THE Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) has initiated moves to gazette the iconic Mazowe Dam as it emerged that Zanu PF bigwigs and senior government officials, whose farms are downstream and rely on the dam for irrigation purposes, have raised a red-flag over the grabbing of the dam by First Lady Grace Mugabe, the Zimbabwe Independent has established.

By Elias Mambo

Sources said since the Independent broke the Mazowe Dam grabbing story at the beginning of the month, several bigwigs have held meetings with Zinwa officials to push for the dam to be officially gazetted as a State dam.

Although Zinwa was controlling the dam, officials at the authority said that it has not yet been gazetted as a State dam. Interfresh Limited, which lost large tracts of land to Grace, inherited the dam’s permit from Anglo America.

“The dam was built in 1918 by Anglo America and bought by Interfresh,” said the source, adding that: “Interfresh holds a permit and is the owner of the dam. Part of Interfresh’s land was grabbed by Grace and now she has also grabbed the dam which happens to be in Manzou farm.”

Grace grabbed Manzou Farm in 2011 to set up a private game reserve. Her plan has however been stalled by some villagers, who have refused to vacate the farm where they settled in 2000 during the chaotic land reform programme. The villagers have remained on the farm, despite their homes being burnt, courtesy of a High Court order barring Grace from forcibly moving them.

A Zinwa official said contrary to reports by the Mashonaland provincial affairs minister Martin Dinha that Grace holds the Mazowe Dam permit, Interfresh had the permit, while all other users of the dam sign agreement forms.

“The water permit is in the hands of Interfresh and they pay US$2,06 per mega-litre (1 000 cubic metres),” said the official.

“All other users such as the First Family, A1 and A2 farmers downstream, pay between US$3,06 to US$7,06 per mega-litre.”

Zinwa sources said before a dam is gazetted, authorities consider a lot of issues, which include value of the dam to the community, as well as the number of people or institutions which benefit from the dam.

Mazowe dam provides water to Interfresh, Trojan and Ashanti mines, as well as Shamva, Glendale and Bindura towns.

It also provides irrigation water to farms owned by some senior Zanu PF and government officials who include, among many others, local government minister Saviour Kasukuwere, Central Intelligence Organisation deputy director general Daniel Tonde Nhepera, chief magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe and legislator Remegio Matangira.

Sources said Zinwa officials were finding it tough to distribute water equitably because Grace’s security personnel are now controlling the canal pumps.

“Zinwa authorities know how much water is needed for each farm downstream and they used to control the flow-metre but now the security personnel are just doing it randomly,” the source said.

“Some farmers end up without enough water because those opening and closing the canal pumps have no knowledge of how much water each famer requires.”

Grace is expanding her vast empire in the scenic Mazowe area by grabbing the iconic Mazowe Dam — almost a century after it was built — and surrounding tracts of land.

The move has escalated her bitter fights with local villagers who are now barred from using the huge dam which she has privatised.

Grace’s Mazowe empire already includes an opulent double-storey mansion on Mapfeni Farm, which can be seen from Manzou Farm from, where she has been evicting thousands of villagers since 2011 to establish a game park.

There is also a dairy farm, orphanage and a school. She is planning to build a university. Grace has also grabbed land which belonged to the former Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed agro-producer Interfresh’s Mazowe Citrus Estate.

The Mugabe family reportedly has more than 10 farms, becoming part of the new land aristocracy ushered in by government’s chaotic land reform programme which began in 2000.

Mazowe Dam, the country’s 16th largest reservoir, has a capacity of 39,35 million cubic metres of water and was 99,9% full as of June 12, according to Zinwa.

Grace’s latest move has infuriated villagers, some of whom earned a living through fishing and other activities around there.

The post Bigwigs fight over Mazowe Dam appeared first on The Zimbabwe Independent.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) is considering tightening screws on the banking sector by planning to make public bank ratings which show the health of banks to protect depositors, a senior central bank official has said.

By Hazel Ndebele

There has been public outcry in the past over the central bank’s reluctance to inform the public about the state of ailing banks before their closure.

Many banking institutions have collapsed, with several reports pointing to poor corporate governance and mismanagement for their failure. Banks which have gone under include Genesis Bank, Interfin, AfrAsia, Tetrad, Royal, Capital Bank, Trust, Allied and AfrAsia, among others

Speaking at the Institute for Sustainability Africa (Insaf) 2017 Annual Shareholders and Investors Forum in Zimbabwe, held at Celebration Centre in Harare, RBZ director of bank supervision Norman Mataruka said although banks were hesitant on ratings to be published, doing so was necessary as it would help depositors know the truth about the state of affairs at the institutions and make informed decisions.

Mataruka said most Zimbabwean banks have collapsed due to poor corporate governance practices and mismanagement which prejudice depositors.

“We were arguing some other time with a certain bank; we were telling them that in order for corporate governance matters to be taken seriously by banks, RBZ should start disclosing bank ratings so that depositors make their own wise decisions as to which bank to put their money with,” said Mataruka.

He said poor corporate governance by directors and senior managers of banking institutions are largely to blame for bank failures.

Mataruka said in any case it is already a requirement that when banks publish their annual and semi-annual financial statements, they must also publish supervisory ratings. He also told the forum that huge amounts of bank insider loans were also to blame for the collapse of financial institutions.

On the current cash crisis, Mataruka blamed big companies who handle cash daily of not make deposits. He said some of the companies were externalising money.

“The little foreign currency being generated is being externalised. The banks are only getting coins from these big institutions and supermarkets as that is all that they deposit. The notes will be destined elsewhere,” he said. According to Insaf, a number of companies have collapsed due to poor corporate governance while shareholders and investors watch. The investor’s forum agreed that it will develop a Code on Responsible Investing in Zimbabwe. The code is expected to outline responsible investing values and practices, corporate disclosure requirements while promoting space for effective minority shareholders voices. Mataruka endorsed the development of the code.

Insurance, Pension and Provident Funds Commissioner Tendai Karonga said without good corporate governance and disclosure, the integrity of capital markets is threatened and this may undermine economic growth.

“It goes without saying that indeed corporate governance has a strong bearing on the character of the country’s capital markets,” said Karonga.

“It is therefore critical that listed companies and other players in the capital market uphold the highest standards of corporate governance and transparency so as to attract investment as well as to satisfy stakeholder needs.”

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THE National Social Security Authority (Nssa) has retrenched close to 200 workers as part of its restructuring exercise which began in October 2015, board chairman Robin Vela has said.

By Hazel Ndebele

The move, Vela said, is aimed at helping the authority lower operating costs as well as to ensure that it offers better pension pay-outs.

Speaking at the Institute for Sustainability Africa (Insaf) 2017 Shareholders and Investors Forum Vela said the retrenchments would help deliver a better pension to its clients. He said When his board was appointed, Nssa had 930 employees but the number has however been reduced to 740.

“Nssa currently has 740 employees, down from 930. This has helped the authority cut costs as well as be better placed to pay and offer better pensions since the pensioner is a priority to the authority,” said Vela.

The Nssa board, which was appointed in July 2015, inherited a myriad of issues including poor investment decisions, weak internal controls and massive revenue leakages among others.

Vela said it was imperative that Nssa attracts investors through good management, including adopting unpopular decisions.
On investments, Vela said the authority had made many bad decisions but had learnt from the mistakes.

“Nssa has lost a lot of money (in bad investments). There is no single indigenous bank that Nssa did not invest in. It is well reported and well covered, but the fact of the matter is that we need to learn,” he said.

“None of us at the board are rocket scientists but all we are saying is we need to take the lead and go back to basics. Take Nssa back to basics and do what we know should be done with all the experience we have.”

Nssa has over US$1,3 billion worth of assets under management.

Vela said his board made a decision that it is going to be an active shareholder in all its investments while also encouraging all shareholders including minority shareholders to be active in its investments.

Nssa recently announced that it will increase its minimum retirement pension benefit by 33% from US$60 per month to US$80 per month with effect from October 1 2017. Vela said the increase is the first in a decade and the authority hopes it will make a change to the pensioners who are struggling to make ends meet.

The post NSSA to increase its minimum retirement pension benefit appeared first on The Zimbabwe Independent.

VICE-President Emmerson Mnangagwa is entangled in a multi-million dollar chrome deal involving dodgy South African investors illegally granted permission to import fuel duty-free under the guise they are running a project with national status, investigations by the Zimbabwe Independent have shown.

By Owen Gagare/Hazel Ndebele

Mnangagwa played an important role to facilitate for Africa Chrome Fields (Pvt) Ltd, a subsidiary of South African mining company Fanshawe Mining Holdings, to invest in a chrome mining and smelting project in Chirumhanzu-Zibagwe constituency.

The vice-president is said to be close to ACF director Zunaid Moti, a flashy car-loving tycoon arrested in 2012 over armed robbery and attempted murder allegations.

