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Source: Makamba’s empire crumbles | Sunday Mail

Brian Chitemba
Investigations Editor

PROMINENT businessman Mr James Makamba’s empire seems to be crumbling after the High Court placed his Kestrel Corporation under provisional judicial management as Mr George Manyere fights to recover his US$2,7 million.

Mr Manyere through his firm Ecsponent Zimbabwe, entered into an agreement with Mr Makamba’s Kestrel Corporation over sale of Telecel shares.

However, the transaction did not go through and Mr Makamba has failed to pay back the money.

High Court judge Justice Thompson Mabhikwa ordered that Kestrel be placed under provisional judicial management indefinitely so that its assets — shares in Empowerment Corporation — are protected from other legal action.

“The Master is hereby directed to appoint Winsley Militala as provisional judicial manager of respondent (Kestrel Corporation), with the powers and duties set out in Section 303 of the Companies Act (Chapter 24:03),” ruled the judge.

Mr Makamba — who lived in self-imposed exile for 12 years until 2017 — had yesterday not responded to questions sent via SMS.

He discontinued a phone call after being informed it was from The Sunday Mail. Subsequent calls went unanswered.

However, Justice Mabhikwa gave any interested parties who oppose the Kestrel Corporation provisional judicial management up to May 23, 2019, to show cause why the order should not be upheld.

In his founding affidavit filed at the Bulawayo High Court, Mr Manyere said Kestrel Corporation failed to pay its debts and was being recklessly mismanaged.

“There is reasonable probability that if the company is placed under judicial management it will be enabled to pay its debts or meet its obligations and become a successful concern.

“Respondent (Kestrel) is indebted to the applicants (Mr Manyere and Ecsponent) and is unable to fulfil its obligations owing to its gross mismanagement bordering on fraudulent conduct.

“The placement of respondent under the control of a third party will allow for the expeditious resolution of issues affecting it and its creditors.”

Mr Manyere said he paid Mr Makamba US$2 750 000 as deposit for the purchase of 690 000 ordinary shares in Empowerment Corporation.

The agreement to sale the shares was reached at an extraordinary general meeting of Empowerment Corporation which was held in South Africa on February 9, 2017.

Messrs Makamba and Manyere then signed two agreements for the sale of 69 percent of Makamba’s shares in Empowerment Corporation.

In part Mr Manyere’s affidavit reads, “The conditions precedent in both agreements have all been fulfilled including lodging of the balance for payment with Messrs G N Mlotshwa and Co. Legal Practitioners, in trust. This has been communicated to respondent’s legal practitioners – in particular the holding of an extraordinary general meeting to note sale as well as the resignation of Dr James Makamba from Telecel Zimbabwe.”

Mr Manyere said his nemesis was avoiding the sale of the shares or refund the deposit and has been bringing up various proposals which were all not concluded.

Mr Makamba is also being accused of selling off an immovable property – which had been used as security in Telecel deal – to a third party.

“Makamba has, using Kestrel’s control of Empowerment Corporation, externalised, through violations of the country’s exchange control regulations, hundreds of United States Dollars.

“…the Supreme Court clearly set out a prima facie case for the continued prosecution of Makamba. The Supreme Court ordered the trial continuation of these externalisation charges. No such trial has continued to date.

“There are numerous violations of the Income Tax Act and related legislation by respondent company (Kestrel), whose quantum is unknown presently, but relates to its dealings with EC and Telecel Zimbabwe.”

Further, Mr Manyere notes, in his founding affidavit, that Mr Makamba via his Kestrel Corporation failed to honour debts in South Africa, resulting in public auctioning of the latter’s assets.

The fight over Telecel shares has been raging for several years.EC was established in 1998 to ensure locals had a stake in the telecommunications business.

This saw various local organisations such as Mr Makamba’s Kestrel Corporation, Dr Jane Mutasa’s Selphon Investments, Magamba eChimurenga, Integrated Engineering Group, National Miners Association and the Zimbabwe Farmers Union, getting stakes in EC.

Telecel, the country’s third largest mobile phone company by subscribers, has been mired in confusion since its formation particularly regarding the ownership of EC shares.

CEOs have been fired regularly at the mobile company. Government owns a 60 percent stake in Telecel after buying out VimpelCom through ZARNet in a US$40 million transaction.

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Source: Govt moots scraping running mate clause | Sunday Mail

Lincoln Towindo
Senior Reporter

Government is considering amending the Constitution to remove a clause, that makes the post of Vice President(s) elective, which is set to come into effect in the next harmonised elections in 2023.

