Comment from The Star (SA), 20 April
Are we prepared to underwrite the reconstruction and
development of our
northern neighbours?
Jovial
Rantao
The crescendo of voices calling for urgent change in Zimbabwe
has reached
fever pitch. The 27th anniversary this week of the freedom of
the Zimbabwean
people from their colonial masters has again refocused South
Africa and the
world on the plight of millions of our neighbours, many of
whom live under
trying conditions in a country that is slowly, but surely,
being mismanaged
to ruin. The many voices that have emerged from the
cacophony have observed,
correctly, that despite the calls for change, the
situation that Zimbabweans
find themselves in has not changed one iota.
Among the voices that have
called for something urgent and drastic to be
done in Zimbabwe so that the
country can return to its former glory are
South Africans. The South
Africans have not only called for change but have
been fiercely critical of
the government's approach to the problem, in
particular President Thabo
Mbeki's quiet diplomacy.
South
Africans, bound by African roots with their northern neighbours, have
made
it clear in no uncertain terms that the Zimbabwean problem must be
resolved
so that the country stops being an economic burden to its southern
African
neighbours. However, just as it is clear that Zimbabweans had no
reason to
celebrate their 27th anniversary since independence, it should be
clear that
something drastic needs to happen so that the lives of
Zimbabweans must
change. Otherwise we will say all of these things again in
a few years' time
when President Robert Mugabe is standing for another term.
The question must
be asked: What price are South Africans willing to pay so
that Zimbabweans
must begin to see a change in their political and economic
situation? Are we
prepared, in the first place, to put our money where our
loud mouths are,
and underwrite the reconstruction and development of
Zimbabwe and its
people? If we all accept that Mugabe is the problem in
Zimbabwe; that he is
the major obstacle, then are South Africans willing to
become part of the
solution by helping to remove him? Would we be willing to
allow or persuade
our government to offer a safe sanctuary for Mugabe so
that other
Zimbabweans can try to succeed where he has dismally failed?
I can
almost hear that chorus: No. I can also hear some voices saying that
the
only place Mugabe must go once he is removed from office is the court,
to
answer a multitude of questions relating to state resources, rigging of
elections and many more. And then he must end up in jail. We heard these
same voices when reports emerged that Namibia was considering offering the
Zimbabwean leader a safe haven. The opposition to this idea was huge, yet no
alternative was offered. We have a precedent on the African continent.
Liberia is well on its way to rebuilding itself and the main catalyst to the
democratisation of that country was the removal of Charles Taylor from that
country to Nigeria. The manner in which the Taylor saga has ended, his
arrest and pending trial, would be the factors that would be a disincentive
to Mugabe. He would want some guarantees - which I'm sure will be vehemently
opposed - that he would not go the way Taylor has gone. The creation of an
exit route for Mugabe might not be palatable but it would, in my view,
create a political climate that could lead to the resolution of Zimbabwean
problem by Zimbabweans themselves.
It would not be the only
solution. It would only work if it is part of a
package - a Marshall Plan of
sorts - tailor-made to rescue Zimbabwe from the
depths of despair. Part of
this plan, for instance, would be the
establishment of a transitional
government of national unity. This
government, co-managed by Zanu PF and the
Movement for Democratic Change,
would, assisted by its southern African
neighbours, embark on an ambitious
five-year plan of reconstruction and
development. This proposal is radical
but given the dire situation in
Zimbabwe, we cannot tinker with it anymore.
It's time to move beyond
shouting from the sidelines - being comfortable
with Zimbabweans working as
our gardeners, waiters and waitresses - and do
something drastic. So, would
a Mugabe in exile in South Africa be a prize
that we are willing to
pay?
FinGaz
Clemence Manyukwe Staff
Reporter
POLICE, desperate to make terrorism charges against a group of
jailed
opposition activists stick, have made a potentially damaging claim in
court
that a South African government security agency trained Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) campaigners, including a legislator, in acts of
insurgency and terror.
Thirteen opposition members, including MDC
Glen View Member of Parliament
(MP) Paul Madzore and his brother Solomon,
are being charged under the
Criminal law (Codification and Reform) Act for
"training as insurgents,
bandits, saboteurs or terrorists."
The
investigating officer (IO) in the case, Wellington Ngena, has laid
charges
in which he claims that the group received military training in
South
Africa.
He alleged: "Between December 2006 and March 2007 in Pretoria and
Orange
Free State in South Africa, they attended or underwent a course of
training
on how to draw up detailed plans for dummy runs and decoys,
creation of
dilemmas for the Zimbabwe government and how to use them, thus
receiving
military training."
Defence lawyer, Alec Muchadehama, told The
Financial Gazette yesterday that
before a court appearance by his clients on
Monday this week, the police had
accused them of having been trained by the
Scorpions.
The Scorpions are the Directorate of Special Operations (DSO) - an
arm of
the National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa.
The division
is an elite anti-corruption unit comprising mostly
intelligence, financial
and forensic experts.
It has never been known to have any involvement in
military training, as now
claimed by police.
Muchadehama this week placed
the police claims before magistrate Lazarus
Murendo, but the investigating
officer refused to make further testimony on
the claim, saying doing so
would be premature as police were still carrying
out
investigations.
"When I asked the IO in court if he could repeat the police
accusations that
the MDC members were trained by a person called Larry, and
by people from
the Scorpions, he refused to answer, saying that would
jeopardise
investigations," said Muchadehama.
An affidavit by Ngena says
there was unspecified information he would not
discuss in court, as doing so
would scuttle continuing police
investigations.
"The information that I
have is very sensitive and disclosing it at this
stage will seriously
prejudice investigations. Disclosure of such sensitive
information may
result in some suspects tampering with the chain of evidence
and some going
into hiding," reads part of the investigating officer's
affidavit.
The
affidavit further states that he had applied for and had been granted a
ministerial order not to divulge certain information in court.
The MDC
suspects will be back in court next week for a ruling on two
applications
that Muchadehama has made. The first application is for the
court to order
police to bring from the Registrar-General's office copies of
birth
certificate, national identity, pictures, and the applications made to
acquire the identification documents by one Peter Chindodana, whom the state
claims is the MDC member that implicated the 13 suspects.
According to
Muchadehama, the said Chindodana is in fact "fictitious."
The lawyer's other
application is that the magistrate refers the case to the
Supreme
Court.
"Their detention is unlawful. When they were arrested on March 20,
they were
charged for various other offences, only for the police to say on
April 9
that they had trained in South Africa as terrorists," Muchadehama
said.
The police claim on South Africa's involvement appears to dovetail into
allegations made two weeks ago by police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri, who
told a caucus of ZANU PF MPs that the MDC had hatched a plan to embark on
what he said were "30 days of chaos" in order to destabilise the
country.
According to MPs at the meeting, Chihuri claimed the plan involved
the
bombing of police camps and other government installations.
The MDC
denies involvement in any terror campaign. MDC faction leader Morgan
Tsvangirai told reporters last week that ZANU PF had "a history of coming up
with trumped up charges" to justify its crushing of dissent.
He cited the
cases of PF Zapu and Zanu Ndonga, whose former nationalist
leaders were at
different times accused of terror plots against the ZANU PF
government.
In the early 1980s, government accused PF Zapu and its former
nationalist
leader, Joshua Nkomo, of planning to oust the government.
In
1996, ahead of a presidential poll, Zanu (Ndonga) leader Sithole was
tried
for recruiting supporters for military training.
He was also accused of
having personally picked the spot, on August 4, 2005,
where an attack would
be launched on President Mugabe's motorcade. An AK47
was produced as
evidence.
Sithole was later acquitted.
FinGaz
BULAWAYO - Residents may have
to be careful when they buy food from shops.
The Bulawayo City Council's
Health Department says some people who handle
food in shops are not washing
their hands and fingernails frequently with
bacterial soap.
In its report
tabled in the council last week, the department said though
the general
standard of cleanliness in most shops was satisfactory, tests by
the
department had indicated that the hands and nails of some people that
handled food were unsatisfactory.
