http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 14 August 2008
19:21
THE gulf between President Robert Mugabe and the MDC's Morgan
Tsvangirai widened yesterday after the government briefly seized the
opposition leader and two senior officials' travel documents when they
intended to board a flight to South Africa.
The opposition
party said the move demonstrated Mugabe's insincerity
in ongoing talks for a
negotiated political settlement.
Tsvangirai's Emergency Travel
Document (ETD) and secretary-general
Tendai Biti and secretary for
international relations Elphas Mukonoweshuro's
passports were confiscated
for four hours by state security agents at Harare
International Airport.
Tsvangirai is using an ETD bacause his passport is
yet to be
renewed.
No reason was proffered for the seizure.
The
three opposition leaders were due to attend a Sadc summit which
opens in
Johannesburg today and expected to be dominated by the Zimbabwe
crisis.
South African President Thabo Mbeki - appointed by Sadc
to mediate in
the talks between Zanu PF and the two formations of the MDC -
will table a
report on the progress of his mediation process.
Biti is the MDC's chief negotiator in the talks, which were adjourned
on
Tuesday after differences emerged between Mugabe and Tsvangirai on
power-sharing.
The seizure of the passports took place despite
the fact Tsvangirai's
party and the smaller faction of the MDC led by Arthur
Mutambara were
invited to attend the Sadc summit, which is expected to
deliberate intensely
on a resolution of the Zimbabwe crisis.
Biti said the seizure of the travel documents showed that the talks
with
Zanu PF were a "farce and a sham", while Tsvangirai's spokesperson
George
Sibotshiwe said the move reflected Mugabe's insincerity in the
negotiations.
"This is simply an attempt to prevent Morgan
Tsvangirai from attending
the Sadc meeting, to which he has been invited,"
Sibotshiwe said. "This is a
demonstration of lack of sincerity on the part
of the government of Robert
Mugbae."
The MDC's information
department said the travel documents were
released "after four hours".
Tsvangirai is now due to leave this morning.
Information minister
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu yesterday said he could not
comment on the
matter.
Mbeki is today expected to present a report to the Sadc
Organ on
Politics, Defence and Security made up of the leaders of Angola,
Tanzania
and Swaziland, on the Zimbabwe talks.
The troika would
be expected to lay the ground for intense
deliberations on the country's
crisis when the 14-nation regional bloc's
leaders meet
tomorrow.
The leaders are expected to grill Mbeki, amid the
apparent divisions
in Sadc on how to handle the Zimbabwe issue, with
Botswana, Zambia and
Tanzania having publicly said they do not recognise
Mugabe as the legitimate
president.
Botswana said it would snub
the summit in South Africa because Mugabe
was invited - a move diplomatic
sources said could escalate the tension
between the diamond-rich country and
Zimbabwe.
The sources said there would be attempts by Zimbabwe and
its allies in
the region to isolate Botswana.
"There will be a
backlash against Botswana," one of the diplomatic
sources said. "Zimbabwe or
its allies in the region will propose to move the
Sadc headquarters from
Botswana for boycotting the summit."
Zimbabwe, the sources said,
was likely to be backed on the proposal by
Namibia, Malawi and Angola,
Mugabe's key allies. The proposed host of the
Sadc head office is
Namibia.
The stance of other countries on the issue, such as South
Africa,
Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique and Mauritius was not
clear.
South African Foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on
Wednesday
said the host country would be "sad" if Botswana followed through
its
threats to boycott the summit.
"Between South Africa and
Botswana there is really no problem. The
problem that they may have is not
within South Africa's control,"
Dlamini-Zuma said. "It's a problem that
South Africa is spending a lot of
time, energy and resources trying to
resolve."
By Constantine Chimakure
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 14 August 2008
19:17
THE government has introduced a legal instrument which now makes
it an
offence to own a generator either for domestic or industrial purposes
without the approval of the Zimbabwe Electricity Regulatory Commission
(Zerc).
Instrument 103 of 2008 which was gazetted a
fortnight ago makes it
mandatory for all household and industrial generators
to be inspected and
approved by Zerc for a fee pegged in United States
dollars.
Those who flout the regulations risk being fined or jailed
for up to
six months.
The statutory instrument reads: "Any
person who owns or operates a
standby electricity generator having a
generation, transmission,
distribution or supply capacity of less than 100
kilowatts shall, within 120
days, notify the Commission of the fact...and
submit together with the
notification the verification and safety inspection
fee prescribed in the
second schedule."
The statutory
instrument now makes it a requirement for people owning
electricity
generators or standby electricity generators generating above
100 kilowatts
or those owning two or more electricity generators or standby
electricity
generators to apply for a licence.
The statutory instrument comes
at a time when generators have become a
necessity due to intermittent power
cuts by the sole power producer Zesa.
This has a seen a boom in the
trade of generators in most hardware
shops.
"Any persons owning
or operating an electricity generator or standby
electricity generator
generating, transmitting distributing or supplying
electricity shall be
deemed to be an electricity undertaking . . . and shall
apply for the
appropriate electricity licence . . . unless he or she
satisfies the
commission, by written notification submitted together with
the verification
and safety inspection fee prescribed that the generator or
generators are
for the sole purpose of his or her household or business,"
reads part of the
instrument.
Zerc will levy US$5 and US$20 for verification and
safety inspection
for electoral generators below 100 kilowatts and those
above respectively.
Individual standby electricity generator owners
will be charged an
inspection fee of US$20 while prototype generator owners
will be levied
US$100.
The generator users will be required to
comply at all times with
public safety standards and to allow access at all
reasonable times by the
commissioner's inspectors to the premises on which
the electricity is
located to enable them to determine whether the
conditions of the permit are
being adhered to.
The introduction
of this legal instrument is set to open up space for
companies and
individuals to apply for licences to distribute electricity
for household
and business purposes as a move to counter erratic power
supplies.
By Lucia Makamure
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 14 August 2008
18:50
THE Sadc-mediated negotiations on the Zimbabwe crisis held in
Harare
this week ended in a stalemate over a matter most people thought was
simple - power-sharing.
South African president Thabo
Mbeki told journalists on Wednesday that
the talks had adjourned to give MDC
leader Morgan Tsvangirai time to
"reflect on the sticking
point".
He would then inform the other two principals, President
Robert Mugabe
and Arthur Mutambara, the leader of the smaller formation of
the MDC, once
he was ready to sign the power-sharing deal.
The
nation awaits with bated breath to see whether Tsvangirai will
re-think his
position and append his signature to the document that is
believed to be the
key to unlocking Zimbabwe's economic recovery prospects.
Away from
the political stalemate, it was not business as usual for
companies and
people with a direct or indirect interest in the talks.
To start
with, hotel staff would testify that this was probably one of
their busiest
weeks as they worked overtime to keep their hotel up to
standard and in line
with its international reputation as one of Zimbabwe's
five star
hotels.
The red carpet rolled out for Mbeki, Mugabe, and Mutambara
was their
worst assignment as keeping it clean was a major task. People
would trample
it with the dusty shoes. It was a taxing experience as it had
to be cleaned
all the time.
Heavily armed police sealed off the
15th, 16th, and 17th floors where
the three principals were housed. Even
Tsvangirai's bodyguards were denied
access to those floors despite the fact
they were security personnel.
On Sunday, they were taken aback
when, as they tried to accompany
their leader to his room, they found armed
police in the elevator. They
panicked, wondering what was about to happen to
their leader.
"He is fine. We are in charge of security. Go back,"
came the order.
What could they do given the order save to calm
down and head for the
leather sofas closer to the elevators.
It
was not only Tsvangirai's security men who pressed the panic mode.
Even some
journalists who were closer to the drama for a minute thought
Tsvangirai had
been kidnapped. The theory was that Mugabe and his government
had become so
desperate for Tsvangirai's signature that he had to be
kidnapped to append
it on the agreement before the talks.
One international media
correspondent was overheard commenting on the
phone: "The MDC leader was
taken hostage as he made his way into his room in
preparation for the
signing ceremony. We are not sure what his fate is at
the hands of Mugabe's
men. We will keep you updated on this."
The number three seems to
have been the in-thing during the
negotiations.
Three
principals, three days of negotiating, three different rooms,
three hotel
floors, three presidential-guard escort vehicles, 33 backers to
the
negotiators and more than 30 journalists from the public and private
media
gathered at the venue of the negotiations.
But in the end three was
not a lucky number. There was no agreement.
On Sunday, which marked
the first full day of negotiation, Mutambara
was the first to arrive at the
hotel. Mbeki had spent the night in Harare
after his arrival on Saturday
night.
In a departure from his usual self, Mutambara refused to
talk to the
media and walked straight to his 15th floor room.
Tsvangirai was the next to drive in. His motorcade, comprising a Mazda
Rustler, the noisiest of all the vehicles in the motorcade, two Nissan
hard-body trucks and a silver-blue Land Cruiser with dark windows. This is
the car that he used for the better part of the talks.
He was
whisked away to the elevators en route to his room.
Then came
Mugabe in his usual motorcade comprising motorbikes, the
latest Mercedes
Benz - Zim 1 - which is his official car, and a cavalcade of
other cars with
security personnel.
Mugabe greeted personnel at the hotel's
entrance before striding on
the red carpet to the elevators and up to his
floor.
Then started the shuffling of papers from one office to the
other.
