http://www.thestandard.co.zw
April 14, 2013 in Politics
PRIME
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says he is fed up with coalitions and has
no
plans to include Zanu PF ministers in his government in the event that he
wins the next elections.
BY NQABA MATSHAZI
Tsvangirai’s
spokesman, Luke Tamborinyoka said the prime minister was
certain of victory
and had no plans to form a coalition government as
suggested by a new
Standard Bank research report.
“There is nothing like that, there will
not be any coalition with anyone,”
he said. “We are concentrated on winning
resoundingly and going it alone in
forming the government because we are
tired of a coalition government.”
A recent report by Standard Bank
indicated that Tsvangirai was open to a
coalition in the event that he won
the next elections.
“Based on the latest opinion polls, PM Tsvangirai
suggested the MDC would
presently win around 65% of election votes in a free
and fair election,”
reads the report, dated April 9 and compiled by Stephen
Bailey-Smith.
“Under such a scenario he [Tsvangirai] would be willing to
run a coalition
government giving cabinet places to Zanu PF
politicians.”
In the past it has been reported that Tsvangirai has tried
to reach out to
reformists within Zanu PF and the Standard Bank report may
be confirmation
that there have been such overtures.
Tsvangirai, the
report noted, was against the indigenisation policy and
would “embrace [an]
International Monetary Fund [IMF] funded reform
package, although he was
wary of adopting a
one-structural-adjustment-package-fits-all
approach”.
Presenting possible scenarios to the banking group, Tsvangirai
said an
outright victory for him was the most likely scenario, while they
were other
ghastly scenarios.
However, Tamborinyoka insisted that he
had no idea where this was coming
from, as the MDC-T was assured of certain
victory.
Tsvangirai, according to the report, said the second scenario
was one where
there would be no clear winner and there, instead would be a
coalition,
whose existence will be complicated by the scrapping of the Prime
Minister’s
post under the new constitution.
“His second scenario,
which was less favoured and given less weight, was
that the elections did
not deliver a clear winner, but rather a similar
muddle-through coalition
government,” the report continues.
“Under this scenario, policy direction was
less clear and economic recovery
would be slower and political stability
harder won.
Re-engagement with the international community would take
longer than under
the first and favoured scenario.”
Crisis in
Zimbabwe Coalition has already noted that the next election was
less likely
to be violent, as Zanu PF, which has often been blamed for
instigating
violence, sought legitimacy from Sadc and the African Union, by
ensuring a
credible election.
‘Chances of violence slim during polls’
The
Standard Bank report says Morgan Tsvangirai was optimistic that the next
election would be relatively peaceful and chances of violence were slim, due
to measures implemented by the coalition government.
“There was broad
cross-party and wider popular support for the idea of
moving the country
forward and away from the political paralysis that has
fostered so much
economic hardship in recent years.
“[The] cross-party agreement on
appropriate political process is now laid
out in the constitution, which is
widely accepted by all sides and brings
considerably more structure to
proceedings,” the report reads
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
April 14, 2013 in Politics
ZANU PF
secretary for administration, Didymus Mutasa was last week “roasted
left,
right and centre” by officials who accused him of causing factionalism
and
imposition of candidates.
BY PATRICE MAKOVA
But Mutasa attempted
to hit back at them by announcing that the Manicaland
provincial executive
had been dissolved with an interim one set for
appointment
soon.
However, Zanu PF national chairman, Simon Khaya-Moyo who is leading
a team
probing the dirty factional fights in the province, said no such
action had
been taken.
Moyo and his team were in Manicaland for the
past two days following a
petition written to President Mugabe by officials
who wanted him to rein in
on Mutasa.
Sources said the meeting was a
no-holds-barred one, with the petitioners
fighting vociferously for the
lifting of the suspension of provincial
chairman, Mike Madiro and provincial
youth leader Tawanda Mukodza.
They argued that the party was now stronger
in Manicaland since Madiro took
over the leadership of the
party.
“Our discussions were very frank with accusations and counter
accusations
being made. Mutasa would repeatedly shout ‘lies, lies’ at
accusations that
were being levelled against him,” said an
official.
He said the petitioners were saying Madiro and his deputy
Dorothy Mabika
were being harassed on flimsy and unsubstantiated
allegations.
“They were also saying Mutasa should stop interfering with the
day-to-day
running of district and provincial structures. Mutasa was also
accused of
harbouring vice-presidential ambitions,” said the
official.
But the Zanu PF politician stunned his critics among them Zanu
PF women’s
league boss Oppah Muchinguri and Justice minister Patrick
Chinamasa when he
announced at the end of the two-day meeting that the
provincial executive
would be dissolved.
“When Mutasa was giving a
vote of thanks at the end of the two-day probe, he
simply said his critics
can say whatever they want, but he will remain the
leader of the province,”
he said.
“Mutasa said he will dissolve the provincial executive and
appoint an
interim one.”
Another official said while most people
present were stun-ned by Mutasa’s
declaration, Moyo and national commissar,
Webster Shamu remained quiet.
“But at the end of the day, we realised
that the probe team may have come to
Manicaland with a position already.
Mutasa is at the centre of the probe and
we wondered where he got the power
to announce that the provincial executive
was dissolved,” he said.
A
Mutasa loyalist said there was no way Mugabe would support the ouster of
his
“right hand man and blue-eyed boy” of decades.
“If the plot had succeeded,
what was going to stop the petitioners from
targeting Mugabe himself in the
near future?” he said.
Another Mutasa supporter said while the
petitioners had claimed that the
petition was authored by Zanu PF Manicaland
leadership, it was proved that
not everyone had been consulted about the
plan.
Another official claimed that 10 traditional healers had been hired
to try
to influence the decision against the dissolution of the provincial
executive. The intelligence was accused of meddling in the Zanu PF factional
fights.
Those said to be in support of the petition include
Muchinguri, Chinamasa
and Chimanimani legislator Monica Mutsvangwa. Mutasa
was on the other hand
supported by Politburo member Munacho Mutezo, central
committee members,
Freddy Kanzama, Enock Porusingazi as well as former
provincial chairman
Basil Nyabadza, as well as a vocal group of war
veterans.
Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo said he was yet to be briefed
and Mutasa
was not answering his phone yesterday.Moyo said the probe team
would compile
a report to be presented to the politburo, adding it was up to
the politburo
to decide what action to take when the report was
out.
A storm had been brewing for over a week now after Zanu PF officials
met at
Muchinguri’s house in Mutare where they allegedly drew up the
petition
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
April 14, 2013 in
Politics
MEMBERS of the army and their wives are being bussed and
registered as
voters in Bulawayo and Matabeleland North province, an MDC-T
legislator has
said.
BY MUSA DUBE
Bulawayo East MP Thabitha
Khumalo said on Friday she recently witnessed
soldiers being bussed to
register as voters, raising suspicion that the
forthcoming elections could
be rigged.
She said the soldiers were being registered as voters in
Umguza and at
United Bulawayo Hospital (UBH).
