Killer dad made children record 'good-bye video'
22/03/2010 00:00:00
A JEALOUS Zimbabwean father made a ''farewell video'' of his two young children before strangling them in a ''spiteful reaction'' to the breakdown of his marriage, a court in Manchester, England, heard on Monday.
Petros Williams Mwashita, 37, urged his four-year-old daughter Yolanda Molemohi and two-year-old son Theo to say goodbye to their mother in the home-made film, which was played to a jury at Manchester Crown Court.
The tape was among a host of handwritten notes found at his flat in Whalley Range, Manchester, after his wife Morongoe, 30, discovered their bodies last October.
It was labelled ''Daddy, Yolly, Theo. Byee The End'' with a note attached which read: ''Play the video, made for your memories, thank you, Petros.''
Williams was said to be jealous that his wife, originally from Lesotho, had started to meet other men through internet dating websites.
Andrew Thomas QC, prosecuting, said the defendant even chose internet connection cables from the family computer to kill his children as a ''symbolic act of punishment'' to his wife.
He said: ''The prosecution say it was a spiteful, selfish reaction to the breakdown of his marriage. It was a deliberate act and the prosecution say this was murder.''
The video shows the children sitting in the living room, with Williams initally behind the camera asking them: ''Where's mummy?''
Yolanda answers ''Gone'', before the defendant is heard to say: ''Daddy will take you to school in the morning.''
Williams then joins them on the sofa and tells them: ''Say bye, mummy.''
His daughter does so and both smiling children then wave to the camera.
Thomas said: ''It is hard to say why the defendant made the video at the time and whether he had decided to take the drastic action he took two days later.''
He added: ''The prosecution say that it was a sort of farewell video from the defendant and his children to the mother.''
Williams denies two counts of murder.
The trial continues. - Press Association
NewZimbabwe.com
23 March 2010
19 March 2010
Zuma On Zimbwean Talks
Zuma says Zimbabwe talks 'fruitful'
SOUTH African President Jacob Zuma said his talks Thursday with Zimbabwe's feuding leaders were "fruitful", but gave little sign of a breakthrough in resolving issues straining the unity government.
"I am very encouraged by the spirit of cooperation displayed by the leaders and all the parties," Zuma said after nearly three hours of round-table talks with Zimbabwe's long-ruling President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara.
"I have had fruitful discussions with all the signatories to the (power-sharing deal), their negotiating teams, leading Zimbabwean personalities and other key stakeholders," he said.
But Zuma gave no indication of any breakthrough in easing tensions within the year-old unity government, saying only that the parties agreed to keep working toward goals set out months ago.
Negotiating teams will continue meeting next week, and deliver a report by the end of March, which Zuma said he would pass on to the security organ of 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC).
"The leaders have instructed their negotiating teams to attend to all outstanding matters during their deliberations," he said.
Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, reluctantly formed a unity government one year ago with opposition rivals Tsvangirai and Mutambara.
The power-sharing pact has curbed deadly political violence that erupted around disputed 2008 presidential elections, while halting Zimbabwe's decade-long economic collapse.
But the leaders remain sharply divided on a slate of key appointments, western sanctions on Mugabe's inner circle, and the treason trial of a top Tsvangirai ally. - AFP
Substantial progress ... President Zuma poses with Zimbabwean leaders on Thursday
IN FULL: TEXT OF JACOB ZUMA'S STATEMENT AT CONCLUSION OF ZIMBABWE VISIT
I came to Harare, Zimbabwe on a working visit on the 16th to the 18th of March 2010, in pursuance of my mandate given by SADC to facilitate the implementation of the Global Political Agreement.
I have had fruitful discussions with all the signatories to the GPA, their negotiating teams, leading Zimbabwean personalities and other key stakeholders.
I am very encouraged by the spirit of cooperation displayed by the leaders and all the parties.
The parties have agreed to a package of measures to be implemented concurrently as per the decision of the SADC Troika in Maputo.
I believe that the implementation of this package will take the process forward substantially.
The leaders have instructed their negotiating teams to attend to all outstanding matters during their deliberations on 25, 26 and 29 March and to report back to the Facilitator by the 31st of March.
I will present a comprehensive progress report to the Chairperson of the SADC Troika, President Armando Guebuza of Mozambique.
