Monsters and Critics
Apr 13, 2007, 9:07 GMT
Johannesburg/Harare - Zimbabwe
police have said that a prayer meeting
planned for the second city of
Bulawayo Saturday is illegal and they will
respond accordingly, reports said
Friday.
The Save Zimbabwe Campaign, which unites churches, opposition,
civic and
labour groups, is due to hold a prayer meeting at St Patricks
Roman Catholic
Church Saturday, more than a month after a prayer rally in
Harare was banned
and opposition leaders trying to attend
beaten.
Police were quoted as saying Friday that the meeting was illegal
as the
group had not obtained permission from the police four days ahead of
the
meeting, as required under stringent security laws.
'I am not
aware of any earlier notification of the four days clear notice -
and if
they don't follow the law, then the gathering is illegal,' police
spokesman
Wayne Bvudzijena told the state-controlled Herald newspaper.
The national
coordinator of the church-led coaltion was not immediately
available for
comment. But church groups contend that the security laws do
not prohibit
religious gatherings.
Unconfirmed reports Friday said two Bulawayo-based
pastors had already been
called in for questioning by police in connection
with the meeting.
Police spokesman Bvudzijena reportedly told the Herald
that the Save
Zimbabwe Campaign was a political gathering and not a prayer
meeting.
A similar gathering in Harare on March 11 was violently broken
up by police.
Dozens of opposition activists were arrested and brutally
assaulted in
police custody.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who
received a serious head injury at
that meeting, told a press conference on
Thursday that 600 activists from
his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
party had been abducted and
tortured by police in the past three
months.
Saturday's planned prayer meeting is expected to be addressed by
the Roman
Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube, an outspoken critic
of
President Robert Mugabe's government.
The Herald accused US
ambassador Christopher Dell of helping to organize the
meeting, because Dell
was worried that the Zimbabwean story was dying down
when the US was of the
impression that pressure should be intensified
against Harare.
© 2007
dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
IOL
April 13 2007 at 10:11AM
Harare - Cash-strapped Zimbabwe will need
to find scarce foreign
currency to import food from "anywhere we can,"
following poor harvests in
all of the country's agricultural provinces, a
cabinet minister was quoted
as saying on Friday.
The deficit is
quite large but we are going to import maize to
supplement what we have,
Agriculture Minister Rugare Gumbo told the
state-controlled Herald
newspaper.
"We will get maize from anywhere we can and this means
that we will
have to look for foreign currency to meet the food
requirements," he added.
President Robert Mugabe's government has
declared 2007 a drought year.
Initial projections are that the southern
African country will struggle to
harvest 600 000 tonnes of maize, or a third
of its annual requirement.
Zambia, usually a
reliable maize supplier to Zimbabwe, indicated last
month it may not be able
to continue exporting because part of its crop was
a write-off after floods.
Reports this week said Malawi may step in to fill
the breach.
Mugabe's government blames the country's crop failures squarely on
drought,
but critics also blame a controversial policy of government land
seizures
from white land owners seven years ago that slashed agricultural
output. -
Sapa-DPA
The Raw Story
dpa German
Press Agency
Published: Friday April 13, 2007
Harare-
British mercenary Simon Mann was Friday due to
appear in court in the
Zimbabwe capital Harare to defend himself
against extradition to Equatorial
Guinea, his lawyer said.
Oil-rich Equatorial Guinea is trying to have the
former SAS
officer extradited to Malabo to face charges of plotting to
topple
the government of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
Simon is
supposed to be giving evidence today, defence lawyer
Jonathan Samkange told
Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in a telephone
interview.
Mann was
arrested in Harare in March 2004 along with dozens of
other suspected
soldiers of fortune. The Zimbabwe government accused
them of being en route
to Equatorial Guinea to overthrow the
government, but the men denied
this.
Most of Mann's alleged accomplices were released two years
ago
after serving year-long jail terms for minor immigration offences,
the
only ones the Zimbabwean authorities could pin on them.
Mann, who was
convicted of more serious security and firearms
offences, is due to be
released next month after having served two-
thirds of a four-year jail
term.
The government of Equatorial Guinea began its application to
have
the former British SAS commando extradited in February.
Defence
lawyer Samkange argued then that Zimbabwean and
international laws do not
allow someone to be extradited to a
requesting country if they cannot be
guaranteed a fair trial, and
where they could face
execution.
Equatorial Guinea's attorney general responded by saying
Mann
would receive an open and fair trial and claimed Malabo's
courts
would not impose the death penalty in the case of a
conviction.
Under the central African country's laws, plotting to
overthrow
the government is punishable by the death penalty or a 30-year
jail
term.
© 2006 - dpa German Press Agency
FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube Chief Political
Reporter
SA leader sets tone for talks to end Zim crisis
SOUTH African
President Thabo Mbeki - thrown at the deep-end of the
country's complex
socio-economic crisis - has moved swiftly to set the tone
on the urgency and
seriousness the region is attaching to the resolution of
the Zimbabwean
crisis by spelling out his plans and expectations as mediator
in letters
delivered to the feuding political parties.
Soon after being appointed
facilitator to the volatile situation obtaining
across the Limpopo,
threatening to explode across the Southern African
Development Community
(SADC), Mbeki has wasted no time, signifying the
urgency with which the
14-member bloc is attaching to the crisis.
Last week the divided Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) delivered a joint
document to Pretoria at the
request of Mbeki outlining their position on how
best they believe a
solution to the crisis might be reached amid indications
that the ruling
party, which is said to be apprehensive at the terrific pace
of the
developments, had also argued its case.
Diplomatic sources said Mbeki's
letters contain broad parameters for the
resumption of delicate talks
between ZANU PF and both MDC factions while
reiterating his earlier plea to
both parties that conditions should not
stand in the way of
dialogue.
"While he (Mbeki) says he has been mandated by the SADC emergency
summit to
mediate in the Zimbabwean crisis, he states in the letters that it
is
Zimbabweans themselves that should be able to define and solve their
problems," said the source. "He is basically asking for ZANU PF and the MDC
to come up with their suggestions for the agenda. He wants the mediation
process to be successful, that it delivers a permanent solution. He has
given a kind of a shell, and he is asking the parties to fill that shell,"
added the source.
Simon Khaya Moyo, Zimbabwe's ambassador to South Africa
who has endeared
himself to President Robert Mugabe as Harare's pointman,
delivered Mbeki's
letter to Harare over Easter.
Earlier, the two
secretaries general of the rival MDC factions, Tendai Biti
and Welshman
Ncube, had handed over their parties' documents to the African
National
Congress (ANC), just as the South African leader announced a team,
headed by
Sydney Mufamadi, a ruling ANC official, to lead the early stages
of the
mediation.
All sides have agreed on the need for secrecy on the talks, but
The
Financial Gazette understands that Mbeki's letter outlines the brief
given
to him by the SADC extraordinary summit in Tanzania last month, and
how he
intends to steer the mediation effort.
Diplomatic sources revealed
this week that Mbeki has a tough task cut out
for him because the feuding
parties were at sea with each other in terms of
their positions.
Division
within the main opposition party and the discord fermenting in the
ruling
ZANU PF party over the choice of candidate to stand in next year's
presidential elections has not helped the situation either, they
said.
Whereas at the centre of both the MDC factions' demands is the need for
a
people-driven constitution guaranteeing free and fair elections, ZANU PF,
which has endorsed President Mugabe as its candidate in next year's polls,
is content with it and believes the project to harmonise the elections would
suffice.
"There is no meeting of minds whatsoever, which makes the task
extremely
difficult. The only saving grace is that South Africa has
successfully
intervened in trickier situations such as Burundi where
relations had
completely broken down to the extent of exchanging gunfire,"
said the
diplomat.
Mbeki, they said, is proceeding cautiously, mindful of
the fact that his
facilitation should be within the SADC framework hence the
regional body's
troika has to be actively involved at some
stage.
Diplomatic sources said the immediate challenge is now to get the
major
parties to agree on the terms of reference that would form the nucleus
of
the talks.
"Once the process reaches an advanced stage, then Mbeki can
now come to
Zimbabwe to see the process through," added the diplomat.
MDC
faction leader Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday confirmed receiving Mbeki's
letter, adding that he had already sent a response to the South African
leader.
"I can confirm that I have received a letter from President Mbeki
and have
since replied to it. We as the MDC want to see how President Mbeki
is going
to resolve this crisis. We wish him well," said the former trade
unionist.
