Mugabe's Fuel Hike Piles on the Misery
for Ordinary Zimbabweans
Last night, Mugabe's Minister for Energy, Amos Midzi, announced
that the retail price of petrol would go up 209.9% to Z$ 450.
This is an astronomical rise, and comes just two months after a
previous hike of 95%. Given the parlous state of the economy and the spiralling
rate of inflation, Zimbabweans are likely to suffer similar price increases in
the not too distant future.
This increase also means that the price of every conceivable
commodity in Zimbabwe will sky rocket as all producers who manufacture such
essential goods as food and clothing also use fuel. Their overhead costs will
also increase due to higher transport costs.
In real terms this increase means that for those vehicles which
have 60litre tanks the cost of fuel rises from $8520 to $27 000. This is way
above the net salary of a majority of ordinary Zimbabweans. Members of
parliament earn an average net salary of $60 000. This astronomical increase
means that MPs can only afford two tanks of fuel each month and nothing else. No
food, no clothing and no rentals. It means that a trip to Bulawayo by car will
now cost well over $60 000.
Those who travel by bus are likely to pay $15 000 one-way, well
beyond the net salaries of ordinary Zimbabweans.
This increase is criminal when we consider the salary and
incomes levels of the majority of the people of Zimbabwe. It proves beyond
reasonable doubt that the Mugabe regime does not care about the plight of the
people.
"Zanu PF lacks both the political will as well as the policy
solutions to tackle the fuel crisis. In fact this unprecedented rise in
the price of petrol is symptomatic of a dying and desperate regime. Their
policy failures are now ubiquitous. Yet again Mugabe and Zanu PF have reneged on
their promises to the people of Zimbabwe. Before February 2003 the regime
claimed that the price of fuel would be kept at affordable levels.
Everyone knew that the continued flagrant mismanagement of the economy would
preclude the regime from keeping this promise.
The harsh reality of politically induced economic failure is
becoming more and more pervasive. The latest fuel hike will mean thousands more
Zimbabweans will be forced to go without food and travel by foot, adding another
level of sufferance to their daily grind.
Only a restoration of democracy can arrest Zimbabwe's
economic decline. The longer Mugabe and Zanu PF are at the helm in Zimbabwe the
more prolonged the suffering of our beleaguered people.
Despite the inevitable hardships that will be caused by the
fuel hike, Zimbabweans can take comfort from the fact that change is coming. The
desire of Zimbabweans to bring an end to a daily life of misery is an
unstoppable process. The successful stay away of 18/19 March demonstrated that
Zimbabweans have had enough. The fuel hike will simply serve to accelerate the
collapse of the Mugabe regime."
All Zimbabweans need to know that it is time to unite and
reclaim their sovereignty. Collective lawful democratic mass action will be
called soon, everyone needs to play their part to win back the independence of
our country and secure the future for our children," said MDC
Secretary General, Professor Welshman Ncube.
Notes to
Editors:
- Zimbabwe has been in the grip of an escalating fuel crisis
for the past two years
- In December 2002 Mugabe promised a Zanu PF congress in
Chinhoyi that he would seriously address the fuel crisis
- In September 2002, the state-controlled 'Herald'
announced a US$360 million oil deal with Libya. The announcement was
to prove to be premature as the deal collapsed due to the inability of
the Mugabe regime to honour existing debts.
JAG OPEN LETTER
FORUM
Email:
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Letter
1: From WF-AFRICA Digest
On Zimbabwe, a continuing thorn in the side of
U.S. policymakers, the
official said its neighbours are finally beginning to
realize "this is not
going well," and they are beginning to look at "the
downside of giving aid
and protection" to Mugabe's tyrannical regime.
With the opposition MDC
movement "under incredible pressure...one-third of
its members of
Parliament have been beaten and tortured," he said, the goal
of the U.S.
Government continues to be to push strongly for "supervised free
and
fair
elections."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
2: From a Professor at the University of Zimbabwe
Justice should be
done. Surely God is for
all.
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Fuel Hike Will Lead to Further Economic
Decline
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
April
16, 2003
Posted to the web April 16, 2003
Johannesburg
The
latest fuel price hikes in Zimbabwe will badly affect consumers and
companies
already struggling to keep their heads above water, warned local
economist
John Robertson.
Robertson told IRIN that the fuel price increase had come
at a time when
inflation had climbed to 228 percent and the country was
experiencing power
cuts.
Zimbabwe is suffering a serious foreign
currency shortage, which has in turn
translated into serious fuel and
electricity shortages. These have combined
to raise inflation and production
costs.
The official The Herald newspaper reported that the pump price of
petrol
"went up to Zim $450 [about US 55 cents at the de facto rate of
exchange]
per litre and diesel rose to Zim $200 [US 24 cents] per litre with
effect
from midnight" on Tuesday.
It quoted the minister of energy and
power development, Amos Midzi, as
saying that "it will take a while for the
impact of the increases to be
felt. But with these prices, I expect that with
good management and
efficiency, Noczim [the state petroleum supplier] should
be able to improve
the supply situation of fuel".
According to The
Herald, Midzi said inflationary pressures had pushed up
fuel pipeline costs,
such as transportation and storage, resulting in Noczim
selling fuel products
at below procurement costs.
However, Robertson said the impact of the
fuel price hikes, when fuel was
already in very short supply, would have a
disastrous impact on the economy
and the lives of ordinary
Zimbabweans.
"Everybody will be affected. We will be in a very serious
predicament in
terms of moving production goods, getting food delivered and
moving coal,
timber and heavy commodities to the factories. So, we will have
a very
serious shrinkage in the volume of business being
done.
"Coupled with this is the fact that we're now experiencing power
cuts
because South Africa's [power parastatal] Eskom is getting very
serious
about being paid, we owe them so much money [and lack the foreign
currency
to pay the debt]," Robertson said.
He added that because of
the energy crisis in Zimbabwe "we expect to see
worsening shortages of
consumer goods in the shops and shortages of export
goods". This would
further aggravate the foreign currency shortage in the
country.
The
economic problems could not be fixed without solving the political
problems
besetting the country, Robertson noted.
The opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) said the latest fuel
price increase was a 209.9
percent rise "just two months after a previous
hike of 95
percent".
"In real terms this increase means that for those vehicles
which have 60
litre tanks the cost of fuel rises from Zim $8,520 to Zim
$27,000. This is
way above the net salary of a majority of ordinary
Zimbabweans. Members of
parliament earn an average net salary of Zim
$60,000," the MDC said in a
statement.
"This astronomical increase
means that MPs can only afford two tanks of fuel
each month and nothing else.
No food, no clothing and no rentals. It means
that a trip to [the second
city] Bulawayo by car will now cost well over Zim
$60,000," the MDC
added.
The party added that those who travel by bus were likely to pay
Zim $15,000
(about US $280) one-way, "well beyond the net salaries of
ordinary
Zimbabweans".
Zimbabwe
maize harvest could be 'nearly
enough'
April 16,
2003
By
Sapa-AFP
Harare - Zimbabwe, rated as the
worst off among six southern African
countries affected by famine since last
year, could produce nearly enough of
the staple grain maize to feed all its
11.6 million people, a regional food
security agency has
said.
According to preliminary estimated
harvest figures contained in a
monthly food security report by the Famine
Early Warning Systems Network
(FEWSNET), the current season's maize, or corn,
production should be 1.289
million
tons.
"This represents about 90 percent of
five-year average production and
close to a 160-percent increase over the
2001/02 seasons's harvest," said
FEWSNET in its latest monthly food security
update report.
FEWSNET had predicted
earlier that this year that maize production
could fall as much as 77 percent
below the recent five-year average.
The UN
said a food security assessment survey is under way in Zimbabwe
and a full
report will be made available next month and "form the basis of
any future
appeals to donors".
The World Food
Programme said if the FEWSNET figures were accurate it
will mean that most
areas will have enough food to last them for up to nine
months, but there
would still be patches of famine.
"There
might not be a significant role for aid this year," said WFP
spokesman Luis
Clemens .
Until this month, maize supplies
have been erratic and inadequate and,
where the staple grain has been
available, it has been expensive, leaving at
least two-thirds of the
population of nearly 12 million in a situation of
food
insecurity.
The famine that has stalked
six countries in southern Africa has been
caused primarily by severe drought,
but Zimbabwe's case was worsened by
President Robert Mugabe's chaotic and
sometimes violent land reform
programme launched in early
2000.
Under the reforms, land was taken
from white farmers and redistributed
to landless
blacks.
But Mugabe himself admitted that
all was not well with the exercise at
his ruling Zimbabwe African National
Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party
annual conference in
December.
He said that some of the new
black farmers to whom formerly
white-owned land had been allocated are still
to take up the land and that
there were claims and counterclaims for other
pieces of land.
