Financial Times
By
Tony Hawkins in Harare
Published: April 7 2006 03:00 | Last updated:
April 7 2006 03:00
The warning by Christopher Dell, US ambassador
to Harare, last week
that Zimbabwe has "passed the point of no return" and
will need substantial
international assistance to achieve a recovery, echoes
what Zimbabwean
businesspeople are saying privately.
Some
industrialists say their volumes have fallen by as much as 30 per
cent in
the first quarter of 2006 - and this after a five-year period in
which
industrial production has halved nationally. The Zimbabwe Tobacco
Association estimates that production of tobacco, once Zimbabwe's chief
export, will fall to 50m kilogrammes this year from a peak of more than 230m
kgs in 2000.
Although this year's rains have been excellent, a
number of
quasi-official harvest forecasts suggest that the maize harvest
will be no
more than 700,000 tonnes, possibly less, against annual
consumption of 1.8m
tonnes.
In a remarkable climbdown from its
previous "We can go it alone"
stance, President Robert Mugabe's government
has launched a $277m (?185m,
£129.7m) appeal for humanitarian assistance.
Food supplies worth $111m top
the bill followed by requests for assistance
for shelter, drugs and
agriculture. The appeal estimates that at least 3m
people, or a quarter of
the population, will need food aid this year, but
donor agencies say the
figure is closer to 4m.
The business
community is reluctant to speak out about Zimbabwe's
worsening economic
prospects and its political crisis. But privately its
members say that there
has been a strong fall in output in recent months
that is not yet reflected
in published statistics.
The business mood has been further soured
by the government's threat
to nationalise 51 per cent of foreign-owned
mining companies. In response,
mining groups and the Chamber of Mines, which
represents the industry, have
warned that the consequences would be
"catastrophic" especially as the plan
is to take 25 per cent of the
companies' shares as "free carry", paying only
for the balance of 26 per
cent over the next seven years.
Fearing that such a move would put
an end to any chances of attracting
foreign investment in the industry, the
government is seeking a compromise
that would give it a 30 per cent stake,
most of which it would pay for.
This week the government sought to
mollify some of its mining industry
critics by doubling the Zimbabwe dollar
price it pays for gold - now the
country's largest export. While this is
tantamount to a 40 per cent
devaluation of the official exchange rate
(Z$99,200 to the US dollar), it is
unlikely to have much impact on parallel
market gold sales by small-scale
producers, who are able to sell their
bullion illegally to the black market
at vastly preferable exchange
rates.
The gold price move has led to calls from other exporters
for similar
treatment. They say that the pegging of the exchange rate for
the last two
months is eroding their profitability at a time when inflation
is 782 per
cent and forecast to reach 1,100 per cent by mid-year. In a
belated effort
to curb inflation, the central bank has tightened monetary
policy and raised
interest rates in recent weeks, but in so doing it has
created a potential
crisis in the banking sector.
Money market
dealers are warning that if the daily "shortage" in the
market gets to Z$10
trillion there could be casualties. "If the Reserve Bank
goes on like this,
you are going to see bank casualties," one dealer warns.
According
to the International Monetary Fund, Zimbabwe is likely to
run a public
sector (budget) deficit of close to 50 per cent of its GDP this
year.
Financing this, economists say, at a time of sliding output, stagnant
exports, increased food imports and maturing short-term offshore loans, will
be hugely inflationary.
There are as yet few signs of any
change of heart on the part of Mr
Mugabe and his top advisers. "They are,"
says one businessman, "in bunker
mode, convinced that someone or something
is coming to rescue."
news.com.au
From: Agence
France-Presse
From correspondents in Geneva
April 07, 2006
LIFE
expectancy for women in Zimbabwe has plummeted to just 34 years, by far
the
lowest in the world, according to data released by the World Health
Organisation.
Women in the southern African nation and in nearby
Swaziland are the only
ones in the world who are not expected to live into
their forties, the 2006
World Health Report indicated.
Both countries are
among the hardest hit by HIV/AIDS.
Male life expectancy at birth in
Zimbabwe was 37 years in 2004, the most
recent reference year used for all
192 countries in the report.
While the prospects for men were unchanged
in Zimbabwe, life expectancy for
women had dropped by two years in the space
of 12 months.
Swaziland offered the lowest life expectancy for men - 36
years - of the
states included in the WHO indicators, and 39 years for
women.
The figures were nonetheless an improvement on the 33
years recorded for men
and 36 for women in Swaziland a year earlier.
By
contrast, Japan offered the healthiest outlook for its citizens, the WHO
data indicated.
Life expectancy for men there was 79 years, while
newborn girls could on
average aim to live for 86 years. Both figures have
improved by a year over
the last WHO report.
Email: jag@mango.zw: justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
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Please phone our Headquarters if you
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Xinhua News Agency
06 Apr 2006
HARARE, Apr 6, 2006 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Kuwait on Thursday handed
over
110 tones of maize meal to Zimbabwe, the African country being hit by
successive droughts for the past for four years, local media the NewsNet
report.
In his acceptance speech, the minister of public service and
social welfare
Nicholas Goche said the donation would go a long way in
assisting people who
have been affected by the drought adding that the
government is doing its
best to ensure food security and self sustainment
for its people.
The Kuwait ambassador promised to drill boreholes in the
remote areas as
part of its efforts to compliment government effort of
providing safe and
clean water.
New Zimbabwe
By Lebo Nkatazo
Last updated: 04/07/2006 12:12:19
MOVEMENT
for Democratic Change peace maker David Coltart has said that
chances of a
reconciliation between the party's feuding factions are now
"very minimal"
following the latest round of legal battles.
Coltart had proposed a
five-point plan for possible negotiations for
reunification or amicable
divorce between the feuding parties.
In a letters written to Morgan
Tsvangirai and his former deputy, Gibson
Sibanda, now a member of a rival
faction on February 20, the Bulawayo South
MP expressed opposition and
warned of the dangers of matters between the two
parties being settled in
the courts.
Coltart warned in his letter: "If the Zimbabwean courts are
entrusted with
the role of settling these issues that will itself play into
the hands of
the Mugabe regime. If both factions cannot agree to settle
these disputes
they will in essence give the regime the power to decide
through the courts
how long they want this conflict to go on for and who
ultimately they want
to deal with.
"I have no doubt that the
spectacle of opposition leaders fighting each
other in court and wrangling
over names and assets will greatly diminish
those same politicians in the
eyes of the Zimbabwean electorate."
This week, a faction of the MDC led
by former NASA scientist, Professor
Arthur Mutambara took Tsvangirai's group
to court over a party vehicle which
was violently seized in Harare. A High
Court judge granted an order for the
car to be returned.
On Thursday,
Coltart said: "The Zimbabwean public is not impressed by the
spectre of the
MDC fighting in the courts. I think the chances of
reconciliation are now
very minimal. The parties still have to meet on how
the divorce should take
place."
The MDC split last November over a contentious debate around the
party's
participation in senate elections. Tsvangirai opposed participation,
while
some of his senior colleagues felt otherwise and when the two groups
couldn't reconcile their positions, a split became inevitable.
Zim Independent
Dumisani Muleya
IN an implicit recognition of the
deteriorating economic crisis,
government has established emergency
sub-committees under the shadowy
Cuban-style Zimbabwe National Security
Council (ZNSC) to run the economy as
part of measures to arrest a worsening
meltdown.
Official documents reveal that the state security
establishment
will run the economy as it cross-cuts the emergency
sub-committees that have
been set up to perform a rescue
operation.
This confirms the view that the Central
Intelligence
Organisation and the Joint Operations Command which comprises
the
intelligence service, army, police, prisons and registrar-general's
office,
now effectively run the country and are involved in a gamut of
issues from
security to the economy.
Government
bureaucracy is already heavily militarised.
The Cuban economy
is run by a Council of State assisted by
committees, although the government
has devolved some authority to
ministries and enterprises in recent
years.
The move, sources said, exposes growing desperation
within
government over the deteriorating economic crisis.
Observers said this week the latest development validates the
view of a
growing police state in Zimbabwe run by the security
apparatus.
The command economy, they said, will become more
entrenched
again as shown by the return of price controls this
week.
The ZNSC, chaired by President Mugabe, and the
existence of
which was first revealed in this newspaper, instructed chief
secretary to
the president and cabinet, Misheck Sibanda, at a meeting on
March 17 "to
establish sub-committees that will provide technical inputs
covering various
structural and sectoral issues".
Sibanda
is also chairman of the newly set up Technical Committee
of Experts which
will coordinate activities of the ZNSC, a key part of the
recently
established National Economic Development Priority Plan.
The
Sibanda team duly formed its taskforces under the National
Economic Recovery
Committee (NERC) at a meeting held on March 20.
There have
been numerous economic recovery plans, all of which
have
failed.
Recent studies have shown Zimbabwe has the
fastest-shrinking
economy in the world - outside of a war
zone.
The economy has shrunk by 10% in 2003, 4% in 2004 and
7% in
2005. Negative growth is also expected this year.
It also has the highest inflation in the world at 782%, followed
by Iraq at
40%. It is feared inflation will soon hit the 1000% mark.
NERC taskforces include those on foreign exchange mobilisation
and
utilisation chaired by Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono, agriculture
coordination, inputs supply and food security (chair: Col Christian Katsande
and Simon Pazvakavambwa), domestic and international resource mobilisation
(Willard Manungo), tourism, image and communication (Ray Ndlukula), "Look
East" promotion and implementation of programmes (Ambassador Joey Bimha),
human skills identification, deployment and retention (Dr Washington
Mbizvo), distressed companies rehabilitation (Katsande), restructuring of
public enterprises and local authorities (Ray Ndlukula), economic
surveillance and protection (Melusi Matshiya), and imports substitution and
value addition (Gono and Katsande).
The ZNSC
sub-committees include the agriculture coordination,
food security and
corporate farming taskforce to be run by the ministries of
Agriculture,
Energy, State Security, Justice, Water, Transport, Economic
Development and
32 other various organisations.
Its mission is to revive
agriculture destroyed by the chaotic
land reform
programme.
The domestic resource mobilisation and investment
promotion
sub-committee comprises the ministries of Finance, Economic
Development,
Energy, State Security, Industry, Local Government, Justice,
Science and
Technology, Water and seven organisations.
Its mandate is to mobilise resources and promote investment.
The foreign currency mobilisation sub-committee has the
ministries of
Finance, Economic Development, State Security, Tourism,
Industry, Mines and
the central bank, among other organisations represented.
"The
sub-committee has a task to mobilise a minimum of US$2,5
billion in the next
three months from March," documents say. "It will have
to put in place
measures to ensure adequate and constant supply of foreign
currency into the
economy."
The inputs supply taskforce has 10 ministries
represented -
including State Security - and 15 organisations to "enhance
capacity
utilisation in all sectors of the economy".
The
tourism and communications sub-committee includes the
president's office and
six ministries, including the Attorney-General's
office. Its mission is to
revive tourism and enhance economic relations with
other
countries.
Zim Independent
Clemence Manyukwe
BOTH MDC
factions are set to face off in the Budiriro
by-election following
indications that they will field rival candidates for
the poll slated for
May 20, in clear evidence that their split is final.
The
fielding of competing candidates by the two factions is most
likely to split
the opposition vote in the urban constituency and hand Zanu
PF an unearned
victory.
The constituency fell vacant following the death of
MDC MP
Gilbert Shoko last month. The nomination court for the poll will sit
on
April 21.
Sources said this week the anti-senate
faction was likely to
field former Harare mayor and recently elected
national organising
secretary, Elias Mudzuri, as their
candidate.
It was not immediately clear who was going to
stand on the
pro-senate faction's ticket.
The faction's
secretary-general Welshman Ncube yesterday
confirmed that his camp would be
fielding a candidate, a departure from the
last election when the feuding
sides refrained from competing
against each
other.
The strategy saw the anti-senate faction losing the
Chegutu
mayoral and Chitungwiza council polls while the pro-senate camp lost
ward
elections in Bulawayo to Zanu PF.
Anti-senate
faction spokesperson Nelson Chamisa yesterday would
not commit himself on
their likely candidate.
"As of now I cannot talk about who is
going to stand. The
candidate will emerge from the internal process. Leaders
come from a
combination of wards and districts in Budiriro," said
Chamisa.
Revelations of the factions squaring up in Budiriro
and this
week's court case that saw the High Court ordering the anti-senate
camp to
return a vehicle seized from their rivals is likely to put to nought
efforts
by the MDC's secretary for legal affairs David Coltart to reconcile
the two
sides.
