http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 14 August 2011
18:44
BY PATIENCE NYANGOVE
CONTROVERSIAL war veterans’ leader
Jabulani Sibanda allegedly warned
Masvingo villagers that the former
liberation war fighters would be
“roasting livers” of sellouts in the next
election.
He allegedly made the remarks at Zvehuru Primary School but
he denied the
accusations when he was asked to explain what he meant last
week.
Zanu PF usually refers to opposition supporters as sell-outs who want
to
reverse the gains of the country’s
independence.
Brighton Ramusi, a programme manager at
Community Tolerance Reconciliation
and Development (Cotrad), a
Masvingo-based non-governmental organisation,
maintained that Sibanda issued
the chilling warning at one of his numerous
meetings, dubbed Operation
Kubudirana Pachena.
“He said during the 2008 elections, war veterans
were roasting chicken and
goats but this time they were going to roast human
livers of those who vote
for MDC,” Ramusi said.
He warned that if
Sibanda was not stopped from his campaigns, where hate
speech and threats to
opposition supporters were the order of the day,
tensions would continue to
rise in the province.
Ramusi accused Sibanda of inciting violence and
disturbing lessons at
schools.
“People are being forced to attend
his meetings through the use of
overzealous traditional leaders and war
veterans,” he said.
“This is against the right to freedom of
association and assembly and hence
the police are obliged to safeguard the
rights of citizens.
“In this regard, Cotrad therefore demands that
the police safeguard the
liberties of the citizens.”
Ramusi said
war veterans were now hated by the people because of the violent
campaign.
Sibanda, who has reportedly been camped in Masvingo
for several months,
vehemently denied the accusations that he threatened
villagers.
“I have never said that. Those kind of words do not exist
in my vocabulary,”
he said.
The Zanu PF provincial executive once
asked Sibanda to leave the province
but he refused.
He is
allegedly backed by a faction in the party that believes Zanu PF
cannot
re-capture its support lost to the MDC formations without resorting
to
violence.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 14 August 2011 18:42
BY
KHOLWANI NYATHI
JAMESON Timba, the Minister of State in the Prime
Minister’s office is
demanding US$250 000 from Police Commissioner- General
Augustine Chihuri and
three detectives who arrested him in June.
Timba
was picked up on Friday June 24, from his office in Harare and
detained over
the weekend for allegedly calling President Robert Mugabe a
liar.
The
minister had issued statements rebutting Mugabe’s claims that a special
Southern African Development Community (Sadc) had thrown out an adverse
report on Zimbabwe tabled at another summit in Livingstone, Zambia, in
March.
He was released on June 26 after High Court judge, Joseph
Musakwa, ruled
that his detention was illegal.
Timba is also
suing detectives Eliot Muchada and a Mukwaira from the Harare
Central Police
Station’s Law and Order section who arrested him.
“For his unlawful
arrest and detention, our client claims a total amount of
US$250 000 in
damages against the individual officers Muchada and Mukawaira
personally and
against the other defendants jointly and severally,” reads
part of the
damages claim by Timba’s lawyers, Dube, Manikai & Hwacha, dated
August
5.
The lawyers said the damages, “though modest”, were aggravated by
the fact
that Muchada and Mukwaira’s conduct was “deliberately cruel and
inhuman.”
“Our client was deliberately detained at the worst possible
facility, at
Matapi Police Station, a facility already condemned by the
Supreme Court as
unfit for human beings,” the lawyer said.
Timba
was reportedly denied access to family, visitors and legal
representation
during his detention.
“Our client was deliberately starved throughout
the detention,” the lawyers
said. “Such and other sanctioned and
intentionally cruel and inhuman conduct
on the part of the
arresting/detaining details aggravates damages and
violates local and
international human rights groups.”
The lawyers said the detention
was “both malicious and unlawful because
there was neither a basis at all,
nor a reasonable suspicion that he had
committed any criminal
offence.”
They said the arrest or kidnap of the minister also flew in
the face of a
Sadc resolution at the Livingstone summit calling for an end
to politically
motivated arrests.
Chihuri, Muchada and Mukwaira
were given 14 days to respond or face legal
action.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 14 August 2011 19:00
BY CAIPHAS
CHIMHETE
A senior MDC-T official, whose farm was invaded by Zanu PF
members and war
veterans in Nyanga in May, has appealed to the Joint
Monitoring and
Implementation Committee (Jomic) to intervene.
MDC-T
Constitution Parliamentary Select Committee rapporteur Charles
Nyamutowa
said the invasion had seriously affected farming operations at his
23-hectre
commercial plot in Juliasdale in Nyanga.
In a letter to Jomic dated
August 4 2011, Nyamutowa said it would be
extremely difficult to repay a
US$12 000 loan he acquired from a local
commercial bank as the Zanu PF
militia has already set up a base on his
plot.
“Upon seeing this
agro-business thriving, Zanu PF supporters established a
base at the farm in
May, disrupting farming operations,” said Nyamutowa, who
added that Zanu PF
supporters were being led by a traditional leader, one
Jimmy
Bhande.
“As we speak now, this person has caused pandemonium in Ward
27 and 24,
terrorising MDC-T supporters,” Nyamutowa said.
Bhande,
who is said to have vowed not to leave the plot, could not be
reached for
comment last week.
Nyamutowa said he had planted potatoes on one and
half hectares, opened
roads, built houses, bought 14 sheep, 21 goats and
four herd of cattle. He
had just cleared another two hectares in preparation
for planting potatoes.
“Right now, they are trying to chase me and
six other families from this
area,” he said.
Nyamutowa, who is
acting councillor for Ward 29 Nyanga Township, is part of
the 23 people
charged with political violence against Zanu PF supporters in
Nyanga.
He spent weeks in remand prison early this year together
with Nyanga North
legislator Douglas Mwonzora and 82-year-old Rwisai
Nyakauru, a headman who
later died from injuries after severe
torture.
Jomic spokesperson Joram Nyathi on Friday said the
complaints and monitoring
body had not received the
complaint.
Jomic was formed to ensure the implementation, in letter
and spirit, of the
Global Political Agreement (GPA) and act as a conduit for
complaints as well
as promote an atmosphere of mutual trust and
understanding between parties.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 14 August 2011 19:01
BY
CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
SUPPORT of the liberation movements that converged
in Namibia last week will
not make a difference at this week’s Sadc summit
for embattled President
Robert Mugabe as the region has already taken a
position on Zimbabwe,
political analysts have said.
They said the two
most recent Sadc summits have identified Mugabe and Zanu
PF as the
“spoilers” and the Angola summit “is there to reinforce what has
already
been agreed on”.
Sources said Mugabe used the just ended meeting of
liberation movements to
try and strengthen the loosening bond among the
parties so that their
countries could support Zanu PF position at this
week’s Sadc summit in
Angola, where the Zimbabwe crisis is expected to top
the agenda.
