The Standard

The Standard
BEST SUNDAY READ
US$1/R10 August 3 to 9 2014
www.thestandard.co.zw
Anjin 40% shareholder
remains a mystery
PAGE 17
‘Impi not overstepping
ZMC mandate’
PAGE 4
The Standard Style
THE SKY’S THE
LIMIT FOR
TAFADZWA
PAGE SS7 PAGE 32
standardsport
HIGHLANDERS,
HOW MINE
CLASH AT B/F
Youths push
for Robert
Mugabe Jnr
FULL STORY: PAGE 2
CHINGWIZI CAMP ON FIRE
FULL STORY & PICTURES: PAGE 2 & 3
MANDIZADZA: THE RESTLESS SPIRIT BEHIND MISHAPS AT ZIMPLATS/8&9
INTERNATIONAL PRICES: Botswana P15 / South Africa R20 / Zambia K6 000 / United States $2 / Great Britain £1.55 / Europe €1.55. TELEPHONE NUMBERS: 773930-8 (Harare) 883184-8 (Bulawayo)

FOREIGN NEWS
www.thestandard.co.zw
2 The Standard August 3 to 9 2014
Local News
Youths push for Mugabe Jnr
Israel signalled it was winding
down the 25-day-old Gaza war unilaterally,
saying yesterday it would
not attend Egyptian-hosted negotiations
for a new truce and giving Palestinians
who had fled fighting in one
northern town the all-clear to return.
—Reuters
West african leaders agreed on Friday
to take stronger measures to try
to bring the worst outbreak of Ebola
under control and prevent it spreading
outside the region, including
steps to isolate rural communities
ravaged by the disease.
The World Health Organisation
and medical charity Medicins Sans
Frontieres said the outbreak, which
has killed 729 people in four West
African countries, was out of control
and more resources were urgently
needed to deal with it. —Reuters
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some youths in Mashonaland
provinces are reportedly
lobbying for President
Robert Mugabe’s
son Robert Junior to be
nominated for an influential position
in the Zanu PF National
Youth League.
The party took to the ballot yesterday
to select its Youth League’s
national executive members amid
reports that there are serious manoeuvres
to nominate Mugabe’s
son.
The Standard is reliably informed
youths from Mashonaland
West, Mugabe’s home province
and Mashonaland Central
where the First Family has a vast
business and agricultural empire,
were behind the push.
Although the drive had not
gained traction in other provinces
as of yesterday morning, the
youths advocating for the selection
of Robert Jnr (21) to the influential
Youth League claimed
the move would stabilise the party
which is torn by factional fights
as the race to succeed Mugabe
gains momentum.
“The youths from Mashonaland
West and Central provinces have
been lobbying for the nomination
of Robert Junior to the post
of secretary for either security or
defence ahead of the youth league
conference,” a party insider told
The Standard yesterday.
“The presence of Robert Junior
in the youth league is viewed as
a step towards bringing together
the warring factions.”
The Zanu PF insiders said Robert
Junior had by Friday not yet
been approached to take up the
post despite the serious lobbying
within the youth league.
The development comes after
First Lady Grace was endorsed
to lead the Women’s League two
weeks ago under the guise of ending
factionalism in the party.
Zanu PF Youth League boss Absalom
Sikhosana could not be
reached for comment yesterday.
Spokesperson for the First Family,
Lawrence Kamwi could also
not be reached for comment on
the developments.
Grace’s nomination to lead
the powerful Zanu PF Women’s
League is viewed by some in
the party as a game changer in
the party’s factional succession
fights.
However, according to recently
announced Zanu PF election
guidelines, both Grace and Robert
Junior do not qualify to contest as
they have not served in the party
for at least five years in the pro-
President Robert Mugabe’s children — Chatunga Bellarmine (from right), Bona, Robert Junior and Bona’s husband Simba Chikore —
at one of Zanu PF’s rallies in Harare last year. PiCtuRe: Kumbirai Mafunda
vincial structures.
Robert Junior is said to be currently
pursuing studies in Asia.
Already, the process to select
youth league nominees has allegedly
seen factional battles as
youths aligned to Mujuru and
Mnangagwa camps were strategically
positioning themselves to
win elections at a youth conference
set to start on Thursday.
For the post of deputy secretary
for youth affairs, Midlands province
and Midlands State University
student Luis Matutu will battle
it out with Kudzai Chipanga from
Manicaland.
Matutu is reportedly linked
to the Mnangagwa faction while
Chipanga is said to have the backing
of Zanu PF secretary for administration
Didymus Mutasa.
Both Matutu and Chipanga triumphed
in their respective provinces
yesterday.
“I am confident that I am going
to be among the four candidates to
represent the Youth League at the
national conference,” Matutu said.
On the nomination of Robert
Junior, Matutu said he had not
heard of it but would welcome it
as a way of thanking President
Mugabe over what he had done to
empower the youths.
“I personally would welcome
it as a way of thanking his father
[President Mugabe] for what he
has done to uplift us,” Matutu said.
Chipanga also expressed confidence
in winning the mandate to
represent youths at national level.
On the issue of Mugabe Junior’s
appointment, he said it would be
a welcome move but added that
he was not qualified to comment
since that was an issue best handled
by the relevant province.
Sports and Culture deputy minister
Tabeth Kanengoni reportedly
failed to make it in Mashonaland
Central. The province’s candidates
are Dugmore Chimukoko,
Obert Mutasa, Paulleta Musonza
and Joseph Dendere.
In Bulawayo, Kumbulani Mlilo,
the current Youth League secretary
for transport, reportedly fell
by the wayside.
Meanwhile, at a youth meeting in
Chinhoyi, Mashonaland West yesterday,
Tawanda Tungamirai, son
of the late national hero, retired
Air Marshal Josiah Tungamirai,
was disqualified from contesting
in the forthcoming elections as
he failed to meet the stringent requirements
of serving in the provincial
structures for five years.
Mike Gava was given the green
light to battle it out with Lotius
Tarusikirwa for the Youth League
commissariat.
Mhondoro-Ngezi MP Mike Gava,
will face stiff competition from
Tarusikirwa for the right to represent
Kadoma district in the provincial
elections set for Tuesday.
Memory Chitsata will face
off with Innocent Makuyana in
Makonde while Margret Kadyamatimba
from Kariba and
Tungamirai Mutonhodza of Hurungwe
were unopposed.
Names of those who prevailed
at district level will be presented
for further screening at provincial
level between today and Tuesday
before they are endorsed by
the congress to be held in Harare
between August 7 and 10.
Women will contest for tickets
to the national executive of the
Women’s League on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, preparations for the
election of five Midlands Zanu PF
women into the central committee
turned dirty with allegations that
members of the electoral college
in Gokwe North “disappeared”
Friday night. Sources said there
were fears that they were abducted
on their way to Gokwe South
for accreditation.
In the elections, Minister of State
in the President’s Office, Flora
Buka, is expected to face stiff competition
from Melina Majubane.
Majubane said she was failing
to locate members of the electoral
college alleging that they were
“kidnapped” by rivals, prompting
her to make a police report.
“Certain people who are in this
election kidnapped the electoral
college, members and took them
to a house in an attempt to ensure
that we fail to get access to them
ahead of the elections. We had to
report the case to the police and
investigations are still ongoing,”
claimed Majubane.
Zanu PF Midlands provincial
chairman Jason Machaya said he
had not received reports of the
purported kidnapping.
“Our position is that these elections
should go unhindered and
women should be allowed to elect
people of their own choice without
any intervention or meddling
from anyone,” he said.
— BY EVERSON MUSHAVA /
BLESSED MHLANGA / NUNU-
RAI JENA
Chingwizi tense after violent protests
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the situation at Chingwizi remained
tense yesterday, a day
after protesting Tokwe-Mukosi
flood victims burnt two police vehicles
after reportedly disarming antiriot
police.
The villagers are protesting
against the relocation of Chingwizi
Transit Camp clinic to a new site
earmarked for their resettlement.
When The Standard correspondent
visited Chingwizi yesterday morning,
heavily armed anti-riot police
could be seen disembarking from
two trucks.
A police base at the camp was yesterday
unmanned. A makeshift police
camp has been established at
Lundi River, about five kilometres
from Chingwizi.
People who wanted to move or
drive out of the transit camp were
being blocked. There was also rigorous
vetting of those entering the
camp as police sought to arrest suspects.
Journalists were barred from
taking photos.
However, the flood victims vowed
they would not give up their battle.
They alleged that food was now being
given to selected individuals.
Tension between police and people
who were resettled at Chingwizi
is escalating each passing day after
the settlers burned two police vehicles
that had ferried police details to
evict them from the transit camp.
Tension heightened on Thursday
when anti-riot police fired warning
shots to disperse the disgruntled villagers.
On Friday afternoon police reinforced
after roping in members
of the support unit. Witnesses said
tempers flared when one of the flood
victims was assaulted with a baton
stick by a police officer.
“The victim retaliated by fighting
back the police officer and the two
engaged in a fist fight for a while,”
he said. “This was the match stick
that ignited the battlefield. The victims
teamed up and started beating
any police officer in sight.”
Another witness said police were
driven away from the camp, abandoning
their vehicles as they fled
from the angry crowd. Some rowdy
villagers then set the two police vehicles
on fire,” he said.
Last month, the police post at the
camp went up in smoke under unclear
circumstances.
Masvingo acting provincial police
spokesperson Assistant Inspector
Nkululeko Nduna could not be
reached for comment yesterday.
The displaced villagers are demanding
compensation for their
displacement from government before
they can leave the campsite.
They want monetary compensation
and also at least five-hectare plots
each which was promised by government.
Government has since turned
around on its promise, saying each
family would instead get one hectare
of land. Recently 10 cabinet
ministers, led by Local Government
minister Ignatius Chombo, left
the camp in a huff after they were
dressed down and booed by the villagers.

Local News
The Standard August 3 to 9 2014 3
Economy: Mugabe’s biggest undoing
BY NDAMU SANDU
The government of Zimbabwe’s
core business
appears to have been reduced
to paying civil
servants’ salaries, abandoning
other responsibilities, as
the economy becomes President
Robert Mugabe’s (pictured right)
biggest undoing, one year after
sweeping to power in 2013.
Last week Zanu PF celebrated
its victory anniversary notwithstanding
the attendant economic
collapse since Mugabe retained
the keys to State House in a controversial
election.
Zanu PF promised when campaigning
that it would create over
two million jobs by 2018. Of that
figure, 222 800 were supposed to
have been created in the first year.
The glaring fact on the ground
however is that many hundreds
of jobs have been lost since that
promise was made as scores of
companies close every month.
The manufacturing sector was
projected to add 15 000 jobs to 140
000 in the first year. Needless to say,
the opposite has been true. Companies
continue to shed jobs every
day, weighed down by the harsh
economic environment.
Statistics from the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions show
that 15 companies retrenched 2 491
in the first half of the year. Analysts
have warned that more jobs
would be shed in the second half
of the year.
Government’s tax base has been
shrinking as the faltering takes a
toll on companies.
The biggest tax contributors in a
healthy economy — Paye and corporate
tax — have been shrinking
drastically, showing a disturbing
level of economic decline.
Statistics from the Zimbabwe
Revenue Authority show that revenue
collection in the first half declined
by 1% to $1,72 billion from
the same period last year.
Of that revenue, individual tax
(Paye) contributed 25%. This does
not mean that more jobs were created
in the first half but a result of
Zimra’s intensified raids and penalties.
Analysts say although the blitz
yielded fruit, it was unsustainable
in the short to medium term.
In a letter to the International
Monetary Fund, Harare told Washington
that there are significant
risks to the revenue side of the
budget. It said the country was facing
large maturities on domestic T-
bills and loans in 2014.
Government has been borrowing
on the domestic market to finance
recurrent expenditure and
clear debts as revenue inflows are
inadequate to meet competing
needs.
To mitigate the challenges, Zimbabwe
told IMF that Finance minister
Patrick Chinamasa had proposed
a stimulus package of nearly
US$1 billion.
“The package amounts to about
US$ 933 million [6,9% of GDP] and
places a heavier weight on revenue
measures, including US$ 554 million
[4,1% of GDP] from selective
increases in customs duties, targeted
tax compliance operations,
non-tax revenues mobilised largely
by redirecting surplus resources
in several extra-budgetary funds,
and from measures to address custom
revenue leakages,” government
said.
Analysts say raising more revenue
from taxes would deliver the final
blow to the economy.
“Government cannot extract
something from the already bleeding
companies. What government
is planning to do is akin to expecting
to get orange juice from lemons,”
a commercial lawyer said.
Former Finance minister Tendai
Biti said the economy has been
informalised, typical of a collapsing
economy in which people produce
for self-sufficiency.
In his 2014 national budget, Chinamasa
said the old economy was
dead and a new one, based on the
informal sector, had been born,
urging financial institutions to
support small to medium- sized enterprises.
Biti said the informal sector
does not pay taxes but operates on
a layer of licences and pay rents to
warlords. This system is prevalent
at Mupedzanhamo and Siya-So in
Mbare where Zanu PF chefs collect
daily rentals at the expense of the
Harare City Council.
“There is a lot of patronage
which is characteristic of the informal
sector and you see the
merging of the informal sector
with the party’s [Zanu PF] apparatus,”
he said.
Biti said the sectors that can escape
the scalp of the economic crisis
were the extractive and tobacco
industries because they produce
for exports.
Economic commentator Gilbert
Muponda said the most pressing
issue since elections was the failure
to resolve the liquidity crisis
and to get access to international
resources in the form of foreign direct
investment.
“The main problem is isolation
from international capital,” he
said.
Chingwizi on fire...
What remains of a police Land Rover vehicle after it was allegedly torched by angry Chingwizi children and women.
PICTURES: Patrick Chitongo

4 The Standard August 3 to 9 2014
Local News
‘Impi not overstepping ZMC mandate’
Nyarota said the mandate of Impi went beyond that of ZMC as outlined
in Section 249 of the Constitution and in the Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy Act (Aippa)
BY our staff
Information and Media Panel
of Inquiry (Impi) chairman,
Geoff Nyarota has dismissed
claims by Zimbabwe Media
Commission (ZMC) Chairperson
Godfrey Majonga that the
panel was duplicating the functions
of the commission.
Nyarota said Impi would have
preferred that the question of its
mandate vis-á-vis that of ZMC be
raised with the responsible Ministry
of Media, Information and
Broadcasting Services at the time
the panel was constituted over
seven months ago.
ZMC on July 14 wrote to Impi
snubbing an invitation to contribute
to the on-going national
debate on the future of press and
media governance in the country.
Majonga said Impi was duplicating
the mandate of ZMC. He
likened the media panel to an ad
hoc committee which Parliamentarians
wanted to set up to duplicate
the functions and tasks of
the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption
Commission.
“According to Section 249 of the
Constitution, the functions of the
ZMC include to uphold, promote
and develop freedom of the media,
to promote and enforce good
practices and ethics in the media,”
he said.
But in a letter addressed to
Majonga dated July 24, Nyarota
said Impi had noted the concerns
raised by the ZMC regarding its
terms of reference and seeming
duplication of roles.
“In our view, your response
would have been more appropriately
channelled to the Ministry
of Information, Media and
Broadcasting Services just after
the announcement of the setting
up of the Impi in December 2013,”
he wrote.
“It is our belief that ZMC
would have rendered itself, all
media stakeholders and the public
at large great service if it had
voiced then the many issues that
it now grandiloquently raises
with Impi, with the Ministry itself.
By now it is our belief that
these would have been settled,”
said Nyarota.
He said the mandate of Impi
went beyond that of ZMC as outlined
in Section 249 of the Constitution
and in the Access to Information
and Protection of Privacy
Act (Aippa).
“While there are some common
aspects such as conducting research
on issues related to freedom
of the press, freedom of expression,
we also note that regarding
other aspects that may
seem common in terms of the
mandate of both Impi and ZMC,
such as round ethics and regulation
of the media and media diversity,
the Act and the constitution
go on to impose a ‘promotional’
role on the ZMC.”
He said it was not within Impi’s
mandate to promote any of
the aspects being looked at, but
rather to simply enquire and
asses the status quo of various
aspects outlined in the panel’s
terms of reference and to then
further make recommendations
on these issues.
“It is our belief that this is solely
the mandate of ZMC and in
that regard, we do not see duplication,”
Nyarota said.
He said ZMC’s failure to contribute
to the process was of no
benefit to the public at large who
stood to benefit from Impi’s findings.
Geoff Nyarota
CITY OF HARARE
Yali recipient
inspired
Press Statement
Commissioning of the Coventry Road Holding Bay
The Coventry Road Commuter Omnibus Holding Bay will be commissioned on 5 August, 2014.
Kombis that pick and drop passengers at the Copacabana Bus Rank will use the Holding Bay. Logistics for the successful
implementation of using the Holding Bay have been put in place.
From the suburbs kombis will drop passengers at Copacabana and proceed to the Holding Bay from where they will be
called to pick passengers to their various destinations through radio communication. For re-emphasis no passengers will
be dropped or picked up from the Holding Bay.
However during the morning pick-hour kombis can drop passengers and return to the residential suburbs to ferry more
commuters.
A kombi coming from the Holding Bay to the bus rank will be issued with a ticket to be surrendered at the entrance. The
ticket will bear the number plate of the kombi. Only kombis with certified tickets will be allowed to pick up passengers.
Harare Metro Police and the Traffic Enforcement officers will man both the Holding Bay and the Copacabana Bus Rank
with support from the Zimbabwe Republic Police. The two facilities are fitted with booms to regulate the movement of
traffic.
The purpose of the Holding Bay is to ensure that no kombis park on the streets. The City Council is actively engaging
kombi operators to ensure adherence and acceptance.
Initially temporary mobile toilets would be in use while construction of permanent structures is in progress. Refuse bins
have been provided while vendor activities will be strictly regulated.
The Holding Bay will assist in the partial decongestion of city roads. However on their own they will not clear all the congestion
in the city. The City is actively looking at building more such facilities to cater for traffic from Chitungwiza and the
southern suburbs, and for traffic from the East (those that use the Fourth Street Bus Terminus). There is also the need to
introduce mass bus transit system and to gradually phase the smaller commuter omnibuses.
Holding Bays will not create problems. They are a solution in themselves.
Members of the public are urged to shun kombi operators who use illegal pick and drop points because such spots endanger
their lives.
Community participation will greatly assist in decongesting the streets.
We urge the media to educate the public on the dangers of using illegal pick and drop points and also to educate them
on the need for maintaining the aesthetic beauty of Harare by using designated pick and drop points.
Corporate Communications Division
Visit us on: www.hararecity.co.zw
Facebook: The City of Harare
Twitter: @cohsunshinecity
Harare to become a World Class City by 2025
BY John Mokwetsi
MANDelA Washington fellowship
recipient, Zambu lambu (pictured)
feels inspired after the US Secretary
of State, John Kerry mentioned
her name during opening remarks
of the Presidential Summit
in Washington recently.
“It was definitely a surprise to
me. I did not know he would call
out my name and cite me as one
of the young leaders in Zimbabwe
who had done well in their field of
work,” lambu said.
lambu was part of 30 young Zimbabwean
leaders who were selected
to participate in the inaugural
Mandela Washington Fellowship
for Young African leaders Initiative
(Yali), an initiative of US President
Barak Obama announced in
2013.
Obama first launched Yali in
2010 to support an emerging generation
of African leaders as they
work to drive economic growth, enhance
democratic governance, and
strengthen civil society structures.
lambu, beaming with pride, told
The Standard: “It was interesting
to hear such a powerful man rephrase
my biography. I was glad he
acknowledged econet as well. That
is where I have done most of my
work.”
The remarks were heard at her
offices in Harare as colleagues had
communally watched through live
streaming the address in Washington.
Kerry in paying tribute to her
said: “I’m inspired by Zandile lambu
from Zimbabwe. She is leading
the charge to promote inclusive
economic growth. And Zandile
hasn’t just spoken words about
shared prosperity; she’s walked the
talk.
“She’s used her position at econet
Services to create new trade opportunities
for mobile money products
in Africa. She’s partnered with
businesses to provide mobile money
services to local communities.
“You know how hard it is to get
money into people’s hands or move
it or control it. Well, there’s a way
to do that now in this mobile technological
world that we all live in.
And she’s being creative and grabbing
the best of that, and she’s
volunteered to teach other young
women how to design and develop
mobile apps.”
But how was this taken by colleagues
and friends back home?
“You will not be able to start to
imagine the amount of phone calls
and text messages I received when
the world was shone on me,” lambu
said.
During her six weeks in the US
as a Fellow, she took business and
entrepreneurship courses at the
prestigious Yale University.
lambu said she has had valuable
lessons in her bid to keep on improving
and honing her business
skills and spoke on the need for Africa
to take ownership and build
meaningful partnership that grow
the continent.
lambu recalls the wisdom: “In
my time here, I learnt that collaboration
is key. No organisation or
country can solve complex problems
on its own. everyone sees opportunity
in Africa except Africa.”

The Standard August 3 to 9 2014 5
National
Pension Scheme
1994 - 2014
For 20 Years
Your Social Security Our Priority
October this year marks the 20th anniversary
of the birth of the National Social Security
Authority’s Pension and Other Benefits Scheme, also
known as the National Pension Scheme (NPS). It was
October 1994 that employees first contributed to the national
pension scheme.
Since a new social security pension scheme is normally
considered as having reached maturity after 40 years,
when the youngest founding generation retires, the 20
year mark is a significant milestone. The scheme is
half-way towards maturity.
Those who started contributing to the scheme in 1994
at 18 will be 38 now. They will be 22 years away from the
normal pensionable age of 60 and 27 years away from the
latest pensionable age of 65.
The size of one’s pension depends on one’s contribution
period and insurable earnings at retirement.
The expected retirement pension after 40 years of
contributions is 63,3% of insurable earnings at retirement.
After 45 years the insurable earnings replacement rate
is 75%. After 47 years it is 79,7%. After 20 years of
contributions, the insurable earnings replacement rate is
26,7%.
Many current pensioners are receiving pensions that
are more than the percentage of the insurable earnings
they would ordinarily have been entitled to, because
NSSA has set a minimum retirement pension level, which
is currently $60. The minimum survivor’s pension is $30.
The minimum contribution period for a national pension
scheme retirement pension is 10 years. A lump sum
grant, instead of a pension, is payable to those who have
contributed for less than that but not less than 12 months.
First Pensioners
However, to enable some of those who, due to their age,
would have been unable to contribute to the scheme for
10 years prior to retirement, provision was made for up to
seven credit years for contributors who were already aged
49 and above as at October 1, 1994. This meant the first
pensions were payable three years after the scheme began.
The credit years were calculated by subtracting 49 from
the age of the person on 1 October 1994.
At the end of 1998 there were already 3 907 retirement
pensioners. Today there are 41 405.
One of the first beneficiaries of the national pension
scheme was Amos Dube, from Njube in Bulawayo. At 72
years old, he has been receiving a monthly pension from
NSSA since 1998.
“I started contributing to NSSA when the pension scheme
started in 1994 and I retired a few years later, after which
I began to receive my pension.”
National Pension Scheme turns 20
“It is little but it helps. I can pay rent and buy food. When we
started receiving our pension in 1998 I could afford to also pay
school fees for my children because back then schools were not
as expensive as they are now,” said Mr Dube.
Another of the early pensioners, Takaidza Muchinapaya,
from Bikita in Masvingo, said he uses the monthly pension
from NSSA to fund his chicken rearing project. He left formal
employment in 1998.
“I started receiving a monthly pension from NSSA when I left
employment in 1998. Back then we used to use the money to
pay for my children’s school fees and buy books as well as food.
“Now that many of my children are grown up we use the
money to fund a chicken rearing project that we run. We are
able to purchase chicken feed with the money,” he said.
Juliet Chemwanyisa, from Marange, was among the first
beneficiaries to receive the survivor’s benefit.
“My husband died on 28 January in 1996 and I have been
receiving the survivor’s pension since then, together with my
last child who I was pregnant with when my husband died.
When he died we also received a funeral grant from NSSA,
which assisted us with the funeral arrangements,” she said.
Hyperinflationary Era
The pension scheme and pensioners themselves, like all
organisations and individuals in Zimbabwe at that time, had
a difficult time during the hyperinflationary era, where the
value of pensions and other benefits was so badly eroded
by inflation that many beneficiaries did not find it worth
collecting their pensions.
Nevertheless, despite the complete loss in value of
the Zimbabwe dollar and the loss in value of equity and
money market investments, NSSA managed, largely due
to its property investments, to recover. In April 2009, it
became the first pension fund to start paying benefits
to local pensioners in foreign currency, following the
country’s adoption of multi-currency trading.
In August 2008, the maximum insurable earnings
ceiling that had been in place was removed, in order
to help counter the effects of inflation and provide
meaningful benefits.
Because pensions are calculated on a person’s
contribution period and insurable earnings at retirement,
some of those who retired in 2009 and early 2010 on good
salaries in a multi-currency environment are receiving
monthly pensions in excess of $500, since their basic
wages and insurable earnings were the same.
In May 2010 Government reintroduced an insurable
earnings ceiling, which it fixed at $200 per month. As
a result those who retired between then and May 2013
received low pensions, since nobody’s insurable earnings
were higher than $200. In June 2013 the maximum
insurable earnings ceiling was raised to $700.
Investments
As the scheme has developed, NSSA’s investments
have increased so that it is now one of the country’s major
investors.
The bulk of contributions received has to be invested to
grow the pension fund and ensure that those who retire in
40, 45 or 47 years time will be able to receive a pension
that is 63,3%, 75% or 79,7% of their insurable earnings at
retirement.
The full benefits of the pension scheme will only be
realised when the scheme has been going for 40 years
and beyond. By that stage most pensioners will have
been contributing to the pension scheme for most of
their working lives. At that stage the scheme will be
comparable with the well established schemes in more
developed countries, the only limiting factor being the
maximum insurable earnings limit, which by then is
sure to be higher than it is now or may perhaps even have
been removed.
At almost 20 years old, the National Pension Scheme
is half-way towards maturity, towards becoming a
well-established scheme where those who joined the
pension scheme at its inception and continued to
contribute to it for the full 40 years will be able to retire
with a pension that replaces almost two-thirds of their
insurable income.
adrenalin advertising & design 5213
Mr Amos Dube Mr Takaidza Muchinapaya Mrs Juliet Chemwanyisa
NSSA FOR CARE AND PROTECTION

