NewsHawks 9 June 2023

Price US$1 Friday 9 June 2023 NEWS US$400 000 windfall to judges is electoral gambit Story on Page 5 NEWS Mining secretary accused of bashing his mistress, child WHAT’S Story on Page 23 INSIDE SPORT ICC responds to match-fixing investigation in Zimbabwe Story on Page 58 ALSO INSIDE Prices madness as Reserve Bank floats rate Faz election project fuels tension within security forces

Page 2 News NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023 OWEN GAGARE TENSIONS are mounting within state security structures and government, as well as Zanu PF, over the role being played by the shadowy Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO)-run Forever Associates Zimbabwe (Faz) which has unconstitutionally seized control of the running of the 2023 elections to retain President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the ruling party in power. Investigations by The NewsHawks have shown that senior army commanders, both serving and retired, are sceptical, suspicious and even resentful of the role being played by Faz which has displaced them from their decades-old feeding trough of unconstitutionally and unlawfully running elections. Faz, which is well-resourced with money and cars, is led by CIO deputy director-general Walter Tapfumaneyi. It has thousands of officers and volunteers working through intelligence structures to door-to-door campaigns, night vigils, community events, technology-based messaging and monitoring all stages of the electoral process. Insiders say Mnangagwa — who operates more like a securocrat than a civilian politician — has deployed Faz to ensure his re-election. However, some army commanders are against the idea. A military source said: “The problem is a clash between politics and strategy. Things were just changed suddenly, without consultations, hence no proper planning. The move to sideline the army from the electoral process, replacing them with Faz, has caused deep divisions and tensions.” One military commander said Faz could become a Frankenstein monster — a thing which destroys its creator — for Mnangagwa. “As the army, we don’t know anything about Faz, except what we read in the media. Who are these people? What is their agenda and what will happen after the elections? We were not consulted when this structure was set up and put under CIO. Can they be able to campaign and win elections for Mnangagwa and Zanu PF? Do they have the capacity to do that? Since they are not a constitutional structure, what is the legality of what they are doing?” Military chiefs are also complaining in the background that Faz is an unconstitutional entity and its activities involving the use of public funds are thus illegal. Faz has been arbitrarily deployed to coordinate Zanu PF electoral activities on the ground, while at the same time checkmating the army that used to spearhead campaigns. This has created a strategic brinkmanship between the army and CIO on the ground. FAZ — which has millions of dollars and hundreds of cars for campaigns — was revived and deployed last year to unconstitutionally run or influence the elections and their outcome. It was formed in 2010. Elections in Zimbabwe are run by securocrats to rescue Zanu PF and its leaders. Past elections were coordinated through the Joint Operations Command (Joc), which brings together the army, intelligence and police. The military has been playing a key role in elections most prominently after 2000 when the opposition became strong. Enter Faz Fearing defeat largely due to internal sabotage, Mnangagwa brought in Faz and pushed the army to play a peripheral and marginal role by providing liaison officers through Heritage Trust, its front organisation. Just like the military which has Heritage, Fairhaven which owns Africom or Rusununguko/Nkululeko Holdings, the CIO also acts through various front organisations such as Faz and Chiltern Trust. Faz is coordinating Zanu PF structures, from cell, branches, districts, district coordinating committees, provinces, the national consultative assembly, central committee to politburo, as well as MPs at ward and constituency levels to ensure they run a tight ship. Faz is supervising Zanu PF programmes throughout the constituencies, while motivating and directing lower party structures to participate in the electoral process, recently in voters’ roll inspection. As reported by The NewsHawks last week, Faz has penetrated communities up to grassroots level and tightened its grip on the electoral process. While Zanu PF has over many years leveraged the military and other state security agents — through Joc — which brings together the command element of security structure, there is concern that Faz is neither a proper security structure nor a constitutional creature. “Faz is drawing resources illegally and using the logistics and infrastructure of the CIO to carry out its unconstitutional mandate, although it is run by a tiny section of the CIO. Unlike in the past, there is concern that Faz has been brazen in its operations, invading polling stations and collecting people’s identity documents whereas in the past interventions were more covert,” said a government official. “The concern is that Faz is a personal army or militia belonging to the President and run by CIO deputy director-general Walter Tapfumaneyi. The group excludes some senior CIO staffers and other security agents.” Sidelined army commanders aligned to Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga, who ran the last elections and previous ones under the late former president Robert Mugabe, are sulking and furious about this strategy. Faz has spread its tentacles to every ward in the country, collecting vital voters’ details right down to household level using an army of 5 910 information gatherers. The information gatherers — three in each of the country’s 1 970 wards — are working under the close supervision of their CIO handlers. The scientific-like CIO strategy enables Zanu PF to control the electoral process in terms of structures, numbers of registered voters and the actual voting process, as well as polling stations. It also promotes systematic voter intimidation and victimisation, especially at ward level. An operational Faz document titled Faz Campaign Scope seen by The NewsHawks, says the organisation has penetrated all provinces up to household level through several tactics, leaving voters vulnerable to abuse during the 23 August elections. “Once the party has access to the voters’ roll, preferably broken down to constituencies and even to polling stations, volunteers must keep in touch with registered voters through texting and phoning. This must be done almost intrusively, as a way of maintaining intimacy. Volunteers should be in the habit of checking on the health and well-being of voters as a way of showing the party’s and candidate’s concern. This can also be used for reminding voters of important election-related events and issues, while also keeping them up to date on key Faz election project fuels tension within security forces President Emmerson Mnangagwa

NewsHawks News Page 3 Issue 135, 9 June 2023 developments,” the document reads. “Faz volunteers are required to intrusively access party cell registers, from party cell chairmen, and check and verify their accuracy and integrity. To this end, Faz then discretely conducts a head count of cell members, checking if they are registered to vote. If any party members or holders of positions of leadership are found not to have national documents or registered to vote, Faz, therefore, will handhold and assist all those to rectify the discrepancy under supervision. “Volunteers must be available to furnish voters with the party’s and candidate’s campaign literature in their homes and workspaces. This will be done door-to-door or at community gatherings. Literature will also be distributed at markets, bus termini or shops, thus helping to expand the campaign to voters outside the volunteer’s immediate area of responsibility.” Volunteers were also tasked with administering voter education, assisting undocumented people or aliens to acquire national registration documents and to register to vote. “These interventions, which are already taking place in all constituencies nationwide, should result in a significant surge in registered voters who attribute that achievement to President ED (Mnangagwa) and Zanu PF. Volunteers must maintain contact with people they would have assisted to register to vote or to acquire national documents so that they are not won over to the opposition’s poisonous narratives,” the document reads. Critical information being collected by the agents and informers includes names, addresses, identity numbers and voter registration details at polling station level. Faz is also counting people at household level before recording the information on their tablets and smartphones. The information which will be computed, condensed into data and processed will be crucial in influencing and manipulating the electoral process in favour of Zanu PF through a combination of tactics, including persuasion and intimidation, in some cases. It is also being used to predict potential outcomes, using real figures, so that Zanu PF knows which constituencies and wards to put campaign resources in or activate its coercive machinery. The NewsHawks has previously gathered and reported that Faz has received US$10 million and 200 cars to run its affairs in preparation for elections. Additional resources have been promised to capacitate the secret structure. Faz’s mandate, working together with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and its chair Justice Priscilla Chigumba, is to coordinate logistics and decisive forces to retain Mnangagwa in power. The NewsHawks investigation also established that Faz has structures at national, provincial, district, constituency and ward levels – where minute details are collected for use in the electoral process. The organisation is visible countrywide and has been sending shivers down the spines of many, especially opposition supporters, particularly in rural areas. With its members spread across provinces, Faz rose to prominence last year by playing a pivotal role in making Zanu PF cell registers before running Zanu PF primary elections this year. The organisation also mobilised people during voter registration and they caused panic due to their presence at Zimbabwe Electoral Zec centres during the recently held voters’ roll inspection exercise. How Faz operates Information gathered through interviews and reading an operational document shows provincial coordinators report to Tapfumaneyi. The provincial coordinators have teams in each district countrywide, led by district intelligence officers. The CIO structure include directors and branches they run at the top at its Chaminuka Building headquarters and its sub-offices in Harare; provincial intelligence officers and district intelligence officers. There also several other departments involved. So district intelligence officers and coordinators oversee operations in constituencies. At ward level, Faz has recruited and trained three Zanu PF-aligned members to collect information under the supervision of CIO operatives. A Faz operational document calls the three civilians in each ward “volunteers”. Zimbabwe has 1 970 wards, meaning Faz has recruited 5 910 volunteers who are part of its machinery to run the elections. In Masvingo province, which has 240 wards, there are 720 Faz volunteers in total. The volunteers report to CIO operatives who manage intelligence at constituency level and their information is transmitted through applications on their phones provided by Faz. They also collect GPS coordinates for each household and monitor political activities of people in their respective areas. The approach and systematic use of data for political and electoral purposes amounts to an illegal mass surveillance and data collection technique, an intricate “watch over” of people, in this specific case in Masvingo using technology and other means. CIO operatives and Faz volunteers attend most Zanu PF events and their presence is usually acknowledged by ruling party officials. Faz has a specific mandate to undermine the opposition. “The message must seek to thoroughly discredit the opposition and its candidate, rendering them unelectable. This includes anything that makes their candidate stink to the heavens, and speaking against their party’s anarchic, subversive, treasonous, undemocratic and terrorist pedigree and related actions,” the document reads. The document also carries the code of conduct for all Faz members which urges members to be ambassadors of Zanu PF who should only represent the interests of the party. “We do not and shall not claim to have any other identity than that we are members of Faz Trust, a private organisation, which is an affiliate of Zanu PF. We are as individuals, proudly members of Zanu PF and are unapologetic about this reality,” reads part of the code of conduct. Faz members say they can easily identify non-Zanu PF members because they have access to Zanu PF cell registers. “The assumption is that one is either an opposition supporter or an undecided voter, if they are registered to vote but do not appear in Zanu PF structures. So, there is a deliberate effort to recruit from this pool and that’s where persuasion and propaganda come in,” said a Faz member. “Of course, some are known opposition activists or sympathisers. Intimidation is then deployed on such people. In rural areas, the message has been clear to such people that they are viewed with suspicion because they are not in party structures.” Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga CIO deputy director-general Walter Tapfumaneyi

Page 4 News NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023 NATHAN GUMA A MANUAL for the Forever Associates Zimbabwe (Faz), a Central Intelligence Organisation-controlled shadowy entity clandestinely and unlawfully using public resources to campaign for the re-election of President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Zanu PF in the August general elections, details how the intelligence service is running the campaign. The document, titled Scope of Campaign Activities, explains what should be done. “The mainstay of this campaign is door-todoor intimate voter contact. This allows the volunteer to move from house-to-house and workplace-to-workplace, talking to individual voters one at a time. This, in turn, enables the volunteer to know the problems voters face, gauge their level of support for party and candidate, and tailor massages and campaign activities to address their concerns. These visits must not be once-off, but must become regular to help the party to dominate and saturate the environment while denying the same to opponents,” the Faz manual says. “Once the party has access to the voters' roll, preferably broken down to constituencies and even to polling stations, volunteers must keep in touch with registered voters through texting and phoning. This must be done almost intrusively, as a way of maintaining intimacy. Volunteers should be in the habit of checking on the health and well-being of voters as a way of showing the party’s and candidate’s concern. This can also be used for reminding voters of important election-related events and issues, while also keeping them up to date on key developments. “Volunteers must be available to furnish voters with the party’s and candidate’s campaign literature in their homes and workspaces. This will be done door-to-door or at community gatherings. Literature will also be distributed at markets, bus termini or shops, thus helping to expand the campaign to voters outside the volunteer’s immediate area of responsibility. “Volunteers will administer voter education to contacts and assist those who are undocumented or aliens to acquire national registration documents and to register to vote. These interventions, which are already taking place in all constituencies nationwide, should result in a significant surge in registered voters who attribute that achievement to President ED (Mnangagwa) and Zanu PF. Volunteers must maintain contact with people they would have assisted to register to vote or to acquire national documents so that they are not won over to the opposition’s poisonous narratives.” The manual continues: “Volunteers will initiate programmes where contacts are invited to enlist their friends into networks of voters such as WhatsApp groups, teas, social clubs and interest groups, where contacts are encouraged to spread the campaign message to their friends and bring these into the fold. This will enable the campaign to grow in a snowball effect. “Volunteers, either individually or by coming together as a team, will engage, befriend and maintain contact with these community leaders, influencers and opinion leaders as a way of authoritatively gaining, through them, the support of their followers for the party and candidate. “Volunteers will participate in sporting, religious, political and cultural events within the Constituency and use the opportunity to learn about the community and influence individuals to support the party and candidate. They will also do the same with small but highly publicised practical social interventions, such as helping the sick, attending funerals and mitigating property losses due to fire or weather damage. “Faz volunteers are required to intrusively access party cell registers, from party cell chairmen, and check and verify their accuracy and integrity. To this end, Faz then discretely conducts a head count of cell members, checking if they are registered to vote. If any party members or holders of positions of leadership are found not to have national documents or registered to vote, Faz, therefore, will handhold and assist all those to rectify the discrepancy under supervision. “Faz has inbuilt structures and skills to engage in dedicated media activity, content generation, Web activity and cyber warfare focused on the party’s and candidate’s campaign. Constituency teams may request coverage for their activities whenever necessary. “Four times monthly, on Sundays, the constituency team is required to come together and host public events at Growth Points and other population centres in the constituencies, during which people are entertained with music and movies. These shows are then interrupted at intervals to address these audiences, imparting the party’s campaign message. “Faz volunteers, either individually or in groups, must never engage in political violence, except in self-defence for purposes of extricating themselves from an attack if one is foisted upon them. They, accordingly, must not offer themselves to be used as such or to accept instructions from any authority to engage in violence for whatever reason. It is not in Faz, the party’s or the president’s pedigree, plan, interest or desire to use violence as a campaign tool. Any Faz member who engages in acts of politically motivated violence, other than for purposes of self-defence under strictly exceptional circumstances, will be automatically expelled and deregistered from the Trust.” Exclusive: Shadowy group’s campaign methods exposed

NewsHawks News Page 5 Issue 135, 9 June 2023 NATHAN GUMA THE recent gifting of US$400 000 housing loans to judges has underlined the executive's keenness to extend favours to the judiciary, particularly during elections, as they play a key role in mediating disputes. The 2018 presidential election was adjudicated by the Constitutional Court which found for President Emmerson Mnangagwa after Chief Justice Luke Malaba controversially threw out a challenge to the poll result by main opposition leader Nelson Chamisa. Through Constitutional Amendments No. 1 and 2, President Mnangagwa did all he could to ensure that Malaba retains office, despite having reached retirement age. While judges have also been extended US$400 000 loans each to buy property, the arrangement had initially been tailor made for Chief Justice Malaba and his deputy Elizabeth Gwaunza. Generally, judges are well looked after, and they get top-of-the-range cars from Premier Auto, an importer and distributor of Jaguar and Land Rover in Zimbabwe. As previously reported by The NewsHawks, Mnangagwa has also been lavishing money on state institutions in a desperate bid to appease critical players in the election matrix. In January last year, Mnangagwa gave each senior Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) director a US$350 000 housing loan. The CIO plays a critical role in electoral processes including voter registration, voters’ roll preparation, pre-polling surveys, and generally being embedded in electoral bodies to monitor and influence processes, accreditation and getting the results well ahead of everyone else for security and partisan reasons and ensuring they decide on time how to handle situations, especially if there is an unwanted outcome. State security has also taken over the running of elections through shadowy Forever Associates Zimbabwe (Faz), led by Central Intelligence Organisation co-deputy director-general retired Brigadier-General Walter Tapfumaneyi. Faz has now displaced the army’s structure called Heritage that used to perform a similar role and other functions. In 2018, the army ran elections through Heritage and Africom, a converged communications service provider. Legal experts say the CIO move and channelling of public resources to its shadowy structure is unconstitutional. Sources say, so far, Faz has received US$10 million and 200 cars to run its affairs in preparation for the 23 August elections. More resources have been promised to capacitate the secret structure. Faz’s mandate, working together with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) and its chair Justice Priscilla Chigumba, is to coordinate logistics and decisive forces to retain Mnangagwa in power. Last week, Faz took over the chaotic voter verification exercise, in which several registered names were missing from various wards across the country. The CIO has also been manipulating elections on behalf of Zanu PF. In 2008, a local journalist exposed a major electoral scandal in which the CIO worked with a top University of Zimbabwe academic to produce election surveys which were then falsely announced as a product of scientific scholarly research to manipulate elections. In that case, the CIO had produced the report and given to the academic to announce as his own, predicting victory for the late president Robert Mugabe. The first CIO draft report had actually shown Mugabe losing, but it was considered politically unacceptable and a new one was done, giving him marginal victory over the late main opposition MDC candidate Morgan Tsvangirai. As things turned out, Tsvangirai actually defeated Mugabe in the first round of polling with 47.87% (which many believed was suppressed to ensure a run-off) to 43.24%. The CIO and other security forces have agents embedded in the whole electoral process, including at Zec, particularly at secretariat level. The Zec secretariat is headed by Utloile Silaigwana, who was in the army. He took over as chief elections officer from the late Lovemore Sekeramayi, a former top CIO officer. Mnangagwa has also sought to capture ministers and parliamentarians. In December last year, Mnangagwa pampered legislators and his cabinet ministers with loans ranging between US$40 000 and US$500 000 in order to avoid protest votes, commonly known as bhora musango, from within Zanu PF as well as win over the delicate intra-party factional fight with his deputy Constantino Chiwenga, Zanu PF legislators said. The government gave legislators US$40 000 loans each while deputy ministers pocketed US$350 000 and ministers US$500 000. Sources told The NewsHawks that the loans — far from cushioning MPs let alone the ministers who already enjoy hefty perks that include an all-terrain vehicle and a Mercedes-Benz sedan — are designed to achieve a sinister political purpose. “It is all about the 2023 elections and Number One’s [Mnangagwa] political strategy to hold onto power and push back any attempts at bhora musango [internal sabotage] by disgruntled MPs who have for long complained about poor conditions of service,” said a Zanu PF legislator. “There were fears in Number One’s mind that the Zanu PF MPs with influence from the Chiwenga camp would campaign just for themselves and encourage protest votes for him. The Chiwenga faction wanted to pursue this line by convincing the MPs that there was no point in supporting a leader who cares only for himself and his children who are into various murky deals than them in Parliament and cabinet. US$400 000 windfall to judges is electoral gambit President Emmerson Mnangagwa President Emmerson Mnangagwa with Chief Justice Luke Malaba

Page 6 News NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023 NATHAN GUMA MEMBERS of Parliament (MPs) have demanded — again — that Finance minister Mthuli Ncube avail himself to the National Assembly to deal with the fast-deteriorating economic situation and answer questions as Zimbabwe faces resurgent hyperinflation amid skyrocketing prices. This came as American applied economics professor Steve Hanke warned that the country is on the verge of yet another hyperinflation episode as monthly inflation by his measure reached 102%. This has exceeded 50% for the last 25 days. If that trend continues, Hanke says, Zimbabwe will be on track to experiencing hyperinflation anytime soon. Hyperinflation exploded in 2008, reaching some of the highest levels ever seen, leading to an economic meltdown, falling standards of living and total disruption of the marketplace. Zimbabwe was engulfed in hyperinflation in 2008, with monthly inflation climbing to 79.6 billion percent, while the annual rate of increase surged to 89.7 sextillion percent in mid-November 2008. Zimbabwe's annual official consumer price inflation rose to 86.5% in May 2023, up from 75.2% in April, marking a deviation from the downward trend observed since the beginning of the year. However, Hanke says inflation is actually 761%. The country’s protracted problems reflect political instability and extended periods of economic mismanagement. MPs say as a result of currency volatility and rising inflation, the majority of Zimbabweans are failing to access basic commodities, while many workers are living in abject poverty. In the aftermath of currency trade liberalisation, the Zimdollar continues depreciating, trading at US$1:ZW$5 086.3307 at the official auction system, while it scaled US$1:US$7 000 in the parallel market, decimating salaries and plunging the standards of living of the already impoverished Zimbabweans. Major retail outlets have been using different exchange rates. For instance, in a survey by The NewsHawks on Wednesday this week, Innscor was using the US$1:ZW$3 400 rate, while supermarket chain Pick n Pay’s rate was pegged at ZW$3 340. Other stores, Spar and OK, were using ZW$3 350 and ZW$3 280 respectively, while fast-food outlet Chicken Slice was using ZW$3 200. Glen View South legislator Fani Munengami this week questioned Acting Speaker William Mutomba why Ncube was taking long to bring a statement on the economic situation. “I will repeat the issue which has to do with ministers who do not come to Parliament. We ask questions and no-one answers. No minister has come to give us a ministerial statement with regards to issues of national interest,” he said. “I gave an example of the minister of Finance, honourable Ncube — we raised the issue of our currency which has been hit hard by inflation. As of today, the rate is ZW$6 000 against US$1. We have asked what the minister is doing about this issue because Zimbabweans are suffering, but he has not yet come to this House to explain. “We are about to go for elections and no minister has come to Parliament. Have they gone short of plans? May you give us direction, honourable Speaker, on how we should convey these issues to the minister so that they come to Parliament and give us ministerial statements,” Munengami asked. In response, Mutomba said he would inform Ncube to bring a statement to Parliament. “On the one to do with the minister of Finance and Economic Development with regards to the rate (ZW$6 000:US$1), I remember that it was requested here in the House that the minister should bring a ministerial statement with regards to inflation. The same issue on inflation had been raised again. We will inform the minister to come and give us a ministerial statement,” he said. Makoni Central legislator David Tekeshe also contributed to the discussion. “My point is similar to that of honourable Munengami. I got into a shop today and I was shocked to find that the local currency was around ZW$6 000 and ordinary people can no longer afford bread. “We need to come to the point of CDF [Constituency Development Fund] which is just lying idle because no-one wants the RTGS and they charge the black market rate. The request is that if Parliament could negotiate to benefit from the auction floor so that this is looked into because ZW$21 million has gone down to US$4 000 and is no longer enough for the constituency,” he said. Ncube last week paid surprise visits to Bulawayo shops, ordering them to slash US dollar prices, raising a public outcry. President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Ncube and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe have reacted with anger and threats to the deteriorating situation, threatening to unleash law and order instruments to deal with a market crisis. After Ncube’s raids, legislators challenged the Finance minister to present a ministerial statement on the price escalations, erosion of salaries and the incapacitation of many workers amid stratospheric inflation wreaking havoc across the economy, communities and households. Ncube did not come. The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe said this week that a family of six now requires ZW$1 million a month to survive, up from Z$611 275 in April — but salaries remain stagnant. MPs summon Finance minister as Zim faces new hyperinflation

NewsHawks News Page 7 Issue 135, 9 June 2023 RUVIMBO MUCHENJE A TOTAL of 25 doctors in private practice have been arrested, while many others are facing arrest, as part of investigations into the looting and plunder of government-run Premier Service Medical Aid Society (Psmas), the police have confirmed. The doctors were arrested for allegedly making double claims from the institution, but health practitioners say the Psmas system was in a shambles, such that they were often asked to resend claims, hence their current predicament. Police spokesperson Paul Nyathi confirmed the arrests. “We can confirm the arrest of 25 doctors in relation to the investigations that are ongoing with Psmas funds. More information will be released in due course,” said Nyathi. Scores of doctors in private practice have also been called as part of investigations. The secretary-general of the Medical and Dental Private Practitioners of Zimbabwe Association, Cletos Masiya, who is also under investigation, told The NewsHawks that Psmas systems were weak such that sometimes they were requested to send claims twice. “We used to see Psmas patients like every other medical practitioner, and , because of late payments sometimes we would be asked to re-submit claims that would have been lost, specifically in the Victoria Falls area where I was operating. Sometimes Psmas would owe us a lot of money and they would pay a certain amount of money as a lumpsum and then we do reconciliations later. Sometimes they will not be having the full information and they will ask you to submit,” said Masiya. Masiya said Psmas should have taken the civil route instead of the criminal one. “Ideally if there is a conflict or a variance in the amounts claimed and the service offered, the medical aid company would invariably write to you and they send you what is called a reconciliation, and you reconcile that against the claims that you would have given them, against what you would have received in the bank account. If the two do not tally, either of two scenarios would unfold: you return the funds to Psmas, but because we are on a continuous service delivery, usually they are supposed to say you agree to forward the amount to your account as a credit. When you offer a service they deduct that amount. So we never received any communication from Psmas before they handed over the colleagues to the police,” he said. Masiya said some of the amounts being challenged were very small, hence the matter can be settled easily. He said some of the amounts were between ZW$4 000 and ZW$200 000. “I used to run Chinotimba Medical Centre in 2019 and I received a call from the police investigative department notifying us of the fraud charges. They are claiming that I defrauded Psmas of ZW$4 000, which is not a lot of money even by 2019 standards,” said Masiya. He added that he and his colleagues have incurred more costs defending themselves, compared to what they supposedly owe Psmas. “What is also very irritating is that, for example, for a fee of ZW$4 000 you have to get a lawyer who costs much more and the administrative costs to the police and everywhere is a lot. Even for some who have a case of ZW$200 000 and all, you can imagine how much it costs even at bank rate,” said Masiya. Psmas has been embroiled in looting and corruption claims, with its executives in and out of court in relation to the criminal acts of fraud. In May, board chairperson Wellington Tutisa and his deputy Cecilia Alexander appeared in court to answer to four counts of fraud involving millions of dollars. In the same month, chief executive Farai Muchena and three of his senior subordinates also appeared in court for allegedly squandering US$702 386 which was meant for drug purchases after misrepresenting facts to Fidelity Printers in a gold deal. Meanwhile, in Parliament last week, Health and Child Care minister Constantino Chiwenga said his ministry will bring to justice everyone who abused Psmas funds. “Psmas is no longer closed. Psmas is open, but we made a statement and we have completed the forensic audit and the law has taken its course. We have put funds so that Psmas starts operating and they started operating properly. That is what I can say at the present moment. I do not want to discuss a lot because the law enforcement is now on the matter after the forensic audit report was completed. We are putting measures through the regulator of all the medical societies in the country,” he said. “It is not only Psmas which was errant. All medical societies in the country have not been complying with the work which they are supposed to do or using the subscriptions from their clients properly. We are going to visit each and every one.” Doctors arrested after Psmas audit