I would like to thank all the Principals and their negotiating teams for the commitment to ensuring that the GPA is implemented.
I thank you.
Issued by the Presidency
Union Buildings
Pretoria
18 March 2010
NewZimbabwe.com
SOUTH African President Jacob Zuma said his talks Thursday with Zimbabwe's feuding leaders were "fruitful", but gave little sign of a breakthrough in resolving issues straining the unity government.
"I am very encouraged by the spirit of cooperation displayed by the leaders and all the parties," Zuma said after nearly three hours of round-table talks with Zimbabwe's long-ruling President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara.
"I have had fruitful discussions with all the signatories to the (power-sharing deal), their negotiating teams, leading Zimbabwean personalities and other key stakeholders," he said.
But Zuma gave no indication of any breakthrough in easing tensions within the year-old unity government, saying only that the parties agreed to keep working toward goals set out months ago.
Negotiating teams will continue meeting next week, and deliver a report by the end of March, which Zuma said he would pass on to the security organ of 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC).
"The leaders have instructed their negotiating teams to attend to all outstanding matters during their deliberations," he said.
Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, reluctantly formed a unity government one year ago with opposition rivals Tsvangirai and Mutambara.
The power-sharing pact has curbed deadly political violence that erupted around disputed 2008 presidential elections, while halting Zimbabwe's decade-long economic collapse.
But the leaders remain sharply divided on a slate of key appointments, western sanctions on Mugabe's inner circle, and the treason trial of a top Tsvangirai ally. - AFP
Substantial progress ... President Zuma poses with Zimbabwean leaders on Thursday
IN FULL: TEXT OF JACOB ZUMA'S STATEMENT AT CONCLUSION OF ZIMBABWE VISIT
I came to Harare, Zimbabwe on a working visit on the 16th to the 18th of March 2010, in pursuance of my mandate given by SADC to facilitate the implementation of the Global Political Agreement.
I have had fruitful discussions with all the signatories to the GPA, their negotiating teams, leading Zimbabwean personalities and other key stakeholders.
I am very encouraged by the spirit of cooperation displayed by the leaders and all the parties.
The parties have agreed to a package of measures to be implemented concurrently as per the decision of the SADC Troika in Maputo.
I believe that the implementation of this package will take the process forward substantially.
The leaders have instructed their negotiating teams to attend to all outstanding matters during their deliberations on 25, 26 and 29 March and to report back to the Facilitator by the 31st of March.
I will present a comprehensive progress report to the Chairperson of the SADC Troika, President Armando Guebuza of Mozambique.
I would like to thank all the Principals and their negotiating teams for the commitment to ensuring that the GPA is implemented.
I thank you.
Issued by the Presidency
Union Buildings
Pretoria
18 March 2010
NewZimbabwe.com
10 March 2010
Mandela let down blacks: Winnie
STRUGGLE stalwart Winnie Madikizela-Mandela bitterly lashed out at Nelson Mandela in a new interview.
She said South Africa's first democratically elected president, who is also her ex-husband, had become a "corporate foundation" who was being "wheeled out to collect the money".
Madikizela-Mandela also called Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu a "cretin", in the interview with Nadira Naipaul, who visited her with her husband, the writer VS Naipaul, in Soweto.
"Mandela let us down," said Madikizela-Mandela.
"He agreed to a bad deal for the blacks. Economically, we are still on the outside.
"The economy is very much 'white'. It has a few token blacks, but so many who gave their life in the struggle have died unrewarded," said Madikizela-Mandela, in the interview published by the London Evening Standard.
She said Mandela had no control over the ANC anymore and was just being used by the Nelson Mandela Foundation to get funds.
"Look what they make him do. The great Mandela. He has no control or say any more. They put that huge statue of him right in the middle of the most affluent 'white' area of Johannesburg. Not here where we spilled our blood and where it all started.
"Mandela is now a corporate foundation. He is wheeled out globally to collect the money and he is content doing that. The ANC have effectively sidelined him but they keep him as a figurehead for the sake of appearance."
Madikizela-Mandela said Mandela was not the only leader who suffered.
"This name Mandela is an albatross around the necks of my family. You all must realise that Mandela was not the only man who suffered. There were many others, hundreds who languished in prison and died.
