guest column Miriam Tose Majome

Last week, we looked at abortion from the Zimbabwean legal and legislative context. We outlined the provisions of the Termination of Pregnancy Act and the only three circumstances in which abortion is legally permissible.

We examined the challenges and difficulties faced by women even when the law allows them to terminate their pregnancies. We highlighted that the issue of abortion is fraught with many opinions and emotions, with different sides vying to make their view the standard by which the abortion laws must devolve. There are opinions from across the social divide encompassing divergent religious, cultural, legal, medical, moral and personal opinions.

Everyone has an opinion about the rights and wrongs of abortion and interestingly, the most vocal and influential opinions come from people who do not have uteruses. Men are invariably the most influential members of society because they occupy the most powerful positions and are the principle decision makers.

They pass the religious, cultural and national laws by which societies live and abide. By virtue of their political power, men influence public opinion on almost all societal, religious and cultural issues more than women. In the regions of the world where abortion has been legalised, it had to be fought as a gender and women’s reproductive rights issue for it to gain traction. The argument by women was that they are the ones who get pregnant and, therefore, must be the only ones who have a say over their bodies.

Women argue that their bodies are not public property and, therefore, they should be the only ones to decide whether or not to get pregnant, and whether or not to remain pregnant .
All the major religions/philosophies are generally opposed to abortion. Buddhist philosophies view life as starting from conception.

They believe in reincarnation and rebirth, therefore, life is present and valid at every stage of its cycle. A conceived being is considered as having the same rights as a deceased person. Rebirth and reincarnation mean there is never an end to life. Unlike in Christianity and Islam, there is no top-down approach and a super deity that tells people what to do with their lives and their genitalia. There is no dictated wrong and right because Buddhist philosophy gives individuals personal responsibility over moral issues.

Adherents are encouraged to self-introspect through meditation and reflection, the effects of their thoughts and deeds to other people and the world at large. In Islam, abortion is wrong and forbidden, except in some circumstances. In this way, Islam is more liberal because Christianity does not give an allowance for special exceptions.

Christianity takes the most rigid, impractical, and denialist view on abortion.

Judeo Christianity views, championed by the Roman Catholic Church are very influential in this part of the world.

The traditional Catholic view is that abortion is wrong, sinful and, therefore, non-negotiable, no matter the circumstance.

If the pregnancy poses danger to the mother or the foetus, it is considered as God’s will. The mother must die or the baby be dangerously deformed if need be.

Abortion is regarded as gravely contrary to the moral and natural laws. The Anglican Church mirrors the Roman Catholic Church, although it has increasingly softened its stance over the years to allow for some exceptions.

In 1980, its board that deals with issues of social responsibilities issued a statement that closely mirrors the Catholic Church: “We see abortion….. as a great moral evil.’’ The softening of this stance, as with other issues like gay marriages the Anglican Church conceded that it was futile to try to control human beings.
The Catholic Church still maintains its rigid position.

The church would rather turn a blind eye like it does to most things it frowns upon, but which it cannot control such as contraception, homosexuality and co-habitation. The Catholic Church’s view is based on its interpretation of the word of God. For Catholics, life begins at conception. Pope Benedict XV talked about the necessity of making everyone aware of the “intrinsic evil of abortion’’ because it is akin to “attacking human life in its very first stages’’.

The Pope said politicians and legislators are duty-bound to defend the fundamental right to life because a human foetus has rights, including the right to life. This is contrary to some human and women rights views, which argue that a foetus has no rights of its own because it is not yet a human being. Abortion activists argue that the perceived rights of foetuses cannot supersede the rights of the women who host it in their bodies. The rights of foetuses and of women will be discussed in other instalments and, for now, we discuss the religious standpoint.

Generally, all Christian churches follow the same thinking that abortion is wrong and is a sin, because it is killing and killing is against Biblical and godly principles. Christians preach that sexual relations outside marriage are sinful and, therefore, abortion cannot even be a factor because all sexually active Christians should be married. There is no room for unwanted pregnancies because in the Christian world, life is neatly arranged and anything that interferes with that order is from the devil.

