HARARE - Prominent businessman MacDonald Chapfika is battling to block the sale of his household property that was attached by a law firm over unpaid legal fees.

Chapfika, who had his exclusive deal to supply Harare City Council with water treatment chemicals cancelled in 2010 due to overpricing, failed to pay $10 000 owed to P Chiutsi Legal Practitioners, which recently got a writ of execution from the Harare Magistrates’ Courts to attach his property.

The ruling empowered the Messenger of Court to proceed to Chapfika’s farm in Mutoko to attach the property.

However, Chapfika — brother to former deputy Finance minister David Chapfika — filed an urgent ex parte chamber application at the same court for stay of execution, arguing the attached property actually belonged to his wife.

“The goods attached are household goods at my farm in Mutoko, the bulk of which belong to my wife. It goes without saying that an attachment and subsequent removal of household property causes excruciating mental anguish on my wife as it deprives the family of their source of comfort and entertainment at the farm,” argues Chapfika in court papers.

He also argues that the property attachment would tarnish his image and compromise his businesses.

“The said attachment and possible removal of my goods is likely to tarnish my image in the eyes of my business associates and my neighbours,” he says.

Chapfika further contends that he never agreed to pay P Chiutsi Legal Practitioners $10 000 as legal fees.

“I never agreed on any fees as high as the extortionate and stratospheric $10 000 that the second respondent (the law firm) is claiming. After persistent and unreasonable demands for payment, I paid the second respondent $2 000 and a further $1 000 after further demands. I therefore vehemently deny that I am indebted to the second respondent as claimed in the matter,” reads Chapfika’s application.

Among the property listed to go under the hammer is a water pump, two generators, chairs, carpets, side tables, a projector and dining set with a table and nine chairs, among other items.

This is not the first time Chapfika is fighting debt-related lawsuits.

In 2014, he lost property valued at $21 000 that was attached after he failed to repay a debt to Nelhurst Trading.

The property was attached from his upmarket Glen Lorne home in Harare.

In 2011, the High Court ordered the sale of a double storey house he owned after he defaulted on a $300 000 CBZ loan.

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HARARE - Harare City Council (HCC) risks losing its property as Mbare residents, who successfully sued it after blocked drains caused flooding of their homes, have secured a writ of execution.

Speaking to the Daily News this week, the lawyer representing the 43 residents, Allan Moyo, said they were moving to submit the paperwork, then attach the local authority’s property.

“I cannot pre-empt when the attachment would be done but once it happens, you will know. The writ is already there. It is only a matter of time,” Moyo said.

On Tuesday, High Court judge Justice David Mangota ruled in favour of the aggrieved residents, who wanted compensation for the clothes, food, and household goods damaged by flood waters in January.

“It is ordered that defendant is ordered to pay the plaintiffs sum of $57 556,70 together with costs from date of summons at the rate of five percent to date of full payment. Defendant to pay costs of the suit,” read Mangota’s judgment.

Residents, who spoke to the Daily News, said while it took more than four months to have their case finalised, at least they can now move on.

One of the residents, Tressie Taruvinga, said for some time, she had lost all hope of getting any compensation from HCC.

“Justice has now been served. We can now replace the stuff that was damaged. Most of the people had given up hope and had looked for alternatives to what was spoiled.

“But we want council to uphold the order by Local Government minister Saviour Kasukuwere to demolish part of the complex to avoid future floods,” she said.

HCC spokesperson Michael Chideme was not reachable for comment on whether council would appeal the decision or not.

At the height of the floods, Kasukuwere ordered that the shopping complex constructed adjacent to the affected residents’ homes be demolished.

“The water that usually flowed freely is now backwashing into their homes. That complex should be removed if it does not meet the Environmental Management Agency approval,” he said.

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HARARE - Zimbabwean banks are phasing out paper-based Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) transactions, with Standard Chartered (Stanchart) being the latest in announcing the move.

This comes as banks have recorded a massive surge in RTGS transactions due to the deepening cash crisis.

Some of the banks which have migrated from paper-based RTGSs to processing electronic ones only include the CBZ and Ecobank.

On Thursday, Stanchart notified its clients that they were stopping paper-based RTGS transactions with effect from September 1, 2017.

“Paper RTGS and TT (telegraphic) transactions will not be accepted from tomorrow,” it said.

A TT is used for transferring funds primarily for overseas wire transactions. While banking Zimbabweans have been eager to adopt self-service transactions due to convenience and flexibility, with many flocking to online and mobile banking, they have largely been reluctant to switch to paperless statements.

Banks currently offer self-service platforms such as mobile banking, online banking, e-statements, although many ATMs have been rendered useless by the prevailing cash shortage.

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MUTARE - Top educationists have slammed Zimbabweans for snubbing polytechnic colleges in preference for universities, only for them to be stuck with degrees but without employment.

Mutare Polytechnic College principal Poniso Watema and tertiary education expert Hardson Kwandai said most people underrate polytechnic training institutions because they generally do not award degrees.

They argued that unlike degrees, polytechnic qualifications equipped students for self and informal employment.

Zimbabwe has around 10 polytechnic colleges, with some offering degree programmes of late.

Watema said her college was struggling to enrol as few as 10 students for some of their practical programmes like wood technology.

“The problem is with parents who still consider practical courses as only suitable for students they think are not academically gifted. It’s very sad,” she told the Daily News.

Kwandai concurred, blaming universities for not researching about the job market and using curriculums that are out of sync with the prevailing economic environment.

He said most university degrees on offer are poorly attuned to help graduates perform effectively and blend in the country’s current economic situation.

“We do not study the field where we claim to be specialists . . . other countries like the US and Canada have been doing it from the 1950s. China was very smart . . . they sent people there to study and are now doing very well. “You cannot just produce graduates without having a clear focus in terms of what they can do,” said Kwandai, who holds a higher education PHD.

He said Zimbabwe was not benefitting from diploma education because people are obsessed with acquiring degrees.

“Parents should be well aware that it is not enough to send a child to university without considering what they are going to do.”

He said most universities across the African continent were offering redundant degrees, resulting in many jobless graduates, because of lack of research on training needed in a given political and economic environment.

“How many people are unemployed? So many, but we continue to produce the same skills. There is no link between the labour market and the institutions of higher learning.

“Reason, there is no research as to who do we want to produce. The problem is not just in Zimbabwe but Africa as well,” Kwandai said.

He said students must interrogate and understand the link between skills and opportunities.

“Higher education is not something that you can study for one year and you come to a full understanding of it. Employers, labour unions should understand it . . . and student unions too. They should not only demand food for students.

“They should know whether what they are studying is worthwhile. Universities should also provide evidence of this by showing what former students are doing as a result of the training they got from each degree programme,” Kwandai said.

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HARARE - Opposition parties have petitioned the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec), challenging Registrar-General (RG) Tobaiwa Mudede’s pronouncement that metal identity cards (IDs) will not be used in the voter registration process ahead of the 2018 elections.

Coalescing under the National Electoral Reforms Agenda (Nera) Youth Forum banner, the parties argue that in terms of electoral regulations, the RG is not qualified to make any official pronouncements on election related issues.

“We applaud the announcement by the RG that a nationwide programme of issuing out registration documents, particularly birth certificates and national identity cards will be commencing on Monday, September 4, 2017 in preparation of the oncoming biometric voter registration.

“However, we are greatly disturbed by the remarks that holders of metal identity cards will have to replace their IDs with plastic ones to be able to vote. The registrar cites that the metal IDs are not machine readable hence the need for holders of the same to replace them,” Nera Youth Forum head of information and publicity, Davis Mukushwa, said in an August 31 letter.

This comes as Zec is at the cusp of opening the biometric voter registration (BVR) exercise for prospective voters for the crucial 2018 polls.

However, Nera Youth Forum is concerned about Mudede’s pronouncements.

