http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 26 April 2012
18:06
Wongai Zhangazha
AS journalists prepare to mark World Press
Freedom Day next week, the
Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) is forging ahead
with plans to establish a
statutory media council to police
journalists.
The move is seen as a renewed attempt to come up with new
instruments to
suppress press freedom. Journalists in Zimbabwe have been
subjected to
systematic repression over the years.
Of late there
have been renewed threats to clamp down on the media by
banning foreign
newspapers — which President Robert Mugabe’s diehards do not
like — from
entering the Zimbabwean market, even though local papers
circulate freely in
neighbouring countries.
The banning of newspapers from the region,
especially from South Africa, is
likely to trigger a diplomatic quarrel as
that would amount to unfair trade
practices. Newspapers are treated as any
other product, paying necessary
taxes and duties.
ZMC chairperson
Godfrey Majonga said yesterday the process of setting up a
media council
started early last year but there has been “some resistance”
from other
stakeholders.
“The media commission is consulting various
stakeholders that include
journalists, churches, advertisers and Law Society
of Zimbabwe, among
others,” he said. “We are getting resistance from some
stakeholders but we
are hoping that with the passage of time they will
become involved so that
the media council is inclusive.”
Zanu PF
politicians have been pressuring ZMC to crackdown on the private
media and
ban foreign newspapers. ZMC is trying to force foreign newspapers
to
register with it, a move deemed unlawful as this is tantamount to
applying
Zimbabwe’s laws extra-territorially.
The private media has already
established the Voluntary Media Council of
Zimbabwe (VMCZ) to deal with
complaints against journalists.
The move to establish a statutory
body — which is a counter to VMCZ — to
police the media is likely to have a
chilling effect on the media. It would
also be a dreadful gift to
journalists during this year’s World Press
Freedom Day next
week.
The United Nations General Assembly declared May 3 World Press
Freedom Day
to raise awareness on the importance of freedom of the press,
and remind
governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to
freedom of
expression enshrined under Article 19 of the Universal
Declaration of Human
Rights and marking the anniversary of the Windhoek
Declaration — a statement
on free press principles put together by African
journalists in 1991.
Media analysts say the media council would be
used as a weapon against
journalists.
Sources said the watchdog
would consist of 13 members from across the
political divide, business,
religious and civic society to give it a
semblance of legitimacy. State-run
broadcaster ZBC and public-owned
newspaper group, Zimpapers, are among the
organisations allegedly lining up
to help enemies of the media to assault
press freedom and bludgeon
journalists.
As a result the Media
Alliance of Zimbabwe (MAZ) and private media are not
party to the media
council. MAZ includes organisations like the Media
Institute of Southern
Africa, Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe
National Editors
Forum (Zinef), Zimbabwe Union of Journalists, Federation of
African Media
Women of Zimbabwe and African Community Publishing.
MAZ says there is
no need for a statutory media council because VMCZ, whose
mandate is to
promote a professional and free media environment through
voluntary
self-regulation, is already there.
MAZ coordinator Patience Zirima
said even if ZMC goes ahead with
establishing a statutory media council,
her organisation would not take
part.
“We believe we don’t need a
statutory media council,” said Zirima. “We will
always support a voluntary
media council. The statutory media council is not
an appropriate body in a
democratic society. We don’t need it. Media should
be allowed to regulate
themselves. Next week Zimbabwe celebrates World Press
Freedom Day but it
will be a sad day for the media here given such
developments.”
Zinef chairman Brian Mangwende described the move
to police the media
through a statutory body as “undemocratic and
sinister”.
“The move by the ZMC to constitute a statutory media
council in terms of the
draconian Access to Information and Protection of
Privacy Act is patently
undemocratic and designed to asphyxiate freedom of
the press and broadly
freedom of expression,” he said. “That initiative is
open to abuse by
politicians with hidden agendas against the press and by
media ZMC hangmen
who want to trample on our constitutional freedoms,
criminalise the
profession and strangulate
journalists.”
Journalists are expected to widely denounce the ZMC
plan during Press
Freedom Day.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 26 April 2012 18:02
Nqobile
Bhebhe
ZIMBABWE plans to explore the possibilities of harnessing nuclear
energy by
2020 to curb the country’s perennial power problems. The country
is believed
to possess vast untapped uranium deposits, which are critical
for nuclear
energy generation. Zesa chief executive officer Josh Chifamba
said a team of
experts would soon be assembled to look into the feasibility
of such a
venture in a move likely to attract international
attention.
“We will set up a small group to look at the nuclear
option,” said Chifamba.
“We are looking at the year 2020 and onwards for
full-scale nuclear power
production,” Chifamba told an International
Business Conference in Bulawayo
on Wednesday.
Zimbabwe has
unexploited uranium deposits in the Zambezi valley. It is also
estimated
that Kanyemba Mine in the Zambezi valley holds more than 45 000
tonnes of
uranium ore with over 20 000 tonnes extractible.
Iran and China are
reported to have expressed a keen interest in Zimbabwe’s
uranium deposits.
The UN imposed fresh sanctions on Iran last year after it
refused to halt
its uranium enrichment programme. Senior government
officials have travelled
to Iran for discussions on exploiting Zimbabwe’s
uranium
deposits.
Last year, Foreign Affairs minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi
told an Iranian
news agency that Zimbabwe was willing to work with Iran on
extracting
uranium resources meant for Tehran’s controversial nuclear
programme.
“Zimbabwe holds rich resources, but the problem we face is
lack of budget,
finance and required technical equipment to take the very
rich resources out
and use them,” the news agency quoted Mumbengegwi as
saying.
The state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation
(ZMDC) and the China
Uranium Corporation last year entered into a uranium
mining deal, which was,
however, thwarted by the fact that the ZMDC is on
the United States and
European Union sanctions list.
The project
would have been implemented through Afri-Sino Resources Ltd, a
company
jointly established by China Uranium Corporation, New on Investment
and
ZMDC.
Uranium ore, or yellow cake, can be converted to a uranium gas
which is then
processed into nuclear fuel or enriched to make nuclear
weapons.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 26 April 2012 17:58
Nqobile
Bhebhe
PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says the coalition government is
not
capable of adequately addressing “massive unemployment and poverty”
currently plaguing the country.
He told an international business
conference in Bulawayo on Wednesday that
only a legitimately elected
government could solve Zimbabwe’s problems.
“This coalition has
achieved a lot in the last three years, but our
experience has shown that
only a legitimately elected government, and not a
coalition, can develop and
implement a common vision and programmes that
will deal with the massive
unemployment and poverty that Zimbabwe currently
faces,” said
Tsvangirai.
President Robert Mugabe has been pushing for elections
this year to end the
coalition government, but Tsvangirai says free and fair
elections can only
be possible after a raft of political reforms to create
the necessary
environment.
Tsvangirai projected himself as part
of a new crop of African leaders who
must “consign repression and
misgovernance to the dustbins and create a new
society with a new ethos and
new values that poise us for peace, stability,
investment and
growth”.
He told delegates on Wednesday there were sharp policy
differences within
the coalition government. “Some of us want to nurture
that potential and we
have publicly differed with those policies that do not
address job creation
or send the correct message to investors. We say no to
all forms of
machinations that seek to destroy the national wealth. We
endeavour to grow
the national cake in a just, equitable and sustainable
manner by focusing
more on creating new wealth while preserving and growing
existing wealth,”
he said, in apparent reference to the controversial
indigenisation drive.
“This is the true spirit of a national
empowerment policy that every
well-meaning Zimbabwean should be
pursuing.”
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 26 April 2012 17:50
Elias
Mambo
FACTIONALISM and infighting within Zanu PF, which has ruled
Zimbabwe for
over three decades, is now reaching boiling point as President
Robert Mugabe
battles to keep the centre holding ahead of the next crucial
elections.
Mugabe wants elections held this year without fail, with
or without a new
constitution, when he is still fit to campaign. The veteran
leader is
plagued by ill-health and old age complications. However, his
re-election
bid may be crippled by internal strife.
Zanu PF
factions, mainly led by Vice-President Joice Mujuru and Defence
minister
Emmerson Mnangagwa, are largely defined along regional and ethnic
lines. The
factions are fighting for control and dominance with the main
agenda of
producing a successor to Mugabe.
Even though both have glaring
shortcomings, Mujuru and Mnangagwa are seen as
the frontrunners to take over
from Mugabe who is now in the twilight zone of
his long political career as
he battles old age and ill-health. The
Mnangagwa faction currently has an
upper hand in the ongoing district polls,
although Mujuru remains strong by
virtue of her position.
Mugabe’s intensifying succession battle is
fuelling internal power
struggles. The polls have unleashed a wave of
renewed infighting now tearing
Zanu PF apart.
The district
elections are important because they determine which faction
controls party
structures. This is crucial, especially when going to
congress which meets
after every five years to elect new party leaders. The
next Zanu PF congress
will be in 2014 when the p arty will almost certainly
elect a new leader to
replace Mugabe.
This is fuelling infighting. Lastweek, there were
troubles within the party
in the two main hotbeds of factionalism, Masvingo
and Manicaland, with party
officials clashing over imposition of candidates,
vote-buying, doctoring of
voters’ rolls and ballot-rigging.
The
same problems were recently experienced in Mashonaland and Matabeleland
provinces, signalling Zanu PF is rapidly descending into widespread
turmoil.