The resultant reduction of
hectarage under maize was, experts have
said, bound to affect the harvest
even if sufficient rain falls. - Sapa-AFP
IOL
Go to hell, Mugabe tells
Bush
April 16 2003 at
09:44AM
By Basildon Peta
President
Robert Mugabe's ruling party has told the United States to "go to
hell" over
its statement that Mugabe should step down and hand over power to
a
transitional government pending new elections.
Zanu-PF said it was the US
that should have a transitional government and
new elections because George
Bush "was not elected".
"Instead of shouting instructions for Mugabe to
step down, it's the
Americans themselves who need a transitional government
to hold fresh
elections and replace the unelected Bush," said Zanu-PF
information
secretary Nathan Shamuyarira.
"If the Americans don't want
to accept our legitimacy, it is their own
problem. They can go to hell. There
will be no new elections here."
'He
(Mugabe) stole the last one; we can't let that happen again'
Reports from
Washington quoted the State Department as urging Zimbabwe's
neighbours to
step up pressure on Mugabe to hand over power to a
transitional government,
paving the way for new elections.
"What we're telling them is there has
to be a transitional government in
Zimbabwe that leads to a free and fair,
internationally supervised
election," a senior official was quoted as
saying.
"That is the goal. He (Mugabe) stole the last one; we can't let
that happen
again," said the unnamed official. "It has to be internationally
supervised,
open, transparent, with an electoral commission that
works."
He would not say whether Washington had received positive
reactions to its
call, but said generally southern African neighbours were
increasingly aware
of the problems posed by Mugabe's rule.
"The
neighbourhood - meaning southern Africa - is realising that this is not
going
well, this is breaking bad," said the official. "The food situation is
going
to get nothing but worse, the economic scene is disastrous."
The official
noted that Zimbabwe's economy was crippled by hyperinflation
and an
unemployment rate of 80 percent and Zimbabweans were fleeing in
droves to
become refugees in Botswana, Mozambique and South Africa.
In addition,
the situation was hurting the economies of other countries in
the region, as
potential investors steered clear.
"The neighbourhood is starting to
realise that there is a downside to giving
aid and protection to Comrade
Bob," said the official.
"There is stuff happening, there is stuff
happening behind the scenes," the
official added, declining to
elaborate.
But Shamuyarira said America's urging of Mugabe to quit was
unacceptable.
The next parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe would be in 2005,
followed by a
presidential election in 2008.
Any notion of bringing
forward these dates would not see the light of day.
Shamuyarira said the
only way to resolve the crisis was for the US and
European Union to accept
the results of last year's
presidential election and "work with President
Mugabe's elected government".
The elections had been recognised as free
and fair by African and Southern
African Development Community
observers.
"The only group that flatly refused to acknowledge the
election was the
European Union. We refused to be bound by the EU's racist
position.
Shamuyarira said: "If the Americans want to follow the EU, then
it's their
problem."
The US Assistant Secretary for African affairs,
Walter Kansteiner, is
visiting Botswana and South Africa later this month,
partly to discuss the
situation in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe has
failed to respond to appeals for reform from the
Commonwealth and its
situation has worsened since suspension, says an
internal report by
secretary-general Don McKinnon, leaked in London.
This
article was originally published on page 1 of The Cape Argus on
16 April
2003
VOA
Massive Gas Price Hike in Zimbabwe Sparks Calls for
General Strike
Peta Thornycroft
Harare
16 Apr 2003, 15:54
UTC
In Zimbabwe, a massive hike in the price of gasoline Wednesday has
brought
calls from the political opposition for an immediate and indefinite
general
strike.
Energy minister Amos Midzi announced a 209 percent
increase in the price of
petrol late Tuesday. It is the second increase in
fuel prices since
February, when the government doubled the price of
fuel.
A liter of gasoline now costs $8.18 while diesel costs $3.64 a
liter at the
official exchange rate of 55 Zimbabwe dollars to one U.S.
dollar. Some
workers say it will now cost them more to get to work than they
earn in
wages.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change has
denounced the increase and
warned of more strikes. The secretary-general of
the MDC, Welshman Ncube,
said the increase was an open invitation for the
people of Zimbabwe to take
the route of mass action against a government that
does not deserve to
continue a day longer than necessary.
Last month
the MDC called a two-day national strike that paralyzed commerce
and
industry. The opposition said the strike was a call for reforms, to
ease
growing repression and violence against its supporters.
Many
workers said the opposition should call an indefinite strike
immediately in
protest against the increase in the price of fuel and the
rate of inflation,
which has now soared to 228 percent.
While urban commuters are reeling
from the increase in fuel, industrialists
say they are struggling to keep
their factories going, as cuts in
electricity have reduced their working days
by half. The cuts have
aggravated the country's unemployment problem, with
around 70 percent of
workers unemployed.
FAO to Assess Food, Crop Situation
The Daily News
(Harare)
April 16, 2003
Posted to the web April 16,
2003
Business Reporter
THE Food and Agriculture Organisation will
assess the crop and food
situation locally amid indications that famine could
spill over into 2004.
The assessment would be done in conjunction with
the World Food Programme.
An official with FAO said: "We will
begin a two-week assessment of crop
production prospects for the 2002/2003
farming season from 22 April."
The objective is to establish crop
production levels and identify supply
gaps.
"What we know is that
Zimbabwe had a sub-normal season resulting in a below
normal rainfall pattern
and that is a cause for concern," the official said.
Crop production was
also affected by the haphazard land reform exercise.
At least seven
million people are facing starvation and hunger-related
deaths have been
reported in Matabeleland and the Midlands provinces.
In its April
newsletter, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network said two
thirds of
Zimbabwe's population would require food assistance.
Fewsnet said the
cereal gap for the 2003/2004 period would be 561 189
tonnes, down from 1,4
million tonnes in the previous year.
Fewsnet said: "In some parts of
Masvingo, Manicaland and Mashonaland
provinces, the meagre harvests from
early planted cereal, groundnuts,
cowpeas, pumpkins and squash are
complementing food aid in a marked way,
thereby further improving food
availability.
"However, the food security situation continues to worsen
in most rural
areas in the southern districts."
FinGaz
CIO quiz ZUPCO
boss
By Luke Tamborinyoka News
Editor
4/17/03 9:22:56 AM (GMT
+2)
THE Central Intelligence Organisation
(CIO), the country's premier spy
agency, has quizzed Zimbabwe United
Passenger Company (ZUPCO) chief
executive Bright Matonga about a
controversial US$25 million deal to procure
50 buses for the state-owned
firm, the Financial Gazette has
established.
Sources close to the CIO
investigation said the spy agency was looking
into the circumstances
surrounding ZUPCO's purchase of buses from Pioneer
Motor Company (PMC), the
local franchise holder for South Africa's
Scania.
They said the state security
agency was probing why only 32 of the
buses had been delivered to ZUPCO and
the rest withheld for non-payment when
Treasury had disbursed $2.5 billion
for the acquisition.
According to
information made available to this newspaper, the CIO
wanted the ZUPCO boss
to reply to various allegations levelled against him
following revelations
that the company had also bought the buses at $90
million each when the
market value was $24 million.
It was not
possible to secure comment from Matonga on the matter this
week. The ZUPCO
chief executive yesterday switched off his cell phone soon
after this
reporter had introduced himself as a journalist working for the
Financial
Gazette.
The company's spokesman, Richard
Mlambo, initially promised to respond
to several allegations against the
company's top brass, but eventually said
he had forwarded all questions to
Matonga.
The ZUPCO boss was said to be in
a meeting late yesterday.
However sources
said ZUPCO had indicated to President Robert Mugabe's
office that it had a
large fleet to service urban commuters when in fact it
had only 32 buses,
resulting in the CIO's involvement in the
matter.
The National Economic Conduct
Inspectorate and the State Procurement
Board have already begun their own
investigations into how ZUPCO awarded the
US$25 million bus contract to
Pioneer Motor Corporation without going
to
tender.
"Matonga is being quizzed by
the President's Office because Mugabe
thought that ZUPCO had a large fleet
that would win over the urban
electorate, which mainly supports the Movement
for Democratic Change," a
source who spoke on condition of anonymity
said.
"But he was obviously disappointed
to learn that there was no such
large fleet to win the minds of thousands of
commuters who spend productive
time in transport queues," the source told the
Financial Gazette.
He said CIO officers
had already carried out several interviews with
senior personnel at the
parastatal.
Information at hand shows that
the company has a large loan with
Metropolitan Bank, that requires the
cash-strapped transport utility to pay
close to $400 million per annum in
interest.
It has also been established
that a local supplier, Gift Investments,
could have supplied 50 buses to
ZUPCO at only $9 million each for a
30-seater minibus, which would have saved
the company about $72 million on
each of the 65-seater buses it bought
through PMC.
ZUPCO insiders said the CIO
was also investigation allegations that
senior staff had been allowed to
prejudice the troubled parastatal of
millions of
dollars.
The company is believed to have
been prejudiced of $1.6 million when a
vehicle for a senior member of staff
was repaired for $1.7 million when a
low quotation of $167 900 had been
received.
