BY BBC

Togolese President Faure Gnassingbé met with Gabonese President Ali Bongo in Libreville, Gabon on Tuesday, May 7 to exchange views on “terrorist” threats that have begun spreading across African countries.

The meeting which took place at ‘Palais du bord de mer’ in Libreville discussed the need for countries to raise their guard in the face of rising terrorism, which according to the Presidents, has sown desolation and pain in the hearts of families and put peace policies implemented by African states to the test.

President Faure Gnassingbé disclosed that he and his Gabonese counterpart also discussed the current situation of the Sahel region was on the menu.

We mentioned the difficult situation in the Sahel region, which unfortunately is starting to affect countries much further south, notably Togo. We ourselves have dismantled a few terrorist cells, unfortunately there were the two French tourists taken hostage in Benin. The threat is getting closer to our country, so it

“We mentioned the difficult situation in the Sahel region, which unfortunately is starting to affect countries much further south, notably Togo. We ourselves have dismantled a few terrorist cells, unfortunately there were the two French tourists taken hostage in Benin. The threat is getting closer to our country, so it has been necessary – as I said – that we strengthen regional cooperation.

“When it started in Mali, no one thought that a country like Togo or Benin could be affected. So it is not out of the question – for the countries of Central Africa – that these countries could be affected in the future, it is absolutely essential that we can be able to anticipate.”

Gnassingbé was meeting face-to-face with Bongo for the first time after the Gabonese head of state’s health scare in October 2018.

“I have come in response to an invitation from my brother and friend President Bongo. I myself was quite impatient to see him, as since his health problem I had been able to have a telephone conversation with him, which had already reassured me, but it is always nice to be able to come and I thank him for giving me this opportunity. I was relieved and reassured to see him in good health.”

Bongo’s prolonged absence due to ailing health stoked concern about power vacuum, apparently sparking a brief attempted coup by renegade soldiers on January 7.

Bongo took office after an election in 2009 that followed the death of his father, former president Omar Bongo, who took office in 1967.

EVEN though Zanu PF officials vehemently denied unethically taking over control of the distribution of relief aid donated for Cyclone Idai survivors recently, the evidence of Zanu PF-branded vehicles waiting to collect relief items was there for everyone to see.

By Kennedy Kaitano, Our Reader

That is the way Zanu PF had been taught by none other than President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

An authentic video that has emerged that was taken while Mnangagwa was Vice-President exposes him as the chief architect of the Zanu PF nefarious practice of denying MDC supporters any form of assistance.

Mnangagwa is seen ordering Zanu PF officials gathered at a formal party meeting to deny MDC supporters any form of assistance, saying loudly and clearly that MDC supporters’ needs should be addressed at Harvest House.

Mnangagwa, therefore, is only pretending when he says all Zimbabweans should have access to resources because even in his election campaign, food donations and agricultural implements were distributed along partisan lines.

MDC legislators Morgen Komichi and Tabitha Khumalo recently stormed out of a meeting to distribute the cyclone relief aid in Chiredzi when a parliamentary team they were part of came face-to-face with the reality that only Zanu PF supporters had been gathered to receive the aid.

Zimbabwe just needs leadership that is different from Zanu PF to get the country moving again, and the international community should know the kind of “leadership” that the people of Zimbabwe are having to deal with.

With his soiled past, Mnangagwa is just not the right person to take Zimbabwe out of this mess.

THE difference between the MDC and Zanu PF is that we, in the MDC, represent the people of Zimbabwe. We care about the challenges that the people of Zimbabwe are facing.

By Jacob Mafume,MDC national spokesperson

The cost of living is going up by the day, there are new taxes now and then, unemployment is shooting up, poverty is unbearable, millions of people are starving and the economy is shrinking.

We do the bidding for the people of Zimbabwe, who are living in these problems and we hold accountable whoever presides on such a status quo. We are not here to apologise for President Emmerson Mnangagwa, we are not his public relations company.

We are not in the business of trying to find out what Zanu PF can do with prices or not. We are a political party, formed not to research on Zanu PF’s failure or potential, therefore, anyone who wants us to wait and see is misguided.

Firstly, Zanu PF’s communication misses the point totally. A demonstration cannot be characterised as mayhem and anarchy. It’s a constitutionally guaranteed right, voted for by millions of Zimbabweans, who knew that there will be failures like Mnangagwa and Zanu PF, who, therefore, needed a mechanism to be held accountable.

Demonstrations will go on regardless of Zanu PF’s feelings.