Zanu PF provincial offices in Masvingo town had to be closed
last week by
party supporters protesting against imposition of candidates
along factional
lines and vote buying. Party officials led demonstrations
this week over the
issue. There have already been disturbances in Manicaland
and Matabeleland,
creating an explosive situation in the
party.
This has deepened fears that factionalism and succession
battles would
cripple Mugabe’s re-election bid and lead to the outright
defeat of Zanu PF
in the next elections.
After losing the first
round of the 2008 presidential election and seeing
Zanu PF defeated in
general elections for the first time since Independence
1980, in the process
losing control of parliament, Mugabe admitted then
factionalism had largely
caused their loss to Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai and his
MDC-T.
At the party national conference in Bulawayo last December,
Mugabe also
admitted that factionalism was “eating away the party”. He
repeated the
problem had caused Zanu PF’s defeat in the 2008 March
elections.
Political analyst Charles Mangongera said factionalism
rocking Zanu PF had
now reached crisis proportions and could be the party’s
downfall in the next
elections.
“Factionalism will remain a
permanent feature in Zimbabwean politics but it
will depend on how political
players put in place institutional mechanisms
to promote competition for
power and that it does not erode the fabric of
the party to become
dictatorial,” he said.
“Zanu PF was born out of divisions, so
factions were there in Enos Nkala’s
house in Highfield (when the party was
formed in 1963) and they were carried
over to the liberation struggle. But
such divisions have come to haunt Zanu
PF hence its downfall in the 2008
elections. It’s likely to suffer its worst
defeat since Independence if
these remain unresolved,” he said.
The war of attrition between the
Zanu PF factions heightened in Manicaland
last week, leading to an
unprecedented failure by senior officials of both
camps to attend
Independence Day celebrations at Sakubva stadium in Mutare.
Officials stayed
away as they feared for their lives due to the volatile
situation.
Only the governor of Manicaland, Chris Mushowe and
Zanu PF deputy minister
Monica Mutsvangwa attended the Independence
celebrations. The entire Zanu PF
provincial leadership did not go as
infighting deepened, although the
chairman of the province Mike Madiro, whom
disgruntled party members want
fired for mishandling the district elections,
showed up at the closing
stages of the event.
Zanu PF members
contesting the results of district elections thronged party
offices in
Mutare and staged protests, demanding Madiro, a Mnangagwa ally,
and his
provincial executive must be fired for rigging elections.
Elections
in places such as Mutare, Chipinge, Nyanga, Makoni and Buhera were
also
characterised by disputes and clashes amid imposition of candidates and
vote-rigging accusations.
The spreading factionalism has alarmed
Mugabe and senior party officials,
leading to the dispatch of national
chairman Simon Khaya Moyo and commissar
Webster Shamu to provinces to
resolve the crisis. Moyo and Shamu visited
Mutare on Tuesday last week on a
fire-fighting mission.
There is also havoc in Zanu PF in Matabeleland
provinces due to leadership
wrangles. Shamu’s recent visit to Bulawayo
failed to resolve the contentious
issue of provincial chairman Isaac
Dakamela, suspended of late on
allegations of corruption and
insubordination.
Shamu visited the party headquarters in Bulawayo and
tried to re-instate
Dakamela who was replaced by Killian Sibanda but his
move was thwarted by
influential politburo members, including Angeline
Masuku, Eunice Sandi and
Joshua Malinga. A seven-hour meeting over the issue
failed to find a
solution. On Tuesday last week senior Zanu PF officials in
Bulawayo, except
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, boycotted provincial governor Cain
Mathema’s
pre-Independence commemoration function.
Early last
week Zanu PF politburo member Jonathan Moyo complained about “the
ugly
dynamics of factionalism” and succession problems in the party. He
described
factionalism as “the cancerous scourge”. Zanu PF spokesman Rugare
Gumbo
admitted last week factionalism was wreaking havoc in the
party.
Local political commentator Ernest Mudzengi said factionalism
was one of the
main problems afflicting Zanu PF, but would not lead to the
party’s demise.
He said it was a combination of factors causing the decline
of the party.
“The issue of factionalism alone cannot lead one to say
that Zanu PF will be
finished,” said Mudzengi. “Since 1963 Zanu PF has
always been affected by
factionalism but the downfall of the party will be
triggered by a myriad of
woes bedevilling the former ruling party.
Factionalism is one of the issues
but there are other important factors
which are political and economic by
definition.” Analysts say unless
factionalism and infighting is tackled,
Mugabe and his party are likely to
face the March 2008 fate or worse.
“We are likely to witness a repeat
of the 2008 ‘bhoramusango’ (an approach
Zanu PF MPs used to campaign for
themselves while telling voters to cast
their ballots for the opposition in
protest against Mugabe’s continued
leadership of the party) and that may
mark the end of us if we are not
careful,” a senior Zanu PF official
said.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 26 April 2012
17:19
Tendai Marima
FOR more than half a century, the city of
Bulawayo has hosted the country’s
biggest multi-trade show, the Zimbabwe
International Trade Fair (ZITF).
Now in its 53rd year, ZITF still ranks
as one of sub-Saharan Africa’s top
trade expos despite a significant decline
in exhibitors from 800, in 2011,
to 675 this year, a general trend over the
years.
Trade fairs are marketing events at which the
fundamental products and
innovations of an industry or sector are exhibited
by a variety of
companies, exhibitors, targeting interested buyers and
industry
participants - the visitors. Trade fairs are usually organised by
governments, chambers, industry associations or specialised exhibition
companies.
The events represent a real-time, interactive
environment bringing together
supply and demand, promoting the formation and
growth of markets and market
segments. The three main economic functions of
trade fairs include the
exchange of goods, sharing of information and
promotion of products and
organisations.
The largest and most
important trade fairs on the African continent take
place in the southern
part of Africa, especially in South Africa. The
southern African exhibition
programme of the agricultural sector, for
instance, is manifold. There are
trade fairs for the timber industry,
exhibitions of the commercial foods
sector and, of course, internationally
renowned wine fairs.
The
food, agriculture and consumer protection section of the German embassy
in
South Africa provides a listing and information about agricultural trade
fairs and exhibitions in Southern Africa.
Zimbabwe is one of the
major players in trade fairs in the region. During
the current trade fair in
Bulawayo, the most notable thing is the return of
European countries, namely
Italy, Germany and Poland to showcase their
companies and products. Strained
diplomatic relations between Zimbabwe and
the West is one of the key reasons
why American and European companies are
barely represented, while China’s
170-strong delegation dominates partly
because of the government’s “Look
East policy” which has helped strengthen
trade relations between the two
countries.
Themed “Investing Locally, Reaping Globally”, the trade
fair echoes
government’s current indigenisation and empowerment policy
which, in
principle, seeks to offer more equitable economic ownership to
Zimbabweans,
but in reality, has the look and feel of a disastrous
expropriation or
nationalisation policy.
Although ZITF is widely
expected to attract foreign investment and business
partnerships for local
industry, Zimbabwe, which has so many opportunities,
does not provide an
attractive business climate. The current indigenisation
policy which
requires foreign-owned companies to cede 51% of their shares to
indigenous
Zimbabweans has created deep rifts within the coalition
government,
particularly between Indigenisation and Empowerment minister
Saviour
Kasukuwere and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. Kasukuwere insists
the
policy would be applied across the board while Tsvangirai and Finance
minister Tendai Biti have strongly criticised that.
Reserve Bank
governor Gideon Gono, while emphasising he supports the
principle of
indigenisation, has vowed to resist any plans to indigenise the
“sensitive”
banking sector. Gono has said the sector is already in local
hands and
anyone who wants to open a bank is free to come and get a licence.
Recently,
Biti and Gono, apparently targeting Kasukuwere, said those
clamouring to
take over the banking sector must first show that they are
able to run banks
already under their control instead of grabbing and
ruining more
institutions.
Kasukuwere’s refusal to pay for mining shares in
foreign-owned companies,
saying “why should we pay for minerals that belong
to us?” all but confirmed
the indigenisation campaign is a poorly-disguised
expropriation or
nationalisation agenda similar to the land reform programme
in many
respects.
Globally, Zimbabwe ranks 171 on the World
Bank’s Ease of Doing Business
Index 2012, down three places from 168 in 2011
and a few bars above
struggling countries like Eritrea, the DRC, Chad and
Haiti.
Restrictive and regressive government laws, a simmering
liquidity crisis in
the banking sector and an unsustainably high trade
deficit of more than US$3
billion and many other socio-economic factors, as
well as a US$9 billion
debt, make it difficult to do business in Zimbabwe,
unlike in Mauritius, the
island of economic success, currently ranked at 23
or South Africa, the
continent’s economic powerhouse, placed at
35.
The situation is made worse by the protracted political stalemate
caused by
disputed elections which has been dragging for more than a decade.
The
looming elections further exacerbate the crisis.
All these
factors, including macro-economic instability, combined have
ensured
Zimbabwe has a high political or sovereign risk profile, something
which
investors fear.
At the opening of the South African exhibition stand at ZITF,
the country’s
deputy Trade and Industry minister Elizabeth Thabethe praised
Zimbabwe for
its trade policies and saw ZITF as an opportunity for
“concerted African
regional integration and value addition to our
businesses”.
Thabethe also encouraged local industry to partner with
South Africa, whose
delegation comprises more than 30 exhibitors. Although
Thabethe’s views were
encouraging, the trouble remains ensconced in the
business environment and
legal framework which makes investing in Zimbabwe
difficult.