At the reception area, there was a host of journalists and
security
details. The waiting game took its toll on the "players" up until
they
started complaining to staff from information secretary, George
Charamba's
office that they could not stand the hunger any
longer.
"Bacossi", "Bacossi", "Bacossi", the journalists shouted,
in reference
to Gideon Gono's handouts. Eventually the information officers
were forced
to compile a list of all the journalists present for
"accounting" purposes.
The impatient scribes were led to the Jacaranda room
where the names of
about 60 journalists were called out for tickets to the
dining room.
"Now we can wait even until tomorrow morning,"
exclaimed some
journalists "We have eaten and that makes the situation
better. No man can
work on an empty stomach."
Interested
parties had to wait until 02.00 hours on Monday for the
negotiators to start
appearing on the ground floor of the hotel.
The hope was that a
deal had been signed given that the negotiators
had been locked in for over
13 hours. When Mugabe appeared in the hotel
foyer there was a stampede by
journalists wanting to hear his comments.
"We are going to rest
now. We will continue tomorrow," was all he said
before summoning Patrick
Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche, his two foot soldiers
in the talks, into his
presidential car.
They were in the car for 15 minutes before he was
driven away.
Tsvangirai and Mutambara appeared 45 minutes later
carrying the same
message: "We will continue tomorrow after the heroes
commemorations." He
didn't look happy.
On Monday, Mugabe at the
Heroes Acre revisited the talks saga, saying
he was optimistic that the
negotiations would yield results.
There was hope that Tsvangirai
would, in the spirit of the
negotiations, appear at the commemorations, but
he decided to stay away.
Instead Mutambara turned up much to Mugabe's
delight.
Mutambara, while speaking to journalists, said Mbeki would
address
journalists in the morning of Wednesday before he left for the
Angolan
capital, Luanda, where he was to brief the chairman of the Sadc
organ on
politics, defence and security, José Eduado Dos Santos on the
progress of
the talks.
Journalists were advised that he would
address the media before
departing, only for Mbeki to summon a handful of
journalists who included a
SABC news crew to address them.
Mbeki told those journalists who arrived in the morning: "I addressed
journalists yesterday. I cannot do so today."
Efforts to trail
him to the Harare International Airport yielded no
result as he bade
farewell to a few cabinet ministers who accompanied him to
the airport
before walking up the staircase to his Inkwazi jet.
It wasn't
perhaps "mission failure" just yet. But it certainly seemed
"mission
impossible" after Wednesday.
By Nkululeko Sibanda
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 14 August 2008
18:47
THE Arthur Mutambara led-MDC faces a revolt within its ranks
after its
leader allegedly agreed on all issues under discussion with
President Robert
Mugabe during the Sadc-initiated dialogue mediated by South
African
President Thabo Mbeki.
It has emerged that the
majority of MPs, senators and supporters in
the party structures in
Matabeleland are up in arms over the decision by
Mutambara to take sides
with Mugabe.
Elected officials in the party said there was no way
Mutambara could
have found common ground with Mugabe.
MP-elect
for Mangwe, Edward Tshotsho Mkhosi, told the press he would
quit the faction
if Mutambara agrees with Mugabe a deal that excludes the
president of the
main MDC, Morgan Tsvangirai.
"No, I will not watch history being
repeated," he said. "We have seen
Zanu PF's strategy of divide and rule in
the past and this time it will not
work, not this time," Mkhosi
said.
Khumalo Senator David Coltart also said he would not agree to
a deal
between his party's leadership and Mugabe and expressed doubt that
the
majority of the executive would support that decision.
An
MP from Matabeleland South said if Mutambara sold out, lawmakers
from
Matabeleland were prepared to quit the party.
"If what President
Mbeki said to reporters after the talks in Harare
is anything to go by then
we have a big problem within the party because
there is no way we could be
associated with a decision that favours Mugabe,"
the legislator said. "The
position on the talks that we had as a party is
similar to that of the
Morgan Tsvangirai formation and Mutambara has to
explain to the national
council why he decided to take sides with Mugabe."
Mbeki told
reporters after the talks were adjourned on Tuesday that
Mugabe and
Mutambara had agreed on almost everything while Tsvangirai had a
problem
with one item under negotiation.
Another MP from Matabeleland North
said Mutambara did not consult the
party on backing Zanu PF's move for
Mugabe to retain executive powers in a
unity government.
"People are angry at that decision and they are shocked with Mutambara's
position because the people of this region (Matabeleland) have said they do
not want Mugabe as a leader," said the lawmaker. "The move by Mutambara to
support Mugabe's bid to remain in power is shocking to people from
Matabeleland.
The legislator said Mutambara did not consult
widely adding that they
were prepared to defend the people's position even
if it means joining the
MDC-Tsvangirai formation.
"The decision
by Mutambara to back Mugabe is disgusting and the people
of Matabeleland,
which Mutambara claim to represent through the 10
parliamentary seats won in
the region, have always said since 1980 that they
are tired of Mugabe. We,
therefore, are prepared to cause by-elections in
our constituencies by
leaving the party in order to defend the will of the
people," the legislator
said. Civic society leaders in Matabeleland also
said the decision by
Mutambara to take sides with Mugabe was a betrayal of
the
region.
Bulawayo Agenda executive director Gorden Moyo said
Mutambara's
decision to embrace Mugabe replicates the 1987 Unity Accord
where people
from the region felt betrayed by PF-Zapu.
"Working
with Mugabe in any form replicates the 1987 agreement which
led to the
submergence of one political party by another and people from
Matabeleland
will frown on any attempt by their leaders to work with Mugabe
without the
March 29 victors," Moyo said.
"The MDC Mutambara faction is now
serving the purpose they were called
for in the talks, which is to play a
script that was written before the
talks."
National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA) media committee member in
Matabeleland, Justin
Ndlovu, said the Mutambara faction by agreeing with
Mugabe was selling out
on the wishes of the people of Zimbabwe and said the
faction was finished
politically.
"Mutambara's backing of Mugabe is typical of the
Bishop Abel Muzorewa's
betrayal under the internal settlement, but the
Mutambara faction is
finished and the people of Matabeleland do not forget
easily and they will
punish them in future," Ndlovu said. -- Staff
Writer/Telegraph.
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 14 August 2008 18:42
FORMER
Finance minister Simba Makoni has been dumped by his main
backer in the
Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn project, Dumiso Dabengwa, amid claims of a
clash between
the two leaders over access to financial resources as well as
vehicles for
mobilisation of support.
Dabengwa told the Zimbabwe
Independent from Bulawayo on Wednesday that
he was no longer part of
Makoni's movement.
"I am no longer part of the Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn
movement," Dabengwa
said. "All I did was to assist them set up and drive the
campaign for the
presidential campaign. I assisted in the campaign and did
achieve my main
goal of ensuring that the process is conducive for the
holding of free and
fair elections in the country."
He said he
was now pursuing "other plans" in the political landscape,
including the
revival of PF Zapu.
"There are other options that I am looking at
and I will make my
position clear on these things when the time comes. Some
people say I should
revive PF Zapu."
The former PF Zapu
intelligence supremo said that it was in his
interest to revive the
party.
"Zapu is the one that brought me to where I am today and I
will not
dump it. (Vice-President Joseph) Msika said recently that PF Zapu
was not
swallowed by Zanu PF and we will prove that it is still alive if the
people
approach us to revive it," Dabengwa said.
There have
been disclosures of a fierce row between Dabengwa and
Makoni over resource
allocation.
Sources told the Independent that the fight could have
led Dabengwa to
opt out of the movement as he felt belittled.
"Dabengwa feels he is a senior politician," one of the sources said.
"This
business of being made to appear as a political mafikizolo to him is
an
insult because he sacrificed his political career for Makoni, yet the
same
person he assisted to set up his movement structure is now treating him
badly."
It is said that Dabengwa raised the issue of resources
to Makoni, but
the former Sadc executive secretary repeatedly referred him
to "officers at
the national office" who were expected to handle his
concerns.
"Dabengwa felt that there were resources that were
supposed to have
been allocated to Matabeleland and Bulawayo provinces for
support
mobilisation and also for the establishment of party structures in
preparation for the main launch.
"Those resources and vehicles
were not made available to him on the
basis of the fact that he had to wait
for the launch to get them," the
source said.
It is alleged
that there were vehicles that were procured for the
general election
campaign and were supposed to be allocated to provinces for
the movement's
activities, but they were never distributed.
They were parked "at a
secret location in Harare".
"These are the cars that Dabengwa had
requested and Makoni appeared
not prepared to release them. Funds have not
been trickling in as expected
and that is what Dabengwa has been
challenging," said the sources.
Contacted for comment, Makoni
refused to discuss the matter saying he
was not at liberty to do
so.
He referred the Independent to his spokesperson Godfrey
Chanetsa who
claimed that there were no differences within the
movement.
"All I know is that the Mavambo family is still intact
and there is
nothing of that sort. We are working towards the launch of the
party and
nothing more," said Chanetsa.
The latest turn of
events threatens to scuttle plans to transform the
movement into a new
party, which has been christened the National Alliance
for Democracy
(NAD).
The expectation is that NAD would contest future
elections.
By Nkululeko Sibanda
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 14 August 2008 18:39
HAVE
you ever paid US$20 for a blood pressure or temperature check? Or
parted
with the greenback to have a mandatory medical examination before
being
hired by a new employer?
This has become a new way of
accessing "efficient and reliable"
medical service in a country whose health
delivery system has almost
collapsed.