The Namibia meeting resolved to hold a summit of heads of
the former
liberation movements at the sidelines of the Sadc
summit.
The meeting, which was attended by six liberation war
movements from the
region, also demanded the lifting of sanctions on Mugabe
and his cronies as
well as closing ranks against “puppets” of the
West.
Those that attended include African National Congress of South
Africa, Mpla
of Angola, Swapo of Namibia, Frelimo of Mozambique and Chama
Cha Mapinduzi
of Tanzania.
But political analysts said the
Namibia meeting had very little
significance, if any, to the outcome of this
week’s crucial summit in Angola
as the region was tired of Mugabe’s
political antics.
Political analyst Alois Masepe believes the meeting
of liberation movements
will not change the position already adopted by Sadc
that Mugabe has to
fully implement the Global Political Agreement (GPA) and
the roadmap to free
and fair elections.
He said Sadc had already
identified Mugabe and Zanu PF as the stumbling
blocks in the democratisation
process in Zimbabwe.
“The mood in Sadc is that everybody is sick and
tired of the Zimbabwe crisis
so they want a final resolution on this issue,”
Masepe said.
“What Zanu PF should have done is to ask for cues from
the other liberation
movements on how to survive and not to drag them into
the mud.”
Mugabe lobbying a little too late:
Makumbe
University of Zimbabwe political science lecturer John Makumbe
believes
attempts by Mugabe to lobby liberation movements was too late as
they were
the same parties that supported the outcomes of the Sadc
Livingstone and
Sandton (South Africa) summits that blamed Zanu PF for the
crisis in the
country.
The Livingstone summit, held in March,
infuriated Mugabe after his Zanu PF
party came in for public criticism from
regional leaders over political
violence in the country.
The
outcome of the summit was further noted at the Sandton summit in July,
further infuriating the 87-year-old president and his
party.
“This was definitely a lobbying exercise,” he said. “But Zanu
PF can’t win
this one because the region now knows that Mugabe and his party
are the
spoilers.”
Makumbe said political pressure would mount
against Mugabe in Angola as the
region feared riots as happened in North
Africa, Swaziland and more recently
and closer home, in
Malawi.
Zimbabwe, saddled by years of economic decline, repression
and gross human
rights abuse, has the potential of erupting into riots worse
than those
witnessed in neighbouring Malawi, he said.
Makumbe
believes Sadc will adopt the roadmap to free and fair elections and
demand
concrete reforms from Mugabe.
“But Mugabe will drag his feet as usual
and with time the roadmap would be
outdated again and we start again,” said
Makumbe, an arch critic of Mugabe’s
three-decade rule.
Zanu PF
and the MDC formation go the Sadc summit with no prospects for
reaching
common ground.
Zanu PF’s spokesperson, Rugare Gumbo has ruled out
prospects for a lasting
solution to the stand-off between the political
parties.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 14 August 2011 19:04
BY NQABA
MATSHAZI
ZIMBABWE will again top the agenda of the Sadc summit in
Angola, but a
discernable fatigue can be sensed as the country seems to be
lurching from
one unending conflict to the next.
Lindiwe Zulu, South
African leader, Jacob Zuma’s international affairs
advisor aptly summed up
the mood in Sadc in June when she said: “The simple
fact is that people are
tired”.
The region has, for almost a decade now, been trying to solve
the political
impasse in Zimbabwe, but has been met with limited
success.
The signing of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) in 2009
was a milestone
in solving the political stalemate in Zimbabwe, but the
warring parties have
remained poles apart and the inclusive government is
nothing more than a
marriage of convenience.
For the past two
years, Zanu PF on one hand and the two formations of the
MDC on the other,
have failed to agree on many of the points that would have
made the unity
government more tolerable.
Already Zanu PF wants an end to the
inclusive government while the other two
parties want it to remain at least
for a while longer, further proving that
the parties cannot agree on
anything.
But the most telling comment was from Botswana
Vice-President Mompati
Merafhe, who said the Zimbabwe issue had consumed
Sadc and had stalled other
economic agendas, which the region should have
prioritised.
“I told the summit on behalf of my president that we are
fatigued because
the issue on Zimbabwe is taking forever,” Merafhe said in
June.
“The most distressing part is that Sadc’s economic agenda is
now digressing
because we dissipate our energies talking about
Zimbabwe.”
On the eve of the Angola summit, the Zimbabwean
negotiators met in South
Africa and, as usual, the same things that they
have failed to find common
ground on, like sanctions and the appointment of
governors and ambassadors,
will pop up, with the parties at each other’s
necks.
As previous cases have proven, it will be no shock if all
sides return
claiming victory from the summit as has happened from the past
summit, yet
there will be no movement on the so-called outstanding
issues.
Political analyst, Trevor Maisiri reckons fatigue had crept
onto the region
regarding the Zimbabwe issue and Zulu was only echoing the
sentiments of
other countries in Sadc. “Everyone is tired of the Zimbabwean
issue. It’s
only that Zulu seems to have the liberty and diplomatic
opportunity to
express herself,” he said.
Maisiri said if the
region failed to resolve the Zimbabwe crisis by
year-end, the region was
likely to refer it back to the African Union (AU)
as the continental body
had mandated Sadc to mediate.
“The Angola summit is going to be a
critical watershed in how the Zimbabwean
situation scales up or down,” he
said.
“Remember that the Sandton meeting seemed to take a bit of a
mild stance on
Zimbabwe.
“So if the Angola meeting takes the same
shade, then we are likely to see a
continued deterioration of the Zimbabwean
situation.”
Maisiri, of the Africa Reform Institute, pointed out that
Zanu PF may be
trying to frustrate the mediation process by calling for the
replacement of
Zuma as facilitator.
The party argues that Zuma
cannot be the Sadc Troika chair and be the
facilitator as this will mean he
will be essentially reporting to himself.
Media scholar, Brilliant Mhlanga,
on the other hand, maintains that Sadc has
become weary because of the “cry
baby” attitude of the two MDC formations.
“What frustrates the Sadc
leaders is the clear sign that Zimbabweans cannot
even attempt to sit at the
table of Brotherhood, as Zimbabweans, to solve
their own issue — thus
implying that for any small issue, someone has to cry
to Sadc,” he
noted.
Mhlanga said Sadc could not continue being seized with
problems of one
country as this was wearing it down, meaning regional
leaders would not
apply themselves fully to solving the
crisis.
He supposed that Zanu PF could be stalling or frustrating the
negotiation
process so they could come up with an upper
hand.
“When negotiating, you take note of both the normative and
pragmatic
approaches. Zanu PF is proving to be good at it,” Mhlanga
said.
“Pragmatic approaches are good at stalling the process, thereby
causing
frustration and can get you what you want. They always work if you
have a
point of weakness to exploit.”
The media scholar pointed
out that the weakness that Zanu PF was likely to
exploit was Zuma’s double
role and the party would call for the South
African leader to recuse himself
and the fact that the party had expressed
disquiet about
Zulu.
