The Standard

4th June 2017

Suspected human bones believed to be of victims of the Gukurahundi massacres discovered in Kezi, Matabeleland South last week were “hurriedly” reburied without any forensic analysis, raising questions that government is “hiding something”.
Kezi is one of the areas that bore the brunt of the mass killings and one of the most notorious “concentration” camps known as Bhalagwe is found there.

In the ’80s, an army crack unit specially trained by North Korean instructors, rampaged through the Matabeleland and Midlands provinces, killing an estimated 20 000 innocent civilians, according to the Catholic Commission for Peace and Justice.

Kezi was one of the areas that were heavily targeted.

Last week, villagers found human remains scattered along the banks of Bhode River near Kezi business centre and several were dug out at the instructions of Chief Nyangazonke.

Chief Nyangazonke on Sunday ordered the villagers to re-bury the remains without any forensic investigation to establish their identity and cause of death, a move roundly condemned by the opposition and researchers as depressing and unfortunate.

The remains were re-buried on Wednesday at the Kezi Rural Hospital graveyard, councillor Sinikiwe Moyo confirmed.

“On Sunday at a ward meeting, Chief Nyangazonke ordered all village heads and villagers to come and re-bury the bones on Wednesday. No one could challenge him. At the reburial, the chief was not there, the police were not there, people were being led by their village heads.

“All the bones were gathered and put in bags and were reburied at Kezi Hospital graveyard. No one knows what happened in the area or who these people were,” Moyo said, adding this was not the first time human remains have been discovered at the area.

“Every year during the rainy season, human remains are discovered. These people were buried close to the river and once it rains, the bones are exposed.

“We always make reports to the police but we get told to re-bury them. So every year we have been re-burying human remains.”

Chief Nyangazonke was not answering his mobile phone on Friday, and it was not reachable yesterday.

However, the opposition condemned the hurried re-burial of the human remains without any forensic investigation, with MDC T spokesperson Obert Gutu saying the “Gukurahundi truth cannot be suppressed indefinitely”.

Gutu heaped all blame on Zanu PF.

“It is more than clear and obvious that the human remains that were recently discovered in the Kezi area date back from the Gukurahundi era. In fact, this is the main reason why the Zanu PF regime rushed to re-bury the human remains without subjecting them to a forensic analysis,” he said in an interview on Friday.

“This is a most unfortunate and depressing event because it shows and proves, beyond a shadow of doubt, that the Zanu PF regime is not keen on bringing closure to the victims of the Gukurahundi genocide.

“However, the truth cannot be suppressed indefinitely.”

Zanu PF spokesperson, Simon Khaya-Moyo refused to comment on the matter yesterday.

“I don’t want to comment on something that I do not know,” he said. “I need to have all the information about the discovered human remains, the whole story before I comment.”

Politician David Coltart, who wrote extensively on the Gukurahundi massacres in his biography titled The Struggle Continues: 50 Years Of Tyranny in Zimbabwe, said the re-burial of the human remains without any identification showed government “wanted to hide something”.

“It is wrong to re-bury the remains without taking any effort to establish whose remains they are,” he said.

“There are many surviving relatives and loved ones who do not know what happened to deceased loved ones who sometimes disappeared without trace. In this modern scientific age, DNA sampling can establish the identity of remains and this should always be done before remains are re-buried.”

Coltart added: “Furthermore, some of these graves may be crime scenes and so it is always important to conduct a thorough forensic study of such sites before they are disrupted and potential evidence lost.

“Suspicions will certainly be raised that the government is hiding something if the government is seen to hurriedly re-bury remains without engaging local communities and forensic experts.”

Despite President Robert Mugabe admitting Gukurahundi was a “moment of madness”, his party is still determined to suppress any discussion or investigation of the matter.

Human remains have also been discovered in other districts such as Lupane, in Matabeleland North province.

In 2011, pupils playing football at the grounds of St Paul Secondary School stumbled on human bones sticking out of the ground.

Finland Zimbabwean-based researcher and scholar of African politics, Obert Hodzi said the way the Kezi bones were handled raised eyebrows.

“The burial of human remains without proper investigation and determination of whether those remains are forensics or not raises grave suspicions that the authorities have something to hide,” he said.

“Just assuming the remains are from the liberation war without conducting proper investigations seem to be an attempt to shrug off possibilities that they might be remains of victims of Gukurahundi.

“Considering the region in which the remains were found, there is a high possibility that they might be remains of Gukurahundi.

