Zimbabweans never cease to amaze me. They have a penchant to blow their own trumpet (kuzvifonera) at every opportunity, but nature has its own humbling ways. Examples abound of people swaggering and belching much ado about nothing.

When Zanu PF leader Emmerson Mnangagwa took over the presidency from the now late Robert Mugabe in 2017, he vowed to revive the waning economy; he adopted the “Zimbabwe is open for business” mantra. Wearing his trademark Zimbabwe flag-branded scarf, he took on a whirlwind tour of the world to lure investors to revive a virtually dead economy.
His engagement drive took him to China, Russia, Middle East, across Africa and culminated at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The so-called new dispensation trumpeted that Mnangagwa’s trips were bearing fruits as more than US$27 billion worth of mega deals ranging from mining, manufacturing, agriculture, tourism, healthcare, defence and energy, were on their way to Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe is endowed with a cornucopia of minerals, a literate population, good soils and good weather, surely the country is an easy-to-sell brand. Millions of dollars in hard currency were splashed on Mnanagwa’s bloated entourages to those far-off countries.

But more than two years into his tenure, Zimbabwe has nothing to show for Mnangagwa’s endless junkets. The mega deals appear to have dissipated into hot air.

In 2013, Caps United owner Farai Jere blew the horn, announcing that his pharmaceutical company would construct a US$145 million five-star Hilton Hotel and office complex in Eastlea, Harare.

The project was supposed to be completed in 2016. Hold your horses, four years after the project was expected to be completed, nothing has materialised.

And suddenly, out of the blue, former Zifa president Philip Chiyangwa, and obviously itching to prove that he could not be outdone by Jere or anyone else for that matter, brewed another shocker. This week the world woke up to news that Chiyangwa had a dream in June 2011 — a dream to build a state-of-the-art sporting facility in Harare South’s Stoneridge suburb.

“I had a dream in 2011 when the Harare City Council issued a permit for the land. In terms of sporting and entertainment facilities, Harare South has nothing. This facility will change that,” Chiyangwa told the media. The former Zifa president wants to build a Moses Mabida Stadium which can stage boxing, athletics, musical concerts and conferences in Stoneridge.

The venue of the facility raises questions. Stoneridge is not a prime location to build such a property. The sporting facility will be surrounded by squatter camps.

With the Zimbabwean economy heading south, building such a facility could remain Chiyangwa’s strange dream on a cold night.

I doubt if Chiyangwa carried out a feasibility study before making such an outlandish announcement. A feasibility study to ascertain the likelihood of successfully completing the project was key.

Project managers use feasibility studies to discern the pros and cons of undertaking a project before investing time and money into it.

This feasibility study could have provided Chiyangwa and his team with crucial information that could prevent them from venturing blindly into risky businesses that could hardly give him return on investment.

A feasibility study is simply an assessment of the practicality of a proposed project. As the name implies, these studies ask: Will the project give proprietors the return on investment that they expect? If that project is completed, it is likely to become a white elephant just like High Glen Shopping Mall and is unlikely to give return on investment.

Captain Fiasco as Chiyangwa is affectionately known, said he is partnering the government. Sounds a good idea, but the same government owns the 60 000-seater National Sports Stadium (NSS), which the Confederation of African Football (Caf) recently condemned for failing to meet international standards.

It is no secret that the government has a lot on its plate to accommodate Chiyangwa in this self-actualisation project.

If the government had the capacity to lend Chiyangwa a hand, then it should have shown it by refurbishing the NSS to ease the county’s stadia crisis. With the government failing its restless workers, how will it partner the Pinnacle Properties boss in a self-fulfilling stadium named after himself?

Even though Uefa president Aleksander Cerefin, who was recently in the country, promised to assist Africa with capacity building by providing sports infrastructure in appreciation of the vast contribution made by the continent’s stars in the global football stage, he sounded sceptical to fund such projects.