Page 8 News NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023 BRENNA MATENDERE LEADERS of civil servants’ unions under the banner of the Zimbabwe Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (ZCPSTU) on Tuesday met President Emmerson Mnangagwa at State House im Harare where they begged him to intervene and resolve the plight of workers whose salaries have been eroded by currency volatility and inflation. The delegation was led by ZCPSTU president Cecilia Alexander, who is also the Apex Council leader. She was accompanied by ZCPSTU secretary-general David Dzatsunga and organising secretary Charles Chinosengwa. On the other hand, Mnangagwa had senior officials from State House and the Office of the President and Cabinet. In a circular to unions of government workers after the meeting, Alexander said Mnangagwa promised to attend to their grievances. The circular read: “ZCPSTU met His Excellency the President Dr Cde E.D Mnangagwa today 6th of June 20223 at the State House to present issues meant to create enhanced labour harmony at the workplace. His Excellency took note of the issues presented and pledged to attend to them”. An impeccable source told The NewsHawks that the trade unionists explained to Mnangagwa that they decided to take their issues directly to him because no meaningful results had emerged from their engagements with Public Sector minister Paul Mavhima and his Finance counterpart Mthuli Ncube. “Basically, the leaders explained that government workers are suffering due to the galloping inflation but were not getting reciprocal reviews of their salaries to match the runaway foreign currency exchange rate. They explained that there is no harmony in government institutions because morale is at its lowest as the civil servants are suffering. “The union leaders also explained that while there are formal platforms where issues to do with salaries of civil servants are discussed, the outcome has always been deadlock,” said the source. Another official told The NewsHawks that while the trade union leaders expected immediate positive results from the meeting, they left saddened because Mnangagwa did not offer any short-term solution to their problems. “Mnangagwa only said he was a listening President and he had heard their grievances. He said he would attend to their problems, but did not say when and how. The meeting therefore did not proffer any solution, which saddened the leaders of the unions,” said the official. The source also told The NewsHawks that towards the end of the meeting, Dzatsunga and Chinosengwa raised the issue of charges laid against Alexander and begged Mnangagwa to intervene and have them dropped. Alexander, who is the Public Service Medical Aid Society (Psmas) board deputy chairperson, was arrested in April this year together with board chairperson Wellington Tutisa on charges of abusing US$900 000 and ZW$14 million from the entity as holiday allowances. The matter is pending at the Harare magistrates' court. “They all begged that Mnangagwa intervene and have the charges dropped, but he did not give a direct answer. Instead, he kept on saying he is a listening President and he had taken note of the issues raised,” said the source. In October last year, disgruntled Zanu PF members of Parliament also met Mnangagwa and Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga at State House over a similar matter of welfare. 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 Finance minister Mthuli Ncube’s perceived hostility towards them. They 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. They said the development was worrying ahead of the general elections. Unlike in the latest episode which saw government employees leaving empty handed at State House, last year Finance minister Ncube was ordered to pay the MPs and he acted swiftly and some legislators received their money on that very day. Poverty-stricken Zim civil servants beg Mnangagwa Public Service minister Paul Mavhima ZCPSTU president Cecilia Alexander

NewsHawks News Page 9 Issue 135, 9 June 2023 BERNARD MPOFU STOCKBROKING firm IH Securities says a cut in Intermediate Money Transfer Tax (IMTT) is expected to ease the liquidity situation in the economy. Debt-ridden Zimbabwe has been primarily relying on domestic resources such as taxes and grants to finance some of its key capital projects as the economy continues to wobble. Finance minister Mthuli Ncube last week reduced IMTT in foreign currency to 1% from 2% to ameliorate transactional costs which had been blamed to pushing up prices. Analysts say the the month of May saw further destabilisation of the local currency despite liquidity management tools that had been deployed in the prior month such as the gold-backed digital coins. The official rate on the official auction fell by 85% to the dollar, while the interbank rate weakened by 87% during the month of April, as monetary authorities rapidly devalued the local currency to close a widening gap with the parallel rate. At peak, the parallel market premium within the month was 135%, then closing the month at 91% at the commencement of a refined Dutch auction system. “The reduction of USD IMTT will hopefully encourage some return of USD deposits into the banking sector, potentially resulting in some uptick in liquidity,” reads IH’s research note for May. “To prevent a complete slide into dollarisation, it was critical that government shows conviction in the ZWL by creating the demand for it. By allowing all customs duty to be payable in ZWL, we expect demand for the local currency to increase. Theoretically this should trigger private sector participation on the supply side of hard currency as companies sell to meet obligations.” Treasury, which has in recent times faced sharp criticism for overlapping in traditional central banks roles, is also hinting at a sharp increase in short-term interest rates of tenors up to six months to stamp out speculative borrowing and reduce the velocity of the local unit. The government has also said that it will promote the growing and committed use of the local currency for domestic transactions by ensuring levies and fees charged by its affiliated offices are payable in Zimdollars. The government continues to strengthen its tight monetary policy stance. With Treasury now handling external loans, IH says money supply is expected to remain on a leash as the 25% United States dollar retentions will be settled using tax revenue. BERNARD MPOFU ZIMBABWE’S civil society organisations have blamed the shadowy shareholding structure of some companies and the militarisation of some mining entities for fuelling illicit financial flows (IFFs) in the country. Independent estimates show that between 2000 and 2020 Zimbabwe lost over US$32 billion through illicit financial flows. In the shorter period between 2009 and 2013, the country is estimated to have lost US$2.83 billion. In 2019 alone, according to the chairperson of the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission, Zimbabwe lost an estimated US$3 billion. Reports show that Zimbabwe's military through its proxy companies has interests in mining, media and telecoms, among other key economic sectors. Experts say like many other countries on the continent, Zimbabwe suffers from IFFs due to porous borders, outdated laws with loopholes and failure to capacitate law enforcement agencies, among other factors. IFFs are cross-border transfers or movements of money or capital associated with illegal activity. The terms is also extended to cover illegal domestic movements of money or capital. Rachel Jambo, a field officer at the Centre for Natural Resource Governance, told delegates attending a conference on IFFs held in Bulawayo that the country could be losing much more than the estimated amounts of money due to illegal transactions. “Alarmingly there is a scary increase in the militarisation and politicisation of minerals in the country (or some form of security services),” Jambo said. “What does that translate to for the ordinary person or for our policies for economic development? It basically means contracts are very opaque, there is no transparency in the contracts. We do not know the terms when we go to the section of opportunities. There is a lot of mis-invoicing going on or under-pricing going on (because of the opaque shareholding structures).” Nqobani Tshabangu, head of programmes at Transparency International Zimbabwe, said IFFs thrive on institutions that are weak. “I also want us to point out the role of the unaccountable who are a law unto themselves,” he said. “They actually decide on certain things and they are not event accountable to the people that elected them. Politically exposed persons establish companies to do scandals in Zimbabwe that you can think of. High-level scandal. We discovered that the persons are politically connected to the state. That is why you find out that you have some of these challenges as drivers for IFFs.” Social and economic justice activist Fambai Ngirande said the governmet should enter into contracts with investors which empower communities where the resources are found. Looting of minerals via shadowy groups blamed ‘Money transfer tax cut set to ease liquidity’

Page 10 News NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023 BRENNA MATENDERE POLITICAL analysts say former cabinet minister and Zanu PF commissar Saviour Kasukuwere’s entry into the presidential election race set for 23 August will eat into President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s votes by splitting his support base, thereby boosting the prospects of opposition Citizens' Coalition for Change leader Nelson Chamisa. Kasukuwere, currently self-exiled in South Africa, on Monday declared that he is returning to Zimbabwe to run for president, causing an unexpected political twist ahead of the August general elections. In separate interviews, political analysts said in reality Kasukuwere does not stand a chance to win the presidential election, but he could dent Mnangagwa’s chances in favour of Chamisa. University of Zimbabwe political science lecturer Professor Eldred Masunungure told The NewsHawks that what is making Kasukuwere seem popular is the hype by the media after he announced his plan to enter the race to become the first citizen, but he no longer has a solid link with Zanu PF grassroots supporters to cause an upset in the coming elections. He added that resultantly, Kasukuwere’s entry into the presidential race will benefit Chamisa. “I think the media is over-hyping the Kasukuwere entry into the presidential race in the sense that he is being overrated. He has been disconnected from the grassroots for half a decade and whatever ties he had with communities have decidedly weakened except on Twitter platforms and this is a minute segment of the electorate. “In light of this, I doubt that he will make a significant and compelling impact on the political dynamics, whether at the national level or in respect of the two main political parties. “In the outside chance that he is impactful, I speculate that he will eat into his former party’s electoral base (i.e., Zanu PF) by splitting that support base and thus somewhat benefiting Nelson Chamisa and his CCC,” said Prof Masunungure. Professor of world politics at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, Stephen Chan, said Kasukuwere’s entry into the presidential race will not have a significant effect of a “spoiler”, but could see him exposing startling revelations about internal Zanu PF frictions. “This (Kasukuwere’s presidential bid) will have no effect on the final vote. Kasukuwere doesn't have the well-oiled Zanu PF machine on his side. His candidature is of interest, however, not in terms of his being a 'spoiler', but in terms of what he might say about the internal faults of Zanu PF,” he said. Political analyst Vivid Gwede predicted that Kasukuwere’s presidential run would be significant in eating into Mnangagwa’s votes. “He might misjudge his clout, if he thinks that he would be anything other than a distant third, whose contribution at best is to lead to a runoff amongst the main contenders CCC and Zanu-PF. “But he is more likely to eat into the traditional Zanu PF support base, his erstwhile home, and make its precarious position worse and more assured of defeat in this election. A crucial fact is that new voters registered aware of or persuaded by his late, but less-than-momentous entry into the race. “Kasukuwere's political history is quintessentially Zanu PF and that is where his supporters are,” he said. Kasukuwere reached the prime of his political career when he became the political commissar and key member of Robert Mugabe’s last cabinet before the longtime ruler's dramatic 2017 ouster by the military. Kasukuwere briefly returned home in January 2018 and was arrested on corruption charges, which were later thrown out by a court, but not before he left the country again. He is also a former Environment, Water and Climate minister. Kasukuwere, Mnangagwa and Mugabe’s wife Grace teamed up to topple former Vice-President Joice Mujuru during his tenure as Zanu PF political commissar. The alliance, however, fell apart when Kasukuwere and Grace were joined by another former minister Jonathan Moyo and members of the G40 group, which turned its guns on Mnangagwa. Mnangagwa, with the assistance of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces led by General Constantino Chiwenga, now Vice-President, ousted Mugabe in the 2017 coup. Kasukuwere, Moyo as well as former cabinet ministers Walter Mzembi and Patrick Zhuwao fled the country during the coup. The ex-ministers face arrest over a litany of charges, including corruption. In October 2020, the government sought Kasukuwere’s extradition from South Africa after issuing a warrant for his arrest. He has been battling to have it cancelled and may be arrested upon return if that does not happen in time before he comes back to mount his election campaign. Although a grouping by the name New Alliance Zimbabwe has been purpoting to be a political party behind Kasukuwere on social media, the 52-year-old politician has not yet disclosed if he will deploy parliamentary, council, and senatorial candidates in the 23 August elections. Former cabinet minister and Zanu PF commissar Saviour Kasukuwere is more likely to eat into the traditional Zanu PF support base. Tyson threatens knockout punch, but doubts persist

NewsHawks News Page 11 Issue 135, 9 June 2023 BRENNA MATENDERE ZANU PF is likely to unfairly win the Cowdray Park parliamentary seat in Bulawayo province due to the opaque geographical nature of the constituency mapped by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) in its latest delimitation exercise, as well as heavy pouring of resources into the campaign of its candidate and Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube, which is tantamount to vote buying. There are three vast wards (6, 15 and 28) in the constituency whose boundaries are not clearly specified and only stated as “unnamed” roads which could mean they go deep into the peri-urban areas of the constituency that resemble Harare South in the capital metropolitan province. For instance, in the description of ward 6, Zec in its delimitation report said it is an area of land “bounded by a line drawn from the junction of two unnamed roads at Stand 18164 Cowdray Park Township so as to include it, then southwards along an unnamed road to its junction with an unnamed road at Stand 17391 Cowdray Park Township so as to exclude it, then generally south-eastwards along the unnamed road to its intersection with an unnamed 40 metre road at Stand 6975 Cowdray Park Township so as to include it, “then eastwards along the unnamed 40m road to its intersection with an unnamed stream, then generally northwards along the unnamed stream to a point where an imaginary line is drawn eastwards from at Stand 15524 Cowdray Park Township so as to include it, to its intersection with an unnamed stream at Stand 15565 Cowdray Park Township so as to include it, “then generally south-eastwards along the stream into its intersection with an unnamed road at Stand 15227 Cowdray Park Township so as to 9 include it, then southwards along the unnamed road to intersection with an unnamed road at Stand 14628 Cowdray Park Township so as to exclude it, “then generally eastwards along an unnamed road to its intersection with an unnamed road at Stand 14637 Cowdray Park Township so as to exclude it, then generally south-eastwards along the unnamed road to its intersection with Cowdray Park Corridor, then generally southwards along Cowdray Park Corridor to its junction with Percy Ibbotson Road at Stand 6 Cowdray Park Township so as to exclude it,“then southwards along Percy Ibbotson Road to its intersection with Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Railway Line, then generally north-westwards along Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Railway Line to junction with an unnamed road at Stand 18865 Cowdray Park Township so as to include it, “then north-eastwards along the unnamed road to its junction with an unnamed road at Stand 18164 Cowdray Park Township, the starting point. "The area is bounded by the following Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM Zone 35s) coordinates based on modified Clarke 1880 Spheroid Coordinates: 653657.72, 7780252.71; 655179.00, 7780702.58; 656200.14, 7779280.13; 656524.01, 7779372.35; 656379.16, 7779709.24; 656794.38, 7779821.66; 656859.20, 7779698.39; 656967.89, 7779731.49; 657418.85, 7779732.20; 657447.63, 7779623.66; 659086.09, 7777147.71; 658011.72, 7777105.10; 655207.37, 7778925.88." In another vague description of Cowdray Park’s ward 15, Zex in its delimitation report says it is: “an area of land bounded by a line drawn from the intersection of Norwood Tracks and unnamed road at Stand 11038 Cowdray Park Township so as to include it and exclude Norwood Tracks, then south-eastwards along Norwood Tracks to a point where an imaginary line is drawn westward at Richmond Land Fill Site (Ngozi Mine) so as to exclude it, into an unnamed road at Stand 1325 Cowdray Park Township (Cowdray Park Secondary School) so as to include it, to its junction with an unnamed road at Stand 1307 Cowdray Park Township so as to include it, “. . . then northwards along an unnamed road to its junction with an unnamed road at Stand 1490 Cowdray Park Township so as to include it, then westwards along an unnamed road to its junction with an unnamed road at Stand 1509 Cowdray Park Township so as to include it, then southwards along an unnamed road to its junction with an unnamed road at Stand 1681 Cowdray Park Township so as to include it, then westwards along an unnamed road to its junction with an unnamed road at Stand 1680 Cowdray Park Township so as to include it, “. . . then northwards along an unnamed road to its intersection with an unnamed road at Stand 2061 Cowdray Park Township so as to exclude it, then westwards along an unnamed road to its intersection with Cowdray Park Corridor, then northwards along Cowdray Park Corridor to its junction with an unnamed road at Stand 14709 Cowdray Park Township so as to include it, then westwards along an unnamed road to its junction with an unnamed road at Stand 14637 Cowdray Park Township so as to include it, “then westwards along an unnamed road to its junction with an unnamed road at Stand 15220 Cowdray Park Township so as to exclude it, then generally northwards along an unnamed road to its intersection with a unnamed stream, then north-westwards along an unnamed stream to a point where an imaginary line is drawn westwards from Stand 15563 Cowdray Park Township so as to exclude it, “to its intersection with an unnamed stream at Stand 15524 Cowdray Park Township so as to exclude it, then generally southwards along an unnamed stream to its intersection with an unnamed road, then westwards along an unnamed road to its intersection with an unnamed road at Stand 16388 Cowdray Park Township so as to exclude it, then generally north-westwards along an unnamed road to its junction with an unnamed road at Stand 1739 Cowdray Park Township so as to include it, “then northwards along an unnamed road to its junction with an unnamed road at Stand 18164 Cowdray Park Township so as to exclude it, then north-eastwards along an unnamed road to its intersection with Norwood Tracks, the starting point.” The area is bounded by the following Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM Zone 35s) coordinates based on modified Clarke 1880 Spheroid Coordinates : 19658352.11, 7781676.85; 655179.00, 7780702.58; 660201.17, 7778815.18; 658958.54, 7778930.50; 658983.46, 7779200.68; 658803.52, 7779217.16; 658778.28, 7778943.04; 658705.17, 7778950.81; 658720.38, 7779720.61; 657447.63, 7779623.69; 657418.85, 7779732.20; 656967.89, 7779731.49; 656859.20, 7779698.39; 656794.38, 7779821.66; 656379.16, 7779709.24; 656524.01, 7779372.35; 656200.14, 7779280.13; 655179.00, 7780702.58. Cowdray Park’s ward 28 is also described in a similar indefinite manner which opens chances for rigging. The Zec delimitation report says ward 28 is: “an area of land bounded by a line drawn from the intersection of Cowdray Park Corridor and an unnamed road at Stand 4325 Cowdray Park Township so as to include it, then eastwards along the unnamed road to its intersection with an unnamed road at Stand 2061 Cowdray Park Township so as to include it, “then southwards along an unnamed road to its junction with an unnamed road at Stand 1680 Cowdray Park Township so as to exclude it, then eastwards along an unnamed road to its junction with an unnamed road at Stand 1681 Cowdray Park Township so as to exclude it, then northwards along an unnamed road to its junction with an unnamed road at Stand 1510 Cowdray Park Township so as to include it, then eastwards along an unnamed road to its junction with an unnamed road at Stand 1542 Cowdray Park Township so as to include it, “then southwards 33 along an unnamed road to its junction with an unnamed road at Stand 1307 Cowdray Park Township so as to exclude it, then eastwards along an unnamed road into an imaginary line at Stand 925 Cowdray Park Township so as to include it, to its intersection with Richmond and Norwood Tracks boundaries so as to exclude them, then southwards along the boundary of Richmond to its intersection with the proposed 40m road, then north-eastwards along the proposed 40m road to its junction with Siye-Pambili Drive, “then generally southwards along Siye-Pambili Drive to its intersection with Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Railway line, then north-westwards along Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Railway line to its intersection with Percy Ibbotson Road, then northwards along Percy Ibbotson Road to its junction with Cowdray Park Corridor, “then generally north-westwards along Cowdray Park Corridor to its intersection with an unnamed road at Stand 4325 Cowdray Park Township, the starting point.” The area is bounded by the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM Zone 35s) based on modified Clarke 1880 Spheroid Coordinates: 657447.63, 7779623.69; 658720.38, 7779720.61; 658705.17, 7778950.81; 658778.28, 7778943.04; 658803.52, 7779217.16; 658983.46, 7779200.68; 658958.54, 7778930.50; 660201.17, 7778815.18; 660285.85, 7778516.23; 660951.73, 7778959.76; 660143.66, 7776392.91; 659086.09, 7777147.71; 659104.12, 7777537.63. The chaotic geographical nature of Cowdray Park is one issue; the massive bankrolling of Ncube’s campaign is another. He is drilling boreholes and mantaining roads in what translates to vote buying and Zanu PF will be hoping to leverage on that aspect in order to harvest votes. Cowdray Park’s scandalous boundaries favour Zanu PF

Page 12 News NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023 BRENNA MATENDERE FINANCE minister Mthuli Ncube has been flagged by the Bulawayo City Council over his campaign activities in Cowdray Park where he is drilling boreholes and conducting road maintenance works without the approval of the city’s engineering department. Ncube is the Zanu PF parliamentary candidate for the newly created Cowdray Park constituency given birth by this year’s controversial delimitation exercise. Since the time he clinched the ticket to represent the party in the 23 August elections, Ncube has been conducting several activities to lure voters such as sponsoring driving school lessorns for prospective drivers, rehabilitating roads and drilling boreholes. However, on Wednesday, Bulawayo councillors fumed during a full council meeting over Ncube’s violations of council by-laws and regulations on infrastructure development through his boreholes and road maintenance projects. The councillors said Ncube was committing a criminal offence by contravening provisions of the Roads Act by embarking on works without the permission and authority of council. Ward 12 councillor Lillian Mlilo told the full council meeting that the engineering committee was abrogating its responsibilities by allowing Ncube to violate the Roads Act by tampering with public infrastructure. She demanded that the committee look into the matter and give feedback on how it was handling Ncube's brazen illegalities. “We never received any form of communication in terms of the legal procedures on fixing roads. Which engineers are they getting information from because those who are authorised to deal with Bulawayo property were never inquired?” she asked. Deputy mayor and ward 1 councillor Mlandu Ncube in his contribution made it clear that it was a criminal offence to work on public property without having been cleared by the relevant council authority, especially the engineering department. “We must all know that it is a crime to tamper with public infrastructure. You can’t be seen digging roads and covering them up without clearance. The notice from the Town Clerk that circulated was addressing this very issue,” he said. Ward 9 councillor Donaldson Mabuto said it was inconceivable that Ncube was losing focus on addressing national economic problems and now prioritising municipal-level activities — and without the legal authority. Bulawayo mayor Solomon Mguni also chastised Ncube’s conduct, describing it as criminal. He called upon municipal police to charge Ncube for contravening the Roads Act. “That notice by the city council served to address this matter. It is actually criminal to clear roads, even in Cowdray Park, without getting clearance from the council. So, whoever is aspiring in Bulawayo should seek clearance from the road authority [instead of] committing an offence and should be liable to be charged under the Roads Act,” said the mayor. Mthuli Ncube abandons the economy for Cowdray Park A health facility under construction in Cowdray Park, Bulawayo. Finance minister Mthuli Ncube

NewsHawks News Page 13 Issue 135, 9 June 2023 NATHAN GUMA PARLIAMENT has raised questions over the safety of Zimbabweans ahead of the 23 August general election, with legislators challenging Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe to issue a ministerial statement on measures being put in place to ensure a peaceful poll. Concerns have been raised with Zimbabweans living under the jackboot of authoritarian repression and fear in what has been termed a police state — a country in which people's peaceful civic activities are strictly controlled by government with the help of a brutal police force. While people are free to speak and demonstrate in Zimbabwe, their freedom is not guaranteed after the action. For instance, this week police quashed a oneman protest in Harare at the corner of Josiah Tongogara Avenue and Sam Nujoma Street, savagely and violently assaulting the man, which is unconstitutional. In terms of the law, police are only allowed to use minimum force to effect arrest. Zimbabweans have always met with teargas and brutal attacks even if they try to peacefully demonstrate against worsening economic, social and political conditions. More human rights abuses have been reported in the pre-election period. This week in Parliament, Warren Park legislator Shakespear Hamauswa asked the Acting Speaker, William Mutomba, to ensure that Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe present a ministerial statement over police preparedness to guarantee a peaceful election. “I want to raise an issue with regards to the harmonised elections which are going to be held this year. This was raised before by honourable [Costa] Machingauta who said that the honourable minister of Home Affairs should come to this august House and explain the preparedness of his ministry regarding peaceful elections,” Hamauswa said. “However, our term is coming to an end and we are left with a few days before we go for elections. The honourable minister has not come to the House to fulfil the request that was raised in this august House that he should explain the state of preparedness of the ministry of Home Affairs and, indeed, the nation for holding peaceful elections. “I believe that if that is raised, this would allow the people of Zimbabwe to have confidence that elections will be held in a peaceful environment. However, this request has been made three times and it is a request that we ask, Mr Speaker, that before the end of the week, the minister of Home Affairs should give us a ministerial statement on what measures the ministry is putting in place to ensure peaceful elections. We look forward to peaceful elections,” he said. In response, Mutomba said he would engage Kazembe over an update on preparedness. “I have two responses: the first one being that if the minister of Home Affairs was to come tomorrow, then I will request that you ask your question during the question-and-answer session because days are moving and we want peace like what His Excellency the President has proclaimed that there should be peace in the nation. “Secondly, if the minister is not coming, we are still going to engage him so that he brings a state of preparedness ministerial speech to the august House so that elections are held in peace,” he said. Fear has been brewing over safety during the general election, with think-tanks predicting an increase in organised violence and torture. Murders and arbitrary arrests have also been recorded in the pre-election period, with main opposition Citizens' Coalition for Change (CCC) activists being maimed and killed during and in the aftermath of by-elections held in March. In May, Zengeza West legislator Job Sikhala was convicted, almost a year after his arrest, and slapped with a suspended six-month custodial sentence and a US$600 fine. Sikhala was however not released from custody, despite spending over 300 days in prison, with the state arguing he has outstanding cases. Last month, opposition leader Jacob Ngarivhume was arrested for leading and organising the 31 July 2020 protests. He was convicted by Harare magistrate Feresi Chakanyuka and sentenced to 48 months imprisonment, with 12 months suspended. Intimidation by shadowy government and ruling party-linked proxies has also been recorded. Last week, CCC senior official main Tendai Biti demanded that Defence minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri present a ministerial statement on the role of the shadowy Forever Associates Zimbabwe (Faz) outfit in electoral processes. Controversy has risen over the establishment of Faz which, as previously reported by The NewsHawks, has taken over electoral processes. The organisation is led by Central Intelligence Organisation co-deputy director-general retired Brigadier-General Walter Tapfumaneyi. The outfit is not a constitutional or official arrangement, but an underground operational unit campaigning for Mnangagwa and Zanu PF in the 23 August general elections. While Faz has taken over the running of elections, an investigation by The NewsHawks has shown that it has also been running an intimidation campaign, with three members assigned to each of the country’s wards. According to an operational Faz document titled Faz Campaign Scope, critical information being collected by the outfit's agents and informers includes names, addresses, identity numbers and voter registration details at polling station level. Faz is also counting people at household level before recording the information on their tablets and smartphones. The information is computed, condensed into data and processed and is seen as crucial in influencing and manipulating the electoral process in favour of Zanu PF through a combination of tactics, including persuasion and intimidation, in some cases. Electoral safety — MPs pile pressure on minister Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe

Page 14 News NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023 BRENNA MATENDERE A RECORD 18 civil society organisations from different parts of the world have petitioned President Emmerson Mnangagwa and key figures in his government over the growing trend of judicial persecution through lawfare — citing the case of Zengeza West legislator Job Sikhala who has been in detention for almost a year. The petition was obtained by The NewsHawks this week and is dated 1 June. Also petitioned via the same document was Chief Justice Luke Malaba, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs minister Ziyambi Ziyambi and Acting Prosecutor-General Nelson Mutsonziwa. The foreign civil society groups are NamRights Inc (Namibia), Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (South Africa), Restoration of Human Rights, (United Kingdom), Zimbabwe Diaspora for Democracy, Inc (United States of America), Political Prisoners in Africa (Sadc), and Ditshwanelo, also known as The Botswana Centre for Human Rights (Botswana). There is also Mozambique Human Rights Defenders Network (Mozambique), Centre for Democracy and Development (Mozambique), Civic Space Network (Sadc), and the Southern Africa Human Rights Defenders Network (Sadc). The local groups behind the petition are the Anti-Corruption Trust of Southern Africa (ACTSA), Chitungwiza Residents Trust, Zimbabwe Organisation For Youth In Politics (Z.O.Y.P), Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice Trust (ICPJT), Kwekwe Residents Association, and Harare Residents Trust (HRT). There is also the Hands of Hope Trust (Zimbabwe) and Voice of Justice. Part of the petition reads: “We, the undersigned Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) herein register our deep concerns against a growing trend of judicial persecution and the abuse of the legal system (lawfare) by Zimbabwean authorities to close the civic space and target human rights defenders (HRDs) and pro-democracy activists… “These concerns are informed by the case of Honourable. Job Sikhala, the Zengeza West Legislator who is a Human Rights Lawyer and Senior Member of Zimbabwe’s Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) and has been remanded at Chikurubi Maximum Prison from 14 June 2023 to date charged with two false allegations of obstruction of the course of justice and public violence. “Other cases of judicial persecution through prosecution include the cases of Jacob Ngarivhume, Hopewell Chin’ono, and Tsitsi Dangarembga. "We are concerned that Hon Sikhala was arrested as punishment for representing the family of the late Moreblessing Ali who was seeking justice after the brutal murder of Moreblessing by a suspect/s believed to be linked to the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU PF). “Further, note that as a registered legal practitioner Sikhala had every right to represent his client (family of the slain Moreblessing Ali) and also that the family of the murdered Moreblessing Ali had the right to choose a lawyer of their choice.” The petition further reads: “The following forms part of our concerns: (1)- The dismissal by both the Magistrate Court and High Court of more than 10 bail applications in circumstances where the law and the facts require that bail be granted, suggests that the procedural safeguards meant to secure the right to a fair trial through the judicial process have failed and continue to fail in Hon. Sikhala’s case. “We refer to Section 117 (1) of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act [Chapter 9:07] which states that '[A] person who is in custody in respect of an offence shall be entitled to be released on bail at any time after he or she has appeared in court on a charge and before sentence is imposed unless the court finds that it is in the interests of justice that he or she should be detained in custody'. This legal right is not being given effect in Hon. Sikhala’s case. “The approach to bail as it is worded in the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Amendment Act [Chapter 9:07] is not being applied by the courts and we strongly opine that there is no legal basis to justify why Hon. Sikhala has been denied bail on numerous occasions and continues to be held in prison for more than 10 months.” On their recommendations to Mnangagwa, the 18 civil society organisations wrote: “The Zimbabwean judiciary must protect itself from the image of a compromised judiciary that lacks independence and impartiality in matters involving HRDs [human rights defenders], pro-democracy activists and legitimate political opponents by rigorously enforcing and protecting the Bill of Rights in cases before it and building jurisprudence that strengthens the implementation of the 2013 Zimbabwe Constitution and accords with the Principles And Guidelines on The Right to a Fair Trial And Legal Assistance in Africa. “The management of the judiciary, including the Chief Justice should implement a programme of continuous judicial education to build a solid understanding on the part of judicial officers as to their role and duties which must be discharged with the highest levels of integrity, independence and impartiality. “A Judicial Committee should be set up to inquire into the circumstances that led to judicial officers in Hon. Sikhala’s case being unable to properly consider the question of bail and its findings must be made public to prevent the manipulation of the judiciary and its processes in similar cases in the future.” In an interview with The NewsHawks, Chantelle De Soussa, the Southern African Anti-Corruption Network (SACCON) coordinator based in South Africa who coordinated the petition said it was imperative that Zimbabwean authorities be flagged for lawfare against critics and targeting of Sikhala. “Civil society from across the SADC stands in solidarity with human rights defenders in Zimbabwe. What happens in Zimbabwe can just as well happen in any other SADC country and we need to stand together. The unlawful detention of Hon. Job Sikhala has gone on for far too long and is of great concern. “He was acting in the capacity of a legal representative and the international principle that legal representatives should not be persecuted for their work must be respected. Legal representatives are officers of the court and as they respect the court so the courts should respect their profession,” she said. Allan Chaumba, the ACT-SA acting board chairperson, told The NewsHawks that his organisation had agreed to be part of signatories to the petition in order to amplify calls for Sikhala’s release. “ACT-SA is one of the signatories to the petition because of a number of reasons: Firstly, Job Sikhala is innocent. He is simply being punished because he was representing the family of the slain Morebelssing Ali to seek justice after there were attempts to conceal the murder as well as the suspects in the murder case. He was simply doing his work as a legal practitioner. “The same courts did not do the same in the cases of the Gokwe Nembudziya legislator, Justice Wadyajena; former Health Minister, Obadiah Moyo; former Local Government Minister, Ignatius Chombo; and Henrietta Rushwaya. These were granted bail without fighting for it. Why? Maybe they belong to favoured political parties.Hon. Sikhala is innocent and must be released from Chikurubi Maximum Prison and all charges against him dropped,” he said. Chaumba reiterated that it is preposterous that Sikhala lodged more than 15 bail applications that were all dismissed by the courts of law and added that it makes people forced to think that the Zimbabwean Judiciary (courts) is being used as a weapon to persecute human rights defenders, pro-democracy activists and other dissenting voices. World civil society organisations petition Mnangagwa over Sikhala Zengeza West MP Job Sikhala (blue T-shirt)