“What I don’t
understand is why they were brought and registered there as
voters. I tried
to get an answer from one of the officials at UBH but
failed,” Khumalo said
while addressing journalists at the Bulawayo Press
Club.
“I happened
to meet one of the wives of the army [personnel] in my
constituency to
understand what was going on. She told me that they were
ordered in no
uncertain terms to go and register as voters.”
She also said the voter
registration process was in shambles and advocated
for people to vote using
their identification cards.
“During the referendum people voted using
their IDs and people should be
given the right to also use them to vote,”
she said.
Khumalo also condemned the arrest of people while carrying out
voter
registration campaigns.
Efforts to get a comment from ZEC
officials were fruitless.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
April 14, 2013 in Politics
HUNDREDS
of soldiers, police officers and other security agents are set to
get
residential stands ahead of elections in a move being viewed as an
attempt
by Zanu PF to buy votes, it has emerged.
BY OUR STAFF
Officials in
the Ministry of Local Government Rural and Urban Development
said they had
been instructed to ensure that housing cooperatives and
organisations
linked to Zanu PF get land to be dolled out to mostly members
of the
uniformed services.
“Ordinary soldiers and other security agents have
been complaining that they
are not benefitting from government programmes
yet their bosses are living
lavishly,” said an official in the ministry. “In
order to pacify them ahead
of elections, hundreds of stands are being
allocated to members of the army,
police, prison and the
intelligence.”
He said Apostolic and other Independent African Initiated
churches were also
benefitting from the same programme. Most leaders of
these churches have
openly shown their allegiance to Zanu PF.
Some of
the organisations which were distributing land to soldiers include
Destiny
of Africa Network (DAnet) led by Zanu PF sympathiser Rev Obadiah
Msindo.
Msindo yesterday said there was nothing wrong with members of
the military
and other security agents getting stands ahead of
elections.
“No one is going to stop us from giving them stands and houses
because they
are underpaid by Tendai Biti (Finance minister) yet the peace
and
tranquillity we are enjoying now is because of them,” he said. “They
cannot
continue to be lodgers in a country they are protecting and
defending.”
Msindo said over 200 soldiers in Mutare and Bindura have
already been given
complete houses, while several others were set to get
residential stands in
various cities and towns.
“We are pushing that
by 2015 over 100 000 stands should have been fully
developed for soldiers
and other security agents,” he said.
The Ministry of Local Government
officials said several other housing
cooperatives specifically for the
uniformed forces have mushroomed in
different parts of the country. The
cooperatives were given priority in
terms of allocation of land. Local
authorities were being also directed to
reserve land.
Local
Government minister, Ignatious Chombo, whose ministry is in charge of
all
state land and controls local authorities, could not be reached for
comment.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
April 14, 2013 in Politics
Four Nkayi
South councillors from the Welshman Ncube-led MDC yesterday
defected to Zanu
PF at a rally organised by Mines and Mining Development
minister Obert
Mpofu.
BY NDUDUZO TSHUMA
The councillors are Thokozani Mpofu (Ward
3), Jabulani Manqonda Ncube (Ward
16), Lewis Moyo (Ward 27) and Collet Dube
(Ward 15).
Speaking at the rally at Mkha-lakathi Primary School in Nkayi, one
of the
defectors Manqonda Mpofu said he had left MDC because of many
unfulfilled
promises.
“We have approached Minister Mpofu because he
has been of great assistance
to Nkayi. The people here are hungry and Mpofu
has assisted the people with
food so we decided to come back to Zanu PF,” he
said.
“For the past 13 years, we have voted for members of parliament
but they
have done nothing for the people,” said Manqonda Mpofu.
Mpofu
said he had been invited to Nkayi by the four councillors who had
informed
him about their defection.
“They came to my office many times, saying
they want to defect to the party
but I told them to organise a meeting first
so that we have people to
witness them coming to the party,” said
Mpofu.
“We want the people of Nkayi to vote into power people who will work
for
them and promote development. Zanu PF is the only party that will carry
the
aspirations of the people”.
Mpofu, who also donated 20 tonnes of
maize, said Zanu PF had selected
President Robert Mugabe as their candidate
for the forthcoming elections, as
he was a principled
leader.
“President Mugabe is the only one who carries the vision of the
veteran
nationalist Joshua Nkomo. Before a revolutionary died, he told
President
Mugabe to make sure that the people are united and that the whites
give back
the land to the people,” said Mpofu.
“President Mugabe has
been denigrated by the western media for his
principles. All these other
parties have been hired by the west to unseat
Zanu PF.”
MDC officials
could not be reached for comment yesterday.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
April 14, 2013 in
Politics
THERE was drama at Mbare magistrates courts on Friday when the
MDC-T
Mbare constituency parliamentary aspirant, Sten Zvorwadza was nearly
manhandled by Zanu PF youth leader Jim Kunaka right in front of the police
and judicial officials.
BY OUR STAFF
Zvorwadza had been
summoned to appear before the court on charges of public
disturbances.
While standing outside engaging in a telephone
conversation, he was
approached by Kunaka and threatened with unspecified
action for “insulting”
Zanu PF, causing some commotion at the
court.
After a brief exchange of words, Zvorwadza and his entourage drove
out of
the court’s premises to file a report at Matapi police station with
Kunaka
in hot pursuit.
Kunaka is suspected to be the leader of the
Mbare shadowy group Chipangano
which is accused of harassing Zanu PF
opponents. He has however repeatedly
denied knowledge of the existence of
the group.
Zvorwadza’s lawyer, Denford Halimani of Wintertons Legal
Practitioners told
The Standard that Kunaka followed them to the police
station where he
caused a fracas with officers.
The officers at the
station referred them back to Mbare Police.
“We then went back to Mbare
police but did not file a complaint with them.
The essence though was to
alert the police of the [threatening] actions and
behaviour of Kunaka
towards Zvorwadza,” said Halimani.
Meanwhile, Halimani said Zvorwadza’s
trial failed to kick off after his
docket was referred back to the police
station.
“The docket was referred back to the police for them to clarify
the charges
and other issues related to whether the owners of the premises
were offended
by Zvorwadza putting up the posters on the day in question,”
said Halimani.
The public prosecutor apparently referred the docket back
to Matapi police
saying that one Plaxedes Jaravaza was not the right person
to be the
complainant, as the owners of the building were the City of
Harare.
Zvorwadza was arrested in January this year at Mbare Matapi
police station
as he sought to file a complaint against the Chipangano
group.
Last week he was hauled before the courts for violating Section
153 (1) of
the Electoral Act.
He was putting up campaign posters in
favour of a “Yes” vote for the
referendum before the youths pounced on him
and also attacked a BBC news
crew.
ZVORWADZA IS JUST A CLOWN —
KUNAKA
Kunaka told The Standard that his action towards Zvorwadza was
spurred by
his “responsibility as a citizen of Zimbabwe to ensure nobody
undermines the
party or President Mugabe’s authority.”