“I think we can help quite a lot. Our principles are that we don’t send money. We send experts, we help in building infrastructure,” Cerefin said. This is a slap in the face on Chiyangwa as his tenure at 53 Livingstone Avenue in Harare had been marred by controversy as he was fingered in misappropriation of Zifa funds. Advancing funds to that project is tantamount to throwing money into a bottomless pity.

The timely announcement of a June 2011 dream comes at a time Chiyangwa is caught up in an eye of a storm as the Felton Kamambo-led Zifa board is frantically trying to recover monies that Chiyangwa allegedly siphoned from the local soccer governing body during his tenure as the association’s president.

The media in recent weeks exposed how Chiyangwa allegedly embezzled thousands of dollars from the association through fraud and corruption, after the flamboyant businessman reportedly withdrew US$30 000 from a Zifa nostro account, months after he had ceased to be an official, in addition to using Zifa money to fund his lavish birthday party in 2017.

It is also reported that Chiyangwa leased the Zifa Village to one of his companies to keep creditors at bay, an agreement which he allegedly later used to loot funds from the association.

Chiyangwa has a weakness of having too many things on his hands, resulting in a lot of his projects not reaching completion. His hotel at “White House” along Crowhill Road in Harare is now an eyesore.
Maybe we should give him a chance this time around.

He is just hyping for something I guess! Or he could be diverting people’s attention from the Zifagate. Time will tell! It could be folly for Chiyangwa to go against the wind in constructing a project of such a magnitude.

I am not a prophet of doom, but based on the foregoing, Captain Fiasco could have been blowing his own trumpet as far as the Philip Chiyangwa Stadium is concerned. Lies have short legs.

Cliff Chiduku is a journalist. He writes in his personal capacity. Feedback: cchiduku@gmail.com

On or around January 8 2020, the nation was advised that President Emmerson Mnangagwa (ED) had proceeded on his annual leave and had for that reason nominated (Retired) General Constantino Chiwenga and (Retired) Colonel Kembo Mohadi, on a rotational basis, to act in his stead during the period of his absence.

It was inauspiciously advised that ED would be in the country for the entire duration of his annual vacation.

His Excellency has, however, subsequently performed certain Executive functions during the advised vacation. I have been consulted to give advice on the constitutional implications of these developments.

Paragraph 14(3) of the sixth schedule of the Constitution of Zimbabwe 2013, provides as follows:
“Where-
(a)
(b) two Vice-Presidents are appointed in terms of sub-paragraph (2), the President may from time to time nominate one of them to act as President whenever he or she is absent from Zimbabwe or is unable to exercise his or her official functions through illness or any other cause.”

In terms of this provision, an Acting President can only be appointed in two instances viz:
i. If the President is absent from Zimbabwe (this connotes physical absence) or,
ii. If through inability, he cannot exercise his/her official functions (this connotes physical or mental inability which must exist as a matter of objective fact).

In this regard, it does not matter how the inability arises. What is clear is that whatever cause is relied upon by the President must speak to an absolute inability on his part to perform the functions of his office.
Further, the President cannot nominate both his deputies to act as presidents on a rotational basis. He can only nominate one at a time or to use the words of the Constitution, “from time to time”.

In this case, the President is in Zimbabwe and could not have nominated one or both of his deputies to assume the position of Acting President. He also could not have nominated an Acting President on the basis of inability to perform his functions given that such inability does not as a matter of objective fact exist. The grave and concerning surrender by the President of Executive power has neither constitutional warrant nor precedent.

At any rate, it is not open to the President, during the period in which an Acting President is in office, to exercise, on a random basis, the already delegated functions of his office. Executive authority cannot at that level be shared and once delegated, constitutional authority cannot, thereafter, be exercised by the delegate. The President cannot have it both ways.

Either he retains his authority in which event he exercises it or he delegates it, in which event he losses it for the period of the delegation. It is also clear that the President could not have validly nominated both his deputies to act as presidents on a rotational basis. In terms of the Constitution, he could only nominate one deputy at a time or “from time to time”. The unconstitutional act of appointing two deputies to act on a rotational basis is in my view deliberate and was meant to aid the President in his renunciation of the Constitution.