Once the industrial hub of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo’s industries now
function at
60% operational capacity. Analysts say up to 100 companies have
closed or
relocated from the city at the height of the economic meltdown and
hyperinflation, leaving over 20 000 workers jobless. The city hosting the
trade fair is now virtually a “ghost town” as companies shutdown en
masse.
Acknowledging the crisis Bulawayo mayor Thaba Moyo said: “The
trade fair is
coming at a time when we are having many challenges as most
companies in the
city are finding it difficult to operate. A total of 87
companies have
closed or relocated from the city.”
For the time
being, the fair will provide a short-term economic relief to
the city as
hotels are booked up and leading shops record high sales.
However, the
much-needed long-term benefits like investment will remain
unattainable as
investors are repelled by the hostile business environment
and laws like the
indigenisation statute.
The closure of companies has also affected
Bulawayo city council itself as
this has led to loss of revenue. Council,
which is in dire straits, is
currently negotiating to end a strike by 3 200
council workers over unpaid
salaries that amount to US$700
000.
Refuse collection has come to a standstill in some areas and
council-run
clinics in poorer high-density areas are turning away patients.
At a time
when Zimbabwe is trying to showcase itself to international
visitors,
frequent city-wide water and power cuts and unrepaired burst water
pipes in
the City of Kings paint a dismal picture of the situation. The
Bulawayo
situation reflects the state of the nation.
Chinese
exhibitors have been hailed as “investors” in official circles, but
exhibitors and visitors who usually pack the trade fair do not necessarily
translate into investors.
Although China’s US$560 million
investment has brought immense benefits for
Zimbabwe, the country’s
controversial approach to resource extraction in
Africa has sparked
criticism of it operating like an exploiter of wealth
rather than an
investor.
At ZITF 2012, China hosted a Zim/China business seminar and
reports say the
China Development Bank may invest up to US$10 billion in the
country’s
agriculture and mining sectors.
Claiming its title as
an emerging world business power, China currently
hosts the world’s largest
trade fair, the Canton Fair in the Olympic city of
Guangzhou. The fair
usually has 23 000 exhibitors from all over China and
beyond and has a
holding capacity of 1,2 million people, which is 10 times
more than ZITF’s
146 000 visitor peak of 2011.
While China reaps the benefits from its
trade fairs, Zimbabwe is struggling
to due to the political situation,
business environment and legal framework
which are not
investor-friendly.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 26 April 2012
17:58
Paidamoyo Muzulu
PARLIAMENT’S trial of state-appointed SMMH
administrator Afaras Gwaradzimba
this week is expected to shed light on
political figures behind the
expropriation of South African-based local
tycoon Mutumwa Mawere’s business
empire, in the long-drawn out case which
has been going on since 2004.
Gwaradzimba, who was appointed by Justice
minister Patrick Chinamasa in
2004, is accused of uttering statements that
demeaned the integrity of
parliamentary portfolio committee on Mines and
Energy in an interview with
NewsDay in March 2011.
Gwaradzimba
and Chinamasa have over the past two years failed to provide
documentation
to parliament proving the government ownership of SMMH share
warrants.
Speculation is rife that the decision to deprive Mawere of his
companies was
political.
It is said Mawere lost his empire after falling out with
Defence minister
Enmmerson Mnangagwa and his powerful Zanu PF faction to
which Chinamasa
belongs. A source close to Zanu PF said Mawere was a victim
of factionalism
within the party, pitting Mnangagwa and Vice-President Joice
Mujuru although
his demise was linked to clashes with former allies in the
camp led by the
former.
“Mawere courted the ire of the Mnangagwa
faction when he snubbed the
provincial chairmanship’s post of Masvingo after
he was invited and was also
seen as being greedy having refused to accept
other indigenous partners into
the SMMH deal which was a model
indigenisation project,” the source said.
The sources said Mawere’s problems
should be seen in the context of Zanu PF
power struggles which have a nexus
with President Robert Mugabe’s succession
and money.
“The issue
is about power, money and influence and Mawere is caught up in
that web,” a
senior Zanu PF official said. “If you look closely, it’s the
Mnangagwa
faction which is running the show around SMMH and Mawere is victim
of power
politics, greed and revenge.”
However, Mawere has over the years
steadfastly refused to comment on the
politics behind the expropriation of
his empire whenever approached by the
media. Gwaradzimba, through his lawyer
Simplisius Chihambakwe, denied the
charges of denigrating parliament on
Tuesday when he appeared before the
Privileges and Immunity Committee
chaired by Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana (Zanu
PF).
The other
members in the five-member committee are Jessie Majome and
Shepherd Mushonga
(MDC-T), Patrick Dube (MDC) and Joram Gumbo, also (Zanu
PF).
Gwaradzimba, who was accused of showing contempt to
parliament, appeared
with his lawyer before the committee. The proceedings
did not last long as
Chihambakwe asked for all the evidence to be used
against his client and a
list of witnesses.
Mnangagwa was
initially nominated onto the committee but recused himself
after speculation
surrounding his conflict of interest surfaced. Mnangagwa
was widely believed
to be Mawere’s political godfather before they fell out.
Chinamasa
last year conceded before parliament that the matter could only be
solved
out of court if Mugabe personally ordered him to do so.
“If the
president calls me and says do this, I will do it without question.
In the
circumstances, the finalisation of the matter in the courts (in my
favour)
would give me a stronger standing and push me to present a new
position,”
Chinamasa said.
Chinamasa’s position flies in the face of Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe governor
Gideon Gono’s advice to Mugabe that SMMH ownership
should be restored to
Mawere. Mugabe and Gono tried to help Mawere after the
president held
discussions over the matter with former South African
president Thabo Mbeki.
Mawere had approached Mbeki for help, who in turn
raised the issue with
Mugabe.
Despite Mugabe and Gono’s push to
have Mawere given back his companies and
assets, Chinamasa, apparently with
the backing of Mnangagwa, fiercely
resisted.
Chinamasa later
defiantly told parliament that the matter would only be
resolved by the
courts. “There is no way we will settle. Let the courts
decide,” Chinamasa
declared.
“Thereafter, we will sit and discuss. It’s too late in the
day after 25
case-sittings and we are not agreed on who is culpable for the
mines’
demise.”
Mawere, who has since been de-specified by the
Home Affairs co-ministers,
last year, went on the diplomatic offensive to
regain his empire from the
state. In December 2011, he wrote to the British
ambassador to Zimbabwe
Deborah Bronnert and copied the letter to the South
African embassy in
Harare seeking their help to re-claim his businesses from
the Zimbabwean
government.
Mawere argues government acted
illegally by trying to apply its laws
extra-territorially since SMMH is a
British-registered company and could not
be arbitrarily taken over without
involving British courts.
Parliament is expected to call Mines and
Energy committee chairperson
Edward Chindori-Chininga and NewsDay reporter
Veneranda Langa as witnesses
on May 2 2012 when the case resumes. Langa
interviewed Gwaradzimba when he
made remarks which allegedly denigrate
parliament.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 26 April 2012
16:37
Gamma Mudarikiri
ZIMBABWE’s mining industry faces collapse
owing to uncertainty caused by new
policies governing the sector and a huge
national debt, former Chamber of
Mines CEO Cris Hokonya said this
week.
Hokonya told journalists in Harare that the ambiguity surrounding
the
implementation of the indigenisation policy forced mining companies to
defer investment plans, a move that is detrimental to the growth of the
industry.
He said investment into the sector continues to slow
down, adding that
government’s failure to review the policies would see the
industry crumbling
in the near future.
According to the
indigenisation law, mining companies are compelled to
cede 51% of their
shares to indigenous Zimbabweans. As a result, investors
are now shunning
Zimbabwe in favour of neighbouring countries which
are competitive in
terms of legislative certainty.
The situation, he said, was worsened
by government’s reluctance to
restructure the country’s huge debt amounting
to US$9 billion, a situation
that renders Zimbabwe regionally uncompetitive
in terms of foreign
investments.
“The uncertainty
surrounding the implementation of the indigenisation
law comes when
the country is carrying a huge debt overhang and
the combination
of the two is a serious drawback in attracting
investments,” he
said.
“We, as a country, need to be brave enough to negotiate
with our
creditors to restructure our debt and also put in place
legislation which
will allow the development of the mining sector, which is
key to our
economy,” Hokonya said.
“Mining remains the only
sector that can revive the economy because of the
international
competitiveness of the country’s minerals in terms of pricing
and quality,”
he said.
Other sectors of the economy have lost competiveness
globally in terms of
quality and pricing, he added.
Mining last
year accounted for 50% of the country’s total exports and
contributed to
more than 13% of GDP.
According to the Chamber of Mines, the sector
is expected to contribute
US$2,6 billion to national exports this year, but
the figure could be higher
if beneficiation plans come to
fruition.
Last year, total tax paid by the mining sector to
government was around
US$311 million, about 12% of the revenue collected by
government. However,
the contribution would increase to around 18% should
diamond revenues be
incorporated.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 26 April 2012 16:33
By Linda
Tsarwe
FROM experience, Zimbabweans have a fairly good understanding of
inflation.
Their experiences with hyperinflation showed them its devastating
effects on
the livelihoods of people and the economy. During that period,
both
government and independent economists published different inflation
rates,
with the government official figure always being the lowest.
