Court in Pretoria. It ruled that the notice of withdrawal was unconstitutional due to the absence of prior parliamentary approval. Consequently, the government  “withdrew from the withdrawal”. In 2017, the ICC found that South Africa had failed in its obligations under the Rome Statute towards the court by not arresting and surrendering Al Bashir. The court, however, decided not to pursue the matter further for pragmatic reasons. It also reasoned that to refer South Africa to the United Nation Security Council for noncompliance “would not be an effective way to foster future cooperation.” In the event that Putin attended the upcoming BRICS summit and President Ramaphosa’s government did not arrest him, it would mean that South Africa was flouting domestic legislation as well as its own constitution. Article 165 (5) of the country’s Constitution makes it clear that the government is bound by court orders and decisions. How should South Africa respond to the dilemma? At present the government’s response is not clear. On the one hand, President Ramaphosa’s spokesperson  has said  that the country was aware of its obligations to arrest and surrender Putin to the ICC. On the other hand, Naledi Pandor, the foreign relations minister, confirmed the invitation to Putin to attend the BRICS meeting. She noted that cabinet would have to decide on how to respond in view of the ICC warrant. The government would want to balance its ICC obligations, domestic responsibilities and its historically friendly relations with Russia carefully. Unless it is hellbent on defying its own court decisions and laws, there are options available to avoid another round of international condemnation. And that would help it avoid potential court battles by civil society for non compliance with the country’s own laws and court decisions. Options Firstly, South Africa should continue to extend an invitation for Russia to attend the summit. But, through diplomatic channels, request that the Russian delegation be led by its Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Lavrov has in essence became the face of Russia on the  international stage  since the start of the war in Ukraine. Secondly, during the Covid-19 pandemic, it became clear that physical presence at international gatherings for heads of states can be substituted with virtual attendance. The UN General Assembly set a good benchmark for this when heads of states submitted video statements due to pandemic restrictions. Putin could attend the Brics summit virtually. The need to sign summit documentation by the heads of state is not an impediment to virtual attendance. Putin can sign the documents electronically or after the summit, if a non electronic signature is required. The ball is now in the South African government’s court. The hope is that it makes the right decision, one which is in the best interests of the country and its people – not Russia or the likes of the US, especially as neither major powers are signatories to the ICC’s statute. Neither should prescribe to South Africa what it should decide. Most importantly, the government must not trample on its own laws and court decisions. Compliance with the Constitution must be the prerogative. Making a decision that is in the interests of South Africa and its people would also provide guidance to the other 32 African ICC signatory states, should they ever be faced with a similar dilemma in the future. — The Conversation. This article was co-authored with Sasha-Lee Stephanie Afrika (LLD), Attorney of the High Court of South Africa and former lecturer at Stellenbosch University and University of Johannesburg. *About the writer: SaschaDominik Bachmann is professor of law and co-convener of the National Security Hub (University of Canberra) and a research fellow (adjunct) at the Security Institute for Governance and Leadership in Africa, Faculty of Military Science, Stellenbosch University in South Africa, and a Nato Fellow at the University of Canberra. Russian President Vladimir Putin ICC arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin: A king-size dilemma for South Africa NewsHawks Issue 125, 31 March 2023

JONATHAN MBIRIYAMVEKA THE infamous diamond rush of years gone by in Zimbabwe produced many heart-wrenching tales of mineral plunder, massive corruption by top political figures, human rights abuses and loss of lives on the mining fields of Marange. Now, an eagerly-awaited film that endeavours to immortalise the Marange events has been produced. A sought-after actor, Eddie Sandifolo, will debut as co-director in latest film, titled Ngoda (Zimbabwean lingo for diamond). It premieres this weekend at Ster Kinekor's Sam Levy Village cinema. The award-winning Sandifolo also doubles as part of the cast in the film that revisits the diamond rush which took place in Zimbabwe around 2006 in the Chiadzwa area of Marange in Manicaland province. Sandifolo is well known for starring in productions such as Shaina, Cook Off, Mugabe, Gonarezhou and Escape, among others. He won gongs for Best Actor at the Zimbabwe International Film Festival, National Arts Merit Awards Best Actor and I Will Tell Festival Miami. The gifted screen actor has also featured in several local