News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

Mugabe's son-in-law to head Air Zimbabwe

Posted: 05 Oct 2016 10:06 PM PDT

Zimbabweans are outraged over the appointment of President Robert Mugabe's son-in-law as head of the national airline.

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Harare - Zimbabweans vented their outrage on Wednesday over the appointment of President Robert Mugabe's son-in-law as chief operations officer of national airline Air Zimbabwe, a move seen as strengthening the autocrat's control over national assets.

Air Zimbabwe chair Chipo Dyanda announced Simba Chikore's appointment late on Tuesday, describing him as a pilot with "vast experience," including with Qatar Airways.

Chikore, who married Mugabe's only daughter Bona in 2014 during a luxurious ceremony, has up until now helped to manage the president's dairy farm on the outskirts of the capital, Harare.

Little else is publicly known about the 39-year-old's professional past. But in 2014, British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported that claims that Chikore worked as a pilot for Qatar Airways or Emirates were false.

"It's a matter of public record that Mugabe has several farms and has interests in some companies," Masimba Manyanya, a former chief economist in Zimbabwe's Finance Ministry, told dpa.

"His relatives are occupying key positions and that speaks volumes in a country where poverty is rife. It amounts to corruption and nepotism," Manyanya added.

Obert Gutu, spokesman of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said the appointment equalled "plunder of state resources."

The future of Air Zimbabwe has been rocky in recent months, due to regular flight cancellations, the inability to pay salaries and retrenchments.

Mugabe already appointed his nephew Patrick Zhuwao as youth and indigenisation minister and his nephew Albert Mugabe as head of the Zimbabwe National Road Authority.

Mugabe, 92, also placed his wife Grace strategically within the ruling party to succeed him.

dpa

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Zim opposition parties defy ban on demonstrations

Posted: 05 Oct 2016 11:17 AM PDT

Zimbabwe opposition parties scoffed at the High Court ruling upholding the ban on demonstrations saying the Constitution allowed citizens to demonstrate peacefully.

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Harare - Zimbabwe opposition parties on Wednesday scoffed at the High Court ruling by Chief Justice George Chiweshe upholding the ban on demonstrations by Officer Commanding Harare Province, Newbert Saunyama, saying it was of no substance as the Constitution allowed citizens to demonstrate peacefully.

In separate interviews with the African News Agency (ANA) in Harare, political parties said they would not be deterred by the ruling and were mobilising for more protests to pressure the Zimbabwe government to implement electoral reforms before the next elections slated for 2018.

Democratic Assembly for Restoration and Empowerment (DARE) President, Gilbert Dzikiti, said his party would rally all Zimbabweans to resist any attempts by government to introduce unjust laws, saying unjust laws such as the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Public Order and Security Act were an injustice.

“We cannot be denied our constitutional rights by laws which are draconian and repulsive to the fundamental rights of liberty. We hope judge Chiweshe was not guided by (President Robert) Mugabe’s statement in which he threatened judges,” he said.

He said they were reviewing the judgment and reiterated that political reforms could only be achieved through political action, adding that those protesting were borrowing from former liberation fighters who mobilised people against the then Rhodesian regime.

“People already are taking and understanding electoral reforms as an institutional challenge and not a power-grabbing project. Our demands must be driven by the common man and woman who are understanding of the sacrifices ahead,” he said.

He added: “We will map strategies to counter the kidnappings of activists, huge bail money demands and make sure that we are there for our people. The onus is on Zanu PF to prove to the world that we are a true republic and democracy. We will put them to the test in our resolve for a level electoral field.”

He said Zimbabwe should emulate Mahatma Gandhi’s principle of non-violent confrontations to avoid exposing the country’s citizens “to Zanu PF’s demons and degrees in violence”.

National Electoral Reforms Agenda (NERA) chairperson for the Transitional Working Group (TWG), Joelson Mugari, concurred, saying: “The upholding of the ban on demonstrations by the High Court is nothing of substance to us since the Constitution clearly provides for citizens to demonstrate peacefully.”

Mugari said the almost 20 political parties under the banner of NERA would first hold joint rallies as a strategy to mobilise for forthcoming demonstrations.

“People are surely behind us but need to be educated on peaceful demonstrations. We met yesterday (Tuesday) with our provincial chairpersons and today (Wednesday) we have a TWG meeting, then on the 14th of October we will have countrywide joint rallies and demonstrations after,” he said.

Political activist, Stern Zvorwadza, also added his voice, saying the competence of the judiciary should not be premised on who one knew or did not know, but should be guided by the principles of law.

“Zimbabwe has a constitution which clearly states that petitioning and demonstrating is authorised by the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land and all other provisions, including the Posa, can’t override the Constitution in itself.

He said the judge president had displayed high levels of incompetence and also showed the country that he had direct allegiance to the ruling party.

“And what we’re saying is he has played in the hands of the oppressor and will not survive this level of incompetence. He can be tested on merit, not only by Zimbabweans, but by other internationally qualified jurists and lawyers,” he added.