"This suggested that food handlers were
not frequently washing their hands
and fingernails using bacterial soap,"
the report said. It added, however,
that the department was holding talks
and demonstrations on proper methods
to wash hands.
The report said only
three food carts had renewed their registration
certificates out of 22 that
had applied. There were 58 food carts on the
council's register.
Three
lodging houses out of a total 26 were unsatisfactory. These were
Zimbabwe
College of Ministries, Mugoni Lodge and Silver Sands.
The department said
there were 41 other registered lodges in the suburban
areas. Only 21 had
been registered because they met the standards.
The department, however,
noted that the activities being carried out at some
of the lodges left a lot
to be desired, an issue it said was better dealt
with by the police as the
department only looked at the health aspect of the
premises.
FinGaz
Clemence Manyukwe
Staff Reporter
PARLIAMENTARY portfolio committees, many of which have
angered Cabinet for
keeping its activities in the public eye, will be
gravely weakened after
government's decision last week to cancel a
partnership with the United
States Agency for International Development
(USAID).
The aid cancellation will also hurt parliamentary reforms,
Members of
Parliament (MPs) fear.
Officials claim USAID support for
Parliament was an American ruse to use
committees to topple President Robert
Mugabe's government.
A recent US report, titled "Supporting Human Rights and
Democracy," saying
the American government's strategy of fostering human
rights and democracy
in the country was being done through Parliament, has
been something of a
godsend for Cabinet, which has on numerous occasions
summoned MPs to demand
that they tone down their public criticism of its
administration.
Cabinet ministers have on numerous occasions sought to bar
the media from
sitting in on committee hearings. While most excuses given by
the ministers
for wanting the press barred are usually to do with the
claimed
"sensitivity" of matters discussed in the hearings, MPs say the
real reason
is that they fear having the incompetence of their ministries
and
departments exposed.
The committees have over recent years found a
progressively more analytical
voice, laying bare the increasing lack of
accountability within Cabinet, but
also angering ministers.
MPs have also
successfully resisted any executive interference, but the US
statement has
now given Cabinet an opportunity to muzzle them.
The US statement had said:
"A US-sponsored program to strengthen
parliamentary committees resulted in
increased debate in parliament - both
from opposition and reform-minded
ZANU-PF parliamentarians - and encouraged
greater transparency through
public hearings on legislation."
That was just what Cabinet needed to move
in.
State media reported that the government was "alarmed" at the operations
of
the committees, saying Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa would work with
the heads of the House of Assembly and the Senate to ensure that Parliament
was not "taken advantage" of.
The cancellation of the USAID partnership,
which has already assisted
parliaments in Namibia, Zambia, and Mozambique,
would severely weaken the
committees, MPs say.
The agreement had resulted
in increased public participation in the affairs
of the country through
public hearings.
At one time, 350 people discussed the Non-Governmental
Organisation Bill,
designed to restrict the operations of NGOs. President
Mugabe later declined
to sign it into law.
The USAID partnership, which
provided relief in the face of inadequate state
funding for the legislature,
had also seen the training of Parliament
research staff and clerks; study
tours to democracies such as Tanzania and
South Africa, as well as working
with individual MPs on conducting press
conferences.
Advisory work was
also provided for committee chairs on their own internal
committee
operations, and on conducting open hearings.
There was also assistance for
oversight and bill amendment, as well as in
the development of a database of
experts, publications in the Parliament's
Public Relations Office, seminars
on media relations, and sponsorship of
annual Parliament reporting
awards.
While deputy House Speaker Kumbirai Kangai has claimed that
Parliament was
not receiving funding from USAID or any other donors,
Parliament's website
says: "The implementation of the reforms started in
earnest in January 1999
when the project entitled Technical Support for
Parliamentary Reforms was
launched. This was followed by the inception of
another project called
Technical Support for Parliament - Constituency
Relations in July 2002."
Both projects were formulated and implemented with
support from the United
Nations Development Programme, USAID, the State
University of New
York-Zimbabwe, the Swedish International Develop-ment
Cooperation Authority,
the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Friedrich Ebert
Stiftung and the African
Capacity Building Foundation.
The website also
says although parliamentary reforms started at Independence
in 1980, the
legislature became increasingly aware that it was still widely
viewed by the
public as being a remote institution, was ill-equipped, and
inadequately
resourced to effectively represent the constituencies, hence
the decision to
approach donors.
FinGaz
Charles
Rukuni
BULAWAYO - Controversy surrounds the appointment of a new town
clerk for the
city. Although Gwanda Town Clerk, Gilbert Mlilo, has been
recommended for
the job, some councillors and municipal officials feel his
appointment is
being bulldozed by the executive mayor, Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube
because, they
claim, he does not want any of the present council employees
to get the job.
The vacancy follows the retirement of Moffat Ndlovu who
officially leaves at
the end of this month. Four candidates were interviewed
for the post. These
included city treasurer Middleton Nyoni, his deputy
Stanley Donga and
chamber secretary Gilbert Dube.
The interviews were
conducted by the council's executive committee, which
comprises the mayor
and six councillors.
Councillors opposed to the appointment of Mlilo say the
mayor is trying to
sideline the three senior council employees because they
were his seniors
when he was a council employee.
Ndabeni-Ncube was deputy
director of housing before his election to
executive mayor. Efforts to get
the mayor to respond to the allegations were
fruitless.
The controversy
seems to have started during the interviewing process.
According to
confidential minutes availed to The Financial Gazette, the
mayor had
prepared 21 questions for the interview while the town clerk had
prepared
14.
The town clerk argued that procedurally, the questions were supposed to
come
from management and not the executive mayor, but the mayor argued that
a
circular from the Local Government Board gave him the authority.
Though
the town clerk argued that the circular from the government merely
gave the
mayor powers to ensure that the setting of questions was done, the
two sides
agreed to synchronise the questions with the majority coming from
the
mayor's list.
The town clerk was, however, not allowed to ask any questions
as it was felt
he might "intimidate" the candidates.
Nyoni, Donga and
Mlilo all have Master in Business Administration (MBA)
degrees from the
National University of Science and Technology while Dube is
in the third
stage of his MBA at the same institution.
Dube, however, is a member of the
Institute of Town Clerks of Southern
Africa, which is "the most relevant
(qualification) for the position of town
clerk" but he came last in terms of
points by the panel.
Mlilo scored 667 points and was followed by Nyoni with
634 points, Donga
with 619 and Dube with 605 points.
The confidential
minutes say Mlilo was assisted in answering two questions,
one of which was
"walking the floor" which he seemed not to understand.
"This was irregular,"
the minutes say.
The minutes also said the executive committee did not
discuss every
candidate's performance as was usually the case, though they
had been
invited "several times" to do so by the council's human resources
manager.
Though Mlilo has already been recommended, he still has to be
interviewed by
the Local Government Board in Harare. It is only after this
second interview
and after approval by the board that the appointment can be
effective.
One senior councillor said the appointment of Mlilo had to be
stopped
because in the history of Bulawayo, the town clerk had always been
chosen
from among council employees understudying the town clerk.
He said
this was the case with the first black town clerk of the city, Mike
Ndubiwa
and the current town clerk Ndlovu. They had both been promoted from
deputy
town clerk to town clerk.
The post of deputy town clerk was abolished and
replaced with that of
chamber secretary. The councillor said Dube was
therefore, the most suitable
candidate as he had been deputising Ndlovu and
had acted as town clerk on
several occasions.
"The appointment of Mlilo
must be stopped at all costs," the councillor
said. "How can we have a city
the size of Bulawayo being run by someone who
has been running Gwanda, which
is the size of Cowdray Park?"
Cowdray Park is one of the high-density suburbs
of Bulawayo and is the home
of Operation Hlalani Kuhle.
FinGaz
Staff Reporter
ZANU PF
deputy information secretary, Ephraim Masawi, appears to have
escaped
unscathed by the farce that gripped his party over Edgar Tekere's
controversial memoirs for which the maverick nationalist was sacked from the
party.