Tsvangirai declined to elaborate. "It is a confidential letter to
me to
which I have similarly replied confidentially."
Tsvangirai said
there was increased urgency on the part of SADC to resolve
the Zimbabwean
crisis, which he said would bring President Mugabe to the
negotiating
table.
Poverty has consumed 80 percent of the country's estimated 13 million
people, with about two million having left in search of greener pastures. At
about 1700 percent, Zimbabwe's inflation rate is the highest in the
world.
"The events that led to the SADC emergency summit in Tanzania recently
and
the appointment of President Mbeki as mediator put the Zimbabwean crisis
in
the fore. This crisis is going to be resolved through negotiation. ZANU
PF
and the MDC are going to negotiate under the tutelage and facilitation of
President Mbeki," he said.
Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu refused
to discuss the latest SADC
moves and pressure, saying the matter was
confidential. "These are private
presidential issues, on which I cannot
comment," said Ndlovu.
Gabriel Chaibva, the spokesman for Arthur Mutambara's
faction of the MDC,
was also reluctant to speak on the matter.
While
Tsvangirai was mum on details of his response to President Mbeki, he
said
both Biti and Ncube had emphasised to the ANC and South African
officials
involved in the delicate mediation process that a roadmap proposed
by the
opposition last year was the only viable solution to the crisis.
It is
however, understood that a key demand of the MDC is a new
constitution, and
that far reaching electoral reforms be made before the
elections next
year.
President Mugabe, on the other hand, has said he would only talk to the
MDC
if it recognises him as the legitimately elected leader of the
country.
Mbeki told the Financial Times last week that ensuring free and fair
elections would be his top priority, but without more specific benchmarks
for the success of the talks, the absence of set timetables and increasing
government intransigence, it is doubtful his latest initiative can
succeed.
Political analysts say President Mbeki, who has been under fierce
attack
from the West and opposition over his so-called quiet diplomacy, has
his
reputation at stake if he fails to crack the Zimbabwe crisis second time
around.
"All along, Mbeki has tried to find a solution as a concerned
neighbour
without any regional pressure but now he is acting on instructions
from a
SADC summit, which wants conditions acceptable by all within the next
11
months," an analyst said yesterday.
Another sign of the urgency the
region attaches to the resolution of the
Zimbabwean problem was the arrival
in Harare yesterday of SADC executive
secretary, Tomaz Augusto Salamao, to
assess the economic situation in the
country.
A communiqué at the end of
the SADC summit in Tanzania said the region would
"undertake a study on the
economic situation in Zimbabwe and propose
measures on how SADC can assist
Zimbabwe recover economically." There are no
indications however, as to what
form this economic assistance would take.
Salamao yesterday held discussions
with President Mugabe at State House,
following earlier meetings with
Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe
Mumbengegwi and Chief Secretary to the
President and Cabinet, Misheck
Sibanda.
There was speculation yesterday
that the government had deliberately delayed
the release of inflation
figures for March, expected to be above 2000
percent, in response to
Salamao's visit. But officials said the delay was
"technical".
In South
Africa, Mbeki's spokesman, Mukoni Ratshitanga, denied reports that
the South
African president himself was preparing to visit Harare. But he
said Mbeki
had set himself an urgent task to get assurances from both sides
that
campaigning for next year's polls would be peaceful.
FinGaz
Staff Reporter
A
SOLDIER has been shot and injured in clashes with police at the Marange
diamond fields, Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri has told ZANU PF
Members of Parliament (MPs).
Chihuri told a caucus of ZANU PF
legislators on Wednesday that the soldier
was shot as he led youths trying
to loot diamonds from the area, which has
been cordoned off and is guarded
by police.
The police chief did not, however, specify how many soldiers,
youths and
police were involved in the skirmishes.
He is said to have
reiterated earlier claims by his deputy, Godwin Matanga
that senior
officials were behind the looting of diamonds although he could
not name the
culprits.
Sources said none of the MPs challenged Chihuri to name the
government
officials involved in the plundering of the mineral.
Two
months ago, small-scale miners told the parliamentary committee on mines
that they knew the high-ranking officials involved in the illicit deals, but
could not name them for fear of reprisals.
A source said Chihuri accused
Mines and Mining Development Minister Amos
Midzi of "failing to put his
house in order" and allowing a free or all
situation at Marange.
But
Midzi is said to have denied being responsible for the chaos.
"Minister Midzi
told the caucus that the reason why his ministry is failing
to deal with the
issue is a high staff vacancy rate in his ministry, which
he said stands at
52 percent," a source said.
The ruling party MPs told Chihuri of their fears
that Operation Chikorokoza
Chapera, the police crackdown on illegal mining,
would affect their
prospects of winning during next year's polls.
Gold
panners have been militant supporters of ZANU PF in recent
elections.
"Chihuri said MPs should organise the miners into small groups
before police
can allow them to continue with their operations," the source
said.
According to the sources, MPs once again voiced opposition to the
holding of
party primary elections in preparation for next year's
parliamentary polls.
This newspaper reported last week that MPs wanted
primaries scrapped as a
trade-off for the shortening of their terms by two
years.
At this week's caucus, the MPs said they had "ongoing projects" in
their
constituencies which they needed to complete and these would be
disrupted if
they were not automatically endorsed as ZANU PF
candidates.
ZANU PF's central committee two weeks ago agreed to jointly hold
presidential and parliamentary polls next year, effectively reducing the
life of the current Parliament by two years.
At the meeting, Justice
Minister Patrick Chinamasa, the leader of the House
and chair of the caucus
meeting, declined to address the MPs' pleas.
Chinamasa is said to have told
the legislators that the matter would be
referred to the ZANU PF election
directorate, but warned them against
imposing themselves on the electorate.
FinGaz
Dumisani Ndlela Business
Editor
... but sees economy shrinking faster
THE International Monetary
Fund (IMF) has lowered its inflation forecasts
for Zimbabwe, saying the rate
of inflation would average 2 879.5 percent
this year, slower than the 4 279
percent average it had initially projected
last September.
But the
IMF issued a more pessimistic forecast on economic growth.
The tempered
inflation forecasts, whose basis was not explained by the IMF
in its World
Economic Outlook released this week, came as uncontrollable
price hikes
overshadowed prospects for economic recovery, intensifying fears
the
inflation rate could soar to over 7 000 percent this year.
Inflation closed
last year at 1281.1 percent. The IMF had projected the rate
to average 1 216
percent during 2006.
On the IMF's initial projections for 2007, inflation was
expected to breach
5 000 percent during the year.
But despite its revised
forecasts for the current year, the IMF maintained a
sombre outlook for the
economy, downgrading its forecasts on economic
growth. Gross domestic
product (GDP) would contract by 5.7 percent this
year, the IMF said, a
forecast that is bigger than the 4.8 percent the Fund
had earlier projected
in 2007.
The Fund sees average inflation for 2008 at 6 470.8 percent, and
expects the
economy to shrink 3.6 percent.
Zimbabwe suffered cumulative
GDP decline of more than 30 percent between
1999 and 2005.
FinGaz
Staff Reporter
JOURNALISTS
will increasingly become targets of hostility from state
security agents in
the run-up to next year's elections, a media watchdog has
warned.
Citing the arrests and assault of photojournalist Tsvangirai
Mukwazhi on
March 11 and Gift Phiri on April 1, the Media Institute of
Southern Africa
(MISA) Zimbabwe said in its latest report that in view of
these recent
developments, Zimbabwean journalists should be on the
alert.
Mukwazhi and Tendai Musiyazviriyo, a producer, were arrested while
covering
opposition protests in Highfield.
"The traumatic events of the
past two months should also serve as a
harbinger of the unknown dangers that
lie ahead for journalists and media
workers, given that Mukwazhi's
whereabouts had remained unknown until his
subsequent appearance in court
three days later on 14 March 2007," said
MISA-Zimbabwe.
Phiri, a reporter
for The Zimbabwean, a newspaper published in London and
distributed in
Zimbabwe, was seized at a shopping centre in Sunningdale,
taken to the
Sunningdale police station before being transferred to Central
Police
station, where lawyers say he was beaten while he was in custody.
On Tuesday,
Phiri showed this newspaper his injuries, including a cut on his
brow, which
he said were sustained during his three-day ordeal.
MISA-Zimbabwe said: "In
several cases involving investigative journalists
uncovering stories about
government corruption, organised crime or human
rights abuses, notably in
Algeria and Turkey, journalists have simply
'disappeared' after being taken
into government custody.