MDC-T spokesperson, Obert Gutu said the ruling by Justice Chiweshe was a temporary setback which would not divert the opposition parties from their mission to fight for people’s rights as enshrined in the Bill of Rights.

“As a lawyer, I respect the judgment of the court but the good thing about this judgment is that it has emboldened us and we are not giving up,” he said.

He said they would soon be noting an appeal against the judgment.

African News Agency

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Zimbabwe refuses to accept injured deportee

Posted: 05 Oct 2016 08:21 AM PDT

A Zimbabwean man who was shot and injured by the Botswana Police Service has been sent back to Botswana for treatment.

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Gaborone - A sick Zimbabwean man who was shot and injured by the Botswana Police Service (BPS) during an operation to round up illegal immigrants in the capital Gaborone has been sent back to Botswana for treatment.

In a statement, regional immigration Officer-In-Charge Regis Munyaradzi said the man, who was shot in the eye with a AK-47 rifle on September 7, was sent back to Gaborone soon after his deportation over the weekend.

He said they decided not to accept Wayne Murova after learning that he had never received medical treatment, 23 days after he was shot while trying to flee during a police operation against illegal immigrants in Gaborone.

“We had to send him back because he had an injured eye. We advised our (Botswana) counterparts that we could not accept him because he was injured. Right now, he is receiving medical treatment in Gaborone,” Munyaradzi said.

He said the 23-year-old man had lost his sight following the attack. There was no immediate comment from the Botswana government or police in that country.

African News Agency

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Nigeria to sell two presidential jets to cut costs

Posted: 05 Oct 2016 01:58 AM PDT

Two of Nigeria's 10 presidential jets are for sale as part of a drive to cut costs, a spokesman for President Muhammadu Buhari says.

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Abuja - Two of Nigeria's 10 presidential jets have been put up for sale as part of a drive to cut costs, a spokesman for President Muhammadu Buhari said on Tuesday.

Buhari, a 73-year-old former military ruler who took office last year, has vowed to crack down on corruption and mismanagement of public funds that has seen a rich elite benefit from the OPEC member's oil wealth while most Nigerians live on less than $2 per day.

Presidential spokesman Garba Shehu issued a statement to say newspaper advertisements for the sale of two presidential planes had been authorised by the presidency.

"This is in line with the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari that aircraft in the presidential air fleet be reduced to cut down on waste," said Shehu.

Nigeria has 10 planes in its presidential fleet.

Nigeria is in a recession for the first time in more than 20 years, largely due to low oil prices. Sales of crude oil, the country's main export, make up 70 percent of government revenue.

Reuters

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Morocco arrests 10 women 'linked to Islamic State'

Posted: 05 Oct 2016 01:11 AM PDT

A Moroccan security official says authorities have foiled a suicide attack planned for the October 7 parliamentary elections.

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Rabat - A Moroccan security official said on Tuesday that authorities had foiled a suicide attack planned for the October 7 parliamentary elections after the arrest of 10 women with suspected links to the Islamic State (IS) group.

The interior ministry said on Monday that for the first time an all-female cell had been busted, the latest in series of militant cells the North African kingdom has dismantled.

"We found products used in making explosives. One of the girls was ready to commit a suicide attack on October 7 with an explosive belt," Director of Morocco's Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations (BCIJ), Abdelhak Khiame, said at a press briefing at the BCIJ headquarters in the city of Sale.

The arrested women are mostly minors, two aged 15, two aged 16 and three 17, and all have pledged allegiance to the so-called IS, according to Khiame.

He said these women contacted operational elements of IS via the internet and had been subjected to brainwashing to commit destructive acts targeting sensitive facilities and particularly tourist sites.

Morocco has been facing a growing threat from the IS. The Moroccan interior ministry said that since 2002, more than 160 terrorist cells with close ties to terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria have been dismantled.

Xinhua

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Kenyan official denies police killings

Posted: 05 Oct 2016 12:50 AM PDT

A senior Kenyan official has denied a local media report of extrajudicial killings by police.

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Nairobi - A senior Kenyan official has denied a local media report of extrajudicial killings by police.

Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Interior, Joseph Nkaissery, told a media briefing on Tuesday that the allegations of extrajudicial killings were made in bad faith and were aimed at undermining anti-crime efforts.

"There is no policy whatsoever within the police to engage in extrajudicial killings as Kenya is a country that is governed by law," Nkaissery said.

He was responding to a local newspaper report which on Sunday documented cases of extrajudicial killings by police. The report said the police killed 121 people from January to August, and have killed 262 people since 2015.

"This kind of record cannot warrant generalisation of alleged police killings that we continue to see in media reports," he added.

He however said the police, like any other large institutions, might harbour "a few rogue elements".

"While we acknowledge a small number of officers may have wrongly used their firearms, today we have a number of them facing prosecution while others are subjected to disciplinary action including dismissals from the service," he said.

In July, four Kenyan police officers were charged with the murder of a lawyer and two others, which sparked protests against extrajudicial killings.

Xinhua

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