Arthur Mutambara, Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the smaller faction of the Movement for Democratic Change suspended six party officials on 9 May 2009 for bringing the party into disrepute.
The six suspended members included the three Matabeleland Members of Parliament: Abdenico Bhebhe of Nkayi South, Norman Mpofu of Bulilima East, and Njabuliso Mguni of Lupane East.
All six targetted officials had been highly critical of Mutambara’s leadership, charging him with aligning himself too closely with the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front.
Two other MPs, Maxwell Dube of Tsholotsho South and Thandeko Mkandla of Gwanda North, were subsequently summoned to face charges of misconduct likely to be related to criticism of Mutambara.
Full cable:
Viewing cable 09HARARE411, ZIM NOTES 05-15-09
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Reference ID |
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VZCZCXRO6595
RR RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHSB #0411/01 1380819
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 180819Z MAY 09
FM AMEMBASSY HARARE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4499
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RUEHUJA/AMEMBASSY ABUJA 2283
RUEHAR/AMEMBASY ACCRA 2833
RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA 2952
RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 1395
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 2215
RUEHDK/AMEMBASSY DAKAR 2580
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA 3000
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 5441
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 2124
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC
RHMFISS/EUCOM POLAD VAIHINGEN GE
RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HARARE 000411
SIPDIS
AF/S FOR B. WALCH
ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU
ADDIS ABABA FOR ACSS
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR MICHELLE GAVIN
TREASURY FOR D. PETERS
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR LDOBBINS AND JHARMON
COMMERCE FOR BECKY ERKUL
E.O.12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL ASEC PHUM ECON EFIN ZI
SUBJECT: ZIM NOTES 05-15-09
—————————-
SUMMARY – Topics of the week
—————————-
– Tsvangirai Launches Next 100 Day Plan
– MDC-M Suspends Three MPs from Party
– While an MDC-T MP is Convicted for Inciting Violence
– Media Conference Wraps Up; Journalists Arrested
– Abductees Released, Prominent Lawyer Arrested
– Late Rains Lead to Better Than Expected Crops
– Government Warns of Trafficking
– Wheat and Barley Output Set to Fall
– LonZim Paid Too Much for Zimbabwean Investments
– Former President of the CFU Elected to a Continental Body
– Kingdom Meikles Saga Nearing an End
– Quote of the Week
—————————–
On the Political/Social Front
—————————–
¶1. Tsvangirai Launches Next 100 Day Plan… Having just about
completed the first 100 days of the unity government, Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai hosted a conference in Harare to lay out his plans
and goals for the next 100. The plan groups the 32 ministries into
five clusters (Economic, Infrastructure, Social, Rights and
Interest, and Security) each of which is led by a minister. While
the reform and capacity building objectives are laudable, the
financial means to execute them are lacking. Also, ZANU-PF doesnQt
appear to support the initiatives as two of the three ZANU-PF
ministers who lead clusters failed to show.
¶2. MDC-M Suspends Three MPs from Party… MDC-M President and
Deputy Prime Minister, Arthur Mutambara, along with other top party
leaders suspended six party officials on May 8 for Qbringing the
party into disrepute.Q The six suspended members include the
following three Matabeleland MPs: Abdenico Bhebhe of Nkayi South,
Norman Mpofu of Bulilima East, and Njabuliso Mguni of Lupane East.
All six targeted officials had been highly critical of MutambaraQs
leadership, charging him with aligning himself too closely with
ZANU-PF. See Harare 402. Two other MPs, Maxwell Dube of Tsholotsho
South and Thandeko Mkandla of Gwanda North, were subsequently
summoned to face charges of misconduct likely also related to
criticism of Mutambara.
¶3. While an MDC-T MP is Convicted for Inciting Violence…
Chipinge East MP Matewu Mathias Mlambo was slapped with a 10 month
jail sentence by a Chipinge magistrate for inciting violence at the
funeral of an MDC member who died recently in his constituency.
Mlambo was first arrested last month following a clash between
ZANU-PF and MDC-T supporters at the funeral in Chipinge. The MDC-T
also reported that its MP for Chipinge South, Meki Makuyana, who is
also facing charges of inciting violence during the run-up to the
June 2008 presidential run-off election, had his ruling set for May
27 by the same magistrate.