"Even more worrying is the fact that Mukwazhi's
valid accreditation card
issued by the state-controlled Media and
Information Commission under the
restrictive and repressive Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy
Act, which he brandished did not
shield him from the police beatings."
Mukwazhi and Musiyazviriyo were
detained together with opposition leaders
Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur
Mutambara, and up to 50 other political
activists.
"Times of conflict
demand professional solidarity that over-rides the egos
that are the
manifestation and derivatives of the competitive nature of the
profession of
journalism. Granted, journalism can be a hazardous profession.
"However, what
happened to Mukwazhi and Phiri certainly demanded immediate
exposure and
condemnation by the media as the worst could have befallen him
(Phiri) at
the time when his whereabouts in the hands of his captors was
unknown," said
MISA-Zimbabwe.
"Journalists should, therefore, rally behind one another
especially where it
concerns the unlawful arrest, detention, assault and
torture of colleagues
as these actions go beyond the hazards that come with
the terrain of the
profession but blatantly violate the charters,
conventions and declarations
that protect media freedom and freedom of
expression."
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda
Senior Business Reporter
THE Tobacco Industry Marketing Board (TIMB)
yesterday finally agreed on a
date for the opening of auction floors after
the selling season, initially
scheduled to have started on March 14, was
postponed due to lack of sales
bookings.
TIMB acting chief executive
officer, Andrew Matibiri, told The Financial
Gazette that auction floors
would open on April 24.
Matibiri said the season would finally commence after
key stakeholders
ironed out differences, which had stalled
trade.
Growers, who had initially pushed for an early opening of the auction
floors, saying they had completed harvesting and wanted to sell early to
avert inflation-induced losses, refused to book their tobacco for the
auctions after failing to agree on a viable exchange rate with the central
bank.
Growers wanted the government to devalue the Zimbabwe dollar from
$250 to
the greenback.
It was not immediately clear what concessions
growers had finally won for
them to agree to sell.
Matibiri said farmers
would start delivering their crop to the auction
floors in two weeks' time
as viability had been taken into consideration.
"Floors will open on the 24th
of this month. To open beyond that date wouldn't
be proper as cash flows for
growers are now dry," Matibiri said.
Industry sources indicated that a new
package had been agreed with the
farmers and this included an "early
delivery bonus or some other incentives".
The Zimbabwe Tobacco Association
(ZTA), which boasts a membership of over 4
000 small and large-scale tobacco
farmers, yesterday said its members were
now prepared to sell.
"Farmers
are ready to deliver their crop. The large scale farmers are paying
500
percent commercial interest rates at banks and that is hurting," said
ZTA
vice-President Graeme Chadwick.
The commencement of the tobacco-marketing
season will help boost foreign
currency inflows.
Production of tobacco,
one of Zimbabwe's top foreign currency earners, has
been on the decline
since 2 000 following agrarian reforms that disrupted
farming activities in
the country.
Output has plunged from a peak of 232 million kgs prior to the
reforms to a
disappointing 55 million kgs.
FinGaz
Staff
Reporter
GOVERNMENT'S decision to charge duty and Value Added Tax on
vehicles and
luxury items in foreign currency is liable to legal challenge,
a leading
commercial lawyer says.
Finance Minister Samuel
Mumbengegwi last week published a Statutory
Instrument compelling all car
dealers and importers of other luxuries using
free funds to pay for duty in
foreign currency, a move that has attracted
sharp criticism from
importers.
On Wednesday, Mumbengegwi attempted to fend off the criticism,
saying his
decision was meant to "influence investment patterns towards the
more
production oriented activities as part of strategies to turn around our
economy". He did not explain.
But Sternford Moyo, a top corporate lawyer
with Scanlen and Holderness, told
The Financial Gazette yesterday that the
statutory instrument, criticised as
a government ploy to shore up its
sagging hard currency purse, can be
challenged in court, as it is
irreconcilable with existing legislation.
"It is open to challenge on the
grounds of the extent of its inconsistency
with an Act of Parliament. It is
null and void. It really is unpatriotic for
the controller of customs to
reject the legal tender of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe
dollars, and insist on
receiving the currency of foreign countries. The
state should be proud to
collect Zimbabwe dollars," Moyo said.
Moyo says the statutory instrument
conflicts with the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) Act, which stipulates that
the Zimbabwe dollar is the supreme
and legal tender in all transactions
conducted in the country.
"In terms of the RBZ Act chapter 22: Section 44 the
Zimbabwe dollar is the
legal tender in Zimbabwe. A person who incurs an
obligation in Zimbabwe can
discharge that obligation by tendering in
Zimbabwe dollars. The statutory
instrument can be said to be inconsistent
with the provisions of the RBZ Act
and being a subsidiary legislation it
should be in conformity with the Act
of Parliament," observed Moyo.
On
Wednesday, Mumbengegwi also said the new regulation was meant to protect
the
local motor industry - essentially Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries -
from
foreign competition.
Although the Minister claimed production at the company
has been depressed
by "low demand", the company itself has in fact
frequently said it was
unable to meet local demand, but that foreign
currency shortages were
keeping its assembly lines quiet.
Analysts have
said the measure will drive up parallel market rates.
FinGaz
Charles Rukuni Bureau
Chief
DEBTORS, who now owe the Bulawayo City Council $12.9 billion, are
"bleeding
the council white". The council's Finance and Development
Committee said it
was owed $11.6 billion by residents as at the end of
January. The debt shot
up by 1 060 percent from December when it stood at
$1billion.
The increase was due to the introduction of new tariffs, which
had increased
by the same percentage.
The government owed the council
$1.3 billion but this was up to the end of
December and therefore, did not
reflect the 1 060 percent increase. The
biggest debtors were the Ministries
of Water Development and that of Home
Affairs.
The committee said one of
the ways it could reduce government debt was to
lobby the central bank to
pay the local authority directly when money was
disbursed to
ministries.
Most of the money owed by residents was for water, rates and
sewerage
charges. Residents owed $4.7 billion in water charges, $3.7 billion
for
rates and supplementary charges and $1.8 billion for sewerage.
FinGaz
Staff
Reporter
BULAWAYO - The foreign currency black market has once again
begun to surge
after a two-week lull, which most market watchers have failed
to explain.
The pound sterling had dropped from $40 000 to $25 000 while
the United
States dollar fell from $25 000 to $15 000.
Surprisingly,
there were only moderate drops for both the Botswana pula and
the South
African rand. The rand fell from $2 700 to $2 000 while the pula
fell from
$3 000 to $2 500.
The biggest rise so far has been in the pula and rand,
which were trading at
$3 000 and $2 500 at midweek. The pound had only risen
to $27 000 and the US
dollar to $17 000.
Market watchers have so far
failed to figure out why the currency had
plunged. One explanation was that
people were afraid things could go haywire
because of the proposed two-day
stayaway called by the Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Union. The stayaway
flopped.
Another explanation was that Zimbabweans from neighbouring countries
were
coming home for the Easter holiday and thus there was an abundance of
foreign currency resulting in rates falling.
Yet another view was that
there was a shortage of local currency because of
the restrictions on how
much people could withdraw from their bank accounts.
Some market watchers
said the drop had been caused by the withdrawal of
major buyers of foreign
currency. No explanation was given for the
withdrawal.
The two-week slump
sent shivers among those who had been buying foreign
currency as a hedge
against inflation and the falling Zimbabwe dollar.
One story doing the rounds
in the city was that a woman who had bought US$2
000 at $19 000 found
herself without local currency to buy basic foodstuffs
like bread when the
rate plunged as she could not change her money at the
lower rates.
The
plunge was a clear signal to those buying foreign currency as a hedge
against inflation that this is indeed risky business.
The only commodity
that responded to the plunge was fuel whose price dropped
to as low as $15
500 a litre. The price has since edged back to at least $17
000 a
litre.
Prices of most goods in the shops continue to escalate.
FinGaz
Clemence Manyukwe
Staff Reporter
ZANU PF's plan to increase the number of parliamentary
seats is seen
widening the ruling party's patronage system and allowing
President Robert
Mugabe to reward loyalty after he overcame apparent
divisions over his
candidacy two weeks ago, analysts say.
Observers
say a plan to amend the constitution to allow parliament to choose
a new
head of state if the incumbent resigns points to a possibility that
President Mugabe might not serve a full term if, as expected, he wins
presidential elections next year.
There are also fears, based on
precedent, that the proposed extra seats
could be assigned to traditional
ZANU PF rural strongholds as a ploy to
safeguard the ruling party's
parliamentary majority.