The 2013 Constitution, through Section 92, has a 10-year transitional clause that provides for the joint election of the President and two running mates selected by the Presidential candidate.

However, bureaucrats working on an omnibus Constitutional Amendment Bill that is expected to refine the country’s supreme law say they will open debate on the usefulness of the clause, which Constitutional experts say is an “America concept” that can potentially precipitate a political crisis by creating two centres of power.

Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi, who chairs the Inter-Ministerial Taskforce that was recently established to work on wide-ranging proposed amendments, said there was need to deeply reflect on this impending provision.

“We need to initiate debate on it; we need to ask ourselves whether we need such a provision,” said Minister Ziyambi.

“We are looking at and engaging the public and debating about whether it is necessary; but in my opinion, I do not think it is necessary.

“You do not want to create two centres of power; that is something we need to avoid at all costs.

“Naturally, the head of the executive is the President; what then does it mean when we have three people who are elected by the masses into the executive, who will wield more power?

“It is another issue that needs debate, and I think we need to take it out,” he said.

The clause, outlined in Section 92 of the Constitution, stipulates that the election of a President and Vice Presidents must take place concurrently with every general election of Members of Parliament, provincial councils and local authorities.

It reads: “(1)The election of a President and two Vice Presidents must take place within the period specified in section 158,” reads Section 92.

“(2) Every candidate for election as President must nominate two persons to stand for election jointly with him or her as Vice Presidents, and must designate one of those persons as his or her candidate for first Vice President and the other as his or her candidate for second Vice President.

“(3) The President and the Vice-President and the Vice-Presidents are directly elected jointly by registered voters throughout Zimbabwe, and the procedure for their election is as prescribed in the Electoral Law.”

In the event of a sitting President’s death, resignation or removal, the first Vice President will assume office until the expiry of the former President’s term.

Not People’s Will

Constitutional law expert and University of Zimbabwe law lecturer Professor Lovemore Madhuku said the provision was “not an idea that came from the people”.

“That is an American concept which has only applied in the United States and has been followed by very few other countries,” said Prof Madhuku.

“Otherwise the general trend is that you elect the President and the President must then have the leeway to constitute his executive through appointing his deputy and his ministers; that prerogative must be that of the President who is elected.

“The second thing is that that provision which is in the current Constitution never came from anyone, it was creation of Copac, it never came out of the public hearings.

“That is the problem with having a Constitution that is drafted by the elites,” he said.

Copac was a constitution parliamentary select committee that was set up to draft a new Constitution before 2013.

Professor Madhuka said the clause, which he described as “a terrible provision”, is potentially destabilising.

“From my studies of constitutionalism, it is a provision that destabilises political parties and nations.”

Certainty

However, Copac co-chair and Zanu-PF lead negotiator during the constitution-making process Paul Mangwana said the provision was meant to bring certainty to the succession issue.

“The logic behind that clause was to bring about certainty around the issue of succession of a head of state,” he said.

“In the event of failure by an incumbent to finish his term, then everyone would know who was next in line to finish the term.

“They are elected as a team and that kills off the debate around who is next in line.”

The omnibus Constitutional Amendment Bill that is currently in the works is expected to deepen civil liberties, individual rights, scrap the death penalty, extend the women’s quota system and entrench political and electoral reforms.

It is also primed to perfect the local systems of governance.

The high-level team will also fast-track legislation will enhance the ease of doing business and repeal laws that are inconsistent with the Constitution or previous court judges.

Minister Ziyambi is deputised by Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Dr Sibusiso Moyo.

Other members of the taskforce include Ministers Monica Mutsvangwa (Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services), Professor Mthuli Ncube (Finance and Economic Development), Cain Mathema (Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage), Mangaliso Ndlovu (Industry and Commerce), Owen Ncube (Minister of State for Security in the President’s Office) and Attorney-General Mr Prince Machaya.

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Source: VP Mohadi goes berserk | The Standard (Local News)

By Rex Mphisa

VICE-PRESIDENT Kembo Mohadi yesterday allegedly attacked his estranged former wife using an axe to break doors and threatened to shoot her in a dispute over property.

The enraged VP raided senator Tambudzani Mohadi’s Beitbridge home and grabbed three vehicles in full view of about 25 local police officers and his aides.