As a result, the country is currently operating under an illegal regime in which the President has not only abdicated his constitutional obligation to observe the law, but has altogether repudiated his position as President. The repudiation comes in that an absence from the country or an inability to perform functions, Executive authority cannot be delegated as has been done. The President not only having delegated the authority, but also having been prepared to share it with his deputies has by his objective actions repudiated his position as Head of State and government.

In terms of section 96 of the Constitution, the President can only resign his office by notifying the Speaker of Parliament in writing that he has done so. There is, however, no process required and none to be followed when the President repudiates his position. A sitting President is at large to repudiate his position either by word or conduct. Repudiation is itself a unilateral act and cannot be recalled. In the immortal words of the Shona, yadeuka yadeuka.

Zimbabwe has accordingly ceased to have a substantive President. In terms of paragraph 14(4)(a) of the sixth schedule, the last Vice-President to have acted in the position of the President, must now exercise complete Executive authority until his party nominates a substantive President in terms of paragraph 14(5) of the same schedule. That is a constitutional imperative.

Thabani Mpofu is an advocate at the Chambers, Harare

ZIMBABWE’S economic outlook is gloomy due to impending drought, prompting industry players to call for the country’s best minds to apply themselves to save the situation.

BY MTHANDAZO NYONI

The southern African nation has not received significant rainfall so far, raising fears of another drought this season.

Industry players who spoke to NewsDay Business said the signs of an impending drought this season were dampening the little prospects of a bright outlook for 2020.

“Our economy is mostly agro-driven and a drought strikes right at the core of any hopes for economic growth. We are optimistic though, going by what the bureaucrats are saying that the rewards for the austerity measures implemented last year will begin to show this year,” Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce Matabeleland chapter chairperson Brighton Ncube said.

Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries president Henry Ruzvidzo said real prospects of a drought “will require that the country’s best minds apply themselves to mitigate the social and business impact”.

The economy is facing stagnation characterised by negative growth, high rate of inflation, high levels of unemployment, chronic forex shortages and power shortages.

Gross domestic product (GDP) growth is expected to contract 12,9%, according to reports.

Ncube said government should continue improving the ease-of-doing business, adding that the policy interventions must encourage growth and attract foreign direct investment.

At present, he said, businesses felt over-regulated.

“Confidence must be instilled in the use of the local currency. There is need for business and general stakeholders to seriously start diverting to renewable sources of power as a means of long-term planning for the continued sustainable energy sources,” Ruzvidzo said

“Energy is a key enabler to an economy, especially in agriculture, manufacturing and mining, which underpin our economic growth and well-being. Corruption should be dealt with decisively as it is weighing down heavily all the other efforts to turn the economy around.”

He said the 2020 projection would also hinge on further policy measures, particularly on the monetary front and on energy supply.

Ruzvidzo said it was possible to have a policy mix that encourages growth as already signalled in the 2020 national budget.

“Production for both the local and export markets is key to turning around the economy. Policies must be evaluated on whether they increase or decrease national production,” he said.

“While the prospects for the year ahead appear quite daunting, a single-minded drive towards the national vision complemented by appropriate policies should be sufficient to have the desired
outcome.”

BY CHELSEA MUSAFARE

NETHERLANDS-BASED Zimbabwean songstress Vimbai Zimuto (pictured) is set to embark on a week-long tour of Harare to identify shooting spots for her music videos to be infused into her forthcoming album, NewsDay Life & Style has learnt.

Zimuto said she used last year to build her brand and she was happy with the results and was now ready to take her music career a notch higher.

“The main reason I am touring the Sunshine City is to work on my album, specifically in the studio,” she said.
“I scout for places with Simba Gee Studio Art Pictures and all the entourage I am working with. We have not really decided yet on the places for the video shooting, but most probably in the Midlands. We have already done Manicaland, Mashonaland East and West.”

Zimuto said her fans should be ready for a lot of studio time, photo shoots and community projects as this will be on her social media platforms during the tour.

She said her fans would be able to see that the album was done with a high level of creativity lacking in many local productions.