“When mediating, you have to strive to retain your integrity at
all costs,
because if any of the negotiating parties complain about you,
that
automatically dents your stature,” he said.
“Even in future,
they can still point to your inadequacies. This is what
Zanu PF is
doing.”
He pointed out that MDC-T had done the same when it
complained about former
South African President, Thabo Mbeki’s mediation.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 14 August 2011 18:47
BY PATIENCE
NYANGOVE
DEPUTY Labour and Social Welfare minister Tracy Mutinhiri
was yesterday
suspended from Zanu PF after she was found guilty of working
against the
party.
Mutinhiri, who is also the Marondera East MP, had been
hauled before a
provincial disciplinary committee following complaints that
she was working
with MDC-T.
She was barred from participating in
Zanu PF activites or holding any post
in the party for the next five
years.
Zanu PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo confirmed the suspension but
said he could
not comment on the matter because he had not been fully
briefed.
“I am out in the rural areas. Yes, I have heard about her suspension
but I
am yet to see the official suspension letter,” he said.
“I
have only heard about it on the phone from people who called me. I am
sure I
will get the suspension letter once I get into the office.
“However,
we are going to adopt the recommendations of the province since
usually they
are the ones with her there.”
Mutinhiri confirmed her suspension: “I
have not read the letter yet as it
was delivered at my office around 4:30
pm,” she said. “Once I have read it,
I will appeal to the national
disciplinary committee.”
She was also accused of voting for MDC-T
chairman Lovemore Moyo in the March
elections for Speaker of
Parliament.
Zanu PF had fielded its own chairman Simon Khaya-Moyo,
who lost to the MDC-T
chairman.
After she was accused of voting
for the wrong candidate in an election where
a secret ballot was used, she
claimed that she had received death threats
from Zanu PF
activists.
Zanu PF claimed that it knew the identities of its MPs who
had voted for the
MDC-T candidate. Mugabe lashed out at the MPs in public,
but never mentioned
them by name.
Last month Zanu PF activists
invaded Mutinhiri’s farm in Marondera but they
were later ordered to leave
by party officials.
She later claimed State Security minister Sydney
Sekeremayi was behind the
invasion because he wanted to replace her with
Zanu PF’s provincial
secretary for security, Lawrence
Katsiru.
Sekeremayi is the senator for the area.
The
minister, who now risks losing her parliamentary seat and ministerial
post,
is the former wife of former Youth minister, Retired Brigadier Ambrose
Mutinhiri.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 14 August 2011
18:52
BY NDUDUZO TSHUMA
BULAWAYO — Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai on Friday said the problem of
de-industrialisation was not
peculiar to the city as he waded into the
debate about the perceived
marginalisation of Matabeleland.
But Tsvangirai admitted the water crisis in
Bulawayo was one of the main
reasons why major companies have been
relocating to other cities, leaving
thousands jobless.
The PM was
speaking to The Standard after a tour of the Mtshabezi-Umzingwane
pipeline
project.
Tsvangirai said one of the factors that led to
de-industrialisation was the
hyperinflationary period during the Zimbabwean
dollar regime.
“One of the basic contributing factors is that since
the introduction of the
Zimbabwe dollar and its hyperinflation condition, a
lot of industries were
affected, especially the textile industry, which was
the mainstay of the
Bulawayo industrial hub,” he said.
“Secondly,
after the multi-currency regime, the question of liquidity became
a problem,
to recapitalise and increase capacity of industries.
“Thirdly, it is
just that yes, water was one of the factors, but certainly
not the main
factor.
“The problem is countrywide. The agenda for Zimbabwe is
reconstruction and
recapitalisation. We are using old machinery, which is
just increasing costs
and is not competitive.”
Tsvangirai added:
“Until we have put sufficient resources to recapitalise
and increase the
skills of the workers so that productivity and unit per
cost is increased
(only then will re-industrialisation be achieved),” he
said.
“For
example, a T-shirt made in Bulawayo is probably 10 times more expensive
than
that made in China and the reason is very simple — it is volume and
unit
cost, so there are many factors which we need to attend
to.”
Tsvangirai said the Mtshabezi- Umzingwane project was expected
to be
completed by the end of the year saying after completion, it would
provide a
lasting solution to Bulawayo’s water problems.
Asked if
the deadline of the completion of the project, initially set for
October,
had been changed, Tsvangirai said, “this is work in progress, you
can’t say
by this date, construction should be complete. We can give you a
mere
projection.”
“We are hoping that the minister’s estimation of the
time to complete the
project will be fulfilled. It is not a moving target.
Definitely, one of
these days, it is going to be complete. but certainly
water problems in
Bulawayo should be a thing of the past after this
project,” Tsvangirai said.
Temperatures have been rising in
Matabeleland with some politicians and
civil society leaders arguing that
President Robert Mugabe’s government had
deliberately underdeveloped the
region.
They argue that no meaningful development project has been
completed in
Matabeleland since independence in 1980.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 14 August 2011 18:53
BY
PATIENCE NYANGOVE
CHITUNGWIZA residents last week gave the city
council until August 31 to
rescind its decision to award senior council
employees hefty allowances and
the purchase of top-of-the- range cars that
cost over US$500 000.
The awarding of hefty allowances and purchase of the
cars was in defiance of
a directive by Minister of Local Government, Rural
and Urban Development,
Ignatius Chombo, on May 31 2010, that prohibited all
local authorities from
awarding salary and allowance
increments.
A letter in possession of The Standard dated August 10
2011 written by the
Chitungwiza Residents Trust, claims that the decision
early this year by
senior council employees to award themselves allowances
for gym, domestic
servants, home telephone, school and sports clubs, among
other things, was
illegal.
The local authority also bought a brand new
Toyota Land Cruiser V8 worth
US$170 000 for Town Clerk, Godfrey Tanyanyiwa,
a Toyota Prado for the
director of health, Mike Simoyi, worth US$120 000, a
Toyota Hilux Virgo for
Alfonse Tinofa, the director of works, worth US$80
000 and a Toyota Fortuner
worth US$80 000 for the director of housing,
Jemina Gumbo.
The trust said the council was wasting money on a few
individuals’
allowances and cars yet service delivery remained
poor.
“We note that these unnecessary and unbudgeted for allowances
and perks are
being awarded to the Town Clerk, chamber secretary and
departmental
directors at a time when service delivery has been neglected in
Chitungwiza,” the residents said in the letter.
“We demand that
you rescind the illegal resolution at your next full council
meeting this
August, failure of which as residents, we will be left with no
choice but to
seek redress from the Minister of Local Government as provided
for by the
Urban Councils Act.
“If the option fails we reserve the right to take
legal action against you
as the Mayor of Chitungwiza and the
council.”
The residents trust also threatened to mobilise for mass
action if no action
was taken by the mayor Philmon
Chipiyo.