6 The Standard August 3 to 9 2014
Local News
‘Sanctions not to blame
for Zim economic woes’
The European Union Head
of Delegation to Zimbabwe,
Aldo Dell’Ariccia
ends his tour of duty on
August 31. The Standard
correspondent, Edgar Gweshe
(EG) interviewed Aldo Dell’Ariccia
(DA) to find out about his experiences
and hopes for the future. Below
are excerpts of the interview.
EG: For how long have you been
in Zimbabwe and how has been the
experience?
DA: I have been in Zimbabwe for
a little less than four years. I arrived
on September 9 2010 and I am
leaving on August 19 this year, for a
short break. My tour of duty in Harare
ends on 31 August 2014.
My experience in Zimbabwe has
been absolutely positive. There
have been challenging moments,
but all in all, it has been a very interesting
and professionally gratifying
moment in my career.
EG: Have you ever worked anywhere
else in Africa and if so, what
has been your experience with African
states regarding issues of democracy
and political stability?
DA: No, this has been my first
posting in Africa. It has been an interesting
experience after having
worked in Latin America, Asia and
the Pacific.
EG: What is your assessment of
EU-Zim relations since the time
you were appointed to head the EU
delegation to Zimbabwe up to date?
DA: Throughout my stay in Zimbabwe
from 2010 to 2014, together
with the excellent team at the Delegation,
we have managed to progress
well in the engagement with
the government of Zimbabwe in
view of achieving the ultimate goal
for the European Union, which is
to contribute to a more prosperous
and democratic future for the people
of Zimbabwe. I would dare to
say that EU-Zim relations have improved
meaningfully.
EG: How was your relationship
with the Zimbabwean government
and the ruling Zanu PF party given
that in 2002, the EU imposed targeted
sanctions against President
Robert Mugabe and some of his
lieutenants?
DA: I can only comment for the
period of my mandate in Zimbabwe.
During this time, I think we
have managed to establish a frank
and open dialogue with the now
ruling party. Our respective positions
are clear and we have progressed
towards a better understanding
of and commitment to
the process that would lead to the
full normalisation of our relations.
EG: Do you think the targeted
sanctions served their purpose?
DA: The targeted measures were
imposed on individuals and companies
as a means to pressure them
towards the correction of a situation
that the EU considered as
wrong. If we look at Zimbabwe today,
we see that the situation has
improved
EG: Zanu (PF) has been on record
claiming the targeted measures
were responsible for the
downfall of Zimbabwe’s economy.
Do you agree?
DA: I do not think that the prohibition
of entering the territory
of the European Union for certain
individuals, the freezing of
their assets in banks in the EU territory,
and the prohibition for European
companies to enter in business
with the companies owned
by or with links to these individuals
can entail the downfall of an
economy. It is true that the listing
of the Zimbabwe Mining Development
Corporation (ZMDC) has prevented
the diamonds mined in the
Marange area to be sold in the EU,
until the delisting last year, but
other diamonds from other areas
where ZMDC was not involved
could be sold without restrictions.
I think that the reasons for the economic
difficulties Zimbabwe went
through since 2000 should rather
be sought in certain political economic
decisions of the government.
EG: How have you also helped in
ensuring the prevalence of democracy
and respect for human rights
in the country up to date?
DA: The EU has continued being
a reliable partner for the Non-
State actors that are active in the
governance sector, in particular in
the field of the defence of human
rights and the strengthening of the
rule of law.
We have also been working with
the Parliament and the Government
in these areas, in particular
through support to the Human
Rights Commission and other Statutory
Commissions. Together with
other development partners, the
EU has also supported Jomic and
the process to develop the new constitution.
EG: In your own words, how
helpful would it be for the EU to reengage
with Zimbabwe?
DA: The EU is convinced that
Zimbabwe has a key role to play
in the region and in the continent.
Our re-engagement aims at facilitating
the fulfilment of this ambition.
A peaceful and prosperous
southern Africa is an asset for the
whole world.
EG: Lack of transparency and
corruption has been blamed for
Zimbabwe’s failure to realise benefits
from its natural resources such
as diamonds. Do you agree and if
Aldo Dell’Ariccia
so what measures do you think
need to be implemented?
DA: We take note with interest
the government’s declaration of
a zero tolerance concerning corruption.
We are still waiting to see
which mechanisms will be put in
place to ensure the success of this
strategy.
From the EU side, I can only highlight
the fact that when you are in
a proper environment, like the diamonds’
trade centre in Belgium,
there is no space for corruption
and all the operations are transparent
and accounted for. I think that
on the occasion of the two auction
sales of Marange diamonds in Antwerp,
for the first time, the minister
of Finance knew exactly how
much would flow to the coffers of
the State.
EG: Zimbabwe has over the last
years witnessed elections whose
outcomes have often been contested.
Does this affect EU-Zim relations
and what measures need to
be put in place to guard against disputed
polls in the future?
DA: The re-engagement with
Zimbabwe was hampered by the
fact that the credibility of the July
31st elections was put into doubt by
two regional African Election Observation
Missions (the Sadc’s and
the AU’s) and the domestic observers
which registered irregularities
and shortcomings in the process.
The reports of both African
EOMs identify the deficiencies and
weaknesses of the electoral system
and indicate the ways of improving
the electoral environment. The EU
stands ready to support the competent
national authorities in implementing
these recommendations,
if so asked by the government.
EG: Your last words as you leave
Zimbabwe
DA: I am particularly happy
that during my period as the
Head of the EU Delegation, we
place arts and culture very much
at the centre of our intervention
with Zimbabwe. Considering the
amazingly artistic nature of the
people of Zimbabwe, the cultural
cooperation has presented an excellent
opportunity for improving
the mutual understanding and respect
between the EU and Zimbabwe.
Chitungwiza Hospital tackles another ‘bloated tummy’ case
BY VENERANDA LANGA
Chitungwiza Central Hospital
will this week undertake another
special surgical operation
— this time on Penia Kavukatema,
a 34-year-old woman who
is suffering from a condition that
has bloated her stomach, making
her appear like she is in an advanced
stage of pregnancy.
Kavukatema hails from a poor
family that has failed to raise money
for the surgery and through its
spirit of saving lives across the social
strata, Chitungwiza Hospital
has undertaken to offer free surgery
to save her life.
After many months of vain
treatment attempts at traditional
and faith healers, recent medical
check-ups have diagnosed Kavukatema
as carrying a 16, 2 by 15, 5
cm mass in her belly.
This operation will come barely
two weeks after the same hospital
successfully operated on two other
women who also had massive
growths in their bellies.
As Kavukatema narrated her
ordeal to The Standard yesterday,
she appeared in so much pain she
continuously wriggled and ran
out of breath. Her bulging tummy
could easily be mistaken for a seven
to nine months old pregnancy.
She could hardly sit on a chair
during the interview in which
she related that a scan which was
done at Karanda Mission Hospital
in Mount Darwin recently had revealed
the mass in her belly could
affect her liver.
She said her ordeal started in
June when she began to vomit
greenish/yellowish bitter substances.
“I felt some pain on the left side
of my stomach and then vomited
some bitter greenish/yellowish
stuff,” said Kavukatema. “I
sought medical attention at some
clinics and I was given some tablets,”
she said.
Kavukatema said she watched
in horror as her belly began to
swell very fast and she sought
help from traditional and faith
healers but to no avail. She also
visited some medical doctors but
still got no joy until she decided
to go to Karanda Mission Hospital
in Mount Darwin where a scan
was done, eventually detecting the
mass in her stomach.
According to her medical records
from Karanda Mission, the
large mass has a cystic centre
near to the liver, suggestive of a
liver disease. The hospital also
diagnosed her as suffering from
heartburn and nausea.
Penia’s mother Winnie Kavukatema
who accompanied her
during the interview, said before
the illness her daughter was gainfully
employed as a general hand
at some lodge in Harare.
“She was relieved of her duties
after she fell sick and right now
she has no source of income to
support her 14-year-old school-going
child. I stay in the rural areas
with her father who is very old
and is sick himself. We have no
money and Penia was the one who
used to look after the whole family.
“We cannot even afford bus
fares to take her to hospital and
nursing staff had to make donations
to transport her from Karanda
Mission Hospital to Harare
where they referred her to seek
treatment,” she said.
She pleaded for help from
well wishers saying Penia needed
an urgent operation but had
no money to pay for the procedure.
Chitungwiza Central Hospital
chief executive officer Obadiah
Moyo said it was imperative for
people to seek medical attention
whenever they suspected they had
masses in their bodies.
“We recently operated on two
females who had masses in their
bellies. The first mass arose from
territorium issues while the second
mass arose from fibroids
which were left to grow without
attention,” Moyo said.
“Anyone who finds that they
have conditions they do not understand
is welcome to visit
Chitungwiza Central Hospital.
Penia Kavukatema
We will do assessments through
the hospital Public Relations
Department. We are also there
for the socially disadvantaged
members of society,” said Moyo
before inviting Kavukatema to
Chitungwiza where he said she
would be operated on for free
owing to her proven needy circumstances.

The Standard August 3 to 9 2014 7
Investing in People for Social & Economic Justice
ZIMCODD STATEMENT ON THE SETTING UP OF THE
ZIMBABWE DEBT MANAGEMENT OFFICE
On 3 July 2014, the Minister of
Finance and Economic Development,
Honourable Patrick Chinamasa,
issued a press statement on the
Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ)’s
intention to set up a Zimbabwe Debt
Management Office (ZDMO). The
statement focused on the creation
of the ZDMO and the principles of
the Debt Management Bill that was
approved by Cabinet. Whereas there
are a number of aspects that have
a bearing on public accountability
in relationship to public debt
management and loan contraction,
ZIMCODD wishes to flag out a few
issues and state the organization’s
position as outlined below.
We note that this move comes at
a time when the country has been
saddled by an external debt stock
which stands at around US$9,9
billion, constituting about 76 %
of the country’s Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) as of 31 December
2013. Over and above this, the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)
is reported to have accumulated
domestic and international debt
exceeding US$1,35 billion (Newsday,
RBZ saddled with $1.3 billion debt, 6
March 2014).
For the record, ZIMCODD has been
advocating for a lasting solution to
the country’s crippling debt for the
past 14 years, calling for, among
other things; the conducting of a
national debt audit, cancellation
or repudiation of illegitimate and
odious debts and the focus on
domestic resource mobilisation,
transparent and accountable
utilization of the same for human
and social development which
should translate into an improved
GPD per capita.
ZIMCODD is convinced that the debt
question can be dealt with if the
necessary frameworks and political
will is in place. We note that the step
to create ZDMO through an Act of
Parliament is part of the Zimbabwe
Accelerated Arrears Clearance,
Debt and Development Strategy
(ZAADDS) which was announced in
March 2012.
The establishment of ZDMO is a
noble idea which is in line with the
general international best practice.
However, before the setting up of
this office, ZIMCODD calls for an
inclusive All Stakeholders Public
Debt Dialogue Platform that brings
together representatives from the
various sectors of the Zimbabwean
society to input into the process of
finding a lasting solution to the now
threatening national debt crisis.
ZIMCODD categorically denounces
any plans to deal with the debt crisis
through following International
Financial Institutions (IFIs’) macroeconomic
prescriptions that are
not pro-poor. Instead of focusing
on the IMF prescribed Staff
Monitored Programme (SMP) and
other IFIs driven prescriptions, the
Stakeholders Public Debt Dialogue
Platform will enable the general
citizenry, who are responsible for
repaying the debts already accrued
and any future loans, to participate
and input in the processes, thus
enhancing transparency and
accountability.
Zimcodd is gravely concerned by the
Minister’s proposal in his statement
to promote the principle of vesting
the power to borrow in a single
authority that is the Minister of
Finance. ZIMCODD is strongly against
the proposal to have the power to
contract loans resting in a single
authority as this exposes the whole
nation to the wisdom or lack thereof,
of the Minister at the time. We also
note that this is unconstitutional as
it violates section 298 (Principles of
Public Accountability) and Section
299 (Parliamentary Oversight of
State revenues and Expenditures)
let alone the letter and spirit of good
governance. Where there shall be
need for the country to contract any
loans in the future, Zimcodd stands
solidly on its known position that
this should be done in a transparent
manner so as to promote ethos
of public accountability and state
responsiveness. The executive must
ensure that Parliament must at every
opportunity be afforded space to
exercise its oversight role on all state
revenues and expenditure as stated
in Section 299 of the Constitution.
The composition of the proposed
External Loans and Domestic Debt
Management Committee (ELDDC)
is not adequate as it marginalises
the public by only including the
Reserve Bank Governor, Permanent
Secretary of the Ministry of
Finance and the Attorney General.
In that respect, ZIMCODD solidly
demands the inclusion of the
public or its representatives
in this committee through the
Parliament (Parliamentary Portfolio
Committees) and Civil Society
Organisations that are working on
debt and economic justice to ensure
transparency and accountability.
The emphasis on reporting on
debt management in the proposal
is commendable as it promotes
transparency and accountability.
However, the notion that the
Minister will report in not later
than 3 months after the end of a
financial year is unconstitutional. In
terms of Section 300 (4) (a) of the
country’s Constitution, the Minister
is supposed to report twice a year
to Parliament on the performance
of loans raised by the State and the
loans guaranteed by the State. Most
importantly, the reports must be
disseminated to the public since they
are the ones who repay the loans
through taxes and levies. Citizens
should be informed of all loans with
terms and conditions of the loans
published in accessible public media
before and after they are signed.
In light of the above, ZIMCODD
restates its position on the roadmap
towards resolving the national debt
crisis as:
1. An urgent Official Public Debt
Audit- As the starting point towards
a lasting solution, a national public
debt audit will surface the origins,
structure, and legitimacy, how
much is owed to who, growth and
impact of the loans on social and
economic development. ZIMCODD
therefore calls for the Zimbabwe
Parliament to immediately set up a
Public Debt Commission to conduct
an official debt audit before any
debt relief mechanism can be
considered. The commission should
utilise the doctrine of odious debt,
and recommend the repudiation of
any previous loans which fall in this
category.
2. Convening of an All Stakeholders
Public Debt Dialogue Platform that
brings together representatives from
the various sectors of our society
(faith based organizations, labour,
special interest groups, among
others), parliament, representatives
of creditors, GoZ, to inform the
process of finding a sustainable
solution on the national debt crisis.
3. Total and Unconditional
Cancellation of the debt- IFIs’
macro-economic prescriptions
that have a history of infringing on
people’s social and economic rights
must not be accepted as conditions
for debt relief. Moreso, those
responsible for the management
of any public finances, which may
include but not limited to proceeds
from debt relief/cancellation, must
adhere to pricnciples of public
accountability and transparency as
set out in sections 298 and 299 of
the country’s constituion, which
sections must be accompanied by
strong and effective public finances
management mechanisms that
safeguard public resources from
abuse and the vice of corruption.
4. Domestic Resource Mobilisation:
Instead of focusing on repaying debts
in order to be able to borrow again,
the GoZ should focus on domestic
resources mobilisation and plugging
of illicit outflows through high levels
of corruption, tax evasion and tax
dodging in the extractive industry,
particularly the mining sector.
FOR A DETAILED POSITION PAPER
CONTACT:
Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and
Development (ZIMCODD)
226, Samora Machel Ave, Eastlea
HARARE
Tel: +263-4-776830
803, 8thFloor, Charter House,
Leopold Takawira
BULAWAYO
Tel: +263-9-886594/5
Email:zimcodd@zimcodd.co.zw.
Website: www.zimcodd.org.zw

8 The Standard August 3 to 9 2014
Local News
Mandizadza: The restless spirit
The spirit of
Mandizadza is
disappointed that
Zimplats has reneged
on many promises
that they made to the
clan, like securing jobs
for them
By Phyllis MBanje
Zimplats’ Bimha Mine recently collapsed
The mishaps that have
been witnessed at Zimplats,
including the recent
collapse of Bimha
Mine, could easily be explained
in scientific terms, yet
there is a dark foreboding secret
of a restless spirit seeking appeasement
— the spirit of Mandizadza,
according to local belief.
Mandizadza is a legend, according
to his descendants. Some of
the old warrior of yester-year’s
many historic feats include stopping
tribal enemies from taking
cattle and women.
Mandizadza is said to have
owned over 2 000 cattle and vast
tracts of land in the Mhondoro-
Ngezi area.
However, when the white colonialists
came, he was dispossessed
of his wealth and land and
since then, his spirit has been
seeking compensation and appeasement.
Last week, The Standard
trekked down some of Mandizadza’s
descendants in Chatambudza
village under Chief Murambwe,
deep in Mhondoro-Ngezi
to get an understanding of this
phenomenon and how it is connected
to the “bizarre” events at
Zimplats.
Most of the villagers claimed
they were aware of the legend and
when asked about him, they respectfully
pointed out the homesteads
of some of his descendants
who occupy almost half of
the village.
Further enquiries led us to one
Gift Chatambudza who is said to
be possessed by the spirit of Mandizadza.
When we found him he unnerved
the news team by declaring
that he had sensed that he
would receive visitors. He is an
unassuming individual who candidly
narrates the history of his
revered legendary ancestor.
“The happenings at the mine
are no coincidence. They are
warnings to the authorities that
they need to recognise the role
that Mandizadza played. He was
a hero who fought for his people
and was not cowed by invaders,”
he said.
Chatambudza said all that his
ancestor was seeking was compensation
in the form of land for
his descendants who would then
observe all the appropriate cultural
rites.
“There are rituals that need to
be performed as per command of
the spirit medium,” he said.
He however, dismissed previous
ceremonies which he called
a sham because they did not involve
the family of Mandizadza.
“Our ancestor prevented the invaders
from snatching cattle from
his people. He would capture the
cattle and return them to the owners
and that is why he was nicknamed
Rudzivamombe [guardian
of cattle],” Chatambudza said.
Mandizadza did this in a very
dramatic and daring way. He ingeniously
devised a plan to ambush
enemy troops.
“He moulded rocks to make
them look like cattle and even attached
horns to make them look
real. Then his warriors would
hide inside the artifacts. When
the enemy troops stumbled across
these they would be thrown off in
surprise and he would then take
advantage of their shock and
pounce on them,” he said.
According to documents which
chronicle his history, Mandizadza,
who was born into the Musarirambi
family, grew up a fearless youngster.
His prowess and large family
gained him favour from his father
who gave him a large piece of
land known as Chiwi along Munyati
river. But his land was invaded
by one Ngezi and the two sides
fought ferociously for days until
Ngezi surrendered.
Mandizadza decided to engage
‘Use of mercury exposes communities to health,
By Our COrresPOndent
The effects of the use of mercury
by small-scale miners
in Zimbabwe have reached
alarming levels amid revelation
that the miners that use the substance
have been found to have
toxic traces of mercury in their
bodies.
Mercury is a powerful neurotoxin
that accumulates as methyl
mercury in the environment and
in the bodies of marine animals.
Small-scale miners reportedly
prefer using the chemical because
it is affordable and easy to
use, although it causes a lot of environmental
and health challenges.
Bulawayo Tailjet Consultancy
Services’ managing consultant,
Dennis Shoko, said an environmental
and health survey recently
done by a team of French and
Germany experts together with
his organisation proved that continued
use of mercury was causing
catastrophic harm to the environment,
animals and human
beings.
“The major findings were that a
lot of mercury was going into the
water and affecting fish particularly
up to the food chain from the
omnivorous fish and the carnivorous
fish,” he said.
He said a sampling exercise
was done in the “hot spot” areas
of Kadoma and Chakari and
a control group had surveyed
more than 200 km away at Chikwaka
Clinic, 50 km north east of
Harare, where it established that
the use of mercury by gold miners
was causing a serious health
hazard.
“According to the health survey,
the targeted group were smallscale
miners directly involved
in gold mining; with those working
on the stamp mill and those
responsible for the burning of
the amalgam, which is the mixture
of gold and mercury, particularly
mercury intoxicated,” said
Shoko.
“Even those who were not close
to the mills had mercury in their
blood. Again, those who have
been working in the mine for
more than five years and had left,
had high concentration of mercury
in their bodies,” he added.
Shoko said a higher percentage
of amalgam burners had elevated
levels of mercury in their bodies.
“Using the medical score sum,
it was possible to diagnose a
chronic mercury intoxication
in 70% amalgam burners, 63%
of otherwise occupationally exposed
population and 23% of a
formerly occupationally exposed
group,” said Shoko.
“About 49% of all men, 15% of
all children and less than 3% of
all women sampled were mercury
intoxicated in the Kadoma
area and 70% of amalgam burners
were also mecury intoxicated.
More than 30% of residents that
are not amalgamators were also
affected,” he said.
Shoko said 22 out of 46 children
had a high calculated total mercury
intake. He said mercury was a
dangerous substance as it enters
a person’s nervous system and
causes serious health complications.
“Mercury gets into people
through inhalation and through
the skin while washing. When it
gets into the body, it causes a lot
of psychomotor problems including
loss of memory, metallic taste,
gingivitis, blue line at gum margins,
kidney problems, muscular
tremors and madness,” said
Shoko.
Shoko said mercury use could
also affect unborn children and
could cause sterility.
“During the survey, it was dis-

Local News
The Standard August 3 to 9 2014 9
behind mishaps at Zimplats mine
Gift Chatambudza is said to be possessed with the spirit of Mandizadza
Ngezi as an emissary and posted
him on the other side, ensuring
that no enemy would sneak into
his territory.
For years to come, Mandizadza
fought with enemy warriors and
his popularity spread far. However,
the coming of the white men
was to change everything.
“He was not afraid of the white
man and fought back when they
invaded his land. It is said that
at one time he grabbed a white
man’s gun and killed him with his
own weapon,” said Chatambudza.
His new enemy pursued him relentlessly
and overnight Mandizadza
turned fugitive.
“They wanted his head and his
family became afraid and started
identifying themselves with other
names.” he said.
Although there are no details
of his actual death, Mandizadza
disappeared and was never seen
alive again. His land and great
wealth were taken over and puppet
chiefs were put in his place.
Part of the land was designated
into estates and the local people
were resettled elsewhere and
that is how the great Mandizadza
lost his kingdom.
“His spirit has not known peace
since then because those who
came later failed to honour his
great deeds. His direct descendants
should have this land back,”
he said.
“We therefore ask, what should
be done to Mandizadza’s family as
a reward for their ancestor’s bravery
and courage,” said Chatambudza
who first became possessed
when he was only seven years old.
The family is also requesting
Zimplats head of corporate affairs, Busi Chindove
that Zimplats rename the Chitsuwa/Island
dam.
“It should be called Mandizadza
and we have since engaged mine
officials and are currently negotiating,”
he said with confidence.
The dam is being constructed at
a cost of almost US$20 million.
It is located five kilometres
from Turf Village in Mhondoro
and will be split into the North
and South dams which will contain
30 560 megalitres of water.
Chatambudza said recently a
Zimplats representative (name
supplied) paid him a visit together
with local authority officials.
“I gave them these documents
so that they also become aware of
the history behind. Mandizadza
does not seek to harm anyone but
he is getting angrier,” he said.
“We battle to contain his fury
but we can only do so much. Zimplats
and the local leadership
should rectify this issue.
“He is disappointed that the
company has reneged on many
promises that they made to the
clan, like securing jobs for some
members.
“The least they can do is to
make sure that the family of this
great warrior does not starve. Our
ancestor was a noble man who
looked after his own. It is payback
time,” said Chatambudza.
Some of the mysterious happenings
include the falling of an
unknown object at the Turf Village,
last year in July.
Although this was dismissed as
part of “satellite equipment” that
fell from the sky, the locals think
otherwise. No conclusive report
was ever made about the origins
of the object which was made of
aluminum material and resembled
a rocket.
Then there is the alleged leakage
of the Island dam which the
villagers are saying is linked to
the spirits of the area that are expressing
their anger.
Recently, 50% of Bimha Mine
which is the largest, collapsed
and the mine authorities said
it was due to a fault which they
had been monitoring for a long
time.
Zimplats head of corporate affairs,
Busi Chindove said the
mine was not in control when it
came to traditional matters.
“In all our interactions with
traditional and community leadership,
we walk with the local
government authorities and are
guided accordingly by them,” she
said.
“Issues of traditional boundaries
and jurisdictions including
chieftainship are under the local
government authorities and
as such, as a company we have
no say in these matters. Beyond
that, Zimplats has no influence
where traditional ceremonies
are concerned. These are led
and conducted by the traditional
chiefs.”
Responding to the renaming
of the dam, Chindove said the
Mhondoro Ngezi Rural District
Council (MNRDC) had told them
that the matter had been tabled
before council.
“Once a resolution has been
passed we will be advised accordingly
on the name that has been
decided for the dam. We are still
waiting for that resolution and
will accept council’s decision,”
Chindove said.
On employing the descendants
of Mandizadza, Chindove said
they had a policy to engage locals.
“Zimplats has implemented
a policy that has resulted in the
majority of employees at its mining
operations coming from the
local community which we believe
is the right stance to take,”
she said.
environmental challenges’
covered that the soils and the water from the
five-kilometre radius of each stamp mill had
very elevated levels of mercury in them,” he
said.
Shoko said it was high time the country
employed cleaner mercury-free technologies.
He said the government should ratify and
implement the Minamata Convention on
Mercury, a global treaty to protect human
health and the environment from the adverse
effects of mercury.
The Minamata Convention represents a
global step forward to reduce exposure to
mercury, a toxic chemical with significant
health effects on the brain and nervous system.
The major highlights of the Minamata
Convention on Mercury include a ban on
new mercury mines, the phase-out of existing
ones, control measures on air emissions,
and the international regulation of the informal
sector for artisanal and small-scale gold
mining.
“We have decided that mercury should now
be banned,” said Shoko.
EMA spokesperson Steady Kangata said
the government was working to ensure that
mercury use was phased out.
“We have signed the Minamata Convention
and we are waiting for the ratification
and we will then take the convention to parliament.
If it is agreed to, it means we might
be going to a mercury-free period,” said Kangata.
“So let’s prepare for this mercury-free
technology and if we don’t ratify the Minamata
Convention, the problem will be
that if other countries do so, we might be
a dumping ground for mercury because we
won’t be bound by the convention,” said
Kangata.
Gold panners who use mercury have been found to have toxic traces of the substance in their bodies.