NewsHawks News Page 15 Issue 135, 9 June 2023 BERNARD MPOFU THE surprise move by Zimbabwe's fiscal and monetary authorities to liberalise the foreign exchange policy after months of shillyshallying amid a fixed rate could be a case of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, analysts have warned. Amid exchange rate volatility, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's Monetary Policy Committee on Tuesday announced further measures to prop up the fast-depreciating local unit. Zimbabwe liberalised its foreign-exchange market and raised interest rates, among a new raft of measures aimed at stabilising the nation’s currency and reining in resurgent inflation. That fuelled exchange rate volatility; a risk associated with uncertainty in the exchange rate in foreign exchange market and is often driven by macroeconomic factors, including interest rates, the balance of payments, and inflation. Volatility is measured as the absolute value of the monthly percentage change in the exchange rate. The Zimbabwe dollar soon after the announcement of a market-driven exchange rate depreciated by 28% against the greenback, its worst decline on record since its inception. This was the first since the promulgation of an allocation limit of US$5 million by government to the respective market. During the session, allocations totalled US$4.9 million against total demand of US$25 million, highlighting the high appetite for the hard currency. After climbing to US$1:ZW$4 800 on Wednesday from US$1:ZW$3 600 on Tuesday, retailers reacted to the news by effecting price hikes while others discouraged the use of the domestic currency. Cumulatively the Zimbabwe dollar pared by 81.3% against the US dollar since the beginning of the year, on the auction market. This has been its worst performance since reintroduction in 2019. The central bank said the interbank market will become the primary forex trading platform, taking away the function from the RBZ-controlled auction market. Last year, the interbank accounted for 1.7% of total forex trades by value lagging behind an 8% auction market contribution. Gift Mugano, an adjunct professor of economics at Durban University of Technology in South Africa, said the measures came too little too late. “We are now implementing the right policies too late. We should have done this on 20 February 2019 when the interbank was introduced,” Mugano said. “This is too late! At this rate, wages, pensions, national budget and capital will be wiped out. Prices will hit the roof. It's getting worse! Without any doubt, Treasury has to: urgently revisit the national budget; make an urgent upward review of salaries and pensions and review the budget for contractors. As these reviews will be done, more liquidity will be poured into the market — adding paraffin on fire.” Local economic research unit Equity Access highlighted the policy incoherence between fiscal and monetary authorities as the economy implodes. “In most instances it has said that the Zimdollar plunge is due to behavioural factors most centred around confidence and speculation. In its latest update, the [central] bank said the depreciation has been motivated by more fundamental demand and supply factors,” Equity Access said in a research note. “It however absolved itself from wrongdoing maintaining the position that money supply has remained in check, a view supported by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). This view has been challenged by Treasury, which instead said the bank was printing money to finance the purchase of USD from exporters, who are demanded by regulation to surrender a portion of their earnings. This has not been the only loophole.” The central bank’s issuance of Treasury Bills (TBs) valued at over US$1 billion, in recent months, to satisfy past dues, the research note further reads, has stimulated the depreciation of the local currency. “The magnitude of TBs issued is so high that it only matches past election year issuance in 2008 and 2018,” Equity Access says. “If the bank continues in denial or deliberate disguise, while printing more money, the net outcome is an unlikely stabilisation of the Zimdollar. There cannot be any envisaged stability if the quantum of Zimdollar keeps growing at a disproportionate rate to production and earned forex.” Prosper Chitambara, a senior researcher at the Labour and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe, a research think-tank of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), said the liberalisation of the markets could in future eliminate the parallel market premium. “I think the resolutions are an important step in the right direction, we have seen the further tightening of the monetary policy regime and the foreign exchange regime has also been liberalised,” Chitambara said. “I think on the monetary policy side we are good, but where we need more tightening is the fiscal policy because of government’s payments obviously — either to contractors or civil servants — we have seen an increase in liquidity and because of the loss of confidence in the local currency that liquidity is then converted into the United States dollar. That then perpetuates the depreciation of the local currency.” He said to ultimately sustain economic stability fiscal and monetary authorities should not be working at “cross-purposes”. The horse has all but bolted — Zimdollar rescue mission too late

Page 16 News NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023 RUVIMBO MUCHENJE FOLLOWING the liberalisation of the exchange rate earlier this week, prices of most basic commodities have shot through the roof, with some retailers rejecting the Zimbabwe dollar. A snap survey by The NewsHawks on Friday showed that OK supermarket chain had set the price of a tub of magarine at ZW$50 000 and ZW$53 000 for a 2kg packet of chicken cuts which translates to US$10 at the bank rate (US$1:ZW$5 328), with the price having shot up from US$7 the previous week. A 2-litre bottle of cooking oil was pegged at ZW$27 000, which translates to US$5 at the bank rate. There are other pictures circulated on social media showing Proton super white bread pegged at ZW$9 999 on Thursday before rising to ZW$12 000 on Friday. Basic goods such as sugar were only available in 1kg packets for brown sugar which was priced at ZW$18 000 in OK supermarkets. Pick n Pay had lower prices on shelf displays, but consumers complained that the prices were not the same at the till point. A 2kg magarine tub that was priced ZW$25 000 on the shelf rose to ZW$40 000 at the paypoint. Food World had even displayed a notice apologising to customers in advance for discrepancies in pricing from the ones displayed on the till and the prices showing at the till point, well in advance. The same outlet had most basic goods such as rice, salt, mealie-meal and cooking oil priced exclusively in foreign currency. Meanwhile, the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe reported that the family basket has risen to ZW$1 million monthly, up from ZW$611 275 in April. Prices madness as RBZ floats rate — Pictures: Ruvimbo Muchenje

NewsHawks News Page 17 Issue 135, 9 June 2023 NATHAN GUMA ZIMBABWE is losing precious minerals through porous borders, with security forces and border officials manning the entry points seriously incapacitated to plug illicit flows, a report by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence, Home Affairs and Security Services has revealed. The country has been losing minerals, ranging from diamonds and gold through wellknit syndicates that involve security officials, foreigners and local smugglers who have been taking advantage of lack of knowledge by the officials manning borders. According to the report presented this week by Umzingwane legislator Levi Mayihlome after visits to Beitbridge Border Post, the committee was informed by Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) officials that there was a stretch of 230 kilometres of the borderline encompassing Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa, which was poorly manned by law enforcement agencies in Zimbabwe. Along that borderline there were over 15 well-known unregistered exit and entry points between the three countries. Smuggling has also been rife at the points, while they have also been a source of gold leakages, among other commodities. Law enforcement agencies, which include the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP), as well as the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA), have also been unable to control the illegal crossing points because they do not have vehicles, while the roads are impassible, according to the report. “In addition, there was no cellphone network coverage in these border lying areas, which made it difficult for law enforcement authorities to coordinate their efforts effectively along the border. The security forces requested for vehicles, tents, drones, testing and communication devices and the establishment of a reaction team to arrest would-be smugglers,” read part of the report. The ports of entry have also been hit by a shortage of personnel and equipment. The committe's findings have revealed that border officials have been operating without modern scanners to detect gold, diamonds and other minerals that may be smuggled out of the country. “Officials at ports of entry have limited knowledge of the characteristics of minerals such as gold and diamonds. Zimra outlined that it was in the process of recruiting a metallurgist and a geologist, so that they could be stationed at the land borders to assist in the identification and verification of minerals being exported or those confiscated for attempted smuggling. “At RGM International Airport, two attempts were made to smuggle gold out of the country. In the first case, the gold was intercepted before leaving the country and in the second case the gold was recovered at O.R. Tambo International Airport in South Africa. The major cause of the leakage was due to collusion by airport officials,” it read. As previously reported by The NewsHawks, Zimbabwe has been losing gemstones through illicit trade and undervaluation necessitated by a close-knit ecosystem of panners, security services and runners of merchants from Pakistan, Lebanon, China and India. While the country boasts more than 30 semi-precious stones, only four are covered by the Diamond Policy. Most of them are mined by informal foreign prospectors from India, Mozambique and other countries. Cartels implicated in the illicit flows have also been using well-traversed channels opened up by couriers of second-hand clothing bales on farms within the Penhalonga area, according to a report titled “Scope and Nature of Illicit Flows in Zimbabwe’s Gemstone Sector” by Lyman Mlambo, a mining economist. The smuggled minerals are then traded in Chimoio, Mozambique, an area that is dominated by Asian nationals who operate grocery shops, before they are transported to Dubai and other destinations. In 2011, the United Arab Emirates imported US$408 million worth of (rough) diamonds from Zimbabwe, making it the largest diamond market. An investigation by The NewsHawks published in April also exposed lithium smuggling from the Mudzi and Mutoko areas via Nyamapanda Border Post. The location of lithium reserves close to the border has also made the mineral, also known as the “white gold”, prone to smuggling. This is despite Zimbabwe imposing a ban on the exportation of unprocessed lithium. While cabinet also approved the beneficiation policy, the country has not yet fully operationalised value addition and beneficiation programmes. Local participation and capacity in beneficiation have not been developed. Another investigation by Zela in February revealed that foreign buyers are smuggling lithium ore, which is bought in bulk from artisanal miners. For instance, during one of Zela’s visits to mining sites in Mberengwa, there were various buyers of lithium who were operating haulage trucks at night. In one incident, the investigative team observed a fleet of seven haulage trucks headed for Mberengwa around 7pm. However, the following day, it was noted that only two trucks had been fully loaded overnight and left. It also emerged that the lithium miners sell their lithium to buyers, mostly Chinese nationals who also drive at night to these remote areas for collection, according to the report. The Chinese nationals are said to be the best buyers, forking out between US$120 and US$150 on average for a tonne of lithium. However, local buyers have been short-changing miners as they buy ore based on the percentage value of the ore after estimating the tonnage. The buyers are reportedly bribing police officers to be allowed to leave with truckloads of lithium. Umzingwane MP Levi May Precious minerals smuggled through Zim porous borders Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport

Page 18 News NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023 BERNARD MPOFU THE Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence, Home Affairs and Security has told the government to change the mining model at Redwing Mine by the end of this month amid concerns of massive gold leakages and illicit dealings. Redwing, previously run by South African businessman Mzi Khumalo and now under the control of Zanu PF benefactor Pedzisai “Scott” Sakupwanya, is at the centre of massive looting and environmental degradation. Zimbabwe is endowed with over 40 different minerals and the mining sector has become the anchor of the economy. According to the National Development Strategy One (2021 to 2025), the mining sector accounts for 60% of the country’s export revenues. However, the mining industry has been experiencing mineral leakages, negatively affecting the sector’s potential contribution to the socio-economic transformation of the country. The government set a revenue target of US$4 billion to be generated by the gold sector by 2023. Experts say illicit trade in the extractive industry is crippling the economy, fomenting anarchy in communities and has the potential of bringing untold suffering to ordinary citizens and may threaten national security. It is against this background that the committee undertook an inquiry into the security of minerals in order to establish the possible causes of mineral leakages in the country and recommend ways of curbing them. According to a report by the parliamentary portfolio committee titled The Security of Minerals: Illicit Trading in Minerals and Mineral Leakages, Treasury is losing large amounts of money through illegal trade in minerals, particularly gold. “By 30 June 2023, the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development should review the mining model at Redwing Mine in order to adopt a sustainable mining model that integrates former mine workers and the surrounding community so that leakages are minimised,” the report reads. “The Committee noted with concern that another source of gold leakages was at mining companies that have ownership wrangles. A case in point was Redwing Mine in Penhalonga which experienced an influx of illegal miners following a prolonged ownership wrangle. The Committee had an opportunity to meet former workers, management of Redwing Mine and Better Brands. “The former workers highlighted that a lot of gold leakages were happening through artisanal mining at the tributary granted to Better Brands.” The ommittee was told by the workers that there were over 800 pits and 400 hammer mills operating in Penhalonga. In addition, the report noted that there were many gold buyers, both registered and unregistered, operating in the area. Furthermore, there were over 13 illegal crossing points into Mozambique and it was believed that those routes were being used to smuggle gold out of the country. “The Committee was informed by the workers that, the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, ZRP and Environment Management Agency (EMA) were struggling to handle the illegal mining, milling and trading activities happening in the Penhalonga area. The local police station has no vehicle for patrols and effective enforcement of the law,” the report shows. “Fidelity Gold Refiners were not stationed at the mining site to facilitate the buying of gold. There were high chances of under-declaration of gold produced and finally sold through formal channels. “Better Brands told the Committee that its operations were above board and had declared 46,67kg to Fidelity Gold Refiners for the eight months it had been in operation since July 2021. They asserted that illegal hammer mills that had mushroomed near its mining tribute posed serious operational challenges and were a source of massive gold leakages.” Intervene at Redwing Mine, govt told Zanu PF benefactor Pedzisayi “Scott” Sakupwanya controls Redwing Mine

NewsHawks News Page 19 Issue 135, 9 June 2023 NATHAN GUMA THE Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by Harare North lawmaker Allan Markham who is seeking an auditable voters’ roll ahead of the 23 August general elections. The court said his appeal was defective. The Harare North opposition lawmaker filed his appeal using a transcribed record instead of written reasons by the High Court. A Supreme Court bench chaired by Justice Chinembiri Bhunu said given that there was no an application before the court, the bench dismissed the appeal. Trust Manjengwa was representing Markham while Tawanda Kanengoni was representing the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec). "At the commencement of the appeal hearing, Mr Kanengoni raised a point in limine objecting to the judgement of the court a quo . . . that the transcript is unnumbered and unsigned,several portions are incoherent and incomplete. "Mr Manjengwa said the judgement was authenticated by an affidavit of the registrar of the High Court. Due to the several inadequacies pronunced out . . . this court cannot proceed with this matter. There not being a proper appeal before us, it is ordered that this matter is dismissed," ruled the bench. During the hearing, Kanengoni had submitted that there were too many inconsistencies in the record used by Markham such that the court could not rely on it. "In that document, there is no judgement number at page 117, if you go down to page 118, the last paragraph appears therein the elapses that shows that there is information missing from the transcription of the judgement. "Page 123 of the record, the first paragraph again contains the same indication that there is information missing. "The following page 124, in the last paragraph, contains the same. The end of that document under the designation of the presiding judge a quo where he was suppose to append his signature, there is no signature attached. "The point we make is that the grounds of appeal directly speak to those reasons... "The court is unaware of how much info is missing from that document. If you take the omission that appears in page 124, it makes reference to a doctrine that was relied upon by the court a quo." "That being the case, we would ask that this appeal is not yet properly before the court for argument and the court cannot properly engage with it based on the extempo judgement on the court a quo." Manjengwa insisted that the record was compiled according to the court's rules. Justice Lavender Makoni asked her to confirm that the record was not numbered and some parts are not coherent. "And you expect us to sit and determine this matter.What is being appealed against is the order," she queried. Bhunu also said the standard procedure is that a judge who gives an extempore judgement, then whoever whats to appeal can request a written judgement. Manjengwa said he cannot speak on the standard procedure. "How do we know that this is the judgement of the court a quo when it is a transcript of the court?" Markham made an appeal after his request for the release of the Zec electronic voters' roll was blocked by the High Court. High Court Justice Never Katiyo blocked the release of the electronic voters' roll, citing security reasons. Critics claimed that this reflects lack of democracy in Zimbabwe as the 23 August elections draw closer. Katiyo ruled that the voters' roll is a sensitive document which should not be dished out carelessly. Markham had sued Zec after it refused to give him an electronic copy of the vote register which 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 had 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. In his appeal, Markham wanted the court to declare that Zec is obliged to provide him with the voters' roll in the form requested. He also wanted the court to declare that Zec's refusal or failure to furnish him with a copy of the national voters' roll in electronic form 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. He argued that the refusal by Zec to give him the roll was in contravention of the Electoral Act. Markham said the electoral commission has 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 voters' 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. Supreme Court throws out Markham voters’ roll appeal Harare North MP Allan Markham

Page 20 News NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023 RUVIMBO MUCHENJE POLITICAL uncertainty has gripped the opposition Citizens' Coalition for Change (CCC) as nominated candidates anxiously await to know whether they have sailed through the vetting process and clinched the party ticket as the clock ticks towards nomination court day. Sitting MPs and councillors are yet to be informed whether they passed the vetting and this has heightened a sense of fearful apprehension. In areas like Warren Park in Harare, there are two candidates, the sitting MP Shakespeare Hamauswa versus a seasoned activist, Pride Mkono, who were nominated for the parliamentary seat, but none has been confirmed or rejected, just eight days before the nomination court sits. In Harare East, which was reconfigured by the delimitation exercise, Tendai Biti and Allan Markham have been pitted against each other yet, again, with eight days left to nomination court, neither of them knows their fate. Insiders say there is internal frustration that the party’s candidate-selection process runs the risk of ultimately slowing down the candidates’ campaign momentum ahead of the 23 August general elections. The drawn out waiting period for the confirmation of candidates has fomented friction. A party organiser, Amos Chibaya, was implicated in the candidate-selection chaos which has unfolded in Shurugwi North between Phil Mhindu and Bulle Madzitire. Chibaya and Farai Chinobva, the acting organising director, are accused of working in cahoots to have the nomination process re-done so that their preferred candidate gets a second chance. “Bulle was beaten hands down by the candidate that the people of Shurugwi selected the first time, but because of his proximity to power, Chibaya pushed for a re-run and, again, his candidate was beaten,” said a source. Even after all this effort, Chibaya struck again after the citizens' caucus was completed over the weekend, sending messages that there was a re-run to select a National Assembly candidate for Shurugwi North. The re-run, for the second time around, which had been scheduled for Thursday, failed to take place after resistance from the people of Shurugwi North who said they were now tired of going back and forth on the same issue of selecting their preferred candidate in the party’s nomination process. “We are now being victimised by Zanu PF because of consistently gathering for the same purpose. If they have a candidate of their choice they should just impose him. We will vote for the councillor and President,” said another source. Reports are that, despite such efforts, Chibaya is powerless as the process lies in the hands of the Candidates Independent Selection Committee. Contacted for comment, Chibaya denied the allegations, saying nothing of the sort had happened. “We are not doing elections for candidates anymore. We did nominations long back,” he said. “To say that one wanted to be imposed with the aid of anyone, that is misleading,” he added. Two months after the process kicked off with nominations, party officials are yet to announce the successful candidates — even as the nomination court date fast approaches. Chibaya confirmed that no candidates had been confirmed, yet the opposition party has had two months to attend to the iasue. “We do not have a candidate yet — not only for Shurugwi North — we do not have candidates so far. When I say candidates, I mean confirmed candidates in all the 210 constituencies,” he said. Prospective CCC candidates in nerve-wracking standby Warren Park MP Shakespeare Hamauswa CCC organiser Amos Chibaya

NewsHawks News Page 21 Issue 135, 9 June 2023 BRENNA MATENDERE THE Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum has released a fresh report on political violence that occurred in the first quarter of this year, showing that 77 cases of assault and torture, arbitrary arrests, attacks on freedom of assembly, hate speech and political intolerance were recorded between January and March. The report was released on Thursday and in the executive summary the Forum noted the emergence of problematic developments as citizens prepare for the 23 August polls. “In the period under review, the Forum identifies and details the various forms of organised violence and torture cases. These include cases of assault and torture, arbitrary arrests, attacks on freedom of assembly and association, extrajudicial killings, hate speech and violations against practitioners in the fourth arm of the state (journalists). “It has been asserted that civil and political rights lose their significance if they are not available to all people. The bedrock of democracy is the ability of a citizen to actively demand and enjoy their civil and political rights without fear of victimisation. However, what emerges from the 2023 1st Quarter Political and Human Rights Violations Report is that Zimbabwe is a country that remains embattled with democratic regression that impedes the full enjoyment of fundamental human rights and freedoms by its citizens,” reads part of the report. The report notes that while there were violations against the rights of the opposition Citizens' Coalition for Change officials and supporters, the Zanu PF primary elections resulted in several unreported cases of intra-party violence. “Violent clashes between rival Zanu PF members in Matobo district’s ward 25, Matabeleland South province, forced the party to abandon primary elections in the area. Fear and intimidation characterised the elections in Mashonaland West, while in Sanyati constituency, the two front-runners, Mines deputy minister Polite Kambamura and prominent lawyer, Advocate Thembikosi Magwaliba were both accused of violence and intimidation of each other’s supporters . . .,” the report said. “On 21 March 2023, intra-party-political violence between the two front-runners, Mines deputy minister Polite Kambamura and prominent legal practitioner Advocate Thembinkosi Magwaliba rocked the Sanyati constituency. One of the victims of the primary elections’ violence, Thulani Ndlovu, recounted how he and seven others had been approached and asked to chant pro-Magwaliba slogans. When they refused, the assailants (Melbourne and Courage Hovovo, Esau Kasirisiri and Charles Mhere) began to assault Talent Mhungu (29). “When Thulani Ndlovu and colleagues demanded to know why Talent was being assaulted, the assailants called their fellow colleagues who were attending a rally that was being addressed by Magwaliba at Kasirisiri Primary School to act as reinforcement in assaulting the group of eight who had refused to chant the pro-Magwaliba slogans. In the ensuing melee, Melbourne Hovovo stabbed Trust Mhungu with a knife on the thigh while Esau Kasirisiri stabbed Thulani Ndlovu with a knife on the waist pocket. Trust Mhungu was taken to Sanyati Baptist Hospital for treatment but was however ironically turned into an accused and arrested on public violence charges,” reads the report. The report also captured the brutalisation of CCC senior citizens in Murewa early in the year, the abrupt cancellation of the performance by Wallace Chirumiko, popularly known as “Winky D” by the Zimbabwe Republic Police, politically motivated violence cases such as the attacks on Zimbabwe Electoral Commission officers by a Zanu PF supporter, intra-party violence during Zanu PF primary elections. It also flagged the use of lawfare to clampdown on perceived dissenters, resulting in the arrest of 25 Budiriro residents including legislator Costa Machingangauta for holding a meeting at the MP's house. Senior CCC organiser Amos Chibaya was also arrested. Closure of the civic and democratic space through the Private Voluntary Organisations Amendment Bill, the prolonged pre-trial incarceration of Job Sikhala who was the legal representative of slain CCC activist Moreblessing Ali was highlighted. The report noted the hardships triggered by currency volatility and chronic high inflation, the controversy shrouding the delimitation report, Al Jazeera’s Gold Mafia investigative documentary that exposed alleged illicit financial flows from Zimbabwe, including serious allegations of abuse of diplomatic immunity, illicit gold trading, corruption and money laundering in the mining sector. The Forum recommended that the police abide by the precepts of the constitution, particularly section 219(3) which calls upon the police service to be non-partisan, national in character, patriotic, and professional. “The police must be subordinate to the civilian authority as established by this Constitution by: ensuring that the Zimbabwe Republic Police develops a code of conduct for the police which aligns with the minimum standards of conduct in the Luanda Guidelines. “This should be based on the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation (SARPCCO) Code of Conduct and addresses issues of implementation of the law through a review and revision of current training, and a strengthening of internal disciplinary systems; and creating a professional, impartial, and accountable police force in Zimbabwe by investigating and prosecuting members of the police force for active involvement in perpetrating human rights violations including but not limited to beatings, excessive use of force, torture and abductions and the intimidation of civilians.” The government was also urged to “urgently take steps towards fulfilling its obligations arising out of the constitution to respect, promote and protect fundamental human rights and show this commitment to fulfil these obligations by: ratifying the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT) and its Optional Protocol; ratifying the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance; launching immediate investigations into the allegations of human rights violations being perpetrated by members of the police and to take appropriate action where it is necessary; ensuring the protection and promotion of and respect for fundamental human rights and freedoms in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with particular attention being accorded to the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders (the UDHRD) which accords specific protections to human rights defenders.” In addition, the government was urged to prioritise paying due regard to international best practices of good governance. “The government of Zimbabwe must, in all circumstances abide by the duties and responsibilities of states in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which place obligations on States: To protect, promote and implement all human rights; To adopt such legislative, administrative and other steps as may be necessary to ensure effective implementation of rights and freedoms; To provide an effective remedy for persons who claim to have been victims of a human rights violation, and to conduct prompt and impartial investigations of alleged violations of human rights,” reads part of the report. ‘Authorities must uphold human rights’

