Opinion / Columnist
Just taking a well-deserved break, Cdes
21 May 2015 at 15:02hrs | Views
COMRADES, this week I have decided not to address you as I try to catch up with a lot that has been happening both in our party and the country in the past few weeks that I have had hectic schedules because of my triple role as the President of this country as well as the chairman of the Southern African Development Community and the African Union.
I am happy to see that the party is ready to take all the seats that were thankfully vacated in Parliament by our foolish opposition. I could not help laughing when I was told that Morgan was thoroughly embarrassed by that Khupe woman and her supporters when the washed-up opposition politician visited Bulawayo at the weekend to try and explain his election boycott madness. (By the way he has another family there!). Very soon there could be an MDC-Khupe! I know most organisations whose membership is brought together by opportunism are susceptible to self-destruction, but what I see in that party is something else! Zanu-PF will never suffer such a cruel fate.
Anyway, I will be addressing you as usual next week.
Kindest Regards
Yours Sincerely
ME
… AND CZ'S NOTEBOOK
As a super-patriot, Dr CZ is very angry. How can his inept colleagues at the Glass & Mortar Building publish as front-page stories articles that make Zimbabweans understand why this country is in the mess that it is in? Is it not that their job as gatekeepers is to distort information and confuse people into believing that things are not what they actually are? So when they publish stories that get people laughing at their political leadership, what do they think they would be doing? It actually cannot be something far-fetched to start suspecting that the country's sworn detractors in the West might have infiltrated State-media newsrooms and pushing their regime change agenda from there!
From these reports, if what is happening in Zanu-PF over the Harare East constituency by-election is anything to go by, then we should stop wondering why this country is in shambles. This week, Terrence Mukupe wins the primaries by a run-away margin, and the following week one of the losing candidates, Mavis Gumbo, is declared the rightful losing winner. A week later, both candidates successfully file their nomination papers as Zanu-PF candidates. Another week later a rally is held to drum up support for Gumbo as well as roundly denounce Mukupe as an agent of imperialists. The next week, Mukupe ceases to be a runner-boy for Western interests, and is restored as the rightful party candidate and Gumbo is threatened with self-dismissal if she does not withdraw her nomination papers. Certainly next week has more in store. Until the by-elections are held on June 10, we would have been treated to lots of free drama. This is a party that is supposed to be running a country. Small wonder.
Still on unvarnished confusion, now read this:
"Over 20 000 people who bought land for housing in Harare South from a land developing consortium on three farms face eviction after the government returned the land to Dr Philip Chiyangwa's Pinnacle Property Holdings.
"Government wrote to Pinnacle Property Holdings confirming the return of the farms to the firm.
"Armed with the letter, Pinnacle has been directing the residents to pay US$150 per stand holder as registration fee before they could be told how much they would pay as compensation or face eviction.
"The residents argue that they have already paid for the land to Ordar Housing Development Consortium made up of 56 companies and they cannot afford to fork out more money for the same stands.
"Pinnacle Property Holdings bought the land from its previous owners, but the government compulsorily acquired it in 2010 after arguing that the company could not provide houses for low-income earners since it was profit-oriented.
"The Administrative Court once confirmed the acquisition and allowed the housing co-operatives to continue parcelling out the land to house seekers.
"But Dr Chiyangwa contested the decision at the Supreme Court, resulting in an out-of-court settlement with the government and the returning of the land to his company…"
These are people who are given land by their own government, and many of them have completed building their houses, and that very government then chooses to indulge in the luxury of change of mind, and takes the land and gives it back to Paul without thinking twice about the fate of these families, some of whom have practically invested virtually all their savings in these houses! How does a government that knows what it is supposed to be doing behave like this? With things like these happening, how can citizens learn to trust the politicians who make up their government? And when a government behaves like this, it would not be surprising at all when it closes mobile phone operator, Telecel, or when it signs a string of "mega deals" none of which actually materialise. And that same government still insists that its cold-hearted detractors are responsible for the bad image that it suffers from.
Did Dr CZ hear some government mandarin threatening to repossess additional farms from multiple farm owners? Really? We think we have heard this song over and over!
Agree
Although he doesn't usually agree with him, Dr CZ this time agrees with Primary and Secondary Education Minister Lazarus Dokora on his move to introduce some foreign languages in Zimbabwean schools as optional subjects.
Dokora, who is always busy appearing to be doing something, got a flak from parliamentary backbenchers recently who demanded to know why he was pushing for an education curriculum that would see foreign languages like French, Portuguese, Chinese and Swahili being taught in local schools when local languages like Tonga, Nambya, Shangani, Venda among others were not.
