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• March 8, 2012
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‘No going back on elections’

By Kennedy Mavhumashava
PARTIES in the inclusive Government did not sign the Global Political Agreement for a new Constitution, but to pave way for an undisputed election result, President Mugabe has said.

Addressing the belated 2011 Annual Chiefs’ Conference at the Large City Hall here yesterday, the President said the parties wanted to deal with issues of alleged violence in the 2008 elections.
“The quarrel that led us into the Global Political Agreement was not about the Constitution, but it was about allegations of violence in the elections in 2008. Our neighbours were saying there was a lot of violence during the elections and we should have another election without violence,” he said.

The Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces said Sadc and the African Union urged the parties to hold elections without violence.
“It was never the issue of the Constitution, no, no, no but another election without violence and not the Constitution,” he said.

President Mugabe said Zanu-PF wanted to go for elections using the Kariba Draft as the basis of the new Constitution.

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• March 8, 2012
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Chiefs demand to be resettled on farms

By Prosper Ndlovu
AT least 80 percent of the 270 chiefs from the country’s 10 provinces have not benefited from the land reform programme, Chiefs’ Council president Chief Fortune Charumbira said yesterday.

Delivering his speech during the ongoing Annual Chiefs’ Conference in Bulawayo, Chief Charumbira said the matter was a cause for concern and said the Government should look into it urgently and ensure that chiefs also benefit.
President Mugabe officially opened the conference yesterday.

“Your Excellency, you have given us the land to cultivate and we applaud that. But 80 percent of the chiefs here do not have the land,” said Chief Charumbira, asking chiefs who did not benefit from the land reform programme to stand up.

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• March 8, 2012
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NGOs hail Marange diamond firms

From Temba Dube in Marange
MEMBERS of civil society yesterday called for the immediate lifting of sanctions on diamond mining companies at Marange in Manicaland Province after being impressed by the developments the firms have brought in the area.

The group, drawn from about eight organisations, was on a two-day tour aimed at promoting an understanding of the mining process.
The group had hitherto been calling for increased sanctions on the four companies, citing human rights abuses at the mines.

However, after touring the mines and seeing the modern houses that the companies, Mbada Diamonds, Diamond Mining Corporation, Marange Resources and Anjin had built to resettle people who were displaced by the establishment of the mines, they called on other mining companies in the country and the rest of Africa to emulate the diamond mining companies.

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• March 8, 2012
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Masaiti fails to wed Cameroonian lover

Masvingo — A Masvingo magistrate last Thursday refused to wed MDC-T legislator for Dzivaresekwa, Evelyn Masaiti,

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• March 8, 2012
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ANNUAL CHIEF’S CONFERENCE: President’s speech in full

Address by his Excellency the President Comrade R G Mugabe, on the official opening of the (belated) 2011 Chiefs’ Annual Conference, at the Large City Hall, Bulawayo, yesterday.

Once again it is my pleasure to officiate at this auspicious occasion of the 2012 Chiefs’ Annual Conference. We celebrate the conference belatedly because last year’s calendar was overwhelmed by an avalanche of events, which forced us to postpone, if only temporally, some of the important programmes we should have dealt with.
This Conference, being one of the programmes we postponed, is an important platform for us to deliberate on the welfare of our people and their leadership as we seek ways of improving their standard of life.

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• March 8, 2012
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Inter-ministerial committee on ethanol set up

By Oliver Kazunga
THE Government has set up an inter-ministerial committee to look into the crafting of a legislation that will compel fuel companies to blend petrol with ethanol, a Cabinet Minister said yesterday.