10 The Standard August 3 to 9 2014
Comment & Analysis
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Compensate
Chingwizi villagers
Violent demonstrations rocking Chingwizi holding
camp are a wake-up call for authorities to address the
concerns of the villagers before something nasty happens
there.
After five months living in the squalid camp, demos are becoming
a daily occurrence as disgruntled villagers vent anger
that has been building up for a long time.
On Friday, angry women and children burnt two police vehicles
while protesting against the relocation of a clinic to a
new site, many kilometres away from Chingwizi. Their men
folk were reportedly not involved in this.
The night before, the disgruntled villagers had demolished
a makeshift structure that served as the office of the district
administrator.
These incidents reflect the growing anger at the camp
where families have endured a hard time living in tents and
in the open like refugees in their own free country.
When a government condemns people to destitution in the
dustbowl of Mwenezi, and then continuously makes false
promises that their lives would be improved, the results are
predictable.
We are likely to see more of these protest actions by women
and children, and eventually the men, unless government
fulfills its promise to allocate enough land for the displaced
villagers.
Government promised families five hectares each in Nuanetsi
Ranch at the time they were removed from the land of
their ancestors to make way for the construction of the Tokwe-Mukosi
Dam.
The one-hectare pieces of land that the villagers are now
being forced to accept are an insult to people whose livelihoods
are tied to the tilling of the land.
No family can survive growing crops and rearing livestock
in the arid district on such a small piece of land where they
would also be required to build their homestead.
Signs that villagers were unhappy first emerged on May 10
this year when they forced 10 government ministers to flee
the camp after heckling and booing them.
They declared that Provincial Affairs minister Kudakwashe
Bhasikiti should never set foot at the camp, threatening
him with reprisals.
Now the villagers consider the police — who are out in
force to maintain law and order at the camp — as part of the
machinery that is being used to oppress them.
By protesting, the villagers are sending a message to government
that they can’t bear the mistreatment any longer.
And government can no longer pretend that all is well at
Chingwizi as the situation is out of hand and calls for wellconsidered
action to calm the villagers.
President Robert Mugabe, who has not set foot at the camp,
needs to go there and reassure them that his government is
committed to paying fair compensation for them.
He should also assure the villagers they will get the Promised
Land that would enable them to sustain their livelihoods
without begging for handouts.
Churches should be regulated
Govt sitting on its laurels
as roads claim lives
Last week, 18 people died when
a Beitbridge-bound commuter
omnibus they were travelling
in was involved in a head-on collision
with a truck along the Masvingo-Beitbridge
Road.
Over the years, the same highway
has recorded a myriad of fatal
accidents and most of these
accidents have been caused by either
side-swiping involving heavy
and light vehicles, or head-on collisions.
Such accidents occur on
highways that are narrow.
In 2009, MDC-T leader Morgan
Tsvangirai’s wife Susan died
when the car she was travelling
in overturned when it was sideswiped
by a truck. In the same
year, a bus belonging to Mhunga
was side-swiped by a haulage
truck and the accident claimed
more than 40 lives. The Mhunga
accident prompted the government
to withdraw the bus company’s
public passengers’ permit.
Withdrawing the permit for a
single bus company was not the
panacea to the road carnages witnessed
on the Harare-Beitbridge
Road. We have seen several accidents
happening along the same
highway while our government is
Government should improve road infrastructure.
sitting on its laurels.
Recently government increased
tollgate fees saying the money
would be used to ameliorate road
infrastructure in the country, including
the Harare-Beitbridge
Road. I am surprised that over the
years, the same government has
been collecting tollgate fees but no
meaningful development has taken
place on our roads.
In terms of priority, government
should have given first priority
to the Harare-Beitbridge
highway considering it is one of
I
beg to differ with those wailing
about government attempts to
register and regulate churches
(The Standard, July 20 to 26 2014).
I don’t think the government intends
to direct how people should
worship their God.
There is a school of thought arguing
that, by virtue of the government
being accused of human
rights abuses by sections of the society,
it is therefore not fit to talk
about or correct human rights violations
by other sections of society.
This is a stale argument. It’s
akin to saying a criminal cannot
see a crime being committed and
prevent it.
It is common knowledge that
the advent of multi-currencies
has seen the birth of a multitude
of churches. And I daresay the
majority of these are money-making
schemes disguised as churches.
We have seen a host of these
churches breaching the very foundation
upon which the Christianity
religion is founded.
The word of God has been twisted
to earn off the spiritually weak
and the lazy helicopters and mansions
which some bona fide business
executives can only dream
of, armed bodyguards, top-of-therange
vehicle fleets, vast tracts of
land, some of it illegally acquired,
while married women and girls
are being preyed upon. Outright
satanic acts are being practised.
To add to this evil section of the
church, certain apostolic sects
hinder children from access to education,
which is a basic and universal
human right.
They don’t end there; they go
on and forcibly marry off underage
girls and young women to men
old enough to be their fathers and
grandfathers at worst.
It is also common knowledge
that a host of these prophets, or
is it “profits”, are either n’angas
(witchdoctors) or conmen in suits.
We have seen them performing
dubious miracles they couldn’t
stand by when taken to task.
Some have dabbled in soccer results
predictions in God’s name,
failing dismally while at it.
I believe a government worth
its salt, battered as it may be, in
some quarters, should be seen to
take some form of action against
these fraudsters that are fouling
the gospel of Jesus and committing
untold atrocities against poor
unsuspecting congregants.
F Marongedza, Byo.
the busiest in the country. The
road continues to claim the lives
of people on a daily basis while
the government pockets tollgate
fees.
In my own view, I think government
should urgently dualise narrow
highways if road accidents
are to be lessened. Priority should
be given to the Harare-Masvingo
-Beitbridge highway which needs
urgent dualisation as the road is
too narrow.
Wezhira,
Masvingo
Water crisis looms in Chitungwiza
An old woman sits outside her makeshift dwelling at Chingwizi camp in March.
Government should assure villagers they will get land that would enable them to
sustain their livelihoods without begging for handouts.
Residents of Chitungwiza
should brace for protracted
periods of dry taps in the
coming months. Most boreholes
and wells which have been the
sources of water in Chitungwiza
would be drying up due to the water
table which is going down.
This means that wells and boreholes
which have been the salvation
of families in this town would
either run dry or would only produce
little quantities of water for
short periods. The water table can
only go up when it rains and that
is when the rainy season begins in
November.
It is my hope that our City Fathers
would improve water provision
in the town, especially at this
time of the year when other alternative
sources (boreholes and
wells) face a threat. We have over
the years been exposed to waterborne
diseases particularly at this
time of the year when wells and
boreholes dry up.
Families are forced to use water
from unprotected sources and
in most cases it is the women and
wHERE TO
wRITE TO uS
Write to us at editor@standard.co.zw or
to Letters, PO Box BE1165, Belvedere,
Harare, or SMS to 0772 472 500.
Letters should be short and to the point. They must carry
the writer’s name and address, even if a nom de plume is
used. Letters published in other papers are less likely to
be used in ours.
children who bear the brunt.
Council is demanding money
from residents, but it is doing
nothing to improve service delivery,
particularly in the area of water
and sanitation. Taps are always
dry in Chitungwiza and supplies
come once a week — the situation
is dire at schools, clinics and shopping
centres.
From the look of things, there
is no immediate solution to the
water situation in Chitungwiza.
Our council is plagued by unending
labour disputes, an issue that
has taken a toll on service delivery.
Government should intervene
in such situations and assist struggling
councils like Chitungwiza.
Worried Resident, Chitown

Comment & Analysis
The Standard August 3 to 9 2014 11
SMS FEEDBACK
THE Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human
Rights would do a better job taking
NSSA to court for discriminating against
invalid pensioners instead of fighting
Zinara over a US$1 increase in tollgate
fees. Currently NSSA is giving a paltry
US$30/month as invalidity pension
compared to the US$60 plus they are
paying other pensioners. This, I think, is
a violation of the new constitution.
B Chisamba, Rusape
ZIMRA should be allowed to tax pastors.
How on earth can anyone suggest that
churches import vehicles duty free even
if they are for tourism purposes? Zimra
is looking for money to rescue government,
yet somebody is opening the
floodgates. A vehicle is a luxury item
and luxury is expensive.
MT Darwin
THE West was up in arms seeking the
perpetrators when a plane was shot in
Ukraine and innocent lives were lost.
However, innocent lives being lost in
Gaza seem to be of no consequence to
them.
Shocking. Zigomo
ZANU PF thinkers must be working
overtime now that Grace has been added
to the matrix. Weevils beware.
Observer
AGE-CHEATING is killing our sporting
disciplines. Everyone must love sports
enough to promote growth through the
injection of new blood for continuity.
Revai, Hatfield
OPINION
Mugabe must be allowed to go home and rest
The Oracle
BY TANGAI CHIPANGURA
As Zanu PF goes to congress in December,
many Zimbabweans will expect that
President Robert Gabriel Mugabe, now
90, will accept he has had his time and should
be allowed to rest.
I am one of the millions that share the view
that President Mugabe has built a rare legacy.
Zimbabweans cherish this legacy so much
they would be saddened to see all of it discarded
into the sewer, simply because certain people
within Zanu PF are too afraid to lose, not
him, but their selfish interests.
There is empirical evidence the world over
that those who overstay their welcome will of
necessity put their host in a state of perpetual
discomfort.
The name of President Mugabe features
strongly among prominent men in history, Napoleon
Bonaparte, Tshaka Zulu, Benito Mussolini,
Nelson Mandela, Adolf Hitler, Winston
Churchill, Kwame Nkrumah, George Washington,
Mao Tse Tung, Julius Nyerere, Kenneth
Kaunda, Samora Machel, Kamuzu Banda
— men whose fortunes blossomed but had
doors of those fortunes necessarily closed
when the time came.
Some, like the legendary Mandela, left the
arena even when millions all over the world
wanted them to stay. Others, like Hitler, took
their lives because they feared they would be
killed by their own people. Others too, like
Banda, old tearful Kaunda of Zambia and lately
Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak had their political
careers obliterated by winds of democratic
change. Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi even died
still clinging on to power when all was lost.
President Mugabe appears stuck in the
league of a tiny minority of leaders, almost
miniscule to the point of invisibility, who by
reason of either misinformation or deliberate
mischief, fail to acknowledge the principle of
political diseconomies of scale.
There is no doubt that President Mugabe has
individually contributed invaluably towards
the independence and well-being of Zimbabwe.
But then, it remains a fact his contribution
towards the collective pain and suffering
that the people of this country have endured
in the time of his reign, especially in the past
decade, outweighs the President’s erstwhile
achievements.
Many Zimbabweans still remember Gukurahundi,
the DRC intervention, Murambatsvina,
a ruined economy along with the collapse in
education, health, road and electricity infrastructure,
extensive poverty and election violence,
among other things.
While this is a strong case for the President’s
immediate retirement, there is even a stronger
case for his departure. The laws of this country,
and indeed many other places, do not permit
civil or public servants to be employed beyond
the age of 65.
This universally acceptable position is justified
by both intellectual and biological reason
— that all human beings, even those that claim
to be in their positions on an election ticket —
are subject to deteriorating mental and physical
capacity with age.
It is very difficult to convince anyone, Your
Excellency, that at such an advanced age, your
capacity for good judgment can still satisfy the
demands of millions of young Zimbabweans.
Yet, it is an undeniable fact that the person
of President Mugabe has been so present in
the Zimbabwean political landscape that it has
engendered a strong belief, especially in Zanu
PF, that should he step down, the party, the
State, and the nation will crumble — the “no
Zimbabwe without Mugabe” mentality.
It is an undeniable fact that President
Mugabe and the struggle for Zimbabwe are one
in popular memory. And in the minds of the
old men and women at Shake-Shake building,
the name Mugabe and Zanu PF are one.
All this gives him unchallengeable liberation
credentials that come indispensable in
every Zanu PF election campaign. That is the
reason why each year the President says he
would have long called it a day but he stays on
because he is being “asked” to soldier on.
WikiLeaks claimed the head of the United
Nations once offered the President a lucrative
retirement package if he stood down, but his
administration has vehemently denied this.
Such a prospect would certainly come as
God-given to many Zimbabweans who believe
the President is now over the hill and is no
longer capable of comprehending issues affecting
the country.
There are, however, still many that believe
President Mugabe may be old but is still in a
President Robert Mugabe
good state of health. Some four years ago, Political
analyst Ernest Mudzengi said: “The
only fear is that Zanu PF is hanging by him
and his exit might mean the end of the party. It
will, however, be in his best interest and that of
the country for him to retire before his health
starts failing him. Whatever will happen after
that might be catastrophic for the country because
there is no guarantee that there will be a
peaceful transition of power and that anarchy
will not occur.”
It is for this reason that President Mugabe
should, at the coming congress of his party,
consider appointing a successor — that being
the only way a smooth and bloodless transition
from the Mugabe era could be guaranteed.
While the emergence of his wife Grace in
the politburo is certain to protect and further
the Gu-shung-oh dynasty, prospects of her
landing the presidency are for many reasons,
very remote.
•Feedback: tchipangura@standard.co.zw
LAST week, government said it was proposing
stringent driving regulations to
curb road carnages. This followed a horrific
accident that had occurred along
the Beitbridge-Masvingo Road which
claimed 18 lives. I don’t think we need
these so-called driving regulations, but
we have to rehabilitate our major roads.
While I agree on the strict regulations
for both public and privately-owned vehicle
drivers, there is also need to improve
our roads, mainly highways. Lives
have been lost along the Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge
highway. The only way
to tame the traffic jungle along the road
in question is dualisation.
Motorist
WE are not surprised with Zanu PF supporters
stampeding to endorse President
Robert Mugabe’s wife Grace as the
Zanu PF women’s league secretary. This
is not new in the party which thrives on
bootlicking.
Zvido Zvevanhu
Voluntary Media
Council
of Zimbabwe
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12 The Standard August 3 to 9 2014
Comment & Analysis / Opinion
Zanu PF should
wake up and
smell the coffee
sundayopinion
BY PIUS WAKATAMA
Patrick Chinamasa
Rugare Gumbo
First, I thought there was
something wrong with
my glasses. I took out my
hanky, wiped my reading
glasses and looked at the
newspaper again. Surely, there it
was in black and white: Zanu PF
MP blasts indigenisation policy. I
never thought I would ever come
across something like this in my
life-time.
The news item was published in
one of the daily newspapers on July
27 2014. It read, “A Zanu PF legislator,
has castigated government’s indigenisation
policy saying it needs
to be revised because it is retarding
efforts to revive the economy. The
MP told the National Assembly last
week, while debating the motion to
revive the economy, that the policy
was spooking investors”.
The MP, whose name I have left
out just in case he might say he
was misquoted, was also reported
as saying, “Our policies are anti-investment.
As far as foreign direct
investment is concerned, we should
look at our policies. We are running
around looking for investors. We
have our indigenisation policy of
51 and 49 percent. We are the ones
who came up with that policy, never
mind Zanu PF or MDC, but it is
Zimbabweans that came up with
that policy.
“The investor is bringing in his
or her capital in his or her own cash
or funding, it is his or her capital
that we are interested in. We want
$5 million and we now say we want
to control 51 percent of the $5 million?”
If he was not misquoted, I thank
God because finally we were seeing
some patriots, like him, who have
decided to speak the truth, for the
sake of Zimbabwe, even if it means
going against the party or President
Robert Mugabe.
The indigenisation policy has
been, and will continue to be, the
root of our country’s economic
problems. It would be funny, if it
were not so tragic, that our President
does not even see that our
country is in a coma and needs to be
revived as pointed out by the Zanu
PF MP. The President is on record
as saying our economy is on the
mend and therefore, we have nothing
to worry about.
He was joined by Rugare Gumbo,
Zanu PF spokesperson, who appears
to have no inkling, whatsoever,
as to what the word economy
means. Gumbo recently told
the State media that, “Tight liquidity
conditions are because of our
inability to service our loans.” He
went on to say, “It’s not that there
is no money in Zimbabwe. There is
plenty of money. Look at the cars
that are there, look at the construction
of houses — money is there
but people are not in the first place
banking. They are hoarding. And
if you are keeping money in your
ceiling, there can’t be money in the
market. So our people have to learn
to save, to bank. And the banks have
the responsibility to give back what
they have saved. But money is there.
There is plenty of money in Zimbabwe.”
The man is obviously out of his
depth. When Mugabe and his party
spokesman talked about the growth
of the economy, Finance minister,
Patrick Chinamasa had revised
downwards the economic growth
forecast which he had put forward
during the presentation of the national
budget last year.
Presently he is desperately crisscrossing
the globe in a futile effort
to raise the much-needed foreign investment
for the country. I wish I
lived in their make-believe world,
where the number of cheap Japanese
cars on the street are a measure
of economic growth, instead of
this impoverished Zimbabwe which
the rest of us live in.
For a long time it was only the
enlightened and courageous, non-
Zanu PF Zimbabweans, who spoke
openly against the disastrous policies
of the ruling party. These were
immediately painted with the “sellout”
brush by blindly loyal, and
even threatening, party members.
Zanu PF members did not dare
stray from the party line. It is, therefore,
so gratifying to behold a Zanu
PF member of parliament who has
stood up to be counted on the side
of truth. Our prayers should be that
many more Zanu PF leaders may
be emboldened to stand up against
those policies and practices which
are destroying our country.
John Robertson, a leading and
internationally recognised Zimbabwean
economist and journalist,
has often spoken out about how
our economy has been run down by
poor policies and how the country is
running out of time to fix it. Robertson,
who is often ridiculed by senior
Zanu PF officials for criticising
Mugabe and Zanu PF’s disastrous
policies, has emphatically told the
government to bin the Indigenisation
and Economic Empowerment
Act. Instead of doing just that and
asking for help in replacing it from
knowledgeable Zimbabweans, the
IMF and other international financial
institutions, Zanu PF would
like to play games as usual. They
are sure they can con their way
through this mess through window
dressing solutions.
Zimbabwe has a total of US$9,9
billion in domestic and external
debt. Because of this debt the country
is not able to get fresh lines of
credit to get the country’s devastated
economy going again. In order to
get more lines of credit, the government
is desperately trying to convince
the IMF that they are now on
the right track.
They told the IMF that they are
going to make sure parastatals are
reformed so that they become profitable
and thereafter the country
will be able to pay its way. In a letter
to IMF director Christine Lagarde,
jointly signed by Chinamasa and
Reserve Bank governor, John Mangudya,
Zimbabwe said the amendments
would require all public entities
to submit their corporate and
financial plans to the Finance and
Economic Development minister
before the beginning of the new fiscal
year.
The press then reported that
government planned to amend the
Public Finance Management Act
to give the Ministry of Finance
powers to oversee parastatals and
local authorities to stop the rot at
the entities. Writing in NewsDay,
Chief Business Reporter Ndamu
Sandu said, “This comes when
corporate governance practices
have been alien at parastatals
with some having gone for years
without producing audited financial
results.”
At this same time, Chinamasa is
reported as saying government is
considering shutting down non-performing
state-owned companies because
they have become a drag on
the country’s economic recovery efforts.
Speaking at a conference of
the Institute of Chartered Accountants,
Chinamasa said, “We have
started tackling problems at state
enterprises and parastatals which
used to contribute 40% but are now
milking the economy as they are
not contributing.”
The IMF has previously set standards
for Zimbabwe to follow in order
to achieve economic recovery.
What makes the government think
they will now accept this rigmarole
in the place of sound and realistic
economic policies?
Chinamasa has worked hard and
has tried his best as minister of Finance,
but until he realises that the
only solution to Zimbabwe’s economic
problems lies in throwing
Zanu PF policies that he knows very
well to be useless, into the dust-bin,
and asking for assistance to craft
new workable policies, he will be a
great failure.
He will never achieve the development
that many Zimbabweans believe
he is after. The economy will
eventually crumble to nothing under
his watch. He needs to stand
up and be counted now, before time
runs out for Zimbabwe.
History teaches that economic
meltdown is usually closely followed
by violence and chaos. He,
who has ears to hear, let him hear.
‘My thoughts on religious tourism were misrepresented’
The comment entitled, Churches’
duty exemption on cars
ill-advised on the Comment
and Analysis page of The Standard
July 27 to August 2 2014, was
a highly damaging distortion of
my statements on religious tourism
and the churches’ role in the
sector.
What I said and clearly meant
to any person of goodwill, is that
churches, to the extent that they
operate tourism businesses, will
benefit from all the incentives
that are on offer to spur tourism
growth.
If they run restaurants, conference
facilities, vehicle rental services
or offer any other travel and
tourism service, they will, like
any other tourism operator, benefit
from tax breaks we offer operators
in the sector.
They will benefit not because
they are churches but because
they operate businesses that offer
tourism services. Indeed I
have also said in the past that they
should also pay taxes on whatever
business earnings they make.
My point, which some media
houses seem unable, or unwilling
to appreciate, is that church business
should be taxed and incentivised
just like any other business.
Religious tourism is not just
“so-called” as was put in the comment
in question, it is a real economic
activity raking in billions
of dollars globally. It means travel
and tourism related to religion,
and is quite distinguishable
from other forms of tourism.
sunday
view
BY WALTER
MZEMBI
The church is not a business in
the strict commercial meaning of
“business” but it can own a business.
Bishops, prophets and pastors,
will continue to pay relevant taxes,
levies and duties on what they
earn or purchase. The rule is very
simple and well-understood by all
Bible-based religious groups, “give
unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar”.
I agree that this incentive, like
any other, can be abused and government
will have to put in place
measures to ensure that this is not
the case.
However, we cannot stop giving
incentives where this will benefit
the national interest because
we fear that they may be abused.
If “enterprising” persons form
churches solely for the purpose
of doing business, surely such
churches will not last, and they
will open themselves to prosecution.
The issue of some prophets and
pastors having lavish lifestyles is a
different one altogether and need
to be tackled as such.
In my speech, I emphasised the
point that my decision, was “reciprocal”.
I said, “Our modern
day temples and their associated
visions have inspired tourism
and hospitality defined businesses
in the form of conference facilities,
transport SBUs, television stations,
accommodation and restaurant
and cuisine entities which my
ministry licenses.
In reciprocation and in line
with my vision, to grow church
or faith-based or inspired business,
I have extended the provisions
of Statutory Instruments
172 and 173 dealing with duty free
capital goods and motor vehicle
importations to the church and
its sector”.
I hope this clarifies my thoughts
on this matter.
• Walter Mzembi is the minister
of Tourism.