“It is our solemn understanding that in accordance with the electoral regulations, namely the Constitution of Zimbabwe, the Electoral Act and such other substantive regulations, (Mr) Mudede is not qualified to make any official pronouncements on election related matters. Furthermore, the issue of metal IDs never surfaced at the tendering, validation and testing stages of BVR,” Mukushwa said.

Zec is yet to respond.

Nera Youth Forum’s letter also comes after civic group, Zimbabwe Election Support Network (Zesn), has since challenged Mudede to provide ample information on the new development.

“Zesn calls for more comprehensive information specifying whether the replacements of the IDs will be made at a cost as well as other key information on the operational schedule for the exercise.

“Furthermore, Zesn requests the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to provide information to the public on its position regarding these developments about ‘aliens’ and the use of metal IDs given that they have a direct impact on the voter registration process, which the commission is about to embark on in a few weeks’ time,” said Zesn.

Another civil society group, ZimRights, yesterday also said there is need for adequate information on implementation of the process.

“The RG’s office should carry out robust information campaigns using different information channels during the coming three months in which the mobile registration will be taking place,” Zimrights said in a statement, adding that it is a daunting task for those with metal IDs to change to plastic ones in time to register for the next elections.

In a statement recently, Zec said they will only register a person with the requisite identification documents and proof of residence or an affidavit signed by a commissioner of oaths.

“In terms of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, aliens do not qualify for registration. One has to be a citizen who is 18 years and above to be registered as a voter. Zec is calling upon all those who are eligible for citizenship status before the registration exercise commences.

“Zec will not, during the biometric voter registration exercise, register any person whose citizenship is not confirmed by the national ID or other identity document lawfully issued by the registrar-general. Zec cannot grant or deny citizenship. Zec can only register adult citizens as confirmed by the registrar,” the Commission’s chief elections officer, Constance Chigwamba, said.

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HARARE - Zanu PF bigwigs and their allies who are in the habit of denigrating and insulting President Robert Mugabe will be cursed by God, First Lady Grace Mugabe has warned.

Addressing supporters at a Zanu PF youth interface rally — the seventh out of a targeted 10 around the country’s provinces — in Gweru, Grace, who was unusually mellow, said it was wrong to insult Mugabe because “he knew about God before he was conceived in his mother’s womb hence disrespecting him will invite misfortune”.

“If you see bad things happening to you, don’t turn around and say  . . . Mugabe bewitched me. Listen to me because I am your mother. Those who insult the president and his family will not be blessed by God,” she said.

Her remarks come as Mugabe’s deputy, Emmerson Mnangagwa — seen as the 93-year-old leader’s heir apparent — was allegedly poisoned at a similar Zanu PF rally about a fortnight ago.

The vice president’s allies insinuated that Mnangagwa, who was rushed to South Africa after brief treatment in Zimbabwe, had eaten ice cream from Gushungo Dairy which is owned by the Mugabes.

Grace urged the Midlands Province, Mnangagwa’s home area, to be united in support of her husband as the party’s endorsed presidential candidate in next year’s general elections.

“I hope Midlands you are not involved in factionalism like you have said today but the information coming through suggests otherwise unless you are telling me that beginning today you have changed then I will be convinced,” she said.

“President Mugabe probably thought that he would only become a teacher but God had other plans for him.

“He had a bigger job for him and he still wants him to lead. The president will tell us when he wants to step down.”

Grace has never shied away from taking head on party officials who show ambition to succeed her husband, particularly war veterans led by Christopher Mutsvangwa.

The veterans of the country’s 1970s liberation struggle have since last year been brazenly attacking Mugabe, commanding him to stand down for their preferred candidate — Mnangagwa, popularly known as Ngwena (crocodide)

They accuse Mugabe of dictatorial tendencies and say at the ripe age of 93, the nonagenarian is now difficult to market as a presidential candidate.

With the war veterans apparently realising that Mugabe was not about to hand over power, now  they have escalated their fight with the First Family — this time by poking fun at Grace  — whom they are portraying as a failed mother through T-shirts carrying disparaging messages.

Pictures of the T-shirts, emblazoned with Grace’s face, have gone viral on social media and are worn by the ex-combatants led by Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association secretary-general Victor Matemadanda.

“Control your children first. Grace a failed mum; her sons unruly rogues failing only with two boys, can’t mother 14 million,” reads the message on the T-shirt.

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GWERU - A medical doctor who attended to Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa in South Africa about three weeks ago revealed to President Robert Mugabe recently that the 74-year-old politician was poisoned, stoking further suspicions in the deeply-divided Zanu PF party.

Mnangagwa had to be airlifted to South Africa for emergency treatment after suddenly falling ill while attending a Zanu PF youth interface rally in Gwanda about three weeks ago.

He had been part of an entourage of senior Zanu PF and government officials who attended the Zanu PF youth interface meeting held at Pelandaba Stadium in Matabeleland South.

Ending weeks of speculation over what could have happened to his deputy on the fateful day, Mugabe revealed to his audience yesterday that Mnangagwa’s doctors had briefed him about three days ago that he did not suffer from food poisoning as had been claimed earlier.

He also exonerated Health and Child Care minister David Parirenyatwa and Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi from any alleged wrongdoing, saying their hands were clean.

Zanu PF activist and a loyalist of Mnangagwa, Energy Mutodi, had made sensational claims a few days ago that the two Cabinet ministers had a lot of questions to answer over what had happened in Gwanda.

There were also some in Zanu PF who were claiming that Mnangagwa fell ill after eating ice cream from Gushungo Dairy, owned by the First Family.

“Some were saying he ate our ice cream, which is very tasty and that we laced it with poison and Mnangagwa said he did not eat any ice cream,” Mugabe told party supporters at a youth interface rally in Gweru yesterday.

“Sekeramayi and Parirenyatwa were accused of being witches, but we had them during the war and they have been taking care of our soldiers and, imagine, some are saying they are the people who poisoned our colleagues. But this is coming from people who are waffling,” he added.

Mugabe said people should not make serious allegations without any shred of evidence as it was even outlawed during white minority rule, under the Witchcraft Suppression Act.

Widely regarded as Mugabe’s heir-apparent, Mnangagwa broke his silence on Thursday by revealing that he did not partake of any ice cream while in Gwanda.

He, however, kept the nation guessing as to what really happened to him by not revealing the source of his sudden illness, which was characterised by vomiting and a running stomach.

Mnangagwa only resumed his official government duties on Tuesday after a three-week absence.

On Thursday, Mnangagwa issued a tease press statement, denying that he ever ate ice cream from Gushungo Dairy.

“The insinuation that I partook of ice-cream from the said dairy is false and mischievous, and being peddled by unscrupulous elements with the sinister agenda of creating a rift between me and the First Family, lower market confidence in products from the dairy and cause unnecessary alarm and despondency among peace-loving Zimbabweans,” said Mnangagwa.

But according to Mugabe, his deputy went through a painful treatment process while in South Africa and escaped death by a whisker.

“Mnangagwa wanted me to know what had happened to him and how he suffered and his doctor came and explained to me about three days ago — and explained in great detail what happened. We were at the State House with the doctor for more than an hour and he explained what had happened. He said Mnangagwa has been his patient for more than 20 years and he said that it was not food poisoning. He said when they screened his blood there was no food poisoning,” he told his audience in Gweru yesterday.

“But what amazed us was how Mnangagwa vomited and had diarrhoea and there was swelling and they fought a battle to save him. They gave him about four drips in succession . . . they said he had lost blood and they fought a battle to save his life. He was put on continuous drips, he had lost blood. Anga akuenda murume uyu (He almost died). He told me that he had lost track of what was happening, he does not hide anything from me, his brain was being affected,” said Mugabe.

“He is now fit again, asimba (he is fit), he is back. The doctor said we will keep investigating to find out what may have caused the sickness, but it’s not food poisoning, they said they will continue monitoring him to ensure that we find what caused that and indeed we want to know the answers,” said Mugabe.

So serious was the poisoning that Mnangagwa, who has visibly lost weight, is no longer eating meat, Mugabe revealed yesterday.