The Bulawayo lawyer yesterday said: "I
think now the chances of
reconciliation are minimal but both sides still
need to negotiate regarding
the split." The negotiations centre around party
property, logos and court
appeals.
Zim Independent
Dumisani Muleya
PRESIDENT Robert
Mugabe's volatile succession struggle has
become more explosive than ever
with the fiercest fights breaking out in
party and government structures
ahead of a constitutional amendment to
manage the issue.
Sources said infighting in the ruling Zanu PF has intensified as
ministers,
government and party officials, and MPs clash over control of the
party
along factional lines.
This comes as Justice minister Patrick
Chinamasa prepares to
table an 18th amendment to the constitution to
postpone the scheduled
presidential election from 2008 to 2010 as part of
measures to manage Mugabe's
increasingly divisive succession tussle. Zanu PF
MPs are being marshalled by
party leaders to close ranks over the
issue.
Sources said the succession struggle is fast becoming
a
cutthroat fight with fierce clashes erupting at various levels within the
party and government.
"They are fighting everywhere you
find them," a source said.
"Clashes are now to be found at the politburo,
central committee, and other
lower levels of the party. In government, that
is cabinet and parliament, as
well as in key state institutions, the fights
around the succession issue
are going on."
This week the
ruling party called an emergency caucus meeting in
a bid to quell rivalry
among its Lower House MPs and senators. The
legislators had been drawn into
the vortex of the succession conflict.
This follows reports
of wrangling between Finance minister
Herbert Murerwa and the Reserve Bank
governor Gideon Gono as well as clashes
between Chinamasa and
Attorney-General Sobusa Gula-Ndebele.
The Zanu PF power
struggle - which is threatening to rock the
party to its foundation - has
complex scenes, plots and sub-plots
intertwined with the country's political
direction and economy.
The power struggle is being fuelled by
the realisation that it
is almost a fait accompli now - although the
situation remains fluid - that
Vice-President Joice Mujuru will succeed
Mugabe, supported by Speaker of
Parliament John Nkomo and State Security
minister Didymus Mutasa as her
deputies, sources said.
The sources, however, said Mujuru prefers politburo member Obert
Mpofu to
Nkomo as vice-president. Elements from the intelligence community,
on the
other hand, want former Zapu intelligence supremo Dumiso Dabengwa in
that
position.
Simba Makoni is said to have once again vanished
from the
picture, although he remains "Plan B" for both retired army
commander
General Solomon Mujuru's and party luminary Emmerson Mnangagwa's
factions.
Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi is also "Plan B"
for the
Mujuru camp.
To confirm the line-up comprising
Mujuru, Nkomo and Mutasa, an
amendment to the Zanu PF constitution to remove
the clause - inserted on
November 18, 2004 to block Mnangagwa from
outmanoeuvring Mujuru - has to be
made.
The provision
says that one of the two second-secretaries
(vice-presidents) of Zanu PF has
to be a woman. Plans are already under way
to change
this.
Sources said the succession issue also has a new
dimension.
While Mujuru is now almost certainly assured of succeeding
Mugabe, her
chances were being threatened by a fierce stand-off between
Mugabe and the
Mujuru camp. They are at odds over the time-table of the
president's
departure.
Sources said the Mujuru camp wants
Mugabe to quit now, but the
president is riled by any efforts to stampede
him out of office.
The situation is further complicated by
the fact that the state
security agencies - intelligence, army, and police -
are also roped in to
the battle although their loyalty now firmly lies with
Mugabe and nobody
else.
There are also feuding camps
within the Mujuru faction, further
making matters worse.
The amendment, which is being marketed through the setting up of
the
proposed Human Rights Commission, will introduce a constitutional clause
changing the current provision that says if a sitting president becomes
incapacitated or is unable to continue for whatever reason, a fresh election
will be held within 90 days.
Sources said the new clause
will say if the incumbent fails to
continue in office a designated
vice-president will take over for the rest
of the term.
This, as first reported by the Zimbabwe Independent last year,
will assist
Mujuru in her bid for ascendancy. The plan is to ensure Mugabe
goes in 2008
and Mujuru takes over as an interim president, elected by a
two-thirds
majority of both houses of parliament, from 2008 to 2010.
Mujuru takes over as Zanu PF leader in 2009 and becomes
presidential
candidate in 2010.
Zim Independent
Clemence Manyukwe
ZIMBABWE'S
tobacco auction floors face closure next year after
farmers failed to repay
loans amounting to $1 trillion at a time when the
floors are operating at 8%
of capacity due to reduced production.
In submissions to the
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Lands
and Agriculture on Tuesday, a
representative of the auction floors, William
Nyabonda, said the
introduction of the dual tobacco auction system had
compounded their
woes.
He said the system had seen declining levels of output
with only
17-20 million kg expected to be traded at the auctions this season
from a
peak of 237 million kg in 2000.
"The signals are
that with this trend, auctions will soon become
a thing of the past with the
possibility of closure in 2007," he said.
From the 237
million kg in 2 000, output went down to 69 million
kg in 2004 and 73
million kg the following year. This year the forecast is
55 million kg,
blamed on the ruinous land reform programme and lack of
inputs and
incentives.
In 1999 before the government embarked on the
land reform
programme, output for the leaf stood at 250 million kg. The
decline over the
years is in contrast to the country's neighbours such as
Zambia and Malawi
since 2000.
In Zambia tobacco output
rose from 4, 3 million kg in 2000 to 7,
3 million kg in 2003 to 24 000
million kg in 2005, representing a more than
500% increase in five
years.
The committee, which is chaired by Zanu PF Masvingo
South MP
Walter Mzembi, also heard that in 2004 the auction floors supported
farmers
with $1 trillion at today's rates which they have failed to repay
due to
poor yields.
"Zimbabwe has a serviceable
infrastructure of curing facilities
for a crop of 250 million kg. However, a
lot of the infrastructure is in the
hands of non-tobacco growers," he
said.
Commenting soon after the hearing, Mzembi said: "The
sooner we
realise that we are losing ground to other players like Brazil
which has
increased from 440 million kg to 650 million kg and India which
was behind
us followed by the United States, the sooner it should spur us
into urgent
action."
He said it was regrettable that
although the country had
infrastructure which can handle a crop of 250
million kg, currently it was
beset by a number of problems that have seen
three primary processing plants
and five cigarette manufacturing plants
failing to operate at full capacity
due to shortage of
tobacco.
Mzembi said mechanisms should be put in place for
tobacco to
take centre stage in the agricultural industry "because if it is
grown to
maximum it can earn in excess of US$7 billion-enough to cover all
our cereal
grain imports without growing them".
Zim Independent
Clemence Manyukwe
LOCAL Government
minister Ignatious Chombo has evicted a Harare
woman from a government flat
on the grounds that she was not a civil servant
and given it to a female
relative who is not a government employee.
It also emerged
this week that Chombo's relative, Mavis
Chimusoro, is now being represented
by the Civil Division of the
Attorney-General's Office in a legal battle in
which the evictee, Fungai
Mutumbwa, is seeking to retain her tenancy in the
flat in Harare's Belvedere
suburb.
Mutumbwa, who was
renting the flat from a former civil servant,
was evicted on March 14. The
Harare magistrates court reserved judgement in
the matter on
Tuesday.
In an interview on Wednesday, Mutumbwa's lawyer,
Josiah
Chinherede, said: "It came out during cross examination in court that
the
woman is the minister's niece."
He added that they
were surprised why Chimusoro had been allowed
to lease the property when she
was not a civil servant and why the AG's
office was involved in a matter
when it was supposed to represent government
only.
Asked
why the AG's office was representing a non-civil servant,
Clement Muchenga,
the government lawyer representing Chimusoro, said: "That
was not brought to
our attention. We were assigned by the ministry to
represent the woman who
had entered a lease agreement with the minister. We
only realised that she
was not a civil servant during the course of the
matter."
Efforts to get a comment from Chombo were fruitless.
However,
in court papers that led to Mutumbwa's eviction, Chombo
said: "The applicant
(Mutumbwa) has no right to be in occupation of the
flat. She is not a civil
servant."
Zim Independent
Itai Mushekwe
SWEDISH ambassador to Zimbabwe Sten Rylander
yesterday
castigated the state media's tendencies to peddle propaganda as
news, saying
he had been misquoted on the sanctions issue
again.
The Sunday News and Sunday Mail last weekend reported
Rylander
as saying sanctions should be lifted immediately "because they are
hurting
the ordinary people and not serving any purpose".
The diplomat denied ever calling for the EU to lift sanctions
arguing that
his statements had been deliberately "distorted".
"I'm very
concerned about these distortions," said Rylander. "It's
not helping in
building the confidence with the international community
which Zimbabwe
requires. I'm concerned that the state media is ruining
confidence."
Rylander appears to have unwittingly played
into Zanu PF's
hands.
His reported comments have been
used by the state media to
suggest a rift within the EU on what is called
its "common position" on
Zimbabwe.
The EU's targeted
sanctions prevent President Mugabe and his
lieutenants from travelling to
Europe or setting up business ventures in the
25 countries forming the bloc.
Mugabe blames the sanctions for the current
economic meltdown which has
pushed inflation to 782% - the highest in the
world.
Rylander said the state media had failed to adhere to basic
principles of
media ethics and professionalism, which was self-defeating
since it was
crucial for the country to convey the correct message to
well-wishers who
want to help.
"We don't need distortions by the media," he
said. "This does
not help in building confidence, especially in Zimbabwe's
current
predicament.
"The state media is not getting it
right. In this media field
one needs to be ethical and professional. It is
also important to have an
independent media and freedom of expression," he
said.
"However, I'm not going to refuse to talk to
them."
Zim Independent
Clemence Manyukwe
SEVENTEEN Zanu PF supporters aligned to a
ruling party faction
loyal to National Security minister Didymus Mutasa have
been jailed by the
Rusape Magistrates' Court for three years each in a
political violence case
initially linked to the minister.
Mutasa however got off the hook after state witnesses refused to
implicate
him in the clashes that erupted in the run-up to the ruling party's
primary
elections for the 2005 general election.
The violence saw
Mutasa's supporters destroying property and
leading attacks on a rival Zanu
PF group led by war veteran James Kaunye who
was contesting the minister's
Makoni North seat.
In an interview on Monday, the Director of
Public Prosecutions,
Loice Matanda-Moyo, confirmed the jailing of Mutasa's
supporters who include
Zanu PF's Makoni North district chairman Albert
Nyakuedzwa, who is also
facing murder charges on a separate
case.
"Seventeen were convicted and sentenced to 36 months
imprisonment. Ten months were suspended on condition of good behaviour and
another six months were suspended on condition that they pay for the damaged
property," Matanda-Moyo said.
The conviction and
sentencing of the 17 comes more than a month
after 12 other accused persons
in the same case, including Nyakuedzwa's wife
Erica Nyaude, were acquitted
and discharged as no one linked them to the
violence.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
MDC pro-senate
leader Arthur Mutambara is struggling to make an
impact on the ground with
crowds attending his rallies shrinking with each
appearance, in direct
contrast to his rival, Morgan Tsvangirai's burgeoning
gatherings.
Mutambara's rally two weeks ago in
Chitungwiza and Tsvangirai's
two meetings in Gweru and Masvingo last weekend
clearly show that Mutambara
has a mountain to climb to tilt the scales in
his favour.
The Mutambara rally in Chitungwiza where his
lieutenant Job
Sikhala used to enjoy overwhelming support was a test case,
attracting less
than 1 200 people, many of them children.
His inaugural rally in Bulawayo, his faction's supposed
stronghold, was also
poorly attended with only 1 500 people turning up. The
low turnouts
contrasted with Tsvangirai who attracted 17 000 supporters in
Gweru and 12
000 in Masvingo during the weekend rallies which marked the
first public
appearance of the newly-elected leadership team in the
Tsvangirai
faction.
However, the Mutambara faction's secretary for
Information and
Publicity, Morgan Changamire, defended his faction's
performance.
"The MDC President, Professor Arthur Mutambara,
addressed an
ecstatic and jubilant crowd of more than 5 000 people at
Huruyadzo shopping
centre in Chitungwiza," Changamire said in a statement
last week.
The Tsvangirai faction spokesman, Nelson Chamisa,
described the
huge turnout at their rallies as a bold statement giving the
new leadership
a mandate to lead the party.