Christians justify their views by quoting Bible verses and teachings from influential Christian leaders that speak to the evils of murder. However, some Bible verses contradict this because what God says about abortion is different from these preachings. In some verses, God is portrayed as not caring about unborn children.

God’s attitude is that unborn babies have no rights and can be killed to punish and spite their mothers for doing him wrong. At different times, God expresses disparaging feelings about foetuses and suggests that they are mere property. God accords no special concessions or protection to unborn babies as is preached by anti-abortionists.

Those interested in further Biblical readings of abortion can look up Exodus 21:22-25, Numbers 5: 11-31, among many other verses in which pregnant women are threatened with losing their unborn children at God’s whim. In Hoseah 9: 10-16, God promises to punish Israel by destroying it. He seems to have a penchant for punishing women by killing their unborn children.

God talks liberally about ripping their stomachs with a sword and wantonly killing their unborn children. Even in the New Testament, Jesus shows no special concern or protection for unborn children.

Like in the Old Testament, he promises trials and tribulations for pregnant women and their unborn children in the promised end times (Matthew 24:19).
In these and other verses, the biblical God goes against the standard Christian stance that God is unequivocal about the protection of unborn children. When the various biblical verses about abortion are considered, there is no consensus in the Bible about abortion. There is thus no justification for the anti-abortion views based on biblical principles, unless one cherry picks verses that support their personal views.

BY Brenna Matendere

The MDC district congress re-run for Gokwe-Kabuyuni failed to take off in the political hotbed district on Thursday.

A re-run was ordered after complaints were raised that Costin Muguti, who won in the initial round of polls to lead the district, was not eligible as he had not yet reached the mandatory five years in the MDC after he re-joined the party from Elton Mangoma’s Coalition of Democrats (Code).

Muguti, a former MP for the constituency, first defected from the MDC alongside Tendai Biti and Mangoma under the Renewal for Democrats Party. He remained with Mangoma’s party when Biti broke away to form the People’s Democratic Party.

MDC Midlands provincial spokesperson, Takavafira Zhou, explained the circumstances surrounding the aborted event.

“The first issue that was dealt with before the elections could be held was the issue of Muguti, who had won in the initial district election. He re-joined the party in 2018 after defecting and so that issue was supposed to be resolved first. After some frank discussion, Muguti then agreed to step down. But when we were about to go for the re-run of the district elections, it was discovered that the gathering did not constitute a quorum as there were fewer members. So, we had to postpone the polls,” he said.

MDC Midlands provincial chairperson, Josiah Makombe, who travelled to the remote district to superintend over the re-run, said a new date would be announced after the memorial of the late party leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

“A new date will be set for the congress re-run, but it has to be before the national event slated to begin on May 24. I was humbled by the unity shown by the party supporters in Gokwe and particularly the political maturity of our cadre Muguti, who agreed to step down,” Makombe said.

Zhuo highlighted that the technicality of the disqualification of Muguti could have been avoided if Mangoma had joined the MDC Alliance or if the former Gokwe-Kabuyuni MP had been a member of Biti’s PDP, which joined the alliance. Members of the parties that joined the MDC Alliance were allowed to contest in the congress, regardless of the five-year membership condition.

SCORING 13 points or more in science subjects at Advanced level (A-level) is no mean feat, more so for a teen Providence Pangira, who worked as a gardener after school and studied under very difficult conditions in a crowded room he shared with his parents and several siblings.

By Faith Zaba

Providence Pangira passed A-Levels with flying colours with a dream to be a doctor, only to end up as a gardener due to poverty and economic turmoil engulfing Zimbabwe. Pics by Shepherd Tozvireva.

A bright future seemed to appear on the horizon when Providence passed the Zimbabwe School Examination Council Ordinary and Advanced level tests with flying colours. He passed O-level exams with seven As and four Bs and attained an A in Biology and Bs in Pure Mathematics and Chemistry at A-level — a remarkable perfomance.