The threats about some intelligence report do not concern us because we are not criminals, but the biggest political party and voice of reason in Zimbabwe. For people who miss the point even on the definition of peace, they must comment on Zanu PF cell groups. Zanu PF is the least qualified to be talking about MDC leader Nelson Chamisa’s remarks.

They are too complex for them.

Peace refers to many other things.

Zanu PF should have checked the number of people jailed for political reasons, the number of people leaving the country and the amount of budget on defence and security before making a bold claim of peace.

On the economy, Zanu PF has failed and the people are in trouble, making demonstrations overdue. What is claimed to be solutions are reactions, which will only create worse challenges.

We must go to sleep because there are price controls, really? How about dealing with the drivers of inflation.
We mentioned that the macro-economic framework of Finance minister Mthuli Ncube’s 2019 budget was based on false underlying assumptions and Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo thought we wanted to just oppose because he lacks understanding of the subject, he demonstrated it again in his statement.

Finally, we all want restrictive measures to go, however, the causes that necessitated these measures must go first. Unfortunately, the cause is Zanu PF and its total disregard of the rule of law, its failure to protect its citizens and treating them as enemies.

The MDC is not moved by Zanu PF’s misguided statements. In fact, it only shows there are no concrete solutions and demonstrations are justified.

THE ruling elites and their allies in the business world have launched a brutal onslaught on the working class under what has become known as anti-people austerity measures.

Artuz Information Department

The freezing of salaries at a time when prices of basic goods and services have shot up to 400% since January have condemned the working class to extreme poverty.

Abductions, torture, detentions and harassment of the workers who speak out against exploitation has become a legacy of the so-called new dispensation.

These measures have rendered public service provision dysfunctional. In the education sector, a catastrophe is looming as teachers are incapacitated, with parents also unable to cater for fees and learning materials for their children.

A survey conducted by the Amalgamated Rural Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (Artuz) has revealed that 60% of rural teachers are yet to secure bus fares to travel back to their work stations.

The teachers are failing to pay tuition fees for their children and can’t secure basic food supplies for their families. The teachers are not psyched for the learning calendar, which begins today.

The parents interviewed have indicated their inability to secure tuition fees and teaching material for their children.

Artuz notes with regret the insincerity of our government in addressing the challenges that confront the working class. Government has consistently celebrated an over $100 million budget surplus in the past four months, but is failing to invest that in production and public services. Government is blowing the revenue in executive luxuries, including chartering private planes.

Our union will continue to fight for labour justice and improved access to quality education in rural schools. The new dispensation is passionately fighting against the realisation of our vision. Labour injustice is on the rise and access to education in rural schools is being curtailed.

We registered our discontent with the Public Service Commission and Finance ministry on April 15 through a letter titled Salary Increment Reminder.

In the letter, we reminded government of the need to pay our salaries in United States dollars or market equivalent to cushion our members from the ever-rising cost of living. Government never responded to our reminder, as has become the norm.

We have been pushed to the corner and we have to fight back. We urge all teachers to go back to their stations, log in, but not to undertake any duties.

We are going to completely withdraw our labour within the first two weeks. We will only report for duty for two weeks per month. Consultations are underway to come up with a calendar of protests. We are glad that teachers are now more united than ever.

We call upon government to urgently review teachers’ salaries in order to safeguard our education sector from collapse.

We warn fellow unions in the education sector to desist from diluting the teachers’ struggle through posturing and sharing misleading information. We will expose all sell-outs.

To the Apex Council, we have run out of patience and we will not fold our hands while you mess up with the lives of the working class. The Apex Council must stop masquerading as representing our interests, otherwise they will face the vengeance of the agitated workers.

The first week, we are all logging in, but no one is working. On Friday May 10, we will announce a clear way forward if government fails to engage us.

Teachers uniting against austerity!

Pay us a living wage now!

IS Africa’s freedom slipping? Africa’s closing political space, marked by less freedom and a willingness to trade liberties for security, has seen the continent’s inhabitants’ freedoms diminishing, and many are willing to give up at least some liberties in the name of security, new Afrobarometer survey findings indicate.

O4Z

The fifth of Afrobarometer’s Pan-Africa profiles, based on recent public-opinion surveys in 34 countries, reports that in most African countries, citizens’ assessments of how free they are, and of how cautious they must be in exercising their rights, have worsened considerably over the past decade.

In addition, popular demand for freedom of association has weakened, and Africans express a widespread willingness to trade some freedoms for increased security.

The new report traces continental trends toward both greater government constraints on freedom and greater public tolerance for such constraints, perhaps fuelled in part by fears of insecurity, instability, and/or extremist violence.