“I don’t have
time to threaten small people like him [Zvorwadza]. To me, he
is just a
clown that I can slap.
“He is the one causing commotion and political
violence in Mbare yet he
doesn’t even stay there,” he said.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
April 14, 2013 in Politics
PRESIDENT
Robert Mugabe is reinventing his image and is portraying himself
as a
peaceful politician, making him more acceptable to regional leaders
were he
to win the next election, says a report launched last week.
BY NQABA
MATSHAZI
Mugabe has in recent months been calling for peace in the next
polls, a far
cry from the leader who once boasted of degrees in
violence.
The report by Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition indicates that Prime
Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai and the inclusive government may have
inadvertently
spruced up Mugabe’s image.
“President Mugabe is no
longer viewed as unacceptable and as demonic as he
was in 2008 following the
violence,” reads the research compiled by Phillan
Zamchiya.
The
report titled “Pre-election detectors: Zanu PF’s attempt to reclaim
political hegemony, says Mugabe’s peace calls have raised questions on
whether he was being genuine, but critically they have had the effect of
rebranding the president.
“I believe this is just a political
strategy to rebrand Mugabe in the wake
of changing times and the new
democratisation in Africa,” reads the report.
Despite unanimity that the
president’s peace calls were quite visible, the
jury is still out on how
genuine these calls are.
However, part of Zanu PF’s plan is to ensure that
the MDC loses influence on
regional leaders by portraying the former
opposition party as a “cry baby”.
“The interrelated political strategy is
to wear thin the MDC-T’s support and
sympathy in the region and to
procrastinate on implementation of key
democratic reforms until they are
overtaken by events on the ground,” the
report continues.
“It is Zanu
PF’s conviction that the MDC-T’s continuous lobby of Sadc on
what they
believe to be petty issues will make the party lose steam.”
Mugabe has
increasingly been rebranding himself and despite his age, he is
trying to
reach out to the youth, which his Zanu PF party believe will be
the swing
vote.
‘MUGABE HAS PROFITED FROM THE GNU’
Zamchiya quotes a “key
regional civil society leader”, who reaffirms that
Mugabe has become more
acceptable than he was half a decade ago.
“That guy [Tsvangirai] has
sanitised Mugabe and he is now acceptable to the
region,” reads the
report.
“The message we get as civil society is that Mugabe and
Tsvangirai are
working together and agreeing on key democratic reforms like
the
constitution.”
Zamchiya said he spoke to Tsvangirai last month
and the premier also
concurred that his party had helped clean Mugabe’s
image in the region.
“We are the ones who have tried to rescue him in the
region,” Tsvangirai is
quoted as saying. “But where do you get detergent
that can make Mugabe
clean?“
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
April 14, 2013 in
Local
BULAWAYO — The Bulawayo City Council (BCC) will fork out US$500 000
to host
a water summit aimed at finding a solution to the perennial water
problems
facing the municipality.
By NQOBANI NDLOVU
South
Africa’s MN Capital and the Ministry of Water Resources and
Infrastructural
Development will partner with the council to host the water
summit scheduled
to coincide with this year’s Zimbabwe International Trade
Fair (ZITF) at the
end of the month.
Bulawayo mayor, Thaba Moyo is quoted in the latest
council minutes saying
sacrificing US$500 000 to co-host the summit was
necessary, as the event
would afford council an opportunity to meet
investors who can help address
water challenges faced by the
city.
“The summit provides an opportunity for the city to interact with
donors and
investors in the water sector,” he said. “We will showcase
projects at the
summit exhibition stand to provide a better understanding
and appreciation
of the water situation in Bulawayo and the possible
interventions.”
This year’s ZITF runs from April 23-27 under the theme
Building Value,
Enhancing Growth.
Bulawayo faces serious water
sho-rtages, with residents subjected to
three-day water rationing regimes
every week.
The BCC has warned it would exte-nd the water rationing days
to ensure that
the little water at the city’s supply dams lasts up to the
rainy season.
Indications were that the city would decommission three of
its supply dams
before July, a situation that would see the city only
relying on Insiza and
Inyankuni dams.
The two dams supply 65 000
cubic metres of water a day against a demand of
about 145 000 cubic
metres.
Experts have said that Bulawayo’s water woes can only be
eliminated through
the implementation of the Matabeleland Zambezi Water
Project, a long-held
plan to tap water from the Zambezi River.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
April 14, 2013 in Community
News
The Japanese Government has availed 460 million Japanese Yen (US$5,7
million) to the World Food Programme (WFP) to feed Zimbabweans facing food
shortages due to drought.
By Our Staff
Farmer organisations
estimated Zimbabwe’s maize deficit of 1,4 million
tonnes following a poor
2012/13 growing season, which was characterised by
low and delayed rainfalls
in most parts of the country.
Zimbabwe’s annual consumption of maize
meal, the main staple food, averages
2,2 million tonnes. However,
organisations such as the Zimbabwe Commerical
Farmers Union, estimate this
year’s maize output at 800 000 tonnes from an
initial projection of 1,2
million tonnes.
This has necessitated massive food imports to avert mass
starvation.
Some embassies and non-governmental organisations therefore
stepped in to
help prevent hunger in the country. Japan’s food aid
programme through the
WFP was launched in the Rushinga District, north east
of Zimbabwe, one of
the areas in the country that faces a food
deficit.
“The food aid launch which took off in Rushinga will allow WFP
to scale up
operations and ensure that vulnerable families in
drought-stricken areas
continue to receive maize and peas in the difficult
months before the
harvest in April,” Japanese Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Yonezo
Fukuda said at an
official handover ceremony attended by WFP country
director, Felix Bamezon.
Apart from intervening through the supply of
grain, the Japanese embassy has
also been supporting irrigation schemes and
safe water projects throughout
the country in order to promote agriculture
and food security.
The projects, in which more than a million dollars
has been injected, will
benefit more than 3000 households in areas such as
Chipinge District in
Manicaland.
Agricultural experts point out that
in order for Zimbabwe to maintain food
security, irrigation and water
harvesting, instead of sole dependence on dry
land cropping, must be stepped
up. They point to climatological changes
which are adversely affecting
Zimbabwe’s rainfall patterns.
Given government’s constraints in providing
agricultural extension services,
the embassy, in conjunction with
organisations such as Africa 2000 and the
Mercy Corps, are providing
training to improve cultivation skills and
resource management. It is hoped
that by helping the rural families improve
their farming methods and having
their agricultural capacity enhanced,
Zimbabwe will in the medium to
long-term be food-secure.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
April 14, 2013 in Community
News
BUSINESS is brisk for some youths in Glen View and Budiriro, who are
into
the digging of wells as the water woes continue to force residents to
seek
alternative sources of the precious liquid.
BY JAIROS
SAUNYAMA
The Harare City Council is battling to provide potable water due
to the
shortage of treatment chemicals and old pipes, forcing many residents
to
scrounge for the liquid from unprotected sources.
Scores of youths
in several high-density suburbs have taken advantage of the
situation and
are now earning a living from digging wells for interested
residents.
