Makarau, Mudenda not yet been appointed

HARARE – Rita Makarau and Jacob Mudenda have not yet been appointed as Electoral and Human Rights commissioners as the appointment process requires consultations which have not yet taken place.

The announcement by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai that he and President Robert Mugabe had agreed on the choice of the two Zanu (PF) supporters was met with an outcry from members of the MDC and civil society.

Newsday quoted Prime Minister Tsvangirai’s adviser, Alex Magaisa, saying President Mugabe and President Tsvangorai had merely came up with names of politically acceptable people to fill the vacant posts.

“What happened this week is not appointing, it is a political agreement between principals, but this is subject to procedural requirements set in the Constitution,” he said

Commissioners are appointed by the President from a list of nominees supplied by the Parliamentary Committee on Standing Rules and Orders and for the Chairperson there is an extra requirement that the President must consult with the Judicial Service Commission.

Both proposed people are seen as Zanu (PF) loyalists with Mudenda seen as not just a loyalist but a hardliner who almost scuttled the Constitution-making process when he conived with Goodwills Masimirembwa to attempt to ill-advise Zanu PF Copac chairman Paul Mangwana to stop drafters from continuing drafting the constitution.

They wrote a memorandum to him critiquing the first four chapters that had been drafted and impugning the mandate of the drafters, and they published the critique in The Herald.

Makarawu was a Zanu (PF) MP before being appointed to the bench.

Pedzisai Ruhanya, of the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute said Mudenda was the worst choice ever, and an insult to the Zimbabweans who were butchered by Zanu (PF) when Mudenda was Matabeleland North Governor during the Gukurahundi massacres.

He also lost his government post after being fingered in the Willowgate scandal where top Zanu PF officials were implicated in the illegal resale of vehicles.

Macdonald Lewanika, the director of Crisis Coalition in Zimbabwe, also described Mudenda’s choice as a “sad development” as his hands were not clean and he was not a fair minded person.

But the strongest criticism came from Welshman Ncube of the splinter MDC party, who is also disputing his exclusion from the consultations as he consideres himself a principal by virtue of being the President of the third party in government.

He is recognised by SADC as a principal, but Robert Mugabe has refused to recognise him as such, choosing instead to recognise Arthur Mutambara who signed the Global Political Agreement before he was deposed from the leadership of the party.

Ncube said his party would challenge the appointments because it was not consulted, and that President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai could not validly appoint a commission chair.

“According to the Constitution, the President appoints the ZHRC chairperson after consultations with the Judiciary Service Commission (JSC) and the Parliamentary Committee on Standing Rules and Orders.

“As far as Mudenda’s appointment is concerned, we have not been consulted and in the spirit of the Global Political Agreement, we will oppose the appointment until it comes to the Standing Rules and Orders Committee.”

Mudenda is a former ZANU PF governor for Matabeleland North and served in that capacity during the period when over 20,000 people were killed in the region by the North Korean trained 5th Brigade.

His appointment to head the commission has provoked an angry response from rights campaigners. Opponents said the move will further discredit an inclusive government that has been on a relentless crackdown of members of civil society organisations.

Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter saw a deluge of comments, with many expressing shock and condemning the latest development.

Gabriel Shumba, chairperson of the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum, told SW Radio Africa’s Hidden Story program that Mudenda’s appointment symbolizes what is wrong with the inclusive government.

He added that it diminishes the credibility of the human rights system and casts a shadow upon the reputation of the commission as a whole.

‘The fact he was the governor during the Gukurahundi troubles will infuriate those who tried and failed to seek justice for their loved ones who died,’ Shumba.

Our correspondent Lionel Saungweme told us the appointment of Mudenda, implicated in the Gukurahundi atrocities by his association with ZANU PF, has become a huge concern to many people in Bulawayo.

‘Most people here are demanding he be removed as chairperson saying his elevation to that post would damage the integrity and reputation of the rights commission.

‘The people in Bulawayo are asking how on earth is he going to look objectively at human rights issues when he has made a career out of oppressing the masses during his stint as governor,’ Saungweme said.

In 2009 SW Radio Africa also exposed the fact that Mudenda is involved, along with many other ZANU PF officials, in illegal hunting scams.

In 2004 Tourism Minister Francis Nhema granted a lucrative hunting concession to Mudenda, without going to tender.

Part of our story in 2009 read:

Source fingered Ed Kadzombe, Chairman of the Wildlife Advisory Council and owner of EK Safaris, as one of those helping the dictatorship. He has representatives on the west coast in the US including a brother in California called Washington Kadzombe, who runs a micro finance scheme.

He is allegedly attached to a lawyer called Leo Grizzaffi of Torrance, California, who represents EK Safaris in the US. Grizzaffi is a powerful contact as he is said to be a member of the biggest pro-weapons lobby group in the US — the National Rifle Association. The American has an open market in terms of recruiting hunters for Zimbabwe because of the numbers of hunters in this association.

The source said this clearly shows Kadzombe has an open playing field in terms of how and where he can hunt because of his position. Kadzombe has many associates in Zanu PF, including Jacob Mudenda, the former provincial chairman of Matabeleland North who was recently denied a visa to attend a high-profile safari trade fair in Nevada.

Other big names mentioned in the hunting scam are former Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, former Tourism Minister Francis Nhema, Industry and Trade Minister Obert Mpofu, Zanu PF chairman John Nkomo and high ranking army officials like General Constantine Chiwenga and General Zvinavashe.

It is alleged that they invite hunters to Zimbabwe, especially from the USA. They then pay a sub-economic level of money to the local population where the animals are hunted and reap a huge amount of money themselves.

Source said some hunters in the US have no idea that they are being targeted by safari operators with links to the Mugabe regime. But the money they pay is invested into legitimate businesses in the USA or around the world and is effectively laundered. It’s then drip fed back into the pockets of the real handlers in Zimbabwe.

This money rarely finds its way to Zimbabwe as it is kept in private bank accounts around the world. It’s also difficult to trace because the accounts are kept in names of third parties. ChangeZimbabwe