Chipiyo yesterday said he was not aware of the ultimatum,
claiming that
Tanyanyiwa had not told him anything about goings on at
council.
Efforts to get a comment from Tanyanyiwa were fruitless as
his mobile was
not reachable.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 14 August 2011 18:54
BY CAIPHAS
CHIMHETE
AT least 32 MDC-T supporters have not returned to their
homes in Chimanimani
District, four months after they were forced out by
marauding Zanu PF youth
militia and war veterans.
MDC-T
Manicaland provincial spokesperson, Pishai Muchauraya said his party
was
still offering shelter to the victims of political violence. While some
are
housed at a safe house in Mutare, others are said to be staying with
relatives and friends, away from their tormentors.
Muchauraya,
who is also MP for Makoni South, feared that the victims might
be
permanently displaced as most of them lost all their properties when Zanu
PF
activists set blaze their homesteads and slaughtered their
livestock.
“We are still offering them shelter and food because it is
not safe for them
to go back,” Muchauraya said.
“As we speak,
some senior Zanu PF officials in the district defaced our
party symbol at
our offices and repainted the building in an act that
definitely does not
bode well with the letter and spirit of the Global
Political Agreement
(GPA).”
The MDC-T has since secured vacancies in schools around
Mutare for children
displaced alongside their parents.
However,
others have not been that fortunate and their future looks bleak,
said
Muchauraya.
The MDC-T provincial spokesperson blasted the Joint
Monitoring and
Implementation Committee (Jomic) for lacking urgency in
addressing the
plight of victims of political violence.
The Jomic
team, which comprises of officials from Zanu PF and the two MDC
formations,
has not set foot in the violence-ridden district since its last
visit in
June.
“They have not come back since their last visit in June,” he
said. “I want
to tell them to wake up or risk being
irrelevant.”
MDC-T has since its formation just over a decade ago
accused Zanu PF and
State security agents of terrorising its supporters
countrywide.
It claimed that Zanu PF and State security agents
murdered at least 200 of
its supporters during the violent 2008
elections.
Muchauraya said his party was running out of patience and
would seek “a
political solution because we cannot allow our supporters to
be displaced
permanently”.
Jomic to visit Chimanimani after
Sadc summit
Jomic member Frank Chamunorwa of the MDC, said the political
displacements
were one of the issues that Jomic and the South African
facilitation team
discussed on Thursday.
He said the Jomic team
would visit victims of political violence in
Chimanimani District after the
Southern African Development Community (Sadc)
summit in Angola this week,
where the Zimbabwe crisis is expected to feature
prominently at the
meeting.
“We are going to Chimanimani as the operational committee
and
co-chairpersons of all the political parties, soon after the Sadc
summit,”
Chamunorwa said.
“We raised the issue of displacements
and continued political violence with
the Sadc facilitation
team.”
Jomic spokesperson Joram Nyathi said the body would go back to
Chimanimani
at the end of this month to try and address the political crisis
in the
district.
He said Jomic could not immediately return there
after their second visit
because of a busy schedule.
“We have
many projects that we have been undertaking, such as meeting
editors and
civil society,” Nyathi said.
“We will be going back there, possibly
on the 27th or 28th of August.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 14 August 2011 18:55
GWERU —
Mkoba Teachers’ College lecturers have dragged the permanent
secretary in
the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education Washington Mbizwo
to the
labour court after their salaries were frozen.
A fortnight ago the court
postponed the hearing to later this month.
The salary freeze was
allegedly imposed by the ministry after the lecturers
embarked on a six-day
job boycott, demanding outstanding retention
allowances.
In 2009, a
ministry circular indicated that lecturers and non-teaching staff
were each
to be paid a US$100 monthly retention allowance.
The colleges are
supposed to use 30% of the tuition fees paid by students to
pay the
allowances.
Lecturers Association of Zimbabwe President, David
Dzatsunga accused the
college’s principal Florence Dube of being a
bully.
“Mkoba principal has become very notorious and she is fond of
badmouthing
the lecturers,” Dzatsunga said.
“She recently
referred to the lecturers as dogs that are fighting an
elephant while
addressing students.”
Dube refused to comment.
— Rutendo
Mawere
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 14 August 2011 18:56
BY JENNIFER
DUBE
THE Ministry of Health and Child Welfare is crafting its own
alcohol policy,
which might alter the tough proposals by President Robert
Mugabe’s health
advisor, Timothy Stamps.
Stamps has forwarded to Cabinet
a policy document that seeks to force
supermarkets, shops and bottle stores
to sell alcoholic drinks between 6am
and 7pm, while the selling of beer
would be banned after mid-day on Sunday.
The former Health and Child
Welfare minister’s proposals carried in last
week’s edition of The Standard
drew an angry response from members of the
public.
Principal director in
the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Christopher
Tapfumaneyi said the
department of mental health was spearheading the policy
in line with World
Health Organisation recommendations.
He said the ministries of Youth
Development, Indigenisation and Cooperative
Development, Labour and Social
Service and Education, Sport and Culture were
also involved in the
project.
“All stakeholders met in Masvingo to deliberate on the
contents of the
envisaged document and Stamps’ document was withdrawn but
also taken into
consideration,” he said. “We are still looking at it and
will take it to
Cabinet in due course.”
But Tapfumaneyi did not
want to discuss the matter in detail promising to
give The Standard the new
proposals this week.
Another official in the Ministry of Health and
Child Welfare said Stamps had
just given advice but the ministry was the one
spearheading the proposals.
“I am not allowed to comment after the
president’s advisor but what I can
confirm is that the ministry is working
on the policy with the help of other
ministries like Home Affairs, which has
the police, who will arrest
offenders, the Ministry of Transport and
Infrastructural Development, for
those who drink and drive and the Finance
ministry, which will fund the
monitoring and various others,” an official
said.
Reacting to the story about Stamps’ proposals, most people
said the
government must preoccupy itself with serious issues and stop
controlling
citizens’ drinking habits.
“Next time the government
will tell people when and how to sleep with
wives,” a reader who did not
want to be identified said. “It is a stupid
piece of legislation with no
place in a civilised society.
“Civil liberties are bad enough in our
country and this stupid legislation
will slide Zimbabwe deep into a nanny
state. Surely every Zimbabwean adult
knows what is good and not good for
them.”
Others questioned how the Health ministry could overlook
people’s rights by
allowing such proposals to go ahead. Stamps said the
proposed regulations
were not meant to punish industry players or make life
difficult for
ordinary Zimbabweans.
“As a doctor, I know that
alcohol is no ordinary food and taking it in
excess can have serious
repercussions,” he said.
“Alcohol taken in excess has caused deaths
of people and many would remember
the story of former South African Health
minister Tshabalala Msimang who
died two years ago because alcohol badly
affected her liver.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 14 August 2011 19:03
BY OUR
STAFF
A leading analyst of the diamond industry has punctured holes
into the
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) documentary that purports to
expose
human rights violations at the controversial Marange fields.
