Friday, 03 September 2010 18:44

CONSTITUENCY Development Funds (CDF), critical to grassroots community development, are lying idle because MPs are not coming forward to claim the money, a cabinet minister has said.

Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs minister Eric Matinenga said in the capital yesterday that MPs were reluctant to apply for funds which would benefit their constituencies.He revealed that only two MPs, Heya Shoko of Bikita West and Shuwa Mudiwa of Mutare West, had applied for the money despite Finance minister Tendai Biti releasing US$4 million of the US$8 million promised under the fund. The money will be returned to treasury if MPs continue snubbing the CDF, warned Matinenga, whose ministry administers the fund.“Only two applications have been received so far; Bikita West and Mutare West,” Matinenga said. “An amount of $4 million is available for disbursement from this fund. MPS are once again reminded to make applications to access this money.”Biti in December last year allocated US$8 million for constituency development in his 2010 budget, but the money can only be released if MPs make an official request. Each House of Assembly member is entitled to US$50 000 from the fund.There are 210 House of Assembly seats, although over 10 of them are vacant because of deaths, expulsions and appointments.Matinenga said a Senator could apply for the money where the House of Assembly seat was vacant. “The money won’t go directly into an MP’s personal account. There is a way to make sure there is accountability,” said Matinenga

Friday, 03 September 2010 18:42

A MINING joint-venture deal which turned sour has exposed how the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has been involved in the extraction and processing of diamonds and gold in the Midlands, the Zimbabwe Independent can reveal.

Carslone Enterprises, a subsidiary of the RBZ, entered into a joint venture with Gweru farmer Magiel Casper Jovner, who owns Kleimpton Farm, in 2007 to carry out mining activities at his Mangwe Mine claim 24 for a three year period up to June 2010. The matter is now before the courts.Under the Tribute Agreement, Carslone was supposed to conduct mining activities at Mangwe claim 24 from June 25 2007 until June 24 2010, which was subject to renewal once the parties agree on an extension of the agreement.Under the agreement, Carslone was due to pay Jovner 5% of the total gross value of the gold and/or other valuable products from the mine.But the deal went sour recently after Jovner refused to renew the agreement citing the RBZ subsidiary’s failure to meet its obligations and entered into a new three- year partnership with Shuma Mining Syndicate running from June 15 2010 up to June 14 2013.Jovner accused the RBZ subsidiary of not meeting its obligations of paying royalties amounting to “5% of the total gross value of the products won.”The RBZ’s mining activities are revealed in an urgent chamber application filed by Jovner seeking a court order to permanently interdict the central bank’s subsidiary, its agents, servants, proxies, associates

Friday, 03 September 2010 18:41

HOUSING and Social Amenities minister Giles Mutsekwa has failed to evict former ministers and civil servants holding onto state properties following the lapse of a three-week deadline he set himself to carry out the task.

Mutsekwa told newspapers, including the Zimbabwe Independent, at the beginning of last month that he would evict the former government employees to make way for current ministers who have no official accommodation.This puts into question Mutsekwa’s ability to remove Zanu PF officials occupying state houses at a time when President Robert Mugabe is firmly in charge of the coalition government.Serving ministers have resorted to staying in flats in the Avenues area due to shortages of official accommodation. Mutsekwa’s MDC-T party formed a coalition government with Zanu PF and political observers say Mugabe’s party wields more power than its counterparts.Asked this week if he had succeeded in evicting the former officials, Mutsekwa was non-committal. He said he had finished compiling a comprehensive report of the undeserving beneficiaries of government properties but could no longer say when he would effect evictions.“I have all the information at hand now. I now know who is staying where. I am now marching towards eviction,” Mutsekwa said in an interview on Tuesday. “I can’t name people still occupying the houses although evictions are imminent.”Mutsekwa, a former co-Home Affairs minister, is one of the several cabinet ministers without official accommodation. Minister of State Enterprises and Parastatals Gorden Moyo, Minister of Water Resources Samuel Sipepa Nkomo and

Friday, 03 September 2010 18:38

CO-HOME Affairs minister Theresa Makone this week vouched for the police saying they have turned over a new leaf as opposed to being partisan.

Her statements are in direct contradiction to what rights groups and her own MDC-T party say about the police whom they accuse of continuing with selective application of the law.In an interview with the Zimbabwe Independent on Wednesday, Makone, an MDC-T national women’s assembly chairperson and one of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s closest allies, defended the police –– a departure from her party, which has been pushing for security-sector reforms citing partisan policing by the police and other state security agencies.The MDC-T has accused the police, together with the Attorney-General’s Office, of enforcing the law in a partisan manner and has been angered by the police’s failure to investigate, arrest and prosecute known or identifiable perpetrators of politically-motivated violence. Last week the Independent carried a story on the police’s failure to investigate close to 200 murders of MDC-T supporters which occurred between April 2008 and December of the same year.The MDC-T said the culture of impunity by the police had remained intact despite the signing of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) which gave birth to the government of national unity.According to the GPA, the state organs and institutions, like the police, should not belong to any political party and should be professional and impartial in the discharge of their duties. The state organs should strictly observe the principle of

Friday, 03 September 2010 18:36

MUZA Fredrick’s desperate situation hardly makes him recognisable as one of the vanguards of President Robert Mugabe’s often violent land reform that has seen politically linked chefs enjoying rich pickings.

Now in his early 30s, Fredrick says he was part of youth corps who were at the forefront of evictions that began in 2000, rampaging from farm to farm to displace white commercial farmers who were forced to make way for beneficiaries of the land reform programme.Today, living on handouts, Frederick’s life has become a daily struggle for survival at Insingisi Farm near Bindura, about 80km north-east of Harare. The returns promised by politicians who encouraged him in the invasions have not materialised and he lives a pauper’s life. Fredrick and his friends say they have been reduced to casual labourers by Dick Mafios, the new owner who they helped grab the farm. He now pays them US$1,30 a day for occasional jobs. Mafios, the Zanu PF provincial chairman for Mashonaland Central, is related to Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment minister and MP for Mount Darwin South, Saviour Kasukuwere.Commercial Farmers Union president Deon Theron said Collin Taylor, the former owner of Insingisi farm, is now in Zambia after skipping the country like most farmers traumatised by the violence accompanying the farm invasions.Fredrick was part of a militia that invaded the farm in 2000 and stopped Taylor’s labour force from harvesting a ripening citrus crop meant for export to make way for Mafios.“We arrived in