Dr CZ does not share the legislators' views. The purpose of any language is to enable people to communicate with one another. With the world becoming one global village, the more languages one can muster that are spoken by many people, the better for them. What is the purpose of learning a language that few people are speaking? A dying language that is practically useless when it comes to helping someone interface with the world? Dr CZ would not mind his children learning to speak Mandarin or Cantonese, the Chinese languages spoken by more than one billion people because this would make them more versatile than what they would otherwise be if they learned, say, Tonga. But the children should still be free to make their own decisions on whether or not they would want to learn Venda.
Good!
The sacking of Cuthbert Dube from the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) is the most welcome development that has taken place in this country since the arrival of anti-retroviral drugs. Zimbabweans - led by Yours Truly - were overjoyed to hear the good news, the way Germans celebrated the collapse of the Berlin Wall.
It was long overdue. Good riddance. Spaniards say to every pig comes his Martinmas!
Selfish!
Still on selfish people, Dr CZ was this week shocked that the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) had the effrontery - through its lawyers - to give Agriculture Minister Joseph Made an ultimatum to stop cheap maize meal imports which are interfering with their right to super-profits.
"The importation of maize meal rendered the milling industry and farmers uncompetitive. Your decision, Honourable Minister, has also breached other constitutional rights of our client…" Blah, blah wrote the lawyers, who just like any other lawyers, are all too pleased to take money from anybody who walks into their office.
GMAZ's problem is this. Because of a disastrous land reform programme, the country has a serious shortage of maize, its staple food. In order to avert hunger and the resultant social unrest, the government issued temporary permits for the importation of maize and maize meal to various companies. And the maize and maize meal being imported is cheaper than that produced locally. So millers (and farmers) are crying tears of blood. Their constitutional right to charge extortionate prices is being violated. Also being violated is their constitutional right to be selfish. Hence this ultimatum to Made. Zimbabweans have no constitution right to benefit from cheap imports because some millers and farmers have both a constitutional and a God-given right to abuse them! We wait to see what the millers would do to Made when the Tuesday deadline elapses.
Beer talk!
Now let's talk about a man and his love for beer. Men love beer too much. If something good happens they drink to celebrate. If something bad happens they drink to forget and drown their sorrow. If nothing happens they drink so that something happens. We need to do something about this problem. Can we meet after work for a drink and discuss this?
cznotebook@yahoo.co.uk
I am happy to see that the party is ready to take all the seats that were thankfully vacated in Parliament by our foolish opposition. I could not help laughing when I was told that Morgan was thoroughly embarrassed by that Khupe woman and her supporters when the washed-up opposition politician visited Bulawayo at the weekend to try and explain his election boycott madness. (By the way he has another family there!). Very soon there could be an MDC-Khupe! I know most organisations whose membership is brought together by opportunism are susceptible to self-destruction, but what I see in that party is something else! Zanu-PF will never suffer such a cruel fate.
Anyway, I will be addressing you as usual next week.
Kindest Regards
Yours Sincerely
ME
… AND CZ'S NOTEBOOK
As a super-patriot, Dr CZ is very angry. How can his inept colleagues at the Glass & Mortar Building publish as front-page stories articles that make Zimbabweans understand why this country is in the mess that it is in? Is it not that their job as gatekeepers is to distort information and confuse people into believing that things are not what they actually are? So when they publish stories that get people laughing at their political leadership, what do they think they would be doing? It actually cannot be something far-fetched to start suspecting that the country's sworn detractors in the West might have infiltrated State-media newsrooms and pushing their regime change agenda from there!
From these reports, if what is happening in Zanu-PF over the Harare East constituency by-election is anything to go by, then we should stop wondering why this country is in shambles. This week, Terrence Mukupe wins the primaries by a run-away margin, and the following week one of the losing candidates, Mavis Gumbo, is declared the rightful losing winner. A week later, both candidates successfully file their nomination papers as Zanu-PF candidates. Another week later a rally is held to drum up support for Gumbo as well as roundly denounce Mukupe as an agent of imperialists. The next week, Mukupe ceases to be a runner-boy for Western interests, and is restored as the rightful party candidate and Gumbo is threatened with self-dismissal if she does not withdraw her nomination papers. Certainly next week has more in store. Until the by-elections are held on June 10, we would have been treated to lots of free drama. This is a party that is supposed to be running a country. Small wonder.
Still on unvarnished confusion, now read this:
"Over 20 000 people who bought land for housing in Harare South from a land developing consortium on three farms face eviction after the government returned the land to Dr Philip Chiyangwa's Pinnacle Property Holdings.