The
BBC’s famed Panorama programme alleged that Zimbabwe’s security forces
were
running a torture camp at the diamond fields.
Alleged victims of the
torture were showcased recounting horrific tales
about the goings on at the
fields near Mutare in Manicaland.
But Chaim Even-Zohar, an analyst
for diamondintelligence.com, an
authoritative publication on the diamond
industry, pointed out many
inconsistencies in the documentary that
compromise its credibility.
“Panorama’s Marange report seen in its
totality was superficial; there was
no real discussion of the complex issues
and no real dialogue on what the
KPCS (Kimberly Process Certification
Scheme) has achieved or where it has
failed,” Even-Zohar
wrote.
“In that respect, the programme was a disappointment and
clearly a missed
opportunity.”
Even-Zohar said most of BBC’s
evidence appeared to be sourced from incidents
that happened in 2008, yet a
lot has changed in Marange since then.
Mines and Mining Development
minister Obert Mpofu dismissed the documentary
as British propaganda meant
to stop Zimbabwe from selling its diamonds on
the international
market.
Stephane Chardon, the chair of the KPCS’s powerful Working
Group on
Monitoring convened an emergency teleconference, a day after the
airing of
programme, but no action has been taken against Zimbabwe yet.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 14 August 2011 19:05
BY OUR
STAFF
Indian police have arrested a Democratic Republic of Congo
national after he
was found with 10 000 carats of diamonds smuggled from
Zimbabwe’s Marange
area.
According to the Times newspaper, Jean Tshimaga
was arrested after arriving
in Mumbai from Kinshasa on
Tuesday.
He was caught by officials from India’s Directorate of
Revenue Intelligence
(DRI) red handed. Tshimaga allegedly told the officials
that he bought the
diamonds in Kinshasa.
The diamonds that were
traced to the Marange controversial fields did not
have Kimberly Process
certification.
In April, the DRI arrested two Indians with 48 000
carats of diamonds from
Marange that were brought via Mozambique and Kenya
to Mumbai.
India’s Germs and Jewellery Export Promotion Council
(GJEPC), which is the
Asian country’s import and export authority recently
instructed traders to
stop trading in Zimbabwe’s diamonds.
It
also asked relevant departments to keep a close watch on the importation
of
diamonds without the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS)
certificates.
The latest arrests will put into question
Zimbabwe’s claims that it has
adequately dealt with the problem of smuggling
in Marange.
Smuggling and alleged human rights violations are some of
the reasons
Western countries have opposed the certification of Zimbabwe
diamonds under
the KPCS.
The restriction by the GJEPC shows that
India considers the Marange germs to
be blood diamonds.
Blood
diamonds, also known as conflict diamonds or war diamonds, are stones
mined
in a war zone and sold to finance an insurgency.
The sale of such
diamonds is banned globally.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 14 August 2011 18:48
BY PATIENCE
NYANGOVE
BELEAGURED church leader Emmanuel Makandiwa, who has been
out of the country
for the past two weeks, is with his West African
spiritual father, Prophet
Victor Kusi Boateng in the United Kingdom, it has
been revealed.
The Standard is also reliably informed that Makandiwa might
also travel to
West Africa.
The evangelist who was recently
dragged to the High Court over his
“spiritual link” airtime recharge card
invention, is said to have
specifically travelled to meet Boateng, who heads
a church called Power
Chapel World Wide.
Initial reports had
claimed that he had run away in the wake of reports that
the Postal and
Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz)
was
investigating him over the system that runs short message services
(SMS).
The system allows Makandiwa’s followers to receive
devotional messages from
the popular evangelist.
But Makandiwa’s
brother, Ger-shame, whom The Standard tracked down to
Muzarabani in Chief
Kaseke’s area, said the United Family International
leader said he was going
to hold crusades in the UK.
“I have heard that you people are
claiming my brother has run away,”
Gershame said.
“But how can he
do that when he bade me farewell? Someone who is on the run
does not bid
people goodbyes.
“He is in the UK doing God’s work and he is coming
back soon, once he is
done.”
Gershame said he was not surprised
that his brother was being “persecuted.”
“A prophet has no honour in
his hometown and even the same happened to
Jesus,” the older Makandiwa
said.
“The way I know it, people will say a lot, including claims
that this church
is a money-making project but that is not
true.
“Even Jesus, when he was alive was not accepted by the
people.”
Gershame admitted that many people in the area believed his
younger brother
was into witchcraft.
“We have heard several
stories that this young man went to Nigeria where he
got juju to draw huge
crowds and extort money,” said a villager from
Chisecha, who only identified
himself as Joel.
“My family and I do not believe in his teachings or
his powers. These are
the people the Bible talks about — that in the last
days there will be false
prophets doing great wonders.”
Makandiwa
draws huge crowds each time he holds his church services and at
one time
used to fill up the 60 000 seater National Sports Stadium.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 14 August 2011
18:59
BY NQABA MATSHAZI
FOR a hugely patriarchal society such
as Zimbabwe, the reported cases of
women raping men are a huge assault at
male domination, causing people to
cringe at the mere thought of such kind
of emasculation.
Like all such stories, reports of the women gangs sounded
like urban
legends, but reports of such rapes have increased and got the
police
interested in investigating the cases. But the police are yet to
arrest any
woman involved in raping men.
Questions have been
raised as to whether these stories are true, as some say
the claims could be
the result of fertile imaginations of philandering men
who create them to
avoid being caught for their misdemeanours.
Sceptics claim it is
impossible for a woman to rape a man and that no
arrests have been made
pointed to that these cases were not true. But the
fact that police claim
they are hunting the suspected female rapists gives
credence to that these
stories may have some truth.
Recently, a senior Harare police officer
sounded a warning to the female
rapists, a clear indication that cops were
increasingly worried and
frustrated at their lack of success at nailing
these gangs.
“We appeal to members of the public to pass any
information to the police
regarding three women who have gone on a spree of
kidnapping and indecently
assaulting young men around town,” Harare police
boss, Angeline Guvamombe
said in a statement.
However, according
to folklore, this could be a legend as stories have been
told since time
immemorial of the myth of the succubus. This is a female
demon that appears
in dreams and takes the form of a woman in order to
seduce men through
sexual intercourse. It is reported that repeated
intercourse with a succubus
may result in a deterioration of health or even
death.
But more
recently, in fiction writing, a succubus does not appear as a
dream, but
rather as a highly attractive seductress.
Psychologists claim that accounts
of people encountering these female
seductresses and rapists could in fact
be symptoms of sleep paralysis or
deprivation.
While this may
sound like a logical explanation, it will certainly not stop
the Zimbabwean
rumour mill from grinding more stories of women raping men.
The popular
narrative alleges that the women usually target lone male
hitchhikers and
offer them lifts. They usually operate either as a gang of
three or as a
foursome.
