The state-run Herald reported that the case was thrown out this week at the end of the prosecution case after judges said police had broken the rules when they raided the tycoon’s home, adding that the police had permission to search for money but not for pornography.Van Hoogstraten, now known by new name of Nicholas von Hessen, had consistently denied the accusations.
The 64-year-old businessman, who appeared in court under his new surname, is said to enjoy a good relationship with President Robert Mugabe."
Justice in Zimbabwe is largely dependent on who you are and how well connected you are.
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This is not a 'because of' but an excuse to do something that he has wanted to do for years... all he was doing was waiting for something to happen that gave him the reason...
Senior officials in ZANU PF, the party led by the 85-year-old veteran politician, who faces growing international condemnation for his crackdowns on political opponents, white farmers and independent journalists, say he is furious that foreign governments had refused to give Tsvangirai assurances that they would lift sanctions that have hit hard the top brass in his party.Mugabe got official feedback from Tsvangirai, who returned home Monday. Mugabe seemed seized with the matter at the 76th ordinary session of ZANU PF held in Harare last week Wednesday.
"I hope that the Prime Minister’s trip has given him an opportunity to call for the removal of the illegal sanctions which are stifling efforts by the inclusive government to achieve its targets," Mugabe said."
Everything that Mugabe seizes, whether legally or otherwise, falls very quickly into wrack and ruin. The farms are failing to produce anything of any value - and the vast majority of the new 'owners' are ZANU PF senior members who know nothing about farming.
I have said this before. For Mugabe to have been successful, he needed to change very little in 1980. But the need/want to change things led to other changes and before he knew it, the Zimbabwean economy was on the verge of collapse and he has no more resources to stop it.
"A leading member of the president’s ZANU PF party warned that Mugabe planned to retaliate for the intransigence of Western governments and alleged that the refusal was at Britain’s instigation - with other Western capitals taking a cue to maintain a ban on travel to European Union countries and America.
According to the Southern African Business Association, there are about 100 British companies in Zimbabwe, with a total investment of hundreds of millions of pounds.
Some of the big players, such as Barclays Bank, BP and Cadbury, are considered too vital to the economy to be nationalised. But scores of family businesses, many of them in tourism, could be confiscated and distributed among Mugabe’s party faithful, the sources said.Mugabe told his lieutenants: "We must urgently revive the revolutionary spirit of the party."
And this is where the whole thing goes wrong. Mugabe is looking towards a resurrection of the ZANU PF, instead of the resurrection of the country's economy and infrastructire.
"White British passport-holders in Zimbabwe would have to renounce their UK citizenship amid a continuing diplomatic stand-off over the evacuation of elderly Britons from Zimbabwe.
Aides of Mugabe say that the tacit refusal to lift sanctions means that those Britons who have failed to become Zimbabwean citizens will face repercussions. Many of the few remaining white farmers have already decided to comply with the measure.
But a prominent businessman in Harare said yesterday that many of the whites still in Zimbabwe were determined to hold onto their British passports."
It was a prerequisite that I renounced my British birth (and hence, my claim as a British national) before I could join the ZRP. I checked with the High Commission and discovered that such a renouncing meant nothing in the High Commission as they said that nothing could remove my birthright.
I held a Zimbabwean passport until about two months after I arrived in the United Kingdom.
"There will be serious repercussions for Britain’s refusal to lift these sanctions," said the ZANU PF aligned businessman, who had been warned of Mugabe’s plans by ministers in the president’s inner circle.
"It’ll be tit for tat. People will simply have their right to live here taken away and they’ll lose their businesses."
Asked how this would be achieved with an MDC party with a strong presence in Parliament, the official said, "it will be a spontaneous uprising, like the agrarian revolution." He boasted that the MDC was powerless to stop a ZANU PF scheme which had the full backing of the top brass in the security forces."
For "agrarian reform" read "land grab".
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It is evident to me that this security guard had something that very few ZANU PF members and employees have - a conscience...
The teenage security guard died on Monday after he pulled a gun on himself. He died on the spot.Sources in the farming town of Chegutu told The Zimbabwe Times yesterday that Innocent Mbofana’s body was taken to ChegutuHospital mortuary a few hours after he allegedly committed suicide.
"He had initially run away after the death of the man they accused of stealing oranges in May and he only returned last week. The police officers at the farm tried to detain him but he escaped and went ahead to shoot himself," said a source who declined to be named.
A mortuary attendant at Chegutu hospital only identified as Ngwenya confirmed receiving Mbofana’s body on Monday afternoon before it was released into the hands of relatives on Wednesday for burial in rural Chakari, near Kadoma.
"The postmortem that was done was just external as the gun shot was there for everyone to see. The relatives also did not have money for an expensive autopsy. It seemed as if he shot himself from under the chin and the bullet came out through the forehead. His eyes popped out of the eyeholes," said the attendant."
