15 July 2009 Zim News Flash
Written on July 15, 2009 by Emily
Zimbabwe constitution talks under way
ZIMBABWE’S first all-stakeholders’ conference to craft a new constitution finally started yesterday — a day after war veterans disrupted the opening ceremony. Speaker of Parliament Lovemore Moyo regained a measure of respect as he explained the process to delegates.
On Monday, Moyo had to be evacuated from the conference by security personnel after war veterans loyal to President Robert Mugabe became rowdy. The uninvited veterans drowned out the speaker’s speech with their singing and even sprayed him with bottled water.
‘Don’t quote me!’
Arthur Guseni Oliver “Ago” Mutambara, Zimbabwe’s deputy prime minister, fiddles with his Che Guevara-style black Kangol cap, moving it around his head throughout our interview.
“Today I am incognito,” he says. Actually, he is the most conspicuous person in the sizeable Sandton hotel lounge and is, in fact, approached by a young woman who congratulates him on his new position. “I’ve a country to run,” he says. Two bodyguards wait outside – at least he says there are only two. Ten days after the swearing in of the government of national unity, he says that he has no job description yet, nor does he have an idea of the perks of the job. “I don’t need them.”
Reports of Militia Bases Spur Fact-Finding Mission by Zimbabwe Home Co-Minister
Zimbabwean Co-Minister of Home Affairs Giles Mutsekwa said Tuesday that he will conduct a nationwide fact-finding mission to look into reports from the country’s largest teachers union and civic groups that violence has resurfaced in many rural communities.Mutsekwa, a legislator of the Movement for Democratic Change formation of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, shares control of the ministry with Kembo Mohadi of the ZANU-PF party of President Robert Mugabe in the country’s power-sharing government.
NGOs demand funds seized by Gono
Non-governmental organisations (NGO) have asked Zimbabwe’s cash-strapped power-sharing government to return money seized by controversial central bank governor Gideon Gono and allegedly used to prop up President Robert Mugabe’s old government. The National Association of NGOs (NANGO) said it had written to Finance Minister Tendai Biti demanding that he should outline a repayment plan when he announces a mid-term national budget statement to Parliament on Thursday.
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