Page 22 News NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023 NATHAN GUMA ALPHA Media Holdings (AMH) chairperson Trevor Ncube has admitted that President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s son-in-law Gerald Mlotshwa owns a stake in the company, and has said his involvement in the Presidential Advisory Council (PAC) was national service. This comes amid a cocktail of operational challenges within the company. AMH, one of the biggest media groups in Zimbabwe, publishes the NewsDay, The Standard and the Zimbabwe Independent, as well as operating an online broadcasting platform, Heart & Soul Radio/ TV. Mlotshwa, a prominent corporate and commercial lawyer, now owns 39% of AMH after the New York-based Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF) exited the group as a loan client where it had remained when Ncube was pushed out of South Africa’s leading investigative newspaper, Mail & Guardian, due to a failure of his ambitious digital expansion programme and a concomitant financial disaster. Mlotshwa’s involvement as a shareholder has been viewed as a stumbling block in criticising Mnangagwa or exposing his shortcomings, by AMH, making it hard to break the chains of media capture. Responding to students at a Press Club gathering held at Harare Polytechnic this week, Ncube, a former member of the PAC, said Mlotshwa’s shareholding does not affect the quality of AMH’s output. “He is a shareholder not because of that, but because he is a businessman. He is entitled to being a shareholder. When we were looking for a shareholder, I asked Dumisani Muleya (former Zimbabwe Independent editor) to find shareholders with US$2 million. If they were there, they could come and buy shares because we were under pressure. “There was no one with US$2 million. Gerald was the one with the money to buy the shareholding. It was a business transaction, not because he was a son-in-law. We have a board of directors [with] people like Sternford Moyo. You cannot play around a guy like that. So for me, institutions are very important, but much more important is that we protect the journalists who operate under our banner. “Yes, there is truth to that. It is official. Gerald Mlotshwa is now a shareholder at AMH. I am a shareholder at the AMH and the CEO of AMH, Kenias Mafukidze, is a shareholder as well. “We have always been clear that shareholders should not meddle in the papers. My passion is for professional journalism and to protect journalists from external influence. Advertisers are one of the biggest bullies inasmuch as interference is concerned. “My role as the chairman is to create an environment that would enable our journalists to practice without interference. It is not a secret that Mlotshwa is now a shareholder and that he is sonin-law to President Mnangagwa,” he said. Ncube said: “Another thing is that I have said, we will not allow our papers to be used to promote Nelson Chamisa, or anybody else. We will not allow that to happen. You can support Nelson Chamisa from your home, but when you get to our office, leave your political bias at the gate. “Same as when you are supporting Zanu PF, you have to leave your impartiality at the gate,” he said. Before Ncube quit Mnangagwa's PAC last year in exasperation after jumping onto the 2017 military coup gravy train with intolerant exuberance, he could not criticise Mnangagwa as he was one of the members of his advisory, which has now all but collapsed. Ncube only attacked Mnangagwa and the coup-plotters he initially cheered in March when he made public his resignation during his sour grapes address at the BizNews Conference in the Drakensberg, South Africa, last year. Asked whether he had left PAC after failing to get a licence for his online TV platform Heart & Soul, Ncube said he had joined as a form of national service. “Why did I join the PAC? For me, it was a way of serving my country. I joined the PAC not to support Zanu PF or to support Mnangagwa, but to help him run this country in a better way. When I discovered that he was not the person I thought he was, I walked away. “But there are people who would like to associate my joining of the PAC as if it tarnished our brand. They have no evidence to prove that it actually happened,” he said. Mnangagwa’s son-in-law owns shares in AMH, Trevor Ncube finally admits AMH chairperson Trevor Ncube President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s son-in-law Gerald Mlotshwa

NewsHawks News Page 23 Issue 135, 9 June 2023 NATHAN GUMA PERMANENT secretary in the ministry of Mines and Mining Development, Pfungwa Kunaka, is under fire for allegedly assaulting his mistress and stepdaughter at his government offices, amid allegations he has over the years used his position as a senior official to get away with similar abuses. Information gathered by The NewsHawks shows that Rumbidzai Matinyenya (pictured with injuries) has reported the physical abuse numerous times over the years at Harare Central Police Station before being cajoled to drop charges. She has however refused to drop charges for an attack which occurred at the ministry’s offices in the central business district on 20 February. Kunaka also allegedly attacked his 14-year-old stepdaughter while guards watched. The matter was reported at Harare Central Police Station and a docket was opened under CR 951/02/23 in relation to his mistress while the stepdaughter’s case is under CR950/2/23. Kunaka also allegedly assaulted Matinyenya and her friend at a house in Harare’s Greendale suburb on Christmas Day, resulting in the matter being reported under case number RRB5377773 at Rhodesville Police Station. Another assault case was reported at Harare Central in July last year under number IR071059. Matinyenya confirmed the cases but said she dropped charges on all previous matters except the February attack, where “he also attacked my daughter”. Kunaka did not respond to questions sent a fortnight ago. Messages sent on WhatsApp were blue-ticked to show he had read them. He was also not answering calls. Matinyenya alleged she has been abused by Kunaka since 2015 after she gave birth to his child. The attacks occurred at several places, including at the ministry of Finance offices, where he was employed as a senior official before his promotion to Mines permanent secretary last year. She revealed the two have had a relationship since 2008 when she was only 17. She was married at the time but was cheating with Kunaka, whom she said pampered her with cash and gifts. Kunaka is also married. “I was young, vulnerable and impressionable. I guess I lost my bearing because of the gifts and the promise to marry me. I was pregnant at the time we were dating, but my husband found out about our affair in 2009, when my child was small, resulting in us separating,” she said. “Kunaka then rented a house for me. Things were okay between us until 2015 when I gave birth to his child. He suddenly stopped sending my first child to school and stopped paying rent. My child had to drop from a private school and enroll at a government school as a result. He also started physically abusing me; the first time being in March 2016 when he hit me with a whip in the ministry of Finance offices. “I almost fell through the window on the 6th floor as he was assaulting me,” she said. Matinyenya said she reported the assault at Harare Central Police Station, but withdrew charges after he convinced her to do so. “From that day, I have not known peace,” she said. She said one of the most brutal attacks occurred last Christmas, when she went to his house to ask for money to treat their child, who has a heart ailment. Matinyenya said Kunaka has refused to put his child on medical aid despite her condition. “Our child fell ill. I called him for help because the child was not on medical aid, but he was not answering. I then went to his house. I was answered by his son who was very courteous. He asked me to come inside but I said I just wanted to see Kunaka and asked him to call him for me. While I was parked at the gate, someone drove out and asked why I was blocking the gate, before hurling insults at me,” she said. “There were many people at the house and I saw a group of people advancing towards me, among them his daughter. I tried to reverse the car but his daughter hit me with a bottle after I crashed the car on a pillar. “Kunaka came and took the keys away, and ordered people to beat me. I was accompanied by a friend, and we were both beaten. I was beaten until I soiled myself. They beat me from Bigwig accused of unleashing terror on his mistress, child Ministry of Mines and Mining Development permanent secretary Pfungwa Kunaka

Page 24 News NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023 around 1830hrs to 2000hrs and I passed out. My sick daughter witnessed the attack and was crying throughout while holding onto her fa - ther. When I was released from his home, I met a guy who offered me his shirt. He phoned a taxi which took me to Rhodesville Police Station,” she said. Matinyenya said Kunaka ignored police offi - cers who attended the scene, and was only in - terviewed the following day, when she also “res - cued” her daughter “who was cold and shivering after sleeping on the floor”. She alleged Kunaka was in the habit of brib - ing police officers each time he attacked her, and believe he did so at Rhodesville as well. Matinyenya said the attitude of the police officers changed after they had a long meeting with Kunaka and even took him to court, when the magistrates' court were on a break. “I later withdrew the case after Kunaka pres - sured me to drop charges. He also promised to fix the car I was driving which was extensively damaged during the attack. I took the Mercedes Benz C180 to Zimoco for repairs and gave them his number, but when they called him, he said he did not know me. He failed to honour his promise, so I visited him at his offices on 20 February so that we could solve this matter,” she said. “I went with both my children and we met him in the basement as he was also going out. He was about to go into his car and the small girl in excitement touched his car, a brand new Prado. He was offended and insulted her. I asked him if we could get into his car to talk, but when I held the door he started assaulting me while calling the guards. He was pushing me against the wall while pulling my breasts. “He saw my daughter holding a phone, and turned on her. He chased her and hit her with a broom. He called her a ‘street kid’.” Her daughter took a taxi and reported the as - sault at Harare Central Police Station, but she was told to come with an adult. Matinyenya then reported the assault along - side her daughter. Since the case involved a minor, the Social Welfare Department was also roped in. She said Kunaka has asked her to drop the charges, saying she can never win the case, but she has refused. Matinyenya said the social welfare officer who initially handled the matter has recused himself, but told her to be strong for her daughter. She suspects he was put under pressure, but refused to be compromised. She said a new officer is handling the matter. She was interviewed on 13 March while Kunaka was later called to explain his side of the story. Matinyenya said the matter was yet to be heard in court. Police spokesperson Assistant Commission - er Paul Nyati did not respond to questions al - though he said he would personally look into the matter. The revelations on Kunaka come at a time the Supreme Court has ruled that President Emmerson Mnangagwa should craft a code of conduct for the vice-president, ministers and their deputies. This week, the court heard an appeal by Jus - tice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi against a 2022 High Court ruling giving the minister 45 days to prepare a code of conduct for the vice-presi - dent, ministers and their deputies. This was after a law student at the Zimbabwe Ezekiel Guti University, Nyasha Chiramba, rep - resented by Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum lawyers, had approached the court, seeking to compel the minister and the Attor - ney-General to initiate the drafting of the Bill envisaged under section 106 (3) of the consti - tution. He argued that the vice-presidents, minis - ters and deputy ministers have been involved in serious cases of misconduct, including sexual harassment and abuse of state resources, to no avail. For instance, former vice-president Kem - bo Mohadi was forced to resign after being im - plicated in a sexual abuse scandal which went viral on social media. Ziyambi and the AG argued that it was the responsibility of the President and cabinet to craft the code, a position upheld by the Supreme Court bench comprising Deputy Chief Justice Elizabeth Gwaunza with Justices of Appeal Nicholas Mathonsi and Samuel Kudya, which the Supreme Court has ruled in favour of.

NewsHawks News Page 25 Issue 135, 9 June 2023 NATHAN GUMA HWANGE residents are continuing to reject ruinous mining activity, with women from Raylton suburb staging a demonstration over heavy dust pollution by mining companies whose heavy vehicles pass through residential areas, raising dust, which locals fear could lead to a health disaster. The women accused coking coal companies of violating section 73 of the constitution by causing air pollution in Raylton suburb. Section 73 of the constitution of Zimbabwe says every person has the right to an environment that is not harmful to their health or well-being and prevent pollution and ecological degradation. Some of the companies have been using a narrow dirt road that enters through the residential area, despite there being a road that is specially designated for trucks. Similar incidents have been reported in various mining areas. As previously reported by The NewsHawks last year, six women were arrested in Raylton low-density suburb in Hwange for demanding environmental justice against air pollution caused by the trucks, after they had blocked Zimbabwe Zhongxin Coking Company trucks which have been ferrying coal from Zhong Jian Colliery using a narrow dirt road that passes through the residential area. This is despite the availability of a specially designated road for trucks. Last week, the women in collaboration with the Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG), marched in Hwange’s Dinde area, seeking a solution to the crisis which is affecting the residents. According to a report by CNRG, this has been weighing on the women, whose workload at has been doubled by the pollution, while posing health risks. Revelations have also shown that while some mining companies have medical aid schemes, they have been only taking care of their employees, leaving out their families who have been exposed to nearly the same health risks as the mine workers through the dust pollution. “Women bear the brunt of mining costs, but they are far from enjoying the benefits. Dust pollution, among other vices, is a serious problem in Hwange. Women lose a lot of productive time trying to counter the problems caused by dust pollution. “Some women said at times they wash the same clothes three times a day due to coal dust from shunting trucks. Fruit trees and vegetable gardens — both very dear to women — have also been severely affected. “There have been efforts to engage duty bearers to deal with the issues, with no success. As such, CNRG in collaboration with women in Hwange organised this march against dust pollution as a way to raise awareness of the issue and to put pressure on the government and industry to take action to address the problem,” read a report by CNRG. Conflict has been escalating between residents and companies operating in the coal-mining value chain. For instance, villagers in Dinde area of Hwange district have also been resisting a coal-mining project spearheaded by Chinese-run Beifa Investments, which is projected to displace an estimated 600 families, while damaging the environment. A total of 206 million tonnes of coal were discovered during exploration in the area. The mine will have a lifespan of 14 years. Community members who recently met with Beifa Investments. The Environmental Management Agency (Ema) said the project would further damage the environment. “The coal mine will create health problems for us because it will damage our lands, displace us, and pollute our water bodies which we depend on for domestic use. Moreover, coal will lead to an increase in emissions that contribute to global climate change,” the villagers said. Women protest Hwange pollution

Page 26 News NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023 BUSANI BAFANA EMILY Chakanyuka has been growing mangoes for more than 30 years. She has sold fresh mangoes to earn enough money to look after her family, but all that changed 20 years ago after an invasive and destructive citrus bug found her mangoes irresistible. Says Chakanyuka: “In the 1980s we used to wholesale fresh mangoes to middlemen, the fruit was good and the money too, but later after 2000 the insect came and we saw our mangoes rotting. We were throwing them away,” explains Chakanyuka (58) from Ward 2 in Murewa district, 100 kilometres northeast of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. “We were even scared to eat mangoes.” The cause of Chakanyuka’s mango loss is the oriental fruit fly, known scientifically as Bactrocera dorsalis. It is an invasive fly originating from Asia which has found its way to Africa, thanks to rising temperatures creating ideal conditions for it to thrive. The oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel), is a very destructive pest of fruit in areas where it occurs. It is native to large parts of tropical Asia, but has become established over much of sub-Saharan Africa, and is often intercepted in the United States, sometimes triggering eradication programmes. The oriental fruit fly is totally different from the mango fly (cordylobia anthropophaga), which is a species of blow fly that is native to certain parts of Africa. The larvae of mango flies are parasitic, meaning they get under the skin of mammals, including humans, and live there until they are ready to hatch into maggots. This parasitic infestation in a person is called cutaneous myiasis. The fruit fly which invades and devastates mangoes has brought misery to other mango growers like Chakanyuka who for a long time never paid attention to why their fruits were just rotting. It took time for them to figure out the problem, while they ran loses and sustained viability problems in their citrus-growing businesses. And the farmers' worries have not been without justification; the fruit fly, unless controlled, can result in 100% fruit losses where it attacks. Its infestations have dwindled mango harvests and the income of smallholders across southern Africa. Bearing fruit Chakanyuka is one of 1 200 smallholder farmers in the mango-growing belt of Mutoko who were introduced to Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices four years ago. IPM involves the use of various pest management practices which are friendly to humans, animals and the environment. The International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), based in Nairobi, Kenya, together with various donor agencies and partners, developed an IPM package to manage the invasive fruit fly, which has been promoted under the Alien Invasive Fruit Fly project, a multi-stakeholder initiative under The Cultivate Africa’s Future Fund (CultiAF) by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). ICIPE, working with national and international partners, developed bio-based holistic solutions to address the fly problem in East and southern Africa. Farmers have been introduced to the male-annihilation technique, which involves mass trapping the male fruit flies using attractants such as Methyl eugenol, Curelure and Trimedlure, combined with insecticide. The tool reduces male populations and therefore significantly reduces mating among the flies. In addition, other solutions have included farmers using “bait stations” — small plastic containers that hold food bait for fruit flies. Inside the bait is an insecticide that kills the flies. The stations can be hung on mango trees or placed around the orchard. Alternatively, the bait can be mixed with toxicant and sprayed on tree trunks away from the fruits to avoid any residues on the fruits. Another integrated pest management technology that has helped farmers fight the fruit flies is a tent-like structure called an augmentorium, which is fashioned out of plastic or netting and used by farmers to store fallen, infested fruits. The augmentorium traps fruit flies because they are too large to pass through the netting holes, but it allows parasitoids (small insects and natural enemies of the fruit fly) to escape. The parasitoids lay their eggs on the eggs or maggots of fruit flies and, as the eggs mature and emerge as adult insects, the process kills the fruit flies. Biocontrol of pests works, scientists say. It is a shift from randomly spraying large quantities of toxic chemicals by farmers which has proved less effective as the fly proliferated. Worse, the use of insecticides is a risk to human health and for fruit quality. As a result, residual levels of chemicals on fruit have become an issue for fruit importers like the European Union, which has tightened phytosanitary regulations for all mango exporters. Chakanyuka says after joining the project, she earned US$80 during the second year of production from selling fresh quality mangoes. In 2022, she realised US$150 from selling a 20-litre bucket of dried mangoes. Before she started implementing IPM, she used to get under US$60 for a 20-litre bucket of fresh mangoes. Another farmer, Chinkata Goodson, at the bait station in Likuni, Malawi, says planters have suffered losses of rotting mangoes for a long time without knowing the cause. “I had been losing almost 50% of my mango harvest because looking at the way the fruits were bearing and what was on the market was really quite hectic,” says Goodson. Donica Mugala, a lead mango farmer, in Chilanga district in northern Zambia, says farmers had resorted to spraying any chemical in a bid to save their mango crop from the destructive fly which they had no previous knowledge of. “When farmers have no knowledge about how to deal with pests they resort to any means, and they fall prey to wrong chemicals as they want their fruits to be healthy. We used to buy anything we could get until we started using the IPM traps, which has really helped us,” Mugala said. Agricultural entomologist and biocontrol expert Dr Samira Mohamed notes that the project is driven by the demand for solutions from mango growers hit by the fruit fly infestation. An entomologist is a person who studies insects. Entomology is a branch of zoology. “If they [farmers] spray the produce, it is rejected because it exceeds the maximum residue level of the export market, and if they do not spray, the mango is destroyed through the infestation of fruit flies,” she says. Shepard Ndlela, an entomologist with ICIPE and project manager of the Invasive Fruit Fly project, says they sought to increase productivity of fruit growers while reducing post-harvest losses by linking agriculture, nutrition and human Citrus farmers fend off bug to enjoy fruits of their labour Mango grower Emily Chakanyuka. —Pictures: KB Mpofu Mango farmer Pelegrinah Musingwini

NewsHawks News Page 27 Issue 135, 9 June 2023 health. Ndlela said the introduction of several technologies such as the parasitoids, pheromones, protein baits, augumentorium and biopesticides have helped farmers in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe to fight the invasive fruit fly. “When we bring science to the farmers, there is need to ensure adoption of the technologies and it is important that we involve the farmers in implementing the solutions that we have introduced and this project has successfully demonstrated that,” Ndlela says. In Zimbabwe, approximately half of the 400 000 metric tonnes of mangoes produced annually are lost as a result of the destructive fruit fly. Regionally, the accumulated losses caused by the fruit fly are estimated at more than US$2 million annually, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), which has categorised the oriental fruit fly as one of top four most destructive agriculture bugs worldwide. Zimbabwe’s deputy minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement Vangelis Haritatos says the government is working to protect farmers from the destructive fruit fly in line with Zimbabwe’s Horticulture Recovery Plan. “We are worried about the post-harvest losses in horticulture . . . the farmer bears all the liabilities, the risks and then at the end this pest comes in and takes away all the profits,” Haritatos says, underscoring that the government would support recommendations on boosting farmer productivity in fruit growing. A win for women The Fruit Fly project has also empowered women who constitute a larger proportion of actors along the mango value chain in southern Africa. The project, funded by the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, has trained 1 1684 farmers in southern Africa on IPM techniques, more than half of whom are women. Christina Buchan, Canada’s ambassador to Zimbabwe, says IDRC has a priority on gender and believes that empowering women and girls is the most effective way to reduce poverty. Noting that mangoes are important for livelihoods, especially of women and the youth, Buchan says the devastating effects of the fruit fly have forced many mango growers to contemplate moving away from the citrus venture. “This project demonstrates that there are sustainable solutions that are effective, ecologically friendly and scalable,” she says. In Zimbabwe, the project found that knowledge about fruit flies and IPM has increased equally among women and men, but the practices are more often used by women. A direct impact of the project has been that women are also now coming together to form group saving accounts, enabling them to raise their own money — separate from their husbands’ income. “In the past, most women were housewives and were expected to wait for the husbands to look after the family, but now women have become the breadwinners,” says Menale Kassie, in a presentation on the project. Mango value-addition Pelegrinah Musingwini, a mango farmer from Mhondiwa village in Murewa, extols the fruit fly project for boosting her mango production and income. Musingwini (47) is one of the early adopters of the IPM techniques and has become a lead farmer in her village — using the traps and baits to enhance her mango harvest. “When this project started, I benefitted from the knowledge I received and realised mangoes can be sold dried through value addition,” says Musingwini, a mother of 10 children, saying in the 2022/2023 farming season she earned US$200 from dried mangoes. Musingwini also credits the project for enabling her to form money-saving clubs with other women in the community from the proceeds of mango sales. She has since bought two fourplate gas stoves with which she bakes cakes and muffins for sale. Principal research officer in plant quarantine services under the ministry of Agriculture Louisa Makombe says the project has left a huge footprint in the three districts that served as project sites where the use of IPM strategies have helped reduce the fruit fly problem in mango production. “However, the IPM strategies had overflowing impact in that they also improved quality of other fruits and fruiting vegetables that are hosts to fruit flies were protected from fruit flies through the same initiatives,” says Makombe. “The project targeted to improve the quality of fresh mangoes, but however the excess fruit realised made farmers harness on value addition by solar drying mangoes for consumption off-season and also potentially for export.” Entrepreneur and farmer Kuziva Chatukuta of Chatukuta Dried Foods in Murewa says there is unmet total demand for dried mango of over 350 tonnes in Zimbabwe and southern Africa region. Chatukuta has been part of the project, helping train farmers in value addition and this has also benefitted him in expanding his business of drying mangoes as well as manufacturing solar driers. “Our market in the past was the local Zimbabwean market, now we are into the Southern Africa Development region and in future we are targeting the USA, Europe, and UAE markets with our dried fruits and vegetables,” Chatukuta says, noting that his company has been training farmers on mango drying and buys the dried mango from them. Fresh mangoes at roadside market in Murehwa Agricultural entomologist and biocontrol expert Dr Samira Mohamed

Page 28 News NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023 PEOPLE are living longer than at any other time in history. In 1950, the global average life expectancy was approximately 48 years; by 2019, that number had risen to 73 years. Individuals from around the world are living on average two to three decades longer than past generations. While this longer lifespan is an incredible achievement in terms of advances in healthcare, it also poses new challenges and considerations for individuals, primarily how to finance these extra decades of life. The World Economic Forum and Mercer have been working together to help uncover innovative solutions that address some of the biggest questions on the future of retirement and pensions in a rapidly ageing world. Through a series of global workshops, virtual seminars and working group meetings, a consensus was reached on what is needed to ensure individuals enjoy longer lives – and surprisingly, it is not all about finances. It has become clear that to help people plan a long, healthy, resilient and sustainable life, a holistic approach is required, one that emphasises more than just financial resilience, but also prioritises health, human connections, purpose and quality of life. Longevity literacy empowers individuals to live a healthy and sustainable life with dignity and purpose, while building resilience to address the challenges of an evolving world. Individuals need to focus on three core principles: quality of life, purpose and financial resilience. This report introduces the concept of longevity literacy, which empowers individuals to live a healthy and sustainable life with dignity and purpose, while building resilience to address the challenges of an evolving world. As individuals consider what is needed to be successful in a potentially 100-year life, they need to focus on three core principles: quality of life, purpose and financial resilience. To better understand how individuals view longer lives, the report also includes the results of a Pulse Poll asking respondents their views on longevity, including questions related to ageing, retirement planning, lifelong learning and caregiving. The responses are fascinating and offer new insights into how individuals view a longer life. Finally, the report concludes with a set of concrete actions that every stakeholder — individuals, business and government — can use to address the three core principles of longevity literacy. Ageing populations, and the social and economic transformations they bring, will affect every nation around the world. Countries not currently experiencing significant ageing will inevitably face this challenge over time. However, this does not have to be a surprise or a challenge to be surmounted. In fact, if all stakeholders, including business, government and individuals, take proactive measures to evolve and adapt to ageing populations, this can be a chance to innovate how people live, work, study, save and retire in the years to come. People will always try to predict the unpredictable. There are countless global issues with no clear answers: where will the next geopolitical crisis arise, what impact will climate change have on communities, and what lies ahead for the global economy? However, there is one global issue with widespread economic and social consequences that we do know about and that we can act on now: changing global demographics as people live longer in nearly every country around the world. While life expectancy increased from an average of 48 to 73 years between 1950 and 2019, the United Nations projects further increases, estimating that global average life expectancy will reach around 81 years by 2100. These higher numbers are already evident in countries such as Japan, where over 28% of the population is aged 65 or older, and in European countries including Italy, Germany and Greece where 23% of the population is over 65. As people are living longer lives, business, government and individuals need to reimagine how they view ageing and retirement and explore new approaches to address this emerging demographic transformation. Failing to adopt a multistakeholder approach towards longevity will inevitably result in a significant portion of people retiring into poverty. This report focuses on several key issues: explaining the concept of longevity literacy as an essential element of a resilient and sustainable long life; providing new insights into how individuals perceive ageing and retirement; and offering solutions for each stakeholder to address the critical elements of longevity literacy – quality of life, purpose and financial resilience. The audience for this report is diverse and wide-ranging. It is designed to reach individuals from any background from any part of the world, to help them start rethinking how they will design their longer life and, more importantly, how they will finance it. The report is aimed at all generations, not just those nearing retirement age or considering retirement in the next few years. It is relevant for recent graduates in their twenties, professionals in their thirties and forties advancing in their careers, and individuals in their fifties and sixties, who may be approaching retirement with apprehension. Moreover, this report provides a roadmap of the key factors everyone should consider as the world enters a new demographic era in which the three-stage life of school, work and retirement is giving way to a multistage life that includes a variety of different paths, including lifelong learning, career breaks and new occupations in later life. Changes to the global population are coming. These will require new innovations and solutions to help address how people can stay financially resilient during a retirement that might be 20 years longer than it was for their grandparents. This demographic transformation will offer individuals a chance to implement new approaches to longer lives and reassess how people studied, lived, worked, saved and retired in the past century. The results of the pulse poll are subject to limitations, as the respondents’ profiles were homogeneous and predominantly included those who had undertaken higher education, were in more senior positions, were likely to be in employment at major global organisations and with a high level of individual agency and financial literacy. With approximately 400 responses, the sample size offers 90% confidence that it is representative of the personal and financial challenges of millions of educated professionals likely to be employed in global organisations, with a 5% margin of error. However, when examining certain demographic subgroups, the sample sizes become too small to be considered statistically representative. Consequently, this report provides the sample size for results discussed so that the reader can discern whether to use and rely on the statistic presented. These limitations introduce sampling error bias into the results, especially if applied to the general global population. Despite these limitations, the findings can help start a conversation about the challenges faced and can contribute to the development of solutions for the population this group of respondents represents. — WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM Living longer, better: Understanding longevity, life expectancy, retirement