Opinion
The Standard August 3 to 9 2014 13
Peace Commission faces stillbirth
justicematters
BY DZIKAMAI BERE & PROSPER MAGUCHU
The Speaker of Parliament
Jacob Mudenda
was quoted on July 21
2014 saying that the Parliament’s
Human Resources
Committee is finalising
the shortlisting of candidates to
be appointed as commissioners
for the independent commissions.
The commissions referred to by
the Speaker are the five commissions
established by Chapter 12
of Zimbabwe’s new constitution.
These five include the National
Peace and Reconciliation Commission
(NPRC). The very first
function of the NPRC is stated in
the constitution as to ensure postconflict
justice, healing and reconciliation.
What a mammoth task!
We can safely say the NPRC is
designed to deal with Zimbabwe’s
problem of violence, and anyone
who has worked with survivors of
violence and torture in this country
knows that this is not a simple
task. The NPRC itself cannot deal
with this problem but can only
spearhead a national process.
Our “elected Parliament” does not
seem to believe that this should be
an inclusive process. In this piece
we show why this attitude by the
Parliament will give the NPRC a
stillbirth.
Creating a commission with
such a huge mandate is not a walk
in the park. Its success is predicated
upon one fundamental principle
of democracy-popular participation.
A particularly important
group are the survivors of
past violations whose welfare inspired
the creation of such a commission.
Instead, the Committee
on Standing Rules and Orders
(CSRO) is making it a private affair.
To begin with, the constitution
requires the participation of
the public in nominating candidates
for possible appointment to
the commission. The CSRO has
been insincere and has shown a
lack of commitment to the inclusivity
of the process. On April
23 2014, it issued a call for nominations
to the commissions. The
call was published on the Parliament’s
website and in the leading
daily papers. The call was issued
only in English and only in print
media.
Now it is important to note that
the constitution recognises 16 official
languages. It further goes on
to say that “the State and all institutions
and agencies of government
must take into account the
language preferences of people
affected by governmental measures
or communication.” (Section
6 (3)(b)). This means that by virtue
of its exclusiveness to English
speaking newspaper-readers and
web-browsers, the call was inadequate.
It is susceptible to a challenge
at law because it violates
one of the seven founding provisions
of the constitution, hence
depriving the majority of Zimbabweans
the opportunity to participate
in the nomination process.
In a recent ICTJ report on
Truth Commissions, Kofi Annan,
the former UN Secretary General
states, “…sustainable peace requires
more than agreements between
leaders: it requires institutions
that are worthy of trust, that
respect human rights. In turn,
these institutions require the confidence
of citizens who previously
only had reasons to distrust state
authorities.”
In May 2014, before the closure
of the call for nominations, more
than 25 civil society organisations
petitioned the Speaker of Parliament
requesting extension of the
deadline and wider publicity to
allow for increased public participation.
The Speaker of Parliament
decided to ignore the petition.
It is very clear from this attitude
that the Parliament has decided
to disregard the citizens and
Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda
move on with establishing a private
commission with total disregard
whatsoever of the views of
the citizens. Because of this very
reason, we foresee the stillbirth of
the NPRC.
This is not the only problem
with the current process. Another
problem which is probably the
reason why we are experiencing
a total disregard for the views of
the people is that the operating environment
in which the NPRC is
being established is no different
from the environment in which
the violations it wishes to address
were committed. There are
no measures to ensure the security
of survivors of past violations
and to protect them in their interaction
with the commission. How
do you achieve justice and reconciliation
within an ongoing state
of impunity? How do you convince
survivors that it is safe to
approach the commission without
putting in place the necessary
framework to ensure their protection?
The commission itself does not
have an enabling law to lay down
the basics of how it is going to operate.
This creates the same challenges
experienced in the establishment
of the Human Rights
Commission which, five years later,
does not have a secretariat.
Zimbabwe has had a number
of official commissions and committees
before. The NPRC with its
huge mandate and enormous legal
and moral obligations is without
precedents in Zimbabwe. It
requires a strong foundation and
credible guidance. It requires the
participation of the citizens, especially
the survivors of past violations.
It needs to earn the confidence
of the people that it is different
from other pseudo-transitional
justice measures being
thrown around to hoodwink the
local and international community.
What we are currently having
is quite the opposite and this
sets the NPRC for certain failure.
From where we stand, it appears
this is by design.
•Dzikamai Bere and Prosper
Maguchu contribute to this
column in their individual capacities.
The views contained
here are not the views of the
organisations they are associated
with.
Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan
Participants at a constitution outreach meeting... The National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) is one of the five commissions
established by Chapter 12 of the country’s new constitution.

14 The Standard August 3 to 9 2014
Opinion
Marange: The
sorrowful story
remains untold
The discovery of diamonds in Marange led to
new poverty for the community. Over 1 400
families have been forcibly removed from their
ancestral homes without compensation
By Farai Maguwu
In late 2008 I personally took
a decision to expose and unearth
horrendous human
rights abuses that were taking
place in Marange. Hundreds
of people had been gunned
down in a few weeks, hundreds of
women had been raped, thousands
escaped with gunshot wounds.
Several hundred still have bullets
in their bodies.
I publicly opposed the sale of
Marange diamonds for two reasons.
First, the diamonds had
ceased to be a woman’s best friend
since soldiers had raped hundreds
of women and forced hundreds
more to engage in unprotected sex
with artisanal miners as punishment.
I had interviewed some of these
women and I am still emotional
when I remember their stories,
six years later. Still on violence,
government had used disproportionate
force in driving out artisanal
miners from Marange.
The soldiers fired live ammunition
on defenseless people. Marange
villagers had been caught
in the crossfire as several were
abducted whilst herding cattle or
simply moving from one point to
another. The army imposed an illegal
curfew on Marange. Some
were abducted from their homes
for allegedly harbouring artisanal
miners. One elderly man cried
uncontrollably when he narrated
to me how the soldiers had forced
him to take off all his clothes in
front of his children and wife before
assaulting him for allegedly
harbouring artisanal miners.
The other reason why I campaigned
against Marange operations
was lack of transparency.
Laid down procedures had not
been followed in granting mining
licenses to the virtually unknown
companies that, as we now
know, some officials corruptly engaged.
I was aware that you can’t
reap figs from a thorn tree. I took
a battering from some civil society
colleagues in Harare. Some
called me reckless, saying I deserved
to be arrested. Others said
I was not offering a solution and
instead they said they were going
to engage with government to
find a solution. There was a spirited
campaign by one organisation
working in the extractive sector
to discredit our reports and to
campaign for donors to stop supporting
our work. The first reaction
was in June 2010 whilst I was
in prison.
This organisation had a meeting
with donors where it shockingly
lied that all the information
being sent by the Centre for
Research and Development, including
hundreds of pictures of
wounded artisanal miners and
villagers, was coming from its
contacts based in Marange.
They claimed they were the only
legitimate organisation working
in Marange. When these lies
were proved to be false, the organisation
started singing the “CRD
is not offering a solution” chorus
which appealled to a significant
number of western donors
attached to embassies in Harare.
So they continued putting lipstick
on the lips of a pig in exchange for
donor funding. When I walked out
of jail in July 2010, I was shocked
that much had changed. A section
Farai Maguwu
of donors started threatening that
unless we stopped “negative” reporting
on Marange and engaged
with government, they were withdrawing
their support from us.
They wanted to work with an organisation
offering a “solution”.
Our operations only continued
due to the goodwill of a few partners
who genuinely believed in
our legitimate struggle to promote
human rights in Marange.
This brings me to a crucial
question. How must civil society
engage a corrupt government that
has virtually no moral aptitude?
Is criticising government and exposing
corruption, human rights
abuses, nepotism etc. not a form
of engagement?
At least I forced government
to stop, or rather reduce, human
rights abuses in Marange. As diamonds
are running out in Marange,
what solution was offered
by engaging with a government
bent on looting national resources?
More importantly, what are the
lessons Zimbabweans have learnt
from Marange? How are we going
to ensure we are better prepared
to hold government to account?
Or is it just about writing “winning
project proposals” and purchasing
the latest 4X4 vehicles,
paying each other good salaries
whilst the rest of the nation sink
deeper into poverty?
In 2011, I remarked that the next
big announcement to come out
of Marange will be that there are
no more diamonds left. This has
now been vindicated with recent
announcement that alluvial diamonds
have run out. Recently I
was asked if I have observed anything
positive out of Marange. I
am afraid to say “not that I know
of ”.
Rather, the discovery of diamonds
in Marange led to new poverty
for the community. Over 1 400
families have been forcibly removed
from their ancestral homes
without compensation. They were
not given land for cultivation and
are starving. The Marange story
remains a sad one and is an indictment
on both the Zimbabwe government
and civil society.
• More on this is coming up
in a detailed chapter that I contributed
to an upcoming book
on Marange being edited by
Professor Richard Saunders.
Chiadzwa diamonds... Are they blood gems?
Over 1 400 families have been forcibly removed from their ancestral homes without compensation to pave way for mining
firms.

Analysis
The Standard August 3 to 9 2014 15
Could this be another Marikana?
BY Farai Maguwu
First it was Marange in November
2008, then came
Marikana three years later
in August 2012. The
two incidences left hundreds
of miners dead and hundreds
more injured between them.
The state-sponsored terror and violence
in both the Marange and
Marikana incidences, though similar
in many ways, draw parallels
in terms of ways forward.
In November 2008, the government
of Zimbabwe, without warning,
deployed the Zimbabwe National
Army and gunned down
hundreds of artisanal miners.
Conservative estimates put the figure
at over 200, though the actual
figure may be several times higher
On August 16 2012, the South African
police fired 327 rounds of
live ammunition on striking Lonmin
workers. Thirty four miners
were killed while around 70 were
wounded. The total number of
those injured will never be known
as workers feared arrest in the aftermath
of the massacre.
At Marikana 270 striking workers
were arrested. President Zuma
refused to release them, citing independence
of the judiciary.
In Zimbabwe over 1 500 injured
artisanal miners were rounded
up by the army during Operation
Hakudzokwi (Operation you
will not return) and thrown into
crowded police cells with no access
to treatment. Magistrates in
the eastern border city of Mutare
conducted mass trials for the artisanal
miners who were brought to
court in groups of 10-12 and forced
to make chorus pleas.
Tinoziva Bere of the Law Society
of Zimbabwe who represented
some of the artisanal miners had
this to say at the time of the arrests:
“Most detainees claim that they
were taken to various detention
places and police stations where
they were kept in crowded filthy
conditions for as long as four to
five days, in some cases before being
brought to court. The numbers
were high such that the toilet
and bathing facilities were inadequate
to non-existent. Most when
brought to court had not bathed
since arrest and some had had
nothing or little to eat.”
Artisanal miners at Chiadzwa diamond fields in Marange in 2008. Government deployed the army to remove them. PICTURE: Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi
In 2012, South African police fired 327 rounds of live ammunition on striking Lonmin workers, killing 34 while 70 were wounded.
How the Presidents of South Africa and
Zimbabwe reacted to the massacres
President Jacob Zuma hastily
left a Sadc summit in Maputo to attend
to the crisis at Marikana and
immediately declared one week of
national mourning. He also visited
the Lonmin workers at Marikana
and listened to them. “This is painful
to all of us. It is not acceptable
for people to die where talks can
be held. But I do feel your pain and
have come personally to express
that. I am certain that the Commission
of Inquiry will get to the
bottom of what happened here,”
Zuma told the workers at Marikana,
adding that “If there is anything
that needs me, I will come
in person again”. Of course Zuma’s
sincerity must be interrogated,
but certainly it’s not the subject
of this article. To his credit,
he acknowledged the tragedy. He
showed remorse and to some extent
solidarity.
President Robert Mugabe has not
uttered a word on the Marange massacres
since 2008. Instead, it was
Nathaniel Manheru, believed to be
his spokesperson, who gave the first
official acknowledgement of the
massacre, rather sarcastically:
“The Untouchables of Chiadzwa
are either slaving, wounded
or dead. Gullied Chiadzwa needs
to be reclaimed, declared the authorities.
Reclaimed by those who
wounded it in the first place.
“Those accused of damaging it
may not use shovels, hoes or some
such implements. They shall use
their fingers, and accomplish the
job in record time, these gwejas
and gwejesses. It is a season of tears
as man become beast to get beastly
men and women to repair the heinous
damage they have wrought
on innocence. It is painful payback
time. The deep gullies are being refilled
with bare hands. Fingers are
sore and finishing, well before a
quarter of the job is done. Chiadzwa,
once a place for dashing fortune-seekers,
has become Chiadzwa
the place of unrelieved pain.”
In South Africa political parties,
labour unions, civil society,
the media and the nation at large
have continued to demand answers
from the government and to demand
that those responsible for the
deaths of the miners be brought
to book, but in Zimbabwe the Marange
massacre has been relegated
to the dustbin of history.
In South Africa government set
up a Commission of Inquiry to investigate
what happened on that
fateful day. In Zimbabwe it has been
business as usual. More people
died in Marange than in Marikana
but it is in South Africa where the
matter has been and continues to
be discussed publicly.
Who is responsible?
In both Marikana and Marange
no one wants to take responsibility
for the massacres. However, in the
case of Marikana, South Africa’s
and ANC Deputy President Cyril
Ramaphosa stands out as one of the
chief instigators of the massacre.
In an email to Lonmin’s chief
commercial officer, Albert Jamieson,
Ramaphosa wrote: “The terrible
events that have unfolded cannot
be described as a labour dispute.
They are plainly dastardly
criminal and must be characterised
as such. There needs to be concomitant
action to address this situation.”
He has not denied authoring
the email. Many expected Marikana
to mark Ramaphosa’s exit
from active politics. Ramaphosa
however became the Deputy President
of South Africa in May 2014.
In the case of Zimbabwe, there is
no document in the public domain
explaining who ordered the massacres.
However, it is clear the Zimbabwe
National Army was deployed
into Marange to commit atrocities
against artisanal miners. A Commission
of Inquiry would have
helped to shed some light on this
dark chapter of Zimbabwe’s history.
Labour Rights
Whereas strikes and protests
have been rising in South Africa,
the story has been different in Zimbabwe
where workers live in arguably
worse conditions than those
of their South African counterparts.
There has been an influx of Chinese
miners in Zimbabwe’s extractive
sector with numerous reports
of an increase in gross violations
of workers’ rights.
Established companies are
shutting down, thereby creating
uncertainty among mine workers
whose daily anthem is now “half
a loaf is better than no bread”.
In both countries, the crisis in
the mining sector is set to reach
calamitous levels unless the grievances
of workers and host communities
are seriously considered
in the mining equation.
Could there be another Marikana/Marange
looming? How can
we ensure this will never happen
again?

16 The Standard August 3 to 9 2014
Africa
Liberia shuts schools as Ebola spreads
Liberian health officials said an isolation
unit for Ebola victims in Monrovia, was
overrun with cases and health workers are
being forced to treat up to 20 new patients
in their homes
Monrovia — Liberia
will close schools
and consider quarantining
some communities,
announcing
the toughest measures yet
imposed by a west African government
to halt the worst Ebola
outbreak on record.
Security forces in Liberia were
ordered to enforce the steps, part
of an action plan that includes
placing all non-essential government
workers on a 30-day compulsory
leave.
Ebola has been blamed for 672
deaths in Liberia, neighbouring
Guinea and Sierra Leone, according
to World Health Organisation
(WHO) figures, as under-funded
healthcare systems have struggled
to cope with the epidemic.
Liberia accounted for just under
one-fifth of those deaths.
“This is a major public health
emergency. It’s fierce, deadly and
many of our countrymen are dying
and we need to act to stop the
spread,” Lewis Brown, Liberia’s
information minister, said.
“We need the support of the international
community now more
than ever. We desperately need all
the help we can get.”
But highlighting international
concern about the crisis, the US
Peace Corps said it was withdrawing
340 volunteers from Liberia,
Sierra Leone and Guinea.
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
said in a speech posted on the
presidency’s website that the government
was considering quarantining
several communities based
on the recommendation of the
health ministry.
“When these measures are instituted,
only health care workers
will be permitted to move in and
out of those areas. Food and other
medical support will be provided
to those communities and affected
individuals,” she said.
All markets in border areas are
to be closed, she added.
Referring to the orders issued
to the security forces to impose
the plan, Brown, the information
minister, added: “We are hoping
there will be a level of understanding
and that there will not be
a need for exceptional force.”
Mike Noyes, head of humanitarian
response at Action Aid
UK, said people affected by Ebola
should be treated with compassion
rather than “criminalised”.
“Enforced isolation of a whole
community is a medieval approach
to controlling the spread
of disease,” he said.
The first cases of this outbreak
were confirmed in Guinea’s remote
southeast in March. It then
spread to the capital, Conakry,
and into neighboring Liberia and
Sierra Leone.
Concern deepened last week
when a Liberian-American died
from Ebola in Nigeria having
traveled from Liberia. Authorities
in Nigeria, as well as Ghana and
Togo, where he passed through en
route to Lagos, are trying to trace
passengers who were on the same
plane as him.
Some airlines in the region have
cut routes to countries affected by
Ebola despite the WHO saying
it does not recommend travel restrictions
as a step to control outbreaks.
Britain last week held a toplevel
government meeting to discuss
the spread of Ebola in west
Africa, saying the outbreak was
a threat it needed to respond to.
A US administration official said
President Barack Obama was also
monitoring the situation.
Liberian health officials said
an isolation unit for Ebola victims
in Liberia’s capital, Monrovia,
was overrun with cases and
health workers are being forced to
treat up to 20 new patients in their
homes.
“The staff here is overwhelmed.
This is a humanitarian crisis in
Liberia,” said Tolbert Nyenswah,
an assistant minister of health.
Nyenswah said the suspected
patients were being treated by
trained medical staff with full
protective gear, but it would take
at least 24-36 hours to build the
new unit.
Initial resistance to building a
new isolation unit highlighted the
fear and mistrust health workers
Liberia has shut schools in order to stop the spread of Ebola.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Barack Obama
have faced across west Africa as
they battle the outbreak, which
has strained the region’s weak
health systems.
Dozens of local health workers
— including Sierra Leone and Liberia’s
top two Ebola doctors —
have died treating patients. Two
Americans working for Samaritan’s
Purse, a US charity operating
in Liberia, were infected over
the past week.
Samaritan’s Purse said that
Kent Brantly, a doctor working for
the charity, and Nancy Writebol, a
colleague who was also volunteering
in Liberia, had shown a slight
improvement but their condition
was still serious.
However, the organisation said
that it would stop running casemanagement
centres in Liberia
after an attack on employees over
the weekend and resistance from
the local community to the expansion
of their unit in Monrovia.
The organisation is withdrawing
non-essential staff from the country,
it added.
—Reuters
Sierra Leone declares state
of emergency over Ebola
FREETOWN — Sierra Leone has
declared a state of public emergency
to tackle the worst ever outbreak
of Ebola and will call in security
forces to quarantine epicentres
of the deadly virus, President
Ernest Bai Koroma said in a statement.
The measures resembled a tough
anti-Ebola package announced by
neighbouring Liberia last week.
Koroma has cancelled a visit to
Washington for a US-Africa summit
this week because of the crisis
and instead held an emergency
meeting with regional leaders in
Guinea on Friday.
Highly infectious Ebola has been
blamed for 672 deaths in the west
Africa nations of Liberia, Guinea
and Sierra Leone, according to the
World Health Organisation (WHO).
“I hereby proclaim a State of
Public Emergency to enable us
to take a more robust approach
to deal with the Ebola outbreak,”
he said, adding that the measures
would initially last between 60 and
90 days. “All epicentres of the disease
will be quarantined.”
Koroma said that the police and
the military would restrict movements
to and from epicentres, and
would provide support to health officers
and NGOs to do their work
unhindered, following a number of
attacks on health workers by local
communities.
He said that house-to-house
searches would be implemented
to trace Ebola victims and quarantine
them. He also said that new
protocols had been established for
passengers arriving and departing
Lungi International Airport outside
Freetown, but he did not provide
further details.
—Reuters
Ernest Bai Koroma

Business
The Standard
August 3 to 9 2014 • www.thestandard.co.zw
ZIMPLATS LAUDS ITS CoMMUnITy ShAre ownerShIP SCheMeS/19
‘Anjin shareholder
remains a mystery’
BY VICTORIA MTOMBA
Government should clearly
state which department
or agency has a
40% shareholding in
diamond producer Anjin
to ensure that diamond revenue
goes to Treasury, the Zimbabwe
Environmental Law Association
(Zela) has said.
According to the 2012 annual report
of the Zimbabwe Mining Development
Corporation (ZMDC),
the corporation has 10% shareholding
in Anjin, while Chinese
firm Anhui Foreign Economic
Construction Company owns 50%
and the remainder is owned by
the government.
“There is need to find out how
the other holder of 40% government
stock in Anjin is accounting
to the Treasury to ensure transparency
and accountability in
the management of the country’s
mineral resources,” said Zela in
an analysis of the ZMDC 2012 financial
results.
The analysis by Zela also
showed that ZMDC’s subsidiaries
were facing viability challenges
stemming from losses and poor liquidity.
Zela said the auditor’s report
showed that Marange Resources
incurred a loss before tax of
US$24,3 million while its current
liabilities exceeded current assets
by US$52 598 293.
Jena Mines, Kimberworth Investments
and Mbada Diamonds
also had current liabilities exceeding
current assets in 2012.
“These conditions along with
other matters as set forth under
Note 32 to the consolidated financial
statements indicate the existence
of a material uncertainty
that may cast significant doubt
about the ability of the subsidiaries
and joint venture to continue
as going concerns,” it said.
ZMDC wholly owns Marange
Resources and Kusena Diamond
has 50% shareholding in Mbada
Diamonds, Jinan Mining, Diamond
Mining Corporation and
the now defunct Gye Nyame Resources.
The analysis by Zela showed
that for the year 2012 ZMDC failed
to produce financial statements
for some of its subsidiaries that
include Shabanie Mashaba Mines,
Todal Mining and Gye Nyame Resources.
ZMDC holds 76% in Shabanie
Mashaba Mines, 40% and 50% in
Todal Mining and Gye Nyame respectively.
Zela said the auditors of the financial
reports had pointed out
that the lack of valuation of Marange
diamond reserves undermined
the economic rationale
in terms of joint venture agreements.
“Consequently, this lack of
transparency with respect to lack
of proper economic justification
in parcelling out mineral rights
presents a fertile breeding ground
for corruption and ultimately
prejudices the State of much
needed revenue,” it said.
Zela said ZMDC must immediately
release its overdue 2013 audited
financial statements in line
with best practice for transparency
and accountability which calls
for timeliness in the provision of
such information.
There have been concerns that
diamond revenue was not flowing
to Treasury coffers amid claims
that senior government officials
were lining their pockets. Last
year, government promised the
International Monetary Fund that
it would issue a statutory instrument
establishing a formula for
calculating diamond dividends.
Its latest report to the IMF said
the instrument was not issued
due to lack of enabling legislation,
but broadly equivalent measures
have been introduced in 2014
to increase diamond revenues and
boost transparency in the industry.
It said the 2014 Finance Act,
signed into law in April 2014, introduced
the withholding of a special
dividend equal to 15% of the gross
proceeds from diamond sales.
It said government constituted
a joint task force composed of
technical staff from the ministries
of Finance and Economic
Development and Mines and Mining
Development and the Zimbabwe
Revenue Authority to forecast
and monitor diamond-related
revenue flows.
IMF said government submitted
the 2012 audited financial accounts
of ZMDC to Parliament
and published them online.
Diamond mining at Anjin Concession in Chiadzwa.
Mines and Mining Development minister Walter Chidhakwa
Atlas Mara’s BancABC takeover deal progresses well
BY NDAMU SANDU
ABC Holdings, the parent
company of pan African
banking group BancABC,
says the process of obtaining regulatory
approval to sell a controlling
shareholding to Atlas Mara is
progressing well.
This could mean that Atlas
Mara — founded by ex-Barclays
Plc chief executive Bob Diamond
and billionaire Ashish Thakkar
— is closer to concluding the acquisition
of a 50,1% shareholding
in the pan African banking group.
In a notice on Friday, ABC Holdings
said: “Further to the renewal
of the cautionary announcement
on July 11 2014 in relation to the
Atlas Mara transaction first published
on April 1 2014, the company
would like to advise shareholders
that the process of obtaining
regulatory and other approvals is
progressing well.”
ABC advised shareholders to
“continue exercising caution
when dealing in the company’s securities
until a further announcement
is made”.
In April Atlas Mara announced
that it would buy a controlling
stake in BancABC’s parent company
to establish a premier financial
services group in sub-Saharan
Africa.
BancABC has banking operations
in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana,
Mozambique and Tanzania.
Atlas Mara also made a voluntary
offer to acquire a majority
stake in African Development
Corporation (ADC), bringing total
ownership in BancABC up to
88% and a subsequent mandatory
offer for the remaining 12% stake
in BancABC.
Last month, ADC board and supervisory
management advised
shareholders to accept the public
share-for-share offer by Atlas
Mara as financially fair.
Atlas Mara was offering five ordinary
shares for four shares of
ADC.
The offer corresponds to an
implied price of £10,45 (about
US$14,32) per ADC share, representing
a premium of 16,7% to
ADC’s closing price on March 28.
The acquisition of BancABC
was seen as an entry into the resource-rich
Sadc bloc with rising
trade flows, strong gross domestic
product and a growing population
of 286 million.
BancABC, Atlas Mara said, was
capable of offering a range of
banking products including corporate
banking, treasury services,
retail and SME banking, asset
management and stock-broking.
Atlas Mara said the expansion to
date of BancABC was strong, but
hamstrung by capital constraints.
Atlas Mara sees the region as
a highly-sought-after market for
banks looking to develop into pan
African players.
It said BancABC was a fast
growing banking group focused
on southern Africa recording an
average of 42% in annual growth
in loans since 2009.
In December, Atlas Mara raised
US$325 million to invest on the
continent. Last month, Atlas
Mara announced that it had secured
US$300 million from a recent
private placement and a commitment
agreement for a debt facility
of up to US$200 million to finance
its pan African drive.