ZANU PF's influential youth league had recommended that
Masawi, the
Mashonaland Central governor, be suspended for attending the
launch of a
book by former nationalist Tekere, which dims President Robert
Mugabe's
liberation war credentials.
John Nkomo, ZANU PF chairman and
head of the party's national disciplinary
committee, had indicated that the
matter was in the hands of Masawi's
Mashonaland Central
province.
However, Chen Chimutengwende, leader of the party's Mashonaland
Central
provincial structure, said his province was not handling the
matter.
"Chimutengwende said Masawi would be treated differently from Tekere
since
the latter had been an ordinary member, whereas Masawi held a position
of
authority in ZANU PF.
The Masawi saga had opened up rifts in the
party, with one faction latching
on to the controversy to push for ZANU PF
Guruve Member of Parliament Edward
Chindori-Chininga to replace the ruling
party deputy information secretary.
Chindori-Chininga, a former minister of
mines and mining development, was
dropped from President Mugabe's Cabinet in
2004.
But, according to Chimutengwende: "There are no vacancies yet."
The
ZANU PF youth league had felt that Masawi "failed to defend the party's
first secretary", leaving the task to people such as opposition activist
Patrick Kombayi.
FinGaz
Stanley Kwenda
Staff Reporter
INTERNATIONAL resources expert Stephen Bailey has
encouraged foreign mining
companies to take a long-term view on Zimbabwe's
troubled economy but warned
they should tread cautiously.
A senior
vice-president of the United States-based Frontier Strategy Group,
Bailey
said while it is unlikely that the country's economy would recover
soon,
Zimbabwe could be an excellent long-term investment opportunity for
companies that closely monitor the political situation and choose the right
time to invest.
"The firms that successfully predict improvements in
Zimbabwe's investment
climate prior to general recognition by the mining
industry will be rewarded
with access to the country's best mining assets at
significant political
risk discounts," he said in a contribution to the
Resource Investor
database.
Frontier Strategy is a global research and
advisory firm.
Bailey said investors in the resource sector should cautiously
monitor
"signposts" of economic and political change in the country, which
he said
is unlikely to begin until there is a change in the current
government.
He said if Zimbabwe's remaining foreign gold producers decided to
pull out
of the country, this would precipitate a collapse of the mining
sector.
"Taking a disciplined approach to defining and tracking such
signposts will
allow companies to separate the daily noise from the
underlying political
trends in Zimbabwe," said Bailey.
He added that
there "were pointers" to political change in Zimbabwe, which
could help
mining companies decide on the right time to invest in the
country.
According to Bailey, gold production accounts for over half of
the country's
mineral production, one third of the country's Gross Domestic
Product, and
is one of the few remaining sources of foreign
currency.
...as President takes softer stance
Staff
Reporter
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has indicated government would not
forcibly seize
foreign-owned mining companies but said his government would
still push for
empowerment thresholds that would give blacks key stakes in
the sector.
The latest policy, which suggests government might have learnt
the hard
lessons from the chaotic land redistribution, which has reduced the
country - once the region's bread basket - to a basket case, reflects
pressure from the South African government, which quietly lobbied against
wholesale mine acquisitions.
Most of the major companies that have
recently invested in the country's
resources sector are South
African.
The acquisition of stakes in the foreign-owned mining companies will
be
effected through amendment to the Mines and Minerals Act, which President
Mugabe said would be presented to Parliament soon.
FinGaz
Staff Reporter
ZIMBABWE'S
largest detergent manufacturer, Unilever Southeast Africa, has
stopped
production of detergents due to unavailability of raw materials, The
Financial Gazette established this week.
Sources said the situation
at the company had become so desperate that at
least 100 workers could lose
their jobs.
They said the company was having problems securing raw materials,
some of
which were imports that required foreign currency, hence the
decision to
halt production of both bathing and washing soap.
Hillary
Muzondiwa, the company's spokesman, refused to comment when
contacted
yesterday.
He said he was not willing to share the company's production
schedules "with
the public".
Unilever is Zimbabwe's leading producer of
home and personal care products.
Operations at the company ground to halt
last month after management told
workers that the company had run out of
materials to keep the plant
operational. Market commentators said the
termination of production would
worsen shortages of edible oils and
detergents in the country, and this
could force prices up.
Zimbabwe has
for the past seven years experienced chronic foreign currency
shortages
blamed on poor export earnings, the dearth in foreign aid and
mismanagement.
A sharp drop in capacity utilisation has forced a number
of companies to lay
off employees.
Meanwhile, President Robert Mugabe on
Wednesday accused the country's
industrialists of seeking to undermine his
government's popularity by
repeatedly raising commodity prices.
Speaking
in the Shona language, President Mugabe said government would start
investigating businesspeople increasing commodity prices, saying some of
them had been "bought to undermine the government".
He was speaking in a
televised speech to mark the country's 27 years of
Independence.
FinGaz
Stanley KwendaStaff
Reporter
ZIMBABWE celebrated its 27th birthday on Wednesday, with
President Robert
Mugabe's address at Rufaro Stadium being the major
highlight of the
festivities.
But away from Rufaro Stadium, Yemurai
Musanhi was making brisk business
selling firewood along Willowvale Road to
residents of Glen View suburb,
parts of which have gone for months without
electricity.
Not even a convoy of buses ferrying people to Rufaro Stadium
could distract
her.
Asked what the day meant to her, she replied: "It
doesn't help me in any
way."
For Yemurai, the voice of President Mugabe
bellowing from a nearby radio was
"no different from any other urban groove
song", she said, referring to the
local pop music that has been so
overplayed that many now allow it to pass
unnoticed.
The independence
mood was far from being celebratory in the poor suburbs of
Harare, with many
people taking the opportunity to drown their sorrows in
cheap opaque beer,
whiling away the day with animated discussions of how
they are overcoming
the daily grind of independent Zimbabwe.
"Independence day is a big loss for
me. If I had gone to work it could have
been better because at least I would
have brought some meat to sell to my
neighbours and make some money. It's
like a stayaway, just a waste of time,"
said a worker who takes advantage of
his job at a meat processing company to
sell scraps of meat he gets at his
workplace.
Simba Sare of Chitungwiza openly expressed his feelings in a
commuter
omnibus travelling from Chitungwiza to Machipisa. He last
celebrated
independence in the heady 1980s, he says.
"We used to have
independence in the 80s, when our economy was still in good
shape. Now there
is no independence to talk about. How can you say you are
independent when
you are hungry? We can't even complain, so where is the
independence?" asks
Sare.
By contrast, Information and Publicity Minister, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, was
in
buoyant mood as he prepared to fly to Bulawayo to join in the
independence
festivities there.
"You must be happy that we fought for
this country and you are now able to
do some things that you could not do in
the past. For example now you can
walk into First Street, something you
could not do during colonial times,"
Ndlovu told journalists at a Harare
hotel last week.
A BBC blog quotes a clearly bitter 27 year-old Herbert as
saying: "I am not
excited about the independence anniversary celebrations.
Why should I be? I
have nothing to celebrate."
FinGaz
Staff
Reporter
THE country's loss-making parastatals and local authorities
scurried for
space in the local media as they jostled to "deceive and
flatter" the
Presidency, splurging millions of dollars in congratulatory
messages for the
independence anniversary despite their inadequate
resources.
The state enterprises, known for loud howls when demanding a
review of
tariffs and other service charges from the public, but are demure
when
confronted with demands for improved services, better management and
criticisms over poor performance, were visible in the local papers with
obsequious advertisements meant to grab the attention of their bosses.
In
the process, the institutions lied about their values and achievements.
The
National Investment Trust (NIT), a parastatal in the President's Office,
said the country's political independence needed to be guarded jealously,
saying this now needed to be transformed into "economic independence or
self-sustenance".
"With our well thought out economic empowerment and
indigenisation
programmes, we will conquer any economic monster meant to
destabilise us,"
the NIT said in a statement signed by chief executive
officer "Comrade Aaron
Jeremiah".