“I wanted to tell you what really happened to your comrade. (He) is now fit again and he is now strong,” said Mugabe, as he asked Mnangagwa the name of the South African doctor who had attended to him.

It is still not clear if Mnangagwa will file a police report to pave way for investigations.

Last week, the Zimbabwe Republic Police told the Daily News that no such report had been filed thus far.

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HARARE - Cabinet ministers Sydney Sekeramayi and David Parirenyatwa have written to Energy Mutodi signalling their intention to sue the controversial businessman for sensationally claiming that they were behind the alleged poisoning of Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the Daily News can report.

Mutodi claimed on his Facebook wall last week that Defence minister Sekeramayi and Health and Child Care minister Parirenyatwa, who are both medical doctors, were behind the alleged poisoning of Mnangagwa in Gwanda last month.

But in a letter dated August 30, 2017, the two senior government officials wrote through their lawyers — Dzikamai Machingura Legal Practitioners — that Mutodi should remove the offending post from his Facebook timeline; retract his statement and pay defamation damages to the tune of $20 000 to each one of them.

“We are instructed that on or about the 25th of August 2017 at 1:11pm, an article entitled Two ministers top suspects in ED poison case, whose content concerned our clients and others was posted on the timeline of your Facebook account under the alias Energy Mutodi. There is no doubt that your Facebook account is widely viewed and we are instructed that as of time of this letter, you had 15 604 Facebook followers. Further, the particular post was shared 18 times by other Facebook users, further broadening the viewership of the post,” the letter read in part.

The lawyers representing the Cabinet ministers went on to claim that the words in the context of the post and in their natural and ordinary meaning and or by implication, the words were wrongful and defamatory of their clients in that they were intended and were understood by Mutodi’s Facebook followers to mean that they conspired to poison Mnangagwa.

They further argued that the words were taken to mean that they were malevolent characters with no respect for life, that they abused their specialist knowledge as medical doctors and that they had conspired to fabricate false allegations that Mnangagwa had been poisoned at a rally after consuming ice cream from Gushungo Dairy, owned by President Robert Mugabe’s family.

“The article and words published by you are bereft of truth, and wholly uncalled for. We therefore contend that you were grossly negligent and reckless, on account of this, lowered our clients’ esteem in the eyes of the public.

“We have therefore have been instructed to demand from you that you immediately and forthwith remove the offending post from your Facebook timeline and pay defamation damages in the amount of $20 000 to our respective clients,” reads part of the letter.

Apart from the sum of $40 000, Mutodi has been instructed to post an apology on Facebook and also publish it in two newspapers.

But Mutodi came out guns blazing yesterday, saying the onus was on Sekeramayi and Parirenyatwa to prove their innocence.

“There is need for the police to do a thorough investigation on the happenings of the 12th of August around . . . Mnangagwa. It is not in dispute that . . . Mnangagwa consumed poisoned food on that day and that he did not eat ice cream from Gushungo Dairy.

“The two accused ministers must therefore not jump the gun and start claiming defamatory damages before being cleared either by the courts of law.

“There is no judge who has heard the matter and determined their innocence. After all, all what I put to the public is hearsay evidence that now needs to be corroborated by police investigations. It is my belief that should police do a thorough job on the investigations, both direct and real evidence incriminating the two accused persons can be found,” said Mutodi.

Mnangagwa, who is touted as a possible successor to Mugabe, was last month airlifted to South Africa after falling ill while attending a Zanu PF youth interface rally in Gwanda.

Mnangagwa’s alleged poisoning incident has further strained relations among mistrusting Zanu PF senior officials.

Government has claimed Mnangagwa — seen as the most likely official to take over from Mugabe in the event that he leaves office — consumed “stale food”.

Mnangagwa’s family and allies insist, however, that the vice president was poisoned by rivals.

There has been widespread speculation that Mnangagwa consumed food poisoned by his Zanu PF rivals in an attempt to physically eliminate him from the succession race.

With Mugabe turning 94 in February next year, fierce jostling has emerged among his top lieutenants who believe they have what it takes to succeed him.

The race, which has been on for the past two decades, has had its intrigues.

Four vice presidents have so far succumbed to varying ailments, denying them of the opportunity to get a chance to run for the top office.

These are Joshua Nkomo (1917–1999); Simon Muzenda (1922–2003); Joseph Msika (1923–2009) and John Landa Nkomo (1934–2013).

More interestingly, Joice Mujuru, once seen as a shoo-in to take over from Mugabe, was fired from Zanu PF and government in 2014 for plotting to dethrone her boss using unconstitutional means.

Mujuru, who is now leading the National People’s Party, had deputised Mugabe for about 10 years.

Nicknamed “the crocodile” in the Shona language, Mnangagwa was appointed after the sacking of Mujuru.

But since taking over from Mujuru, Mnangagwa has found himself facing similar charges from his internal rivals of plotting to unseat Mugabe.

In the past, there have been six break-ins at his offices with his allies saying those were plots to eliminate him.

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HARARE - President Robert Mugabe — a former educationist himself — last week officially opened the Education Conference and Expo 2017 in Harare, a story which was carried in Friday’s edition of our sister paper, the Daily News.

While the conference may have been valuable for headmasters and teachers who attended, the $115 schools were forced to pay as affiliation fees for the conference must have left certain schools in dire financial situations.

Rural schools, whose catchment areas are confined to peasant families in and around the villages, peg modest fees per term with most parents entering into payment plans with the respective institutions.

Satellite schools as well as those in resettlement areas have very low enrolment figures, which essentially means lean revenue bases. These cannot compare with urban schools, which boast of four-digit enrolment figures, in terms of the cash they generate through tuition and levy fees.

The latter institutions even afford to fund infrastructural projects of their own within the schools, while their rural counterparts mostly rely on the catchment community’s labour for bricks and other odd jobs.

On the whole, the majority of them operate on shoestring budgets, making it very difficult for them to part with such an amount for the purposes of a conference.

If the Primary and Secondary Education ministry felt very strongly about the value of the conference, then they should have made efforts to find partners who would subsidise essential programmes for them.

Besides, filling a whole auditorium with hundreds — if not thousands — of teachers and headmasters donning the same colour of shirts emblazoned with a government badge made them look like clowns in some institution’s uniform.

Some schools struggle to get adequate resources for functioning, including chalk, learners’ as well as teachers’ books over and above other requirements like furniture, sports equipment among others. Forcing them to foot extra costs, which they had not budgeted for sounds grossly unfair and in the long-run may only do the learners a disservice.

It is important for government through the Primary and Secondary Education ministry to consult widely on funding models of such conferences as there could be organisations willing to partner them in making their programmes success stories.

Zimbabwe’s economy, bereft of the traditional manufacturing that used to take place in its industries, has shed many jobs in the process pushing most parents of school-going children into the informal sector, mainly vending.

In a way, the current economic challenges also affect schools in a big way. Once parents struggle to raise money for fees, this will also bite the schools in a big way.

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HARARE - A recent report on Zimbabwe authored by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) creates the impression that efforts of the economic team driving the country’s revival agenda are being undermined by political circumstances.

It notes that this economic team was forced to pay the 13th cheque in 2016 by government mandarins, which bonus payment had not been budgeted for.

Lately, there have been reports about President Robert Mugabe also reversing the decision to retrench 2 000 civil servants who were employed under the ministry of Youth.

What is coming out from all this is that there is conflict between economics and politics. It is also being implied that our economic think-tanks are not the cause of the rise in the fiscal deficit and the implications thereof.

A strong relationship exists between economics and politics. In fact, the performance of the economy has always been one of the key political battlegrounds in Zimbabwe and elsewhere.

Economic policy involves combining economics with a broader understanding of how to make policy work, whether politically, administratively, or otherwise.

Economists need political support to push through their policies and due to the fact that many economic issues are inherently political. Resultantly, economists need to be aware of this interplay to ensure that economics does not lose its appeal.