Despite attaining such results, which should normally guarantee progress in education and in life, Providence, like tens of thousands of Zimbabweans with degrees and those academically gifted from poor backgrounds, was forced into doing menial work. He is now working as a full-time gardener in Harare. From a young age, Providence has aspired to be a medical doctor, but his dream has been broken by his poor background and the worsening economic situation in Zimbabwe.

Many graduates from Zimbabwe’s tertiary institutions have lost hope of ever getting formal employment and living good lives, as the economy continues to tumble. Companies are either downsizing or closing down, sending thousands of workers out of employment, making it almost impossible for university and high school graduates, even those with exceptional results, to get jobs.

The 19-year-old Mutasa-born teen, whose family has been ravaged by poverty, is the fourth born in a family of five. His family moved to Chikanga in Mutare when he was in Grade Six. The family rented a room, which was divided by a curtain, with the parents sleeping on a double bed on one side and the five kids — two girls and three boys — on the concrete floor on the other side.

After completing his primary school education at a school in Sakubva, he enrolled at Dangamvura High School for Form One.

Providence Pangira passed A-Levels with flying colours with a dream to be a doctor, only to end up as a gardener due to poverty and economic turmoil engulfing Zimbabwe. Pics by Shepherd Tozvireva.

Unfortunately at that time, his father had started serving a prison sentence for some felony, which meant he had to fend for himself and find ways of raising money to pay school fees, buy uniforms and learning materials such as exercise books, pens and textbooks.

“My father was arrested when we were still in our rural home. He started serving his sentence in 2013 and was only released in February last year through a presidential amnesty,” he said.

“From 2013, I had no one to pay my school fees. I realised then that I had to work. I started working first at weekends as a gardener in Fairbridge Park low density suburb. Then I was 13 turning 14 in August that year. With the money I was paid, I used it to pay for school fees and books. My mother was not working. She did part-time work here and there.

“The money was not enough to cover the full fees, so when I wrote my O-levels I still had a debt of US$540, which was cleared this year by a benefactor, who had been approached on my behalf by the bursar. Fortunately for me, an organisation called Fact (Family Aids Caring Trust) paid the examination fees for the 11 subjects I wrote,” Providence said.

While waiting for O-level results, he did part-time work as gardener and general labourer ploughing fields around Mutare to raise money for uniforms and school fees to enrol for A-levels.

“From my childhood, I always wanted to study medicine so I worked hard at school. I used to work in the afternoon as a gardener and study in the evening until around 11pm. I would never sleep for more than four hours. I would wake up around 3am and continue to study.

“I would study while seated on the concrete floor and sometimes in the blankets and use my mother’s mobile phone or a small torch to study. I was determined to pass and realise my dream to be a medical doctor.

“I can’t count the number of times I cried while I was praying for God’s grace and salvation. I used to ask God if this is the life I am going to live all my life, nekuti ndichasvikarini ndichirarama hupenyu uhu? (until when am I going to live this life?) My life has been very hard all the way.

“Now just when I thought things would change, my dream has been crushed. The University of Zimbabwe wants 15 points to study medicine. I feel that if I had lived under better conditions I could have easily scored the 15 points. My second choice was pharmacy, but they also want 14 points,” he said.

“I don’t have money to go to the other universities or even study other programmes.”

Providence said he is the only child in his family who has passed both O and A-levels.

He said his older siblings, except for one of his sisters who had to work as a maid to raise money for exam fees, did not write O-levels because of financial problems.

“When the A-level results came out in January, I didn’t know what to do. I knew I could never raise enough money to pay for university. There was no hope. I decided in March to work as a gardener to help my parents. Through an employment agent, I got this job and moved to Harare,” he said.

“I pray all the time that I get assistance from Good Samaritans so that I can continue with my studies and be able to live a successful life in which I can improve the lives of my family members and also be able to help kids who faced the same challenges as I have been facing since I was born.”

Providence is among thousands of young Zimbabweans whose lives have been ruined because of the economic challenges the country is facing as a result of bad leadership, toxic policies and poor governance.

The current environment in the country is destroying future generations and creating a nation of dispirited and hopeless youths prepared to do anything to survive.

Bright minds like Providence are ending up accepting menial jobs.

