(Via Veritas) The Portfolio Committee on Budget, Finance, Economic Planning and Investment Promotion will be holding public hearings on the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment (General) Regulations [SI 21/2010] in Bulawayo and Harare. Venues and times are as follows:

Bulawayo

Friday 12th March, Small City Hall, 9 am

Harare

Monday 15th March, Harare International Conference Centre, 10 am

The Portfolio Committee Chairperson is Hon Zhanda, the Committee Clerk is Mr Ratsakatika.

Public Welcome to Attend Hearings

Interested stakeholders and members of public are invited to attend these hearings at which they will be given the opportunity to give evidence and make representations on the regulations. If you are making a written submission, it is advisable to take as many copies as possible for circulation at the meeting. If you are able to take a copy to Parliament before the meeting and give it to the Committee Clerk [see above] and he will duplicate copies for the members of the Committee.

If you want to make an oral submission, signify this to the Committee Clerk so that he can notify the chairperson to call on you. An oral submission is more effective if it is followed up in writing.

Written submissions

If you are unable to attend a hearing, written submissions and correspondence may be addressed to:

The Clerk of Parliament

Attention: Portfolio Committee on Budget, Finance, Economic Planning and Investment Promotion

P.O. Box CY298

Causeway, Harare

Update: Sibongile and Rose have been released. A full update on the WOZA site.

WOZA are still needing support from the public to speed up the relase of two women, Sibongile Matupe and Rose Rukwewo, who were arrested in Mutare yesterday:

Two women, Sibongile Matupe and Rose Rukwewo, an elderly woman, have been arrested in Mutare today following the peaceful protest in that city yesterday. The two women are currently at Mutare Central Police Station and look set to spend the night in custody. It is unclear why they were targeted for arrest or what charge, if any, will be laid against them.  Lawyers from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) are in attendance but have not been given access to the women. Law and Order officers are insisting that they finish ‘interviewing’ them before they will allow the lawyer access to his clients.

Police went door-to-door in Sakubva, a suburb of Mutare, searching for people who took part in yesterday’s peaceful protest action.  The two women were taken from their homes.

The arrest of these two women is a blatant violation of civil rights, as is the fact that they are being denied access to their lawyer. (vioa WOZA)

The two women are still in custody today. One of them suffers from high blood pressure and lawyers are struggling to get her released as quickly as possible. There are no witnesses to say that these two women were at the peaceful protest in Mutare yesterday: the police detained them on hearsay and kept them in custody overnight. It is believed that the police are intending to warn and caution them, with an accompanying fine of US$20. They should not have been arrested in the first place, and they should be released immediately.

We are told that the police are still going door to door looking for WOZA participants in the peaceful protest.

Our recent action alert (please click here to take action), asking everyone to demand for an end to the lawless activities affecting several farmers and their families in the Chugutu area, briefly mentioned the situation on Wakefield Farm (Selous neighbours the Chegutu area). Ken Bartholomew, the farmer, has detailed his family’s experiences since Friday last week. The following was circulated by JAG email.

FRIDAY 27TH NOVEMBER 2009

12.30PM: Felix Pambukani and about 15 to 20 other men arrived at my house gate demanding to know from me why I was still on the farm and why was I planting tobacco and what was I doing? 2 Ministry of Lands men from Chegutu – one of them being a Mr. Tony Makoshoni – ID number: 70-010006 G 38 and a Mr Chikadayi was also amongst these men and Kunonga was waiting at the Selous Police station.. DESPITE being told by myself and shown a letter from the Governor and Provisional Lands office – clearly stating that I have been given permission to carry on farming for the 2009/2010 season they still demanded that I stop all farming at once. They then left and proceeded to the house that they have already evicted my manager from. (more…)

The refusal by ZANU PF to implement the outstanding issues of the GPA, has dampened the enthusiasm of business.

It is hoped that the SADC Troika meetings in Harare this week will unlock the process of reform and allow the economy to kickstart through the injection of much needed foreign capital.

More and more US Dollars are circulating in the predominantly Rand areas of the economy as Civil Servants are being paid in this currency. Furthermore, Rand is being consumed more and more in cross-border business transactions and currency street vendors have all but disappeared.

The anomalies of the Northern exchange rate of 10:1 as opposed to the South, based on of the ruling rate of the day (Presently 7,5:1) allows for profiteering and the converse increase in cost for those using Rand to purchase goods costed in US Dollars.

