Tshinga Dube pens explosive book
VETERAN freedom fighter and former Cabinet Minister Retired Colonel Tshinga Judge Dube has penned his autobiography which is set to be launched at the National Art Gallery in Bulawayo on Friday.
In his autobiography titled: Quiet Flows The Zambezi, Rtd Col Dube tells his story in a riveting way, documenting his early life, taking the reader through his participation in the armed struggle up to the time of the ceasefire.
Rtd Col Dube then reveals in the book untold stories about tensions that characterised the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) in its formative years because of great suspicions between the Zipra, Zanla and Rhodesian Army forces.
He takes the reader through the Gukurahundi period, tells the story of how he set up a trap that resulted in the apprehension of mercenary leader, Simon Mann, who with other mercenaries were en route to Equatorial Guinea where they were going to stage a military coup against President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo in 2004.
The riveting account ends with the historical political events in Zimbabwe where Rtd Col Dube gives an insight into the ushering of the New Dispensation through Operation Restore Legacy in November 2017 when President Mnangagwa took over from President
A PROVISION for the electronic transmission of Presidential election results that allows for the swift release of final result tallies is being considered by Government as part of a broad electoral reform package.
Under the current legislative regime, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) has up to five days to announce results of the Presidential election.
Authorities are, however, looking at ways to further reduce the time between polling and the announcement of results. The Inter-Ministerial Taskforce on Political, Electoral and Legislative reforms, which is chaired by the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, has identified over 20 reform priorities drawn from reports of election observer missions.
The reform priorities range from recalibrating the legislative framework, election administration systems, voter registration rules, drawing of constituency boundaries and political party finance and registration.
All the envisaged changes to the electoral law are expected to be in place by June next year.
A report from the Inter-Ministerial Taskforce seen by our Harare Bureau details plans to “conduct a study in other jurisdictions” to assess the feasibility of adopting a system that allows for the electronic transmission of results to the National Results Centre.
“The recommendation for the expeditious transmission of results to the Command Centre (National Results Centre) is already being implemented; for instance, in the 2018 harmonised elections, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission used a faster procedure that led to the result forms being transmitted directly from District Command Centres to the National Results Centre,” the report says.
Previously, the results went through the ward, constituency, district and provincial command centres before being transmitted to the National Results Centre. The Electoral Act provides for election results to be announced within five days, which is considered to be in line with international best practice.
Violence, which claimed six lives, erupted on August 1 last year — two
Mugabe.
The autobiography edited by Fikile Nyathi was published by Amagugu Publishers.
The book’s cover sums up what is contained inside as there are two pictures of Rtd Col Dube one in a suit and the other in military camouflage during his days in the armed struggle. There is also the picture of Mann in prison garb while the other picture is that of late Zipra commander Rogers Alfred Nikita Mangena.
Rtd Col Dube said the book is an autobiography of a former Zipra cadre. days after voting — after MDC-Alliance supporters alleged there were delays in releasing election results in order to rig the voting tallies.
The Motlanthe Commission of Inquiry into the violence blamed the MDC-Alliance for the mayhem.
Political Parties A study will also be commissioned to consider the possibility of formally registering political parties to promote accountability. Presently, political parties are only required to inform Zec of their existence. The feasibility of Diaspora voting, including the possibility of auditing finances of parties that receive funding from the State will also be explored.
“There is no universal consensus in the country regarding the registration of political parties . . . Political Parties Finance Act indicates that political parties are free to regulate their affairs as they deem fit . . . However, Zimbabwe is willing to study the legal framework for registration of political parties in other countries to come up with appropriate recommendations,” the report adds.
Authorities also believe that while the Electoral Act ensures transparency, credibility and security of the postal voting system (Section 71), there is need to review the administration of the process to further protect the secrecy of one’s vote.
Other proposed reforms include notifying voters who would have been placed on the exclusion list so that they
“Basically the book is a story of a former Zipra cadre who like most of the boys grew up in a village in Matopo.
He began to taste the cruelty of colonial regime when they were flushed out of their land to a desolate area far away.
He proceeded to study in a missionary school and was influenced to the nationalist movement. He later joined and trained as a guerilla fighter and met all the hazards that go with the war.”
Rtd Col Dube was born on 3 July 1941 at Fort Usher in Matobo District, Matabeleland South. He holds an MSc Degree in Electrotech from MADI Institute of Engineering in Moscow, Russia.