There is no promise or hope of a better future in a country where intelligent kids like Providence end up as gardeners, domestic workers, cross-border traders, taxi drivers, street vendors, waiters or care-givers in and outside Zimbabwe. Some end up consumed by social vices and in jails.

Providence’s employer, Roselyn Munamati, said: “I realised that he was sharp and different so I asked him what education level he had reached. When he showed me his O and A-level certificates, I cried.

“He did the same combination as the one my daughter is doing. I just said to myself, I have employed a future doctor as a gardener. It pained me so much. I tried to help by reaching out to the National University of Science and Technology (Nust),” she said.

“I told him to go to University of Zimbabwe and register. I wish I had resources, I would pay for him. I am praying God gets him a divine helper so that he fulfils his dreams to become a medical doctor.”

It is estimated that over 300 000 students are churned out by schools, colleges and universities every year to join millions who are unemployed. Most of them end up in the streets.

The manufacturing industrial centres dotted around the country, which in the 1980s and 1990s up to around early 2000s used to be vibrant industrial hubs of Africa, can now best be described as Zimbabwe ruins. The massive industrial structures that used to emit smoke 24 hours a day — which gave cities like Bulawayo nicknames like “Kontuthuziyathunqa” (where the smoke belches in reference to factories’ chimneys belching out smoke) — are now graveyards for rusty steel and dilapidated buildings. Bulawayo was once Zimbabwe’s industrial hub, but it now resembles a ghost city.

Most Zimbabweans are living from hand to mouth. The situation is even worse for the 95% not in formal employment, who do not have a regular paycheque and medical cover.

The majority of Zimbabweans are struggling to earn a living and pay school fees for their children but it seems the system is rigged against them. The system is impoverishing its people as the revolution eats its own children.
Local researcher Brett Chulu said the protracted economic regression has destroyed the future of at least six generations.

“Basic economic planning used by successful nations at the family level is that wise people leave an inheritance for their grandchildren. Bible-believing nations apply the wisdom found in Proverbs 13:22 that a good man leaves an inheritance for his grandchildren,” he said.

“Our economic regression has been protracted and unrelenting. It has not just made a generation impotent; it has created a situation where we have destroyed the future of at least six generations.”

Chulu added that: “Two generations have been directly affected by our economic implosion — these having nothing to pass to the next generation, except poverty and despondency. Our mismanagement of the economy is destroying those still to be born.”

Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions secretary-general Japhet Moyo said:

“We already have a generation that is no longer interested in formal employment but enjoy standing at street corners in urban areas and are able to raise money to buy drugs,” he said.

“The other aspect is our failure to break the vicious circle of poverty. The poor families are likely to remain poor at the same time increasing inequality in the society as those poor would remain where they are at the moment.”

Chulu pointed out that the situation is worsened by an education system that does not empower students with practical self-reliance skills.

“Go to any country where there are Jews; you will hardly find an economically struggling Jew. Jews train their children for academic and professional excellence. They do one thing extra—they train their children to be self-reliant from a tender age. So you will find highly learned, smart, sharp Jewish professionals and academics but with practical survival skills,” he said.

“Our economic Armageddon plus an education system that does not train self-reliance, we have an untenable situation of a psychologically damaged youth and young adults with no self-confidence, over-dependent, cynical and despondent. It will take a miracle to reverse the damage that has been wrought by this man-made economic disaster and human tragedy.”

BY CNN

Lagos, Nigeria— More than 150 children — some as young as 11 — were among 220 people rescued from sex and labor trafficking rings in West Africa, Interpol said.

Most of the victims were beaten, subjected to abuses and told they would never see their families again by their traffickers, said Interpol.

They came from West African countries including the Republic of Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, and Togo.

Local police working with Interpol rescued some of the victims from places where they were forced to become sex workers, and the majority were working as servants in markets in both countries.

One of the children was found wheeling bags of rice weighing up to 40 kilograms between the borders of the Republic of Benin and Nigeria, a spokesman for the agency said.

