LONDON – Despite his vociferous anti-British rhetoric at every opportunity, President Robert Mugabe has been trying to engage a British public relations consultancy, Bell Pottinger, to spruce up his image on the international scene ahead of the March elections in Zimbabwe.
The company, headed by the highly respected Lord Bell, who was Margaret Thatcher’s public relations man, has declined the lucrative offer from the government of Zimbabwe.
Last year, we reported that B Kupemba, a counsellor and Win Mlambo, minister-counsellor, at the Zimbabwean embassy in London had approached several British PR consultancies with a six-figure offer to handle Mugabe’s PR. They all declined. Â
Teachers refuse to budge
HARARE – Negotiations between government and teachers’ unions are failing to progress and the strike that has paralysed the education sector set to continue even up to the end of the term.
Progressive Teachers Union (PTUZ) and Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA) representatives are refusing to budge on their demand for a minimum starting salary of Z$1,7 billion for teachers after government is understood to have offered below Z$1 billion to the striking teachers.
PTUZ secretary general Raymond Majongwe this week said, “if they are not willing to meet our demands, there is no basis for negotiations and the strike will continue”.
ZIMTA chief executive officer Peter Mabhande concurred, saying members would not accept any compromise deal that fails to meet their demands.
Polling stations flawed – ZESN
HARARE – The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) has said the distribution of polling stations by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has some flaws – mainly through the usual manner of allocating inadequate stations in urban areas known to be MDC strongholds.
ZEC gave out the list of polling stations recently but ZESN has already urged the electoral body to review its allocation in order to avoid a repeat of what transpired in 2002 when many voters in urban centres failed to cast their votes due to the inadequacy of polling stations.
“The ZEC’s publication of the list of polling stations is an important and positive step. However, the list contains significant errors and relatively few polling stations in Bulawayo and Harare provinces. ZESN encourages the ZEC to rectify these issues so that everyone who wishes to vote has a reasonable opportunity to do so on. It would be unfortunate if the problem of too few polling stations in these provinces in 2002 is repeated,” said ZESN chairman Noel Kututwa.
In a statement, ZESN also noted that the information released by ZEC had problems. “ZESN notes that the polling station information for Matabeleland North appears to be scrambled – with polling stations located in the wrong constituency. For example, Victoria Pre-School polling station is listed in Ward1 of Binga Rural District Council (RDC). Actually the polling station is in Victoria Falls Municipality.
This is just one of many such errors for the province.
ZESN also noted what could turn out to be a way of affecting the voting process in some areas, with once again the capital city and other major urban centers likely to get affected. “Further, ZESN notes that there is a significant discrepancy in the number of registered voters per polling station for different provinces. There should be some variation, but the number of registered voters per polling station in Bulawayo and Harare is more than twice that of the other provinces.
The situation is similar in Gweru and Mutare municipalities where the average number of register voters per polling station is 1,234.8 and 1,277.3 respectively. As a result, the average voter in Harare province will need to be processed in 22 seconds and some cases in as little as 9 seconds (Chitungwiza Ward 2 – 9,281 registered voters and 2 polling stations).
“The average number of voters should be consistent by both constituency and ward. ZESN encourages the ZEC to increase the number of polling stations in Bulawayo and Harare provinces as well as other urban centres so that all Zimbabweans have a reasonable opportunity to vote on 29 March,” the statement said.
Chihuri investigates Matanga
HARARE – Police Commissioner-General, Augustine Chihuri, has demanded to see dockets, which had been opened for various alleged offences and then suppressed, for Deputy Commissioner Godwin Matanga.
Police sources say the dockets include a number of accidents Matanga has had with police vehicles allegedly under the influence of alcohol, including the recent accident involving his official Toyota Fortuner.
In all these cases, no investigations took place as authorities covered them up and quickly replaced the damaged official vehicles.
Sources say Matanga has fallen foul of Chihuri because of suspicion that he backs Simba Makoni’s presidential candidature.
“The cases are supposed to be used to justify his impending dismissal,” our source said. Matanga was not available to comment before going to press.
Investigations by The Zimbabwean have revealed that this case is just a tip of the iceberg as the top police echelons have become deeply involved in Zanu (PF) politics.
This politicisation has contributed to what is generally seen as the decline in the rule of law, and the apparent harassment of senior officers seen to be refusing to rally behind Mugabe. Police refused to comment.
Govt begs farmers for maize
HARARE – The Zanu (PF) regime has gone on bended knee to beg for maize from individual farmers in Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique, some of whom used to be based in this country as it desperately tries to secure grain to use for campaigning.
The Zimbabwean has established that the regime has exhausted grain reserves from the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) which had been stocking about 500 000 tonnes of maize mainly obtained through imports in the past weeks through giving out to the electorate for vote-buying.
And it has emerged that contrary to claims by President Robert Mugabe at a rally recently, the country has not paid for any maize from Zambia and Malawi but has been expecting to get maize from individual commercial farmers some of whom it was offering farms to come back and work on. We established that one of these farmers is now based in Zambia but used to be one of the largest maize producers when in owned farms in the Banket and Karoi areas, Chris Biltrans. He is now based in Zambia and producing huge quantities of maize.
“The government is failing to raise foreign currency to pay for maize from the countries and has been negotiating with individual farmers on various terms but nothing has come through as yet,” a top government official who has been involved in the negotiations for maize said. “There is no more grain in the silos and the situation is urgent to the extent that Mugabe himself has tried to intervene and secure some deliveries while also sending out officials to local farmers whose crop has ripened to expedite deliveries to the GMB.”
Agriculture minister Rugare Gumbo confirmed to this paper that maize deliveries were expected but claimed the government was buying them. “We are buying maize using money and we are expecting deliveries anytime soon to help alleviate food shortages,” he said.
Government sources revealed that the beleaguered regime owes huge sums to Zambia, Malawi and other suppliers for previous maize deliveries. Â
Post published in: News