“Authorities should have conducted through investigations, at least out of respect for survivors and families of Gukurahundi victims who are still searching for the remains of their missing relatives.”

Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko is facing spirited resistance from within his own Zanu PF party to the National Peace and Reconciliation Bill, which seeks to bring closure to past conflicts that among others, include Gukurahundi.

Recently-released diplomatic cables sent to London and Washington at the height of the Gukurahundi have revealed how countries such as Britain chose to ignore the atrocities to protect their own interests.

They also show the extent to which politicians and army generals such as Emmerson Mnangagwa, Sidney Sekeramayi, Constantino Chiwenga and Perence Shiri were involved in the atrocities.

The cables describe the killings as ethnic cleansing as the North Korean-trained brigade targeted Ndebele-speaking supporters of late Vice President Joshua Nkomo’s Zapu.

The Standard

28th May 2017

President Robert Mugabe spent a staggering 77 days out of the country in the first five months of the year as his love for foreign travel continues to drain the cash-strapped government.
Mugabe arrived in the country on Friday after spending a week at the Mexican resort of Cancún where he attended a Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction conference.

The 93-year-old ruler left the country on May 19 with an entourage of at least 35 officials, including bodyguards and Cabinet ministers.
The Cancún conference was running for three days but Mugabe was at the resort for seven days.

Besides attending international summits where at times he turns out to be the only head of state, Mugabe has increased his medical trips to Singapore at the taxpayer’s expense.

He began 2017 in foreign lands after he left the country on December 21 for his annual holiday. He only returned to the country towards the end of January.

Mugabe has since flown out of the country 10 times, twice to Singapore for treatment and attended five conferences.

Since January 17 when he left his Dubai holiday base for China on official business while on leave, Mugabe has travelled an estimated 145 000km across the globe, visiting at least three continents in the process.

He has so far spent 250 hours in the air flying from Harare to various destinations that include Dubai, China, Mali, South Africa, Singapore and Mexico.

His holiday to Dubai, according to former Finance minister Tendai Biti, gobbled no less than $6 million.

During the vacation, Mugabe travelled to China, spending at least 14 hours in the air for the return trip.

The Chinese trip, according to government officials, was organised to push for the implementation of “mega-deals” signed between Harare and Beijing two years ago.

He, again, left his Dubai base for Singapore, for yet another medical check-up before flying to Mali for the 27th Africa-France Summit in Mali on January 17.

The veteran leader, who hardly sends representatives to any summit, returned to Harare on January 27 after flying for more than eight hours from Dubai.

He left Harare for Ethiopia on the same day for the Africa Union summit.

Mugabe returned home on January 31 after spending three days in Addis Ababa.

He did not travel outside the country the whole of February but was back in the air soon after his lavish 93rd birthday celebrations for a “routine eye check-up” in Singapore on March 1.

For the trip, Mugabe chartered an ultra-luxurious Boeing 767-200 Extended Range aircraft at a cost of $1 million as Air Zimbabwe planes were grounded.

He spent at least five days in Singapore and on his return, he spent less than 12 hours in Zimbabwe as he was on another flight to Ghana for the West African country’s Independence celebrations.

He returned home on March 8, having spent at least three days in Accra and 10 days later he was off to Swaziland for a Sadc summit.

On his return, he spent just 12 hours in Harare before heading to Mauritius for the African Economic Platform conference where he cut a lone figure with no other heads of state and governments in attendance.

Mugabe spent two days in Mauritius but there was nothing to show for his sojourn. The Zanu PF leader did not travel in April but on May 1 he flew out to South Africa for the World Economic Forum.

He returned home on May 5 and spent less than three days before heading back to Singapore for a medical check-up. He returned on May 13.

Six days later, Mugabe was shelling $3 million to charter a plane to Cancún. There are reports that he spent eight days in Singapore with his large entourage.

From January 1 to May 27, Mugabe has spent more days in foreign lands compared to the 69 days he has stayed in his troubled country.

According to Finance ministry statistics, in the first 10 months of 2016, Mugabe made at least 20 trips abroad, spending $36 million, up from $33 million he used the previous year.

The $20 million he has spent on foreign trips so far is more than the combined budget allocated to the Foreign Affairs ministry which has 47 foreign missions to look after, and that of the Sport ministry.

It is also more than the budget allocated to the Industry, Trade and Commerce ministry, which was given $17 million for 2017.

Former Education minister, David Coltart said Mugabe’s trips were a waste of resources as nothing tangible had come out of them.