The next question then is; who should manage the economy — unelected professional economists or politicians who get elected but might not know about economics?

There’s no easy answer.

Naturally, it should be both. In a democracy, this should be the responsibility of elected politicians whose decisions should be based on advice from impartial economists and the electorate.

Their decisions should be based on evidence rather than looking for something to justify their political ideologies.

The IMF’s reports on Zimbabwe seem to suggest that Zimbabwe’s sound economic policies are frustrated by politics, given that some “good” policy recommendations do not see the light of the day while other “good” policies are reversed or some “bad” policies are imposed on technocrats.

Our challenges are largely fiscal and structural. Those that remain unresolved are political in nature. We have, therefore, seen failure by both the economists and politicians to understand and accommodate each other.

There also seems to be differences in ideology or schools of thought between these parties.

Our technocrats are more on the neo liberal side while the political side is shaped more by the Marxists or socialist background.

Resultantly, our technocrats, to some extent, view politicians as people with limited understanding of economics. As such, they want them to implement policies that may even push the politicians “out of power”.

The attendant resistance to some of the neo liberal policy options by politicians has now resulted in the country having a “good economic team” versus “bad politicians”.

The technocrats are happy with the pat on the back they get from international institutions for the recommendations they make even though some are not implemented or a fraught with delays.

Isn’t it time economists also seek to understand the other view and see how they can be blended together in a manner that reduces tension and moves the country forward?

Our economists believe that our salvation is in the IMF and hence they try by all means to please them and force government into arrangements, which principals have doubts in terms of their materialisation.

In the past, Zimbabwe paid $100 million to the fund, with the hope that we would get funding from the IMF. Lately, the country was working on the Lima debt arrears clearance programme, which has not yet materialised.

According to the IMF, the Lima process is said to be “facing severe headwinds” because of the need for a strong reform agenda on “political and governance reforms, including human and property rights” to facilitate debt treatment and the unlocking of financial support. This is despite the fact that the multilateral institutions were all engaged at the same time and had agreed to the proposal.

Politicians see through these things that economists fail to see and at the end of the day feel vindicated on the need to go it alone.

At the same time, it signals a marked shift in goal posts by the multilateral institutions and the tone of the language now mimics that of the major shareholders.

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HARARE - With Zimbabweans already in an election mode ahead of crunch polls next year, the coming together of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and his former allies, who had broken ranks with him under various circumstances, had brought hope to long-suffering citizens that at long last change was coming their way.

Amid incessant calls for opposition parties to join forces and field one presidential candidate if they were to entertain any realistic chances of defeating President Robert Mugabe, Tsvangirai and his erstwhile former secretaries-general — Welshman Ncube and Tendai Biti — recently committed themselves to a coalition after they formed the MDC Alliance at the Zimbabwe Grounds in the capital on August 5.

Ncube and Biti had broken ranks with Tsvangirai in 2005 and 2014 respectively in acrimonious circumstances citing irreconcilable differences.

While Ncube did not agree with Tsvangirai on whether or not to participate in the 2005 senatorial elections, Biti broke away citing the need for leadership renewal following the MDC loss to Zanu PF in the 2013 elections.

Despite their well-document rivalry, Biti and Ncube have embraced Tsvangirai through the MDC Alliance in order to forge a united front against Mugabe and his Zanu PF party at the forthcoming polls.

Regardless, other opposition leaders seen as vital cogs in any grand coalition, are still to append their signatures to the coalition deal, nearly a month after Ncube, Biti and Tsvangirai inked the MDC Alliance, comprising five other fringe opposition parties.

These include former vice president Joice Mujuru, who has continued to dilly-dally over the matter because she believes she is the best candidate who should lead it, and not Tsvangirai, as is the current case.

Mujuru also wants her National People’s Party (NPP) to be given the lion’s share of seats, and is also unhappy with the fact that the MDC symbols would be used by the alliance partners going into the 2018 make-or break polls.

The NPP leader is among several other political figures who emerged out of the ruling Zanu PF who are still to make up their minds on whether they should join the MDC Alliance.

The list includes Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn party president Simba Makoni, and Dumiso Dabengwa, leader of the revived Zapu.

Many are therefore worried that the opposition may end up participating in the coming elections as fragmented as has always been the case, thereby splitting the vote in favour of Mugabe and his Zanu PF party.

The scepticism also emanates from the fact that some of the parties that were claiming to be signatories to the MDC Alliance are beginning to distance themselves from the coalition.

Zanu Ndonga, for example, signed the August 5, 2017 coalition deal but hardly a week after the colourful signing ceremony, the party president wrote a letter to Tsvangirai distancing his party from the MDC Alliance.

“I write to inform you that Zanu Ndonga disassociates itself from the signing of the agreement relating to the MDC Alliance purportedly on behalf of Zanu Ndonga,” Musiyarira said, adding that one Sakunje who signed on behalf of the party “is not a member of the party”.

“He was never given a mandate by myself, as the president of Zanu Ndonga, to sign or act on my behalf in any capacity in relation to all matters to do with the party.

“As such, the agreement signed by him on Saturday August 5, 2017 on behalf of Zanu Ndonga is null and void and as such is illegal,” his letter read in part.

Commenting on his Facebook page, political analyst Pedzisai Ruhanya described attempts at coalescing by the country’s opposition parties as fake.

“Zimbabwe’s opposition; fake coalition, fake leaders, little infantile tribalists, egoists driven by personal, parochial and childish self-centred balderdash whose sum total is TRASH!” Ruhanya, who is also Zimbabwe Democracy Institute director, wrote.

He expressed irritation over the fact that the opposition is failing to take advantage of the infighting in Zanu PF that has characterised the ruling party since the ouster of Mujuru in 2014 on allegations of plotting to assassinate 93 year-old Mugabe.

“You fail to coalesce at a historic moment when the regime’s key supporters and enforcers openly say ‘President Mugabe’s mandate to rule has been lost since 2008’.

“Mugabe’s public bureaucracy is fractured and his storm troopers are in disarray with several factions of the once feared war veterans now the occupants of remand prison while the generals are attacked at public rallies; clearly signs of the times.

“What more do you want you petty, directionless so-called opposition? The INGRIDIENTS for your vibrancy are there but you can’t capture the moment. SHAME!!!”

University of Zimbabwe political science lecturer Eldred Masunungure said in a recent interview with the Daily News that while the majority of Zimbabweans, including some in Zanu PF, would like to see a coalition “but we know the role of egoism in and out of politics”.

“There is a lot of wishful thinking among some Zimbabweans…. Mujuru was in government for 34 years and now you want her to be number two again, no ways,” Masunungure said.

“She was expelled because she had presidential ambitions and those in the MDC are saying our leader is the face of the opposition.

“He has fought dictatorship and bears the scars and also beat Zanu PF and on that basis, he has credentials.

“Those are hardened positions, each of the two parties has followers who are rooting for their leader to lead that is why you see Memorandums of Understanding being shredded, both leaders are signing their separate deals with other parties and so the possibility of a grand coalition is very remote”.

Masunungure added that even if the coalition were to materialise “it will not fly high or far and I think it will collapse on egoism and on who gets what”.

While Biti, Ncube and others in the MDC Alliance have since agreed that Tsvangirai will lead the coalition, there remain grey areas concerning who should lead between the former prime minister in the stability-inducing inclusive government and Mujuru.

When almost all the parties forming the opposition converged in Highfield and pledged to work together again after going separate ways in 2005 when Ncube broke ranks, hopes were raised once again: Never before had the former allies-cum foes been brought together under the same platform to articulate and represent the aspirations of the majority of Zimbabweans since their acrimonious divorce.

But with the political parties remaining mum on their real intentions, that hope is disappearing fast as, they, at least in the eyes of long suffering Zimbabweans, do not seem to have a single clue about how they would work to converge as a coalition.