Moti denied the allegations.

ACF was granted a duty-free fuel importation certificate by the Ministry of Transport, alongside the Dema Emergency Power Project and Kariba South Extension. This has raised eyebrows and parliament is now investigating the issue.

The duty-free certificate was issued through the Central Mechanical Equipment Department (CMED). Other mining companies operating in Zimbabwe have not been given the same privilege.

Under Statutory Instrument (SI) 184 of 2014, equipment for national projects — not fuel — can be imported duty-free.

The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy, chaired by Daniel Shumba, in June grilled Transport minister Joram Gumbo on the issue. The committee argued SI184 of 2014 does not allow private companies to import fuel duty-free.

As a result, the committee has also quizzed former Transport ministry permanent secretary Munesu Munodawafa, CMED chief executive Davison Mhaka and CMED board chair Sheunesu Mupepereki over this. It also visited some of the projects.

The law says duty-free fuel can only be imported for use by government exclusively.

“So for African Chrome Fields to get 12 million litres of diesel duty-free and Sakunda 300 million litres under this statutory instrument is corrupt and unlawful,” one government official said this week. “They cannot hide under the cover of national project status. That is exclusively for government. Private companies are only allowed to bring in equipment, not fuel, under that dispensation.”

The law says once a project has been granted national status by the Ministry of Finance, it is eligible for “rebate of duty on capital equipment imported for use in specified industries”.

It clearly defines capital equipment as “plant, equipment and machinery” to be used in the mining, manufacturing, agricultural and energy generation sectors. That does not include rebate on fuel imports.

Asked about the legality of issuing the controversial duty-free certificates, Gumbo told the committee his secretary had written to Treasury highlighting the possibility of legal gaps with respect to SI184 of 2014 and requested that the Finance ministry, in liaison with the Attorney-General’s Office, to close such loopholes.

In February, the committee questioned Mhaka and Mupepereki over the matter after it emerged some private companies were taking advantage of the duty-free fuel import certificates to bring in cheap fuel to sell in the parallel market.

A letter written by Mhaka, addressed to Shumba, dated December 1 2016, seen by the Independent, showed CMED had cleared ACF to import more than a million litres of fuel.

“As custodians of SI184 of 2014, CMED was requested by Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, through the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development, to facilitate the importation of duty-free fuel for African Chrome Fields (Pvt) Ltd, for electricity generation on the chrome smelting project,” Mhaka writes.

“A total of 1 095 million litres of diesel have so far been cleared. So far 600 119 litres of diesel have been utilised and the acquittals are attached. 495 000 litres are yet to be consumed and will be acquitted. CMED has been paid US$24 000 for the services rendered.”

Mnangagwa’s dealings with ACF were debated in an explosive politburo meeting a fortnight ago where a titanic battle between Higher and Tertiary Education minister Jonathan Moyo and him erupted.

Moyo accused Mnangagwa of deceiving cabinet into lifting an export ban on raw chrome in 2015 for self-serving purposes. He said ACF was granted mining rights after Mnangagwa “wilfully misled” President Robert Mugabe into believing ACF investors had the latest technology to process chrome ore into ferrochrome.

It was on the basis of that promise ACF was granted mining rights. Mugabe was invited to officiate at the commissioning of the plant in 2015. He was shown what was claimed to be the chrome ore processing machinery.

Mugabe at the event said he was told that the company would require only 11 months to fully establish and start operating full throttle.

Moyo said truckloads of chrome ore had been smuggled out, charging Mnangagwa’s business associates had in the process made over US$49 million.

Government lifted the ban on chrome ore exports and scrapped the 20% export tax on the mineral, saying the move would improve viability of miners, create thousands of jobs and improve revenue inflows for the fiscus.
The ban on chrome exports was imposed in April 2011 to encourage beneficiation of the mineral.

In e-mailed responses to the Independent, ACF national project liaison director Ashruf Kaka said the aluminothermic technology that would process chrome ore into ferrochrome is expected to be installed by the end of January 2018. He also said commissioning of the plant will be complete by February next year.

“The project is dependent on obtaining an Environmental Impact Assessment approval which approval is imminently awaited,” he said. “To date we have established six sites with 19 operating spiral wash plants covering an area of approximately 30km along the Great Dyke. We are currently employing approximately 900 workers.”

Kaka said his company was granted a duty-free certificate to import fuel as a result of the remoteness of their sites as there was no electricity in the remote areas. He said as a result, ACF was relying on power from diesel generators.

“In the absence of electricity, we became acutely aware that progress in the project was being stunted by the lack of electricity and the only alternative to electric power was diesel-generated power,” he said. “At a tremendous cost from a capital expenditure perspective, we embarked on diesel-generated power as the only alternative, hence approached the Ministry of Finance with a request to obtain a rebate on diesel such that the project could continue in the absence of availability of electricity.

“The request was a formal application which was considered over a period of a few months and eventually granted in 2015, and renewed towards the end of 2016 for import in 2017.”

Asked to comment on the nature of Mnangagwa’s relationship with his company, Kaka said: “At the risk of repeating ourselves in the media, we are in the business of mining and beneficiation and are not politicians and leave politics to the politicians.

“Having said that, we invested in Zimbabwe in the first quarter of 2014 prior to us having any interaction with the vice-president and our interaction with him commenced with the introduction to him of the aluminothermic technology during the latter part of 2014, and more particularly in the beginning of 2015. We had sought other investments in the chrome industry from 2012 with particular reference to ZimAlloys.

“The relationships that we have with all politicians and their respective departments are project-related and accordingly professional in nature. We do not delve into the realm of politics as our focus is and will always be beneficiation and all politicians, including the Honourable Vice-President Mnangagwa, have considered the project beneficial to Zimbabwe and the interest of Zimbabwe.”

Kaka refused to confirm whether or not ACF had siphoned US$49 million worth of chrome through shady exports as Moyo alleged in the politburo meeting.

“We do not wish to comment on the amount referred to herein save to state that it is substantially exaggerated and it is not our policy to detail this information in the public domain as we are a private company,” he said.

“Our information relating to exports are succinctly documented with the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) on a daily basis and you are free to approach the MMCZ for whatever information they are able to furnish in the public domain. As you are aware, the MMCZ reports to the Ministry of Mining and Mining Development, which is in itself kept updated with all information.”

Efforts to get comment from Mnangagwa’s office were fruitless.

The post Mnangagwa in dodgy project appeared first on The Zimbabwe Independent.

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has held two consecutives meetings with anxious service chiefs following his warning last Thursday against their succession manoeuvres which could amount to a coup. This came amid growing uncertainty over the future of Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) commander General Constantino Chiwenga, the Zimbabwe Independent has learnt.

By Elias Mambo

Addressing the Zanu PF Women’s League national assembly at the Zanu PF headquarters in Harare, Mugabe told the military to remain in the barracks. He said in Zanu PF “politics leads the gun; not the other way round” in remarks widely seen as targeting Chiwenga, who of late has been making political statements.

Chiwenga is considered to be a pillar of strength for the faction supporting Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s presidential bid. The Mnanagwa faction is engaged in a war of attrition with the G40 camp which has coalesced around First Lady Grace Mugabe.

Sources said Mugabe met Chiwenga, Air Force of Zimbabwe commander Air Marshal Perence Shiri, Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri, Prisons commissioner retired Major-General Paradzai Zimondi and the Central Intelligence boss Happyton Bonyongwe since last week.

“On Friday Mugabe met with Chiwenga and Shiri in a closed-door meeting at the National Defence College,” said a security official.

“He also held a luncheon on Tuesday with all the security service chiefs where he has tried to manage them after openly attacking them for dabbling in politics”

High-level sources told the Independent Mugabe’s sole target is Chiwenga, who is viewed as a stumbling block to his succession plans.

Chiwenga’s contract has expired and he could be retired anytime from now.

Mugabe and the G40 faction prefer that Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi succeed the president.

Top government officials privy to the issue said Mugabe could soon remove Chiwenga as ZDF commander — a position he has held since 2004 — and deploy him to the Zanu PF politburo or government for political reasons.

However, in the meetings with Mugabe this week, sources said Chiwenga reportedly set conditions to be deployed as the Zanu PF commissar to replace Saviour Kasukuwere if he is to leave his current position in the military.

Mnangagwa in 2015 referred to Chiwenga as “our political commissar,” evoking historical roles where Chiwenga served as the liberation struggle political commissar.

Addressing a youth interface rally in Chinhoyi last Saturday, Mugabe hinted he would retire some generals and accommodate them in government to cushion them against joblessness.

“We give immense respect to our defence forces. Most of those in leadership are persons we were with outside the country and we continue to respect them as revolutionaries,” he said. “Yes, they will retire and we must find room for them in government so they don’t languish, so they continue the struggle now, political struggle together with all of us in the leadership of the country and this is what we expect to happen.”