“This is a waste of resources, to say the least,” he said.

“It is a shame that from all the trips President Mugabe has made, no investment deal has been struck or discussed. In most of the cases, the trips have to do with his health.”

He said the Zimbabwean leader must emulate United States President Donald Trump, who only made his first foreign trip last week following his inauguration on January 20.

“We have to deal with our attitude as a country; it’s not about the president alone, even his ministers, they must live and work for the people of Zimbabwe,” he said.

Biti said the numerous foreign trips were now a cash cow for Mugabe’s aides who were getting “extortionate” per diems.

“It is a parasitic mindset. Mugabe must just stop it,” he charged.

“It is bleeding our purse. The idea of looting like there is no tomorrow is not workable. Soon there will be nothing to loot.”

However, Higher and Tertiary Education minister Jonathan Moyo launched a spirited defence of Mugabe’s trips on Twitter after Zimbabweans took to social media to vent their anger.

“Cde, things aren’t always what they seem,” Moyo tweeted in response to a tweet by prominent lawyer Alex Magaisa who asked: “Why spend a week for a three-day event when he could have sent a minister? You would think Zimbabwe is awash with cash.”

Moyo added: “Pres Mugabe is a master at using multilateral events to benefit Zim interests.”

In response to a tweet by the respected Foreign Policy magazine claiming “on a trip Mugabe gave his entourage $1 000 to spend a day, Moyo said: “This is a clear fake news tweet from well-known Foreign Policy misfit engaging in mass deception to influence Zimbabwe’s 2018 elections.”

Byo24 News

24th May 2017

MDC senior official David Coltart who is also a former Education Minister has said Zimbabwe 37 years after its independence still has no single serviceable plane amid the ban of its dangerous plane from flying into European zones.

He said although the ruining party (Zanu PF) controlled press has not made much of it, President Robert Mugabe is presently in Mexico attending a UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction.

“It is highly ironic that he flew in there on a chartered plane (similar to the one pictured below) because 37 years into independence there is not a single serviceable Zimbabwean plane to take him there. In fact, one of the reasons the EU has barred Air Zimbabwe from flying into Europe is because of that fact, and because our radar systems do not meet EU standards, in other words, they are unsafe and could cause a disaster,” said the former minister.

“In the last few decades, Zimbabwe has faced a number of men made disasters including hyperinflation, the collapse of our economy, the exodus of hundreds of thousands of our skilled professionals and technicians including doctors and nurses – all caused by the ruinous policies of the party Mugabe leads. In addition, the same ruining party has been woefully incapable of dealing with the natural disasters this region has suffered during the same period including droughts and floods.”

Coltart said the use of an expensive charter plane to fly Mugabe to Mexico is emblematic of all that is wrong with this regime: the collapse of once fine institutions like Air Zimbabwe, a shocking notion of where our priorities lie, a callous disregard for the needs of the people and the ongoing pretence that all is well in our nation.

“In today’s press Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa claimed that Zanu PF has created 2,2 million jobs since 2013, something everyone, with even half a brain, knows is simply a brazen lie,” he said.

“The reality is, of course, something quite different to what both Mr Mugabe will tell the UN in Cancun and what Mnangagwa is saying back home. Our economy is on its knees; had we not had a wonderful rainy season this year Zimbabwe would have faced a catastrophic disaster. The blushes of the ruining party have been saved for one more season, but the reality is that the poor economic and humanitarian fundamentals have not changed one iota.”

He said the best Disaster Risk Reduction strategy Zimbabwe can take is to end the disastrous policies consistently implemented by Zanu PF since it came to power in 1980.

“But that will only be achieved when Zimbabweans themselves wake up to this reality; those democrats opposed to Zanu PF and its corrupt policies must form a common front and those flirting with this appalling regime must stop if they want to see our beloved nation reach its true potential,” Coltart said.

Eyewitness News

12th May 2017

Zimbabwe’s four-year-old Constitution allows people to hold more than one passport, but Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede says he wants to change that.

A top Zimbabwe official wants to ban dual citizenship and lawyers are outraged.

Zimbabwe’s four-year-old Constitution allows people to hold more than one passport, but Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede says he wants to change that.

The part of the new Constitution that gave Zimbabweans the right to another passport was widely supported.

But the state-run Chronicle is reporting that Mudede wants the charter amended to abolish that right.

He says dual citizenship can fuel crimes like human trafficking and tax evasion.