Independent
economists argued that things were much worse than what the
official
inflation rate depicted, and they seemed right considering the rate
of price
increases at the time.
At the peak of hyperinflation,
government ceased releasing inflation
figures. The last official inflation
rate released under the hyperinflation
era was approximately 231 000 000% in
July 2008. Independent economists on
the other hand attempted to come up
with their own estimate of inflation at
the peak of hyperinflation. However,
inflation had reached ridiculous levels
and the figures were almost
nonsensical, with some stating figures as high
as 90 000 000 000 000 000 000
000% (90 sextillion %).
As a result of dollarisation in February
2009, hyperinflation was halted. In
fact the country went into deflation for
some months after dollarisation, as
the economy adjusted to the use of
multiple currencies. Official inflation
in 2009 ended the year at -7,7%
before rising to 3,2% by the end of the year
in 2010. This appeared normal
since we were coming from a period of
deflation.
The year
2011 also registered a year-on-year increase of 1,7 % after
inflation closed
the year at an official rate of 4,9% against independent
estimates of 6,5%.
This year, government revealed that it is targeting an
annual inflation rate
of 5% and is confident this level can be achieved.
Recently, Zimstats
released March CPI figures which indicated a slowdown in
inflation during
the month. Month-on-month inflation was down 0,06 points to
0,43%, while
year-on-year inflation slowed down to 4% after recording a
decrease of 0,3
percentage points from February.
Even though official figures suggest
that inflation is easing off, prices
seem to be going the other way. General
observation shows that the month of
March alone witnessed significant
increases in food prices when the rand
firmed, and yet month- on- month
inflation for food and non-alocholic
beverages inflation is said to have
come off by 0,22 percentage points.
Also, during the same month,
fuel prices were adjusted upwards by about 3%.
Fuel price increases have a
major influence on the CPI not only directly but
also because fuel has a
bearing on the prices of most other goods in the
CPI. However, according to
Zimstats, from February 2012 to March 2012, the
CPI for domestic
electricity, gas and other fuels is said to have gone down
by 0,26%, which
raises a red flag! on whether the figures are accurate.
Likewise, the
decrease on year- on- year inflation is also questionable.
During the period
March 2011 to March 2012, there have been a number of
policies implemented
by government which have resulted in price increases.
When government
reintroduced duty on basic commodities, retailers were quick
to adjust their
prices upwards to cushion themselves against the effect of
duty.
Local producers also increased their prices in tandem
to match those of
imports. In addition, there was a significant increase in
electricity
tariffs in September, which went up by approximately 30%.
Similarly,
retailers also tend to increase prices when the rand firms, but
when the
rand weakens against the dollar no downward review is made.
Therefore prices
tend to be sticky downwards, which fuels the country’s
inflation.
Independent economists believe that inflation might end
the year at 9,5%,
and some are touting double digit figures. Their argument
is that the
imposition of duty and surtax on certain foods is likely to push
food
inflation upwards, which has already happened but is not reflected in
the
current CPI figures. Higher utility tariffs continue to be a burden to
consumers, and there is a high probability that they might be increased
further.
Wage demands, especially from the civil service,
will likely have a negative
impact on the inflation rate if they are met.
Two-thirds of the population
is estimated to be living under the poverty
datum line, which means that the
wage war is far from over. Being an
election year, government is likely to
come up with populist policies which
will involve an increase in government
spending. Inflation can only go
upwards in such a scenario.
The IMF also believes that the official
inflation figures could be
understated and believe that they could reach
6,2% by year end. They cite
the same reasons of increases in food and fuel
prices and higher wage
demands as the main drivers of inflation. Even our
economic growth rate
figures have been revised downwards, which could
indicate that the
government might be a bit aggressive on the economic
performance indicators.
An analysis of the CZI consumer basket
for a family of five shows an
increase of 35% from the US$427,11 estimated
in May 2009 to the last
published figure of US$576,69 in January 2012.
Loosely, we can conclude that
prices of basic commodities have risen by 35%
since dollarisation, which is
a huge contrast to the official inflation
figures over the years.
It would appear the current methodology of
calculating inflation is flawed.
This was also hinted at by government
itself when they reinforced the need
to restructure and revitalise CSO
structures and data collection methods. A
significant weight of 31,9% is
allocated to food and non-alcoholic
beverages, while categories such as
education and communication are given
minimal weightings of 2,9% and 0,99%
respectively.
Long ago, the structure would have worked as
education and communication did
not constitute a substantial allocation of
consumer spending. With the
advent of mobile phones and new communication
technologies, the contribution
has significantly increased. A weighting on
communication of 0,99% is not an
accurate representation of communication
costs to the total consumer basket.
The CSO figures seem to focus
on conventional communication means such as
telephones and postal services.
Furthermore, school fees are turning out to
be one of the major cost burdens
for the consumer. Although increases are
done periodically, they are
usually material and the impact is significantly
felt.
Despite
contradicting reports by independent economists and the IMF that our
official inflation figures could be understated and that the official
year-end figures could be unachievable, government remains adamant. Although
it would be desirable for the country to maintain low inflation rates, the
odds are against us and the reality on the ground is that inflation is
possibly on an uptrend.
There is need for a thorough revision
of the methods used to calculate the
CPI. Technical assistance can be sought
from the IMF to update the CPI
groups and the reallocation of weights to
reflect the changes in the
spending patterns over the years. Most
importantly, a survey could be
carried out which will come up with the
current spending patterns.
Independent and official inflation rate figures
should converge at some
point or the variance should be narrowed.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 26 April 2012 16:20
PARASTATALS could
contribute around 60% to the country’s gross domestic
product if they were
run properly, Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara
has said.
Mutambara
said those running parastatals needed to be accountable for the
operations
of the entities.
He said other countries had harsher penalties for
dealing with failed heads
of parastatals, adding Zimbabwe should consider
that route.
Mutambara was speaking at the ZITF International business
conference on
Wednesday.
Analysts have noted that while
parastatal reforms have always been a
priority since mid-1980s, nothing has
been done to institute reforms.
All the policies followed by the
government to rehabilitate the state
entities have failed because of the
large scope of their nature; government
comes out as a poor decision
maker.
Rather, analysts suggested that parastatal reform efforts
should be aimed at
reducing parastatal dominance and promoting a larger role
for Public-Private
Partnerships while at the same time improving
parastatals’ use of resources.
At the moment, a business conference
was told, the state was not getting
proper or even returns from past
investments and assets were being misused.
According to a recent African
Development Bank report, a total of nine state
enterprises have a direct
role in the provision of basic services.
These are the Zimbabwe
National Water Authority (Zinwa) in the case of
water; Zesa Holdings, the
Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) and Zimbabwe
Electricity Transmission and
Distribution Company (ZETDC) in the case of
electricity; the National
Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ), Civil Aviation
Authority of Zimbabwe (Caaz) and
Air Zimbabwe in the provision of railway
and civil aviation services; and
TelOne and NetOne in communications.
With the exception of
communications, where there is substantial private
sector service provision,
and air travel, where Air Zimbabwe competes with
other regional and
international carriers, the remaining state operated
infrastructure services
face little or no private competition. Zinwa has a
monopoly in the provision
of raw water and clear water for small towns and
rural
areas.
Mutambara said the country should pay attention to the need
for the
development of human capital and the opportunities that exist in
consumer
goods industries if any economic growth were to be
achieved.
He said government was currently emphasising minerals and
agriculture, yet
there were opportunities in retail and banking services.
According to global
research, sub-Saharan Africa consumer-facing industries
have the potential
to earn US$1,3 trillion. — Staff Writer.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 26 April 2012
16:19
Nqobile Bhebhe
SOUTH Africa has pledged to fully back
Zimbabwe’s new industrial trade
policy, saying the country’s vast mineral
deposits have positioned its
neighbour as a key strategic partner within the
Southern African Development
Community (Sadc) bloc.
South Africa’s Trade
and Industry deputy minister Elizabeth Thabethe, who
is leading a trade
delegation at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair in
Bulawayo, said it is
critical for intra-Africa trade in the wake of global
economic challenges.
South Africa is Zimbabwe’s major trading partner
“Zimbabwe is well
endowed with mineral resources, including strategic
minerals such as
platinum. This illustrates the economic potential that the
country has and
makes it a leading and key strategic partner amongst the
members of Sadc,”
said Thabethe.
Zimbabwe’s Industrial Development Policy and the
National Trade Policy
(2012-2016), launched by Zimbabwe this month, hopes to
revive the sector,
among other objectives.
“We compliment
Zimbabwe on the recently launched industry policy in Zimbabwe
as the
framework that will guide the economic growth in this country,”
Thabete
said.
She pointed out that since 2003, South African companies had
undertaken 12
investment projects in Zimbabwe totalling R10,87 billion,
creating more than
2 000 jobs in the metals, minerals, tourism and financial
services sectors.
On the other hand, foreign direct investment into
Africa, which peaked in
2008 and was driven by the resources boom, has since
2009 been on the
downward.
“It is these global economic
challenges in our midst that bring intra-Africa
trade to primacy,” she
said.
To strengthen economic ties, South Africa has lined up a series
of finding
missions to the “key regions, provinces and cities in Zimbabwe to
promote
proudly South African products and technology.”
This
year’s trade fair is being held under the theme, Investing Locally,
Reaping
Globally.