The post Mugabe meets edgy security chiefs appeared first on The Zimbabwe Independent.

FORMER South African president Thabo Mbeki met President Robert Mugabe this week to discuss the state of liberation movements and succession problems in the region as well as the need for leadership renewal within ruling parties on both sides of the Limpopo, the Zimbabwe Independent has gathered.

Staff Writer.

Sources said Mbeki raised the issue of how former liberation movements, including Zanu PF and South Africa’s ANC, are engulfed in turmoil due to raging succession fights, corruption and other problems.

“They discussed experiences in South Africa and Zimbabwe as well as issues affecting liberation movements in the region.

Mbeki is passionate about saving liberation movements, especially in Southern Africa. He believes South Africa and Zimbabwe remain key bastions of former liberation movements in the region. He fears if the ANC, Africa’s oldest liberation movement, collapses, all others will go down as well.

“There is concern that the demise of the movements in the two countries could signal a death knell in the region given that Zambia and Malawi have been taken over by non-liberation movements.”

Mbeki’s visit comes on the backdrop of a report done by Chatham House last year which showed that the former liberation movements in the region are on the verge of becoming extinct.

“The ANC has just lost control of major cities in South Africa in the country’s municipal elections, registering its worst electoral performance since the end of apartheid in 1994. A vicious power struggle over succession to 92-year-old President Robert Mugabe is heating up in Zimbabwe,” reads the report titled Are Southern Africa’s Liberation Movements in Crisis?

Renewed armed violence in Mozambique between old civil war foes has seen thousands flee to neighboring Malawi. And in Angola, José Eduardo dos Santos, the world’s second longest-serving president, has signalled that he will step down in 2018. All eyes are on who the MPLA chooses as its de facto vice-presidential candidate, and likely dos Santos’ successor, for multiparty elections this year. (Angolan Defence minister Joao Lourenco has been chosen to succeed dos Santos). “Since change is in the air, can we see patterns in the political trajectories of southern African countries and whether there is something special about national liberation movements and the governments they have spawned?”

Mbeki also raised Mugabe’s succession as he wanted to know who will take over.

Sources said previously Mugabe indicated to Mbeki that either Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa or Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi would succeed him.

The post … as Mbeki engages on succession appeared first on The Zimbabwe Independent.

A FUEL scandal has rocked government after it emerged that two private companies imported 312 million litres of diesel duty-free, while prejudicing the broke Treasury of revenue in unpaid taxes, an investigation by the Zimbabwe Independent has shown.

Bernard Mpofu/Owen Gagare

The diesel, some of which has found its way to the black market, has a pump market value of US$374,4 million, calculated at US$1,20 per litre.

Diesel is charged taxes and levies amounting to 0,50 cents per litre and these include duty, Zimbabwe National Road Administration road levy, carbon tax, debt redemption, strategic reserve levy and the NocZim debt levy.

The NocZim debt levy was introduced in 2003 to clear the now disbanded parastatal’s accumulated debt to mostly foreign fuel suppliers and is charged at 6,7 cents for petrol and 1,3 cents for diesel per litre. This means that government could have been prejudiced US$156 million in unpaid levies and taxes.

Last year, government granted national project status to the Dema Emergency Power Plant as the country grappled with a perennial energy crisis that resulted in intermittent power cuts. Another company, African Chrome Fields, was also illegally exempted from paying taxes for its mining project, openly violating the law.

The two companies, it has been established, were granted the green light to import the duty-free fuel by the Ministry of Transport and the Central Mechanical Equipment Depot (CMED).

Information gathered by the Independent shows that African Chrome Fields applied for 12 million litres of diesel for the period April to December 2016, while Sakunda Holdings, which is behind the Dema project, applied for 300 million litres of diesel for a period of 12 months.

This violates Statutory Instrument (SI) 184 of 2014, which describes duty-free fuel as “fuel for the exclusive use of the Government of Zimbabwe, subject to the conditions that:

(a) all fuel importations for use by the Government of Zimbabwe shall be imported solely through the CMED (Private) Limited and;

(b) a duty free certificate under the hand of the Secretary in the Ministry responsible for Transport is furnished to the Commissioner-General certifying that the user Ministry or arm of Government has authority from the Secretary in the Ministry responsible for Finance that any duty leviable on such fuel importation would be borne directly by the Government of Zimbabwe”.

The law specifically states that only government can access duty-free fuel. As reported by the Independent last week, it is also understood that a Parliamentary Committee on Mines and Energy is sharply divided over this matter, with some members of the committee demanding that the Sakunda boss, Kuda Tagwirei, be summoned to answer questions in parliament, while others are opposing the move. Transport minister Jorum Gumbo, according to sources, has stated that the exemption of taxes on the imported fuel by Sakunda and African Chrome is above board. He cited Statutory Instrument 6 of 2016, which states that once a project has been elevated to national status by the Finance ministry, it qualifies for “rebate of duty on capital equipment imported for use in specified industries”.

However, the same piece of legislation defines that capital equipment only includes “plant, equipment and machinery” to be used in the mining, manufacturing, agricultural and energy generation sectors.

Concerns have also been raised over the absence of monitoring mechanisms to ensure that the imported fuel does not end up on the black market. Official figures show that Zimbabwe has the capacity to consume three million litres of diesel and two million litres of petrol per day. Currently, on the local market diesel and petrol are pegged around US$1,20 and US$1,33 respectively. Government acquires its fuel requirement through the CMED in line with Statutory Instrument 184 of 2014.

It is also understood that the Ministry of Transport had told parliament that an “anomaly” which saw the inclusion of fuel under the duty-free products covered by the statutory instrument was now being addressed by the Attorney-General’s Office.

However, investigations show that the AG’s office was not seized with the matter. This comes as it emerges that the Office of the President and Cabinet is trying to block an investigation of Sakunda Energy over its role in the controversial plant. The Independent has reported extensively on the Dema Emergency Power Plant which has an inflated cost structure. The cost of the Dema project escalated alarmingly from US$249 million to US$498 million over three years, after the government directed the controversial project’s managers to double its output to 200 megawatts at US$166 million per year at a time the country is failing to pay for power imports.

A parliamentary portfolio committee on mines and energy has visited the Dema project, Hwange and Kariba, among other power generation plants, to assess the situation.

The post Duty-free fuel scam deepens appeared first on The Zimbabwe Independent.

IN a dramatic development which could have led to a seismic shift in local politics, Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa last week offered to resign from his government and ruling party posts, saying he could not stand the ongoing public flogging and humiliation by Zanu PF’s Young Turks coalesced around First Lady Grace Mugabe, the Zimbabwe Independent has heard.

By Elias Mambo

Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa

High-level sources said a concatenation of recent events led to Mnangagwa’s resignation, which was, however, rejected by President Robert Mugabe. Mnangagwa has worked with Mugabe for almost 50 years and is always critical to his election strategy.

The sources said Mnangagwa met Mugabe on Monday last week, where he complained about the public flagellation and embarrassment he had been subjected to and endured at Zanu PF youth and women rallies, most blatantly at the party headquarters in Harare on July 27 and July 29 in Chinhoyi.

Prior to that, he had been publicly routed in Marondera, Mutare and Masvingo, directly and indirectly. Mugabe and Grace, supported by their allies, often led the charge most of the times.

Higher Education minister Jonathan Moyo started the current ruthless campaign against Mnangagwa on June 1 at a Sapes Trust Dialogue Series public discussion in Harare, where he said Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi — now widely seen as the chosen one — was a better candidate to succeed Mugabe than the vice-president. The following day in Marondera, Mugabe reinforced the message and has been doing so during each of the ongoing youth rallies.

Moyo launched the most ferocious attack on Mnangagwa through a video-documentary at a Zanu PF politburo meeting on July 19. Mnangagwa will respond to the video, which says he is plotting to oust Mugabe, in the next politburo meeting. Moyo is said to be planning a counter-attack on Mnangagwa after that.

Tomorrow Mugabe might stay course despite Mnangagwa and his allies’ protests at the next youth rally in Gwanda.
Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko has also been brutal in his attacks on Mnangagwa. Another G40 ally Patrick Zhuwao has been on a warpath against the vice-president. Last year Mnangagwa was also subjected to public attacks, mainly by Manicaland provincial minister Mandi Chimene and ousted Zanu PF Women’s League treasurer Sarah Mahoka.

“Following recent events and political developments, Mnangagwa on Monday last week offered to resign,” one source said. “He sought to resign in writing from his two posts as state vice-president and Zanu PF second secretary at an impromptu meeting, where Mugabe declined the letter and resignation.

“The vice-president gave mainly two reasons for seeking to quit. First, he cited public attacks and humiliation by Grace at the Zanu PF headquarters on July 27 and the same thing two days later, on July 29, in Chinhoyi.

