Zimbabwe – 22 August 2014

Minister spares 97 death row inmates

Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa has said he will not sign death warrants for 97 murder convicts on death row because the sentence is too harsh and must be done away with.Although the Constitution provides for the penalty, Minister Mnangagwa said he still believed that it was unfair. The Herald

MDC-T official lashes at Mugabe ally, backs ex-Zipra fighters
MDC-T Matabeleland South senior official Jerow Habvane has lashed out at President Robert Mugabe’s deputy chief secretary Ray Ndhlukula for seeking to forcibly take over Centenary Farm in Figtree.
Former Zipra fighters teamed up with farm workers and staged a demonstration against Ndhlukula. Habvane, who had been seconded to the stillborn provincial councils created by the new Constitution, yesterday said the latest farm invasions were “an act of terror”. Bulawayo24.com

‘SA does not want land situation similar to Zim’
Caledon – The South African government has reportedly not moved away from its policy on land reform, the country’s Agriculture Minister Senzeni Zokwana said on Wednesday.
Farmers who are concerned about the effect of land reforms on their farms should realise that policy proposals presently on the table “are just to get the sector talking about the issue”, he said in Caledon, Western Cape, at a launch event for next month’s Agri Megaweek expo. Bulawayo24.com

Zimbabwe assumes SADC chairmanship
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe on Sunday urged Southern Africa to reduce its dependence on foreign aid and to make better use of its natural resources such as minerals and land. Mugabe was speaking at the opening of a two-day summit of the 15-member Southern African Development Community (Sadc) in Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls resort.
“Our continued over-reliance on the goodwill of our co-operation partners compromises our ownership of Sadc. Our region has abundant resources that, instead of being sold in raw form at very low prices, must be exploited … to add value to the products that we export,” he said. Financial Gazette

Mugabe succession dogfight spins out of control
IN the famous novel Things Fall Apart, renowned Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe uses William Butler Yeats’ poem as an epigraph, describing the chaos that arises when a system collapses.
“Turning and turning in the widening gyre, the falcon cannot hear the falconer, things fall apart: the centre cannot hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world … the blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere … surly some revelation is at hand …,” reads the poem. Bulawayo24.com