The NTP is expected to result in the increase of exports
and promote the
diversification of the country’s export basket by harnessing
comparative
advantages in key priority sectors. The policy targets
increasing export
earnings by 10% annually from $2.5 billion in 2010 to $4.5
billion in 2016.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 26 April 2012 16:13
Clive
Mphambela
IN April 2011, Afre Corporation executive chairman Patterson
Timba was
forced to quit the group he founded following a Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe
enquiry into related party transactions that had been unearthed at
his
Renaissance Merchant Bank, (RMB).
The saga, which took several months
to unfold, left a trail of battered
careers, including Timba’s own and those
of a coterie of others who had
trusted him enough to work with
him.
The bank was only rescued by NSSA after a lot of kicking and
biting in a
costly US$24 million transaction.
Many analysts still
believe the price was an overpayment for an asset whose
value depended
primarily on good reputation.
Through contagion effect, the problems
at the bank negatively affected
business at other subsidiaries in the Afre
stable such as First Mutual Life
and Tristar Insurance, according to recent
statements by Afre management.
The allegations against Timba were tantamount
to fraud against the company
which he substantially owned and led, which
ultimately led to fellow
shareholders losing substantial amounts of money,
whilst customers were
subjected to the financial and emotional stress
associated with funds being
locked up in a bank under
curatorship.
In a similar case in November 2011, Fred Mutanda, CEO of
the then listed
pharmaceutical entity — Caps Holdings — was reportedly
arrested on
allegations of defrauding his company of various amounts of
money and
fraudulently registering drugs with an offshore company called
Caps
International.
Corporate Zimbabwe has over the last 20 or so
years experienced a fair share
of corporate scandals dating back to the
Access to Capital fiasco of the
early 90s to the First National Building
Society and ENG scandals of the
early 2000’s. What rings common amongst the
few examples cited is the fact
that major shareholders, or people with
significant influence over the day
to day management of these institutions,
have been at the forefront of those
accused of fraud against the companies
they are entrusted to govern.
Some analysts have attributed these
unfortunate incidents to corporate
governance failures within these
institutions but others think that these
cases are a tip of the iceberg and
are symptomatic of failures at the
regulatory level.
An analyst
asked: “How does one person acquire more than 70% of a
pharmaceutical
company whilst there are very clear regulations in the
country about
ownership thresholds and ownership structures within the
pharmaceutical
industry?”
In most, if not all cases, very senior executives with
significant and often
controlling stakes have perpetrated these frauds,
clearly abusing their
privileged positions in the companies.
The
powerful owner-managers have usually elevated themselves to positions
where
it is often difficult for fellow executives and even board members to
question their actions and to adequately interrogate transactions they
originate and promote.
Most of the board members are usually
hand-picked by the CEO, who in the
case of Afre happened to be the executive
chairman of the board and majority
shareholder.
Such boards lack
the required level of independence and, more often than
not, will solely
serve the purpose of rubberstamping the executive
management’s views. They
will not pay sufficient attention to the broader
needs of other
stakeholders, who then suffer the consequences of lack of
adequate fiduciary
oversight over the companies’ affairs.
Other senior executives will
often be rendered powerless and will not
exercise independence of action and
thought, being reduced to mere
implementation tools for the CEO’s
decisions.
Analysts argue that having strong institutional
shareholders is a better
option as opposed to powerful individual
shareholders. The say institutional
investors are the route to good
corporate governance for Zimbabwean
companies. Recently NSSA took control of
Afre and management was upbeat
about this development.
Douglas
Hoto, the new Afre CEO, said they were pleased that NSSA now owned
about 54%
of Afre. Institutional shareholders do not only offer deep pockets
for
companies in times of trouble, but because of the wider stakeholder base
that they represent are often more demanding in terms of corporate
governance and fiduciary care.
This ensures that they appoint
directors of proper repute to the boards of
investee companies.
Institutional investors tend to be more risk averse as
they have deep
institutional memories and vast experience from the diversity
of investments
they make over multiple time horizons and even in different
geographical
areas.
Individual shareholders sometimes are not patient enough
to slowly build
long term value that institutional shareholders are inclined
to, preferring
instead rapid short term gains that are normally fraught with
high risks.
Indeed, as is the case in Zimbabwe, the individual shareholders
have been
so keen to reap dividends quickly by ripping off the companies
they run
through insider trading, self dealing and outright
fraud.
Whilst regulators such as the Securities Commission of
Zimbabwe and the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe have been accused of being
overzealous and heavy
handed when dealing with issues of governance and
disclosure in the markets,
these cases merely reinforce the need for closer
scrutiny of the shareholder
profiles of our public companies and a more
thorough interrogation of
transactions engaged by public companies. These
regulators have to satisfy
everybody so that the interests of all
stakeholders, particularly minorities
and customers are
protected.
“We have been talking a lot about a corporate governance
code for the
country and to date nothing is binding, except for what the RBZ
and Sec are
doing. We at Sec have a corporate governance code which binds
all our
licensees and will soon (after amending our Act) be applicable to
all listed
companies. We need a code that is enshrined in the Companies’
Act,” a senior
official with the Sec said.
Analysts say the major
weakness with our laws at the moment is that the
perpetrators have still not
been brought to book, leaving room for more
incidents in the future.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 26 April 2012
17:12
MUCKRAKER is frequently struck by the naivety of diplomats
appointed to this
country. Instead of spelling out the principles by which
their nation’s
foreign policy is guided, they are more inclined to say such
principles don’t
matter.
Last week we had the Irish ambassador,
Brendan McMahon, who is accredited to
Pretoria, telling the state press that
sanctions are “a small issue”. This
was obviously designed to butter up
Zimbabwe which is sending a delegation
to Brussels next month for talks
designed to normalise relations.
Nothing wrong with that, but it
would be useful to know if Ireland has any
principles guiding it. Sanctions
were imposed in response to EU election
supervisor Pierre Schori’s eviction
from the country when he identified
electoral manipulation and political
violence in the 2002 poll. The Zimbabwe
government proceeded to claim the EU
was directed by the British who were
bitter over the land
issue.
It would have been an impressive feat for British diplomacy to
have twisted
the arms of all 27 EU members but that is what the Irish are
implying when
they gullibly refer to sanctions not
mattering.
McMahon needs to get a grip on why sanctions were imposed
and why certain
principles have been incorporated in the GPA before he next
pontificates on
“small issues”.Once negotiations get underway in Brussels
those issues will
become the basis for the talks. It will be interesting
then to see what
matters and what
doesn’t!
We have a similar dilemma in the
Copac talks. The Sunday Mail has been
squealing about the views of the
people in the outreach programme being
“dumped” and replaced by a more
“explanatory principles approach” as
advocated by constitutional advisor
Hassen Ebrahim.
This is not difficult to understand. Any draft that
is to command public
confidence must have universal principles guiding it.
That means including
the views of all parties in the electoral process so at
the end of the day
electoral outcomes are embraced by a broad
consensus.
These must be electoral principles found everywhere in
democratic societies
such as Sadc’s commitment to electoral principles and
popular participation.
These principles were adopted without difficulty by a
Zanu PF government at
Grand Baie in Mauritius in 2004. So why now all the
fuss about foreign
intervention?
Is
TB Joshua coming to Zimbabwe or not?
It was interesting to see
Munyaradzi Huni in the Sunday Mail claiming
“impeccable immigration
authorities” had told him that “it was highly
unlikely that TB Joshua would
be allowed into the country as he is known to
use his alleged prophecy to
meddle in politics”.
Clearly rattled by Joshua’s prophecy about an
old African leader dying, Zanu
PF apologists have been in overdrive in their
bid to portray him as a false
prophet.
In yet another disjointed
hatchet job, entitled “Tsvangirai’s letter of
shame to Prophet TB Joshua”,
the Sunday Mail laid into Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai for inviting TB
Joshua to “assist him to become the country’s
next leader”.
This
followed a letter despatched to TB Joshua by Ian Makone inviting him to
visit the country to preach here. TB Joshua is described by Huni as
“controversial”. He describes Makone as Morgan Tsvangirai’s “close
confidante (sic)”.
This is all part of a ploy, we are told, to
infiltrate “Zanu PF strongholds”,
especially in the rural areas using the
prayer rallies.
Funny isn’t it that Zanu PF has not found it shameful to
attach itself to a
number of dubious “apostles” in the hope these “pastors”
will deliver votes
to Zanu PF.
Huni calls Tsvangirai “desperate”
but he doesn’t say the same for Zanu PF
which has roped in many hangers on
like “Reverend” Obadiah Msindo of Destiny
for Afrika who are only too keen
to “meddle in politics”.
They were not even ashamed to associate
themselves with the late
self-proclaimed spiritual healer and convicted
rapist, Godfrey Nzira.
This was despite Nzira being convicted of seven counts
of rape and one count
of indecent assault involving two women who sought
help from him at his
shrine.
Who started this apostolic
“meddling”?
Readers of this column over
the years will know we have sent shrill warnings
about the failure of
governance in South Africa, not very different from our
own government’s
poor example.
Recently, the chairman of Nedbank, Reuel Khoza, has
warned that South Africa’s
democracy is under threat from a “strange breed”
of political leaders who
appear to be incapable of dealing with the demands
of modern-day governance
and leadership.
Khoza’s remarks were
carried in BusinessDay and elicited a bitter response
from the country’s
post-liberation aristocracy.
He said South Africa was fast losing the
checks and balances provided by the
constitution and called on South
Africans to hold to account “putative
leaders who, due to sheer incapacity
to deal with the complexity of 21st
century governance and leadership” could
not lead.