“Second, Mnangagwa said he now believes there is a plot against him by the system, given recent developments and allegedly false intelligence reports which on many issues made him think Mugabe wanted him to be his successor.”

Sources said Mnangagwa took with him some newspaper articles which showed Grace’s public attacks on him.

“The vice-president had newspaper articles which he presented to Mugabe, saying Grace has launched a character assassination campaign against him. He said he has the capacity to respond, but has been quiet because he respects the First Family.”

Sources said Mugabe, who has already said publicly he wants to reconfigure the Zanu PF presidium by bringing in a woman as one of his deputies by December, listened to him, but rejected his offer to resign. Either the current two vice-presidents will be increased to three or one of them, between Mnangagwa and Mphoko, will have to go for the deputies to remain two. If Grace was to come in, as widely thought, it would be difficult to remove Mphoko as he is representing the old Zapu in the 1987 Unity Accord arrangement with Zanu. This puts Mnangagwa in an invidious position, although the Zanu PF Midlands Godfather still has room to manoeuvre, insiders say. “Mugabe rejected the resignation offer, saying Mnangagwa was jumping the gun,” a source said.

Mnangagwa’s backers say the vice-president also urged Mugabe to resolve his differences with the military privately rather than publicly attacking them.

Mnangagwa, who until recently was seen as a shoo-in to succeed Mugabe, is locked in a bitter wrangle with the G40 faction pushing for Sekeramayi to succeed the long-time ruler. At the Zanu PF Women’s League national assembly meeting a fortnight ago, Grace challenged Mugabe to anoint his successor in a move widely seen as an attempt to derail Mnangagwa’s bid and fast-track Sekeramayi in.

Mugabe then lambasted the military for meddling in politics, warning their moves were bordering on a coup.

Grace also addressed the Chinhoyi youth rally, where she degraded her rivals in the presence of Mugabe. There she insinuated Mnangagwa was loyal to Mugabe by day, but disloyal to him by night, before challenging him to be consistently loyal. The First Lady, who last year said vice-presidents reported to her, publicly embarrassed Mugabe’s spokesman, George Charamba, a Mnangagwa loyalist, accusing him of abusing the state media for factional agendas. She asked why the state-controlled media was being used to denigrate certain ministers and officials while promoting others. Since then, the state media, particularly The Herald and The Sunday Mail, have retreated in fear.

Grace also took the opportunity to defend her G40 allies, Moyo and the embattled national commissar Saviour Kasukuwere, saying the Higher Education minister was being falsely accused of corruption, while Kasukuwere was being targeted for political reasons.

Kasukuwere has been under fire after nine of the party’s 10 provincial executive committees passed a vote-of-no-confidence in him. He was accused of creating parallel structures to unseat Mugabe, mismanagement, abusing party assets, funds and nepotism. Mugabe said no-one appointed by him can be removed by provinces.

Moyo has been accused of abusing the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund money for personal benefit and to advance his political objectives. But Zanu PF has come to his rescue, saying he used the public funds to support party activities.

In February last year, Mnangagwa was subjected to a stinging attack by Mahoka, who challenged him to openly declare his presidential ambitions before accusing him of behaving like a duck. Following the latest attacks, Mnangagwa met Mugabe, where he pledged his loyalty to the president before offering to quit.

“The two have been together for a long time and Mnangagwa has been a pillar of strength for Mugabe, especially being his election agent,” the source said.

“Mnangagwa asked Mugabe last week to relieve him of his duties so that he doesn’t continue to be attacked and humiliated, having faithfully worked for the president for a long time. He complained that on various occasions, very junior people are politically manipulated and used to embarrass him.”

Zanu PF insiders say Mnangagwa has previously contemplated resigning after certain critical events.

In 2000, after his defeat in the parliamentary election by the original MDC’s Blessing Chebundo in Kwekwe, Mnangagwa is said to have almost retired before Mugabe sent the late vice-present Simon Muzenda to tell him to stay as he was going to be made Speaker of Parliament. The same issue arose in 2005 after his second defeat by Chebundo. Mugabe rescued him and appointed him MP and Rural Housing minister.

After bruising defeats within Zanu PF in 1999 and 2004, for positions of chairman and vice-president by the late John Nkomo and ex-vice-president Joice Mujuru respectively, Mnangagwa fought back and recovered. This time it seems he is facing his toughest political test yet.

The post VP Mnangagwa offers to resign appeared first on The Zimbabwe Independent.

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe last week summoned Home Affairs minister Ignatius Chombo and police bosses, then acting Defence minister Kembo Mohadi as well as Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander General Constantino Chiwenga over skirmishes between the army and police in Harare that resulted in police officers being injured, it has emerged.

— Staff Writer.

The police and army last week on Friday issued a joint statement, saying the incident on Tuesday last week sparked by the spiking of tyres of an army truck was “unfortunate”.

Sources said Chombo met Mugabe accompanied by Deputy Police Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga for the meeting. Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi did not attend the meeting as he was away in Russia.

The security service chiefs had earlier met Mugabe for their Monday security briefings last week amid tensions over the veteran leader’s warning they should not interfere in his succession battle.

Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa had also on Monday last week met Mugabe on succession related matters where he reportedly offered to resign following his public flogging by the president and his wife Grace at recent women and youth rallies in Harare and Chinhoyi.

This comes as it emerged this week that Mugabe last week called off a lunch meeting with service chiefs which he had scheduled. The meeting was cancelled at the eleventh hour, but no reasons were given.

“Mugabe met security service chiefs last week, but this needs clarification. There were several meetings; first it was the usual Monday security briefings, then a meeting between Mugabe and Mnangagwa, followed by Mugabe and security chiefs in cabinet on Tuesday and later Mugabe and army and police teams,” a senior official in the Office of the President and cabinet said.

“The lunch meeting with security service chiefs was cancelled at the last minute. Mugabe ended up entertaining former South African President Thabo Mbeki and his associate, former member of his facilitation team in Zimbabwe during the Global Political Agreement negotiations, Dr Sydney Mufumadi.”

Sources said Chiwenga, Matanga and Central Intelligence Organisation Director-General Happyton Bonyongwe appeared in cabinet on Tuesday to listen to a presentation by a local advocator for the establishment of an African central bank based in Harare and a continental currency called Afra.

On the police-army clashes, Chombo and Chiwenga explained the skirmishes to Mugabe, indicating the situation would be resolved amicably. An investigation has since been launched to find out the causes of the violent skirmishes.

Mugabe has been trying to calm the nerves after attacking military chiefs for meddling in succession politics
While addressing the Zanu PF Women’s League national assembly at party headquarters in Harare recently, Mugabe told the military to remain in the barracks. He said in Zanu PF “politics leads the gun; not the other way round”, in remarks widely seen as targeting Chiwenga, who of late has been brazenly interfering in partisan party politics.

Chiwenga is considered a pillar of strength for the faction supporting Mnangagwa’s presidential bid which is engaged in a war of attrition with the G40 camp that has coalesced around First Lady Grace Mugabe.

Addressing a youth interface rally in Chinhoyi recently, Mugabe hinted he would retire some army generals and absorb them in government

“We give immense respect to our defence forces. Most of those in leadership are persons we were with outside the country and we continue to respect them as revolutionaries,” he said. “Yes, they will retire and we must find room for them in government so they don’t languish, so they continue the struggle now, political struggle together with all of us in the leadership of the country and this is what we expect to happen.”

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A 72-minute video presented in the Zanu PF politburo by Higher Education minister Jonathan Moyo on July 19, which is now circulating among senior party members and state security agents, portrays Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa as a callous, corrupt and power hungry individual who is systematically trying to usurp President Robert Mugabe’s power.

By Gagare

The Zimbabwe Independent has watched the explosive video — part of Moyo’s defence of embattled Zanu PF political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere — which fast turns into a brutal scrutiny Mnangagwa.

The video opens with a cast of Mnangagwa loyalists, including leaders of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association Chris Mutsvangwa and Victor Matemadanda as well as expelled Mashonaland Central Zanu PF youth leader Godfrey Tsenengamu demanding change in the Zanu PF leadership because “the people that we entrusted with power have failed.”

It goes on to highlight a nine-page document called Blue Ocean, which the politburo heard was authored by Mnangagwa and his allies, providing a roadmap to seizing power from Mugabe, beginning in 2015 after the ousting of former vice-president Joice Mujuru, Mnangagwa’s long-time rival for the throne. lt has many other dramatic episodes.

Blue Ocean strategy

The document says Zanu PF has three options: where the party and consequently government must go; where Mugabe wants the party to go; and the path to self-destruction and oblivion.

It says Mnangagwa must seize control of the party and guide it along the first path. It also outlines strategies to weaken the G40 faction by targeting some of its stalwarts like First Lady Grace Mugabe and politburo members Saviour Kasukuwere, Patrick Zhuwao, Ignatius Chombo and Moyo.