The unsuspecting men are then drugged and raped, but
speculation is rife why
the women do that. Others claim that semen is
collected and sold in Dubai,
while others maintain this is for ritual
purposes.
But in recent times the cases have become more bizarre,
with the women
becoming more daring.
One such case was that of a
man who was allegedly terrorised with a live
snake, with the women claiming
they would set the snake on him if he dared
resist their advances. In other
cases men are allegedly raped at gunpoint.
Another man claims he was
raped in a smoke filled hut after being given a
lift by three women near
Gweru.
While another claimed that some women got him inebriated,
before dumping him
in the bush after raping him.
The plan seems
to be well-conceived and the women let their victims wear
condoms before
abusing them.
A study conducted by a lecturer at the University of
Zimbabwe claims that
the women are usually well-heeled and commit the rapes
for ritual purposes.
“In these cases the sperms are collected through
coercing street boys to
have sex with the women. However, in some cases, the
culprits collect the
sperms from their male partners or at times from men
that they force
themselves on,” reads the study, conducted by Watch
Ruparaganda.
The women allegedly force themselves on street children,
whom they pay for
sleeping with them. “Businesspeople come at night to pick
some of the street
children. They take them to some hotels in the Avenues
having given them
beer and some new clothes,” the report continues.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 14 August 2011 19:22
BY OUR
STAFF
ZIMBABWE has missed the 170 million kg tobacco production
target set for the
industry this year as the selling season for the “golden
leaf” comes to an
end on Thursday.
A clean-up sale will be held on
September 20 and, depending on the volume of
deliveries, would continue for
more than one day, until all delivered
tobacco has been
sold.
Statistics from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (Timb)
show that
129,9m kg, a 11% increase from the same period last year, had been
auctioned
at the country’s three auction floors by
Thursday.
Tobacco sales raked in US$356 582 527, representing a 4%
increase from the
same period last year.
At best the sales would
reach 140 million kg more than 17% short of the
target.
Andrew
Matibiri, the Timb CEO conceded on Friday that the target would not
be met,
attributing it to unfavourable weather conditions that had some
areas
experiencing very wet spells while others went through a drought
period.
He said handling losses also affected deliveries to the
floors.
“Tobacco Research Board records that losses were at 21% and
in some cases
31%,” he said.
Matibiri said farmers were not
selling their low quality crop, arguing that
“it is too costly to bring it
to the auction floors”.
At the beginning of the season, Timb set a
target of 170m kg. Last season
123m kg of tobacco were auctioned and Timb
hoped the favourable prices
offered would increase deliveries to the three
auction floors this year.
However, the tobacco industry can take
comfort in the fact that it had
reduced the percentage of rejected bales to
7% by Thursday from 8,28%
recorded in the same period last
year.
Bales are rejected when they are, among other reasons,
oversize, underweight
or overweight.
They can also be rejected if
they are badly handled (too wet or too dry) and
mouldy.
Matibiri
said the tobacco seed sold so far would cover 91 000 hectares of
the
crop.
Zimbabwe’s tobacco production is on a rebound, buoyed by the
favourable
prices on the auctions.
The high prices have driven
farmers to prefer cash crops to staple food such
as maize, whose price is
controlled by government.
Tobacco was the backbone of Zimbabwe’s
flourishing economy in the 1980s
until the late 90s, as good quality leaf
was known to originate from the
country.
But the fast-track land
reform programme decimated tobacco production as the
new breed of farmers
lacked the skills and capital to grow the crop in the
absence of financing
from banks.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 14 August 2011 19:21
BY NDAMU
SANDU
GOVERNMENT has resolved to use Special Drawing Rights (SDR) to
extinguish
the US$140 million owed to the International Monetary Fund’s
Poverty
Reduction and Growth Facility.
The clearance of the debt means
the country can now access resources under
the IMF’s General Resources
Account.
Despite Zimbabwe regaining its voting rights last year,
which it had lost in
2003, it is still barred from benefiting from the GRA
resources owing to the
debt under the PRGF.
In an update on the
use of the SDR, Finance minister Tendai Biti said of the
US$505 million that
Zimbabwe got, US$150 million was used to meet critical
needs.
“Furthermore, the government has maintained US$215 million
SDR balance at
the IMF as national reserves, with another US$140 million
earmarked towards
settlement of the country’s obligations to the IMF’s
Poverty Reduction and
Growth Facility,” Biti said.
Biti said of
the US$150 million that was withdrawn to meet critical needs,
US$50 million
was used to procure inputs for the 2009/2010 summer cropping
season,
US$80,46 million was allocated to infrastructure projects while
US$19,54
million was allocated to fund the revival of local companies under
the
Zimbabwe Economic and Trade Revival Facility.
Clearing the PRGF debt
would enable Zimbabwe to access the US$93,1 million
which has been
escrowed.
In August 2009, IMF Executive Board approved a US$250
billion (SDR161,2
billion) general SDR allocation to all the 186 member
countries, in response
to the global financial crisis.
A further
US$33 billion (SDR21,5 billion) Special SDR allocation was made on
September
9 2009.
From the bailout, Zimbabwe was allocated SDR328,4 million
(US$505 million)
of which US$411,9 million was under the General SDR
allocation of August 28
2009, while the Special allocation of US$93,1
million was escrowed pending
the clearance of the outstanding arrears to the
PRGF.
The clearance of the PRGF debt represents a major climb down by
Biti, who
had insisted that the IMF windfall would be used solely for
reserves.
When IMF announced the bailout in 2009, central bank
governor Gideon Gono
had suggested that the money be withdrawn to clear the
debt, among other
critical needs.
The advice was ignored by Biti,
who has the responsibility to deal with the
Fund and to make withdrawals,
under the International Financial
Organisations Act (Chapter
22:09).
In terms of Sections 7 and 9 of this Act, Treasury and the
Minister of
Finance have the sole right and responsibility to deal with the
Fund and to
make withdrawals from the country’s SDR account at the IMF.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 14 August 2011 19:20
BY KUDZAI
CHIMHANGWA
The Southern African Development Community (Sadc) summit
in Luanda, Angola
this week will discuss modalities of setting up the long
awaited regional
free trade area.
Commonly referred to as the Tripartite
FTA (T-FTA), the free trade area is
meant to allow the duty-free, quota-free
flow of goods and services, as well
as the free movement of businesspeople
between the countries in three
regional blocs namely, Sadc, Common Market
for East and Southern Africa
(Comesa) and East African
Community(EAC.)
Regional Integration and International Co-operation
minister Priscilla
Misihairabwi-Mushonga told Standardbusiness that the
summit would also focus
on expediting the setting up of a customs
union.
Misihairabwi-Mushonga said emphasis was being placed on the
creation of the
T-FTA as it is intended to act as a catalyst for increased
regional
integration with commensurate market access, infrastructure and
industrial
development for member countries.
“It is entirely up
to us as Zimbabweans to market ourselves as we have the
potential to be a
regional hub in the fields of information communication
technology (ICT) and
logistics,” she said.