Specialists in the
medical field, property owners as well as
manufacturers and ordinary
Zimbabweans have not been spared from this
thriving form of payment that has
become common in an economy enduring close
to a decade of
recession.
A snap survey by the Zimbabwe Independent has revealed
that virtually
all business operations in the country are now charging
foreign currency
despite this being illegal.
A number of
institutions, ranging from property owners, private
medical institutions to
retailers are now "dollarising" services and basic
commodities tendered to
the poverty-stricken Zimbabweans whose local
currency is depreciating at an
unprecedented rate.
In Harare, most private medical institutions
prefer payments in
foreign currency to the local currency. Daily cash
withdrawals are now
pegged at $300 and prices are ever changing - sometimes
daily or even
hourly.
A private dentist operating in the
Avenues area said the high annual
inflation rate, which the government said
is over 2,2, million percent,
while independent economists claim to be close
to 10 million percent, was
forcing the few remaining health professionals to
charge in foreign
currency.
"We have since stopped transacting
in the local currency," said the
dentist who requested anonymity. "We have
no confidence on the
fast-depreciating dollar. We import most of our
equipment and drugs and this
is the only alternative that enables us to
restock. More so our employees
face the day to day reality of paying rentals
and other services in foreign
currency."
Consultation at the
government-owned dental section at Parirenyatwa
Hospital costs $50 billion
($5 revalued), notwithstanding the monetary value
of enduring the long
winding queues.
When contacted for comment on this development
Health minister David
Parirenyatwa said he was aware of the dual pricing
system.
"This is against the law and it's a cause for concern which
the
ministry is going to look into," he said.
Dollarisation now
also applies to rentals of flats and houses around
Harare which range
between US$150 to $300 per month depending on location
and proximity to the
city centre.
In most high-density suburbs, which include Warren
Park and Kuwadzana,
Dzivaresekwa and Chitungiwza, property owners and some
real estate agents
are charging between R100 and R200 for a single room and
up to R500 for a
six-roomed house.
Cross boarder traders are
now also charging their wares in foreign
currency. A pair of female sandals
is being sold at Avondale flea market for
R300 or an equivalent in local
currency using the parallel market rates.
Announcing the mid-year
Monetary Policy Statement a fortnight ago,
Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono
warned that this trend of dollarisation,
which he described as a
"hyper-speculative mode", would paralyse the economy
if not
stopped.
Acting Attorney-General, Justice Barat Patel recently said
charging
goods and services in foreign currency was in contravention of the
country's
Exchange Control Act and warned that perpetrators would face the
full wrath
of law.
While exchange control laws prohibit this
emerging trend of foreign
currency transacting, economic analysts are
divided over the issue. Some
economists said dollarisation would not work in
the country, while others
argued that it could be used to increase forex
inflows into the nation's
reserves.
Economic analyst Juniors
Marire said removing prohibitions from
transacting in foreign currency could
"soft land" the economy. He said the
formal inter-bank rate that was
introduced by the central bank in April to
promote foreign currency inflows
was not yielding much.
"What makes inflows into the formal forex
market small is because the
exchange rate was not liberalised fully," he
said. "The priority list (the
RBZ foreign currency issuance priority)
according to which forex is sold is
tantamount to fixation of the exchange
rate."
United States-based currency reformist Steve Hanke, in his
paper
prepared for Imara Holdings, said dollarisation and an establishment
of a
Currency Board to replace the central bank could improve foreign
currency
inflows.
"If official dollarisation goes no further
than the use of a foreign
currency, it does not achieve its full potential,"
he said.
"Combining financial integration with official
dollarisation, in which
a leading international or regional currency serves
as the anchor currency,
helps a dollarised country to tap into a large and
liquid international pool
of funds."
Zimbabwe, according to
Hanke, could adopt "randisation" which entails
trading in South African
rands. The Southern neighbour is the country's top
trading
partner.
South America's emerging giant, Argentina, and quite
recently Ecuador
and El Salvador-2000-2001-adopted the dollarisation model
to redeem their
erstwhile bartered economies from further
collapse.
By Bernard Mpofu/Wongai Zhangazha
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 14 August 2008
18:24
THE recent developments in the ongoing foreign exchange
inter-bank
rate could be a reprieve for most banks that are currently
raising minimum
capital requirements before the month end amid fears that
this could mark
the dearth of activity on the official foreign exchange
market, analysts
have said.
At the official rate 15
registered commercial banks were as of
yesterday required to raise about
$1,68 quintillion (18 zeros) ($16,8
billion revalued) to meet the capital
levels compared to over $10
quintillion using the parallel market cash
rate.
Meanwhile impeccable sources who spoke to this paper this
week
revealed that newly established commercial bank, TN Financial Holdings
has
also managed to raise the mandatory capital requirements.
Last weekend the foreign currency rates plunged to record levels
following
the upward review of daily cash withdrawals and speculation about
an
imminent collapse on the adjourned inter-party talks seeking a political
solution to the country's decade-long crisis. The official inter-bank rate
however did not respond to this abrupt surge in rates.
Microfinance institutions, which the Reserve bank recently said were
facing
"viability problems", could however fail to comply with the US$5 000
(or
equivalent on the inter-bank rate) threshold. Official statistics
indicate
that more than half of the registered money lending institutions
have
already closed.
According to ZB group economist, Best Doroh, most
banks will meet the
August 31 deadline despite unprecedented movements on
the parallel market.
"The inter-bank rate was not affected by
recent movements on the
parallel market," Doroh said. "Unless there are
rapid movements on the
inter-bank rate most banks are likely to meet the
capital requirements."
Zimbabwe Allied Banking Group,chief
economist David Mupamhadzi however
said banks would require more money to
meet the capital requirements, which
might affect their liquidity due to
increasing parallel market rates.
"The inter-bank rate is going up,
but the banks' abilities to mobilise
foreign currency is limited because of
higher rates on the parallel market,"
he said.
This disparity
in foreign exchange rates, analysts warned marked a
significant decline of
foreign currency inflows on the formal market.
Sources said the central bank
is now effectively controlling the exchange
rate float as indicated by
demands by the bank to get a "justification" on
the opening exchange rates
of the day. Before this alleged move the
inter-bank rate was changing at an
average of 25% per day against major
currencies but the rate has since
changed to about 10%.
"The movements of the dollar on the
inter-bank market will be a
reprieve for most banks," said a bank executive
who requested anonymity.
"The inter-bank foreign exchange market is
now subdued and inactive.
It's almost synonymous with the previous
arrangement (fixed rate of US$: $30
000 to the US$).
Although
banks don't have balance sheets that match the depreciating
exchange rate,
many will cross the line by month end. Treasury bills and
concessionary
facilities are some of their major assets although their rate
of return is
negligible."
This position according to the bank executive has
forced banks to
invest on the property market, although the Reserve bank is
on record
accusing financial institutions of investing in "illiquid and
speculative
assets."
Efforts to get comment from the Reserve
Bank and Bankers Association
of Zimbabwe president, John Mangudya were in
vain.
Last month the central bank announced new capital thresholds
for
financial institutions indicating that failure by these institutions to
meet
the requirements could place them under curatorship or mergers.
Merchant
banks and Building societies US$10 million each while Finance
houses and
Discount houses US$7,5 million. Asset management companies should
raise
US$2,5 million.
By Bernard Mpofu
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 14
August 2008 18:22
WHILE prices in Zimbabwe are influenced by the US
dollar because of
inflation, the inter-bank rate which happens to be the
only legal way of
pricing in the country has left the country's products
costing about five
times more than in other parts of the
world.
Most outlets are using the street parallel market
rate, which they say
is the fair value as opposed to the "controlled"
inter-bank rate.
Some companies are appearing to be using the
transfer rate which is
nearly 25 times more than the interbank
rate.
The gap between the interbank and parallel markets widened
further
yesterday as rates on the parallel market made significant
jumps.
Traders on the parallel market were yesterday quoting above
$95 --$100
to the US$, up from around $40 to the US$ before the
holiday.
On the interbank market, the greenback was trading at
$14,5 yesterday
from an average rate of $10 to the US$ on Friday last
week.
The South African rand was being quoted at above $9,5 to R1
surging
from between $3-$3, 3 to R1 during the same period while the
Botswana pula
surged from $5 to above 11/pula.
As the gap
between the interbank and parallel foreign currency market
rates continues
to widen, most banking institutions last week virtually
stopping trading in
foreign currency for about a week.
When Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
Governor Gideon Gono introduced the
interbank rates in May, banks were
offering lucrative rates, resulting in
many people using the banks to change
their money.
Gono hoped the announcement would license more
institutions to act as
authorised dealers for the foreign
currency.
However, the interbank rates started tumbling after the
Reserve bank
unearthed corrupt practices among some of the dealers, with
Genesis Bank's
licence being suspended for nearly two months.
The Reserve bank said it had carried out investigations into many
banks that
were accused of flouting regulations while dealing in foreign
currency. The
results of the investigations have however not been made
public.
A number of people have lost their money after trading
through the
informal traders.
Following the failure by the
country's main parties to sign a deal
that would turn around the economy,
market analysts said parallel market
rate was likely to continue rising with
price of goods and services
responding the rate.
Arthur
Mutambara, the leader of the other faction of the Movement for
Democratic
Change (MDC) on Wednesday said the country's political rivals had
"agreement
on everything except on one aspect".