soapies and ZBC-TV dramas. Sandifolo co-directs the film with seasoned filmmaker Joe Njagu. The two close friends have collaborated for over a decade, but this is their first co-directing stint. Ngoda is based on an idea by Charles Njagu, who sparked the development of a story about illegal diamond mining in Zimbabwe. It is inspired by events that have happened in Zimbabwe, through research and visiting the mining areas. Written by Charles Njagu, Eddie Sandifolo and Joe Njagu – the storyline is set in 2006 amidst the diamond mining rush. It is a story of the Toropito brothers, who have to raise sufficient funds to buy back their lost land. The only way to do this, it turned out, was through illegal diamond mining. They work for a ruthless diamond dealer who rips them off by under-paying them. Tindo, the eldest of the brothers, accidentally stumbles upon a huge diamond stone, but decides to hide it from everyone. The diamond is then stolen from Tindo and news of the precious stone spreads. The hunt for the diamond is on, and the story unfolds – amid greed, betrayal and disloyalty – leading to fatal consequences in the dramatic thriller. The film is a star-studded ensemble of top Zimbabwean talent: Elijah Madzikatire, Taurai Kawara, Charmaine Mujeri, Caroline Mashingaidze Zimbizi, Farai Chigudu, Charles Njagu, Dalma Chiwereva, Charity Dlodlo, Lovejoy Mawoneka, Felix Machingambi, Stewart Sakarombe, Chati Butao. Ngoda was shot in Zimbabwe at popular sites like Dzimbanhete, run by Chiko Chazunguza who also features. The 90-minute feature film production took place in 2022 and the production team includes Joe Njagu, Sandifolo, Charles Njagu, Farai Chimombe, Farai Chigudu, Philip Marumha, Jude Dutiro and Malaika Mushandu. Former Miss Zimbabwe Mushandu stepped onto the film scene with a bang after her directorial debut with her award-winning film Mirage. The gorgeous ex-beauty queen scooped numerous awards last year and got nominated for Best Director at the prestigious AMMA awards in Nigeria. According to Joe, there will be a red-carpet affair that will see local celebrities gracing the event. He said Ngoda has started on a high note as it has already won the Best Film gong at the recently ended NAMA awards and was also nominated for Best Actor award for Farai Chigudu. “Collaboration is the magic key to building this film sector into a viable commercial industry, we need to all bring our creative skills together and make amazing films,” Njaju said. “The market is hungry for content and the onus is on us to supply.” The independently produced film will be taken to festivals around the world before an international release date. STYLE TRAVEL BOOKS ARTS MOTORING Porsche just got angrier Being a Fashion Model Life&Style Page 45 Issue 125, 31 March 2023 Greed, betrayal and disloyalty: Actor Sandifolo stars in anticipated diamond film

Poetry Corner Title: The Last Stand Poet: Gift Sakirai At two I knew not what they taught Daily, I stayed indoors \doggedly pursuing mother to a fault. Snotty-nosed and recalcitrant, I threw tantrums to my mother's consternation. At five, I left the comfort that home guaranteed and found my personage in the midst of people unknown. Fear thus a friend of mine became in that class of peers unforgiving. I learned mostly from a curriculum unofficial, kicks and fists thus my friends became and homeward I took nosebleeds like homework daily. At fifteen I loved my first love, a gem of a girl whose smile was the envy of many a teenager. I mumbled in her presence daily for words would fail me always. This it was for a whole year until like a bird in flight she flew out of my life. At twenty I stumbled into university, having scrapped by my studies. Therein all hell broke loose for what mother had taught was useless thus rendered. I partook in pomp and fanfare. By chance it was that I finished my studies, only to be accosted by a job market unforgiving. At thirty-five I decided to take the plunge after years of a hesitation acute and hitched myself to a woman who had thus been a decade patient. Therefrom, I second guessed myself into fatherhood, and bumbled along in a world where I was a stranger unwelcome. At sixty-four with hair turned grey I'm still waiting to exhale and for once have a momentary relief from a life vengeful a year before I'm put out to pasture like a heifer overworked. I know not what the twilight years will my way bring a mystery it was in childhood, a mystery it still is in old age. A hustle death will have in taking me to the world beyond though. Having been short changed many times over in life, I swear my fall won't be as easy as that. This time, I won't go down without a fight. Death, beware! ***************************************************** Title: A Farmer's Return Poet: Farai Chinaa Mlambo Fed with toil, Having dedicated his entire life to tilling the soil, At last, the farmer returns to his wife. Several seasons away, in far off arable lands, Leaving everything in the logical will of the rainmaker, And in God's able hands – Himself, the ultimate peace and Love maker. Like one fresh from detention He arrives home with determination. And the first thing to grab his attention is her pregnancy. The wife, now bulging