“Many of the children are shipped actually into these markets to carry out forced labor. These are organized crime groups who are motivated by making money…. They don’t care about the children forced into prostitution, working in terrible conditions, living on the streets, they are all after the money,” Interpol’s Director of Organised and Emerging Crime Paul Stanfield said in a video posted on the agency’s website.
Forty-seven people were arrested following the raid, the agency said.

The months-long operation begun in 2018 and involved local law enforcement officers and anti-trafficking agencies in Republic of Benin and Nigeria — countries identified as hotspots for child labor trafficking, Stanfield said.

Trafficking is a significant challenge facing many African countries, where thousands of people, mainly children, are sold into prostitution rings and labor camps by human smuggling networks.

More than 20,000 Nigerian girls were forced to into prostitution rings in mining camps and hotels in Mali by traffickers who promised them employment in hotels in Malaysia, according to the country’s National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons in January ( NAPTIP).
Victims rescued in this operation were handed to local officials in the Republic of Benin and Nigeria.

20,000 Nigerian girls sold to prostitution ring, trafficking agency says
Some were reunited with their parents, and others have transferred to shelters in both countries, the international police agency said.

“Nobody belongs in the markets or on the streets as slave laborers,” said Hounde Seidou from Benin’s anti-trafficking agency said, adding that law enforcement officers must apprehend offenders especially in cases involving children.

Eighty-five children were rescued in Sudan in another Interpol raid in September last year from gold mines in Khartoum, where they were forced to work with dangerous chemicals.

BY BBC

Cyclone Fani has slammed into India’s eastern coastline, according to the country’s Meteorological Department.

Heavy rain has been reported in the eastern state of Orissa, also called Odisha, which is directly in the path of the storm.

The tourist town of Puri and neighbouring areas are experiencing winds with a speed of 175 km/h (108mph), which may go up to 200 km/h.

Officials say there are no casualties.

However flooding has been reported from several areas, and reports are coming in of trees falling and roofs of buildings being destroyed.

More than a million people have been evacuated from Orissa and moved to shelters while several neighbouring states have also been put on high alert.

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The cyclone is expected to hit 15 districts in Orissa, apart from Puri, which is home to the 858-year-old Jagannath temple.

Numerous flights and train services in and out of the state have been cancelled, while schools and government offices are shut. Operations at three ports on India’s eastern coast have been shut down.

The state and federal governments have swung into action – naval warships and helicopters have been moved to the state and are on standby with medical teams and relief material. The country’s National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has also sent several teams there.

Cyclone Fani will be the fourth storm to hit India’s east coast in the last three decades.

In 2017, Cyclone Ockhi killed more than 200 people and displaced hundreds. In October last year, officials in Orissa evacuated hundreds of thousands of people when another cyclone struck.

The state’s most deadly cyclone on record took place in 1999, killing almost 10,000 people.

Which areas will be affected?

India’s National Disaster Management Authority has warned people along the east coast, especially fishermen, not to go out to sea because the conditions are “phenomenal”.

The agency said the “total destruction of thatched houses” was possible, as well as “extensive damage” to other structures.

The cyclone is expected to move towards Chittagong in Bangladesh in a weaker form on Saturday.

The cyclone coincides with high tides in Bangladesh which may exacerbate potential flooding issues there.

The port city of Cox’s Bazar, where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees live in camps with minimal shelter, is also on alert. But the cyclone is currently not expected to hit the camps unless it changes path, which is not thought likely.

In February the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) began distributing tarpaulins ahead of the region’s “cyclone season” – but warned that if a deadly storm rolls in, shelters made of battered bamboo and shredded plastic would offer little protection.

How has India prepared?

The navy, the coast guard and the National Disaster Response Force have all been prepared for deployment. It has also stationed two ships with divers and doctors at the southern port cities of Vishakapatnam and Chennai (formerly Madras), an official told local media.

Local media report that about 81 trains travelling to and from coastal cities have been cancelled.

India’s electoral commission has relaxed its rules about what the government can do during election periods so that the authorities can carry out relief work.

The country is in the middle of a multi-phased election which started last month.

