Grace Mugabe to replace ousted Tendai Biti in parliament

Grace Mugabe to replace ousted Tendai Biti in parliament

Monday, 23 March 2015 / No Comments

Zanu PF hawks have reportedly started pushing for First Lady Grace Mugabe to contest the Harare East constituency, formerly occupied by MDC Renewal secretary general Tendai Biti who was also Zimbabwe's Finance Minister during Morgan Tsvangirai's tenure as Prime Minister.

This comes amid predictions by analysts that the MDC-T dominance in urban seats was under threat as Zanu PF was working on grabbing the opposition seats following the recent dismissal from Parliament of 21 MDC Renewal MPs.

The Standard reported that the recall of 21 Renewal Team MPs has created room for Grace to contest Harare East and speculation is that she is amenable to the idea.

Zanu PF officials said the Godwills Masimirembwa-led Harare provincial executive and the Godfrey Gomwe-led provincial youth wing — eager to please the First Family — had already started moves to approach Grace to convince her to stand in Harare East.

Grace, who is the party's Secretary for Women's League, was now reportedly ready to become the Minister of Women's Affairs, currently vacant after Oppah Muchinguri was moved to the Higher Education portfolio.

"We are being told the move to urge Grace to contest the Harare East seat is being pushed by Harare province. But on the other hand, we are also seeing the First couple's own aides and a few other party heavyweights quietly toying with the idea of her contesting," said a senior Zanu PF official.

"So at the moment it is not yet clear whose idea it is, whether it is Grace herself or other people bootlicking the First Family."

Zanu PF national commissar Saviour Kasukuwere yesterday could neither confirm nor deny Grace's interest in Harare East.

"Is that what you want to speculate? Anybody in the party can be a candidate anywhere," Kasukuwere said curtly.

Masimirembwa also said the province had not started the identification of candidates yet.

"We don't have candidates for the seats in Harare yet as we wait to get direction from the national leadership. We want their direction on the matter," Masimirembwa said.

Grace's candidature, insiders say, cannot be ruled out as speculation has been high since December that she would join her husband's cabinet after her ascension into the politburo. However, her handicap has been her lack of a parliamentary seat which is a pre-requisite for one to be a minister under the Constitution.

Grace was last year endorsed as Zanu PF Women's League boss after she was reportedly approached by the then outgoing Muchinguri executive and war collaborators. But it turned out that Grace herself, with the support of a few party hawks, engineered her political rise which coincided with the fall of former Vice-President Joice Mujuru.

The former VP was viciously attacked by Grace who accused her of corruption and of trying to topple Mugabe. The First Lady has rapidly grown to be the kingmaker in Zanu PF following her appointment as the Women's League boss at the disputed December 6th national congress. Other seats to be contested include Harare East, Kambuzuma, Kuwadzana, Glen View South, Dzivarasekwa and Highfield West.

Zanu PF officials yesterday said the party was determined to get all the seats in Harare and will leave no stone unturned to achieve this.

"If we managed to get Epworth, Mt Pleasant and Harare South in 2013, what can stop us now? We will get all the seats this time around," said an official.

Dumiso Dabengwa poised to relinquish ZAPU Post at congress

Dumiso Dabengwa poised to relinquish ZAPU Post at congress

Friday, 20 March 2015 / No Comments

Zapu president Dumiso Dabengwa is set to relinquish his current post at the party’s elective congress scheduled for August this year.

Well-placed sources said the party was planning to amend its constitution to create the post of national chairman for the former Zipra intelligence supreme.

“The Zapu constitution will be amended at the forthcoming congress to accommodate the post of chairman. The chairman will be in charge of party affairs while the president will be in charge of governance issues. We are going to have elections for a new president because Dabengwa will be deployed to the new portfolio,” said the source, who cannot be named for fear of breaching the party’s protocol. Some young Turks are already jostling for Dabengwa’s post. They include United Kingdom-based secretary general Ralph Mguni and South African-based businessmen, Dubizizwo Joli and Dr Frank Mbobo. Dark horses in the race to succeed Dabengwa also include Harare-based lawyer, Msonglwa Ndlovu and Retired Col Ray Ncube.

The post of secretary general is likely to be a two-way race between the late nationalist George Silundika’s son, Flexi, and another Middle East-based party activist.

When reached for comment, the party’s spokesperson Patrick Ndlovu, professed ignorance about the impending changes in the party. “I am not aware of those changes which you are referring to. What I know is that Zapu will be jointly holding its women and youth congresses on April 11 in Bulawayo. This congress is part of our preparations for the main congress which will be held in August,” he said.