"Morgan Tsvangirai has
requested time to reflect and consult,"
Mutambara told reporters. "Three
times he agreed to this one aspect and
three times he changed his
mind."
South African president Thabo Mbeki who is mediating the
talks is said
to have said the power-sharing talks could still succeed "soon
despite
disagreements over leadership" after failing to secure a deal at
marathon
talks.
The Southern African Development Community
(Sadc) this week said they
were prepared to assist the region's trouble
maker after the signing of MoU
which is expected to come up with feasible
economic turnaround package for
the country this week.
Zimbabwe
has been accused of holding back regional growth.
Zimbabwe's
economic migrants over its borders are straining regional
diplomacy and
making the whole neighbourhood look bad for failing to end the
crisis.
While the region's highest inflation is 12,9%,
Zimbabwe's inflation is
said to be 2 200 000%. The country is the only one
with a negative Gross
Domestic Product.
According to the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Sub-Saharan Africa's
gross domestic
product grew almost 90% between 1997 and 2007 in purchasing
power parity
terms. Zimbabwe is said to have shrunk by over 30%.
By Paul
Nyakazeya
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 14 August 2008 18:18
THE
property market has ground to a standstill since the beginning of
the month
as skyrocketing residential prices, high interest rates and
drought in the
mortgage market reduced the number of homes changing hands.
Estate agents this week said the prospects of recovery remain weak on
the
back of increasing inflationary pressures expected to prevail in the
long-term.
Since the beginning of the year the property market
has played second
fiddle to other investment vehicles such as the money
market, and the trend
was likely to be maintained with the majority of funds
going into equities
and the parallel market.
Should these
investments' returns remain firm, funds would be kept
away from the brick
and mortar industry.
Property experts said the cumbersome
bureaucratic system was likely to
remain in place, with property market
transactions taking a long time to
conclude.
Against this
background of an inflationary environment, this is
expected to force
investors into other forms of investment, as the value of
transactions is
changing significantly during the transaction period.
Residential
properties remain priced beyond the reach of many
potential buyers. This is
worsened by the inability of potential buyers to
access loans as building
societies have not been offering mortgage loans.
A medium density
house, which cost between $5 000 and $10 000 in
January now costs between $5
million and $12 million (revalued). A standard
three bed-roomed house in the
low density areas now costs anything above $14
million from above $10 000 in
January.
A standard house in the high density area is being priced
between $3
million and $5 million from $600 and $1 500 during the same
period.
Rentals for residential properties for medium and low
density houses
were pegged between US$200 and US$450. The same properties
were being let
for between US$150 and US$350 in January. Low density areas
are being let
for anything above US$500.
Property analyst,
Matthias Kufandirimbwa, said the amount seems like a
lot of money in local
currency but when converted to US dollar terms it
translates to very
little.
In a statement on its website Merctrust Real Estate said
because the
local currency was depreciating, regular adjustments to the US
rate had
resulted in all the houses being sold in millions.
Estate agents said tenants were quoting prices in US dollars to
"retain
value on their investments".
The criticism levelled against
property companies by some sections of
the market has been the tendency to
aggressively push the revaluation gains.
In a statement Masholdings
said: "It was accepted that in current
circumstances, the effect of fair
value adjustments is disproportionate to
profit generated from turnover.Fair
value is determined by the directors and
is based on independent
professional valuations of properties taking into
account current market
conditions."
For the tenth year running there has been no major
developments on the
property market due to the unstable environment. The
only notable
construction has been Joina Centre which started in
1999.
Drastic increases in building materials have affected
developers'
profits, with some planned developments having to be
scrapped.
And those planning to build their own homes are having to
significantly increase their budgets. This has been aggravated by the
soaring price of raw materials such as bricks which now cost $65 000 for 1
000.
By Paul Nyakazeya
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 14 August 2008
18:17
MOST money transfer agencies have been hit by severe problems in
accessing foreign currency from the Reserve Bank despite official figures
indicating an increase in foreign currency receipts.
This development, analysts warned, could be an indication of the
Reserve
Bank interfering with foreign currency inflows to finance
quasi-fiscal
undertakings.
According to insiders who spoke to this paper on
condition of
anonymity, the central bank is currently not effecting full
payments to MTAs
that deposited funds in the central bank's offshore
account.
This they said was a deliberate move by the central bank
to meet its
"urgent commitments".
Recently the Reserve Bank
undertook the National Basic Commodities
Supply Enhancement Programme in an
effort to provide cheap basic products
against the backdrop of runaway
inflation now estimated to be over 10
million%. Many analysts however doubt
its capacity to sustain this
programme.
"Most MTAs have an
agreement with the RBZ that enables them to deposit
funds in the central
bank's offshore account," said one source.
"The bank through its
discretion allocates foreign currency to local
agencies. It often
manipulates this arrangement. It is very much possible
that the central bank
could temporarily withhold the full payment in order
to meet its urgent
commitments."
The recent crash of the local currency over the
weekend and the
increase in new wads of $100, the analyst suggested, was
also an indication
that "authorities" were buying foreign currency on the
parallel market.
This week businessdigest witnessed scores of
disappointed customers at
Western Union branches that failed to withdraw
their United States dollars
after employees at the agencies reportedly
informed them that the agency had
exhausted its daily allocations from the
central bank.
"I was here by 4am hoping to be paid my cash," said
an irate customer
queuing at Western Union branch along Samora Machel. "I
wonder where our
money is going. Only a few connected individuals can access
their cash."
Efforts to get comment from either the central bank or
any of the
registered MTAs were in vain.
Foreign currency
earnings through MTAs have become the source of
income for most Zimbabweans
with relatives beyond our borders.
Independent estimates indicate
that over three million Zimbabweans are
scattered all over the world
significantly contributing to the central bank's
foreign currency current
account.
Reserve Bank chief, Gideon Gono recently announced that
Homelink Money
Transfer agencies foreign currency receipts recorded a 226%
surge following
government's move allowing agencies to pay in foreign
currency.
Early this month local authorities closed a Western Union
branch in
the central business district reportedly for not meeting "minimum
requirements" of an office amid congestion at the premises.
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 14 August 2008
18:14
BANKS are reeling from high accommodation rates of 8 500% --
secured
and 9 500% -- unsecured by the Reserve Bank which raised the rates
to mop up
excess liquidity on the money market.
Banks
are paying heavily when they borrow from the Reserve Bank to
cover their
daily shortfalls.
The Reserve Bank has also tightened procedures
for accessing unsecured
accommodation funds.
Unsecured
accommodation is when a bank gets money from the Reserve
Bank to cover its
daily shortfalls without tendering security for the loan.
The daily
shortfalls happen when there is a mismatch between a bank's
total deposits
and withdrawals.
These measures mean that Reserve Bank Governor
Gideon Gono is the only
one who can approve accommodation for any
bank.
The high policy rates have created a situation whereby banks
are now
vulnerable to the continued existence of high expenditures by the
government
and the Reserve Bank because any slow down in their fiscal and
quasi-fiscal
activities might "shake" banks and their clients.
The Reserve Bank said all motivations for accommodation must be
accompanied
by comprehensive applications written by the bank's chief
executive officers
fully explaining the origins and justifications for the
shortfall, supported
by documentary evidence.
Banks are also facing declining deposits,
with some banks being
accused of using depositors money to buy foreign
currency on the parallel
market or investing on the stock
market.
As of April 31, about 18,62% of depositors' funds held by
commercial
banks was said to be locked up in shares and other non-core
investments.
The country's five merchant banks had a total 30,17%
of depositors'
funds locked in shares.
The four building
societies have poured 16,85% of depositors' funds
into shares and other
investments.
In a market report Kingdom Financial Holdings Limited
described the
Reserve bank accommodation interests rates as "out of synch"
with
inflationary trends.
"The rates are too ghastly to
contemplate if one takes into account
their effect on bank survival in the
event of a money market liquidity
crunch which will force banks to go to the
central bank for accommodation,"
the bank said.
What initially
started as a cash crisis feeding off an unprepared
monetary authority in
rapidly absorbing inflationary pressures through the
introduction of higher
denominated bearer cheques or further slashing of
zeros has taken an
unexpected twist.
It appears to be the making of unethical banking
practices within the
financial services sector.
After mounting
pressure from a restless banking public since the onset
of the cash crisis
late last year, the Reserve Bank is on record saying it
had over $90
quadrillion in cash uncollected in their vaults because banking
institutions
did not have the security to access the money to meet their
customer
withdrawal requirements.
Most banks are accused of being 'guilty'
of violating provisions of
the Banking Act by investing liquid depositor
funds into relatively illiquid
speculative investments that put them at risk
in the event of a run on
deposits facilitated by a massive increase in daily
withdrawal limits for
individual and corporate account holders.
Banks balance sheet show that they have been engaging in more
lucrative
non-core business activities to remain viable.
The manner in which
most of these financial institutions structured
their balance sheets now
puts their very existence at risk because of the
prohibitive interest
payments that they will have to make to the Reserve
Bank for accommodating
them against a liquidity crunch.
The ordinary man on the street
might be probably cursing banking
institutions for engaging in illicit
operations that have caused them so
much discomfort as they cannot access
their cash.
Cash shortages will persist as banks have little
Treasury Bills (TB)
that they can use as collateral when collecting money
from the Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe.
Treasury Bills are issued at
340% against official inflation of 2 200
000% will compromise their earnings
and force them to scale down on the
amounts they have been procuring in cash
in relation to deposits.