What he doesn’t say is that it can allow Zimbabweans born in the diaspora or those who’ve acquired another passport to vote in elections.

Law expert Alex Magaisa said Mudede’s been defying the new charter from day one.

Human rights lawyer David Coltart tweeted that Mudede wanted to take the country back to the dark ages.

News 24

5 May 2017

Harare – Zimbabwe clergy Evan Mawarire of #This Flag fame is bringing together social movements against President Robert Mugabe ahead of the 2018 polls amid increasing calls for opposition leaders to swiftly bring to finality a grand coalition.

Elections are tentatively set for July 2018 but the country’s opposition parties are still dithering on concluding coalition talks despite the main opposition MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai signing memorandum of agreements with other smaller parties, including Joice Mujuru’s National People’s Party and Welshman Ncube’s political formation.

With the opposition still to conclude coalition talks, Mawarire’s move this week to bring together social movements, among them Tajamuka, is seen as nudging Mugabe’s nemesis closer.

Sources in the opposition told News24 that there is “trepidation and suspicion” within the leaders of the main opposition following the pastor’s latest stance. The development is gaining currency, with weary citizens fed up with a fragmented opposition.

‘I don’t think everyone needs to join political parties’

“We (social movements) are together to say: Enough is enough,” said Mawarire, who last year earned the ire of Mugabe and Zanu-PF after a nationwide strike which brought the country to a standstill.

“The unprecedented mobilisation of Zimbabwe everywhere has begun,” he added.

Analysts told News24 that a coalition of activists as initiated by Mawarire blends well with aspirations of Tsvangirai and other opposition leaders ahead of 2018 polls.

Mugabe is seeking a fifth term at the ripe age of 94 and has been in power since independence from colonial Britain in 1980.

Opposition politician and human rights lawyer David Coltart sees Mawarire playing a similar role as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the United Democratic Front towards the democratisation of South Africa.

Coltart told News24: “I don’t think everyone needs to join political parties. If Pastor Evan can play a similar role to the one Archbishop Tutu and the UDF played in the final years of apartheid then they will perform a valuable role.”

Mugabe’s power base

Analysts, however, remain adamant that any effective strategy to dislodge Mugabe will inevitably have to be well co-ordinated and organised.

“For Mawarire, the primary challenge will be to bring together real and organic social movements beyond social media. He needs to mobilise around dislocating Mugabe’s power base beyond state security that is snatching away the peasantry, labour, unemployed youth and the given population in urban areas through a programme that addresses their socio-economic quagmire.

“Anything shot of this is as futile as singing to the choir on social media and Mawarire has some homework to do in order to overcome this toll order,” said an official working for a foreign development agency, who preferred to remain anonymous for fear of being accused of funding social movements.

Thulani Mswelanto, a political analyst who doubles up as programmes manager at Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition said any initiative to come up with a consolidated and co-ordinated framework for social movement is welcome, pointing out it would amplify the isolated voices.

Extensive consultation

“However there is need for extensive consultations among the various social movements and stakeholders so that there are no conflicting messages. Most of these social movements operate on horizontal structures using committee systems and the proposed framework must then address the very genealogy of the movements and at what level they co-operate. Above all for the co-ordination to succeed there is need for consensus building and shared visioning,” said Mswelanto.

Bhekithemba Mhlanga, a political analyst based in the United Kingdom who left Zimbabwe more than a decade ago, weighed in saying it would be folly for opposition parties not to embrace the idea at a time everyone is fade up with the Zanu PF strongman.

“Zimbabwe needs fresh leadership, fresh ideas and fresh faces. The coalition of activists dispels the myth that political space is only for a chosen few,” said Mhlanga.

“No one has a monopoly to participate in politics in Zimbabwe.

“Those with the best prospects will win the hearts and minds of voters – established or new, young or old.”

Irish Times

By Bill Corcoran

Movement for Democratic Change and National People’s Front sign pact ahead of 2018 vote

The leaders of Zimbabwe’s two main opposition political parties have forged an alliance to take on President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party in the southern African country’s general elections next year.

Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai and former vice-president Joice Mujuru’s National People’s Front signed a pact in Harare that paves the way for a full coalition of opposition parties to contest the 2018 poll.

The move is seen as a significant step towards uniting a variety of anti-Mugabe opposition groups in the country, which over the past decade have often splintered because of infighting over strategies and leadership positions.

The MDC has split four times since the party was formed in 1999 to challenge the now 93-year-old Mr Mugabe, who has been in power since the end of white minority rule in the country in 1980.