The minister noted that Zimbabwe was a
geographically located gateway,
through which neighbouring countries depend
on for regional business
transactions.
She said one of the
biggest hydro-energy power projects in Southern Africa
is currently being
negotiated between Zimbabwe and Zambia, a development
which could transform
the country’s fortunes once it comes to fruition.
Trade analysts have
previously warned that the economic structural
disparities existing among
the T-FTA’s participating members may serve to
deter the integration
process, but the minister believes otherwise.
“Industrial development
of each and every member state is a pillar of the
new approach to
integration. Zimbabwe’s business community needs to view the
integration
effort in a positive way as local industry stands to benefit
from this
pledge made by all participating states,” she
said.
Misihairabwi-Mushonga added: “We will encourage the opening up
of markets,
but not on a wholesale basis as there is need for an analysis of
each
respective country’s economic development stage.”
The 2011
Africa Competitiveness Report notes that African countries have
much to gain
by diversifying exports and by further opening up regional
trade.
However, Zimbabwe and other T-FTA states’ reliance on
revenue inflows from
excise duties and other indirect taxes accruing from
levies charged on
imports may prove to be a sticking point in the ultimate
creation of the
trade area.
Taku Fundira, a researcher with the
South African-based Trade Law Centre for
Southern Africa (Tralac), in a
discussion paper, argues that there is need
for strong linkages in the
supply chain between the various countries.
It is also anticipated
that the T-FTA will allow the region to benefit
substantially from global
trade flows, and attract greater investment and
large-scale
production.
The summit is also expected to deal with policy issues,
assessing how trade
and investment policies could be co-ordinated in the
bigger regional bloc as
well as issues to do with regulation, migration and
competition policies.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 14 August 2011
19:12
By Alexander Rusero
Whenever mention of democracy or
restoration of the rule of law in the
country is made, we suddenly hear a
lot of old people claiming they are
prepared to return to the bush and wield
the gun once more. This is because,
in their own understanding, democracy
means regime change and regime change
means the recolonisation of Zimbabwe
and a total reversal of what they
fought for. Everyone is entitled to his or
her beliefs, but old people
should learn to tell the truth and not use their
past experiences as a way
of intimidating and fostering and planting fear
into the people’s minds.
War activities across the country were never fun or
even enjoyable. Those
who became painfully engaged in these activities did
so for no other
reason but to free their homeland from the fetters of
bondage, brutality and
social injustice. War causes far-reaching tremours,
such that even those who
did not participate or even witness it can feel its
psychological horrors.
The liberation war story now belongs to archives,
where it must be given
pride of place in primary and secondary schools’
history departments. War
gimmicks should not be used to promote cheap
propaganda that only one
political party, Zanu PF, was solely responsible
for winning the
liberation war.
In nations like France and the
United States, there is no constant reference
to the French Revolution or
the American War of Independence during
political discourse. To modern
politicians of such nations, such past
activities are a reminder of what the
ordinary people are capable of doing
under the hands of an oppressive and
dictatorial leadership. That is why in
most African countries, Zimbabwe
included, students have developed a
passionate interest and devotion more to
these historical accounts rather
than their own contemporary activities.
Students enjoy the French Revolution
or even the Congress of Vienna more
than the Munhumutapa Empire or The
Second Chimurenga.
Zimbabwe
appears to be the only African country that fought the liberation
struggle.
The over-repeated hype of the war is fast rendering the liberation
struggle
useless and increasingly turning the records of the liberation
struggle
into mere questionable historical legends. It is only the word of
God that
has sustained timeliness, but still the preachers of today have
taken an
initiative of packaging accounts that happened two thousand
centuries ago
into exciting and fresh memorable accounts.
Endless references to the
war only discredit the whole purpose of why people
fought in that war. It
further isolates future generations from anything to
do with the liberation
struggle, let alone mentioning or making any
reference to to the war.
Having gone to war has proved to be the only
survival mantra for Zanu PF
that no longer has skilful propagandists with
the imagination and ability to
fashionably engage the electorate.
Zanu PF has failed to realise the
fastest growing political market in the
world: the youth. It is misguided
into selling its ideology to the youths,
something that its strongest rival,
the MDC, has successfully done.
Composition of Zanu PF structures and its
Politburo is the clearest
evidence that the youths have no place in the
party.
While this is a painful reality, there is not going to be any
“Malemas” in
Zanu PF now and in the near future. This is so because the
party is largely
obsessed about retaining the old guard.
Rhetoric
of youth only comes to the fore when there is some justification
for plunder
or looting of property under the guise of securing youths’
future. Which
youths and what future?
By the way where in the wilderness is Upfumi
Kuvadiki?
About the Author
Alexander Rusero is a Journalism
and Media Studies lecturer who writes in
his own capacity. He can be
contacted on rusero@yahoo.com
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 14 August 2011
19:11
So, the cat is finally out of the bag; Zanu PF is moribund and
needs, as a
matter of urgency, transformation for it to survive. We all knew
this a long
time ago, but the confirmation coming from a politburo member
shows just how
serious the extent of its decay is.
Jonathan Moyo, in his
article Zanu PF: An Introspection (Sunday Mail, August
7 2011) identified
“at least seven current and critical national questions”
which have brought
his party to the state it finds itself.
But a closer look of the
article shows that it is a great critique of the
Zanu PF leadership
beginning right at the top. Instead of using his usual
acerbic language to
argue his case and naming President Robert Mugabe as
solely responsible for
the rot, he chose to use sophistry in its
philosophical sense where it is
defined as a method of argument that is
seemingly plausible though actually
invalid and misleading.
Moyo says “some comrades in the nationalist
movement in general and in Zanu
PF in particular seem to be afraid of
change?” When he uses words such as
“some comrades” and “seem to be”, he is
misleading us into believing that
generally Zanu PF is not afraid of change;
which is not the case.
What he should have done is to tell us who these
comrades who are afraid of
change are? That would have been unnecessary
because we know. Unfortunately
the finger points to the top and that is
where Moyo is pointing too.
In March last year when President Mugabe
met senior journalists in a rare
encounter with both public and private
media houses, he reiterated that he
was not going anywhere.
Asked
by the Zimbabwe Independent political editor Faith Zaba at Zimbabwe
House if
he was going to retire soon, Mugabe made it clear that he was not
going
anywhere.
“May the lord give me many more days,” he
said.
When she pressed him to say if he was going to seek
re-election, Mugabe,
pointing a finger at her, asked: “Do you want me to go?
I am asking you, if
you want me to go? Ask Zanu PF. I am a son of Zanu
PF.”
She pressed further for a direct response to the question and
Mugabe said:
“If Zanu PF says so, yes, I will go ... It depends on Zanu
PF.”
In Mutare last December the Zanu PF congress didn’t say so, so the old
man
stayed put. The decision seemed unanimous.