“I have changed a lot of things in my art. The album is very rich, current but ancient without following the trending vibes. It speaks volumes about my current life and my inner feelings. Basically I am sliding on top of my lyrics like swallowing okra by drinking it, and at the end no drop left. Some of my songs are heartfelt, fun, but most of all groovy,” she said.

The dancer said her project, unique compared to her previous productions, were produced by Netherlands’ Eric Lest Van De, Regine of Piramide Records from Belgium and Track Records’ Spencer Masango, who is behind the Hapana Kwaunoenda track.

She said after experimenting with different sounds in 2019, she has identified her trajectory as fans would realise from music set to be produced this year.

Zimuto, who has been nominated for the Best Alternative award at the Zimbabwe Music Awards 2020, said the selection confirmed that she worked hard in 2019.

TEMPERAMENTAL dancehall chanter Soul Jah Love yesterday said his heart went out to his former wife and fellow musician Bounty Lisa who has been battling ill-health after a growth developed on her right leg and hampered her music career.

BY FREEMAN MAKOPA

Bounty Lisa — real name Lynette Lisa Musenyi — was last on stage in 2017 and recently appeared at Prophet Walter Magaya’s Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Ministries church service seeking divine healing.

Soul Jah Love told NewsDay Life & Style that despite the fallout that saw their marriage collapse, he had thrown his weight behind her search for recovery and was also praying for her.

“I just want to say, don’t worry Bounty, God is in control and you are always in my prayers everyday and I wish you receive your deliverance soon. Whether we are together or not, you will always be in my mind,” he said.

“I am just looking for a way to go and see her and if I am permitted, I will be at her gate in no time.”

Bounty Lisa reportedly caused a stir at PHD Ministries when she appeared live on Yadah Television during a live church service where she was accompanied by her father and one of her sisters.

She has previously disclosed that she ended the marriage to Soul Jah Love because she could not cope with his drug addiction and violent tendencies.

Meanwhile, Soul Jah Love said he had changed his marketing strategy after some of his fans pleaded with him to consider incorporating English lyrics to give his music an international flair.

“In terms of my music, I am now eyeing new market criteria and looking forward to going international as some of my fans have been complaining and wanted some of my songs to be in English and to go to other nations,” he said.

In pursuit of that dream, the chanter said he has done collaborations with Ghanaian singer, Jah khal on a track titled Dem Dead and he was currently working on another song with Jamaican Lutan Fire.

“His management has already sent their stuff and it’s on us now to add our input and the song will be on the market, but we have not yet decided on the name of the song,” he said.

I WAS born in the middle of World War II when children died in their millions, and mothers struggled to keep them alive in a world exploding with new weaponry and unending warfare, with fathers lost in nuclear conflicts, and superpowers annihilating smaller nations.

It is not just soldiers who die in war and violence; women and children, the elderly and the sick, refugees and the homeless, civilians and non-combatants of all kinds die in equal numbers. Babies die in bombed hospitals, young mothers perish because of neglect, the lack of drugs and the absence of doctors and midwives.

When 2000 years ago all the boy children of Bethlehem were massacred, a young child called Jesus was the real target. His family escaped with him to nearby Egypt. His time had not yet come. He grew to full manhood, and was killed by the colonial powers of his time.

Even today children keep dying in wars, for example in the Middle East, in revolutions in Latin America, through crime and drug addiction in the US, through unemployment in Africa and Asia, while migrating from great economic misery to “greener pastures”, crossing rivers and seas.

Children die in ethnic conflicts, in race wars (apartheid, “gukurahundi”, Rwanda) and lethal epidemics in tropical rain forests (Ebola!), and as “child soldiers”, being taught to shoot and kill before they have grown up enough to tell the difference between good and evil, and know that human life is infinitely precious.

Most childhood diseases can be eradicated, polio, measles, scarlet fever, mumps, diphtheria, tuberculosis, whooping cough, tetanus and malaria. But do we actually make the effort? Are we determined and committed to save the children?

