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By Own Correspondent| Aspiring legislator for Buhera North who is running under the MDC Alliance ticket, Julius Magarangoma has revealed that he will hang himself if he loses the forthcoming elections arguing that with or without rigging, he is assured of victory.

Magarangoma is set to battle it out with businessman William Mutomba who is running under the Zanu Pf ticket.

LIVEBLAST – refresh to watch

ZimEye is getting reports of LIVE gunshots at the Beitbridge border post Sunday morning.

A video from the scene is being streamed on ZimEye at 10 am (Zim time).

A source wrote to ZimEye explaining saying, “gunshots at Beitbridge border post as cross border traders are having a tussle with soldiers and Zimra officers. They have been stuck all night as Zimra anti Anti Smuggling unit is thoroughly searching all cross border vehicles and confistcating goods.

A source inside the Customs section confirmed the development. “It is a bit tough with traders this morning,” they said without going into further details.

In the video evidence, gunshots-like sounds can be heard as people flee a storage building.

THIS IS A DEVELOPING STORY — REFRESH THIS PAGE FOR MORE –

THE Dr Thokozani Khupe led MDC-T says it is financially incapacitated to take care of the needs of polling agents ahead of the watershed elections and they are taking legal action against Mr Nelson Chamisa’s MDC demanding $1 million from the money they received under the Political Parties (Finance) Act.

The party was awarded about $1,9 million before the split and the MDC-T said they did not get part of the amount after they split and eventually won the right to use the name MDC-T in the battle for legitimacy that ensued.
Treasury availed a total of US$9 million to Zanu-PF and MDC-T but the latter did not get the funding after the split that followed the death of MDC founder president Morgan Tsvangirai. Dr Khupe said they have written to the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs to register their complaint.

“We have not received any money from the $1,9 million that was disbursed, not even a single cent. We wrote to the Ministry of Justice informing them of our position. We need our money for campaigning and they are mum on the issue,” she said.

Dr Khupe said they have started legal proceedings to pursue the matter with the Government.

“We have decided to take the legal route, we are engaging our lawyers with our VP (Obert) Gutu over the matter but the truth is we are in sixes and sevens over the issue, we are hoping that a miracle happens and we get this funding as soon as possible,” she said.

Dr Khupe said the $1 million that they were demanding was meant for voter education and deployment of polling agents.

State mefia

Political commentator Brett Muvhet has suggested that Zimnabwe under Emmerson Mnangagwa is better than under Nelson Chamisa’s MDC.

Writing on Sunday morning, Muvhet crIticised what he termed racism by the MDC-T. He alleged that MDC has run out of humour.

Said Muvhet, “As everyone knows I have been against ZanuPF since day one.
The Mugabe led ZanuPF in particular.

“When a president calls for a meeting with whites and the main opposition use that as an advert against ZanuPF, you now know what I personally have seen long ago.

:That indeed the MDCT is a closet racist party, much like the Mugabe led ZanuPF.

“To attack the fact that attendees bought tea and cake to share and had plastic chairs to sit on, asi MDCT mapererwa here kusvika pakadai?

“The actions of MDCT continue to push all fence sitters into the hands of ZanuPF daily. Your vanguard and social media campaign of hate speech, sexism and racism is very concerning.

“Mukaona vanhu vakafanana neni who are thinking that actually Zim under ED could be better than Zim under MDCT, you know something is very very wrong with MDCT.”

What a shame.

By Own Correspondent| Two Zimbabwean women were last week allegedly murdered in Randfontein, Johannesburg in unclear circumstances, ZimEye has learnt

The two women, were allegedly picked up by an unnamed man driving a red car at different times from a venue where they looked for employment.

Zimbabweans in South Africa often stand at road intersections where they advertise their services some of which include plumbing, building and general maintenance work and prospective employers pick them up from these points.

According to sources privy to the development, the two women had been missing since last week after they were picked up from a place where they usually looked for employment.

The murder only came to light after the wife of the suspected murderer made a report to the police regarding her husband’s suspicious actions and whereabouts.

