Stephen Mpofu

Western Europe appears to be so condescendingly ethnocentric one cannot but conclude that the European Union willfully jumps the red light to become blatantly racist when dealing with black people.

If that were not so, how can any reasonable person justify the decision of the EU merely to tinker with the demonic economic embargo on Zimbabwe by suspending travel bans imposed on six ministers and 21 other individuals while the rest of Cabinet Ministers remain embargoed.

Zimbabwe continues to lose precious lives to road accidents despite stepped up road safety campaigns by various stakeholders. The country has gone to the extent of appointing Road Safety Ambassadors to assist in the campaigns but the situation on the ground has not improved as the country continues to record an increase in road accidents. 

Kudakwashe Mwanza

In Exodus 25 verse 8, God gave a clear and straightforward message to the children of Israel through the prophet Moses: “And let [my children] make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.”

Parastatals have an important role in the economy. These entities were formed to service sectors of the economy which were strategic to the State or areas where private companies were reluctant to invest in because of low returns or restrictions on profit mark ups.

Cuthbert Mavheko

IT is this author's considered opinion that the precipitous decline in living standards that workers in industry are experiencing, is engendered by the Government's decision to give workers' unions and employers the responsibility to negotiate wage/salary increments for workers in the private sector.

In his novel Matigari, Ngugi Wa Thiongo writes:

“There is not a long night that does not end with day.”

Ian Scoones

A FEW weeks back I had the opportunity to discuss technology options for Zimbabwean farming with two different groups.

EDITORIAL COMMENT: It’s mid-February again — the month that the European Union (EU) goes through the motions in Brussels, Belgium, to renew its illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe.

Factmore Dzobo

Poaching of the rhinoceros in Zimbabwe and other Sadc countries has been increasing lately, a development attributed to high demand for the rhino horn in Asia where it is processed into traditional medicine.

The publicity campaign for the new constitution kicked off yesterday in all the country’s districts. The campaign being spearheaded by Copac is meant to raise awareness among the general members of the public on the contents of the proposed supreme law. 

Chiefs are the custodians of the country’s resources and should therefore guard jealously these resources. It should be the chiefs who should see to it that the resources in their areas of jurisdiction are protected from plunder. The chiefs should ensure that the exploitation of resources is done in a sustainable way.

Resources such as land or minerals are finite which means that the present generation has an obligation to bequeath these resources to future generations and this is only possible if the exploitation of these resources is done in a sustainable manner. The chiefs as the custodian of the resources should ensure that the environment is protected. It should be the responsibility of chiefs to ensure that their subjects avoid wanton destruction of trees, the pollution of rivers or their siltation. The chief’s role is therefore much wider than just presiding over his traditional court to resolve disputes.

It is because of their critical role that chiefs are ex officio members of the Rural District Councils. It is therefore disturbing to learn that some chiefs are being used by whites who have clandestinely returned to repossess the land that Government had acquired   for redistribution. The chiefs are reportedly being used as fronts by these whites who are working on the land and paying them a little fraction of what they are realising from the land. Launching the seven Community Share Ownership Trusts in Masvingo on Friday, the President Cde Mugabe said he was aware of the chiefs who were being used by the whites who wanted to reverse the land reform programme.

Cde Mugabe warned such chiefs saying they risked losing the land allocated to them under the land reform programme. Cde Mugabe said there were also senior Government officials that were also fronting for whites. He said those that were leasing farms to whites also risked losing the same farms to the whites who were determined to repossess the land taken from them for redistribution.

What is worrying is that among those accused of leasing the land to whites are chiefs who are supposed to be the custodians of our resources including land. We look up to chiefs to raise alarm when we have such misdemeanour of individuals wanting to reverse the land reform programme but it becomes complicated when the chiefs are among the culprits. We want to believe that after President Mugabe raised the issue on Friday, the chiefs did some soul-searching to find out ways to rid society of the bad apples.

It is unfortunate that the few chiefs that have chosen to be used by the whites for a few pieces of silver have tarnished the image of traditional leaders who are supposed to be respected by their subjects. Chiefs as community leaders should be individuals of high integrity who are beyond reproach. It was because of                   the skewed land ownership whereby the few whites owned the bulk of the country’s productive land while the majority blacks were confined to barren land that people took up arms to fight the settler regime.

The chiefs and those senior Government officials leasing land to whites are reversing the gains of our independence and this cannot be allowed to continue. We want to once again implore those leasing    the land to stop this forthwith while on the other hand Government should not just warn the culprits but take action. The land being leased should be re-allocated to deserving land-hungry Zimbabweans that are prepared to put it to productive use thereby empowering themselves.

Those that are leasing land to whites are infact working against the empowerment of the people because they are denying the people the opportunity to own the means of production. We want action to be taken as soon as possible so that the land remains in the hands of its rightful owners.

Admos Chimhowu

The fast track land reform programme is fast becoming an interesting area of intellectual and policy exchange as more empirical evidence of its outcomes emerges.