with expectancy, Hurries to embrace her dear husband Under her own oppressive load. Her thoughts race faster than her feet. And her heart skips a bit, overcome with fits. But she quickly calms herself As an almighty voice commands a storm to cede its untimely and unnecessary havoc. A sweet smile of reassurance she wears And in her heart she confidently swears; "This time I'll bear him a son, for sure, I shall bring honour to him and his family. He shall be very very pleased; Isn't what he always longed for. I shall kowtow and call him Shewe. I shall forever be his heart's desire." But the farmer is functionally illiterate. He is not too good with his mathematics. He can't even count days of the calendar. So he doesn't quite remember when they last mated. He just knows it was many moons ago When there were some monsoons. That night, like one possessed, She flung herself wildly upon his being And he thrust his plough into her fallow regions Digging furrows so deep she screamed. Or could it have been a mere dream? He desperately tries to read the signs. Then he resignedly sighs. Something isn't adding up. Still, he silently shoulders the responsibility of the paternity For he fears to offend her, should he ask; He is aware of her suicidal tendencies. He might lose both the seeds of the land he impregnated And the almost ripe seed in her womb Upon the collective wrath of the ancestors Who are quick to frown at harassment of the fairer sex. ***************************************************** Title: Days like these Poet: Sir OCTAgon There are mornings that smoke weed, That roll my days into blunt truths Like this rolling stone which keeps gathering moss Dust is a sure bet! Noons are for toi toi; Negotiations for joy with this mournable body Patching leaking eyes with plastic hope from recycled faith Nights are for resolve; Myriad of dilemmas to solve Thoughts scattered about, and emotions gathered in a corner Its here they share a joint and discuss what to do with me tomorrow. ************************************************ Title: Distant shadows Poet: tchigazz silhouetted distant shadows waltz before his cold strained eyes causing odd reflections on ice of horses, beggars and wishes too. if only he were the grubby walls which the shadows were gleefully licking he wouldn’t be wishing or imagining but experiencing the feel of their tongues they attract furtive peeps of strangers, and keen puzzled peers of perplexed passers-by, cherishing the beauty of distant shadows his fingertips itch to softly caress sketching out the shadowy outline nonchalantly nodding back and forth, to a wheeze of his curious breath’s puff they appear golden-like summer sunset shades beautiful like a rainbow reflection, across the slanting, sunlit rain showers behold the beauty of distant shadows *********************************************** Title: Progress Check Poet: Patrick Hwande Day by day, towards zero hour we're itching, Bring your progress record for public scrutiny, It's time we separated men from mice, Rigmarole is an exercise in futility. Why did Dorica die of treatable disease? Why is the mass still mired in a bottomless pit of poverty? Why did Dhongi vanish for daring to flap his wings? Happiness is now a pure rarity, Are we still living? Why did you condemn us the living dead? ************************************************* Title: Drops Of Rain Poet: Andy Kahari All I ever wished for was to be rain And be in a race with mankind With every thunder starting gun Be the sprayed bullets in amorous congress with spayed not clouds Hope I had to espy on seeds of union droplets they be; To ravage in precipitation sweat drenching pores; Living I then rain in awe As to who among men has ever been able to eschew drops of rain Yet many when in torrents Will I espy on again striving to outrun dews of mist; When their days are already drenched moaning’s enduring a chew Living nothing of this torrid man's broken life shoe; Only for I to understand what they do not perceive Still to this sounding bell of time Why they all are sweaty gongs in this race they deem existence When in pluvial already the wetting uterus is dim wide for the dream running man Page 46 NewsHawks Issue 125, 31 March 2023

NewsHawks Page 47 Issue 125, 31 March 2023 People & Places Summit for Democracy 2023: US vice-president Kamala visits Zambia

Page 48 Sport NewsHawks Issue 125, 31 March 2023 I joined FIFPRO’s Global Player Council earlier this year. The council acts as a voice for professional footballers. There are 35 of us in total — including Giorgio Chiellini, Lucy Bronze and Arturo Vidal — and we provide a player’s perspective on a range of matters, such as the international match calendar, employment standards, the use of personal data, and social media abuse. One of the main reasons I joined the council was to help address the issue of fake agents. It is a subject I’m passionate about and it is a subject that has become a big challenge, especially in Africa. Coming from Zimbabwe, I have seen friends and former team-mates lose a lot of money — money they worked hard to earn, money their parents worked hard to earn — due to people pretending to be a football agent. I saw this a lot when I played in South