THE country bleeds today because of lack of an independent Judiciary.
Some judgments and sentences being handed to members of the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party need to be scrutinised.
The law is being weaponised against members of the opposition.
Time and again, we are experiencing miscarriage of justice.
The conviction of CCC spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere on a non-existing law of communicating a falsehood prejudicial to the State and law enforcement agents is one example.
Mahere allegedly posted that a baby strapped on her mother’s back had been struck to death by a police officer who was beating up the mother while enforcing COVID-19 regulations.
This is a deliberate well-crafted and co-ordinated attack on members of the CCC ahead of this year’s watershed election.
The regime is now at sixes and sevens, using all manner of intimidatory tactics to silence the voices of reason.
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The law, according to law gurus, is deemed unconstitutional, but it has been used to prosecute Mahere.
Her conviction by a Harare magistrate is a travesty of justice.
The abuse of power by this new republic is now going out of hand.
Headmasters and archbishops of oppression have once again connived with the captured Judiciary through weaponisation of the law to gag CCC cadres.
The section from which the law has been plucked is unknown.
It is just being used to intimidate the citizens who are working hard to change the political imbalances in the country.
This political persecution will not work.
This is another diversionary tactic from the Gold Mafia documentary which is exposing massive money laundering, gold smuggling and looting of our precious minerals.
Zimbabweans are patiently waiting for the arrest of the people being mentioned or speaking openly of how they launder money, smuggle gold or assist in such activities.
Surprisingly, the army shot dead six people during the August 1, 2018 post-election protests and not even one was arraigned before a court to answer to a charge of murder.
This country is a mess.
There is something wrong with our country today in as far as dealing with anyone who opposes government.
Zengeza West MP Job Sikhala is languishing in remand prison and has been denied bail several times.
We need to fix this once and for all.
Zimbabwe, under this new dispensation, is moving fast towards destruction.
There is selective application of the law depending on where one stands politically.
If you are coming from the opposition, the probability of being arrested, charged and prosecuted on trumped-up charges is very high.
We should be clear about it, we are seeing a divided nation full of hate.
This new dispensation is pretending as if it is building democracy, but rather destroying it.
No country can live without the opposition.
This is the year to restore the power and dignity of the people of Zimbabwe who have suffered under this ruthless regime for the past 43 years.
Indeed, the future of an independent Judiciary is bright, not this captured and partisan one.
At this juncture, all progressive Zimbabweans must remain resolute, focused and calm as they prepare and cook a heavy menu before the end of August 2023.-Leonard Koni
The poor are getting poorer, the wealthy more wealthier
THE French pension-reform protesters are being joined by numerous other labourers of all ages, who are justly concerned about their worsening pay, thus standard of living, compared to that of previous generations.
This typically coincides with the wealthy getting wealthier — with little or no indication that such significant income disparity will be corrected.
How can it be?
The rich and powerful basically have their interests protected by the police and/or the military, which answer to government.
Those armed forces have to physically enforce any law or regulation, even if it does not serve the needs of the many.
Thus, inequities and inequalities, even in modern democratic nations, can and often enough do persist.
We see this appalling reality, for example, through over-reliance on food banks, exacerbated by unrelenting food-price inflation.
Long ago, there were successful social/labour uprisings, including the French Revolution, that favoured the masses, albeit after much suffering by the peasantry. I cannot see such happening again.
I can, however, see valuable lessons having being learned from the said uprisings/revolutions.-Frank Sterle Jr
Al Jazeera exposé: A call for transparency in mining sector
IN recent weeks, the nation has been left in complete and utter shock after Al Jazeera released the first of the four-episode docu-series allegedly showing how public institutions are conniving with connected syndicates to prejudice the State of billions of dollars through gold smuggling.
This undercover docu-series details how Zimbabwean-produced gold is illicitly traded through official ports of entry.
It is alleged that gold smugglers are working hand-in-glove with authorities, particularly the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) and Fidelity Printers and Refiners. The exposé also shows that those acting on behalf of government in smuggling gold to Dubai are bribing customs authorities to falsify (trade mis-invoicing) gold export proceeds.
In defence of the Al Jazeera allegations, the beneficiaries of illicit transactions revealed that government is using these politically exposed persons to facilitate gold dealings on its behalf as a sanctions-busting strategy. Nevertheless, a couple of weeks ago, RBZ governor John Mangudya issued a statement declaring that Zimbabwean imports and exports, including gold proceeds, are not under Western sanctions.
As the custodian of all gold and the financial system, the RBZ must be regarded as a credible source of information — a trustworthy organisation free from bias having evidence to back up whatever it feeds into the public domain.
So, if this holds, then it means that Zimbabwean gold and other minerals are being traded freely on international markets via official channels. This, therefore, discredits the sanctions-busting rhetoric to justify illicit flows which are lining the pockets of the few at the expense of the majority, particularly mining host communities.
Due to gold mining activities, the environment is being degraded, there is an encroachment on critical public infrastructure like highways and schools, families are forcibly displaced from their land, water sources are polluted with dangerous chemicals like cyanide and mercury, and air quality is severely compromised.
Recently, at least 18 innocent school-going children pursuing their dreams were injured when a classroom block collapsed into an illegal mine shaft in Kwekwe.
The natural resource curse (NRC) has left Zimbabweans worse off. NRC refers to the failure of a resource-rich country to benefit fully from its natural resource wealth, and of government to respond effectively to public welfare needs.
Government itself admits that ports of entry are porous as it estimates that the country is losing at least US$100 million per month to gold smuggling.
In 2020, Zimbabwe Miners Federation president Henrietta Rushwaya, who is also implicated in the Al Jazeera bombshell, was arrested at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport for allegedly trying to smuggle 6kg of gold to Dubai.
This is enough evidence to prove massive illicit transactions by connected individuals.
It is appalling that the Al Jazeera documentary alleges the existence of a gold smuggling mafia being aided by State apparatus, these allegations merit thorough investigation of all those implicated. It is commendable that the Financial Intelligence Unit, a subsidiary of the RBZ, has already started investigating some of the implicated persons.-Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development