The decision by the ZANU PF central committee to
endorse President Mugabe as
presidential candidate for next year's
harmonised polls has dominated media
headlines, eclipsing proposals by the
party to increase seats in the lower
house from the 150 to 210, and the
number of seats in the Senate from 66 to
84.
ZANU PF now also wants
senators to be chosen on the basis of proportional
representation, an
electoral formula that matches the percentage of votes
that groups of
candidates obtain in elections and the percentage of seats
they can
hold.
The number of seats a party garners in the House of Assembly would be
proportional to the number of seats it can get in the upper
house.
Analysts say the "harmonisation" of presidential and general elections
would
see "patronage parliamentary seats" being dispensed as a reward for
loyal
supporters, or as a stick to discipline errant members by threatening
to
withdraw dissenters' seats.
Factional tensions in ZANU PF have
escalated since the 2002 presidential
poll when senior officials, notably
the late Eddison Zvobgo, were accused of
refusing to campaign for President
Mugabe.
More recently, a phenomenon termed "Bhora Mudondo", where ruling
party
members are said to sabotage party election campaigns, has been
exposed.
A central committee report presented to ZANU PF's conference last
year said:
"The National Disciplinary Committee received cases from Masvingo
province
of some members who were alleged to have campaigned against
official party
candidates during the senatorial elections held in November
2005."
Analysts also said the current change in the method of selecting
senators,
which would require a constitutional amendment gives credence to
calls for a
new constitution rather than piecemeal amendments effected by
the ruling
party since 1980.
They noted that the change in the supreme
law to accommodate the new format
for senators comes two years after
constitutional Amendment No. 17 that
created the Upper House.
Presenting
proposals to the ZANU PF central committee, Justice Minister
Patrick
Chinamasa said the current system was causing conflict between
senators and
members of the House of Assembly. He added that it caused
confusion over
roles and turf.
Political analyst Eldred Masunungure said since 1980, ZANU PF
has relied on
a combination of violence and patronage to coerce members and
opponents
alike.
"These are patronage parliamentary seats dangled before
those members who
were wavering. It is an incentive that members find
appealing and difficult
to reject," Masunungure said.
"Patronage in this
country is as old as independence. It is a tool that
leaders use to ensure
compliance or support. It has deepened its roots. It
is now embedded."
He
said allowing parliament to choose a successor to the President in the
event
of the office becoming vacant implied an "implicit understanding that
President Mugabe would not serve his full term." Currently, the constitution
calls for the holding of elections within three months.
Rindai Chipfunde,
the director of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network,
said having a
successor chosen by parliament was undemocratic.
"It needs to come from the
people, to decide who should be the president of
the country," she
said.
Chipfunde questioned the wisdom of increasing the number of legislators
who
would depend on the taxpayer when parliament is already struggling
without
adequate funding.
According to Masunungure, the size of
parliament should, instead, be
reduced.
Apart from salaries and
allowances, Members of Parliament benefit from a
Vehicle Loan
Scheme.
Loans to legislators are granted at cocessional interest rates while
all
imports are duty free, according to Clerk of Parliament Austin
Zvoma.
A number of recent reports presented to Parliament bear out
Masunungure and
Chipfunde's views on the question of funding. A report
presented recently by
the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mildred Chiri,
showed that parliament
had exceeded its budgetary vote and had used
additional resources without
authority.
"The advance block grant was
exceeded on 12 occasions during the year. On
eight occasions, parliament did
not seek treasury authority at all," the
report said.
The portfolio
committee on Foreign Affairs, Industry and International
Trade, said it had
failed to visit Ziscosteel because of lack of funds. The
state-run
Ziscosteel has over the years failed to operate at full capacity
due to
breakdowns at its blast furnaces, undercapitalisation and political
interference.
A spokesperson for the Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust,
Tawanda Chimhini,
said there could be conflict over where the extra
constituencies would be
created; the rural areas, where ZANU PF is
traditionally strong, or in the
urban areas, the bedrock of opposition
support.
Since 2000, the work of a delimitation commission established to
mark
constituency boundaries has been shrouded in controversy.
In the
last general election, Harare and Bulawayo lost constituencies while
ZANU PF
strongholds gained extra ones.
FinGaz
Rangarirai
Mberi News Editor
AT the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Harare on Tuesday,
lunchtime worshippers
stopped by the notice board to read a letter by their
bishops targeting one
of their most ardent parishioners, President Robert
Mugabe, a regular at
this Fourth Street church.
In the notice, titled
"God Hears the Cries of the Oppressed", Catholic
bishops accuse President
Mugabe's administration of repression similar to
that suffered by ancient
Israelites under Pharaoh, warning that government
faces a "mass uprising" if
its leaders do not "repent."
The bishops also accuse government of rigging
elections and aping Ian Smith's
regime.
"As the suffering population
becomes more insistent, generating more and
more pressure through boycotts,
strikes, demonstrations and uprisings, the
state responds with ever harsher
oppression through arrests, detentions,
banning orders, beatings and
torture," the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops
Conference (ZCBC) says in a pastoral
message posted on notice boards at all
Catholic churches at Easter.
"Many
people in Zimbabwe are angry, and their anger is now erupting into
open
revolt in one township after another. In order to avoid further
bloodshed
and avert a mass uprising, the nation needs a new people-driven
constitution
that will guide a democratic leadership chosen in free and fair
elections,"
the bishops say.
On Sunday, Pope Benedict, in his traditional Easter address
to followers,
cited Zimbabwe in the same breath as Somalia and Sudan's
Darfur, as one of
the world's trouble spots, saying the country was in
"grievous crisis".
While the Pope's bunching of Zimbabwe with Darfur would be
rightly treated
as absurd, more poignant for President Mugabe is the
criticism from his own
pastors.
A practicing Catholic who makes frequent
reference to his Jesuit training,
President Mugabe - described rather
risibly last week by his deputy Joice
Mujuru as God's gift to Zimbabwe - is
unlikely to ignore the bishops'
letter.
The President has often regarded
Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube's somewhat
rabid jibes at his leadership as
comic relief. But stern censure by all nine
of Zimbabwe's bishops will, at
the very least, force President Mugabe to sit
up and take serious note, even
as he appears increasingly unmoved by
criticism after a series of recent
political victories over his domestic and
foreign
detractors.
Government's immediate reaction to the bishops' letter was
characteristically dry though.
"The churches can say what they like,"
said Information Minister Sikhanyiso
Ndlovu.
But there is little doubt
that government will have noticed the bishop's
protest letter, described by
observers this week as the strongest rebuke of
ZANU PF by the church in
years.
In the past, President Mugabe has rejected calls by Zimbabwean
churches for
a new constitution to help end the country's political and
economic crisis,
but backed their initiative for a national political
dialogue.
Speaking at the launch of a document called 'The Zimbabwe We Want'
by an
alliance of the country's major churches last year, President Mugabe
said
although he welcomed their initiative for dialogue, his government had
some
"non-negotiable" interests.
"We fought for it, our people died for
it. There could never be another
constitution so dear, so sacrosanct," he
said.
"True there might be amendments necessary to make, let us say so, but
to say
this is not home-grown is as if the British imposed this on
us."
According to the bishops, many of those responsible for the repression
are
passionate Catholics. "Christians sit and pray and sing together in the
same
church, take part in the same celebration of the Eucharist and partake
of
the same Body and Blood of Christ. The next day, outside the church, a
few
steps away, Christian state agents, policemen and soldiers, assault and
beat
peaceful, unarmed demonstrators and torture detainees."
The struggle
in Zimbabwe, say the bishops, is between "those who are
determined to
maintain their privileges of power and wealth at any cost,
even at the cost
of bloodshed, and those who demand their democratic rights
and a share in
the fruits of independence; between those who continue to
benefit from the
present system of inequality and injustice, because it
favours them and
enables them to maintain an exceptionally high standard of
living, and those
who go to bed hungry at night."
The bishops say none of Rhodesia's oppressive
laws have been repealed,
noting these had in fact been "reinforced" by even
more repressive
legislation. The wealth of the minority white elite had
simply been
"appropriated" by a black elite that has, for 27 years, passed
the wealth
exclusively around its members through patronage, the bishops
say.
According to the bishops, "God is always on the side of the oppressed".
They
have called for a day of fasting and prayer this Saturday.
FinGaz
Staff Reporter
THE insistence by the Postal
Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of
Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) that operators
base international call tariffs on the
official exchange rate has created a
major crisis in the telecommunications
sector, operators say.