In February, Matonga and two
other senior members of staff also
allegedly travelled to Malaysia on a trip
company insiders suspect was meant
to facilitate the trio to obtain
allowances in foreign currency.
It is also
alleged that on August 2 last year, Matonga used ZUPCO
money to pay $123 000
to a service provider for a cell phone bill incurred
before he joined the
transport company.
ZUPCO insiders said the
parastatal's chief executive and other senior
officials made several trips to
Zambia and received hefty allowances in
foreign
currency.
They allegedly instructed a
company employee based in Lusaka,
identified as Mr Mudimu, to collect revenue
for all ZUPCO buses plying that
route and pay it to an unnamed Zambian until
a total of 12 million kwacha
was paid.
"We obviously don't know what the money was used for, but such
behaviour,
especially by senior staff, exposes the company's control systems
and allows
cross border crews to embezzle cash," a source
said.
He added that ZUPCO also continued
to use Edlan Security, owned by
Harare City Council security officer Joseph
Chinotimba, even though tenders
had already been floated and another local
security company had won the
contract.
It is also understood that when the government held a public launch of
the
ZUPCO fleet, the company subcontracted two companies, Team Trans
Services and
East 24, to provide services to the function in a deal in which
the transport
utility was allegedly prejudiced of almost $1.5
million.
ZUPCO insiders said apart from
Matonga, several managers at the
company had also been quizzed by the CIO
over the allegations.
It was not clear
when the CIO investigation would be concluded and
what action would be taken
against those found guilty.
FinGaz
Breakdown at
colliery worsens power crisis
Staff Reporters
4/17/03 9:26:28 AM (GMT
+2)
A BREAKdown at Zimbabwe's sole coal
producer, the Wankie Colliery
Company, this week worsened electricity
shortages at a time some
manufacturers have been forced to cut production by
50 percent and are
anticipating operating costs to shoot up because of a
steep fuel price
increase.
Industrialists said the company, already operating below capacity
because of
foreign currency shortages, experienced a breakdown on Monday
that sources
within Wankie told the Financial Gazette had only been
rectified
yesterday.
Sources said the breakdown, the
result of a technical fault, led to a
power blackout that affected Hwange and
much of Matabeleland North as well
as parts of Bulawayo
central.
The breakdown also affected coal
supplies to the Zimbabwe Electricity
Supply Authority (ZESA)'s main power
generating plant, the Hwange Power
Station, the sources said, adding that the
reduction in coal supplies and
the power blackout worsened electricity
shortages resulting from ZESA's
load
shedding.
ZESA, which imports
electricity from the region and has been adversely
affected by severe hard
cash shortages, began load shedding two weeks
ago.
"We had an involuntary breakdown from
Wankie Colliery on Monday, which
really worsened everything," Confederation
of Zimbabwe Industries acting
chief executive Farai Zizhou told the Financial
Gazette.
"To date, about 70 percent of
Bulawayo has no power," he said.
He said
as a defensive measure, Bulawayo manufacturers had proposed a
"budgeting
system" under which some companies would commit themselves to not
using
electricity at certain times of the day.
They would then resume production after some hours had
elapsed.
Industrialists this week said
power rationing had hit manufacturers
very hard, with affected companies
including the manufacturing divisions of
Delta Beverages, the Cold Storage
Company, Willowvale Mazda Motor
Industries, Cochrane Engineering, Dimon
Zimbabwe, Imperial Refrigeration and
Deven
Motors.
Many companies have been forced to
work half days because of the power
shortages and others are said to have cut
production by at least half, which
would worsen commodity shortages resulting
from price controls and a decline
in agricultural
output.
Manufacturing output has also
slumped because of foreign currency,
fuel and raw material
shortages.
Analysts say continued low
production could ultimately force
manufacturers to lay off workers,
increasing unemployment that is already
estimated at more than 60
percent.
Zimbabwe National Chamber of
Commerce chief economist James Jowa said:
"Right now industry is operating at
around 30 percent of normal production
because of all these problems and the
government does not seem to have a
solution to
that."
Zizhou said it was not possible yet
to indicate how much money
companies had lost because of load shedding in the
past two weeks, but that
some firms had suffered "gigantic
losses".
A senior economist with Zimbabwe
Financial Holdings, Best Doroh,
added: "The economy is already reeling under
a heavily adverse negative
macroeconomic environment and this will lead to
reduced national output."
Analysts said
the impact of load shedding on local companies would be
compounded by the
sharp increase in the price of fuel this week, which would
push up companies'
operating costs and put pressure on prices and
on
inflation.
The government on Tuesday
increased fuel prices by between 68 percent
and 309 percent in an attempt to
bring the cost of petrol and diesel in
Zimbabwe in line with other countries
in the region.
Economists said the fuel
price hike could force inflation, which rose
228 percent in the year to
March, up to around 400 percent by year-end. The
International Monetary Fund
has however projected that inflation will reach
500 percent before the end of
2003.
Transport is among the costs that
are expected to rise because of this
week's fuel price hike, which has
already forced some public transporters to
increase commuter
fares.
Transport costs for some workers
have trebled from $6 000 a month to
around $18 000, which commentators said
could put employers under pressure
to review workers' transport
allowances.
"It (fuel hike) is an increase
that has a downstream effect on
commuters and companies," Kingdom Financial
Holdings economist Witness
Chinyama told the Financial
Gazette.
"For companies it is actually
worse because they also have to take
into account the effects of load
shedding," he said.
With price controls
preventing manufacturers from recouping operating
costs that will escalate
because of the fuel price hike, many might be
forced to further cut back on
production, threatening their viability, the
analysts
said.
Economic consultant John Robertson
said: "What all this means to the
economy is no tax profits and a reduction
of sales tax, with the government
incurring the greatest
losses.
"But on another level, I see the
opposition taking advantage of the
current situation to put more political
pressure on the government."
The
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which last month
organised a
two-day job stayaway that shut down most of industry, has said
it will go
ahead with mass protests after the government rejected demands
for a
negotiated political settlement.
The
protests, which are expected to include marches to President
Robert Mugabe's
offices and residence, are supposed to press for a
resolution of Zimbabwe's
political and economic crises.
MDC shadow
minister for finance Tapiwa Mashakada yesterday told
journalists that the
government had no strategy to revive Zimbabwe's economy
and was experiencing
a serious energy crisis as a result.
He
said: "If a country has no coherent energy policy to supply its
domestic and
industrial sectors, then that government has failed."
FinGaz
Cabinet reshuffle
expected soon
Staff
Reporter
4/17/03 9:23:28 AM (GMT
+2)
A RESHUFFLING of Cabinet posts is
expected in the next few weeks as
President Robert Mugabe makes new
appointments to fill positions that have
been left vacant in the past month,
senior government officials said
this
week.
They said the President was
expected to make appointments to the posts
of chief secretary to the Cabinet,
attorney-general and Higher
Education
Minister.
State Enterprises
Minister Paul Mangwana is tipped to be moved to the
Attorney-General's Office
after the retirement of Attorney-General Andrew
Chigovera last week, the
officials told the Financial Gazette.
Deputy Attorney-General Bharat Patel is also a top contender for the
same
post.
The officials said Transport and
Communications Minister Witness
Magwende was expected to move to the Higher
and Tertiary Education Ministry
to fill the vacancy left by the late Swithun
Mombeshora.
Mutare South Member of
Parliament Christopher Mushowe, presently the
deputy minister of Transport
and Communications, could be elevated to
replace
Mangwende.
"There is indeed going to be a
reshuffle shortly to fill in the gaps
that are there and to make key
appointments in the civil service which have
arisen due to retirements," a
ZANU PF Politburo member close to the exercise
told the Financial
Gazette.
It was not possible to secure
comment from Information and Publicity
Minister Jonathan Moyo and his
permanent secretary George Charamba, who were
said to be in meetings
yesterday.
ZANU PF information and
publicity secretary Nathan Shamuyarira however
said he was not aware of an
imminent reshuffling of Cabinet posts.
"I
am not aware of a reshuffle, in any case, the President has the
right and
it's his prerogative to make any changes to the Cabinet that he
deems
necessary," Shamuyarira said.
However,
ruling party officials said they expected Mugabe to name
either Foreign
Affairs permanent secretary Willard Chiwewe or Head of
Administration in the
President's Office Misheck Sibanda as chief secretary
to
Cabinet.
The post was left vacant by
Charles Utete, who retired this month.
They said there were also plans to elevate Speaker of Parliament
Emmerson
Mnangagwa and Special Affairs Minister John Nkomo to co-vice
presidents later
this year.
The move has been prompted by
renewed calls by Vice President Simon
Muzenda to be allowed to retire, the
ZANU PF officials said.
Muzenda has just
returned from China, where he had travelled for
medical treatment for an
undisclosed ailment.
The sources said
parallel to the planned Cabinet appointments were
plans to appoint provincial
governors for Harare and Bulawayo as well as
Mashonaland
Central.