Under normal circumstances the incumbent government has certain powers suspended, so that it can’t announce new schemes or take new decisions during the voting period.

Although the election will continue until the end of May, Orissa has already voted.

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BY CNN

The diary of Eva Heyman begins innocently enough. It is her thirteenth birthday, and she writes about her dreams of becoming a journalist and marrying an Englishman.

The Hungarian Jewish teenager began her journal in February 1944, just one month before Nazi forces invaded Hungary. Its pages soon became a young girl’s account of her world transforming around her.

“Dear Diary, you are the happiest because you cannot feel the great misfortune that happened to us,” she wrote on March 19.

Her journal was published decades ago but, until now, had received scant attention, apart from a small memorial in the town of what is now Oradea, Romania.
Anti-Semitism never disappeared in Europe. It’s alive and kicking
Eva’s journal covers a period of only 108 days. She writes about many of the incremental moments that lead to the inevitable.

On March 31, 1944, she wrote: “Today an order was issued that from now on Jews have to wear a yellow starshaped patch. The order tells exactly how big the star patch must be, and that it must be sewn on every outer garment, jacket or coat. When Grandma heard this, she started acting up again and we called the doctor.

Eva has never had the name recognition of Anne Frank, whose diary is required reading in many schools around the world. But now her story has been brought back to life on Instagram.

Beginning on Wednesday afternoon — which marks the start of Holocaust Memorial Day in Israel — through Thursday, Eva’s diary is being re-enacted and posted as short Instagram video stories, intended to engage and educate a younger audience. Once complete, “Eva’s Story” will remain online in perpetuity.

The videos were created by father-daughter pair Mati and Maya Kochavi from Haifa, Israel. “We were looking for a way to deal with (Holocaust) memory and manage this memory in a way that is going to be relevant for a younger generation today,” says father Mati, a 57-year-old tech entrepreneur whose ventures include founding the media company Vocativ.

They brought in dozens of actors, with hundreds of extras, and created Nazi-era scenes in Lviv, Ukraine for the project, then recorded everything — as a teenager might — on an iPhone.

Father-daughter pair Mati and Maya Kochavi brought in dozens of actors to recreate Nazi-era scenes, and recorded everything on iPhone.
Father-daughter pair Mati and Maya Kochavi brought in dozens of actors to recreate Nazi-era scenes, and recorded everything on iPhone.

“One of the strongest ways to really convey what happened in the Holocaust is to speak to a survivor who went through it,” says 27-year-old Maya Kochavi. “We have to think of more creative and stronger ways to convey the horrors of the Holocaust to the newer generation that won’t have the chance to speak to a survivor.”

Each day from Eva’s diary has been turned into a new Instagram story added to the account. On May 10, 1944, she wrote in her journal, “I have no idea how it will be later, I always think this is the worst, then I realize on my own that everything can become even worse, actually much worse. Until now, there was food to eat, now we won’t have any.”

Eva Heyman at 13.
More than 70 years later, memories of the Holocaust are preserved in documents and museums. Israel’s Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem, has put the last letters of Holocaust victims online so that the public can read the powerful personal notes.
Not everyone has been thrilled with the social media lesson. “The path from ‘Eva’s Story’ to selfies at the gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau is short and steep,” wrote civics teacher Yuval Mendelson in a column in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz.
“At the end gather all the tongue-clickers and head-shakers, and each in turn will tell us about our lost and disconnected youth, devoid of values and shame.”

The project’s creators reject that criticism. “Social media, especially Instagram, is shallow, especially if you’re looking for content that is shallow,” says Maya Kochavi. “And if you’re looking for content that is powerful and has magnitude and can cause revolutions even, you will easily find it there.”

Netanyahu joins world leaders in lamenting results of CNN poll on anti-Semitism
On May 30, she wrote her final entry: “Dear Diary, I don’t want to die, I still want to live, even if it means that only I remain behind from this entire district.”

Three days later, Heyman was deported from Hungary, then to Auschwitz, according to Yad Vashem. She died in a gas chamber on October 17, 1944.

As the number of living Holocaust survivors dwindles, the Kochavis hope that Eva will become a fresh face for those memories of the event that no one wants to remember, and the world should never forget.