The
effect of the policy is that making an international call from Zimbabwe
to
South Africa is up to seven times cheaper than making the same call from
South Africa, depending on whether one is calling a mobile or fixed line
number.
As a result, Zimbabweans
outside the country now prefer to
send money to their
relatives, who sell it on the black market, and then use
it to call from
Zimbabwe, saving millions of dollars.
But Zimbabwean
operators have to pay their counterparts for the call in
United States
dollars.
This has impacted adversely on local operators.
According to the
Telecom Operators Association Zimbabwe, the country has
moved from a
situation where it was earning foreign currency to being a net
payer to
external operators in foreign currency.
"Until now, 90 percent of all calls
were incoming, and we used to earn
millions in foreign currency, now it is
the other way around because we have
to find foreign currency every month to
pay for international calls," says
Douglas Mboweni, head of the operators'
association.
Operators have been holding emergency meetings with the
regulator for months
over the matter, but no solution has yet been
reached.
The worst affected operator is state owned fixed line monopoly
TelOne,
believed to owe millions of US dollars to foreign operators.
Industry
experts warn this could lead to the closure of all the routes
TelOne
operates.
Mboweni, who is chief executive officer of Econet, said
prepaid subscribers
on this network have restricted international access on
outgoing
international calls.
"The size of the outgoing route is based on
the amount of foreign currency
we generate
on that route. We cannot
expand the route because we will run a deficit with
other operators that we
cannot settle. We have not shut down the outgoing
route, we have simply
matched it with the foreign currency we earn on the
route," said Mboweni.
FinGaz
Clemence Manyukwe Staff
Reporter
A PARLIAMENTARY portfolio committee wants Local Government
Minister Ignatius
Chombo's wide-ranging powers, which enable him to
arbitrarily dissolve local
authorities, checked through
legislation.
In a report tabled in parliament recently, the legislature's
local
government committee, chaired by ZANU PF Mazowe West Member of
Parliament
(MP) Margaret Zinyemba, said the Local Government Board - the
state body
that supervises local authorities - should have the final say on
all council
matters.
The committee recommended that Chombo should table
harmonised local
government legislation before the end of the year.
Currently, there are two
different laws governing the operations of urban
and rural councils - the
Urban Councils Act and the Rural Districts
Act.
"Local government in Zimbabwe, again unlike in other countries, has not
been
provided for in the supreme law of the country, the constitution of
Zimbabwe. As a result, the executive has the power to dissolve any local
authority at any time," the report said.
"Stakeholders also felt that the
board was under the control of the Minister
as he has the final say on its
decisions and he also appoints its members.
In Botswana and South Africa,
the board's decision is final."
The committee recommended that the next
constitutional amendment must
include a provision granting local authorities
autonomy, in line with
government pledges at independence to decentralise
authority.
Chombo is accused of abusing his authority to dissolve elected
councils in
Harare, Chitungwiza and Mutare and replacing them with
commissions packed
with ZANU PF loyalists.
In Harare, Chombo has refused
to allow fresh elections to be held despite a
High Court order declaring a
government-appointed commission headed by
Sekesai Makwavarara illegal.
In
the midst of all this confusion, service delivery in most of the major
cities has sunk to its lowest ebb, posing a serious health threat to
residents.
An official with the Zimbabwe Local Government Association who
declined to
be named yesterday came out in defence of Chombo and the local
government
ministry.
He said the ministry was only there to facilitate,
on behalf of government,
in the implementation of policy.
And because of
the local authorities' failure to deliver, some of their
responsibilities
have been allocated to other line ministries to safeguard
the interests of
their residents. These include water and sewer
reticulation, education and
the provision of food, which is now the
responsibility of the Labour
Ministry.
Peeved by these sweeping reforms, councillors in some of the
country's local
authorities were now seeking to hide their incompetence by
heaping the blame
on the Local Government Ministry, said the
official.
"Some of these recommendations are borne out of ignorance and
sinister
agendas meant to protect certain interests," said the official.
"There are
certain quarters that wanted to pursue their own agendas via
local
authorities and hence the various circumstances leading to the
dismissal of
executive mayors and other officials in Harare, Chitungwiza and
Mutare,"
added the official.
Committee member and Movement for Democratic
Change Mbare MP Gift
Chimanikire, who seconded the report after its tabling
in the House of
Assembly by ZANU PF Gutu North MP Lovemore Matuke, said the
abolition of the
minister's "monopoly" on local government issues would be
key to any reforms
to legislation governing local authority.
"The most
important thing that we have raised is the constitutionalism of
local
authorities, putting that provision into the constitution of this
country.
This, Mr Speaker, according to our own opinion, would remove and
guarantee
against ministerial monopoly and exploitation of local
authorities," he
said.
"We feel that if local authorities are going to be dissolved, that is
not in
the interest of residents or citizens in the areas that the local
authorities would be operating."
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda Senior
Business Reporter
Future workers grievances to be directed to CIO
offices
STATE security agents last week interrogated workers' representatives
at
Mutare- based Border Timbers Limited (BTL) after company employees
boycotted
work during a two-day "stayaway" organised by the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU) to protest deteriorating economic and living
conditions.
Workers at the country's top timber producer told The
Financial Gazette that
members of the spy agency, the Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO)
summoned four of BTL's workers' representatives to their
offices and accused
them of mobilising workers to support
the ZCTU's work
boycott.
The four are Tendai Chamwandoita, the workers' committee chairman,
Reuben
Gondo, the secretary, and committee
members Luckson Matikiti and
Nelson Kapfumvuti.
Workers at the timber processing company were part of a
few who had backed
the ZCTU call to stay away from work to protest a
deteriorating economic
environment and to pressure companies to pay minimum
wages and salaries of
$1 million a month to cushion workers from escalating
inflation.
CIO operatives
are said to have observed the absence of
employees from their workplace
after two agents had
visited the timber
processing plant in the Paulington industrial area around
mid-day last
Tuesday.
They reportedly told management to immediately call workers to
report for
duty in the afternoon.
Although some workers later reported
for duty that Tuesday, the CIO
operatives proceeded to summon the workers
representatives to their offices
on Wednesday morning.
Workers said their
representatives only returned to work after spending
about three hours of
intense interrogation.
The workers' representatives told workers after their
encounter with the CIO
that they had been instructed to stop approaching
management with their
grievances but to instead report them to the CIO
offices.
"They said protocol had changed and they will now handle all
workers'
grievances from now onwards," a source said.
Efforts to get a
comment from BTL managing director John Gadzikwa were
unsuccessful
throughout the week.
BTL directors have frequently criticised government for
mismanaging the
economy in their financial and annual reports.
The
company has also protested the compulsory requirement to remit foreign
currency to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, saying the measure hinders it from
meeting its offshore creditor commitments.
BTL, which is fighting the
compulsory acquisition of its timber plantations
in the
picturesque
Eastern Highlands, has been a victim of fires caused by
illegal settlers who
have illegally moved to stay on the estates.
FinGaz
Dumisani Ndlela Business
Editor
ZIMBABWE'S tobacco selling season could lurch into a fresh crisis
amid
reports authorised dealers were struggling to mobilise enough foreign
currency for purchases.
The selling season, already mired in a
dispute over a favourable exchange
rate for growers, was initially scheduled
to start on March 14 but was
postponed due to lack of sales bookings after
growers failed to agree on a
viable exchange rate with the central
bank.
The Tobacco Industry Marketing Board (TIMB) said a new date would "be
announced after consultations with all stakeholders and assessments of
preparedness of growers to sell have been made".
But sources said the
major worry nagging authorities was the struggle to
mobilise offshore
funding for tobacco purchases during the selling season.
In terms of the
country's exchange control regulations, all green leaf
tobacco from the
auction floors and contractors is purchased in United
States dollars.
The
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) last week issued a fresh notice advising
authorised dealers to "arrange offshore lines of credit on behalf of tobacco
merchants and contractors".
But dealers who spoke to The Financial
Gazette indicated that international
financiers were growing increasingly
risk-averse and unwilling to extend
fresh credit facilities to local
financial institutions for merchants.
"It's getting very difficult," a bank
treasurer said this week. "We normally
do this on a bank-to-bank basis but
those that we have traditionally relied
on have given us their backs."
He
said, however, that a few banks had managed to source foreign currency
from
their parent institutions offshore, but this would be insignificant.
