Zim News Blog -NEWS NETWORK

Source: MP demands CDF | Daily News

A member of Parliament has bemoaned the late disbursement of Constituency Development Funds (CDF) saying further delays would totally cripple developmental projects in their constituencies.

Masango Matambanadzo, an independent MP for Kwekwe Central, on Thursday demanded that the CDF be allocated immediately.
“I rise to seek clarity in terms of the CDF that we were supposed to have received at the time when Parliament went on recess in December last year. Maybe I missed something because we have not as yet received that money.

When we came back for this particular sitting, we were told that the funds were in the bank and applications should be submitted timeously.  “We submitted our papers and every time we go to check in the bank to see if any deposit has been made, there is nothing.

The explanation we got is that the ministry of Finance took the CDFs allocated to Parliament back. So, it looks like I am now lying to my constituency.  I have never lied to my people in the constituency before and I should not start doing so now,” Matambanadzo said.
He said he was now avoiding people in his constituency who are enquiring about the funds.

“As you see me standing here, I am not very educated, I only went up to Grade 2 and to add onto that, I am very dark such that they nicknamed me ‘black man’. “I have risen to explain my dismay on the CDF issue and now I am playing hide and seek with the people who come to make enquiries about the CDFs.

The quotations that we were given have since doubled in price as the money has devalued. May you please look into this issue Mr Speaker Sir?” he queried. National Assembly Speaker Jacob Mudenda said: “I will follow up on this matter and ensure that the funds are deposited into the bank accounts of those whose projects were approved.”

“When the minister of Finance returns from his trip, I will engage him on this matter,” Mudenda said.  “Meanwhile, I will instruct the clerk to write to the permanent secretary of Finance to enable the money to be made available and be disbursed accordingly,” he said.

Government has over the years been providing $50 000 to MPs under the CDF programme, even though some parliamentarians have been accused of abusing these funds. In 2012, government identified 20 extreme cases where MPs abused CDF money. About four legislators were arrested on allegations of abusing the Fund, but their prosecution was stopped after the then prosecutor-general Johannes Tomana raised concern that there was no proper legal framework to successfully prosecute them.

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Source: Ex-Vic Falls mayor arrested | Daily News

BULAWAYO – Sifiso Mpofu — the former mayor for Victoria Falls — was arrested in an evening raid on Thursday for allegedly possessing 11 pieces of raw ivory.He was arrested along with two of his compatriots Milton Sibindi, 47, and Phathiso Sibindi aged 49.

They were taken to Victoria Falls Police Station where a docket was opened under RRB number 3893506. The trio were detained overnight and were expected to appear in court yesterday. According to a police internal memo gleaned by the Daily News, Mpofu, 42, was also found in possession of a loaded pistol tucked in into the waistband of his pants.

The firearm which belongs to the former mayor has a registration certificate that expires in 2022, the memo noted. It is also reported that a further search was done in the house and two more pieces of raw marked ivory were discovered, bringing the total of ivory pieces to 11.

The street value of the ivory could not be established immediately.
“On March 7 information was received from a reliable source to the effect that the accused persons were in possession of ivory in Victoria Falls,” reads part of the police’s internal memo.

“At 10pm of the same day, the team comprising CID MFFU, SU and Parks and Wildlife reacted to the tip off and pounced on the accused at his house number 5449 Mkhosana, Victoria Falls where they arrested the three accused persons and recovered nine pieces of raw ivory.”

The memo further noted that: “a pistol Astra Falcon, Calibre, 32, SN 1207144 loaded with three rounds was recovered from Mpofu’s waist.” Mpofu, a senior Zanu PF official, became the mayor for the MDC dominated resort town of Victoria Falls in 2013. His surprise election as mayor forced the MDC to suspend three of its councillors whom it accused of selling out by voting for a Zanu PF official.
The suspended MDC officials were suspected of taking bribes from Mpofu.