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Page 30 ON June 5, 2022, British journalist Dom Phillips and his Brazilian guide Bruno Pereira disappeared in Brazil’s Javari Valley, in the Amazon. Reporters investigated the illegal fishing gangs thought to be behind their deaths. Perched on a pile of wooden planks on the banks of the Itaquai River in the Amazon’s Javari Valley, Dom Phillips sits listening attentively. Next to him, an illegal fisherman from the area talks with animation, gesturing to something outside the frame of the picture. The photograph is one of the last ever taken of Phillips, an environmental journalist who was in the valley researching a book about how to save the Amazon rainforest. Two days after it was taken, he and Bruno Pereira, an expert on Brazil’s indigenous peoples, were gunned down while out on the river. Five men have reportedly been charged over the murders in two separate cases. According to the indictments, they allegedly belonged to the same illegal fishing gang as the man pictured with Phillips, who goes by “Caboclo.” (Reporters couldn’t reach him for comment.) The picture, taken from one of Pereira’s phones, was almost buried in the heart of Brazil’s Amazon forever. His colleagues from a patrol within the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley (Univaja) found the phone four months after his death when they were scouring the area for clues with a metal detector. The device, which was buried under a pile of mud and sticks, was so badly damaged it took months to extract the data. “The phone spent months in the water before the river levels went down,” said Sônia Bridi, a journalist who was there at the time making a documentary about the killings for Brazilian streaming platform Globoplay. The phone was turned over to police, who used pictures and metadata extracted from the handset to reconstruct the last moments of Phillips and Pereira’s lives. The photographs were also entrusted to the “Bruno and Dom Project,” a collaborative investigation led by French nonprofit Forbidden Stories. More than 50 reporters have continued Pereira and Phillips’ investigations into the destruction of the Amazon, from land grabbing, and ranching’s ties to deforestation, to illegal mining and illegal fishing. Last year police arrested three fishermen who are accused of killing the two men, though their trial is yet to begin. Their lawyer denied they had committed murder, saying Pereira had opened fire first. Over the weekend, reports emerged that two other men had been charged in the second case, including the alleged mastermind of the killings, Ruben Dario da Silva Villar. Also known as “Colômbia,” he is accused of being the leader of the illegal fishing gang that killed Phillips and Pereira. His lawyer did not reply to requests for comment. Alessandra Sampaio, Phillips' widow, said holding the killers to account would send a powerful message that the organized crime groups destroying the Amazon can’t operate with impunity. “I want justice, but not for myself: for the protection of the Javari Valley and the Amazon,” she said. A Deadly Encounter It was in the Javari Valley — a region as big as Austria on Brazil’s western border that is home to the greatest concentration of indigenous people in the country — that Phillips and Pereira first met in 2018. Pereira worked for the government to coordinate relations with isolated Amazon tribes, including those who only recently came into contact with the outside world, and he knew the area intimately. The two men stayed in touch after the trip, and Pereira agreed to guide Phillips when he returned to the Javari Valley last year. The two men had been traveling for several days when they set out in a patrol boat with Pereira’s Univaja colleagues early on June 4, 2022. According to the indictment against three of their alleged killers, the boat was making its way down the Itaquai River when they encountered illegal fisherman Amarildo Costa de Oliveira, also known as “Pelado.” Univaja had previously sent two letters of complaint to authorities about Pelado, describing him as a senior figure in a group of fishermen who invaded indigenous territory at night and linking him to multiple gun attacks. Pelado was never charged, however, and it is not clear if he was investigated. “Pelado wanted to be the boss, he wanted to rule over that area,” his uncle, Raimundo Bento da Costa, told the Guardian. Pelado had threatened Pereira and his colleagues when they had found him fishing in protected waters before, according to the indictment. As the Univaja patrol team tried to approach Pelado and two men he was with on that day, they responded by raising their guns in warning. That encounter did not turn violent. But when Pelado noticed Pereira and Phillips taking pictures of his boat the following morning, prosecutors say it was the last straw. According to the indictment, Pelado allegedly called up another fisherman named Jefferson da Silva Lima International InvestigativeStories Last investigation of the journalist who wanted to save the Amazon Dom Phillips photographed by Bruno Pereira, two days before their murder, as he speaks with “Caboco,” an illegal fisherman from the Javari Valley in the Amazon. (Photo: TV Globo/Globoplay) International Investigative Stories NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023

International Investigative Stories News Page 31 and set out in pursuit of Phillips and Pereira. The fishermen soon caught up to the pair and opened fire, killing them both, the indictment said. Pelado and Lima then allegedly threw Phillips and Pereira’s bodies in the water, before returning later to burn and dismember them. Another local fisherman, Oseney da Costa de Oliveira, has also been charged with helping them. Eliesio Marubo, a lawyer for Univaja, said Pereira was killed because he wouldn’t look the other way when it came to protecting the rainforest. “Bruno was seen as an obstacle to the traffickers and his environmental protections as a barrier,” he said. All three of the fishermen are in custody awaiting trial for the murders. Two of them, Pelado and Lima, had reportedly confessed to the killings and led investigators to Phillips’ and Pereira’s remains. But their lawyers told reporters the confessions were obtained “under torture,” and they have since recanted. One of the lawyers, Goreth Campos Rubim, denied the police’s version of events, telling reporters it was Pereira who had opened fire and Pelado had shot back in self-defense. Pelado has said the same during court hearings. Over the weekend, Colômbia was reportedly charged with ordering the murders of Phillips and Pereira and the concealment of their bodies. One of his alleged henchmen was also charged with assisting him, according to media reports. Colômbia has denied all involvement in the killing in comments to the media. His lawyer declined to comment for this story. In evidence submitted after the original indictment, the prosecutor argued Colômbia was the leader of the organized crime group to which Pelado belonged. Citing witness testimony, the prosecutor said Colômbia financed much of the illegal fishing in the area, including providing the boats allegedly used in the murders of Pereira and Phillips. The former superintendent of the Amazonas police said there were “strong indications” that Colômbia had planned the killings. In a report from March 2022, three months before Phillips and Pereira were killed, Univaja described Colômbia as the biggest buyer of fish in the area and the “sponsor of the invasions into indigenous territory.” A Hotbed of Fishing Disputes The Javari Valley has become increasingly dangerous in recent years as territorial disputes between indigenous communities and fishermen have grown more severe. Raimundo Pinheiro, a 51-year-old fisherman from Atalaia do Norte, has spent his whole life fishing the rivers of western Brazil. He remembers a time when the local fishermen worked in harmony with indigenous communities. That changed after 2001, when the indigenous territories were demarcated and fishermen were confined to only a small zone. Today Pinheiro said he can barely catch enough to pay for equipment, gas, and the other costs for each trip. “The situation is growing more and more difficult. The [authorized] fishing zone is already small, and they want to shrink it more,” he said. “How are we going to live?” In the year through November 2019, an unprecedented eight gun attacks were recorded at the checkpoint to enter indigenous land. The National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples, a government agency known as Funai, said illegal hunters and fishermen carried out the attacks. Fishing is forbidden in the valley because it is indigenous land, which is protected under Brazil’s constitution. Some species found in the area such as pirarucu — the largest fish in South America, which can reach 200 kilograms and three meters in length — are also protected by federal law. “The ‘demarcated’ land belongs exclusively to the indigenous people. If you remove a stone in this area, you are committing a constitutional crime,” Pereira’s former colleague, Armando Soares, told Forbidden Stories. But overexploitation in the areas where fishing is allowed means yields have dropped dramatically. Some now cross the porous zone where Brazil, Colombia, and Peru meet to find fish or sell their catch: fresh pirarucu from Brazil are sold in Colombia, while salted ones tend to go to Peru. Juan, a fisherman from the Peruvian side of the Javari River who said he sometimes spends as much as 15 days at a time illegally fishing Brazil's waters. “If I had a legal option, I would take it,” he said. “But I did not go to school. I’ve worked since I was a kid. I have three children.” Brazil’s environmental investigation agency, IBAMA, told reporters it carried out 101 seizures of pirarucu between August 2003 and last September, around 80 percent in the state of Amazonas. Separately, the state’s military police said they seized almost 114 tons of pirarucu between 2019 and September 2022. Experts say much of the illegal fishing industry in the Javari Valley is now run by organized crime gangs. A commission from Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies, tasked with investigating Phillips and Pereira’s murders, said these groups use fishing as a cover for other crimes. “There is no doubt that the murders of Bruno and Dom are part of a much larger criminal context. There are clearly groups that not only finance illegal fishing but also use it to launder money and traffic drugs,” the commission wrote in a November 2022 report. Alexandre Saraiva, a former senior police chief in the Amazon, said investigators would often find cocaine hidden in cargoes of illegally caught fish. "Criminal organizations have no prejudice when it comes to making money,” he told OCCRP. — Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023 The surveillance team of the Univaja searching for evidence after the murders. (Photo: TV Globo/Globoplay) Dom Phillips' press card, found by the Univaja surveillance team nearly four months after his death. (Photo: TV Globo/Globoplay) An aerial view of the Javari Valley in the upper Amazon basin in Brazil. (Photo: TV Globo/Globoplay)

Page 32 THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has conferred liquid asset status on the Zimbabwe Mercantile Exchange (ZMX) warehouse receipts, a move that will lift smallholder farmers and improve their access to finance. Smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe face many challenges that include but are not limited to: volatility in input and output prices, natural disasters, power shortages, and natural resource depletion.  Additionally, the farmers' limited access to finance is a major barrier as most formal credit is skewed towards large landowners. The requirement of collateral as an explicit guarantee against risk, and easier access to informal credit forces smallholder farmers to turn to middlemen for financing.  As a result, they face difficulties in accessing loans from financial institutions on these grounds. While microfinance institutions do offer collateral-free lending, many consider the agricultural sector to be too risky to lend to. For example, latest reports on financial inclusion show that less than 5% of the amount borrowed by poor rural households was obtained from formal lenders, including banks and microfinance institutions. This is because it is difficult to enforce repayment, there is lack of crop insurance and it is an undocumented sector. There is also a lack of legal recourse in executing default cases, in addition to the high incidence and impact of natural disasters. The smallholder farmers, traditionally disinclined to formal dealings, are unable to provide collateral and do not have a credit history based on which commercial banks or microfinance institutions can make a decision regarding lending. Additionally, there is presently no adequate risk mitigation strategy for a commercial bank or microfinance in the event of a price drop in the market. Unable to meet the stringent requirements of financial institutions, smallholder farmers often resort to borrowing from middlemen, to meet the cost of cultivation or to cover household consumption requirements in the interim between cultivation and sale. Dependency on these middlemen for inputs  or cash is historically deep-rooted and perpetuates the severely entrenched poverty of smallholder farmers, through highly imbalanced cost-sharing and repayment arrangements.   The middleman plays the role of financier, transporter, warehouse operator, aggregator, and trader, simultaneously.   Smallholder farmers’ dependency on midllemen reduces their ability to trade in the   market and limits profit margins. This system of dependencies has locked smallholder farmers into the cycle of subsistence farming, aggravated their fragility and compounded their vulnerability to climatic and market risks. As such, intervention by ZMX and the liquidity asset status of warehouse receipts will unlock Warehouse Receipt Financing (WRF). WRF is essentially financing for the after-production and post-harvest phases of farming. Within the operating cycle of the farmer, it finances the inventory holding period, but has no impact on the yield and farming practices. However, it provides the producer with financing against the harvest to meet the input financing needs for the next crop and other expenses till the time the farmer can get an attractive price for the crop. Warehousing is viable for non-perishable major crops, such as wheat, soyabean, cotton and maize. These crops can be held for longer periods of time and can sustain their quality, given that storage facilities are properly designed with moisture and t e m p e r a t u re controls for each crop. Basic warehousing, collateral management, and stock monitoring services are widely available worldwide, and supported by legal frameworks, in Australia, India, Europe, and North America, although warehousing practices can vary. Transferable warehouse receipts are commonly used as delivery instruments on commodity exchanges, such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the London International Financial Futures Exchange. Some countries have made much greater use than others of transferable warehouse receipts in support of agricultural trade and trade financing, notably the United States and South Africa. WRF will indeed be a game changer in Zimbabwe and indeed it is a great initiative from the ZMX.  However, there is need for greater appreciation by farmers on how WRF operates. ZMX and the regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe, should issue and clearly communicate operating guidelines. Lack of infrastructure, lack of awareness among farmers, augmented role of middlemen, and an overall reluctance of the private sector to invest in agriculture-related activities are the major barriers that should be overcome for the success of WRF. Due to low yield and unavailability of warehousing infrastructure in Zimbabwe, smallholder farmers tend to sell their crops immediately after cultivation. Reasons for low yields are a lack of trainings and financial ability to adopt technology-based solutions, scarcity of water, low levels of technical knowledge and poor infrastructure. However, these should not impede the success of WRF, but stated below are the key factors that will drive the success of WRF and improve operations of smallholder famers. There is urgent need for an institutional framework as incomplete legislation, an uncertain regulatory environment and quality standards majorly impede investment in WRF. Furthermore, there is something of a lack of Collateral Management Companies. There are no specialised collateral management companies currently operating in Zimbabwe. Investment in warehouse infrastructure has been low over the years, with major warehouses operated by private players. These warehouses may prove costly to farmers for storage.   The government has to also strengthen the regulatory framework for financial service providers for the success of WRF. There should be: ·  Regulations for supervision of warehouses, cold storage and silos; · Regulations for accepting of warehouse receipts by banks and financial institutions; ·  Collateral accreditation of warehouses with collateral management companies; · Development of centralised database of borrowers/farmers; ·  Inventory monitoring and management; and · Development of a secondary market for trading of warehouse receipts by the Zimbabwe Mercantile Exchange Zimbabwe is primarily an agriculture-based economy and the success of the ZMX led WRF is a game changer. *About the writer: Kaduwo is a researcher and economist. Contact: kaduwot@ gmail.com, WhatsApp +263773376128 New Perspectives ZMX to rescue smallholder farmers Econometrics HawksView Tinashe Kaduwo Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023

Page 33 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] SUB EDITORS: Mollen Chamisa, Gumisai Nyoni Business Development Officer: Nyasha Kahondo Cell: +263 71 937 1739 [email protected] Subscriptions & Distribution: +263 71 937 1739 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 Editorial & Opinion Zim faces new hyperinflation Dumisani Muleya Hawk Eye NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023 PHEW, what a week! Events on the economic front are moving at a frenetic pace, although a visitor from planet Mars would be forgiven for thinking that we are still a good three years away from the general election. In previous polls, the streets would have been awash with campaign posters and party regalia at this stage of the political game. Two months before the 23 August election, there is really no indication that a big contest is around the corner. It appears the various political contestants are banking on a dramatic sprint to the finish line — rather than a hard-slog marathon. Do not let the placid waters fool you; storm clouds are gathering on the horizon and a raging tempest is brewing. Currency volatility and inflation have decimated the Zimbabwe dollar. Prices have gone haywire, leaving consumers at the mercy of a cost-of-living crisis that has evoked memories of the disastrous hyperinflation of 2008. There is one question on everyone’s lips: Are Zimbabweans sleepwalking into yet another disputed election? The opposition — as has become custom on the eve of polls — is now loudly demanding electoral reforms. What reforms can we realistically envisage at the 11th hour and long after the proclamation of the election date? Opposition leaders have a whole raft of demands these days: an electronic voters’ roll; an auditable vote register; the real-time transmission of presidential election results; and the introduction of the diaspora vote. The glib expectation that such far-reaching changes to the electoral process can be made on the eve of an election defies logic. Some of these demands should have been tabled a four or five years ago. But make no mistake, this does not in any way absolve the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) and the ruling Zanu PF. As exclusively reported by The NewsHawks last week, a shadowy outfit linked to state intelligence, Forever Associates Zimbabwe (Faz), has deployed officers at virtually every polling station. These spooky characters are coercing voters into revealing their home addresses, identification particulars and phone numbers. Such scandalous tactics are clearly illegal and amount to blatant intimidation in a country in which the "margin of terror" has kept Zanu PF in power. The jury is still out on whether Zec — whose image has long been tainted by accusations of bias and political capture — will take decisive action to rein in Faz, without fear or favour and in the national interest. We advise you not to hold your breath. Estsblished in terms of section 238 of Zimbabwe’s constitution, Zec is supposed to be an independent chapter 12 institution. When you consider the countless irregularities arising from the voters' roll, the only logical conclusion you arrive at is that Zec has already failed the credibility test — and dismally so. In electoral politics, a voters' roll is really the election. When an election management body not only refuses to avail the electronic vote register but also shows no willingness to comprehensively address the shortcomings to the satisfaction of all stakeholders, such an institution cannot be trusted. Zec has displayed serious weaknesses in addressing fundamental structural deficiencies in the running of elections. A few fays ago, we witnessed the police's brutal response to harmless attempts by the opposition Citizens' Coalition for Change to formally present grievances to the Zec office in Harare. Truncheon-wielding cops descended on the peaceful petitioners. Zec has perennially failed to discharge its constitutional and statutory functions. It has never taken action against Zanu PF for abusing state resources in its campaigns. It has never disqualified a ruling party candidate for political violence — despite the glut of evidence. It must never be forgotten that, without a clean and credible election, Zimbabwe will degenerate to a fully fledged failed state. Without a clean poll, Zim doomed

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 BERNARD MPOFU THE ministry of Mines has been forced to go back to the drawing board and revise proposed changes to the country’s mining law after Parliament flagged some legal provisions as unconstitutional. Zimbabwe is losing millions of dollars in illicit financial flows and smuggling of minerals and experts blame the country’s weak legislation and porous borders for the haemorrhage. Zimbabwe has for nearly a decade been facing hurdles in the drafting of the Mines Bill, raising concerns over the political will to overhaul the sector’s operating environment. Last month, the Parliamentary Legal Committee (PLC) issued an adverse report on the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill, saying the proposed changes to the law are ultra vires the constitution and bestow carte blanche powers on the line minister. Chief accountant in the Mines ministry Deuteronomy Muchineripi told delegates attending a conference on illicit financial flows organised by the Media Institute of Southern Africa that an ongoing audit on the compliance of mining firms with the country’s laws and the new Bill are expected to promote transparency and accountability of the capital-intensive sector. “It is true that the Bill received an adverse report from the Parliamentary Legal Committee. As the ministry, we are now working on those issues which were raised by the committee,” Muchineripi said. Pursuant to its constitutional mandate of providing oversight on the executive arm of government, the PLC met between March and 3 May this year to consider the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill, a piece of legislation which sought to overhaul the country’s mining environment. The committee also engaged the minister responsible for the Bill through a letter raising the constitutional violations as observed by the panel. After deliberations, the committee unanimously resolved that an adverse report be issued in respect of the Bill. The committee also questioned clause 6 (4) (a) (ii) which provides that any person who wishes to mine a strategic mineral shall satisfy the minister that he or she has the capacity to invest a sum equivalent to or at least US$100 million. “The clause gives the minister the discretion to prescribe lesser or greater sums generally or in relation to a specific declaration of a strategic mineral,” the adverse report reads. “The benchmark of the one hundred million dollars is on the high side and appears to be a thumb suck figure such that the majority of ordinary citizens will be unable to mine strategic minerals. This will also affect local companies that cannot afford to invest that amount. This clause allows monopolisation of mining by foreign companies who are able to afford the stipulated figure.” This clause, the report further shows, is in violation of section 56(3) of the constitution which prohibits discrimination on the basis of economic status for one to acquire equal opportunities in mining. “As a rule, laws should apply generally and not just to particular individuals or classes of people. The clause also defeats the national objectives set out in chapter 2 of the constitution, in particular section 13 which advocates for local communities to benefit from the resources in their areas and the empowerment of the Zimbabwean citizens through involving them in national development projects,” the report reads. “It violates the principles of equity and inclusiveness by setting a figure that excludes other classes of the society on the basis of economic status. In addition, the discretion of the minister to increase or decrease the amount defeats the tenets of the rule of law principles that state that laws must be certain, objective and unambiguous. ” The report further shows that clauses 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 are in violation of section 2(h) and section 9 of the constitution which advocate legislation that develops efficiency, competence, accountability, transparency, personal integrity and financial probity in all institutions and agencies of government at every level and in every public institution. The constitution provides that measures must be taken to expose, combat and eradicate all forms of corruption and abuse of power by those holding public office. Parly declares Mines Bill unconstitutional Zimbabwe’s Parliament

NewsHawks Companies & Markets Page 35 Issue 135, 9 June 2023 MANUFACTURING concern Proplastics says the use of the more stable United States dollar has turned around the company’s fortunes after the company had faced bottlenecks in accessing foreign currency from the formal auction system. Authorities adopted a dual monetary system late last year after rising inflation had wiped the value of the domestic currency. Since then, retailers and service providers have been preferring hard currency, with official figures indicating that over 70% of transactions in the economy are now being done in foreign currency. Greg Sebborn, Proplastics chairman chairperson, said although challenges persist in the operating environment, the company expects demand to improve, underpinned by both public and private sector-initiated projects. He said in 2022 the general macro-economic environment was turbulent, particularly in the first seven months of the year. “Foreign currency shortages persisted, multiple exchange rates remained in place, and prices continued to increase. Inflation, which had slowed down in the prior year, rose significantly, and was reported at 244% by the end of the year,” Sebborn said in the company’s 2022 annual report. “The settlement of foreign currency allocations from the Auction platform continued to lag and this caused significant pressures on the payment of suppliers of requisite raw materials. The Group had no option but to temporarily suspend participation on the Auction platform in the second half of the year and instead, focused on generating the much-needed foreign currency from internal resources.” The official exchange rate deteriorated during the current year, closing at ZW$671:US$1 from a December 2021 rate of ZW$111. This translated to a massive 504% increase and had a huge bearing on the significant exchange losses on foreign liabilities that the business recorded during the year. “The Group is working hard to ensure this risk is mitigated and the as Zimbabwean dollar interest borrowing rates remain high, the group has extinguished all its Zimbabwean dollar debts and opened United States dollar credit lines with the banks. In the same vein, participation on the Auction platform will be reduced as the Group utilises its internally generated foreign currency,” he added. — STAFF WRITER. Proplastics finds respite in US dollar

BERNRAD MPOFU IN a leap-forward deal which expands their footprint in Zimbabwe’s competitive remittance business market, Bard Santner Markets Inc, a local financial institution, has signed an agreement with leading online payment platform InnBucks Microbank Limited to leverage technology and innovation to boost market share. Bard is fast growing in an increasingly competitive Zimbabwean remittance business environment. This comes hard on the heels of another deal signed by Bard and Kuvacash recently after the well-subscribed capital markets conference in April in London, United Kingdom, attended by local, regional and international participants, including Bard executives. Bard is a financial advisory specialising in corporate finance, asset management and wealth management, as well as financial intermediation, while InnBucks is the fastest-growing technology-driven and deposit-taking microfinance institution. Registered and regulated by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe in terms of the Microfinance Act 24:30 and also a member of the Deposit Protection Scheme, InnBucks’ mission is to drive financial inclusion through digital channels which are flexible, efficient and convenient. As Zimbabwe’s financial sector expands, diversifies and deepens, the remittance business is rapidly growing, as evidenced by the diaspora transfers which saw a 14% increase last year, translating to US$1.7 billion, according to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe figures. The Bard and InnBucks deal will enable the two companies to capitalise on resultant synergies emanating from digital platforms and innovation foci to promote growth. The follow-on convenience includes InnBucks clients being given the platform to access other Bard products and services through its asset and wealth management activities. Further, the two companies will also provide responsive financial inclusion solutions. Consequently, new and existing InnBucks clients will now enjoy the convenience of being able to access services at Bard channels in addition to the already existing 300 Innbucks outlets countrywide. InnBucks chief executive Daisy Zinyemba said the deal with Bard will increase her company’s footprint in the dynamic local financial market, including the remittance business. “We are excited about this new partnership. In a market rapidly re-inventing itself, InnBucks strives to stay on top of the shifts in the market by prioritising our customer needs. We have a deeper understanding of the historical precedence, cultural forces and resonance of existing competitor propositions, hence we haven’t only ‘revolutionised’ banking, but our proposition is focused on sustainability,” she said. Bard executive director Lucia Chingwaru said the partnership will boost the two companies’ capacity and efficiency to new levels, while ensuring convenience for clients. She said it is important to capitalise on new opportunities in the digital financial services ecosystem to establish and grow viable businesses. “We are pleased to announce our new partnership with InnBucks. Financial services are undergoing a ‘post office to email’ moment. As digitalisation accelerates, financial institutions should be able to offer better, faster and more bespoke or tailored services,” she said. “The combination of technology from InnBucks and the value-chain of products and services from Bard is certainly a point of differentiation for customers and partners.” Amid a wave of technology-driven economic disruption, the financial services sector is increasingly embracing digital innovation as a foundation of future growth, as platforms become more intertwined and integrated, giving massive impetus to fintechs. Chingwaru said:“In this sector, success in future will be achieved by those who have the greatest proficiency in utilising technological advancements to initiate innovative applications, generate value and shape the competitive environment.” The rising value of remittance flows into Zimbabwe from countries like South Africa, Botswana, United Kingdom, Australia and the United States is often not widely appreciated. At a macro level, these remittances support growth and are less volatile than other private capital flows, tending to be relatively stable through the business cycle, while at a micro level they benefit recipient households by providing an additional source of income and mitigate incidences of extreme poverty. In a way, remittances act as a form of “social insurance”, supporting households’ capabilities to resist economic shocks, and help recipient households to increase spending on essential goods and services, invest in healthcare and education, as well as allowing them to build their assets, both liquid (cash) and fixed (property), enhancing access to financial services and investment opportunities. Although remittances slowed down during the Covid-19 global pandemic, they remained more resilient than other private capital flows, making them even more important as a source of foreign inflows for receiving countries like Zimbabwe and their economies. Bard Santner Markets Inc executives (left to right) Tatenda Hungwe, Lucia Chingwaru and Senziwani Sikhosana. Page 36 NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023 Companies & Markets Bard signs money-spinning deal with InnBucks to corner market

ONE of Zimbabwe’s oldest transport and logistics companies, Unifreight, is on the rebound after investing over US$6 million to renew its old fleet while enhancing capacity. The company is forecasting a US$2.5 million profit before tax this year, after suffering a loss in ZWL terms last year. Unifreight has three subsidiaries, namely Swift, Bulwark and Skynet Worldwide Express. Chief executive officer Richard Clarke, who assumed the role in January after acting in the position for three months, told The NewsHawks he was confident the company was on a growth trajectory, following the investment and strategies put in place by management. The business made a loss in Zimbabwe dollar terms last year due to a number of factors, among them the loss of value of its Zimplow shares on the stock exchange, overnight change of interest rates of about 200% and an old fleet of Scania trucks, with a mileage of over 1 million kilometres. Unifreight has however been selling the old fleet while buying new assets. “At the end of 2022, we began buying FAW 380 horsepower trucks with We chai engines with a fast two gear box. We bought 100 of these assets on an instalment sale agreement. In addition, we bought Afrit taut liners and 25 Afrit super links,” said Clarke. “We have been disposing the Scanias and we are left with about 20 on our fleet. We needed to add capacity because there is demand for services offered by Swift, especially from blue chip companies. We provide services to companies such as Delta, Schweppes, nestle, Tongaat, Pure Oil and Unki Mines, just to mention a few.” Clarke said demand is growing because Unifreight is able to take goods, consolidate them and distribute nationwide within 24 to 48 hours consistently. He said the company was looking at having a full truckload business where trucks leave one destination with a load and come back with a load on the return trip. He said the new investment has resulted in an increase in volumes which Unifreight is moving such that the company was forecasting to generate US$24 million this year, up from US$16.8 million. “We are also expecting US$2.5 million profit at full year in 2023 before tax, up from US$518 million in 2022,” Clarke said. “Over and above that, we have ordered 15 FAW 8 140hp (horse power) FL (5 tonners) and 15 FAW 28 290hp (FL013 tonners to cater for increasing demand for collection and deliveries in Harare and Bulawayo. “We want to get another 100 trucks by Q1 2024 [first quarter of 2024]. We will also look towards the regional market for additional cross-border business to earn foreign currency and de-risk our business.” Clarke said the management was turning around the business through attention to detail, strict key performance indicators for each member of the executive team that are aligned to the company’s vision to achieve extra ordinary results. He said the company had chosen to invest in FAW trucks because they were the leading commercial vehicle manufacturer in South Africa with a market share of 13.4%. He said the Wechai engine is also tried and tested and can easily do 600 000 kilometres. He said repair and maintenance costs of the FAW are also considerably lower. Unifreight chief executive officer Richard Clarke Unifreight bounces back NewsHawks Companies & Markets Page 37 Issue 135, 9 June 2023