Afrexim
Bank, roped in by the central bank to help, was said to be worried
by the
increasing turmoil in the country's markets, although a source
indicated
they would still be able to assist with some hard cash for the
tobacco
purchases.
One source indicated that Afrexim was not necessarily concerned
with the
country's default risk but was rather losing faith in the country's
prospects on both the political and economic fronts.
In its notice to
authorised dealers last week, the central bank maintained
that all tobacco
merchants and contractors would be compelled "to access
offshore funds for
the purpose of purchasing the green leaf tobacco".
However, newly registered
tobacco merchants and those that have been
operational for less than three
years would be accommodated through a
memorandum of deposit (MOD) facility
if they demonstrate "beyond any
reasonable doubt their inability to secure
offshore lines of credit".
The MOD has a limit of US$20 million for eligible
merchants.
The central bank said authorised dealers would arrange the
offshore lines of
credit on behalf of tobacco merchants and
contractors.
"Funds drawn down from such offshore lines of credit shall be
credited to a
special Tobacco Foreign Currency Account with authorised
dealers. Prior to
purchasing tobacco, a tobacco merchant or contractor shall
instruct the
authorised dealer to sell to the Reserve Bank foreign currency
from the
special tobacco FCA (Foreign Currency Account)," the Reserve Bank
said.
The RBZ would buy the foreign currency at the ruling exchange rate and
the
resultant Zimbabwe dollars would be deposited into the merchant or
contractor's special Zimbabwe dollar account holding only Zimbabwe dollars
proceeds from the disposal of foreign currency to the RBZ.
The merchant
or contractor would pay for tobacco with funds from the special
Zimbabwe
dollar tobacco account.
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda Senior Business Reporter
ZIMBABWE'S power
utility ZESA Holdings this week said a review of tariffs by
government would
help lure critical investment into the electricity
generation sector,
famished of crucial investment in recent years.
Ben Rafemoyo, the acting
ZESA chief executive officer, said he believed the
recent electricity tariff
review by the Zimbabwe Electricity Regulatory
Commission (ZERC) would steer
the power utility into viability and help to
attract new investment in the
energy sector.
ZERC, the sector's regulator, approved an increase in
electricity tariffs
early this month by 350 percent. Another tariff review
of 120 percent would
be implemented in June and a 50 percent increase would
follow in October.
"Investors look at their returns and returns are only
realised through
tariffs. If current players are recording losses then you
don't expect any
new investment and that has cost Africa in terms of
electricity generation,"
Rafemoyo said.
Sub-economic tariffs have kept
investors away from the sector and hit ZESA's
capacity to maintain its power
stations and equipment.
Out of ZESA's numerous and potential suitors, only
Nampower has agreed to
provide a US$40 million loan to refurbish ZESA's
Hwange Power Station. Under
the deal, which was sealed last month, Hwange
will supply Namibia with 150
megawatts of power annually for the next five
years while ZESA will use the
proceeds to retire its debt.
Besides
uneconomic power tariffs, investors have avoided committing their
funds in
the country because of the unstable political climate, skewed
economic
policies and lack of respect for property rights.
Zimbabwe has had no new
power projects in the past decade and the situation
in the sector had been
worsened by an economic crisis now in its seventh
year.
FinGaz
Personal Glimpses
with Mavis Makuni
A REPORT in the latest issue of the South African
weekly, the Sunday Times,
caught my eye. It is about a crack private sector
team that has been
appointed to put things back in order within the
Department of Home Affairs.
The report was of great interest to me
for a number of reasons, not least
the fact that the Department of Home
Affairs is regarded as the most corrupt
arm of government in South Africa.
But what really took my breath away is
that this team of consultants, who
have been described as "hard-nosed,
no-nonsense" technocrats have been
chosen by none other than the head of the
department to be overhauled. The
responsible minister, Nosiviwe
Mapisa-Nqakula, is said to have made her
decision to bring in the
consultants after releasing a report that was
scathingly critical of her
department.
It is difficult to imagine
anything like that happening in Zimbabwe where
such reports have been known
to mysteriously disappear without trace.
Another reason that would make it
impossible for such a scenario to occur in
Zimbabwe is the culture of
non-accountability and impunity that pervades all
sectors of public life.
While in South Africa the media takes the lead in
raising the alarm about
the abuse of power and privilege by public officials
and that way help to
stop the rot before too much damage is done, the same
cannot be said in
Zimbabwe.
Despite assurances by the new Minister of Information and
Publicity,
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, that the government welcomes constructive
criticism, this
is not borne out in practice. Journalists are regularly
threatened and
verbally abused when they contact ministers and other
government officials
seeking clarification or comments on issues they may be
investigating. The
scribes are threatened with lawsuits and accused of being
unpatriotic and
agents of foreign powers. Merely expressing horror at
something that is
wrong morally, legally and in terms of common human
decency, can earn a
writer the most tenuous and unwarranted labels and
epithets. But
unfortunately, insisting by decree that things are hunky-dory
when they are
falling apart is futile in the long run as the prevailing
untenable economic
situation in Zimbabwe is proving.
Zimbabwe could learn
some lessons from the South Africans, who are realistic
enough to be willing
to look at themselves in the mirror, warts and all.
"It's a team of
technocrats - the hard-nosed, no-nonsense types. These
people will help us
to structure a work plan for the director-general and
will stay with the
team until we have been able to address the systematic
problems," said
Vice-President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka of the consultants
brought in to
tackle problems in the Home Affairs Department. It is the same
team of
consultants that is said to have helped put the South African
Revenue
Service back on track after prescribing corrective measures.
As a Zimbabwean
whose country has been brought to its knees in no small
measure by
corruption, I admire the way South Africans have dealt with the
problem
since attaining freedom from apartheid in 1994. The most admirable
aspect of
their approach, in my opinion, is their willingness to admit that
corruption
is a cancer that should be uprooted wherever it is found and
regardless of
who the culprit is. On that score their attitude is vastly
different from
that in my own country where the acceptable modus operandi is
to sweep
everything under the carpet. There continues to exist a double
standard in
this country that makes it alright to protect corrupt
individuals because
they are powerful and influential and to hell with what
happens to the rest
of the people.
But in a democracy, which Zimbabwe claims to be, every one
should be equal
before the law and it should be enforced without fear or
favour so that the
cancer of corruption can be eradicated. A short while
ago, Samuel Undenge
was appointed Minister of Anti-Corruption and
Anti-Monopolies. Strangely,
that was the last time anything was heard about
him although the public
expected him to be a new broom ready to sweep clean
following the lacklustre
performance of two previous incumbents in the same
portfolio. The new
minister's silence and low profile since his appointment
in October last
year following a cabinet reshuffle is not because there are
no corruption
issues to attend to.
Undenge appeared on the scene as
Anti-Corruption Minister in the middle of
the controversy surrounding the
discovery of diamonds in Marange. A number
of high-ranking officials have
been implicated in illegal deals but nothing
has been done to deal with
them. Recently, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor
Gideon Gono complained
about the lack of government action to normalise the
mining of diamonds in
that part of the country for the benefit of all
citizens. Delivering a
lecture at Midlands State University, he said the
inertia that had been
exhibited with respect to the diamonds had nothing to
do with sanctions or
foreign interference, which are often blamed for
Zimbabwe's woes.
The
diamonds controversy is not the only scandal about which nothing has
been
done. Not long ago details were exposed about the plundering of the
Zimbabwe
Iron and Steel Company before a report giving chapter and verse on
the
matter mysteriously went missing. Without wishing to over-simplify
things,
the only person who has been taken to task over the allegations is
Industry
and International Trade Minister Obert Mpofu, who has been obliged
to appear
before a parliamentary disciplinary committee on charges of lying
to a
parliamentary portfolio committee while giving evidence under oath. It
is
doubtful that the tackling of the ZISCO racket will progress beyond
Mpofu's
impeachment. The real culprits know they will remain unscathed.
The same
half-hearted approach has been adopted in dealing with other
serious
scandals such as the looting of farm equipment, the abuse of
subsidised fuel
and farm inputs and the corrupt allocation of stands under
the once
much-touted but now rarely mentioned Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle housing
scheme.
It was announced that investigations would be conducted to get to
the bottom
of abuses by officials who allocated stands to their friends and
relatives
rather than those who had been displaced under Operation
Murambatsvina.
Official inertia and lack of commitment means these
wrongdoers can go
scot-free at the expense of fellow Zimbabweans.