This includes directing the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) to crack down on Chombo, Moyo and Kasukuwere.

State capture

The video says Mnangagwa is working systematically to undermine Mugabe by capturing party and state institutions. Among the institutions doing Mnangagwa’s bidding are the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Zacc, Zimpapers and the military.

The video states that Mnangagwa is using the NPA for “successionist objectives”. It states that the Ministry of Justice has directed the NPA to “disclose information on high-profile cases” to the ministry, including the stage each case has reached.

Letters of official complaint written by NPA officials were presented as evidence. The video also revealed that the NPA employs at least 42 military officers, who are ensuring that the NPA plays to Mnangagwa’s tune. The military, the video says, is sponsoring bandits, including those who attempted to bomb the First Family’s Gushungo Dairy, to show Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri — “seen as an obstacle to Mnangagwa’s succession plans” — as incompetent.

Zimpapers “has been taken over and continues to systematically vilify individuals identified as opponents in the Blue Ocean strategy document.”

Ousting Kasukuwere

The video states that Mnangagwa and allies engineered protests in Mashonaland Central against political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere. The “premeditated” demonstrations were led by serving soldiers and youths expelled by the party with the aim of removing Kasukuwere, followed by a re-organisation of the party’s provincial leadership before triggering an extra-ordinary congress where Mnangagwa would force a change of leadership.

Military Interference

The military, particularly Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander General Constantino Chiwenga, is neck-deep in Zanu PF succession politics, the video says. An audio recording of a journalist from Zimpapers saying Mnangagwa’s faction was virtually running the show at Zimpapers through Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba was played.

Plausible deniability

Blue Ocean says access to Mnangagwa by his acolytes should be limited, to give him plausible deniability for some of their controversial actions and statements. The video claims Mnangagwa has been using rogue party members to attack Mugabe and his wife, Grace. Despite Mnangagwa’s public denunciation of these allies, among them Energy Mutodi, Godwin Gomwe, Matemadanda, Mutsvangwa and Tsenengamu, the video says the denunciations are merely a “ruse to deceive the party and the public” because the officials are “working with and for Mnangagwa.”

The foot soldiers

The video says Mnangagwa has “amassed a significant horde of at least 482 co-conspirators that are working from their various party and government positions to advance his bid to unconstitutionally and criminally succeed President Mugabe.” The list includes politburo members as well as cabinet ministers.

Zanu PF companies looting

While using Zacc to plot charges against rivals, Mnangagwa’s past is “riddled with cases of corruption in which he defrauded Zanu PF companies” which he was running, the video says

Private terror militia

The video says Mnangagwa is “feared and loathed” in the Midlands where a terror group “Al-Shabaab” is his faction’s enforcement outfit. On the gold fields around Kwekwe, Shurugwi and Kadoma, Al-Shabaab is linked to 12 murders, mainly as a result of fights over gold mining claims.

Godfrey Majonga saga

The video also contains a dramatic charge: that Mnangagwa almost killed and succeeded in ending the career of ZBC television star Godfrey Majonga during a clash over a woman in 1987.

Mnangagwa in a fit rage allegedly forced love rival Majonga to choose between sitting on a hot stove or jumping off the third floor of a building in Harare. Majonga chose to jump through the window of the flat where the confrontation happened, and landed on hard concrete.

He broke his spine and suffered debilitating injuries which would confine him to a wheelchair for life.

The post Zanu PF politburo video exposé appeared first on The Zimbabwe Independent.

TOP security officials, Zanu PF bigwigs and senior government functionaries owe the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid bills for water supplied to their farms.

Elias Mambo

As a result, Zinwa is now failing to pay its employees and has introduced austerity measures which include the termination of medical aid assistance, the Zimbabwe Independent can exclusively reveal. Despite failing to settle the bills, the bigwigs have applied for winter wheat cropping support under the command agriculture programme, which will see them requiring large volumes of water.

Documents show that Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) commander General Constantino Chiwenga owes Zinwa US$80 000 in unpaid bills while Zimbabwe’s former Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, retired Lieutenant-Colonel Boniface Chidyausiku, who owns Mufenje Farm, has arrears amounting to US$45 000.

Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri owes Zinwa US$40 000, while Local Government minister and Zanu PF national political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere’s Cornucopia Farm has a debt of US$34 284.

The chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Finance and Economic Development, David Chapfika, has a debt of US$26 000, while legislator Kenneth Musanhu owes US$25 000. Zanu PF deputy political commissar Omega Hungwe has a US$19 000 debt at Great Riversdale Farm.

Defence minister Sydney Sekeremayi owes the water authority US$5 000, while Brigadier-General David Sigauke who owns Kandy Farm, Mashonaland Central provincial affairs minister Martin Dinha and Judge President George Chiweshe’s (Verona Farm) owe US$4 000 each. Education minister Lazarus Dokora has a US$2 000 unpaid water bill.

Zinwa is failing to pay its employees and has a six-month backlog in salary payments. In a memorandum addressed to staff members dated July 14 2017, the Zinwa chief executive officer Jefter Sakupwanya advised that the January 2017 salaries would be further delayed.

Zinwa was taken to court by the Zimbabwe Energy Workers’ Union (Zewu). In the memo, Sakupwanya says failure to pay salaries on time was caused by the court order granted in favour of Zewu.

“Management would like to notify all staff members that we shall experience delays in the January 2017 salary payments,” reads the memo.

“This follows a court order granted in favour of ZEWU against Zinwa by the High Court of Zimbabwe in the sum of US$131 000. We need to comply with the order. We are currently redirecting the financial resources we have been saving for salaries in order to make good the court order.”

Sources say Zinwa has failed to remit medical aid payments, National Social Security Authority contributions as well as Nyaradzo Funeral Service fees which were deducted from salaries.

Documents seen by this newspaper show that former Mashonaland East provincial affairs minister Ray Kaukonde’s Pagejo Farm owed Zinwa close to US$50 000.

However, sources said Kaukonde has since settled his debt after giving Zinwa 11 brand new motorcycles and one 4×4 vehicle.
Efforts to get a comment from Zinwa did not succeed and questions emailed to the organisation’s public relations manager, Majorie Munyonga, last week, were not responded to.

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THE Mugabe brothers are having a night out again. Here they are showing off their outfits: distressed white denim, high-top sneakers, statement sunglasses.

Now they’re in a VIP booth at a club, swaying and swigging from bottles of Moët & Chandon while the music pumps. At some point they will post a flame emoji, indicating that the evening is “lit”.

Like many millennials, Robert Mugabe junior and Bellarmine, his younger brother, shamelessly chronicle their days (and late nights) on Instagram, a social-media site for sharing pictures. Uniquely, however, their 93-year-old father is the president of Zimbabwe.

The steady stream of photos and videos they post offers an unusual and oddly intimate window into their privileged personal lives. Lately the two brothers appear to be spending much of their time in Johannesburg.

Life is more “lit” there than back home in Zimbabwe, where their father has ruined the economy.

The Mugabe brothers are not the only scions of African strongmen who are tactless about what they share on social media. Lawrence Lual Malong Yor junior, the stepson of a South Sudanese general, documents his love of luxury on Facebook with photos of himself flying first-class and getting hot-stone massages. One video shows him lying in a pile of US$100 bills (which he claims make up US$1m that he will donate to charity).

Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, the son of the president of Equatorial Guinea (and coincidently also the vice-president) posts photos of himself luxuriating in private jets, posing behind the wheels of fancy cars, at parties and on exotic foreign trips.

A photo from his recent 1920s-themed birthday bash shows a woman jumping out of a giant cake. He appears undeterred by his trial in France, where he is accused of embezzling more than $100m from public funds and spending it on his high-flying lifestyle. Mr Obiang claimed that he has immunity from prosecution. A verdict is expected in October.

The active social lives of the two youngest Mugabe brothers have not gone unnoticed back home. The People’s Democratic Party, which is led by a former finance minister, Tendai Biti, has accused them of “spending taxpayers’ money like confetti”.

Despots’ brats do not only use social media for boasting. Robert Mugabe junior’s Instagram account has, at times, provided helpful updates on the health of his father, a matter of national importance given the president’s faltering grip on power.

On one occasion the younger Mr Mugabe kindly informed the world that the nonagenarian was “healthy and alive…so all the haters can RIP.”-The Economist

This article appeared in the Middle East and Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Lots not to like”

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FIRST Lady Grace Mugabe — currently in hot soup after assaulting a model in South Africa who was in the company of her two sons at a luxurious Johannesburg hotel — has splurged more than US$8 million on mansions in exclusive suburbs in the neighbouring country and in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare.

