What you may have missed October 11-15

Mnangagwa against death sentence- Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa today said he was against the death penalty and would rather resign from his ministerial post than sign execution certificates for the 89 people currently on death row. Mnangagwa was sentenced to death as a teenager for bombing a train during an anti-colonial campaign. “The death penalty brings utter hopelessness and I remember the mental torture I experienced upon receiving the sentence in 1965. I was fortunate that I was saved by the age technicality (since the law prohibited capital punishment for persons below 18). For me, it does not matter where I am, I will always speak against the death penalty,” he said.

No chance for opposition
Zimbabwe’s opposition parties are unlikely to unseat the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front in 2018 because they have never been able to get more than 1.4 million votes over the past decade, a South African civic organisation, the Solidarity Peace Trust said. In a report authored by Zimbabwean academic Brian Raftopoulos, SPT said: “In three out of the last four elections, ZANU PF has scored comfortably over 1.5 million votes, and over 2 million in 2013. The figures from the last five elections all point to the unlikelihood of any opposition party unseating ZANU PF in 2018. The MDC-T vote has remained consistent over the last decade in terms of numbers, while the ZANU PF vote has generally, with the exception of 2008, been several hundred thousand votes more than the opposition vote.”

Zimbabwe to boost tourism
Zimbabwe is planning to set up a National Conventions Bureau to boost tourism which it says will be one of the major contributors to its national wealth. “We have received support from cabinet to immediately look at setting up the National Conventions Bureau, which will also serve as a cost-cutting platform,” Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi said today. “It will also enable us to secure rights to international exhibitions and events.” Tourism grew by 12 percent in the first half of this year.

SA can learn from Zim
South Africa’s Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi today said that South Africa could learn from Zimbabwe’s agrarian model because research indicated that it had been successful. “We might be able to learn something from the agrarian model adopted by our neighbours – essentially breaking down large-scale farms and promoting more intensive small-scale farming.” But he was quick to add: “This is not a call for an illegal land grab. In South Africa we have a constitution that recognises and facilitates the process of land restitution.”

Evidence of rigging
The Movement for Democratic Change today said it had new evidence of how the 31 July elections were rigged. “The Standing Committee met today and discussed among other things the issue of evidence to do with the electoral theft of July 31. We have documents that show there was a high level military meeting at Manyame Air Base that was attended by members of the Chinese government and officials from Israeli firm Nikuv Projects that plotted how to disenfranchise Zimbabweans. At the meeting top security chiefs where deployed and assigned to different provinces to monitor the elections and make sure the plan of action is put into motion,” party spokesman Douglas Mwonzora said.

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