18 The Standard August 3 to 9 2014
Business
EU market opens for Zim products
BY TARISAI MANDIZHA
The European Union (EU)
market is now open to all
products from Zimbabwe
free of quotas and duties
effective this month, the
outgoing EU ambassador to Zimbabwe
Aldo Dell’Ariccia (pictured
right) has said.
This development follows the
launch of the Zimbabwe European
Union Business Information
Centre (Zim-Ebic) on Friday in
Harare to increase the capacity of
Zimbabwean exporters to the EU
bloc.
Speaking at the inauguration
ceremony of Zim-Ebic on Friday,
Dell’Ariccia said the opening of
the centre demonstrated the commitment
by the EU and its member
states to support the government
of Zimbabwe and its efforts
to restore the economy of
the country by putting back Zimbabwe
in its deserved position in
the international economic community.
“The European Union market
is now open to all the products of
Zimbabwe free of quotas and free
of duty.”
Dell’Ariccia said, without the
srapping of quotas and duties,
Zimbabwe’s sugar, ethanol, tobacco,
fruits, vegetables would lose
competitiveness with other countries.
“Now you have an advantage
and this centre serves to take the
best possible advantage of this by
knowing exactly what the conditions
are of accessing the European
market,” Dell’Ariccia said.
“The EU is not an easy market
because we have to respect the international
standards, with all the
issues related to consumer protection,
but I always said when it
comes to trade everything is negotiable,
but when it comes to the
protection of the consumers for
the EU, we stop negotiating and
follow the rules.”
He however said the launch of
the Zim-Ebic was done in cooperation
with the private sector.
He said the relationship between
the private sector, public
sector and the international bankers
was very essential to make
sure that Zimbabwe comes back
on the track of solid economic development
based on trade.
ZimTrade chief executive officer
Sithembile Pilime said the timing
of the Zim-Ebic facility was
very appropriate to her organisation
which was actively charting a
way forward for development and
promotion of exports after the decline
in industrial output and export
competitiveness.
“The facility will be instrumental
in our endeavours to deliver effective
trade information, which
will assist exporters and importers
alike in their trade activities
with the EU.
“Zim-Ebic is part of a bigger
project under the EU-funded
Trade and Private Sector Development
Programme (TPSDP), which
has other beneficiaries,” she said.
She said the ZimTrade component
of the TPSDP went beyond
Zim-Ebic and encompassed upgrading
the Trade Information
Centre, redesigning the website
staff training as well as reviewing
and repackaging the Export Marketing
Training Programme that
imparts relevant skills to current
and emerging SME exports.
Mushohwe quells
diamonds depleting
rumours
BY FARAI MATEBVU
Manicaland Provincial Affairs minister
Christopher Mushohwe says the country
still has a lot of diamond reserves in Marange,
quelling speculation the precious mineral
was running out.
Delegates who attended the Confederation of
Zimbabwe Industries (CIZ) annual congress here
in Mutare grilled the minister over the dearth of
Mutare manufacturing industry and suggested
that a Diamond Fund be established as a matter of
urgency to rescue the distressed sector.
Despite official claims that the diamonds were
abundant in the eastern border area, reports
claim the precious stones are fast running out at
the diamond fields, especially the alluvial (surface)
diamonds.
“I’m not aware that diamonds are running out
but what I can confirm is that our diamonds are
still there in vast quantities. Government is restructuring
operations in Chiadzwa and soon
we will add value for the benefit of our people,”
Mushohwe said.
He said government was working flat out to restructure
operations in Chiadzwa to add value
and beneficiate diamonds through the economic
blueprint, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable
Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim Asset).
The nation’s total diamond production from Marange
increased from 8, 7 million carats in 2011 to
12 million carats in 2012.
Timber Producers Federation board chairman
Joseph Kanyekanye said, mining companies in
Manicaland must pay a diamond depletion levy
which would develop companies and capacitate
social institutions that offer basic services to
people and companies. He said a percentage of
that would be used to revive companies in Mutare.
“We should work towards relaxing our policies
and allowing all mining companies to cede a diamond
depletion levy that must develop companies,
and capacitate social institutions that offer
services to people and businesses. Businesses
should create employment, but how do we create
it when companies are downsizing and closing,”
said Kanyekanye.
Mushohwe concurred: “Yes, the diamond fund
is critical. If given the chance, I would make sure
that the fund exists. In fact, it would not only be diamonds
but all the minerals that we have in Manicaland.”
But CZI vice-president Henry Nemaire said levying
companies was a form of taxing which increased
the cost of doing business and must not
be allowed to happen.
“This is a form of taxation which must not be allowed.
If you go to Singapore, companies and individuals
are not taxed as we do here in Zimbabwe,”
he said.
“There is need to reform the purchasing and
procurement laws by mining companies to force
them into prioritising local industries when purchasing
material for their business. This will empower
our local industry and create the much
needed employment.”

Business
The Standard August 3 to 9 2014 19
Govt keen to resolve pensions row
Most pensioners earn
paltry pay-outs
despite contributing
money to the fund for
many years
BY OUR STAFF
Insurance and pensions fund
industry stakeholders are deliberating
on the setting up of
a commission of inquiry to
investigate how policy holders
were financially prejudiced by
service providers when the country
adopted the multicurrency regime
in 2009.
This follows a meeting recently
between Finance and Economic Development
minister Patrick Chinamasa
and Insurance and Pension
Fund managers.
The meeting was aimed at establishing
the extent of prejudice that
pension fund members and insurance
policy holders suffered due
to the Zimbabwe dollar conversion
and fairness of contracts.
Hundreds of thousands of pensioners
in Zimbabwe are failing to
sustain a reasonable standard of
living owing to paltry pay-outs despite
contributing money to the
fund for many years.
Zimbabwe Pensions and Insurance
Rights Trust general manager
Martin Tarusenga said Chinamasa
committed to meeting industry
players soon to obtain input on
how best to resolve the dispute between
policy holders and service
providers.
“We shall have a few more meetings
on the way forward. We gave
our input at the meeting last week.
The main issue remains on how policy
values were calculated. Were
they fair or correct?” he asked.
“A substantial number of pensioners
and insurance policy holders
are not happy with the values
of policies,” said Tarusenga, adding
that the minister provided
stakeholders at the meeting with
government’s proposed terms of
reference.
Chinamasa said the industry
should provide input on the terms
of reference, adding that it was
government’s intention to finalise
the conversion process and recommend
what would be considered
fair by all players and stakeholders
in the pensions and insurance
industry.
There is widespread dissatisfaction
in the market with regard
to the values originating from
the conversion process, absence
of consistency in values between
various industry players, and substantial
discrepancies in the value
of policyholders who were contributing
at similar levels.
The meeting also discussed the
criteria for choosing such commissioners
— a key requirement
in coming up with an objective
commission of enquiry — according
to stakeholders.
The terms of reference point
out aspects such as investigating
the financial soundness of
the Zimbabwe insurance and pensions
industry before, during and
after conversion from Zimbabwe
dollars to US dollars, identifying
all the causes of financial unsoundness,
if any, and establishing
how Zimbabwe could restore
the financial soundness of the insurance
and pensions industry.
The terms investigate all instances
of failure of regulation,
governance, legislation and oversight
in the running of insurance
and pension funds, regulation and
monitoring of the pensions industry
and make recommendations
on how to deal with the issues.
The finance ministry is also expected
to identify personnel for
recommendation to President
Robert Mugabe for the appointments
to be made.
Zimplats optimistic
over indigenisation
implementation plan
BY OUR STAFF
PLATINUM mining firm Zimplats says it is optimistic
of a positive outcome on its indigenisation
compliance discussions with government
despite its proposed term sheet failing to
sail through.
Speaking at an analyst briefing last week,
Zimplats chief executive, Alex Mhembere said
the company was engaged in deliberations
with government and lauded its community
share ownership schemes.
“Our largely celebrated term sheet has not
sailed through but we are working closely with
authorities in terms of our indigenisation
compliance plan. We remain positive that we
will find a solution and should be compliant as
soon as possible,” he said.
““The company is still engaged in discussions
with the Minister of Youth Development,
Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment
with regard to the company’s indigenisation
implementation plan,” said Mhembere.
However, a source close to the matter said
progress on the matter was being stalled partially
due to issues surrounding the valuation
and leasing of land on which the company is
operating.
The mining firm holds a special mining
lease over two areas in the country with a total
of 48,535ha in extent.
Last year, government expressed intention
to repossess swathes of land under the mining
giant’s claim arguing that the firm had too
much land granted under its contract.
Zimplats also signed a conditional, nonbinding
term sheet for the transfer of 20% of
Zimplats shares to employee and community
trusts while another 31% would be channelled
to a state-run National Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment Fund.
In terms of this agreement, this would be for
a total of US$971 million payable from future
dividends due to the entities.
Zimplats in turn would provide vendor funding
to the indigenous entities at an interest
rate of 10% per annum, repayable from 85% of
the dividends declared by the operating subsidiary.
Government has however indicated that it
wishes to revisit the terms of the plan as neither
party was bound by the terms and engagement
in this regard.
Mhembere said annual metal production
in matte for platinum stood at 270 000 ounces,
gold at 30 000 ounces, nickel at 5 000 tonnes,
and copper at 5 000 tonnes among other metals.
He told the meeting that all metals were declared
at point of export, accounted for and invoiced.
“However, our Community Share Ownership
schemes are in place and being implemented.
We are processing 270 000 ounces [of
platinum] per annum and we need to grow this
to 1 million ounces per annum; it’s part of our
strategy,” said Mhembere.

20 The Standard August 3 to 9 2014
Business
Mobile money
grows in Africa
Most mobile telephone operators are rolling out mobile money services in several countries in Africa.
IT technician Mansour Diagne
is one of the lucky few in Senegal
to have a bank account,
but when he needs to pay
some bills or transfer cash to
his sisters on the other side of the
crowded capital Dakar, he reaches
for his mobile phone.
Fewer than 20% of adults in the
west African nation have a bank
account and 26-year-old Diagne
says the charges for using his
are too high anyway, so he keeps
at least 40 000 CFA francs (US$82)
in his mobile money account for
transactions.
Diagne said he goes to a nearby
sales point for Orange Money
— one of five operators of mobile
money services in Senegal — and
hands over cash. The vendor credits
his account with mobile money
which he can then use to top up his
phone, carry cash in a “digital wallet”,
pay his utility bills or transfer
funds to other subscribers.
“It is like having cash on you but
safer because you don’t have to carry
the actual money on you all the
time,” said Diagne, sitting behind
the counter of his shop lined with
stacks of old computers that he repairs
and sells.
Diagne has heard that users in
Kenya can do much more with mobile
money such as pay for groceries,
buy a bus ticket, pay a taxi fare
and even receive payments from
clients. He would like the same, but
those options are not yet available
in Senegal.
Since the launch of M-Pesa by
Kenya’s Safaricom in 2007, operators
have rolled out mobile money
services in several African countries
to cater for millions of people
who lack affordable bank accounts.
Operators, regulators and experts
alike are excited by the service’s
possibilities but, apart from
in a handful of sub-Saharan African
countries such as Kenya, Uganda
and Tanzania, the spread of mobile
money has been slow.
Industry players say a fragmented
and tough regulatory environment
is holding the industry back.
Experts say another obstacle is
that users often lack the technological
skills needed to use the service.
Consulting firm McKinsey said
in a February report that mobile
money had failed to catch on quickly
even in areas of Africa where
relatively few people have bank accounts.
“This is partly the result of uncertainty
about whether Kenya —
where M-Pesa has become one of
the few mobile-money success stories
— is unique or the potential for
mobile payments in other markets
is similarly robust,” it said.
At the end of last year, there
were more mobile money accounts
than bank accounts in nine developing
countries mostly in sub-Saharan
Africa, mobile industry lobby
group GSMA said.
About 61 million active mobile
money customers were using the
service globally, up from 37 million
in 2012, GSMA said. The potential
is vast: 2,5 billion people in developing
countries lack access to
banking services, yet one billion of
them have a phone that would allow
them to use the mobile money
service.
In Kenya, M-Pesa has 13 million
active customers. Transactions
grew 22% and contributed 26,6 billion
shillings (US$303 million) or
nearly a quarter of Safaricom’s
revenue in the year to March 2014.
French telecom operator Orange,
which runs Orange Money,
has seen significant growth with
about 10 million customers worldwide,
most of them in the west African
CFA franc zone.
Thierry Millet, vice-president
for Orange Mobile Payments and
Contactless, said the total value of
mobile money transactions made
on its networks topped 2 billion euros
(US$2,7 billion) last year and is
expected to exceed 4 billion in 2014.
He did not specify how much revenue
this generated for Orange.
In Uganda, South Africa telecoms
giant MTN launched its own
mobile money in 2008. The service
contributes about 15% of the total
revenue of MTN Uganda and
as much as a fifth of the country’s
economic transactions are done
through MTN mobile money solutions,
said an MTN executive.
For mobile money to grow faster,
regulators must encourage investments
while guaranteeing fair
competition, and assuring customers
that systems are secure and
their money is safe.
Pieter de Villiers, founder and
CEO of Clickatell, a mobile messaging
and transaction services
company, said Safaricom was successful
with M-Pesa because it had
a dominant share of the Kenyan
mobile market and operated with
little regulation at its launch.
Operators now entering the market
face tougher regulations, which
differ according to country and region.
While in the west Africa franc
zone, the central bank introduced
regulations as early as 2006 to enable
the launch of services, the
neighbouring central Africa franc
zone trailed behind.
“Regulation is coercive in the
Central Africa region as far as mobile
money is concerned,” said
Karl Toriola, CEO of MTN Cameroon
which launched a mobile
money service in 2010.
While operators in the West Africa
zone can conduct transfers with
multiple banks and international
partners, this is not the case in
the Central Africa region, which
groups Cameroon, Congo Republic,
Chad, Central African Republic,
Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
The central bank there is more
cautious, Toriola said: “A lobbying
process is on-going to engage the
Central Bank in moving forward.”
Other challenges include keeping
the service simple and reliable
while educating users how to
use it. Operators also need to develop
thousands of sales networks to
reach more customers and expand
the services on offer to include
larger transfers targeting merchants
and government payments.
As the sector grows, making
profits for operators, authorities
are moving to increase taxes on
transactions.
Kenya imposed a 10% cost of
transfer tax on M-Pesa in 2012.
Ugandan and Tanzanian authorities
have also mooted plans to introduce
transaction taxes, raising
concerns that these will stymie the
industry.
Michael Joseph, director of mobile
money at Britain’s Vodafone,
which owns 40% of Safaricom, said
regulators should be measured in
their approach.
“It must be remembered that the
average transaction is somewhere
in the region of US$3 to US$5 and
as such we deal with high-volume,
low-value transactions,” Joseph
said.
Authorities must decide whether
to regulate the mobile money
industry with rigorous standards
similar to those imposed on banks
or more leniently, as with telecoms
firms.
Clickatell’s de Villiers said a
false step by regulators could discourage
mass adoption of the service
by making small transactions
unattractive. “If you don’t
have regulatory stability, investors
in this new opportunity will stay
away and the big players such as
telcos and banks will be ambivalent,”
he said.
—Reuters
It is time for SMEs to up their game
sme’s
chat
with phillip chichoni
When you get into a tight place
and everything goes against you,
till it seems as though you could
not hang on a minute longer, never
give up then, for that is just the
place and time that the tide will
turn. —Harriet Beecher Stowe
We have seen the statistics:
company closures,
retrenchments, non-performing
loans, falling sales. What
we don’t get to hear about often
are the entrepreneurial heroes
who are building new businesses,
expanding existing enterprises
and thriving in the midst of
the economic crisis. I can tell you
there are more and more people
starting new businesses, judging
by the increase in new company
registrations coming through my
consulting firm. While others are
giving up, innovative new entrepreneurs
are starting up.
I had some interesting responses
to the article I wrote two weeks
ago on whether Nigerians are
more entrepreneurial than Zimbabweans.
I liked one from a Nigerian
based overseas who said “when
things get really tough, your mind
really opens up. It is like you are
being chased by a lion, you will do
things that will seem miraculous,
because of the human instinct for
survival.”
Before 1954, it was believed that
no person could run a mile in four
minutes or less. According to legend,
experts said for years that
the human body was simply not
capable of a four-minute mile. It
wasn’t just dangerous; it was impossible.
In the 1940s, the mile record was
pushed to 4:01, where it stood for
nine years, as runners struggled
with the idea that, just maybe, the
experts had it right. Perhaps the
human body had reached its limit.
On May 6 1954, Roger Bannister
broke the four-minute barrier,
running the distance in 3:59.4. As
part of his training, he relentlessly
visualised the achievement in
order to create a sense of certainty
in his mind and body.
Barely a year after Bannister’s
accomplishment, someone else
ran a mile in under four minutes.
Then some more runners did.
Now, it’s almost routine. Even
strong high-school students today
run four-minute miles.
It took a sense of extreme certainty
for Bannister to do what
was considered undoable. He
alone was able to create that certainty
in himself without seeing
any proof that it could be done.
But once he crashed through that
barrier, the rest of the world saw
that it was possible and the previous
record that had stood for nine
years was broken routinely.
In times of crisis, it seems impossible
that business can succeed.
Pessimism clouds our
minds to opportunities that are
all around us. Many large companies
have folded or scaled down
because they could not adapt to a
rapidly changing economic environment.
Small companies have the advantage
of being flexible. They
can transform quickly and adapt
to a changing environment. When
new opportunities arise, they can
quickly grab them. When a certain
market becomes unprofitable,
they can adjust and target another.
Most people assume that constraints
are a bad thing, but in reality,
business constraints can actually
be a catalyst for creative solutions
and new opportunities.
Consider how Virgin Atlantic responded
to a major crisis just two
years after it was founded. Initially,
Virgin founder Richard Branson
aimed his low-fare airline at
20-something Americans traveling
to England. When the United
States became embroiled in a conflict
with Libya, however, international
travel declined and the airline’s
promising customer base
dissipated.
At first, Branson was set to completely
shut down the airline, but
Allen Kay, his marketing adviser,
worked with him to find a solution.
After asking some questions,
Kay discovered that first-class
passengers were still filling seats.
He figured that these businesspeople
with billions of dollars on
the line in pending deals would
fly even during a terrorism threat
because the deals were worth the
risk. Kay suggested reconfiguring
the seats to make first class bigger
and promoting the empty seats
to first-class flyers. Branson approved
the idea, profit soared, and
the airline was saved from having
to shut down.
So when Kay and Virgin Atlantic
found themselves faced with a
serious constraint – their target
customer was no longer flying –
they got creative and ultimately
made the airline better. Today, the
airline is known for its affordable
upper class and unique customer
experience.
Look at your own business. Can
you think of ways of giving more
value and a better experience to
your customers? Be in touch with
customers and look out for new
needs or changing preferences.
Are there new markets where your
products or services might be needed
more? Don’t just look at local
markets, in today’s global village,
your market transcends all borders.
It is time for SMEs to up their
game and fill the void being left by
tired old companies.
To receive my weekly newsletter
and get more business insights,
please join my mailing list
on my website, http://smebusinesslink.com.
Until next week,
keep on accelerating your growth.
• Phillip Chichoni is a business
development consultant who
works with SMEs and entrepreneurs.
You may contact him
by email, chichonip@smebusinesslink.com.
You can also visit
http://smebusinesslink.com

Africa
The Standard August 3 to 9 2014 21
Fighting intensifies
in battle for Tripoli
Everyone has guns, artillery, tanks and missiles,
taken from the vast arsenals Muammar Gaddafi
had stashed across Libya
Tripoli — Booms of outgoing
artillery shaking the
ground, militia fighters
from the remote Libyan
mountain town of Zintan
hunker down in the passenger terminal
to defend Tripoli airport,
the biggest prize in the capital.
Across the city a few kilometres
away, a commander of a brigade
from the port city of Misrata
rallies his men to take the airport
back.
Three years ago, Zintani and
Misratan rebel brigades descended
simultaneously on Tripoli from
east and west to storm the palaces
of Muammar Gaddafi. Now, fighters
from the two towns are waging
open war in the capital.
“This war is harder than the
revolution,” said Mohammed, a
fighter in a unit allied to the Zintanis,
standing in the debris of
the airport terminal, dark smoke
billowing from a nearby blast.
“They want to take the airport,
and when you take the airport you
take Tripoli.”
Across the city at his Tripoli
base lined with tanks and trucks
mounted with cannons, Hassan
Shakka, a commander of Misrata’s
Central Shield brigade, said
his forces were “completing the
revolution”.
“We are not fighting the Zintanis:
we are fighting the remains
of Gaddafi’s army,” he said.
“There will be no ceasefire until
they leave Tripoli.”
Two weeks of shelling have
knocked Tripoli International
Airport out of commission. A
control centre is damaged, nearly
20 jets parked on the tarmac have
been hit, burned or destroyed and
the passenger terminal sports a
gaping hole in its roof.
Grad missiles roar over the city.
Fighters have closed off parts of
southern Tripoli with blockades
and earth barricades. Apartment
blocks on the airport road bear
bullet and blast marks. Zintan
fighters have set up checkpoints
on the empty highway where
blackened grassland marks recent
shelling. More are dug in by the
airport with anti-aircraft canons.
“It can still be contained. There
is room to negotiate. But it is a
very delicate situation,” said one
Libyan government official. “We
are trying to negotiate to slow
things down. If it spins too much,
you can’t stop it and it becomes a
hurricane.”
The war for Tripoli’s airport is
not the only war being fought in
Libya. A day’s drive away in Benghazi,
Libya’s second biggest city,
followers of a renegade former
Gaddafi general are waging street
battles against an alliance of militia
groups, including Islamist
fighters that Washington blames
for killing the US ambassador two
years ago.
The Benghazi militia alliance
has overrun a Special Forces base
and forced irregular forces and
the army to retreat.
The collapse of Gaddafi’s four
decades of single man rule has
left Libya an armed free-for-all,
where cities, regions, charismatic
individuals, urban neighbourhoods
and rural tribes all field
their own armed forces.
Towns fight towns; Islamists oppose
nationalists; federalists rise
up against central government;
ex-Gaddafi units clash with former
revolutionaries — and everyone
has guns, artillery, tanks and
missiles, taken from the vast arsenals
the deposed dictator had
stashed across the country.
Western countries, which
helped blast Gaddafi out of power
with a Nato bombing campaign in
2011, are mostly getting out, shutting
and evacuating embassies as
the Opec oil exporter teeters toward
becoming a failed state.
With the main airport shut, the
Americans left by road escorted
by Marines; the French sailed out
by sea.
For the past three years, the
central government has largely
failed to build a national army,
instead buying off the loyalty of
armed groups by putting individual
fighters or whole militia units
onto the payroll. Despite taking
the government’s money, most remain
loyal to their commanders,
regions or cities.
UN, US and European special
envoys are pushing for a ceasefire
and political settlement around
a new parliament due to start its
work in August. But the negotiations
are difficult.
Each brigade claims to be a legitimate
armed force authorised
by competing factions within
ministries or the previous parliament;
each claims the entitlement
as revolutionary liberators of the
capital, and refuses to give up its
Gaddafi-era heavy weaponry.
Since the 2011 war, Libya’s factional
rivalries have flared before,
only to be restrained by a tenuous
balance of power that Libyan officials
and diplomats say comes
from the knowledge that neither
side can overcome the other.
For now, the main rivalry in the
capital is that between Zintan and
Misrata, which both played outsized
roles in the 2011 war that unseated
Gaddafi and parlayed their
victory into status as kingmakers
in the capital.
Zintan, a rugged Arab garrison
town of barely 50 000 people
perched among poor Berber villages
in the arid heights of the
Western Mountains, led an unlikely
campaign against much
larger Gaddafi forces, bursting
through the front to reach the
coast and march on Tripoli in a
lightning advance. Its militia later
captured Gaddafi’s son Saif al-
Islam, still held in its jail.
Misrata, a thriving port of
nearly 300 000 with a mercantile
tradition, was the biggest city
in the west to hold out against
Gaddafi’s forces, keeping the revolution’s
hopes alive under intense
bombardment during a
months-long siege, before its forces
battled their way to the capital.
When Tripoli fell, Misrata and
Zintan brigades both rushed in
from opposite sides to lay claim
to stakes in the capital. Zintan
took the civil airport; Misrata
The mangled remains of a small plane at Libya airport.
Foreigners have been urged to leave Libya by their governments, as fighting spreads across the country.
and its allies took a military airbase.
Since then they have skirmished
in turf wars.
Despite their local origins, the
militia of both towns have allied
themselves to political factions
with national ambitions.
The Zintanis, with allied groups
called the Qaaqaa and al-Sawaiq
brigades which include some former
Gaddafi Special Forces, have
sided with the National Forces
Alliance, led by Mahmoud Jibril,
an interim prime minister after
the war.
Zintanis have long complained
of their town’s neglect
by Gaddafi, and say they missed
out on Libya’s oil wealth. Rivals
say they have grown rich from exploiting
control of the airport.
Many of the Qaaqaa brigade
members are fiercely opposed to
what they see as growing Islamist
influence in Libya.
On the opposite side, the Misrata
brigades, including “Libya
Shield” units created by parliament,
are allied to Islamist-leaning
militias whose allegiance is
with the Justice and Construction
party, seen as close to the
Muslim Brotherhood.
The depth of Misrata’s suffering
under siege by Gaddafi’s forces
has become a rallying cry for
fighters who accuse the Zintanis
of cooperating with ex-Gaddafi
figures.
“The revolution didn’t finish.
It is about perceptions over the
future of the country. They both
The late Muammar Gaddafi.
think they can win, but do they
go to the brink?” said one Western
diplomat. “The hope is that
they realise that no side can win.”
Opponents of the Islamists
blame them for starting the latest
violence to scuttle the start of the
new parliament, elected in June
under a system that required candidates
to stand without party affiliation,
which cost Islamists
some clout.
“What is happening is an attempted
strike against election
results, which handed more power
to the Islamists’ enemies,” said
Ziad Dgheim, a federalist and
member of the new parliament.
Now each blames the other as
positions harden. Zintan says
it is only defending the airport
from attack and urged a ceasefire
to stop “Libyan blood being
spilled.”
—Reuters