Key findings

On support (or demand) for individual freedoms:

Support for the fundamental freedom of association remains strong, at 62% across 34 countries.

Nonetheless, support for freedom of association has shown modest, but steady declines: Across 20 countries measured over the past decade, support has dropped by five percentage points, from 66% to 61%.

Over the past seven to 10 years, only six countries reported significant increases in support for the right to associate freely, compared to 20 countries that have shown substantial declines, led by Zimbabwe (-23 percentage points). Support has decreased even in several of the continent’s leading democracies, including Tunisia (-20 points), Namibia (-18), Ghana (-9), Benin (-7), and South Africa (-7).

On willingness to trade freedom for security:

While a slim majority (53%) stand for the right to private communications, 43% are instead willing to accept government monitoring in the interests of security.

People are about evenly divided on freedom of religious speech, with 49% backing complete freedom and 47% willing to tolerate government limits on religious speech.

Support for unrestricted freedom of movement is much lower, at just 35%, compared to 62% who are willing to countenance curfews, roadblocks, and other restrictions in the interests of greater security.

On the extent of freedom of expression in general, and political speech in particular:

Two-thirds (67%) of Africans say they are “somewhat” or “completely” free to say what they think, but this represents a seven-percentage-point decline across 31 countries tracked since 2011/2013. Nearly all countries record declines, many of them substantial.

And when it comes to political speech, a similar two-thirds majority (68%) say people must “often” or “always” be careful of what they say about politics; across 20 countries, this proportion has increased by nine percentage points over the past decade.

Similar proportions say people must be careful about which organisations they join (63%) and about how they vote (68%).

Six rounds of surveys were conducted between 1999 and 2015, and Round 7 survey findings in 34 countries are being released in 2019.

Sample sizes of 1 200 to 2 400 yield country-level results with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus two to three percentage points at a 95% confidence level.

END OF THE ROAD … The ill-fated Marsmerry bus headed for Zimbabwe claimed 13 lives, mostly women coming from shopping in neighbouring South Africa, when it overturned in a suspected case of negligent driving

By Rex Mphisa

THIRTEEN Zimbabweans, mostly women, died on the spot and another 13 were injured on Monday when a Beitbridge-bound Marsmerry bus they were travelling in overturned at the 21km peg near Louis Trichardt along the main N1 highway in South Africa.

Traffic between Musina and Louis Trichardt, the direct economic artery between the two towns, was blocked for more than seven hours as police and rescue teams tried to remove trapped bodies as well as survivors and clear the highway.

The driver of the South Africa-registered bus, whose identity is yet to be established, survived the accident which occurred at a curved bridge on a gorge, a few kilometres from Ingwe Hotel.

Limpopo provincial transport executive committee member (MEC) Makoma Makhurupetje confirmed the accident.

“Makoma Makhurupetje, the MEC for Transport and Community Safety in Limpopo extends her heartfelt condolences to the families of 13 Zimbabwean nationals who died late yesterday afternoon when the bus they were travelling in lost control and overturned on the N1 north, near the Ingwe Hotel in Makhado. The MEC is also wishing a speedy recovery to 13 others who were injured during the crash,” her statement read.

“At this stage, no conclusive evidence has been found which points out to the exact cause of the accident although reckless driving is not ruled out as the possible cause.”

Added Makhurupetje: “We are deeply concerned about accidents involving buses as they lead to more loss of lives compared to ordinary motor vehicles. The driver and vehicle fitness of long-distance cross-border buses is also a matter of deep concern to us, as this is almost the third time now that we are losing lives because of long-distance buses.”

A traffic policeman recording evidence at the scene confirmed 13 people, whose identities were yet to be established, had perished.

Luggage from the evidently-loaded bus was stacked by the roadside where the passengers’ passports and other paperwork were strewn.

“Several others have been ferried to different hospitals. Some have been taken to Elim. Others have been taken to the Memorial Hospital. Some were seriously injured because they were trapped under the bus. These will obviously be taken to bigger hospitals in Polokwane,” the policeman said.

“The driver must have lost control of the bus as he was coming down and it hit the railing barrier, flipping the bus over which then landed on its side.”

In an unrelated sad development, immigration officials cashed in on travellers who missed their deadline to exit South Africa after being blocked on the highway and arrived at the border post after midnight.

Travellers said they were being asked to pay R200 or risked being banned from travelling into South Africa for five years.

BY Staff Reporters

POLITICAL analysts and opposition parties have questioned First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa’s “philanthropic” work, which has reportedly seen her interfering in government business.