Mashonaland Central, a ZANU PF
stronghold, has been without a
substantive governor for the past two
years.
Police Commissioner Augustine
Chihuri is tipped for the post, the
sources said.
FinGaz
Govt hampers food
aid plans
Staff
Reporter
4/17/03 9:24:02 AM (GMT
+2)
DELAYS by the government in announcing
how much food Zimbabwe will
harvest this year could hamper efforts to
mobilise humanitarian aid for the
country, international donor groups and
foreign diplomats in Harare said
this
week.
Relief agencies said while ongoing
food programmes for Zimbabwe were
ending at the end of this month as planned,
they could not plan for the next
relief effort until the government provided
information on what it required.
"Everybody is waiting for information," a United States Agency
for
International Development official told the Financial Gazette
yesterday.
"It's getting late and we need
to plan now, but it's difficult to do
so if there are various figures flying
all over as is happening now," the
official
added.
Agriculture Minister Joseph Made
could not be reached for comment on
the matter. Made has in the past
indicated that his ministry was still
studying this year's crop to determine
potential output.
But sources at the
Agriculture Ministry's crop forecasting department
said delays in announcing
expected production output were because of
disagreement between their
department and some senior government politicians
who wanted the department
to put maize production this year at more than 1.2
million
tonnes.
They said this was because the
government wanted to justify its
controversial land reforms by showing that
production had not fallen since
the farm seizures that began in 2000, but
that it had in fact picked up from
the about 500 000 of maize produced last
year.
"They want us to tell the world that
maize production this year will
be between 1.2 million to 1.5 million
tonnes," said an official, who spoke
on condition he was not
named.
A harvest in the region of 1.2
million or more would leave Zimbabwe
with a maize deficit of around 500 000
tonnes, much lower than the 1.4
million tonne deficit last
season.
The country consumes between 1.5
million to 1.8 milion tonnes of
maize
annually.
In its latest crop
forecast, the United States-based Famine Early
Warning System Network
(FEWSNET) has projected that Zimbabwe's maize output
could be around 1 289
000 tonnes.
But aid agencies told the
Financial Gazette that field officers on the
ground were reporting that some
families would produce enough for
consumption but that the majority would
harvest enough to last one month to
three months at the
most.
A senior official with a United
Nations (UN) food agency said:
"Production this year is no doubt better than
last year, but still there
will be a lot of people requiring aid. In fact,
the FEWSNET figure of 1.2
million tonnes of maize is viewed by many as much
higher than what will
actually be
harvested."
A Commercial Farmers' Union
official, who declined to be named, said
according to the organisation's
surveys, maize output this year would be
around 800 000
tonnes.
Aid agency officials warned that
continued delays in announcing
Zimbabwe's food relief requirements or
underplaying the food deficit would
only hinder the international community's
capacity to help Zimbabwe.
The government
last year refused until the last minute that the
country faced a serious food
shortage, even after a survey by the UN's World
Food Programme (WFP) showed
Zimbabwe faced starvation.
The WFP this
week said it would next week begin surveying Zimbabwe's
food aid requirements
and that the study would be complete at the end of
the
month.
FinGaz
ZANU PF quizzes
business over stayaway
Staff
Reporter
4/17/03 9:24:39 AM (GMT
+2)
THE ruling ZANU PF party summoned
business leaders to read them the
riot act over what it said was their
backing for the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC)-organised job
stayaway last month, it emerged
this
week.
Sources privy to the
discussions said representatives of industry and
bankers were called to the
ZANU PF headquarters, where officials of the
ruling party's Harare province
quizzed them about why they had closed their
companies during the two-day
stayaway.
The stayaway, called to press
for resolution of Zimbabwe's economic
and political crises, last month shut
down most of business across
the
country.
Confederation of Zimbabwe
Industries president Anthony Mandiwanza
yesterday confirmed that business had
met with ZANU PF officials but
insisted they met the ruling party for
ordinary consultations only.
He said: "The
truth of the matter is that we get consulted as business
from a broad
spectrum of people. As business leaders, we have an obligation
to inform when
we have been asked.
"ZANU PF invited us
for consultations only. Further than that, I will
not comment on the
matter."
Bankers' Association of Zimbabwe
president Washington Matsaira, whose
organisation also attended the meeting
at ZANU PF's Rotten Row headquarters
added: "It is not correct to say that we
were singled out to meet with ZANU
PF.
"The Bankers' Association of Zimbabwe, along with other business
institutions
like Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, were involved in
consultations
with a range of organisations who were keen to communicate
their views on
important issues affecting the economy."
He said: "We cannot discuss the contents of any such conversations as
this
would be a clear breach of the confidentiality expected of the
banking
sector. All we can confirm is that our consultations with all the
various
stakeholders in our economy have been amicable at all
times."
ZANU PF information secretary
Nathan Shamuyarira yesterday refused to
comment on the meeting between
business and the party.
The two-day
MDC-organised stayaway, which virtually shut down industry
and commerce
across the country, was the biggest protest against President
Robert Mugabe's
rule since he controversially won a presidential election
last
year.
The opposition party has threatened
to call for further protests
unless Mugabe bows down to a list of demands,
among them that he calls a
fresh presidential poll.
FinGaz
Mayor flees Town
House
Staff
Reporter
4/17/03 9:25:14 AM (GMT
+2)
HARARE Executive Mayor Elias Mudzuri
and other Harare City Council
staff yesterday fled Town House after being
alerted of a planned
demonstration by ruling ZANU PF
supporters.
The ZANU PF activists, said to
be from Mbare, allegedly forced vendors
and travellers bound for their rural
homes to march with them to Town House,
the second time this has happened
this month.
Town House was closed from
mid-morning yesterday to the end of
business after workers fled because they
had been warned that a violent
group of ruling party supporters was marching
towards the mayor's office.
The group
passed through Town House before joining their colleagues at
the offices of
Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo, where they are
said to have sung
songs denouncing Mudzuri.
Mudzuri told the
Financial Gazette that the group, which expected to
be addressed by Chombo,
included President Robert Mugabe's sister
Sabina.
There was no comment from Sabina
Mugabe, whose cell phone was
yesterday answered by a woman who refused this
reporter permission to talk
to her.
The
woman however said Mugabe was "too old to do such a silly
thing".
Mudzuri said he had not been able
to do any work yesterday because of
the protesters, who he said were being
used as part of a plot by Chombo to
oust
him.
The opposition Movement for
Democratic Change mayor has clashed with
Chombo several times since he was
elected in 2002 and says the minister is
trying to remove him from his
post.
He told the Financial Gazette: "We
are told Sabina was leading a group
of demonstrators who were singing that
they are tired of me. Her
constituency is in Zvimba and I don't know what she
was doing here in
Harare."
He said the
ruling party supporters were said to have protested Chombo
's delay in
removing the Harare mayor from office.
There was no comment from Chombo, whose secretary yesterday said he
was in
meetings.
FinGaz
3 killed, 94
assaulted in political violence
Staff Reporter
4/17/03 9:27:02 AM (GMT
+2)
THREE people were killed and 94
assaulted in politically motivated
violence between January and March,
according to the latest report from the
Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum
(ZHRF).
The ZHRF, which groups
non-governmental organisations working in the
field of human rights, said it
had also received reports of 11 cases of
abduction, 131 of political
intimidation and 164 of violation of freedom of
expression and
movement.
About 76 cases of people being
displaced from their homes by political
violence were also reported in the
period under review.
The report said 159
people were also tortured in March, with cases of
torture rising from 16 in
January and February.
There were also 260
cases of unlawful arrest in the period under
review, with 103 of them
reported last month alone.
The report said
most of the victims of political violence were
supporters of the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), with most
of the perpetrators said to
be ruling ZANU PF activists and state
security
agents.
The government has
however denied the involvement of the police, army
and Central Intelligence
Organisation in political violence.
The
ZHRF report attributed the sharp rise in political violence cases
in March to
the job stayaway called by the opposition MDC last month and the
by-elections
held in Kuwadzana and Highfield at the end of
March.
"Disturbing incidents of violence
and gross human rights violations
have been documented in the month of March,
indicative that the human-rights
situation in Zimbabwe is deteriorating
critically," the report said.
"The bulk of
these incidents surrounded two events: the mass stayaway
from 18 to 19 March
and the two parliamentary by-elections in Highfield and
Kuwadzana
constituencies in Harare."
The two-day
mass stayaway closed down most of industry, while the MDC
won the Highfield
and Kuwadzana by-elections, which were followed by an
upsurge in political
violence against MDC supporters in Harare's
high-density
suburbs.
The opposition has blamed the
violence on members of the Zimbabwe
National Army (ZNA), allegations that the
ZNA denies.
Last week, the army said it
had arrested 27 deserters who were
responsible for the human rights
abuses.