So, instead of
being specious and excessively subtle Moyo must just tell us
he is referring
to the president as one of those afraid of change.
What about the
so-called generals; what have they said about change? They
have said they
would never salute anyone who has no liberations war
credentials. This
suggests that they too do not desire change? Moyo’s
so-called Generation 40
does not fit in their thinking.
Was Moyo referring to them too as
some of the comrades afraid of change? Why
didn’t he say so? But Moyo
himself has thrown his weight behind the generals
in refusing security
sector reform.
On the timing of elections Moyo seems to contradict
himself. He says the
question of when elections should be held is not about
this Sadc roadmap
thing but about timing the elections in such as way that
it would not be
practical or reasonable to field Mugabe as Zanu PF
candidate. So he wants
elections now because by 2013 Mugabe would be too
old, or too sick to lead
the party; he will be 89. The contradiction in this
is that Moyo professes
to want change in the party but wants Mugabe, who is
87, to continue.
Another contradiction is that even if Mugabe is
elected now, in two years’
time, according to Moyo, it would be unreasonable
and impractical for him to
continue running the country in the same way it
will be unreasonable and
impractical for him to run in an election then. So,
why elect now someone we
would have to replace in a year or two? For all
intents and purposes Moyo is
saying Mugabe must go now?
Moyo
wants what he calls Generation 40 — these are beneficiaries of the huge
investment in education since independence in 1980 — “to take charge of the
national indigenisation and empowerment thrust as an expression of the
legacy of our heroic liberation struggle”. What he is saying is that Zanu PF
is too steeped in the history of the liberation struggle to transform
itself. Most Zimbabwean saw this in late 1990s culminating in the formation
of the Movement for Democratic Change in 1999. It can be argued that the
then opposition party was formed by the generation that Moyo is talking
about. But see how Zanu PF, in the past decade, has responded to the
emergence of this generation. The suppression of this generation has come
from the top Zanu PF hierarchy, not from the rank and file and Moyo knows
this.
Moyo again asks why “some important comrades in the
nationalist movement are
afraid of denouncing corruption when all
indications are that this has
become a cancer that threatens the gains of
the liberation struggle”. Look
at the clever use of the expression “some
important comrades”. Of course he
is referring to Mugabe himself who has
never condemned corruption even when
it has been unearthed for all to see.
He has not commented, for example, on
the land-grab in Harare, although it
is all properly documented.
On violence Moyo has resorted to clear
untruths. He says “some comrades”
have allowed a situation where Zanu PF,
“has come to be associated with
political violence and has, by definition,
been made a perpetrator thereof
by merchants of violence in the MDC
formations and their founders and
funders”.
But who has been
heard often boasting of degrees in violence? Is this
therefore another
direct attack on Mugabe?
But Moyo’s genius comes with the very last
question: “Why is it that some
comrades in the nationalist movement appear
to believe that our leadership
cannot make mistakes and that in that vein,
our leadership must not be
criticised?”
By virtue of having been
at the country’s helm since 1980, it is basic logic
that all mistakes made
by his government are attributed to the leader
himself.
Fair conclusion,
isn’t it? Moyo has tried, in vain, to veil his attack on
Mugabe. So, are we
seeing another classical Moyo transformation?
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 14 August 2011
19:09
By Desmond Kumbuka
Old Mutual, arguably the largest
life assurance conglomerate in the country,
has been running advertisements
informing policyholders that the values of
their policies had been converted
into US dollars. The company announced
that it is carrying out a “payout
exercise” and went on to explain the
categories of policyholders eligible
for the payments.
Policyholders are being given the option to either
be paid cash for their
policy values or to transfer them to existing
products, in which case they
presumably remain policyholders on the
company’s books. There is an
interesting rider to this offer — the option of
being paid cash is allowed
only if the policy value is less or equal to
US250. Where the policy value
is greater than US250, the policy “must remain
in force with benefits
payable from age 55.” This, according to the company,
will enable
policyholders to invest more contributions into their policies
until
maturity.
What the Old Mutual advertisement does not
explain is the rate of conversion
from the defunct Zimbabwe dollar to the US
dollar and the basis of that
rate. Like scores of pensioners whose monthly
pension payments were whittled
down to just a few dollars as a result of the
devaluation of the Zimbabwe
dollar, most of the insurance policyholders are
likely to be seriously
disappointed when they see the bottom line on their
precious policies.
A university technician friend, who must remain
nameless to protect his
professional integrity, especially now that he lives
in virtual destitution,
was paid a staggering 19 billion Zimdollars as his
retrenchment package.
This amount, which seemed adequate to his needs at the
time, was deposited
into his bank account from where, unfortunately, he
could not withdraw to
use it or invest elsewhere because of the withdrawal
limits imposed by the
RBZ at the time. No prizes for guessing what happened
to the man’s saved
billions after the removal of zeros and the total
collapse of the Zimbabwe
dollar.
Back to the Old Mutual
undertaking: Many policy holders are anxious to
know whether in calculating
the conversion to the multi-currency system,
any consideration was given to
the vast building properties and other assets
that the company acquired
before hyper-inflation wiped out the original
value of most of those
policies. While indeed, the period of hyper-inflation
may have adversely
affected incomes on many of those properties, it stands
to reason that
many of the insurance firms had reaped considerable profits
from these
properties prior to the depression.
And with the modicum of economic
recovery following the setting up of the
inclusive government and
introduction of the multi-currency regime, there
has been an up-turn, no
matter how small, in the business operations of not
only Old Mutual but
other insurance firms from which policy holders, who in
reality are the key
stake-holders, can benefit from.
The US$250 threshhold suggested as
the minimum for those whose policies are
considered eligible to continue,
seems to suggest that the majority of
policies probably fall below this
amount.
While insurance companies are in it for the business and
obviously suffered
considerable prejudice in income and profits as a result
of the catastrophic
hyper-inflation the country went through, the worst
loser in all this is the
poor policy holder who, ultimately, has no say on
how the income from
assets to which they contributed through a lifetime of
monthly
contributions is distributed, If there is a grievance for which I as
an
individual, and no doubt thousands of similarly affected Zimbabweans will
never forgive Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono, it is his role in
trashing our life policies by causing the inflation that destroyed the
Zimbabwe dollar.
By loping off the zeros from the Zimbabwe
dollar on two occasions, Gono
single-handedly reduced to eternal penury
thousands of us who had worked
for many years paying life and pension
premiums religiously, in the hope and
belief that we would retire in
reasonable comfort on our policies.
It is deplorable that many of those in
their mid-fifties and above find
themselves virtually starting afresh in
trying to save for their future
with absolutely nothing to show for the 30
or so years that they have been
in employment.
In normal
countries where the government takes the welfare of its citizens
seriously,
there would be a basis for state intervention to ensure that
those
prejudiced by its desperate actions that resulted in the devaluation
of the
local currency are not prejudiced to the extent of losing their
entire
life’s savings.