While the Reserve Bank has kept the
accommodation rates very high,
annualised at 1,5 decillion percent (33
zeros), depositors are languishing
with interest rates below 250% per
annum.
The Reserve Bank demands 45% of statutory reserves from
banks and this
according to officials has seen most financial institutions
"hurriedly"
offloading their securities portfolios to improve their
liquidity positions.
Banks have been preferring Bankers Acceptances
over TB's which no
longer have the "all important liquidity
status".
Presently, 30 day Bankers Acceptances are being drawn in
the market at
yields around 1 000%, which, when annualised, leave banks
raking in returns
of about 147 731%.
These returns are well
above the TB returns currentlypegged at 340%.
Banks have had few
TBs accumulating on their balance sheets.
By Paul Nyakazeya
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 14 August 2008 19:04
IT
boggles the mind that the judiciary, which should be the most
venerable
institution in our country can be so desperate as to accept
"donations" from
the Reserve Bank clearly in breach of all known
constitutional and ethical
principles.
It was reported with great delight by the
Herald of August 1 that the
central bank had "donated" a fleet of new
vehicles, generators, sets of
plasma screen televisions, and full sets of
satellite dishes for the sitting
judges to improve their conditions of
service.
The report would shock any jurist who cares about judicial
independence. The "donations" are unlawful and
unconstitutional.
Firstly, the Constitution of Zimbabwe states
clearly that the
remuneration of judges should be charged on the
Consolidated Revenue Fund.
It clearly states in Section 88 (1)
that: "There shall be charged upon
and paid out of the Consolidated Revenue
Fund to a person who holds the
office of or is acting as Chief Justice, a
judge of the Supreme Court, Judge
President of the High Court or a judge of
the High Court such salary and
allowances as may from time to time be
prescribed by or under an Act of
Parliament."
Parliament passed
the Judges' Salaries, Allowances and Pensions Act
[Chapter 7:08] which
empowers the president to set the conditions of service
for the judges
through a statutory instrument.
The Minister of Finance is required
to review salaries, pension
benefits and allowances payable to judges
whenever an increase is to be
awarded to persons employed in the public
service.
This is obviously an unsatisfactory and unconstitutional
delegation of
power by parliament.
It leaves the judiciary
susceptible to control by the executive
through financial
pressure.
Secondly, there is no relationship between the judges'
salaries and
the salaries of civil servants. They perform different
functions.
The responsibility to set the remuneration of judges in
many
progressive jurisdictions has now been given to commissions or bodies
that
are independent of the judiciary, parliament or the
executive.
This achieves the necessary protection for judges from
possible
influence by the executive through the use of financial
means.
Under the current constitution, the central bank is not the
custodian
of the Consolidated Revenue Fund. It does not run the treasury
notwithstanding the grand-standing and improper splashing of state funds.
Any payments from the consolidated fund must have statutory or
constitutional permission.
Judges are paid from the treasury
specifically because they are
supposed to be independent.
The
charge on the consolidated fund ensures that there are funds
always
available to remunerate them. Their remuneration must be paid by the
state.
This also removes the danger of parties or other over-zealous
entities
making payments to judges on shaky philanthropic grounds.
How the
central bank and its zealots end up "donating" various luxury
goods and
trinkets to the judges is beyond me.
It sets a very dangerous
precedent and poses a real threat to the rule
of law, independence of judges
and their impartiality. Their independence is
the cornerstone of their
impartiality.
It is the international convention that no judge
should receive any
payment for his judicial work except as provided for
under the necessary
legislation.
In other words, no matter how
poorly-paid the judges maybe,
Anglo-American Corporation or the Reserve Bank
cannot pay them any salary or
provide them with the necessities of life even
if they are desperate.
That responsibility lies with treasury
through the existing
constitutional and statutory provisions.
The Latimer House Guidelines of the Commonwealth adopted with the full
participation of Zimbabwe in 1998 provide under judicial funding that:
"Sufficient and sustainable funding should be provided to enable the
judiciary to perform its functions to the highest standards.
Such funds, once voted for the judiciary by the legislature, should be
protected from alienation or misuse. The allocation or withholding of
funding should not be used as a means of exercising improper control over
the judiciary.
Appropriate salaries and benefits, supporting
staff, resources and
equipment are essential to the proper functioning of
the judiciary. As a
matter of principle, judicial salaries and benefits
should be set by an
independent body and their value should be
maintained."
It is the responsibility as the law stands of the
president and the
minister of finance to ensure that judges are adequately
remunerated. Our
judges are not and should never be a charity
case.
The salaries and benefits of judges must be set at the right
levels
and be known publicly in the same way changes to presidential or
ministerial
salaries and allowances are publicly gazetted.
As
Justice Francois-Beaudoil of Quebec, Canada observed: "When you are
reduced
to begging for a decent salary, how can you be truly independent?"
Judicial office is a matter of great personal and professional
sacrifice. It
is very important that the benefits attract the best legal
brains without
making it difficult for them to maintain their families, earn
and live a
decent lifestyle. The structure of salaries and benefits must
reflect the
dignity of the judicial office. As Winston Churchill put it
decades
ago:
"Our aim is not to make our judges wealthy men, but to satisfy
their
needs to maintain a modest but dignified way of life suited to the
gravity,
and indeed, the majesty, of the duties they
discharge."
We must make the remuneration of judges attractive so
that we can
defeat any temptation to compromising by the judiciary. This
will not only
be intended to benefit judges but the greater benefit is to
the
administration of justice itself. And yet while there is unanimity that
the
conditions of service for judges need improvement, it does not mean that
our
judges must resort to luxuries delivered outside constitutional and
legal
imperatives. Even then, benefits that appear designed to suit farmers
are in
fact obscene. The 4x4 trucks have nothing to do with the judges'
ability to
discharge their judicial function.
These so-called
"donations" have heavily compromised the independence
of the judiciary. How
does a party who has a dispute against the Reserve
Bank or its governor
believe that he will receive justice from a judge who
is watching a plasma
screen powered by a generator provided by one of the
parties? Judges are not
required to be independent only.
They are required to be seen to be
independent. Any perception that
judges are in the pocket of one institution
or a party to a dispute or that
they have lost their ability to discharge
their responsibilities without
fear or favour, further harms the already
tattered reputation of our legal
system.
As it stands, all the
judges who have received these donations are
disqualified from hearing
matters involving the Reserve Bank or its alter
ego, "Our
governor".
You would expect those that demand high standards of
corporate
governance from bank directors to understand that a lot more is
demanded of
judges. The reputation of judges stands or falls on their moral
authority.
If this "donation" practice is not nipped in the bud,
what stops
accused persons or litigants donating groceries, cigarettes, and
sanitary
ware, fertiliser, whisky and farmer boots to the obviously
underpaid judges?
The honour and principles of human beings are put
at the greatest test
in times of hardship. It is at these times that those
who are principled
must suppress the obvious temptation of luxury to uphold
and defend the
principles and ethos of our legal order.
It is
common in developing countries for judiciaries to receive
donor-funding but
that donor-funding is targeted towards the improvement of
the institutions
of administration of justice and not for the personal and
family or farming
comfort of judges.
The funding is provided for specific projects
and the purchase of
books and equipment.
The funding is secured
from foreign entities and not from entities
within the jurisdiction of
Zimbabwean courts. This ensures that the
independence of judges is not
compromised by benefits received from
potential litigants.
The
funds are managed in a transparent manner and usually through a
public
trust. Proper donations directed at improving the administration of
justice
can do wonders.
When not done properly, they pose a serious danger
to our
constitutional values.
I therefore call upon the
honourable judges to return the "donations"
received from the Reserve
Bank.
Any efforts to improve their conditions of service must be
done in
terms of the law as currently provided.
It remains for
the individual conscience of each judge to guide them
on whether they can
serve their oath of office as required by the
constitution while receiving
alms from unlawful sources.
Should the learned judges not heed my
call to return these unlawfully
received luxuries, it is imperative for the
Law Society to take legal action
to protect the independence and integrity
of the judiciary.
The only difficulty they will face is that if all
the judges have
received these luxuries, none of them will be allowed by law
to hear this
matter. This will necessitate the employment of possibly
foreign acting
judges to hear the challenge.
These judges will
need to be paid in foreign currency.
The Reserve Bank (which has
usurped the Minister of Finance's power as
the Exchange Control Authority),
who will certainly be one of the defendants
together will all the judges in
the case will not be friendly to this cause.
There are too many
vivid lessons in history that the corruption of the
legal system is the last
act in the destruction of the rule of law,
democracy and human rights. The
independence of our judges is the foundation
of our constitution, our rights
and our freedom.
It cannot be compromised for personal comfort or
political expediency.
Once independent and impartial judges are gone, who
will protect us?
By Tererai Mafukidze : A lawyer. He writes in his
personal capacity.
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 14 August 2008
17:26
A ZIMBABWEAN opposition leader, lauded for his brave struggle
against
Robert Mugabe, arrives in London on an official visit as the new
prime
minister.
Morgan Tsvangirai asks Britain to
recognise his government and offer
millions of pounds of aid. He urges the
lifting of all sanctions and
declares that Harare's era of isolation is
over.
Tsvangirai requests Gordon Brown's help in releasing large
sums from
the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. He returns to
Harare and
reports back to his boss --- one Robert Mugabe. After they formed
a
"government of national unity", Mugabe stayed on as president and
Tsvangirai
became his prime minister. Now Britain faces a cruel dilemma --
recognise
the government (led by Mugabe) and pour aid into its coffers
(controlled by
Mugabe), or face the blame for economic
catastrophe.