Wankie Colliery coal supplies to Hwange Power Station have doubled from this time last year and ZESA is now paying in advance. Power outages have diminished taking some pressure of hard pressed industry. However this news comes on the back of an announcement of a cut of 250MW as generation plant goes under extensive maintenance.

We’ve just had word that three five of Louis Fick’s farmworkers were shot today. [A media release received later indicates the figure is five, not three - see update here, with more details] Two of them are in serious condition at Chinhoyi hospital. In addition to the shootings, two more staff houses at Friedewil Farm in Lions Den have been burned down.

Louis Fick himself is not at the farm – he is unable to live there anymore and is currently seeking legal advice and assistance from the South African embassy. Louis Fick is a South African national and he is meant to be protected under the SADC Tribunal ruling that they be allowed to remain on their land.

We’ve been told that the man who carried out the shootings has himself been beaten in reprisal. This in itself is alarming because it suggests the violence may spiral with further reprisal attacks taking place. The police do little to prevent violence against farmworkers so the people living on the farm are vulnerable and unprotected.

Louis Fick has been subjected to sustained unlawful behaviour at the hands of the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank, Edward Mashiringwani, for some time now. Mashiringwani has taken over more than 98% of Fick’s Friedewil Farm and he, along with his farm manager Shepherd Makoni and supporters, are responsible for a wide range of abuses, including violence, theft, arson and gross animal cruelty.

Last month the Deputy Governor denied Fick access to about 4,000 pigs, refusing to allow him to feed or water them, in an attempt to use animal cruelty to force Fick to give up the last of his piggeries. Please see our Action Alert last month for more information on what happened last month.

Violence in Zimbabwe is rising rapidly in the wake of the MDC-T’s disengagement with the Zanu PF party. Yesterday, Zimbabwean immigration officials barred the United Nation’s torture investigator, Manfred Nowak, from entering Zimbabwe. Mr Nowak termed this act a “serious diplomatic incident” and also said ““There are certainly some parts of the government who do not want me to assess the current conditions of torture”.

Zimbabweans need you to take action. Please leave feedback in the comments below. Thank you. (more…)

Youth Alliance for Democracy Press Release – The utterances by President Mugabe at the 5th ZANU PF Youth Congress that the Kariba Draft is the only acceptable guiding document in the constitution-making process is now cascading down to the grassroots as evidenced by the reports which the Youth Alliance for Democracy has obtained.

The latest development saw Kudzanai Mutarangi, a Mabelreign based activist being assaulted by ZANU PF militia for putting on a Crisis Coalition ”Say no to Kariba Draft” T-shirt at Greencroft shopping centre on Saturday at around 9pm. This resulted in his T-shit being torn and him being forced to wear a green ZANU PF T-shirt written: ‘youths in defence of national sovereignty and economic empowerment.’

This act was carried out by thugs who dropped from a white Nissan hardbody truck labelled ZANU PF Mashonaland Central who accused Kudzanai of supporting a regime change agenda. (more…)

Ben Freeth was detained for a short time this morning after a visit to his burnt out homestead on Mount Carmel farm. Freeth arrived at the farm with an Aljazeera film crew, when two armed plain-clothed individuals leapt out of the bush and forced him to drive to Chegutu police station. The Aljazeera team did not film the incident and instead returned to Harare.

According to the police he is forbidden from filming his farm and needs to get permission from Provincial Government Headquarters to do any filming as the farm is now under “police surveillance”.

Freeth was advised that the farm was under surveillance because an arms cache had been found. Please see our blog post from last week where we anticipated this would happen.

The police released Freeth after the warning. (more…)

Large explosions were heard yesterday on Mount Carmel Farm. No one at this stage knows what might have caused the explosions – neither the Freeth nor Campbell families have been able to return to the farm after their homes were burned down last week (see here and here), so they are unable to determine what might be going on.

There is concern that the anonymous explosions may be a precursor to a ramped-up stage of intimidation against the families. Explosions and allegations of ‘arms caches’ are a favourite tool in the Zanu PF intimidation chest.

Roy Bennett, for example, was forced into exile in South Africa in 2006 after the Zanu PF regime alleged he was involved in a plot to kill Robert Mugabe, and linked him to a so-called cache of arms. The charges were later dropped, but re-surfaced again last year when Bennett was arrested yet again. (more…)