Party name-change

Ms Mujuru’s party has also fractured since it was formed in 2016, which prompted her to change its name this year from Zimbabwe People First to its current title.

At the signing ceremony on Wednesday, Mr Tsvangirai said the memorandum of understanding was the beginning of “building blocks towards establishing a broad alliance to confront” Zanu-PF, which is also undermined by factionalism.

Ms Mujuru said that despite taking a long time to negotiate, the pact brought hope to the electorate and general population. Zimbabweans are struggling under a crippling economic crisis that shows no sign of abating under the current presidency.

“This is something that we have been discussing since last year,” she said. “We have taken more than six months to consult, discuss, and make ourselves understand what expectations our people have, or should be given, from the two of us.”

In a further sign that divisions between the opposition groups will be put aside to better challenge Zanu-PF, Welshman Ncube, the leader of a splinter MDC faction, yesterday also signed the pact.

It has yet to be decided which of the opposition leaders will challenge Mr Mugabe in the presidential election. But Ms Mujuru said she will lead the political committee and Mr Tsvangirai the diplomatic committee, while People’s Democratic Party leader Tendai Biti will head the legal committee.

‘Excellent move’

Former MDC member and education minister David Coltart welcomed the news, tweeting on Wednesday it is “an excellent move – and there is more to come. Watch this space!”
Having Ms Mujuru on board will give the opposition parties significant insight into how the ruling party has rigged elections in the past, and more importantly, how it can be stopped from happening next year.

She was a member of Zanu-PF for 34 years and was Mr Mugabe’s deputy president for 10 years, but in early 2015 was expelled from the movement for allegedly trying to instigate regime change.

The pro-Mugabe state-run Herald newspaper displayed the ruling party’s dislike for its former comrade on Thursday, saying Ms Mujuru had become a “political concubine” of the MDC by signing the deal.
Mr Mugabe’s government has not
yet officially responded to the news of the pact.

Bulawayo 24 News

20 March 2017

Former vice president Joice Mujuru will be a significant ally for Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai ahead of next year’s elections, an analyst says.

Mujuru and Tsvangirai signed a pact in Harare on Wednesday to pave the way for a coalition of opposition parties to face President Robert Mugabe in the upcoming elections, which until now the longtime leader looked certain to win.

The exact details of the deal still aren’t available, as @ZimMediaReview pointed out.

Said the online watchdog: “Lots of excited media coverage of the Mujuru-Tsvangirai [memorandum of understanding], but none have actually seen it. What does it say; why wasn’t it made public?”

The deal was strengthened on Thursday with a second signing ceremony, this time including Welshman Ncube, the leader of a splinter faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Harare-based political analyst Pedzisai Ruhanya said the pact is “big news” that could lead to a broader opposition coalition.

“I don’t think it’ll end in tears. I’m aware that [other significant opposition figures] are already in talks with the MDC. So I think in the near future you’ll see them coming to coalesce with these guys. I don’t think Mujuru would say, ‘I’m going back to Zanu’. I don’t foresee that,” he said in an interview.

Ruhanya also believes that some war vets (traditionally Mugabe’s biggest supporters) will follow Mujuru into the alliance “but not significantly enough to tilt the balance of the war vet following between her party and Zanu-PF”.

‘Warning shots fired’ at Mugabe

Nelson Chamisa, a co-vice president in Tsvangirai’s MDC said in a tweet that the alliance means “locating exit points to the crisis in Zimbabwe”.

The pro-Mugabe state-controlled Herald newspaper said Mujuru has become a “political concubine” of the MDC by signing the deal.

It’s not the first time the state has used the term “concubine” to describe Mujuru. There is a fair amount of dislike within the ruling party, reportedly fuelled by Grace Mugabe, of Mujuru.

Ruhanya said this was not surprising.

“I don’t think she’d [Mujuru] be in government for 34 years and fail to get one or two significant pieces of information on how elections are rigged. I think she will be significant [as a political ally].”

Former MDC member and education minister David Coltart, welcomed the news.

“Tsvangirai, Mujuru join hands – amhlophe (congrats) to both!” tweeted the ex-minister.

The Daily News, which is sympathetic to the opposition, said the pact means pre-election “warning shots” have been fired at Mugabe, who has hung onto power for the last 37 years.

The 93-year-old president hasn’t reacted publicly yet to news of Wednesday’s signing. But earlier this month Mugabe reportedly poured scorn on rumours of a coalition, saying it would suffer a “grand” defeat.