Incumbent national chairwoman, Gertrude Makwila, is said to be seeking re-election at the congress while incumbent South Africa-based youth chairman , Future Musovele, is reportedly facing a stiff challenge from a Victoria Falls-based aspirant. The party is also set to change constitution to align it with the 50-50 gender policy. zimbabwean

Grace Mugabe bracing for the defence ministry post

Grace Mugabe bracing for the defence ministry post

Tuesday, 24 February 2015 / 1 Comment

First  Lady Grace Mugabe is reportedly prodding President Robert Mugabe to appoint her Defence minister in a much-anticipated Cabinet reshuffle after she reportedly turned down the Women’s Affairs portfolio for being “less glamorous”.
Zanu PF politburo member Sydney Sekeramayi is the present Defence minister, while the Women’s Affairs ministry has remained vacant following the reassignment of Oppah Muchinguri to the Higher Education portfolio.

Following her triumphant entry into Zanu PF politics last year, where she succeeded Muchinguri as women’s league boss after leading a vicious crusade that caused the fall of former Vice-President Joice Mujuru, Grace had been widely tipped to land the Women’s Affairs post.
Mugabe left the ministry vacant when he filled other key Cabinet posts last year following a mini reshuffle caused by the expulsion of ministers linked to the Mujuru camp.

Well-placed sources said Grace was giving 91-year-old Mugabe a torrid time, refusing to take up the Women’s Affairs ministry, insisting on the all-powerful Defence ministry.
“The First Lady has refused to be the Gender minister,” a Zanu PF insider, who refused to be named, said.
“She wants to be Defence minister or alternatively Mines minister.”

Of late, Grace — who played a pivotal role in the annihilation of the Mujuru faction — has become an omnipotent figure in Zanu PF politics and was widely believed to be wielding enormous influence on Mugabe.
Grace, last Wednesday set tongues wagging when she occupied a front politburo seat next to Mugabe during a meeting which pronounced the expulsion of former secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa and former Mashonaland West provincial chairperson Temba Mliswa. Mutasa and Mliswa were expelled only three days after Grace returned home from her two-month-long holiday, where she underwent surgery.

Grace sat in the six-member disciplinary tribunal appointed by Mugabe to decide Mutasa’s fate. Mugabe confirmed at the party’s December 2014 congress that the First Lady was becoming too influential on his decisions when he went into his “Pasi neZanu PF” gaffe, after Grace wrote a note advising him to cut short his speech.
“It’s my wife who has written this note,” he said.
“She says I am now talking too much.
“That’s how I am treated even at home and so I must listen.”

However, the period in the run-up to the December 2014 congress had already proved Grace’s unrestrained influence in the party after all the people she labelled traitors, including Mujuru, were purged. Zanu PF insiders added that Grace, who is widely believed to be angling to succeed her husband, believes controlling the army would make her ascendancy to the throne much easier.

“Initially, Grace was chickening out,” another source said.
“She did not want a ministerial position that would expose her to the wrath of MPs during question-and-answer sessions in Parliament.
“But after being convinced that she needed to sit in Cabinet, she has started making huge moves to land the powerful Defence ministry in order to get a certain measure of control of the armed forces for protection in the post-Mugabe era.”

However, another source said it would be wrong to assume that Grace was demanding a position from Mugabe.
“The media should know better that Mugabe is still in control,” the source said.
“You cannot really believe that Grace is now in charge. The issue is, Mugabe no longer has the energy so much that when he gets into the car, he falls asleep.
“His body is tired both from ageing and a lot of medication.
“But Grace is not calling the shots. She is getting instructions from him, not vice-versa.”

Shuvai Mahofa tipped to bounce back into Government as minister

Shuvai Mahofa tipped to bounce back into Government as minister

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ZANU PF Senator for Gutu and former Youth, Gender and Women’s Affairs deputy minister Shuvai Ben Mahofa, is tipped to replace fired Masvingo Provincial Affairs minister Kudakwashe Bhasikiti in an impending Cabinet reshuffle if remarks by First Lady Grace Mugabe are anything to go by.

Bhasikiti was fired last week for associating with axed former Vice-President Joice Mujuru’s faction, which is accused of trying to topple President Robert Mugabe.
At her “meet the people” rally in Masvingo’s Mucheke Stadium ahead of the party’s contested congress last year, Grace, now the party’s powerful women’s league boss, said Mahofa was her role model.

“Be like Mai Mahofa, she is my role model,” Grace said, while castigating the Mujuru faction leaders at the rally, much to the pleasure of the capacity crowd.
Grace left Mahofa with farming inputs she donated to the province, instructing her to distribute them on her behalf, bypassing Bhasikiti and then Zanu PF provincial chair, Killian Gwanetsa, in the process.
“Be like Mai Mahofa, she is my role model.”