The wife reportedly told the police that her husband had prohibited her from entering two of the rooms at their house but the husband was nowhere to be found.

The police then accompanied the woman to her house and they forced open the two rooms where the bodies of the two women were discovered.

The two women were only identified as Privy and Alice.

This is a developing story. Refresh the page for updates.

By Own Correspondent| Concern has been raised over the firing of gunshots at Beitbridge border post this morning to cross border traders allegedly protesting over ZIMRA delays.

While the exact cause of the delay was not officially confirmed, sources at the border allegedly accused the ZIMRA of deliberately delaying duty processes, a development which had seen some traders spend 2 days at the border.

National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) presidential candidate, Professor Lovemore Madhuku has dismissed as baseless suggestions that ballots cast in favour of a particular candidate can shift positions to another as part of a ploy to rig elections.

Addressing mainly pensioners whom he is providing free legal representation, Professor Madhuku said there is no magic or scientific chemical used to move ballots once they are cast.

His sentiments come in the wake of social media talk suggesting that there is a formula of rigging where a chemical solution on the ballot moves a mark from a voter’s preferred candidate to another.

To this end, he urged the electorate to go and vote on 30 July and appealed for them to also consider him as one of the presidential candidates even if his chances of winning are highly slim.

Professor Madhuku said the election is not only a race between Zanu PF and the MDC Alliance but a democratic process where even the minority parties have a claim of the stake and a voice to be heard.

He urged the electorate to resist the temptation of getting divided over political figures and commended President Emmerson Mnangagwa for preaching the gospel of peace.

Meanwhile, the NCA has pledged to work towards improving the social conditions of the worker and offer better payouts for pensioners.

Zbc News

Afrobarometer Report|For the first time in a generation, Zimbabweans will vote in presidential, parliamentary, and local government elections on July 30, 2018 without the name of Robert Mugabe at the top of the ballot. Instead, the race for the presidency – the top prize in Zimbabwean politics – will pit Mugabe’s long-time collaborator, Emmerson Mnangagwa of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), against newcomer Nelson Chamisa, who, with the death of Morgan Tsvangirai in February 2018, inherited the leadership of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T Chamisa and MDC Alliance).

At least on the surface, the 2018 election is unfolding in a somewhat more open political atmosphere than the country’s previous contests, which were often marred by violent intimidation and disputed results. The opposition has been permitted to campaign throughout the country, and access to the election proceedings has been granted to a wide spectrum of international observers. But undercurrents of concern remain about the independence of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, the illicit distribution of public largesse by the ruling party, and the unknown intentions of the security forces, which in the past have repeatedly shored up ZANU-PF against any loss of political power.

Against this backdrop, Zimbabwean voters wonder whether 2018 will break the mold of past elections by ushering in the country’s first-ever alternation of presidential leadership. Certainly the electorate longs for a leader who can bring an end to four decades of economic mismanagement and rising poverty. In response, both Mnangagwa and Chamisa are campaigning on messages of economic reform and job creation. But a skeptical citizenry has every reason to question the sincerity and feasibility of politicians’ easy promises and, in the absence of unbiased information from a polarized and partisan press, to wonder which political party is actually ahead in the quest to occupy the top offices of state.

This dispatch reports results from a survey of public opinion on the status of the electoral race conducted one month before the day of voting with a representative sample of 2,400 voting-age adults drawn from all 10 provinces of Zimbabwe. The survey was commissioned by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, Afrobarometer’s core partner in Southern Africa, and implemented by the Mass Public Opinion Institute, Afrobarometer’s national partner in Zimbabwe.

Sibangilizwe Nkomo, son of the late former Vice-President Joshua Nkomo, says he has chosen to remain unattached to any of the country’s political parties, but regularly attends their meetings to preach peace.

Nkomo told weekend media on Sunday that his appearance at the MDC Alliance rally at White City Stadium in Bulawayo on Saturday should not be misconstrued as confirmation of his membership to the opposition party.