Their parents, their brothers and sisters, families, clans and tribes cry to their Creator, to spirits and prophets: “How can our Creator, if He is a loving God, allow the children to suffer like that?”

Most people on this planet have long given up on this question. But there is an answer, hidden, secret, unknown to many, but it can be found.

It is the birth of a child. A messenger told a young woman: “You will bear a child, and name him Jesus.” This is where the Christian faith began.

Every child on this Earth is precious because of Him. We must accept every child with a loving embrace, because our Lord and Maker loves it, embraces it, gives it life and power. That is our Faith.

Even in the midst of war, epidemics and diseases, we care about children. Once the Spirit of the Creator dwells in us we care about the youngest and most vulnerable.

This week our children go back to school. Many parents, also single mothers, worry very much about getting their children back to school. Without education they have no future.

There is a race going on to make sure those children will have a future. Mothers turn to cross-border trading. It takes many hours to get across borders into neighbouring countries and to buy what children need for sale to Zimbabwean parents who want their children to look smart when they arrive at school. And successfully selling boots, school uniforms and satchels in townships, on farms and mine compounds is hard work. Those mothers will not have much sleep these days.

I have a friend who has no children of her own, but is in charge of hundreds of childen who have lost their parents. Another one is in charge of a school with 1 000 children, a tough job when parents cannot pay the fees. There are women without families of their own, but as midwives they have helped hundreds, maybe thousands of children to arrive in this world safely. They have done so because the spirit of mercy and compassion dwells in their hearts.

There was a time when teachers were respected and highly regarded. Teaching was not just a job to make money, but a vocation for men and women who loved children. Government provided them with living wages, transport and housing. Government can do so again if it does not waste much of the budget and spend too much on war and weapons, rather than on health and life. We will have nobody to nurse us and cure us when we are sick, unless our young people study science in school to be ready for a career in medicine and healthcare.

The walk-out by medical workers, and government firing many of them, have cost the lives of mothers and their little ones who were not welcomed into this world.

“Let the children come to me and do not prevent them,” said the son of Mary, having barely escaped himself from the massacre carried out by a tyrant.

This message must transform our world where the little ones are shunned. “See that you do not despise one of these little ones” (Lk 18: 10).“They are loved by my Father who loves you too, and wants you to love them as well”.

If you walk in the footsteps of the man born in Bethlehem and grown up in Nazareth, he calls you to stop all abuse of children and all violence inflicted on their mothers.

When schools open again, let us stop where necessary, so children can cross the road on their way to school. They are our children, the children of Africa.

They depend on us.

 Fr Oskar Wermter SJ is a social commentator and writes here in his personal capacity

THE National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) has angered human rights activists after saying it was in the dark as to when it would resume the much-awaited exhumation and reburial of Gukurahundi victims.

BY NQOBANI NDLOVU

President Emmerson Mnangagwa pledged to facilitate the exhumation and reburial of Gukurahundi victims as part of a cocktail of measures aimed at addressing the 1980s mass killings in the country.

Bulawayo-based Ukuthula Trust, an independent body of forensic archaeologists and forensic anthropologists, in May last year exhumed the bodies of Justin Tshuma and Thembi Ngwenya who were killed by the Fifth Brigade in March 1983 in Tsholotsho’s Enkwalini community.

The NPRC, among others, attended the event.

However, government was seen as backtracking on its pledge to facilitate more exhumations after top government officials said the process should be stayed until a law to guide the exercise was crafted.

NPRC commissioner Leslie Ncube when asked on what was stalling the exhumation and reburial of Gukurahundi victims who lie in unmarked graves, said: “It’s still quiet. We are having our first meeting next week where we are likely to discuss this and many other issues. For now, I cannot say when (exhumations resume).”

Ibhetshu LikaZulu co-ordinator Mbuso Fuzwayo was, however, not amused.

“It is becoming clear that government has developed cold feet since allowing the exhumations to happen will expose their lies that there was no genocide. Well, that is their own issue to deal with as victims want closure, and they cannot get closure without exhumations…” Fuzwayo said yesterday.

Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda told participants attending a capacity building workshop last year organised by the Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs portfolio committee in Bulawayo that until the law to guide the process was crafted, all exhumations should be halted.

Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage deputy minister Mike Madiro last year said exhumations should be stayed until a policy on carrying out the process was crafted.

Government once initiated a probe into the Gukurahundi massacres, but the findings of the investigation by the Chihambakwe Commission of Inquiry were never made public.

There have been calls for Mnangagwa to release the report in the spirit of promoting national healing and to commit himself to compensating the victims’ families and survivors.

BY JAIROS SAUNYAMA

Zanu PF is currently compiling a list of graduate teachers who will undergo the Herbert Chitepo Ideological School training before deployment, a move that is meant to instil patriotism as well as avoid future job actions.

According to a letter dated December 19, 2019 addressed to all provincial chairpersons and signed by Chitepo Ideological School principal, Munyaradzi Machacha, all graduate teachers who are members of the party are set to undergo a “basic orientation course”.

“You are directed to submit a list of names of all party members who have completed teacher training and are awaiting employment by the Public Service Commission. The list must specify the year each candidate completed teacher’s training. Chitepo School of Ideology intends to run a basic orientation course for the trained teachers,” Machacha wrote in the letter, gleaned by NewsDay.

The Chitepo Ideological School is currently housed at Zanu PF headquarters in Harare but its tutors sometimes travel to various provinces conducting indoctrination lessons.

Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president Takavafira Zhou recently accused Zanu PF of attempting to interfere with the teaching profession.

“Zanu PF is contemplating on Hitlerisation and Zanunisation of the teaching profession by demanding that prospective teachers should first go through the Chitepo School of Ideology,” Zhou claimed during the union’s fourth congress held in Harare.

The current economic meltdown has resulted in teachers threatening job action demanding fair salaries.
During the last national conference, the Zanu PF youth league recommended that every civil servant should undergo the National Youth Service (NYS), popularly known as Border Gezi, as the revolutionary party tries to avoid a revolt from the masses.

The Border Gezi youth programme was introduced in 2000 by the late Zanu PF national commissar, Border Gezi, with the first camp established at Mt Darwin in 2001.

The NYS programme churned out thousands of graduates throughout the country. Some of the graduates were then placed in various government departments after being sent either to teaching or nursing colleges.

EMBATTLED former Zifa president, Philip Chiyangwa faces fresh allegations of fraudulently forcing the broke football governing body to fund his personal expenses.

BY HENRY MHARA

It has emerged that he caused Zifa to pay over US$30 000 to fund his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after he failed an integrity test conducted by the Fifa ethics committee.

Documents at hand show that Chiyangwa was eyeing a post in one of Fifa’s standing committees and needed to go through a rigorous integrity test by the world football governing body for him to be eligible.

Chiyangwa decided to approach CAS to appeal the decision and needed to pay $30 500 for his case to be heard.

With the guidance from Chiyangwa’s lawyer Itayi Ndudzo, who doubled as the Zifa legal advisor, the football body’s board members met and resolved to meet the costs of the appeal.

The meeting was chaired by former Zifa vice-president, Omega Sibanda, Chiyangwa’s top ally.

“The allegation is that Mr Chiyangwa refused to respond to a letter from the review committee dated December 6, 2016. In fact, Mr Chiyangwa avers that he did not receive/see the said letter. And the Zifa board having satisfied itself from the counsel (Ndudzo), Zifa has resolved that it is to meet all costs for Mr Chiyangwa,” read part of the Zifa board resolution on the matter, dated June 10, 2017.

Payments were then made to Chiyangwa, with documentary evidence showing that he received a first tranche of US$11 000, which was transferred into his account on July 31, 2017.

On August 5, 2017, he was paid US$10 000, and he received a similar amount two days later.

However, Zifa’s new lawyers have told the body that they could have been misled by counsel to pay a bill which was of a personal nature and had nothing to do with the local football governing body.

Zifa feel Ndudzo, being Chiyangwa’s personal lawyer, was “too conflicted” to offer counsel in the matter.