For a start, Zimbabwe has no economic
empowerment and indigenisation
programme to talk about. It has, however,
assisted some previously
marginalised groups to enter into certain areas of
the economy like banking
and finance, although using their own
resources.
The government is currently working on an economic empowerment
bill, and
amendments to the Mines and Minerals Act to allow black
participation in the
capital-intensive sector.
This, essentially, means
any economic empowerment and indigenisation
programmes were on autopilot,
and not "well thought-out".
The part that NIT failed to tell was its failure
to acquire a 15 percent
stake in Zimbabwe Platinum Mines on behalf of the
"underempowered" blacks,
despite government backing and "exclusive"
negotiating rights for the
acquisition of the stake.
The Harare City
Council, which has run down the city said through its
commission
chairperson, Sekesai Makwavarara: "As we work to turn around the
fortunes of
Harare, we cherish the freedom that we now enjoy."
Indeed her commission has
had the greatest freedom, but there are doubts
this has been good for the
city.
While the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) could take the kudos for
"turning around" into profitability following huge capital injections by the
central bank, it naively believed citizens had to marvel at independence,
which had brought them the crowded and dangerous "NRZ Commuter Freedom
Train".
There has been barely any new infrastructure the NRZ has put in
place since
independence, and most of its inherited infrastructure is now
dilapidated.
The National Social Security Authority, whose pension payouts to
retired
members are barely enough for bus-fare for a single trip to make a
claim,
took pride in its contribution to national development through
"benefits
payment".
ZESA Holdings, the struggling parastatal, which
recently claimed it was
technically insolvent, also spent cash from recent
tariff increases on
advertisements.
Other public enterprises which joined
the bandwagon were the Zimbabwe United
Passenger Company, the Zimbabwe
Tourism Authority, the Sports and Recreation
Commission, the Zimbabwe
Defence Industries and the Zimbabwe National Water
Authority.
FinGaz
Tawanda Karombo Staff
Reporter
PRESSURE is mounting on the Agricultural and Rural Development
Authority
(ARDA) chief executive officer (CEO) Joseph Matovanyika to quit
the
extension arm of the Agricultural Ministry as part of a wider
restructuring
being driven by the newly appointed board.
Highly
placed sources told The Financial Gazette this week that daggers were
drawn
against the ARDA CEO following the appointment of Rugare Gumbo as the
new
Agricultural Minister in February. Gumbo has wasted no time in
appointing a
new board chaired by Tobias Takavarasha, a renowned
agricultural
expert.
They said the Agriculture Ministry, which has presided over the
collapse of
agriculture, particularly of the single largest foreign currency
earner -
tobacco - is reluctant to inject new funding into the struggling
parastatal
unless the current status quo is revamped.
Matovanyika, who
moved to the parastatal
to replace Joseph Made, who had joined Cabinet and
has since been moved to
the newly-created Agricultural Engineering and
Mechanisation Ministry, was
not available for comment.
Gumbo has,
however, hinted at the re-organisation of ARDA, whose main
function is to
promote agricultural production in rural communities.
The Agriculture
Minister recently told journalists that the
Takavarasha-chaired board would
"streamline management of ARDA to ensure
efficiency" and ensure its assets
are revamped and put to full use "as a
matter of urgency," although details
about its form, style and approach
remained thin.
ARDA, founded during
the colonial era as the Tribal Trust Land Development
Corporation, has been
dealt a hammer blow by the withdrawal
of donor support in
the aftermath of
the controversial land reforms
led by veterans of Zimbabwe's liberation
struggle in 2000.
The authority presides over 20 estates, the majority of
which are lying
idle, largely due to poor
funding. Critics say it will
take much more than a new board and management
to rejuvenate ARDA, described
recently as "rotten" by President Robert
Mugabe.
They said without
adequate funding it would be impossible for the authority,
another victim of
political interference, to operate at full capacity.
"You can change
management as many times, but the situation there will
remain precarious
until the government starts to attend to real issues,"
said a
source.
Economic commentator John Robertson said although the appointment of
a new
board was welcome, ARDA was not likely to be reformed as long as
political
considerations continued to dictate its operations.
"The
institution has to attract employees of a
high calibre, and not
those bent
on pleasing their political masters," Robertson said.
Since ARDA has become a
component of Operation Maguta, a command agriculture
initiative, Robertson
added, it would remain difficult for ARDA to become
viable.
"We would
call and advocate for small scale agriculture, but the government,
in
maintaining ARDA as it is, is heading in the opposite direction from that
taken by other economies," Robertson added.
The new ARDA board announced
by Gumbo also comprises commercial farmer
Thomas Nherera, Air Zimbabwe board
chairman Mike Bimha and CBZ Bank managing
director John Mangudya.
FinGaz
Stanley Kwenda Staff
Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), whose debts were
inherited by
government, is creaking under a pile of obsolete equipment and
poor funding
in what analysts said is an indication that the state
broadcaster will
continue to suckle from the taxpayer.
Senior staff
at Pockets Hill, ZBC's headquarters, revealed this week that
working for the
broadcasting monopoly was a taxing exercise, as they have to
deThe resources
are so scarce that four reporters on different assignments
are now forced to
share a single camera, compromising the quality of news,
they say.
ZBC
has no functional Outside Broadcasting (OB) unit - with the last of its
already antique OB vans having packed-up last year. Some of the OB vans were
brought into the country over 20 years ago, specifically for the Non-Aligned
Movement summit in 1986.
This has made it virtually impossible for ZBC to
broadcast live events,
including football matches, without renting
facilities from elsewhere.
The broadcaster, staff also say, also faces a
depleted transport fleet, the
remainder of which being well past its sell-by
date.
ZBC chief executive officer Henry Muradzikwa, admitted that his
organisation
faces problems with its infrastructure, but sought to downplay
the crisis,
saying the situation was not as dire as reported.
He said:
"We do not have a functioning OB van at the moment. They are old
and need
replacement. The digitalisation project is going to be realised.
Our camera
situation is not all that critical. The reports you are getting
are just an
exaggeration."
But a sign of the decay at the national broadcaster is how it
has been
struggling to broadcast live events.
At the National Arts Merit
Awards earlier this year, ZBC staff had to record
proceedings, before
repeatedly rushing tapes across town to Pockets Hill for
broadcast.
The
Independence concert last Friday was the first event broadcast live this
year - only after Zimbabwe Cricket agreed to lease its own OB van to the ZBC
for the event.
Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, announced last
month during a tour
of state media institutions that equipment at ZBC was in
bad shape and
needed a comprehensive revamp.
This week, he said his
ministry was working on resuming a second phase of
the digitalisation
programme.
"We are revamping the whole system. I have already declared that
we are
doing that programme soon. When I came in, I assessed the state of
the
equipment and made it public that it needed attention. But now we need
more
finances to carry out these programmes."
FinGaz
Dumisani Ndlela Business
Editor
GOVERNMENT domestic debt surged by over 600 percent to an
unsurpassed high
during the first three months of the year, breaching the
trillion-dollar
mark for the first time since the country lopped off three
zeros from its
currency.
The increase has triggered fears of
irretrievable damage to the country's
delicate economic recovery
programme.
Statistics from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) showed this
week that
total government domestic debt, excluding government deposits with
the
central bank, climbed from $176 billion on January 5 to $1.3 trillion by
March 30, a 630 percent increase that was far ahead of the official
inflation forecast for the year of between 350 and 400 percent.
The
central bank removed three zeros from the country's fragile currency
last
August.
Economic analysts said the escalating domestic debt level was likely
to seal
the fate of the country's inflation rate this year, already
projected to
reach 6 000 percent by independent forecasters.
"This is a
leading indicator of inflation to come," said independent
economic
consultant, John Robertson. "There's a huge increase in money
supply
coming."
Zimbabwe is currently battling runaway inflation, topping 1 700
percent but
expected to have broken through 2 000 percent year-on-year for
March.