FinGaz
Comment
EACH
year around November, the Finance Ministry normally cheers up
distraught
taxpayers by relaxing tax bands along with a raft of other relief
measures
targeted at lessening the heavy tax burden, while loading
additional cash
into an economy weighed down by the convulsive effects of
inflation.
This last Thursday, the officials at the New Composite
Buildings, who are
rarely known for applying shock therapy to nurse the
deepening economic
depression in between the national budgets, had other
ideas that became the
talking point over the Easter holiday up to this
day.
A day before Good Friday, the Ministry of Finance directed the
restructured
Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (at loggerheads with its employees
over poor
salaries) to start collecting duty and Value Added Tax on imported
cars and
other goods designated as luxury in foreign currency - a temptation
that
officers at the revenue collector might find too hard to resist.
The
knee-jerk response to the widely reported influx of trinkets and
second-hand
goods into the country - the bulk of them being sub-standard
goods from the
Far East, now the bedrock upon which Zimbabwe builds its
hopes for recovery
- has once again laid bare the desperation in government
to attract foreign
exchange inflows needed to mend the widening import bill
that has been
exacerbated by successive droughts, particularly in the
southern parts of
the country.
Without even weighing the legal arguments aiding Statutory
Instrument 80A of
2007, the latest attempt to squeeze the elusive hard
currency from holders
of free funds also exposes the ruling party's
hypocrisy whereby it postures
as the vanguard party all out to defend the
troubled local unit against its
free-fall while it is busy devaluing the
same through the back door.
The April 5 effective date coincided with
softening exchange rates on the
parallel market, giving the false impression
that the latest policy shift,
which caught motor traders unawares, had paid
instant dividends. Far from
it.
Despite the good intentions of Treasury,
caught between a rock and a hard
place, this latest fishing expedition could
boomerang with serious
ramifications on the country's wobbling
economy.
Understandably, Samuel Mumbengegwi and his team cannot conjure up
miracles
to quench the insatiable appetite for foreign currency in the
absence of
sustained efforts to step up industrial production and generate
the
much-needed export earnings, but what they have resorted to doing is
like
putting elostoplast on a gaping wound. They owe the nation a convincing
explanation.
Why should Zimbabweans pay duty in foreign currency? What
has gone wrong
with the Zimbabwe dollar? Are they not being too emotional to
the extent
where the government is shooting itself in the foot? Why not go
for
wholesale dollarisation of the economy as has been suggested before? If
it
is about discouraging imports of luxury items, why not rid the economy of
the arbitrage opportunities on the pricing of the exchange rate? Is this not
an admission that exporters have a point in lobbying for the upward
realignment of the exchange rate? If so, what is being done to help their
cause? If it is about ensuring that ZIMRA is not prejudiced by importers who
are "paying next to nothing", why can't the powers-that-be bite the bullet
and devalue the Zimbabwe dollar to market levels? It's the politics,
stupid!
It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that the country's
economy
is slowly grinding to a standstill on the back of a combination of
self-destructive policies that spawned arbitrage opportunities in the
pricing of the exchange rate, essential agricultural inputs, fuel etc from
where endemic corruption is feeding.
By making it difficult for people to
bring in cars and other items
designated as luxuries against the backdrop of
falling capacity utilisation
in industry and frightening unemployment, the
government might find itself
with very little revenue in its purse to
sustain the bloated civil service,
frequently cited among the evils
derailing efforts to narrow the country's
burgeoning budget deficit, which
has been fingered as the main source of
inflation.
Cross-border trade has
become a way of life for most Zimbabweans owing to
rising unemployment while
prices of locally assembled vehicles have shot
through the roof even after
paying manufacturers in foreign currency. The
answer therefore, lies in
improving efficiencies and not overly protecting
inefficient producers or
manufacturers.
While imports might decline for a while as the market digests
the latest
initiatives, the market will sooner rather than later devise ways
of getting
around the system since regulation alone cannot nurse the
country's
problems. The new requirement might inadvertently create a huge
demand for
foreign exchange on the illegal parallel market, which would be
transmitted
via imported inflation, since the extra cost incurred in
sourcing the scarce
resource would be passed onto the final consumer.
Or
worse still, the country's ports of entry could soon be deserted as
people
resort to smuggling.
The crisis the country has found itself in calls for
sobriety couched in a
manner that takes into account the entire economic and
political framework
as opposed to the current hodgepodge approach devoid of
the understanding of
where exactly the economic wheels came off.
Granted,
the US$400 000 allegedly being siphoned out of the currency market
to
sustain motor industries in other countries is too big an amount to
ignore,
more so when the country is faced with crippling hard currency
shortages to
avert famine and secure energy imports to keep the wheels of
industry
turning.
Toying around with the symptoms is however, not the solution.
FinGaz
National
Agenda with Bornwell Chakaodza
Core of SADC executive secretary's visit lies
in getting fundamentals right
THE Southern African Development Community
(SADC) extraordinary summit held
recently in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania was not
a failure after all.
As mandated by the 10 heads of state and government
who attended that
summit, the SADC executive secretary Tomaz Salamao is here
in Zimbabwe to
study the economic situation with a view to seeing how the
region can assist
the country to recover economically.
On the political
front, the summit mandated President Thabo Mbeki of South
Africa to mediate
in the Zimbabwean crisis and he is reported to have
already appointed a
negotiating team to engage the ruling ZANU PF party and
the opposition MDC
in search of a lasting solution.
My open letter to President Mbeki and SADC
leaders in their entirety and my
message to SADC executive secretary, Tomaz
Salamao, is that unless they get
the political and economic fundamentals
right, both missions are doomed to
fail. Politics and the economy are
intertwined here and there is no way the
two can be separated. To me, this
is the bottom line.
It is very important to identify issues really at stake
in our present
situation. There is no way Salamao can propose measures to
assist in the
economic recovery of the country in the absence of political
normalisation.
In my book, the two things are not even two sides of the same
coin - they
are firmly located on the same side of the one coin. That is how
firmly
inter-connected they are!
The point must be made that the source
of Zimbabwe's economic crisis is the
abnormal political environment that we
have at the present moment. And the
holistic solution that we are all
seeking is one that is rooted in the
acceptance of this simple fact. Anyone
trying to navigate the murky waters
of Zimbabwe must separate fact from
fiction.
Blaming President George W Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair as the
root
causes of our crisis as government spin-doctors are fond of doing and
saying
day in and day out is a mantra which has lost all meaning. The
political
leadership here is the author of our problems and it will equally
be, by and
large, the author of the solution that we are seeking.
I do
not minimise the problems that President Mbeki and Salamao will face
but all
I am trying to do is to appeal to them to have a correct
perspective, a
correct interpretation of the issues in this country. Facing
the truth and
having a sense of perspective can free us of needless fears
and give us hope
and assurance for the future.
Nobody quarrelled with the need and the
imperative of correcting a
historical injustice as far as land reform is
concerned. What people
quarrelled with - Zimbabweans and non-Zimbabweans
alike - was the
methodology and the way the whole exercise was carried out.
Things could
have been done differently and certainly much better than the
way they were
done. But that is all now water under the bridge. The country
must now move
on. And this is the point that I am making here.
Looking
back at past glories such as the war of liberation and the like does
not add
value in any way to looking forward, which is what is important at
this
stage. The challenge that President Mbeki and the SADC executive
secretary
face is to make sure that they do not sorely play to the beat of
the
propaganda machine emanating from government and the ruling party. It is
important to listen to all sides including government, the opposition
parties and Zimbabwean civil society as a whole.
There is a lot of
dishonest journalism here particularly in the
government-owned media. The
issue here is not of regime change or anything
like that. The issue is one
of governance and the pressing need to have a
political settlement which
enables a government of a new Zimbabwe to be
accepted both by its own people
and the entire international community. And
on both points, we have been
failed by those currently in power.
Unless South Africa and the SADC regional
bloc as a whole takes the lead in
helping Zimbabweans find a solution, the
whole world will be paralysed as in
fact it is paralysed now. There is
obviously a limit to what the UK, the USA
and the EU can do in this regard,
as in a number of ways, these countries
have actually played into the hands
of President Mugabe and the ruling party
by their injudicious statements at
times. And it is in this regard that the
people of Zimbabwe to a very large
extent welcome the two SADC initiatives
as something that is bound to
breathe the much needed new life into the
country's economic and political
conundrum.
What is important now is action on the part of SADC. Action based
on talking
to and listening to all Zimbabweans, not just the government and
the ruling
party. I want to underscore the importance of President Mbeki and
Tomaz
Salamao listening to other Zimbabweans beyond the government and the
ruling
party. President Mugabe has become the region's nemesis and I think
it is
crucial that SADC employs both the carrot and the stick in dealing
with him.