“I was invited by the MDC Alliance and my job is to build peace bridges. I attend any political party meetings only by invitations to preach peace. I have been invited by Zanu PF, PF Zapu and attended. My message to the people is “peace, love and tolerance”. I always tell people to preserve peace. No one wants to see another person’s blood,’’ said Nkomo.

Nkomo is on record saying that he was not yet ready to join mainstream politics.

He insisted that he was not yet mature for political party politics although he came from a family with a strong political background, adding his most preoccupation at the moment was revival of the Joshua Nkomo Cultural Movement in honour of his late father.

Southern Eye

A former Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) director with alleged links to former first lady Grace Mugabe was arrested on Saturday morning in a suspected clampdown against Zanu PF’s G40 faction.

Tadzingaira Tachiveyi, a deputy director in the spy agency until former president Robert Mugabe’s ouster in November last year, was allegedly picked up at his farm in Musana during an early morning raid.

Sources said Tachiveyi was arrested during a joint operation that involved the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) Law and Order section, Zimbabwe National Army and CIO.

The team first raided his home in Harare before tracking him to Shamva.

Although details of Tachiveyi’s arrest were still sketchy at the time of this article, sources said he was being accused of trying to destabilise President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government.

Police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba could not confirm Tachiveyi’s arrest, saying she was in Chinhoyi on business.

On Friday, Mnangagwa said his enemies tried to wipe out the presidium after an explosion rocked Bulawayo’s White City Stadium during a Zanu PF rally last month.

Two security agents were seriously injured and died a couple of days after the blast.

Vice-president Kembo Mohadi and Zanu PF chairperson Oppah Muchinguri were seriously injured in the incident, but survived.

– The Standard

The dramatic characteristics of the Zimbabwean election is gone with the legendary former president Robert Mugabe as his exit left the political scene dull with unusual peace and calmness, an award-winning playwright has said.

Controversial playwright and actor Cont Mhlanga said with a few days to go to the Election Day and by normal standards when Mugabe was participating, this is the most boring election by comparison.

“Now that he is gone, the ‘Mugabe Must Go’ political factor energy and excitement has left many in our politics without a clear purpose and mission.

“Civil Society Organisations have also not been spared. Even the arts sector lost steam to zero.

“The international community too has responded to the Mugabe factor with election observers over flooding to this election.

“Like it or not this proves that Mugabe was the political soul and centre of Zimbabwean politics,” said Mhlanga.

He said Zanu PF had over focused on Mugabe as their sole Messiah while those in the opposition as their sole Lucifer forgetting that they will always be life after him (Mugabe) and a country to be developed.

“The swift activity decline and scattering of opposition politics to over 100 or so political parties and 23 presidential candidates speaks volumes of the impact of the ‘Mugabe Must Go political’ factor.

“It proves he was the glue that kept them united and the enemy that gave them purpose and reasonable speeches.

“In the Mugabe era they developed thick skins of the politics of blame and excuses.

“With Mugabe not in the centre of political action anymore they have to find a new enemy, new blame targets and new excuses, hence different focus and directions this time around in this election.

“And after the ballot we will see if Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has become the new enemy and a substitute to ‘Mugabe Must Go’ agenda.”

Mhlanga said Mugabe’s election campaigns have always been full of election violence drama and action since the 80s starting with Gukurahundi.

“This always gave political actors in Zimbabwe an emotional election agenda to take to the people and to the international community.

“Now that Mugabe is gone with his election violence drama, the political actors are now left politically bankrupt running with very shallow campaign agendas and issues.”

The playwright believes NGOs thrived in Mugabe’s election time in the field of Human Rights though narrow and selective.

“Now that Mugabe is gone, the funding for those activities has dried up and it is noticeable with their reduced appearances and activities in this election.”

He said Mnangagwa’s main election message is influenced by the Mugabe era.

“It is about how he fell from being vice president to rise to be president.

