• admin
• Herald
• September 6, 2012
• 32 views

Locardia seeks to block PM’s wedding

Daniel Nemukuyu Senior Court Reporter
PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangi­rai’s wife Ms Locardia Karimatsenga Tembo is seeking to stop the planned wedding of her estranged husband and Ms Eliza­beth Macheka next week.
Mr Tsvangirai and Ms Macheka are set to tie the knot on September 15 at Raintree Lodge in Harare.

Ms Karimatsenga’s lawyer, Mr Jona-than Samukange of Venturas and Samukange, yesterday said he was final­ising papers for the interdict application to be filed at the High Court before the wedding.
Mr Samukange, who was speaking from his offices in Namibia, said he would electronically send the urgent chamber application to Zimbabwe for filing once he finishes working on it.

He said his client was still married to the Prime Minister and that there was no divorce.
“As far as my client is concerned, she is still married to Tsvangirai. She is actu­ally the first wife without includ­ing the late Susan,” said Mr Samukange.

“Now that Tsvangirai is about to get into a white wedding with another woman, it automatically invalidates his marriage to Ms Karimatsenga.
“My client cannot claim conjugal rights to her husband once the white wedding is allowed. If she tries to do so, that will be viewed as adultery.
“Tsvangirai paid lobola for my client and he is her husband.”
Mr Samukange said PM Tsvangirai paid lobola to the Karimatsengas well before he paid lobola to the Macheka family.

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• Herald
• September 6, 2012
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Civil service bonuses doubtful

Golden Sibanda Business Reporter
DEPRESSED revenue inflows have crippled Government programmes, constraining its ability to raise funds to pay civil servants bonuses, Finance Minister Tendai Biti has said.

The minister said he has since secured a meeting with his South African counterpart Pravin Gordhan to seek US$100 million budgetary sup­port.
Addressing journalists on the state of the economy yesterday, Minister Biti said Government has missed its monthly revenue collection targets by an average US$30 million since January.

This has resulted in Treasury failing to set aside US$7,5 million monthly towards the US$150 million needed for civil servants’ 13th cheques by Decem­ber.
“Since the announcement of my mid-term fiscal statement on July 18, 2012, I regret to advise that the economy remains depressed with funding chal­lenges for both public and private sec­tors.

“Given persistent revenue underper­formance, it has not been possible to set aside resources to cater for the US$150 million required to pay for the 2012 bonus,” he said.
Poor performance of the economy has seen the minister revising this year’s economic growth rate from 9,4 percent to 5,6 percent.
The budget was also cut from US$4 billion to US$3,6 billion.

At the current rate of revenue collec­tion, the Government would have to find ways of securing US$400 million to meet its financial obligations.
Between January and December, Treasury collected US$1,597 billion against a target of US$1,837 billion.

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• September 6, 2012
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Churches dismiss Copac draft

Lloyd Gumbo Herald Reporter
CHURCHES have vowed to mobilise their followers countrywide to vote against the draft Constitution at the referendum if the document does not outlaw homosexuality and same-sex marriages.
This follows revelations by Copac co-chairperson Cde Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana that Copac deliberately left the draft vague on homosexuality after failing to agree on whether or not to outlaw it.

Cde Mangwana’s sentiments were echoed by MDC-T policy director Mr Eddie Cross who confirmed his party’s pro-gay stance during a dis­cussion on Star FM on Wednesday night.
“As a party, we are not prepared to criminalise homosexuality because we think 10 percent of our population have homosexual tendencies,” Mr Cross said adding, “We think that criminalisation of personal practices and preference is a violation of human rights.

“We fundamentally differ with Zanu-PF because they want to crimi­nalise homosexuality.”
Mr Cross confirmed his party’s intention to make the Constitution remain silent on homosexuality.

Ironically, the National Statistical Report, that contains the views of the people, says 76 percent of Zimbab­weans want homosexuality outlawed.
However, Copac — which tried, but failed — to smuggle homosexual­ity into the draft through phrases such as ‘‘natural differences’’, chose to give gay rights silent treatment, a development legal experts say is open to manipula­tion should the Gays And Lesbians Association of Zimbabwe approach the courts for same-sex

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• September 6, 2012
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Price of E10 fuel too high: President

Lovemore Chikova Deputy News Editor
President Mugabe yesterday said the price of E10 fuel produced by Green Fuel from the