Grace donated 30 tonnes of seed to party members and 10 tonnes of maize meal for distribution to orphans, the physically challenged, vulnerable and child-headed families.
Sources in Zanu PF said Mahofa, nicknamed “the iron lady of Masvingo”, could get the post on a silver platter, as she is a favourite of the First Family, after bouncing back from the political wilderness in 2013.

“Of late, she has caught the attention of the First Family because she supported Grace at the women’s league when she was the secretary for security in the organ,” a source in the party said.

The former Gutu South legislator is said to be the second in command in the faction aligned to Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, after Psychomotor minister Josaya Hungwe in the province, another source said.

Asked about the issue, acting Zanu PF Masvingo provincial chair Paradzai Chakona said the appointment would be an exclusive prerogative of the president.
“Well, I cannot comment on that as the president is the one who decides on appointments,” he said.

Bulawayo mayor wants Zimdollar back into the economy

Bulawayo mayor wants Zimdollar back into the economy

Saturday, 21 February 2015 / No Comments

Bulawayo Mayor Martin Moyo on Thursday expressed his dismay at the use of the US dollar describing it as a danger to the economy that was spawning liquidity challenges. Moyo told an end of year meeting by the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) about the ease of doing business and access to the European Union & market that failure by the country to control the available stock of foreign money was a key contributor to liquidity problems.

There is money in the country but it is not in official banking circles. I was never a proponent of the comeback of the Zimbabwe dollar but the thing is you (would) want to control liquidity in the country, you want to control the stock that is available and circulating in the country and to guarantee the monetary authority knows such that if any of the notes are lost or torn they can check, replace or reprint, he said.

Moyo said he was not advocating for the printing of money notes without controls but he saw danger emanating from the continued use of the United States dollar.

There is a big danger with the United States dollar because if we have a budget of $4 billion dollars, assuming we have this amount in the country and one takes a billion to Dubai, it then means it (United States dollar) has completely gone out of circulation and the next thing is we are suffering liquidity challenges as that money has no chance of coming back because it is not labelled Zimbabwe so it will find its way to the United States,

Moyo said if it were South African rands which were taken to Europe, they would be converted to Euros and returned to South Africa and later onto Zimbabwe as they are of no use in Europe.
At the same event, European Union ambassador Phillipe Van Damme said Zimbabwe could not afford to bring back its local currency in the next few years because investors and citizens have lost trust in the currency.

You cannot afford to bring back the Zimbabwean dollar over the next few years because you have to rebuild national and international trust in your economy," he said.

Zimbabwe abandoned its currency in 2009 after it was rendered useless by excessive inflation. The RBZ is expected to introduce bond coins next week in a bid to ease change challenges but the move has ignited concerns of the return of the Zimbabwe dollar.

Bulawayo Mayor Martin Moyo on Thursday expressed his dismay at the use of the US dollar describing it as a danger to the economy that was spawning liquidity challenges. Moyo told an end of year meeting by the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) about the ease of doing business and access to the European Union & market that failure by the country to control the available stock of foreign money was a key contributor to liquidity problems.

There is money in the country but it is not in official banking circles. I was never a proponent of the comeback of the Zimbabwe dollar but the thing is you (would) want to control liquidity in the country, you want to control the stock that is available and circulating in the country and to guarantee the monetary authority knows such that if any of the notes are lost or torn they can check, replace or reprint, he said.

Moyo said he was not advocating for the printing of money notes without controls but he saw danger emanating from the continued use of the United States dollar.

There is a big danger with the United States dollar because if we have a budget of $4 billion dollars, assuming we have this amount in the country and one takes a billion to Dubai, it then means it (United States dollar) has completely gone out of circulation and the next thing is we are suffering liquidity challenges as that money has no chance of coming back because it is not labelled Zimbabwe so it will find its way to the United States,

Moyo said if it were South African rands which were taken to Europe, they would be converted to Euros and returned to South Africa and later onto Zimbabwe as they are of no use in Europe.
At the same event, European Union ambassador Phillipe Van Damme said Zimbabwe could not afford to bring back its local currency in the next few years because investors and citizens have lost trust in the currency.

You cannot afford to bring back the Zimbabwean dollar over the next few years because you have to rebuild national and international trust in your economy," he said.

Zimbabwe abandoned its currency in 2009 after it was rendered useless by excessive inflation. The RBZ is expected to introduce bond coins next week in a bid to ease change challenges but the move has ignited concerns of the return of the Zimbabwe dollar.

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