At present, this scenario is pure imagination and
fantasy but events
along these lines could unfold in the weeks ahead,
confronting the prime
minister and David Miliband, the foreign secretary,
with a conundrum. Would
they recognise and fund a new Zimbabwean government
that includes Tsvangirai
in a senior position, but keeps Mugabe as
president? The talks which opened
at the weekend between the opposition and
Mugabe's Zanu PF party could have
this outcome.
President Thabo
Mbeki of South Africa is still mediating between the
two sides despite
Britain's efforts to sideline him. Senior British sources
believe the talks
will probably fail. If so, London will avoid its dilemma.
But what if they
do sign a deal? Aside from total failure, there are two
possible outcomes.
The MDC wants a shortlived "transitional government"
leading to fresh
elections, which Tsvangirai would almost certainly win.
Exactly
what role Mugabe would play in this interim administration is
undefined.
Tsvangirai has resisted pressure to recognise Mugabe as rightful
president.
At his insistence, the two leaders conducted their handshake
inside the
neutral venue of a Harare hotel, not in the presidential office
in State
House, where Mugabe wanted it.
Tsvangirai's allies robustly declare
that he will not serve as the
dictator's subordinate in any coalition
government. Instead, Mugabe's role
in a temporary administration before new
elections would be as titular,
ceremonial president, with real executive
power transferring to Tsvangirai.
If this takes place, few would
complain.
Having waged a ruthless struggle to hold power,
inflicting untold
suffering on thousands, Mugabe would have to surrender
everything at the
negotiating table -- 84-year-old leopards rarely change
their spots, this
seems unlikely. Instead, Mugabe will obviously press for
the second possible
outcome: a "government of national unity". This would
leave Mugabe in
command as president, with Tsvangirai as a prime minister,
able to travel
the world, securing aid and diplomatic recognition. London
would be his
first stop -- and Brown and Miliband would face their
dilemma.
There is a precedent for this. When President Mwai Kibaki
of Kenya
lost an election last December, he announced a fake result and
stayed in
power, triggering bloodshed that claimed 1 500 lives. The killing
only ended
when Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary-general, oversaw the
birth of a
unity government.
Kibaki stayed on as president,
despite having lost the election. Raila
Odinga, his leading opponent who
actually won the poll, became prime
minister. Kenya's cabinet was doubled,
so all the politicians who had lost
the election could keep their jobs --
and all the winners could have jobs,
too. Most senior politicians in Kenya
now enjoy ministerial office.
If the same unfolds in Zimbabwe, the
Foreign Office will have no
grounds for indignation. If prime minister
Tsvangirai shows up at Downing
Street, he will doubtless ask: "If this was
good enough for Kenya, why not
Zimbabwe too?" -- The Telegraph
(UK).
By David Blair
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 14 August 2008 17:51
August
13 must have been a very sad day for millions of ordinary
Zimbabweans.
It is not difficult to understand why:
they had expected the secretive
negotiations between Zanu PF and the two MDC
formations to bring them
relief, even if that was only a change of national
mood at first.
They expected their leaders to put the national
interest before their
own. Widely cognisant of the hunger, unemployment and
national despair,
Zimbabweans expected their leaders to work to alleviate
this situation.
After almost four days of intense negotiations in
the presence of the
chief facilitator in the dialogue, South African
president Thabo Mbeki,
Zimbabweans had good reason to believe finally there
would be a
breakthrough. Then they were let down over what some may see as
petty
leadership squabbles.
We are not fooled by pious talk by
either President Robert Mugabe or
MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai about
putting the people first. In a
statement he issued after he refused to sign
up to what we are told was the
last "sticking point", Tsvangirai said his
party had put its "grievances
aside" and reached out to Zanu PF "for the
good of the people".
Addressing people who gathered at the Heroes
Acre on Monday, Mugabe
also rejected "hollow" agreements which did not fully
empower the people.
But looking at the last-minute impasse over the
past few days, we are
left in no doubt that none of them has put the people
first. The stalemate
is about who wields real executive powers. This is not
an academic issue as
it involves responsibility for a raft of government
policies. A prime
minister without authority for government policy could see
President Mugabe
inflicting further damage on the economy and then blaming
his ministers for
any short-comings.
But that doesn't mean the
talks should be allowed to break down on an
issue that should have been
addressed weeks ago.
Conspiracy theorists may see something
sinister about the timing. It
has the ring of a repeat of the debacle on the
eve of the G8 meeting and a
sense of revenge for the position South Africa
took at the United Nations
Security Council against the imposition of
sanctions on Zimbabwe.
It is inevitable that events in Zimbabwe are
seen in the context of
the wider international warfare.
The sad
thing is that Zimbabweans are the biggest losers in this high
stakes power
game.
Mbeki has declared that he is prepared to pursue the process
even if
it takes six months to clinch a deal.
For his part
Mbeki is immersed in the fevered politics of his own
country where he is
facing a formidable challenge from those within his
tripartite alliance and
many other forces at play. He is understandably
anxious for a success which
will eclipse his perceived propitiation of
Mugabe.
But we
reiterate that it is Zimbabweans who must put their own
interests first. It
is Zimbabweans who must find a way out of this crisis.
South Africans don't
have limitless resources to have their president camped
here for six months
to sort out a problem which only calls for commitment
from all
parties.
So far that commitment from the leadership has been
missing. The
"people first" mantra is completely hollow. What we are
witnessing is a
struggle for power in the new dispensation. Understandably
Tsvangirai
believes his electoral victory in March entitles his party to a
leading role
in any transitional authority. Unless that is cast in stone
Mugabe is likely
to go on abusing power to the disadvantage of the
country.
He is currently fuelling the fires of inflation by
extravagant
handouts to judges, soldiers and civil servants that the economy
simply can't
stand. And now he is joined by the two formations of the MDC in
agreeing to
a bloated cabinet that will be touted as a national
necessity.
Details of the agreements reached 'published yesterday'
would suggest
MDC-T negotiators have agreed with Zanu PF on a range of
issues which they
can expect their supporters and much of civil society to
denounce. It is not
in the country's interests to indulge Zanu PF's spurious
claims to be
defending national sovereignty. On the contrary any settlement
needs to
ensure they can't damage the fabric of the nation any
further.
The confiscation of Tsvangirai's travel document at Harare
International Airport yesterday, albeit temporarily, illustrates the
violation of his freedom of movement that is an everyday hazard in Mugabe's
dictatorship. The current talks are designed precisely to prevent such
abuses.
At the end of the day, if Tsvangirai can secure
regional backing for a
process that is not subject to populist reversals his
moment of reflection
may prove to have been worthwhile. But, he must be
reminded, time is running
out and the economy is in headlong decline, not
because of sanctions as
Mugabe fatuously claims, but plain old-fashioned
misrule.
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 14 August 2008
17:17
AMONGST the most pronounced causes of Zimbabwe's catastrophic
economic
circumstances is that its government, in general, and its economic
arms in
particular, endlessly seek to manage and control the country as a
whole, its
people,
and especially its economy, by an endless
recourse to dire threats
which provoke (or are intended to provoke)
quivering fear amongst all that
are components of the economy.
The governmental authorities clearly have a deep-seated conviction of
their
absolute omnipotence, that conviction matched only by a unequivocal
belief
that achievement of their objectives is best achieved by never-ending
fulmination against those that government is convinced are deliberately
undermining them.
Without according any consideration
whatsoever as to the actual causes
of Zimbabwean ills, and blatantly
unwilling even to consider that they
themselves, or their policies, are the
causes of the ills, they attribute
total culpability to others. Having done
so, they then seek to motivate
changes of actions by the allegedly culpable
by unceasing threats to demonic
retribution.
The Concise Oxford
Dictionary defines a bull as being one "who uses
strength or power to coerce
others by fear", resorting to persecution,
oppression (physically or
morally), by threat or superior force. Today, a
more abridged, but markedly
more indisputable description, of "bully" would
simply be "Zimbabwean
government".
After government set the economy upon its downward,
destructive path
by its succumbing to the threatening, bullying demands of
war veterans in
1997, yielding to their blackmail demands for compensation
and pensions far
beyond the country's means, government not only had to
divert from itself
blame for the consequential cataclysmic economic
developments, but having
imputed fault to others, then had to strategise to
achieve a reversal of the
economic decline. This it did by resorting to
other grievously
ill-considered policies and tactics, each of which not only
failed to
achieve positive transformation, but massively worsened the state
of the
economy. As each measure failed, and intensified the economic
collapse,
government unhesitatingly deluded itself that fault lay wholly
with others,
and sought to address that by resorting to ever-intensifying,
strongly
bullying, and recrimination of the falsely perceived guilty
culprits for the
decimation of the economy. It bared its fangs, snarled,
growled, bristled
and continuously threatened revenge and reprisals. To a
very major extent,
it focused its ire and fury upon much of the
international community, and
especially upon the former colonial power,
Britain, upon most of the other
countries of the European Union, and upon
the USA, and -- of course -- upon
the leaders of those
countries.
But it did so devoid of any credibility and, therefore,
whilst not
halting its ongoing diatribes against those imaginary enemies, it
also had
to find others to blame. Progressively it cast its evil eye upon
whites in
general, and particularly upon commercial farmers, industrialists,
retailers
and others of the business community, and upon
multinationals.