“All candidates are silent on how they will address current economic challenges facing the nation such as unemployment, cash shortages, rural economic growth, unplanned informal sector, urban planning chaos and so on.

“Political economy debate is very shallow, limited to Zimbabwe is open for business and international engagements… if not official launching of this or that.”

Mhlanga, however, said the removal of Mugabe from power — never mind how — has brought an immediate change to doing political business in Zimbabwe.

“Not just change but very positive change as witnessed by how Zimbabweans have conducted themselves during this first post Mugabe election.

“This for sure gives those who removed him credit even if it is the same people who sustained him for many years.”

He added that Zimbabweans have come to know and accept that there is life after Mugabe, and even better civilised ways of conducting political and government business.

“Now the next point of interest will be to see if Mugabe’s absence in government after the elections will also translate to immediate change in the economic sphere of the country like it did in the political sphere.

“Will we see a change in the ways government and citizens conduct business as a departure from doing business when Mugabe was still the centre of Zimbabwean politics?”

DailyNews

Nobel Peace Prize winner and Liberia’s former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is heading for Zimbabwe to co-lead a joint international observer delegation of the International Republic Institute and the National Democratic Institute for the July 30 harmonised elections.

Sirleaf will be joined by United States Congresswoman, Mrs Karen Bass and former US Assistant Secretaries, Mr Connie Berry Newman and Ambassador Johnnie Carson. In a statement last Friday, the joint mission said it had received accreditation from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission for it to commence work in earnest. Sirleaf’s team comprises of 25 long-term staff who are already in Zimbabwe, including 14 long-term observers covering all 10 provinces of Zimbabwe.

By Alex Magaisa|“The silly season is out in full force,” aid the ZEC Chairperson, Justice Priscilla Chigumba as she made an appearance on Ruvheneko Parirenyatwa’s radio show on Monday.

It is a cliché that refers to a period of frivolous and petty behaviour. The history of Zimbabwean elections, however, suggests that they are from frivolous affairs. For survivors and victims of past electoral violence, elections are a matter of life and death. Justice Chigumba may have commented in jest, but this election is a serious matter for the long-suffering citizens. And the issues they are raising are far from petty as some at the electoral body have described them in typically disparaging fashion.

Justice Chigumba seems to have found the transition from the bench to the hot-seat at the election management body rather difficult. She forgets that right now, her judicial robes and wig are in the wardrobe, and she is in a very different role as the referee of an elections body. During the interview, she made reference to her oath of judicial office and to judicial officers and lawyers-politicians whom she referred to, in a warning tone, as officers of the court. It’s not fair on them to have to answer to her as a judge when the rest of the candidates who are not lawyers carry no such obligations.

More importantly, Justice Chigumba is obviously deeply aggrieved by the name-calling she has been subjected to in recent weeks. On that, she has my great empathy and understanding. She has every right to feel offended. It is not good behaviour to reduce our politics to name-calling. The H-word, as she called it, does nothing to advance the cause that democrats are fighting for. People must be free to critique Justice Chigumba’s performance as an administrator, but it must be fair, reasonable and not because she is a woman. Her behaviour only becomes relevant if it affects or could affect the performance of her mandate but that standard must also apply to her male counterparts. The path towards gender equality is still filled with many obstacles and we have to have to do everything necessary to get rid of gender stereotyping.

Poor PR

ZEC’s biggest challenge is its abysmal public relations and this interview did little to help recover lost ground. As the principal voice of ZEC, Justice Chigumba had an opportunity to mend broken fences of public trust and confidence. Yet the tone carried a distinct strain of arrogance and nonchalance which has alienated many in the opposition.

“It’s water under the bridge,” she said as a matter of fact when asked about the contentious presidential ballot paper, which is arguably illegal. It was not what she said but how it was presented and how it came out. It didn’t sound well. Even as a caller and her interviewer tried to alert her to the problem, she simply resorted to defensive mode.

It is this failure to read the general sentiment and to tailor responses in a mature and respectful manner that is at the heart of institutional weakness at ZEC. They don’t know how to communicate with a pensive and highly suspicious public. It’s an area of weakness that can improve with training, but meanwhile common sense will have to do.