Africa. A lot of these players were given false promises and sold dreams of playing in Europe. I know some who even flew to Europe only to arrive at the airport and find out no-one was there; the money had already been taken from them by these fake agents with nothing to show for it. As players, we need to take note of warnings that we get from FIFPRO and player unions on this. If someone claiming to be a football agent has contacted you through Instagram with a club offer, it only takes five minutes to call your union and ask if this person is registered with FIFA or not. It could save you being scammed out of thousands. It is up to us as players to take responsibility in asking our unions for advice. They are here for the players. When a player speaks out individually, they can become a single target. But when you are part of a union, when you are part of a collective, it gives footballers the voice to raise our concerns. A union enables us to find solutions without impacting us as individuals. They play an important role for players. I first got involved with the domestic union of Zimbabwe, and then later FIFPRO Africa, when I started playing for the senior national team in 2018. They saw I was a person who was not shy when it came to raising their voice and speaking for others. Some footballers can be afraid or reluctant to raise their voice — which is totally fine, everyone is different — but for me, it's important not to shy away from the issues that affect us as players, rectify problems with solutions and thus help the next generation. Being a voice for others is something that’s been with me since school when I was deputy head boy. I last played for the national team in late 2021. The Sports and Recreation Commission Zimbabwe (SRC) interfered with the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA), which is something prohibited by FIFA, and the men’s, women’s and junior national team sides were subsequently suspended from international football. It means the men’s senior side couldn’t take part in the latest Africa Cup of Nations qualifying – I think most probably we won't be able to take part in World Cup qualification either – and it also prevents Zimbabwean clubs from competing in the CAF Champions League. So many Zimbabwean players are being denied a great opportunity here; so many players in their prime being unable to play on the continental and international stage. But most importantly, Zimbabwe’s suspension is having a negative social-economic effect on the country. I feel the association should have done better when it came to discussing with FIFA and finding a possible solution not to affect the young generation that is there — because the talent in Zimbabwe is there. It has been seen by players that have moved to Europe and also by me playing here in France. This month, we could have been playing World Cup semi-finalists Morocco – the only African team to ever make the final four on the global stage – and it would have been a celebration. Their first competitive game on the back of that historic World Cup run would have been against Zimbabwe. The country has been denied what would have been such a special occasion. So, this stand-off between the SRC and association, which caused the national team to be suspended by FIFA, is having that negative social-economic impact on the country. Likewise, if Mo Salah was coming to Zimbabwe with Egypt, the stadium is going be full. People are going to buy tickets; the hotels are going to be booked up. Same applies if Sadio Mane and Senegal were coming to town. It is important for us players to speak up about issues like this – and the situation in Zimbabwe is one of the reasons I joined FIFPRO’s Global Player Council. It helps highlight how instances such as this are putting the younger generation, particularly in Africa, at a disadvantage. As players, we have a voice. And through a union, we can use that collective voice to push for positive change. I will keep on using my voice to help the next generation in Africa and beyond. *About the writer: Zimbabwean midfielder Marshall Munetsi is a member of FIFPRO's Global Player Council. He writes here for the FIFPRO website. Marshall Munetsi: "I will continue to use my voice to help the next generation" Marshall Munetsi

From page 50 Zimbabwe’s Stanbic Bank Twenty20 Series of seasons gone by was an instant hit, because it was aggressively marketed and attracted some of world cricket’s biggest names. There has not been anything of that sort since. Thankfully, there are still some purists of the game left in the country, guys who will stumble upon a good game of club cricket — at Alex, Kwekwe Sports Club or Bulawayo Athletic Club – and have the urge to hang on the entire day for some unexpected entertainment. But fans need to see something they can relate to. That is why Zimbabwean football — down and out at the moment under Fifa’s brutal sanction — is still able to retain decent crowds at domestic matches. Fear was rife that fans would disappear from stadiums in protest over the international wilderness. The Premier Soccer League (PSL) has however recently gotten off to a pleasing start in terms of attendances. It is not great, but it is not