It threatened, with ever-greater intensity, the
nationalisation and
expropriation of businesses. It legislated extremely
unrealistic, and
greatly oppressive, laws seeking to achieve near total
regulation and
control of all facets of the economy, with myopic oblivion to
the disastrous
consequences upon the survival and continued operations of
the targetted
economic enterprises. Each and every one of its measures
proved to be wholly
counterproductive, but government was incapable, or
unwilling, to
acknowledge, that the adverse consequences of its excessive
regulation were
a direct consequence of that regulation.
Instead, it intensified its castigation of the private sector,
contending
deliberate circumvention of the regulation with the deliberate
intent to
bring the economy to its knees, to enrich the private sector
stakeholders at
the expense, and to the prejudice, of the populace, and to
satisfy the
spuriously alleged international masterminds of the economic
Armageddon.
These disastrous actions of government pinnacled
when, in June 2007,
the Minister of Industry and International Trade,
"Tsunami" Obert Mpofu,
undoubtedly motivated by the president and cabinet,
legislated price
controls. This was done with contemptuously blatant
indifference to the
proven inability of price controls to address the
economic problems, and the
incontrovertible consequences of intensifying
those problems. Within days,
the minister created the National Incomes and
Pricing Commission (NIPC) to
complement the draconianly destructive
constraints upon prices, headed by
one Godwills Masimirembwa.
Immediately, government, strongly reinforced by NIPC's Masimirembwa,
applied
intensively bullying threats against any and all who failed to
comply, in
the entirety, with the price control laws and NIPC directives,
and
reinforced those bullying threats by gargantuanally excessive, punitive
actions against perceived offenders. Businessmen were peremptorily jailed,
and others harshly fined, whilst officials invaded businesses with extreme
aggression, such as to provoke great fear within the business
community.
But the results were not to curb and contain prices, and
to halt the
spiralling, endlessly surging inflation. Instead, most basic
commodities,
essentials, and other goods ceased to be available. And this
was not in any
manner as an attempt by business to frustrate government,
NIPC and the
legislation's stated intents. It was naught but the inevitable
consequence
that businesses could not afford to sell goods without attaining
a fair
return on capital employed, for then the businesses could not
survive. This
is a fundamental precept of economic survival, but government
and NIPC could
not, or would not, recognise basic fact.
Instead, because of businesses inability to import or produce goods,
in the
absence of operational viability, scarcities became greater and
greater.
Inevitably, this fuelled a thriving, vigorous black market, wherein
prices
were markedly greater than they would have been in a decontrolled
formal
sector. Inflation soared upwards, and concurrently, as businesses
contracted, unemployment intensified, as did the "brain drain" of Zimbabwe's
valued skilled to neighbouring territories.
But with the
obduracy and dogmatism that are the characteristics of
the Zimbabwean
government, zero recognition was given to facts, and instead
there has been
a continuing intensifying, scathing assault upon the private
sector.
In the last few weeks, the president, Minister Mpofu,
and NIPC's
Godwills Masimirembwa have all been vocally vitriolic against the
business
community, and have with increased intensity threatened retribution
and
intensely punitive actions.
The result has not been to
improve the lot of consumers, and of the
economy, but to bring about the
closure of yet more enterprises, the
contraction of many others, increased
unemployment, discouragement of
critically needed investment, further
economic collapse, lesser revenues to
an already extremely bankrupt fiscus,
and ever-greater hardships and
suffering for the populace. Government's
continuous usage of fear as an
instrument of misguided policy implementation
is accelerating the
destruction of Zimbabwe.
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 14 August 2008
17:49
WE have now reached a critical moment in the ongoing
power-sharing
talks between Zanu PF and the MDC, although talks have
stalled, at least for
now.
Leaders of the negotiating parties
need to be decisive and show
direction. There is a great need for strategic
and futurist thinking.
At such a watershed stage, leaders should
remain levelheaded and
focused, not on a self-serving pursuit of power, but
on the bigger picture
in the national interest. They have to be rational and
flexible; also
realistic and practical.
In negotiations parties
have to know the strength of their leverage.
Power relations between
negotiating parties determine the outcome, not
self-delusion or
romanticism.
In the current negotiations, the reality is the
balance of power still
favours Zanu PF because it controls the levers of
state power, although the
MDC factions have strong leverage. Zanu PF has all
the instruments of
coercion and is still capable of inflicting brutality on
its opponents. The
violence and casualties during the recent elections -
greeted by pathos and
outrage at home and abroad - help to prove the
point.
But the MDC, particularly as a joint force, is very
formidable.
Whatever the pretences of petty or foolish opportunists on both
sides who
thrive on the divisions, the reality is the MDC is stronger as a
united
front. If the party had contested the March polls as a collective,
Morgan
Tsvangirai would have without doubt decisively defeated President
Robert
Mugabe, with the MDC seizing a clear majority in parliament - end of
story.
If that had happened there would have been be no need for
these
negotiations in the first place because Tsvangirai would be president
and
the MDC in the majority. Mugabe and Zanu PF would be in the opposition,
in
fact history.
However, this did not happen due to pointless
divisions. The facts are
clear: Tsvangirai beat Mugabe, but did not get a
majority of votes. He fell
closely short. His faction also won but did not
get the required majority to
control parliament.
After that
Zanu was furious and sought to reverse Mugabe's defeat
through a brutal
campaign of violence and murder. Tsvangirai lost his nerve
at the eleventh
hour and pulled out. Mugabe claimed hollow victory, but
failed to gain
recognition and legitimacy.
At that point - after the March 29 and
June 27 elections - every
sensible person appreciated the gravity of the
resultant political stalemate
and saw the need for immediate
negotiations.
We are now towards the end of that dialogue to break
the impasse. A
lot of things have happened in between related to talks. Most
Zimbabweans
want the negotiations to succeed. However, politicians, in
pursuit of power,
not their disingenuous lies of "people's will or national
interest", are
haggling with intensity over positions and authority
stakes.
Clear thinking is required as to how negotiations operate.
Negotiation
of course does not mean that the two sides sit down together on
a basis of
equality and talk through and resolve their differences that
produced the
conflict between them.
Gene Sharp, in his
distinguished work From Dictatorship to Democracy,
which Tsvangirai has
read, reminds negotiators of two critical points.
First, he says in
negotiations it is not the relative justice of the
conflicting views and
objectives which determines the content of a
negotiated agreement. Second,
the content of a negotiated settlement is
largely determined by the power
capacity of each side.
Several difficult questions must be
considered. What can each side do
to gain its objectives if the other side
fails to come to an agreement at
the negotiating table? What can each side
do after an agreement is reached
if the other side breaks its word and uses
force to fulfil its objectives?
A settlement is not reached in
negotiations through an assessment of
the rights and wrongs of the issues at
stake. While those may be much
discussed, the real results in negotiations
come from an assessment of the
absolute and relative power relations of the
contending groups.
What can Tsvangirai do to ensure that his
minimum demands are met?
What can Mugabe do to stay in control and
neutralise the MDC? In other
words, if an agreement comes, it is more likely
the result of each side
estimating how the power capacities of the two sides
compare, and then
calculating how an open struggle might end.
Attention must also be given to what each side is willing to give up
in
order to reach agreement. In successful negotiations there is compromise
because it is a give-and-take process. Each side gets part of what it wants
and gives up part of its objectives.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai need
to understand this.
By Dumisani Muleya
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 14 August 2008
17:12
MUCKRAKER is reluctant to dismiss Arthur Mutambara as a mere
demagogue
competing for space in the nation's already crowded parade ground
of
nationalist poseurs.
But judging by his populist
remarks on Heroes Day, that's exactly
where he belongs.
Telling
the Western powers to "back off", he said sanctions were
"totally
retrogressive" and are "a vote of no confidence in Africans".
What
would he call the state-orchestrated violence that took place
between March
and June? A vote of confidence? And why is he diverting our
attention to
Western predators when the local variety go unremarked?
Given his
education and experience you would have thought Mutambara
would know
something about how inter-dependent we all are in the global
village.
Zimbabwe will soon need all the help it can get in crafting a
recovery
programme. Will he tell donors then to "back off"?
Those countries
which have condemned political violence and demanded
accountability in
governance will be asked for large sums of money to put
right what our
political demagogues have wrecked.
This is not the time to be
parroting Mugabe in claiming "Zimbabweans
will be masters of their own
destiny". This is simplistic nonsense, just as
is Mugabe's call to "allow
the country to freely chart its destiny as a
sovereign people".
Is that what happened after March 29? Was the country allowed to
"freely
chart its destiny"? Mutambara should tell us.
Instead of
ingratiating himself with our delinquent rulers Mutambara
should speak of
the nation's need to avoid the mistakes of the past. Is he
so anxious for
office that he can't tell it like it is?
Muckraker is curious
about the latest discourse from Jonathan Moyo. He
has taken it upon himself
to attack Botswana's decision to expel Caesar
Zvayi. It was "shocking
treachery", he claimed, to deport Zvayi who held a
legal work
permit.
Leaving aside the number of journalists deported from
Zimbabwe who
held legal work permits while Moyo was Minister of Information,
one detects
in the Tsholotsho MP's vituperations the same sort of
nationalist posturing
that Mutambara is guilty of.
"When a
country has more goats than people," Moyo opined, "it suffers
a serious
leadership deficiency as is happening in Botswana where a
primitive and
intolerant military junta is masquerading as a democracy."