The absence of balance of payments support from offshore financiers
has
forced government to aggressively rely on domestic bank sources for
funding
requirements, normally through costly Treasury Bill (TB)
instruments, which
have largely been short term.
Of the new government
debt stock, $330 billion was in TBs, which attracted a
whopping $904 billion
in interest.
The new debt figures, despite indicating that the debt is
maintaining its
trajectory, raised fresh doubts on government's commitment
to restrain
extravagant public spending and chart the course for economic
recovery.
Economic commentators said based on the new figures on the debt
stock, the
national budget for the year had been spent even before
March.
"They (government) have outstripped their budget framework," said
Daniel
Ndlela, a Harare-based economic consultant. "This means more
inflation."
Concurred Robertson: "It's very likely the budget has been spent.
Total
wages alone have taken most of the money allocated in the budget to
ministries."
In his budget framework for 2007, former Finance Minister
Herbert Murerwa
gave an expenditure target of $4,6 trillion, excluding
interest, from
expected revenues amounting to $3 trillion during the
year.
The budget deficit was at 17,6 percent of gross domestic product
(GDP).
Economic analysts warned that government's ballooning expenditure -
almost
entirely recurrent - was likely to force the central bank into
running the
printing press, stoking money supply growth and consequently
worsening the
inflationary environment.
In his monetary policy statement
for the year, RBZ governor Gideon Gono said
the need to reduce inflation
this year was tremendous and required
"unprecedented fiscal and monetary
policy restraint, supported by close
coordination of efforts".
"To this
end, the Reserve Bank will reduce annual broad money supply (M3)
growth from
current levels of over 1 000 percent to between 415 and 500
percent by
December, 2007, and subsequently to under 65 percent by December
2008," Gono
said.
He also undertook to terminate all quasi-fiscal activities, condemned
by
Murerwa who said these "had risen to levels that are now undermining our
turnaround efforts by increasing the growth of money supply and therefore,
fuelling inflation".
Murerwa's remarks had sparked a public spat with
Gono, who alleged these
activities had been made at the behest of central
government.
Gono's project to rein in money supply growth is likely to suffer
from
increased expenditure requirements by the government.
The government
is facing renewed funding requirements for cereal imports, a
bloated civil
service salary and wage bill as well as cost escalations
caused by rampant
inflation.
FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube Chief
Political Reporter
THE European Union (EU) has added five recently
appointed deputy ministers
to its list of senior ZANU PF and government
officials banned from Europe.
The decision by the 17-nation bloc comes
less than a month after the
Southern African Development Community (SADC)
asked the West to remove
targeted sanctions against President Robert
Mugabe's government.
The latest additions to the sanctions list are Lazarus
Dokora, the deputy
minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Aguy Georgias,
the deputy
Minister of Economic Development, Titus Maluleke, the deputy
Minister of
Education and Sports, Tracey Mutinhiri, the deputy Minister for
Indigenisation and Empowerment and Walter Mzembi, the deputy Minister for
Water Resources and Infrastructural Development.
Information obtained
yesterday by The Financial Gazette from Brussels, the
seat of the EU,
indicates that its ambassadors agreed on a decision to
expand the list on
Monday.
President Mugabe appointed the five in February this year in a
mini-cabinet
reshuffle. The EU also took note of the promotions and other
positional
changes made by the Zimbabwean leader during that
reshuffle.
The additions to the list and changes to the portfolios of the
ministers and
deputies were done under the European Commission (EC)
Regulation No 412/2007
of April 16, 2007 amending Council Regulation (EC) No
314/2004 concerning
certain restrictive measures in respect of
Zimbabwe.
The EU slapped personal sanctions on President Mugabe and his
ruling elite
in 2002 after disputed presidential elections in which the
government denied
entry to Western election observers, precipitating an
unprecedented economic
crisis.
President Mugabe blames the economic
crisis on the sanctions.
The United States, which has imposed its own
sanctions against top ZANU PF
figures, said on Zimbabwe's Independence Day
on Wednesday that despite
increasing repression, "we remain hopeful that one
day soon (the people of
Zimbabwe) will join the growing family of
democracies around the world. The
efforts by the Zimbabwean government to
suppress the peaceful expression of
democratic rights and its misguided
economic policies have brought untold
misery to the nation."
Meanwhile,
South Africa is reporting "some movement" on its tough mediation
in
Zimbabwe, exciting opponents of the Zimbabwean government who see the
process as regional pressure on its continued hold on power.
The Southern
African Development Community, accused of refusing to clamp
down on rights
abuses by its members, last month appointed South African
President Thabo
Mbeki as mediator between the ruling ZANU PF party and the
two factions of
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Lord Triesman, Britain's
Minister for Africa, told a public discussion forum
in London this week that
pressure to end President Mugabe's reign was now
"potentially
unstoppable."
Triesman claimed that South Africa, which has been hosting
politicians from
both sides in preliminary discussions before a
fully-fledged mediation
process by Mbeki, had shifted from its much-maligned
quiet diplomacy to take
President Mugabe head on.
"Quiet diplomacy has
been urged on me. I believe it has mostly been silent
rather than quiet. But
I think it is now audible," he said. "And I believe
that change is now
potentially unstoppable," he added.
Triesman's remarks came after South
Africa's deputy Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Aziz Pahad, confirmed some
movement in Pretoria's efforts to crack
the crisis.
Pahad said Mbeki was
waiting for responses from ZANU PF and the MDC on a
letter he dispatched to
them last week.
"We will now await the responses to President Mbeki's
letters, so there is
some movement on this," said Pahad. "We are at the
pre-dialogue stage. We
have received the MDC initial draft responses on how
they see the processes
unfolding, the facilitator is looking at all these
inputs and on the basis
of his assessment of all these will determine, in
light of the letters to
the two MDC presidents, a programme of action in the
coming period," he
said.
However, South Africa's main opposition
Democratic Alliance party, said it
was not enough for Pretoria to state that
"there was some movement"
regarding the Zimbabwean crisis, calling for more
urgency on the matter.
President Mbeki has previously unsuccessfully
attempted to act as a mediator
in Zimbabwe.
South Africa's intelligence
minister, Ronnie Kasrils, is reported to have
visited Zimbabwe on Wednesday
in what political analysts speculated could be
in preparation for a rumoured
Mbeki visit.
Just over a year ago, Kasrils visited Zimbabwe to secure the
release of
Aubrey Welken, a South African spy arrested in Zimbabwe for
spying on senior
ZANU PF officials on behalf of Pretoria. Six ZANU PF
figures were accused of
spying on behalf of the South African government
during the embarrassing
espionage saga.
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda Staff
Reporter
ZIMBABWE'S troubled freight and passenger rail operator, the
National
Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ), has set itself ambitious targets to
move ten
million tonnes of freight traffic and 3.3 million inter-city
passengers this
year as a result of improved capacity.
Operational
constraints at NRZ have had negative downstream effects on the
productive
sector over the years, with bulk shipments of coal, minerals,
tobacco,
maize, sugar and cotton suffering due to shortages of cargo
locomotives.
NRZ spokesperson Fanuel Masikati told The Financial Gazette
this week that
the parastatal was rehabilitating its railway infrastructure
to achieve its
targets.
The NRZ will this year upgrade and replace the
track infrastructure, which
consists of the rail track, signalling and
telecommunications equipment, in
order to improve its operational
capacity.
"The NRZ has set for itself targets to move 10 million tonnes of
freight
traffic, 3.3 million inter-city passengers and 11.8 million
intra-city
commuters in 2007,
as a result of the enhanced capacity,"
Masikati said.
The NRZ's railway network currently has 82 speed restrictions,
which cover a
total distance of 380 km system wide.
But following the
recent acquisition of
12 000 tonnes of rail from China, which is being welded
into a 144-metre
rail, the NRZ will soon replace sections of rail with speed
restrictions in
the North, South East, Dabuka-Harare and Mutare sections of
the railway
network.