A survey by Standardcommunity revealed that makeshift
posters and billboards
of youth advertising their prowess in digging wells
were now a common
phenomenon in most parts of Glen view and Budiriro
suburbs.
The youths are charging up to US$150 to dig a 10m-deep well. In
Chitungwiza
some of the youths were charging up to US$250 for the same
job.
“This is how we are now surviving since the water woes began. We dig
wells
for people,” said Panganai Hondoyachepa who stays in Glen
View.
Another well-digger, Moses Shungu of Budiriro said the youths dug up to
10
wells every month.
Residents from Budiriro and Glen View said they
had no alternative but to
dig their own wells, as council was failing to
provide them with regular
water supplies.
“Our taps have been dry for
a longtime now. Wells are the only solution.
Some people are even selling
well water,” said Getrude Chiriseri from
Budiriro.
She said the
boreholes drilled by Unicef at the height of the cholera crisis
in 2008
always had long queues of people seeking water.
Another resident
Munyaradzi Makuwe from Glen View said because of fear of
diseases, most
residents were now resorting to boiling water from the wells
before drinking
it.
Harare City Council health director Prosper Chonzi said the council
could
not enforce by-laws forbidding the digging of wells as the local
authority
was itself failing to provide residents with clean
water.
“It would look as if the council has turned a blind eye to the
situation,”
he said. “But it is powerless to take action. Well drilling
needs to be
certified by council to ensure that the well is properly sited
and does not
deprive other residents of underground water. Residents who dig
wells and
sink boreholes without council approval are supposed to be
fined.”
Finance committee chairperson Friday Muleya recently said council
had no
money to fix burst water pipes resulting in residents going for days
without
water.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
April 14, 2013 in Community News
BULAWAYO — A
non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Binga is recruiting
Tonga speaking
youths to undertake teacher-training courses to ensure that
students in that
area are taught in their mother tongue.
BY NQOBANI NDLOVU
The NGO,
Basilwizi Trust, says having Tonga teachers in Binga is necessary
for the
preservation of the Tonga language, customs and traditions.
The move will
also ensure that the language is given equal treatment to
other languages
like Ndebele, Shona and English — the country’s current
official
languages.
There has been an outcry from minority language speaking
communities that
their languages have not been recognised since independence
and were playing
second fiddle to English, Ndebele and Shona.
The
minority languages have not been taught and examined at schools since
1980.
It was only last year that the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and
Culture introduced the teaching of Tonga in Binga and pupils sat for their
first ever examination in their mother tongue.
According to Josias
Mungombe, the Basilwizi Trust project coordinator in
charge of education,
the organisation has made an agreement with teacher
training colleges in the
country to reserve a quota for Tonga-speaking
youths when they recruit
trainees.
“We [Basilwizi Trust] have many programmes that we run, but our
emphasis is
on education since it is key to the development of any
community.
“Without education, it is difficult if not impossible for any
community to
achieve any development. The development of any community
starts with
ensuring that the language that they speak is not marginalised
but
recognised as official,” Mungombe told Standardcommunity.
“This
is the reason why we are going deep down in all rural communities of
Binga
searching for youths who have requisite O’ and A’ level
qualifications.
“We want youths here to become teachers and teach the
young ones in their
mother tongue for the development and preservation of
the language, customs
and tradition because if we do not do that, in the
next five years or so,
the language and Tonga people will be
history.”
Bulawayo-based analysts hailed Basilwizi Trust for coordinating
the
recruitment of teacher trainees in Binga, saying it is necessary for the
upliftment of the marginalised community.
“If a language of a
community is not prioritised, what it means is that the
community is not
prioritised in terms of development. That is why Binga is
still
underdeveloped since independence,” said Effie Ncube, the chairman of
the
Matabeleland Constitutional Reform Agenda (Macra).
“Language is by far
the most important tool for development. There is no
person that can develop
outside their language.
“Until such a time when the Tonga language and
our languages are
professionalised and used as a language for communication,
there will be no
development,” said Thabani Nyoni, the executive director of
Bulawayo Agenda
and spokesperson of the Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition.
“The best way to develop a people is to allow them to think
and express
themselves in their language,” he said.
Chief Sikalenge
of Binga weighed in saying he wanted students in Binga to be
taught by only
Tonga-speaking teachers.
Though the Education ministry last year approved
the teaching of Tonga in
Binga, the Zimbabwe Schools Examinations Council
(Zimsec) recently issued a
circular indicating that the language will not be
examined this year.
This led to Basilwizi Trust, the Zimbabwe Indigenous
Languages Promotion
Association (Zilpa) and chiefs from Binga raising their
concerns with
Education minister, David Coltart over the directive. Zimsec
later withdrew
its circular.
What are Zim’s official
languages?
According to the Copac draft constitution, Chewa, Chibarwe,
English,
Kalanga, Koisan, Nambya, Ndau, Ndebele, Shangani, Shona, sign
language,
Sotho, Tonga, Tswana, Venda and Xhosa will be recognised as
official
languages in Zimbabwe.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
April 14, 2013 in Community News
The Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has resumed a campaign aimed at
forcing
Bulawayo-based companies to improve the working conditions of their
employees.
BY SILAS NKALA
The campaign, dubbed
Bhadalani/Bhadharai (pay-up) was launched in 2011 after
the realisation that
several companies were taking months to pay their
workers’
salaries.
In an interview, ZCTU’s Western Region officer Percy Mcijo said
the
placement of a number of companies under liquidation or judiciary
management
due to viability problems had greatly affected the
campaign.
He said a number of the companies were failing to pay their
workers as they
were genuinely affected by the economic crunch.
“Some
of the companies were run down by poor management and this affected
many of
our members who went for months without pay.
“Even now they still have
outstanding arrears,” said Mcijo. “We are resuming
the operation this month,
at the same time mobilising workers for Workers
Day on May 1.”
He
said most of the companies were not being open to their workers about
their
financial status and operating environment.
“They just tell workers that
they are not able to pay them without giving
any reasons. This creates
problems between the two parties,” said Mcijo.
“Workers need to
understand what is going on when they do not get their pay.
This time we
will conduct a wholesome approach engaging workers committees
to find out
progress on the issue of workers payments.”
He said the campaign would
also look at the working conditions.
Mcijo said when the campaign was
suspended last year, the ZCTU had visited
10 companies in Bulawayo which had
not been paying their workers for up to
six months.
“Some of them
then complied with the statutory requirements which required
them to pay
workers, while some including parastatals like the National
Railways of
Zimbabwe are still struggling to clear salary arrears,” he
said.
“Though some of the companies are failing due to mismanagement,
we noticed
that others suffered due to economic challenges faced by the
industry in the
country.
It is possible that there are some that
claim to be experiencing the same
problems but hide behind the economic
problems to cheat workers.”