The association has reported the case to the police’s Commercial Crimes Unit at the Harare Central Police Station in its bid to recover the money.

“Sometime in 2017, Mr P Chiyangwa caused to be paid a total sum of $35 000 to CAS being the Fifa arbitration tribunal. The money paid was for Mr P Chiyangwa’s personal liability. It was not a liability imposed on Zifa.

“As such Mr P Chiyangwa caused Zifa to pay for his personal liability. The said payment was not for Zifa business and Zifa had no liability to pay such an amount to CAS.

“Mr P Chiyangwa never reimbursed Zifa the said money and accordingly, Zifa was prejudiced of its money,” part of the report made to the police read.

The case’s DR number is 37/11/19.

This is one of the several cases of corruption, fraud and criminal abuse of office that have been reported to the police against him.

Chiyangwa is denying the allegations, insisting he did not steal from Zifa during his tenure.
The flamboyant businessman has previously been accused of embezzling thousands of dollars from Zifa during his tenure including withdrawing US$30 000 from a Zifa nostro account, months after he had ceased being an official, in addition to using Zifa money to fund his lavish birthday party in 2017 where Fifa president Gianni Infantino was a guest.

Other allegations that have been levelled against him include converting Zifa donations for his own personal use, using Zifa’s money to spoil his friends, business associates and family by taking them on trips around the world, as well as leasing the Zifa Village to his company.

WHILE we support every effort being made by our dedicated police force to maintain law and order in Zimbabwe, it is, however, increasingly becoming difficult to understand why the law enforcement agents appear fervently intent on blocking any activity to do with the opposition MDC party.

NewsDay Comment

For the umpteenth time, the police this week refused to grant MDC leader Nelson Chamisa permission to make his public address in Harare’s most populous Mbare high-density suburb.

This has prompted the MDC leader to blow his top on micro-blogging social media platform Twitter saying: “Enough is enough. We have exhausted all channels and we can’t continue to be victims of unjust application of the law. Rights are for all. On Tuesday January 21, we will deliver the people’s Agenda 20 to the nation, come what may.”

We hold no brief for the MDC, but we believe we have the democratic right to question certain decisions that appear to be unjust, be they affecting the powers-that-be, the opposition or any ordinary citizen.

It does not require a critical thinker to be curious about what is informing the police to keep banning any gathering requested by the opposition. For the record this is an official political party with considerable representation in Parliament.

Many questions boggle the mind. Is the MDC party an illegal party? If it is an illegal political party, when was it outlawed and for what reason? If it is not illegal, then why is it not being allowed to exercise its democratic right to gather and air its views on the contemporary Zimbabwe situation?

National police spokesperson, Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi tells us that they were guided by the Maintenance of Peace and Order Act in banning the opposition’s latest request for a gathering. But was that law crafted for the opposition political parties, especially the MDC alone? We believe the continued ban on MDC public gatherings appear to suggest that the party is a lawless organisation. Does that law also apply to the ruling Zanu PF party or all other organisations be they political or otherwise? Why does it appear as if the police are selectively applying the law? Why is it that the police appear jittery about the MDC gatherings anywhere within the borders of Zimbabwe as if they are some very dangerous armed rebel group? Or maybe the police are deliberately creating the ground for confrontation so that they justify a brutal clampdown on the opposition.

Whatever the agenda, stifling citizens and caging them in a tight corner where they are not allowed to freely exercise their constitutional rights is recipe for disaster. Repression of any individual in whatever form, especially through the selective application of the country’s laws, is particularly retrogressive for our troubled democracy and tarnishes the image of the police. It paints the police as partisan and driving the agenda of the ruling Zanu PF party. If this is the case, then why do the police not declare their interests? Under such circumstances, it becomes difficult for the police to tell citizens that they are a professional organisation which applies the law without any fear or favour.

In fact what is happening only serves to embolden the opposition voice. We have no doubt that with this, we remain a divided nation always in fighting mood and when will we have enough time to rebuild our nation as a united people? What legacy will we leave our children? Food for thought!