miserable. This is simply because in spite of everything, there is still their Dynamos, their Highlanders, their CAPS United, their FC Platinum, their Simba Bhora — all these institutions they know well, love, and relate to. Supporters of these team do not only get excited when it is the national team playing. This makes football, with minimum level of competition from others, the number one followed sport in the country. I keenly followed a debate last weekend after the majestic crowd that thronged Harare Sports Club to watch Zimbabwe defeat the Netherlands on Saturday to seal the three-match ODI series. Whilst the cricket fans felt heartened by the attendance, many were honest enough to give football the honours as the premier code, and placed rugby in second place. I totally agreed. Just take a look at the season-opening Under-20 rugby league that ended a fortnight ago – the delightful crowds, including the who’s who of society, turning up to watch the enterprising brand of rugby displayed by the next generation of Zimbabwe players. The NedBank Challenge last week did not disappoint either. Well it is hardly surprising, because ZimRugby is a loyal, diverse and close-knit community — involving old players and administrators, club members, knowledgeable supporters, family members and friends who know and love their sport to bits. The historic attachment exists to this day and, trust me, a great many folks in this game still take it very seriously. Because it is shorter, some sports followers argue a case for rugby’s entertainment value compared to cricket. But with the advent of T20 – and now T10 making inroads and the 100- ball version also in the mix – cricket cannot be said to be less of a spectator sport in this argument. Cricket in Zimbabwe just needs to take a leaf, perhaps, from its closest cousin rugby in terms of getting bums on domestic grounds seats, for the faithful to understand the game better and psych up for when the Chevrons are in town and giving them joy as has been happening of late. This week, the decorated Zimbabwean swimmer Kirsty Coventry, African’s greatest Olympian and now her country’s Sports minister, stirred a public outcry when in Parliament, she declared that the Zimbabwean government “don’t want then to lift it at this moment” in reference to the country’s suspension by world football governing body Fifa. Opposition political party CCC spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere, a keen sports fan herself, was one of harshest critics of Coventry following the statement in Parly. “Imagine if Zimbabwe had been banned from Olympics at height of your swimming career,” bemoaned Mahere on Twitter. Mahere received widespread support for her sentiments from a cross-section of Zimbabwean football fans, who felt that the country’s number one sport was being short-changed by the Fifa ban, which the government has the power over its prolonged stay. Back in February, The NewsHawks guest columnist and sports writer Alwyn Mabehla had penned this piece in a more in-depth critique, which we have reproduced by public demand following the latest uproar. THE Summer Olympic Games are a venerated fête, a global sporting gala of gigantic proportions, second only to the football World Cup in terms of sheer size and prestige. It is the dream of a lifetime for every athlete, every footballer, to go to the Olympics, to go to the World Cup. Being denied the opportunity to do so, for any reason other than the athlete’s abilities and qualifications, is utterly unfair and heart-wrenching for the competitor. Come to think about it, with Zimbabwe sinking deep into political crisis around 2004 — following the heavily disputed presidential elections of 2002 — what if the winner Robert Mugabe did the unthinkable of withdrawing our athletes from the Olympics in protest over what he deemed brazen Western interference in the affairs of Zimbabwe? Of course, had that rather wild possibility taken place, Zimbabwe’s great swimmer Kirsty Coventry would not have gone to Athens for the 2004 Sport Page 49 Of all people, you would think Kirsty Coventry would imagine how it feels Kirsty Coventry Alwyn Mabehla HawkZone NewsHawks Issue 125, 31 March 2023 Zimbabwean sport and the numbers game Games to win the first of her record medal haul by an African sports star. Perhaps not so “wild” a possibility when you consider that Coventry won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002. A year later, Mugabe led Zimbabwe into withdrawing its membership from the Commonwealth, and the country has not returned ever since. What if that rash decision of two decades ago had been made a year earlier, before Manchester? Kirsty would not have participated, mostly likely denying her the springboard that catapulted her to a decorated Olympics career over the next eight years in Athens and Beijing. Perhaps she would not have been as successful at the Olympics, without that early confidence-booster in the United Kingdom. And, how many more Kirsty Coventrys from Zimbabwe would have – during the 20 years in the wilderness – used the Commonwealth Games as a launch pad for great careers of their own? As we speak, Zimbabwe is an international football pariah, suspended