Illegality of the ballot paper design

One distinctive feature of the present ZEC is their religious insistence on legal compliance. Their standard response is that whatever they do is according to the law. This formalistic and pedantic approach the law has led to a certain rigidity about ZEC’s approach, which limits it from using discretion in the interests of performing its core mandate. It would be fair if ZEC followed the law at all times. The problem is Justice Chigumba’s ZEC takes a very selective approach to legal compliance.

In this regard, one old issue is ZEC’s approach to the voters’ roll, where it has been selective in what it has provided, citing privacy provisions to withhold other aspects such as photographs. The legal basis for that view is extremely suspect. Another issue, which was discussed in the interview and concerns us here, is the design of the ballot paper.

There are legal rules in the Electoral Law for designing a ballot paper. Section 57 of the Electoral Act provides that the ballot paper shall be in the prescribed form. This prescribed form is Form V.10 as provided for in section 3(10) of the Electoral Regulations, 2005. Section 3(11) of the same regulations specifies the design of the ballot paper so that “the number of horizontal segments shall equate to the number of candidates nominated for election …”

The critical point is that the design of the ballot paper is strictly guided by law. ZEC did not have the liberty to make a new design which is different from Form V. 10 unless it changed the Electoral Regulations. But as everyone now knows, changes to rules after the proclamation of the election date are now prohibited. So ZEC is stuck with the 2005 regulations which set Form V.10 as the design for the ballot paper.

When asked about it by Ruvheneko, Justice Chigumba did not have a clear answer save for referring to advice from designers and the issue of cost. Asked to name the cost of the presidnetial ballot paper, the head of ZEC had no clue. You would expect an administrator who uses cost as a reason for a decision to have figures on her finger-tips. But Justice Chigumba didn’t even have an estimate.

More critically, she completely avoided the Form V.10 issue. Either she did not know about it or if she did, she simply had no answer. Perhaps Ruvheneko should have placed a copy of the Electoral Regulations before the ZEC Chairperson and asked her to explain why they had overlooked Form V. 10 in designing the ballot paper. Justice Chigumba cannot hide behind advice from designers because Parliament has already provided the design that the ballot paper must take.

The net result is that ZEC’s approach to the ballot paper design is a significant departure from its usual pedantic approach to legal compliance, which smacks of double-standards. The law is clear on how the ballot paper must be designed and ZEC has chosen not to follow it. As things stand, there is arguably ample ground to challenge the legality of ZEC’s ballot paper.

Why did ZEC not use Form V.10 to the letter? This is where critics think ZEC designed the ballot paper in order to place the incumbent Emmerson Mnangagwa at the top of the second column rather than have him buried in the middle of a 23-candidate list of presidential candidates on account of an unfavourable alphabetical order.

Postal voting

The controversy over postal voting was an opportunity to demonstrate humility, remorse and to make corrections. ZEC has made contradictory statements from day one. As reported by The Herald, ZEC said one thing, while the ZRP said another. ZEC was forced into a huge climb-down a few hours later, realising they were wrong about postal voting which had already started. Despite efforts to remove and change the story, the damage had already been done. Instead of admitting to errors, the ZEC Chairperson went on the defensive and put blame on the media.

This is taking people for granted. The public is not stupid. They see when someone is trying to pull wool over their eyes. They deserve far more respect than ZEC is giving them.

Besides, the explanations did not add up. At one point Justice Chigumba said the printing of ballot papers was not yet complete, since council ballots were still to be printed. This did not sit well with the fact that postal voting had already started in Bulawayo and had since spread to other areas. How did they do postal voting while some ballot papers are still being printed?

Quizzed on the issue by a caller, Justice Chigumba tried to wriggle out of the sticky moment by saying they were printing the ballot papers by province and they had finished the Bulawayo ballots. But this does not answer how postal voting was taking place elsewhere when the ballots were still being printed.