In some cases, she has been accused of using State resources, raising fears that Zimbabwe was sliding back to the ex-First Lady Grace Mugabe era, where former President Robert Mugabe’s wife had literary captured all State institutions.

The analysts cited a recent incident where the First Lady toured the State-run pharmaceutical warehouse, National Pharmaceutical Company (NatPharm), where she was captured on video quizzing officials over stockpiles of undistributed medical drugs at a time most public hospitals were without drugs.

She was also recently recorded threatening to confront mobile network operators over tariff hikes at a gathering in Masvingo province.

But Auxillia yesterday hit back, saying opposition political parties should not remain in election mode and should stop attacking citizens concerned with the well-being of Zimbabweans, including their supporters.

“I have been a health ambassador for quite some time and my role is to help the vulnerable in whatever possible way. When I made a visit to NatPharm, I had asked the Minister of Health (Obadiah Moyo) to accompany me so that I could appreciate their operations. It is unfortunate that he was in a meeting. He sent a representative,” she said.

University of Zimbabwe political science lecturer Eldred Masunungure urged Auxillia to stick to her humanitarian work and stay away from government policy matters.

“During the first days of Mnangagwa’s rule, he promised to keep his family away from State matters and he managed to do so in the run-up to the elections. But now, he might need to reconsider certain things and ensure his wife does not get too much attention and compete with him in State papers,” he said.

“First ladies the world over are known for humanitarian work and giving a human face to the State. They are there to do social work and that is what Auxillia should focus on. She must continue with her humanitarian work and not try to venture into governance issues.”

United Kingdom-based Zimbabwean economic researcher Brighton Musonza also chipped in, saying the First Lady “needs to slow down”.

“Her presence on the political scene brings back the trauma we suffered at the hands of Grace Mugabe. She is interfering with public policy and overcrowding the space meant for bureaucrats,” he said.

“I am not sure in what capacity does she tell her audience that she will personally confront telecommunications companies personally. Her threats to confront telecommunications operators will sway away potential investors, particularly those looking to buy TelOne and NetOne. She must restrict herself to charity work and some low level philanthropically events.”

Opposition MDC spokesperson Jacob Mafume said Auxillia was “actually worse” than Grace Mugabe and exposed Mnangagwa’s family leadership skills.

“Grace Mugabe was known for being a political actor and never at all did she go to a State institution and harass professionals like what we are seeing today. This is very dangerous, and definitely, it will not end well,” he said. “It shows that Mnangagwa is just like Mugabe in his last days. He is failing to control his wife. What role does she have on professionals at NatPharm? This is telling, indeed.”

Mafume said Zimbabwe was fast becoming a Banana Republic because what Auxillia was doing was “unconstitutional and illegal”.

“In fact, she has no authority whatsoever to be harassing those professionals. That is the job of the board which reports to the minister,” he said.

“In a normal society, the minister does not interact with management, he interacts with the board. What Auxillia is doing shows that these Zanu PF leaders have failed to provide leadership.”

He charged that she had overstepped her mandate.

“The Minister of Health and other senior government officials should be ashamed of what is happening,” Mafume said.

First Lady Auxillia, however, denied harassing professionals.

“I did not supervise anyone, but engaged them as a mother so that I could understand how they operate, their challenges and how we could solve them as a people,” she said.

“I am not a government employee. I have no powers over ministers, but I just help in my role as the First Lady to raise awareness on health issues. I also take care of their mothers and their supporters.”

The First Lady, who has managed to secure funding for some hospitals in Hwange and Binga, said her hospital visits were informed by a desire to use her advocacy strengths to mobilise supplies for public hospitals through her philanthropic arm, Angel of Hope Foundation.

“I don’t get any cent from Treasury for all the projects I do. There are many people who support us and not even a single cent comes from government. People should appreciate that through my humanitarian work, I assist people across the political divide. I don’t select whether Zanu PF or MDC,” she said.

“In fact, we don’t want to see people wearing party regalia at our functions. I am doing my duties as the First Lady, which is social work, helping the needy where possible. I am not into politics.”

Auxillia insisted that her work was restricted to humanitarian activities and had never dabbled in politics or hijacked any government programmes such that she could be compared with Grace.

“I have never instructed any minister to do any work or even summoned anyone to my office. I spend much of my time in rural areas interacting with old people, even parents of these MDC officials who are complaining that I am taking over government business. It is wrong to try and compare me with Grace Mugabe,” she said.