FinGaz
Zimbabwe to have new
independent Sunday newspaper
4/17/03 9:28:02 AM (GMT +2)
JOHANNESBURG -
Owners of Zimbabwe's privately-owned Daily News - which
is highly critical of
President Robert Mugabe's government - are to launch a
Sunday newspaper next
month, a major shareholder said on
yesterday.
Strive Masiyiwa, founder of
telecoms group Econet Holdings in Zimbabwe
and its Johannesburg-based sister
company Econet Wireless International,
said: "We are now ready and the Sunday
newspaper will come off the press
next
month."
The Daily News, owned by the
Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe in
which Masiyiwa is a shareholder, has
emerged as one of the most critical
voices against Mugabe's
leadership.
But the paper denies that it
is a mouthpiece for the main opposition
Movement for Democratic
Change.
"We need a professionally run
independent weekly newspaper which can
act as an alternative voice to the
government-owned publications. That is
why we are investing in a Sunday
newspaper," Masiyiwa said in Johannesburg.
He would not say how much cash was being invested in the venture. But
the
Daily News is making losses and Masiyiwa helped keep it afloat last year
by
an injection of his personal wealth.
Daily
News reporters have been among the most prominent victims of new
government
press legislation passed last year and condemned as repressive by
journalists
and media activists.
Several of the
paper's reporters have been brought to court to answer
charges of publishing
falsehoods, and some cases are still
pending.
Apparent repression of the media
in Zimbabwe and the nearby Kingdom of
Swaziland are among the issues worrying
the 14-member Southern African
Development Community (SADC), according to
South African President Thabo
Mbeki.
Mbeki told African editors this week that although SADC was concerned,
the
bigger umbrella 53-member African Union - which he chairs - had no
formal
view or position on Zimbabwe, facing its deepest political and
economic
crisis since independence.
The Zimbabwean
government has dragged its feet on fully liberalising
the airwaves and
maintains a monopoly via the Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Corporation (ZBC), which
runs both national radio and television
channels.
The government also owns
Zimbabwe's key daily and weekly
newspapers.
Zimbabwe's Supreme Court is
yet to rule on legal challenges by a
private radio station and independent
journalists on the constitution of the
ZBC monopoly and the new media law
respectively.
About 100 editors from 30
countries, inspired by cases of assaults on
journalists in countries like
Zimbabwe and Algeria, called for effective
monitoring of harassment and
intimidation of the media at a meeting in
Johannesburg last
weekend.
They also urged African
governments to establish regulatory bodies to
safeguard independence of
government-owned media, saying many African
leaders converted state media to
their own private use, instead of promoting
the public
good.
-Reuter
FinGaz
Zimbabweans worse
off than at independence
By Luke
Tamborinyoka, News Editor and MacDonald Dzirutwe, Business
News
Editor
4/17/03 9:30:09 AM (GMT
+2)
ZIMBABWE marks 23 years of self-rule
tomorrow amid economic and
political turmoil that analysts this week said had
left the majority of the
population worse off than when the country attained
its independence in
1980.
The analysts
spoke as figures released by the Central Statistical
Office on Tuesday showed
year-on-year inflation surging by a record high of
228 percent in the year to
March, up from 220.9 percent the month
before.
Commentators said rampant
inflation - forecast to reach 500 percent
before the end of the year - had
shot up from below 10 percent at
independence, eroding workers' purchasing
power and leaving them poorer than
in
1980.
Experts estimate that more than 80
percent of Zimbabwe's 11.6 million
population is living in poverty, while the
rest has experienced a marked
decline in their standard of living in the past
four years.
"There is a worsening of the
standard of living for the majority of
people now than at independence,"
Century Holdings chief economist David
Mupamhadze told the Financial
Gazette.
"Things are not
improving, they are getting worse," he
added.
University of Zimbabwe business
studies lecturer Anthony Hawkins said:
"People are poorer than at
independence. There has been a widening of the
wealth
gap."
Economists attribute the drop in
Zimbabweans' standard of living
primarily to the government's fiscal
indiscipline, a loose monetary policy
and other measures that have adversely
affected the country's key
economic
sectors.
A controversial land
reform programme that has resulted in the
government taking over more than 90
percent of white-owned land has combined
with drought to cut agricultural
output and food production by more than
60
percent.
This has left close to
eight million people in need of humanitarian
aid at a time that food imports
have been hampered by severe foreign
currency shortages, the result of
plummeting exports and the suspension of
balance of payment support by
international organisa- tions.
The hard
cash crisis has also affected imports of fuel, electricity
and raw materials,
and has combined with government-imposed price controls
to force several
local companies to cut back on production or downsize their
operations,
increasing unemployment.
"The plunge of
the economy did not just set off from a blue sky," the
opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) said in its economic review
of the first quarter
of 2003. "As has long been anticipated, the chickens
have now come home to
the roost.
"The government's loose fiscal
policy (is) proven by the huge budget
deficits, which were recorded at -22.6
percent of GDP (gross domestic
product) in 2000, -16.5 percent in 2001 and
-14.1 percent in 2002.
"From an
undiscerning eye, the figures appear to be on the decline,
yet this hides the
fact that the country's central bank is buying back the
deficits, which must
be much higher now than was the case in
2000."
The MDC's shadow economic and
finance ministries said GDP had fallen
from a -2.7 percent negative growth in
1999 to -11.9 percent last year,
while exports had dropped from US$3 billion
in 1996 to US$1.7 billion in
2002.
Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce chief economist James Jowa said:
"We
have not achieved economic growth as a country, we have actually negated
the
little we had achieved at independence.
"This is a culmination of policies that have gone
wrong."
Unable to take sustainable
corrective measures, analysts said the
government had resorted to repression
to stamp out the discontent resulting
from the economic crisis and severe
food shortages.
They said the ruling ZANU
PF had ironically adopted the kind of
repressive legislation used by the
colonial government to crush dissent
before
independence.
Laws such as the Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act
and the Public Order and Security
Act have been used to erode freedom of the
Press, expression, assembly and
movement.
MDC secretary general Welshman
Ncube told the Financial Gazette: "The
government is punishing the nation for
exercising the very freedoms that we
all fought for, especially the freedoms
of speech, assembly and association.
"The
nation has been harassed, homes burnt and others beaten up,
arrested and
tortured for showing a different opinion to that of the
ruling
party.
"(President Robert)
Mugabe and his cronies have turned against the
people and our challenge on
Independence Day is how as a nation we can
liberate ourselves again and
reclaim our power."
Roman Catholic
Archbishop Pius Ncube added: "At least in 1980 we had
hope that our
government would respect our culture and give us real freedom
of expression,
association and other liberties that we fought for, but we
are being
repressed by our own people.
"We have a
government that has made it its daily business to silence
civil society and
all forms of opposition. It is very difficult to call for
celebrations from
an oppressed people who have no money, no food, no cooking
oil and who
struggle every day to survive."
He said at
least 1 000 people had been jailed in the past few months
in a bid to curb
dissent. Most of those affected are supporters and
officials of the MDC,
against which the government has launched a crackdown
in anticipation of
extensive mass protests.
The opposition
party has said it will go ahead with street protests
after Mugabe failed to
respond to demands for a negotiated political
settlement that analysts say
could restore investor confidence and mend
Zimbabwe's relations with the
international community.
International
multilateral agencies have suspended crucial aid to
Zimbabwe because of
government policies that have eroded the rule of law and
property
rights.
Mupamhadze said: "The future lies
with re-engaging multilateral
institutions. This is the only way to get a
huge foreign currency injection
because our exports are not doing
well.
"The other issue is to restore
viability in the agriculture sector
because when agriculture sneezes, every
sector of the economy catches a
cold."
A political commentator who spoke on condition of anonymity added: "We
all
know there is nothing to celebrate and those in power must sit down and
see
whether what they are doing is in line with the struggle for
independence for
which many people died.
"Someone must sit
down and make sure fundamental freedoms, the very
foundation of the struggle,
are restored so that the nation moves forward."
FinGaz
Comment
In
God's hands
4/17/03 9:22:04 AM
(GMT +2)
ZIMBABWEANS will tomorrow mark 23
years of independence amid
unprecedented economic and social haemorrhaging,
and with very little, if
anything, to
celebrate.
As the nation prepares to go
through the motions of honouring its
freedom, dark clouds are gathering on
all fronts.
Close to eight million
Zimbabweans face starvation because of drought
and the government's
ill-considered seizure of commercially productive land,
and their numbers are
set to balloon as farmers bring in another meagre
harvest in the next few
months.
Indeed, as some people make plans
to be with their families this
Independence/Easter weekend, a larger number
of Zimbabweans besieged by
unrelenting fuel and foodstuff shortages will
merely be engaged in the
struggle to survive another
day.
To worsen an already desperate
situation, many manufacturers have
slashed production by at least 50 percent
in the past two weeks in response
to power rationing by the Zimbabwe
Electricity Supply Authority, a move
likely to increase commodity shortages
in the next few months.
As industry braces
for tougher times ahead, the nation is anticipating
a significantly reduced
tobacco crop to be brought to the auction floors at
the end of the month, at
a time when Zimbabwe is in desperate need of the
foreign currency
traditionally generated by the golden
leaf.