Bernard Mpofu/Elias Mambo

Reports in the South African media and separate checks by the Zimbabwe Independent — which has been investigating Grace’s property story and her sons’ escapades in Johannesburg — show that she has been renting a huge property owned by Angolan immigrants for R200 000 (more than US$15 000) a month. Investigations and reports show the rented six-bedroomed property is Number 27a Coronation Road, Sandhurst, Sandton’s most affluent suburb.

Sandton is the richest square in Africa. The house was valued at R40 million (US$3 million). A report in the The Star newspaper in Johannesburg also said Grace has bought a property around the corner in Sandhurst for R45 million (US$3,5 million) and was also negotiating to buy another.

Checks by the Independent showed the property is located at Number 37 Killarney Road. The price of the property on Killarney Road could go up to a whopping R49 million (US$3,7 million) when transfer costs, renovations and finishings are added.

In Harare, the Independent yesterday confirmed Grace has also acquired another property in the plush suburb of Hellensvale for US$4,5 million. As part of the purchase agreement, the former owners have been allowed to stay in the house for the next three years. An informed source confirmed yesterday the deal between Grace’s family and a local resident Jan Teede and his wife Fiona Campbell has been finalised.

Grace’s rented mansion in Sandhurst is a 2 000-square-metre fancy property.

“This home is a once-in-a-lifetime statement for a privileged and discerning Connoisseur!,” the description of the house on a property website goes.

“From the double volume entrance the tone is set for a home that invites whispers of sophisticated elegance and a lifestyle of grand entertaining in a sumptuous environment of luxury, ease and comfort — with numerous reception areas, consisting of formal lounge, baronial size dining room, informal lounge, feature pub area all opening to patios.”

The property also has a superb outside entertainment area for comfortable entertaining and al fresco surprises. It also has a first-rate new kitchen designed for easy access to all working areas fully fitted with imported appliances, cold room, breakfast area. There is also a basement man-cave and entertainment centre with own wine cellar, cigar bar, feature bar and fully equipped cinema. Information seen by this paper shows the Killarney property was acquitted through a shelf company. The property cost her R43 million (US$3,4 million), but the cost goes up to R45 million if other service charges are factored in.

The Regent luxury apartments in Morningside, Sandton, where Mugabe’s sons were evicted after a violent night brawl that left a security officer with broken arm and leg.

Grace has been splurging millions of dollars despite the fact that her business empire under the Gushungo Holdings’ Alpha and Omega Dairies banner is in the doldrums, incurring perennial losses since 2013.

President Robert Mugabe said his family has had to get loans to recapitalise the struggling dairy business. In January, the Independent reported the first family was paying US$500 000 per year for a property in Dubai where Robert Junior was at the time still based. Around April, Robert Junior unceremoniously left the rich emirate for South Africa where he was joined by his young brother Bellarmine Chatunga.

Since their relocation to Johannesburg, the Mugabe siblings have been living it up and partying up a storm almost daily, blowing cash like confetti through their champagne lifestyle.

In the process, they have been caught in explosive public fights after drinking and over ladies, jeopardising their personal security in the crime-ridden city. Last month the Independent also reported that Mugabe’s sons — notorious for a wild partying lifestyle — were evicted from a luxurious apartment in Sandton after a violent brawl that left one security officer with a broken leg and arm.

Grace also stirred controversy when she was involved in a US$1,3 million diamond ring dispute with a Lebanese dealer. Her lavish lifestyle has earned her the monikers “Gucci Grace” and “First Shopper”.

Government has resolved to build a private university — Robert Mugabe University — in Mazowe outside Harare at a cost of US$1 billion using public funds, suggesting the Mugabe family is using taxpayers’ money to fund their private interests. In 2011 Grace, and her former business partner, Ping Sung — a Taiwanese-born South African — bought trucks, trailers and equipment worth almost US$1 million with money transferred through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

Grace and Hsieh were later engaged in a fight over a US$5 million mansion in Hong Kong. The row over the Hong Kong home apparently erupted after a dispute over a gold mine in Chinhoyi.

This week Grace caused a storm in South Africa after assaulting a model, Gabriella Engels, whom she found her in the company of her sons in a Sandton hotel.

Capital 20 West hotel in Sandton where Grace attacked 20-year-old Gabriella Engels.

Since then, Grace has been holed up in Johannesburg — at her Sandhurst rented mansion — since Sunday amid reports South African police wanted her to hand herself in for criminal prosecution over the assault charge. Grace has, however, invoked diplomatic immunity cover to ensure impunity, although South African authorities have been ambivalent on the issue.

Despite efforts to invoke diplomatic immunity, a non-governmental organisation, AfriForum, said yesterday if the state is not prosecuting Grace it will assist Engels to deal with her through private prosecution.

Last month, the Independent also exclusively reported Grace, who is expanding her empire, grabbed the iconic Mazowe Dam, the lifeline of the citrus industry there.

Grace’s Mazowe empire already includes an opulent double-storey mansion on Mapfeni Farm, which can be seen from Manzou Farm where she has been evicting thousands of villagers since 2011 to establish a game park. There is also a dairy farm, orphanage and a school. She is planning to build a university, funded by the state. Grace has also grabbed land which belonged to the former Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed agro-producer Interfresh’s Mazowe Citrus Estate. Not far from the dam’s vicinity, Grace constructed the posh Grace Mugabe Junior School at a cost of US$7 million.

Villagers last month told the Independent Grace also took over the mountains surrounding the dam. Our news crew saw newly-erected signposts warning villagers against trespassing. The Mugabe family reportedly has more than 10 farms, making it part of the new land aristocracy ushered in by government’s chaotic fast-track land reform programme which began in 2000. 

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ALTHOUGH the Zimbabwe government has invoked diplomatic immunity cover in a bid to rescue First Lady Grace Mugabe from the trouble she has landed in after assaulting a South African model, Gabriella Engels, in Johannesburg last Sunday, President Robert Mugabe’s wife is still in hot water.

By Elias Mambo

This comes after AfriForum warned that diplomatic immunity should not and cannot be granted because Grace has committed a serious crime that needs to be dealt with through the legal route.

AfriForum is a South African civil-rights initiative to mobilise civil society and specifically minority communities, in order to take part in democratic debate.

Earlier yesterday, Isiah Mureriwa, an advocate of the High Court of South Africa and an associate of the association of arbitrators, told the Zimbabwe Independent that human rights organisations were ready to assist Engels with private prosecution. “It is unlikely that the South African government would allow her (Grace) prosecution on account of the likely diplomatic immunity,” he said.

“The best recourse is to do private prosecution where the state has no role to play and all consideration relevant to diplomatic immunity plays no role.

“If privately prosecuted, the state cannot even take over the prosecution since it will be barred by the immunity.”

AfriForum held a press conference announcing that prominent advocate Gerrie Nel is ready to represent Engels via private prosecution if the state fails to prosecute Grace.

At the press conference, Nel said his organisation is giving the South African government three months before it intervenes.

“We will give the prosecutions three months before we intervene. We will do all we can for justice,” said Nel.

In January this year AfriForum established a private prosecution unit led by Nel. Nel is famous for successfully prosecuting former police commissioner Jackie Selebi and Oscar Pistorius.

Nel also said the Engels family was offered money by the Mugabe family to drop the case but refused. “The family is not interested in a settlement, they will press for justice in law,” he said, adding: “The Engels family was approached by a third party to accept money for the case to go away.”

AfriForum says the family was told to come up with their own settlement amount, but rejected the offer. “If she’s escaped jurisdiction, we’ll do what we can in terms of the law. We are focussing on her being in the country,” he said. “We are monitoring this situation and if we feel that it is not going accordingly, we will intervene.”

AfriForum has also already written to the International Relations department advising them that Grace cannot be granted diplomatic immunity because of the seriousness of the case. The Department of International Relations spokesperson Clayson Monyela this week said Grace could not claim immunity. “She needs to be here on official business. It won’t apply if she’s here on holiday or for something else‚“ he said. “Secondly‚ as a first lady‚ she’s not part of government or a government official. It doesn’t apply just because she’s the wife of a president‚” Monyela said.

On Wednesday the ministry of police in South Africa issued an update on the assault saga, saying Grace had invoked the diplomatic immunity. “The suspect’s lawyers and her government representatives made verbal representations to South African Police Service (SAPS) investigators that the suspect wished to invoke diplomatic immunity cover,” the police statement stated.

“Subsequently the government of Zimbabwe has dispatched a diplomatic note verbale to the Department of International Relations and Cooperation invoking said diplomatic immunity cover.”

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Mystery surrounds Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s illness as two contending narratives have emerged following a food poisoning scare which erupted while he was attending a Zanu PF youth interface rally in Gwanda last week.

By Elias Mambo

This comes amid indications Mnangagwa is likely to return home this weekend after week-long medical treatment in South Africa.

There are two contending stories with regards to Mnangagwa’s illness: the first is that of food poisoning which government has proffered.

