BLADE

Arrest of MPs threaten unity government

Zimbabwe: The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai wants Parliament to launch an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the arrest and conviction of a number of its legislators. This move long suspected to be a ploy to weaken the MDC's presence in the Parliament, has ired the Prime Minister who is said to have once again threatened to quit the fragile inclusive government. The MDC parliamentary chief whip, Innocent Gonese, Wednesday after meetings with the MDC's top brass said a decision was made to move a motion in the House of Assembly over this issue. “We are doing so as the MDC parliamentary caucus,” said Gonese. “We are concerned about the arrests that are taking place and we want Parliament to look into this matter.” The MDC’s call for an investigation was made just a day after Thamsanqa Mahlangu, its National Youth Chairperson who is the Deputy Minister of Youth, was arrested in connection with the alleged theft of a cell-phone. At least seven other MDC parliamentarians, all of them from Manicaland, are facing charges described by the party as trumped-up. Five of the legislators have already been suspended from Parliament. A source is the Central Intelligence Organisation said an order from "the police chief Augustine Chihuri" was made to the effect that the MDC MPs be investigated "in every sense of that word." Chihuri is among the service chiefs that includes the army commander, the prisons chief and the air force commander who declared that they will never salute Tsvangirai but President Robert Mugabe only. The MPs arrested so far include Trevor Saruwaka (Mutasa Central), Lynnette Karenyi (Chimanimani West), Shuwa Mudiwa (Mutare West), Meki Makuyana (Chipinge South) and Mathias Mlambo MP for Chipinge East. The party’s treasurer Senator Roy Bennett has since February not been sworn in Deputy Minister of Agriculture. He also has a court case pending. Bennett is originally from Chipinge. The MDC says the arrests are part of President Robert Mugabe’s strategy to wipe away the party’s slim parliamentary majority.  Meanwhile, the party’s secretary general and Finance Minister Tendai Biti received a death threat through a bullet sent to his Highlands home in Harare on Monday. The MDC has also demanded an investigation into this matter. MDC spokesperson, Nelson Chamisa, said his party was taking the matter seriously. “This is something that we are taking very seriously. It’s not just a threat it’s actually some kind of a statement that the life of the Finance Minister in particular and in general that of Members of Parliament is in danger,” said Chamisa. Biti received an envelope in which a 9 millimetre bullet was sealed. Inside was a message instructing him to prepare his will, a message which the MDC views as a death threat. Chamisa said he hoped the police would investigate the case in the best possible professional manner. “We hope the police will step up to the plate and provide the necessary policing services that are required and expected of them,” said Chamisa. by John Mokwetsi / Harare

 

Fears that Mugabe encourages new farm invasions

President Robert Mugabe said Thursday (10.07.09) his government will not pay any compensation for land seized by his government over the past 10 years heightening fears that he is encouraging another onslaught of farm invasions.
 
Mugabe accused the largely white Zimbabwean commercial farmers of siding with the British and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s part at a time his government was trying to apply pressure on the British government to disburse funds to buy land for resettlement to the previously disadvantaged black population.
 
“The responsibility for compensating the farmers rests on the shoulders of the British government and its allies,” Mugabe said.
 
He was responding to a question by Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) President, Trevor Gifford, during the plenary session of an ongoing International Investment conference being held in Harare.
 
Gifford asked the Zimbabwean leader when his government would start paying farmers who have lost their source of livelihoods through farm takeovers.
 
According to the CFU, 175 farmers are due to stand trial for refusing to vacate their land to make way for the new farmers.
 
Mugabe blamed former Tony Blair administration of reneging on British pledges to pay compensation for repossessed land.
 
“I told Blair to keep his money and we were going to keep our land,” Mugabe said.
 
Ironically this comes at a time when Vaughan-Evans, a director of Zimbabwe’s Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU), was axed to death at his home.  Vaughan-Evans represented the CFU in the Midlands Province.
 
The rich farmlands that are at the centre of Zimbabwe's often violent land dispute
 
The Daily Telegraph reported that Vaughan-Evans, who was in his late seventies, was killed on the eve of his wife Jean’s 80th birthday. The couple was attacked in their home in Gweru, Zimbabwe’s third largest city.
 
Gifford, the CFU president, said Vaughan-Evans, a renowned agriculturalist and conservationist, died from head wounds after he was attacked by an intruder.
 
Mugabe is adamant that it is point of fact that in the Zimbabwean constitution that compensation for land repossessed by government shall be paid by the British government.
 
“We did pay compensation for improvements and developments…we have honoured that part. This is our stand. It is a British responsibility,” he said.
 
“The farmers themselves let themselves down. Instead of supporting us in appealing to Britain, so Britain could realize that they had this responsibility towards paying compensation, they have sided with the British.”
 
Mugabe said farmers who were being approached for land should be willing to cede their farms and join hands with his government in appealing for compensation.
 
Mugabe went on to ask foreign investors to come and invest in Zimbabwe, saying the establishment of the inclusive government has created a conducive environment for investment in Zimbabwe.
 
“Zimbabwe upholds the sanctity of property rights,” Mugabe said in his main address.
 By John Mokwetsi