"Thousands of
MDC supporters continue to make a bold statement
against the dictatorship,"
Chamisa said. "They turned up in large numbers at
MDC rallies held in Gweru
and Masvingo over the weekend to meet their new
leadership and to chart the
way forward. In Gweru on Saturday, 17 000 MDC
members thronged Mkoba stadium
while another 12 000-strong crowd turned up
for a morning rally held at
Mamutse stadium in Masvingo the following day."
Chamisa said
Tsvangirai told the crowds that he was not worried
by the dictatorship's
incessant threats to kill him if he led people in a
sustained programme of
democratic resistance to achieve a new and democratic
society.
He said Tsvangirai reiterated the pledge he made
at congress to
lead from the front after realising that elections alone
without a parallel
political programme would not bring a new
Zimbabwe.
Mutambara on the other hand told his supporters
that if the
opposition party failed to remove Zanu PF from power through
democratic
means, it would resort to demonstrations and mass
stayaways.
"We are not afraid to use demonstrations and mass
stayaways to
remove the government. We will not rule out using violence
because this is
still our option," he said in
Chitungwiza.
Mutambara told his supporters that he had the
brains to turn
around the country's fortunes if he gets into
power.
Calls for mass protests have been met with threats from
government officials, the latest being from President Mugabe at Winston
Changara's funeral at the National Heroes Acre last
Friday.
Vice-President Joseph Msika dismissed Tsvangirai's
calls as
empty talk meant to cause mayhem in Zimbabwe. Tsvangirai is
scheduled to
hold another rally on Sunday at White City Stadium in
Bulawayo.
Zim Independent
Loughty Dube
THE Bulawayo
provincial ex-ecutive of the opposition MDC
anti-senate faction faces a vote
of no confidence from the party's districts
over the nomination of
candidates for the party's vice-presidency position
that was ultimately won
by Makokoba member of parliament, Thokozani Khuphe,
the Zimbabwe Independent
has gathered.
Simmering discontent is brewing in the province
after party
members questioned the removal of national executive member
Getrude
Mthombeni's name from the vice-presidency list forwarded by the
districts to
the province.
The party's district members
are compiling names for a petition
that will be forwarded to the national
chairman, Isaac Matongo, recommending
the disbanding of the Bulawayo
executive committee.
Sources said the party's supporters want
the Agnes Mloyi-led
executive to be disbanded for disregarding the
province's resolutions.
However, pro-senate spokesperson for
Bulawayo province, Paul
Themba Ndlovu, said he was aware of the moves by
some of the party members
but said the whole action was
unprocedural.
"Nominations for party positions are done by
the people and we
take the candidates to the people for endorsement after
vetting whether they
are capable of taking up the positions," Ndlovu
said.
However, party sources insisted that Mthombeni was
elected by
all the party's seven districts but her name was not forwarded to
congress
by Bulawayo province.
The fractured opposition
MDC is currently mired in leadership
squabbles that have seen the party
being split in two over a decision on
whether to participate in last year's
senatorial elections.
Zim Independent
TWO Zimbabwe human rights activists, Otto Saki and
Beatrice
Mtetwa, have been honoured separately for their roles in
representing
victims of government repression.
Saki is
one of the 2006 recipients of the prestigious Reebok
Human Rights Award
while Mtetwa was honoured with an Index on Censorship and
Freedom of
Expression award for defending journalists who were arrested for
practising
without accreditation in the run-up to the 2002 presidential
election.
Mtetwa received her award in London two weeks
ago while Saki is
expected to receive his in New York next
month.
Mtetwa defended and secured the release of two British
Daily
Telegraph journalists, Toby Harden and Julian Simmonds, who were
arrested
for reporting on Zimbabwe's election without accreditation. She
also
defended Guardian correspondent Andrew Meldrum who was illegally
deported
from the country.
Saki, who is a member of
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, is a
joint winner with four other human
rights activists.
The other winners are Li Dan, a former
astrophysics student who
postponed his pursuit of a PhD to help HIV and Aids
patients in China,
Rachel Lloyd, who works on behalf of sexually exploited
children in the
United States and was herself in the sex trade as a teen,
and Khurram
Parvez, a human-rights advocate and promoter of peace in Kashmir
who lost
his right leg to a landmine. - Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
Clemence Manyukwe
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe last Friday likened
the leader of the
MDC's anti-senate faction Morgan Tsvangirai to his dog and
warned of severe
consequences if he led people into the
streets.
Digressing from his prepared speech at the burial of
his late
aide-de-camp who was declared a national hero, Winston Changara,
Mugabe said
he used to have a dog named Sekaurema that used to run back
home after
being taken for hunting expeditions.
"Now I
heard that Tsvangirai ran away before he could reach
Mgagao (a base for war
training in Tanzania). He is like Sekaurema," Mugabe
said. Before that he
had delivered a litany of insults to the faction leader
and others opposed
to his policies.
Commentators said this week it was
regrettable that Mugabe
insulted people with impunity, fully aware that they
could not respond in
the same manner due to at least four laws that protect
him from similar
utterances.
They said that anyone who
responds to Mugabe's attacks must be
careful as they may end up being
prosecuted.
It is an offence under the Public Order and
Security Act (Posa),
the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act
(Aippa), the
Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, and the General
Laws Amendment
Act to make utterances that may engender feelings of
hostility or cause
hate, ridicule or contempt towards Mugabe or his
office.
UZ analyst Eldred Masunungure said: "I listened to
the speech.
It was regrettable and unstatesmanlike. A
president of a
country, even if he is an executive president, must use
statesmanlike
language.
The speech was unacceptable to
any fair-minded person".
Masunungure added that the laws that
protect Mugabe against
insult when he himself slanders others at will must
be taken in the context
of the uneven political playing field that favours
the status quo.
Human rights lawyer Arnold Tsunga said the
"insult laws" are
mostly associated with a dictatorship that seeks to shield
itself from
public scrutiny and accountability.
"Insult
laws are mostly used for intimidating society from
giving opinions on how
the country is being run," he said.
"Where there is a
dictatorship, insult laws are used to prevent
public scrutiny of the chief
executive officer of the country. They are not
in the public interest as
they are used to champion the selfish and narrow
interest of the dictator,"
Tsunga added.
A number of people have been arrested in the
past for giving
their opinion on the state of affairs they blame on
Mugabe.
In November 2004, an unemployed Chitungwiza man was
arrested for
allegedly saying in a bus: "Mugabe is a dictator who rules by
the sword."
The following month, a Harare man, Arnold Bunya,
spent
Christmas in jail after calling Mugabe thick-headed.
Zim Independent
Clemence Manyukwe
ANALYSTS have
condemned a proposed amendment by Media and
Information Commission (MIC)
chairperson Tafataona Mahoso seeking to tighten
the Access to Information
and Protection of Privacy Act (Aippa).
Appearing before the
Parliamentary Portifolio Committee on
Transport and Communications recently,
Mahoso called for the regulation of
distributors of foreign publications to
avoid having "a planeload of
subversive material being dumped on the
country's streets on the eve of an
election".
"It is
essential that we should regulate both the publishers and
the distributors,"
he said.
"Those distributors who import foreign periodicals
should
indicate where they are procuring such
periodicals."
The committee indicated that they would soon be
recalling Mahoso
to hear his views on other proposed amendments by other
interested parties.
Observers last week expressed fears that
Mahoso's proposed
amendment was aimed at censoring publications such as The
Zimbabwean,
published in Britain, South Africa's Sunday Times and the Mail
& Guardian -
all weeklies that have carried reports critical of
government policies.
They added that the move would result in
the reduction of
independent publications in the country.
Mathew Takaona, the president of the Zimbabwe Union of
Journalists, said the
move would isolate the people of Zimbabwe from the
rest of the
world.
"We are surprised by the proposal.
The world is now a global village and you cannot isolate
Zimbabweans from
the rest of the international community by regulating the
distribution of
media products," Takaona said.
"Government should allow
citizens access to unfettered
information. People should read all the
information and make up their own
minds," he said.
Takaona said the proposal would create a dilemma for
international visitors
and to get round it journals from all over the world
may need to be
registered for purposes of screening which he said is
unrealistic.
"The market should be allowed to make a
determination.
If people want it, they will buy it, if they
do not want it they
won't," Takaona added.
Human rights
and media lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa said it was
surprising for Mahoso to make
such a proposal when the government told the
African Commission on Human and
Peoples' Rights that it would be relaxing
the draconian
legislation.
She said that the move may result in the
disappearance of
independent international publications from
Zimbabwe.
"Regulating distributors may mean refusing
distribution. Where
do we draw the line?" wondered Mtetwa. She
added:
"One hopes that Mahoso was not speaking on behalf of the
government otherwise it would mean that the government went to the African
Commission and told an untruth."
The president of the Law
Society of Zimbabwe Joseph James also
condemned Mahoso's proposals saying
they were not necessary in a global
village.
Media
Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe's assistant advocacy
coordinator Dumisani
Gandhi said Mahoso's proposal would affect the people's
capacity to make
informed decisions.
"I think he has a sinister intention.
When others are
campaigning that Aippa be repealed or amended to meet
international norms
and standards, he is in fact tightening it," said
Gandhi.
He added that freedom of expression should go beyond
borders.
"The papers that would be targeted were giving an
alternative
source of information.
The other side is
necessary for people to make informed choices
and decisions," he
said.
Zim Independent
Shakeman Mugari
THE massive
increase in interest rates threatens the viability
and balance sheets of
most companies whose ability to repay loans has been
stretched to the
limit.
The interests have added to the instability in the
market
characterised by hyperinflation and foreign currency
shortages.
If sustained, experts say, the current interest
rate regime
could lead to company closures with many already showing signs
of serious
cashflow problems.
It would also have a ripple
effect on the whole economy.
This week the overnight
accommodation rate for banks to borrow
from central bank was at 750% while
the inter-bank rate (banks lending to
each other) was at
731,3%.
Banks were this week charging an average 500% on
commercial
lending, used mostly by companies and individuals for
loans.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has been cranking up
interest rates
to mop up excess liquidity in the market, strap inflation and
stem
speculative activities.
To market watchers though, such
a measure has failed to clamp
down inflation as government keeps running the
printers to sustain its
expenditure.
The effect of the
high rates will ripple through the whole
economy with disastrous effects,
experts say.
The banking sector, which is yet to fully
recover from the
liquidity crisis of 2004, has already started feeling the
crunch of the high
interest rates.
The rates have started
eating into their earnings and balance
sheets.
"They are
bleeding and so are most companies and the whole
economy is not
sustainable," said economist James Jowa.
He said while banks
were picking money at between 731-750% on
the market, their return on
investments like Treasury Bills (TBs) was
significantly
lower.
Most banks were sitting with 1-2 year bills which were
yielding
between 120 -170%, Jowa said.
"That gap is not
being covered and therefore represents losses."
The interest
rate squeeze has worsened anguish for banks
currently battling to raise
funds to meet the US$10 million ($1 billion)
capital requirements set by the
central bank.
Their plight is made worse by the fact that
they are all
scrambling for a shrinking pie in the form of deposits and
customers in a
market where the savings culture has been wiped out by high
inflation.
The impact of the rates cuts fell across the whole
economy. The
hardest-hit are the heavily geared companies who are now
servicing their
loans at high rates.
Analysts say some
heavily borrowed companies might be forced to
scale down, retrench or close
altogether.
Economist Blessing Sakupwanya said there was a
danger that many
companies might be forced to shut down.
"It's unsustainable for companies and many are suffering.
They might close," Sakupwanya said.
For instance companies
that borrowed at 165% in June last year
are now being forced to service
their debts at 500%.
"The result is that their balance sheets
are eroded as their
liabilities begin to eat into their assets," said
Sakupwanya.
Even companies that were not heavily geared are
under threat.
The interest rates will scare them away from
borrowing for
capital projects.
They will also shy away
from borrowing for other essential
services for fear of falling into a debt
trap.
For the man on the street, the high interests are a
double-edged
sword. Companies strangled by the rates will scale down
operations, throwing
workers out of their jobs.
"When
they scale down there will be a massive shortage of
products which will lead
to more inflation.
The government is in a Catch-22
situation," said Sakupwanya.
The interest rates have become
the latest challenge for
companies that are already under siege from a
plethora of economic problems.
Apart from the soaring
interest rates, the companies are failing
to cope with inflation, foreign
currency and fuel shortages.
They are constantly under threat
from government policies which
include price controls.
Zim Independent
Paul Nyakazeya
GOVERNMENT
accountant general Judith Madzorere has expressed
reservations in the way
the state is managing its finances.