Tsvangirai and his sympathisers want the veteran opposition leader to be the face of the coalition on account of his popular support among Zimbabweans which saw him beat Mugabe in 2008 although he failed to garner the constitutionally required 50+1 percent of the vote.

On the other hand, Mujuru’s camp believes that the former vice president should be president as she is more acceptable to the country’s security chiefs who have previously blocked Tsvangirai on account of his lack of liberation war credentials.

They also argue that the former freedom fighter amassed a wealth of experience in statecraft after serving as Mugabe’s second-in-command for about 10 years.

“We would have expected that, by now, they should have come up with a blueprint on how to form a sustainable convergence not only among us former MDCs but also with Mujuru and others because to be honest we don’t have all the time in the world on our side,” commented a senior MDC official who refused to be named as he is not licensed to talk to the media on coalition issues.

“All you hear is grandstanding propaganda from them — nothing meaningful outside the political gibberish and if anyone thinks 2018 is still far away, then we have serious problem.”

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HARARE - Responsibility is one thing that several people are afraid of in life, which has seen many men including popular figures being dragged before the courts for failing to pay maintenance towards the upkeep of their children.

Politicians, business people, pastors, musicians and ordinary citizens have not been spared with maintenance cases becoming a common phenomenon in the courts.

A number of public figures have appeared before the courts to either settle maintenance disputes, negotiate downwards or upwards variation or facing criminal defaults.

Given the rate at which people are divorcing, as shown by the number of cases that appear before the High Court every week, many men are at risk of being dragged to court after failing to sponsor the upkeep of their children.

In Zimbabwe, it is a criminal offence for one to default in paying maintenance.

According to the Maintenance Act, “Subject to Subsection (1) any person against whom an order to which this Section applies has been made who fails to make any particular payment in terms of the order shall be guilty of an offence and liable to imprisonment for a period not exceeding a year”.

With the current economic hardships pushing many people into the poverty trap, there is a greater risk of men failing to pay for maintenance, raising chances of them being dragged before the courts or getting imprisoned.

The rising number of defaulters is indicative of these prevailing difficult times in Zimbabwe where several companies are downsizing and kicking employees onto the streets.

Only a week ago, former CAPS United president and former Premier Soccer League chairperson, Twine Phiri, was issued with a warrant of arrest after he disappeared from the Harare Magistrates’ Courts, where he was set to appear and answer to charges of defaulting paying maintenance.

According to the court papers, the complainant in the matter is Phiri’s former wife, Keresia Phiri, who resides in Chadcombe, Harare.

It is the State’s case that on February 27, 2014 and at Chitungwiza Civil Court, Phiri (49), who resides in Marlborough, Harare, was ordered to pay $2 913 per month as maintenance for his three children with effect from March 31, 2014.

Phiri reportedly defaulted, leading to the criminal charge.

He is not been the only one who has fallen under the same predicament, where he had to be dragged to court to offer support to his children.

Only recently, Mashonaland Holdings chief executive officer Manfred Mahari found himself in the dock for the same reason.

Despite claims that he bought two of his children a Mercedes Benz each, Mahari is reportedly failing to pay for their school and tuition fees.

He is accused of having failed to pay $31 000 maintenance for his three children.

Mahari pleaded not guilty to the offence, arguing that he had full school fees benefits from his employment contract but was suspended in December last year, without any benefits.

In 2015, Energy minister Samuel Undenge lost a High Court case in which he sought to stop paying maintenance for his daughter Bongai Tafadzwa Undenge.

This was after Bongai had previously won a court order for her father to continue maintaining her until she was self-sufficient.

Musician Suluman Chimbetu, is also one of the people that have once been dragged before the courts over the same maintenance issue, where he was convicted of contravening Section 23 (1) of the Maintenance Act, following a delayed payment of $800 towards the upkeep of his two children and their mother Marygold Mutemasango.

Questions have, however, been raised as to whether it would need the intervention of the courts for one to take care of his children.

There are circumstances where a person is no longer able to pay the initially agreed amount of money because of changed circumstances in his life.

Under these circumstances, one can always apply for downward variation to adjust the amount he pays in line with the money that he gets on a monthly basis.

But in many circumstances that lead to defaulting partners to being dragged to the courts, they would have totally stopped paying money towards the upkeep of their children.

However, some lawyers claim that the Section of the law that criminalises failure to pay maintenance is vague and defective with the effect of infringing on rights to fair trial.

Prosecutor Edmore Nyazamba recently challenged the law, arguing that it is undefined to constitute an offence.

He successfully applied for his case to be referred to the Constitutional Court for a proper interpretation or that it be expunged from the statutes.

“A reading of Section 23 (1) shows that the subsection is subject to a certain subsection. It follows therefore that the subsection referred to which cannot be identified in the Act might contain certain preconditions for the charge to be competent,” Nyazamba argued.

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HARARE - Poultry producers have slammed government over the Avian Influenza crisis, accusing it of not taking decisive action in curbing the deadly highly pathogenic virus which has decimated the country’s poultry population.

The producers, who are importing hatching eggs at a steep 40 percent duty, said government must formulate policies to protect the threatened industry.

The Avian Flu virus — also known as H5N8 — which was detected in May this year, has seen table eggs supply drastically dwindle and prices increasing.

Zimbabwe Poultry Association (ZPA) chairperson Solomon Zawe said government should waiver the 40 percent duty requirement.

“Today we have bird flu (and) we don’t have policies to curb that or to compensate producers who would have been affected. At this point in time, we have been importing hatching eggs from Europe to supplement our market,” he said.

“The region has no capacity to supply us with hatching eggs. We need to import hatching eggs all the way from Europe at 40 percent duty. It’s taking us years just to waive that 40 percent so that we import hatching eggs as a raw material. Bird flu we cannot talk much about it as industry, government should be making too much noise about it.”

With eggs and chicken having overtaken beef as the main protein source for many long-suffering Zimbabweans because of their affordable pricing, panicking authorities earlier announced that they would escalate their surveillance of the key poultry industry — warning that if the avian flu spreads to small-scale chicken producers, it would become increasingly difficult to control the situation.

While Zimbabwe’s largest eggs producer, Irvine’s, whose chicken farm was ravaged by Avian Flu outbreak, did not give this paper details on how the virus has affected their produce, reports suggest the company was seeking permits to import eggs to avert the crisis.

Figures from the Poultry Association of Zimbabwe shows that total egg production in the first quarter of 2017 is estimated to have declined to 3,6 million dozen from 4,7 million dozen in the same period in 2016, largely due to disinvestment by small-scale producers in table egg production.

The department of Livestock and Veterinary Services last week said it was working around the clock to contain the highly-pathogenic virus.

“Every effort is being made to prevent infection from escaping the establishment.  The disease had initially been detected and confirmed on May 24, 2017 and the situation had stabilised following complete depopulation of affected poultry sites by June 1, 2017,” it said.

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HARARE - Mutare businessman Tendai Blessing Mangwiro’s lawyers have written to the High Court registrar demanding a ruling in an urgent chamber application filed by Home affairs minister Ignatius Chombo seeking to block his arrest on contempt of court charges. 

Mangwiro is battling to recover $1,5 million and a further $78 900 confiscated from him by the police in 2008 following his arrest on theft charges, before he was acquitted in 2012.

Despite a High Court ruling that Chombo be jailed for 90 days for failing to comply with an order instructing him to facilitate the release of the money, nothing happened, forcing Mangwiro to make another application pushing for the minister’s arrest.

Chombo had to rush back to court late July on an urgent basis to evade being jailed, claiming he had complied with the order.

It is that application that awaits ruling, which has prompted Mangwiro’s lawyers to write to the High Court registrar.

“The judgment in the above matter was scheduled for handing down on the 10th of August by his Lordship justice (Charles) Hungwe.

“On the said date, we were advised that the honourable judge had been unable to deliver it by the set date and were told to await advice of its availability. To date we have not been advised of anything.

“It is common cause that on the hearing date of this urgent chamber application, the provisional relief sought by applicant (Chombo) was granted by consent with the parties moving to argue the final relief so as to expedite the disposition of the matter.