"The track infrastructure plays a critical role in
the smooth flow of rail
traffic in the country and, therefore, has to be
quickly rehabilitated in
order to enhance operational efficiency," said
Masikati.
He also revealed that the NRZ has also entered into
a deal with
an unidentified local company
to manufacture rail sleepers, which will be
fitted on the new rail.
He said at least
8 000 sleepers would be
manufactured and delivered to the NRZ every month.
Since the commencement of
the turnaround programme in July 2003 the NRZ has
refurbished 61 locomotives
and 1 797 wagons, thereby boosting its capacity
to meet the demand and
customer expectations.
The NRZ, which has a total of 10 123 wagons, of which
5 899 wagons are
dedicated to moving customer traffic while 4 224 are
awaiting repairs, last
year turned around to profitability following a huge
cash injection by the
central bank.
FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube Chief
Political Reporter
A NUMBER of government ministers who had failed to
find political homes from
where to cement their positions in Cabinet are
jostling for new rural
constituencies likely to emerge from the expansion of
Parliament from 150 to
210 seats.
Highly placed sources said the
decision to once again tinker with the
country's supreme law, in an
expansion seen further straining the fiscus,
has been a boon for most
Cabinet ministers whose stay as non-constituency
MPs was solely at President
Robert Mugabe's benevolence.
Cabinet has acceded to the constitutional
amendments, paving way for the
increase in Parliamentary seats and the
synchronisation of presidential and
parliamentary elections, a few weeks
after the proposals that have attracted
sharp criticism from the opposition,
had been endorsed by ZANU PF's
policy-making organ - the central
committee.
"Most of our colleagues have seen an opportunity here, which no
one would
want to miss," said a Cabinet source. "Surely, no one can ever be
happy
commanding a position in Cabinet without the express authority of the
people, and naturally, those that are focused on pursuing a political career
are excited and we could see it from the (Cabinet) meeting we had on Monday,
where the central committee's recommendations were largely approved," added
the source.
In the last general election a number ZANU PF bigwigs fell by
the wayside in
both the ruling party primaries and the Parliamentary polls
disputed by the
main Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Emmerson
Mnangagwa, the biggest casualty, narrowly lost the Kwekwe seat to
the MDC.
President Mugabe had to shuttle the former ZANU PF secretary for
administration, widely tipped to succeed him, into his Cabinet as a
non-constituency MP.
The present constitution allows President Mugabe to
cherry-pick 30
non-constituency members of the House of Assembly, including
10 provincial
governors and 10 chiefs chosen by their peers.
With the
introduction of the senate in November last year, President Mugabe
appointed
six senators to that body to represent special interest groups
such as the
disabled and the coloured community.
Amos Midzi, the ZANU PF chairman for
Harare Province and Mines Minister also
suffered a heavy defeat in Hatfield
to the opposition MDC.
Other senior government officials likely to be thrown
a lifeline courtesy of
the constitutional changes include Munyaradzi Paul
Mangwana, the
Indigenisation Minister, Munacho Mutezo, the Water Resources
Minister and
Sithembiso Nyoni, the Minister of Small to Medium Scale
Enterprises
Development.
Mutezo lost the Chimanimani seat to fellow
Cabinet Minister Samuel Undenge,
who now heads the Anti-Corruption Ministry,
while Mangwana fell to Deputy
Information Minister Bright Matonga in the
battle for the Ngezi seat.
Nyoni is one of the most consistent election
losers, suffering three
consecutive defeats. She has shown interest in
representing ZANU PF in the
Nkayi constituency where her non-governmental
organisation, Organisation of
Rural Association for Progressive
operates.
Her plans to gate-crush into Nkayi in the last parliamentary polls
were
thwarted by the Matabeleland North ZANU PF leaders who ruled that she
was
domiciled in Bulawayo.
President Mugabe had to draft her into Cabinet
as a replacement for Edna
Madzongwe, elevated to the position of senate
president.
Sources said Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu and Justice,
Legal and
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa, one of the
sharpest legal
minds in ZANU PF, could also take advantage of the changes to
give their
political careers a new lease of life.
"All eyes will now be
on the delimitation of the constituency boundaries,
which will have a huge
bearing on the aspirations of the ministers,"
remarked the Cabinet source.
The rural areas are considered safe seats for
the ruling party as these are
regarded as its strongholds.
Those that have dared to stand in urban
constituencies, the bastions for the
opposition MDC, have been routed,
presenting the Presidium with headaches on
how best to accommodate them.
FinGaz
Personal
Glimpses with Mavis Makuni
THE release in 2004 of images showing the
abuse of inmates at the Abu Ghraib
prison in Baghdad by American soldiers
sparked widespread outrage throughout
the world.
As a result,
American President George W. Bush was obliged to apologise for
the incident,
which violated international conventions on the treatment of
prisoners of
war.
Bush pledged the American government's determination to get to the
bottom of
the matter to ensure that the perpetrators of the abuses were
brought to
justice. He said what had happened were the transgressions of
individual
soldiers and did not represent the "American way".
The
worldwide condemnation of the soldiers' actions was an affirmation of
the
fact that even in a war situation, an individual's dignity and
inalienable
rights must be respected. The Abu Ghraib scandal highlighted how
the use of
violence degrades both the victim and the perpetrator.
I have recalled the
incident recently because of the political violence and
police brutality
that have erupted in Zimbabwe in recent months. A few weeks
ago the media
was awash with images of opposition leaders and activists with
swollen faces
and broken limbs. They had been brutally battered while in
police custody.
The victims included two women. I found myself asking if it
did not amount
to domestic violence for a government to torture or assault
its political
opponents when it is illegal to mistreat even prisoners of
war.
That kind
of violence degrades and dehumanises all Zimbabweans because it is
unnecessary and uncalled for. It is an attempt to compensate for
shortcomings that should be addressed differently. It is, in fact, a
subconscious admission of failure. I cannot imagine anyone being proud of
those images of swollen faces and bleeding skulls and beating one's chest
and labelling violence a "proudly Zimbabwean" way of resolving differences
or conducting political discourse. There may be those who revel and rejoice
in the physical battering of others, but they do not have a right to decree
how every one else should react. A few weeks ago I expressed abhorrence at
the use of violence against Morgan Tsvangirai, Lovemore Madhuku, Sekai
Holland and Grace Kwinjeh by state agents whose job is to guarantee the
safety and security of all citizens.
My views apparently angered a
gentleman whose name I cannot quite make out
who sent me an e-mail accusing
me of being a member of the Movement for
Democratic Change and gloating that
no matter how abhorrent violence was to
people like me, members of the
opposition would continue to be battered. The
sender of the e-mail will be
disappointed to be reminded that something that
is wrong cannot be made
right by decree. What is wrong is wrong and people
should be entitled to
follow the dictates of their consciences when they
comment on it. We cannot
call ourselves human beings if we are more
disturbed by the sound of water
dripping from taps in our homes but think
and feel nothing when fellow
humans bleed or die after being deliberately
attacked without justification.
Being deliberately set upon is different
from sustaining injuries in an
accident or similar circumstances.
It is sad that in the prevailing
atmosphere of economic hardships some
people place more importance on
political correctness and opportunism to
cloud issues. In this polarised
environment advocating acceptable human
values and norms is seen as being
"unpatriotic" and abnormal. What is
considered normal is to defend the
indefensible and attach all kinds of
labels on those who see things
differently. Those who support police
brutality should come up with
arguments to show why it should be accepted
instead of throwing red herrings
by falsely accusing its opponents of being
aligned to a particular political
party as though it is a criminal offence
even if it were true. There should
be no ambivalence or equivocation about
the unacceptability of violence in a
democracy. One needs to take a clear
stand.
This is what the Pan African
Association has done in a statement published
at the weekend saying they
were "saddened and concerned" at the suffering of
"brothers and sisters in
Zimbabwe." The church leaders, who fall under the
auspices of the Symposium
of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar,
spoke out at a meeting in
Accra, Ghana. They appealed to the government of
Zimbabwe "in the name of
Jesus to stop the violence" saying peace, good
governance and respect for
human rights should be the guiding principle.