To cut a long story short, Zimbabwe
- a nation that held so much
promise in 1980 - has this to show for 23 years
of independence: record
inflation of 228 percent, unemployment of more than
60 percent, the
impoverishment of at least 80 percent of the population and
infrastructure
that is crumbling because of years of
neglect.
Gross domestic product has been
in decline for several years,
from -2.7 percent in 1999 to -11.9 percent in
2002 and a projected -15
percent in
2003.
Investment and savings have fallen
by between 60 and 70 percent in the
past three years and exports have plunged
from US$3 billion in 1996 to
around US$1.7 billion last
year.
But as the nation limps from one
crisis to another, there is no
indication that a solution is on the
horizon.
A recently launched economic
revival programme is widely expected to
worsen the country's economic
distress, like countless other policies
adopted by the government in the past
four years.
As Zimbabweans grapple with
the impact of virtual economic collapse, a
panicky government has embraced
repressive methods in an attempt to hold on
to power that much
longer.
But crisis-weary Zimbabweans are
keeping their heads down, too busy
worrying about their economic survival to
bother about the assault on
their
freedoms.
As an American state
department official indicated this week that his
government was urging
Zimbabwe's neighbours to step up pressure on President
Robert Mugabe to hand
power to a transitional government, Zimbabweans were
bracing for opposition
mass protests against Mugabe's regime.
Frustrated by ZANU PF's rejection of a negotiated political settlement
that
could pave the way for the international assistance that is crucial for
the
recovery of the Zimbabwean economy, the opposition has resolved to press
for
change through mass protests.
Mass
protests that could spark a bloody confrontation that will only
worsen the
lot of long-suffering Zimbabweans and whose outcome is
uncertain.
Indeed, as Zimbabweans mark
their 23rd year of independence and pray
for deliverance from a progressively
deteriorating situation, only God knows
the fate of this once promising
nation.
May God help us
all.
FinGaz
. . . AND NOW
TO THE NOTEBOOK. . . . Idi Amin
4/17/03 9:20:33 AM (GMT +2)
A colleague
has drawn Mukanya's attention to an article in the South
African magazine
Pace's March issue.
I quote at length from
the article: "He (Idi Amin) first set about
weeding out the Langi and Acholi
tribesmen in his army as he saw them as
Obote sympathisers. Tens of thousands
of soldiers were killed and replaced
with men from Amin's Kakwa
tribe.
"He next recruited 15 000 loyal men
and entrusted them with keeping
the peace. Unleashed upon the civilian
population, these death squads raped
and tortured at will, hunting down all
those who spoke out of turn - even
judges and archbishops were dealt with as
political dissidents. Horribly
mutilated bodies were frequently discovered.
Some victims were fed to
the
crocodiles.
"Head of political
studies at Wits University Professor Tom Lodge
says: 'even three decades
later, no contemporary African regime matches Amin
's record of reckless
brutality.'
"The workload was so taxing
for Amin's men that the Ugandan president
was eventually forced to commission
the establishment of a torture facilty
in Nakasero. He called it the State
Research Bureau. The bureau treated
prisoners to nails in the skull and
broken or shattered limbs. They were
given hammers and encouraged to bludgeon
each other to death.
"By far the most
chilling of Amin's eccentricities, however, was his
fondness for scolding his
political rivals over dinner - after their
decapitated heads had been brought
to him on a platter from the fridge."
Mukanya wishes to register his disagreement with the respected
academic Lodge
that the sheer brutal recklessness of Amin and his bunch of
thieving
murderers has not yet been matched.
We
know of an African government not far from where Lodge lives that
has reduced
to rubble an economy that was 10 times larger than Uganda's and
has reduced
its people to oppressed beggars who have to queue for nearly
every basic
commodity.
Mukanya though entirely agrees
with Lodge when he says: "Amin's rule
would have been shorter were it not for
the extent to which his behaviour
was accepted by other African heads of
government.
"Even today, the destructive
and arbitrary actions of Robert Mugabe's
administration have attracted very
little censure from
continental
statesmen."
We hope
President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, who has become infamous
in Zimbabwe
because of his quiet diplomacy tactics towards the government,
reads
this.
Quiet
Diplomacy
Talking about Mbeki and his hear
no evil, see no evil, speak no evil
quiet diplomacy, Mukanya was rather
disturbed to read in the Press that
Mbeki had told South African journalists
that the region would soon be
looking into the deteriorating situation in
Swaziland.
Mukanya's advice to the Swazis
is: do not hold your breath.
It is better
to seek salvation elsewhere than from this Mbeki fellow.
He can't be
trusted!
You can ask the
Zimbabweans.
He visited Zimbabwe
ostensibly to help find an African-grown solution
to the country's crisis.
And the next thing is he was telling the whole
world that things had improved
in Zimbabwe and that sanctions against Mugabe
and his officials should now be
lifted.
It didn't bothered him that at the
time, pro-government militias were
intensifying their crackdown on the
opposition, with many suspected
opponents of the government brutally
attacked, arrested or even killed.
It's the whole army
Last week, the
gov-ernment was telling us the people in army uniforms
who in the past few
weeks have harassed and brutalised innocent residents in
Harare were in fact
about 23 soldiers who had deserted from the army and
were working with the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
FinGaz
Collaborators always
existed in the Church
Dumisani
Nkomo
4/17/03 9:50:04 AM (GMT
+2)
The Church in Zimbabwe has come under
great scrutiny of late in regard
to its role in the current crisis. There are
those who strongly believe that
the Church has been too quiet, irrelevant and
ineffective.
It has been argued by some
that the Church in Zimbabwe is part of the
problem. On the other hand there
are those who argue that the church has
become too partisan and has immersed
itself in opposition politics.
I would
like to argue that the Church, historically and biblically has
never been a
homogeneous entity with one voice on issues pertaining to the
state,
governance and justice. This in itself is not a weakness but a
demonstration
that God has not reduced human beings to robots who have
homogenous political
beliefs and convictions.
However failure
by the Church to speak out on evils perpetrated by
government may also be due
to lack of a sound theological position on vital
issues of governance,
justice and truth .The relationship between the Church
and state has all too
often been reduced to the state defining what the
Church should and should
not do.
Pacifists have argued that the
Church should stay out of politics and
leave it to the politicians. This in
itself is a tragic misconception,
first, of the entire role of the Church,
and second, of what politics is.
It must
be understood that the Church has a tripartite role of being
prophet, priest
and king.
As priest, the Church as a
collective is called upon to pray for the
nation, it's leaders, communities,
families and individuals. Limited
knowledge of the mandate of the Church has
led some to believe that the
Church is supposed to merely pray and restrict
itself to spiritual
activities. This is a clear negation of the other two
roles of the Church as
prophet and
king.
As a prophetic voice, the Church has
to speak out on issues of social,
economic and political justice. This is
clearly epitomised by prophets such
as Jeremiah, Isaiah, Amos, Habakkuk and
Micah. These prophets incurred the
wrath of the governing authorities of
their day because they brought leaders
to account for their
actions.
God is as much interested in us
going to heaven as he is in us living
a wholesome life on earth. The Bible
is, for lack of an appropriate word,
"overflowing" with examples of how
prophets rebuked kings for ill-treating
their
people.
Nathan cautioned David for his
evil ploy to eliminate a rival suitor.
Jeremiah challenged the rulers of
Judah to "be fair minded and just .to do
right and stop murdering innocent
people" [Jeremiah 22.3.]. John the Baptist
chided the Emperor Herod for his
adulterous relationship and paid the price
when he was beheaded for
sport.
If there is theological and moral
precedence for the Church making a
stand against evil governors why is it
that some Church leaders are openly
baptizing and sanctifying wicked deeds
perpetrated by government officials?
I
would like to argue that historically and biblically there have
always been
those within the Church who have collaborated with rogue regimes
for their
own personal benefit, security or
comfort.
There are obvious examples
are men of the cloth who have gained
notoriety for their support of the
Robert Mugabe regime.
These men of the
cloth have virtually turned themselves into the
domestic pets if not
household furniture of the state. Amongst these are the
likes of Bishop
Kunonga, Rev Msindo and Andrew Wutawunashe who have
shamelessly baptized the
government's various acts of spontaneous and
organised official
thuggery.
Such Church leaders who
collaborate with rogue regimes do so with the
express intention of basking in
the glory of state patronage. The Bible
gives an account of King Ahab who as
head of a corrupt and oppressive regime
had a retinue of prophets who
prophesied in his favour.
These prophets
delighted in singing praises of the evil king along
with other false prophets
who reveled in making lies an official institution
in the kingdom of
Israel.
In our context, examples of Church
leaders who have turned into praise
singers for the president abound. Instead
of being a prophetic voice to the
nation, these bogus clergymen have sought
to endear and ingratiate
themselves to the merchants of power in the public
arena.