22 The Standard August 3 to 9 2014
Africa
Nigeria opens battle of
ideas against Boko Haram
Boko Haram is
suspected of
being behind
suicide bombings
that killed 82 people
in Kaduna last week
Kaduna — In classrooms
facing a sandy courtyard
in the northern
Nigerian city of Kaduna,
Maska Road Islamic
School teaches a creed that condemns
the violent ideology of
groups like Boko Haram.
Not everyone has got its message.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab,
known as the “Pants
Bomber”, spent his youth in this
school — and ended up trying unsuccessfully
to blow up a US airliner
on Christmas Day 2009 with
explosives hidden in his underwear.
But the school is steadfast in
preaching tolerance to its pupils,
and the government is about to
adopt this message in a new strategy
for containing Boko Haram,
which has killed thousands in a
five-year campaign for an Islamic
state.
“We teach them that what they
[Boko Haram] are doing is a total
misunderstanding of the Islamic
religion, that Prophet Mohammed
was compassionate, he even
lived together with the non-Muslims
in Medina,” said headmaster
Sulaiman Saiki.
“We teach them tolerance,” he
said as girls in the next room softly
recited Koranic verses in Arabic
melodies.
Abdulmutallab was radicalised
in an al Qaeda camp in Yemen, but
his case shows that even youths
given a relatively liberal Muslim
education can be seduced by radical
Islam. This is something the
new government programme is
aiming to combat.
Koranic schools like Maska
Road will be a pillar of the strategy
being launched in September
to counter Boko Haram’s ideology.
The aim is to win over the “hearts
and minds” of young Nigerians.
They will also challenge Boko
Haram’s claim that secular teaching
is “un-Islamic” — Boko Haram
means “Western education is
sinful” in Hausa, the dominant
language in Nigeria’s mainly
Muslim north.
Maska Road teaches only Koranic
verses and other tenets of
Muslim faith, and encourages its
300 students to take classes such
as science and literature outside
its walls.
“We want them to get a Western
education and combine it with ...
religious learning,” Saiki says.
Classes are held between 4 and 6
pm, after secular schools shut.
Fatah Abdul, who studies at
Maska Road, scoffs at the idea of
violence in the name of Islam.
“Our religion doesn’t entertain
killing. Boko Haram is absolutely
different from what our religion
advocates,” she said. “And it’s not
true what they say that we need
an Islamic state. The leadership
doesn‘t have to be Islamic”.
Saiki was a neighbour of Abdulmutallab
when the future Pants
Bomber was at school. He says Abdulmutallab
didn’t learn to hate
the West there but “was deceived
afterwards”.
Abdulmutallab, a loner from
a well-to-do northern family,
showed how easily youths can
be radicalised. Add poverty into
the mix, as in Nigeria’s troubled
northeastern Borno state, and it’s
not hard to see how Boko Haram
finds young recruits.
Boko Haram is suspected of being
behind suicide bombings that
killed 82 people in Kaduna last
week, including one against a
Muslim cleric about to lead a public
prayer.
Kaduna, the capital of the north
in colonial times, is richer than
anywhere in the northeastern region
where Boko Haram is based.
But it shares many of its problems
such as high youth unemployment,
attested by the many
children begging and hawking
phone credit on its rubbish-filled
streets.
President Goodluck Jonathan’s
administration has been pilloried
for its apparent powerlessness
to crush the rebels or protect civilians,
including more than 200
schoolgirls kidnapped in April
and who remain in captivity. But
he has also faced censure for neglecting
the insurgency’s underlying
causes.
So when Jonathan’s National
Security Adviser (NSA) Sambo
Dasuki announced a new “soft
approach to terrorism” in March,
many instantly dismissed it as
lacking in substance.
But officials in the office of the
NSA say imams in mosques and
traditional elders will be co-opted
to preach tolerance, while measures
will be taken to ensure Koranic
schools teach “correct” interpretations
of sacred texts.
The drive will also include educational
programmes, especially
increased sports and music in
northern schools, plus reform
programmes for convicted Boko
Haram detainees.
“A lot of them don’t have much
Islamic knowledge, so they tend
to believe what the mullahs say,”
Fatima Akilu, director of behavioural
analysis in the office of the
NSA said. “We want to teach what
the Koran actually says in a language
they understand.”
A parallel economic programme,
also funded by the NSA’s budget,
will address the chronic poverty
seen as a major driver of the insurgency.
It may be too late to bring back
hundreds of youths already fighting
for Boko Haram, but the idea
is to prevent more from joining.
Northern Nigeria has much
lower levels of education than the
south, a legacy of British colonialism,
which protected the caliphates
of the north from the activity
of Christian missionaries who
set up many schools in the south.
“The aspects of education Boko
Haram don’t like are the ones that
allow you to think,” Akilu said.
“Keep people in the dark and you
can control them with a singular
narrative.”
Undoing this partly involves
showing how “Western” ideas,
such as mathematics and some
physics and astronomy, are rooted
in mediaeval Islamic thought,
which was making strides while
Christians in Europe were busy
burning witches.
At the Sultan Bello mosque in
Kaduna’s busy downtown market
area, local imam Ahmed Gumi
takes an unusual step to illustrate
his openness to the non-Islamic
world: he invites four journalists
in to see, film and photograph his
President Goodluck Jonathan
sermon.
Three are non-Muslim, including
two Westerners. He introduces
the team to his congregation of
about 350 packed into a main hall,
and after a chorus of “welcome”
he offers a live interview about his
views on Boko Haram in front of
the faithful.
“It’s not right to call what those
boys are doing Islamic,” he later
said privately. “They hide behind
Islam.”
Gumi, one of northern Nigeria’s
most popular clerics, sees the idea
of an Islamic state dear to extremists
as a throwback.
“They want to bring back the
golden age of Islamic triumph in
this modern time.” he says. “For a
A teacher at Maska Road Islamic School teaches Hadith excerpts in a classroom in Kaduna
state to survive, you need a strong
civilisation, education, money, lawyers,
doctors. You don’t create a civilisation
with AK-47s in the bush.”
He knows his outspoken views
carry a risk he’ll be targeted by
Boko Haram. His mosque, a towering
structure spread between four
sand-coloured turrets with turquoise-green
domes, is guarded
by scores of unarmed volunteers
checking cars and bags.
Boko Haram fighters have killed
dozens of clerics. One of the targets
of the Kaduna bombs was a
Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi, an imam
whose mystical Sufism is a far cry
from the austere al Qaeda-style
type of Islam. Bauchi survived.
—Reuters
Sudan ‘apostasy’ woman Meriam Ibrahim arrives in US
A Sudanese woman who fled to
Italy after being spared a death
sentence for renouncing Islam
has arrived in the US.
Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag
arrived in New Hampshire on
Thursday evening with her
American husband and her children.
Welcoming her on a brief stopover
in Philadelphia, the city’s
mayor, Michael Nutter, described
her as a “world freedom fighter”.
There was global condemnation
when she was sentenced to
hang for apostasy by a Sudanese
court earlier this year.
Ibrahim’s father is Muslim so
according to Sudan’s version of
Islamic law she is also Muslim
and cannot convert.
She maintains she was never
Muslim having been raised by
her Christian mother.
Ibrahim flew from Rome to
Philadelphia with her husband
and two children, en route to
Manchester, New Hampshire,
where her husband has relatives
and the family hope to settle.
While in Philadelphia, Nutter
said people would remember her
just like “others who stood up so
we could be free”.
He compared her to Rosa
Parks, who became a symbol of
the civil rights movement in the
US when she refused to give up
her seat to a white man on a bus
in Alabama.
And he presented Ibrahim
with a small replica of the Liberty
Bell, a symbol of American
independence.
Her next stop was Manchester,
and there were about 40 relatives
and supporters at the airport to
greet her, some of them chanting
“Long Live America”.
He said her husband said a
few words, in which he thanked
the US government for its strong
stance, the New Hampshire senators
who worked hard to arrange
her asylum and the people
of Sudan for their support.
Ibrahim’s husband, Daniel
Wani, also a Christian, is from
South Sudan and has US nationality.
Their daughter Maya was
born in prison in May, shortly
after Ibrahim was sentenced to
hang for renouncing one’s faith.
—BBC

International News
The Standard August 3 to 9 2014 23
Russia sanctions: Who
will be hurt the most?
They are the toughest
sanctions imposed on
Russia since the Cold
War, but who will they
hurt the most?
The EU’s latest sanctions package
comes amid anger over the
Kremlin’s support for Ukrainian
rebels, who stand accused of
shooting down a Malaysia Airlines
passenger jet and killing 298
people.
The measures include an arms
embargo, restrictions on offshore
energy exploration and curbs on
Russian banks trading in European
markets.
The sanctions are intended to
strangle the Russian economy
and convince President Vladimir
Putin to abandon his support for
the separatists in Ukraine.
Russia’s economy is relatively
small, about the same size as Italy,
but its energy resources are
vast. Russia’s exports are almost
all raw materials and about 60%
of these are energy products.
The EU takes more than 45% of
Russia’s exports. Less than 3% of
the EU’s exports go to Russia.
So could it be that in trying to
inflict economic pain on Russia,
the EU will merely end up harming
itself ?
Roughly 30% of Russia’s banking
sector assets are now constrained
by sanctions, according
to US officials.
Raoul Ruparel of Open Europe,
an EU policy think tank, said:
“The UK looks likely to bear the
largest economic burden from
these sanctions. The financial
sanctions are the most developed
and will hit Russian state-owned
banks debt and equity issuance,
which takes place largely through
London.
“The sanctions have been designed
to have a larger impact on
Russia than the EU. This looks
likely to be the case. Russian
firms will have to look elsewhere
for funding and certain hi-tech
imports — a tricky, if not impossible,
task.”
But according to banking expert
Ralph Silva, going after Russia’s
banks would hurt the West
the most.
“This will ultimately hurt the
City, as well as New York,” he
says, “because for the first time,
the Russians are going to realise
that they in fact can live without
the global financial services industry.
“Putin has been strengthened
as a result of the sanctions. The
Russian public is seeing him as
the protector and if he gets the
country through these sanctions,
he will solidify his hold on power.”
Financial analyst Chris Skinner
said that the sanctions on
banks could force Russia to move
away from the City and look elsewhere.
He said the restrictions “could
kill the Russian flow of capital
through our markets if there
is an alternative. For example,
would they switch to Hong Kong
or Shanghai?”
Skinner also said that they
would benefit Russians who had
invested outside their home country.
“The more we sanction Russia,
the more the rouble loses value,
the more the billionaires who invested
outside Russia in, for example,
London property gain
through [foreign exchange] fluctuations
and property and other valuable
commodity investments,”
he said.
International credit card companies
were unconcerned. Mastercard
said Western sanctions
would have no impact on Russian
business, while Visa said US economic
restrictions were not affecting
its work in Russia.
Russia’s Bank of Moscow said
that business was not suffering
from sanctions and that it was
not planning to borrow on foreign
markets.
In the wake of the sanctions
announcement, trading at Russia’s
second-largest state-owned
bank, VTB, was down 1,2%. The
bank said that the sanctions were
“unjust, legally dubious and likely
to cause economic harm to all
sides”.
As well as financial curbs, the
package cracks down on arms
sales to Russia. The EU has a list
of prohibited equipment under
the new embargo, which took effect
on Thursday.
The embargo will not apply to
contracts signed before the start
of these sanctions, which means a
US$1,6 billion helicopter deal with
France is unaffected.
Lilit Gevorgyan, a Russian analyst
at IHS, said: “Considering
relatively low volumes of arms
President Vladimir Putin...EU sanctions in the past have proven controversial, failing to
deliver in Cuba and Zimbabwe.
trade between the EU and Russia,
the sanctions are more symbolic,
especially seeing that France
is holding on to the two Mistralclass
helicopter carriers deal with
Russia.
“Since the collapse of the Soviet
Union Russia has been reluctant
to import arms,” she said.
“While Russia is the secondlargest
arms exporter in the
world, its military imports from
the EU are limited in volume.”
And Russian firms are keen to
stress that the US is missing out
as a result of the embargo. Russian
arms maker Kalashnikov expressed
its “condolences” to US
consumers last week, after restrictions
on Russian arms exports
meant the US could no longer
purchase its weapons.
European leaders have not limited
oil and gas imports from Russia,
as this would hurt EU countries
that rely on Russian energy.
They have instead targeted Russia’s
long-term ability to develop
new oil resources, by placing restrictions
on the technology systems
behind offshore energy exploration.
The US and EU have banned
exports of technology systems,
known as “sensitive technologies”,
for use in Russian deepwater,
Arctic and shale oil exploration.
Russia is one of the world’s
largest oil producers and holds
the largest combined oil and gas
reserves in the world.
Total, which owned 18% of Russia’s
natural gas producer Novatek,
stopped buying shares
when the MH17 flight was shot
down earlier this month.
In response to the sanctions,
Russian gas company Gazprom
announced that it would now
source its gas turbine spare parts
locally instead of relying on imports.
According to Gazprom’s managing
company, the combined value
of these contracts is about 10 billion
roubles (£166m). — BBC
The sanctions are intended to convince President Vladimir Putin to abandon his support for the separatists in Ukraine. However,
plans to destabilise Russia’s access to capital may be felt most acutely in London.
Netanyahu vows to complete Gaza tunnels destruction
GAZA/JERUSALEM — Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
facing international alarm
over a rising civilian death toll in
Gaza, recently said he would not
accept any ceasefire that stopped
Israel completing the destruction
of militants’ infiltration tunnels.
The Israeli military has estimated
that accomplishing that
task, already into its fourth week,
would take several more days.
“We are determined to complete
this mission, with or without
a ceasefire,” Netanyahu said
in public remarks at a meeting of
his full cabinet in Tel Aviv.
“I wont agree to any proposal
that will not enable the Israeli
military to finish this important
task, for the sake of Israel’s security.”
Leaving open the option of widening
a ground campaign in the
Hamas Islamist-dominated Gaza
Strip, the Israeli military said it
had called up an additional 16 000
reservists. A military source said
they would relieve a similar number
of reserve soldiers being stood
down.
Netanyahu’s security cabinet
last week approved continuing
operations launched on July 8 in
response to a surge of cross-border
rocket attacks. Israel also sent
a delegation to Egypt, which has
been trying, with US blessing, to
broker a ceasefire.
Washington has also, however,
allowed Israel to tap a local
US arms stockpile in the past few
weeks to replenish its grenades
and mortar rounds, a US defence
official said.
US Secretary of State John Kerry,
who failed in a visit to the region
last week to secure a ceasefire,
voiced support for Israel’s operations
against the tunnels.
“No country can sit there and
live with tunnels being dug under
its border, out of which jump people
who are carrying handcuffs
and tranquilizer drugs in order
to kidnap their citizens and hold
them for ransom,” Kerry said.
Gaza officials say at least 1 394
Palestinians, most of them civilians,
have been killed in the battered
territory and nearly 7 000
wounded. Fifty-six Israeli soldiers
have been killed in Gaza clashes
and more than 400 wounded.
Three civilians have been killed
by Palestinian shelling in Israel.
UN Secretary-General Ban Kimoon
strongly condemned last
week the deaths of at least 15 Palestinians
among thousands sheltering
at a UN-run school. The
United Nations said its initial assessment
was that Israeli artillery
shells hit the facility.
The United Nations’ senior
human rights official, Navi Pillay,
said that Israel has attacked
homes, schools, hospitals, and UN
premises in apparent violation of
the Geneva Conventions. Pillay
said Israel’s actions seemed to be
in “deliberate defiance of obligations
that international law imposes”.
Israel said its forces were attacked
by guerrillas near the
school in northern Jabalya and
had fired back. In another incident,
17 people were killed in
nearby Shejaia by what Palestinian
officials said was Israeli shelling
of a produce market. The Israeli
military said it was investigating.
“Such a massacre requires an
earthquake-like response,” said
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum,
whose group has kept up
dozens of daily rocket launches
deep into Israel. The Israelis
have kept casualties from the salvoes
low, using its Iron Dome air
defence system to intercept them
and air-raid sirens to send people
to shelters. — Reuters

24 The Standard August 3 to 9 2014
International News
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi:
Islamic State’s driving force
Under Baghdadi, the Islamic State has become one of the most
formidable jihadist groups in the world
Baghdad — On July 5,
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,
known by his supporters
as Caliph Ibrahim,
left the shadows and
showed his face for the first time,
in a Friday sermon in Mosul, Iraq.
While previous pictures of him
had been leaked, Baghdadi had
not shown himself in the four
years since he became leader of
what was then the jihadist Islamic
State of Iraq (forerunner of Isis,
then the Islamic State).
Before April 2013, Baghdadi
also did not release many audio
messages.
His first written statement was
a eulogy to Osama Bin Laden in
May 2011.
His first audio message was released
in July 2012 and predicted
future victories for the Islamic
State.
Since the group’s resurgence,
which began 15 months ago,
Baghdadi’s media output has risen.
The amount of specific information
about his background has
also increased.
In July 2013, the Bahraini ideologue
Turki al-Binali, writing under
the pen name Abu Humam
Bakr bin Abd al-Aziz al-Athari,
wrote a biography of Baghdadi.
In part it was to highlight
Baghdadi’s family history which
claims that Baghdadi was indeed
a descendant of the Muslim
Prophet Muhammad — one of the
key qualifications in Islamic history
for becoming the caliph (historically,
leader of all Muslims).
It highlighted that Baghdadi
came from the al-Bu Badri tribe,
which is primarily based in Samarra
and Diyala, north and
east of Baghdad respectively and
known historically for being descendants
of Muhammad.
Turki al-Binali’s tract continued
by highlighting that prior to
the US invasion of Iraq, Baghdadi
received his PhD from the Islamic
University of Baghdad, with a
focus on Islamic culture, history,
sharia, and jurisprudence.
Baghdadi preached at the Imam
Ahmad ibn Hanbal Mosque in Samarra.
Baghdadi does not have credentials
from esteemed Sunni religious
establishments such as al-
Azhar University in Cairo or the
Islamic University of Medina in
Saudi Arabia.
Nonetheless, he is more steeped
in traditional Islamic education
than either al-Qaeda’s past and
current leaders, Osama Bin Laden
and Aymen al-Zawahiri, both
laymen and an engineer and doctor
respectively.
This has conferred on Baghdadi
a higher level of praise, worthiness,
and legitimacy among
his supporters.
Following the US invasion of
Iraq in 2003, Baghdadi, along
with some associates, created
Jamaat Jaysh Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jamaah
(JJASJ) — the Army of
the Sunni People Group — which
operated in Samarra, Diyala, and
Baghdad.
Within the group, Baghdadi
was the head of the sharia committee.
US-led coalition forces detained
him from February to December
2004, but released him
since he was not viewed as a
high-level threat.
Following al-Qaeda in the Land
of Two Rivers changing its name
to Majlis Shura al-Mujahidin
(Mujahideen Shura Council) in
early 2006, JJASJ’s leadership
pledged baya (oath of allegiance)
to it and joined the umbrella organisation.
Within the new structure,
Baghdadi joined the sharia committees.
But soon after the organisation
announced another
change to its name in late 2006
to the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI),
Baghdadi became the general supervisor
of the sharia committees
for the wilayats (provinces)
within the new “state” as well as
a member of ISI’s senior consultative
council.
When ISI’s leader Abu Umar al-
Baghdadi died in April 2010, Abu
Bakr al-Baghdadi succeeded him.
Since taking over the leadership
of the Islamic State, Baghdadi
has rebuilt and reinvigorated
a battered organisation after
the Sunni tribal sahwa (awakening)
against it, which was then
consolidated by the US military
surge.
Compared with the Islamic
State’s first attempt at governance
last decade, thus far, while
still brutal, it is doing a better
job, though questions still remain
about its longer-term sustainability.
Under Baghdadi, the Islamic
State has become one of the most
formidable jihadist groups in the
world.
Part of this is related to augmenting
its cruel judicial punishments
with a social service
regime to create more soft power,
but also to have a carrot to its
stick.
Likewise, as a lesson from
the tribal awakening, the Islamic
State over the past couple of
years has either assassinated
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, showed his face for the first time during a sermon in Mosul, Iraq.
key leaders within the sahwa
movement or brokered “repentances”
from those that would
like to join the organisation.
This, in ways, has helped blunt
more of the potential for a largescale
uprising similar to the last
decade, though there have been
calls and rumours that some
tribal elements that have not “repented”
will take on the Islamic
State.
Moreover, if one looks at the
locations that the Islamic State
has targeted to take over or currently
controls, many are along
both the Euphrates and Tigris
rivers as well as areas that have
oil in both Iraq and Syria.
Baghdadi and the rest of the
Islamic State leadership realise
that if one has a monopoly
on the energy (whether for human
consumption or electrically
powered devices) along with
its growing military might, it
is a lot easier to consolidate its
writ, even if parts of the population
disagree with its ideological
project.
While we may not know the future
of the Islamic State, it is clear
that Baghdadi has steered the organisation
back to prominence. In
many ways, he has eclipsed even
the founder of the group Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi in prestige, resources,
and potential for the future.
His true significance will likely
come more to light following his
death, since, as we have seen with
al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri has
had a difficult time replacing Bin
Laden.
For now, the Islamic State’s “Caliph”
is the new star of the ascendant
“Caliphate Project”.
—BBC
The late Osama Bin Laden and (right) a map showing areas
controlled by the Islamic State

Sport
The Standard August 3 to 9 2014 25
Fragapane’s remarkable rise
She spun on her back and flipped onto her
knees, electrifying the arena with moves more
often associated with street dancers than
English gymnasts
The agents have already started
circling. Life may never be
the same for Claudia Fragapane.
But that is what happens when
you create history, becoming the
first englishwoman for 84 years
to win four gold medals at a single
Commonwealth Games.
By doing so in the manner of a
stylish avant-garde, all while at the
tender age of 16, it is little wonder
that steely agents are giddily making
calls in the hope of adding the
diminutive teenager to their client
list.
To understand why a schoolgirl —
whose previous career high was to
finish sixth in the vault and eighth
on the floor at the recent european
Championships team event — has
become such an asset, it is important
to rewind to Wednesday night
and a never-to-be-forgotten evening
at a soup bowl of a Glaswegian amphitheatre.
For those who were among the capacity
crowd at the hydro for the
floor event in the all-around competition,
or even watched on television,
it was a performance which
will live long in the memory: 90 seconds
of vertigo-inducing somersaults,
breakdancing, body popping
and brilliant tumbles.
even those with untrained eyes
raised their eyebrows and shuffled
further forwards in their seats as
they watched a tiny 4ft 5in frame
dazzle with flips and twists — or a
double straight back somersault
with a full twist, to use proper terminology,
and one example.
No other British female gymnast
had ever performed the move. Spectators
watched open mouthed.
She spun on her back and flipped
onto her knees, electrifying the arena
with moves more often associated
with street dancers than english
gymnasts.
She launched herself to heights
her rivals could not manage and,
when the dancing was over, when
the smiling, wide-eyed unknown
gymnast lifted her arms skywards,
the crowd rose to their feet in joyous
approval.
The judges were admirers, too,
awarding Fragapane 14.733 points
to propel her to the top of the leaderboard.
Gold was hers.
Fragapane was now the Commonwealth
all-around champion and
her team-mates, the ones she had
just pushed into silver and bronze,
lifted their friend, all six stone of
her, onto their shoulders.
“It wouldn’t have looked out of
place in the men’s floor final because
she is such a power tumbler,”
says Craig heap, former British
team captain. “It was funky, cool
and everything about her performance
was really refreshing. She
had better get used to standing on
top of a podium.”
Two more golds followed, with
victories in the vault and floor adding
to a golden collection which had
started in the team event.
But it was the first glimpse of her
incomparable floor routine, in that
all-around final, which first prompted
astonished onlookers to make
their feelings known on social media.
This gave rise to the nickname
“Pocket Rocket” and propelled Fragapane’s
star into a different stratosphere.
She had made it look simple, but
then she was supposed to.
“It has to look easy,” says Fragapane’s
coach, helen Potter, the woman
behind the scintillating choreography.
Inspiration for the elements of
street dance in the routine had come
from scouring YouTube clips, while
the whole dance is a reflection of
Fragapane’s personality. “She’s dynamic
and bubbly and we wanted to
show that off,” explained Potter.
Such are the physical demands
placed on the Bristolian by such a
complex routine, another coach,
Rory Weavers, developed a specific
programme to ensure she had the
stamina and strength to cope.
As with many stories of accomplishment
and triumph, the seeds
of success were first sown years
ago, at Bristol hawks Gymnastics
Club, where Potter began working
with the six-year-old Fragapane
and set about addressing the wannabe’s
weaknesses and enhancing
her strengths.
“She has always had that power,
has always been dynamic, but she
was not naturally flexible,” Potter
remembers. “We have had to work
hard on her flexibility. She had a
good jump but she was not at all flexible.”
After a decade of gradual improvement,
Fragapane’s achievements
on successive summer nights
have not surprised her mentor, although
Potter concedes there were
nerves as she watched her pupil
during a week full of firsts, the pressure
increasing by the day.
“She’s young and had never been
in that situation before,” says Potter.
“She’s worked so hard, we were
just hoping she did what she set out
to do. She’s only come through recently.
She’d never competed in an
all-around at a major competition
before.
“And england had only allocated
two coaches to the team, which
meant she didn’t have her personal
coach on the floor with her, but
that’s another positive for the future.
It proved she is self-sufficient.”
Such was the standard of Fragapane’s
floor routine — a 14,733 score
in Wednesday’s all-around final and
14,541 in Friday’s floor final — Potter
believes gymnasts from around
the world will be searching the internet
for clips of those two displays.
But, before they attempt to find a
solution on how to outwit the teenager
at October’s World Gymnastics
Championships, perhaps they
should take heed.
“her floor routine is world class,”
says Potter. “But she has got a lot of
elements that she didn’t show because
we want to add things gradually.
She’s doing very well, and she’s
got a lot of upgrades to come but it’s
about making the right choices.”
PGA Tour denies Johnson drugs suspension
RePORTS suggesting Dustin Johnson
has been suspended for failing a
drugs test have been denied by the
PGA Tour.
On Thursday, the big-hitting
American golfer announced he was
taking time out to confront “personal
challenges”.
But Golf.com reported that Johnson
(30), is serving a six-month suspension
after testing positive for cocaine.
A PGA Tour statement said:
“This is to clarify that Mr Johnson
has taken a voluntary leave of absence
and is not under a suspension
from the PGA Tour.”
Announcing his absence, which
means he will miss the Ryder Cup in
September, Johnson said he hoped
the break would improve his “mental
health, physical well-being and
emotional foundation”
Johnson, who also misses the US
PGA Championship at Valhalla,
was the only unbeaten United States
player when europe triumphed at
Medinah two years ago.
As well as missing the final major
of the year and the Gleneagles
showdown, which runs from 26-28
September, Johnson will also sit out
the lucrative PGA Tour play-off series.
The PGA Tour has a policy of not
releasing details of positive tests for
recreational drugs.
Johnson, who finished 12th at last
month’s Open at Royal Liverpool
and was fifth in the US Ryder Cup
list, said he was taking leave of absence
from the game with immediate
effect.
“I will use this time to seek professional
help for personal challenges I
have faced,” he said.
Claudia Fragapane (centre)’s exploits have led to the 4ft 5in tall gymnast being nicknamed “Pocket Rocket”
Dustin Johnson
“By committing the time and resources
necessary, I am confident
that I will be better equipped to fulfil
my potential and become a consistent
champion.”
Johnson pulled out of the 2012
Masters citing a back injury caused
by lifting a jet ski. he missed three
months of the season. — BBCSport
Claudia Fragapane on the floor
Prior to these Games, Fragapane
has been eased into the world
of elite sport. Sore feet meant she
missed a chunk of last season. her
coaches prioritised rest and recuperation
over competition because
“a long, successful” career is what
they envisage for their star performer.
But will Fragapane be able to
gradually make her way in the world
after her fabulous feats? hours after
victory, the television lights continued
to shine on her. In-between the
media interrogation the four-time
Commonwealth champion behaved
like any teenager would — posing
for pictures, laughing with friends
and team-mates, and checking her
phone for messages.
“There’s more to come from her,”
says heap. “her tumbling doesn’t
have to become more difficult because
there aren’t girls anywhere in
the world who can do what she can
do.
“All she needs now is the confidence
to go with that and, surely, after
the european Championships
and these Games and the Worlds
coming up, by the time we get to
the Olympics in Rio she will have
gained that confidence.”
— BBCSport
Anderson, Jadeja not
guilty of ICC breach
eNGLAND’S James Anderson
and India’s Ravindra Jadeja have
been found not guilty of breaching
the International Cricket
Council code of conduct.
Seamer Anderson (32), was
given a level three misconduct
charge over claims he abused and
pushed Jadeja during the first
Test at Trent Bridge.
All-rounder Jadeja (25), was appealing
against a fine imposed
for his part in the incident last
month.
Anderson could have faced a
maximum four-Test ban if found
guilty. Both men were cleared
soon after the conclusion of a sixhour
hearing overseen via video
conference by judicial commissioner
Gordon Lewis, who is
based in Australia.
Lewis heard accounts from witnesses,
including India and england
players, who were cross-examined
by legal counsel.
Anderson is now available to
play in the fourth Test at his home
ground Old Trafford, starting on
August 7, the final match at The
Oval, and the five-match one-day
series that follows.
he took seven wickets in england’s
series-levelling 266-run victory
in the third Test at Southampton
to move within 12 of equalling
Sir Ian Botham’s england record
of 383. — BBCSport

