Ray Ndlovu, Senior Staff Reporter

SAVIOUR Kasukuwere, the firebrand Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister, whose political star is on a meteoric rise, has spoken for the first time on speculation linking him to the covert race to succeed President Robert Mugabe, which race has caused serious divisions in ZANU-PF.

Tinashe Madava, Staff Reporter

ZANU-PF, desperate to retain power after being pushed into an uneasy power-sharing arrangement in February 2009, is taking a gamble to declare a stalemate in the constitution-making process, pavi-ng the way for elections under the old and heavily amended Lancaster House Constitution.

Tinashe Madava, Staff Reporter

VICE President Joice Mujuru is set to intensify efforts to have her late husband Solomon Mujuru’s remains exhumed to enable a second post-mortem to be carried out as the family seeks to find out what killed the liberation war hero.

Njabulo Ncube, Assistant Editor

FIREWORKS are expected at a special politburo session next week called specifically to deal with the  divisions in ZANU-PF seen threatening President Robert Mugabe’s re-election bid in polls he wants held this year without fail.

- Bill dilutes AG’s powers

Clemence Manyukwe, Political Editor

ATTORNEY General (AG) Johannes Tomana has criticised the AG’s Office Bill sponsored by Justice and Legal Affairs Minister, Patrick Chinamasa saying it violates the Constitution and compromises his independence as the two top legal minds appear to have fallen out.
Chinamasa piloted the AG’s Office Bill through Parliament last year before it was subsequently passed by both the House of Assembly and the Senate. It now awaits to become law through a statutory instrument to be gazetted by the Justice Minister.
Sources this week said Tomana had appealed to President Robert Mugabe to ensure that the proposed law does not come into force as it takes away his powers. It is now highly unlikely that it would be enacted before having first been revised.
The apparent friction between Tomana and Chinamasa comes nearly six years after the minister fell out with the previous AG, Sobusa Gula-Ndebele. The friction between Gula-Ndebele and Chinamasa reached a crescendo when the Justice Minister was prosecuted and later acquitted for an alleged attempt to subvert the course of justice in a political violence case that sucked in Presidential Affairs Minister, Didymus Mutasa.
Gula-Ndebele lost his job in 2008 for abuse of office and was replaced by Tomana.
Gula-Ndebele is currently appealing his dismissal, precipitated by an alleged meeting he held with banker, James Mushore when he was on the police’s wanted list for contravening  exchange control regulations.
Mushore has since been acquitted by the courts.
This is not the first time that questions have been raised over proposed legislation to govern the country’s prosecuting authority.
At the height of his differences with Gula-Ndebele, Chinamasa cobbled another AG’s Bill, but it was different to the present statute as the earlier version sought to create a largely independent AG’s Office.
In the latest case, the AG’s Office Bill, among others, creates a board headed by a chairperson with the AG being just a member of that legal body.
This week Tomana told The Financial Gazette in a telephone interview that the proposed legislation is in violation of the Constitution.
“The Bill is unconstitutional as it creates an authority above him (the AG). You should be asking these questions the minister not me,” said Tomana.
Asked whether he had raised his misgivings about the Bill with Chinamasa, Tomana retorted: “why should I.”
Chinamasa, who left Harare on Tuesday for Brussels for re-engagement talks with the European Union, was not immediately available for comment.
According to classified United States cables leaked by international whistle-blowing website, WikiLeaks, Chinamasa was alleged to be of the view that Tomana was incompetent.
“Poloff met with Deputy Minister of Justice Jessie Majome (MDC-T) on November 5 (2009) to discuss her experiences working in a ministry led by ZANU-PF stalwarts Patrick Chinamasa and Attorney General (AG) Johannes Tomana . . . he also told us that Chinamasa held Tomana in low regard because of the clumsy manner and legal incompetence his office often demonstrated,” reads part of the US cable.
The AG and the police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri have previously openly declared that they are ZANU-PF members.
Although Tomana has misgivings over the AG Office Bill in its current form, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has previously appealed to President Mugabe to push Chinamasa to enforce it following the apparent stalemate.
In a memorandum to the President dated February 2, 2012 that dealt with a number of issues such as the state of the inclusive government and the land question, the premier said: “The Attorney General’s Office Bill has been passed by both houses of Parliament yet the responsible Minister Hon Patrick Chinamasa has not caused it to be gazetted as required by law. A professionally managed and fully equipped Attorney General’s Office is a key ingredient of our stability. May I implore you to urge the Minister to gazette the bill?” reads part of Prime Minister Tsvangirai’s memo.
A source told The Financial Gazette this week that should Chinamasa gazette the Bill, Tomana was likely to defy it as the Constitution was on his side.
The source said the Constitution says that the AG must operate independently and not be  subjected to anyone’s directives. But the minister’s Bill renders him a spectator as decisions are left to the board, with a chairperson being above Tomana running the show.
“Look at the Judicial Services Commission; it is chaired by the Chief Justice. You cannot bring another authority above the Chief Justice. Chinamasa’s Bill is an unworkable law that saves only to create operational problems,” said the source.

Clemence Manyukwe, Political Editor

ZANU-PF’s Mashonaland West provincial chairperson, John Mafa, has resigned from his managerial post at the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) after the parastatal  served him with a notice to transfer him from his political base.

Tinashe Madava, Staff Reporter

FACTIONALISM, which threatens to wreck ZANU-PF with an implosion, will take centre stage at today’s politburo meeting where President Robert Mugabe could be forced to read the riot act to some of his close associates accused across provinces of imposing candidates in the on-going restructuring exercise, which has shaken the party’s foundation ahead of fresh elections.

Njabulo Ncube, Assistant Editor

CONFUSION has emerged over the status of the draft constitution amid shocking claims by senior officials from the Parliamentary Constitution Select Committee (COPAC) that the document being serialised in the media and circulating on the internet is stolen property and not the final draft of the proposed new supreme law of the country.

Clemence Manyukwe, Political Editor

THE Anti-Corruption Commission has shelved plans to arrest Attorney General (AG) Johannes Tomana following a fall-out involving the arrest of lawmakers over the alleged abuse of the Constituency Development Fund.

Tinashe Madava, Staff Reporter

THE Deputy Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, Obert Gutu and Attorney General (AG) Johannes Tomana’s Office have clashed over what the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) senator views as the selective delivery of justice.