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Source: . . . as Zimbabwe turns to African brothers for bailout | Daily News

Hit by more Western sanctions, Zimbabwe is now relying on neighbours for emergency bailout packages to patch over a national cash crunch that has sparked political unrest against President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

This comes after US President Donald Trump on Monday extended sanctions against Zimbabwe by a year, maintaining the national emergency declared in a previous Executive Order. This renewal comes in spite of increasing calls by African leaders to give the crisis-stricken nation some reprieve.

Earlier, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called for sanctions against Zimbabwe to be lifted at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. South Africa hosts the largest number of Zimbabwean migrants at three million, according to the United

Nations’ International Organisation for Migration. Ramaphosa maintains that Zimbabwe’s situation presents a challenge for the entire African continent, saying the cash-strapped nation faces “serious, serious, economic challenges and they can be assisted by the world if those sanctions are lifted.”

Analysts said it is no secret that Zimbabwe is at the end of its tether, and one can certainly sense the desperation.
In search of aid closer to home, Mnangagwa received Botswana President Mokgweetsi Eric Masisi in Harare last week for the inaugural Zimbabwe-Botswana Bi-National Commission (BNC) with Ramaphosa due in Harare for another BNC.

While the two leaders worked to re-establish mutually beneficial relations, Zimbabwe’s ministry of Foreign Affairs secretary made a huge gaffe by claiming that neighbouring Botswana was prepared to give Zimbabwe a $600m loan, of which $500m would go to the local diamond industry and $100m to private firms. It turned out to be false.

After the Botswana leader returned to Gaborone, Masisi said: “I want to clarify these reports that we are giving Zimbabwe hundreds of millions in loans. That is totally untrue. “We are not giving them a single loan. The only thing we gave them were medical supplies made in Botswana and supplementary feeding …”

More recently, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor John Mangudya announced that the central bank has secured $985m in loans from various African banks to purchase fuel and other essential imports. Of the $985m, $641m is to come from the African Export and Import Bank, $152m from Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank, and $25m from Bank of Mozambique, among others.

That being said, this time it would not be backed by diamonds, “these loans are well structured facilities contracted last year. They will be paid from future (gold) export receivables,” Mangudya told a parliamentary committee.

This follows a request made by Zimbabwean authorities in December 2018 to South Africa for financial aid of $1,2bn to help settle some of its debt — the regional powerhouse declined. However, South Africa’s Finance minister, Tito Mboweni, has said that the country is planning to extend short-term credit to its northern neighbour while alluding to helping write off Zimbabwe’s enormous external debt bill.
NKC African Economics analyst Jee-A Van Der Linde said the move by Trump cements the notion that the West remains firmly reluctant to offer Zimbabwe support.

According to Mangudya, government borrowing from the RBZ stood at nearly $3bn in December 2018, almost three times the customary overdraft limit. “Drowning in debt, we believe that it is unlikely that Zimbabwe will receive the handouts that it yearns for,” Linde said.
“If it does do, they will come at a price. Zimbabwe’s vast mineral endowments offer considerable potential, but the countless economic challenges are keeping investors at bay — though not all of them.

“Corrective interventions are likely to continue to be ad-hoc and ineffective without significant international assistance, that itself remains dependent on structural reforms that require some measure of outside help.”

The post . . . as Zimbabwe turns to African brothers for bailout appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.

Source: Gukurahundi haunts ED . . . minister says Mugabe is the culprit | Daily News

More than 22 years after the Gukurahundi massacres ended, that sad episode in Zimbabwe’s history continues to rear its ugly head with the deputy minister of Defence, Victor Matemadanda this week rushing to defend President Emmerson Mnangagwa — seen as the chief architect of the atrocities.

Matemadanda, who is also the secretary-general of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) claimed last week that the buck should stop with Robert Mugabe who, as prime minister at the time, had the State machinery vested in his hands.

He was reacting to stinging attacks targeting his boss by Mugabe at a private 95th birthday party held at his plush palace in Borrowdale, Harare where the teetotaller denounced the use of lethal force by Mnangagwa to crush fuel protests that were organised by the main labour union, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) last month.

At least 20 people died, while 78 others were treated for serious gunshot wounds, according to rights groups and medical doctors.
“He who is obsessed with seeing corpses everyday will soon realise that people would clamour too to see his corpse one day. I say to soldiers stop killing people,” Mugabe fumed.