Mohadi allegedly poked senator Mohadi with a deformed steel bar and threatened to kill her. However, later after fatigue apparently set in, retired to as chair after the hive of activity sapped his energy, according to some police officers who witnessed the incident.

The officer commanding Beitbridge police district chief superintendent Tichaona Nyongo said he was not aware of the alleged attack since he was away in Chivhu.

“I am off, I don’t know anything, I am in Chivhu,” Nyongo said when contacted for a comment.

The officer-in-charge of Beitbridge police Chief Inspector Kenneth Mushongahande did not respond to calls on his mobile phone.

But, a weary-looking Senator Mohadi confirmed the incident and said she did not know where to report. She did how to get to the police station after the VP left her grounded without a single vehicle.

“I have just spoken to the Dispol [Nyongo] and he expects me to walk to Beitbridge police. My dignity has been heavily battered,” she said.

“The police said I must go and report, but they were witnesses to what happened. They saw him commit this crime.

“He said he is a law unto himself. He was doing this on my defenceless person. I did not react. Police did not stop him.

“He went on accusing me of refusing with keys and he broke the doors. He did that while police stood and watched.”

Mohadi allegedly seized all the three cars at his former wife’s home.

“All the cars he took were awarded to me by the court at his instance,” Senator Mohadi said.

“I resigned myself to fate and told him he could kill me if he wanted.

“He was restrained by his aide when he tried to get a gun from his car.

“He came here unprovoked and demanded to collect his clothes before breaking the doors at the cottage where he collected nothing.

“He axed three doors and then turned on me. Police numbering more than 25 just watched him.

“The officer in charge of Beitbridge urban one Mushongahande was here with him and many other police officers who filled the yard.

“He said he was 120% the law unto himself. I just stood by and saw him committing this act.”

A police source said Mohadi, who was not restrained by his aides, personally axed the three doors.

“After his performance, which took a long time and seeing he was receiving no resistance from his wife he went to the patio where he pulled a bar stool and sat as he watched the vehicles being towed away,” said the source.

“A woman who was identified as his daughter continuously followed Mohadi during his fit of rage asking him why he was being childish to which he responded saying she was being disrespectful.”

Some of Mohadi’s nephews were present as he went on the rampage while police looked on helplessly.

Mohadi divorced his wife early this year after he sought a High Court relief. Senator Mohadi initially contested, but later let go.

He moved out of their matrimonial home — 108 Impala Drive in Beitbridge — where his ex-wife lives and was the scene of the drama witnessed by many residents of Beitbridge’s low-density suburb from morning when it started.

“We first saw many policemen arrive, then the VP’s fleet arrived,” said a resident who said they watched what was happening from outside the house.
“Some cars towed away vehicles from the home.”

Earlier Mohadi forcibly closed Malins Transit he jointly operated with some businessmen and directed that all vehicles arriving from South Africa be taken to the old border post where he plans to operate another bonded warehouse.

The businessmen he operates with were not reachable, but sources said he arrived and ordered them to move to his new site.

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Source: Cyclone Idai: Hope fades for the missing | The Standard (Zimbabwe Stories)

By Everson Mushava/Tapiwa Zivira

Their relatives have been missing for two weeks and efforts have now shifted from finding them alive to giving them decent burials.

It is a Wednesday afternoon and Dzingire Township, popularly known as Kopa, is teeming with people of all sorts, the majority coming to receive food aid.

But for Sonai Mwayera, food is a luxury. Her desire is to get closure to the fate of her many relatives who went missing in the devastation of Cyclone Idai.

They can’t be alive after two weeks and the gravity of damage on what used to be the residential area, now covered by huge boulders has all but killed hope that any missing person could be found alive.

But the dead have to be found and accorded decent burials.

“My son, those things you are holding, can’t they be used to see through the ground so that we can recover the bodies of our relatives buried underground by the floods,” Mudzokera asked, referring to cameras The Standard photographer was holding.

Her face looked pale, like someone who had gone for days without food and water.

Her clothes were dirty and she looked like someone who had gone ages without bathing.

Mwayera’s physical appearance showed the emotional torture the woman has gone through since the floods stole her brother, her sister-in-law and their three children.

Throughout the conversation, Mwayera looked at the huge boulders that have now taken the place where her brother’s house used to be before the floods wreaked havoc at the confluence of Nyahode, Rusitu and Chipita rivers.

At least 80 houses and a police station were swept away, leaving over 300 people unaccounted for.

“I am sure they are buried under the sand and those huge stones. We know they are no longer alive, but at least, the best that can happen is for us to get their bodies and give them a decent burial,” the dejected woman said, her eyes filled with tears.