In a special report by
the Public Accounts Committee on
Financial Management in the public sector,
the committee quoted the
accountant general as saying there was a lack of
discipline in the way
ministries handle their books, resulting in government
failing to account
for billions of dollars.
Some
ministries have not been submitting financial statements
for the past three
years.
"I highlighted that there is general laxity in the
financial
management (system) of the government," Madzorere was quoted as
saying in
the report.
Madzorere was giving evidence to
the committee on the state of
government's accounts.
The
committee said line ministries had been failing to submit
financial
statements for public funds to the Comptroller and Auditor-General
for the
past three years
She said government was losing billions of
dollars because there
were no adequate internal checks and
controls.
The committee said Ignatious Chombo's Local
Government ministry
was the main culprit having violated government's
financial regulations by
diverting funds.
The Office of
the President was also fingered in the report for
violating the law and
failing to submit returns.
Other ministries named for
violating the government's financial
laws include Agriculture, Justice,
Public Service and Defence.
The report said Finance, Industry
and Trade, Mines, Transport
and Education had also violated
regulations.
"Your committee is perturbed by the general
nonchalant attitude
displayed by line ministries in the execution of their
duties," the
committee said.
The committee called on
government to strengthen the Ministry of
Finance's supervisory
role.
It said accounting officers had either delayed
submitting or in
some cases not submitted returns during the period under
review.
On suspense accounts, the committee said it was
disturbed to
observe that the debt recovery system for advances and
disallowances was in
most cases ineffective with some balances having to be
written off.
Funds in Temporary Deposit accounts were being
frequently
abused, it said.
"Some ministries circumvented
the advances purpose by directly
charging to the vote. This created problems
in the event of a shortfall.
The committee strongly condemns
this practice and implores the
ministries to stop it forthwith," said the
committee.
Zim Independent
Shakeman
Mugari
THE raging war over tariffs between the Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe
and Zesa escalated this week amid revelations that a showdown
now looms
between RBZ governor Gideon Gono and Zesa Holdings chairman Sidney
Gata.
Angry correspondence has been flying back and forth
between the
power stakeholders.
The confrontation comes
three weeks after Gono overruled Energy
and Power Development minister Mike
Nyambuya's cabinet proposal for a
tariff hike of 2 280% this
year.
Gono tore Nyambuya's proposal to pieces and accused
Zesa of
wanting to make consumers pay for its incompetence and
self-inflicted
overheads.
He said Zesa had through
Nyambuya misrepresented facts and
omitted some of its critical shortcomings
to justify the hike to the cabinet
and President Mugabe.
The governor said an increase would scuttle the national fight
against
inflation and lead to company closures - developments he said would
sabotage
the turnaround programme.
Sources say Nyambuya is livid that
Gono managed to get cabinet
to throw out a proposal he had worked on for six
months.
Indications are however that Nyambuya, although not
happy that
he has been overruled, seemed to have softened his initial
hardline stance.
He has since given interviews to papers
suggesting he is playing
to Gono's tune.
Nyambuya told
cabinet on March 2 that Zesa needed an urgent 560%
increase to
survive.
He said Zesa would need further quarterly tariff
hikes to bring
the total increase this year to 2 280%.
He
however told the Manica Post that such an increase would
militate against
the war on inflation - exactly the same reason Gono used to
overrule
him.
"Mind you, electricity is a strategic national resource
that is
used by many companies and households and for Zesa to effect a
massive
tariff hike at once will cause inflation," Nyambuya
said.
But although Gono seemed to have won the battle three
weeks ago
after convincing cabinet to throw out Nyambuya's proposals, there
are
strong indications that the war is far from over.
While Nyambuya is silent about Gono's actions, Gata seems to
have jumped
into the fray by taking up the matter up with the presidium
through a
scathing attack on the governor.
On Tuesday Gata submitted a
report to Vice-President Joice
Mujuru accusing Gono of making ill-informed
allegations and misrepresenting
facts to Mugabe and
cabinet.
The report - a response to Gono's damning memo to
cabinet dated
February 28 - rubbishes the governor's plea that a hike would
scuttle his
inflation targets.
Gata shot down Gono's
attempts to cite inflation as the main
reason for his rejection saying he
had failed to manage inflation even
without previous tariff
increases.
"The RBZ's inflation targets were, after all, not
met, nor its
exchange rate targets, as well as its interest rate targets,
all of which
have had a very detrimental impact on Zesa's operations and
finances," Gata
said.
Gata denied Gono's allegations to
cabinet that while whining
about exchange rate depreciation to justify the
hike,
Zesa had not paid a "single penny" on the US$32,2
million (or
$3,2 trillion) the RBZ has sourced for its power
imports.
Said Gono: "Omission of this fundamental reality
left out a
critical piece of information which, in our considered opinion
was
imperative to accurately guide cabinet."
Gata however
dismissed the assertions accusing Gono of
"mis-reporting" and inflating the
figures.
He said the amount which Gono has reported as $3,2
trillion was
actually $1,8 trillion.
"This amount is
scheduled as a debt to be repaid to the RBZ,
with interest, once cost
reflective tariffs are in place, and not to be
treated as some form of a
support grant from the RBZ, as erroneously implied
in its submission," Gata
said.
He accused the central bank of reneging on its promise
to give
Zesa foreign currency to rehabilitate its power
stations.
Gono, Gata said, had failed to deliver on both
promises for
Plarp funds and foreign currency.
Gono had
earlier pledged to give Zesa $1 trillion under Plarp
funds but has so far
managed to release $301 billion which Gata said had
not been timely
disbursed.
He attacked Gono for sinking Zesa into debt while
at the same
time blocking tariff increases essential for its efficient
operations.
Gono has blocked tariff reviews for the past
three years arguing
that such a move would endanger his war on
inflation.
He said the utility's debt situation worsened
from 2004 when
Gono started blocking tariff reviews.
"The
three-year tariff freeze has in turn forced Zesa to fund
working capital
through costly debt instruments such as bills, bonds and
Plarp (which is
also an interest bearing loan), etc. Evidently, this has
strained Zesa's
debt portfolio."
Gata further lashed out at the RBZ for
trying to interfere with
Zesa's operations adding that the central bank is
doing so despite its clear
technical inadequacies to run a power
utility.
"It would be difficult to develop, retain and
justify the
requisite expertise within itself to undertake operational
functions of the
Zesa board and regulatory functions of the
Zerc."
Gono is expected to respond next week after cabinet
deliberations on Gata's submissions.
Zim Independent
Paul Nyakazeya
THE Zimbabwean dollar has lost at least 90%
its value on the
black market during the first quarter of the year, pushed
down by the
shortage of foreign currency, further widening the gap between
the official
and parallel market rates.
As the parallel
market continues to gallop, central bank
governor Gideon Gono has kept the
lid on the official market, a move that
has worsened the
situation.
The parallel market has been around $99 201,58 to
the United
States dollar, giving the false impression that the local
currency was now
stable.
However, on the parallel market
the local currency has continued
to crash. The shortage of foreign currency
has also pushed companies against
the wall as they resort to the black
market.
For the past three weeks the dollar has been trading
at around
$210 000-220 000 against the greenback, well above a rate of
between $105
000 and $115 000 that prevailed during the first week of
January.
On the inter-bank, the dollar has been trading at
$99 201,58 to
the greenback since January 24, when Gono introduced the
volume-based
exchange rate.
The local currency had opened
the year at $82 300,35/US$1 on the
official market.
Experts however warn that it could crash further to end the
second quarter
at between $460 000-$500 000/US$1 in the black market.
"The worst is yet to come. It's on a rollercoaster and it could
be worse
than before," said an analyst with a local bank.
The real
crunch, he said, would come after the tobacco proceeds
would have been used
up.
The tobacco selling season is due to open in three weeks'
time
but the government is yet to come up with a new
price.
This week dealers were quoting the Zimbabwean dollar
at anything
above $355 000 for the British pound depending on volumes while
the South
African rand and Botswana pula were trading at $38 000 and $43 000
to the
dollar respectively.
On the inter-bank the same
currencies were trading at $172 400,
$16 100, and $18 000
respectively.
According to the new volume-based exchange
rate, volumes below
US$5 million will not trigger any change on the
inter-bank rate, while
volumes within the US$5-$10 million would see the
rate move by +/-1%.
The US$10-$15 million range will in turn
see an automatic
adjustment to the exchange rate either side of 1,5% and
volumes exceeding
US$15 million will be rewarded with a 2%
adjustment.
Analysts however say the new exchange rate
management system is
failing because it still represents RBZ interference in
the system.
The system is an attempt to create a false sense
of stability of
the fragile dollar.
Economic consultant
John Robertson said the absence of
significant foreign currency inflows
would further weaken the dollar on the
black market and trigger massive
price increases, mostly on imported
products.
He said
that would push the prices of products with an imported
component.
"The dollar would continue to crash further on
the parallel
market and force prices of imported goods and all local
products that
depend on energy and transport up," Robertson
said.
"The volume-based exchange rate would soon become
unsustainable
and result in the over-valuation of the Zimbabwe
dollar."
"The impact is disastrous on smaller companies with
less cushion
and no external operations," said Robertson,
adding:
"Unless something is done soon, most of these
companies will
close shop."
He said the rate at which the
dollar is losing value would
continue pushing the inflation rate
up.
"In a country where about half the population is
reportedly
threatened with starvation, the increase in inflation would be
felt
particularly hard as the dollar continues to slide," Robertson
said.
The weakening of the local currency on the official
market has
sparked fears that inflation will once again spiral out of
control this year
as was the case in 2004.
The country's
annual inflation for February was 782%, the
highest in the
world.
Analysts have hinted that the local currency would
crash further
during the course of the year, driven mainly by the looming
food shortages.
Zim Independent
By Admire Mavolwane
THERE has
been much debate on whether or not the country has
certain fundamental and
structural peculiarities such that conventional
economic theories and
practices cannot be applied with any measure of
success.
However, the performance of the stock market in February and
March seems to
suggest that the inverse relationship between itself and the
money market
also exists locally in the same way as it applies to other
markets.
The world over interest rates and share prices
have always been
known to move in opposite directions.
Interest rates started firming in mid-February and have since
then remained
high, with the yield on the 91-day treasury bill reaching 525%
per annum
from the previous 340% per annum.
Investment rates have also
followed suit with those for the
short-term durations rising
substantially.
Unlike in the past short-term deposit rates
are now rising in
sync with the Reserve Bank's overnight accommodation rate
rather than the
91-day treasury bill yield.
The former is
currently at 750% for secured accommodation and
780% for unsecured overnight
borrowing.
The stock market has consequently been weaker with
the
industrial index showing a negative return of 20,14% for
March.
Investors have obviously been avoiding the stock
market opting
to capitalise on the high returns being offered on the money
market.
Although many are making hay whilst the sun is
shining in the
money market they are doing so with a lot of
trepidation.
High interest rates somehow open the now not so
fresh wounds of
December 2003 when a number of financial institutions, which
eventually went
under started exhibiting signs symptomatic of distress;
paying above market
interest rates.
Current investor
uneasiness is understandable as history has
this uncanny habit of repeating
itself.
However, unlike in late 2003 when two camps emerged,
with the
big banks which were then paying relatively low rates being
regarded as safe
whilst the camp paying higher rates was deemed to be
suspect, it appears
that the tables might to a certain extent have
turned.
It would appear that the "heavies" are the ones who
are now
paying higher than market average interest rates.
The nervousness has been compounded by the revised minimum
capital
requirements effective in six months' time.
The balance sheet has
since overtaken the income statement in
terms of importance because it may
not matter anymore how much money the
bank made in December 2005 but, what
is more crucial is how much the
institution would need to make in the nine
months to September 30 2006 to
meet the minimum capital
requirements.
As the graph below shows, a lot of sleep is
being lost in the
sector as many executives ponder how to bridge the
gap.
By September 30 this year commercial banks are expected
to have
$1 trillion in capital and reserves, merchant banks, finance houses
and
building societies have had theirs pegged at $750 billion, whilst
discount
houses will need $500 billion.
On the same date
asset management companies' balance sheets will
be expected to reflect $100
billion in shareholders' equity.
The revised requirements
were based on the exchange rate of $100
000:US$1 which would equate to US$10
million for commercial banks, US$7,5
million for the merchant banks, finance
houses and building societies whilst
discount houses and asset management
companies are pegged at US$5 million
and US$1 million
respectively.