26 The Standard August 3 to 9 2014
Sport
Lampard
set for City
loan move
Lampard was released by Chelsea this summer
after 13 years at Stamford Bridge, his 211 goals
in 649 matches making him the club’s record
scorer
MAnchester city are
set to sign former chelsea
midfielder Frank
Lampard on loan from new York
city Fc.
Lampard was released by chelsea
this summer after 13 years
at stamford Bridge, his 211 goals
in 649 matches making him the
club’s record scorer.
the 36-year-old signed for new
York city last month on a twoyear
contract.
the Major League soccer franchise
is owned by Manchester
city and baseball giants new
York Yankees, but the team’s season
does not start until March
2015.
Manchester city declined to
comment, but Lampard could
be at their carrington training
ground as early as next week for
manager Manuel Pellegrini to
monitor his fitness.
the loan deal is likely to run
until mid-January, and city plan
to register the england international
for both their Premier
League and champions League
campaigns.
Manchester city won their second
Premier League title in three
years last season, with chelsea
finishing third.
the two sides meet at etihad
Former Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard
stadium on september 21.
During his time at stamford
Bridge, Lampard was chelsea’s
vice-captain and won the Premier
League title three times and
the champions League and europa
League once apiece.
the former West ham player
also helped the Blues win four FA
cups and the League cup twice.
On signing for new York city
Fc, Lampard said: “new York
ticks all the right boxes for me.
It’s very exciting.”
Former spain striker David
Villa (32), has also joined the MLs
franchise, though he will spend
three months on loan at Melbourne
Fc, Manchester city’s
Australian partner club.
Manchester city chief executive
Ferran soriano said: “One
of the reasons David Villa and
Frank Lampard decided to come
to new York is because they know
who manages and who owns the
club.”
Lampard, who won his 106 th
england cap during the World
cup in Brazil, said he would
make a decision on his international
career once his club future
was finalised.
At his official new York unveiling,
Lampard said: “I’m going to
keep fit, that’s the main thing.
how I do that is not clear yet.
“I’m going to sit round with
people at the club and sort that
out.”
A number of MLs players have
spent the Us close-season on loan
to Premier League clubs, including
clint Dempsey at Fulham,
Landon Donovan at everton,
robbie Keane at Aston Villa and
thierry henry at Arsenal.
— BBCSport
Suarez’s appeal on august 8
BArceLOnA striker Luis suarez’s
appeal to the court of Arbitration
for sport (cAs) against a
four-month ban for biting will be
heard on August 8.
the Uruguay forward was punished
after biting Italy defender
Giorgio chiellini at the 2014 Fifa
World cup in Brazil.
An initial appeal against the
27-year-old’s suspension was rejected
by Fifa.
the appeal has been filed by suarez,
Uruguay and Barcelona, the
spanish club he joined last month
in a £75m transfer from Liverpool.
cAs has agreed to fast-track the
case, and it is thought a verdict
could be announced by the end of
the week after the hearing.
Barcelona’s first match of the
new La Liga season is on August
24, but if the ban is upheld, suarez
will be out until late October.
Under the terms of the suspension,
he is banned from “any
football-related activity”, which
means he cannot train with his
club or enter the confines of any
stadium, although players’ union
Fifpro argues the details “lack
clarity”.
suarez is also banned from playing
for Uruguay for nine matches
and was fined 100 000 swiss francs
(£66 000).
— BBCSport
Newcastle hopeful of Ferreyra loan deal
MAnAGer Alan Pardew hopes
newcastle United can complete
a deal to sign shakhtar Donetsk
striker Facundo Ferreyra on loan.
the 23-year-old Argentine is one
of six shakhtar players who have
opted not to return to Donetsk because
of the on-going conflict in
Ukraine.
Pardew is keen to add a forward
to his squad, with six signings already
made.
“It’s something that is not done,
but we’re working to see if that
can happen,” Pardew said.
Ferreyra scored six goals in
only five starts for Ukrainian
league champions shakhtar last
term, following spells at Velez
sarsfield and Banfield in his
home country.
“Facundo is a good presence
on the pitch, a big guy at 6ft 2in,
a player who has gone to the
Ukraine and has been okay,”
Pardew said.
“If we manage to secure him, he
would be a player who we’d expect
to do a lot better here.”
Meanwhile, Pardew has played
down the likelihood of a deal for
Queens Park rangers striker Loic
remy, who scored 14 goals in 27
games for the Magpies on loan
last season.
remy (27), was expected to join
Liverpool before a deal collapsed,
and Pardew had confirmed his interest
in re-signing the France international
earlier this week.
“We’ve not really had much
contact with Loic and I don’t see
that evolving if I’m honest,” added
Pardew.
“Whatever happened at Liverpool
is irrelevant really, because
he’s had plenty of chances to
come to us. — BBCSport
New football betting
rules enforced
neW rules which prevent players
and coaches from betting on any
worldwide footballing activity will
help in the fight against match-fixing,
says Football Association general
secretary Alex horne.
Players from the top eight tiers
of the english game are banned
from betting on the sport under
new rules which came into force
on Friday.
“We are really proud of the integrity
of the game in this country
and it is really important people
trust... what is happening on
the pitch,” said horne.
“We want to keep our message
as simple as possible — and it cannot
be more simple that as a player
you cannot bet at all on football.”
club employees and match officials
are also restricted by the new
rules, which prevent gambling on
any football-related matters, including
results, goalscorers, ingame
play, player transfers, manager
changes or promotions and
relegations.
the Football Association will
visit all clubs to talk about the
Football betting tickets
fresh regulations and have produced
a number of educational
videos.
Players and stakeholders from
clubs in the Premier League down
to the northern and southern and
Isthmian Leagues are affected.
the rules apply to bets made in
person, online, on the telephone or
with friends. Participants are also
not allowed to instruct any third
party to place any bet on their behalf.
Previously, participants were
prohibited from betting on a match
or competition in which they were
involved or could influence.
tottenham’s Andros townsend,
cameron Jerome — on loan at
crystal Palace from stoke last season
— and Dan Gosling, who has
joined Bournemouth this summer,
are among those who have
breached current betting regulations.
Winger townsend was fined
£18 000 by the FA in June 2013,
striker Jerome £50 000 last August
and midfielder Gosling £30 000 in
March. — BBCSport

Sport
The Standard August 3 to 9 2014 27
Players soldier through Ramadan
SuSpending normal consumption of food and
liquids might be against bodily demands but
sportspersons have to endure the fasting from
dawn to sunset
BY MICHAEL MADYIRA
From June 29 until last Sunday,
muslims around the world were
observing the Islamic month of
fasting, ramadan.
Pleasures of smoking and sex
are not allowed during this ninth
month of the Islamic calendar
which is dedicated to prayers and
obligatory fasting as well as reciting
the Quran.
Suspending normal consumption
of food and liquids might be
against bodily demands but sportspersons
have to endure the fasting
from dawn to sunset.
The number of muslims is increasing
in sport, especially football.
Frank ribery, Nicholas Anelka,
Kolo and Yaya Toure, Demba Ba,
Samir Nasri, Edin Dzeko, mesut
ozil, Karim Benzima and Kevin
Prince-Boateng are some of the
world star footballers who practise
Islam.
A few local muslim footballers
also have to bear with ramadan.
Silas Songani, Khama Billiat,
Takunda Sadiki and Qadr Amini
are among Zimbabwean footballers
who are muslims.
They have to endure 90 minutes
of rigorous activity on empty
stomachs.
This year’s ramadan was Songani’s
first on foreign land and his
teammates at Danish Superliga side
Sonderjyske, Burkinabe Adama Guira
and Nigerian midfielder Adigun
Salami helped him pull through.
At Harare City he was the only
player practising the muslim religion.
“I thank God for guiding me
through ramadan. That is the
time when one faces all sorts of
temptations but I managed to
overcome that,” said Songani.
While at Inter milan five years
ago, Chelsea coach Jose mourinho
offended muslims after suggesting,
that Sulley muntari was
performing below-par due to the
effects of ramadan taking a toll
on him.
But Songani says his game is
not affected when fasting.
“You do not feel anything while
you are playing but there is some
discomfort in the body after the
match,” he said.
Songani was schooled at Aces
Youth Soccer Academy where together
with Billiat and Sadiki,
they used to attend the Waterfalls
masjid.
Aces head coach Expense Chitukutuku,
is not surprised to see the
players not affected by fasting
during this demanding stage of
their professional careers since
they used to do that during academy
days.
“They were young boys by then
but you could see no difference
when they were fasting. They
would go about their business
without facing any problems,”
said Chitukutuku.
It is not only playing on empty
stomachs that is a challenge
for footballers during ramadan,
but staying humble in aggressive
game situations.
There would be need to control
tempers during hostile moments
where a quick reaction would be
required.
When provoked during matches,
FC Platinum wingback Amini
has to avoid swearing and arguing,
acts which are against the
dictates of ramadan.
“Sometimes you just have
Thank you Allah . . . Silas Songani celebrates with prayer his goal with Burkinabe teammate Adama Guira after scoring the last goal in
his Danish club Sonderyjske's 4-0 win over FCV Vikings on his debut in February.
to control your anger during a
match. There are too many situations
that require fast reactions,
for example when you are at the
end of a nasty tackle. You do not
have to remonstrate with the referee
as well,” said Amini.
When others drink water during
matches, muslim players have
to defeat the temptation brought
by excessive thirst.
But Amini has a trick for that.
“I take a lot of water during
suhoor [the pre-dawn breakfast],”
he said.
“I just pour water on my head
for cooling. Besides, I was born
a muslim so I am used to training
and playing while fasting. It is
not painful to me anymore. most
of my teammates are always surprised
that I am fasting. But I get
extremely hungry after a match.”
Amini managed to score while
fasting in the fiercely-contested
Zvishavane league derby against
FC Platinum on July 12 to help his
side win 2-1.
He was however unfortunately
injured during that game.
But if one fails to complete a
day’s fasting due to various factors
like work commitments or
succumbing to temptation, they
have to compensate for it on another
day after ramadan.
A strict devotee since childhood,
Amini always travels with
his Quran, even outside ramadan
and attends the mandava masjid.
Some coaches however, like
mourinho, might not be comfortable
with their star players playing
while fasting.
But recently the Portuguese
coach had to respect Egyptian
forward mohamed Salah who explains
how challenging it was for
him during ramadan.
“ramadan was a bit difficult for
me because we had two training
sessions every day, the weather
was very hot and I played in every
game,” Salah told Chelsea’s website
on Friday.
“I wasn’t even able to drink water
until 9.30pm. Although I am
used to it, it’s finished now and
I can eat and drink as normal.
When you train twice a day your
energy levels drop by the second
session, but it means a lot to me
so I’m very happy and I feel good.”
But Amini feels blessed to have
coaches who tolerate his religion,
saying he has never faced any
problems since his Gunners days.
“I have been fortunate that my
coaches have always understood
me,” Amini said.
FC Platinum coach Lloyd mutasa
respects every religion after
also encountering muslim players
during his stint as coach of Swazi
side Green mamba.
mutasa himself is a member of
an apostolic sect and fasting is not
new to him.
“I respect every player’s religion
and I used to coach two muslim
guys in Swaziland so I have no
problem with them playing while
fasting,” said mutasa.
“It is just a matter of having your
body system getting used to it. As
for Qadr, he always does well during
ramadan and look, he scored
against Shabanie mine. You cannot
tell the difference during such
a time. He is always a workaholic.”
Uganda dump Rwanda
out of AYC qualifiers
Up to 30 athletes from Sierra Leone are considering extending their stay in the UK amid an Ebola outbreak back home
ebola fear: Athletes want longer uK stay
UP to 30 Commonwealth Games
athletes from Sierra Leone are
considering extending their stay
in Glasgow amid fears over the
Ebola virus.
The BBC has also learned a
second Sierra Leone competitor,
Samuel morris, has been tested
for Ebola and cleared by doctors
in Glasgow.
Cyclist moses Sesay had also
tested negative for the virus.
It has been confirmed another
Sierra Leone cyclist, mohamed
Tholley, has vanished from the
athletes’ village.
Ebola has caused more than 700
deaths since February in an outbreak
affecting four west African
countries.
Sesay (32), was admitted to a
Glasgow hospital last week after
feeling unwell and doctors tested
him for various conditions, including
Ebola.
The cyclist was given the allclear
and released from hospital
in time to compete in the men’s
individual time trial at the Games
on Thursday.
It later emerged that table tennis
player morris was also tested
in Glasgow and given the all-clear.
morris (34), said he developed
a fever two days after arriving at
the athletes’ village. — BBCSport
THE Uganda Cubs cruised to a 3-2
victory past rwanda in the return
leg of the Africa Youth Championship
qualifier in rubavu yesterday
afternoon.
Charles Sebutinde opened the
scoring line in the 31 st minute before
Julius Poloto netted the second
at the half-time mark to give
the visitors a 2-0 lead.
rwanda’s rachid Bigiraneza
scored a brace to equalise, however,
Uganda’s talisman Shaban
muhammed found the back of
an open net in the 74th minute
to ensure victory for the visitors.
The hosts were reduced to 10
men in the 86 th minute after captain
Djamel manishimwe was red
carded for fouling Ugandan Frank
Tumwesigye and attempting to
fight.
“We deserved to win because we
played well. Honestly, we were the
better team because we prepared
well and our advantage is that we
have a bigger pool of players to select
the national team from rather
than rwanda which is small,” explained
matia Lule, head coach of
Uganda.
“We played an attacking game
today because we wanted to win
and I thank the boys because they
have scored seven goals in this
tie. This is what I wanted. However,
I have to admit that rwanda
has changed a lot. They were very
good tactically in the second game
and they should build on this.”
rwanda’s new head coach Lee
Johnson said, “We have to take
lessons from this game and we are
going to use this chance to build
a strong foundation for the future.
We have to keep working hard and
with the right structures we shall
be back strong.”
“For most of the players, the
first leg match in Kampala was
the first competitive international
game they had played outside
rwanda. In Europe, at this level,
players have played so many
games so in the future we shall
make sure they have the experience
by the time they play at this
level.”
The Uganda Cubs won the tie
7-2 on aggregate and will now face
Zambia in the last round of qualification
ahead of the 2015 Africa
Youth Championships in Niger
from February 15 to march 1.
— Supersport

28 The Standard August 3 to 9 2014
Sport
Everton sign
Zim-born
teenager
Galloway
The England youth international became MK
Dons’ youngest ever first-team player when he
made his debut against Nantwich Town in
November 2011 aged just 15
EvErton yesterday completed
the signing of Zimbabwean-born
defender
Brendan Galloway from MK
Dons for an undisclosed fee. the
18-year-old has penned a five-year
contract at Goodison Park and
will now join up with the Club’s
Brendan Galloway, Everton’s new signing
Under-21s.
the England youth international
became MK Dons’ youngest ever
first-team player when he made
his debut against nantwich town
in november 2011 aged just 15.
In total, he made 17 appearances
for the League one club and
scored once – in a 4-1 FA Cup firstround
victory over Halifax town
last season.
“It means an awful lot to me
coming to such a great Club,” Galloway
said. “I’m now looking forward
to learning off some of the
more senior players — the likes of
Sylvain Distin and Phil Jagielka.
“I’ve been watching them for
years now and they’re great professionals,
great players — players
who have been there and done it.
that’s a big thing for me to be able
to learn off guys like that.
“Short-term,I just want to work
hard to better myself as a footballer
here, which I know I will with
the coaches and other staff here.
“Long-term, I also want to get in
the Everton team and play week
in and week out in the Premier
League and play in a team that’s
doing well, which I know we will
do.” — evertofc.com
Real stadium plans disrupted
rEAL Madrid’s plans to remodel
their Bernabeu stadium were
thrown into doubt on Friday after
a court in the Spanish capital suspended
an agreement between the
club and the city government that
is crucial to the project.
the court ruled that the deal between
real and the Madrid council,
which would allow land adjacent
to the stadium to be incorporated
into the stadium overhaul,
should be suspended because the
European Commission is examining
it for possible illegal state aid.
the Commission said in December
when it announced its investigation
that the property deal appeared
“very advantageous”.
“the court is adopting the [suspension]
measure due to the
launching of a process by the European
Commission relating to
possible state aid given to real Madrid,”
the Madrid court said in a
statement.
real did not immediately respond
to an emailed request for
comment on the court’s ruling.
real, the world’s richest club by
income, chose a design led by German
architects GMP for the remodelling
of the Bernabeu at an
estimated cost of 400 million euros.
Karim Benzema and Jese scored for Real Madrid as they cruised to a 2-0 win over
Osasuna in the first leg of the Round of 16 match
the club hopes the work, which
would see a striking new roof
and exterior added to the current
structure and include a hotel and
a shopping centre, can be completed
by 2017.
By remodelling the stadium,
which was opened in the 1950s
and holds just over 80 000 spectators,
real are looking to increase
matchday revenue, one of their
key income streams. — Supersport
Woods to play with Mickelson at Valhalla
El Sallaly, Oleksandra
win ITF singles titles
By Our STaFF
AKrAM El Sallaly from Egypt
and 13-year-old Ukrainian Andrieieva
oleksandra recorded
straight sets victories to lift the
International tennis Federation
18 and under South Central Circuit
singles titles at Harare Sports
Club yesterday.
In an exciting boys final, El Sallaly,
who dumped top seed and local
favourite Courtney Lock out
of the race for honours, got the
better of big serving Gueninle
outtara from Ivory Coast 7-5 6-3 in
just over an hour.
El Sallaly found himself with
three set points having nosed into
a 6 -5 lead and broke the Ivorian’s
set who dragged his forehand long
to wrap up the first set.
the second set saw both players
failing to hold serve in the first
four games as they tied two-all,
but the Egyptian took the initiative
in the fifth game to take a 3-2
lead.
He soon broke his opponent’s
serve again but ouattara would
not go down without a fight as he
soon levelled the game 4-4
He however lost the next two
games to hand the title to the aggressive
El Sallaly.
Earlier in the day, oleksandra
had upstaged the favourite
and second seed, Egypt’s Habiba
Lasheen 7-5 6-3 in Court 10 to wrap
up the match in 1 hour 39 minutes
and claim a memorable victory.
“For me to be here was just great
and having won here was really
emotional with all those people
in the grand stands watching. I always
think about winning, always
try to do the best. It’s an important
win because I’m only 13 years
old and it means now I break into
the top 400 in ItF world rankings,”
said an excited oleksandra.
the second leg of the tournament
kickstarted soon after the
boys finals with the qualifier
where six boys and four girls will
gain into the main draw.
Zimbabwean Courtney Lock secured
a consolation by winning
the double title alongside single finalist
ouattara.
tIGEr Woods and Phil Mickelson
will play alongside each other for
the first two rounds of the US PGA
Championship at valhalla next
week.
Woods (38), has won the tournament
four times while fellow American
Mickelson (44), clinched the title
in 2005.
Ireland’s Padraig Harrington,
the 2008 winner, completes the trio,
which gets under way at 13:35 BSt
on thursday.
open champion rory McIlroy
will join US open winner Martin
Kaymer and Masters champion
Bubba Watson at 18:45.
the par-71 course at the 2008 ryder
Cup venue in Kentucky, which
also hosted the season’s final major
in 2000 and 1996, is set to be the longest
in the tournament’s history at
7,458 yards.
Woods was the winner in 2000
while compatriot Mark Brooks —
playing with fellow past champions
John Daly (1991) and rich Beem
(2002) at 13:30 — was victorious in
1996, the first major tournament at
the Jack nicklaus-designed course.
Defending champion Jason
Dufner tees off at 18:55 with 2011
Tiger Woods
winner Keegan Bradley and 2009
victor YE Yang of South Korea.
— BBCSport
Courtney Lock