Mcijo said the ZCTU was aware of companies
that deliberately renege on
paying workers and would soon take action
against them as the campaign
resumes this month.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
April 14, 2013 in Community News
COMMUTERS
in Harare are resisting attempts by omnibus operators to hike
fares on many
of the city’s routes.
BY TAWANDA MARWIZI
The operators took
advantage of the recent fuel hike to double fares
especially during peak
hours.
There was near chaos last week as disgruntled commuters, who felt
cheated,
tried to resist the new fares at a number of ranks in the
city.
At Market Square terminus there was confrontation between commuters
and
operators which nearly degenerated into a fist-fight.
The
commuters were demanding that fares be reduced to
US$0,50 from the US$1 they
were being charged.
“You need soldiers to beat you up again,” shouted one
man who was in the
crowd. “Those who are charging US$1 must just leave this
place.”
Last year, soldiers beat up kombi drivers and touts in central Harare
in
revenge after their colleagues had been beaten by touts.
The
attack forced some rank marshalls to desert their spots for some days in
fear of the soldiers.
For the past two weeks, commuters to areas such
as Chitungwiza were being
charged between US$1,50 and US$2 during peak
hours. The normal fares are
between US$0,50 and US$1 for a single
trip.
Commuters in other suburbs such as Mufakose, Glenview, Waterfalls
and
Budiriro were being forced to fork out between US$1 and US$1,50 compared
to
the normal fare of US$0,50.
Trust Mabota of Waterfalls said it had
become a trend for transport
operators to overcharge commuters whenever fuel
prices go up.
Another commuter, Tinos Magada said: “We have just come
from the holidays
and as we speak, children need money to go for holiday
lessons. We need
rentals. Where can we get the money to pay US$2 to go to
Chitungwiza?”
Some commuters said they were now opting for private
vehicles.
Misheck Dongo from Chitungwiza said private vehicles were more
flexible with
their fares.
Some commuters said they were now forced
to wander around town until late
into the night when fares would be
reduced.
FARE INCREASES UNJUSTIFIED — POLICE
National traffic
police spokesperson, Tigere Chigome said “unjustified” fare
hikes were
causing tension and fights between the public and transport
operators.
“We understand the fuel price hikes, but it does not
explain the
overcharging of people by commuter operators. We will make sure
each and
every vehicle displays its fare table,” said Chigome.
He
said they would encourage traffic officers to control the situation,
which
he said needed the help of the public.
The price of fuel recently rose by
up to 10% after the government last month
increased exercise duty on the
commodity by 25%.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
April 14, 2013 in Community News
SCORES of
disabled people who used to survive on begging have joined the
vending
business in Bulawayo.
Report by Musa Dube
Among these are the
mute, deaf and others with various disabilities.
The illegal vendors sell a
variety of stuff ranging from sweets, airtime,
cellphone accessories and
cigarettes, just to mention but a few.
One of the people with
disabilities, Elliot Ncube of Tshabalala suburb, told
The Standard that he
used to beg in the streets but decided to venture into
the more lucrative
vending business.
“Since 2000 I have been begging in the street, but I
could spend the whole
day without getting a dollar, so last year I decided
to start vending. I
sell airtime cards, cigarettes and sweets,” he
said.
“Selling is better than begging because due to the economic crisis
in the
city, no one can just give anyone anything for nothing,” added
Ncube.
Another vendor, Elizabeth Ngwe-nya said she used to work for a
clothing
company in the Belmont industrial area in Bulawayo but got
retrenched in
2009.
“I did a course in cutting and designing and used
to work for a clothing
company but unfortunately I was
retrenched.
“After losing my job I wanted to start my own small sewing
company at home,
but I did not have the machines and capital and that’s why
I am here on the
streets selling anything for survival,” said the
24-year-old woman.
The Bulawayo City Council and the police appear to be
lenient when it comes
to arresting the disabled vendors selling their wares
on the streets.
“The city fathers have been generous with us, as they
have never arrested us
and we would have loved them to give us proper
vending bays where we can
operate from,” said Ngwenya.
She said
operating on the streets exposed them to various problems such as
contracting diseases.
‘It’s difficult for the disabled to secure
employment’
Bulawayo’s King George VI Centre school head, Perseverance
Hadebe, said most
of their students were facing challenges in securing
employment upon
completing their studies due to economic challenges and the
negative
attitude of some employers.
King George VI is a centre for
the disabled and teaches a wide range of
academics, arts and vocational
skills.
“Our students are struggling to get employment. The very few that
are
getting employment get it through the relationship that we have with the
companies, for example Femina Garments, that usually takes some of our
former students,” said Hadebe.
“Soon after graduating, some of the
students come back and work at the
centre, but we still have a big challenge
of where to take our students for
employment,” she said.
Hadebe said
the situation was being exacerbated by the failure of some of
the students
to proceed to tertiary education that demands mathematics, a
subject that
the students found difficult to pass.
“Even after completing their
studies here, continuing to tertiary education
and going to university is
still a challenge. Our students are struggling
with maths and we would want
a scenario where our students probably could be
allowed to do a different
type of maths like core maths so that they will be
able to pass and can be
enrolled in various colleges and universities or
polytechnics,” said
Hadebe.
The school head challenged companies and relevant stakeholders to
come to
the school and see the excellent work that their students were
doing.
“We call upon employers to partner with us and we also want them
to visit
and see how we operate. This would help them realise that our
students are
capable of excelling in whatever assignments they are given,”
said the
school head.
Bulawayo hit by company
closures
According to the Minister of Industry and Trade, Welshman Ncube,
the total
number of companies that have closed in Bulawayo has reached 100
since the
establishment of the inclusive government.
The clothing and
textile industry suffered the most.
Big clothing and textile companies
such as Archer, Security Mills, Belmor,
to mention but a few, have downsized
production citing viability challenges
while others have completely shut
down resulting in over 25 000 workers
losing jobs.
A number of these
workers were physically handicapped.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
April 14, 2013 in Business
THE Ministry of
Tourism and Hospitality Industry has secured prime land for
a new “Victoria
Falls City” in the resort town.
BY NDAMU SANDU
The resort town and
nearby Livingstone in Zambia are set to co-host the 20th
session of the
United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) general
assembly from
August 24 to 29.
Tourism minister Walter Mzembi said last week that the
Ministry of Local
Government, Rural and Urban Development had already
transferred 1 200
hectares of prime land from the Hwange District Council to
build the new
city.
“We are not going to interfere with the old
Victorian setting, we will leave
it intact. But going backwards towards the
airport, 1 200 ha under the
Hwange District Council has been transferred to
us to create a new city,”
Mzembi said.
He said the prime land would
be used to create a new city in the mould of
the Niagara Park in Canada, a
US$30 billion economy.
“The gap between the current Victoria Falls economy
between Zambia and
Zimbabwe which is no more than US$1,5 billion can go and
escalate up to
US$30 billion if we close the infrastructural
gap.
This is the reason why we want to put up a new city in Victoria
Falls,”
Mzembi said.
The plan to build a new city in Victoria Falls
also bodes well with the
regional spatial plans recently approved by the
UNWTO.