by world governing body Fifa last March for the government’s sports regulator’s avoidable direct punitive measure against errant officials of the national football federation, Zifa. If not reinstated in time, Zimbabwe will not be allowed to play in the qualification competition for the next World Cup in 2026, a hammer blow for a generation of footballers with a very good chance of finally taking this country to the Promised Land. Already, the Warriors are effectively out of next year’s Africa Cup of Nations finals as the qualifiers started in the midst of Zimbabwe’s sanction. Spare a thought for the talented and versatile group of Zimbabwean footballers dotted around the world. They will be feeling the same as Coventry would have felt had the madness of the Commonwealth pullout carried over to the Olympics. Certainly, it would be equally hard to take, being made to pay for the sins of an enraged tyrant, and the actions of some football officials with sticky fingers. Meanwhile Coventry — Africa’s greatest Olympian — is Zimbabwe’s Sports minister in all this. The epic irony. REPEAT BY POPULAR DEMAND:

ENOCK MUCHINJO TAKASHINGA’S entry into the first league in this country around the turn of the millennium ushered in a new wave of healthy rivalry on Zimbabwe’s domestic cricket circuit. Then, strength was spread across all top teams, from Takashinga to the dominantly white clubs those days: Harare Sports Club, Old Hararians, Old Georgians, Alexandra, Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo Athletic Club. Deep in that new surge of black cricket revolution, Takashinga, for some reason, chose Old Hararians as the club they most loathed to lose to, and cherished the most to beat. It most likely stemmed from that Old Hararians had traditionally been the old students' club of Prince Edward High, where some of the Takashinga stalwarts were schooled on cricket scholarships, so the seeds of rivalry had been sown as schoolboys back in the day. Likewise, Old Hararians saw great foes in Takashinga, and fierce contests ensued whenever these two clashed. Hundreds if not thousands of spectators who firmly stood for a quicker pace of racial integration came to the grounds, both in Highfield and Milton Park, to witness some of Zimbabwe’s best black cricketers from the townships take on the northern suburbs’ finest sportsmen in their pomp, a strong urge to prove a point uppermost in their minds. This made for some gripping battles on and off the field. Tempers flared, and I daresay complete with some pushing and shoving, accompanied by pretty nasty verbal warfare. Ever since cricket has been played in this country, the connection of sports clubs to communities, schools, religion and social classes even, was the basis of rivalries and though it was only centred in the minority racial groups, these factors still drew a significant number of spectators at the peak of the minority populations in Zimbabwe. That attachment can be viewed as 50c PRICE SPORT Zim Cricket launches Premier League NEWS $60 Covid tariff for visitors & tourists CULTURE Community radio regulations under review @NewsHawksLive TheNewsHawks www.thenewshawks.com [email protected] Thursday 1 October 2020 WHAT’S INSIDE ALSO INSIDE Finance Ministy wipes out $3.2 Billion depositors funds Zim's latest land controversy has left Ruwa farmer stranded Story on Page 3 Story on Page 8 Story on Page 16 Chamisa reaches out to Khupe Unofficial president calls for emergency meeting +263 772 293 486 Friday 31 March 2023 I will continue to use my voice to help: Munetsi ALSO INSIDE Sports World Athletics ban transgender women from competition Juju nonsense: It’s never too late to say enough is enough Zimbabwe sport and the numbers game… Who has more and why? Above: Zimbabwe cricket fans cheer on as the Chevrons defeated Netherlands at Harare Sports Club last weekend to seal an ODI series. PIC: ZimCricket. Below: Crowds watch Zimbabwe's season-opening NedBank Rugby Challenge at Harare Sports Club days earlier. PIC: Kyros Sports. crucial to this day, and answers the intriguing question that arose again this week: which is the biggest crowd puller in Zimbabwean sport, and why is it that in cricket the stadiums fill up only when the national side plays at home yet there is little to no interest at all in domestic league games? I have attempted to answer that above, but another simplified explanation is that cricket has the best-performing national team at the moment, in the absence of football during Fifa’s international suspension of the country. So any patriotic sports fan is naturally drawn to Harare Sports Club, or Queens, for the vibe and the atmosphere, even without understanding the deeper intricacies of cricket as it is played. It is fair to say that quite a big number of those in the stands at HSC or Queens do not have full appreciation of the entertainment value of cricket without emotional or historical attachment to any of the teams, or players. True, there is lots of domestic cricket being played in Zimbabwe at the moment, but not so much involving clubs from the traditional system, to the extent that the Asian giants Sunrise and Universals are virtually no longer existent sport-wise. Continued on page 49