The US dollar levels will be maintained whilst
the Zimbabwe
dollar equivalent would from time to time be adjusted depending
on the
depreciation of the local currency.
A tentative
date for any adjustment to become effective is
December 31
2006.
As most of the banks indicate in their board
commentaries,
shareholders should be prepared to inject more
capital.
It is worse for the likes of Kingdom and NMB which
raised
capital through rights issues less than 12 months
ago.
What makes it even more problematic for investors to
fathom is
the fact that the minimum capital requirements will be a moving
target as
long as the Zimbabwe dollar continues to
depreciate.
At the moment, there is nothing to suggest that
it will not.
Non-listed banks, at face value have an even
much bigger
problem, as it is not that easy for them to raise
capital.
With the prospect of paying a dividend being very
low in the
medium term, what carrot will these banks dangle in front of
potential
shareholders?
Listed entities have it
relatively easier, but judging from
recent trends many may not be listed for
long.
Recent experiences with the Kingdom and NMB rights
issues show
that major shareholders follow their rights and in some
instances underwrite
the capital raise.
The proportion
held by minorities has thus been dwindling and
many of these listed banks
will soon be in contravention of listing
regulations
If
the minimum capital requirements are the local currency
equivalent of the
above stated US dollar amount, then why shouldn't the
banks be allowed to
raise US dollars and lodge the same with the central
bank, like in the early
days of the banking system.
In this way, the institutions are
hedged against the
depreciation of the local currency and the whole
capitalisation issue
becomes a once off exercise.
Otherwise, most of them will be forced to raise more Zimbabwean
dollars
every three or six months.
Another consequence of the pegging
of minimum capital
requirements has been the nullification capital adequacy
ratio as a guide to
a bank's soundness and quality.
Whilst we subscribe to the idea of following international
trends, the
importance of US dollar-based capital requirements appears to be
overly
harsh especially given the fact that none of the local institutions
underwrite US dollar-based transactions and are not even allowed to hold own
positions in foreign currency
As such, we feel that the
soundness of a financial institution
should be based more on the local
currency evaluated capital adequacy ratios
than on the route being
taken.
In any case, the capital at any given point is
invested in the
"most secure" asset in the country; treasury
bills.
The real dilemma is with asset management
companies.
At $100 billion, the capital is out of reach for
most of them
and if they do raise it, where will they invest the
funds?
This raises the issue of conflict of interest as it is
likely
that own funds will dwarf all other clients and the asset management
company
becomes its own biggest client.
For a non
underwriting institution, US$1 million seems to be
unnecessarily
high.
The overall net result of the new capital requirements
would be
to reduce the number of players and competition in the
sector.
Already the likes of Kingdom and ABCH have started
the process
of surrendering their discount house
licenses.
One actually empathises with the promoters of NDH
and CFX who
have been working hard to revive these institutions and, before
they could
rest after the proverbial six days, they now have to put on
another charm
offensive to raise even more funds.
Also
the Reserve Bank, besides being the regulator is also a
major shareholder in
almost three banking institutions, one of them being
ZABG.
So is the central bank prepared to inject more
capital into
these institutions and how will it raise the funding? Food for
thought!
Article supplied by Tetrad Group.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
ANALYSTS have warned
that government's establishment of a human
rights commission could become
the state's latest move to evade the African
Commission's recommendations
and conceal its rampant human rights violations
including failure to
prosecute perpetrators.
Human rights organisations, though
not dismissing government's
proposal completely, expressed scepticism over
the commission saying such
institutions have often been manipulated into
becoming part of government's
machinery of repression. They said
establishing the commission would not
improve the situation but delay the
hearing of human rights complaints in
the international
arena.
Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe
national
director Alouis Chaumba said government wants to portray an image
of
compliance with international standards but without
sincerity.
"There is no sincerity in establishing the
commission since
government is the chief violator of human rights," Chaumba
said. "We don't
want to end up having another Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
or Media and
Information Commission (MIC) established in accordance with
international
standards but turned into democracy
monsters."
Chaumba questioned the criteria that were going to
be used to
appoint the commission, to whom it would report and whether other
stakeholders would be involved.
"For as long as we have
the patronage system of appointments in
place, the commission will be a tool
readily available for government
cover-ups," he said.
MIC
has been used to administer government's draconian laws like
the Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Broadcasting
Services Act,
which have led to the closure of a number of newspapers. The
ZEC is still to
prove its independence from government.
Chaumba advocated an
overall constitutional reform instead of a
"partisan amendment (No
18)".
Human Rights Trust of Southern Africa (Sahrit)
executive
director Noel Kututwa said his organisation noted with great
satisfaction
the announcement of government's intention to set up a national
human rights
commission but was quick to add that the commission can only be
effective if
it is independent, is granted quasi-judicial powers and if it
draws members
from a broad base.
"Sahrit notes that it
has in previous cooperation with
government institutions shared its concern
with these government
institutions over the absence of a Zimbabwean Human
Rights Commission and
therefore we applaud government in instituting the
commission," Kututwa
said. He said government must ensure that the proposed
human rights
commission is effective and established in accordance with the
principles
relating to the Status and Functioning of National Institutions
for the
Protection and Promotion of Human Rights, popularly known as the
Paris
Principles.
"Sahrit enjoins government to ensure
the following principles:
independence and impartiality; sufficiently clear
and broad constitutional
and legislative basis for full functionality;
diversity of membership of the
commission; credible procedures for the
appointment and removal of members;
an independent budget that meets the
needs of the commission; and a wide
mandate to deal with all human rights
issues in Zimbabwe," he said.
The National Constitutional
Assembly described the proposed
commission as yet another reflection of
government's piece-meal, tokenist
and undemocratic approach to Zimbabwe's
urgent and dire need for a
people-driven constitutional
reform.
"Although a human rights commission is urgently
required in
Zimbabwe, to introduce it in the form of an 18th patch on
Zimbabwe's
tattered, torn, and shabby constitution, is in itself a mockery
of the noble
concept of human rights protection," NCA spokesperson Jessie
Majome said in
a statement. She said to establish a commission under the
current
constitution would be a futile exercise.
"What
use will the commission be when the declaration of rights
in the same
constitution is so narrow and shallow as to give rights with the
left hand
and claw them back with the right hand - hence the flourishing of
fascist
laws such as the notorious Posa and Aippa?" Majome said.
She
questioned how effective the commission could be when the
provisions of the
same constitution subordinate human rights to executive
powers. Majome said
the commission would not improve the situation but delay
presentation of
human rights complaints to international fora.
Government
promulgation of the human rights commission comes as
the African Commission
on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) prepares to hear
four cases submitted
by Zimbabwean civil organisations against the
government over the continued
decline in the rule of law, ousting of the
jurisdiction of the courts,
violation of collective and individual rights
and the suppression of
fundamental rights and liberties.
During the 38th Ordinary
Session in Banjul, Gambia last
December, ACHPR resolved to urge government
to implement the recommendations
of the commission's fact-finding mission of
June 2002, as well as the
recommendations contained in the report by the
United Nations Special Envoy
on Human Settlement Issues of July 2005, and to
repeal or amend
Constitutional Amendment No 17 and provide an environment
conducive to
constitutional reform on the basis of fundamental human
rights.
The commission declared admissible the cases of the
Associated
Newspapers of Zimbabwe challenging the Supreme Court's
application of the
"dirty hands" doctrine in constitutional and human
rights-related matters
and its impact of the right to protection of the law
under the African
Charter. It will hear arguments on electoral petitions,
highlighting the
inordinate delays in resolving election-related disputes
from the 2000
parliamentary election and its implication for the
independence of the
judiciary and protection of the law.
Also before the commission is a case on the alleged infringement
of free
practice of journalism and the deportation of independent
journalists in
defiance of court orders as inimical to the free practice of
the profession
of journalism as well as denial of protection of the law. It
will also hear
challenges to Aippa in respect of free practice of journalism
and compulsory
registration of media houses by the government.
The African
Commission ruled on four separate occasions that
communications submitted by
ZLHR were admissible implying that in those four
cases there were no
effective domestic remedies for the rights violations
alleged.
Analysts say such decisions are an indictment of
the judiciary
as well as an unequivocal and significant indicator that the
judiciary and
the justice delivery system in Zimbabwe no longer guarantee
the enjoyment of
universally recognised human rights and fundamental
freedoms.
This also further demonstrates the absence of the
protection of
the law for victims of human rights violations and gives
credence to the
allegations that there exists a practice of state-sponsored
impunity in
Zimbabwe.
The commission expressed concern
over the continued decline in
the rule of law characterised by defiance of
court orders, ousting of the
jurisdiction of the courts through
constitutional amendments - in particular
Amendment No 17, the violation of
collective and individual rights through
forced evictions, and the
suppression of fundamental rights and liberties
through laws such as Aippa,
Posa and the Broadcasting Services Act.
These recommendations
have not been implemented. The Law and
Order unit of the CID which the
commission recommended should be disbanded
remains under political
instructions with some opposition MPs and activists
alleging that they have
been tortured and suffered degrading punishments by
this
unit.
Analysts said the situation in respect of the judiciary
seems to
be deteriorating.
"Since January 2005, the
superior courts have reinforced the
perception that they lack independence
and impartiality and are unable to
deliver justice," an analyst said, adding
that: "Where judicial officers
have attempted to give effect to the rights
of victims, court orders have
been ignored or intentionally
disregarded.
"In the most serious affront to the principle of
separation of
powers and the rule of law, the state has gone on to oust
completely the
jurisdiction of the courts to deal with certain categories of
cases."
Zim Independent
By Denford Magora
THE Zanu PF
government expects the world to applaud it for
sending wolves to herd sheep.
This is the closest analogy one can give for
the setting up of a Human
Rights Commission by this discredited government.
Nobody,
except the state media, took the announcement seriously.
There are very good reasons for this.
This is the same
government that has ignored such basic human
rights as the right to shelter,
enshrined in the UN Human Rights Charter to
which our government assented
with fingers crossed behind its back.
This is only one area
in which the government has not only
ignored a basic human right but has
also gone out of its way to deny the
people of Zimbabwe the
same.
Here, I am not even thinking about Operation
Murambatsvina.
I am instead talking about the complete lack
of interest in the
housing needs of people displayed by Local Government
minister Ignatious
Chombo and his cohorts.
True, now and
again, even this most inefficient minister in our
government feels some
shame and tours "Blair Toilet Houses" masquerading as
Operation Garikai
"homes".
A picture of one substandard house is flashed across
TV screens
and newspaper front pages and the minister thinks he has done
enough to fool
the world.
There are other examples: such
as the fact that to this day,
policemen believe that the uniform they wear
gives them the right to beat up
citizens, despite Police Commissioner
Augustine Chihuri's impassioned pleas
for them to conduct themselves
professionally and respect the rights of
prisoners and those that they have
arrested.
Now, even Chombo's municipal police believe that
their tattered
blue uniforms give them the right to assault citizens in
broad daylight in
the middle of the Harare city centre.
Of course, we won't even talk about other rights such as freedom
of
movement, which is currently being assaulted at one roadblock after
another
while criminals have a field day breaking into homes and raping
people.
The freedom to freely assemble was curtailed in a
calculated
legislative sleight of hand known as Posa and
Aippa.
There is also the right to such basic things as food,
where
Agriculture minister Joseph Made has made a hash of
things.
This year, Zimbabweans face yet another food shortage
because
this minister is patted on the back each time he messes
up.
At the next cabinet reshuffle - if there ever is going to
be
one - I bet he will be elevated to a "senior minister" in charge of the
destruction of food security, while his equally clueless counterpart at
Local Government will also receive another promotion as thanks for a job
well-done in demolishing Zimbabwean civilisation.
In
fact, it would be difficult to find a human right that Zanu
PF has not
butchered in recent memory. And this is the party that now wants
to set up a
Human Rights Watchdog?
You will certainly be excused for
laughing.
But hold your mirth a moment.
This body will no doubt be staffed by people who have no record
of
campaigning for human rights.
It will instead be staffed by
former military personnel, Zanu PF
functionaries and other cast-offs from
society whose sole mandate will be to
furnish plush offices, buy expensive
four-wheel drive vehicles and draw huge
salaries and
expenses.
All this will be funded by a taxpayer who is
currently reeling
under the burden of the most irksome tax regime in the
world - perhaps
second only to Israel.
The extent of the
new body's involvement in human rights issues
will no doubt be the granting
of interviews to the state media in which we
will be told just how
wonderfully our rights are protected.