The idea that the police were attempting to arrest this young man when he escaped - whilst armed - and went on to kill himself is a little unbelievable.
I cannot see how one teenager would have been able to escape - but, then again, I wasn't there.
A conscience is a fine thing to have, but when it results in death I baulk at the idea of 'justice' in Zimbabwe.
"Violence erupted at Stockdale Citrus Estate in April resulting in the death of the unidentified man at the hands of Madzongwe’s farm guards.
A Justice for Agriculture spokesperson alleges that the man was taken to a citrus packing shed where he was tortured for most of the night.The following morning he was released by the guards and the body was found near the entrance to the farm. No report was made to the police about the alleged theft.
After the death a report was made to the Chegutu police and three of Madzongwe’s guards, plus two former Stockdale employees, were picked up by the police and taken to the police station.No arrests have so far been made."
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In a similar case, a security guard at a farm has just pulled five years in Mugabe's prisons for shooting an alleged thief dead.
Raphael Ncube (38), who was employed by Mazowe Citrus Estates in Mazowe, killed Tawanda Butawu and injured Luckson Paizoni on the leg.
Ncube was jailed after pleading guilty to both charges before Bindura regional magistrate Ms Mavis Kudumba.
Initially, Ms Kudumba had sentenced Ncube to six-and a-half years in prison - four-and-a-half years for the culpable homicide charge and one-and-a-half years for attempted murder - before she conditionally set aside one and a half years."
The stark choice that the teenager in the previous story had was a long and lingering death within Mugabe's prisons, or a rapid exit at the end of his firearm. And I can understand his choice...
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Before the committee looks at the re-admission of Zimbabwe to the Commonwealth, it needs to be crystal clear that the departure from the Commonwealth was a Mugabe decision. He tendered the country's resignation from the Commonwealth - following their suspension for a flawed 2002 Presidential election...
Zimbabwe left the Commonwealth in a huff in 2003 after the group suspended the country after a flawed 2002 presidential poll characterised by rampant intimidation and widespread violence a thing that went on to become the mainstay of Zimbabwean politics under the government of Robert Mugabe.The Commonwealth is eager to assist Zimbabwe for the sake of its civilians who are subjects of Mugabe’s bad policies."
I am a little surprised that a committee should consider the country's re-admission - especially since they have just had yet another flawed Presidential election and Mugabe's human rights record has not got any better...
"Our aim will be to marshal the Commonwealth’s professional and other networks in support of existing aid efforts, and the medium to long-term prospects for reconstruction and development in Zimbabwe.
"We hope that the roundtable will result in practical action plans and the identification of the necessary resources to take these forward. Furthermore we hope that the issues arising out of the roundtable will be brought to the attention of Commonwealth Heads of Government when they meet in Trinidad and Tobago later this year."
Until Mugabe and ZANU PF are only memories in Zimbabwe, they will never toe the line in the Commonwealth and this is rather a waste of time, money, manpower and resources...
"The Commonwealth committee says time is now ripe for an initiative to bring together Zimbabwe civil society and Commonwealth partners with three core aims to consult with Zimbabwe partners about their urgent needs to formulate concrete and coordinated plans for practical action and identifying resources for this work with a view to establishing a Special Commonwealth Fund for Zimbabwe."
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And whilst Mugabe's destructive reign continues, so does the crime...
The pistol-waving robbers swung into action moments after the bank in Donnington - along the road leading out to Plumtree - opened its doors at 8.15AM, witnesses said.
A male bank employee was injured during the raid but is expected to recover, police spokesman Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said.
He added: "The seven men who were all armed with pistols got to the bank soon after it had opened and disarmed the security guard who was manning the entrance.
"They went into the banking hall where they demanded and got money from the bank tellers before going into the branch manager’s office. They force-marched him to the safe where they got more money."
Mugabe is responsible for this. Not that he committed the crime - but he has caused the collapse of the economy and crime is the only way that some of the people in Zimbabwe can survive. And as the crisis lingers on and on, so the crime takes on new and unknown boundaries.
If the government can commit such huge transgressions against the people, then robbery, theft and fraud all pale by comparison.
"Zimbabwe is in the grips of a wave of armed robberies on a scale not seen since the country’s independence in 1980.
Bulawayo police called a security meeting with business leaders on Friday morning to discuss strategies of thwarting robbers.
Bvudzijena said: "We have always called on banks and retail shops that handle large sums of money to revise their security strategies especially now with the dollarisation of the economy.
"We have, as the police force offered to assist such establishments with the vetting and training of their security personnel."
'Dollarisation' of the economy? Does Bvudzijena know something we don't? The local currency was shelved, yes - but I don't think that the economy has been 'dollarised'...
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(Note to "Blogger" - for the past two or three dyas, your spellchecker has been indicating faults with words spelled correctly. Just so you know...)
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