In any case, back to our examples
in biblical history; in the midst of
these false prophets were other genuine
prophets like Micah who prophesied
in a manner incompatible with the wishes
of the king.
It so happened that whilst
the false prophets were waxing lyrical
about how King Ahab would succeed over
his enemies, the prophet Micah did
not mince his words at a time when it was
too expensive to say the truth and
in no uncertain terms told the king that
he was headed for total,
unmitigated
defeat.
In a manner, which our government
would have been envious, Micah was
immediately arrested under their ancient
version of POSA and placed under
inhumane conditions in prison (II Chronicles
18.26). The rabid paranoia and
schizophrenia of Ahab would have been the envy
of the likes of Jonathan
Moyo, Mohadi and
company.
Interestingly, a certain Bishop
Lamont from Umtali (now Mutare) was
arrested and subsequently deported in
1977 by the Smith regime for speaking
out against the oppressive and
repressive fascist rule of the minority
Rhodesian government. At this time
the likes of Bishop Abel Muzorewa and
Ndabaningi Sithole were busy licking
the boots of Ian Smith and carving for
themselves pieces of power under the
so-called internal settlement.
Collaborators in the Church are not a new phenomenon; fellow
Zimbabweans,
Kunonga and Msindo are merely fulfilling history by playing the
role of false
prophets and collaborators.
The present
government has faithfully continued with the historical or
is it hysterical
political machinations to silence prophetic voices in the C
hurch and amplify
the noise of pseudo - state clerics whose mouths dribble
at the prospect of
being official chaplains of his Excellency the President
of the Democratic
and Sovereign Republic of Zimbabwe.
In
contrast Archbishop Pius Ncube who has emerged as the moral leader
of the
nation with his uncompromising stand against the injustices that have
maimed
the conscience of the nation has been subjected to endless
vilification and
character assassination by the state media and in
particular the
Chronicle.
As if this was not enough, 23
pastors were arrested on the 28th of
February at the entrance of the Police
General Headquarters in Harare for
peacefully demonstrating for peace in the
land. This action was subsequently
condemned by the Evangelical Fellowship of
Zimbabwe (Daily News March 4
2003) and the Zimbabwe National Pastors
Conference (Daily News March 7
2003).
This lamentable incident happened two weeks after the police had
disrupted a
meeting by church-based organis- ations to discuss the national
crisis at
Northside Community Church. The president of the Evangelical
Fellowship of
Zimbabwe, Trevor Manhango and other civic leaders were then
arrested in
another demonstration of the state's inability to co-habitat
with
truth.
In its continuing persecution of
the prophetic Church, the state media
claimed that Churches wanted to form a
political party (The Chronicle
March
28).
This once again was sure
epitomisation of the fact that the government
regards with suspicion
anything, which has even the smallest grain of truth
in it, because truth is
a virtue, which is alien to the regime
Its
inability to co-exist with truth has led it to seek the dishonest
counsel of
the likes of Rev Msindo who has the audacity to organise prayer
meetings on
behalf of the state for the Church. The stance, which
"collaborators" have
taken, is aptly exemplified in George Orwell's classic
Animal
Farm.
The character Moses, the tame Raven
symbolises the Church. After
having been Mr Jones' pet for years, Moses like
some Churches was hated by
most animals for his
lies.
In this instance, Mr Jones
represents colonial governments, which used
Church leaders to pacify the
local populace by fixing their attention on
distant heavenly realities whilst
teaching them to endure the hardships and
repression of the
earth.
Moses the tame Raven was back after
the rebellion (Independence).
Moses lived on an allowance of beer and bread
from the pigs (the governing
authorities). His role was to divert the animals
suffering (the people's
lot) from their present hardships and focus their
attention on a place
called Sugar Candy
Mountain.
How many of our Church leaders
have attempted to pretend that all is
well in the nation? How many Church
leaders are tame Ravens who exist to
massage the egos of the state by praying
for civic leaders to be good?
Is this not
like praying for a banana tree to bear apples when God in
his infinite wisdom
created banana trees to bear bananas?
Whilst collaborators have used their white collars (figuratively
speaking) to
gain the favour of the ruling party, those who have steadfastly
stood for the
truth should brace themselves for persecution from the state
and its
repressive apparatus.
Indeed contrary to
popular belief the Church has not been completely
silent about the national
crisis. Whereas this is the view that could be
intimated from Tanonoka J
Whande (Daily News January 16). I would like to
argue that the Church has
indeed tried to wake up from its slumber.
Whilst radicals argue that the Church has been at its best talking in
its
sleep, there are a number of indicators that some Church leaders are
true
prophetic voices to the nation. Herein are a number of instances where
the
church has made its silence clear.
Methodist Bishop Mukandi of the Methodist Church warned high court
judges to
resist pressure to subvert justice and encourage them to show
"selective
justice that treats other children of God as second-class
citizens". (Daily
News January 14).
In addition, the
Zimbabwe National Pastors Conference, the Evangelical
Fellowship of Zimbabwe,
the Zimbabwe Student Christian Movement and
Christians Together for Peace and
Justice have consistently spoken out
against lawlessness, violence and civil
laws such as POSA.
However, the voice of
justice and truth has at times been dimmed by
the noise of collaborators for
a cup of tea with Robert Mugabe at the
state
house.
Unfortunately, these false
prophets shall always be with us because in
the Bible, prophets like
Jeremiah, Amos and Habakkuk had to reckon with the
sweet lies of the
religious establishment of the day that actively supported
the status quo.
The good news is that no system can sustain itself through
lies, violence and
ungodliness because whatsoever a man (or woman) sows,
that shall he or she
reap.
"Woe to him who builds a town with
blood" Habakkuk 2.12.
FinGaz
$500 mln set aside
for low-cost housing lies idle
Staff Reporter
4/17/03 9:33:31 AM (GMT
+2)
MORE than $500 million earmarked for
low-cost housing projects is
lying idle in Zimbabwe's building societies
because its intended
beneficiaries can no longer afford to access it,
according to an official of
the Association of Building Societies of Zimbabwe
(ABSZ).
The official, Wilfred Mapfumo,
said the funds were made available by
the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) but were no
longer being lent out because
the low-income earners they were supposed to
benefit could not afford
building societies' mortgages.
High
inflation and rising interest rates have affected the ability of
many
Zimbabweans to borrow funds, making it difficult for those in need
of
low-cost housing to access money to build their own
homes.
"I can say about $500 million of
USAID funds is lying idle in all the
building societies in the country,"
Mapfumo said at a recent stakeholders'
meeting on low-cost
housing.
"When people pay back, the
building societies are supposed to lend
this money out again to new
beneficiaries, but this money is now
accumulating because the people who are
ideally supposed to benefit cannot
prove that they are able to pay the
mortgages back," he added.
USAID has
released more than $2.5 billion since 1994 to Zimbabwe's
five building
societies for on lending to low-income earners at competitive
interest
rates.
Under the arrangement, the building
societies were required to raise
50 percent of amounts lent to each
applicant.
Low-income families in Zimbabwe
are considered to be those earning
about $16 000 per month, but Mapfumo said
building societies were no longer
considering applications from people in
this income bracket because they
could not pay back
mortgages.
He said it now costs more than
$5 million to build one low-cost house
in Zimbabwe and financial institutions
doubted the ability of low-income
earners to pay back such huge amounts of
money.
Zimbabwe's five building societies
are the Central African Building
Society, the Zimbabwe Building Society,
First National Building Society,
Intermarket Building Society and Beverly
Building Society.
FinGaz
Load shedding set to
play havoc with results
McDonald
Dzirutwe
4/17/03 10:09:05 AM (GMT
+2)
LOAD shedding by the Zimbabwe
Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA)
could weigh down stock exchange-listed
industrial concerns with June half
year-ends, slowing down the impressive
financial results released by local
companies this year, analysts said this
week.
ZESA, whose imports of electricity
and servicing of debts with
regional power suppliers has been hit by severe
foreign currency shortages,
began load shedding this month because of a
decline in electricity supplies.
Market
watchers said most companies were operating at between 50 and
70 percent of
capacity because of the power cuts, while employees were
working half their
normal working hours.
The analysts said
this reduction in production could affect the
quality of results posted by
industrial concerns.
"We see this load
shedding playing havoc, especially for those listed
industrial companies that
in the past year have produced good results that
are above inflation," an
analyst with NDH Equities told the
Financial
Gazette.
In its market
forecast for the second quarter of 2003, Kingdom
Stockbrokers said: "The
quarter will continue to be extremely challenging
for management of listed
companies, with the availability and pricing of
electricity likely to be
critical."
Highlighting its stock picks
for the second quarter of the year,
Kingdom Stockbrokers said Ariston was
likely to be the best performer this
quarter, buoyed by the new exchange rate
announced by the government at the
end of
February.
The government devalued the
Zimbabwe dollar from $55:US$1 to $824 in a
bid to boost foreign currency
inflows.