The First Lady last week made an impromptu visit to NatPharm, demanding to see how the group was operating and why it had stocks of medicines in its warehouse, while some rural hospitals did not have drugs.

Her visit reportedly forced Moyo to call for an urgent meeting with NatPharm executives, where he read the riot act before he went on to appoint the First Lady as “health ambassador”.

Besides the visit to NatPharm, the First Lady has been criss-crossing the country, addressing various stakeholders on issues such as inheritance, maternal health and entrepreneurship.

At a public event in Gutu, Masvingo, recently, Auxillia said she would engage telecommunications operators to ensure the community was well serviced.

Moyo said he had spoked to First Lady Auxillia before her tour of NatPharm.

“Indeed, we discussed with the First Lady about her familiarization tour of NatPharm. Because I was engaged elsewhere, I dispatched one of my senior staffers at the ministry to accompany her,” the Health minister said.

“In relation to a meeting I had with NatPharm executives, it was a scheduled meeting which was not influenced by the First Lady. She is merely fulfilling her philanthropic work, nothing more nothing less. In any case, she is now our ambassador for health and child care.”

Information deputy minister Energy Mutodi disagreed with analysts and the opposition, saying the First Lady had the right to be involved in the health sector because she had an organisation whose main agenda was the social well-being of citizens and her actions do not constitute usurping Executive power.

“Any citizen of Zimbabwe can be appointed an ambassador for any organisation, provided that such an individual accepts the invitation. We see no problem with that and her presence and participation in such events, as I have described, does not constitute any interference with government operations,” he said.

Secretary for Information, Ndavaningi Mangwana, also defended the First Lady’s role, claiming it was synonymous with the roles performed by all first ladies across the globe.

“These are people that use their prominence to influence matters of public importance as well as highlight certain causes, which are normally marginalised from public discourse,” he said.

“In the case of Amai Mnangagwa, health is an issue which is close to her heart. That’s why she has just been made health ambassador.”

Mangwana said of Auxillia’s visit to NatPharm, she had the constitutional right to access information.

He said it was an insult to compare Auxillia to Grace, saying the former’s visibility was issues-led as opposed to the former First Lady, who he said wanted power and disparaged her husband’s political allies.

BY Blessed Mhlanga/Obey Manayiti

ZIMBABWEANS cannot afford to wait for the 2023 general elections to correct the socio-economic dysfunction allegedly caused by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s disputed election, MDC leader Nelson Chamisa has said.

Chamisa, who takes his party to a crunch congress set for May 24 to 26, said the MDC would come out with a slew of strategies to face Zanu PF and ensure that the economics, politics and reform agenda are set right ahead of fresh general elections.

“Why wait for five years. We must begin the journey with the July 2018 disputed elections so that issues of legitimacy are dealt with, issues of parliamentary reforms are dealt with, (and that there is) political dialogue. If there is no political dialogue, we say this and we will say it again, we are going to resort to constitutional avenues and platforms around our rights to express ourselves until what we believe to be the legitimate request is acceded,” he said.

The MDC said it was prepared to meet Zanu PF and its government head-on to ensure that the country’s problems are resolved.

Zanu PF and Mnangagwa have continued to ignore the opposition leader and, instead, are pressing ahead with his government’s economic blueprint, the Transitional Stabilisation Programme.

Mnangagwa initiated his own political dialogue with 17 fringe political parties, some of them with no following, and the dialogue will be officially launched on May 17 without Chamisa.

This has not scared the MDC, which says Zanu PF is not Zimbabwe and cannot be allowed to dictate the destiny of the country with their alleged stubbornness.

“Zanu PF is not Zimbabwe; that is why democracy is there; that is why constitutions are there; that is why people are there because they have to deal with stubborn elements like Zanu PF. They may choose to be stubborn, but we will tame their stubbornness,” he said.

Chamisa said after congress, the fight against Zanu PF would be broadened and street protests might become the centre stage to resolve the enduring national crisis.

Today, Chamisa is expected in Mutasa, Manicaland province, to address a campaign rally for the Mutasa Rural District Council ward 10 by-election set for this weekend.

His visit comes after a high-powered Zanu PF delegation visited Mutasa last weekend to campaign for their candidate, Magret Tindika.

Meanwhile, MDC members fighting to lead the youth assembly have promised to bring radicalism and vibrancy into the wing in the fight against Mnangagwa, with one of them pushing for an early harmonised election, claiming that the current administration has failed to arrest the worsening situation.

Zimbabwe is currently battling an economic turbulence that has seen prices of basic commodities shooting beyond the reach of many. The country is due for the next general elections in 2023.