We will be reminded
about former Rhodesian premier Ian Smith and
colonialism.
Imperialists will be mentioned.
A "uni-polar" world, also.
And, if we are very lucky, we will
also get lengthy articles from dubious
"professors" on how the West is using
human rights to advance a nefarious
agenda which is bent on world
domination.
All this will
mean nothing to you and I.
But it will be extremely
satisfying to a government that has
chosen to constantly engage in
intellectual prostitution, pleasing only
itself with its own self-indulgent
acts, obviously paid for by the people
currently squirming under its
thumb.
I for one have already taken a $5 million bet with a
friend that
the new body will contain not one person known to have voiced
misgivings
about the state of human rights in Zimbabwe.
Specifically and just as an example, I will have to pay out the
$5 million
if Reginald Matchaba-Hove, that tireless veteran campaigner,
features
anywhere in this commission.
Or if Beatrice Mtetwa is offered
a job there even as a tea-lady!
I certainly have no fear of losing the bet,
I can tell you!
I think that people have now realised how
Zanu PF works:
it seeks to promote theory above practice,
saying one thing
while doing the opposite, talking of freedom while
oppressing people,
talking of tightening belts while it loosens its own,
talking of a fairer
world at UN summits while practising nepotism,
favouritism and opportunism
back home, talking about equitable distribution
of wealth while hoarding
farms, fuel, Zupco double-cab cars and even
Operation Garikai "homes",
preaching virtues while engaging in unbridled
vice.
In a word, this is called insincerity and it is the
bane of our
nation, one that will never leave us as long as this party
remains in
government because no one is taken to task or made to account for
their
action in the Zimbabwe government.
In other words,
this is a government that is not governing, a
government and a country that
has no leader because a national leader
protects the interests of the
nation, not the interests of a clique within a
political
party.
This human rights body is yet another structure
erected by a
government that is playing house (mahumbwe). The people of
Zimbabwe know
this.
The world knows
this.
The government knows this. But, just like the children
who play
house, our government thinks that when it closes its eyes, no one
can see it
because it cannot see anyone itself.
Denford
Magora is a Harare-based marketing executive.
Zim Independent
By Alex Magaisa
ONE of the
key rallying points of the current struggle is the
campaign for a new
constitution.
It is widely believed that the current
patchwork that we call a
constitution is fundamentally flawed and therefore
requires urgent reform.
This idea of the campaign is correct
and commendable.
My concern however, is that it targets a
change of the set of
rules under which the country is governed without
placing similar emphasis
on the culture and norms that define the attitude
and conduct of individuals
between themselves, organisations and the
state.
It is a note of caution suggesting that the success of
a new
constitutional order depends not necessarily on the beauty of the new
legal
rules that are established but on the behaviour, norms and
socio-political
culture in the society.
Without the
constitutional culture the spirit of
constitutionalism cannot be
sustained.
The growth of this culture starts at the very
basic unit of
society to the highest organs of the state.
To that end, the family, the village, neighbourhood, local
community, civil
society organisations, political and non-political
organisations, commercial
and non-commercial organisations all have a role
in cultivating this
constitutional culture, which supports
constitutionalism.
It is not mere adherence to rules that matter, but whether those
rules
encapsulate the values of a given society lived and experienced by the
citizens.
This bundle of factors determining whether or
not there is a
suitable constitutional culture is what leading scholars have
called "social
capital".
Instead of expecting the
constitution to save people from
misery, it is the people who have an
obligation to save the constitution
from failure.
The
current approach assumes in part that the constitution can
work as a tool of
social engineering, that is, as an instrument of changing
the political
culture and conduct of the leadership towards the citizens and
democracy.
It is argued that a key fault in the current
constitution is
that it centralises power in the executive arm of
government.
However, it also assumes that if a new
constitution is
promulgated the political leadership will have the right
attitude and
inclination to conduct themselves in ways that further the
goals of the
constitution.
This assumption is
inaccurate.
It also assumes that the citizens will have the
desire, capacity
and resources to serve and defend the
constitution.
A new constitution does not equate to a new
constitutional
culture.
Indeed a constitutional culture
is not automatically and
instantly triggered by the emergence of a
beautifully crafted constitution.
Developing social capital
to grow the constitutional culture is
a long-term issue and it is often
unattractive to politicians seeking
immediate political
power.
It is also a remote incentive for people who are
struggling to
get by under very difficult socio-economic conditions.
Politicians tend to
focus on the tangible document - the
constitution.
But we must also talk about these unpopular,
less eye-catching
issues and place them in the marketplace of ideas for
people to define their
agenda for change.
But how then
can the requisite constitutional culture be
developed?
The key thing is that it is an organic process, which simply
needs to be
nurtured and encouraged.
The constitution is a testament of
the values cherished and
protected by a society over a period of
time.
It is therefore important to have a good appreciation
of the
constitutional history of the nation.
This history
is vital because it shows us the values that have
been cherished and
advanced at each stage of development and therefore
shapes the future
direction.
Constitutional culture is at the same time local
and
international - local in that it grows out of the needs and experiences
of
the Zimbabwean people and global in that there are common threads that
can
be identified in all societies across the world based on the idea that
at
the centre of all political struggles is the desire for human dignity and
respect.
In essence therefore, the creation of a
constitution is part of
the political struggle. If it is correct that
constitutions are products of
political struggle, there are three key points
that follow from this
characterisation:
First, every
constitution ought to reflect the values, ideals
and goals of the society
engaged in political struggle. A constitution is
therefore likely to be
unique depending on the experiences of that
particular
society.
The key here is for society to identify and entrench
its values
in the constitution - in other words, the values that the
constitution
protects cannot be prescribed from outside and cannot be
divorced from the
values of the living communities.
The
values to which a society aspires define the conduct and
attitudes of
individuals that is essential for cultivating the
constitutional
culture.
Close observation shows that Americans always refer
to their
values, as do the British, the French or other societies that have
had long
recorded constitutional histories.
Our values do
not have to equate to those of any other country,
but they must be defined
nonetheless;
Second, because it is part of the political
struggle,
constitution- making is necessarily an on-going
process.
My concern is that the current approach seems to
have given the
impression that the creation of a new constitution is an
achievement that
will guarantee good governance and everyone will live
happily ever after.
The reality is that constitution- making
will not stop on the
day a new document replaces the current one. It is
worth remembering in the
history of modern Zimbabwe that there have been
several episodes when the
constitution has been changed.
It is easy to forget that the pre-colonial societies had their
own
constitutional arrangements as did the colonial society
afterwards.
Constitutional historians therefore have a key
role to play in
the constitution-making process.
In
essence, citizens must be prepared that constitutional
struggles will
continue, albeit in different forms over the course of time;
and
Third, by virtue of it being a political struggle,
there will
inevitably be victors and losers at every
stage.
The losers at every stage will continue to seek
change.
But winners at one stage may become losers at another
point
depending on the changes in societal values influencing interpretation
of
the constitution.
Values and goals also change over
time and with that rights are
either gained or lost.
Historically disadvantaged people such as gays, women, black
people and
ethnic minorities have at different times in the course of
history gained
rights as societal values in different places changed.
But it
is not the constitution that changed the values - the
changes in those
values most likely helped to transform society's views and
therefore
political and legal interpretations of already existing
rights.
Civil society organisations, political parties and
all
organisational units need to engender the constitutional culture at
local
and national levels.
Indeed, at the very basic unit
of society - the family - that is
where values emerge and we have to start
from there in developing the
culture that supports
constitutionalism.
One cannot emerge from a family unit in
which he/she tramples
the values that he/she wishes to preach at the
national level.
The children's behaviour, attitude and
conduct are defined at
the family and local level. They grow up to become
leaders in society and
their conduct is shaped by the values they learn from
an early age.
If one grew up knowing that nothing can be
obtained without
paying a bribe or taking unfair advantage of another
person, how can he be
expected to act differently when he assumes a position
of power?
Individuals and organisations that govern in
traditional and
modern institutions need to cultivate the culture of
tolerance, free-speech,
fairness, competition among other
values.
Civil society leaders have to start the process
internally in
order to make an impact when they preach the word of the
constitution and
democracy.
Similarly, the leadership of
political parties fighting for
democracy has to realise that its conduct and
attitude toward rules,
political institutions and other people is as
important as the document that
it continually talks about.
How they respond to dissent, competition and diversity and how
we deal with
minorities or those that disagree is part of the process of
building that
culture.
I hazard to add that for all its weaknesses, the
current
constitution is not exactly the primary problem.
Rather, it is the conduct and behaviour of the incumbent
leadership, indeed
any leadership that behaves similarly, that is at fault.
And
this deplorable conduct occurs with or without the presence
of
rules.
The constitution has simply been a tool to legitimise
actions
but has not necessarily been the main driver of the actions of the
leadership.
Experience shows that conduct that is
patently unconstitutional
has been permitted over the years - even in the
face of clear constitutional
safeguards.
So rules in
themselves are not the problem.
A good example of the
irrelevance of rules in this context is in
relation to the
judiciary.
The leadership could violate the constitution and
yet the
judiciary fails to do anything about it regardless of the presence
of
constitutional powers and obligations to safeguard the
constitution.
We must recall that even the much-criticised
judiciary has
always acted under the current constitution and at one point
was one of the
best regarded in the Commonwealth.
The
constitutional rules have not changed in any fundamental
way - but the
conduct and attitude of political actors towards the judiciary
has changed
most probably causing the judiciary to change as well by
retreating to the
margins.
The rules have not changed but the values,
character, ideals and
conduct of the principal actors have
changed.
We can have a constitution with all the best
safeguards, a
constitution with the most beautiful clauses but if the men
and women who
exercise power and make decisions have no will to change their
conduct
because they subscribe to different values, then that constitution
will
remain ineffective.
I must end by acknowledging the
efforts of the various groups,
both political and non-political, that have
played roles in raising
awareness about the constitution.
Certainly, more people know about the constitution in 2006 than
they did in
1996.
However, a lot more needs to be done to promote
constitutional
literacy as part of cultivating the constitutional
culture.
From primary school, children have to know about the
constitution and its importance in the governance of the
country.
When we talk about a new Zimbabwe we often restrict
our vision
to an escape from the current malaise. In reality, a new Zimbabwe
will
emerge over a long period of time.
It may never be
realised in our lifetime but let us look ahead
20 or more years and hope
that generations to come will look back and
acknowledge that a firm
foundation was laid for them.
The idea of constitutional
culture demonstrates that the
struggle for constitutional change is not and
must never be the exclusive
preserve of lawyers endowed with drafting and
advocacy skills.
It requires us to tap from other
disciplines, which best capture
the values and the softer aspects that
define the conduct and behaviour of
people in relation to each other and
institutions.
It also involves calling upon ideas and wisdom
from both
traditional and modern institutions at local and national
levels.
It requires every individual to participate at the
most basic
level because the people themselves are the constitution for the
constitution is no less than living practice - not just a set of carefully
crafted words on a document stored somewhere in the official
cabinets.
The law alone will not change the situation - we
have to look
beyond the law in building and nurturing the requisite
constitutional
culture.
Dr Magaisa is a lawyer and can be
contacted at
wamagaisa@yahoo.co.uk
Zim Independent
By Rusununguko Sadza
OUR beautiful
country continues to slide into a bottomless pit,
its future being eroded by
a few who are in control of the apparatus of the
state and their willing
stooges.
The system of oppression and deprivation obtaining
in our
country today is sustained by human beings like you and me, who must
one day
be called to account as individuals.
The enemies
of Zimbabwe's future must be exposed and face the
people's
wrath.
We know the state as an organised unit is too strong
for us to
confront.
Street action and stayaways have been
tried but met with the
brutality of the enemies of
liberty.
Yet the people who are standing against our freedom
and liberty
are known.
They have nowhere to hide, except
our fear of them, which they
have sustained. They humiliate us in bars, at
the markets, on the streets
and in our houses.
The
poverty, joblessness, lack of social and economic security
which they have
induced have been the biggest assault on humanity.
We know
where they stay and work, their businesses, children and
families.
We know they sleep at night.
We know there is a moment of the day when they need to eat or
drink.
We know there is a time when they, as individuals,
can be
vulnerable. We call on all freedom lovers, wherever they are, to
extinguish
these threats to our collective humanity.
Their arrogance must be undermined.
By making them insecure
as individuals, we are expanding the
very frontiers of our
liberty.
We are underlining that Zimbabwe will never again be
a nation
where individuals can inflict such suffering as we have been forced
to
endure.