Page 38 NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023 Stock Taking Zimbabwe Stock Exchange Pricelist ` Top 5 Gainers Top 5 Losers Value Leaders ($) Top 5 Gainers YTD Market Cap ($mn) 14,575,193.20 6.31% CBZ 15.00% DZLH -11.23% Delta 5,137,641,000 SeedCo 2411.52% All Share Index 175,785.58 5.51% Edgars 15.00% Star Africa -7.85% Econet 1,430,367,000 Meikles 1987.56% Top 10 Index 111,009.72 6.14% CFI 15.00% SeedCo 0.00% FML 936,971,000 Tanganda 1782.08% Value Traded ($) 9,326,987,220.00 -52.54% Tanganda 15.00% - - SeedCo 713,640,600 TSL 1490.74% Interbank rate (USD/ZWL) 4,868.5152 0.00% Meikles 15.00% - - BAT 656,776,300 CBZ 1484.44% Market Cap (US$mn) 2,993.7656 6.31% YTD Movement (%) -1.03%  Bloomberg Opening LTP Closing Price Previous Volume traded Value traded Shares In Market Cap Market Cap Price Change Price Change Ticker (RTGSc) (RTGSc) (RTGSc) Change (%) Price (RTGSc) (shares) (RTGS$) Issue (mn's) (RTGS$ mn's) (US$ mn's) RTGS YTD (%) US$ YTD (%) Afdis AFDIS: ZH 123,844.93 - 123,844.93 - 123,844.93 - - 119.49 147,987.91 30.40 370.18% -33.91% Ariston ARISTON: ZH 1,502.14 1,550.00 1,526.95 1.65% 1,502.14 36,700 560,390.00 1,627.40 24,849.52 5.10 276.65% -47.06% Art ARTD: ZH 4,200.00 - 4,200.00 - 4,200.00 - - 436.98 18,353.05 3.77 200.00% -57.83% Bridgerfort MMDZ: ZH 1,325.00 - 1,325.00 - 1,325.00 - - 12.00 159.00 0.03 65.63% -76.72% Bridgerfort Class B 2,930.00 - 2,930.00 - 2,930.00 - - 1.32 38.79 0.01 12.69% -84.16% BAT BAT: ZH 943,767.72 960,000.00 946,363.49 0.28% 943,767.72 69,400 656,776,300.00 20.63 195,268.07 40.11 238.09% -52.48% Border BRDR: ZH SUSPENDED - - - - - - 42.94 0.00 0.00 - - Cafca CAFCA: ZH 50,255.00 - 50,255.00 - 50,255.00 - - 8.74 4,389.83 0.90 151.15% -64.70% CBZ CBZ: ZH 186,000.00 213,900.00 213,900.00 15.00% 186,000.00 200 427,800.00 522.66 1,117,972.87 229.63 1484.44% 122.71% CFI CFI: ZH 127,424.29 146,535.00 146,535.00 15.00% 127,424.29 600 879,210.00 106.04 155,387.00 31.92 255.93% -49.97% Delta DLTA: ZH 407,376.89 409,995.00 409,994.51 0.64% 407,376.89 1,253,100 5,137,641,000.00 1305.85 5,353,911.69 1,099.70 1039.59% 60.18% Dairibord DZL: ZH 55,200.00 49,000.00 49,000.00 -11.23% 55,200.00 100 49,000.00 358.00 175,420.42 36.03 1300.00% 96.79% Ecocash EHZL:ZH 17,968.04 20,000.00 18,986.22 5.67% 17,968.04 1,781,400 338,220,400.00 2590.58 491,852.69 101.03 373.70% -33.42% Econet*** ECO: ZH 98,315.49 110,000.00 110,028.25 11.91% 98,315.49 1,300,000 1,430,367,000.00 2590.58 2,850,366.35 585.47 1042.84% 60.64% Edgars EDGR: ZH 7,500.00 8,625.00 8,625.00 15.00% 7,500.00 9,700 836,625.00 604.25 52,116.37 10.70 807.89% 27.62% FBC FBC: ZH 26,959.34 31,000.00 31,000.00 14.99% 26,959.34 5,600 1,736,000.00 671.95 208,304.48 42.79 400.00% -29.72% Fidelity Life FIDL: ZH 6,300.00 - 6,300.00 - 6,300.00 - - 108.92 6,862.17 1.41 162.50% -63.10% First Mutual FMLH: ZH 7,500.00 7,505.00 7,513.98 0.19% 7,500.00 12,469,700 936,971,000.00 690.14 51,857.21 10.65 193.51% -58.74% First Mutual Properties FMP: ZH 5,972.83 6,865.00 6,865.00 14.94% 5,972.83 14,600 1,002,290.00 1,238.16 84,999.50 17.46 472.08% -19.59% GB Holdings GBH: ZH 458.14 500.00 500.00 9.14% 458.14 30,200 151,000.00 536.59 2,682.94 0.55 178.80% -60.81% GetBucks GBFS: ZH 3,283.33 3,285.00 3,285.00 0.05% 3,283.33 300 9,855.00 1,163.12 38,208.44 7.85 50.69% -78.82% Hippo HIPO: ZH 243,415.00 - 243,415.00 - 243,415.00 - - 193.02 469,841.01 96.51 1233.06% 87.38% Lafarge LACZ: ZH - SUSP - - 0.00 - - 80.00 0.00 0.00 - - Mash MASH: ZH 8,000.00 8,000.00 8,000.00 - 8,000.00 10,200 816,000.00 1,687.58 135,006.72 27.73 765.08% 21.60% Masimba MSHL: ZH 41,990.00 - 41,990.00 - 41,990.00 - - 241.65 101,470.39 20.84 425.17% -26.18% Meikles MEIK: ZH 203,315.00 233,800.00 233,806.52 15.00% 203,315.00 9,200 21,510,200.00 256.15 598,897.13 123.01 1987.56% 193.43% Nampak NPKZ: ZH 4,505.00 5,180.00 5,180.00 14.98% 4,505.00 1,500 77,700.00 755.65 39,142.57 8.04 474.92% -19.19% NMB NMB: ZH 13,225.00 15,205.00 15,205.00 14.97% 13,225.00 2,000 304,100.00 404.17 61,454.31 12.62 303.67% -43.26% NTS NTS: ZH 1,610.00 - 1,610.00 - 1,610.00 - - 253.87 4,087.35 0.84 57.84% -77.81% OK Zimbabwe OKZ: ZH 29,156.25 33,500.00 30,209.89 3.61% 29,156.25 208,500 62,987,620.00 1,296.31 391,614.38 80.44 834.73% 31.39% Old Mutual OMU: ZH - SUSP - - 0.00 - - 62.68 0.00 0.00 - - PPC PPC: ZH - SUSP - - 0.00 - - 37.09 0.00 0.00 - - Proplastics PROL: ZH 38,235.92 45,000.00 43,695.00 0.29% 795.00 1,100 495,000.00 251.94 110,083.27 22.61 -75.91% 86.12% RTG RTG: ZH 7,976.53 8,000.00 7,976.53 0.29% 7,976.53 100 8,000.00 2,495.50 199,053.95 40.89 799.27% 26.40% Seedco SEED: ZH 187,160.00 187,160.00 187,159.87 0.00% 187,160.00 381,300 713,640,600.00 249.37 466,727.44 95.87 2411.52% 253.03% Star Africa SACL: ZH 616.00 616.00 567.64 -7.85% 616.00 167,500 950,800.00 4,715.08 26,764.70 5.50 167.99% -62.33% Tanganda TANG:ZH 146,260.00 168,195.00 168,195.00 15.00% 146,260.00 11,700 19,678,820.00 261.06 439,097.59 90.19 1782.08% 164.55% Truworths TRUW: ZH 791.00 - 791.00 - 791.00 - - 384.07 3,037.97 0.62 187.64% -59.57% TSL TSL: ZH 66,065.00 70,000.00 70,000.00 5.96% 66,065.00 400 280,000.00 358.08 250,653.88 51.48 1490.74% 123.60% Turnall TURN: ZH 1,005.00 - 1,005.00 - 1,005.00 - - 493.04 4,955.06 1.02 154.59% -64.21% Unifreight UNIF: ZH 14,000.00 - 14,000.00 - 14,000.00 - - 106.47 14,906.39 3.06 171.06% -61.90% Willdale WILD: ZH 900.00 1,035.00 1,031.54 14.62% 900.00 6,500 67,050.00 1,778.00 18,340.80 3.77 473.08% -19.45% ZBFH ZBFH: ZH 63,875.00 - 63,875.00 - 63,875.00 - - 175.19 111,903.02 22.99 465.52% -20.51% Zeco ZECO: ZH 3.31 - 3.31 - 3.31 - - 463.34 15.34 0.00 0.00% -85.94% ZHL ZHL: ZH 4,341.42 4,990.00 4,541.70 4.61% 4,341.42 4,700 213,460.00 1,818.22 82,578.04 16.96 765.09% 21.60% Zimpapers ZIMP: ZH 732.00 - 732.00 - 732.00 - - 576.00 4,216.32 0.87 203.37% -57.36% Zimplow Holdings ZIMPLOW: ZH 10,000.00 11,000.00 11,000.00 10.00% 10,000.00 3,000 330,000.00 344.58 37,903.85 7.79 547.06% -9.05% Hwange HCCL: ZH SUSPENDED - - - - - 167.89 - - - - RioZim RIOZ: ZH 18,400.00 - 18,400.00 - 18,400.00 - - 122.03 22,453.42 4.61 31.43% -81.54% Econet shares in issue include Class A Shares Opening LTP Closing Price Change Previous Price Volume traded Value traded Market Cap Market Cap Price Change Price Change (RTGSc) (RTGSc) (RTGSc) (%) (RTGSc) (RTGS$) (RTGS$ mn's) (US$ mn's) RTGS YTD (%) US$ YTD (%) Cass Saddle Agriculture ETF 396.00 396.00 396.00 0.00% 396.00 693,583 2,746,589.00 169.77 0.03 120.00% -69.08% Datvest Modified Consumer Staples ETF 832.60 950.00 950.00 14.10% 832.60 54,280 515,660.00 2,152.06 0.44 508.97% -14.40% Morgan&Co Made in Zimbabwe 507.00 - 507.00 0.00% 507.00 - - 12,482.34 2.56 345.71% -37.35% Morgan&Co Multi Sector 12,000.00 13,800.00 13,800.00 15.00% 12,000.00 4,400 607,200.00 17,378.04 3.57 500.00% -15.66% OM ZSE Top-10 ETF 3,105.20 3,500.00 3,496.76 12.61% 3,105.20 6,170 215,750.00 5,022.23 1.03 442.97% -23.68% Opening LTP Closing Price Change Previous Price Volume traded Value traded Market Cap Market Cap Price Change Price Change (RTGSc) (RTGSc) (RTGSc) (%) (RTGSc) (RTGS$) (RTGS$ mn's) (US$ mn's) RTGS YTD (%) US$ YTD (%) Tigere REIT 18,211.00 20,943.00 20,241.98 11.15% 18,211.00 672,600 136,147,500.00 145,605.22 29.91 393.91% -30.58% Victoria Falls Stock Exchange Pricelist Market Cap US$ (mn) 1,090.86 0.35% All Share Index 80.18 0.28% Value Traded US$ 561,074.92 119%  Bloomberg Opening LTP Closing Price Previous Volume traded Value traded Shares In Market Cap Market Cap Price Change Price Change Ticker (USc) (USc) (USc) Change (%) Price (USc) (shares) (US$) Issue (mn's) (US$ mn's) (RTGS$ mn's) US YTD (%) RTGS$ YTD (%) African Sun ASUN:ZH 6.98 7.00 6.98 0.00% 8.64 4,000 279.27 1,432.52 99.99 486,802.33 166.41% 1281.52% Axia Corporation Limited AXIA:ZH 8.00 6.60 7.95 -0.62% 14.75 3,786 301.04 552.15 43.90 213,707.98 -32.81% 378.03% BNC BIND:ZH 1.05 - 1.05 0.00% 1.05 - - 1,272.73 13.36 65,061.07 -54.35% 224.78% Caledonia CMCL:ZH 1,600.00 - 1,600.00 0.00% 1,600.00 - - 0.62 9.92 48,295.67 23.08% 775.60% FCB FCB:ZH 1.95 1.92 1.91 -2.05% 1.95 3,867,922 73,880.09 2,159.81 41.25 200,838.25 15.21% 490.40% Innscor Africa Limited INN:ZH 48.00 48.10 48.07 0.15% 48.00 842,441 404,932.46 571.20 274.57 1,336,770.79 -26.94% 419.76% National Foods Holdings Limited NTFD: ZH 216.00 - 216.00 0.00% 216.00 - - 68.40 147.74 719,295.05 20.91% 760.21% NedBank Zim Depository Receipts 1,200.00 1,200.00 1,200.00 0.00% 1,200.00 1 12.00 0.16 1.92 9,357.19 4.35% 642.36% Padenga PHL:ZH 21.00 21.00 21.80 3.81% 21.00 6,022 1,312.62 544.30 118.66 577,686.85 -4.89% 576.66% Seed Co Intl SCIL:ZH 28.00 - 28.00 0.00% 28.00 - - 393.65 110.22 536,614.50 -6.51% 565.10% Simbisa SIM:ZH 40.76 40.80 40.79 0.07% 40.76 197,004.00 80,357 562.18 229.32 1,116,424.42 11.45% 692.87% West Prop Holdings Limited 1,000.00 - 1,000.00 0.00% 1,000.00 - - - - - 0.00% 236.01% * The complete list of ZSE Indices can be obtained from the ZSE website: www.zse.co.zw * The complete list of VFEX Indices can be obtained from the VFEX website: https://www.vfex.exchange/ Exchange Traded Funds Real Estate Investment Trust Ϭϵ :ƵŶĞ͕ ϮϬϮϯ Ϭϵ:ƵŶĞ͕ϮϬϮϯ

Page 39 BRENNA MATENDERE THE voters' roll which is in a shambles and the persistent refusal by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) to release the electronic version for audit have dented the credibility of the 23 August general elections at a time the eyes of the international community are on Zimbabwe after the disputed 2018 polls. During the recent inspection of the voters’ roll, several Citizens' Coalition for Change (CCC) senior officials revealed that their names had been struck off the roll at their original polling stations and transferred to wards far from their usual polling stations without their consent. In Bulawayo, former CCC treasurer-general David Coltart reported he, family members and a domestic worker could not find their names at the station where they have always voted. They only found out that they had been transferred to another ward after making considerable effort to get to the bottom of the matter. The opposition party's former deputy president and former Industry Mcinister Professor Welshman Ncube made similar reports together with the party’s lawmaker Nicole Watson. Some people could not find their name on the voters' roll and eventually gave up in frustration, meaning they will not vote. This disenfranchisement dents the credibility of the elections. While some eminent citizens came out openly protesting this development, many ordinary citizens did not have the energy or resources to check where they had been transferred to. Some are likely not to vote, given that they do not know the polling stations or wards they were transferred to. This is already clear evidence that some voters will be disenfranchised which, in turn, renders the polls unfair. The numerous errors and discrepancies in the voters' roll deviate from constitutional standards. The opposition CCC in a letter of complaint to Zec last week, said it had noted serious anomalies on the voters' roll from a reflective sample across all the 10 provinces. The opposition party said one of the key errors it noted was the missing names of prospective voters, some of whom had previously cast their votes in the 2018 general elections and even in the March 2022 by-elections. The party demanded an urgent meeting with Zec over the anomalies. "Registered voters that had been appearing on the BVR online inspection platform are suddenly missing their names from the curNews Analysis Zec’s refusal to avail electronic 2023 voters' roll dents election rent online platforms and the voters' roll under inspection. The voters' roll under inspection seems not to be synchronised with the new delimitation boundaries. Resultantly, prospective voters have been displaced from their wards of residence. "Some registered voters have been moved several kilometres away from their polling stations and even to different wards, a deviation from what Zec indicated to stakeholders that it will re-organise the delimitation boundaries using polling areas," said the CCC. Zec has also persistently refused to release the electronic voters' roll for easier audit by stakeholders, including candidates in the 23 August elections. Zec’s actions are contrary to the country’s constitution as section 21(1) stipulates that “every voters’ roll and every consolidated roll shall be a public document and open to inspection by the public, free of charge, during office hours at the office of the commission or the registration office where it is kept.” The discrepancies on the voters' roll have already courted the concerns of foreign nations such as the United States, further undermining the credibility of the elections. At the end of last month, Elaine French, the chargé d’affaires at the US embassy in Harare, had to be summoned by the ministry of Foreign Affairs following a tweet posted on the embassy’s official handle encouraging people to go and inspect the voters' roll after an outcry over the missing names of top CCC officials. French met Rofina Chikava, the acting permanent secretary in the ministry of Foreign Affairs. After the meeting, Meg Riggs, spokesperson of the US embassy, said America will continue to urge peace, transparency and inclusivity in Zimbabwe over the coming weeks, months and years as it stands by “our values of peace, transparency and inclusivity in electoral processes.” Riggs said all Zimbabweans deserve a chance to choose their future in free and fair elections. “We strongly support a transparent and peaceful process that reflects the will of the people of Zimbabwe,” she said. Professor of world politics at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies, Stephen Chan, told The NewsHawks that the credibility of the next elections would be judged by how Zec conducts processes such as management of the voters’ roll. “Every voters' roll in Zimbabwean electoral history has contained glitches. What is deeply concerning, however, is the refusal to release the electronic roll. It is the electronic version which is most susceptible to alteration in the case of a very tight election,” he said. Political analyst Vivid Gwede also pointed out that elections cannot be described as free and fair if the voters' roll is at the centre of a dispute. “Holding elections with a voters' roll that is being kept a secret is contrary to international best practices and recommendations made by observers such as the African Union in 2018. “Moreso, if it turns out that significant errors will be discovered on the day of polling; that would be a sure way of denting the elections' credibility. This is why Zec must release an auditable and electronic voters' roll to civil society and political parties to have a look at it as well as help with technical advice and inputs,” he said. Political anaIyst Rashweat Mukundu told The NewsHawks that the actions of Zec on the voters' roll essentially undermine the transparency and freeness of the August elections. “Zec has either acted unprofessionally and intransigently in denying the opposition and civil society access to the voters' roll. And worse off, citizens who are finding their names missing are not finding any immediate relief, but rather promises that this and that will be done. “So, there is every reason to believe that the voters' roll is now a key cog in the potential rigging of elections in connivance with Zec, Zanu PF and the security sector in Zimbabwe,” he said. Mukundu however said citizens must go and vote and not be distracted from doing so by contentions over the voters’ roll. “Zec needs to come out clean, otherwise what essentially we are facing is an election that is not free and fair. Regardless, citizens must push for Zec to correct anomalies. Citizens must still go out and vote and see what happens at the end of the day,” he said. Zec offices in Harare. NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023

Page 40 Critical Thinking JOHN MATISONN/ PETA THORNYCROFT The Mugabe family became Zimbabwe’s biggest farming family during the ‘fast track land reform programme’ by coercing white farmers to give up their farms, by taking land from some black activists who had seized it from white farmers, and by purchases at retail prices far beyond what a presidential salary would have allowed. NEW details of tens of thousands of hectares of the Mugabe family’s holdings are provided in court documents filed in divorce proceedings by Simbarashe Chikore, the estranged husband of the late president’s daughter, Bona Mugabe. Chikore claims that many Zimbabwean farms taken during that time now belong to him and his wife and should be allocated equally between them. Many of his claims are for land taken prior to his glittering marriage in 2014, but they confirm the family’s connection to the spoils of the socalled “Fast Track Land Reform Programme”, which was ostensibly to provide deprived black Zimbabweans with no more than one farm each. The vast holdings listed by Chikore and published in the pro-government  Harare Herald  newspaper show a clutch of farms taken by “war vets” soon ended as part of the Mugabe family holdings, some of which previous reporting shows were managed and funded by the state until the inclusive government was formed in 2009 and the practice was exposed. Some of the farms still function effectively, but others, including the country’s premier dairy farm, which was Grace Mugabe’s early obsession, are now derelict. The list Chikore claims a share of includes luxury urban land in Harare’s suburbs, some of which was never paid for. Chikore claims the former first family bought properties abroad, including one in Dubai where the Mugabes regularly spent Christmas. Chikore values this property at R157-million, according to his court papers. At the time, the Mugabes were holidaying annually on this property; several estate agents in Dubai said they were just renting it.  Chikore also claims his share Zimbabwe land grabs made Mugabe the country’s biggest land beneficiary of luxury vehicles in Dubai, including the family’s Rolls-Royce which he values at R15-million. In his court papers, Chikore says this list, which includes 41 properties worth billions of rands, is just a drop in the ocean when “compared with what is certainly Ms Mugabe’s.” Chikore’s court papers say he “is not claiming even a thread thereof”. No surprise The scale of the late president’s family holdings as a result of the land grab is no surprise to some locals, despite party policy that claimants are only entitled to one farm each. Opposition MP and former farmer Rusty Markham has been saying for years that “(Robert) Mugabe, Grace, other relatives and their proxies seized more farm and urban land than any others” during the post-2000 land grab. Chikore’s mother-in-law, Grace Mugabe, now divides her time between her Harare mansion known locally as Blue Roof, in the luxury suburb of Borrowdale, and regularly stays in Singapore. She was in Harare a couple of weeks ago when Chikore’s court papers were filed. Chikore, a former airline pilot, argues that he is entitled to an equal share in properties acquired even before their marriage or donated to them, and that he contributed to paying for them through his savings as a pilot and from a farming venture, and from earnings and donations from his father-in-law for “work, jobs and special assignments” provided to the late president. Chikore divided the family farm holdings he claims a share of into two broad categories – 20 “residential” farms and 21 “farms and properties”. Zimbabwe’s problematic title rights make real valuations unreliable, but Chikore values the 20 “residential” farms at about $63-million, or R1.22-billion, covering tens of thousands of hectares. The most valuable, 73 hectares of game farm at Helensvale, near Borrowdale, he values at US$40 million, or R760 million, which is far higher than his mother-inlaw paid. Chikore has not given valuations for the remainder of the 21 family “farms and properties”, which include part of what had been the country’s premier dairy farm, and properties added to Highfield, the main family farm bought by Robert Mugabe at the start of the land grab in 2000. Other members of the ruling Zanu-PF elite were also early beneficiaries, including Emmerson Mnangagwa, now Zimbabwe’s president.  Mnangagwa chose to pay the white farmer whose land he took an undisclosed amount for his property, which he continues to farm. So much for the “fast track land reform programme” billed as a solution to the problem of land hunger among ordinary Zimbabweans and war veterans who fought for land and liberation. Foyle Farm The late president’s second wife, Grace, set her sights on Zimbabwe’s premier dairy farm, named on title deeds as Foyle Farm in the Mazowe  Valley, west of Harare and owned by Ian Webster. Webster bought the farm and developed it into the best dairy farm in the country. It was his only farm. The then president’s wife arrived at Foyle Farm soon after the land grab began, along with agriculture minister Joe Made and several advisers. Webster wanted to stay on Foyle Farm, but when Grace Mugabe arrived and made her intentions clear, Webster knew his Zimbabwe farming days were over. When Grace asked him for a price, he was relieved. He had hoped that he’d leave with something. After some bargaining, he asked for about $6-million. Grace, who was close friends with the governor of the Zimbabwe Reserve Bank, Gideon Gono, told Webster to go to the 21st floor of the Reserve Bank building in central Harare to be paid. There, he was handed about 75% of the money in a bag, in local currency. WebThe late former President Robert Mugabe NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023

ster legally exchanged the money and left for Perth, Australia. We don’t know whether Grace Mugabe simply got the money from government or whether she contributed, but we do know Mugabe’s presidential salary would never have covered such amounts.  Grace now owned the best dairy farm in Zimbabwe, complete with a modern dairy, skilled workers and superb farmland growing food for the dairy cows. It also had a gracious, old-style farmhouse, but her ambitions were bigger. She massively upgraded the dairy, installed a top-quality plant to produce yoghurt, and rebuilt the farmhouse on a much larger scale.  Foyle Farm was renamed Gushungo Dairy Estate — Gushungo being Mugabe’s traditional family name. The highly publicised launch event was attended by German, South African and British suppliers.  Grace Mugabe installed her son from her first marriage, Russell Goreraza, as manager, and, extraordinarily, switched the main crop from cattle fodder to cabbages, a quick turnaround cash crop,  and then had to buy food for her dairy cows. But neither she nor her son had experience managing the hard grind of dairy farming. For a while, it did well and became known as the Alpha Omega Dairy, with its yoghurts seen in many supermarkets, and customers drove on to the farm and bought products from the farm shop. But the dairy cows were not cared for well enough to produce enough milk. The size of top milkers in the herd shrank, and within a few years, the dairy was not producing enough milk to produce yoghurt or milk to cover costs. The dairy’s costs were too high, and  Grace Mugabe began selling off equipment.  All that is left now is the ruins of the dairy, the large house and a free-standing cottage she built. Highfield Former president Mugabe’s farming career in another part of the country was more successful. He bought Highfield, a property abutting the state’s huge Darwendale Dam, which is irrigated and still produces seed crops such as maize. Grace then set her sights on adding to Highfield with a set of farms adjoining Highfield — Tankara, John O’Groats, Cressydale and Clifford. Irrigated by the dam, they are also good producers of seed crops. These properties were taken from white farmers early in the land grab by war vets — or by people hired by war vets or party officials, former soldiers or off-duty police, but soon the Mugabes took these farms over from the initial occupiers. When the inclusive government came to power in 2009 and a journalist visited these small farms along the Darwendale Dam, one of them saw the pay sheets, interviewed the workers, and discovered that the department of agriculture was paying the farm workers and managing this clutch of farms. The state was then obliged to withdraw.  Chikore’s lawsuit against his estranged wife, Bona Mugabe, lists all four — Tankara, John O’Groats, Cressy Dale and Clifford — among their joint assets for which he wants his cut. The Mugabes took the 800-hectare farm formerly known as Gwina in Mashonaland West from the then high court judge, Justice Ben Hlatshwayo. In an interview, the judge confirmed he had been allocated the farm formerly owned by prominent commercial farmer Vernon Nicolle, who emigrated to Australia, until the Mugabes took it from him. The state had a role in redistributing land through the Agricultural Research Development Authority (Arda). But in at least one case, the land they acquired went to the Mugabes — the 1,300-hectare Mwenewazvo Farm, formerly known as Sigaro.  Arda mobilised equipment for the farm before the Mugabes took over the land.  Since then, the ownership of Sigaro has been challenged in court by new regulations governing the size of farms.  Game farms Not all the Mugabe holdings were cheap or free.  Grace Mugabe went into game farming, paying full price for at least two game farms about 20km north of Harare. The larger one cost her $4-million which she bought from a Harare doctor and a second, much smaller and less expensive one from a wildlife enthusiast.  The Mugabes also own  Iron Mask Estate in the Mazowe Valley, which is a consolidation of three properties — Greater B, Remainder of Iron Mask and Portion of Irene Estate. A retired white couple who owned and lived there were forced off and left for South Africa.  Here, Grace built two upmarket fee-paying schools, an orphanage and accommodation for teachers. These buildings remain occupied and she visited the property earlier this month. The owner listed for this land is Grace Mugabe Children’s Home which has a total of 1,399 hectares.  Grace took over a large farm near Banket, about 120km north of Harare, but gave it to her sister. Interestingly, Chikore’s lawsuit claims a share of at least part of this estate too. Nearly all rural land invasions had stopped by 2009, with the induction of the inclusive government, and have not resumed. However politically unfair, illegal and chaotic the land grab, it provided tens of thousands of small-scale farmers with small pieces of land. But, with the new constitution in 2013, confiscated land is characterised as state land and normal title deeds are not available. Those who took farms from whites and are registered as operators are supposed to pay minimal taxes to the state to maintain access roads, fences and dams, but most do not, so infrastructure continues to deteriorate. Around Mazowe, the Mugabe family acquired five farms with another game reserve. The consolidated farms are Manzou Farm, Surtic Ranch, Arnolds Farm, Maggiesdale Farm and Glenbervile with a combined size of 16,000 hectares. Chikore only claims a share of Surtic. It is not clear at present how much of this land is occupied or used by the Mugabe family. Harare assets There were reports that the Mugabes occupied some peri-urban land around the Pomona suburb in northern Harare, but local people say they do not know some of the names of the land quoted by Chikore in his claim, or who is now actually growing maize on some of the land he claims the Mugabes own.   According to Chikore, one of these properties is the 310-hectare Kaseplan Farm, which apparently had people living there who were evicted by the police. Kaseplan is located near Mugabe’s Blue Roof mansion. On the list of farms Chikore claims belong to the Mugabes is Bucklands Farm, originally named Buckland Estate. This 310-hectare farm is next to Wild Geese Lodge, 20km outside Harare, which is a luxury lodge where many upmarket weddings are held. There are other chunks of peri-urban land around this area of Harare which locals say they suspect was taken by the Mugabes, but this has not been independently confirmed. Last week, Arosume Property Development, a developer in the Carrick Creagh Estate area who became the latest group to take land from the legal white landowner, Andrew Newmarch, in which Chikore claimed the couple owned several chunks of land, denied this was the case. “It has come to our attention… in the matter between Bona Mugabe and Simbarashe Chikore, that between the two of them, they claim to own 213,794m² of Carrick Creagh Estate, land listed under various stand numbers in their divorce papers. We advise the public that the two are not owners of the said stands,” the company said in a statement. Grace Mugabe had claimed a clutch of these upmarket plots in Carrick Creagh Estate. Bona Mugabe and her husband bought, dirt cheap, two chunks of land, in the peri-urban area of Umwinsidale, near Carrick Creagh.  This land was designated by the city council for a school. It was never clear how they got their hands on this land, and got some Chinese builders to bulldoze parts of the hill for an access road to the top of the hill, where they began to build a three-storey mansion. Nearby, Bona Mugabe appears to run an upmarket wedding venue for Harare’s elite. An estate agent in northern Harare also said that Bona Mugabe bought other properties in some of Harare’s smarter suburbs since her marriage, but declined to reveal details. She is believed to be living in a relatively modest home in the Mount Pleasant suburb first lived in by her father, Robert Mugabe, and his first wife, Sally, after the couple returned from exile in Mozambique at the end of the bush war in 1979. Simba Chikore left his job with Qatar Airways to get married after he failed to achieve promotion to captain. Five years ago, he imported two Boeing 777s from Malaysia Airlines for inclusion within the remains of bankrupt Air Zimbabwe, but service did not resume. — The Conversation. *About the writers: John Matisonn began his career on the Rand Daily Mail, received a prison sentence for refusing to divulge a source in the Muldergate scandal, and spent six years as a foreign correspondent in Washington DC before returning home as a foreign correspondent. After four years as a regulator on what is now the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (formerly the Independent Broadcasting Authority), he had two tours in Afghanistan as a senior United Nations official. Matisonn has published two books,  God, Spies and Lies, Finding South Africa’s Future Through its Past, and  Cyril’s Choices, an Agenda for Reform. He is currently working on developmental policies to revive the South African economy. Reframing Issues Page 41 Bona Mugabe and her husband Simba Chikore's Umwinsidale house NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023