It entails that he ate contaminated food, while those close to the vice-president say he ate poisoned food (food deliberately laced with poison).

This week, Information minister Chris Mushowe allayed fears that Mnangagwa could have been poisoned.

“I just wanted to allay fears that some people are getting out of the mischievous social media maniacs who throw unfounded stories on the social media. There is absolutely nothing like that. He is fine,” he said.

“Some stories went to the extent that perhaps he was poisoned, some went to the extent that he ate ice cream from Gushungo Dairies. What the doctors think happened is that perhaps he ate some stale food which then means it is really not poison in the sense that the people are trying to allege,” Mushowe said.

However, those close to Mnangagwa have dismissed the theory that Mnangagwa ate “stale food” and are insisting the vice-president suffered minor damages to his liver and kidney due to poisoning.

Chain of events

Mnangagwa left Harare with Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi and Health minister David Parirenyatwa and his deputy on Saturday August 12 in the morning aboard an Air Force of Zimbabwe helicopter. He arrived in Gwanda around 10am.

Sources said upon arrival Mnangagwa was looking healthy and he attended the official launch of the Community Information Centre at Gwanda Post Office.

After the launch, Mnangagwa and other delegates went to Phelandaba Stadium for the youth interface rally.

“At 14:06pm Mnangagwa was at the high table while Mugabe arrived a couple of minutes later,” said a government official.

“Proceedings quickly commenced upon the arrival of Mugabe. The high table was served with water and some snacks which included samoosas, ice cream and chicken pieces.”

Sources also said three waiters from State Residences served the front row at the high table. “Those who sit on the right side of the president had a waiter dedicated to them, while those seated on the left side had a waiter of their own. One waiter was serving the president only,” said a source.

Mnangagwa complains

Mnangagwa began to complain about 40 minutes after eating the snacks.

“He began to shiver then decided to go to the back of the VVIP tent where he vomited. Parirenyatwa and State security minister Kembo Mohadi were called to the back of the tent,” a source said.

“Parirenyatwa asked for Mnangagwa to go into a ‘holding room’ so that he could be examined. Mnangagwa obliged and went into the room where Parirenyatwa examined him and suspected food poisoning which he said was not a serious issue. Mnangagwa had also eaten fruits at the helicopter.”

Mnangagwa then went back to the high table and after about five minutes he left again and headed to the toilet where he vomited and had a running stomach.

“Parirenyatwa escorted him to the toilet and at this time Mnangagwa was sweating profusely,” said an official.
Sources said Parirenyatwa suggested that Mnangagwa be taken to Gwanda Hospital or Bulawayo for further tests as he was feeling weak.

“Mnangagwa opted to be flown to Gweru to his personal doctor. He was accompanied by Parirenyatwa to Gweru,” the official said.

A source said they arrived in Gweru around 5pm and “Mnangagwa was shivering and experienced memory lapses”.

“His doctor quickly sedated him to ease pressure on his organs as he suspected something more than just food poisoning.”

Military intervention

Between 7pm and 8pm Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander Constantino Chiwenga dispatched an air ambulance (from ACE Air & Ambulance Pvt Ltd) to Gweru so that Mnangagwa be moved to the Manyame military hospital with plans to fly him to South Africa.

“Chiwenga — who was later seen at the Hrare International Airport that evening — also flew to Gweru and then accompanied Mnangagwa to Manyame airbase.

“Military doctors took over and conducted basic tests and again sedated him with hopes of flushing out poison traces.”

Sources said by the time he was in Harare, the diarrhoea had stopped but he was still shivering and walking unsteadily.

Sources also said Chiwenga flew to South Africa on Tuesday evening to visit the ailing vice-president who had been accompanied by General’s wife Mary.

South Africa trip

Sources said Mnangagwa wanted to go home on Sunday morning after the military doctors said results of the tests will be known in the next four days.

However, Chiwenga suggested that Mnangagwa be flown to South Africa for further tests to ascertain the nature of the poison he had consumed. Sources also said a private jet (Flight number ZS-SRU) was arranged from South Africa to come fetch Mnangagwa to the Wits University Donald Gordon Medical Centre, where family members say he was told he suffered “minor liver and kidney damages”. Mushowe has dismissed foul play.

The post Mystery surrounds Mnangagwa poisoning appeared first on The Zimbabwe Independent.

AMNESTY International — a human rights non-governmental organisation — has called on South Africa, which will this weekend takeover the chair of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) from Swaziland, to strongly address threats to basic human rights in Zimbabwe.

By Wongai Zhangazha

In recent months, journalists and peaceful protestors have been brutalised by the police.

South African President Jacob Zuma will assume the rotating Sadc chair from King Mswati III at the 37th Heads of State Summit in Pretoria.

Sadc will hold a double troika meeting today to discuss the political and security situation in the region.

Ironically, the summit is taking place at a time First Lady Grace Mugabe is under fire for allegedly assaulting a 20-year-old Johannesburg model, Gabriella Engels, after finding her in the company of her two sons in a hotel in Sandton.

Engels claims that Grace brutally assaulted her and two of her friends with an extension cord, while her 10 bodyguards watched.

Her sons fled the scene.

The international human rights organisation said Zimbabwe faces major political instability linked to elections that has put freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association in jeopardy.

Amnesty International also blasted the Zimbabwean parliament for failing to realign laws with a national constitution adopted in 2013.

Deprose Muchena, the regional director of Amnesty International, said the authorities in Zimbabwe continue to use oppressive laws such as the Public Order and Security Act, as well as the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act to suppress dissent and intimidate journalists.

Last month, plain-clothed police officers brutally attacked three Alpha Media Holdings journalists, Obey Manayiti, Shepherd Tozvireva and Abigail Matsikidze, as well as a driver Raphael Phiri, accusing them of taking pictures in Harare’s Central Business District.

Manayiti sustained a bruised lip and a swollen eye during the attack.

Muchena said since last year the government has ramped up a clampdown against human rights defenders, suppressed peaceful public protests and in some cases prohibited public meetings. Police are regularly deployed to forcefully break up peaceful protests.

“South Africa must use its tenure as leader of the Sadc to put a stop to the downward spiral in human rights in the region,” said Muchena.

“Leaders across southern Africa cannot ignore the plight of citizens who are being targeted for attempting to exercise their basic human rights.”

Zimbabwe was last year rocked by a number of demonstrations as people protested against increasing corruption, unemployment, poverty and suffering. The security forces responded by unleashing a crack team which abducted and tortured protest leaders, while also randomly assaulting people at night. Government imposed a blanket ban on protests in central Harare.

Human rights activist Itai Dzamara, who was abducted in Harare’s Glen View suburb on March 9, 2015, is still missing, with the authorities making little or no effort to investigate his forced disappearance. — Staff Writer.

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YOUTH, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment minister Patrick Zhuwao has savaged Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander General Constantino Chiwenga and the Chris Mutsvangwa-led Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association for claiming that they are “stockholders” of the liberation struggle.

By Wongai Zhangazha

Zhuwao says the nation must now embrace the Generation 40 group (G40) in all political and socio-economic spheres.

Speaking in his personal capacity at a Sapes Policy Dialogue public discussion titled: The Legacy of the Heroes: Challenges and Opportunities for the Youth last Wednesday, Zhuwao took a dig at Chiwenga and war veterans, saying the “stockholders” concept would not work as the youths were now seized with a new struggle for socio-economic empowerment.

In direct response to President Robert Mugabe, who at a meeting in Harare in April last year said war veterans were an affiliate of Zanu PF which had no mandate to interfere in the party’s affairs, war veterans said they are “stockholders” of the ruling party, while those running the party are “stakeholders”. Chiwenga, in an interview with state media in the same month, also said the military were “stockholders” of the country. Youths, according to the constitution, are people between the ages of 17 and 35. Zhuwao said young people should be afforded a role in the country’s current political discourse.

“This is a huge demographic force that reality must recognise. We cannot exclude the youths. No sane country applying its faculties and reason can dare exclude them, certainly not Zimbabwe and certainly not under the distortion of the national liberation project that seeks to assert the context of stockholders,” said Zhuwao, who is a key member of the G40 Zanu PF faction, coalesced around First Lady Grace Mugabe. The G40 faction is determined to derail Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s bid to succeed Mugabe. The Mnangagwa faction’s pillar of strength has been war veterans and the military.

“We need to be able to recognise that the (stockholders) concept will really ultimately not work. Ultimately the youths of today must be identified according to the calls of the country as much as the youth of yesterday were identified to the calls of their time. So the youths of yesterday are largely our war veterans who were identified according to the calls of fighting militarily for political independence,” Zhuwao said.

He said the time has come for the country’s young generation to consolidate the gains of the liberation struggle by winning the “Last Chimurenga” of indigenisation and empowerment.