UNWTO said instead of developing tourism globally, Zimbabwe should
have
regional spatial plans revolving around certain areas.
“We are
hoping that by the time we go for the general assembly we are able
to launch
three regional spatial plans: the Kariba one devolving around the
Kariba Dam
itself and its environs, the Masvingo one whose focal point would
be the
ancient city of Great Zimbabwe and Lake Mutirikwi and the Victoria
Falls
one,” Mzembi said.
Meanwhile, President Robert Mugabe is expected to
launch the Tourism
Policy next month with a roadmap on how the industry
operates.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
April 14, 2013 in
Business
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has certified Metbank
compliant with the
US$25 million minimum equity capital thresholds, while
other
undercapitalised banks are working round the clock to recapitalise, as
another deadline looms in June.
BY OUR STAFF
Banks are
supposed to have minimum equity capital of US$50 million by June
30
following new regulatory requirements.
In his Monetary Policy Statement
in January, RBZ governor, Gideon Gono said
five banking institutions —
Agribank, FBC Building Society, ZB Building
Society, Metbank and Trust —had
made significant progress towards
compliance, in terms of the credibility of
their capitalisation plans.
Sources told Standardbusiness on Friday that
RBZ recently wrote to Metbank
confirming that the bank a complied with the
minimum capital requirements of
US$25 million for commercial banks as at
December 31 last year.
Industry sources said last week that Trust is
awaiting approval from the
Zimbabwe Stock Exchange on the application that
would allow a key
shareholder to inject US$9 million.
The application
had been held back by the audit and valuations of the bank.
If the approval
is granted, the bank needs 21 days’ notice to call for an
extraordinary
general meeting of shareholders. Once the recapitalisation is
approved at
the meeting the injection would be effected.
The move would come as a
relief to Trust’s clients who have been failing to
access their
monies.
Standardbusiness was also told that Trust signed four
non-disclosure
agreements with four banking institutions paving the way for
a merger with
one of the banks.
FBC Holdings recently announced that
it would merge its commercial banking
and building society units.
ZB
Financial Holdings was reported in our sister paper, NewsDay, to be
courting
some Indian investors.
ZB and FBC have a common shareholder, the National
Social Security Authority
(NSSA). The two institutions were supposed to
merge but the plan collapsed
after both institutions said they had credible
capitalisation plans.
Capital Bank is understood to be carrying out a
phased recapitalisation
approach to raise US$20 million from existing
shareholders.
To date US$5 million has been raised and an additional US$6
million would
come in the next two weeks, according to people familiar with
the
developments.
The bank has plans to convert its licence into a
micro-finance bank that
would enable it to lend to workers. Its major
shareholder, NSSA, addresses
the concerns of the employees.
“The plan
going forward is that we will convert some of NSSA’s offices
countrywide
into banking halls to be able to serve clients, but no to
mergers,” a source
said.
In January, Gono said Capital Bank and Allied Bank (formerly ZABG)
had
recapitalisation plans in need of further improvement to render them
credible.
Gono said that the recapitalisation plans were considered
credible and are
expected to come to fruition after the December 31 2012
deadline.
Banking executives said they would not comment on
recapitalisation plans
citing an RBZ directive that forbids them from doing
so “without seeking
prior Reserve Bank approval”. In January Gono warned
that “any such
unsanctioned declarations will attract appropriate regulatory
action”.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
April 14, 2013 in Business
AIR
Zimbabwe has asked some of its employees to go on forced leave as part
of
the restructuring exercise at the airline.
BY OUR STAFF
Those who
have been asked to go on leave include five senior managers —
general
manager of the passenger company Moses Mapanda, finance manager
Nick Mujeri,
director of technical and operations Cephas Tarenyika, strategy
manager
Norbert Machingauta and procurement head Bothwell Gavhumende.
The
restructuring exercise, which will result in some retrenchments,
represents
a major step towards re-aligning the airline’s staffing levels to
current
operations.
In an interview last week, Air Zimbabwe board chairman Ozias
Bvute said the
current staffing levels of 925 were inconsistent with the
operations of the
airline.
The same staffing levels were in place
when the airline was at its peak over
a decade ago.
“It does not make
sense for all the 935 employees to come to work and
service two planes. We
have asked people to go on temporary forced leave and
remain with a skeletal
staff to rebuild capacity,” Bvute said.
“As and when more frequencies and
destinations are added staff will be asked
to return to work in a phased
manner; this is not a retrenchment exercise.”
The airline is flying three
routes — Harare-Bulawayo, Harare-Victoria Falls
and
Harare-Johannesburg.
Bvute said the board would also embark on the
completion of the audit of the
airline’s books.
Air Zimbabwe’s books
were last audited in 2009, an audit which was not
completed.
“The
board has embarked on a completion of the 2009 audit and subsequent
years,”
Bvute said.
He said a forensic audit would be carried out to establish
how the business
was being run.
“Inclusive to that is the completion
of a forensic audit, which is not
related to why people were put on leave
but to merely understand how the
business was running and close all
loopholes,” Bvute said.
The Bvute-led board was appointed last month to
revive the airline.
Other members of the board are deputy chairperson
Gabriel Mugabe, insurance
expert Nathan Chikono, banker Laura Gwatiringa,
experienced captain Alex
Makanda and deputy registrar general, Locadia
Majonga.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
April 14, 2013 in Business
PLAYERS in
the pharmaceutical industry are bemoaning the unfair competition
in the
industry amid revelations that they were forced to pay tax on
imported
pharmaceutical raw materials, while some finished products are
imported
duty-free.
BY MUSA DUBE
Datlabs chief executive officer Todd Moyo
told Standardbusiness last week
that local manufacturers were being required
to pay Value Added Tax (VAT) on
raw materials while finished products were
being imported duty-free, a
situation that made their products
uncompetitive.
“As the pharmaceutical players, we are facing challenges
of having to
compete with foreign products from countries such as India,” he
said.
“One can bring in finished product into the country duty-free but
when you
bring in raw materials to manufacture that product you have to pay
the duty.
This is an anomaly which has not been addressed for a
longtime.”
Moyo called on the government to introduce policies that
ensure that the
local industry was protected.
He said there was also
need to ensure that the playing field was level so
that the local products
could compete with imported products.
There are nine licensed
pharmaceutical companies in Zimbabwe, among them
Datlabs, Varichem and
Medtech.
Most of them are reportedly operating below capacity, due to
unfavourable
working environment and liquidity challenges.
Datlabs
marketing director Clever Mugadza said although there have been
cases of
counterfeits on the market the Medicines Control Authority of
Zimbabwe
(MCAZ) has been alert, shutting out fake products.
“The MCAZ has put a
robust system that tries to keep out counterfeits
pharmaceutical products in
the country. There have been a few cases
reported, but we have been very
quick to detect them and take them out of
the market,” Mugadza
said.
Datlabs is a leading Zimbabwean pharmaceutical and personal care
company
which produces a variety of products such as cafemol, panado,
lanolene milk
and solphyllex.