“We have a duty to insist on strict adherence to the
institutional forms
that underpin our young democracy,” Khoza wrote in
Nedbank’s latest annual
report.
“Our political leadership’s moral
quotient is degenerating and we are fast
losing the checks and balances that
are necessary to prevent a recurrence of
the past,” he
said.
“South Africa is widely recognised for its liberal and
enlightened
constitution yet we observe the emergence of a strange breed of
leaders who
are determined to undermine the rule of law and override the
constitution.”
For those who recall, Khoza was an advisor to Thabo Mbeki. The
debate that
has followed Khoza’s remarks, BusinessDay notes, therefore has
much to do
with Mbeki’s legacy.
Khoza has touched a raw nerve
with his intervention –– whether Zuma is up to
the job. This hurts because
it coincides with popular sentiment. Many South
Africans don’t think so. On
Mbeki’s watch the South African economy boomed.
During Zuma’s tenure half
the employment gains won by Mbeki have been
lost.
The late Malawian
president’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has
apologised to new
President Joyce Banda and the nation on all the ills “they
injected on them”
when wa Mutharika was alive, reports the Malawi Voice.
DPP
Secretary-General, Wakuda Kamanga, said they were aware that DPP leaders
wronged Banda and a lot of Malawians in their quest to please wa
Mutharika.
Speaking at wa Mutharika’s funeral at his Ndata Farm,
Kamanga said: “To all
Malawians, it is easy to wrong others when you have a
president. And during
our time, we are aware that we did some things that
might not please you.
So, as we bury this man today, may we bury along with
him your anger.”
Talk about the chickens
coming home to roost! Here is hoping that
apparatchiks this side of the
border will learn a thing or two from this
incident and temper their
overzealous conduct accordingly.
They might, just like the DPP, find
themselves on the other side of the
political divide and be forced to plead
for mercy.
However, Kamanga’s gesture did not go down well with the
DPP cadets, who
called Kamanga to a secluded area within Ndata Farm and beat
him up.
According to the Malawi Voice the bemused cadets said
Kamanga’s remarks had
the potential of selling the party out to the now
ruling People’s Party.
The youths also vowed to deal with all DPP MPs
that have promised their
allegiance to Banda.
These are clearly
the violent kicks of a dying
horse.
A reader sent us a funny
story which shows that, contrary to popular
perceptions, the City of Harare
rubbish disposal department don’t always
have it their own way.
A
rubbish disposal truck was doing its rounds one morning recently when it
was
stopped by a policeman who was intent on fining the crew for hanging
onto
the back of a moving vehicle.
No amount of explanation from waste
management officials about their modus
operandi could budge the resolute
policeman from charging them. They
eventually had to go to the
officer-in-charge who apologised and sent them
and their truck on its way ––
two hours later.
It’s a scary thought that we have so many half-trained
policemen with the
powers of properly trained officers causing this sort of
disruption to all
and sundry.
Finally
here’s a different take on affirmative action from Thomas Sowell, an
African
American who started out poor in the south.
Q: Overall, do you
believe Affirmative Action has had a more positive or
negative impact on the
lives of black Americans?
TS: Affirmative action has been a boon to
those blacks who were already
affluent and particularly for those who were
rich but has done little or
nothing for those blacks who are neither.
Moreover empirical data from other
countries around the world shows the same
general pattern from group
preferences.
Q: Do you believe
reparations should be paid for slavery?
TS: The people made worse off
by slavery were those who were enslaved. Their
descendants would have been
worse off today if born in Africa instead of
America.
Put
differently, the terrible fate of their ancestors benefited them. If
those
who were enslaved were alive, they would deserve huge reparations and
their
captors would deserve worse punishments than our laws allow.
But
death has put both beyond our reach. Frustrating as that may be,
creating
new injustices among the living will not change that.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 26 April 2012
17:08
ONE of the greatest tragedies of the political and economic morass
which has
affected Zimbabweans for more than 15 years has been the large
number of
Zimbabweans who have left the country. Although no reliable data
exists as
to the actual number of Zimbabweans who have left Zimbabwe to seek
pastures
new, it is authoritatively estimated that between three and four
million of
the country’s nationals have left to seek employment in South
Africa and
other countries in southern Africa, in the UK, Germany, US,
Canada,
Australia and elsewhere. This emigration has reduced Zimbabwe’s
population
from an estimated 15 million to 11- 12 million.
The
overwhelming majority of those who are now known as the Zimbabwean
diaspora
were motivated by economic desperation. Such was the magnitude of
unemployment in Zimbabwe as the economy progressively declined that millions
sought income opportunities elsewhere. Not only did they do so in order to
support and sustain themselves, but also to support their families and many
dependants.
The economic decline was so intense and
financially debilitating that whilst
an authoritative survey in 1991
determined that the average Zimbabwean
employee had been supporting himself
and five dependants, a similar survey
in 2008 assessed that the average
Zimbabwean worker was wholly or partially
supporting himself and 19
others!
The first major development to escalating unemployment was in
2000 when
Zimbabwe embarked upon its ill-considered and mismanaged land
reform
programme, which resulted in more than 300 000 agricultural workers
losing
employment, and hence approximately two million (being those workers,
their
families and their dependants) becoming destitute.
As
government progressively destroyed the economy further through its
disastrous economic policies and actions, more and more became unemployed —
primarily workers in the manufacturing sector of the economy —- followed by
inevitable downsizing of other economic sectors, including the wholesale and
retail operations and those in the tourism and financial services
sectors.
Unable to obtain alternative legitimate sources of income,
many of the
unemployed turned to informal sector activities in desperate
attempts to
generate income to support themselves, their families and
numerous other
dependants (which dependants included many others who had
become unemployed,
HIV/Aids widows and orphans, those afflicted by severe
ill-health due to
malnutrition and inability to access essential
healthcare).
But even the immense growth of informal sector
economic activity did not
suffice to fund the support needed by so many, and
thereafter that sector’s
operations markedly declined following the
necessary demonetisation of
Zimbabwe’s currency, and as some small economic
upturn started in 2009.
That upturn was of major importance as a first
(albeit small) step towards
Zimbabwe’s long-term economic recovery, but did
not suffice to restore
employment opportunities for the millions that had
become unemployed.
As a result millions perceived no opportunities
for their survival and that
of the many financially-reliant upon them, other
than to seek
income-generating opportunities elsewhere. Progressively, more
and more
fled Zimbabwe in a desperate attempt to earn that which they, their
families, and other dependants needed to survive. Almost without exception,
they perceived their departures from Zimbabwe to be beyond their control,
determined to return to their homeland as soon as an economic upturn made it
possible for them to do so.
However, as the years went by,
the major economic recovery so anxiously
awaited did not occur,
notwithstanding the hopes and expectations that
developed when 2009, 2010
and 2011 showed some economic growth (but not
sufficient to re-create
employment opportunities). Families became
increasingly scattered and
shattered, with many of those who had departed
Zimbabwe at best being able
to visit their beloved ones at home only once a
year, and maintaining
limited contact telephonically.
Although the majority of Zimbabweans
who left to seek employment elsewhere
had every intention to return
permanently to Zimbabwe as soon as possible,
that prospect progressively
diminished. As time went by, they sank new
roots in their adopted foreign
homes. Many were promoted, made new friends,
some married abroad and, as
time went by, started families.
New homes and investments were
acquired; consequently their resolve to one
day return to Zimbabwe
diminished more and more, although fortunately not
all have lost that
resolve.
Apart from the appalling fall in family interactions,
with the attendant
distress suffered by so many in Zimbabwe, the country,
its economy and its
resident population have also suffered the great
magnitude of loss of
invaluable skills. That loss has been yet another
constraint upon achieving
substantive national economic recovery and
growth.
It will only be compensated for over an extended period
of time as Zimbabwe
progressively develops a new pool of the skilled, and is
able to motivate
those who acquire the skills to remain in Zimbabwe. Those
will only be
achieved if, belatedly, politicians do the right things to
assure economic
wellbeing, and to attract transitional expatriate skills
pending a
sufficient resource of skilled, resident
Zimbabweans.
There is only one material compensation for the huge
loss of skilled
Zimbabweans to other countries: the absentee Zimbabweans
have, despite not
being active in the country’s economy, become a key
mainstay of its
sustenance. A recent survey assessed that the remittances
they send to their
Zimbabwean families and dependants approximates US$850
million per annum.
Some of these funds are transferred through
the formal money market
channels, whilst a large portion enters Zimbabwe
unofficially, either when
the Zimbabweans abroad visit their families, or
through the services of
“runners”. However, the inflows to Zimbabwe from
diasporans are
considerably greater than the survey suggests. In addition to
the transfers
of funds, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of goods are
also sent to
the families at home from relations abroad.
In
part, those goods are forwarded through official channels, especially so
as
and when the diasporans visit their families, and great quantities are
brought into the country by “runners” who have become very skilled in
evading customs authorities. These goods range from consumables to
clothing, electrical appliances and equipment. This is either for
consumption by the recipients, or for trade on the informal
markets.
Thus, the total economic contribution that Zimbabwe enjoys
from its
nationals abroad considerably exceeded US$1 billion per annum —
comparable
to, or greater than the substantial earnings of Zimbabwe’s mining
sector.