“This was done on the understanding that this matter was extremely urgent and had taken needlessly long to finalise.

“We advise that the need to urgently dispose of the matter has never been as profound as it is now and enquire whether the ruling has been handed down as yet so that we can be guided on how to proceed,” Mangwiro’s lawyers Mahuni Gidiri Law Chambers said in the letter dated September 1, 2017.

In the application, Chombo cited the Sheriff for Zimbabwe, Mangwiro and his lawyers Shelton Mahuni and Valentine Mutatu, as respondents.

After the matter was heard before Hungwe, Mangwiro’s lawyer Rungano Mahuni, who had instructed Tazorora Musarurwa to argue the case, said that the parties agreed that Chombo will not be arrested pending the determination of his application.

Mangwiro, responding to Chombo’s application said that the minister had demonstrated that he is in wanton disregard of court orders.

He said contrary to Chombo’s claims that he had complied with the court order by writing a letter to the Finance ministry to release the funds, this was not good enough because compliance to Mangwiro entailed having his account credited with the money.

Mangwiro said that allowing Chombo to get away with his actions will set a bad precedence, adding that the minister must be jailed until he complies with the order.

The Sheriff has previously failed to arrest Chombo after he was protected by security personnel at Zanu PF headquarters where he was attending the party’s politburo meeting, which prompted Mangwiro to appeal to commissioner general of police Augustine Chihuri and director general of the Central Intelligence Organisation Happyton Bonyongwe for assistance.

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HARARE - The declaration of President Robert Mugabe’s birthday as a holiday is yet to be formalised, with the latest Government Gazette not recognising it among 2018’s national holidays calendar.

Last month, Home Affairs minister Ignatius Chombo, also the ruling Zanu PF’s secretary for administration, announced the declaration of 93-year-old Mugabe’s birthday — 21st February — as a national holiday.

However, in a September 1, 2017 government gazette, Chombo recognised the 13 traditional Zimbabwean holidays for 2018, curiously leaving out the Mugabe birthday holiday, proposed to be named “Robert Gabriel Mugabe National Youth Day”.

“It is hereby declared in terms of section 2(1) of the Public Holidays and Prohibition of Business Act (chapter10:21) that the days listed in the schedule will be public holidays in 2018,” Chombo said in the general notice 491 of 2017.

However, he said “the list does not include any days which the president may declare to be public holidays in terms of section 2(2) of the Public Holidays and Prohibition of Business Act (Chapter 10:21)”, leaving room for Mugabe to officially declare his birthday a holiday.

Among the holidays gazetted by Chombo is New Year’s Day, Easter, Workers’ Day, Independence and Christmas.

He did not mention any holiday in February, the month in which Mugabe’s birthday falls.

While comment could not be obtained from Chombo, as his phone went unanswered, his deputy Obedingwa Mguni said he was not aware of the issue.

“Why don’t you get hold of (Dr) Chombo himself, I am down in Plumtree I am not sure,” Mguni said.

Addressing a press conference last month, Chombo said the Robert Gabriel Mugabe National Youth Day, which the Zanu PF youths had been clamouring for, had been approved by Cabinet.

The holiday was created in terms of section two of the Public Holidays and Prohibition of Business Act.

“We have called this press conference to announce the designation of 21st February as a national public holiday which shall be called the Robert Gabriel Mugabe National Youth Day. This is with effect from 21st February, 2018,” Chombo said then.

“This declaration comes as a culmination of years of advocacy and lobbying initially made by the founders of the 21st FebruaryMovement and subsequently by the Zanu PF national youth league.

“The youths are acknowledging the unparalleled, visionary, persistent and principles of the president and first secretary of Zanu PF and honouring him for the peace, tranquillity, harmony and quiet prevailing among the people of Zimbabwe.

Chombo said the Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment ministry would now take over the organisation of the annual 21st February Movement commemorations, but would be working closely with the Zanu PF youth league.

This means the event would now get State funding, further straining the already lean fiscus.

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HARARE - Government is going after borehole and water wells owners who are defaulting on payments of levies for ground water extraction.

According to the Water Act, all ground water is owned by government, and whoever extracts it is liable to pay borehole levies and fees.

This comes as many desperate urban residents have resorted to drilling boreholes and digging wells due to poor and unreliable water supply by councils.

In Harare, residents sometimes go for days without the precious commodity, a situation which has seen non-governmental organisations drill boreholes in some suburbs in a bid to prevent disease outbreak.

Through the Upper Manyame Sub-Catchment Council (UMSCC), government has launched a blitz, demanding payment from defaulting borehole and wells owners.

It has since issued final demand letters to Harare residents.

“This letter serves to inform you that your groundwater levies of the above mentioned property with account number .... have accumulated to $120 as at 08/2017. You are therefore advised to settle your outstanding amount at our offices with immediate effect,” read an August 28 letter issued to one borehole owner in Harare.

In the letter, UMSCC argued that “the legal citations with regard to the payment of groundwater levies are covered by Statutory Instrument 10 of 2012 as outlined in the schedule in Section 3 of levies therein as read with 11,12 and 14 SI47 of 2000, as also read with the Water Act of 1998 CAP 20:24, No31/98”.

“Be advised the use of groundwater (boreholes and well) requires a permit and payment of quarterly levies as outlined in the cited statutory instrument.”

However, it could not be established how much UMSCC is owed by borehole and wells owners, as their phones went unanswered.

The UMSCC is a statutory water management body in Zimbabwe established by an Act of Parliament; Water Act of 1998 (Chapter 20:24) under the auspices of the Environment, Water and Climate ministry.

It is the lowest water planning & management unit upstream of the Manyame River that eventually flows into Zambezi River.

The UMSCC manages water in the upper Manyame sub-catchment, a river basin delineated on the basis of hydrological boundaries and pragmatism.

The river basin straddles over five administrative districts namely Harare metropolitan, Goromonzi, Marondera, Manyame and Zvimba.

According to the Zimbabwe National Water Authority, a ground water source is regarded as a borehole if it has a depth ranging from 40 to 100 metres.

On the other hand, borehole diameters must range from 150mm-200mm, with the most common diameter for domestic boreholes being 150mm.

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BULAWAYO - MDC vice president Thokozani Khupe and her allies boycotted party leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s rally yesterday, in yet another move fuelling speculation that the country’s largest opposition party could be headed for another split.

Tsvangirai was headlining an MDC Alliance rally where the union of seven opposition parties was being officially launched to supporters in the second largest city since August 5, when the coalition was consummated.

Khupe, along with MDC national chair Lovemore Moyo and the now suspended national organising secretary, Abednico Bhebhe, are fiercely opposed to the alliance and had earlier indicated that they will not attend the rally, especially following their attack by alleged MDC youths while holding a meeting in Bulawayo recently.

They recently wrote to Tsvangirai requesting him to postpone the rally to pave way for dialogue over sticky alliance issues within the party’s top executive, a call which was ignored by the MDC leader, who stuck to his guns.

The turn-out at yesterday’s rally was poor, compared to Tsvangirai’s previous rallies in Bulawayo, amid reports that the disgruntled Khupe faction had gone around the city’s constituencies advising party supporters not to attend, a move observers say she wanted to prove her political clout in the province.

Previous MDC rallies have always filled the 15 000-seater White City stadium.

Bulawayo has consistently voted for Tsvangirai’s party since its formation in 1999, and only broke the trend when the MDC leadership took the decision to boycott all elections preceding the 2013 ballot to press for the levelling of the electoral playing field.

Since then, Zanu PF has been winning all the by-elections in Bulawayo and elsewhere.

But an unrelenting Tsvangirai chose the rally to challenge Khupe — his longest serving deputy — saying she should set aside personal differences and embrace the alliance.

He argued that the MDC Alliance was part of a broader agenda to remove his long-time rival President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party from power.