Recently the company produced a new
camphor cream brand called CamphaCare
that is already on the market and
efforts are under way to export it to
South Africa, Ghana and Kenya.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
April 14, 2013 in Opinion
The Robert
F Kennedy Centre recognises the significant advances made towards
the
protection of human rights in Zimbabwe’s new constitution.
Sunday Opinion
by RFK Center
A progressive Bill of Rights that accurately reflects
international
consensus on the importance of both protecting and promoting
human rights —
from political to socio-economic and the right to development
— is
particularly encouraging and most welcome.
The centre looks
forward to the timely implementation of the rights
guaranteed in this
important document.
The main purpose behind the Global Political
Agreement (GPA) was to both
induce and establish necessary reforms in
Zimbabwe, thereby avoiding a
repeat of the bloodshed witnessed in 2008-9 and
lay the foundation for
credible elections.
Though the agreement was
signed over four years ago, the necessary reforms
that were expected to
address a host of pressing institutional and human
rights issues have either
not been introduced or are not being implemented.
President Robert Mugabe
continues to command an unchecked monopoly on the
military and security
forces.
In addition, amendments to repressive laws — including the Access
to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Aippa); the Public Order and
Security Act (Posa); the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act; and the
Private Voluntary Organisation Act (PVO), which places onerous registration
requirements on NGOs — have stalled, with little chance of reform before
elections.
The work of civil society in Zimbabwe is critical for the
upcoming
elections. Civil society allows coordination of public interests
and
concerns and also helps to maintain the free flow of information and
association.
These elements of society are essential building blocks
for political
freedom and integral to foster a sustainable
democracy.
The pattern of intimidation, violence, and detention against
ordinary
employees of civil society organisations and human rights leaders
is a
serious obstacle that undermines the current electoral
process.
Since August 2012 upwards, 20 civil society organisations have
been targeted
by the police. Together with Zanu PF, the ZRP has threatened
to deregister
organisations that “deviate from their mandate”.
The
clampdown on civic organisations that are engaged in voter registration
and
mobilisation campaigns is particularly worrisome.
Organisations such as
ZimRights and youth groups like NYDT have been
continuously raided, their
meetings disrupted, and their leaders arrested on
spurious grounds, often on
the pretext of “fabricating voter registration
documents” and for conducting
“activities that threaten national security”.
The arbitrary arrest and
unlawful detention of renowned lawyer Beatrice
Mtetwa on March 16 is an
example of the deteriorating rule of law in
Zimbabwe. Mtetwa was charged
with obstruction of justice after demanding a
search warrant at a client’s
home.
Mtetwa would ultimately spend eight days in a cramped cell, despite
a High
Court ruling that ordered her release. Mtetwa was ultimately granted
bail on
March 25.
The violations of the rights to freedom of
expression and access to
information are an ongoing and grave concern in
Zimbabwe. Last month, the
ZRP “banned” shortwave radios, prompting raids on
private homes and
community radio stations like Radio Dialogue, which are
working to raise
levels of civic and political awareness in the lead up to
elections.
Radio Dialogue was accused of “smuggling illegal goods” and
for allegedly
using radios to incite violence and disseminate
propaganda.
Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) was also raided by armed police,
who
confiscated a number of solar-powered, handheld radios and other office
equipment, stating that ZPP was engaging in “espionage” and “activities that
threatened national security”.
The systematic repression of civil
society is in violation of international
human rights obligations under the
African Charter on Human and People’s
Rights and the International Covenant
for Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR).
The pattern of suppression,
including the criminalisation of human rights
defenders, represents clear
violations of the rights to freedoms of
expression, assembly, and
association, and imperils the rights of all
Zimbabweans to participate
freely in the government of their country.
The authorities in Zimbabwe
should not forget their commitments under the
Sadc Principles and Guidelines
Governing Democratic Elections, specifically
Article 4, which stipulates
that “human rights, democracy, and the rule of
law are principles guiding
the acts of its members.”
The African Commission on Human and People’s
Rights recently called upon
all states parties to “respect their
obligations under the African Charter,
in addition to other regional and
international human rights conventions,
and take all necessary measures to
preserve and protect the credibility of
the electoral process.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
April 14, 2013 in
Opinion
While the “Yes” vote prevailed in the March 16 2013 referendum,
it remains
to be seen whether this will mark a new dispensation in
Zimbabwe’s political
discourse considering that the country has no history
of problems of
constitutions, but of constitutionalism, that is abiding by
what we have
written down.
Sunday View with Fanuel Mabhugu
If
the Lancaster House and its 19 amendments was enforced as per its letter
and
spirit, there would not be a crisis of governance in Zimbabwe, as is the
case at the moment.
Even the inclusive government could have been a
success story if the whole
Global Political Agreement (amendment 19) had
been respected by all the
three political parties in the Government of
National Unity.
I am one of those who do not think that there is any
fundamental and
substantial difference between the Lancaster House
Constitution and the
copac draft constitution, which was endorsed by most
Zimbabweans on March
16.
Both are transitional documents with many
compromises and entrenchments to
protect the ruling elite, which are not
people-driven.
Whereas the Lancaster House had 19 amendments in 33 years,
I can predict
that the copac-led constitution will have an equal number in
less than five
years given that neither Zanu PF nor the two MDC formations
is completely
comfortable with it.
The copac draft constitution,
which sceptics have labelled an elite pact,
will not achieve the feat made
by the US constitution which has had only 22
amendments in more than 200
years because there is a serious dearth of
constitutionalism in
Zimbabwe.
Given the foregoing, whichever political party that emerges the
winner is
going to stream-roll constitutional changes to the copac draft
constitution
at a faster rate than what happened to the Lancaster House
Constitution
under Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF rule.
My respectful
submission is that since history is going to repeat itself
like this, the
copac draft constitution is not going to lead to a more open
and responsive
democracy as other people would want us to believe, but will
be manipulated
by the next ruling party to entrench an even more powerful
dictatorship.
It can, therefore, be argued that constitutional
development in Zimbabwe
will not take us anywhere unless it is accompanied
by a change of mindset,
where constitutionalism is elevated more than
constitutions.
As long as Zimbabwe remains an authoritarian and
totalitarian state,
elaborate constitutions will not be the panacea to its
governance crisis.
Nothing will change when the ruling elite continue to
act outside them or
suspend or amend them at will with impunity, in the
manner Zanu PF has
behaved since independence.
What Zimbabwe needs is
an appreciation that since written constitutions are
historically associated
with political liberalism and the age of
enlightenment, they should be
enforceable to all and sundry.
It is also my considered view that in the
absence of a political will to
embrace the doctrine of separation of powers
among the three arms of state
by the ruling elite, nothing is going to
change, no matter how elaborate any
constitution can be.
While the
constitutional development in Zimbabwe shows that there has always
been an
attempt to fix the limits and relations of the legislative,
judicial, and
executive powers of the state, there has been a glaring abuse
of the other
two arms of the state by the executive as the on-going tussle
about the
election date shows.