These inflows are not incorporated in the determination
of Zimbabwe’s Gross
Domestic Product, which is the barometer for measurement
of economic growth
or contraction, and therefore real economic recovery is
somewhat greater
than statistically determined. Indisputably, Zimbabweans
abroad constitute
one of the mainstays of the economy, which is moderate
compensation for the
losses and prejudices suffered by the country from
their no longer being at
home.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 26 April 2012 16:56
Clive
Mphambela
THE role of the Reserve Bank OF Zimbabwe (RBZ) in the
prevailing
multicurrency dispensation has been brought back into sharp focus
following
the recent establishment of a monetary policy committee within the
bank at a
time when the country has no domestic currency, while government
no longer
has the margin to borrow or print money to expand its limited
fiscal space.
A monetary policy committee comprising Dzinotizei Mutasa,
Brains Muchemwa,
Rudo Faranisi, Kennias Mafukidze and Professor Tony Hawkins
was set up in
February, but questions abound as to what the role of the
committee is.
This development has caused anxiety as some
commentators speculate the
committee is preparing for a return to the
Zimbabwe dollar, whilst
economists argue there is in fact no need for it in
a multicurrency regime.
The primary objective of the RBZ, created in
1956, is supposed to be to
maintain the value of the Zimbabwean currency
decimated by hyperinflation in
2009. The bank is also responsible for the
formulation and implementation of
monetary policy, directed at ensuring low
and stable inflation levels.
A further core function of the
institution is to maintain a stable banking
system through its supervisory
and lender of last resort functions. Other
secondary roles of the bank
include the management of the country’s gold and
foreign exchange assets. It
is also supposed to be sole issuer of currency
and banker and advisor to
government.
However, the functions of the RBZ have now been reduced
and its role limited
under the multicurrency system.
Prominent
economist and member of the RBZ monetary policy committee, Hawkins
says the
RBZ now has a minimal role to play as far as monetary policy is
concerned.
“I believe the main role of the central bank at the moment is to
regulate
and supervise the financial sector to ensure that banks do not take
huge
risks”, he said, adding the RBZ is technically insolvent due to huge
debts
and lack of capitalisation.
The central bank has received only US$7
million in new funds since the
advent of the multicurrency system, severely
limiting its scope,
particularly as a lender-of-last-resort in an economy
reeling from a
liquidity crunch. There are plans to inject more than US$100
million to
boost its-lender-of-last-resort function, although some say at
least US$150
million — or 5% of total banking system deposits — is
needed.
The bank is saddled with more than US$1,2 billion in debt and
this, coupled
with its current poor capitalisation levels, severely
constrains its
function and role.
The central bank also seems to
have somewhat relinquished its role of being
banker to the government.
Traditionally, the principal account of
government, or the so-called
Exchequer’s Account, resides at, and is
managed by, the central
bank.
However, most, if not all government departments and
ministries, including
the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, now hold active
accounts with various
commercial banks. In a normal environment, foreign
missions and other
international institutions and banks would also hold
accounts with the RBZ.
But this has changed because of the bad experiences
these institutions have
had with the central bank.
While placing
their money with commercial banks may have in some instances
improved the
efficiencies of the day to day operations of the affected
government
departments, one major bank which carries a significant
proportion of the
government’s business suffered severe liquidity challenges
at the end of
last year when there was surging demand and large value
transactions it
failed to handle.
Whilst the RBZ is subordinate to the parent
Ministry of Finance when it
comes to fiscal policies, it is the traditional
role of the RBZ to feed into
the formulation of fiscal policy and to ensure
monetary policies are
consistent and supportive of fiscal initiatives of
government.
Economic commentators say the RBZ no longer has a
significant role to play.
But the central bank argues its “rigorous
supervision and vigilant
surveillance of the financial system” has ensured
continued financial
stability and as a result, the banking sector has
remained in a “safe and
sound” state, notwithstanding certain underlying
risks.
The bank also has the sole responsibility for the management
of the national
payment system and promoting alternative forms of payment
mechanisms and the
use of plastic money platforms such as ATMs, Point of
Sale facilities, as
well as electronic, cellphone and internet banking
products and services.
In the midst of criticism, the bank has defended its
role and the monetary
policy committee made up of the governor as the
chairman, the two deputy
governors, deputy chairman and not less than five
but no more than seven
other members appointed by the president in
consultation with the Minister
of Finance.
RBZ governor Dr Gideon
Gono (pictured) said this week in response to
questions from the Zimbabwe
Independent the bank was still important and its
committee was useful.
Although he admitted its role has been reduced under
the multicurrency
regime, he said it was still critical in “ensuring
monetary and financial
stability”.
“Zimbabwe adopted a multi-currency regime in February
2009, in which
residents became free to transact in any of the major
currencies such as
the US dollar, British pound, South African rand,
Botswana pula, and other
internationally convertible currencies, with the US
dollar being the
settlement currency,” Gono said.
“Under this
arrangement, the Zimbabwe dollar is no longer operational
resulting in the
RBZ losing one of the key traditional roles of the central
bank, that of
issuing the country’s legal tender. Analysts have, however,
questioned the
role and relevance of a monetary policy committee in
Zimbabwe, given that
the scope of the traditional monetary policy function
has been reduced by
the adoption of the multi-currency system.”
Gono admitted the central
bank’s role has been curtailed but insisted the
bank remained important and
the committee useful. “The adoption of the
multiple currency system has
resulted in the country losing some monetary
policy autonomy. As a
consequence, the traditional monetary policy
instruments of currency
issuance, interest rates and exchange rate
management are no longer at the
disposal of the RBZ,” he said.
However, he said the bank remains key
in ensuring “financial sector
stability, national payment system, policy
advice to government and being
lender of last resort”.
“Central
banking by monetary policy committees has become the rule rather
than the
exception, and it is often argued that collective monetary policy
decision-making results in better outcomes due to the pooling of
information, models and expertise,” he said.
“Notwithstanding the
relative loss of control of monetary policy instruments
following the
adoption of the multi-currency regime, the RBZ is currently
seized with
policy matters in relation to other core mandates of the central
bank, such
as bank licensing, supervision and surveillance; economic
research and
policy advice; national payments systems and market-friendly
exchange
controls (particularly on the capital account). All these areas
present the
monetary policy committee with sufficient scope for influencing
the
direction of central bank policies and the economy at large.”
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 26 April 2012
16:51
Qhubani Moyo
THE ongoing debate about the
constitution-making process is crucial and as
such Zimbabweans should freely
engage the subject to contribute in shaping
their future framework of
governance. The process is critical as it seeks to
consolidate a set of
fundamental principles or establish precedents
according to which the
country will be governed.
That is why it must be taken seriously. Zimbabwe
needs to come up with a
credible constitution which captures and defines its
character and content –
based on its rich history, diverse cultures and
civilisations. The new
constitution should lay a strong foundation on which
the country can build a
progressive future.
We have to accept
that we need a constitution that will endure for
posterity, not a document
which is a conflict-resolution mechanism like the
current Lancaster House
constitution. Any constitution tied to solving a
conflict is by nature
fragile and cannot withstand the test of time, which
is why the Lancaster
House document has been amended 19 times. It is purely
for this reason that
the current Constitution Select Committee (Copac)
process, which
unfortunately is now tied to the next elections, will
inevitably produce a
flawed document. Already the process is entangled in
debate and disputes
around the emotive issue of elections.
While it is desirable to go
into the next elections with a new constitution
which hopefully will provide
a democratic environment and credible framework
for free and fair polls, it
is also important that we do not reduce the
constitution-making process to a
mere exercise for resolving political
questions. That is probably why the
current process has become entangled in
narrow political agendas and
disputes which need not be confused with the
constitution-making
exercise.
If in the process of producing a new constitution the
country manages to
deal with concomitant political questions that would be a
tremendous
achievement, but it should not be the key objective. Despite that
constitution-making is inherently a political process, it must not be
opportunistically used as a conflict-resolution mechanism.
That
is why the process needs to be managed by knowledgeable, serious and
sober
minds. Unfortunately Copac is run by clueless and idle minds that have
no
idea of what actually needs to be done in terms of the fundamental
objective
and vision it must of necessity embody. As things stand now, MDC-T
co-chair
Douglas Mwonzora and his Zanu PF counterpart Paul Mangwana have
hijacked the
process while sidelining MDC co-chair Edward Mkhosi, turning
the exercise
into a circus.
Making a new constitution is no child’s play and thus
it needs serious
intellectual and organisational capacity as well as
sufficient logistical
arrangements. Currently those in charge are failing to
run and manage the
process, which explains all this confusion and
chaos.
Those few who have stood up to contribute to or criticise the
Copac process
have been threatened with all sorts of actions, including
legal measures,
among other gagging mechanisms.
Democratic
engagement in Copac has been criminalised mafia-style. Those
doing this
forget their mission. Copac is a committee of parliament mandated
to
spearhead the constitution-making process in the country. It was
established
in April 2009 in terms of Article VI of the Global Political
Agreement
signed on September 15 2008. The new constitution is aimed at
replacing the
current supreme law, a product of the Lancaster House
Conference of 1979.
Being a ceasefire document, the Lancaster House
constitution is widely
regarded as flawed and woefully inadequate, hence it
has been amended 19
times in 32 years.
If Copac is running a democratic process which
seeks to make a new
Zimbabwean constitution, why does it seem afraid of
public engagement and
debate on issues which affect the country and people’s
future? Why is it
suppressing not only debate, but also people’s
views?