BY CNN

China is continuing to modernize its armed forces in order to transform its military into a major global power and using espionage to steal cutting edge technology for military purposes, according to a newly released Pentagon report on China’s military.

“China uses a variety of methods to acquire foreign military and dual-use technologies, including targeted foreign direct investment, cyber theft, and exploitation of private Chinese nationals’ access to these technologies, as well as harnessing its intelligence services, computer intrusions, and other illicit approaches,” the Congressionally mandated Department of Defense report said.

“China obtains foreign technology through imports, foreign direct investment, the establishment of foreign research and development (R&D) centers, joint ventures, research and academic partnerships, talent recruitment, and industrial and cyberespionage,” the report added.

US intelligence warns China is using student spies to steal secrets
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, recently warned Congress that US companies that did business in China were often indirectly benefiting the Chinese military, citing Google as an example.
The report said that China had used these techniques to acquire sensitive, dual-use, or military-grade equipment from the United States, including aviation and antisubmarine warfare technologies.

Beijing is also exploiting its citizens and foreigners of Chinese descent living abroad to further the aims of the Chinese Communist Party the report says, saying that a “cornerstone of China’s strategy includes appealing to overseas Chinese citizens or ethnic Chinese citizens of other countries to advance CCP objectives through soft power or, sometimes, coercion and blackmail.”
Beijing developing advanced weaponry

Some of the more advanced technology China is developing includes hypersonic missiles, weapons that travel at least five-times the speed of sound.

“China has tested hypersonic glide vehicles. In August 2018, China successfully tested the XINGKONG-2 (Starry Sky-2), which it publicly described as a hypersonic waverider vehicle,” the report says, referencing a missile that can travel close to the water to avoid detection and missile defense.

The report also details the growth in China’s defense budget and its military capabilities, saying “China’s defense budget has nearly doubled during the past 10 years.”

Much of that money is being spent on beefing up the Chinese navy, with the report saying that China commands “the region’s largest navy, with more than 300 surface combatants, submarines, amphibious ships, patrol craft, and specialized types.”

Top US general says Google ‘is indirectly benefiting the Chinese military’
The report calls the Chinese navy an “increasingly modern and flexible force,” saying that the “modernization of China’s submarine force remains a high priority.”

It says China’s total submarine force “will likely grow to between 65 and 70 submarines by 2020” and that China will field a new guided-missile nuclear attack submarine “by the mid-2020s” providing Beijing with “a more clandestine land-attack option.”

China’s first domestically built Aircraft carrier will also “likely join the fleet by the end of 2019” and its second domestically built carrier is projected to be operational by 2022.

Beijing is also rapidly building up its Coast Guard to help enforce its claims over disputed islands in the South China Sea, according to the report.

Since 2010 the Chinese Coast Guard has doubled its fleet of large patrol ships and now commands some 130 large vessels, “making it by far the largest coast guard force in the world and increasing its capacity to conduct simultaneous, extended offshore operations in multiple disputed areas.”

The report also says China uses its People’s Armed Forces Maritime Militia, a reserve force of civilians available for mobilization, “to achieve China’s political goals” in the South China Sea without fighting.

China has attempted to increase its control over the features and waterways of the South China Sea where some 78 percent of its oil imports and 16 percent of natural gas imports sails.

“In the South China Sea, China has continued militarization. Anti-ship cruise missiles and long-range surface-to-air missiles have been deployed to Spratly Islands outposts, and China’s strategic bombers have conducted take-off and landing drills on Woody Island in the Paracel Islands,” the report said, adding that the missiles deployed to the Spratly Islands in 2018 are the “most capable land-based weapons systems deployed by China in the disputed South China Sea.”

“China states that international military presence within the South China Sea is a challenge to its sovereignty. China has continued to escalate coercive tactics to enforce its claims within the South China Sea,” it added.

BY OBEY MANAYITI/BLESSED MHLANGA

THE stage has been set for a bruising fight in the Nelson Chamisa-led MDC as almost all candidates nominated for top positions in the party’s standing committee have accepted and are now reaching into their war chests to mount rigorous campaigns ahead of congress this monthend.