Page 42 Reframing Issues The following abridged report was released in September 2022 by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence, Home Affairs and Security. It focuses on the Security of Minerals: Illicit Trading In Minerals and Mineral Leakages. The NewsHawks is publishing this report in the national interest and in the backdrop of the continued looting and smugging of minerals. Introduction Zimbabwe is endowed with over 40 different types of minerals and the mining sector has become the anchor of the economy. According to the National Development Strategy One (2021 to 2025), the mining sector accounts for 60% of the country’s export revenues. However, the mining industry has been experiencing mineral leakages thereby negatively affecting the sector’s potential contribution to the socio-economic transformation of the country. In 2021, there was an attempt to smuggle gold through the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport (RGM). In the same year, a Zimbabwean gold smuggler was apprehended at O.R. Tambo International Airport in South Africa. Such acts of mischief potentially create disquiet and discontentment amongst the citizens of this country. Indeed, illicit trading in the extractive industry, is crippling the country’s economy, creating anarchy in communities and has the potential of bringing untold suffering to ordinary citizens and may threaten national security. It is against this background that the Committee undertook an inquiry into the security of minerals in order to establish the possible causes of mineral leakages in the country and recommend ways of curbing them. Objectives of the fact-finding visits: • assess the current state of security infrastructure and equipment as well as security systems at ports of entry and established mining companies; • identify challenges faced by law enforcement agencies and players in the mining industry in curbing leakages; • establish causes of mineral leakages and recommend possible ways of mitigating them. Committee findings Mineral leakages There was an acknowledgement by most of the stakeholders that interacted with the Committee that there are leakages of minerals, both precious and base minerals. The quantum could not be ascertained but estimates indicate that this runs into millions of American dollars. The leakages were prevalent across all minerals, with the gold sector at the top, because there are many players involved that include artisanal and small-scale miners, millers, gold buyers and large-scale producers. At the same time, gold can easily be extracted from the ground using rudimentary methods. Gold leakages The Government of Zimbabwe set a target of US$4 billion worth of revenue to be generated by the gold sector by 2023. Whilst the country remains focused on achieving its goal, a lot of gold is allegedly being smuggled out of the country due to a number of factors which include but not limited to the following: Delays in payment to gold producers The Committee was informed by small-scale producers that Fidelity Gold Refiners, the sole buyer of gold, takes more than one week to pay producers after surrendering of gold. This is not amenable to the economic well-being of the small-scale producers, because they require their money in the shortest possible period. As a result, the small-scale producers were selling their gold to unregistered buyers who offer cash upon delivery of the gold. Gold smugglers prefer to sell gold in external markets where they are guaranteed cash payments and not bank transfers. Therefore, buyers would then smuggle the gold out of the country using undesignated exit points and thus robbing the country of thousands of dollars. Porous land borders When the Committee visited Beitbridge Border post, it was informed by Zimra officials that there was a stretch of 230 kilometres of the borderline encompassing Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa, which was poorly manned by law enforcement agencies in Zimbabwe. Along that borderline there were over fifteen well-known unregistered exit and entry points between the three countries. Smuggling was rife at these points and was a source of gold leakages among other commodities. The law enforcement agencies, which include the ZRP and Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA), were unable to control these illegal crossing points because they do not have vehicles and the roads are impassible. In addition, there was no network coverage in these border lying areas, which made it difficult for law enforcement authorities to coordinate their efforts effectively along the border. The security forces requested for vehicles, tents, drones, testing and communication devices and the establishment of a reaction team to arrest would-be smugglers. Inadequate equipment and personnel At the official ports of entry, the Committee was informed by border officials that they did not have modern scanners to detect gold, diamonds and other minerals that may be smuggled out of the country. Officials at ports of entry have limited knowledge of the characteristics of minerals such as gold and diamonds. ZIMRA outlined that it was in the process of recruiting a metallurgist and a geologist, so that they could be stationed at the land borders to assist in the identification and verification of minerals being exported or those confiscated for attempted smuggling. At RGM International Airport, two attempts were made to smuggle gold out of the country. In the first case, the gold was intercepted before leaving the country and in the second case the gold was recovered at O. R. Tambo International Airport in South Africa. The major cause of the leakage was due to collusion by airport officials. Following the two incidents, the Committee was informed that security measures had been tightened to reduce attempts of smuggling. These included the purchase of modern scanners and instituting stringent access measures by airport officials to various parts of the airport. In the absence of insider threat (collusion), the security system at the airport was robust. Illegal milling and mining operations The Committee noted with concern that another source of gold leakages was at mining companies that have ownership wrangles. A case in point was Redwing Mine in Penhalonga which experienced an influx of illegal miners following a prolonged ownership wrangle. The Committee had an opportunity to meet former workers, management of Redwing Mine and Better Brands. The former workers highlighted that a lot of gold leakages were happening through artisanal mining at the tributary granted to Better Brands. The Committee was told by the workers that there were over eight hundred pits and four hundred hammer mills operating in Penhalonga. In addition, there were many gold buyers, both registered and unregistered, operating in the area. Furthermore, there were over thirteen illegal crossing points into Mozambique and it was believed that those routes were being used to smuggle gold out of the country. The Committee was informed by the workers that, the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, ZRP and Environment Management Agency (Ema) were struggling to handle the illegal mining, milling and trading activities happening in the Penhalonga area. The local police station has no vehicle for patrols and effective enforcement of the law. Fidelity Gold Refiners were not stationed at the mining site to facilitate the buying of gold. There were high chances of under declaration of gold produced and finally sold through formal channels. Better Brands told the Committee that its operations were above board and had declared 46,67kg to Fidelity Gold Refiners for the eight months it had been in operation since July 2021. They asserted that illegal hammer mills that had mushroomed near its mining tribute posed serious operational challenges and were a source of massive gold leakages. Besides the loss of revenue through smuggling of gold from Penhalonga, the Committee learnt that there were environmental challenges which have resulted in the loss of both people and livestock. It was reported by some aggrieved community members that rivers and streams in the vicinity had been contaminated by cyanide which is a very hazardous mining chemical. Formal gold mining operations The Committee visited Renco Gold Mine which is under RioZim and was informed that the company has always been able to account for all its gold, from the extraction of the ore up to elution point, where gold was extracted. In terms securing the precious mineral, the Committee noted that the company had adequate security systems in place which included a perimeter fence, Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) and well equipped security guards. It also emerged that gold production at the mine was on the deZimbabwe Miners Federation president Henrietta Rushwaya Revisited: Parliament warns that Zim's mineral leakages are ruinous NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023

Reframing Issues Page 43 cline due to a number of factors which included poor ore grade and power outages among others. However, the security management at the mine appealed to the Committee to assist the company to acquire authorization to use drones to augment existing security systems. Nevertheless, the Committee queried the absence of State security or government officials at the mining site to verify whether production statistics on site were not tempered with. The Committee could not rule out the possibility of under declaration of gold because there were no government officials at any of the privately owned gold mines in the country to verify or monitor production statistics at the source. It was observed that the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development receives and accepts production statistics sent by gold mining companies in good faith. Diamond leakages The Committee toured ZCDC and Anjin Investments in Marange and interacted with management and employees, particularly those in the security sector. The Committee noted that the companies had robust security systems at their diamond concessions. Security mechanisms put in place included; CCTVs, drones, perimeter fence and armed security guards with a canine unit. It was also established that the security standards were in line with the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) requirements so that no diamonds could be smuggled from Zimbabwe. However, the presence of artisanal diamond miners in the Marange diamond concessions pointed to the prevalence of incidents of smuggling happening outside the diamond concession owned by the two companies. Representatives of Anjin Investments, ZCDC and ZRP informed the Committee that the major perpetrators of smuggling of diamonds were the mining communities who provided shelter to the illegal miners. Spokespersons for the local community casually admitted that they offered shelter to illegal miners to cushion themselves against the unbearable economic hardships. Some even openly expressed their disgruntlement over their debilitating socio-economic status and pledged to continue harboring illicit diamond mining and trading activities until the State and all responsible authorities took action to improve their wellbeing through community development and related empowerment programmes. It was noted by the Committee that all diamonds recovered by unlicensed miners and traders ultimately evaded the formal diamond value chain, possibly finding their way into Mozambique en-route to Europe and the Arab world. The Community further alleged that there were cases of connivance between private mine guards and either licenced miners or underpaid mine employees leading to diamond leakages. Furthermore, the Committee observed that full exploration of the Marange area had not been done, as a result, the area remained vulnerable to incidents of smuggling of diamonds. MMCZ highlighted that there was a legislative gap to integrate artisanal diamond miners so that all diamonds could be channeled through the formal system. In addition to the above loopholes, Civil Society Organisations in the Marange Diamond Community cited the following as contributing to diamond leakages: • Failure by mining companies to relocate villagers living in diamond concessions; • Failure to fence off all the mined areas to inhibit access by livestock and unlicenced miners; • Security agents were involved in organising syndicates with unlicensed miners and traders especially in the green zones (Green Zones are low risk areas that occupied by communities and are accessible to all and sundry); • Acts of collusion between law enforcement agencies and illegal diamond miners and buyers at roadblocks; • Non-rotation of state security personnel in protected areas and at entry and exit points; Delays in operationalising the Community Diamond Concession and the 5% equity granted to the Community by the Zimbabwe Diamond Policy. This has created dissatisfaction amongst villagers, hence were not willing to assist in curbing diamond leakages. • Failure to implement recommendations emanating from several past visits conducted in Marange by Parliamentary Portfolio Committees, such as the Chindori-Chininga report of 2013. Platinum leakages The Committee visited Mimosa Mine which is one of the major platinum producers in the country. Platinum is one of the major sources of foreign currency for the country. The platinum sector is expected to generate US$3 billion worth of revenues by 2023 and it is anticipated that the industry will surpass that target. Platinum companies in Zimbabwe export platinum concentrate to South Africa because the country does not have a Precious Metal Refinery. There are ten minerals that are extracted from the concentrate that include; platinum, palladium, rhodium, gold and silver among others. The Committee explored the company’s laboratory where assaying of the concentrate was done before it was exported out of the country. It was observed that all the vehicles used to export the concentrate were on satellite tracking and the company had not experienced any attempts of theft. However, the Committee was concerned about the knowledge gap between company and government officials on the actual quantum and value of minerals in the concentrate before it was exported out of the country. It was noted that the accounting system, called Meta Accounting, used by the companies is very complex and government does not always have skilled personnel and laboratories to verify the assays done by platinum companies in the country. Leakages of base minerals The Committee was informed by the General Manager of MMCZ, Mr. T. Muzenda that a truck with a consignment of 130 tons of chrome was impounded and the suspects attempted to smuggle the mineral using fake export documents purportedly issued by MMCZ. Chrome is one of the major minerals on global demand and is being mined in various parts of the country by both large scale and smallscale producers. MMCZ indicated that leakage of base minerals was being exacerbated by the fact that the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) was not fully operational. Road transportation has a higher risk of smuggling of base minerals, Companies can under declare the weight of some of their cargo because the country does not have a lot of weighbridges. Furthermore, it was easy for chrome producers to smuggle the mineral out of the country through unofficial routes. Leakages of semi-precious stones MMCZ informed the Committee that there was high prevalence of smuggling of semi-precious stones in the country due to the fact that the producers are failing to secure markets close to their operations. These semi-precious stones are being smuggled to countries such as Zambia. At the same time there was no legislation to regulate the production of semi-precious stones in the country. Aerodromes scattered in the country The Committee was informed by the Airports Authority of Zimbabwe that Government’s presence at aerodromes is restricted to eight commercial airports. At some private aerodromes located in different parts of the country, there is minimal direct involvement. This was an area of concern for the Committee as it can be a source of mineral leakages. Law enforcement agencies It was highlighted that law enforcement agencies play a critical role in securing minerals. It is their duty to enforce the law without fear or favour. Their presence at ports of entry, along the borderline, in and around mining communities and along major roads serves as a deterrent against illegal traders of precious stones such as gold and diamonds. In as much as their role is appreciated, it was reported by mining communities that some deployed law enforcers collude with illegal gold and diamond miners and traders at mining sites, at designated and undesignated entry and exit points. People in Chiadzwa openly stated that state security had the habit of allowing illegal diamond miners and buyers passage into diamonds zones in exchange for kickbacks. At some gold sites, it was reported that members of the State security had their own pits mined on their behalf by illegal miners and the gold produced would never find its way to Fidelity Printers and Refiners. Inadequate tools of trade, lack of all-terrain patrol vehicles, poor remuneration and public intolerance of state security among others have been cited as some of the most common challenges faced by law enforcement agencies during the course of their duty. These challenges hamper effectiveness in the fight against smuggling of minerals. Committee observations i. It is difficult to penetrate the security systems at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport in the absence of insider threats, that is, without the planned involvement of rogue elements among the employees; ii. There is suspicion of massive under declaration of gold produce at elution plants. The absence of Fidelity Gold Refiners and State security agencies such as the Flora and Fauna Unit of the Zimbabwe Republic Police, compromises the security of minerals at processing or cyanidation points; iii. Fidelity Gold Refiners lacks visibility and is not always adequately capacitated financially and therefore has limited competitive advantage over the other players in the gold buying field in terms of the price they offer and reliability on payment. Its absence in places occupied by artisanal miners provides room for illegal dealers to buy gold which is then smuggled out of the country; iv. The country’s porous borderline remains a major cause for concern. It provides easy pathways for mineral leakages, particularly gold and diamonds, which can easily be smuggled out through undesignated exit points. v. Unregistered milling plants in areas crowded by artisanal miners are a source of gold leakages. Urgent action by government is required to register all the milling plants; vi. The absence of a platinum refinery plant in the country remains a major cause for concern and it has the potential of creating leakages considering that processing of platinum (and the other 10 minerals) is done in Rustenburg in South Africa in the absence of security personnel from Zimbabwe. There is a possibility of understating of the actual statistics and value of minerals after processing in foreign environments; vii. Massive exploitation of minerals, coupled with lack of substantial community development and economic empowerment programmes for local mining communities, is a major source of disgruntlement which quite often degenerates into anarchy; viii. There is limited or no sense of ownership of minerals by local mining communities due to a sheer feeling of insecurity, hopelessness and lack of meaningful, robust and sustainable corporate social responsibility projects that guarantee continuity after the depletion of the minerals. In the process, the communities would display an ‘I don’t care’ attitude on curbing mineral leakages because they feel that these minerals are not benefiting them directly; ix. Mineral leakages were being exacerbated by a plethora of factors, chief among them being the absence of a stringent legal framework in the mining industry, delay in regularising and integrating artisanal diamond and gold miners into the mainstream economy, weak enforcement mechanisms and alleged laxity by some members of law enforcement agencies; x. The country has the capacity to curb mineral leakages, because the chief perpetrators are citizens, starting with those at grassroots level, up to those holding positions of influence in the country; xi. It is beneficial for Government to move with speed to plug mineral leakages from smuggling through enhancing traceability mechanisms in line with international best practice such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Guidelines on Due Diligence for Responsible Mineral Supply Chains; xii. Illegal mining and illicit trade in minerals are a cause for concern which have the potential of being a security threat as has happened in West Africa and in neighbouring Mozambique; xiii. There is a knowledge gap in the public domain on the significance of securing minerals and cultivation of a true sense of ownership of mineral resources as means of curbing leakages; xiv. There is an outcry from mining communities, especially in diamond mining areas, about state security engaging in acts of corruption and thereby fueling illegal mining and trading of precious minerals. Committee recommendations i. By 31 December 2022, the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development: • Should review and amend the diamond policy and legislation on mining and trading of gold in order to integrate artisanal diamond and gold miners in the mainstream mining industry; • together with Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe and Fidelity Gold Refiners, should deploy officials at regular intervals to conduct inspections and verifications of the operations of big mining companies of precious minerals to ensure that under declaration of minerals at elution plants is curtailed; i. Come up with a policy to regulate semi-precious stones produced in the country, in order to curb leakages in that sector; ii. Beginning 1 January 2023, Fidelity Printers and Refiners should reduce its time lag in the payment of gold deliveries made by small-scale miners so that more gold finds its way into the formal system. Payment on delivery should be prioritised and a bonus or premiums should be paid for higher quantities so as to encourage trading of gold through formal channels; iii. By 31 October 2023, Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe and Fidelity Gold Refiners should assist in providing technical skills training law enforcement agencies and Zimbabwe Revenue Authority personnel at ports of entry on mineral identification and detection in order to enhance their capabilities of identifying minerals on the spot; iv. By 31 October 2023, all unlicensed hammer mills that are scattered around the country must be registered by the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development and steep fines must be imposed on any illegal operations of unlicenced hammer mills; v. By 30 June 2023, the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development should review the mining model at Redwing Mine in order to adopt a sustainable mining model that integrates former mine workers and the surrounding community so that leakages are minimised; vi. In the 2023 budget, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development should allocate adequate financial resources which must be released on time to the security sector, the ZRP in particular, for the purchase of surveillance equipment, detection devices, all-terrain patrol vehicles and motorbikes, heavy duty weighing scales, computers (laptops), communication devices and other accessories required in manning the country’s ports of entry including the long stretch of the country’s borderline; vii. By December 2023, Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Companies and Anjin Investments should ensure that families currently residing in designated diamond concessions or Special Grant Areas are properly relocated in well-established resettlement sites that can sustain the affected families; viii. By 2027 the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, in collaboration with platinum mining companies, should construct a platinum refinery plant to allow for processing of platinum locally as a means of enhancing beneficiation as well as curbing leakages. ix. The Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage and all the other ministries providing security in gold and diamond fields, must ensure that deployment of law enforcement personnel in those sites is strictly on a rotational basis to avoid the same officers overstaying in those areas. This will contribute to curbing alleged collusion and corruption involving state security in gold and diamond fields. Conclusion Minerals are a major contributor to the country’s socio-economic development. All forms of illicit activities in the mining, processing and marketing of minerals risk plunging our country into economic, social and political turmoil. When the economy bleeds, political mischief and social unrest become imminent thereby threatening national security. Indeed, safeguarding minerals is not for law enforcement agencies alone; rather, it is everyone’s responsibility. State institutions, private entities, civil society organisations and the general public have the responsibility to jealously guard the country’s mineral wealth. A whole-of-society approach on plugging mineral leakages is critical now than ever before in order to promote sustainable development, peace and security. Let us all work together to stop mineral leakages. NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023

Page 44 Reframing Issues ROBERT ROTBERG IN the lead-up to Zimbabwe’s election, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has passed a law that puts his opponents at considerable risk. Zimbabwe is just the latest of many unfree countries, such as China, Turkey and Iran, that are using repressive tactics to prohibit criticism of those in power. Last week,  Zimbabwe’s  Parliament, which is controlled by Mnangagwa’s Zanu PF party, passed the Criminal Code Law Amendment Act, or Patriotic Bill, which bans critiques of Mnangagwa and his associates. It also criminalises speech that harms “the country’s positive image and integrity or reputation.” Communication with foreigners is illegal when Zimbabwe could be disparaged. In Zimbabwe, people are now barred from issuing statements deemed unpatriotic, attending meetings inside and outside Zimbabwe aimed at overthrowing the government, or lobbying for economic sanctions and trade boycotts. (For decades, Washington has sanctioned most of Zimbabwe’s politically powerful officials, largely for holding suspect elections and money laundering.) “Wilfully damaging the sovereignty and national interest of Zimbabwe” is punishable by 20 years in jail. “Anyone planning an armed intervention” or talking in ways that could be construed as advocating “insurrection” may be jailed for life. These draconian strictures are being put in place less than three months before a major Zimbabwe parliamentary and presidential election, scheduled for 23 August. Just as Hun Sen, Cambodia’s dictatorial president, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s recently re-elected authoritarian leader,  jailed their potential opponents and shut down opposition political parties, so Mnangagwa (80) is pre-empting campaign critiques of his regime: its massive corruption, spiralling inflation and biting hunger. Mnangagwa ousted president Robert Mugabe, an aging kleptocratic autocrat, in a military coup in 2017. He then won a close election in 2018 that was widely regarded as manipulated. In August, his Zanu PF party, in power since 1980, will face challengers, such as Nelson Chamisa and the Citizens' Coalition for Change (CCC). But according to the new law, Chamisa may not speak the truth, lest he and his fellow CCC candidates utter “unpatriotic” words. Chamisa (45) and his compatriots are also barred by the new legislation from talking to foreign embassies or authors like me. They may not utter strident criticisms of President Mnangagwa’s failure to improve living standards nor condemn his failure to bring prosperity to Zimbabwe. If they declare that Mnangagwa, once Mugabe’s “bagman,” is wholly corrupt, they become suspected of treason and perfidious anti-patriotic utterances. There are no legal or official definitions of what constitutes anti-patriotic speech, and no boundaries to proscribed language; infringements of the new law will obviously be determined solely by the ruling party and the police detachments it controls. The new Act neither defines “sovereignty” nor “national interest.” Both concepts could be interpreted very broadly and subjectively. Citizens might also be harassed if they so much as attend a meeting or listen to a speech advocating for more American sanctions. The country’s judges are all beholden to the government. As the CCC has indicated, the new law undermines the fundamental principles of freedom of association and assembly. Former finance minister Tendai Biti declared that “Not even Apartheid Rhodesia passed such a repugnant law.” In addition to penalising political discussion and dialogue, Zimbabwe’s governmental electoral apparatus has somehow fiddled with the national voters’ roll by dropping people’s names from the list. Zimbabwe won its independence from white settler rule in 1980, educated a vast cadre of productive African industrialists and entrepreneurs, and then turned away from political and economic development in the 1990s, when Mugabe captured the state for himself and his family, and for underlings like Mnangagwa. Subsequently, Mugabe destroyed what had been a thriving agricultural economy, printed money and drove inflation upward into the multi-thousand percentages. Free speech was curtailed, but there were opposition newspapers, and political campaigns were open even if the elections were often rigged. Now, however, Mnangagwa – widely known as the “Crocodile” – is taking no chances. The election in August can hardly be considered fair or free if opposition political contenders must remain narrowly “patriotic.” Patriotism is a good thing – until it becomes weaponised as in Zimbabwe, China, and Russia. If Mnangagwa wins another presidential term at the polls in August, it will be a tribute to his dominance of Zimbabwe’s media, his friendships with traditional chiefs, and – not least – to his oppression of opponents and his regime’s disdain of democracy. — Globe And Mail. *About the writer: Robert Rotberg is the founding director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s programme on intrastate conflict. His latest books are  Things Come Together: Africans Achieving Greatness  and  Overcoming the Oppressors. President Emmerson Mnangagwa Zim’s ‘Patriotic Bill’ has made free and fair elections impossible NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023