Besides, an interpretation of section 75(1)(d) of the Electoral Law shows that Monday 16 July 2018 was the last possible date for ZEC to receive the postal ballots. Yet as at that date, hours after the scheduled time of receiving postal ballots, the ZEC Chairperson was telling the world that ballot papers were still being printed. How then had postal voting taken place when ballots were still being printed? Is there a separate stash of ballot papers elsewhere? Or has ZEC disenfranchised thousands of postal voters by its inefficiency? That’s because those postal votes which have not complied with section 75(1)(d) would not be invalid.

Investigating suspicious activity

Justice Chigumba insisted that ZEC could not act on any issue unless a formal complaint was raised. But that’s an abdication of duty by an elections supervisor. ZEC can commence its own investigations without prompting if there is suspicion of irregularities, which there was in the Bulawayo case where the alarm had been raised. ZEC should know that the reason why police officers cannot identify themselves is that they fear for their jobs. A responsible election management body could have taken action mero motu (on its own and without request) to protect the integrity of the election.

It is legally inaccurate to say ZEC has no mandate to investigate as averred by Justice Chigumba during the interview. Of course, as the elections supervisor, ZEC can investigate election irregularities. As argued before in these pages, section 342 of the Constitution confers wide powers upon constitutional bodies, including ZEC, to do whatever is necessary to fulfil their mandate. ZEC has the mandate to run free, fair and credible elections and if it must investigate irregularities to ensure fulfilment of that mandate, it would be well within its powers to do so.

In any event, having denied the power to investigate on postal voting, in the same interview Justice Chigumba went on to claim ZEC and the Ministry of ICT were jointly investigating the mass messages sent to voters by ZANU PF and a website which appears to use ZEC data but is hosted in the UK. These apparent inconsistencies do not help ZEC’s image.

Role of the military

One important point that she did clarify and which needs careful watching is over the military’s role in the transportation of voting materials. The military will not be involved, she firmly declared. If this is correct, it kills concerns over military involvement which flared up after the military’s press conference two weeks ago during which Colonel Mugwisi suggested that the military would be involved if ZEC asked for help. Justice Chigumba has declared that the military will not be involved and the hope is that ZEC will live up to its word.

It puts ZEC on a collision course with the military which two weeks ago seemed to have expectations of being asked to help. If, after this declaration, the military ends up being involved, it will knock public confidence in ZEC and the electoral process. She said Fidelity Printers will transport the ballot papers but does this printing company have a transport and logistics department for this exercise? Are they not going to end up hiring the military?

A question of credibility

The problem for ZEC is one of credibility. She did concede that people do not trust ZEC and that the body needs to win that trust. The irony, though, is that this interview which was supposed to help in rebuilding that trust did little to win ZEC any favours. There was the same typical arrogance and over-defensiveness on an occasion when a little bit of humility and acknowledgement of areas of improvement would have bought some understanding.

A typical case was when she was asked about the plain lies told by one of her commissioners over a controversial picture in which she wore a scarf associated with Mnangagwa, Justice Chigumba’s answer was to defend him. A simple acknowledgement that her fellow commissioner had spoken without consulting and erred could have gone a long way to winning back some understanding and trust.

However, typical of Zimbabwean public officers who are averse to taking responsibility, she went into an ultra-defensive mode and decided to defend the mediocrity of her subordinate. He had lied in a misguided effort to defend her. Such behaviour is not to be defended if a public body wants to regain trust and confidence.

Conclusion

The interview was eagerly anticipated by Zimbabweans across the world. It was ZEC’s great opportunity for redemption. But ZEC squandered it . To her credit, Ruvheneko was robust in her inquisition. Some follow-up questions would have helped but overall, it was a strong performance which left the Chairperson trying desperately to duck and dive in an open field.

I don’t care about being liked. I only care about doing the right thing, the ZEC Chairperson said during the interview.

The trouble right now, is that there are lots of people who are not persuaded that she and ZEC are doing the right thing.

Source: Alex Magaisa