“We want the alliance to help us move away from the political culture of Zanu PF,” Tsvangirai told the gathering.

“In our individual parties, we may have disputes and disagreements but there is nothing that beats sitting down and talking. That’s a leadership challenge. Even if you disagree with me, the first basis you must understand is that there is nothing that beats dialogue,” he said in a thinly veiled attack at Khupe and colleagues who share the same sentiment with her.

“As we move to a new Zimbabwe, you will see that there will be disputes here and there and mostly some of these will be informed by individual personal interests. We have reached a point where we have to put our personal interests aside and think about the suffering masses,” Tsvangirai said.

As if that was not enough, the former prime minister in an inclusive government with 93-year-old Mugabe went on to touch on the risk of the disgruntled elements dividing Zimbabweans based on ethnic affiliation, a development he described as “dangerous”.

“...when we formed opposition parties we never talked about ethnicity…..I am very concerned that we are now divided according to our ethnicity.

“This is a very dangerous development. This country should not be divided on the basis of where you come from. If you want to build a country that is proud of its identity and integrity then we should destroy the culture of ethnicity.

“The reason why we had Gukurahundi is because you promoted ethnicity at the expense of defending your Zimbabweans. Those who are promoting ethnicity and ethnic affiliations are dangerous for this country.”

Khupe is believed to have the influence to sway the Matabeleland constituency.

Leaders from other opposition parties in the alliance, including Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, Jacob Ngarivhume and Agrippa Mutambara also got a chance to address the gathering.

While Tsvangirai is having challenges with his deputy, things also appeared not good for Biti whose secretary-general Gorden Moyo also boycotted the event over alleged alliance disagreements.

Tsvangirai also used the platform to warn the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) against rigging elections in favour of Zanu PF, saying Kenya has set a precedent in African politics.

“I want to congratulate my friend in Kenya, I think there were three lessons learnt. The first lesson is that this is the unprecedented decision in the whole of Africa and I think it’s a good step towards democracy,” he said.

“Secondly it has exposed those that had endorsed that election, the interiority of those who said the elections were free and fair were severely exposed. Thirdly, if it happened in Kenya it can as well happen in Zimbabwe.

“The lesson to the Zec is try to do what Kenya did, there are clear reforms that should be in place so that when we go to the next election there is no dispute,” Tsvangirai said.

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HARARE - Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa has tightened his security following suspicions that his rivals could be out to eliminate him physically in the wake of his alleged poisoning about three weeks ago, the Daily News can report.

A long time aide of President Robert Mugabe, Mnangagwa was allegedly poisoned mid last month at a Zanu PF youth interface “meeting” in Gwanda, resulting in him being airlifted to South Africa after brief treatment in Gweru, which was meant to stabilise his condition.

Those in the vice president’s inner circle told the Daily News last week that every measure has since been taken by his family and allies to scale up his security, including deploying private security to guard all his properties in Harare and elsewhere.

According to sources, Mnangagwa is now ensuring that he has a trusted relative among his security personnel provided by government.

They said alarm was raised after the doctor who attended to him in South Africa disclosed the extent of the damage that was caused by the alleged poisoning.

“Everywhere where the VP is, we must ensure that there is a close relative because some people have their agendas and can be paid by our enemies,” said a close relative of Mnangagwa.

According to the well-placed sources, the vice president, who is close to Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander Constantino Chiwenga, now has coteries of military intelligence officers providing security — on top of personnel assigned by the police and the Central Intelligence Organisation.

Mnangagwa, who has been a minister of Defence and State Security, has vast links among the security institutions and enjoys cosy relations with the military top brass and thus when he was airlifted to Gweru from Gwanda, it was little wonder that the military dispatched soldiers to guard him throughout the night before he was assisted to fly to South Africa.

The involvement of the army, according to the sources, is yet another demonstration that the vice president or his family now has little faith in the usual security.

This is symptomatic of the mistrust and suspicions that have become deep rooted in Zanu PF due to the intense infighting over who should succeed Mugabe, now in the twilight of his political career.

In the Midlands and Masvingo provinces, where Mnangagwa seems to enjoy support over his rivals, his allies are alleging in hushed tones that the vice president has become the target of witchcraft attacks and poisoning.

Mugabe, who is battling to engender a spirit of unity in his party ahead of do-or-die elections next year, has not been amused by the reckless talk, warning Zanu PF faithful a few days ago to desist from the tendency of attributing every sickness to witchcraft, saying it is lack of ideological clarity.

Speaking at the National Heroes Acre during the burial of Moudy Muzenda and George Rutanhire last week, Mugabe instead urged people to go for regular medical check-ups and stop believing in the mysterious world of witch-craft.

“Takange tisina vanegeda-geda, kwete zvatava kuona izvi. Vanoti vanoona varoyi, hanzi napresident vava muroyi, nekwatabva kwose uku, vangani vandauraya? Kuti zvinobva kuMidlands here zvichienda kuMasvingo? Hatina huroyi muparty. Down with such witchcraft talk! (Unlike today, we didn’t use to have the unprincipled amongst us in the past, who are quick to point at witchcraft, including accusing the president of practicing witchcraft, never mind how far we have journeyed together. How many have I killed, if I may ask? Is this coming from the Midlands and spreading to Masvingo? There is no witchcraft in the party,” he said.

Mugabe blamed the witchcraft talk on lack of ideological clarity.

“When someone falls sick, you hear some people saying they have been bewitched. That’s lack of ideological knowledge. Mutungamiri akarwara anonzi aroiwa, ah, zvakatanga rinhi izvozvi? (When leaders fall ill, the illness is blamed on witchcraft, ah, when did this all begun? Diseases attack and these bodies are not ours,” said Mugabe, adding that with new technology, people must go for regular medical check-ups.

Mnangagwa, who has survived several attempts on his life including an attempt in 2014 that left one of his assistants in critical condition after inhaling cyanide that had been sprinkled in his office, has had his offices broken into on a number of occasions.

The Midlands godfather allegedly leads the Team Lacoste faction and although he appeared in 2014 to be on the way to the presidency his political foes in the rival Generation 40 faction have worked flat out to challenge his high hopes.

Commenting on the vice president’s move to beef up his security, analysts said it was expected as there was now suspicion and lack of trust.

Respected political analyst and University of Zimbabwe political science lecturer, Eldred Masunungure, said the succession struggles in the ruling Zanu PF have reached boiling point such that physical elimination of the supposed players can no longer be ruled out.

“It was expected (for Mnangagwa to beef up security) given the episode in Gwanda, where nobody really knows what happened and in the absence of information on how he was healed...given those circumstances, one beefs up security,” he told the Daily News.

“It is a direct reaction to the incident that led to the poisoning incident. It’s now clearly a do-or-die situation necessitated by the succession struggles, which are becoming more vicious. The key members are conscious of the possibility of elimination in one way or another.”

“It’s a sign of the tough times ahead. We can’t rule out the possibility of elimination and violent succession struggles. We should brace for the worst including physical elimination ahead of next year’s elections,” Masunungure warned.

Another political analyst, Maxwell Saungweme, said the Zanu PF succession wars have turned deadly, adding that what is happening now is proof that Mugabe must have dealt with the issue of succession in his party long back.

“One major lesson from the whole thing is that Zanu PF succession is deadly business. Mugabe is deeply regretting not having developed a succession plan for his party. His legacy is in tatters, it’s disappearing with Zanu PF implosion.

“Now the whole foundation of Zanu PF is mixed up and shaky. The role of First Lady has been elevated to have more political power than the vice presidents. Charlatan ministers such as (Jonathan) Moyo go home insulting vice presidents,” Saungweme said.

Political commentator, Rashweat Mukundu, said if a whole vice president could feel threatened, the question is what happens to ordinary citizens?

“The leadership must engender calm and dispense with the climate of fear that now pervades this country,” he said.

With a history of resolving its internal contradictions through brutal purges that predate the country’s independence in 1980, protagonists in Zanu PF trudge their political paths with their backs firmly against the wall.