Reframing Issues Page 45 DANNY BRADLOW SOUTH Africa will  host the BRICS summit in August 2023. The event could offer the country an opportunity to exercise leadership in the BRICS’ efforts to reform the arrangements for global economic governance and in supporting sustainable and inclusive development in Africa and the Global South. However, the opportunity has morphed into an international challenge because Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court, has  indicated  that he will attend. South Africa could face the wrath of its BRICS partners if it fulfils its international obligation and arrests him. On the other hand, if it does not arrest him, it could face sanctions from those countries that want to see Putin tried for war crimes. Hosting the 2023 BRICS summit is therefore fraught with dangers. The international environment is complicated, dynamic and unpredictable. South Africa can avoid embarrassment and capitalise on the opportunities presented by the summit only if it is able to skilfully manoeuvre in these choppy waters. Trying to understand South Africa’s dilemma raises a number of questions: Who are the BRICS? What has the grouping achieved? Who are the BRICS? IN 2001, the global investment bank Goldman Sachs stated that it expected Brazil, Russia, India and China to become leading actors in the global economy. It collectively named the four countries “BRICs”. These countries decided that Goldman Sachs had a point and that they could enhance their global influence if they cooperated. They first met at a ministerial level in 2006 and at a leaders’ summit in  2009.  In 2010  they invited South Africa to join the group. The group became known as “BRICS”. A primary objective of the group  is to reform global economic governance so that it is more responsive to the concerns and interests of the Global South. For example, the BRICS have called for a new global currency that can challenge the dominant role of the US dollar in the international monetary system. It has also pushed for a greater voice – and more votes – for developing countries in key international economic organisations like the IMF and the World Bank. The group has also sought, through groups like its  business forum, to promote greater economic cooperation between the participating countries. What has the BRICS grouping achieved? The BRICS record of achievements is mixed. In 2016, the group established two new international economic entities. The first was the  New Development Bank. They contend that it is a “new” multilateral development bank which offers its members an alternative to institutions like the World Bank. It claims that its governance is fairer than the World Bank because its five original members all have equal votes. At the World Bank, shares (and therefore votes) are unevenly distributed among member states. The development bank also strives to provide financing more quickly than the World Bank, and in a way that is more respectful of the laws in its member states. However, to date, the New Development Bank has been less transparent and accountable than other multilateral development banks. It has provided US$32.8 billion to 96 projects in the five BRICS countries and it has begun looking to expand the scope of its operations. Since 2021 it has approved membership for Bangladesh, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Uruguay. It is expected to add new members in the coming years. The second new entity was the  Contingent Reserve Arrangement. This established a series of swap arrangements between the BRICS central banks. These arrangements allow each central bank, when its country is facing a balance of payments crisis, to exchange its local currency for hard currencies, like the US dollar, with its counterparts in the BRICS. Pursuant to the terms of the arrangement, a central bank can only draw on a fraction of the available financing without also having to enter into a financing arrangement with the IMF. Thus, the conditions that are attached to the IMF’s finances also become applicable to the funds made available through the Contingent Reserve Arrangement. To date, no BRICS central bank has used the arrangement. According to their communiques, the BRICS leaders have agreed to create other entities, such as a vaccine centre and a new credit rating agency. However, they have not yet implemented these agreements. They have not been successful either in reforming the existing institutions and arrangements for global economic governance, such as the IMF. One reason for this failure is the strong opposition to reform from states, primarily those in Europe, which currently have dominant voices in the IMF and would lose them in the case of true reform. But another important reason is that the BRICS are not unified in their demands for reform. For example, while Brazil, India and South Africa support reforming the UN Security Council to include more permanent members and to eliminate the veto power of the existing permanent members, China and Russia, as sitting permanent members, don’t. Similarly, not all the other BRICS have supported South Africa’s call for a third African seat on the IMF’s board of directors. Are there any downsides to BRICS membership? The global political and economic situation has changed dramatically since 2010. These changes have created both opportunities and challenges for the BRICS. One opportunity arises from the fact that  approximately 19 countries in the Global South, including Argentina, Cuba, Iran and Saudi Arabia, have expressed an interest in joining the BRICS. It is expected that the BRICS will consider the issue of membership at their upcoming August 2023 summit. Another opportunity arises from the growing interest around the world in having an alternative currency to the US dollar as the basis for the international financial system. The BRICS have been  vocal supporters of de-dollarisation. However, given the complex economic and political relations between the BRICS member states, there is considerable scepticism about the feasibility of the BRICS developing a new global currency in the near term. The primary challenges facing the BRICS arise from geopolitics. The war in Ukraine has created tensions within the BRICS. The participating states have been  forced to balance their respect for such international law principles as self-determination, sovereignty and peaceful resolution of disputes with their friendly relations with Russia. In addition, the BRICS cannot escape the fallout from the growing economic and security tensions  between China and the west, particularly the US. Both these issues complicate the efforts of the other BRICS to maintain their formal non-aligned position. They also exacerbate existing tensions within the BRICS. The most important example of this is the  complex and tense relationship  between India and China. In recent years, they have had military skirmishes in disputed border areas. In addition, India has imposed economic constraints on Chinese companies operating in India. The two countries have refused to renew the visas of journalists  from each country so that now there are almost no journalists from Chinese publications in India and vice versa. What hangs on the summit? South Africa faces another opportunity that is fraught with danger when it hosts the G20 in 2025. The G20, which brings together the 20 leading economic powers in the world, has called itself the “premier forum” for global economic governance. South Africa is currently the only permanent African member of the G20 and 2025 will be the first time the group is hosted by an African country. Planning for this G20 event must begin soon because in 2024 South Africa will join India, the current G20 host, and Brazil, the 2024 G20 host in the troika  that manages the G20 process. If the country does not plan carefully and effectively for this G20 event, South Africa risks emerging with a diminished reputation and its credibility shredded. — The Conversation. *About the interviewee: Danny Bradlow is professor/senior research fellow at the Centre for Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria, South Africa. South Africa’s role as host of the BRICS summit is fraught with dangers. A guide to who is in the group, and why it exists Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (left) with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa. NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023

Page 46 Reframing Issues JOHN MATISONN IN Zimbabwe, the majority of beneficiaries are small-scale black farmers, and they are often very productive. They now supply most of the tobacco that was previously the domain of white farmers. But they have received little or no support from government. Support has gone to the small number of farms now owned by the political elite. This is a form of rural State Capture with parallels to state capture under president Jacob Zuma. But South African scholars have concluded that land reform here has also favoured elites rather than farm workers or small-scale black farmers.  “The (land reform) system has been captured by the elite,” wrote Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, SC, in Land Matters, South Africa’s failed land reform and the road ahead.  “Women, who are meant to be the prime beneficiaries of land restitution, have been displaced from the queue by politicians and their cronies.” Ngcukaitobi is referring to chiefs and traditional leaders as well as local politicians. “Despite the government having been advised by at least three credible research-based bodies that the correct approach is to redistribute (Ingonyama Trust land) directly to the communities occupying it, there is official reluctance, as the state yields to the pressure exerted by chiefs and traditional institutions,” he wrote. Overall, South Africa’s land reform has had minimal impacts on poverty. There are now an estimated 400 000 farm workers in the formal farm sector, and about 200 000 black smallholder farmers who produce for the market (compared to 2 million who produce some extra food for their own use). “Land reform has been captured by elites,”  according to retired University of Western Cape Professor Ben Cousins. “The most powerful voices are those of emerging black capitalist farmers (often with non-farm incomes), traditional leaders, large-scale white commercial farmers and agribusiness corporates, who are all benefitting more than the poor.” Farmworkers have seen their wages improve, but many have been evicted, and now are casual South Africa’s elite handsomely benefit from land reform too or seasonal workers not living on farms. The biggest beneficiaries have been owners of large-scale commercial farms and agribusiness enterprises. The forces that lead to elite enrichment in post-liberation countries are obviously extremely powerful and little recognised. In the aftermath of liberation, both countries’ new governments lacked the political will to drive through a programme and stick with it until it succeeded. Both also took office in an era of globalisation, with strong forces demanding a move towards less and less government — obviously a trend that inhibits a strong government-driven land reform programme. Land reform agendas in South Africa were strongly influenced by resistance to forced removals for obvious reasons, rather than the economics of small scale agriculture and the role of common property resources. After 1994, South Africa deregulated agriculture, removing government programmes that had subsidised white farmers. Government abolished subsidies for credit, inputs and exports, and did away with single marketing boards. It also attempted to enforce housing security for farm workers and later a minimum wage. White farmers adapted as should have been expected — successful ones figured out ways to evict workers within the parameters of the Extension of Security of Tenure Act of 1997 and have done so in large numbers, and minimum wage requirements spurred farmers to greater mechanisation. Between 100 000 and 250 000 rural households are estimated to have benefited from land transfers, including land restitution. Some traditional leaders of mineral resource-rich land have become members of a wealthy rural elite. Tenure reform has been remarkably unsuccessful. There are reports of widespread and state-supported corruption by traditional leaders in areas with significant mineral endowments. Chiefs are seeking to extend the territories under their control through large restitution claims lodged under the amended act of 2014. Reformers propose that land reform and agriculture — food production — be linked, to be understood as part of the same process. Cousins and others argue that the first priorities need to be tenure reform and distribution of land to black small-scale farmers who have the most capacity to grow black agriculture. Looking back, it seems that the key reasons land reform has not been done properly were because aspects are politically risky, because doing it properly is difficult and requires increased budget, and because the lobbies that have had most influence have been large-scale agriculture. Farmworkers are weakly organised, and small-scale farmers’ Every thinking South African knows that the country must tackle the ticking time bomb of land reform. Zimbabwe’s chaotic mismanagement of the economy offers lessons we have to learn if the next round of South Africa’s journey is to avoid disaster. South Africa’s land reform has been captured by elites and its strategic thrust remains unclear. Reuters/Mike Hutchings NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023

Reframing Issues Page 47 interests are not adequately represented within organisations such as the African Farmers Association of SA (Afasa). As a result, land reform experts point out that the beneficiaries have been largescale agriculture, white and sometimes black, and small-scale black farmers have never had the support they need. To grow black farming requires planning, training and extension services that include access to capital and credit markets, inputs, transport, and marketing. Zimbabwe started off with advantages over South Africa — better agricultural extensions services, a better-educated population, and a considerable number of trained small-scale black farmers. Cousins proposes government target the 200 000 to 250 000 black smallholders who, “against all odds, already produce crops and livestock for sale in markets. People in this category clearly have the potential … to provide a platform for increasing levels of output from labour-intensive farming.” They currently supply informal traders and loose value chains with less demanding requirements than formal markets and supermarket chains. To level the playing field with large producers and corporate agribusiness, municipalities should provide markets and encourage the supply of small-scale farmers’ produce to institutions like schools, prisons and hospitals. With support, these smallscale producers will being to supply formal markets, grow and hire more workers. Land reform needs prior planning for all the elements going into farming: capital, equipment, training, extension services, infrastructure, seed production, fertiliser and transport. The more land under irrigation the better for job creation and poverty reduction. Tenure reform is needed to secure rights for women to not be dependent on male relatives or traditional leaders. The National Development Plan, published in 2012, said one million  new jobs could be created in agriculture, two-thirds in primary production, one third in secondary jobs in linked industries upstream. It proposed adding 500 000 hectares of irrigation from the current level of 1.5 million, converting underused arable land in communal areas and land reform projects giving black farmers access to value chains, encouraging higher levels of support from white farmers and agribusiness for black farmers. Unfortunately, it does not expand on how to increase tenure security of communal farmers, a political hot potato in the face of powerful traditional leaders. Communal tenure reform focused on transferring land to traditional leadership structures, with community members offered only “statutory user rights.” This prevents farmers from using their land as collateral to borrow money. The NDP predicted that the market for fresh vegetables will grow by 60% — a major opportunity requiring the reallocation of water rights. It saw substantial opportunities in citrus, table grapes, subtropical fruit and vegetables, smaller labour-intensive crops like nuts, berries, olives and figs and rooibos tea, and labour-extensive subsectors like poultry and grains and oilseeds. Rhetoric about land reform for smallholders disguised the complete neglect of small-scale producers, and funds for comprehensive support have largely been directed to a minority of larger-scale producers, Cousins said. Radical-sounding policy statements “disguise the elite bias of current policies”. As for the political calls to change the constitution to allow for confiscation without compensation, Cousins said that “insufficient political will is more of a constraint than the constitution.” — Daily Maverick. *About the writer: John Matisonn began his career on the Rand Daily Mail, received a prison sentence for refusing to divulge a source in the Muldergate scandal, and spent six years as a foreign correspondent in Washington DC before returning home as a foreign correspondent. After four years as a regulator on what is now the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (formerly the Independent Broadcasting Authority), he had two tours in Afghanistan as a senior United Nations official. Matisonn has published two books, God, Spies and Lies, Finding South Africa’s Future Through its Past, and  Cyril’s Choices, an Agenda for Reform. He is currently working on developmental policies to revive the South African economy. MATTHEW MARE THIS study reviewed this convention primarily to demonstrate how ambiguous legal terms are prone to manipulation. Treaties, conventions, protocols must be designed in a manner in which they serve the intended purpose for which they were crafted. The issue of the legal age of sexual consent and minimum age of marriage must be syncronised to ensure that there is harmony and no ambiguity between customary international law and civil international law. The International Convention on Minimum Age for Marriage was reviewed by this study to establish whether, at a global scale, there is a stipulated minimum marriageable age for women. The convention stipulates that no marriage shall be legally entered into without the full consent of both parties. Of concern to this clause is the use of subjective phrases which are open to subjective interpretation like the use of the term "both parties". Both parties can mean bride and groom, guardians or parents of both parties. The theology of Johanne Marange Apostolic Church (JMAC) encourages marriages within the church and that parents of both parties usually agree on behalf of their children. Thus, in the JMAC, parents retain the right to determine their children’s marriage, including who to marry and the circumstances under which one can marry. In the JMAC, children are from a tender age groomed to be parents and at the age of 12 they are trained to be mothers, hence consent under such a doctrine is tantamount to perpetuating child abuse. In addition, the convention urges member states to formulate legislation which limits minimum marriageable age and ensure that no marriage shall be entered into before the legal age of majority set out by the concerned state. This is subjective as this clause can be abused by states as the minimum age limit has not been standardised. In Zimbabwe, there is a contradiction with regard to the legal age of majority; there is no harmony between customary and civil law. Customary laws in Zimbabwe support the marriage of minors. In terms of customary law, a child can marry as long as he/she appears physically mature to get married. On that technicality, the JMAC theology, which use rites of passage as the basis for marriage, would be justified at law. The laws must be designed in a manner that does not bring legal ambiguities. The convention also states that states should take appropriate action to abolish customs and ancient laws that infringe on children’s rights. The clause decrees that children should be able to make free choices. It makes reference to puberty as a transition to adulthood. The study noted that obscure laws inhibit the rights of children because the aspect of puberty referred herein is very subjective and a child aged 10 years can undergo stages of puberty, and that should never be interpreted as indicative of the fact that child has become an adult and can make choices about marriage. In JMAC theology and doctrine, puberty is used to determine marriageable age and this has seen minors being married off to old people. Thus, some of the aspects in international conventions do not fully protect the rights of women and children. The other clause in the convention directs states to establish appropriate penalties for offenders who abuse women and children. Whilst the clause identified the state as having the sole obligation to come up with appropriate measures that fully protect and guarantee the rights of women and children, the clause erred by making reference to an ambiguous term: “appropriate”. What is meant by the term "appropriate" referred to in the clause? In JMAC, women and children are continuously having their rights infringed. The penalties present in Zimbabwe are not deterrent enough, and seem not to give women and children enough esteem and value. It can be argued that the state values chickens more than women and children since, for example, stealing a chicken (stock theft) has a mandatory nine-year jail term, yet child abuse can attract such penalties as a fine and community service. Qualitatively, chickens in Zimbabwe are given more protection than women and children, hence the subjective use of terms like "appropriate" depicts a lack of seriousness in eradicating child abuse. *About the writer: Matthew Mare is a Zimbabwean academic who holds two bachelor’s degrees, five master’s qualifications and a PhD. He is also doing another PhD and has 12 executive certificates in different fields. Professionally, he is a civil servant and also board member at the National Aids Council of Zimbabwe. Convention on minimum age of marriage NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023

Page 48 Obituary Ama Ata Aidoo: The pioneering writer from Ghana left behind a string of feminist classics ROSE A. SACKEYFIO PROLIFIC author and former Ghanaian education minister  Ama Ata Aidoo passed away on 31 May 2023 at the age of 81. News of her death reverberated  around the  world, proof of her towering influence in literary, feminist and political spaces. Aidoo was Ghana’s foremost woman writer and her distinguished career spanned several decades. Her literary contribution places her among the first generation of African women writers of the post-independence era. After  independence  in Ghana in 1957 she became a leading feminist voice within postcolonial writing. For over 20 years, my  research, scholarship and teaching has explored the literature of African women writers, including Aidoo. My work celebrates their remarkable contributions to women’s and gender studies through literary expression. Through a feminist lens, Aidoo’s writing conveys great insight into the complexities and challenges of African women’s lives in colonial and postcolonial societies. She writes about women who must navigate local norms and expectations, customs and traditions – including race, class and gender inequalities. A consummate storyteller, Aidoo captures in her body of writing the dynamism of Ghanaian and African women’s lives. Strong women characters exhibit intelligence and agency in the search for happiness and success. As a writer and an outspoken thinker, Aidoo was a pioneering global figure. Who was Ama Ata Aidoo? Aidoo was born on 23 March 1942 in southern Ghana to a royal family of the  Fante  ethnic community. Encouraged by her father to pursue western education, she began writing at 15. After completing school in Cape Coast, she attended the University of Ghana, where she majored in English literature. At university she participated in the Ghana Drama Studio and published her first play,  Dilemma of a Ghost, in 1965. This was the first play to be published in English by an African woman. Her teaching career began in 1970 and lasted for over a decade at the University of Cape Coast. But the unfavourable political climate in the country failed to nurture her creative talent. In 1982 she was appointed Minister of Education by head of state Jerry J. Rawlings. She resigned from her position in less than two years because of political repression and migrated to Zimbabwe, where she resumed writing and teaching. She subsequently taught in the US until her retirement in 2012. Her many literary works have been met with critical acclaim, documentaries  and  robust  scholarly  engagement. Her writing Aidoo repositioned women’s writing within a male-dominated canon in African literature during the mid1960s. Dilemma of a Ghost was followed by her second play, Anowa, in 1970. Her novels  Our Sister Killjoy: or Reflections of a Black-Eyed Squint (1977) and Changes: A Love Story  (1991) disrupted the stereotypical portrayals of women that were common in male-authored African texts. In both, Aidoo crafted strong, intelligent and outspoken female protagonists – a form of “writing back” to reclaim African women’s voices from the literary margins. Important themes in Aidoo’s works include postcolonial perspectives, feminist expression and the interplay of tradition and modernity. She also explored the relationship between Ghana and its diaspora in the rest of the world. Aside from her novels and drama, Aidoo produced multiple works across genres of  poetry,  short fiction,  essays  and literary criticism. Her literary style draws heavily upon African oral traditions and a combination of prose and poetry. Key works I am fortunate to have experienced a rewarding friendship with Aidoo that began in 2012, at the African Literature Association conference. I cherish the memory of her warmth and hospitality and her insightful perspectives on contemporary women’s issues. Her fiction inspired my early scholarly  engagement  with victimhood and agency in the work of African women writers and influenced my approach to feminist-inspired African texts. Of particular interest to me have been her novel Changes: A Love Story, the short story collection No Sweetness Here and the play Anowa. In these works Aidoo presents mixed outcomes for women characters as they respond to patriarchy, urbanisation and conflicting demands of modernity in Ghana. Changes skilfully examines the complexities of Ghanaian women’s difficult choices and their responsibility for their destiny in life. Aidoo interrogates the extent to which a woman who follows her own path ends up better off than the woman who obeys conventional social norms. No Sweetness Here portrays Ghanaian women faced with choices that challenge these norms and expectations and who must deal with the realities of the modern world of social flux and changing identity. Anowa is set in the 1800s in colonial Ghana, where feminist themes emerge through the actions of the female protagonist. Anowa rebels against her parents’ authority and traditional roles for women by marrying a man her family has rejected. The outcome for her is tragic. As an outspoken voice for women, Aidoo articulated the impact of social, economic and political forces on the lives of African women. She asserts: On the whole, African traditional societies seem to have been at odds with themselves as to what exactly to do with women. This dilemma lies at the crux of the feminist perspectives found in her writing. They underscore the pressing need for social transformation and equality for women. Legacy Aidoo’s legacy may be seen in the outpouring of African literature in the 21st century by women authors who now dominate the field. A new generation of leading women writers from Africa owe their inspiration to Ama Ata Aidoo and other pioneers like  Flora Nwapa  and  Buchi Emecheta  from Nigeria and Senegal’s  Mariama Ba. They all broke barriers for women as literary godmothers of feminist expression and through innovative ways of telling the African story. Ghana and the world may have lost a commanding presence on the literary stage but her works will remain as cherished classics in African and world literature. — The Conversation. *About the writer: Rose A. Sackeyfio is associate professor of English and liberal studies at Winston-Salem State University in the United States. NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023

Africa News Page 49 ‘It should become a way of life’ Brigadier-General Daniel Kuwali of the Malawi Defence Force (MDF) says coup prevention begins with education, culture. Brig-Gen Kuwali served in the directorate of legal services for the MDF for 23 years. During that time, he became chief of legal services and then was appointed the first judge advocate-general of the MDF. He also has served as legal adviser in the United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and has taught and published widely on topics including human rights, the use of force and humanitarian law. In 2022, he graduated from the resident course as an international fellow at the U.S. Army War College and returned to Malawi, where he was appointed the nation’s first commandant of the National Defence College. This African Defence Forum (ADF) Interview has been edited for space and clarity. ADF: You graduated from law school and then joined the Malawi Defence Force. Why did you choose to join the military instead of opting for a legal career in the private sector? Kuwali: Interesting question! Well, first and foremost was, and still is, my patriotism — the desire to serve my country. It was the fact that I would be able to direct my education, expertise and experience toward service of my country and its people. Second is the discipline, physical fitness and mental health regimens obtained in the military. They mold a person to be well rounded. Then, once you join the military, you find a huge pool of family and friends, which you tend to cherish. So, in short, my passion for service above self has been the driving factor for me to serve my country. ADF: What is the importance of having a strong legal framework for military operations? How does it lead to disciplined and accountable armed forces? How does it help engender trust from civilians? Kuwali: To your first question, the military should operate within the law because of the constitutional principles of rule of law and accountability. In a democracy, no person or institution is above the law. What that means is that every person can be held accountable for their acts or omission. So, everyone has to act within the law or else their conduct shall be held to be ultra vires or outside of legal bounds, and that warrants liability. Second, like in any sport such as football, any player who follows the rules of the game is regarded as disciplined and professional, thereby winning the support of the fans. For example, looking at compliance with the Law of Armed Conflict, militaries that comply with the law achieve economy of effort, avoid the commission of crimes, and earn the trust and respect of civilians, both in the mission area and at home. Eventually, these contribute to the morale of troops. The civilian population, including the legislature, is also keen to provide support to troops that do not embarrass them but instead fly the flag high. ADF:  You served as the legal advisor for the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). What types of unique challenges did you face there? Kuwali: My tour of duty as a peacekeeper in the DRC was an eye-opener. In short, it helped me apply theory to practice. I saw that human rights violations do not come in obvious packages. They are hidden in plain sight, and it takes a discerning tact and skill to figure them out. For example, if you see an armed bandit blocking people on their way to a polling station, one may not realise that this criminal is infringing on their right to vote, freedom of movement, even threatening their right to life. I faced challenging dilemmas as to what a military commander should do if women and children surround war criminals who are targeting peacekeepers. Is it legitimate to attack such a human shield where peacekeepers have been killed? How do you deal with a habitual offender who has been terrorizing a village and escapes from a detention center unarmed? Does a Soldier shoot to kill, to harm, or not shoot at all? These are not academic questions. Neither are they just legal questions; they have political considerations, too. As a legal advisor, you must advise in a split second. This requires one to be on top of their game. ADF: There has been a recent upsurge in coups d’état on the continent. How do you explain this trend? Kuwali: Military coups have occurred where troops capitalize on civic discontent to seize power from civil authorities, as was the case in Sudan in 2019. In other cases, such as Guinea in 2021, leaders seeking to cling to power flouted the electoral process and made amendments to the constitution to extend term limits. These actions increased public support for the military to seize power. While there cannot be a one-size-fits-all explanation for the proliferation of coups, the causal factors include poverty, insecurity and poor governance. Other contributing factors are endemic corruption and economic mismanagement, infrastructural deficits, poor socio-economic systems and institutions, and frustrated youths. Africa experienced 82 coups d’état between 1960 and 2000 before the African Union was established. Between 2000 and 2022, the continent has witnessed 22 coups. This is a worrisome trend. ADF: Do you see any commonalities between these countries? Do you think coups are “contagious” and become more likely either regionally or continentally once one occurs? Kuwali: Coups involve calculations of costs and benefits by plotters. The obvious benefits include power and access to state resources. The costs include the risk of death or prosecution and imprisonment. Coups d’état have a domino effect such that a successful coup significantly increases the probability of subsequent coups in that country and its neighbors. Therefore, if the putschists act with impunity, the trajectory of military takeovers will continue. Although the AU has prohibited unconstitutional changes of governments, its response to recent coups reflects a waning resolve to enforce anti-coup norms, which is one of its foundational principles –– complete with sanctions –– against errant parties. Unless the AU demonstrates resolve in condemning unconstitutional changes of government, it will promote a regional democratic recession. Malawian Brig. Gen. Daniel Kuwali NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023

Page 50 Africa News World News The AU should enforce Article 25 of the African Charter of Democracy, Elections and Governance by consistently imposing sanctions and referring perpetrators of coups for prosecution without exception. ADF:  As a student of history, what have you seen as the short-term and long-term ramifications for a country that experiences a coup? Kuwali: Putschists usually promise to reverse the tide and provide socioeconomic dividends to citizens. However, there is little or no evidence that coups improve governance and economic development. The opposite is true. Those who break the law in the first place cannot be expected to follow the law. Running a country requires leadership, competence and skills beyond military campaigning, strategy and tactics. Coups cannot be solutions to the inability of democracy to deliver public goods and security to the people. These stratagems are the very antithesis of a democratic culture. Therefore, coups should be condemned as a matter of principle. ADF:  What are the common factors in countries such as Malawi that have avoided nondemocratic transfers of power? Do they share any characteristics? Kuwali: Countries that abhor coups and undemocratic transfers of power have strong oversight institutions that check executive overreach and uphold the rule of law. This is due to independent judiciaries, people-centric legislatures, vibrant media and independent electoral bodies. These countries also do not imprison human rights defenders. They establish conflict prevention mechanisms and robust security sector governance. They tend to have healthy civil-military relations and respect for democratic control of the armed forces. It is unfortunate that the recent rise in coups has overshadowed successful transfers of power in many countries that uphold constitutionalism. This includes most countries in southern Africa, stable democracies in East Africa, especially Tanzania, and West Africa’s biggest democracies such as Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal. ADF: From a military perspective, what can be done in terms of training, professional military education and security sector reform to reverse the trend of coups? Kuwali: If you take a deeper dive, you will notice that most of the putschists fall outside the rank blanket of leaders who are targeted for security sector governance training. Such training is akin to preaching to the converted. It will, therefore, be prudent to cast the net wider to ensure that Soldiers — whatever their rank or responsibilities — understand and uphold the principle of civilian control of the military. On their part, civilian authorities and political leaders should increase their understanding of the security sector and facilitate periodical, meritorious promotions; transparent recruitment processes; and appropriate training to retain the trust of the armed forces. ADF:  So lower-ranking members of the armed forces don’t have enough access to strategic training? Kuwali: The challenge in the setup of the military is that you have the strategic level, the operational level and the tactical level. That has its own challenges in the sense that issues of security sector governance are not taught at the tactical level. Troops at the operational level — and these are most of the people who have been involved in coups d’état –– do not have an idea of issues relating to security sector governance or issues relating to civilian control of the armed forces. My suggestion is that we need to start teaching issues at that level so that Soldiers grow up understanding these issues. It should become a way of life to respect civilian authorities as people who have control over the military, because these are the people who have been voted into office by citizens. It should be a way of life to respect this, because that’s what you are supposed to do in a democracy. We shouldn’t just start when leaders have risen high up in the ranks. They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, so the earlier we start, the better. In that case, we will have a critical mass of people who understand democratic principles. ADF:  What are your shortterm goals for leading the soonto-be-established Malawi National Defence College (NDC)? Kuwali: My short-term goal is to come up with a solid, comprehensive syllabus that will look at the needs of the Malawi Defence Force and Malawi as a nation, as well as looking at how the MDF, along with allies, can counter contemporary threats. Number two, we have to have the college established. We’ve identified a place but are waiting for government procedures. Once we do that, I will have to come up with a team who will be teaching the courses. ADF: What are your long-term goals? Kuwali: My long-term goal is to have as many course participants as possible who can go through the corridors of the NDC in Malawi and to also have the institution as a center of excellence. It should be an institution of choice for leaders, not just in Malawi, but across the continent. We also want to have our own niche. We should develop indigenous warfighting strategies to see how best we can improve them. We cannot just be adopting strategies that have worked elsewhere. We need to dig deep into the military history of African countries, because too often we’re just looking at world wars to draw lessons. We need to look at our own wars to see what triggered them and how they ended. In so doing we will find our own indigenous or traditional ways of resolving conflicts. Apart from that we want to develop conflict prevention mechanisms. Neighboring states should not be looking at each other as threats; they need to be looking at each other as neighbors. We need to come up with exercises for conflict resolution as part of our strategy of confidence building on the African continent. — African Defence Forum. Kuwali signs a guest book at the Kentucky State Capitol building in Frankfort during a two-day engagement with the Kentucky National Guard’s Staff Judge Advocates. SGT. JESSE ELBOUAB/U.S. ARMY NewsHawks Issue 135, 9 June 2023