"Government wrote to Pinnacle Property Holdings confirming the return of the farms to the firm.
"Armed with the letter, Pinnacle has been directing the residents to pay US$150 per stand holder as registration fee before they could be told how much they would pay as compensation or face eviction.
"The residents argue that they have already paid for the land to Ordar Housing Development Consortium made up of 56 companies and they cannot afford to fork out more money for the same stands.
"Pinnacle Property Holdings bought the land from its previous owners, but the government compulsorily acquired it in 2010 after arguing that the company could not provide houses for low-income earners since it was profit-oriented.
"The Administrative Court once confirmed the acquisition and allowed the housing co-operatives to continue parcelling out the land to house seekers.
"But Dr Chiyangwa contested the decision at the Supreme Court, resulting in an out-of-court settlement with the government and the returning of the land to his company…"
These are people who are given land by their own government, and many of them have completed building their houses, and that very government then chooses to indulge in the luxury of change of mind, and takes the land and gives it back to Paul without thinking twice about the fate of these families, some of whom have practically invested virtually all their savings in these houses! How does a government that knows what it is supposed to be doing behave like this? With things like these happening, how can citizens learn to trust the politicians who make up their government? And when a government behaves like this, it would not be surprising at all when it closes mobile phone operator, Telecel, or when it signs a string of "mega deals" none of which actually materialise. And that same government still insists that its cold-hearted detractors are responsible for the bad image that it suffers from.
Did Dr CZ hear some government mandarin threatening to repossess additional farms from multiple farm owners? Really? We think we have heard this song over and over!
Agree
Although he doesn't usually agree with him, Dr CZ this time agrees with Primary and Secondary Education Minister Lazarus Dokora on his move to introduce some foreign languages in Zimbabwean schools as optional subjects.
Dokora, who is always busy appearing to be doing something, got a flak from parliamentary backbenchers recently who demanded to know why he was pushing for an education curriculum that would see foreign languages like French, Portuguese, Chinese and Swahili being taught in local schools when local languages like Tonga, Nambya, Shangani, Venda among others were not.
Dr CZ does not share the legislators' views. The purpose of any language is to enable people to communicate with one another. With the world becoming one global village, the more languages one can muster that are spoken by many people, the better for them. What is the purpose of learning a language that few people are speaking? A dying language that is practically useless when it comes to helping someone interface with the world? Dr CZ would not mind his children learning to speak Mandarin or Cantonese, the Chinese languages spoken by more than one billion people because this would make them more versatile than what they would otherwise be if they learned, say, Tonga. But the children should still be free to make their own decisions on whether or not they would want to learn Venda.
Good!
The sacking of Cuthbert Dube from the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) is the most welcome development that has taken place in this country since the arrival of anti-retroviral drugs. Zimbabweans - led by Yours Truly - were overjoyed to hear the good news, the way Germans celebrated the collapse of the Berlin Wall.
It was long overdue. Good riddance. Spaniards say to every pig comes his Martinmas!
Selfish!
Still on selfish people, Dr CZ was this week shocked that the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) had the effrontery - through its lawyers - to give Agriculture Minister Joseph Made an ultimatum to stop cheap maize meal imports which are interfering with their right to super-profits.
"The importation of maize meal rendered the milling industry and farmers uncompetitive. Your decision, Honourable Minister, has also breached other constitutional rights of our client…" Blah, blah wrote the lawyers, who just like any other lawyers, are all too pleased to take money from anybody who walks into their office.
GMAZ's problem is this. Because of a disastrous land reform programme, the country has a serious shortage of maize, its staple food. In order to avert hunger and the resultant social unrest, the government issued temporary permits for the importation of maize and maize meal to various companies. And the maize and maize meal being imported is cheaper than that produced locally. So millers (and farmers) are crying tears of blood. Their constitutional right to charge extortionate prices is being violated. Also being violated is their constitutional right to be selfish. Hence this ultimatum to Made. Zimbabweans have no constitution right to benefit from cheap imports because some millers and farmers have both a constitutional and a God-given right to abuse them! We wait to see what the millers would do to Made when the Tuesday deadline elapses.
Beer talk!
Now let's talk about a man and his love for beer. Men love beer too much. If something good happens they drink to celebrate. If something bad happens they drink to forget and drown their sorrow. If nothing happens they drink so that something happens. We need to do something about this problem. Can we meet after work for a drink and discuss this?
cznotebook@yahoo.co.uk
Source - fingaz
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