Instead of financing the butchering of our
women as they call
for their rights; instead of jailing our activists;
instead of harassing our
leaders; the regime must commit itself to guarding
its children at home and
in foreign lands.
Those who
defend the regime in whatever form must be warned that
there will not be any
excuses for their continued relationship with a
man-eating
institution.
They should not stand in the way of their
freedom.
As we commit ourselves to non- violence, we
underline that it is
not an act of violence for a people confronted with
violence to defend
themselves.
We are not a violent
people, we are the most tolerant of people,
but this tolerance is what has
brought us to where we are today.
Zim Independent
Comment
THERE is an egotistic war of words between the
government and
Zesa on one side and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe on the
other over tariff
increases.
Central Bank governor Gideon
Gono is opposed to steep tariff
hikes saying they will be inflationary while
Zesa wants to effect hefty
increments to cushion the parastatal from the
high cost of generation and
distribution of electricity.
Since the beginning of the year, letters have been flying to and
fro between
the protagonists, each trying to justify their standpoint.
It
is a power game enacted by public officials whose egos appear
to blind them
to the real issue at stake, which is that the country is in a
power
crisis.
Raising tariffs steeply or suppressing the rate of
increase is
only addressing the symptoms of a crisis that has been left to
get out of
hand by a government clutching at straws to extract support from
an
increasingly impoverished populace.
We sense in the
correspondence flying between the central bank,
Zesa and government an
unwillingness by the parties to break the impasse and
move
forward.
This is not the first time we have seen public
officials
grappling among themselves in a pretentious bid to appear to be
addressing a
national crisis.
The central bank has tried
to impose various measures on
industry to curb the foreign currency black
market and ensure the resource
is traded in the formal
economy.
It introduced the ill-fated Homelink system, it has
fought and
is still fighting with exporters over forex retention thresholds,
and it has
put in place myriad controls to ensure the currency does not
continue to
waste away.
The currency is still losing
value by the day, the black market
is still flourishing and forex receipts
are still too insufficient to
finance imports.
Inflation
is still heading north and is soon expected to reach 1
000% - if it hasn't
already. This is part of the problem requiring urgent
attention.
There is no political will to address the
supply side of foreign
currency by putting in place policies which ensure
that Zimbabwe gets
balance-of-payments support while at the same time
creating a conducive
environment for investment and expansion of industry
and the resuscitation
of agriculture.
The same feverish
activity has been witnessed in the fuel sector
where marketers have battled
over prices of a commodity that is not
available.
Taskforces and think-tanks were formed to deal with pricing and
distribution
but this came to nought because the supply side was not
addressed.
The same exercise in futility has today taken
Zimbabwe to the
depths of absurdity by trying to extract fuel from jatropha
trees.
It is definitely easier to import petrol and diesel
than to
squeeze it from plants, common sense denotes.
The
fight over tariffs falls in the same realm of energy being
expended to
achieve temporary results. Industrial and domestic consumers of
electricity
are today prepared to pay reasonable tariffs as long as they are
guaranteed
uninterrupted supply.
Electricity supply is not going to
improve immediately because
of a new tariff regime. Zimbabwe needs to revamp
the energy sector to
attract significant investment in hard currency to
refurbish Hwange and
Kariba power stations.
A deal was
signed with the Iranians last year to overhaul Kariba
but Zimbabwe has not
met its side of the bargain, US$30 million in all,
because the money is not
there.
There is also no money for the greenfield Batoka Gorge
project.
The cold season is nigh and farmers will in the next
four weeks
be watering fields of winter wheat.
Inevitably
electricity demand will increase exponentially.
It should be
borne in mind that Zesa is failing to supply power
to industry that is
operating at barely above 40% of maximum capacity.
The cold
season and demand from farmers will expose the folly of
the current
fight.
There is no obvious plan in place to improve power
imports or to
boost generation.
There will be more
frequent power outages and the same pugilists
will still be blaming each
other for the crisis - all in pursuit of the
title of "saviour of
Zesa".
They are not saviours and their record of failure is
all-too-apparent to be missed.
The unbundled Zesa has
created a behemoth which cannot fend for
itself and Gono cannot ascribe the
782% inflation to power tariff hikes.
Is anyone looking at
the bigger picture?
Zim Independent
Editor's Memo
Vincent Kahiya
I'VE been wondering why President Mugabe has not taken aim at
MDC pro-senate
leader Professor Arthur Mutambara.
The rocket scientist does
not appear to be on the menu for
Mugabe's consumption, perhaps because our
octogenarian leader does not
regard him as a serious threat and therefore
sees it as a waste of time to
expend energy on him.
Either that or the president feels that he would rather
concentrate his
fight on a familiar front - Morgan Tsvangirai.
When Mugabe
last Friday started to spew out expletives at the
Heroes' Acre, attacking
the opposition, I thought Mutambara would not be
spared.
Tsvangirai who got the thick end of the stick from Mugabe was
the target
because of his call for jambanja against the regime.
Mutambara has also called for a confrontation with Mugabe.
Tsvangirai at his faction's congress called for a "cold season
of peaceful
democratic resistance" and a "short, sharp, programme of action
to free
ourselves" from Mugabe's government while Mutambara told a press
conference:
"We are putting Robert Mugabe and his regime
on notice. We are
going to fight you tooth, nail and claw. We will use all
tools of the
struggle at our disposal, including
jambanja."
But Mugabe usually takes time to warm up to
challenges from
nascent opposition politicians. Is his silence about UPP and
UPM not
significant?
Last Friday he decided not to deal
with the Mutambara threat
opting for Tsvangirai and his colleagues whom he
called a mazengezeza,
according to the Herald, but I heard mazunguzurwa
(literally, tadpoles, and
a very rude word if you ask me) and threatened him
if he tried to unseat the
government.
"We hear others say
we want to go into the streets to
demonstrate, to unseat a legitimately
elected government. It will never
happen and we will never allow
it.
"If a person now wants to invite his own death, let him
go
ahead," Mugabe warned in his Shona remarks.
We are all
very familiar with Mugabe's "degrees in violence" and
calls to "strike fear
into the hearts of the white men, our real enemies".
Therefore his attack on Tsvangirai was not a lightning bolt from
the
blue.
Here is a leader whose government has promulgated laws
to shield
him from scorn by commoners but is quick to shout abuse at
opponents in
public.
Away from the hate speech debate
which Mugabe can win any day,
his clerical ally Nolbert Kunonga could
conclude that Mutambara "is a dog
barking at an elephant" and therefore just
vexatious and no real threat.
Talking about the professor
would simply lift him to echelons of
importance.
There is
another theory.
There could be method in Mugabe's ranting
against Tsvangirai and
deafening silence against
Mutambara.
When dealing with political opponents, Mugabe is
usually careful
to put his best foot forward.
This
economy would have been on a much better keel if he used
the same deftness
when leading the charge towards economic recovery.
Mutambara
could be allowed to go through his rebuilding process
with only minor
obstacles thrown in his path while walls of Jericho are
erected along
Tsvangirai's path.
This would have the effect of
strengthening Mutambara to a level
of parity with
Tsvangirai.
Then bingo for Bob! The sum of two "strong
factions" is a weak
and fractious opposition.
If
Mutambara had joined a united opposition party, he would have
definitely
been a target of presidential scorn. He could be safe from
President
Mugabe's diatribes but in the simple psychology of an opposition
supporter,
the one being most persecuted by Zanu PF is likely to have a
larger crowd
behind him.
The recent rallies held by both factions could be
telling.
I wrote in this column last month about the danger
of Mutambara
receiving kudos from Zanu PF or worse still, not being looked
at critically
by President Mugabe and his handlers.
For
opposition politicians, there is value in being attacked by
Bob even when he
calls you a tadpole.
What's all that croaking about, I
wonder, and when is Mugabe
going to sound like a statesman rather than a
bitter faction leader?
Zim Independent
Obduracy destroys economy
By Eric Bloch
SAVE for the government itself, there are undoubtedly very few
naïve enough
to believe that government is incapable of fault.
Most
believe that the government is imbued with an endless
array of faults, and
that belief is regrettably very well founded.
However, among
the greatest of those faults must be the total
inability of those who govern
Zimbabwe to recognise error, and their failure
to try to avoid repetition of
error.
And one of the foremost errors that the government
repeatedly
makes is to resort to counterproductive, authoritarian dictates
which
critically impair the economy, and thereby subject the populace to
intensifying, horrendous hardships.
The ironic and tragic
characteristic of the government doing so
is that it recurrently attributes
its recourse to those destructive actions
as being motivated to minimise the
hardships confronting the Zimbabwean
people, to protect them, and to ensure
their well-being, whereas in reality
the reverse is the
case.
The government needs to recognise that excessive
regulation,
tantamount to dictatorial rule, is not only oppressive but more
often than
not does not only not achieve the declared objective but, in
fact, worsens
the lot of those that the government alleges that it seeks to
protect.
There are innumerable examples that can be
cited.
Zimbabwe embarked upon a programme of land reform that
was
intended to ensure black economic empowerment in agriculture and to
procure
increased agricultural production, assuring food security for the
country
and the region.
However, after eight years,
virtually all that has been achieved
is that 300 000 farm workers have been
rendered unemployed, resulting in
destitution for them and their
families.
Over one million have been rendered
poverty-stricken!
Concurrently, a country that previously had food security
now produces half,
or less, of its needs, and foreign exchange generation
from agricultural
exports has fallen catastrophically.
Moreover, through the injustices applied in implementing the
land reform
programme, much of the international community has been
alienated, and
foreign direct investment discouraged.
Had, in the
alternative, the government progressed land reform
non-confrontationally,
cooperatively with the pre-land reform farmers, and
with the international
community, instead of domineeringly, arrogantly and
despotically, the land
reform programme could have been a great success.
The
government had agreed to do so at the 1998 Harare Donor
Conference, and
again at Abuja in 2001, but reneged on its agreements,
spuriously alleging
that the other parties to those agreements had reneged
on
them.
A pronounced example of the negative consequences of
state
authoritarianism has been the frequent impositions of price
controls.
On each occasion, the alleged justification was to
protect
consumers from exploitation and profiteering on the part of commerce
and
industry, instead of recognising that the only effective ways of curbing
price increases are by ensuring that supply exceeds demand, thereby
prompting competitiveness, and by facilitating increased productivity,
thereby minimising production costs.
Instead, the
government has invariably resorted to heavy-handed
price controls, which
were welcomed by consumer representative bodies and by
consumers, but which
placed the survival of businesses at risk.
Products became
scarce, which fuelled inflationary black-market
operations, businesses
sustained losses, necessitating their reducing
numbers of employed and
constraining spending in the downstream economy,
and the price controls
did naught but to worsen the distressed economic
environment.
Although price controls have consistently
failed to achieve the
declared objectives of the government, nevertheless
the government endlessly
resorts to them, responsive to demands from
consumers, and anxious to be
perceived by the populace as a caring
government.
Yet another example of disastrous regulation was
when, in
mid-2005, Education, Sport and Culture minister Aeneas Chigwedere,
exceeding
his powers in law, imposed draconian constraints upon the
operations of
independent schools, with special emphasis upon restricting
fee increases.
Not only did he place the continuance of
operations of some of
the schools in great jeopardy, to the immense
prejudice to the education of
many Zimbabwean scholars, but there were also
massive harmful economic
repercussions.
Hundreds, if not
thousands, of parents became deeply concerned
as to whether standards of
education would decline, and they decided to
depart Zimbabwe, in order that
their children's access to good education
could be
assured.
An already massive "brain drain" was radically
exacerbated,
depriving the Zimbabwean economy of desperately needed skills,
and thereby
greatly worsening the very emaciated and distressed
economy.
But the government has demonstrated a complete
inability to
learn from its mistakes, and therefore keeps repeating
them.
The most recent such occurrence was last week when
Health and
Child Welfare minister David Parirenyatwa invoked the Medical
Services Act
of 1998, ordering private doctors, clinics and hospitals "to
temporarily
suspend fee increases" pending a committee appointed by the
ministry
completing a detailed evaluation.
Although the
minister said that is was not the government's
intention to control fees, he
also said that it was his role to supervise
both private ad public health
sectors, and that there were "no sacred cows".
There can be
little or no purpose in suspending fee increases,
even only temporarily,
while an evaluation is carried out, unless it is
contemplated that
thereafter certain or all charges are to be controlled,
for what otherwise
is the purpose of the suspension and the evaluation?