Ariston, an agri-processing
concern whose half-year ends in March, is
expected to also benefit from
increased volumes while analysts anticipate
that its interim financial
results will spur its share price.
"Ariston is benefiting from the significantly increased effective
exchange
rate on first half earnings, compounded by good growth in the
volume of
exports. We expect the share price to react positively to
half-year results
to March 31, which are expected in late May," said
Kingdom
Stockbrokers.
The Stockbroking
firm forecast that Art, CFI, Delta, Econet and
Ariston would be the top five
performing counters in the second quarter.
Statistics obtained from ABC Stockbrokers and Kingdom Stockbrokers
show that
Apex was the best performing counter in the first quarter of 2003,
with its
share price jumping by 450 percent between January and
March.
General Belting, Powerspeed, ZSR,
Clan and Apex were the top five
performing stocks during the first quarter of
this year.
Only two companies, Old Mutual
and Barbican, saw their share price
tumbling in the first quarter, with their
prices falling by 17 percent and
22 percent
respectively.
Meanwhile, the money market
recorded a surplus of $13 billion on
Friday, from a deficit of $800 million
last Monday, and was forecast to
remain in surplus this
week.
Dealers said the government had this
Monday issued ad hoc Treasury
bills (TBs) in an attempt to raise $10 billion
but rejected most bids
because investors were charging high interest
rates.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)
issued a 91-day TB to raise $5
billion but only allotted $1.25 billion
dollars at an average rate of 47.90
percent, up from last week's rate of 42
percent.
The RBZ also issued another
91-day TB but rejected all bids because
the market was asking for high
rates.
"The government did come up with ad
hoc TBs but managed to raise $1.25
billion only," a money market dealer with
a local discount house said.
"Despite the
market surplus position, rates have stabilised around 60
percent. The
government has lots of commitments like buying maize, while the
tobacco
season is opening. So the RBZ will have to come back to the
market
again."
Although money market
rates have stabilised around the 60 percent
range, dealers say some deals are
being clinched at rates of around
79
percent.
Call rates were quoted at
around 60 percent on Monday, easing from as
much as 70 percent last
week.
Seven and 14-day rates edged upwards
to around 65 percent last week
but retreated to around 60 percent this
Monday.
The 30, 60 and 90-day TBs crept up
to an average 55 percent from 52,
53 and 54 percent respectively last
week.
However unsecured instruments such
as bankers' acceptances attracted
rates of more than 60
percent.
Meanwhile, dealers on the foreign
currency market said trading
remained low in the absence of significant
foreign currency inflows
FinGaz
When dictators who
live a lie go . . .
Sydney
Masamvu
4/17/03 9:18:04 AM (GMT
+2)
SO it's finally over in Baghdad. The
US-led forces are even sniffing
for Saddam Hussein right in his birthplace in
Tikrit. That is how the man
preferred to
go.
He is being hunted down in his
birthplace while his people celebrate
his
departure.
That is what happens or ought
to be done when dictators who live a lie
are thrown
out.
Saddam is nowhere to be seen in a
country that only four weeks ago he
claimed he was firmly in charge of, with
Iraqis wholly behind him and ready
to butcher the invaders threatening their
sovereignty.
Now Saddam has a price tag on
his head and the Iraqi people seem to be
more than ready to bring it to
American President George Bush on a platter.
So much for the people's
unwavering support!
The events in Baghdad
of the past week should be a lesson to leaders
the world over, southern
Africa included.
Scenes of jubilation in
Mosul and Baghdad that accompanied the fall of
Saddam from power were really
touching to say the least.
But the mood of
the people in the streets sent one clear message to
all leaders: this is the
ultimate price dictators have to pay for living
under a delusional sense of
popularity that is in fact induced
by
repression.
It is important to note
that only three months ago, Saddam was
"overwhelmingly elected" as the
president of Iraq.
The jubilation that
accompanied Saddam's ouster and the lack of
resistance from his loyalists and
the people of Iraq would seem to indicate
that his electoral victory wasn't
as overwhelming as he would have liked the
world to
believe.
In fact, those who were supposed
to stand by him to the end melted
into the people when people power engulfed
and asserted itself in Baghdad
and
Mosul.
The sight of Saddam's statues being
pulled down and stamped on by
relieved and barefooted Iraqis was really
sobering.
One was left asking: did they
hate the man so much ? Had he become
such a pain? How could they, the people
that only a month ago Saddam boasted
were revolutionary and would repel any
invader, forsake him in this way?
The
people around him, Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf
especially,
didn't help Saddam much.
Even as American
marines were barely five kilometres away from him in
Baghdad, al-Sahaf
refused to acknowledge their presence, let alone to accept
that the airport
had been taken over.
He had the guts to
lie that all was well even as he himself was being
forced to hold a press
conference in the streets because his ministry's
building was
ablaze.
Saddam's government insisted there
was no crisis until the very end.
The
problem is that the political elite in any dictatorship, when they
are drunk
with power, dismally fail to read the mood of the
people.
The behaviour of al-Sahaf and
Saddam is typical of dictators.
In their
power-drunk stupor, they had wild visions of the Iraqi people
swooping on the
Americans in defence of the Dear Leader.
They forgot that even Joseph Goebbels' poisonous tongue did not save
Hitler
when his world crumbled around him.
God
has always had a way of delivering his people from bondage. God
will not fail
us.
SABC
Sudan, Zimbabwe escape censure at UN rights
meeting
April 16, 2003,
23:30
The United Nations top human rights body rejected an European
Union motion
condemning abuses in Sudan today and blocked a bid to put
Zimbabwe in the
dock. The Commission on Human Rights narrowly rejected a
motion by the
European Union on the "continuing violations of human rights
and
international humanitarian law" in
Sudan.
The action automatically ended the mandate of the special United
Nations
investigator on Africa's biggest
country.
On Zimbabwe, the European Union, with the backing of the United
States, had
sought for the second year running to condemn rights
"violations" by
President Robert Mugabe's government. However, African
countries led by South
Africa voted to prevent any further action being
taken on the EU call, a
similar outcome to last
year.
In its motion, the EU had accused the Mugabe government of
"numerous cases of
assault and torture in a climate of impunity" as well as
"occurrences of
violations of the freedoms of expression, opinion,
association and assembly".
However, human rights activists and some Western
diplomats say the
commission, which traditionally offers the chance to "name
and shame"
countries that abuse rights, is growing increasingly reluctant to
point the
finger at any
state.
In part this is because many member states have questionable
rights records
of their own, but it also reflects irritation by many
developing countries at
what they see as "double standards" on the part of
the richer nations. In
rejecting the EU resolution on Sudan, the commission
went against the
recommendation of its own special investigator who had
reported that human
rights abuses continued in the
country.
"While civil society has become more pro-active and better
organised, the
security apparatus continues to operate in impunity," Gerhart
Baum reported
to this year's
commission.
Defeat for the EU motion, which also spoke of the "violations of
the rights
of women and girls, including female genital mutilation" and the
use of
"arbitrary arrest and detention", meant that Baum's mandate was not
renewed.
- Reuters
The
Herald
Milk supplies improve
Herald
Reporter
Supplies of fresh milk to some shops have improved over the past few
days,
raising hopes that milk will soon be readily available.
The
milk, most of which is the 500ml pack of the long-life Chimombe brand,
is
selling at between $250 and $270, up from the old price of between $105
and
$116.
The new price is almost the same as that of the 300ml packets that
Dairibord
Zimbabwe was distributing last month. The small packets cost
between $210
and $232 for fresh milk, and $252 to $282 for
Lacto.
Dairibord was early this month fined $1,5 million for selling milk
in new
size packs in contravention of the control of goods
regulations.
The company was found to introduce the 300ml packets and
abandoned the 500ml
packs without the authority of the Minister of Industry
and International
Trade.
After Dairibord was fined, fresh milk
vanished from most shops.
While consumers greeted the resurfacing of milk
supplies with joy, they were
sceptical about the price saying they did not
understand how a 500ml packet
and a 300ml packet could cost more or less the
same.
"It is really disgusting that we are made to suffer by
unscrupulous
businesses. This should make the consumer watchdog and the
Government
tighten their monitoring of the situation," said Ms Tambudzayi
Muganhu of
Harare.
Salespersons at some of the country's leading
supermarkets said while milk
had resurfaced over the past few days, the
supplies were far from
consistent.
"Some days we get the milk and
sometimes we do not. The ideal scenario would
be when we can have it everyday
and consumers can get as much of it as they
want," said one salesperson. On
Monday consumers could be seen jostling to
get as many Chimombe packets as
they could from a city supermarket which had
supplies.
Efforts to get
a comment from Dairibord were fruitless.
A Dairibord spokesperson Ms
Ruvimbo Mukuruva said the company would respond
to all questions pertaining
to the milk situation in an advertorial that
would be published in The Herald
today.
"What you want to know is the same information that we have put in
the
editorial and asking me to give you the same information all over
again
means we both do a double job," she said.