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Source: Biti blasts false poll results conviction | Daily News

Former Finance minister and senior opposition politician Tendai Biti has said his conviction on charges of unlawfully and falsely announcing the results of last year’s presidential election was a flagrant abuse of the court process.

Biti, vice chairperson of the main opposition MDC, was fined $200 after being hauled before the courts last year on charges of announcing that MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa had won the presidential election. Biti, who fled the post-election military/police crackdown in Zimbabwe, was later deported by Zambian authorities after a failed asylum bid. He has vowed to continue “fighting tyranny and illegitimacy” in the country despite his conviction.

The Harare East member of Parliament was convicted by Harare magistrate Gloria Takundwa who fined him $200, or alternatively spend seven days in prison for the offence.
He paid the fine.

His lawyer Alec Muchadehama said they will be appealing on the grounds that the trial was full of contradictions in the manner in which it was handled.

Following his conviction, the Harare East legislator and lawyer said he was unfazed by the conviction, which could be ominous for him.
It remains to be seen if the Law Society of Zimbabwe will renew his practicing certificate after the conviction.

“I am innocent, absolutely innocent but the problem is the person leading the country is a very unstable predatory person in the name of Emmerson Mnangagwa. I am just a symptom of the bigger challenges affecting the country led by a very unstable person,” Biti said.
“Throughout history, autocrats have always abused the law to further the cause of power retention and aggrandisement,” Biti said.
“The conviction will not deter us. It will not break us. No bullet, bomb or prison will stop our resolve to end tyranny, illegitimacy and fascism in Zimbabwe.

“I think that it will be so critical for the leadership of our party, advocate Nelson Chamisa and for everyone else in the leadership, that we provide the necessary leadership to guard and protect our people …,” Biti said.

Chamisa also said Biti was one of the pillars of his movement who was “being targeted for telling the truth and was aware of targeting of lawyers, doctors for human rights and even with (Robert) Mugabe at his worst we never saw such attack on human rights.”

“This is why we have said there is a political problem where politics is contaminating the justice delivery system.
“We are continuing to challenge that and we are not shaken as a movement and are so committed to ensure that Zimbabwe is a democratic society.
“We are reasonably confident that Sadc will come to support the people of Zimbabwe.
“We are also going to knock at the doors of the United Nations and the international communities at large to make sure those issues are resolved,” he said.Biti blasts false poll results conviction.

The post Biti blasts false poll results conviction appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.

Source: VP Chiwenga returns | Daily News

VICE President Constantino Chiwenga is back from India where he was receiving treatment for an abdominal ailment, a government official has confirmed.

Chiwenga travelled to India with his wife Marry and Health deputy minister John Mangwiro about two weeks ago.
Speaking to the Daily News yesterday, Mangwiro said they had a safe journey back to the country, adding that Chiwenga had recovered. “He is well and everything is okay,” Mangwiro said, without giving further details.

According to reports from India, Chiwenga’s trip back home was delayed on Friday after the plane, a Boeing 737 with registration mark A6-RJX, developed a problem soon after taking off, forcing it to return to the terminal.

The plane, which is believed to cost $500 000 to charter from India to Zimbabwe, is said to be kitted with medical equipment inside.
Citizens have often castigated government officials for routinely seeking medical help abroad, shunning the local public health system, which has collapsed with hospitals struggling to provide medicines to patients.

Chiwenga was last seen in public on February 5, 2019, when he appeared on national television while attending President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Cabinet meeting. On the same day, he dismissed reports that he had been airlifted to neighbouring South Africa for treatment, castigating the social media for wishing him ill.

“There are determined to hear that I am sick, they want me dead, but that cannot be, I am very fine and well, I am actually doing my job as a politician,” he was quoted saying. Chiwenga is one among a list of Zimbabweans who have been trooping to India for private health care.

India has become popular because of its advanced healthcare system, drawing foreigners from Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, for complex paediatric cardiac surgery or liver transplants — procedures that are not done in their home countries.
They also come from the United Kingdom, Europe, and North America for quick, efficient, and cheap coronary bypasses or orthopaedic procedures.

India ranks among the top 20 of the world’s countries in its private spending, at 4,2 percent of Gross Domestic Product.
In October last year, deputy chief secretary to the President and Cabinet George Charamba disclosed that Chiwenga was on special diet because of the delicacy of his intestines which had been affected by acids.

“Apparently, you have to give it time to allow internal body tissues to heal both large and small intestines were attacked. But he must also remain calm and rested to ensure that there is no relapse into excessive secretion of acids in the body. He is on a special diet because of the delicacy in his stomach,” Charamba was quoted as saying.

Since leading the coup that toppled former president Robert Mugabe in November 2018, Chiwenga has become a larger-than-life character in the country’s politics.
Despite his domineering political profile which is loved and hated in equal measure, his health has been a source of bother.
The former Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander early last year traced his health woes to the days when he orchestrated Mugabe’s fall.

He claimed that he was suffering from “nhuta,” something he claimed caused his skin to lighten and triggered speculation that he was bleaching his skin.
“It was during that time that I fell ill. I had this skin sickness (nhuta) that affected my whole body from beneath my feet to my back and the journalists started saying I was using skin lightening creams, but that was not the case.
“I was sick. I have decided to talk about it because that is what you see, but you should know that everything that happens comes with a price. We then sent everything to South Africa to find out what was causing the sickness, but they failed to treat it.

“It was then that my (late) sister Margaret approached Sister Redemptor (Roman Catholic nun) and was given herbs that I began taking until I was healed. But before I took the medication they also prayed for me,” Chiwenga said at the burial of his sister Margaret.
The 61-year-old ex-soldier has appeared in public with swollen hands and in some instances with a cannula on his hand, and has also shown signs of irritation in public.

The post VP Chiwenga returns appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.

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