Therefore, despite his assurances to the contrary, one must
ponder whether
the minister is not actually contemplating imposing certain
controls.
The minister's concern for the inability of
many to access
requisite healthcare, due to rising costs, is very
commendable.
But resorting to actions that can result in
healthcare not being
available is pointless in the extreme, and not in the
interests of the
community.
And imposing constraints upon
fees and charges will very greatly
reduce healthcare
availability.
Zimbabwe has witnessed an appallingly extensive
amount of
emigration by doctors, radiologists, physiotherapists, dentists,
optometrists, psychologists, nurses and other healthcare providers in recent
years due to the depressed economy, concerns as to the availability of
quality education and as to the political environment.
If
their livelihoods are now to be controlled and impacted upon,
even more will
leave, and those in need of health services will be unable to
obtain them,
irrespective of whether or not they have funding to pay for
them.
The minister's freeze on fees and charges followed
agreement
between healthcare providers and medical aid societies for fees
increases of
between 76 and 96%, with effect from April 1,
2006.
Such increases are well below many of the cost
increases
sustained by healthcare providers, who use drugs, medications and
other
health requisites which increased in cost (according to the Central
Statistical Office) by over 950% in the year to February 2006, and who use
transportation whose costs have risen by over 1 000%.
They pay rents which, in the month of February, rose by 151,4%
(and, in the
year to February, by almost 2 084%!).
They incur
telecommunication costs which rose by 282% in the two
months of January and
February 2006. And almost all other costs sustained by
them will also have
increased considerably.
If their incomes do not rise, they
cannot meet their increased
costs, and generate an acceptable livelihood, so
they will depart Zimbabwe
to more conducive environments.
Far from protecting those in need of healthcare, the minister is
jeopardising them, and he should urgently reverse his
stance.
The private healthcare sector is essential, for the
public
sector cannot meet national needs. It is understaffed,
under-equipped,
under-funded, with evermore deterioration in service
delivery.
Zim Independent
Muckraker
COUPLE of photos in the Herald caught our eye. First
there was a
picture of visiting Equatorial Guinea president Teodoro Obiang
Nguema at the
Victoria Falls. The Herald captioned their pic of Obiang in
dark glasses as
"Natural Wonder" although, on reflection, this could have
referred to the
Falls.
Couldn't the Guinean leader have
removed the shades for just a
few seconds? Does he want us to mistake him
for one of the late Papa Doc
Duvalier's tonton macoutes?
It must be said in all the reports we have read of Equatorial
Guinea, it
does seem a bit like Haiti on a bad day.
Firstly it is as hot
as hell. Tropical, dank and unforgiving.
Secondly it is one of Africa's most
repressive states. The present leader
came to power by overthrowing his
uncle, we gather, who subsequently died in
mysterious
circumstances.
The country is a police state where every wall
has ears. The
government was accused of rigging elections for the presidency
in 1996 and
the legislature in 1999.
The other pic which
caught our eye was that of the two
presidents receiving garlands from young
girls at the airport. The two
leaders looked uncannily similar. Do you think
for one minute any of those
well-wishers at the airport had heard of
Equatorial Guinea? And will Obiang
cough up any oil?
We
somehow doubt it. As we found out with Libya and Iran,
solidarity has its
limits. Unless President Mugabe can show Obiang the
colour of his money
there is unlikely to be any black gold flowing his way.
In
any case, nearly all the big oil companies operating in
Equatorial Guinea
are American. There are weekly flights from Malabo to
Houston!
Needless to say, ZTV gave the state visit
lavish coverage, only
too thankful to have a visitor of any sort. But
somebody should tell Reuben
Barwe and the Herald that the "mercenaries"
intercepted in Harare were not
convicted of trying to stage a coup against
the Obiang regime. The state
could only manage charges of violating the
Aviation and Immigration Acts!
Obiang said the visit would
provide him with an opportunity to
see "the great efforts you are putting
into raising the standards of living
of your people".
Evidently he didn't take his shades off at any point!
He
toured the Zanu PF headquarters, we are told, another wonder
of the ancient
world. And he saw some other crocodiles at the Vic Falls.
Talking of crocodiles, the latest joke going around town is: if
approached
at your gate by carjackers, for goodness sake show them your MDC
card.
Delusional thinking continues in the tourism
sector which
suffered a 49% decline last year. Zimbabwe Tourism Authority
chair Emmanuel
Fundira attributed the decline to negative publicity from the
Western press.
But he felt things would pick up this
year.
"We had a host of problems during the year under review
which
include a hyperinflationary environment, weak economy, fuel shortages
and
bad publicity," he revealed.
The erosion of
disposable incomes had also had an impact, he
said. But with the "conclusion
of the land reform" and "improvement of
relationships with traditional
source markets", he expected to see an
improvement in the sector's
fortunes.
Did he not hear the president's remarks about
whites and about
Tony Blair and George Bush at Winston Changara's burial?
What improvement
does he expect with those traditional source
markets?
And at what point was the land reform programme
"concluded"?
Inflation has presumably come tumbling down has it, and the
economy is no
longer "weak"?
Where do they find these
people?
Also becoming increasingly delusional, President
Mugabe told a
state dinner hosted for President Obiang that Zimbabwe would
stand by its
principles.
"Those opposed to our principles
have enlisted the services of
like-minded countries and their leaders, and
deceitfully and dishonestly
used the media, vilifying us as undemocratic
because we have dared to put
the interests of the poor and downtrodden
first," he said.
Isn't it exactly the opposite: that his
misguided policies have
impoverished millions? That he has created the
misery that he bitterly
resents the press publishing? How else do we
describe the impact of
Operation Murambatsvina and the state's response to
criticism from the UN?
He was applauded by the hundreds of
government officials
attending the banquet, news agencies
report.
Of course he was. The gravy train is the best place
to be. We
can imagine those chefs gulping down their food as the legions of
the poor
were kept at bay. Viva Equatorial Guinea!
Nathaniel Manheru, the oily spokesman for an oil-less regime,
lashed out
again at the Zimbabwe Independent last week accusing us of taking
orders
from our proprietor in the debate around Geoff Nyarota's recent op/ed
forays. And he had the cheek to talk about ethics!
For a
newspaper whose circulation and influence he scorns he
does spend an
inordinate amount of time in his column responding to us. Not
content with
inventing sales figures for the paper (he was probably mixing
us up with the
Southern Times), he accuses the Independent of "writing
letters to
itself".
This is evidently what they do at papers under his
control!
There are plenty of people ready to testify as to their bona fides
as
Independent letter-writers so long as Manheru tells us who all those
"Patriots" are writing to the Herald.
Manheru can see
Trevor Ncube's hand behind the criticism of
Nyarota. Does it really require
Ncube's intervention to take issue with
Nyarota's "excellent credentials"
during his tenure at the Chronicle?
Geoff meanwhile will
probably regard Manheru's defence as less
than helpful as he struggles to
maintain his "credentials" ahead of
publication of his magnum opus, Against
The Grain.
We look forward very much to reading it but Geoff
must promise
not to write his own reviews.
Still on
Manheru. Why is he so bitter that former Liberian
leader Charles Taylor has
been turned over to face the music for his sins
while in power? He says
Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo should have
followed Zimbabwe's example in
refusing to surrender the fugitive Mengistu
Haile Mariam to the Ethiopian
authorities. Is that the view of Zimbabweans,
that hiding human rights
violators is in the interests of "pan-Africanism"?
What does
he find so lovable in Idi Amin that he must thank
Saudi Arabia for refusing
to hand him over to the Ugandan authorities?
And why should
Manheru be so worried about leaders like Obasanjo
who are prepared to hand
dictators responsible for human rights violations
over to the international
courts? Does he know something we don't?
We also enjoyed his
delusional thesis that "Africans" readily
forgive and yearn for the return
of their ousted "tormentors" rather than
accept change. In its disembodied
form, the thesis could pass for some
thought process. But it ignores the
longevity of the "tormentor" and the
cult that he creates to make himself
appear indispensable. For it would be a
strange people that were "incapable
of imagining" freedom.
Did Swedish ambassador Sten
Rylander really say that sanctions
against Zimbabwe should be "lifted
immediately because they are hurting the
ordinary people and not serving any
purpose"?
That was the introductory paragraph to a story
carried in the
Sunday News, and reproduced in the Sunday Mail, last weekend.
But nowhere in
the story was there any evidence for such a bold declaration
that
contradicts Sweden's adherence to the EU common position. In fact
Rylander
said that "ultimately" and "eventually" sanctions must be removed
once
Zimbabwe had "come to a normal situation".
Not quite
the same thing is it?
One veteran ambassador told us it
usually takes new heads of
mission six months to wise up.
"They arrive here all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed thinking
Zimbabwe's
problems are amenable to sensible discussion and resolution," the
envoy
said. "But give them six months of bashing their head against a brick
wall
and they soon see the light."
Or
stars!
Muckraker was intrigued by an article in the
Herald saying
suspended Chitungwiza mayor Misheck Shoko will soon appear
before a
disciplinary committee to answer charges of misconduct being
levelled
against him. The inquiry, we were told, will give him an
opportunity to
respond to allegations and findings made by the initial
investigating
committee led by Joseph Macheka and presented to the Ministry
of Local
Government.
Is that the same Joseph Macheka who
lost the Chitungwiza
mayorship to Shoko in the 2003 election? In other
words, the losing Zanu PF
candidate, who obviously has an axe to grind and
is therefore unlikely to
provide an impartial finding, is appointed by the
minister to investigate
the man who unseated him?
This
violates elementary tenets of governance and is so
obviously partisan as to
beggar belief. But this is how we conduct our
affairs in Zimbabwe today. And
nobody seems to notice. By the way, what
became of the bullbars Cde
Macheka?
Given the solidarity being expressed by some of
the regime's
more recidivist spokesmen for the late Serbian dictator,
Slobodan Milosevic,
Muckraker was interested to read of the graffiti
campaign in Belgrade that
helped bring him down. It consisted of two simple
words that had a
self-fulfilling impact. Those two words? "He's finished".
There was never a
need to say who.
You can imagine the
depths of despondency to which a tyrant's
heart might sink on peering out of
his tinted motorcade windows to see those
simple words daubed on every
wall!
Journalists must always beware of being hoodwinked
by
influential players in both the public and private sectors. A healthy
dose
of scepticism and an instinct for enquiry should form part of any
self-respecting scribe's equipment.
We need to remind
ourselves of this as the Zimbabwe Tourism
Authority, an agency with close
ties to the government and ruling party, is
luring visitors to Zimbabwe to
see for themselves how all the country's
difficulties are the product of a
hostile Western press.
There have been visits from
delegations of Malaysian and Chinese
journalists and more are expected from
France. Some appear to need little
convincing.
"We read
from the international media a lot of negative things
about Zimbabwe, about
the country being on the brink of collapse," said
Ravin Ravichandran, head
of the Malaysian media delegation. "There is
nothing like that. These are
negatives that deserve to be corrected."
Indeed they do. But
exactly how far were the Malaysians able to
see beyond the comfortable
resorts they visited and the government spokesmen
they
met?
Did they speak to any victims of Murambatsvina? Did they
speak
to any of the women from Woza about their experience in jail? Indeed,
did
they manage to escape from their ZTA minders and speak to any
non-governmental organisations during their stay?
The
collapse of commercial agriculture and 1 000% inflation are
not inventions
of the Western press, nor are repressive laws designed to
prevent criticism
of the president. We reported last week a motorist in
Harare being brutally
assaulted because he did not pull over in time as the
presidential motorcade
passed.
These are Zimbabwean realities.
Ravichandran and his colleagues should remember the one golden
rule of
journalism: Don't allow yourself to be used!
Governor of
Midlands Cephas Msipa on Wednesday added a bit of
fun to the usually drab
and tedious Good Morning Zimbabwe newsreel on ZBH's
SFM. Responding to
questions on progress made towards the construction of
the Gweru Hospital
mortuary, the governor said: "The mortuary is alive and
well."
He then went on to give a list of people who were
in the
mortuary including Zanu PF politicians and MDC Gweru executive mayor
Sesel
Zvidzai. "They are all in there and they are happy to be in there,"
the
governor told us.
If they are all in the mortuary, we
wonder who is working on the
project!
Those who have
not read New Ziana's community newspapers are
missing a great literary
treat. Muckraker recently came across this line in
one of their Bulawayo
editions: "Residents of Cowdray Park are living in
fear of being mould (sic)
by an alleged lion . . ." More nuggets from the
community papers next
week.