It remains to be seen whether this is going to
change when the Copac draft
constitution is assented to as the new governing
charter of Zimbabwe before
the harmonised elections are held.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
April 14, 2013 in Editorial
Zimbabweans
celebrate 33 years of Independence from colonial rule on
Thursday.
The Standard Editorial
People from all walks of life
will converge at various centres around the
country for the commemorations
to be held under the theme: Zimbabwe @33 —
Peace, Prosperity and Economic
Empowerment for National Development.
Ironically, such a grandiose theme
is at odds with what is prevailing in the
country.
In 1980, then
Prime Minister Robert Muga-be preached unity and forgiveness
urging the new
nation to “turn swords into ploughshares”.
Thirty-three years later,
those ploughshares have been literally turned into
weapons again as
government cracks down on dissenting voices ahead of the
watershed
harmonised elections later this year.
The peace that Zimbabweans
anticipated when they gained independence has
remained a mirage as the human
rights situation continues to deteriorate.
Those who replaced yesteryear
colonisers have not hesitated to use the same
oppressor’s methods to remain
in power and to plunder the nation’s wealth.
The country’s natural
resources, particularly diamonds, have been pillaged
by the elite despite
Treasury insisting that revenue from diamonds should go
to the consolidated
revenue fund.
More worrying for Zimbabweans is the cancer called
corruption that has taken
root in the new political arrangement. While Zanu
PF and the MDC formations
that constitute the inclusive government have
different ideologies, they
have found a common denominator in
looting.
Young ministers who only a few years ago did not have anything
to their
name, now own mansions in leafy suburbs and drive top-of-the-range
vehicles,
thanks to their four years in government.
While the
pillaging has been allowed to go on, the health and education
sectors, which
had been revamped in the 80s, have collapsed.
Water and electricity are
hard to get, and mismanagement has become the
buzzword. On the economic
front, populist policies have driven away
investors and companies have
either retrenched staff or closed shop leaving
the unemployment rate
hovering around 90%.
For the majority of unemployed Zimbabweans, the
fruits of independence
remain elusive.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
April 14, 2013 in Editorial
Kenya’s
development plan, the Vision 2030 blueprint, envisages a society
free from
danger (i.e protection from direct or physical violence) and fear
(sense of
safety and overall well-being).
Sunday Discourse with Khisa M
Khaleb
Vision 2030 also recognises safety and security as a key
determinant in the
direction and pattern of human settlement and investment.
As such, security
remains significant to national stability, growth and
development.
The Constitution 2010 reconstructs security architecture to
meet these
aspirations.
Indeed, it provides that national security is
a right just like other
fundamental rights and freedoms found in the Bill of
Rights.
Accordingly, the Vision 2030 and the constitution provides the
basis for the
security sector reforms, even if the reforms in the sector
have been long
overdue earlier than the time the two documents came in to
shape the
security policy agenda among others.
Security institutions
are still undergoing restructuring in order to meet
the constitutional
requirements.
This has necessitated the formation of new institutions in
a bid to bring
about a new face in the security service system. For
instance, National
Police Service Commission was established and charged
with the
responsibility of managing, regulating and supervising the policing
services
in Kenya.
The extreme excesses of the police in their line
of duty further
necessitated the provision of oversight mechanisms, through
the Independent
Policing Oversight Authority.
To enhance clarity in
command, the command structure of the police was also
restructured to put
all the police units under one commander, an inspector
general, with his
deputies being in charge of administrative police and
Kenya police
units.
In the same line, the National Police Service Commission has done
comparative evaluation of existing approaches to devolution of
security.
In this context, the policing system has also been devolved
providing for a
county commander of police with the deputies for
administrative police and
Kenya police units.
Provision of community
policing as the component of police governance was a
move particularly
targeted at establishing a platform for the public and/or
ordinary citizenry
to engage in the national securitisation.
That the disciplined forces
have to deal with ever-increasing expectations
on their provisions of
security services is no more than urgent. Indeed,
there are increased small
arms proliferations across the country
necessitated by the porosity of
Kenya’s borders of Somalia, Ethiopia, South
Sudan and Uganda.
The
crime in the country has increased at an enormous rate, even as money
laundering and illicit drugs trade remain on the rise. The criminal gangs
are increasingly taking up the roles of the security agencies in supply and
management of security services.
Marginalised areas continue being
the targets for brooding of these criminal
gangs, as the citizenry
continuously get exposed to substantive threats to
their safety and
security.
State informalisation in the context of security remains at the
worst
levels, than any other sectors of the economy.
With the
constitutional reforms in place, it is also anticipated that there
shall be
strong oversight from parliament on the security governance system.
This
however, is intertwined with the challenge of the lack of capacity by
the
parliamentarians to provide effective oversight due to the secrecy
around
security issues in the country.
This coupled with a disinterested, if not
inactive citizenry to demand the
adherence to the constitutional provisions
of security creates a likelihood
of the old approach to security falling
back to place.
There are legal and institutional inconsistencies,
especially as regards
security institutional relations. This has created
acrimony and fighting
over the mandate as it is reminiscent in the relations
between the office of
the Inspector General of Police and the National
Police Service Commission
on redeployment, officers, discipline as well as
recruitment processes,
which roles are claimed by the NPSC as well as the
IG.
This has created confusion in the internal security governance,
eliciting
calls for the amendments geared towards creating clarity in the
system.
Threats to national security continue abounding as the economy
becomes more
complex with the focus on realising the vision 2030. As such,
the
possibilities of regrouping by the Al-shabaab and their sympathisers
remain
a real problem.
This couples with the co-existence with weak
states such as Uganda, South
Sudan and Somali, countries which brood
resistance remnants out to recruit
from among Kenyan Youth for their
anti-state agenda. The ever-increasing
youth underemployment provides a
strong haven for the youth transition to
criminals who threaten the peace
and stability of the nation.
Emergence of irredentist groups like Mombasa
Republican council
especially in the context of devol-ved governance creates
a possibility of
counties demanding separation from the main country
Kenya.
Discovery of oil and coal among other previous natural resources
will pose
new developing challenges to security in the future, than it is
today.
The small arms and light weapon proliferation is one of the
biggest security
challenges currently facing Kenya. The trafficking and wide
availability of
these weapons fuel instability, conflict and pose a threat,
not only to
security, but also to sustainable development.
The
widespread proliferation of small arms contributes to alarming levels of
armed crime, in both rural and urban areas, which exacerbates armed cattle
rustling and conflicts in pastoralist areas.
Lastly, looking at the
centrality of the civil society in the governance
process, it is anticipated
that the civil society is supposed to provide
necessary checks in the
security policy formulation and implementation
processes.
Yet, little
interest by the mainstream civil society to work on security
governance or
having a compromised civil society as far as putting the
security system in
check is concerned poses a challenge to the effort of
democratising security
in Kenya. This seals the opportunity for proactive
public engagement in the
security governance as anticipated by the
constitution.