I am absolutely convinced myself that SADC knows what it has to do
to
transform the political and economic fortunes of this country but for
some
reason is unable and unwilling to take the bull by its horns. But for
many
of us here, the new mood in SADC to try to engage all stakeholders is
something that we hope will finally enable the region to see the light and
begin to walk hand-in-hand with the people of Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe is
gravely ill at the moment and a potent cure has to be found. In
terms of
helping Zimbabweans, it is on President Mbeki and SADC, by and
large, that
most eyes are turned to in our hour of need. Every hour, minute
that passes
deepens the sense of gloom and pessimism here despite the
resilience and
determination of Zimbabweans to go on with life and the
feeling that
something better will come.
It would appear that President Mugabe's
government has entered a new phase
of brutality going by what has been
happening here in the last few weeks. It
need not be like that. And there is
no sign either that the government is
bending to pressure from within the
country and outside. For SADC therefore,
not only is it a race against time
but it is also a mountain to climb.
The nation of Zimbabwe waits with bated
breath for results from the current
SADC initiatives in order to rescue us
from a situation which is going from
bad to worse. It is in this context
that SADC must not become a public
relations machine for the government of
Zimbabwe but a vehicle for the
resolution of our crisis. Analysing the
problems that we presently face as
Zimbabweans from the perspective of the
ruling party only can lead us to a
blind alley in the search for
solutions.
Even in the darkest days, there is a silver lining. It is our
fervent hope
therefore that President Mbeki and the SADC executive secretary
Tomaz
Salamao will do the right thing at the right time. In these two
gentlemen,
we place our hopes and trust.
E-mail: borncha@mweb.co.zw
The biggest mistake ever
EDITOR - I was most impressed by
Professor Ken Mufuka's assessment of the
issues affecting our beloved
homeland. I was also impressed by his analysis
of the position and reasons
for the stance of the South African government.
On Cde Oppah Muchinguri's
issues of dress, may I point you to a Karanga
saying that goes: "Chaindira
muzhira chatsunga". Perhaps that explains the
loyalty and patronage of
President Mugabe's loyalists. There is perhaps a
seriousness behind all that
ridiculous praise-singing and howling.
I personally believe the biggest
problem with the opposition and all those
who rightly want change in
Zimbabwe, is that they have grossly
underestimated President Mugabe and how
far he is willing to go to retain
power.
Perhaps, I can explain to you in
the context of my experience. I did my
undergraduate and masters studies in
communist Czechoslovakia. In 1989, when
the Velvet Revolution took place, I
was starting my masters studies. By then
I had been in the country for four
years. In all these years it was evident
that the Communist Party was hated
and despised by the majority of people.
In fact, there were only 560 000
communists in a country of 15 million.
In all my time there till the events
of 1989, the Communists were telling
people that they and only they would
improve the lives of the people. The
truth though was that nobody believed
them. It was clear that something was
going to give. I was a friend of the
son of a big fish in the system - a
director of a manufacturing research
institute, and used to spend weekends
in his country dacha or chalupa with
him and his two sons. Even these
friends had long figured that the
Communists were never going to give up
power. As you know, communism is
history there. Let me push the clock
foward.
I then went back to
Zimbabwe, then came to Manchester to do further studies.
It so happens that
the company I work for has two plants in the former
Czechoslovakia, one in
the present Czech and another on the Hungarian border
in the Slovak
Republic. Because of this, I found myself back there after 15
years. The
Slovak economy is the fastest growing in Europe and unemployment
is two
percent. Here is my point:
In 2006, the last rulers of communist
Czechoslovakia, Milos Jakes and Vasil
Bilak were interviewed on how they see
the situation today as compared to
then. They said something startling. In
2006, both men still believe they
were overthrown by the CIA working with
the Russians. They also believe that
the vast majority of people like them
and would reverse the clock. As I
said, Bratislava and Praha have been
literally transformed from the time I
graduated in 1992. They look like the
Viennna, which used to look like
paradise to us at the time.
When Havel,
Klaus etc took power in 1989, the debate then was what to do
with a party
which had destroyed what had once been one of the most
sophisticated
societies. Because in a democracy it was difficult to justify
banning the
Communist Party, they concluded that it was impossible to reform
and change
these people. So it was decided to make it illegal to preach the
ideals of
communism. They therefore, realised that these guys had been so
power drunk
to embrace democracy as most people see it.
May I take this moment to thank
Professor Mufuka for his thought-provoking
'Letter from America.' column.
Keep up the good work and wishing you good
health. We all pray for a better
Zimbabwe.
Dr Torevaseyi Zvidzo Shumba Chirape
Manchester,
UK
------------
Devious neighbours
EDITOR - I was
saddened by the spectacle of Southern African Development
Community
countries meeting to discuss the problems in Zimbabwe. When the
meeting was
over the sentiments were that the West should leave Zimbabwe to
sort itself
out.
Some of these states bordering Zimbabwe have experienced a crisis
similar to
Zimbabwe's and now that their economies are on the mend, they
would all like
to see Zimbabwe stay in this state of decay. They would want
to see the
country remain isolated as they will get a bigger share of the
aid budget.
Ian Blake
United Kingdom
-------------
Mbeki can
never be our saviour
EDITOR - The letter by your
correspondent, Innocent Kadungure (The Financial
Gazette, April 4) hit the
mark. A lot of people do not understand that as
Zimbabweans, we are a
peaceful people, but this should not suggest that we
can't take drastic
action. We just do not believe in violence, but we
believe in constitutional
means of effecting regime change.
Military violence has been applied in
countries such as the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Somalia and Rwanda.
The consequence is usually
bloodshed and untold suffering, a situation we do
not want to countenance in
Zimbabwe.
Therefore, Kadungure's call for
Thabo Mbeki to help us needs to be accorded
a standing ovation.
Unfortunately, asking Mbeki to condemn our political
leadership is like
drawing teeth. He seems oblivious of its knock-on effect
on his
economy.
Long live democracy, and down with quiet diplomacy.
Dr G
Matope
University of Michigan, USA
-------------
Shooting oneself in
the foot
EDITOR - The statutory instrument introducing the
payment of duty for
so-called luxury goods came as a surprise to many and it
only shows the
insincerity of the ZANU PF government.
On the one hand,
the government tells the country that the western powers
are the enemies of
the state, yet on the other they compromise the
sovereignty of the country
by proclaiming that the currencies of the
so-called enemy countries are now
acceptable to pay for goods in Zimbabwe.
Sending used cars home was one way
in which so many of the diaspora brothers
and sisters were actually helping
those back home, never mind those
Zimbabwe-based car dealers whose life was
largely based on this line of
business.
All things being equal, the most
sensible Zimbabwean will simply stop
importing cars into Zimbabwe, thereby,
starving the fiscus of millions if
not billions of dollars in revenue. If
the government had encouraged this
service, it would have continued getting
a lot of money - much more than it
can ever dream of getting by charging
duty in foreign currency.
From experience, perhaps many people would not mind
paying for the cars in
foreign currency if the system in Zimbabwe was
transparent, the problem is
it's not. One will never know how much duty to
pay until the car is at the
border - everything is down to the discretion of
the assessing officer
(although they say in principle there is a formula in
place).
The system in use in other countries such as Ireland is transparent -
duty
is calculated based on what is known as open market value for the car
in
question. Everything is calculated by a computer, would-be importers can
pre-check the value of duty they will pay prior to importing cars. This
system is transparent, cuts out corruption or calculation of duty at the
discretion of the customs office.
Through your paper, could you bring to
the attention of the powers-that-be
of the systems that are in place in
other countries and hope you will be
able to influence policies in Zimbabwe
for the common good of the country.
Israel G.
Chidavaenzi
Ireland
------------------
Prize is in
sight
EDITOR - The people of Zimbabwe should be commended for
maintaining peace
and prayerfully waiting for God to work things out. In
most countries it
would have been a sorry sight of war.
ZANU PF has
changed so much from the liberation warriors they profess to be.
But we
should have known better when they made us sing "gandanga haridye
derere
mukoma rinogwara". That right should have been a sign that we had
some who
took advantage of the war for their own sake.
Aluta continua Zimbabwe. The
fight for economic empowerment and social
justice is right here. Let's keep
our eyes on the prize. The mighty will
fall.
Zenzo
Trinidad and
Tobago