“What you are doing (killing people) is going to catch-up with you very, very, soon. Just tomorrow, it would have caught up with you,” Mugabe warned ominously. But addressing a press conference early this week, Matemadanda blasted Mugabe saying it was strange that the former guerrilla leader was attempting to heap the blame on his subordinate.

“Even though you may want to forgive the old man, I do not think he deserves forgiveness because surely how can Mugabe have the audacity to tell Mnangagwa not to kill when he is the specialist in that area?

“We survived by fleeing this country, Mnangagwa himself escaped death by a whisker, Mugabe is the known and approved killer, I think he should have said you are taking my job. I once went to Matabeleland (and) told chiefs (there) to take cattle from Gushungo Dairies for him to appease the spirits of those he killed during the Gukurahundi; this is what is making Mugabe lose his senses,” said the ZNLWVA secretary-general.

Mugabe’s outburst were met with an immediate response from outspoken Information deputy minister Energy Mutodi who used micro-blogging site Twitter to call the former president to order.
“We have noted some words of repentance by former president Mugabe saying the army must protect not kill. True that a few have lost lives in running battles with the police but that cannot compare with Gukurahundi or the 2008 violence when he was at the helm,” Mutodi said.

An estimated 20 000 defenceless civilians died during the Gukurahundi era when Mugabe unleashed a North Korean-trained army unit to crack on alleged dissent to his rule in the Midlands and Matabeleland regions.

In 2011, Genocide Watch, along with the International Association of Genocide Scholars, classified Gukurahundi as genocide.
Mugabe is on record referring to the episode as “a moment of madness”. Mnangagwa has distanced himself from the disturbances, mandating the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) and traditional leaders to tackle the issue, adding that he would appear before it if the affected communities ask him to.

But while the NPRC was well received in many quarters, it was not the same in Matabeleland region where many human rights activists refused to recognise it on the basis of its composition.
The activists felt that the commission would be biased in its operations since it only has one Ndebele speaking member in its ranks.

Matemadanda’s attempts to exonerate Mnangagwa drew brickbats from the likes of former Higher and Tertiary Education minister Jonathan Moyo. A former politburo member who is now living in self-imposed exile, Moyo claimed on Twitter that he used his time in government to gather information about Gukurahundi.

“Only fools think we didn’t access critical information on Gukurahundi when we were in government. A lot of critical information (including dockets) was collected and secured from 13 to 30 Nov 2017. Gukurahundi is so well-documented that the truth is known,” said Moyo.

He said the director of the whole episode was Mnangagwa, who was back then the minister of State Security in charge of the dreaded Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO). “The deadliest force in the #Gukurahundi atrocities was the CIO, the lead. Directed by Mnangagwa, who administered the State of Emergency Act and liaised with ex-Rhodie and apartheid killers, the CIO gathered ‘intelligence’ via barbaric torture & murder on an industrial scale,” said Moyo.

Mnangagwa succeeded Mugabe as Zimbabwe’s second executive president following the fall of the long ruling nonagenarian who was dethroned from power in stunning fashion when the military staged a soft coup on November 15, 2017.

The post Gukurahundi haunts ED . . . minister says Mugabe is the culprit appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.

Source: Banks get $7m weekly: RBZ boss | Daily News

Government is selling an average of $7 million to banks for trading on the newly-launched forex interbank market, with Finance and Economic development minister Mthuli Ncube saying government will stay out of the foreign currency exchange market to avoid disrupting the market structure.

He said around $7,5 million was traded last week amid reports about $20 million was traded on the first week the RTGS dollar was introduced. “Last week we traded around 7,5 million and this was just the beginning,” Ncube said in Washington on the sidelines of meetings with IMF bosses.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) announced in a February 20 monetary policy statement that “an inter-bank foreign exchange market in Zimbabwe to formalise the trading of real-time gross settlement (RTGS) balances and bond notes with US dollars and other currencies on a willing-buyer willing-seller basis through banks and bureaux de change.”

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