Party bigwigs, who include vice-president Elias Mudzuri and secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora face an unsavoury prospect of walking out of the MDC’s elective congress as ordinary card-carrying members. The congress is the first since the death of the opposition party’s founding president Morgan Tsvangirai, who succumbed to cancer of the colony early last year, five months before the July 31 elections.

This comes as the High Court is set to hand down a judgment on Wednesday next week in which a Gokwe-Sasame MDC secretary Elias Mashavira challenged Chamisa’s legitimacy as interim party leader.

Mashavira wants the court to order the party to go for an extra-ordinary congress as opposed to the elective congress slated for May 24 to 26 in Gweru.

If granted the order, the party could be forced to abandon congress preparations, despite the nomination process having been completed.

Mashavira’s lawyer, Ashel Mutungura said: “Judgment is going to be handed down in a motion court on Wednesday. So today (yesterday) was just that notification.”

Chamisa, who was jettisoned to power through a national council resolution, appears set to win the top post after bagging all 13 provincial nominations.

Apart from Chamisa, who appears to be safe, there will be fierce contests for the posts of vice-presidents, secretary-general and treasurer-general, which have received an overwhelming number of nominations for strong contenders.

Few positions are now up for grabs following a resolution to empower Chamisa to appoint other portfolios.

Leading contender for the vice-presidency, Morgen Komichi called for responsible campaigning, adding that the party must emerge stronger from the congress.

Komichi will square off with former secretary-generals Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, and Mudzuri. “Yes, I have accepted the nomination,” Komichi said.

“I look forward to a peaceful campaign. I don’t want to see some campaign teams denigrating other candidates. We must be professional in our approach. We have relationships beyond the congress, we have a party beyond congress and I am aware that the campaign teams sometimes go into overdrive and end up attacking other candidates personally,” he said.

Komichi said campaigning ahead of congress should not create fissures in the party and instead must ensure that the party comes out stronger and united.

Although Biti and Ncube were not picking up their phones, NewsDay is reliably informed that they have accepted their nominations, while Mudzuri was evasive, saying he would not respond to questions on the matter because he was travelling to Buhera for Tsvangirai’s memorial service.

Three women will now battle it out for one vice-presidential post, which was last week ring-fenced by the national council as the MDC seeks to have women in its presidium.

Leading contenders for the post are Lilian Timveos, Lynnete Karenyi-Kore and Tracy Mutinhiri all having confirmed that they have accepted nomination, while Paurina Mpariwa has now decided to stand as women’s league chairperson.

“In line with the forthcoming MDC congress whence I received nominations for both the position of vice-presidency and women’s assembly chairperson, I will have to pave way for my fellow women cadres to contest in the VP post. I have opted to contest for the women assembly’s chairperson. This was motivated by the advices I received from a number of respected people in the struggle,” Mpariwa wrote on her campaign Facebook page.

Chalton Hwende, a close aide to Chamisa will face Daniel Molokele and possibly Mwonzora for the secretary-general post.

Close sources said Mwonzora was itching to retain his post although he could not immediately confirm that he was still interested after receiving one nomination.

After throwing in the towel in the race for the presidency, Mwonzora said he was aiming to keep his current position. Yesterday, Hwende insisted that the position was almost his after getting the majority of the nominations.

“I have accepted the nomination, I cannot betray the nine provinces that nominated me. The nominations will give you some guidance into what people want and in politics you must follow what the people want,” he said.

David Coltart said he was ready for the elective congress after accepting nomination for the treasurer-general position for which he received nominations from seven provinces and will face-off with Tapiwa Mashakada.

“Yes, I have accepted nomination from the seven provinces. Obviously, I will be subjected to election and congress and I am ready,” he said.

Party chairperson Tabitha Khumalo, who is looking to retain her post, faces a challenge from Gabbuza Joel Gabuza. Khumalo said she was ready to face her challenger. “I humbly accept the nominations and will be ready for a healthy competition with my peers,” she said.