Mwayera has been sleeping outside on the veranda of one of the shops across the river opposite what used to be the township.

During the day the family mills around the huge stones in the hope of finding the bodies of their relatives. Desperation is written all over her face.

Mwayera is pleading with government to assist them find the remains of their relatives.

She is not alone in her situation.

Another Kopa resident, Joice Mudzokora said they were certain their relatives were buried within the area.

“I am sure the missing people are buried under the sand. We recovered a baby in the sand and we are sure they are buried here,” she said.

“We wish there was a machine like those ones used to detect gold underground that can be used to detect bodies.”

People with relatives who perished in the disaster are always milling around the area, hoping rescue will come after a spirit medium reportedly pointed at a place and claimed over 65 people were under that ground.

“After a possessed lady led to the recovery of a body, most people now believe that the spirit medium was telling the truth and are desperate to have the place excavated to recover the bodies of their relatives,” one villager, Tawanda Manzini said.

“A lot of people perished and some of them were simply here visiting.

“There are brothers who came here to pay lobola who were washed away by the floods.

“Relatives of a police officer who was also washed away are always here.

“A man who had come from Harare for the weekend was swept away by the floods with his wife and children. Their bodies are yet to be found.”

Tatenda Zhambe (25), an unemployed teacher said he lost two sisters and was desperate to have their bodies recovered.

“We call on government to bring sniffer dogs as quickly as possible. I lost two sisters and we don’t know where they are,” he said.

Zhambe said sniffer dogs would help to get more bodies — estimated to be over 100 — before they rot.

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Source: Cyclone Idai closes schools for thousands of children | Daily News

As Manicaland cleans up the destruction brought by Cyclone Idai, which killed 51 pupils and caused more than US$2,7 million of infrastructural damage, it is emerging that thousands of children will have their education severely affected.

There are still 70 pupils missing, and learners at St Charles Luwanga have refused to go back to class where part of their school was seriously damaged and three deaths recorded.

Learners at the Roman Catholic Church-run school were traumatised after they dug up their colleagues from the rubble following  a landslide that knocked over the dining hall and dormitory.

In battered Chimanimani, the category three cyclone dumped record rainfalls which destroyed road infrastructure that has led to the forced early closure of 43 schools.

The worst affected school in terms of death toll was Dzingire Primary School in Chimanimani which lost 50 students and three teachers, including the school headmaster, although these were in their respective homes.

Three teachers have been confirmed dead with three more still missing from the country’s worst ever natural disaster.
About eight pupils who were in boarding schools were left without any parents or homes to go home to.

In Kopa, Rusitu Valley where an entire township was swept away and four lone houses remain where 147 once stood, Mbuya vaPaida who lost everything said she is struggling to keep life as normal as possible for her eight grandchildren, including Paida, the oldest, who is 14.

Paida, who is in Form 1, said she wants to finish school, get a good job and take care of her grandmother, her siblings and cousins. She said her birth certificate and books were ruined by the rains that destroyed her home. Even amid this huge crisis, the children are holding out hope.

While the provincial capital, Mutare, sustained little lasting damage from the cyclone, the damage to schools along Chimanimani and Chipinge has raised questions about how to resume the school year in the area.
Education in Zimbabwe is a political hot-button issue, with virtually every major presidential candidate in the 2018 polls — promising to expand access to schooling.

Civil Protection Unit Manicaland chairperson Edgars Seenza told a delegation of permanent secretaries who were led by Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Misheck Sibanda in Mutare on Friday that the traumatised students who were forced to stay with their deceased colleagues at Dzingire school for three days,  will enrol in other schools.

“St Charles Luwanga learners are no longer keen to return there… boarders are going to be taken to other schools given their experiences,” Seenza said, pleading for the indigent students’ full government sponsorship and welfare.

“Government needs to take care of the welfare and education of the affected learners because some of them don’t even have a home to go to. We will try to find their relatives but they may also not have enough to take care of them,” he said.
Seenza said the schools will open two weeks earlier after their closure this week.

“The affected schools will open on April 23…repairs and maintenance work should be done with speed,” he said.
St Charles Luwanga will allow day scholars to resume their education as the responsible authority — the Roman Catholic Church — has since indicated willingness to find alternative space to build another boarding school.

“The school will only open for day pupils but there are plans to have the school re-sited,” he said.
— Additional reporting by Plan International.

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