Couldn't
we say the same about a primitive and intolerant junta closer
to
home?
Let us hope Moyo is not advertising his candidacy for office
with
these populist remarks about a neighbour which alone among Sadc states
has
stood up for the people of Zimbabwe when they had an election stolen
from
them.
We had "an observer" telling us that Botswana
was likely to be seen as
closer to the EU than Sadc with the sort of remarks
their foreign minister
had been making.
How many Zimbabweans
will care that Botswana is seen as closer to the
EU than Sadc? What matters
is that they get a government of their choice. In
any case, this clumsy
attempt by a not-so-mysterious "observer" to suggest
that Botswana should do
the wrong thing just because the rest of Sadc is
doing the wrong thing by
turning a blind eye to electoral fraud is no longer
so
pertinent.
Most Sadc states, including allies such as Angola and
Tanzania, have
since firmed up on their positions regarding Zimbabwe's
elections. Officials
such as the one who spoke to the Herald can no longer
count on the region's
acquiescence in electoral truancy. That has been one
of the more encouraging
developments to emerge from the past few
months.
And the next time somebody wants to draw attention to
themselves by
talking about how iniquitous sanctions are, perhaps they can
remind us of
the sanctions taken against the Daily News and its
staff.
The Herald's political and features editor Mabasa Sasa,
who assumed
the heroic mantle bequeathed by Caesar Zvayi, is an engaging
writer. But he
needs helpful guidance. In his latest epistle he complains
that "the silent
masses" should not be airbrushed from our record of the
past. Traditional
historians have tended to focus on glorious events, he
points out, that have
led us to celebrate names such as Josiah Tongogara,
Shaka, Napoleon and
"Alexander of Mesopotamia".
But we need to
take account of the social dimension, he reminds us.
The record of
those airbrushed from history is decidedly wider and
more diverse than
powerful individuals, Mabasa notes
We agree. But who is Alexander
of Mesopotamia? Is he related to
Alexander of Macedonia, we
wonder?
As for "Wolfgang van Goethe", who pops up in Sasa's
article, he must
be a Dutch cousin of German man of letters Johann Wolfgang
von Goethe!
One of Goethe's finest plays is about Dr Faust who
sells his soul to
the devil in return for knowledge.
Sasa
should ask Mutambara if he's heard of it.
Sasa did make a useful
contribution to the political process this
week. By publishing the
agreements the three parties had signed to date he
exposed the MDC-T as
prepared to endorse Zanu PF's delusional agenda on
sanctions, "external
interfence" and "pirate" radio stations.
MDC-T supporters will be
outraged by this childish nonsense. But they
will be pleased that the
negotiators rejected any "unlawful, violent,
undemocratic means of changing
governments". That presumably deals with June
27!
Mutambara's press conference on Wednesday rather killed Sasa's
dramatic
front-page story headed "Deal Sealed". It was inconceivable, he
said, that
he could sign a separate deal with Mugabe when the talks were
part of a
trilateral process. There had been a break, he said, not a
break-down.
It was a welcome clarification.
Despite the agreement of all parties not to leak information to the
press,
Zanu PF has been leaking like a sieve, telling the public what
President
Mugabe would or would not accept in the way of a settlement and
taking pot
shots at Tsvangirai, claiming he had misled his own negotiators.
The government press is having great difficulty restraining itself
from
attacking the MDC-T.
It would be useful to know what agreement the
negotiators have reached
on freeing the public media from partisan
control.
Unprofessional habits are now so well ingrained that it
will take
months if not years to build a media that serves the people of
Zimbabwe as a
whole.
We referred last week to the new
ideology of "the talks". Nobody is
allowed to say a word of disagreement
with this private palaver parlour.
Indeed, when photo-journalist
Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi was beaten and
taken from his home to Southerton police
station on July 24, he was asked,
he says, why he was showing the country in
a bad light and not giving talks
a chance.
This was a nice
irony coming on the same day that John Makumbe was
denounced for suggesting
that violence persisted in various parts of the
country.
It is
shocking that party leaders can sit down to discuss the country's
future
when people still have political charges outstanding against them.
At the Kempton Park talks in 1993 the ANC ensured that all their
members
were released from prison before talks could start and that
sanctions stayed
in place until the ANC was sure of a democratic transition.
Could
Mbeki be reminded of this the next time he jets in.
Gongs
galore have been handed out this week to individuals who proved
highly
"patriotic" during the recent electoral run-off including one who
presided
over the election fiasco itself.
The awards, which look very much
like acknowledgements of personal
loyalty and appear to fall into the same
category as judicial propitiation,
might also give the impression of one
departing office and wishing to thank
those who kept him there. Or is that
wishful thinking?
One of the issues that has been under discussion
in the inter-party
talks has been the need for a restoration of
professionalism in the various
arms of the state.
That will by
definition include the understanding that these arms
serve the nation and
not individuals who have glued themselves to the seat
of
power.
Has anyboby seen Statutory Instrument 103/08 imposing a
licensing fee
on households running generators?
Muckraker
has.
Can you imagine anything so iniquitous?
Zesa
provides a totally inadequate service to the nation.
But then seeks
to impose a levy on people who have to provide their
own
electricity.
This is misrule writ large and explains why we have to
give Zanu PF
and its crony parastatals the boot.
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 14 August 2008
17:09
IN the rough and tumble of politics leaders who are willing to
compromise are viewed as appealing, so too are those who demonstrate
political conviction.
The topic of compromise is a
contentious one, especially when
considered in the context of leadership,
and acquisition and cession of
power.
There were mixed
reactions to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai's refusal
to sign a power-sharing
agreement with Zanu PF this week. His supporters,
especially those of the
Chitongai tione variety and a sizeable portion of
civic society saw this as
a victory for their cause. This constituency
includes one of my snappish
siblings who took me through the motions of the
need for Tsvangirai to stay
strong and not compromise. This, he said, was
the best way forward to
achieving what he called "tangible good" for the
nation.
My
brother is an aggressive negotiator and a prime specimen of a
competitor. He
gets things done his way through a cocktail of subtle force
and very little
in the form of compromise. The scales in his armour have
very few chinks. To
him this is a virtue he carries with pride.
I am relatively slower
in executing processes because I am always
haunted by the fear of making
decisions in haste. In debates ranging from
hard-nose politics to
trivialities like cars and television, we are often at
opposite poles of
engagement. Sometimes I have allowed him to win debates,
switch topics or to
avoid a phone call in the dead of night challenging me
on issues he knows I
feel strongly about. But he is smart enough to protest
instances I have
handed him an easy victory. He derives satisfaction in
flaying me into
submission and silencing me forever on an issue.
This week, we
found ourselves at opposing corners again over the
stalling of the talks but
this time I have refused to succumb to the whiff
of grapeshot in pursuit of
terminating ear-numbing salvos. I have stuck it
out and contended there was
need for compromise on both sides to break the
hopeless cycle we find
ourselves in. The issue to do with right and wrong
here should be secondary
to the need for each of the parties to put their
best foot forward and lead
the nation out of the mess instead of tethering
themselves to posts of
entrenchment.
This is an unacceptable weakness perhaps, my brother
would argue. He
would take heart from Ayn Rand who was one of the most
important
philosophers of the 20th Century, whose works on the subject of
compromise
are both cogent and thought-provoking.
She wrote in
one of her controversial essays: "There are two sides to
every issue: one
side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is
always evil... In
any compromise between food and poison it is only death
that can win. In any
compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that
can
profit."
She added: "When men reduce their virtues to the
approximate, then
evil acquires the force of an absolute, when loyalty to an
unyielding
purpose is dropped by the virtuous, it's picked up by scoundrels
-- and you
get the indecent spectacle of a cringing, bargaining, traitorous
good and
self-righteously uncompromising evil."
In the case of
our political protagonists, it is always easy to place
tags on who between
the political protagonists is brandishing offers of
"food" and who is giving
the poisoned chalice - depending on one's political
persuasion. This is how
we have come to view each other as a nation - poison
and food; black and
white; demagogue and democrat; puppet and revolutionary;
patriot and
traitor; local and foreign and so on. It is true that a cocktail
of food and
poison is lethal but compromise can be both, constructive or
destructive.
The first is a virtue, the second is evil.
I believe Tsvangirai has
to consider the constructive aspect of
compromise because the MDC and Zanu
PF both have valid claims. It is
critical that both parties agree on a
fundamental principle, which exists as
a foundation for their
deal.
In life, to compromise on moral issues is another story all
together
and as Rand opines, evil then "acquires the force of an absolute."
But
Tsvangirai can easily argue that politics is a moral issue. Compromise
would
be a negation of his position and responsibility on issues like rule
of law,
freedom of expression and separation of powers. But what leverage
does he
have to push through these principles? He got more votes in March
but he
remains a junior partner in negotiations - a very unkind thing to say
but it
is true. It this case, it is not righteousness that will give him
leverage
in negotiations but certain basic rules of power.
Rand
refers to them here:
l In any conflict between two men (or two
groups) who hold the same
basic principles, it is the more consistent who
wins;
l In any collaboration between two men or (or two groups) who
hold
different basic principles, it is the more evil or irrational who
wins;
l When opposite basic principles are clearly and openly
defined, it
works to the advantage of the rational side; when they are not
clearly
defined, but are hidden or evaded, it works to the advantage of the
irrational side.
Amen.