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Opposition CCC has made its bed, now SADC gets to sleep in it, seminar hears

As flawed as Zimbabwe’s elections were, it will be hard for the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) to bring regional pressure to bear on the ruling Zanu-PF, a seminar has heard.

Particularly because the CCC limped on in an election that had many red flags prior to, and during, the process.

With President Emmerson Mnangagwa having already sworn in his Cabinet, and MPs, including those of the CCC, already installed, the opposition is caught in a quagmire.

The CCC was now part of an illegitimate process, said Professor Brian Raftopoulos at a presentation at an event held by the Democratic Governance and Rights Unit, Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office, and Hanns Seidel Foundation in Cape Town.

“The challenge of [regional lobbying] is that the CCC MPs have already been incorporated into parliament and local government.

“In reality they are already part of the structures, and now they have to balance that with the legitimacy debate and the international and regional diplomacy questions. How do they go about that?” he asked.

While the SADC Electoral Observation Mission report on Zimbabwe was damning, it should not be forgotten Zimbabwe will be assuming the rotational chairpersonship of SADC next year.

Raftopoulos said if Zimbabwe were to get away with the sham elections issue, this could present a problem for SADC.

“What does this mean for any kind of intervention by SADC? Will it create legitimacy issues for SADC?

“If the ruling party in Zimbabwe is allowed to get away with this, what does it say about the region? What does it say about the protocols put in place by SADC in the future?” he added.

And now for more elections in SADC

At the end of this month, there will be elections in Eswatini under the Tinkhundla system.

In November, there are polls in Madagascar, and in December, elections will be held in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Next year, the most watched election will be in South Africa.

IN-DEPTH | Zimbabwe elections: SA’s response legitimises an ‘authoritarian regime’

As such, Raftopoulos was concerned if the Zimbabwe situation remained unresolved, it would create a bad precedent for elections in the SADC region.

“Here, we are in 2023, with the worst election emphasising the deep lack of democracy in our country and also the very poor, at the moment divided responses, from the SADC region.

“This is going to say something not only about the regime in Zimbabwe but about regional politics,” he said.

For Collen Chibango, the executive director of the Tutuma Zimbabwe Trust, elections in Zimbabwe have always been disputed.

But this time around, the new element was Forever Associates Zimbabwe (FAZ), a quasi-military and state security organ that is used to do the bidding for Zanu-PF.

Chibango did not see why the opposition went ahead with the elections and later still did not go to the courts to dispute the outcome when it was clear the elections were flawed.

“I’m really questioning what the game plan was. To then say we cannot go to court because the courts are captured, with V11s [election results forms for polling stations] available, all captured institutions can be burst,” he said.

Not a sham, but a ‘ritual’

Dr Justice Mavedzenge, a constitutional and human rights expert, said while the elections in Zimbabwe were a sham, they were not the worst in the history of the country.

He called the elections a “ritual” that had been part of Zimbabwe’s political history for some time.

Mavedzenge said some of the worst elections in Zimbabwe were those in the years 2002 and 2008 characterised by violence, killings, and the displacement of people.

He added in the SADC region, this year’s elections in Zimbabwe could not pass as the worst ever but they were “not excusable”.

Mavedzenge gave an example of the electoral system in Tanzania, particularly under the late president John Magufuli.

“In Tanzania, the legal framework does not allow you to challenge the outcome of the elections in Zimbabwe, you can, but the independence of the judiciary comes into question,” he said.

A researcher with the African Centre for Transitional Criminal Justice, Kudzai Mhepo, added Zanu-PF, according to Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, said “we are the army, we are the courts, we are everything basically”.

As such, all state institutions are captured and bent on keeping Zanu-PF in power.

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ZB Bank heist: Four acquitted to be reimbursed forfeited funds

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By Staff Reporter

FOUR suspects who were acquitted in the ZB Bank money heist case which made headlines two years ago will have their forfeited money reimbursed.

The four are Trymore Chapfikwa, Tozivepi Chirara, Dennis Madondo and Tatenda Gadzikwa.

They filed an application for disposal before Harare magistrate, Clever Tsikwa ruled there was “no justification for the State to keep the money when there is no longer a case against the four.”

The amount to be reimbursed was not mentioned.

The prosecution had protested the release of the funds arguing that there was no evidence to prove that seized money did not belong to the bank.

“The cash before this court as an exhibit cannot be lawfully possessed by the applicants.

“They did not provide proof of the source of their ownership. In this inquiry of whether an exhibit can be claimed by an accused, the accused has an onus to show that they are entitled to the money.” said prosecutor Loveit Muringwa.

The four were jointly charged with Shadreck Njowa, Tendai Zuze and Neverson Mwamuka who were convicted on Friday.

Njowa, Zuze and Mwamuka await their sentencing on Wednesday.

Prosecutors proved Njowa the kingpin of the heist and had been hiding in South Africa before coming back into the country in November 2022 assuming the dust had settled.

Njowa and his accomplices robbed US$2,7m and ZW$43 090 that was in the commercial bank’s transit truck headed for seven branches across the country in January 2021.

The security crew and the gang then staged the robbery along the Harare-Chinhoyi highway just after Nyabira Business Centre.

They had reportedly armed themselves with pistols, knives, and three vehicles which they used to carry the cash in transit.

One of the guards, Fanuel Musakwa, transporting the money was in contact with the heist crew.

Court heard the guard requested the driver to pick up some of the accomplices as passengers before they stole the money.

Meanwhile, prosecutor Muringwa has submitted the State’s aggravation urging the court to impose a harsher sentence for the convicted trio.

“The crime had a negative economic impact on the complainant and resulted in reasonable material or economic loss.

“The complainant is in the banking business, the loss of such vast amounts of money certainly had a negative impact on their business as income was lost because of the lack of cash that could have been circulated to its clients earning it the much-needed interest. Wherefore the State prays that the accused be heavily sentenced of the charged offense of robbery as aggravation factors outweigh the mitigatory factors,” he said.

The three will submit their mitigation Tuesday.

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ZB Bank heist: Four acquitted to be reimbursed forfeited US$234k

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By Staff Reporter

FOUR suspects who were acquitted in the ZB Bank money heist case which made headlines two years ago will have their forfeited money reimbursed.

The four are Trymore Chapfikwa, Tozivepi Chirara, Dennis Madondo and Tatenda Gadzikwa.

They filed an application for disposal before Harare magistrate, Clever Tsikwa ruled there was “no justification for the State to keep the money when there is no longer a case against the four.”

The amount to be reimbursed is US$234 000.