Sport
The Standard August 3 to 9 2014 29
Are our transfer fees realistic?
Zvishavane-based outfit FC Platinum seem to
have made the biggest buy so far after
snapping town rivals shabanie Mine striker
ashley Mukwena for a fee believed to be
around Us$20 000
By BriAn nkiwAne
THE Premier Soccer League
(PSL) mid-season transfer
window curtain came down
last Thursday while the big one,
the European Professional Football
League transfer deadline, is
still open until September 1.
The summer transfer activity so
far confirms Spain’s big two clubs
as the ultimate destination for the
world’s best players, with James
Rodríguez and Luis Suárez making
headline signings for Real Madrid
and Barcelona respectively.
The Uruguayan striker moved to
Barcelona for a £75m fee while the
second biggest summer sale saw
the unexpected star of the World
Cup finals, Colombia’s James
Rodríguez signing for Real Madrid
for a reported £63m.
The fee makes Rodriguez the
fourth most expensive transfer of
all time after Real’s £86m for Gareth
Bale in 2013 and £80m for Cristiano
Ronaldo in 2009, and Barcelona’s
£75m for Suárez.
Apart from these two big sales,
the transfer market has had other
transfers that include intermediate
signings by Atlético Madrid. In
Italy only two clubs, Roma and Juventus,
have spent more than £10m
to date and the same is true of
the Bundesliga, where Borrussia
Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen
are leading the way. The French
league is normally a minor player
in these matters yet a £50m bill for
David Luiz cannot go unnoticed.
Back to our local league, Zvishavane-based
outfit FC Platinum
seem to have made the biggest
buy so far after snapping town
rivals Shabanie Mine striker Ash-
ley Mukwena for a fee believed to
be around US$20 000.
The Platinum miners still hold
Zimbabwe football’s biggest transfer
record of US$40 000 after they
signed Highlanders midfielder
Joel “Josta” Ngodzo in their topflight
league debut season.
The then newcomers opened
their cheque book to acquire all
top players in that season which
included the Motor Action duo of
Charles Sibanda and Bheki Ncube,
Gunners’ trio of hitman Norman
Maroto, goalkeeper Tafadzwa
Dube and Ali Sadiki and Dynamos’
Thabani Kamusoko.
Ngodzo’s brother Zephaniah
also joined the great trek to Zvishavane
for a figure of around
US$20 000 together with Menard
Mupera.
In other transfer news, Bulawayo
giants Highlanders seem to
be failing to raise US$4 000 to pay
back FC Platinum for the services
of striker Njabulo “JB” Ncube
who left the club in a huff at the
end of the 2013 soccer season to
pen a one-year contract with the
platinum miners believed to be in
the range of US$8 000.
After finding the going tough, JB
dumped FC Platinum and moved
back to Bosso after the move
had been stalled by FC Platinum
who were demanding payment of
US$4 000. They later agreed on a
payment plan.
Dynamos had their biggest buy
last season when they lured winger
Masimba Mambare from rivals
Highlanders for a fee believed to be
around US$15 000.
But the Harare giants have been
number one seller to South African
clubs as they have so far sold
James Rodríguez signing his new six-year contract with Real Madrid.
goalkeeper George Chigova to
South African premiership side
Supersport United for a fee in the
range of US$120 000, while defender
Patson Jaure joined Pretoria
University for a reported amount
of US$80 000.
Highlanders have been the biggest
loser in the market as most of
their players who left the country
for South Africa were not in their
books; hence negotiations have
been between the players’ managers
and the clubs to which the players
are going.
These players include Peter
“Rio” Moyo who went to Mpumalanga
Black Aces, Milton Ncube to
Ajax Cape Town, Kudakwashe Mahachi
to Mamelodi Sundowns and
Khumbulani Banda who joined
Maritzburg United recently.
Other transfers that have happened
in our local league have
mostly involved free agent players
who at the end of the day negotiated
for a monthly salary of between
US$400 to US$800 as well as a signing
on fee that ranges between
US$2 000 to US$5 000.
Catch the Fire basketball tourney a huge success
By our StAff
HEARTFELT Ministries successfully
held a four-school Catch the
Fire basketball tournament at Dzivarasekwa
Community Hall last
week.
The main reason behind the
church getting into sport was to
create awareness of one of their
conferences to be held in the capital
on August 31 by Apostle Taonga
Utabwashe.
The four schools that took part
in the tournament are Dzivarasekwa
High 1 who were the eventual
winners of the tournament, Marlborough,
who came second, Kuwadzana
High who came third and
Dzivarasekwa High 2 who finished
fourth.
For their sterling performance,
Dzivarasekwa High 1 were rewarded
with a floating trophy
while all team members of second
placed Marlborough were presented
with Catch The Fire Conference
t-shirts.
Speaking to Standardsport after
successfully hosting the basketball
tourney, ambassador for Dzivarasekwa
home group, Mlayo Ncube
said as a church they had decided
to spread the good news of their upcoming
conference through sport.
“We don’t undermine the power
of sport. I know very well that by
Dzivarasekwa High 1 representative receiving the trophy after emerging winners in the
four-team basketball tournament last week.
the time we get to end of August,
we would have touched the hearts
of many youths through participation
in sporting activities,” Ncube
said.
The church donated paint to assist
in sprucing up the image of the
community centre.
“We thought it was a good idea to
donate some paint to assist in painting
the community infrastructure
that we use on a daily basis.
Precious stone . . . Joel “Josta” Ngodzo still holds the Zimbabwe transfer record after FC
Platinum paid a figure believed to be around US$40 000 for his move from Highlanders
three seasons ago.
Lisimati optimistic ahead
of African Senior Champs
By kennetH nyAnGAni
THE National Athletics Association
of Zimbabwe (Naaz) director
of coaching and talent identification
Lisimati Phakamile is
fancying the country’s chances
at the 19 th edition of African Senior
Championships, set to start
in Morocco next week.
The prestigious tournament
will be held from August 10-14 of
this month.
Two athletes in the mould of
Mauritius-based Francis Zimwara,
who will compete in the
100m and 200m categories and
South African-based Rodwell
Ndlovu who is set to participate
in the 200m and 400m categoriesrespectively
will represent the
country.
The two will be aiming to outwit
some of their fellow African
counterparts, fresh from participating
at the Commonwealth
Games which end today in Scotland’s
capital Glasgow.
In an interview with Standardsport
on Friday, Phakamile,
who will accompany the squad
to Morocco, said they are aiming
to record good qualifying times.
“We are hoping that the two
athletes are going to register
good times. That is our major
aim, winning one or two medals
will be a bonus. It is always difficult
to participate in sprinting,”
he said.
“But our athletes will still be
fresh as compared to other athletes
who took part at the Commonwealth
games in Scotland.
That is going to be our major
trump-card for the team,’’ he
added.
Naaz president Tendai Tagara
weighed in, saying that he was
expecting the two athletes to do
the nation proud.
“Africa Senior Championships
has never been an easy terrain
but I am confident with the athletes
we are sending. Zimwara is
attached at an high performance
centre in Mauritius while Ndlovu
is doing well in South Africa,”
he said.
“Lisimati will be the advance
part as he is set to organise the
logistics of the team, amongst
other important issues,” Tagara
said.

30 The Standard August 3 to 9 2014
Sport
Nengomasha
haunted by
Jimmy Jambo
incident
While it is Jambo whose career could
prematurely end and should be ruing that
horrific tackle, it is Nengomasha who appears
haunted
BY MICHAEL MADYIRA
OCTOBER 19 2012 will forever linger
on the mind of former Warriors
and Kaizer Chiefs left-back
Zhaimu “Jimmy” Jambo.
A dreadful lunge by compatriot
Tinashe Nengomasha in the Telkom
Cup first round match between
Chiefs and Wits University
left his knee irreparably damaged.
As fate would have it, the incident
happened with a minute remaining
to full-time.
Two years later, at a tender age
of 26, Jambo is contemplating retirement
from football because of
the injury.
While it is Jambo whose career
could prematurely end and should
be ruing that horrific tackle, it is
Nengomasha who appears haunted.
“I regret ever taking part in that
game and if I could turn back the
hands of time, I would have sat
out,” said Nengomasha.
“Whenever I think about that
day, I get sad. It is painful to me
and I will live with that pain forever.
I did not mean to hurt Jimmy.
When I heard that he was planning
to retire I have been frantically
trying to get hold of him but you
know his phones are off most of
the times.”
In pain . . . Zhaimu Jambo (on the ground) holds his dislocated knee after a crude tackle by Tinashe Nengomasha
True to Nengomasha’s word, it
has been impossible for Standardsport
to get hold of Jambo for the
past two weeks.
The incident in question happened
when Nengomasha had
just left Chiefs for Wits and most
Chiefs fans concluded that he was
a bitter man and decided to vent
his acrimony on Jambo.
“I know people are quick to
judge and are saying a lot of
things, including that I intentionally
hurt him because I still had
issues with Chiefs. I think people
saw what happened on TV. If you
look at the video, it is clear my intentions
were not to harm Jimmy,”
said Nengomasha.
“Before Chiefs signed Jimmy,
they asked for my views on him
just the way I had recommended
Knowledge Musona and [Willard]
Katsande. So how could I have intentionally
hurt him? I had not
watched Jimmy in action before
but I recommended him on the basis
of him being a national team
player.”
The former Warriors vice-captain
and Mpumalanga Black Aces
new acquisition has pledged the
upkeep of Jambo in the event that
he finally retires.
“I have talked to my wife about
it and I will see what I can do for
Jimmy if he is no longer playing.
I have to chip in here and there
whenever I can,” he said.
While it has been widely concluded
that Jambo has made a final
decision to hang his boots,
Kaizer Chiefs have insisted that
the defender has not yet made a final
decision.
Chiefs media and corporate
communications manager, told
Standardsport on Friday that the
player has only shown intention to
call it a day.
“Jimmy has not retired as yet,”
said Maphosa.
“There has been just intention
to retire. The issue is currently under
discussion between him and
the club. He is still contracted to us
for another year.”
Manager Bobby Motaung had issued
a conflicting statement during
a press conference on July 23.
“Jimmy Jambo has decided to
hang his boots because of his injury”
Motaung said then.
A statement on their official website
that day read, “Left-back Jimmy
Jambo is planning to hang up
his boots and will be making the announcement
soon in that regard.”
After trying to come back last
season and making only bench appearances,
chances are high that
Jambo will retire.
The chances have also been
heightened by the fact that he is
not currently training.
harare Junior league to
stage U-13 tournament
BY OuR CORREspONDENt
MOTOR Action Sports Club and
Prince Edward will play host to a
junior provincial football tournament
which is set to conclude on 11
August.
The tourney will bring together
provincial junior clubs with the
aim to uncover and capture grassroots
talent that has not been exposed
to any big football tournaments.
Harare Junior Provincial league
chairman Oma Kadehwe shared
the unique aspects of the forthcoming
football festival.
“It’s a unique tournament where
we seek to uncover junior talent,
we have also introduced player licences
for the kids with the aim to
curb rampant age-cheating in major
junior football tournaments in
the country,” he said.
He cited the just-ended Copa Coca-cola
and Nash competitions as
examples of events blighted by agecheating
controversies.
“In this day and age, we cannot
depend on birth certificates alone
because they can be tempered with,
hence the need for licences at junior
level. Also, match referees in
this tournament will not be handing
out cards, but rather teach offenders
the correct rules of the
game,” he added.
There is a floating trophy for the
winners as well as individual accolades
for player of the tournament,
top goal scorer and best goalkeeper.
Sadly, the tournament is yet to attract
corporate support and continues
to extend the begging bowl to
potential sponsors for the development
of junior football.
zambia midfielder moves to India
ZAMBIA and Zesco United midfielder
Kondwani Mtonga has joined Indian
club Shilong Lajong.
The 28-year-old defensive midfielder
moves to the ambitious I-League
on a short term deal from Zesco.
“Team vice captain Kondwani
Mtonga is set to join Indian side
Shilong Lajog on a six-month loan
deal after negotiations that started in
April,” Zesco’s media officer Katebe
Chengo said.
Mtonga has already amassed 22
Zambia caps in his short career since
making his Chipolopolo debut in
April 2013, in a 2-0 friendly win over
Zimbabwe in Lusaka.
And Mtonga will be the second
Zambian player to move to India this
August after midfielder Isaac Chansa
who is also moving the sub continent
after a brief spell at Faz Super
League side Zanaco.
Meanwhile, Zesco have recalled
defender Nyambe Mulenga after a
successful loan spell at Power Dynamos.
Nyambe left Zesco in January
when he was deemed excess to their
requirements for the 2014 season.
— Supersport
Dawe targets World Rally Champs
BY MuNYARADzI MADzOkERE
TOP Zimbabwean motor rally navigator
Gareth Dawe says his ultimate
goal is to compete in the FIA World
Rally Championships.
Dawe and his Zambian partner
Mohammed Essa, the 2012 Africa
rally champion, are currently lying
second on the 2014 Africa Rally
Championship standings following
battling wins in Zambia in May and
at the Rwanda Mountain Gorrilla
Rally a fortnight ago.
Standardsport caught up with
Dawe at Donnybrook Park last
weekend while he took some time
out to enjoy drag racing festivities.
“To be honest, I would love to do
a world rally championships event
before I retire as a rally navigator.
That is the ultimate goal but we are
looking to join the European Championships
in France next year. We
will see after the end of the ARC season
what we can do,” he said.
He said his driver and him already
had an international competitions
licence required to take their
Zimbabwe/Zambia rally connection
to the more lucrative European
territory.
“We have already acquired our
international competitions licence
and to represent Zimbabwe in Europe
will be fantastic. There are
South Africans who are doing well
there as we speak and if we can do a
Zimbabwe and Zambia partnership,
why not?” said Dawe.
Meanwhile Dawe said he was confident
he would be an African champion
navigator this season. He gave
a lot of praise for his driver Mohammed
Essa.
“As you know, we are just a point
behind the leaders. We are confident
of winning the next race in Uganda
Zambian Mohamed Essa and Zimbabwean Gareth Dawe power their Subaru Impreza
N16 to victory in the Airtel Zambia International Rally
and then after that finish the last
two races in good positions and then
we will be crowned champions.
“Essa [Mohammed] is a fantastic
driver, he is a really quick, level
headed, mature driver and we get
along very well in the car. I think his
career going forward will be really
brilliant,” assured Dawe.
Ivory Coast’s Gary Chaynes with
his partner Roman Cosman in their
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo lead the
2014 Africa rally standings with 76
points, a point ahead of Essa and
Dawe’s Subaru Impreza N16 while
Kenyan Jaspreet Singh Chatthe and
Dave Sihoka are a distant 3rd on 58
points.
There are only three races left on
the Africa rally calendar with attention
immediately shifting to the
Pearl of Africa Uganda rally penciled
for August 15 to 17, then KCB
Safari Rally, Kenya from September
12 -14, winding up at the Madagascar
International Rally, early November.
Dawe began his relationship with
motor sport in motocross at the age
of seven before moving to Main Circuit
and subsequently joining rally
in 1995.

Sport
The Standard August 3 to 9 2014 31
ZPC Kariba maintain unbeaten run
Drawing 10 matches so far, Chaminuka’s side
have lost 20 points from the share of spoils and
he is not worried about that
BY MICHAEL MADYIRA
ZPC Kariba . . . 0
Hwange . . . 0
ZPC Kariba recorded their 10th
draw of the season after their Premier
Soccer League (PSL) meeting
with visiting Hwange failed
to produce goals at Gwanzura yesterday.
On a tired afternoon of few scoring
chances created by either side,
ZPC Kariba were not convincing
that they are still unbeaten after
17 games.
They were also a pale shadow of
the side that stunned Hwange 2-0
at the Colliery a month ago.
Remaining at position two on
the log, leaving Dynamos with a
chance to overtake them this afternoon,
coach Saul Chaminuka had
only striker Artwell Nyamiwa’s
missed chance to talk about after
the match.
Drawing 10 matches so far,
Chaminuka’s side have lost 20
points from the share of spoils
and he is not worried about
that.
“I am quite pleased with this result,”
said Chaminuka.
“I am happy. We had the best
chance of the game where we had
Artwell versus their goalkeeper
[Takabva] Mawaya. It was easier
to score than to miss. What is
important is that after we failed
to score we defended well. That is
why we haven’t lost a game up to
now.
“I feel we could have won the
game. If we had sunk that opportunity,
we could have opened a hole.
Hwange came back into the game
after that miss. If we had scored
we could have gone to score more
than two goals but fine, that is football.”
Gaining a point on enemy territory,
Hwange coach Nation Dube
was not complaining.
“A point away from home is not
bad. We came to play and we drew.
I am happy with the general performance
of the team. I am happy
the changes I am making are
working well. The combinations
are clicking,” he said.
Dube was relieved to escape a
ZPC Kariba attack when Nyamiwa
broke loose 10 minutes into the
match and beat Takabva Mawaya
but the shot was just wide.
Mawaya was busy again with a
minute to halftime when he saved
Limited Chikafa’s close-range
ZPC Kariba shot-stopper Tendai “Fish” Hove collects the ball under the challenge of Farai Vimisai
shot.
Chikafa became the villain
again when he failed to convert a
header feed from Dennis Dauda
early in the first half.
Hwange had not tried the hosts’
rearguard until 66 minutes when
ZPC Kariba goalkeeper Tendai
Hove brilliantly tipped over bar a
well-taken free kick by Munyaradzi
“Pango” Mungadze.
Mungadze and Hove met again,
with the latter failing to beat the
goalkeeper face-to-face with 10
minutes to go.
Zim take control after
afghanistan a make 169
Chapungu hold
FC Platinum
Zimbabwe A 113 for 2 trail Afghanistan A
169 (Musoko 3-39) by 56 runs
ZIMBABWE A’s seamers dismissed
Afghanistan A for 169 on
the first day of the second fourday
match in Harare.
Cuthbert Musoko ran through
the top order and Tatenda Mupunga
and Neville Madziva took
over from there as Afghanistan A
lasted 54.1 overs after choosing to
bat.
Musoko reduced the visitors to
19 for 3 in the eighth over. Rahmat
Shah (29) and Najibullah
Zadran (36) tried to revive the
innings with a 59-run stand for
the fifth wicket but Mupunga removed
both batsmen. Wicketkeeper
Qaseem Khan contributed 37 at
Number 7, which helped Afghanistan
A push past 150.
Zimbabwe A lost Joylord Gumbie
cheaply and captain Tino Mawoyo
(27) could not build on his
start, but Mark Vermeulen and
Richmond Mutumbami made unbeaten
thirties to take the hosts to
113 for 2 at stumps. — Cricinfo
Montsho fails doping test
FORMER world and Commonwealth
champion Amantle
Montsho has been provisionally
suspended after failing a doping
test following the women’s 400m final
at Glasgow 2014.
The A sample of Botswana’s
Montsho, who finished fourth in
the 29 July final, tested positive for
banned stimulant methylhexaneamine.
A further test of the B sample
will take place on Monday in London.
Montsho (31), won Commonwealth
gold at Delhi 2010 and the
world title in 2011.
Her gold medals at Delhi and
Daegu were her country’s first at
the Commonwealth Games and
World Championships respectively,
and she also won silver at
the 2013 World Championships in
Moscow, losing out to Great Britain’s
Christine Ohuruogu in a dramatic
photo-finish.
She missed out on a medal at
Glasgow as she tied up badly in
Amantle Montsho has been provisionally
suspended after failing a doping test
the final 100m and finished behind
the Jamaican trio of Stephanie
McPherson, Novlene Williams-
Mills and Christine Day.
Montsho told the BBC earlier
this year that she would quit athletics
after the Rio 2016 Olympics
and aimed to become a basketball
player.
A statement from the Commonwealth
Games Federation read:
“The athlete’s A sample was found
to contain methylhexaneamine,
prohibited as a stimulant under
class s6 of Wada’s Prohibited List.
“Upon receipt of the analysis of
the athlete’s B sample, the court
will reconvene to consider the matter
further.”
Montsho is the second athlete
to have failed a drugs test at the
Games.
On Friday, 16-year-old Nigerian
weightlifter Chika Amalaha was
stripped of her gold medal after
her A and B samples tested positive
for banned substances.
The samples contained amiloride
and hydrochlorothiazide,
which are both prohibited as diuretics
and masking agents.
— BBCSport
BY MUKUDZEI CHINGWERE IN ZVISHAVANE
FC Platinum . . . 0
Chapungu . . . 0
Worried man . . . Lloyd Mutasa
THE Midlands derby between FC
Platinum and Chapungu failed to
produce a winner following yesterday’s
goalless draw in a drab
match played at Mandava.
Yesterday’s outcome reproduced
last month’s league outcome
with the provincial rivals
settling for a goalless draw at Ascot.
FC Platinum came into the
match hoping to collect maximum
points to remain in sight of title
chasing pack.
The result can however not be
defined as a catastrophe keeping
in mind the huge number of injuries
that have ravaged the platinum
miners.
After the match there was an
upsetting spectacle for the hosts
when goalkeeper Petros Mhari
limped off to the dressing room
with pain clearly spelt all over his
face.
FC Platinum coach Lloyd Mutasa
was convinced with the result
from his depleted charges.
“They gave a good account of
themselves. Unfortunately they
failed to get a goal, a draw is not
a bad result and that’s part of the
game,” said Mutasa.
The airmen coach John Nyikadzino
felt that a draw was a fair
result.
“It is tricky when you are playing
against your neighbours, and
a draw away from home is not a
bad result,” said Nyikadzino.
Wisdom Mutasa won a free kick
midway through the opening stanza
but his effort was inches wide.
After the breather the visitors
dominated proceedings and with
15 minutes into the game, Philip
Marufu could have put them
ahead but he was slow, allowing
James Marufu to recover.
Four minutes later Benjamini
Marere got a chance but failed to
ward off a challenge from Collen
Kwaramba.
Chapungu’s new signing Terrence
Rukweza failed to convert a
last minute chance when his diving
header was inches wide.

32 The Standard August 3 to 9 2014
Sport
The Standard
www.thestandard.co.zw
FC Platinum draw
“They gave a good
account of themselves.
Unfortunately, they failed
to get a goal; a draw is not
a bad result and that’s part
of the game,”
Page 31
Sables dream shattered
BY OUR STAFF
ZIMBABWE’S dream of participating
at the 2015 Rugby
World Cup in England were
shattered after the team lost 23-
15 to Russia in their one-off Repechage
semi-final in Krasnoyarsk
yesterday.
It was a tear-jerking defeat for
the Sables who had travelled all
the way to Siberia in a quest to
keep alive hopes of joining hosts
England, Australia, Wales and
Fiji in Pool A at RWC 2015 after
agonisingly missing out on automatic
qualification in Madagascar
last month.
Hosts fly half Yuri Kushnarev
kicked a third minute penalty
but then failed to add the extras
to Igor Klyuchnikov’s try. A
strong driving maul was stopped
just short of the line, but the ball
was swung wide for the full back
to touch down.
A second try followed for Russia
in the 23 rd minute when a good
break from Vasily Artemyev led
to a period of pressure in the Zimbabwe
22, the pressure telling as
wing Denis Simplikevich dived
over in the corner to make it 13-0.
Zimbabwe fly half Guy Cronje
missed his first attempt at goal in
the 27 th minute but the battling Sables
were not to be denied though
as two minutes later eighth man
Lambert Groenewald charged
through the defence with ease to
race away and dot down under the
posts.
Cronje converted the try to
make it a six point game but then
missed a second penalty attempt
as Zimbabwe went into the break
losing 13-07.
Cronje cut the deficit to 13-10
with a 48 th -minute penalty but
while he was off the field having
a head-wound stitched, Russia
made Brendan Dawson’s men pay
for missing touch with a penalty.
The Bears attacked quickly
and Artemyev sent Victor Gresev
clear, the number 8 side-stepping
the last defender to touch down.
Zimbabwe were given renewed
So near yet so far . . . Sables player (down) challenges Russian player during their make-or-break tie against Russia yesterday. Sables's hope to book a place at the 2015 Rugby
World Cup went up in smoke after losing to the hosts.
hope when referee Nigel Owens
sent Russian prop Andrei
Igretsov to the sin-bin just before
the hour mark, but replacement
Lawrence Tambwera’s resulting
penalty hit the post and
then rebounded off his chasing
team-mate’s knee to safety to the
Bears’ relief.
Russia held firm while they
were a man down and increased
their lead with another
Kushnarev penalty with six minutes
to go. Zimbabwe, though, battled
to the end and were rewarded
when wing Tafadzwa Chitokwindo
received the ball deep in his
own half and raced through the
defence to touch down.
It was nothing more than a consolation
score, though, as Zimbabwe's
hopes of reaching a first
Rugby World Cup since 1991 ended
in Siberia.
Highlanders, How Mine in battle for supremacy
BY MICHAEL MADYIRA
FOR the past three weeks, focus has
been on the Harare derby between
CAPS United and Dynamos.
But today, attention shifts to Barbourfields
Stadium for a Bulawayo
derby confrontation between How
Mine and Highlanders.
Never mind that How Mine are
less than 24-months-old in the Premier
Soccer League (PSL), but they
have become Highlanders’ stern
challengers in Bulawayo.
They completed back-to-back
league victories over Bosso last season
where they carved themselves
the reputation of giant killers.
For the first time in their league
meetings, Highlanders beat How
Mine 2-1 on July 6.
Having a number of former Highlanders
players in their ranks have
made How Mine an enemy of Bosso
fans, creating ingredients needed
for a derby.
What will also make How Mine
more resented this afternoon is that
they pose a great threat to Highlanders’
lead.
Nine points separate the two sides
as How Mine still fancy chances of
bagging the league title.
The gold miners’ coach Philani
Ncube has taunted his Bosso counterpart
Kelvin Kaindu saying the
coaches’ tactical acumen will decide
the victor.
“We are looking for three points,”
declared Ncube.
“The technical bench will determine
the winner. We are a Bulawayo
team as well and we need some recognition.”
How Mine will be without suspended
midfielder Xolani Moyo.
If How Mine return to their giantslaying
habits, they could provide a
cushion for Dynamos to leap over
Highlanders if they win against
Black Rhinos at Rimuka in Kadoma.
Ncube hinted at unleashing his
new signings Lewis Matawu, Elias
Makako, Mandla Sibanda and Caleb
Masocha.
Highlanders also have new additions
with Pasca Manhanga being
their biggest acquisition during the
mid-season transfer period.
Having scored the highest number
of goals in the league so far,
Kaindu has not stopped adding bite
to his strike force after bringing
back Njabulo Ncube.
As always, Kaindu is diplomatic
on today’s game.
“The better side of the day will
win,” Kaindu said.
Midfielder Tapiwa Dephistara
could be handed his debut run together
with Webster Chingodza.
Meanwhile, Dynamos will seek
to press on their title defence with
a visit to Kadoma for a date with
Black Rhinos at Rimuka.
High in spirit after beating
CAPS United emerging from
three derby clashes unscathed,
Kalisto Pasuwa’s men are in
mean mood.
They however could meet stiff
resistance from the soldiers who
twice shocked How Mine with
back-to-back wins in their last
two matches.
It would be the second game
for new Rhinos coach Jostein
Mathuthu who is in a real test this
afternoon.
Dynamos struggled to overcome
Rhinos in the reverse fixture
and the Rimuka battle does
not guarantee them maximum
points.