An expert in military communications, Rtd Col Dube also holds a Higher Diploma in Chemical Weapons Convention in the Hague and has chaired the Zimbabwe National Authority of OPCW for 15 years.
He once served on the board of the United Nations Disarmament to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and served both Dr Butros Gali and Dr Kofi Annan.
A long-time chief executive of the Zimbabwe Defence Industries for 22 years, Rtd Col Dube served on many parastatal boards. On the political field he was the Member of Parliament for Makokoba in the last parliament and also served as Minister of War Veterans in the Old Dispensation. can regularise their registration status.
Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) chairperson Mr Andrew Makoni welcomed the proposals.
“The proposed reforms, which are being talked about by Government, are some of the reforms that ZESN has also made in model law that we have submitted to the (Parliamentary) Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. We are hoping that they will look at the recommendations we have made and perhaps adopt all of them or the majority of them.
“It is good to hear that Government is considering reviewing our electoral law and it is also good to hear some of those reforms they are talking about because those were some of the suggestions that were made by observers, both international and local observers.”
Election Resource Centre (ERC) executive director Mr Tawanda Chimhini said:
“Reforms are always welcome and when Government is taking the initiative to reform, that is most welcome. There has been a commitment made that reforms will be implemented. However, we encourage Government to engage all stakeholders on these reforms before Cabinet drafts them.”
An inclusive consultative approach is necessary to get buy-in from stakeholders, he said.
THE newly-constituted Monetary Policy Committee ( MPC) of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) had its inaugural meeting on 28 and 29 October 2019. This was another milestone for the Central Bank in its quest to improve transparency and the credibility of its macro-economic policy-making structures.
Being the maiden meeting of the MPC, not many were expecting it to make substantive national positions during such a meeting. As reason has it, when a new board or committee is set up to make important decisions, especially those that affect the livelihoods of 15 million citizens, the inaugural meeting naturally maps the terrain, appreciate the work at hand and come up with a strategic working plan to address each of the identified challenges.
The MPC deserves a special commendation for being able to correctly identify the key threats to monetary and price stability affecting the economy during their very first meeting. Furthermore, even though it was just the first meeting, the level of transparency and commitment to accountability by the MPC as reflected by the issuance of a press statement to inform stakeholders of their deliberations and subsequent interviews given by RBZ Governor Dr John Mangudya, were equally encouraging.
This is good practice which should even be extended to other committees of national significance, including boards of parastatals. When one goes through the MPC statement, it is clear that they have been able to correctly conclude on issues to be addressed. These include money supply, exchange rate, inflation, cash challenges and operations of the interbank market.
The MPC indicated that it will be meeting fortnightly for the remaining part of the year and then meet monthly thereafter as they get to grips with the issues.
While the normal purpose and strategic consequence of an inaugural meeting appears obvious from both a corporate governance and common sense perspective, some Zimbabweans still find it to be rocket science. Surprisingly and maybe out of honest ignorance or dishonest mischief, the release of the MPC’s press statement on 29 October was met with baseless vitriol from some selfstyled pundits.
Critics were saying the press release lacked resolutions or specific actions. But from their half-backed arguments, armchair critics only betrayed their lack of analytical depth and poor appreciation of the importance of the decisions that an MPC has to make.
Some shockingly expected the MPC members to recklessly make uninformed pronouncements on such important variables as broad money supply and interest rate regime on the basis of just an inaugural meeting. God forbid!
I am glad the MPC members did not act like excitable and poorly trained child soldiers who open fire in battle without properly identifying and aiming at the enemy. Just like the individual members who were appointed to the MPC, we need to be fair and give them time to deliver before we judge them.
It is common cause that Zimbabwe is afflicted with deep-seated structural imbalances, some of them have been with us for decades. It would, therefore, be kindergarten style and wishful thinking for one to expect the MPC to carelessly risk worsening the situation through halfbacked solutions, rushed through in an inaugural meeting. In any case expecting the MPC to deal with such structural imbalances is not normal.
Therefore, those who are hungry and thirsty to judge should wait and give the committee time to work and deal with the issues. Although fairness demands that we give the committee a chance to work, it is imperative that the MPC takes serious cognisance of the weight of national expectations that is placed on them.
It is, therefore, critical that the MPC members take their mandate very seriously and deliver value to the expectant stakeholders. Time is not on their side and surely, one day Zimbabweans will judge them on their success or ineptitude depending on the results of their work.