"Many unsung and unknown heroes of the struggle, and there were others in the leadership too, like poor Steve Biko, who died of the beatings, horribly all alone.
"Mandela did go to prison and he went in there as a burning young revolutionary. But look what came out."
Madikizela-Mandela criticised him for accepting the Nobel Peace Prize with the apartheid government's last president, FW de Klerk.
"I cannot forgive him for going to receive the Nobel [Peace Prize in 1993] with his jailer [FW] de Klerk. Hand in hand they went.
"Do you think De Klerk released him from the goodness of his heart? He had to. The times dictated it, the world had changed, and our struggle was not a flash in the pan, it was bloody to say the least and we had given rivers of blood.
"I had kept it alive with every means at my disposal."
She also lashed out at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission process, criticising Tutu, its chairperson.
"Look at this Truth and Reconciliation charade. He [Mandela] should never have agreed to it.
"What good does the truth do? How does it help anyone to know where and how their loved ones were killed or buried? That Bishop Tutu who turned it all into a religious circus came here.
"He had the cheek to tell me to appear. I told him a few home truths. I told him that he and his other like-minded cretins were only sitting here because of our struggle and me. Because of the things I and people like me had done to get freedom."
Looking back, she said the movement's actions were badly planned.
"You know, sometimes I think we had not thought it all out. There was no planning from our side. How could we? We were badly educated and the leadership does not acknowledge that. Maybe we have to go back to the drawing board and see where it all went wrong." -Sapa
NewZimbabwe.com
She said South Africa's first democratically elected president, who is also her ex-husband, had become a "corporate foundation" who was being "wheeled out to collect the money".
Madikizela-Mandela also called Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu a "cretin", in the interview with Nadira Naipaul, who visited her with her husband, the writer VS Naipaul, in Soweto.
"Mandela let us down," said Madikizela-Mandela.
"He agreed to a bad deal for the blacks. Economically, we are still on the outside.
"The economy is very much 'white'. It has a few token blacks, but so many who gave their life in the struggle have died unrewarded," said Madikizela-Mandela, in the interview published by the London Evening Standard.
She said Mandela had no control over the ANC anymore and was just being used by the Nelson Mandela Foundation to get funds.
"Look what they make him do. The great Mandela. He has no control or say any more. They put that huge statue of him right in the middle of the most affluent 'white' area of Johannesburg. Not here where we spilled our blood and where it all started.
"Mandela is now a corporate foundation. He is wheeled out globally to collect the money and he is content doing that. The ANC have effectively sidelined him but they keep him as a figurehead for the sake of appearance."
Madikizela-Mandela said Mandela was not the only leader who suffered.
"This name Mandela is an albatross around the necks of my family. You all must realise that Mandela was not the only man who suffered. There were many others, hundreds who languished in prison and died.
"Many unsung and unknown heroes of the struggle, and there were others in the leadership too, like poor Steve Biko, who died of the beatings, horribly all alone.
"Mandela did go to prison and he went in there as a burning young revolutionary. But look what came out."
Madikizela-Mandela criticised him for accepting the Nobel Peace Prize with the apartheid government's last president, FW de Klerk.
"I cannot forgive him for going to receive the Nobel [Peace Prize in 1993] with his jailer [FW] de Klerk. Hand in hand they went.
"Do you think De Klerk released him from the goodness of his heart? He had to. The times dictated it, the world had changed, and our struggle was not a flash in the pan, it was bloody to say the least and we had given rivers of blood.
"I had kept it alive with every means at my disposal."
She also lashed out at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission process, criticising Tutu, its chairperson.
"Look at this Truth and Reconciliation charade. He [Mandela] should never have agreed to it.
"What good does the truth do? How does it help anyone to know where and how their loved ones were killed or buried? That Bishop Tutu who turned it all into a religious circus came here.
"He had the cheek to tell me to appear. I told him a few home truths. I told him that he and his other like-minded cretins were only sitting here because of our struggle and me. Because of the things I and people like me had done to get freedom."
Looking back, she said the movement's actions were badly planned.
"You know, sometimes I think we had not thought it all out. There was no planning from our side. How could we? We were badly educated and the leadership does not acknowledge that. Maybe we have to go back to the drawing board and see where it all went wrong." -Sapa
NewZimbabwe.com
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