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HARARE - “Mugabe unveils heir,” screamed one local newspaper on its front page the morning after President Robert Mugabe named the then Justice minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa as one of his two deputies in December 2014.

Many believed that by appointing Mnangagwa vice president, Mugabe had all but solved the bewildering succession question; yet only days afterwards, it downed that if anything, the mystery had only but further deepened.

Mnangagwa was at the time high-spirited as he traversed the length and breadth of the country, speaking in a newfound proficient tone, like someone who had the grasp of power and authority within his veritable reach.

People have not forgotten how he would address crowds in that gratified voice, billowing into the transducers: “sembwa inovukura zhou ichiramba ichingofamba, vamwe vanongoramba vachitaura, vachingotaura, isu tichingotonga, tichingotonga.”

This analogy, which he appears to have now discarded, likens those who do not like Zanu PF to dogs that hopelessly bark at an unperturbed elephant, which continues on its proud strides as if the dog does not even exist.

It, however, took a rude arousal to wake him from his musings as he soon discovered that where he thought he was now in the comfort zone having partaken in the outfoxing of his long-time rival, Joice Mujuru, he was about to engage in by far the deadliest political fight of his life.

There is one incident which might have helped bring Mnangagwa’s attention to the new highly formidable threat to his perceived presidential ambitions.

It happened that at some meeting in January 2015, Zanu PF politburo member Josiah Hungwe who is one of Mnangagwa’s ardent supporters, introduced him as ‘the son of man’.

This jolted some party underlings into action, most notably Higher Education minister Jonathan Moyo — with whom Mnangagwa had ganged up to depose Mujuru — who told the State press which he controlled at the time that Hungwe’s behaviour was intolerable as it could potentially create other centres of power besides Mugabe.

The party had adopted the one centre of power concept, bestowing all powers on Mugabe, at the December 2014 congress.

From that time, daggers were drawn against him.

First, they started just as undercurrent plots and schemes, eventually degenerating into humiliating public retributions by Zanu PF officials of much smaller political stature such as Mandi Chimene, Sarah Mahoka and, lately, even relative political greenhorns like one Mubuso Chinguno of Mutare.

Mnangagwa has seen his support base being mercilessly decimated, beginning with the demise of his storm troopers; seven provincial youth chairpersons namely Godwin Gomwe, Godfrey Tsenengamu, Vengai Musengi, Washington Nkomo, Tamuka Nyoni, Edmore Samambwa and Kumbulani Mpofu who played a key role in propping him up ahead of the last congress.

Soon afterwards, Zanu PF booted out Mnangagwa’s most loyal comrades; leaders of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (Znlwva), including its chair, Chris Mutsvangwa, secretary-general Victor Matemadanda, spokesperson Douglas Mahiya and commissar, Francis Nhando, after they openly rebelled against the current order in the ruling party, agitating for Mnangagwa to immediately take over as president.

In all key party structures, he has lost key pillars; his opponents control the youth and women’s leagues, they control the majority of the provinces and dominate Parliament.

The situation is such that it is very difficult to see how the man can pull a shocker and emerge one day with all the State power at his disposal, especially now that the party itself has, in unison, publicly declared that there will not be a different head of State and leader of Zanu PF during Mugabe’s lifetime.

Mugabe has himself further dampened spirits when he recently said he has no plans to retire anytime soon despite turning 93 and proceeding to declare that among his lieutenants, he did not see anyone suitable to inherit his throne, regardless of how long they have served.

It would, however, be imprudent jump from the admiration of such sentiments into concluding that Mnangagwa is finished, according to analysts.

And those in Zanu PF know very well that the game is still very far from being over.

What should not be lost on anyone is the fact that Mnangagwa is one man who has graduated from the Zanu PF school of hard knocks with flying colours, little wonder they have nicknamed him Ngwena, the crocodile after the ferocious yet inconspicuous reptile.

An interesting observation would be that Mnangagwa has endured the longest possible period of humiliation and frustration in terms of his reported presidential ambitions and he has somehow managed to remain very much within the compass.

He first emerged a presidential hopeful as far back as 1999 when he was serving as acting Finance minister in the absence of the late Bernard Chidzero when the latter was on a long-term layoff due to terminal illness.

Curiously, one newspaper article published in November 1999 ahead of Zanu PF’s congress in December of that year even suggested that steps were underway to promote Mnangagwa to be party national chairperson to prepare him for the eventual throne.

It further speculated that Mugabe was to retire ahead of the 2002 presidential election, which of course, did not happen.

The chairmanship, however, went to John Nkomo while Mnangagwa had to settle for the position of secretary for administration, from which he was demoted to be secretary for legal affairs at the 2004 congress when he would actually have been promoted to be vice president and second secretary.

What has happened since then is too tired a story to be retold, but he has ended up where he is today, his very position now, once again under serious threat — never mind the one he is reported to be eyeing.

The coming 2018 general election, in which Mugabe has said he will be the Zanu F candidate, is one big thing which shall help shape or scar Mnangagwa’s presidential bid forever.

Critical events are bound to happen between now and then, and careful calculation is a pre-requisite for both Mnangagwa’s camp and the rival Generation 40 camp.

There is no margin for error, not forgetting a seemingly resurgent Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change who could take advantage of the catfights to talon the coveted crown.

Political scientist Ibbo Mandaza thinks that there is no end to the brawling in Zanu PF.

“What Mnangagwa has done is to let other people fight for his cause while he deceptively publicly disowns them.

“This seems to be working well for him in terms of gaining public sympathy and shielding him from possible Zanu PF sanction,” said Mandaza.

“However, there is a hell lot more that still needs to be done in this very complex succession race.

“This Mr Nice Guy posture is certainly not sufficient when the war really explodes,” he further reasoned.

Political commentator Rashweat Mukundu said: “He (Mnangagwa) would require the backing of the State machinery which can take care of other political questions if need arises if he is to succeed, otherwise, it’s a toll order.”

The sum total of such arguments is that for now, no one really knows what the future holds, except that in his 201-year fight for presidency, it has been the proverbial case of being so near, yet so far for Mnangagwa.

His is a story of near misses.

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HARARE - The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has assigned three magistrates to deal with politically-motivated violence ahead of the Harare Municipality by-election.

In a Government Gazette published on Friday, JSC chairperson Luke Malaba designated Elisha Singano, Victoria Mashamba and Stanford Mambanje in accordance with the Electoral Act.

“It is hereby notified  that the JSC has in terms of sections 133 J(3) of the Electoral Act (Chapter 2:13), designated the magistrates...to try cases of politically-motivated violence and intimidation in Harare province before, during and after the Harare Municipality ward 46 by-election,” Malaba said in the notice.

The by-election, whose date was not specified, follows the death of Luckmore Mangawa, who succumbed to meningitis in June this year.

Although confidence has been lost in the Judiciary, which observers accuse of being partisan and biased towards the ruling Zanu PF, a recent court judgment sentenced a Zanu PF activist to six years in prison for perpetrating political violence.

The 35-year-old activist from Epworth — Dunmore Mapfumo — had gone on a rampage, stabbing people who refused to attend a political gathering in April this year.

Meanwhile, peace advocacy organisation, Heal Zimbabwe Trust (HZT), has recorded 21 cases of intimidation linked to political activities in 14 districts from July 24 to August 18 this year.

Five cases of forced attendance to political gatherings were also recorded.

“HZT observed that the majority of the human rights cases recorded are mainly centred on the on-going presidential youth interface rallies, Zanu PF party restructuring processes and the falsehoods coined around the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) process,” the organisation said in a statement recently.

“Community members are being forced to attend Zanu PF restructuring meetings whether they support the party or not. Cases of harassment and intimidation are worrying especially now as the nation heads towards the 2018 plebiscite.

“HZT perceives intimidation as a hindrance to peaceful coexistence and a stumbling block towards freedom of expression in local communities and achievement of free, fair, peaceful and credible elections.”

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