The church leaders noted that
the situation in Zimbabwe was not the result
of a natural disaster but
self-inflicted. This is why it is necessary to end
the prevailing tense
situation where every one feels unsafe. There would be
something seriously
wrong if it were to be argued that ending violence would
be detrimental to
anybody.
-email feedback to:
mmakuni@fingaz.co.zw
FinGaz
Mavis Makuni Own
Correspondent
THE head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Benedict has
spoken passionately
about the raw deal that he believes the continent of
Africa received and
continues to get from the West.
The pontiff takes
the industrialised countries to task for injustices
committed against the
people of Africa during colonialism and for continuing
to "strip" the
continent of its rich resources even now when most countries
have freed
themselves from colonial bondage and are self-governing.
The Pope makes his
sentiments known in a book entitled Jesus of Nazareth. He
uses the parable
of the Good Samaritan to underscore how Africa's continued
marginalisation
and exploitation is the result of those in the developed
world "passing by
on the other side".
The pontiff, whose views were quoted in a recent issue of
the Sunday Times,
joins a number of other religious and political leaders
from the developed
world who have expressed regret over the injustices the
continent of Africa
has suffered.
In September last year British
churchman Chris Seaton led a delegation from
the European African
Reconciliation Process to Zimbabwe to ask for
forgiveness for sins committed
against Africa by their ancestors. The
delegation, which included members
from Britain, Germany, France, the United
States of America, Spain, Portugal
and the Netherlands, apologised for the
slave trade, exploitation, the
killing of innocent people and the fomenting
of conflict following the
partitioning of Africa.
Political leaders have done their share of saying "we
are sorry." Recently,
British Prime Minister Tony Blair followed in the
footsteps of former US
president Bill Clinton by expressing regret over the
slave trade. Blair
offered his apology during Ghanaian President, John
Kufuor's state visit to
Britain last month.
"The most important thing
though is obviously to remember what happened in
the past and to condemn it
and say why it was so entirely unacceptable," he
said.
During their visit
to Africa last year Seaton and his delegation made their
apology for the
colonisation of Africa before former Mozambican president,
Joachim Chissano
who indicated that if he had the mandate he would have made
his own apology
on behalf of Africa. Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni was
more forthright
in saying that imperialists were not solely to blame for
Africa's
woes.
He blamed the leaders of the time, mainly chiefs, for failing to defend
their countries' sovereignty. The Ugandan leader took the leaders of modern
day Africa to task when he said: "It is also the fault of many of the
post-independence leaders of Africa who have failed to transform our
economies and end Africa's balkanisation in order to create power blocs on
our continent with global influence when it comes to our legitimate
interests."
The Pope is right about the past wrongs and injustices that
have been
perpetrated against Africa. During the slave trade, an estimated
28 million
Africans were sold into slavery in the Americas between the 15th
and 19th
century.
However, African countries need to move forward and
leaders cannot blame
slavery and colonisation perpetually even for problems
they can avoid and
those they should tackle in line with the aspirations of
their people.
Many independence leaders inherited countries that were
regarded as gems at
the time they took over from colonial administrations
but which they have
since run into penury through greed, corruption and
misrule.
While Pope Benedict's concern over the marginalisation of the
continent is
valid, it is also true that some leaders have abused billions
of dollars in
aid that should have been put to good use to improve the
quality of life for
all.
Instead, some leaders have converted donor aid
for personal enrichment or to
fund "prestige" projects that have not
improved the standard of living of
the people.
Sudan was the first
African country south of the Sahara to attain
independence in 1956.
It
was followed by Ghana the following year. More countries became free in
the
1960s and the trend continued into the 1990s when South Africa and
Namibia
attained their Uhuru.
But despite having been independent for the longest
period, Sudan is also
one of the countries on the African continent to have
experienced the
longest civil war beginning in the 1980s during which an
estimated two
million died. The latest conflict in the Darfur region has
been raging since
2004. It has displaced two million people and left 400 000
dead.
The genocide in Rwanda in 1994 left about one million dead and
displaced a
further two million.
Bloody conflicts and civil wars have
retarded progress and caused human
misery in Liberia, the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone,
Angola, etc. Sierra Leone was once
regarded as the "Athens" of Africa but is
now the least developed country in
the world according to United Nations
rankings.
The Ivory Coast was once
regarded as a model for stable governance and
development but has now been
wrecked by conflict. The Democratic Republic of
the Congo is seen as the
"festering sore" of Africa after decades of Mobutu
Sese Seko's dictatorship,
civil war and disease.
The basket case of Africa is of course Somalia which
has not had a
functioning government since the overthrow of former dictator
Siad Barre in
1991.
The end of colonialism has seen the rise of African
dictators and strongmen
who have been more cruel to their people than
foreigners.
Idi Amin of Uganda, Mengistu Haile Mariam of Ethiopia, Charles
Taylor of
Liberia have the blood of thousands of fellow Africans on their
hands. The
advent of "Life Presidents" has given rise to despotic one-man
rule which
has spelt doom for many countries .
The Pope speaks from very
high moral ground and there is no doubt the people
of Africa cherish his
expression of solidarity with them. Many Africans who
are today displaced,
diseased, impoverished, persecuted and oppressed by
erstwhile independence
heroes would welcome the pontiff's voice in preaching
a different
message.
African leaders need to stop perpetuating the evils and injustices
of
colonialism at home while portraying themselves anti-imperialist
champions
of freedom and justice to the outside world.
Charity begins at
home.
-email feedback to:
mmakuni@fingaz.co.zw
FinGaz
Comment
A SOMBRE atmosphere blowing
across Zimbabwe as a
result of the despair piggy-backed by the abject
poverty ravaging at least
80 percent of the country's population and the
government-sponsored
crackdown on political activists overshadowed what
should have been lively
Independence Day celebrations observed on April 18
of each year.
Twenty-seven years on, Zimbabwe is a
pale shadow of
what it was in 1980 when her gallant sons and daughters
risked life and limb
to dislodge Ian Smith's regime after a bloody armed
struggle in which an
estimated 60 000 lives were
lost.
After a terrific start to majority rule that
saw
considerable investment pumped into education and health, which made the
country's leadership stand tall among its peers on the African continent,
the plot was lost along the way or worse still, there is no evidence of
political will to revisit the formula and inspire confidence. It is common
knowledge that poor funding, massive brain drain and mismanagement have
since conspired to decimate the health and education
sectors.
It is, however, the laissez-faire manner of
doing
things that runs deep in the country's treacherous body politic
against an
unprecedented economic meltdown that has been the country's
Achilles' heel.
And rightly so, the Independence Day
festivities
have lost meaning, particularly among the
poor.
It now takes a giant leap of faith for anyone
to
abandon his/her chores to celebrate the attainment of the country's
hard-won
freedom with the same vigour as before when the same freedoms are
slowly
being threatened. What with draconian pieces of legislation like the
Public
Order and Security Act and the Access to Information and Protection
of
Privacy Act confronting civil society.
It is
an understatement to say that the government
kicked itself in the teeth. It
has pressed the self-destruct button, PERIOD!
In all
this confusion, the business of the country
has been left unattended, hence
the resultant economic decay that has
eclipsed the post 1980
achievements.
From being the darling of the world,
acclaimed for
its high literacy levels, a well-diversified industrial base
and thriving
democratic systems, the country has taken a rough detour,
undoing much of
the gains that had been built around the sound
infrastructure inherited from
its colonial past. No wonder the Southern
African Development Community
(SADC), fearing the consequences could spill
over into the region, is
beginning to talk tough.
Grinding poverty is ravaging 80 percent of the
population, while the
HIV/AIDS pandemic has stretched the government's purse
to the limit.
Inflation, cited as the country's number one enemy, although
it is quite
clear that the government lacks the ammunition to fight it, tops
the world
charts at about 1 700 percent, from a respectable seven percent
average in
1980. The Zimbabwe dollar, which at one point traded neck-to-neck
or even
stronger against the United States dollar, has swung the other side
with
absolutely no glimmer of hope of regaining the lost ground, more so
considering falling capacity utilisation in industry and rapidly
deteriorating international relations that do not augur well for the
resumption of aid.