¶4. Media Conference Wraps Up; Journalists Arrested… With only
about half of the expected participants present as most independent
journalists boycotted, results from the QAll Stakeholders Media
Qjournalists boycotted, results from the QAll Stakeholders Media
ConferenceQ continue to emerge. Although some in government
portrayed the historic conference as a significant achievement,
others criticized the draft recommendations as Qcosmetic.Q On
Monday, The Zimbabwe IndependentQs editor and news editor were
arrested for Qcommunicating falsehoods with the intention of
undermining public confidence in security forces.Q The arrests were
made in connection with last weekQs story on police involvement in
abductions, which we reported on in Zim Notes last week. According
to this weekQs Zimbabwe Independent, neither co-Minister of Home
Affairs Giles Mutsekwa (MDC-T) nor Police Commissioner-General
HARARE 00000411 002 OF 003
Augustine Chihuri knew in advance about the journalistsQ arrest,
which was reportedly ordered by Attorney General Johannes Tomana.
See Harare 395.
¶5. Abductees Released, Prominent Lawyer Arrested… Less than 24
hours after securing the bail for three men who were abducted last
year and face accusations of bombing police stations, Human Rights
lawyer Alec Muchadehama was arrested on May 14 and charged with
obstructing justice when he allegedly conspired with a court clerk
to secure the menQs release last month. See Harare 401.
¶6. Late Rains Lead to Better Than Expected Crops… The Food and
Agriculture Organization/World Food Program/GOZ Crop and Food
Security Assessment (CFSAM) teams completed their field work this
week on May 11. USAID, as observers, joined two of the four teams
and visited three provinces and numerous districts and wards. In
these three provinces, the general consensus was that the crop and
food security situation was much better than last year. The
extended rains have helped the late-planted crops. Though the
harvest is better than last year, it is still about half the
historical average and there are numerous areas that had harvests
that were worse than last year.
¶7. Government Warns of Trafficking… This week, the Minister of
Labor issued a warning to young Zimbabweans to consult widely before
migrating to other countries to avoid being caught up in human
trafficking syndicates. In a speech delivered at a local school,
the ministry acknowledged that young girls are at risk of
trafficking by agents offering false promises. There are no known
statistics on the extent of human trafficking in Zimbabwe.
————————–
Economic and Business News
————————–
¶8. Wheat and Barley Output Set to Fall… According to the
Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), time for making sufficient
preparations to enable the production of a decent sized wheat and
barley crop for 2009 is running out. The CFU believes that there
has to be a moratorium on current farm disruptions in order to
restore the confidence of productive farmers. The current
disruptions will also negatively affect the summer crops.
¶9. LonZim Paid Too Much for Zimbabwean Investments… An analyst
at the private financial news source, Zfn, believes that the
UK-listed investor, LonZim, overpaid for its purchase of
Zimbabwean-based Celsys, Millpal Chemicals, and Leopard Rock Hotel.
According to the analyst, AMB Capital of South Africa (which owns
20.7 percent of LonZim) and Damille Partners IV (which owns 6.3
percent) have now woken up to the fact that the investments were
overvalued.
¶10. Former Prsident of the CFU Elected to a Continental Body…
Doug Taylor-Freeme was elected vice president of the African
Committee at the International Federation of Agricultural Producers
at a meeting held in Kenya recently. Despite his new position, he
Qat a meeting held in Kenya recently. Despite his new position, he
is still being forced off his farm in Chinhoyi, about 100 km north
of Harare, under the current wave of farm seizures.
¶11. Kingdom Meikles Saga Nearing an End… Shareholders have been
informed that they will soon receive a cautionary notice for an
extraordinary general meeting to be held in the next 21 days at
which shareholders will be asked to vote on a motion to demerge the
group into Kingdom and Meikles. The Financial Gazette of May 14
reported that Strive Masiyiwa is likely to support the motion.
HARARE 00000411 003 OF 003
¶12. Quote of the Week:
QI have asked the Commissioner-General (Chihuri) to reduce this to
writing so I can take it up with my colleague in the Ministry of
Justice (Patrick Chinamasa). I want to reiterate that it is not my
ministryQs policy and I am also completely disgusted that this took
place.
Q Co-Minister of Home Affairs Giles Mutsekwa addressing the House of
Assembly on the arrest of lawyer Alec Muchadehama on May 14.
MCGEE
(17 VIEWS)