The basic tenet of participatory democracy, including on such
processes as
constitution-making, is to ensure citizens are given space to
contribute to
the national discourse on the process, expenditure, content
and outcomes.
The process should be done in a transparent and open manner to
the
satisfaction of stakeholders.
This is important especially
given that Copac was initiated and defined as a
people-driven process. It
must thus allow the basic tenets of deliberative
democracy to prevail and
citizens to express themselves freely to shape and
influence the process and
its content. This should be done without
conditions or attempts to use legal
instruments to gag the deliberation
process because the moment that is done
the exercise fails the legitimate
test of democratic
expectations.
As a national body Copac cannot expect to be respected
if it uses threats to
suppress a divergence of views, or ignores people’s
views. Its leaders need
higher levels of competence, capacity and maturity
to handle issues in a
credible manner in order to have legitimacy. Those who
were there from the
first stakeholders’ conference to the outreach, data
collation, data
uploading, thematic committees, report-writing and even
drafting will know
this process was handled badly due to poor leadership,
especially on the
part of Mwonzora and Mangwana.
In fact, if
truth be told Copac is a major disaster. If people really knew
what is going
on within the chaotic process, they would probably riot
against its
leadership.
Right now the country is at a standstill regarding
important issues which
are deadlocked, including devolution of power and
dual citizenship, among
others, yet answers to those matters are contained
in the national report.
This bears testimony to disruptive incompetence and
gross mismanagement of
the process.
That’s is why now you have
actors like President Robert Mugabe and Local
Government minister Ignatius
Chombo working day in day out to sabotage
devolution, while currently firing
elected mayors. Most people want
devolution to prevent such partisan
politics and it is there in the national
report. We must not ignore people’s
views under technical arguments of
whether this is a constitutional or
statutory issue. What is important is
that the issue is correctly captured
through whatever necessary mechanisms
in the current constitution-making
process.
If Copac had done the right thing of publishing the national
report there
would be no questions about what people said during the
outreach as the
questionnaire was clear. For instance, the questionnaire
asked whether
people wanted a unitary state, a federal state or a devolved
state. And
their answer was unequivocal: there was an overwhelming call for
devolution
and similarly an emphatic rejection for a federal
state.
The other question was on whether people wanted provincial
governments or
not, and the answer was an overwhelming yes.
The
other question was on how these provinces should be constituted and the
overwhelming answer was that they should have provincial parliaments and
elected provincial governors. All these answers are there in the national
report and if Copac had done the right thing of publishing the report then
those who want to suppress the people’s views on devolution will not have a
chance to do so. But now because of hidden political agendas, incompetence
or both, we now have chaos which is entirely unnecessary.
Copac
must not be allowed to threaten its critics and suppress people’s
well-documented views to get away with murder in service of dubious agendas
by anti-democratic forces.
Moyo is a lecturer at Nust and
public policy academic. He is also organising
secretary for the MDC led by
Professor Welshman Ncube. Email:
qmoyo2000@yahoo.co.uk
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 26 April 2012 16:49
Sydney
Chisi
THE world today is still fixated with developments triggered by the
Arab
Spring across the Middle East and North Africa. Young people in
Tunisia,
Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria and many other places
in the
region have been a catalyst of social and political change. Their
energy has
been fuelling democratic change and civic participation in
reshaping public
policy and the future of their countries.
Four features
were evident in countries which experienced the Arab Spring,
namely youth
dominance within populations in different countries concerned,
internet
penetration and influence, repressive and unaccountable leadership
and
social unrest caused by deteriorating socio-economic conditions and
associated problems, including youth unemployment.
A fundamental
feature of the Arab Spring was its structural cause as opposed
to trigger
events. Over a long period of time, governments in the Middle
East and North
Africa had shaped public policy in pursuit of economic
development without
democracy, and worryingly not sharing the benefits of
economic development
equitably.
Political and democratic participation in the countries’
affairs was
outlawed or limited. Gradually, societies experiencing high
levels of
economic growth and impressive indicators with massive democratic
deficits
emerged.
The United Nations human development report of
1996 observed that the link
between growth and human development is not
automatic. It said in most cases
too much emphasis on economic growth has
led to lop-sided and often flawed
growth patterns,
producing:
Jobless growth (without expanding employment
opportunities);
Ruthless growth (associated with increasing inequality
and poverty);
Voiceless growth (without extending democracy)
Rootless
growth (that withers cultural identity) and
Futureless growth (that squanders
resources needed by future generations).
Young people who constitute
the biggest section of different countries’
population are neither
participants in the economy nor beneficiaries of the
proceeds of the growth.
Instead youth unemployment, poverty and inequality
have replaced
opportunity, hope and faith in government. In the Middle East
and North
Africa, an explosion of popular discontent erupted resulting in
entrenched
dictatorships and the league of autocrats falling by the way
side.
The current Zimbabwean economic empowerment drive that is
largely targeting
young people as a means of correcting the imbalances
caused by colonialism
amid government refusal to accept its failures over
the last 32 years has
stirred heated debate.
Economic empowerment
is not a new term in the post-Independence discourse in
Zimbabwe. A lot of
stillborn, premature and partisan initiatives have always
been introduced,
especially when Zanu PF is faced with internal
contradictions or elections.
One of those was the ill-fated decision to
adopt the International Monetary
(IMF) and World Bank-sponsored Economic
structural Adjustment Programme
(Esap) in 1991. Then in 2000 there was the
good but badly-implemented land
reform programme, and now, indigenisation.
The bulk of young people
born just before and soon after Independence grew
up in an environment
dominated by one political party whose policies caused
so many problems,
including marginalisation of the youth and regions like
Matabeleland.
Whilst young people are the majority of the
marginalised, unemployed and
prone to political manipulation, those behind
economic empowerment have
failed to appreciate the reality that economic
growth and indigenisation in
isolation would not necessarily translate into
progress. Young people
should not be taught the “make money and all things
shall follow mentality”.
Indigenisation must be linked to economic
growth and translated into
productive-employment growth, which is a key
nexus between growth and
poverty reduction. That is the why the idea of
grabbing 51% of foreign-owned
companies, including Zimplats, and coming up
with community trusts without
linking that to the mainstream economy will
not enhance human development or
help to fight youth
unemployment.
The approach only exposes government’s policy
contradictions and the failure
to understand the necessary framework for
indigenisation. Take for instance,
government’s move on Zimplats and how it
handled Ziscosteel. How does
government explain the policy contradiction
inherent in that approach?
How do the youth fit into such a policy framework?
Zanu PF has taken
advantage of the situation and registered its youth
organisations and fund
which has benefitted only groups associated the
partisan Zimbabwe Youth
Council. Besides saying he is prepared to be Hilter
ten-fold, what programme
does Youth, Indigenisation and Empowerment minister
Saviour Kasukuwere have
to benefit the youth of this country and not those
of his party alone?
The reasons why a lot of young people have been
alienated and not benefitted
from the youth fund which is supposed to be
part of the empowerment drive is
clear: partisan politics and agendas. The
fund is now simply benefitting
elitist Zanu PF officials who will only give
leftovers to their party’s
loyal youths. These are same youths who then run
organisations like
Chipangano, Upfumi Kuvadiki and some dubious entities
that have strong links
with Zanu PF.
In the process, the real
youth of this country are marginsalised. As things
stand, communities being
given shares seized from foreign-owned companies do
not have solid human
capital besides their labour. What the Ministry of
Youth should instead be
looking at is to ensure investment in human capital.
Focus should be on
revisiting the land reform programme after an audit to
accommodate the
majority of the poor Zimbabweans. The same also goes for the
informal sector
dominated by young people, especially women.
Now that elections are
looming many young people, especially young women,
are being roped into
partisan projects like the Kurera-Ukondla Youth Fund
launched on November 24
last year by Vice President Joice Mujuru.
With Zimbabwe’s youth
population being around 65%, Zanu PF has strategically
positioned itself to
target the vulnerable youth to vote for it. Therefore
the nexus that exits
in the Zimbabwean context between youths and voting for
Zanu PF is well
defined and the youth ministry is at the centre of it.
Government should not
lure and make young people rush for the 30 pieces of
silver at Old Mutual or
at CABS. Youths should begin to participate in the
formulation,
implementation and monitoring of public policy to get
themselves involved in
the mainstream economy through legitimate means.
Looking at the
Zimbabwean situation and the Arab nations, a number of key
lessons are
discernible. Since the inclusive government took office in 2009,
economic
decline has been arrested. Growth took place for the first time in
10 years.
An economy that had cumulatively declined by 50% over a period of
10 years
was stabilised and started to realise growth. It is now three years
of
successive growth even though this is fragile and mainly driven by
consumption and the narrow enclave of extractive industries. This results in
the widening of the gap between the rich and the majority poor, mainly the
youth.
Evidently the economy has neither been broad-based nor
pro-youth. The fact
that the majority of people have not benefitted from
the growth in the
economy has either demobilised them or completely
depoliticised them as the
struggle for daily survival take precedence over
civic action, hence their
inability to launch Arab Spring-like
protests.
Alternatively, youths have become part of the catchment
area of the politics
of patronage, manipulation and abuse by self-serving
politicians who have
colonilised the state for partisan purposes. Youths
have been turned into
vigilantes and militias by some leaders and their
parties, an insensitive
abuse of the young generation .
Chisi
writes in his personal capacity. Email: syd_chisi@yahoo.com .