Ever since the emotive land
seizures of 2000 that
disrupted farming activities, agriculture, which
powers the country's
economic engine, has remained stuck in the doldrums
owing to appalling
incompetence and to a lesser extent the drought, whose
impact could have
been mitigated had the government fully developed
irrigation infrastructure.
The outcome has been obvious: chronic food and
energy shortages coupled with
thinning foreign currency receipts, which
makes it laughable for a country
endowed with rich soils and abundant
natural resources.
Life expectancy has plunged to 34
for women and 37
for men.
The powers-that-be are
quick to apportion blame,
unashamedly pointing an accusing finger at
everyone else except themselves -
the easier targets being sanctions,
outside interference, George Bush, Tony
Blair and an "unpatriotic
opposition," among other things. And yet the
evidence is there for all to
see.
After 27 years of self-rule, Zimbabweans are
wiser.
Unless rooted in a sound economy and all-inclusive political system
guaranteeing basic freedoms, political freedom alone will remain
meaningless. The time is now to walk the talk in the direction of uprooting
endemic greed and widespread corruption, anathemas to the long-sought
economic rejuvenation that has sadly been left to the central bank to fight
alone.
Being a coward, capital tends to shun the
uncertainty bred by the reckless diatribe targeted at perceived political
enemies while the economy is burning. In so many ways, it has ricocheted,
hurting tourism and other sensitive sub-sectors known to react to the
slightest whiff of bad news. Wanton violation of property rights, an
extension of the land reforms, and ongoing assaults on civil liberties, have
also combined to kill off investor confidence.
Although China has shown little concern despite
worldwide condemnation of
Harare's actions, the world's fastest growing
economy has not shown the
urgency required to jumpstart the country's
faltering
fortunes.
In the absence of aid and the much-needed
balance of
payments support from the Bretton Woods institutions, turning
Independence
Day celebrations into platforms of chiding real or imagined
enemies blamed
for the country's misfortunes, including interfering with
weather patterns
of all absurdities, is surely not the answer. Hopefully,
the latest SADC
initiative will clearly spell out successive steps to end
human suffering
and restore good governance.
FinGaz
National Agenda with
Bornwell Chakaodza
ZANU PF's creating a level playing field will be no
different from chickens
and turkeys voting for an early
Christmas!
OBVIOUSLY, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) would not want
to be
seen as spoilers as far as the Mbeki initiative is concerned. They
have to
be part of it - no two ways about it!
But at the same
time, is the ruling ZANU PF party ready to create conditions
in which the
opposition party will romp to victory in a free and fair
election, come
March 2008? For it is common knowledge that in a genuinely
open, free and
fair poll, ZANU PF cannot and will not win. And ZANU PF knows
that.
Hence
the ruling party's impending tricks and shenanigans of increasing the
rural
constituencies -President Robert Mugabe's traditional strongholds.
Enlarging
the Lower House from 150 to 210 seats and the Upper House (Senate)
from 66
to 84 is part of the game plan. It does not make sense for such a
small and
poverty-stricken country like Zimbabwe to have such a huge
parliament in
terms of numbers.
We have lived with ZANU PF and President Mugabe long enough
to know that the
last thing they will ever do is to create a level political
playing field
for all. It will not be different from chickens and turkeys
voting for
Christmas. These birds know that they will be in peril and
invariably headed
for the pot if they were to do that!
So a genuine
dilemma for the MDC? A catch 22 situation? Caught between a
rock and a hard
place? A dreadful conundrum for MDC? Call it what you will
but the Mbeki
initiative does present a real dilemma not only for the MDC
but for all
opposition parties and the entirety of the Zimbabwean
population.
It has
become very difficult on the part of many Zimbabweans to trust ZANU
PF. This
is the core of the problem. President Mbeki and the whole of the
Southern
African Development Community (SADC) have to understand the nature
of the
current Zimbabwean government. There is no telling what the
government might
do.
It may go along with the Mbeki mediation efforts from month to month only
to
somersault at the eleventh hour. It may indeed concede some ground here
and
there but those concessions amounting to nothing in the end.
If I am
painting a pessimistic and dismal picture, it is not my intention to
do
that. Neither is it my intention to intimate that there should be no
support
for the Mbeki initiative. Far from it. All I am doing is to draw
attention
to the enormity of the task ahead.
The political climate here is currently
not conducive to a free and fair
election and the MDC has rightly called for
a new constitution that ensures
such a free process including a transparent
counting of votes. Election
observers not only from SADC and AU but the
entire international community
(EU and UN) are a must - particularly from
the latter.
Prior to that of course, the pre-election period must enable
candidates to
campaign freely with all the horrible and repressive media and
public
security laws having been repealed to ensure complete openness and
lack of
fear on the part of voters. Equal access to electronic media and
state
newspapers is of course fundamental to the whole process.
March
2008 is just round the corner and the process of constitution-making
is
complicated and complex -something that cannot be done between now and
March
next year. What then is to be done? A transitional arrangement as the
MDC is
proposing? Or the ZANU PF way of holding the elections in 2008 come
what
may?
The nightmare for the MDC is an election held under the same conditions
that
the previous elections of 2002 and 2005 were held. We all know what
happened
then and what will happen next year. In the same vein, the
nightmare for
ZANU PF is an election held under a democratic and free
electoral
environment. We know what will happen. Certainly a big challenge,
very big
challenge for President Mbeki and all the protagonists.
The
ruling ZANU PF seems to think that the buck stops with them and
President
Mugabe.
They are not going to bow to internal and external pressure anytime
sooner
as can be gleaned from recent developments. The President's
utterances and
actions and the new phase of brutality and their plan to
redraw constituency
boundaries say it all. It does not take a genius to work
out that there is
no serious political will on the part of ZANU PF to tackle
the problems that
the country faces. The reality on the ground and the
endorsement of
proposals last Monday to harmonise presidential and
parliamentary elections
in March next year again says it all.
But it is
one thing to wish that certain things remain the same. It is quite
another
to have the ability to ensure that things remain so. The government
might
have all the resources in the world to make sure that nothing changes.
Ian
Smith had them but what happened? In the end, the liberation movement,
ZANU
PF itself, had the last laugh.
As it was then, it will be so now, ZANU PF or
rather sections of it are
deluding themselves if they think that the buck
necessarily stops with them.
Such kind of thinking merely delays the
inevitable. The MDC might appear to
face the mother of all political battles
but they have formidable allies in
the form of the vast majority of
Zimbabweans and the international community
as a whole.
My overwhelming
sense is that ZANU PF's allies and supporters in the form of
Youth and
Women's Leagues are rather fickle and unreliable and that when
push comes to
shove, they will disown the old guard just like Abel Muzorewa
supporters
abandoned the Bishop and went on to unashamedly sing the loudest
from the
ZANU PF hymn sheet. Ask Olivia Muchena and many other high-ranking
people in
ZANU PF and they will tell you all about it.
What is heartening, however, is
that the pressure on ZANU PF to change
course and listen to the cry of
Zimbabweans is growing. The pastoral letter
released two weeks ago by the
Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference on our
crisis is a recent case in
point. So is the cry of countless individuals and
organisations - all
pushing to open the door that might result in the
breaking of the dreadful
conundrum and the catch 22 situation in which the
MDC finds itself.
There
might be so many unknowns in our political equation but does ZANU PF
have
any choice now? The natural human impulse to peacefully fight to end
oppression that is in Zimbabweans just as it is in other people throughout
the world, the unending economic crisis as well as international solidarity
has the work of President Mbeki cut out for him - so it appears to
me.
Far from despairing therefore, I am left with a sense of hope that
whoever
said that all roads lead to Rome might not have been lying after
all! We
will get there - make no mistake about it.
Email:
borncha@mweb.co.zw