“Ultimately, the national liberation project demands conversations between heroes of our past who succeeded in Zimbabwe’s political revolution and the new heroes of our liberation present which is socio-economic revolution. This is a conversation that must desist from exclusive stockholder narratives (and) instead adopt inclusive stakeholdership,” he said.

Zhuwao said the role of youths can “only be defined within the unadulterated unaligned concept of a Generation40 as first elucidated by Professor (Jonathan) Moyo (Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education) in August 2011 some six years ago”.

“Generation 40 speaks to the reality of the youth demographic, which speaks to emerging new stakeholders to the national liberation project, which Zimbabwe in all of its political socio-economic fabric must embrace,” he said, quoting parts of Moyo’s interview in state media.

Zhuwao also quoted Moyo as saying, “Why is it that some comrades in the nationalist movement in general and in Zanu PF in particular seem to be afraid of change when it is a fact of everyday life and is thus essential to the survival of any living thing whether biological, social, economic or political?”

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Compliance with the controversial indigenisation policy has become the only pending issue stalling the Barclays Bank Zimbabwe take-over bid by Malawi’s First Merchant Bank (FMB) amid fresh indications the Reserve Bank yesterday gave a nod to the deal, it has been established.

Bernard Mpofu

This comes as senior executives at the bank are still pursuing a management buyout (MBO) in one of the country’s iconic financial institutions.

Sources said yesterday despite increasing shareholding under the employee share ownership scheme to 15% from 10% in the initial arrangement, making the deal one of the biggest of its kind since government gazetted the indigenisation policy compelling foreign investors to dispose of 51% stakes to locals, the Office of the President and Cabinet and the Indigenisation ministry raised a red flag on the takeover in what appeared to be an endorsement of the management buyout.

Central bank governor John Mangudya recently told the Zimbabwe Independent that the deal was close to being concluded.

Contacted for comment on the proposed MBO and progress on the deal of the deal, Barclays Bank of Zimbabwe managing director George Guvamatanga said: “As we are currently under cautionary, I am not able to comment on both of these matters.”

Barclays Bank Plc, which held 67,68% shareholding in the local unit, last year said it was disposing of its African assets, including in Zimbabwe, to focus on British and American markets. The remaining 32% of Barclays Bank of Zimbabwe shares are traded on the local bourse.

Apart from Barclays Bank Plc, major shareholders in Barclays Zimbabwe include Old Mutual Life Assurance Company (OMLAC) and FED Nominees which own 3,44% and 2,45% respectively.

“The review of the deal has been completed and there are no adverse findings. So this take-over is expected to be finalised by end of September once the indigenisation issues are resolved,” a source familiar with the deal said yesterday.

“A circular announcing the change in shareholding, board changes and how the business will operate is also expected to be released in the coming weeks.”

After fending off 24 take-over bids to seize control of majority shareholding in Barclays Bank Zimbabwe, FMB, which will be taking over the majority shareholding in the Zimbabwe unit, is planning to set up a new group to be dual-listed on the Malawi Stock Exchange and Mauritius Stock Exchange as it consolidates its presence in the southern African regional market.

Barclays Zimbabwe, alongside the Egyptian business, was not part of the 2013 deal that saw Barclays Africa, formerly Absa, acquire eight African operations from its parent company due to high local political risk.

Barclays Plc sold the stake in its Zimbabwean operation for US$60 million to FMB in June following months of fierce bidding.

Before FMB was announced as the new majority shareholder, a bidding war had erupted between a Barclays Bank Zimbabwe senior management consortium and FMB over one of the country’s oldest and most iconic banking institutions.

Msasa Capital, a private investment and advisory firm fronted by ex-Investec executive Richard Honey and Border Timbers shareholder Heinrich von Pezold, was tasked by senior Barclays Bank Zimbabwe management led by incumbent managing director Guvamatanga to draft the takeover proposal to Barclays Plc.

Barclays Bank Zimbabwe was established in 1912, and has operated in the country continuously since then, making it a landmark feature on the local financial services landscape.

The bank, listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE), has over 1 000 employees and a countrywide network of 38 branches in main urban areas.

Other bidders, according to sources, included an investment vehicle co-owned by former ABC Holdings chief executive Doug Munatsi, State Bank of Mauritius and Adylwich LLC. It is also understood that once the deal is finalised, FMB shareholders would swap their shares to a new entity called FMB Capital Holdings for an equal number of shares.

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GOVERNMENT’S top advisor on Ease of Doing Business reforms, Ashok Chakravarti, has recommended that bond notes operate as the official local currency and not as a surrogate of the United States dollar.

Hazel Ndebele/Kudzai Kuwaza

Speaking at last night’s Southern African Political Economic Series policy discussion titled Zimbabwe’s Economy: How and When to Reintroduce a Viable Zimbabwe Currency, Chakravarti said scrapping the pegging of the bond note to the US dollar by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) would halt the liquidity crisis.

“Let us accept that we already have the bond notes as a local currency. RBZ has put a peg between the bond and the US dollar and yet it is not equal,” Chakravarti, who was speaking as an independent analyst, pointed out.

“My recommendation is that to eliminate the liquidity crisis, government needs to remove the peg and let the bond note operate on its own and that way it will be a real currency.”

Chakravarti, a University of Zimbabwe economics professor, said keeping the peg is only depreciating the value of the Real-Time Gross Settlement system (RTGS). He noted that the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries had revealed that the RTGS premium to real money is now at 30%, meaning if one had US$1 000 in RTGS, they only have US$700 in real money. He added that it was “pointless” to have the Afrieximbank facility, which the central bank said backs the bond notes, if it is not convertible.”

Chakravarti said it was unhealthy for the economy to have government crowding out funding for the private sector. He noted that the country has the highest tax-to-GDP in Africa which is 30% against the continental average of 22%, a situation he described as unviable.

Chakravarti predicted that by December this year bond notes will constitute 50 to 60% of the currency in circulation which will qualify it as a local currency.

Former Finance minister Tendai Biti said he doubted whether the bond notes are backed by the Afreximbank facility.

“I agree with Ashok Chakravarti that the bond notes area a currency because they are supposedly 1:1 with the US dollar, they are legal tender,” Biti said.

“However, we are living in an era of fake news and this is fake money. It is fictitious money as it is not baked by anything.

“No one has seen the term sheet of the Afreximbank facility so we do not know if it even exists and right now (Reserve Bank governor John) Mangudya has said there are more bond notes backed by the same Afreximbank facility. It is pure gross misrepresentation backed by nothing.”

Biti recommended the establishment of a Zimbabwe Emergency Fund with contributions from international financial institutions to resuscitate the ailing economy. He said the country needs to improve its competitiveness, improve the ease of doing business, reduce the wage bill and eradicate ghost workers, among other measures, before a local currency can be introduced. The former finance minister said it was also imperative to build reserves of at least US$9 billion before the country could qualify to have its own currency.

Former Reserve Bank governor Kombo Moyana said there was a need for businesspeople and those who are technically astute to come up with a model on how and when a new currency can be introduced.

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UNDER-FIRE South African President Jacob Zuma yesterday professed ignorance over the legal grounds on which Zimbabwe’s First Lady Grace Mugabe was last month granted diplomatic immunity after allegedly assaulting a 20-year-old model she found in the company of her two sons in a Johannesburg hotel.

Bernard Mpofu

President Robert Mugabe’s wife was spared arrest for causing grievous bodily harm to Gabriella Engels.

Yesterday, Zuma was taken to task during question time in the Cape Town National Assembly by lawmakers who asked why Grace escaped prosecution.

“Part of the reason why we have the laws in the country is that when somebody commits a crime here, there are law enforcement entities that deal with that and insofar as the matter you are referring to, the police were very active and very involved in dealing with that matter. What I’m not saying.

. . I’m not a lawyer and I don’t know what happened and how the matter at the end came to a point where it came,” said Zuma during a televised session in Parliament yesterday.

“So all I’m saying is the actions were taken, the police were there, they dealt with the matter. Then the issue of diplomatic conditions came about and actions were taken. All I’m saying . . . I can’t answer that detail, not being aware what actually happened.”

After being accused of lying to Parliament, he went on to say: “ Why do you say the truth has run away because I’m telling you the truth, what’s your problem? You know, if for an example you did not want to come to Parliament to politick, if you were interested in it, you would have gone to the police station where the case was put and you would have the facts, but you just want to politick.

You want me to talk, you want me to discuss the matters, details of which I don’t know.”

Before Grace was granted the convenient cover of diplomatic immunity, South Africa’s Police Minister Fikile Mbalula had earlier said police had issued a “red alert” instructing all South African ports of entry to ensure she did not leave the country.

Even after the Zimbabwean government dispatched a diplomatic note verbale invoking diplomatic immunity cover for Grace, Mbalula insisted that justice be served. Grace left South Africa with her husband on a chartered flight.

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